There are wine marketing channels that maybe aren't typical for other products. There are ways these channels are used that definitely aren't typical. Why is this? It's alcohol, so there are some restrictions. Wine is different from most consumer goods because many rely on points given by writers or medals by judges. A lot of wine is considered a luxury good because of the price. Unless you buy directly from a winery, the product is sold through a third party, the wholesale system that began life as the Mob.
Online
This one gets talked about the most, but some interesting details are usually missing. It might be a wine writer reviewing ten Sauvignon Blancs, some wine blogger writing about ten miscellaneous wines from Dry Creek, or an official looking website telling you the best wineries to visit in Napa right now.
A few years ago, I wrangled an invitation as a wine blogger to a well known local winery for a tasting and lots of speeches by the owner and others. We received a bit of merchandise at the end. I did write up the experience; it wasn't sugar-coated. A year later, I was invited to another at the same winery. As I left, the lady who was our contact said something like, "I can't wait to read what you write this time." I didn't, and I never heard from them again!
Another smaller, local winery must have hired a new marketing person with new ideas because I got an offer of some free bottles if I'd write them up. I said no. It's not like I'm better than others for not accepting, it's that I don't rely on freebies or money from blogging, so I've never taken any. For some it's their job or at least a side job.
When you see any of these types of articles, your first questions should be, Who is paying for this? Were these wines gifted to the writer? Did a winery in some other way schmooze the writer? The article should state any gifts or income, but this rarely happens.
In Print
It can be the same as online when it comes to writers and reviews. Even if it's not something direct like a free trip to a winery, the businesses being written about might be advertisers, or future advertisers.
The other interesting piece is wine print advertisements. You'll notice when it's the cheap stuff, there are younger folks having a great time at a party. When you start hitting the luxury wine market, it's models expensively dressed and being quite serious. Apparently the rich don't have as much fun.
The wine magazines, such as Wine Spectator, are also online, of course. Their scores can mean a lot of a winery, especially a small, less known one that struggles to sell 1,000 cases a year. One 95 point score and boom! It's off to the races as their phones start ringing.
Competitions
I don't know how many wine judgings there are in the U.S. but there are a lot. Heck, the Houston Rodeo has a big wine contest. Locally we have the Cloverdale Citrus Fair, the North Coast Wine Competition, and the granddaddy, The Sonoma County Harvest Fair. Do wineries spend the time and money to enter these in the name of friendly competition with their neighbors? Hah. It's for marketing, as in, "Our 2020 Zinfandel won a gold medal at the ____ wine competition!"
The more competitions you enter and the more different wines you enter, the greater your chance of gold medals. Some wineries have this as a key part of their marketing strategy.
Distribution
If a winery is small and lucky, they might be able to sell all of their wine directly via visitors and online sales, keeping all the profits for themselves. Most wineries must distribute via wholesalers for retail sales in wine shops, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. The problem they find, especially the smaller wineries, is that there isn't nearly enough shelf space for everyone. There's a lot of behind the scenes maneuvering and schmoozing and occasional illegal activity to see who gets the shelf space.
Individual wineries or wine corporations will treat their wholesalers well. I've seen wineries put them up for yearly "meetings" and spend a lot on keeping them lubricated. Keep 'em happy; keep your name in their thoughts.
A few big ones have in-house distributing. Gallo has been famous for this and their wines everywhere. They are overseas. They take over wine lists in smaller restaurants, meaning everything on the list is one of their labels. This is kind of the sneaky part, as you could conceivably find 40 out of the 100 wines in a store being from this one winery's labels. Interestingly, Gallo ended their in-house distribution this year and farmed it out to one of the large wholesalers.
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