Attracting Top Wineries: ROI They’ll Believe
Every festival producer knows that attracting top-tier wineries can elevate a wine festival’s prestige and draw bigger crowds. But distinguished wineries won’t sign up for just any event – they need to be convinced it’s worth their time, wine, and money. In today’s competitive event landscape, a winery-first approach is essential. This means designing the festival experience around what wineries value most: reaching a qualified audience, smooth logistics with high service standards (including proper wine handling like cold chain management), meaningful networking opportunities, and tangible post-event benefits. The goal is to deliver ROI that wineries can truly believe in, ensuring they not only join your festival but keep coming back year after year.
Qualified Audience: Wine Lovers Who Matter
Top wineries are not interested in pouring their award-winning vintages for attendees who are just looking for a light buzz. They seek qualified audiences – guests who are genuinely interested in wine, educated (or eager to learn), and likely to purchase or evangelize products they discover. To deliver this:
– Targeted Marketing: Promote your festival through channels that reach serious wine enthusiasts and collectors (for example, wine clubs, sommelier associations, wine magazines, and foodie networks). In the UK, a festival might partner with publications like Decanter or local wine societies, while in India or Singapore it could tap into expatriate and upscale foodie communities. Ensure you’re attracting people who appreciate quality over quantity.
– Curate the Experience: Consider offering tiered ticket options such as a “Tasting Session” for aficionados that includes educational masterclasses or guided tastings. Educated consumers will spend time engaging with winemakers rather than just rushing to the next pour. For instance, the Vancouver International Wine Festival limits some tasting sessions to smaller groups and includes seminars, ensuring attendees come primed to explore and buy.
– Price as a Filter: Don’t be afraid to set a ticket price that reflects the premium experience. Festivals like the Aspen Food & Wine Classic (USA) charge high entry fees, which ironically attracts a more dedicated, high-spending audience. This crowd values the wines and can afford to buy them. Wineries see this as an opportunity to actually do business – deals and sales are far more likely when attendees have both passion and purchasing power (www.justluxe.com).
By delivering an audience of true wine lovers and potential buyers, you immediately address the main ROI concern for wineries: “Will we reach the right people?” When a boutique Napa Cabernet producer or a Champagne house from France meets attendees who know their brand or express keen interest, the chance of post-festival sales or winery visits skyrockets.
Impeccable Logistics and Service Standards
Nothing drives wineries away faster than a poorly organized event. Festival producers must run a tight ship, prioritizing exhibitor needs on-site just as highly as attendee experience. Key service standards include:
– Efficient Load-in/Load-out: Provide clear schedules, ample loading zones, and staff to assist wineries in setting up their booths. For example, in Australia and New Zealand, festival organizers often assign crew to help wineries carry cases and decorate their space. A smooth setup shows respect for the producer’s time.
– Trained Pouring Staff and Volunteers: Ensure you have enough event staff and that they understand wine service. Each winery booth should have access to volunteer support for fetching water, ice, or even giving winery reps a short break. A well-briefed team prevents issues and can even help pour under the winery’s guidance when booths get busy. By avoiding long lines and guest frustration, you protect both the winery’s and festival’s reputation (spectrumlocalnews.com).
– Crowd Management: Top wineries don’t want their fine wines served in chaotic, overcrowded halls. Monitor ticket sales relative to venue capacity. It’s better to sell out at a lower number than to have shoulder-to-shoulder throngs that make it impossible for guests to engage. Overpopulation not only diminishes attendee experience but can lead to negative publicity (as happened in one New York wine fest where attendees dubbed it the “line festival” due to endless queues (spectrumlocalnews.com)). Keeping the environment comfortable and within capacity ensures each winery has a chance to shine.
– Quality Glassware and Supplies: Provide proper wine glasses (ideally crystal or high-quality polycarbonate) to best showcase the wines. Have plenty of rinse stations, dump buckets, and cleansing crackers or bread available. Little details – like neutral palate cleansers or even separate glasses for red and white if possible – show wineries that you care about presenting their products in the best light.
– Clean, Branded Presentation: Offer a standard booth setup that looks professional – tables with clean linens, signage with winery names, and consistent branding. An organized, attractive festival floor reflects well on the wineries present. In cities like Singapore and Hong Kong, upscale wine events often invest in elegant booth designs and signage so that even a small artisan winery looks premium. This attention to aesthetics and organization signals to wineries that your event is serious, not a flimsy pop-up.
