Answer a month of reviews in 20 minutes
Plus a 90-day email calendar prompt, a depletion-data account plan, and the non-alc opening before January.
Jeremy Young5 min readToday's Alcohol Industry Insider Newsletter
What's inside:
📊 Three Numbers: Pernod Ricard's US sales fall 10% while Constellation's organic wine sales rise 12%
🔠Industry Opportunities Worth Watching: On-premise non-alc grew 44.2% while only 9% of cocktail menus carry a mocktail
🔠Industry Opportunities Worth Watching: The low-and-no buyer still drinks your full-strength bottles
💡 AI Prompts You Can Use: Answer a month of Google and Yelp reviews in 20 minutes, and find what to fix
💡 AI Prompts You Can Use: Turn your release and shipment dates into a 90-day email calendar with drafts
💡 AI Prompts You Can Use: Turn 12 Months of Depletion Data Into a Written Account Plan
Pernod Ricard's US sales fall 10% while Constellation's organic wine sales rise 12%
10% Pernod Ricard's US sales fell 10% in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, which the company blamed on consumer affordability concerns, per Brewbound and BevNET. If your cheapest SKU is a 750ml flagship, you have nothing to hand the trade-down shopper: price a smaller format this quarter.
12% Constellation Brands' wine and spirits organic net sales rose 12% in the six months ended Aug. 31, 2026, while reported sales fell 26% to $308.6 million after the brands it sold to The Wine Group, per Vino Joy News. Shedding low-margin labels lifted gross margin to 53.6% from 51.6%: run that same math on your slowest third of SKUs.
10.2% Constellation's second-quarter depletions rose 10.2%, yet it expects second-half shipments to fall as it works with major distributors to cut finished-goods inventories. Your distributor can cut orders in a quarter when the product is still moving, so track depletions monthly and ask what inventory target they are working toward before you forecast 2027.
On-premise non-alc grew 44.2% while only 9% of cocktail menus carry a mocktail
The data: US off-premise non-alcoholic sales hit $1.08bn for the year ending June 27, 2026, up 14.6%, while total alcohol dollar sales fell 2.8% to $53.6bn in the first half of the year. That comes from NIQ figures presented by Victoria Watters of Dry Atlas at Club Soda's Low, No and Mid-Strength Summit, reported by The Spirits Business.
The more interesting split is by channel. Off-premise is 64.9% of non-alc dollars and grew 18%. On-premise is 31.1% and grew 44.2%. Watters also cited a Southern Glazer's report that 9% of their accounts with a spirits cocktail menu run a mocktail section.
Why it is happening: these buyers are moderating, not quitting. NIQ household panel data shows 94% of non-alc buyers also purchase full-strength beer, wine, or spirits. The demand is sitting in bars and restaurants that have nothing credible to pour.
Who it opens a door for. The category sells outside the three-tier system, so you can call on accounts directly. For a small distillery, that means a zero-proof or RTD line you place yourself, with no distributor approval and no depletion math: non-alc spirits including RTD grew 40.7% off a 7.5% share, and the RTD piece inside it grew 61.5%. For a winery, alcohol-free wine grew 17.8%. For a brewery, zero-ABV beer holds 80.8% share but grew only 12.2%, so that lane is the most crowded. For a retail shop, a built-out set earns January traffic. For a distributor rep, a mocktail program is a reason to reopen an account conversation.
The move: pick one beachhead state (Watters points to Spirits of Virtue in Texas, a 32 million person market), build one SKU, and price it deliberately. Watters put Molson Coors' Naked Life at about $2.50 a can and Ghia, Lapo's, and De Soi closer to $5, with Ritual Zero Proof around $3.50.
The likely consequence, and this is inference rather than data, is that the accounts that add a zero-proof section first will keep those guests year-round. January is the acquisition window: start the account calls in November.
The low-and-no buyer still drinks your full-strength bottles
The Spirits Business reports on KAM Insights' Low & No Report 2026, presented by managing director Katy Moses at the No, Low & Mid-Strength Summit in London. The data shows 53% of UK adults now drink low- and no-alcohol products at least monthly, roughly 29 million people, up from 40% three years ago. The share who say they never drink low-and-no fell from 34% two years ago to 24%.
The cause is volume, not abstinence. Moses says 7% of UK adults now report 15-plus units a week, down from 16% in 2021, while 58% report six units or less, up from 37%. The people who never drink held roughly steady at 16%. She credits moderators managing their intake, a behavior that started with Gen Z and worked up through the age groups. KAM also found 59% track health metrics after drinking and 81% of that group changed what they bought as a result.
