Expert Editorial
How Tax Reform Could Impact the Wine, Beer, and Spirits Industries
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) into law. Within the legislation, which became effective January 1, 2018, under Part IX, Subpart A, is the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform (CBMTR). The CBMTR section of the new law is effective until it’s scheduled to sunset on December […]
Why Single-Serve Wine Is a Popular Option
Single-serve wine has become increasingly popular in the past year with convenience and portability being a growing trend. As a result, more companies are offering single-serve wine packaging options, which allow customers to take wine on the go at a picnic or BYOB functions.
Flooring Sanitation Concerns for Wineries
By Sophia Daukus Winery operators face many challenges unique to the industry – not the least of which is staying in full compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) sanitation standards. Especially in light of the FDA’s recent unannounced winery inspections, ensuring that the basics of sanitary facility design are in place can make […]
The Sweet Taste of Succession Planning
By Claudio Cipollina, Business Banking Market Executive, Bank of America Merrill Lynch In order to properly manage your winery, you likely wear many hats to ensure the business runs smoothly. This includes planning new promotions, tours and shipping deadlines across the country. With all of these stressors, it can be hard to look beyond the […]
Top 10 Challenges that Keep Wine Executives Up at Night
The rewards and challenges of growing, making, and selling wine can be numerous for grape growers, winery owners, and executives.
Proper Use of Aerial Diagnostic Maps to Improve Vineyard Performance
You’ve probably heard of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) or EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) maps, which are helpful in understanding the relative health of grapevines. Typically generated from multispectral imagery gathered by satellites, airplanes or drones, these maps are based on the principle that healthy plants reflect less red visible light than unhealthy plants because healthy plants absorb more of it as they are engaged in higher rates of photosynthesis.
Over-Exposed – Vineyard Volatility Amid a Changing Climate
Climate disruptions are increasing in volatility throughout the world, impacting many sectors and industries. Among one of the hardest hit is agribusiness – specifically wineries – which depend on stable soils and climatological consistency to deliver a viable product. How will raging wildfires, searing temperatures and flooding rains change the business? And how can insurers assist worried vintners and their customers?
Does Social Media Help Me Sell Wine?
Engaging in social media is like having your own PR department. I like to call it Consumer PR. You are initiating a conversation about your winery and presenting your brand to the public. For small wineries this can be a little scary due to perceived loss of control. Traditional media approaches like press releases, media […]
Crush in Compliance with California’s Wage Laws
Crush season is an exciting and important time of year for any winery, but for modern agricultural enterprises doing business in California, the state’s complex web of wage and hour employment laws presents a trap for the unwary at this already hectic time.
Your Website Visitors Are Telling You Everything You Need to Know – Are You Listening?
Making sense of the data you get from your website. Consumer website behavior provides much of the information you need to make better marketing investments. Website analysis can help you improve content engagement, boost sales, and drive traffic into your tasting room. And most importantly, it can help you build a better experience for your […]
Selling Wine Through Facebook Requires the Tenacity for Testing of a Sadistic High School Geometry Teacher Giving Surprise Quizzes
Remember that teacher in high school who relentlessly surprised the class with random, mid-week quizzes? The secret to success of selling wine through Facebook comes down to channeling that bit of her personality that loved testing. But unlike finally acing that class, Facebook advertising is a constantly moving target with a bunch of ‘gotchas’. Although […]
Tasting Room Trends: 2016 Review & 2017 Forecasts
At VingDirect, we exist to help family wineries grow their direct to consumer sales. Our winery clients receive education and training, customized consulting, and our Performance Tracker (PT) software, which provides actionable tasting room data. Ours is the only benchmarking tool in the wine industry and we’re happy to share 2016 learnings and insight to what we think […]
Data Is Driving the Wine Industry
There’s no shortage of mobile apps these days to find wines, remember what you drank, or even have wine delivered to your door in under an hour. But with so many apps and new technologies, it can be difficult for producers and suppliers to determine how the changing landscape of technology in the wine industry […]
Managing Managers – It’s a Whole New Ballgame!
By Joel A. Miller, ChateauHR Consulting Roles change dramatically when you get promoted to middle management. Many newly-promoted managers fall flat on their face because no one told them this simple truth – you need a different leadership style to succeed at higher levels. The skills that got you promoted ARE NOT the skills you’ll […]
Five Video Tips for Wine Marketing
I live and work producing films and videos in the San Francisco Bay area, where tech and startups abound, but creativity doesn’t necessarily follow suit. A great deal of time is spent looking just like the competition on company websites and social media portals, so the new guy can appear to be on equal footing with the slightly older gal, and mind blowing company videos consist of a bunch of words jumping onto a white screen and/or hand drawn animation that isn’t.
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