Wine Market Research

D.C. Wine Consumer Focus Group Report

Turning Consumer Feedback Into Strategic Advantage for Virginia Wineries.

The Virginia Wine Coalition has partnered with Good People Research to conduct a groundbreaking consumer insights project in the Washington, D.C. market — with special thanks to the Capital Wine School for generously providing the space to host these sessions. This initiative is designed to help Virginia wineries better understand how younger wine drinkers (ages 21–35) perceive wine, packaging, label design, pricing, and regional story. By placing Virginia wines alongside familiar national and international brands in a mock retail tasting environment, the project will deliver meaningful, data-driven insights into how our wines compete and connect with today’s consumers.

What we did:

Hosted two moderated focus-group sessions in Washington, D.C. (late October 2025)
Invited selected consumers (21-35) to evaluate wines including Virginia-region entries and benchmark brands/styles
Collected real-time digital responses (via phone or tablet) and using audio/video recording for research recall
Generating two deliverables:
- A broad industry report outlining younger consumer preferences, purchase drivers and perceptions
- And for participating wineries, a customized winery report with direct feedback on the submitted wines, label/branding response, and pricing/value positioning

Why this matters:

As competition increases in the retail and on-premise wine market, and younger consumers bring different expectations and preferences, Virginia wineries need insights that go beyond anecdote and into measurable consumer behavior. This project is designed to give that insight—helping elevate Virginia wines in trade, strengthen messaging, and drive distribution growth.

How are results shared:

Participants in the study received our full reports at the end of November 2025. The industry-wide findings, along with featured learnings, were shared with the Virginia Wine Coalition membership at the end of December 2025. For access to the webinar and report, complete our Benchmark Survey and contact us to receive access to this password protected resource.

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This initiative has been made possible by support from the Capital Wine School and MWJ Brown Consulting.

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