August 4, 2026

Holiday Ready: What Every Virginia Tasting Room Can Borrow from the Retail Playbook

The fourth quarter can make a winery’s year. Many independent retailers generate 25–40% of annual revenue between October and December, and for gift-driven businesses the share runs even higher. Tasting rooms sit squarely in that category: holiday shoppers are actively hunting for unique gifts, local experiences, and products with a story behind them — which is to say, they are hunting for exactly what Virginia wineries sell.

That was the throughline of “Holiday Ready: Preparing Small Retail & Craft Businesses for the Biggest Sales Season of the Year,” a recent workshop presented by Rosi Beachy, Assistant Director of the Central Virginia Small Business Development Center, and hosted by Nelson County Economic Development. The session was built for small retailers and craft makers, but nearly every lesson translates directly to the tasting room floor. Here’s what stood out — and how to put it to work before the holiday rush arrives.

The problem usually isn’t traffic

The workshop opened with a reframe worth taping to the back of every tasting bar: the biggest opportunity usually isn’t attracting more visitors — it’s converting more of the people already walking through your door.

The math is simple. If 100 people visit and 30 buy, your conversion rate is 30%. Lift that to 40% and you’ve gained ten additional sales without spending another dollar on advertising. In a tasting room, where every guest has already committed to the visit, the conversion opportunity is even richer than in traditional retail: the question isn’t just whether they buy, but whether they leave with one bottle or six, and whether they join the club.

Clerk or salesperson?

The workshop’s sharpest distinction: most owners believe they employ salespeople, when in reality many employ excellent clerks. A clerk waits, answers questions, and rings up sales. A salesperson initiates, asks questions, solves problems, and creates customers.

Every tasting room manager in Virginia should sit with that one. Pouring six wines in order and reciting tech-sheet facts is clerk work — competent, friendly, and leaving money on the table. The associate who asks “Who’s on your holiday list this year?” and builds a case of gifts around the answer is doing something categorically different.

This is precisely the gap the Coalition’s Front-of-House Training program was built to close. The program takes tasting room teams through the same fundamentals the SBDC emphasized — greeting, discovery, recommendation, and the confident close — tailored to the specific rhythms of wine hospitality.

The five sales killers, tasting room edition

Beachy identified five habits that quietly kill retail conversion. Each has a direct tasting room analogue:

  1. No greeting. Guests form an impression within seconds. Every visitor should be warmly acknowledged within 30 seconds, even on a slammed Saturday — a smile and “welcome, we’ll be right with you” beats silence every time.
  2. No discovery questions. Don’t guess — ask. “Are you shopping for anyone this season?” “Have you visited us before?” “What do you usually drink at home?” The more you know, the better your recommendations.
  3. Feature dumping. Customers don’t buy features; they buy solutions. “This spent 18 months in neutral French oak” is a feature. “This is the bottle to bring to Thanksgiving — it works with everything on the table” is a benefit. Benefits sell; features support.
  4. No recommendations. If you don’t suggest it, they won’t buy it. Pair the Cab Franc with a gift bag. Mention the library vertical for the collector on their list. Point out the gift cards. Many guests simply don’t know these options exist until someone says so.
  5. Never asking for the sale. Too many visits end with “let us know if you need anything.” Instead: “Would you like me to wrap that as a gift?” “Shall I set a case aside for you?” Guests appreciate gentle, confident guidance — and it’s the difference between a tasting fee and a full sale.

The good news: fixing these costs nothing. Beachy’s challenge was to pick four habits and make them the team standard this week.

Build a November-ready team now

Training gets much harder once holiday traffic picks up. The workshop’s recommendation was short, consistent coaching bursts rather than one marathon session — ten minutes on product knowledge Monday, greeting practice Tuesday, a role-play Wednesday, upselling Thursday, and wins celebrated Friday. For wineries planning deeper preseason work, the Coalition’s FOH training offers a structured curriculum your whole team can complete before Small Business Saturday, and it pairs naturally with our secret shopper program if you want an honest read on where your floor stands today.

Your digital presence is your first impression

Before customers visit your tasting room, they visit you online. They want fast answers: Are you open? What do you sell? Is it worth the trip? If they can’t find out in seconds, they move on.

Beachy’s single highest-leverage recommendation: claim and fully optimize your Google Business Profile. Before October 1, make sure your holiday hours are posted, photos are current, your phone number is easy to find, your website works on mobile, and your name and address match across every platform. And while social media is valuable, remember that you own your email list — no algorithm stands between you and your club members. Collect addresses every day, and use email for holiday events, gift guides, and exclusive offers.

Merchandise by recipient, not by varietal

One more idea worth stealing: customers think in occasions, not departments. Instead of organizing the retail wall by red, white, and rosé, try “Gifts Under $25,” “For the Host,” “Stocking Stuffers” (hello, 375ml bottles), and “For the Collector.” Promotions don’t have to mean discounts, either — free gift wrapping, bundles, a VIP club shopping night, or a holiday open house all add value without eroding price.

The countdown starts now

The workshop closed with a 90-day arc: plan in August, prepare in September, practice in October, execute in November — and measure as you go. Track visits, conversion, average transaction, bottles per transaction, and repeat rate, not just top-line revenue.

Holiday success doesn’t happen because the calendar changes. It happens because businesses prepare, train, and deliver exceptional experiences — and Virginia’s tasting rooms are better positioned than almost anyone to win the season on service and story rather than price.

Ready to get your team November-ready? Explore the Coalition’s Front-of-House Training, and thank you to Rosi Beachy, the Central Virginia SBDC (cvsbdc.org), and Nelson County Economic Development for a workshop packed with immediately usable ideas. The Central Virginia SBDC also offers confidential one-on-one advising at no cost — a smart stop before the season for a review of your marketing plan, staffing, or projections.

