DTCWW News


2023 Wine Consumer Journey Mapping Workshops Announced!

[October 31, 2022] Join Sandra Hess, founder of DTC Wine Workshops, for this online training session ideal for winery owners and management teams. Two dates to choose from. Finish the year strong and prepare for 2023 with top-notch tools and strategies. Sandra Hess, founder of DTC Wine Workshops and Direct […]


Top 5 Tools for Selling Wine Direct this Holiday Season

[Sandra Hess – August 29, 2022] Sandra Hess, founder of DTC Wine Workshops and Consumer Engagement Specialist, brings you these top five tips for selling wine direct to consumer this holiday season. Ready to implement these tools and build a strategic plan for 2023? Reach out to schedule a coaching […]


Future of Drinks Part 2: DEVELOP MASTER WINERY STORYTELLERS

[Sandra Hess – June 30, 2022] With a 11,000+ wine brands competing for the attention of consumers in the US today, effective and meaningful storytelling is a key brand differentiator. High performing winery hospitality teams leverage past, present and future wine brand stories to best connect, educate and convert a […]


Future of Drinks Part 1: DEVELOP WINE BRAND COMMUNITIES

[Sandra Hess – April 21, 2022] 2021 was a year of direct wine sales growth for most thriving wine brands across the nation. Most avid wine consumers engaged with winery websites and social media outlets at a pace we hadn’t seen pre-pandemic. Our top performing winery clients across the US […]


Winery Talent Retention in the New Normal

[February 10, 2022] Sandra Hess, founder of DTC Wine Workshops spoke at the Wine Industry Leadership Conference yesterday. This online program was sponsored by Wine Business Network and panelists included Joel A. Miller, Owner & Principal / Chateau HR Consulting; and Karen Alary, Managing Partner / The Personnel Perspective. Stace […]


The Top DTC Wine Sales Tools of 2021

[Sandra Hess – December 30, 2021] ✓ Updated Communication Tools to Better Connect with Wine Brand Loyalists On December 9th, Constant Contact published a report detailing the average email open rates by industry type. The Retail/Direct Selling category shows an average open rate of 18.7% with a click-through rate of […]


How WELCOMING is your DTC Wine Brand?

As we prepare our Thanksgiving tables for time with family and friends, we also have an opportunity to thank long-term loyalists and top consumers. When we analyze key data points for a variety of winery clients across the nation, we identify key measures of success as well as areas for […]


Top 5 Tools for Developing Effective DTC Wine Compensation Plans

[Sandra Hess – October 12, 2021 – DTC Wine Sales Blog] Tool #1 – Start at the Top The January 2020 Pandemic taught us a lot about being nimble and adjusting. During this time of pandemic recovery, most wine regions throughout the US have suffered from staff shortages. We have […]


Ready to Offer Winery Concierge Services? Key Questions to Consider…

[Sandra Hess – August 19, 2021 – San Francisco, CA] With about 65% of US wineries falling into the “small (up to 5000 cases produce annually)” and “very small (up to 2500 cases produced annually)” categories, wine enthusiasts want more intimacy with brands they reinvest with. Over the past four […]


Developing All-Star Hospitality Teams

[Sandra Hess – July 27, 2021 – San Francisco, CA] As the US wine industry continues to recover from the 2020 pandemic, most of our clients are struggling to find qualified talent for both front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house-positions. We have spent quite a bit of time updating job descriptions and training […]


Three Pillars of DTC Wine Sales Success

[June 8, 2021 – Santa Rosa, CA] On May 26th, Sandra Hess, Consumer Engagement Specialist and founder of DTC Wine Workshops, moderated an insightful discussion, for Wine Industry Network at the virtual Wine Industry Symposium. She brought together Efrain Barragan – Director of Digital Marketing, Cliff Family Winery St Helena, […]


Tasting Room Tip Lines – YEA or NAY?

[May 7, 2021 – Sandra Hess, DTC Wine Workshops Expert Editorial] Greetings wine industry friends! I have been asked to develop an article best approaches to developing tasting room tip policies. This question has come up quite often during the past five years as we have helped winery teams across […]


DTC Wine Sales Health Check – 3 FREE TIPS

March 24, 2021 – This spring, we encourage our clients and direct-to-consumer teams to carve out some time to conduct a DTC Wine Sales Health Check. Now, is the time to analyze performance across all direct sales channels, reward for success and, course-correct where needed. Many hospitality teams have learned […]


DTC Wine Leadership Forum Launches Spring 2021

Winery Leaders and Trend Setters Across the Nation Join this Private Group for a Monthly Problem-Solving Session in the Virtual Space [February 3, 2021 – Northern California] Members of the DTC Consultant Network, a division of DTC Wine Workshops, have been serving winery teams in almost every major wine region […]