Tasting room guests aren't looking for just a pour – they're craving understanding and a deeper connection to your brand. Your guests want to know why your Pinot Noir vineyard is in a completely different location than your Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard. They want to grasp the unique ways that hills, valleys, and ocean proximity create the perfect conditions for each of your wines. Your tasting room team members can explain these reasons but without a visual aid guests struggle to truly envision and understand the multiple factors that differentiate each of your wines. The Missing Visual Link When your visitor has trouble picturing the reasons why location matters for your wines – especially out-of-town visitors - a custom-designed and branded map of your vineyards provides the visual connection they're missing. Your map becomes a powerful educational tool that works 24/7 – showcasing your vineyards in the various AVAs or highlighting blocks on your Estate

Afternoon Brief, December 6th

New Lawsuit Challenges Protectionist California Wine Distribution Law: The National Association of Wine Retailers announced its support today for a lawsuit challenging a discriminatory and protectionist California restriction on out-of-state wineries selling directly to California retailers and restaurants...

There is one week remaining to participate in the Annual State of the Industry. This annual effort is an industry partnership. SVB provides all the work for free, but we have to have good participation to have useful results.  Currently we are running about 30% behind last year's participation metrics, with all regions short of expectations. Here is a link to the questions and here is a link to the survey. Here are some early high-level indications of results in a variety of areas: Financially wineries describe the 2022 year as "good year." (Not bad and not great) They describe their financial position as strong. Better than average grape quality Lower than average harvest yields The impact of the economy is described as having the largest negative impact  The Winery Confidence Index produced through the survey is running negative overall. Wineries expect to show a small bottle price increase when 2022 is wrapped up. Tourism is generally welcome in 'wine c

The answer to the blog title is the point of the Annual SVB Direct to Consumer Videocast, which is taking place this coming Wednesday, June 15th.  You can sign up to receive the SVB DtC Report, receive a link to the live presentation, and a post-conference link to the videocast replay ----> [HERE.]  The past two years have presented us with dislocation and change that needs unbundling. With an expert live panel (below) we will take 90 minutes to discuss the current state of the Direct to Consumer Wine Business, and offer our views on what's coming next:   Internet sales from wineries grew by 500% when the Nation locked down in 2020. Internet sales are holding steady since the reopening. That is a permanent consumer change.  The change to by-appointment tastings for years was resisted by many in the wine community. There was always the fear that moving away from the walk-in model would reduce sales opportunities. But regional mandates required tasting room ap