Sponsored by Amador Vintners Association
Not Yet An Amador Benchmark Member? To receive the Full PDF Report including custom comparisons for your winery Get Access Here.
Amador July DTC On Par – Buoyed By Exceptional (Club) Visitation
In July 2020, Total DTC Sales in Amador fell -6.0% over July 2019.
This is on par with July year over year growth achieved by other California wineries who declined -8.6%.
Analysis
The biggest differences in DTC Sales between Amador and other California wineries happened in the Tasting Room.
Tasting Room
The majority of July DTC Sales in Amador happened in the Tasting Room (71% the highest among Sonoma Valley, Napa, & Central Coast) and Tasting Room Sales in Amador were actually up +2.3% compared to July of last year. This lies in sharp contrast to the -30.9 decline in sales among All California Tasting Rooms.
The dramatic out performance of Amador Tasting Rooms is based on:
- Visitor traffic being down significantly less (-8%) vs. the rest (-47%)
- 57% of Visitor traffic was from existing Club Members (vs. 26% All)
Suzy Gullet, Owner of Amador winery Vino Noceto noted
“there are reasons for this exceptional club visitation. I believe it’s because a large portion of our visitors, at any time of year, are our club members. In Amador, we rely heavily on our local (within 150 miles) community. Our visitation generally is down in the summer due to our very hot weather. However, our loyal club customers and local community were there for us as soon as we opened – despite the heat. In contrast, Napa/Sonoma wineries rely heavily on tourism, which as we all know, is down dramatically.”
To receive the Full PDF Report including custom comparisons for your winery Download Here.
Digital Sales
Starting from a lower base in 2019, Amador Digital Sales (Phone + Online) grew tremendously more than All wineries in July.
Amador Digital (Online + Phone) grew about 4 times in DTC significance as 2019 percentage of Digital Sales was 4% which grew to 16% of Total DTC in July this year. However, this is less than half the significance of Digital Sales outside of Amador as the All Total Digital share of Total DTC is 39%.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Events were 12% of DTC sales last July and basically null and void this year.
Community Benchmark is trusted by:
Community Benchmark Member Spotlight
Dave Helwig
Owner, Helwig Winery
What is your favorite wine / food pairing?
Mushroom soup w/ Helwig Round Up Red
What is unique about how you got into the wine business?
I started by growing 50 vines in my back yard and making wine in a small cave I dug out of the hillside.
What is your favorite wine business metric and why?
Community % DTC sales by channel. Let me know that our competitors were taking better advantage of a couple of the channels.
What do you love about managing a wine business?
Endless supply of great wine.
What is a unique management challenge you’re facing right now and how are you dealing with it?
Trying to deal w/ the continually changing requirements around COVID reaction. Making sure our staff is flexible and keeps a positive attitude.
What is unique about your winery amongst other wineries in your region?
We are able to have large events such as weddings, concerts and private & corporate events. Brings people to the valley that otherwise may not have visited.
Thank you, Dave!