July 7, 2026

What the National Trade Press Is Saying About Winery Costs — and What It Means for Virginia

The July 2026 issue of WineBusiness Monthly features an article by assistant editor Katherine Martine, “Tips & Tricks for Cutting Winery Operation Costs,” that gathers cost-management advice from winery proprietors, financial controllers, and finance professionals across the West Coast. It is worth a read in full, and it arrives at a timely moment for Virginia producers: the themes it raises echo much of what we heard from our own industry while developing the Coalition’s new Cost of Production resources.

Below are a few of the big takeaways from the article, along with how they connect to the tools now available to Virginia wineries.

Know your numbers before you cut anything

The most consistent message from the experts Martine interviewed is that cost savings start with visibility. Alison Crowe of Plata Wine Partners emphasized that the best first investment a winery can make is a system that shows where money is actually going — ideally one that ties costs like crushing, aging, and bottling to specific stages of production, so cost of goods sold (COGS) can be tracked at every step of the winemaking process.

This is precisely the gap our Cost of Production Calculator was built to address. Many Virginia wineries do not have enterprise winery-management software, but the calculator walks producers through vineyard and winery costs step by step, building a picture of where dollars are going — and how those costs compare to peers.

Match your review cadence to your operation

How often should a winery review COGS and its balance sheet? According to the article, it depends on scale: some owners review annually, while larger or more complex operations reconcile quarterly. One Oregon winery profiled, Adelsheim Vineyard, moved from monthly all-company financial meetings to quarterly sessions that pair a financial update with training on what the numbers mean.

Our Cost of Production Resource Guide is designed to support exactly this kind of recurring review. It is a managerial decision-making framework — not a formal accounting exercise — and it works best when revisited regularly as prices, yields, and channel strategies change.

Financial literacy is a team sport

Several of the article’s sources made the case that cost management should not live only in the owner’s office. Crowe argued that when cellar and vineyard staff understand the financials for their own areas, they become active contributors to controlling costs rather than bystanders. Adelsheim reported good results from building accounting fundamentals — including how COGS is calculated — into its team meetings.

For Virginia wineries, the interactive tools in the Resource Guide (the By-the-Glass Price Calculator, the Channel Margin Modeler, and the Potential Annual Savings Estimator) can serve double duty here: they are decision tools for owners, but they are also accessible teaching aids for staff conversations about pricing and margins.

Revisit vendor relationships — even the good ones

One of the most practical ideas in the piece comes from Barry Waitte of Tamber Bey Vineyards in Calistoga, who described a comprehensive vendor review the winery undertook beginning in late 2025. Notably, the review was not prompted by any dissatisfaction — many of the vendors evaluated were long-standing partners delivering excellent service. Even so, the disciplined look uncovered meaningful savings, including changes to the winery’s fulfillment provider and outside CPA firm.

The lesson translates directly to Virginia: periodic, objective reviews of key partnerships can surface savings that comfortable relationships tend to hide. These are exactly the kinds of non-production savings the Potential Annual Savings Estimator in our guide can help quantify.

A Virginia footnote: costs matter, but yield matters more

The article focuses on trimming operating costs, and its advice is sound. For Virginia specifically, though, our benchmarking work points to an important complement: for many producers here, the single largest controllable driver of per-bottle cost is not packaging, vendors, or labor scheduling — it is vineyard yield. Closing the gap between typical Virginia yields and those achieved in comparable East Coast regions does more for per-bottle economics than most line-item cost cuts combined. Cost discipline and yield improvement work best together, and the Coalition’s resources are built to help producers act on both.

Explore the tools

All three resources — the Cost of Production Calculator, the Cost of Production Resource Guide, and the benchmark report — are available now at virginiawinecoalition.org/cogs-guide. And mark your calendar: on July 22, the Virginia SBDC will host a free webinar walking through the tools and how to think about wine pricing across sales channels.

Source: Katherine Martine, “Tips & Tricks for Cutting Winery Operation Costs,” WineBusiness Monthly, July 2026, pp. 54–57. Our thanks to WBM for continuing to spotlight the financial side of the wine business.

The Coalition’s Cost of Production resources were developed with support from GO Virginia Region 9 and the Virginia Wine Board.

June 22, 2026

We Make Great Wine. Do We Make Great Margins?

There’s a question that doesn’t get asked enough in Virginia: not is the wine good? but is the business behind it healthy? Those are two different questions, and the gap between them is where good wineries quietly get into trouble.

That gap is exactly where we’re pointing our newest initiative. This week we’re kicking off the Coalition’s Cost of Production project, and we couldn’t think of a better way to open the conversation than the webinar we just hosted with Zane Stevens, founder of Protea Financial. Zane’s team keeps the books for more than 160 wineries, and he’s spent over a decade in the place most of us would rather not look: the day-to-day financial detail of running a winery.

His talk walked through five costly financial blind spots — the kind that don’t announce themselves, because the tasting room is busy and the club is growing and everything feels fine. A few of them will probably sound a little too familiar:

  • Not knowing what a bottle actually costs to make and sell
  • Treating your single biggest asset, your inventory, as a guess
  • Letting seasonal swings disguise whether you really made money
  • Flying blind on margins, with no benchmark for what “good” even looks like
  • Optimizing the tax bill before there’s a profit to protect

It’s not abstract. Zane shared the winery that was out $75,000 in dry goods the day he started: boxes, labels, and broken glass that had never been written off. And the 30-year-old brand that made its cheapest wine more delicious, didn’t account for distributor allowances, and ended up losing a dollar on every case it sold…until it didn’t exist anymore.

The throughline of the whole session is simple: there’s accounting built to file your taxes, and there’s accounting built to help you make decisions. Most of us are running the business on the first kind. Zane makes the case for the second.

Use the link below to watch the recording and read the notes. The notes distill the entire session, including the real examples, the Q&A on storage and library wine, and what clean books mean if you ever plan to sell, pass the winery on, or borrow against it.

And keep an eye on your inbox: the first materials from our Cost of Production study, including healthy margin benchmarks by channel and SKU-level costing guidance, are landing in the coming days. If you’re not on the mailing list yet, now’s the time.