Wineries remember the organization behind an event. By running operations seamlessly, you remove the headaches that might keep a producer from returning. As one festival organizer in Europe learned after a fiasco with volunteer shortages and poor crowd control, you may not get a second chance if you drop the ball. Conversely, if you pamper the wineries with professionalism, they’ll eagerly sign on for subsequent editions.
Maintaining the Cold Chain and Product Quality
For wine producers, how their wines are handled at the festival is paramount. Even the best Chardonnay or Syrah can be ruined if it’s served at the wrong temperature or left out in the sun. Maintaining a cold chain isn’t just jargon – it’s an essential service, especially for outdoor festivals or events in warm climates.
– On-site Refrigeration: Invest in refrigerated containers or wine fridges on-site. This is common in top wine shows in hot regions like Australia and Mexico, where daytime temperatures soar. A refrigerated truck or mobile cooler near the venue can store back-up stock for wineries at the perfect temperature until it’s needed. By offering this, you immediately alleviate a major worry for wineries – that their whites will be warm or their delicate pinot noirs will spoil. In fact, some wine distributors (like Taste of Tradition in tropical Singapore) have built their reputation on an unbroken cold chain for all wines (guide.michelin.com). Emulating this at your festival shows a commitment to quality that wineries will appreciate.
– Proper Ice Supply: If dedicated refrigeration isn’t feasible for every booth, guarantee an abundant supply of ice and ice buckets. Assign staff to continuously replenish ice at winery stations. It’s a simple thing that goes a long way in keeping wines at serving temperature. Warm wine not only tastes bad, it also reflects poorly on the winery – so they’ll avoid events where this has been a problem in the past.
– Shade and Climate Control: If your venue is outdoors (e.g., a vineyard lawn or city park), create shaded areas for wineries. Use tents, canopies, or indoor sections where wines and people can stay cooler. In extreme heat, consider misting fans or indoor cooling zones. For indoor venues, ensure the HVAC is capable of maintaining a cool room temperature even with a crowd. Some European fairs require venues to keep ambient temperature controlled for wine stability; you should too.
– Handling and Transport: Offer guidance and assistance for proper wine transport. Encourage wineries to deliver wines a day early to let them rest from travel (known as letting “bottle shock” settle). If you provide an on-site storage room, make sure it’s secure and maintained at cellar temperature (~12-15°C or 55-59°F). Show that you’re safeguarding their product at every step.
By prioritizing product care, you send a message that this festival respects the wine itself. Top wineries spend years making their wine as perfect as possible – they won’t tolerate an event that undoes that work in an afternoon. Protect their product, and you protect your relationship with those producers.
VIP Hospitality for Winery Participants
Remember that wineries are your VIPs just as much as attendees are. Especially for boutique wineries or those traveling internationally to be at your festival, hospitality matters. Treat them like the valued partners they are:
– Travel and Accommodation Support: If budget allows, negotiate hotel deals or provide a stipend for accommodation. Even arranging discounted rooms at a nice hotel or offering an airport pickup service in your city (whether it’s Melbourne, Mumbai, or Madrid) makes a difference. Large events in the U.S. like Auction Napa Valley have a reputation for pampering visiting wineries with hosted dinners and winery tours; you can scale down similar gestures for your event.
– Welcome Packs: Upon check-in, give winery representatives a welcome kit – perhaps local snacks, a guide to the city, and essential info (event schedule, contacts for help, Wi-Fi password, etc.). Include some branded gifts or necessities (bottled water, sunscreen for outdoor events, maybe a portable phone charger). This level of care leaves a lasting positive first impression.
– Exhibitor Lounge: Create a comfortable VIP lounge away from the crowds exclusively for winery and vendor staff. Stock it with refreshments, coffee/tea, light bites, and seating. After hours of standing and pouring, a quiet space to recharge is a godsend. For example, the London Wine Fair (UK) and ProWine (Germany) provide trade exhibitors with dedicated rest areas and refreshments throughout the day – festival-style events can do the same on a smaller scale.
– Networking Events: Host an exclusive dinner, tasting, or party for the winery principals and key festival partners. A casual night before the festival opening, say a beach BBQ if you’re in Sydney or a rooftop mixer if in New York, helps them relax and connect with fellow producers. These behind-the-scenes perks build community among your exhibitors. When wineries form friendships at your festival, they’re more likely to return (and spread the word to others about the great experience).
– Concierge-Level Service: Assign a point person or team to be “winery concierges.” During the festival, these staffers roam specifically to check on the wineries’ needs. They can deliver lunch to a busy exhibitor’s table, cover a booth for a quick break, or assist with any issues. Such white-glove service will be remembered. In one Southeast Asian wine event, organizers even offered guided city tours for visiting winemakers on the day after the festival – a gesture that turned guests into lifelong fans of the event.
