Gettin’ Crafty
At this point, everyone knows about craft beer.
They know what it is, what their favorite style is, where to get it, and what made it take off (if you don’t know that last one, check out my previous blog post on the craft beer boom!)
But, did you know that craft wine is a thing?
That’s right my friends, the beverage industry is so over craft beer, and has found a new crafty drink to love.
(I’m semi-joking; craft beer will never die.)
In Wisconsin we now have ~117 craft wineries! And yes, before you ask, Wisconsin does actually have wineries. We can grow grapes. And with the help of UW-Madison and University of Minnesota, we have developed grapes that do well enough in the short growing season for wine to happen. Science is a magical tool, folks.
And that 117 is JUST Wisconsin. California has 4,200 wineries! Now, that ranges from home-grown and small boutiques to the large corporations, but still.
So, what makes it a “craft” winery? Why is craft wine gaining in popularity? And, perhaps most importantly, is it any good?
Constituting Craft
Wine broker Roy Florence defined it perfectly when he said, “Craft wines are made by artisanal producers who typically create smaller batches and sell them via limited distribution networks, often straight from the winery or from boutique shops…They aren’t in hundreds of stores because they want to stay small -- that’s the appeal.”
Basically, after years of American Light Lager being your only draft choice, Stella Rossa being the only affordable wine, and Vodka Tonics being the go-to cocktail, people are expecting more. They’re expecting flavor. They’re expecting local. They’re expecting one-of-a-kind.
And “craft” can give that to them.
What does that mean for wine specifically? Per the Craft Wine Association, craft wine is a commercially available, limited-produced wine. Going deeper, that means these wines are local, they are handcrafted, and they might have a unique flavor. But they are always produced by small, independent producers.
Gaining Traction
So people like fun, new tastes and good, local flavor. Makes sense, right? What does that look like in numbers? And when the did craft wine scene start to take off?
In 2016, there were already more than 11,000 wineries in America. 81% of them produce less than 5,000 cases annually. Another 16% produce between 5,000 and 49,000. That constitutes 97% of the wineries in the industry.
That total number is up from 1980, which was the lowest point in winery numbers in recent history, when there were just about 1,000 wineries total in America.
This rise in small wineries is driven in part by the same story behind small breweries. People who love wine saw the idea of “craft” gaining in popularity and they saw the ability to market and sell online increase in ease, and so they went about becoming home vintners (the equivalent of a home brewer). If they had moderate success there, and decided they actually liked the work as well, they moved to being a fully fledged business.
Thus boutique wineries gained traction over time in the industry.
Slippery Slope
Now, while craft wine has grown in the past decade, it’s been a tough track to get there, and it could be a slippery slope at the top.
When researching this blog, I found quite a few articles and resources that compared the differences between the craft beer and craft wine industries, focusing on how the wine industry could learn from the beer industry.
Just sit with that last sentence for a bit.
The wine industry is taking tips from the beer industry.
I find this interesting for two main reasons, both of which lead us to that slippery slope.
The first reason is that the wine industry does not like to learn new things, and certainly does not like to learn from such rogue-ish industries as the beer industry!
Now, I can say this as I’m in the middle of studying for both my Cicerone Certification and my CSW Certification - and both texts detail how the wine industry takes a very long time to adapt and incorporate new ideas. We’re talking decades, folks. And unfortunately, two of the aspects that these articles detailed the beer industry did well, which helped craft beer boom, was innovation and experimentation in both marketing practices and flavor profiles.
I can almost see the cringing faces of the old-school viticulturists as they read those words.
I’m not saying the wine industry can’t do it, but it will be a different direction for them, which has been historically difficult.
The second reason is that Millennials, and maybe Gen X to a certain extent, are really responsible for the push to craft beverages, especially craft beer and craft cocktails. If I may be so bold, as a Millennial, you could have called them “hipster beverages” at one point and that would have been accurate.
But the wine industry is notoriously bad at ensnaring the younger generations. Wine is seen as exclusive, an old-world luxury, and certainly an older-person luxury, especially for “good” or “premium” wine. And, the wine industry generally likes being seen that way! They’re snooty and they like it!
However, if they ever really want to reach the top - and stay there - they will have to somehow encourage the younger generations to drink wine. And even harder, they need to get them to drink good wine.
In an economic impact article looking at the rise of the craft beer industry and what the wine industry might learn from it, one of the first bullet points detailed said this, “Key factors contributing to craft beer’s growth include shifting demographics (the rise of the Millennials), consumers’ desire for quality, diversity and authenticity as well as unprecedented innovation in brewing, marketing and packaging.”
There are a few brands out there doing this really well already.
The McBride Sister’s Wine is killin’ it. Their marketing is fun and colorful, they have a socially conscious mission, they are two women-of-color in a predominately white male industry, and they sell their wine in both cans and bottles. (If you ask me, canned wine is the wine of the future!)
But the award for best viral wine marketing goes to Yes Way Rosé. They’ve done the unthinkable (to those stuffy old wine-os anyway) and used social marketing and influencers to an extent that their brand popped off. They are thriving in this new wine world. They also somehow turned public opinion back to liking rosé - and I mean good rosé here, not Sutter home - which I honestly thought was impossible. (Read my blog on the impossibility of delicious rosés here.) They’ve created good wine, in fun flavors, with eye-catching packaging, and made sure that those who are “seen” are the ones drinking it. Yes Way Rosé understood the assignment.
So there are examples in the wine industry of businesses pushing the boundaries. But if craft wine wants to continue to gain popularity and then stay at the top, both big and small wineries need to see these changes as opportunities. Especially those small, boutique wineries; this is their chance, marketing to the younger generations has never been easier. Use tiktok, use Instagram, use whatever the next big thing is and get your name and brand out there. This is your chance to wine… sorry, I mean shine!
Weekly Adventure
Go buy a bottle of craft wine. If you’re from Wisconsin, go to this link and choose a winery to support from that page; many of them will ship to you and at the very least they’ll tell you where you can purchase their wine.
If you’re not from Wisconsin, google “list of wineries in X state” - I promise you’ll find more that you thought, and it’ll be a fun ride trying some of them!
Cheers,
Molly
Resources
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/craft-wine-movement-gains-traction-jonathan-gross
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/craft-wine-market-102262'http://aspectconsumer.com/files/2015/03/Craft-Beer-and-Wine-at-a-Crossroads-FINAL.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/dining/drinks/american-wine-industry.html
https://winebulletin.net/state-of-the-wine-industry-report-what-about-the-small-producers/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_wine