Great wine is the hard part, and Virginia has that handled. Let’s go get the margins, too.

Click Here to View Recording

June 15, 2026

The Most Direct-to-Consumer State in the Country: What the 2026 SVB Report Means for Virginia

Silicon Valley Bank released its 15th annual Direct-to-Consumer Wine Report in June, drawing on responses from 450 family wineries. The headline framing from author Rob McMillan is cautiously hopeful: the steepest part of the post-2021 correction appears to be behind us, the rate of decline is slowing, and the market is showing early signs of stabilizing. His caveat is the part worth holding onto. Stabilization is not recovery. There is still no return to growing demand, and McMillan expects the industry to reach zero growth somewhere between 2027 and 2028.

For Virginia, this report is not background reading. It is a direct mirror. Across the SVB dataset, Virginia wineries derive 89 percent of sales from direct-to-consumer channels, the highest share of any region in the survey and well above the 67 percent average. We are the most DtC-dependent winegrowing state in the country. That concentration has been a strength for years. It also means that every pressure the report identifies in the DtC channel lands on Virginia with less cushion than almost anyone else has.

Here are the findings that matter most for our members, and what they suggest about where to put our energy.

The gap between winning and struggling is widening

The single most important number in the report is the spread. Top-quartile wineries in the dataset grew revenue by 22 percent last year. Bottom-quartile wineries declined by 13 percent. The median winery had no growth at all. The same headwinds are blowing on everyone, but outcomes are diverging sharply, and McMillan argues the difference is not luck or market position. It is philosophy.

High-performing wineries face outward, toward customers and relationships, and ask how to understand what their target consumer wants and then get that consumer to want what they are selling. Low-performing wineries face inward, toward operations and cost, and ask how to make what they already sell cheaper to produce. Efficiency matters, and no winery can ignore its cost structure in this market. But the report is blunt that efficiency is the price of admission, not a growth strategy. You cannot cut your way to demand.

Pricing discipline is a signal, and Virginia is already sending it

The pricing chapter is where Virginia looks comparatively healthy. The report found that successful wineries were 60 percent more likely to raise bottle prices than low performers, while struggling wineries were more than twice as likely to name discounting and price cuts as their primary strategy. Sweeping discounts across a portfolio read to luxury buyers as a signal that the bloom is off the rose, and they erode brand equity.

Virginia held the line here. Only 7 percent of Virginia respondents lowered their tasting fee in 2025, near the bottom of all regions, and Virginia sat at the very low end on cutting tasting fees specifically to chase visitation. That restraint is the behavior the report rewards. It is worth pairing with the report’s more nuanced point: discounting is not the enemy, undisciplined discounting is. The wineries finding success discount strategically. They give something up only to get something back, they discount shipping or bundle rather than cutting a single bottle’s price, and they protect the headline price while blending value in through smaller formats or a surprise bottle on a case purchase.

One more data point should encourage Virginia producers thinking about price positioning. The strongest DtC growth last year came in the $60 to $69 retail band, which saw cases sold rise 12 percent and dollars rise 15 percent. The sub-$20 tier declined on both measures. Virginia’s average suggested retail price sits at roughly $36, below that high-performing band. There is room to grow into premium positioning where the quality supports it, rather than competing on cheapness.

The tasting room is still central, but it can no longer carry the whole load

Reservation data shows a consistent decline in visitation, averaging about 2 percent year over year on a trailing twelve-month basis, with no sustained recovery yet. Low-performing wineries are 2.3 times more likely to name “tasting room changes,” meaning renovations, new layouts, or reservation systems, as their primary fix. The report’s verdict on that instinct is skeptical. The building is rarely the problem.

The tasting fee experiment tells a mixed story. Of the 15.5 percent of wineries that lowered fees, a rate that doubled year over year, only a quarter saw improved visitation. Roughly another quarter said it stabilized things, a fifth saw no improvement, and the rest were inconclusive. Lowering a fee in isolation is not a customer acquisition strategy. It works only when it is attached to a clear plan for who you are trying to reach and why.

What separates the high performers is that they treat the tasting room as an acquisition engine and a revenue generator at the same time, and crucially, they do not depend on it alone. The report’s most forward-looking signal is a growing set of wineries generating revenue away from the tasting room entirely. McMillan’s recurring line is that the industry has barely marketed to the customer where they actually live. The tactics he highlights from successful wineries read like a playbook Virginia is well positioned to run: traveling tastings and rotating club events in markets where members are concentrated, participation in regional community events, on-the-road tastings, and taking the brand to the customer rather than waiting for the visit.

For Virginia, with the Washington and Richmond corridors on our doorstep and a customer base that does not require a destination weekend to reach, this is less a pivot than a permission slip. Off-site, in-market selling is exactly the kind of second revenue stream the report says the channel needs.

Wine club: retention is now the whole game

Club performance is one of the clearest pressure points in the report. Net membership across the dataset is flat to declining, with acquisition and attrition rates running close together. The industry’s net club growth rate was 2 percent last year, down from 13 percent in 2021. New signups are largely being offset by cancellations, and longtime members with high lifetime value are aging out of the system.

Virginia’s club numbers are a relative bright spot inside a difficult category. Virginia posted a high acquisition rate of 29 percent, though attrition of 26 percent ran close behind it, and net membership change for the state came in at roughly flat against a regional average decline of 2 percent. Flat is not growth, but in this environment it beats the field. Average member tenure in Virginia sits at 34 months, in the middle of the pack.

The report’s takeaway is that the club has changed jobs. For most wineries it is no longer the primary growth engine. It is becoming a stabilizing force, and retention now matters as much as acquisition. The good news underneath the pressure is that lifetime value per club member reached a record $2,803 last year. The members who stay are worth more than ever, which raises the return on engagement, flexibility, and experience-based benefits over pure pricing incentives.

