Plays
Every tactic the newsletter has run, most of them from a named winery, brewery, or distillery, with enough detail to copy. Search, or filter by the problem you're trying to fix. New ones arrive every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
35 plays
Wineries without visibility into club behavior can end up replacing most of their member base every year, according to Commerce7's roundtable with winery owners. These five tactics give you a signup you can finish at the bar, a churn number you can actually see, and a club offer that runs on access instead of discounts.
From the Nov 4, 2026 issueColumbia Distributing just closed on RNDC's Alaska assets, giving it a connected route to market across Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Wine books get rewritten during transitions like this, which is the rare window when a small winery can win real attention from a large distributor.
From the Nov 4, 2026 issueEvery winery that outgrows the founder-does-everything stage hits the same wall: the practices that kept five people loyal do not automatically scale to thirty. Here is how to decide which of your informal perks become written policy before your next hiring push.
From the Nov 4, 2026 issueA Morning Consult survey of 6,283 U.S. adults found small creators drive purchases at the same rate as famous ones, so the fee you pay for reach is largely wasted. These four plays turn club members, staff, and shop clerks into the endorsers buyers actually trust, and name the metric each one moves.
From the Oct 30, 2026 issueYour digital-only marketing is competing for attention from people who are actively trying to spend less time on their phones. This gives you a tactile program (one hands-on activity, one collectible) you can price, staff, and launch inside 90 days.
From the Oct 30, 2026 issueLaunching a market before chain commitments and a full-state wholesaler are locked in burns cash and stalls the brand for months. This play gives you a go/no-go gate you can apply to the next state, chain, or distributor conversation on your desk.
From the Oct 28, 2026 issueHoliday inboxes are full and open rates drop right when gift orders are biggest, so the complex multi-address orders get abandoned online. This gives you a dated seven-week calendar, three call segments, and the one add-on question that lifts order value.
From the Oct 28, 2026 issueCommerce7 says its streamlined checkout converts 19% better than the older version with no meaningful fraud increase, which means billing-address fields and aggressive fraud rules are costing you orders you already earned. These five moves recover blocked buyers and tighten club billing before your next release.
From the Oct 26, 2026 issueThree down years have the whole industry scoring itself on barrels and cases, which tells you nothing about whether a sale pays for itself. Run contribution margin by product, package, and channel and you will know which accounts to keep, which to reprice, and which to let go.
From the Oct 26, 2026 issueDiscounting and launching an RTD treats Gen Z as a wallet problem, and it has not stopped craft's slide. The Brewers Association makes the case that the culture craft sells (rebellion, discovery, self-expression) is the part that no longer connects, which changes what you put on your menu, your shelf talkers, and your taproom floor.
From the Oct 26, 2026 issueTotal US alcohol dollars fell 2.8% in the first half of 2026, and the fastest-growing non-alc channel is the one you can sell into without a distributor. The opening is a single zero-proof SKU placed directly with on-premise accounts in one state before January, the category's biggest trial month.
From the Oct 23, 2026 issueKAM Insights found 97% of monthly low-and-no drinkers in the UK also drink alcohol, so every zero-proof or mid-strength pour you refuse to sell is revenue leaving with a customer you already have. This gives you a way to test one SKU or one paid tasting-room pour against your existing audience instead of chasing a new one.
From the Oct 23, 2026 issueJessica Kogan says typical DTC customer acquisition in the liquor industry runs $100 to $125, while in-store sampling runs about $1 per customer when you count samples, conversations, and 24-hour follow-on purchases. The play is a structured tasting program with data capture behind it, not a card table and a few open bottles.
From the Oct 21, 2026 issueA quality pour that nobody orders is dead inventory and wasted menu space, and most operators respond by reformulating instead of renaming. Sunday Hospitality Group changed one name at Hotel Chelsea's Lobby Bar and turned a slow seller into its best seller, a move you can test on your own list this week.
From the Oct 21, 2026 issueListing wines and spirits by grape or category makes the guest do the work of figuring out when to drink it, and most of them just leave. These four moves rewrite the ask around occasions and sampling, which is what HSP Brands sees driving purchases across more than 66,000 retail-tasting events a year.