By making wineries feel taken care of, you convert them from just vendors into enthusiastic partners. The cost of a few extra hospitality perks is minor compared to the goodwill and word-of-mouth marketing you’ll gain among the winery community.
Scheduled Trade Hours and Industry Access
While general consumers are great for direct sales and brand exposure, wineries also highly value access to industry professionals. To maximize ROI for producers, provide dedicated trade engagement opportunities as part of your festival.
– Trade-Only Tasting Sessions: Many successful wine festivals incorporate a window of time where only vetted industry attendees are allowed. For instance, the Victoria Wine Festival in Canada invites sommeliers, restaurateurs, retail wine buyers, and media for an exclusive trade tasting prior to opening to the public (vicwf.com). Implementing a similar session (perhaps an afternoon of the first day or a morning event) gives wineries quality face-time with those who can make large-volume purchases or offer contracts. Even an hour or two reserved for trade can yield import deals or restaurant placements – golden ROI that justifies a winery’s participation.
– Hosted Buyer Programs: If your festival is large or international in scope, consider a hosted buyer program. This means you actively invite key wine buyers or distributors (sometimes covering their travel or accommodation) to attend and meet exhibitors. Major trade fairs in Europe like Vinexpo and ProWein do this to guarantee exhibitors an audience of serious buyers. On a smaller festival scale, you might coordinate with local high-end restaurants, hotels, or airlines to send their beverage directors to your event with complimentary passes. Wineries will appreciate that you’re bringing potential clients to them.
– Workshops and Panels for Industry: Beyond tasting, schedule a few industry-focused panels, talks or masterclasses where winemakers can share insights and where trade attendees might learn (and meet the winemakers in a less hectic setting). For example, a masterclass on “New Trends in Organic Wine” or “Understanding Terroir in Spanish Wines” led by participating winemakers adds intellectual value. It signals that your festival treats wine seriously as a business and craft, not just a party. Wineries, especially smaller ones, love the chance to demonstrate their expertise – it often leads to media mentions or new business relationships.
– Trade VIP Lounge: If you have many trade guests, create a space for producers and trade to mingle off the festival floor. A quiet networking lounge for formally introducing wineries to importers or press can help facilitate those big wins (like distribution deals or feature articles). Some festivals even set up a matchmaking system where wineries can schedule short meetings with interested distributors during the event. You might not have the scale for full matchmaking, but simply providing the environment is a start.
Remember to clearly communicate these trade opportunities when pitching to wineries. If a winery knows they’ll get an hour with local and international trade buyers, plus exposure in front of consumers, they’re far more likely to view the festival as a must-do event. It’s all about combining immediate sales with long-term business growth.
Post-Event Data and Analytics
One of the most convincing ways to prove ROI is with data. Many festivals overlook this – once the tents come down, they simply thank the wineries and say goodbye. But providing solid post-event analytics and reports to wineries can set you apart.
– Attendee Demographics & Feedback: Share who attended (in aggregate), including data like the percentage of attendees that were wine club members, hospitality industry, local vs. out-of-town, etc. If your ticketing platform (such as Ticket Fairy) offers analytics dashboards, export some insights for your exhibitors. For example, “2,500 people attended, 60% of whom identified as frequent wine buyers, with an average age of 34, and 40% traveled from out of state/province.” This kind of information shows wineries the reach and quality of the audience they saw.
– Tasting Engagement Metrics: If possible, track how many samples were poured or which products were most popular. Some festivals use tasting coupons or RFID wristbands that attendees scan at each booth; this technology can report exactly how many tastings each winery poured and even which wines were tried if that level of detail is recorded. The Bordeaux Wine Festival in France, for example, introduced RFID-enabled tasting passes to gather data on attendee preferences and flow (intellitix.com). Even if you can’t implement high-tech solutions immediately, you can estimate and survey. Ask each winery after the event roughly how many bottles they went through and if they noticed particular crowd favorites. Compile these stats (e.g., “Winery X poured 300 tastes and sold 50 bottles on-site. Wine A was the most asked-about varietal.”) – it demonstrates that people were actively engaging, not just milling around.
– Sales and Lead Reporting: Encourage wineries to track any sales or sign-ups they made. Perhaps you facilitated on-site sales (if local laws allow) or they collected emails for their mailing lists. You can aggregate these anonymously: “Collectively, wineries made an estimated $80,000 in on-site sales, and over 500 new mailing list sign-ups were recorded across all participants.” If you have a festival app or a digital coupon code for post-event purchases, include results from those as well (“200 attendees used the event promo code to buy wine online within one week post-festival”). Hard numbers are music to an owner’s ears when they’re evaluating if the trip paid off.