What this means for Virginia

The through-line of the report is that the DtC model is intact but under strain, and the variation in results comes down to execution rather than channel mix. For a state that runs almost entirely on this model, that is both a warning and an opportunity.

The warning is concentration risk. With 89 percent of sales tied to DtC and visitation softening across the board, Virginia has the least room to wait out the cycle. The opportunity is that the behaviors the report associates with the top quartile are largely behaviors of mindset and effort rather than capital. Holding pricing discipline, which Virginia is already doing. Reaching customers in their home markets, which our geography makes unusually practical. Treating the club as a retention and engagement asset rather than a discount funnel. Building genuine relationships with a focused set of customers instead of chasing undifferentiated traffic.

McMillan closes the report on the relationships wineries are building now with customers, teams, and communities, calling them the investments that will pay off as the model evolves. For Virginia, where the relationship with the visitor has always been the product, that is familiar ground. The task ahead is to extend that relationship beyond the cellar door and into the markets where our customers already are.

The 2026 Silicon Valley Bank Direct-to-Consumer Wine Report is authored by Rob McMillan, EVP and Founder of the SVB Wine Division. Figures cited here reflect 2025 annual data from 450 surveyed wineries. The full report is available at svb.com/wine.

April 2, 2026

The Silent Problem in Tasting Rooms: Why “No News” Isn’t Good News

For most wineries, the tasting room is the single most important sales channel. It is where guests encounter Virginia wine for the first time, where stories are shared, and where brand loyalty begins.

But there is a challenge that many wineries overlook: the absence of feedback.

When a guest has a great experience, they may tell friends or post a positive review. When a guest has a truly bad experience, they may leave a negative comment online.

But the majority of guests do neither.

They simply don’t come back.

That quiet loss of future visits, wine club memberships, and bottle purchases is one of the hardest problems for wineries to identify. And because it often happens silently, it can go unnoticed for years.

Why Traditional Feedback Falls Short

Many wineries rely on a few common signals to gauge the health of their tasting room experience:

  • Online reviews
  • Occasional guest comments
  • Staff impressions of how tastings are going
  • Sales totals at the end of the day

These can be helpful indicators, but they rarely tell the full story.

Online reviews, for example, tend to capture only the extremes: either very happy guests or very unhappy ones. They rarely reflect the experiences of the majority of visitors.

Sales numbers also don’t always reveal the underlying issue. A tasting room might have strong weekend traffic but still be missing opportunities to convert visitors into loyal customers.

In other words, revenue tells you what happened, but not always why.

The Value of Objective Observation

One way hospitality industries address this challenge is through structured mystery shopping programs.

Hotels, restaurants, and retail brands have long used trained evaluators to visit anonymously and assess the guest experience from start to finish.

These visits focus on key elements such as:

  • Greeting and hospitality
  • Staff knowledge and storytelling
  • Wine presentation and pacing
  • Opportunities to connect guests with purchases or wine club memberships
  • Overall guest experience

The goal isn’t to “catch mistakes.” Instead, it is to identify patterns and opportunities that may not be visible from the inside.

Small Changes, Big Results

Often the insights from these evaluations are surprisingly simple.

Examples might include:

  • Staff missing opportunities to explain why a wine is unique to Virginia
  • Guests unsure how to purchase wines after the tasting
  • Inconsistent storytelling about the winery’s history or vineyards
  • Missed chances to introduce wine club membership

Addressing small gaps like these can significantly improve conversion rates and guest satisfaction.

In hospitality-driven industries like wine tourism, the difference between a good visit and a memorable one often comes down to details.

Supporting Virginia’s Tasting Room Experience

Virginia’s wineries already provide some of the most welcoming and beautiful tasting room environments in the country. As the industry continues to grow, refining the guest experience will only become more important.

Every visitor who walks into a tasting room is a potential ambassador for Virginia wine.

Understanding how those guests experience our wineries—through fresh, objective perspectives—can help ensure that those visits turn into lasting connections with Virginia wine.

Because in hospitality, the most important feedback is often the feedback we never hear.

Interested in learning more?

The Virginia Wine Coalition offers a Secret Shopper Program designed specifically for Virginia wineries. Trained evaluators visit anonymously and provide detailed, structured feedback on the full tasting room experience—from the greeting and storytelling to service flow and sales opportunities. Each participating winery receives a confidential report highlighting strengths and areas for improvement.

Learn more about how the program works here: www.virginiawinecoalition.org/secretshopper

March 3, 2026

AI + SEO for Winery Websites: What Changed, What Still Works, and What to Do Next

Notes from the Virginia Wine Coalition’s March 3 Industry Speaker Series Installment

If your winery website traffic is down, you’re not imagining it—and it doesn’t necessarily mean your marketing stopped working.

On March 3, the Virginia Wine Coalition hosted a timely webinar with Amy-Sarah Marshall, an SEO and content strategy expert, to unpack what’s happening right now as AI reshapes search. Her message was clear: the digital landscape has shifted from “getting clicks” to earning visibility, trust, and conversions in a zero-click world.

Below are the biggest takeaways for wineries, plus a practical roadmap you can apply whether you manage your own site or work with an agency.

Welcome to the “Zero-Click” Era

For years, wineries could use website visits and click-through traffic as the main measure of success. But search is changing fast.

AI tools like Google AI Overviews, voice assistants, and conversational search experiences increasingly deliver answers directly on the search results page—without the user ever clicking through to a website.

So what does success look like now?

  • Impressions and visibility across search (including AI summaries)
  • Showing up in Maps, image results, “People Also Ask,” and local discovery
  • Stronger performance when visitors do reach your website, because they arrive further down the funnel (closer to booking, buying, or joining)

In Amy-Sarah’s words: clicks may be declining, but impressions can be climbing—and that’s the new signal wineries should pay attention to.

The Good News: Trust Still Wins

Despite all the AI disruption, one thing hasn’t changed:
people choose wineries they trust.

And trust is built through clear communication, helpful information, and a customer-first experience.

