In the vineyard, fine grapes, soil and climate dictate much of the wine’s fate. But in the marketplace, brand often decides whether your wine is noticed, remembered, and loved… or lost in a sea of bottles.
Listening to the Market Murmurs
The wine consumer of 2025 is different from that of just a decade ago. Here are the key shifts:
- Premiumisation & self‑curation over volume. Rather than simply buying bulk cases, consumers increasingly prefer “a few great bottles” than many mediocre ones.
- Provenance, sustainability & transparency. People want to know who made the wine, how it was made, and whether it respects land, workers, nature. Greenwashing is easily sniffed out.
- Experience as currency. Wine is no longer just a beverage, it’s part of rituals, memories, shareable moments, even social media stories.
- Digital discovery & direct relationships. E‑commerce, virtual tastings, storytelling via digital channels are now core, not optional.
- Local identity, global reach. Consumers value terroir and origin stories, but they expect global standards, easy access and consistent quality.
These trends matter for branding because wine isn’t a commodity; the brand is the story-builder, the trust developer, the differentiator. If your brand fails to reflect or respond to these shifts, even a superb wine may languish.
The Two Sides of the Same Cork
Too many wineries treat branding as decoration, the pretty label, the shiny bottle, the marketing afterthought. But the smarter move is business‑driven branding which could be understood as integrating brand into the core of strategy and operations.
Branding is the process responsible for defining who the company is, what it stands for and how it connects meaningfully with all its audiences.
The true success of the brand depends on its ability to synthesise what the company is and what its business promises. What I mentioned earlier means that the brand strategy, properly articulated, needs to work in tandem with the business strategy, not as a separate silo.
In practical terms, this means:
- When you set prices, distribution, product range, and so forth, they must coherently reflect your brand promise -e.g. “artisanal, small‑batch, terroir‑driven” vs “affordable everyday elegance”-.
- When you plan new varietals, labels or packaging, the decisions should respect brand identity and not confuse your audience.
- Brand should have a seat at the table when business decisions are made, not be tacked on at the end.
If you imagine your winery as a house, branding is not the wallpaper, it’s the architectural blueprint underlying structure, flow, light, mood.
Rooting Stability While Embracing Change
The wine world is changing, new formats, new varietals, new consumption habits. But your brand’s identity cannot wander. That’s where Ambidextrous Branding comes in: combining consistency -exploitation- and innovation -exploration-.
Ambidextrous Branding is the ability of a brand to remain firmly anchored in its identity and core values while fluidly responding to change, innovation, and disruption.
In this sense, purpose, business strategy and brand strategy form a conceptual triad.
What this means in the wine sector:
- Exploitation -stability-: Keep your signature wines, consistent visual cues, core varietals, quality promise.
- Exploration -innovation-: Launch limited editions, experimental blends, small batches, alternative packaging -e.g. can wine, mini bottles-, special labels or collaborations. But do so within the frame of your brand identity.
Think of your brand as a hundred-year-old oak tree, with a sturdy trunk and deep roots. New branches -innovative products- can sprout from it, but they must come from the same root. Do not become a tree that randomly sprouts vines in all directions.
The trick is designing a system -brand architecture, naming conventions- that enables you to experiment without fragmenting the brand. Our article on Brand Architecture as Strategic Utopia is relevant here.
More than Telling, Co‑Creating Narratives
Storytelling is passé. Modern brands build stories based on shared realities with their stakeholders: customers, visitors, staff, community. The journey from vineyard to glass is itself a narrative ecosystem.
Some principles:
- Root stories in real experience -avoid hollow narratives-: The winery and the wines are living, active entities, so let us avoid treating them as something decorative.
- Encourage participation and co‑creation: Let guest vintners, wine club members, sommeliers, staff contribute content, tasting notes, stories.
- Embed micro‑stories in every touchpoint: The soil, the sunrise in vineyard, the harvest ritual, the cooperage, the inspiration behind the label, even the pens on your tasting counter.
- Use narrative “platforms”: Blog series, podcast interviews, tasting journals, visitor diaries, social media prompts… “your memory with this wine?”.
Your winery is a stage, and your narrative script is improv-friendly. Your audience -visitors, consumers- bring lines, reactions, memories, meaning. It becomes part collective theatre, not a monologue.
The goal is a layered, dynamic story, not a static brochure.
Wineries & Wines as Holistic Brand Experiences
In today’s world, a bottle is just one node in your brand’s ecosystem. The real brand is experienced across touchpoints, before, during and after.
Some touchpoints you should consider managing:
- Tasting rooms & tours: Ambiance, staff, lighting, music, furniture, scents. Everything must feel consistent with brand mood.
- Packaging & unboxing: The label, the texture, the opening ritual, the inner sleeve or booklet.
- Digital platforms & virtual tastings: Websites, storytelling, menus, online retail, AR/VR experiences, wine apps.
- Events & social media: Dinners, pairing events, vineyard yoga, art installations, harvest celebrations.
- Post‑sale touchpoints: Packaging inserts, newsletters, follow-up tasting notes, community clubs.
In a brand experience, brand positioning, experience principles, and design parameters must be interrelated. Without consistency, brand moments may be perceived by customers and consumers as disjointed events.
Your winery’s geometry matters. The walk-through vineyards, the path to the cellar, the tasting counter view, the exit view to sunset; all should echo your brand’s character.
Think of it as orchestrating a dinner party: every dish, light, chair, remark and background music matters. Miss one detail and the mood breaks.
The Best Wine Is the One You Can Learn From
Branding isn’t an idealist’s hobby; it’s a tool for growth. Pragmatism wins. To stay grounded:
- Test small, learn fast. Before rolling out a new wine, label, or packaging regime, pilot with your wine club or a small region.
- Measure impact. Sales lift, feedback, social media metrics, visitor comments; tie them to brand or label experiments.
- Stay ruthless. If an “edgy label idea” confuses your audience, pull it, refine it, or kill it.
- Keep clarity simple. If your brand essence can’t be summarised in a crisp sentence, it risks being vague.
- Avoid over-engineering. Overly complex narratives or naming systems backfire more often than delight.
- Use brand as compass, not jail. Let it guide but not straitjacket you — pivot when the market demands.
Remember the danger of complexity and the virtue of elegant simplicity.
You don’t need a Swiss Army knife when you just must cut a steak. Use the tool you need, no more. Let branding be your reliable tool, not a distraction.
Image
Arthur Brognoli, Pexels