The opening sits in two numbers: 97% of monthly low-and-no drinkers also buy full-strength, and 60% tried a new brand in the category in the last 12 months. That is an audience you already have, shopping a category with almost no brand loyalty. The Spirits Business notes US off-premise non-alcoholic sales passed $1 billion, with spirits alternatives growing fastest. The likely consequence for US operators, and this part is inference, is that the UK's 53% is a preview of where your own tasting room and shelf mix lands in two to three years.
The move this month: put one paid zero-proof or mid-strength pour into the flight instead of comping water. A distillery tests a diluted or botanical expression. A brewery already has the NA tech. A winery can lead with a lower-ABV white in a 500ml. A shop builds a six-SKU set next to premium spirits, not by the soda. A distributor rep walks accounts with zero non-alc listings and prices one in.
Run it for 60 days and measure attach rate on mixed tables, where one guest is moderating and the rest are not.
You are a beverage portfolio strategist who has launched low-alcohol, mid-strength, and zero-proof products for small producers. I run [winery / brewery / distillery / retail shop / distribution company] in [region], selling [number] cases or [revenue] a year, with [tasting room / taproom / retail floor / wholesale book] as my main channel. My current lineup is [list your 3 to 6 top SKUs with ABV and shelf or tasting room price]. My customers are [describe them: club members, taproom regulars, on-premise accounts, walk-in retail].
I want to serve moderators: people who still buy my full-strength products but want a lower-alcohol or no-alcohol option on some occasions. I am not trying to convert non-drinkers.
Give me:
1. Three options ranked by speed to market, from the easiest (buy in someone else's product and resell or pour it) to the hardest (produce my own). For each, estimate the work, the lead time, and what it costs me to test, using ranges and telling me which inputs you are guessing at.
2. A pricing recommendation for each option, including what I charge in the tasting room or on the shelf and the gross margin at that price. Compare it to the margin on my existing SKUs above.
3. A 60-day test I can run without committing to inventory, including exactly what I say to a guest or buyer when I offer it.
4. The three metrics I should track to decide whether to continue, with the number that would make you say stop.
5. The two biggest reasons this fails for a business my size, and how I would see it coming early.
Push back on me. If my price points or volume make one of these options a bad idea, say so directly and tell me which one to drop. Do not suggest health or wellness claims on packaging or signage; keep every recommendation to taste, occasion, and format. If my answer to any input is too vague to work with, ask me for the specific number before you continue.
Answer a month of Google and Yelp reviews in 20 minutes, and find what to fix
The outcome
You paste in a batch of Google and Yelp reviews, and you get back a finished reply for each one, written in your voice, plus a short diagnosis of the themes repeating across them. The one-star reviews get handled without defensiveness, the five-star reviews get a reply that sounds like a person instead of a form letter, and you end up with a list of operational fixes ranked by how often guests mention them.
This replaces the task most owners keep putting off until reviews are three months stale. A tasting room gets replies that mention the wine the guest actually drank. A brewery finds out the complaint is always the wait at the pour station, not the beer. A distillery learns the tour length is the issue. A retail shop can run it on store reviews and spot the checkout line pattern. A distributor rep can run it on a key account's reviews before a sales call and walk in knowing what that account is getting beaten up for.
Tool and difficulty
Claude (claude.ai). Medium: you paste in your own reviews. The free plan handles this fine. Claude Pro is $17 a month with the annual subscription discount ($200 billed up front), or $20 billed monthly (claude.com/pricing, read 2026-10-14).
Prep, five minutes
Open your Google Business Profile and your Yelp business page. Copy the last 30 to 60 days of reviews into a plain text document: star rating, date, reviewer first name, and the review text. Then grab three replies you have already written and liked, or three paragraphs from your website that sound like you. Those are your voice sample.
If you want this to run every month without resetting, make a Project in Claude and drop your voice sample, your pricing, and your hours in as standing context. The free plan includes up to 5 Projects.
You are the guest relations manager for [BUSINESS NAME], a [WINERY / BREWERY / DISTILLERY / RETAIL SHOP] in [REGION]. You write public replies to Google and Yelp reviews that sound like a real person who works here.
Here is a sample of our voice. Match its rhythm, warmth, and vocabulary:
[VOICE SAMPLE]
All replies are signed by [WHO SIGNS THE REPLIES].
Things we will not offer in a public reply: [THINGS YOU WILL NOT OFFER].
Here are our recent reviews:
[REVIEWS]
Deliver two things.
PART ONE: A reply for every single review, numbered to match, formatted as: star rating, reviewer name, then the reply ready to paste.
