2007 Tasting Room survey

Wine Business Monthly has published it's yearly tasting room survey and it shows that tasting rooms continue to be the most important profit centers for wineries. As brand competition intensifies, wineries, more than ever, are seeing the importance of attracting and holding onto loyal patrons, and are thus turning a critical eye toward maximizing every opportunity inside their tasting rooms. Highlights from this year's survey data reveal that 59 percent of winery tasting rooms are now charging a fee for tastings (8 percent more than last year), and that communication with customers and information collection are primarily being conducted via email newsletters (77 percent) as opposed to print newsletters and postcards (43 percent).

It is predicted that tasting rooms will continue to grow into key profit centers as efforts to communicate with customers become more sophisticated. Spend the weekend at your favorite tasting room and enjoy the warm weather.