A new consumer survey reveals how affluent Americans across the United States chose wine tasting room experiences. With hundreds of tasting rooms and wineries in every state, consumers have an overabundance of choices and the wineries must compete more effectively to earn a shrinking share of visitor traffic. The goal of the survey, conducted by Angelsmith, Inc., was to better understand how consumers choose new winery tasting experiences and the ecosystem surrounding those decisions. 

 Location, location

According to our survey respondents, they ranked location as both the first (37.7%) and the second (31.62%) most important consideration when looking for a new winery tasting experience. This data indicates they already know which region, AVA, or general area they are going to visit, and they are looking for wineries in those pre-determined spots. 

 Limited Time But Diverse Opportunity To Earn Visits 

The majority of our survey respondents (70%) reported that they consider 5 or fewer wineries, with the bulk of those (38%) considering between 3-5. Wineries only have a brief opportunity to set themselves apart from the competition and grab consumers attention. But consumers research winery tasting room options across multiple channels including social media, search, wine country specific websites and others. This provides a more diverse playing field and additional opportunities for wineries to Intercept & Influence™ consumers along their path to purchase. But it also increases the necessary marketing know-how for wineries to master in order to have a meaningful impact on their tasting room traffic.  

 Social Media Reigns Supreme For Awareness

The largest percentage of survey respondents (41%) ranked social media as the place where they first learn about a new winery tasting experience. Additionally, nearly 6 out of 10 (56%) survey respondents reported that when they see information about an unfamiliar wine tasting experience in their social media newsfeed, they are “likely” or “very likely” to click on the post to get more information. 

Overwhelmingly, more than 67% of respondents reported checking consumer review sites when they begin searching for new winery tasting experiences. These reviews play a key role early on in the decision making process and are used to veto wineries that a consumer is considering. Another item that disqualified wineries was the inability to find information. 

Consumers take a journey of complex steps and apply various levels of importance to a variety of channels when they are in different phases in their decision making process. Other key takeaways of the survey include: 

• Location is decided first, before any wineries are considered. 
• The experience a winery offers is key, the wine varietal itself is secondary
• Price is less of a factor than expected
• Overwhelmingly, consumers want unstructured, public experiences vs. private events

 Click hereto view the full survey report. 

The survey was administered to more than 1,200 affluent Americans who self-describe as wine and food aficionados. They are geographically diverse and all participants visited a winery within the past 12 months.