From Winemaker to Fancy Bartender in 4 Hours
The Dynamics of the Modern Wine Festival
I’m one of 40 wineries at “Anytown, CA Wine Festival”, with around 200+ wines for guests to sample. It’s four hours long, I’ve got 5 wines to pour and I’m here at the pre-opening VIP session for the buyers, wine writers, influencers, and trade members.
Hour 1: The first hour has some serious potential customers, likely sober attendees, with fresh palates. Some of those VIPs did their homework, pen and paper in hand and are looking for the specific wines you and others make. There is positive interaction and exchanges.
Hour 2: Gen Pop shows up for play time in the yard and the crowds start to become overwhelming with lines at your table. It feels good to be busy, but it’s a crowd of thirsty bodies. There are still serious questions and serious guests in Hour 2, but that ratio will change in the next hour. I wonder if people are beginning to sniff the lavender and lilac candles at Booth 34?
Hours 3: How fresh are the wine drinking hordes? The first requests for “Do you have a red?” start coming in. The spit buckets are filling up, the requests for water are increasing. The room starts to smell a bit like a gym on a game night. Bacchanalian chaos is about to begin!
Hour 4: From a “Tasting” to a “Drinking”. Maybe that last hour has some social lubricant working for it, participants may decide they want to join your wine club, if they can remember they had your wine in Hour 1 and if it’s not too much trouble to make it across the venue back to your booth. But the reality is, the wheels are falling off. The empty glass thrust in front of you, a speechless void stare of “fill my glass” only to simply move on like a wine zombie to the next table. Perhaps the dreadfully loud “this is the best wine I’ve had today” complete with stained shirt and glassware so filthy, I try not to touch the bottle to glass. 60 minutes and counting to the finish. Winemakers…you know what I’m talking about!
So why are we as winemakers here for 4 hours? A serendipitous encounter? The Lotto Pick that someone loves your wine and buys 5 cases? The wine writer who pops in and ‘discovers’ you? They are random, have nothing to do with actual sales, and are completely out of our control. I ask again, why are we here?
Here's the reckoning we as a wine community have to deal with:
Many wineries keep paying entry fees and hauling free cases to these large theatrical productions. We tell ourselves it's about sales and exposure, but that's self-deception masquerading as business strategy. Large festivals are educational field trips, not sales channels. You're paying tuition to study consumer behavior in real time; watching palates degrade, observing purchasing patterns, testing your elevator pitch against 200 other wines. That's valuable, but it's not revenue. It’s research.
I currently attend two moderately sized events, Garagiste and the Mammoth Village Wine Walk. I find these two festivals meet my needs as a winery. Are there wine club sales at these events, sure, but they are not my primary goal. None of these events are cash-and-carry. My primary goals are market research and customer interaction. I have no illusions about why most people are there in hours 3-4 and I’m nothing more than a fancy bartender. These festivals are a chance for me to interact with both serious wine people and the wine curious. Wine’s social lubricant combined with my role as the owner and winemaker, helps in that attendee interaction.
If you want actual sales, do the hard work, get in your markets and see what’s happening on the ground. Find intimate venues with serious buyers. Pour one night a month at a wine bar. Convince a restaurant to feature your wine in a flight all month. Get on the road, visit your restaurant and retail customers, engage with them, work a night of service with them. You’ll sell wine. I travelled over 40,000 miles in the car in California last year and worked plenty of services with my restaurant and retail partners.
If you want market intelligence and brand exposure, embrace the wine festival circus, but budget it as market research, not sales activity. The moment you conflate spectacle with profit, you've already lost. Quit fooling yourself about random discovery, lotto picks, and festival mania, being a fancy bartender won’t keep your winery in business.