Rules for the replies:
- 4 and 5 star reviews: 2 to 3 sentences. Name something specific the guest mentioned (the Albarino, the barrel tour, the patio, the bartender). Never open two replies with the same word. Invite them back for something concrete and seasonal.
- 3 star reviews: acknowledge the gap between what they expected and what they got. Do not over-apologize. Name one thing we are doing about it if the review points to something fixable.
- 1 and 2 star reviews: lead with the acknowledgment, not with context or defense. No "we're sorry you feel that way." No arguing about the facts in public. Offer to take it to email or phone. Keep it under 4 sentences. Future readers are the real audience, not the reviewer.
- If a review mentions being drunk, a dispute with staff, or anything legal, flag it as DO NOT REPLY PUBLICLY and tell me who should call them instead.
- Never invent a wine, beer, spirit, staff name, price, event, or policy. If you need a detail to make the reply land, write [CONFIRM: what you need] and I will fill it in.
PART TWO: The pattern read. Give me:
1. The three complaints that appear most often, with the number of reviews each one shows up in and a direct quote from one.
2. The three things guests praise most often, phrased the way they phrase it, so I can use their words in my marketing.
3. One thing in these reviews I am probably ignoring because only a couple of people said it, but it would be cheap to fix.
4. For each of the three complaints: whether it is a staffing problem, a process problem, a pricing problem, or an expectation-setting problem, and the single cheapest fix.
Be direct about what is going wrong. Do not soften the pattern read to make me feel better.
Variables to swap
[BUSINESS NAME] and [WINERY / BREWERY / DISTILLERY / RETAIL SHOP]
[REGION]
[WHO SIGNS THE REPLIES] (name and title, for example "Dana, Tasting Room Manager")
[VOICE SAMPLE] (paste the three paragraphs)
[THINGS YOU WILL NOT OFFER] (for example no refunds on tasting fees, no free shipping)
[REVIEWS] (paste the whole batch)
What to do with the output
Read every reply before it goes up. Fix anything factual Claude guessed at: a wine name, a price, a policy. Then paste them into Google Business Profile and Yelp in one sitting. Take the pattern list to your next staff meeting and pick the single most-mentioned fix to work on this month.
If the replies come back too stiff or too apologetic, tell it: "Too corporate. Rewrite at a sixth-grade reading level, shorter sentences, and sound like [NAME] talking to a regular." If the fix list reads like consulting fluff, ask for "only fixes we can make in 30 days with current staff."
Rerun it the first Monday of every month. Over a few months the pattern list becomes a record of whether your fixes actually stuck.
Good output looks like this: each reply names something specific from that guest's visit, no two replies open with the same sentence, the negative ones acknowledge the problem in the first line without arguing, and the pattern list gives you at least one thing you did not already know.
Turn your release and shipment dates into a 90-day email calendar with drafts
The outcome: a 90-day email calendar built around your actual release dates, club shipments, and holidays, with a send date, a goal, two subject line options, preview text, and a full first draft for each email. One sitting, usually under 30 minutes including your edits.
What that replaces: the Monday scramble where someone writes an email from scratch because the shipment goes out Thursday. With the calendar done in advance, your job shifts from writing to approving, and you can hand the drafts to whoever runs Klaviyo or Mailchimp without explaining the plan every time.
Tool and difficulty: Claude (claude.ai). Medium, because you need to paste in your own dates and offers. The free plan handles this fine. Claude Pro is $17 per month with the annual subscription discount ($200 billed up front) or $20 billed monthly, read on claude.com/pricing on 2026-10-15. Pro is worth it here only if you want to save the calendar in a Project so future chats remember your brand voice and price list.
Before you paste: pull up your release schedule, your club shipment dates for the next quarter, and any events already on the books. Write down roughly how many emails a month your list tolerates. That is all the prep you need.
This works the same whether you are a winery planning a spring white release and a May club shipment, a brewery building around a seasonal can drop and a taproom anniversary, a distillery timing a barrel-pick announcement and Father's Day, or a retail shop planning a Thanksgiving wine guide and a December spirits gifting push. A distributor rep can run it for a monthly account newsletter of new placements and closeouts.
You are the DTC email director for a beverage business. You build 90-day email calendars that balance revenue emails with relationship emails, and you write the first drafts yourself.