– Qualitative Feedback and Testimonials: Survey attendees for feedback—did they discover new favorite wineries? Are they likely to buy wines they tried? Share a summary of positive attendee comments about the wines or the experience. And don’t forget to solicit feedback from the wineries themselves. Include a few glowing testimonials from participating wineries in your report (e.g., a winemaker noting they “loved the crowd’s enthusiasm and gained several new restaurant accounts through the trade session”). These peer voices can reassure hesitant wineries for next year.
– Post-Event Media Coverage: Track any media or social media reach that came out of the festival. Did a local newspaper or a wine blogger feature the event or specific wineries? Provide links or clippings. Show the online buzz in numbers: social media mentions, hashtag impressions, and so on. If the festival was trending in your city or got a write-up in Wine Enthusiast, let the wineries know. This kind of exposure has value that might not be immediately quantifiable in dollars but definitely factors into ROI for branding.
Deliver all this information in a concise post-event report sent to wineries within a week or two of the festival. This professionalism in follow-through is rare and will deeply impress winery partners. It demonstrates that you’re not just courting them – you’re invested in their success and want them to see the tangible benefits of participation.
Content and Marketing Deliverables for Producers
Beyond data, think about content deliverables you can give to wineries to extend the value of your festival. Every marketing asset or piece of content you provide is one less thing the winery has to create themselves to promote their brand.
– Professional Photos: Hire a photographer (or a small team) and make sure they capture each winery’s booth in action – smiling reps pouring wine, attendees enjoying the taste, bottle close-ups, etc. After the event, share these high-quality photos with the wineries (with no restrictive watermarks). A winery can use these on their social media or website, perhaps posting “Great time pouring at [Your Festival Name]!”. It’s free marketing for them and also spreads word about your event organically.
– Video Highlights: Similarly, if you produce a highlight reel or aftermovie for the festival, feature snippets of various winery booths and any on-stage moments if winemakers spoke or did demos. Send this video to the wineries and encourage them to share it. It not only gives them a promotional tool, but also subtly advertises your festival to all their followers.
– Social Media Spotlights: In the lead-up to the festival, do social media posts or blog features introducing some of the star wineries attending (“Exhibitor Spotlight: Château ___ from France – known for their organic Merlot…”). Wineries love being promoted. After the festival, do follow-up shout-outs (“Thank you to all our amazing wineries, like @TopWinery and @FamilyVineyards, for making the festival a hit!”). When wineries see their name celebrated by the organizer, it reinforces that winery-first feeling.
– Content Collaboration: If possible, coordinate with some wineries to create content during the event: maybe a live tasting session on Instagram, or a short interview with the winemaker that you can publish on your channels. Not only does this engage the audience, it gives the winery a media moment they can reference. A festival in Spain once arranged brief Q&As with each visiting winemaker on stage and had those transcribed into a blog series afterwards – this kind of added exposure is highly valued by producers.
– Merchandise and Branding: Feature winery logos on festival merchandise or collateral (with their permission). For example, a festival tote bag given to VIP attendees might list all participating wineries. Post-event, that tote is a piece of swag where a winery sees their logo alongside your festival branding – a subtle but positive reinforcement that they were part of something special. It’s not exactly “content,” but it is a tangible takeaway that ties their brand to the event.
By delivering marketing content, you essentially magnify the festival’s impact for the winery beyond the event days. They leave not just with memories and maybe some sales leads, but with concrete materials to use in their own marketing. This increases the perceived ROI significantly – it’s as if they had a mini marketing campaign run for them, on top of the festival itself.
Tailoring the Approach: Small Boutique vs. Large International Festivals
Every festival has its own character and scale, from a cozy regional gathering to a sprawling international expo. While the core principles remain, how you implement them can vary:
– Boutique Local Festivals: If you’re hosting a smaller festival (say 10-20 wineries) for a day in your town, focus on intimacy and depth. You likely know your attendee demographic well – use that to assure wineries of quality over quantity. Emphasize personal touches: a guided tour of local vineyards for visiting winemakers, or a post-festival mixer at a charming local bistro. With fewer wineries, you can afford to spend more time on each relationship. Often, small festivals can forego booth fees entirely and instead curate the lineup by invitation – making it an honor to be included. Use the limited scale to your advantage by guaranteeing a high winery-to-attendee ratio (so each producer gets plenty of face time with each guest). In a place like New Zealand or rural France, an intimate festival that draws a niche of true connoisseurs can be more appealing to a premier winery than a massive general public event.
