All Posts

Lessons from the 2026 SVB Direct-to-Consumer Wine Report Every year, the wine industry eagerly awaits the temperature check that is the Silicon Valley Bank Direct-to-Consumer Wine Report. This year’s edition arrives at a moment when the industry is exhausted, cautious, and searching for answers. The headline is this: the steepest part of the downturn appears to be behind us. The data shows that there has been some stabilization. But stabilization is not recovery. And before a

Overcoming the fear of putting myself out there There’s a particular irony in being a marketer who struggles to market herself. I’ve spent the last two years building a business helping wine brands tell their stories, connect with their customers, and show up consistently in the market. And yet when it comes to doing the same for myself — I freeze. I know I have a lot to offer. I’ve built a solid roster of clients, and I genuinely love the work. But I’ll confess that I’ve bee

Marketing Isn’t Just Digital I’ve been doing a lot of writing about digital marketing and its intersection with hospitality. And the great irony of this post is that I actually prefer to write with a pen and paper. Most of my posts start as scribbles in a notebook, then get transcribed and cleaned up for publication. As marketers in today’s modern digital age, we are often so focused on the digital that it’s easy to forget about the other spheres. And quite frankly, it’s also

Or the Snobbery Gap Sometimes a throwaway comment on social media lodges itself in your brain like a piece of popcorn stuck in your teeth. You know it's a small thing. You know you should just move on. But you can't. In fact, it bothered me so much I reached out to three Sommeliers I know. (The title of this post came courtesy of my text thread with the Master Somm.) So like your tongue worrying that piece of popcorn, I picked up my pen to give the matter voice. Here's what h

How I discovered my passion for Wine Everyone who has worked in wine has been asked the same question at one point in time: What was your ah-ha bottle? Some industry professionals have a great story about a bottle that strikes like lightning. I do not. Not that I haven’t had spectacular wines that linger in my memory. There was a glass of Madeira from 1880 served at the end of a beautiful Michelin-Starred meal at Meadowood. A bottle of Pomerol from 1986 that finally made the

And the data behind it A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what the wine industry gets wrong about hospitality, and one of the things I mentioned was the gap between marketing and hospitality. Commerce 7 (a leading wine industry software provider) recently released a report analyzing their direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales data. And that report backs up everything I said. Fifty-five percent of DTC transactions occur at the point-of-sale, AKA the tasting room. These transactions

What NOT to do with email I’ve worked in email for most of my professional career — in fact, I’ve twice run email programs for daily offer businesses. And I find the puzzle that is a successful email program fascinating. Who should get it, when do they want it, what message, where does it fit in the broader outreach picture… I recently attended a wine auction, and I’ve started receiving follow-up emails from some of the participating wineries. There were a couple of glaring i

Napa built its reputation not only on fine wine but on hospitality, and wine regions around the world have followed in its footsteps. Without a strong historical wine culture in the United States, the fledgling wine industry needed a way to get in front of consumers and educate them. So wineries opened their cellar doors and started popping corks to share the sensibility of good food and good wine, and encourage people to bring the magic home. Over time, those wine regions be

It’s been a while since I’ve done this: sat down to write about a wine experience. When I lived in Bordeaux, I wrote a wine blog, Cuvee Appeal , one that got a lot of attention and one that I was really proud of. But 10 years ago this month, I moved to Napa. I got a job, a fancy one. But one that also came with conditions, and I was encouraged to focus my writing elsewhere. And despite job changes and other roles, I’ve found it awkward to pick up my pen again. The digital lan