Stop Clinging to What Did Work: Why Resistance to Change Is Killing Winery Sales

Let me be blunt (as I usually am): clinging to the same old tactics—blasting another generic email, raising prices, or waiting for tasting room traffic to rebound—is a slow-motion death drop. The market has changed. Consumers have changed. And the only wineries that will thrive are the ones that change, too.

Doing the same marketing and sales tactics feels safe (it's your comfort zone), but it’s the most dangerous move your wine business can make.

The Market Doesn’t Care About Your Comfort Zone

Wine consumption in the U.S. is shrinking. IWSR projects a -2% decline through 2027. Boomers are still loyal, but they’re aging out. Millennials and Gen Z? They’re moderating, dabbling across categories, or skipping alcohol entirely.

Meanwhile, DtC shipping took its steepest dive since 2010 in 2024—down 10% in volume and 5% in value. Yet, many wineries are doubling down on tasting-room dependency, even as industry analysts admit the share of sales from on-site visitors is slipping.

Chances are, you think you're adapting. You've adopted texting as a marketing tool and you have someone posting to your social media feeds, right? That is already old-school! Adapting means thinking outside your comfort zone.

Businesses That Don’t Adapt Don’t Survive

This is not about your wine; it's about your business. McKinsey’s long-term research found that companies that failed to adapt after the 2008 recession massively underperformed for the next decade, while those that built resilience and invested in new strategies outperformed by 150%.

According to this Harvard Business Review article, "What Really Prevents Companies from Thriving in a Recession," during downturns, 17% of businesses fail outright.

Small to medium-sized wineries tend to think of themselves as wine producers first and a business second because that is more comfortable. You got into the wine industry because you wanted to make great wine, but a winery needs to sell wine to survive, and that's business!

If your winery business is simply cutting costs during this market downturn, you might survive, but you won't thrive. Only 9% of companies come out of a recession stronger, and those are the ones that are both cost-conscious and bold in their strategies and tactics.

The Signs You’re Stuck in What Used to Work

• Identity lock-in: “We’re an in-person hospitality business.” So were restaurants—until they embraced delivery, ghost kitchens, and apps. Find the winery equivalent.

• Over-reliance on legacy buyers: Boomers kept the lights on. They won’t forever. Gen Z isn’t waiting for your postcard club offer or even your next social media post. They're waiting for you to engage with them in a new way!

• Price hikes as strategy: Raising SRPs while sales are shrinking isn’t a strategy—it’s denial.

How Wineries Can Actually Win

1. Tasting room = funnel, not the finish line. Capture data, build journeys, and sell beyond the pour. The industry itself expects less future revenue share from on-site visitors (Silicon Valley Bank), so find a way to engage with customers when they're at home and on the go.

2. Design for new occasions. Shareable packs, lighter styles, collaborations, and gamified tasting experiences—wine has to meet culture, not the other way around.

3. Modernize the club. Flexible commitments, micro-shipments, debit account subscriptions, and instant signup. Find what appeals to a new audience.

4. Kill what doesn’t work. Listen to your data. Each tactic you try needs to be measured to see how successful it was. If it wasn't, don't do it again! Be bold and experiment.

5. Play offense. They cut what doesn't work and double down on adapting for the future.

Adapt or Die

The data is clear across industries: companies that resist change don’t just stall or disappear. The wine industry is shrinking in volume, slumping in DtC, and aging out buyers. Staying in the comfort zone of continuing to do the same old thing and see if it works again is like rearranging chairs on the Titanic.

The wineries that face reality, embrace discomfort, and innovate will take market share while everyone else is stuck trying to make 2019 tactics work in 2025.