MY BUSINESS:
- Name and type: [BUSINESS NAME AND TYPE, e.g., Gard Estate Wines, a winery in Washington / a craft brewery with one taproom / a small-batch bourbon distillery / an independent wine and spirits shop]
- Region: [REGION]
- Brand voice: [BRAND VOICE, e.g., warm and plainspoken, a little irreverent, understated and classic]
- List size and segments: [LIST SIZE AND SEGMENTS, e.g., 6,400 subscribers: 900 club members, 1,800 past buyers, 3,700 never purchased]
THE NEXT 90 DAYS, starting [START DATE]:
- Releases and product launches: [RELEASES AND PRODUCT LAUNCHES WITH DATES, e.g., 2025 Albariño releasing April 4, barrel-pick single cask dropping May 16]
- Club or subscription shipments: [CLUB OR SUBSCRIPTION SHIPMENT DATES, e.g., spring shipment bills April 10, ships April 21]
- Events: [EVENTS WITH DATES, e.g., member pickup party May 3, taproom anniversary June 14]
- Holidays that matter to us: [HOLIDAYS THAT MATTER TO YOU, e.g., Mother's Day, Memorial Day weekend, Father's Day]
- Email volume my list tolerates: [EMAILS PER MONTH, e.g., 6 to 8]
- Top sellers and prices: [TOP SELLERS AND PRICES]
- Inventory I need to move: [WHAT YOU NEED TO MOVE, e.g., 140 cases of 2023 rosé before the new vintage]
- What I never discount: [WHAT YOU DO NOT DISCOUNT]
DELIVER IN THIS ORDER:
1. THE CALENDAR. A table of every email across the 90 days with: send date and day of week, segment it goes to, the single goal (sell, educate, invite, reactivate, service), and a one-line description. Anchor the sends to my dates above. For each club shipment include the pre-billing heads-up, the shipped-today note, and a follow-up after it arrives. Do not stack two selling emails within four days of each other. Keep at least one in three emails non-selling.
2. THE SUBJECT LINES. For every email: two subject line options (one direct, one curious), preview text under 90 characters, and one sentence on which segment each option suits. No all-caps, no fake urgency, no emoji unless my brand voice calls for it.
3. THE DRAFTS. Write a full first draft of every email: 120 to 250 words, one clear call to action, written in my brand voice. Name the actual product and price from my list instead of writing "our new release." For club emails, write to someone who has already paid, not to a prospect. For reactivation emails, acknowledge the gap without apologizing for existing.
4. THE GAPS. Tell me which three sends on this calendar carry the most revenue risk if they are late, and what I need to have ready (photos, inventory counts, landing page, shipping cutoff dates) two weeks before each one.
RULES: Use beverage-specific detail, not generic retail copy. No tasting notes longer than one line. If a date I gave you creates a conflict (billing a club the same week as a big release, for example), flag it and propose a fix instead of working around it silently. Ask me up to three clarifying questions before you start if anything above is missing.
Variables to swap: [BUSINESS NAME AND TYPE], [REGION], [BRAND VOICE], [LIST SIZE AND SEGMENTS], [START DATE], [RELEASES AND PRODUCT LAUNCHES WITH DATES], [CLUB OR SUBSCRIPTION SHIPMENT DATES], [EVENTS WITH DATES], [HOLIDAYS THAT MATTER TO YOU], [EMAILS PER MONTH], [TOP SELLERS AND PRICES], [WHAT YOU NEED TO MOVE], [WHAT YOU DO NOT DISCOUNT].
What to do with the output: read the calendar first and cut anything that does not fit the month. Then ask Claude to rewrite the drafts you kept in your own voice by pasting in two emails you have sent that performed well. Move the final drafts into your email platform as scheduled sends, set the send dates, and leave them in draft for a final read the week before each one goes.
If the calendar comes back too crowded or too corporate, say so: "Cut this to six emails a month and rewrite the drafts the way a tasting room manager would talk to a regular." Rerun the whole thing at the start of each quarter with your updated dates, and keep the old calendar in the chat so Claude can tell you what to repeat and what to retire.
Good output looks like this: every email has a specific date, a single clear goal, two subject lines you would actually send, and a draft that names a real product and price instead of saying "our new release."
Turn 12 Months of Depletion Data Into a Written Account Plan
The outcome: a one-account battle plan for your biggest retailer or restaurant. What they already buy, what they should buy next, the exact SKU and placement you are asking for, the three objections you will hear, and follow-up dates through the next 90 days.
This is the work a good sales manager wants from you and almost nobody writes down. Do it for your top 10 accounts and you walk into every call with a specific ask instead of "just checking in."
Tool: Claude (claude.ai). Difficulty: Medium. You need to paste in your own numbers. Cost: Claude's free plan handles this. If you run it for several accounts and hit the free limits, Claude Pro is $20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly (claude.com/pricing, October 12, 2026).
