We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Mack a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

This year, there has been much speculation the US wine market will decline. However, this view oversimplifies the reality of the $107B US wine market. I believe US consumers are undergoing a significant shift in their wine preferences and spending habits, which is important for us to understand. Some of the most notable trends I’m observing in the wine industry are:

1. Americans are choosing to dine more at home. According to a December study by AlixPartners, 74% of respondents said they planned to reduce dining out. Another recent report by US Foods on American dining habits found that 53% of Americans prefer takeout or delivery.
2. There is a shift towards higher priced wines. According to the SVB Wine Industry Report, there is increasing demand for bottles $12+ and decreasing demand for wine priced under $12.
3. Consumers are becoming more conscious about what is in their food.

Consumers are becoming more conscious about their wine purchases. They are also spending more on bottles and enjoying that at home, which creates many opportunities for wine brands to market directly to end customers. Many of these consumers are demanding more transparency around what is in their wine. This creates a significant opportunity for brands selling wine with fewer chemicals and additives. One area where we get a lot of questions from our customers is additives since many can be allergens (such as fish), and most of them are not disclosed on labels. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) considers 76 legal additives allowed in US wines, 12 are classified as “health hazards” and 2 are considered acute toxins.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Sarah Mack, and I’m the co-founder and CEO of Vinat. Vinat is a sister-founded wine company that sources and rebrands exclusive European wines with fabulously cheeky labels and no unwanted additives.

I first started getting into wine during my senior year of college. After graduating, I went into the corporate world, working in corporate finance by day and being a travel blogger outside of work. Blogging gave me the chance to visit nearly 50 countries and many vineyards! During the pandemic, I decided it was time to change and went to business school at IESE in Barcelona. The idea of Vinat was born on a rainy day after visiting one of our favorite vineyards outside of Barcelona. Working on my MBA in Spain allowed my sister and me to learn more about the wine industry.

It took over a year to launch our line of wines due to the extensive regulations in the wine industry. Many laws from the prohibition era in the US are still in place (which seems crazy). We finally launched our first three wines at the end of February (Out of Office, Cha Cha Cha, and Skinny Dip). It’s been great to hear our customer’s feedback so far. Our approach to wine is simple – you don’t need to be an expert to enjoy great wine. We use simple descriptions instead of complicated wine industry terms to describe our wines and offer fun pairings from food to unconventional pairings like music and books.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My co-founder is my sister Emily! During the pandemic, we worked on a women’s accessory business with our friend and learned that we work really well together. Emily is a UX Designer and has a ton of tech experience. She also started her career in sales before moving to design. My background is in business, mainly finance and operations. What works well for us is that our skill sets complement each other. I think this is important when picking a business partner.

Another thing that works well for us is that we disagree well. One benefit of starting a business with Emily is that we have a high level of trust in our relationship and know what will push each other’s buttons. We can respectfully disagree, listen, and trust each other’s opinions.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Listen to your customers and conduct user research. As an entrepreneur, it’s very easy to fall in love with ideas and assume you are on the right path. You may not be. One of the benefits of my sister/business partner being a UX designer is that we’ve built research into our decision-making process.

Emily did extensive research to help us define and understand our target customers before we launched any products or created our branding. We used her research to inform our decisions. After launching, Emily conducted additional research to validate that we were on the right path and identify changes we needed to make. We also actively seek feedback from our customers. One example of a change we made because of feedback & research is that we just launched a rewards program.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://drinkvinat.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drinkvinat/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drinkvinat
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/govinat/

Image Credits

Vinat