Wine clubs remain closely tied to the tasting-room experience. In 2023, wineries reported an average discount of 17%, average shipments of 3.0 per year, and a 10% conversion rate from visitors to club members. The SVB 2024 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey also shows substantial regional differences in conversion and net club growth.
Table of contents
- Key wine club statistics
- Discounts and shipment frequency
- How wineries acquire members
- Visitor-to-member conversion over time
- Regional conversion in 2023
- Net wine club growth by region
Key wine club statistics
The following figures describe the operating pattern of wine clubs in the SVB 2024 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey. The measurement period is 2023 unless another year is specified.
- Average wine club discounts were 17% across regions.
- Regional discounts ranged from a low of 14% in Napa to a high of 22% in Paso Robles.
- Average wine club shipments increased from 2.7 per year to 3.0 per year during 2023.
- Tasting-room traffic accounted for 70% of total sales.
- Tasting rooms were the source of 75% of winery club members.
- Digital means accounted for 16% of total new club members.
- About 20% of wineries were in active programs to cross-refer customers.
- About 20% of wineries used non-social-media digital approaches to gain new members.
- Visitor-to-club conversion was 10% in 2023.
These figures place the tasting room at the center of wine club acquisition. Digital channels were present, but they represented a smaller share of new members than the physical visit-based channel. The survey figures also separate customer acquisition from broader sales traffic: tasting-room traffic represented 70% of total sales, while 75% of members were sourced from the tasting room.
The two 20% figures describe winery participation in particular approaches, not the share of new members generated by those approaches. They therefore should not be added together or treated as equivalent to the 16% digital acquisition figure.
Discounts and shipment frequency
The average wine club discount was 17% in 2023, according to the SVB 2024 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey. Regional averages varied: Napa recorded 14%, while Paso Robles recorded 22%. That 8-percentage-point spread shows that a typical club benefit was not uniform across wine regions.
The survey also reported an increase in average shipment frequency during 2023, from 2.7 shipments per year to 3.0 shipments per year. The two figures describe annual shipment frequency, not the number of bottles in each shipment or the number of members receiving shipments.
| Measure | Reported figure | Period or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Average discount | 17% | 2023, across regions |
| Lowest regional discount | 14% | Napa, 2023 |
| Highest regional discount | 22% | Paso Robles, 2023 |
| Earlier average shipment frequency | 2.7 per year | During 2023 comparison |
| Later average shipment frequency | 3.0 per year | During 2023 comparison |
Because the survey reports averages, these numbers do not establish what every club offered or how often every member received a shipment. They are useful as benchmarks for understanding the structure of wine club programs during the stated period.
How wineries acquire members
The tasting room was the dominant reported source of club members in 2023. Seventy-five percent of wineries sourced club members from the tasting room, while 16% of total club new members were acquired through digital means. The two percentages use different denominators: one describes wineries reporting a source, and the other describes the share of new members attributed to digital acquisition.
The SVB 2024 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey reported that about 20% of wineries were in active programs to cross-refer customers. Cross-referral programs were therefore a minority practice in the survey, although they were established enough to be measured separately.
About 20% of wineries also used non-social-media digital approaches to gain new members. This category is narrower than all digital acquisition, so the survey figures do not support treating the 20% participation measure as the same thing as the 16% share of new members acquired digitally.
The acquisition pattern suggests three distinct measurements:
- Seventy-five percent of wineries reported sourcing members from tasting rooms.
- Sixteen percent of total new members came through digital means.
- About one in five wineries participated in each of two specified approaches: customer cross-referral and non-social-media digital acquisition.
Keeping those definitions separate matters when comparing marketing channels. A channel can be used by many wineries without producing the largest share of members, while a smaller group of wineries may generate a meaningful share of new members through a particular method.
Visitor-to-member conversion over time
Visitor conversion fluctuated across the survey’s historical series. The SVB 2024 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey reported a 9% conversion rate in 2015, followed by 8% in 2016 and 8% in 2017. Conversion reached 10% in 2018, then rose to 26% in 2020.
The later figures were 10% in 2021, 9% in 2022, and 10% in 2023. The 2020 value is notably higher than the surrounding reported years, but the supplied survey figures do not explain the cause of that difference. It should therefore be treated as a reported historical measurement rather than as evidence of a specific event or strategy.
| Year | Visitor-to-wine-club conversion |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 9% |
| 2016 | 8% |
| 2017 | 8% |
| 2018 | 10% |
| 2020 | 26% |
| 2021 | 10% |
| 2022 | 9% |
| 2023 | 10% |
The 2023 rate returned to the 10% level also reported for 2018 and 2021. In practical terms, the survey’s 2023 benchmark was one visitor-to-member conversion for every ten visitors in the reported measurement, but the survey figures do not identify the number of visitors or members behind the percentage.