– Large-Scale or City Festivals: For big festivals with 50, 100, or even 300 wineries participating, organization and segmentation are vital. You might implement multiple tiers of experiences – VIP zones, general admission, trade-only days – to ensure no one area becomes too overwhelming. Communication is key: with so many exhibitors, provide a detailed manual well in advance to outline all the services you’ll have for them (from the cold storage locations to how lead capture works). Big festivals in the U.S., UK, or India often partner with sponsors to fund the extra amenities like lounges and tech systems – don’t be afraid to bring in partners to help enhance the winery experience. Also, in large events, forming an exhibitor advisory board (including a few winery representatives) can help keep the festival tuned to exhibitors’ needs each year. When scaling up, never lose the winery-first ethos – it just might be executed through more formal systems and teams rather than one-on-one attention.
– Cultural Expectations: If you court wineries from different countries, be mindful of cultural differences. A family-run Italian winery might expect long lunch breaks and more social interaction, whereas a big Australian brand might focus on efficiency and sales metrics. Tailor your approach in hospitality and communication accordingly. Simple examples: provide translation assistance if you have non-local language speakers attending; offer cuisine-sensitive catering (e.g., vegetarian options if you have Indian wineries, or respecting any alcohol regulations for producers from certain cultures). Showing cultural respect and awareness makes all producers feel welcome.
– Mixed-Format Festivals: Some events combine wine with food, music, or other cultural elements (think wine & jazz festivals or food & wine weekends). In these cases, it’s easy for the wine to become secondary – which can turn off serious wineries. Counteract this by creating focused wine-tasting periods or quiet pavilions away from the concert stages. For example, at a wine & music festival in California, organizers scheduled wine tasting to end by early evening before the loudest bands played, and gave wineries the option to host daytime seminars while the mood was still calm. Balance the elements so that wineries don’t feel like they’re just a sideshow to a party.
No matter the size or style, maintain transparency with your winery partners. Clearly convey what you’re offering, and also what you expect (e.g., will they need to pour a certain number of samples? Can they sell bottles on-site or only take orders?). When you deliver exactly what was promised (or more), wineries of all scales will trust your event.
Building Long-Term Partnerships
Ultimately, attracting top wineries isn’t a one-time hustle – it’s about building a long-term relationship between the festival and the producers. After implementing all the above strategies, follow through year-round:
Keep in touch with wineries even when you’re not actively planning the next event. Share updates like attendee success stories (“a local restaurant just added your Riesling after discovering it at our festival!”) or news about improvements you’re making for next year. Solicit input: ask how you can help them achieve their goals at the next festival.
The result of this year-round engagement and a winery-first approach is loyalty. Many leading festivals around the world have a core of wineries that return every single year. These happy returning exhibitors often become your best ambassadors, telling other prestigious winemakers, “You have to do this festival; they treat us so well and we always see great returns.”
By proving ROI in ways wineries can measure – and in the intangibles they can feel – you create events that producers believe in. And when wineries believe in your festival, they’ll invest in it, talk about it, and help it grow to new heights.
Key Takeaways
- Winery-First Mindset: Design your wine festival around what wineries value – a qualified, wine-savvy audience and an environment that showcases their product properly.
- Quality over Quantity: Attract attendees who are truly interested in wine (often through targeted marketing and appropriate ticket pricing) so wineries can see real sales and leads, not just freebies seekers.
- Professional Logistics: Ensure flawless event operations – from smooth setup to adequate staffing and crowd control. An organized, comfortable festival reflects well on wineries and encourages them to return.
- Protect the Wine: Maintain proper temperature control and handling (cold chain, shade, ice) throughout the event. Wineries notice when their wines are served perfectly vs. poorly – and it influences their decision to come back.
- VIP Treatment for Wineries: Treat winery participants as VIPs with hospitality perks, lounges, and responsive support. A little extra care (like help with travel or an exhibitor lounge) builds tremendous goodwill.
- Trade and Networking Opportunities: Incorporate trade-only sessions or industry invites so wineries can connect with sommeliers, restaurateurs, and distributors. Landing a new account or media mention can be the biggest ROI of all.
- Data and Follow-Up: Give wineries post-event reports with attendee demographics, engagement metrics, and feedback. Hard data demonstrating their impact (plus photos and media content they can use) proves that their investment in the festival paid off.
- Consistency and Trust: Apply these principles whether your festival is a 15-winery local meetup or a 300-winery expo. Over time, delivering on promises and continuously engaging with wineries will turn your festival’s name into one that top producers trust and eagerly anticipate.
27th September 2025