From the Oct 21, 2026 issueOff-premise wine and spirits volume fell 7.5% over the latest 12 months while on-premise fell 2.4%, according to SipSource data published by WSWA. If your sales days and sample budget are still weighted toward retail, you are spending most of your effort in the channel losing customers fastest.
From the Oct 19, 2026 issueSeven U.S. regions are mid-petition at the TTB, and almost none of them have a finished trade story yet. If you farm inside one, or buy from one, the window to own that narrative closes the week it gets approved, not after.
From the Oct 16, 2026 issueRegulators have documented pay-to-play shelf schemes at the country's largest wholesaler and still have not pulled a permit, which means producers cannot count on enforcement to level the chain-set playing field. The move is to stop paying for placement you cannot verify and write named accounts, depletion reporting, and exit triggers into your next distributor agreement.
From the Oct 16, 2026 issuePinning falling volume on weight-loss drugs makes it someone else's fault and buys you another quarter of doing nothing. Brewers Association data shows no clean link between state GLP-1 use and beer declines, which puts the cause back where you can act on it: your pricing, your occasions, and your acquisition.
From the Oct 16, 2026 issueTen saves times your member lifetime value is the return on three minutes with a spreadsheet.
From the Oct 15, 2026 issueA 60-minute tasting appointment gives you one shot at a signup, and tasting room traffic keeps sliding. Eleven Eleven Wines bought seven days of proximity instead and converted 33% of the non-club guests on the trip.
From the Oct 14, 2026 issueSaving a handful of club members costs almost nothing and protects revenue you already earned. Most wineries never look at the data because pulling it apart by hand takes a day you do not have.
From the Oct 12, 2026 issueYour tech sheets were written for a compliance file, not for a guest holding a glass and deciding whether to buy. Rewriting every pour as an occasion, and ending the flight with a natural club ask, is a one-hour job with Claude that your staff can use on the floor tomorrow.
From the Oct 7, 2026 issueUnanswered reviews cost you bookings you never see, and the complaints buried in them are free product and operations feedback. A Claude Project can draft every reply in your voice and surface the repeat problems in about 30 minutes a week.
From the Oct 5, 2026 issueA Kentucky retail chain turned its scarcest bourbon into a high-margin destination draw by pouring it instead of raffling it, and the same mechanism works for library wine, rare beer, and single barrels.
From the Oct 5, 2026 issueWonderwerk built a wine brand by showing up inside existing culture instead of asking new drinkers to come to wine on wine's terms. That model is copyable this month with a small budget and no new SKU.
From the Oct 5, 2026 issueMost brands show up to a distributor review with a spreadsheet and hope. A prepared depletion story, five rehearsed objection answers, and a one-page leave-behind is the difference between staying on the book and getting a real commitment for next quarter.
From the Oct 5, 2026 issueOffer current customers 50% off a 3-pack or 6-pack if they host friends for a wine night within 30 days. New drinkers try wine in living rooms, not tasting rooms, and a friend is the most credible salesperson you have.
From the May 27, 2026 issueA recurring short video series where your team answers the beginner questions guests whisper at the bar. It builds trust faster than a tasting note and pulls in scrollers who'd never visit your website.
From the May 27, 2026 issueMost members warn you weeks or months before they leave. Track the signals, find your steepest drop-off, and step in before the cancellation, because keeping a member pays better than chasing a new one.
From the Jun 3, 2026 issueSix Regenerative Organic Certified wineries in Paso Robles pooled their relationships and brought 12 writers to the region without a big PR agency. Any handful of producers with a common thread can do the same.
From the May 7, 2026 issueAn SEO audit an agency would charge $2,000 to $5,000 for, done in under 30 minutes: missing descriptions, keyword gaps, technical problems, competitors, and a ranked action plan in a Word document.
From the Jun 17, 2026 issueWhite and sparkling wines are holding up better than reds, and a rare white gives a tasting the surprise a lineup of reds can't. Sell each one by the occasion it fits, not its technical notes.
From the May 7, 2026 issueThe clearest club fix in Silicon Valley Bank's 2026 report: high performers engage members outside the shipment cycle. If members only hear from you when their card is billed, that's your attrition problem.
From the Jun 9, 2026 issueLow-performing wineries are twice as likely to lead with discounts, and high performers are 60% more likely to raise prices. Protect the price on the label and change the offer around it.
From the Jun 9, 2026 issue
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