Regional conversion in 2023
Regional conversion rates varied widely in 2023. Napa County had the highest reported rate at 16%, followed by Sonoma County at 11% and Santa Barbara at 10%. The reported regional average was also 10%.
Washington recorded 6%, while Paso Robles and Other California each recorded 5%. Oregon reported 4%, Other US reported 2%, and Virginia reported 1%.
| Region | Visitor-to-club conversion in 2023 |
|---|---|
| Napa County | 16% |
| Sonoma County | 11% |
| Santa Barbara | 10% |
| Regional average | 10% |
| Washington | 6% |
| Paso Robles | 5% |
| Other California | 5% |
| Oregon | 4% |
| Other US | 2% |
| Virginia | 1% |
Napa County’s 16% rate was above the reported regional average, while Virginia’s 1% rate was below it. The survey presents these as regional conversion measurements; they do not by themselves show why the rates differed or whether the regions had comparable visitor volumes, club structures, or promotional offers.
Net wine club growth by region
Net wine club growth varied by region and year. In 2020, Other US recorded 30%, the highest figure in the supplied regional series for that year. Paso Robles recorded 10%, Washington 9%, Virginia 6%, Santa Barbara 5%, and Oregon and Other California 4%. Napa County and Sonoma County each recorded 2%.
In 2021, Napa County reported 23% net growth. Other US recorded 26%, Santa Barbara 27%, and Washington 20%. Other California recorded 19%, Sonoma County 18%, Oregon 15%, Virginia 11%, and Paso Robles 5%.
The 2022 figures were lower in several regions but remained uneven. Virginia reported 20%, Washington 13%, Other US 12%, Oregon and Other California 10%, Sonoma County 7%, Paso Robles 6%, Napa County 5%, and Santa Barbara 4%.
The 2023 series showed 13% in Napa County, 11% in Virginia, and 10% in Other US. Washington reported 5%, while Oregon, Santa Barbara, and Other California each reported 4%. Sonoma County recorded 3%, and Paso Robles recorded 0%.
| Region | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Napa County | 2% | 23% | 5% | 13% |
| Oregon | 4% | 15% | 10% | 4% |
| Paso Robles | 10% | 5% | 6% | 0% |
| Santa Barbara | 5% | 27% | 4% | 4% |
| Sonoma County | 2% | 18% | 7% | 3% |
| Virginia | 6% | 11% | 20% | 11% |
| Washington | 9% | 20% | 13% | 5% |
| Other California | 4% | 19% | 10% | 4% |
| Other US | 30% | 26% | 12% | 10% |
The year-to-year pattern is not uniform. Napa County moved from 2% in 2020 to 23% in 2021, then 5% in 2022 and 13% in 2023. Santa Barbara reached 27% in 2021 before reporting 4% in both 2022 and 2023. Virginia moved from 6% in 2020 to 20% in 2022 and 11% in 2023.
Paso Robles provides a different pattern: its net growth rate was 10% in 2020, 5% in 2021, 6% in 2022, and 0% in 2023. A 0% reported rate indicates no net growth in the survey measurement for that region and year; it does not indicate that no memberships were sold or canceled.
The net-growth figures should be read alongside, rather than substituted for, visitor conversion. Conversion measures the share of visitors becoming club members, while net growth reflects the resulting change in the club after gains and losses represented by the survey’s measure. The supplied figures do not provide member counts, cancellation rates, or regional sample sizes, so they cannot be used to calculate those quantities.
Reading the 2023 benchmarks
The 2023 survey benchmarks describe a wine club channel built around in-person engagement. The overall visitor-to-club conversion rate was 10%, with Napa County at 16% and several regions at 5% or below. Average shipments were 3.0 per year, and the average discount was 17%, with regional discount figures ranging from 14% to 22%.
The acquisition data adds context: 75% of wineries sourced members from the tasting room, while digital means accounted for 16% of new members. Regional net growth was also mixed, ranging from 13% in Napa County and 11% in Virginia to 0% in Paso Robles in 2023. Together, these measurements show the scale and variation of wine club activity without establishing a single national growth rate or a universal club model.