Retention Is the New Growth: Inside the 2026 Wine Club Symposium You can feel it on a quiet Saturday. The floor is not as busy as it used to be. The people who come in are lovely, but there are fewer of them, and the tasting room is no longer carrying the year the way it once did. Meanwhile the club keeps sending wine, keeps posting revenue, and keeps quietly holding the whole business together. That shift is why we built this year's Wine Club Symposium around a single idea, and why we moved it up to September. For most wineries, the club has become the most dependable recurring revenue they have, right as it comes under real pressure. Long-time members are aging. Younger members want something different. And growing the club by simply adding names is not the lever it used to be. For years, the job was growth. Sign more members, and the numbers took care of themselves. That math has quietly flipped. Net club growth has cooled from its peak, while the value of each member you keep has n

September 15 & 16, 2026 · Free Virtual Event The Wine Club Symposium returns for a fourth year, now in September. Over two mornings we bring together specialists from across the wine industry on the work every winery is focused on right now: growing the club and keeping the members you have. See more details and register here.

Hosted by vinSUITE, the free two-day event brings specialists from across the wine industry together to answer one question: what’s working for wine clubs right now. vinSUITE, the software platform built for winery direct-to-consumer and wine club operations, today announced its annual Wine Club Symposium, a free two-day virtual event taking place September 15 and 16. The event, which drew 550 registrants in 2025, brings the direct-to-consumer community together to learn from one another and strengthen the wine club. The Symposium exists because the wine club matters. It is the most dependable recurring revenue a winery has, and it is under real pressure. Tasting rooms, still the main way wineries sign up new members, are seeing softer traffic, which makes acquisition harder. Retention is getting tougher too, as long-time members age and shifts in drinking habits, including the effect of newer medications, change how much they buy. vinSUITE hosts the Symposium each year to help wineri

The 2026 Wine Sales Symposium brought a roomful of winery sales and marketing leaders together to work through the industry’s hardest questions — softening wine club growth, a shifting distribution landscape, AI arriving in every corner of marketing, and tasting rooms competing for a new generation of drinkers. Fourteen sessions, more than thirty speakers, and a full program of practical, road-tested answers. If you couldn’t be in the room, you no longer have to miss it. On-demand Virtual Access is now available — every recorded session from the 2026 program, yours to watch whenever and wherever works for you. All 14 Sessions. 30+ Experts. One Link. Virtual Access unlocks the complete 2026 program — every session recorded start to finish, plus the speakers’ slide decks to download and keep. Here is everything included: Navigating the New Normal — Wine sales trends and winning strategies for a changing market, with Chris Bitter, Ph.D. Practical AI Wine Marketing — Boosting brand disco

Please join us on Tuesday, June 9 for a live, virtual event to review findings and predictions from our 2026 Direct-to-Consumer Report. This year's survey, based on responses from 450 wineries, confirms that the DtC wine channel is navigating a period of pronounced bifurcation. While select brands report meaningful year-over-year improvement, others report declining visitation, lower average transaction values, accelerating wine club attrition and a growing inventory surplus. Our panel will examine those dynamics directly, benchmark the data and discuss the strategies that are making a measurable difference. A few of the topics we plan to address are: Tasting fee trends and flexibility Wine club performance Structural oversupply Where opportunity persists Our exclusive panel of wine industry innovators will include: Ed Feuchuk – General Manager, Farm Collective Napa Valley Barbara Gorder – President, Undisclosed Location & Managing Partner, DTC Wine Symposium Rob McMillan –

vinSUITE has announced the full agenda and speaker lineup for the 3rd Annual Wine Club Symposium, the leading virtual event for winery professionals focused on driving wine club growth, boosting member retention, and leveraging AI in direct-to-consumer (DTC) operations.  Taking place online on Tuesday, July 15, and Wednesday, July 16, 2025, the Symposium features six sessions, more than a dozen speakers, and data-backed content designed to give attendees clear, tactical steps for immediate application. The event is free to attend and begins each day at 9:00 AM PDT. Register at wineclubsymposium.com or directly via GoToWebinar. With wine clubs generating as much as 60% of DTC revenue for top-performing wineries, this year’s agenda focuses on increasing profitability through strategic customer targeting, member experience innovation, and operational efficiency. 2025 Wine Club Symposium Agenda Day 1 – Tuesday, July 15 9:00–9:50 AM PDT— State of the

This two-day virtual symposium brings together leading voices in wine club management, marketing, technology, and data to equip wineries with actionable ideas to grow membership, improve retention, and increase lifetime value.  Topics Include: State of the Industry – Wine Clubs Top 5 Customer Segments to Target Now, Proven to Drive Revenue WISE Academy Presents: Roadshows and Member Travel Beyond the Bottle: What Really Drives Wine Club Retention Start to Finish: Crafting the Ideal Wine Club Texting Strategy AI Panel Register here.

For a long time, “wine tech” was just a buzzword. Now? It’s the differentiator. At this year’s Wine Sales Symposium, the agenda is stacked with conversations on consumer trends, marketing performance, and DTC growth. But woven through all of it is a bigger shift: wineries are leaning into technology—not as an afterthought, but as a strategic advantage. Let’s break down the areas where smart wineries are seeing the biggest returns—and where Corksy clients are finding real traction. 🧾 POS: More Than Just a Payment Terminal Your point of sale should be more than a transaction tool—it should be the beginning of a long-term relationship. Smart POS systems collect customer data (what they tasted, what they loved, how often they visit), making it easier to personalize future experiences in person and online. At the Corksy booth, we’ll be demoing our modern POS—designed specifically for wineries. Simple for your team, powerful behind

Looking back over a challenging 2024 and ahead to 2025 This month’s California Report looks back at the year just passed and ahead to the new one: Read on below for an in-depth review of the bulk wine and grape markets in 2024, as well as bulk inventory charts for a range of periods and an updated bulk/grape market activity barometer. A Q&A with Ciatti broker Johnny Leonardo, discussing the current market situation, will be published in the coming days, together with the first packaging bulletin of the year from our friends at Saxco. For California’s wine industry, the year 2024 was defined by a painful but necessary right-sizing as the industry evolves into one better suited to delivering to the US market something like 350 million 9-liter cases of wine per year instead of the 400 million cases of the past. Rationalization of businesses and vineyard area took greater hold – there was a marked rise in wine-related property on the real-estate market and a shortage

2024 Virtual Wine Club Symposium: Opening Insights on the State of the Industry Key Takeaways from Jason Curtis and Rob McMillan's Presentation The 2024 Virtual Wine Club Symposium kicked off with an insightful session on the current state of the wine club industry. Industry veterans Jason Curtis, President of vinSUITE, and Rob McMillan, EVP & Wine Division Founder at Silicon Valley Bank, shared valuable insights based on the latest SVB 2024 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey. Their presentation covered key trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of wine clubs. 1. The Power of Consistent Communication Wineries that communicate with their club members bi-weekly or monthly are 127% more likely to experience growth. This statistic underscores the importance of maintaining consistent engagement with wine club members. Regular communication keeps your winery top-of-mind and fosters a sense of connection and loyalty among members. Implementation Strategies: Develop a