Virginia Wineries Get Creative to Drive Sales During the Pandemic

On the last Sunday that Walsh Family Wine was open before the COVID-19 shutdown, Nate and Sarah Walsh put their heads together to plan virtual tasting events for the next two months. Like the rest of the state’s wineries, their tasting room was closing due to a stay-at-home order. Uncertainty reigned for the couple, who produce vineyard-designated wines from five sites in Loudoun County.

“We took all the energy, time and effort we’d normally put into keeping a tasting room going and put that into these virtual tastings,” says Nate Walsh, who started the winery with Sarah in 2014. “At first, the virtual tastings were just a way for us to stay on people’s minds, but it turned out to be important income for us.” To participate, viewers ordered the wine ahead of time and sipped along, or simply watched and learned.

Many wineries garner the largest percentage of their income from the tasting room, with the rest from sales in restaurants. “Essentially 100% of our standard revenue stream ended with the shutdown,” Walsh explains.

They stayed in touch with customers primarily via social media. “We treat it with the attention it deserves, and we owe a huge part of our success to using Facebook and Instagram,” Walsh says.

Even though their tasting room is now open every day by reservation, Nate and Sarah still get together with fans virtually via Facebook Live every other Friday night. “All these virtual events have enabled people to get to know the winemakers or the vineyard owners,” says Walsh, who is also president of the Virginia Vineyards Association. “You don’t always have the owner doing the pour in a tasting room. I think we in Virginia should be aware of how valuable that is.”

Reservations for the tasting room will continue for now. “We’ve come to prefer limiting the number of people in order to give them a comfortable, more personal experience,” he says. “A lot of our customers seem to prefer it too.”

Connecting Online

Early Mountain Vineyards in Madison County seeks to elevate the prominence of Virginia wines – its own and others. “We’re trying to express the quality of wine that’s possible in our soils and climate, in addition to providing absolute top-notch hospitality,” says Aileen Sevier, director of marketing and sales for the vineyard.

It’s no wonder, then, that Sevier developed a series of virtual tasting events entitled Taste of Virginia. “We focused entirely on Virginia products, not just our wines but other wineries as well.”

“I feel like Virginia wine country is going to come out of COVID stronger.”

– Aileen Sevier, director of marketing and sales, Early Mountain Vineyards

Early Mountain also normally offers a full restaurant menu crafted from seasonal produce from local farms, so some online events featured culinary demonstrations. The vineyard hosted or participated in over 50 virtual tastings, reaching an estimated 85,000 different consumers.

Sevier says the online events helped build brand awareness for Early Mountain, which counts a rosé and its award-winning Petit Manseng among its bestsellers. “We also sold a lot of wine online and were able to recoup a lot of revenue we lost by not being able to be open.”

See more: High Growth for Virginia Wine Industry

Indeed, online sales, whether driven by virtual events or other marketing, are up significantly, Sevier says. “Online is now an important, viable piece of our revenue mix, and we’ll continue a strong emphasis on supporting that.”

Visitors are highly encouraged to reserve a table for the tasting room (recently voted No. 1 in the country), on the patio or at picnic tables. As people have ventured out more, Sevier has received numerous reviews from visitors who might have traveled to Napa Valley or even Tuscany pre-COVID-19. “These reviewers are saying, ‘You are our first Virginia winery, the wine is phenomenal, and the level of sophistication and elegance was just like Napa.’ I feel like Virginia wine country is going to come out of COVID stronger.”