Amy-Sarah offered a useful way to think about it: winery websites can’t function like a “set it and forget it” Yellow Pages listing anymore. Today’s consumers expect self-service:

  • “Can I bring my dog?”
  • “Do I need reservations?”
  • “Is there food?”
  • “What’s happening this weekend?”
  • “Is this place worth the drive?”

If the answers aren’t easy to find, people move on.

Why Your Website Matters More Than Instagram

Social media is still valuable—especially for visibility, personality, and top-of-funnel awareness. But Amy-Sarah emphasized that Instagram and TikTok should not carry the whole burden of conversion.

A winery website should be the place where people:

  • Get the full story (not just one post)
  • Feel the permanence of a “real business”
  • Understand offerings clearly
  • Take meaningful actions: book, buy, join, inquire

One memorable analogy from the conversation:
Instagram is the sandwich board. Your website is the storefront.

What AI is Rewarding (and What It’s Ignoring)

AI search is designed to surface content that looks:

  • Authoritative
  • Credible
  • Easy to understand
  • Based on first-hand experience

Amy-Sarah cautioned against generic, overly polished content and stock images that feel “samey.” Consumers can spot it—and so can search systems.

Instead, she encouraged wineries to lean into what AI can’t fake well:

  • Behind-the-scenes detail
  • Real people and real place
  • Customer stories
  • Authentic photos and language
  • Specific expertise (your land, your process, your community)

The “E-E-A-T” Framework Wineries Should Understand

Amy-Sarah highlighted the concept often used in SEO circles: E-E-A-T:

  • Experience (first-hand, real-world)
  • Expertise
  • Authority
  • Trustworthiness

Practical ways wineries can signal this:

  • Awards, press mentions, and credentials (front and center)
  • Reviews and testimonials
  • Clear author attribution for educational content (who is speaking and why they’re credible)
  • Links from reputable sites (local tourism, media, partners)
  • Strong Google Business Profile presence

The takeaway: make it easy for both humans and AI to understand why you’re worth trusting.

The Technical Piece You Should Ask About: Schema

If you take only one technical term from the webinar, let it be this: Schema.

Schema markup is structured data that helps search engines understand what your content is—an event, a product, a FAQ, a review, a location—so it can display it correctly and confidently in richer formats.

Schema helps wineries show up in:

  • Events listings
  • Enhanced local search
  • Rich snippets and answer boxes
  • AI-driven summaries and discovery tools

Amy-Sarah’s advice was candid: schema often requires technical know-how, and if you’re in an RFP process for a new website, you should explicitly ask your web designer how they implement schema and optimize for AI search behavior.

Write Like People Read Online: They Don’t (They Scan)

A big portion of the webinar focused on content format and accessibility. Key reminders:

  • Most people scan websites rather than read them
  • Use headings, bullets, and short sections (“chunking”)
  • Lead with the most important info first (“inverted pyramid”)
  • Use standard navigation conventions (don’t reinvent menus/icons)
  • Design for mobile and fast load times, especially in rural areas
  • Improve accessibility (contrast, readability, alt text)

In short: a winery website should feel effortless.

Personas + Content Clusters: How to Build Authority Without Doing “Everything”

One of the most helpful strategic ideas was Amy-Sarah’s recommendation to build content around:

  1. Clear audience segments (personas)
  2. Topic clusters that support their journey

For example, an “adventure-seeking couple” might search:
“fun date ideas in Central Virginia” — not “winery near me.”

If your winery can show up in those broader lifestyle searches—and provide helpful content that supports their whole weekend plan—you’re more likely to earn trust and visits.

Amy-Sarah suggested choosing one primary format (a blog, a podcast, short video series, etc.) and then repurposing it across platforms—rather than trying to do everything everywhere.

A Regional Opportunity: Lift Visibility Together

The Q&A also explored a bigger question: can wineries benefit from a collective strategy?

Amy-Sarah’s answer leaned yes: when wineries and regional partners create stronger trails, itineraries, partnerships, and shared educational positioning, it makes the entire region more discoverable—and more compelling.

This isn’t only about selling wine. It’s about building community and destination value, especially as consumer behavior shifts toward experiences, wellness, and lifestyle-based travel.

Practical Action List: What Wineries Can Do This Month

Here are a few high-impact steps that came out of the session:

  1. Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile (hours, photos, categories, posts, Q&A)
  2. Update your website’s “visit planning” essentials (reservations, policies, pet-friendly, food, accessibility)
  3. Make calls-to-action impossible to miss (Book / Buy / Join / Events / Contact)
  4. Audit your site for mobile speed and usability
  5. Ask your website vendor about schema (events, products, FAQs)
  6. Start one “topic cluster” that fits your audience and location—then build from there

Access the Recording + Slides

If you missed the live session, we encourage you to review the materials and pick one improvement to start with. The wineries who win in the next phase of search won’t be the ones with the fanciest websites—they’ll be the ones that are most helpful, most credible, and easiest to engage with.

View Recording + Slide Deck

February 19, 2026

Tourism Resources Virginia Wineries Should Actually Use (and Use This Year)

Virginia wineries don’t just make wine — you run hospitality businesses that sit squarely inside Virginia’s tourism economy. That matters because it opens up practical, low-friction tools (and some real dollars) that can help you drive more visits, better weekends, and stronger bottle sales.

Below are the most winery-relevant takeaways from a recent Virginia SBDC webinar featuring Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) Destination Development Manager Laura Messer, focused on tourism resources for craft beverage producers.

<<View Webinar Recording Via SBDC YouTube Channel>>

1) Reframe your winery: you’re a tourism business (not “just” a producer)

If you host guests in any way — tasting room, tours, events, food pop-ups, live music, private bookings — you qualify for a lot of tourism-oriented resources.

VTC’s definition of a “visitor” is also broader than many people assume. It’s not only out-of-state travelers; it includes Virginians traveling 50+ miles from home. Translation: your growth strategy isn’t just “DC tourists” or “NOVA weekends.” It’s also Richmond, Tidewater, Roanoke, and the next metro over.