Prep, five minutes. Pull whatever you have for this one account over the last 12 months: cases by SKU, order dates, and anything you know about their shelf set or wine list. A screenshot of a spreadsheet works. So does a list you type from memory. Claude will work with messy input, but it cannot read your mind about what the account actually stocks.
If your numbers live in Google Sheets, Claude now connects to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, so you can point it at the file instead of copying rows by hand.
You are a beverage alcohol sales strategist who has managed key accounts for a wholesaler. You are blunt, specific, and allergic to generic sales advice. Build me an account plan for one account.
MY SITUATION:
- Account: [ACCOUNT NAME AND TYPE, e.g., Corkscrew Fine Wine, independent retailer, 4,000 sq ft, suburban Denver / or Lark & Lamb, 90-seat farm-to-table restaurant with a 60-bottle list]
- Me: [MY COMPANY AND ROLE, e.g., territory rep for a mid-size wholesaler / national sales manager for a craft distillery selling direct in a control state]
- What I represent: [PORTFOLIO I REPRESENT, e.g., 40 SKUs across Oregon Pinot, Washington Cab, and a Kentucky bourbon line]
- Their last 12 months of purchases: [12-MONTH PURCHASE HISTORY: paste cases by SKU with order dates, even if rough]
- What I know about them: [WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THIS ACCOUNT, e.g., buyer is Marcus, buys Tuesdays, hates sampling appointments, big on local, carries three of my competitor's Sauv Blancs, moves a lot of $18 to $24 wine]
- What I want: [MY GOAL FOR THIS ACCOUNT, e.g., add two by-the-glass placements and grow from 30 to 50 cases a year]
- Next scheduled contact: [NEXT CALL DATE]
DELIVER EXACTLY THIS, in this order:
1. THE READ. In five bullets, what the purchase history actually tells me: which SKUs are growing, which are flat, which have stopped reordering, the reorder rhythm, and the one gap in their set I can fill. Name specific SKUs from my data. If my data is too thin to support a conclusion, say so instead of guessing.
2. THE ASK. One primary placement goal, stated as a specific SKU, a specific position (by-the-glass, cold box, endcap, shelf eye-level, cocktail menu well), and a case number. Then one smaller backup ask if they say no to the first.
3. THE PITCH. A 90-second script I can say out loud, in plain spoken English. Open with something about their business, not mine. Lead with how the wine or spirit sells for them, not how it tastes. End with the ask as a question.
4. THE OBJECTIONS. The three objections this specific type of buyer will raise given my data (price, shelf space, an existing supplier, slow movers I already placed). Write my exact response to each. No scripts that sound like a brochure.
5. THE TRADE. Three things I can offer that cost me little and matter to them: staff training, a brand ambassador shift, a shelf talker, a wine dinner, a sample for their Friday tasting. Match each one to what I know about this buyer.
6. THE CALENDAR. Dated follow-ups from my next contact date through 90 days out. For each date: the exact action (call, drop by, email, sample drop, check depletion), the purpose, and the one sentence I lead with. Space them realistically for a buyer who does not want to hear from me every week.
7. THE KILL CRITERIA. What I should see by day 90 to keep investing time here, and the signal that tells me to move my hours to a different account.
FORMAT: short headers, bullets, no paragraphs longer than three lines. Use only the SKUs and facts I gave you. Do not invent sales figures, depletion numbers, or market data. If something important is missing from my input, list it at the end under "What I still need to find out."
Variables to swap: [ACCOUNT NAME AND TYPE], [MY COMPANY AND ROLE], [PORTFOLIO I REPRESENT], [12-MONTH PURCHASE HISTORY], [WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THIS ACCOUNT], [MY GOAL FOR THIS ACCOUNT], [NEXT CALL DATE].
What to do with the output. Put the follow-up dates in your calendar before you close the tab. Copy the pitch script into your notes app so it is on your phone in the parking lot. Then rerun the same prompt for your next four accounts; the format stays, only the data changes.
If the plan reads like generic sales advice, tell Claude: "Rewrite this using only the SKUs in my purchase history, and give me one ask I can make on the next call."
What good looks like: a named SKU, a named placement (back bar, cold box, by-the-glass slot), a number of cases, and three dates.
From the Editor:
I am always open to consulting, implementation, or brainstorming sessions. Just respond to this email, and I will get back to you shortly.
Alcohol Industry Insider Newsletter: the three-times-a-week growth newsletter for wine, beer, and spirits businesses that need smarter marketing, better sales, practical AI tools, and clear ideas they can implement now.
By Jeremy Young: serial entrepreneur, growth marketer, wine critic, and beverage industry insider.
Respond to this email with questions, ideas, or opportunities, and I will get back to you shortly!
Until next time,
Jeremy
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