With harvest, you have an endless amount of content (and possibilities to generate demand) at your fingertips.
As the IWSR points out, Millennials research products in more depth before making their purchases than Boomers. Newsletters and social media posts are part of that research.
Step 1: Pick 1 - 3 wine(s) you want to sell more of by December.
Step 2: Talk about those wines now.
Step 3: Include a CTA to purchase only after you’ve sent 5 pieces of content.
Ok, but what do I say?
- The vineyards, the blocks, the way you farm that vineyard, the growers behind it.
- For whites, why did you choose that type of press cycle?
- For reds, how did you know how long to leave the wine on skins?
- How do you choose which barrels to use?
- Why do you use pumpover/ punchdowns, whole cluster/ destemmed, barrel/ tank fermentations
- For whites, why did you choose that type of press cycle?
- For reds, how did you know how long to leave the wine on skins?
- Was it just you in the winery? If you had harvest interns, who were they and how did you choose who to hire for harvest?
- What music did you listen to? How did you keep your energy up during the long days?
- Did you run any experiments/ do anything different this year?
- Use what you get asked on social media for a future post/ newsletter
- What gets asked in the tasting room?
- What about in interviews?
TIP: When writing a wine club email, or a social media post, no information is too basic. Remember, you’re not selling to other winemakers (even though other winemakers might read what you’ve written and buy from you).
TIP: Keep in mind that saying something once is the equivalent to never saying it. Repeat topics, or even flat out repeat what you said earlier this year. You’ll be surprised by how many people say “I didn’t know that.”
Your efforts will be exponentially more powerful if you couple the wine you’re talking/ writing about with a PR strategy. This might look like media outreach for these wines, or submitting this wine(s) for competitions, articles, or scores (which, of course, includes knowing what wines are good submittal candidates for these things). Ideally, you’d have your PR strategy laid out at the top of the year when you’re not knee deep in grapes.
If that didn’t happen in 2025, don’t worry about these extras this year. Just focus on the fundamentals: talk about your wine now so customers have done their research before everyone else’s holiday ads pop up.