Coalition takeaway: think of tourism as a measurable “visitor pipeline” you can manage — not a lucky byproduct of being in wine country.

2) Start with the easiest wins (these are genuinely low-effort)

A. Get your winery listed on Virginia.org (free)

If your business isn’t listed on Virginia.org, fix that first. VTC directs a ton of consumer marketing to this site, and your listing can also help your search presence (it often shows up prominently when people Google your winery name).

Do this this week:

  • Claim/create your Virginia.org listing
  • Upload current photos (people + place + product)
  • Add hours, booking links, event info, and a tight description
B. Use Virginia Welcome Centers to capture drive-through traffic

VTC operates 12 Virginia Welcome Centers and wineries can place a simple rack card for an annual fee. This is a surprisingly cost-effective way to reach travelers who are literally asking “What should we do nearby?”

Why it matters for wineries: this is high-intent discovery. These are people already traveling, already in planning mode, and often willing to spend.

C. Use the “Virginia is for Wine Lovers” brand

VTC offers “Virginia is for Lovers” sub-brands (including wine). If you haven’t explored this, it’s worth doing — not because you need a new logo, but because the brand is instantly recognizable and can lift your credibility with casual visitors.

Bonus: there are also options for co-branded merchandise (a potential tasting-room add-on revenue stream).

3) The grant wineries should look at right now

VTC Marketing Leverage Program (reimbursable match)

VTC’s Marketing Leverage Program is designed to help tourism businesses pay for marketing and content — and wineries are eligible.

Key details shared on the webinar:

  • Reimbursable grant up to $20,000
  • 1:1 cash match
  • Eligible uses include:
    • Paid advertising (digital, print, social)
    • Promotional placements
    • Content creation (photo + video shoots)

If your photo library is outdated, your website looks like 2017, or you’ve been “meaning to get video done,” this is your nudge. In 2026, strong visuals are not optional — they’re the top driver of clicks and bookings.

Coalition takeaway: if you do only one thing this year, invest in high-quality content that shows people enjoying your winery, not just bottle shots.

4) Use the “tourism network” that already exists around you

One of the biggest missed opportunities for wineries is under-communicating with the people whose job is to promote your region.

Think in three levels:

State level: VTC + Destination Development Managers

Virginia has Destination Development Managers (DDMs) across the Commonwealth. They can help with:

  • Tourism data (where visitors are coming from, when)
  • Marketing guidance (where to spend)
  • Connecting you with regional and local partners
Regional level: DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations)

Not every area has one, but where they exist, DMOs can amplify wineries through regional promotion, campaigns, and visitor-facing channels.

Local level: Economic Development + Tourism offices

In many rural counties, economic development and tourism are the same team. They often have newsletters, event calendars, and local media channels — but they can’t promote what they don’t know.

Practical move: send your local tourism/Econ Dev office:

  • Your 2026 event calendar
  • 5–10 fresh photos each season
  • New release notes (what’s new + why it’s fun to visit now)

This is one of the simplest ways to become “top of mind” when someone asks, “Where should we send visitors this weekend?”

5) Why tourism matters: the visitor is already spending money

VTC shared visitor profile metrics across craft beverage categories. While specifics vary by segment, the consistent point is this:

People who travel for craft beverage experiences tend to:

  • Stay multiple nights
  • Travel in small groups
  • Spend meaningful dollars per trip

For wineries, the implication is obvious: the tasting room isn’t just a “brand touchpoint.” It’s a visitor economy engine — and your business model can reflect that (events, private bookings, elevated experiences, club conversions, merchandise, local partnerships).

6) Virginia250: a rare reason for people to travel on purpose

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and VTC expects increased travel tied to commemorations and major events.

Even if history isn’t your brand, the opportunity is simple: visitors will be looking for “what to do while we’re here.”

Easy winery activations:

  • A Virginia-themed tasting flight (“Virginia Heritage Flight”)
  • A July 4th weekend event with reservations
  • Limited-label bottle release (even a small run)
  • Partnerships with local historic sites, lodging, or restaurants

Coalition takeaway: build a reason to visit during peak weekends — and make sure it shows up on your website, Virginia.org listing, and local tourism calendars.

7) The most common mistake: trying to do everything yourself

This point landed: winery owners wear every hat. Tourism marketing can become a black hole if you attempt to DIY everything.

Two reminders from the webinar:

  • It’s okay to outsource content, paid ads, or strategy.
  • A phased approach is smarter than trying to go from 0 → 100.

Pick three priorities for the next 90 days:

  1. Fix listings + discoverability (Virginia.org, Google, local tourism calendar)
  2. Refresh photos/videos (show people + place + experience)
  3. Run one focused campaign (event series, spring weekends, club push, etc.)

Coalition “Action Checklist”

If you want a simple path forward, start here:

  • Claim/update your Virginia.org listing (photos + booking links + events)
  • Send your 2026 event calendar to your local tourism/Econ Dev team
  • Refresh your photo library (at minimum: hospitality, groups, seasonal views)
  • Consider applying for VTC Marketing Leverage funding for content + ads
  • Add a Virginia250 hook to at least one weekend/event this year
  • Reach out to your region’s Destination Development Manager for data and guidance

Want help prioritizing?

If you’d like, the Coalition can help members translate these resources into a simple, winery-specific plan:

  • Where your visitors are most likely coming from
  • Which marketing channels make sense for your winery type
  • What content you should shoot first
  • What to put in your grant application (if applicable)

Tourism isn’t extra work — it’s a way to make the work you already do convert into more visits, more bottles, and more repeat guests.

February 10, 2026

Building Credibility: What Virginia Can Learn from Smaller Wine Regions That Earn Trust

On January 29, the Virginia Wine Coalition hosted a fireside chat with Nova Cadamatre MW as part of its Industry Speaker Series. The conversation, moderated by Matthew Brown, focused on a deceptively simple question: how do smaller wine regions move from being “interesting” to being trusted?

