We’ve taken Rob McMillan’s 68 page 2025 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Report and condensed our takeaways into 4 key areas. What stood out to us was the emphasis on authenticity and community rather than digital tactics or operating metrics.
2025 is the 5th year that volume sales have trended into negative growth territory. However, not everyone is feeling the impact. The better performing wineries sell proportionally more DtC compared to producers with a heavier focus on the three-tier sales model.
Roughly 40% of the premium industry with higher DtC sales is still seeing growth–either in their wine club sales, total sales or in both metrics. On the other hand, 35% of wholesale-focused brands experienced a 5.6% decline in revenue in 2024.
In the early 2000s, the primary source of DtC revenue was the tasting room. 2022 was the first year when wine club sales surpassed tasting room sales. Since then, wine clubs have remained the most important channel, accounting for 39% of all DtC sales.
While 75% of wineries source club members from the tasting room, wineries are increasingly looking for different ways to source members (as average visitation is down approximately 8% in 2024 compared to 2023). About 20% of wineries are now in active programs to cross-refer customers, and the same percentage are using digital marketing tactics other than social media to grow the club.
Smaller wineries are out maneuvering larger wineries in wine club growth. There’s speculation that smaller wineries have a more intimate service model that emerging consumers may consider more authentic and appealing to their values. Which brings us to…
“Authenticity,” “passion,” and “storytelling” are words that get thrown around a lot but it’s what this younger consumer group is craving. If you want to nerd out about this more, check out Peter’s paper on Wine club marketing for Gen Z.
Vivi Hillinger’s success with her family’s Austrian winery is a great example of getting young people on board and letting them do their thing. Tank Garage Winery, Scribe, and 1 Mill Road are examples of wineries who’ve embraced storytelling.
Younger consumers make faster decisions. The time required to make a purchase is decreasing, and with modern ecommerce platforms like Commerce7 and Shopify, this time is even shorter. However, the other side to this is that you’ll be expected to move quickly - these customers expect the time from an online purchase to delivery to be prompt.
Younger consumers are more likely to join and quit the club within the first year. You’ve got to give them a reason to stay. Prioritize follow-up sales calls to the younger cohort soon after a signup, and be ready with an experience different from the one they enjoyed. By offering exclusive experiences, wineries can significantly increase both member acquisition and retention.
As with most things, since this is a generalized snapshot of the industry, take what resonates for your business and leave the rest. Your winery might see many of the same challenges as your neighbours. However, your solutions should be tailored to your business. Measure your actions with data and analytics and either continue to refine your solutions or reject them after looking at your results. And then do that over and over and over…
