Sell More Wine By Selling Wine-Enjoyment Moments

Wineries Must Give Customers a Reason to Open the Bottle

Every winery wants repeat customers. Duh! But if your customers aren’t drinking your wine, they stop buying more of it. Club members call wineries daily to cancel because they have too much wine.

The Problem: Wineries focus only on the initial sale: the tasting room visit, the wine club shipment, the limited-release email. But once that bottle gets home, it competes with dozens of other choices: beer, cocktails, water, or looking pretty on a shelf.

The Solution: Wineries need to give customers ideas to enjoy the wine today and tomorrow by giving them ideas for when and why to open a bottle.

Make the Wine Fit the Moment

Your customers are busy and often wish someone else would tell them what to do for dinner! That’s where you come in. Give them scenarios:

• Weeknight dinner wins: “This Pinot is perfect with roast chicken or pizza delivery.”

• Celebration made simple: “Pop open our Sparkling Rosé for birthdays—or just for surviving Monday.”

• Seasonal connections: “Our Zinfandel was made for backyard grilling season.”

When you paint the picture, the cork comes out.

Create Emotional Hooks

Wine is never just about flavor—it’s about memory and meaning. Remind your customers:

• “This bottle is your go-to for date night.”

• “This blend is made for gathering friends around the fire pit.”

• “This crisp white is your beach-day essential.”

You’re not just selling wine—you’re selling a reason to gather, to celebrate, to pause.

Make It Fun

Wine isn’t just for serious tastings and food pairings, so make it enjoyable. When you make wine fun, customers find more reasons to open a bottle and share it with others.

Encourage them to turn drinking wine into an experience, not just a beverage choice. Here are some ideas you can give your customers:

• Turn it into a game: 

  • Platforms like aTaste let people guess, learn, and laugh while sipping. It transforms wine from a glass in hand to a playful competition.

  • Suggest a murder mystery party, like "Murder and Wine." Corks get popping while everyone figures out who dunnit!

  • Create customized coloring books for adults or paint-by-numbers with your brand images and sell or gift them to club members!

• Blind tasting challenges: Have friends wrap bottles in paper bags and score them. Suddenly, a casual night in becomes an unforgettable event.

• DIY wine flights: Suggest opening two or three bottles side by side, and comparing styles or vintages. Customers will drink more, learn more, and build excitement around your brand.

• Food & wine dares: Challenge guests to bring the most creative pairing for your wine—winner gets bragging rights.

When wine is tied to fun, customers don’t just drink it, they celebrate it, talk about it, and want to come back for more.

Why It Works

When customers drink the wine, they enjoy it. When they enjoy it, they remember you. And when the bottle is empty, the need to replenish kicks in. That’s the cycle:

1. Inspiration →

2. Enjoyment →

3. Loyalty →

4. Repeat purchase.

If you don’t give them ideas, you leave it to chance. And chance doesn’t sell cases.

Focusing only on the initial bottle sale will only go so far. You also need to sell moments to open them. If you encourage your customers to choose your wines over other beverages more often, you ultimately create steady sales.