The answer, as Nova made clear, has very little to do with hype, medals, or solely copying what famous regions do well. Credibility is earned through clarity, consistency, and confidence—applied repeatedly across vineyards, tasting rooms, and markets over time.

Credibility Is About Trust, Not Prestige

One of the clearest themes to emerge from the discussion was the distinction between attention and trust. Emerging regions often succeed at generating curiosity, but curiosity alone does not drive repeat purchases, listings, or long-term loyalty.

According to Nova, trust is built when wines meet expectations consistently, not when producers chase trends or external validation. Regions that gain credibility show self-awareness: they understand what they do well and focus their energy there rather than constantly measuring themselves against Napa, Burgundy, or other global benchmarks.

For Virginia, this means shifting the internal question from “How do we compare?” to “What do we do consistently well…and for whom?”

Strong Regions Choose a Lane and Stay in It

Successful wine regions, Nova emphasized, are deliberate. They do not try to be everything to everyone. Instead, they make intentional choices about grape varieties, wine styles, and target markets and then reinforce those choices consistently across producers and messaging.

Diversity can exist within a region, but externally the region must feel coherent. When consumers, trade buyers, or media encounter a region, they should quickly understand its strengths and identity. Clarity beats breadth when credibility is the goal.

For Virginia wineries, this suggests that internal experimentation is healthy, but external communication should emphasize shared strengths and a clear regional story.

Climate Reality Should Be Integrated, Not Apologized For

Climate variability is often framed as a uniquely Virginia challenge, but Nova pushed back on that idea. Every wine region is adapting to climate pressure in some form. What separates credible regions from struggling ones is how well they integrate climate reality into viticulture, winemaking, and messaging.

Consumers do not need excuses. They need intentional decisions explained clearly: why certain varieties are planted, why styles look the way they do, and why vintages differ. When vineyard choices, cellar practices, and storytelling align, climate becomes part of the region’s identity rather than a liability.

Market Success Comes from Focus, Not Overreach

Another recurring theme was the danger of spreading too thin. Direct-to-consumer, wholesale, and export markets each require different skill sets, pricing structures, and volumes. Trying to succeed everywhere at once often weakens credibility rather than building it.

Nova encouraged wineries to ask hard questions about where they can realistically win today, which markets reinforce their story, and whether their pricing and production actually match their chosen channel. Depth in one lane, she noted, is far more powerful than shallow presence in many.

The Tasting Room Is the Front Line of Regional Reputation

For many consumers, and even trade buyers, the tasting room is the region. Wine quality matters, but so do confidence, clarity, and hospitality. Inconsistent experiences can undermine even the strongest wines.

Nova stressed that front-of-house training and storytelling are not just internal operational concerns; they are regional competitiveness tools. Each tasting room visit shapes how Virginia is perceived as a whole.

Consistency Across Producers Matters More Than Star Power

A single standout winery cannot carry a region. Credibility grows when the majority of producers meet a strong baseline of quality and professionalism. Shared standards, shared language, and shared expectations accelerate trust.

This is where regional collaboration matters most. Coalition-led education, shared insights (such as secret shopper programs), and aligned messaging help lift the regional floor, making it easier for every winery to succeed.

What This Means for Virginia Wine

The conversation reinforced a central takeaway: Virginia is no longer simply an “emerging curiosity.” The next phase is about execution and alignment.

That means:

  • Aligning vineyard decisions with market reality
  • Aligning tasting room experiences with brand promises
  • Aligning regional messaging with what Virginia genuinely does well

Credibility is not a marketing campaign. It is the cumulative result of thousands of well-executed decisions made consistently over time. As this fireside chat made clear, the tools are already within reach and the work now is using them with focus and confidence

January 2, 2026

3 Things You Need to Stop Doing Right Now in Your Winery Marketing

Marketing your winery in 2025 requires more than posting pretty vineyard photos and hoping guests will find their way to your tasting room. Today’s consumers are overwhelmed with choices, distracted by competing beverages, and increasingly motivated by clarity, authenticity, and emotional connection.

Yet—even as Virginia wine quality continues to soar—many wineries unintentionally hold themselves back with a few extremely common marketing habits. The good news? These pitfalls are easy to fix once you know what they are.

Here are the three things you should stop doing immediately—and what to do instead.

1. Stop Relying on Vague, Romantic Language That Doesn’t Sell Wine

If your tasting notes, website, or shelf talkers include phrases like “crafted with passion,” “hand-selected grapes,” or “nestled in the foothills of…”—you’re not alone. But you’re also not standing out.

Consumers tell us repeatedly (including in the recent DC Focus Groups and the Wine Market Council’s 2025 Reducing Barriers to Purchasing Wine report):
they want clarity, not poetry.

Vague descriptors create confusion, not confidence.

What to do instead

  • Use concrete flavor language (“bright red cherry, dried herbs, and a savory finish”).
  • Provide straightforward style guidance (“medium-bodied, dry, great with roasted chicken”).
  • Include one clear reason to choose this wine (“grown on some of the oldest Viognier vines in Virginia”).

Clarity drives conversion. Romance can support the story—but it can’t replace information.

2. Stop Talking Only to People Already in the Tasting Room

If your marketing strategy is primarily built around Instagram posts, event flyers, and tasting room newsletters, you’re unintentionally limiting your reach.

Agritourism visitors are essential, but they represent only a sliver of your potential audience. When you speak only to those who already love you, you’re missing the buyers, distributors, retailers, sommeliers, and journalists who shape broader market perception.

What to do instead

  • Build a traded-sector presence, even modestly:
    • Update your tech sheets.
    • Maintain a clean, professional press page.
    • Respond to distributor emails quickly.
    • Keep a consistent brand story across all channels.
  • Equip FOH teams with the language that helps consumers understand why Virginia wine deserves attention—not just why your vineyard has great sunsets.
  • Use your digital platforms to talk to both audiences:
    • Consumers who want an experience
    • Trade who want confidence, reliability, and data

If you want Virginia to command attention at home, DC, NYC, or beyond, your marketing must extend well beyond the property line.

