Overview: Savvy producers are leveraging technology, market shifts, and changing tastes to grow sales in a challenging environment. Between 2025 and 2026, Boia De reported a 10 percent increase in by-the-glass sales due to Coravin preservation technology.
The Full Story
Savvy producers are leveraging technology, market shifts, and changing tastes to grow sales. Using technology to win around the consumer is becoming an important tool of the trade. The Covid pandemic initiated profound change in the way the world lives and works. It sparked one of the most historical shifts in world history, with an enormous reallocation and redistribution of affluence across the US.
Rich and powerful Americans left their coastal perches in Manhattan, San Francisco, LA, and Boston, and moved to Florida, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and other attractive mountain cities and towns. The wine industry, which traditionally focused marketing and outreach efforts in Manhattan, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and LA, has been slow to adjust. There have been other significant transformations in the types of wines the vast majority of people gravitate toward, and the manner in which wines can be presented and stored on-premise.
Wine professionals who have paid attention to these changes have managed to not only evade significant losses, but actually see their business grow, despite the overall, impossible to ignore downward trends in the alcohol trade. Savvy producers are leveraging technology, market and changing tastes to growsales. Using technology to win around the consumer is becoming an important tool of the trade.
Production & Profile
In June of 2021, Greg Lambrecht released the Coravin Sparkling Wine Preservation System. While it took a few years for its impact to be felt in on-premise wine programs, sommeliers and brands alike now say that their by the glass programs have surged thanks to the ability to lock in the characteristic bubbles that define the charm of Champagne and sparkling wine for two to four weeks after popping the cork.
Boia De has employed the Coravin as an access point, and a way to get more wine on the table in whatever capacity, by glass, half bottle, even half glass. The list is now less static and more interactive, and high-end or unfamiliar bottles are lower-risk. Between 2025 and 2026, Ospina, Boia De has seen a 10 percent increase in by-the-glass sales.
Riana Mondavi, director of DTC operations and four-generation co-proprietor at Napa’s Charles Krug Winery, has also seen that as people increasingly make more “intentional” wine consumption decisions, Coravin makes buying “just a glass” of sparkling wine with dinner viable. Coravin gives guests the opportunity to experience wines they may not otherwise purchase by the bottle. For Charles Krug, this has been particularly beneficial for wines such as our Family Reserve Vintage Selection Cabernet, where a by-the-glass pour lowers the barrier to trial.
Brand & Industry History
The disbursement of wealth in the last six or seven years has drastically changed the fine wine business. Florida is now challenging California in terms of the amount of business it’s bringing in. This isn’t just supposition or anecdotal observation: the IRS tracks these migration patterns. According to data through 2023, when many of the changes became cemented, Florida gained $20.7 billion, Texas gained $5.5 billion, South Carolina gained $4.1 billion, North Carolina gained $3.9 billion, and Tennessee gained $2.8 billion in adjusted gross annual income, while California lost $11.9 billion and New York lost $9.9 billion in adjusted gross annual income.
What This Means
After years of deceleration, DTC shipments appear to be on the upswing, overall with the luxury tier and certain markets leading the charge. The average bottle price for all DTC shipments in May was $54.64, 17 percent more year-over-year, according to data from WineBusinessAnalytics and SovosShipCompliant. Growth has been largely in the luxury sector, with total shipment of wines $150 and more spiked 21 percent through May.
The destinations are still in flux too: shipments of wines priced $100 and up are up 50 percent in Arizona this year, while Texas earns top marks behind California by volume, with strong growth in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. Businesses that have the logistical capacity to react to these changes are reaping the benefits.
Consumer Takeaway
For consumers, this shift offers a lower barrier to trial for high-end wines such as Family Reserve Vintage Selection Cabernet. The list is now less static and more interactive, allowing guests to experience wines they may not otherwise purchase by the bottle. Curiosity is one of the strongest drivers in wine today, with discovery flights consistently becoming the single best-selling item on beverage menus at certain locations.
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