U.S. wine market research and insights

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Wine Market Council is the leader in forward looking market research on U.S. wine consumer buying habits, attitudes and trends.

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From Our Research

The data presented in our recent webinar came from a survey of 1000 wine consumers, 50% Core (drink wine at least once a week), 50% Marginal (drink wine less often). They were asked a variety of questions on the subject of nutrition and ingredient labeling, for a variety of foods & beverages but focusing mainly on wine, beer, hard seltzer and RTD cocktails. Questions covered awareness/importance of such labels, reaction to typical ingredients and a sample wine nutrition label, and perception of the amount and types of ingredients or nutritional aspects of the four beverages.

On the basic question of how important ingredients were to wine consumers, the various types of alcoholic drinks came out significantly lower than for food or other beverages (see chart below). Among the four beverage alcohols tested, wine came out slightly ahead of RTDs, beer and hard seltzer.

research chart

However, it is important to note that when it came to wine, the ingredients consumers were looking for most often included grape variety,  alcohol level and indicators of sugar/sweetness. (For beer it included types of hops, and for spirits & beer type of grain.) In other words, some of the interest in ingredients is related more to assessing flavor and strength than the typical wellness-related use of FDA labels on food. When it came to whether ingredient labeling should be required, the order was somewhat different:

  • Wine – 38% Yes, 25% No, 37% Indifferent
  • Beer – 42% Yes, 19% No, 39% Indifferent
  • Hard Seltzer – 57% Yes, 12% No, 31% Indifferent
  • Ready-to-Drink Cocktails – 60% Yes, 12% No, 28% Indifferent

The reason for the different attitudes towards requirement or regulation probably traces to the different perceptions wine consumers have of these drinks. Wine (and to a lesser extent beer ) are seen as having few ingredients compared to hard seltzer or RTD cocktails.

For these and other insights, in total and broken down by demographics and wine consumer segment, please see our full report, available in the Member Resources page after logging in.

WEBINAR FOR WINE MARKET COUNCIL MEMBERS NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH THE MEMBER LOGIN PAGE

From Tuesday, March 28th, 2023

The Outlook for Wine Tourism and Its Impact on DTC Sales

Direct To Consumer sales are the lifeblood of many wineries and as we have witnessed in recent years, wine tourism plays a key role in driving DTC sales, both in the tasting room and by fueling wine club membership.

Wine Market Council hosted three experts who discussed the outlook for the 2023 tourism season.

Our panel included

•  Dave Bratton, Founder and Managing Director of Destination Analysts, a San Francisco based market research company providing travel and tourism businesses with powerful information to evolve and perfect their marketing strategy.
•  Linsey Gallagher, President and CEO of Visit Napa Valley, the official destination marketing organization of the region that promotes and elevates Napa Valley as the world’s premiere wine country experience.
•  Andrea Smalling, Chief Marketing Officer of WineDirect, a leading all-in-one commerce platform for wineries starting, managing, and growing their business. WineDirect’s many services include supporting, tracking, and analyzing Direct-To-Consumer shipping and sales.

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