3. Stop Posting Without a Strategy (or Posting Only When You Feel Like It)

Many Virginia wineries post on social media reactively—when an event is coming up, when a staff member gets a nice photo, or when someone finally remembers the login password.

This leads to gaps, inconsistency, and messaging that doesn’t reinforce your core brand or business goals.

What to do instead

  • Build a simple 30-day content plan with 8–12 recurring themes:
    • Behind-the-scenes vineyard work
    • Winemaker perspective
    • Food pairing ideas
    • Staff features
    • Trade placements
    • Sustainable vineyard practices
    • “Virginia fact of the week”
  • Use the same talking points that move wine in the tasting room and in distribution.
  • Set one core marketing objective per quarter (e.g., “Drive case club signups,” “Grow DC placements,” “Increase visitation mid-week”).

Strategy beats spontaneity every time.

The Bottom Line

Your winery’s marketing doesn’t need to be louder—it needs to be clearer, more consistent, and aimed at the audiences who will help Virginia wine grow.

By removing these three habits from your marketing toolbox, you create space for messaging that builds trust, drives sales, and strengthens the statewide reputation of Virginia wine.

If you’d like help refining your strategy, the Virginia Wine Coalition offers tools, research insights, FOH training modules, and traded-sector programming designed to support your growth.

December 16, 2025

What Young DC Wine Drinkers Really Think About Wine and Where Virginia Fits In

Over the past year, conversations across the wine industry have increasingly focused on a critical question: how do we better connect with the next generation of wine drinkers? To help answer that question with real data (and not assumptions) the Virginia Wine Coalition partnered with MWJ Brown Consulting and The Good People Research Company to conduct in-depth focus groups with young wine enthusiasts in the Washington, DC metro area.

These sessions brought together self-identified wine drinkers aged 21–35 for structured discussion, mock shopping exercises, and blind tastings of Virginia wines. The goal was simple but important: understand how younger consumers think about wine, how it fits into their lives, and how Virginia wines are perceived when evaluated both emotionally and objectively.

What emerged was a nuanced, encouraging, and highly actionable picture.

Wine Is Emotional First and Technical Second

One of the clearest findings was that young wine consumers do not approach wine primarily through tasting notes, appellations, or technical detail. Instead, wine plays emotional and social roles in their lives—helping them connect with friends, relax, celebrate milestones, express identity, and create memories.

Context matters enormously. The same individual chooses very different wines depending on whether they are buying for:

  • a casual night with friends,
  • a dinner at an acquaintance’s home, or
  • a gathering with a boss or client.

Each scenario carries its own emotional expectations, risk tolerance, and symbolic meaning, shaping not only the style of wine chosen but also the label, price point, and perceived “safety” of the purchase.

Younger Consumers Want Wine to Feel Easier

Across both discussion and mock shopping exercises, participants repeatedly expressed a desire for clarity and confidence when buying wine. Confusing labels, unclear flavor expectations, and difficulty predicting whether they will enjoy a bottle remain major friction points—an insight that mirrors national Wine Market Council research on barriers to wine purchasing.

Price sensitivity is real, though not inflexible. For everyday purchases, the sweet spot clustered around the low-to-mid $20 range, with willingness to spend more when the value proposition—story, experience, or trust—felt justified.

How Virginia Wines Are Viewed Today

Virginia wines occupy a distinctive place in the minds of young DC wine drinkers. Participants consistently associated Virginia wine with place and experience, rather than with routine retail purchasing. Many described Virginia wine as something they most enjoy at the winery itself, where personal interaction, setting, and storytelling elevate perception and willingness to buy.

That said, several challenges surfaced:

  • Virginia wines are often perceived as higher priced relative to global alternatives.
  • Whites feel safer than reds for many consumers.
  • Reds are frequently judged against well-known regions, creating a higher bar for trust.
  • Outside the immediate region, Virginia wine lacks automatic recognition, making it a riskier retail choice.

At the same time, blind tastings revealed a far more encouraging story. When evaluated without labels or preconceptions, Virginia wines showed clear stylistic strengths, particularly in aromatic reds and bright, high-acid whites. Certain varietal expressions stood out as distinctive, expressive, and strongly connected to place—exactly the qualities younger consumers say they value most.

Story, Context, and Purpose Change Everything

Perhaps the most powerful takeaway is this: Virginia wines perform best when their purpose is clear.

Participants responded positively when they understood:

  • what role the wine plays (easy crowd-pleaser, food-driven bottle, celebration wine),
  • how and when to drink it, and
  • why it exists—its story, intent, and sense of place.

When those cues were missing, wines were often described as “fine” but not memorable. When they were present, engagement and purchase intent increased significantly.

What This Means for the Virginia Wine Industry

These findings point toward opportunity, not retreat. Younger consumers are not abandoning wine—they are asking for wine to meet them where they are: clearer, more approachable, more intentional, and more connected to experience.

For Virginia wine, the path forward lies in:

  • leaning into regional strengths,
  • communicating flavor and intent more plainly,
  • reinforcing story and place beyond the tasting room, and
  • continuing to invest in memorable, trust-building experiences.

Join the Conversation: Upcoming Industry Webinar

To help wineries and partners dig deeper into these insights, the Virginia Wine Coalition will be hosting a webinar deep dive into the DC focus group findings on:

📅 Tuesday, December 30
🕛 12:00 PM (Noon)

During this session, we’ll unpack the data in greater detail, connect these findings to national consumer trends, and explore practical implications for tasting room experience, portfolio strategy, and market positioning. This webinar is designed to be highly relevant for wineries of all sizes looking to better engage the next generation of wine consumers.

More details and registration information will be shared shortly.

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