Geographic Diversification: Why Your Next Customer Isn't in California
What you're about to read has helped dozens of businesses rethink their approach.
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Your best customer this year lives in Chicago. They'll never visit your tasting room. They discovered you through an Instagram post, bought three bottles based on your website copy, joined your wine club after the second shipment, and have since recruited two friends who also became members.
They've never seen your vineyard. They can't point to your appellation on a map. They don't care that you're in Napa, or Sonoma, or Paso Robles. They care that your wine tastes like something they want to drink and your brand feels like something they want to be part of.
This customer represents the future of wine sales. The question is whether your marketing strategy acknowledges they exist.
Most wineries still optimize heavily for tasting room traffic. You invest in hospitality infrastructure. You build your brand around the experience of being there. You create memorable moments for weekend visitors.
This is valuable. Keep doing it.
But there's a parallel opportunity most wineries are missing: building relationships with wine consumers who will never visit your property. People who can't take a weekend trip to wine country but can subscribe to a wine club. People who discover brands online, not on vacation. People for whom the bottle matters more than the destination.
The most successful wineries over the next decade will be those who do both well. Excellent experiences for people who can visit. Excellent relationships with people who can't.
If your marketing strategy only works when someone physically visits you, you've capped your growth. Not because tasting rooms don't matter, but because you're leaving an entire market unserved.
The Geography Trap
Every winery leading with "Napa Valley" on their label is making the same bet: that geography equals quality in customers' minds.
Sometimes this works. Napa has brand equity. Bordeaux commands premiums. Burgundy signals sophistication. Certain regions carry weight with wine enthusiasts who understand what those places mean.
But something else is happening simultaneously. The only thing growing faster than new wine regions is consumer indifference to where something comes from when they can't taste the difference.
A developing wine drinker sees "Napa Valley Cabernet" and thinks one of two things: "That sounds nice" or "That sounds expensive." They rarely think "That's exactly what I'm looking for because I understand what Napa Valley signals about winemaking style, terroir expression, and varietal character."
Most people buying wine don't have that context. They're buying based on occasion, price point, whether the label looks good, whether someone they trust recommended it, whether the description matches what they want. Geography is background information, not the decision driver.
The Dual Problem
You're actually fighting two problems when you lead with geography:
Geographic commoditization. When everyone in your region makes similar wines and markets them with similar geography-first positioning, you blend into category white noise. Every Napa Cabernet starts looking the same. Every Willamette Valley Pinot Noir becomes interchangeable. You're not differentiated by geography; you're commoditized by it.
Geographic limitation. You've excluded everyone who has preconceptions about your region. Some people think "Napa = overpriced tourist trap." Others think "Paso Robles = too hot, overripe fruit." It doesn't matter if their preconceptions are accurate. By leading with geography, you've activated their biases before they've engaged with what makes your wine distinct.
This doesn't mean geography is irrelevant. It means geography-first positioning leaves opportunity on the table.
Transcending Geography While Using It
The successful approach requires owning a benefit that transcends geography while using place as supporting evidence.
Instead of "Napa Valley Cabernet," consider positioning as "Old-Vine Intensity Without Oak Abuse." Then note that Napa's Oakville district provides the fruit concentration while your winemaking approach preserves varietal character. You've made geography work for you without being imprisoned by it.
The difference is subtle but significant. You're leading with what the customer experiences in the glass, intensity without being over-oaked. The geography explains how you deliver that experience, but it's not the headline. Someone who thinks Napa wines are too oaky now has a reason to try yours. Someone who's never heard of Oakville still understands what they're getting.
This works across regions:
"Mineral-Driven Flavor from Volcanic Soils" is more compelling than "Willamette Valley Pinot Noir." The geology explains the character. The character is what they taste.
"Coastal Elegance With Cellar-Worthy Structure" is more interesting than "Sonoma Coast Chardonnay." The location provides context for why the wine tastes this way, but the taste is the lead.
What This Requires
Positioning this way requires knowing what makes your wine genuinely distinct beyond where it comes from.
This is harder than it sounds. Most winemakers can talk for hours about their vineyard's specific characteristics, their block selections, their elevation differences. But when you ask "What does someone experience in the glass that they can't get elsewhere?" the answer often defaults to geography. "It's Napa Cabernet, so it has this power and structure..."
That's circular reasoning. Napa Cabernet has power and structure because Napa growers and winemakers tend to make powerful, structured Cabernets. But so do people in Walla Walla, Red Mountain, and parts of Argentina. The geography doesn't own the benefit; you own the benefit and geography explains how you deliver it.
The question you need to answer: If you couldn't mention where your vineyard is located, how would you describe what makes your wine worth buying?
That description becomes your primary positioning. Geography becomes supporting evidence.
Building Relationships at Distance
Once you've transcended geography-first positioning, you can build relationships with customers who will never visit alongside those who do.
This means your content strategy expands. You still promote tasting room events for locals and visitors. And you also share content that works for someone 2,000 miles away: "Here's what's happening in the vineyard right now and what it means for this vintage." The invitation isn't exclusively to show up physically; it's to follow along virtually for those who can't be there in person.
Your email program balances tasting room event announcements with content valuable regardless of location: wine education, food pairing suggestions, stories about the season, what you're learning from this vintage. Someone local gets invited to events and learns about your winemaking. Someone distant just gets the education and connection without the events they can't attend.
Your club structure creates benefits for both audiences. Exclusive member tastings for those who can attend. Digital benefits, shipping perks, and first-access releases that work regardless of location. Not one or the other. Both.
Your wine descriptions assume the customer will never taste it before purchasing. This means being specific about flavor profiles, about occasions, about pairing. "This wine is built for grilled lamb, the herbal notes in the wine echo rosemary, the tannins cut through the fat, the acidity brightens the char" helps someone in Boston buy with confidence.
The Both/And Approach
The goal isn't to de-prioritize tasting rooms. It's to recognize that exceptional hospitality and digital relationship-building aren't competing strategies. They're complementary.
For customers who can visit, the tasting room experience is invaluable. It deepens relationships, creates memorable moments, converts casual buyers into club members. Invest in making those experiences exceptional. Train your staff. Refine your hospitality. Create moments worth talking about.
And simultaneously, build infrastructure for the customers who can't visit.
The wineries that will thrive are those building multi-channel strategies where every channel gets the attention it deserves. Tasting rooms for people who can visit. Excellent online experience for people who can't. Content that serves both. Club benefits that deliver value regardless of proximity.
If someone in Texas has been a wine club member for three years, orders consistently, and refers friends, they're as valuable as someone local who visits twice a year. Both deserve strategic investment. Both drive growth.
What This Opens Up
When you stop being limited by geography, you open up markets you'd written off without losing the customers you already serve.
People who've never visited wine country become accessible customers. They don't need to understand appellations to understand "bright acidity and citrus-forward" or "bold fruit without excessive oak."
Distributors in new markets become more interested because you're not asking them to educate their market on why your region matters. You're giving them benefit-first positioning that sells without requiring regional expertise.
Your marketing can reach beyond the people who take wine country vacations while still serving those who do. Digital advertising, social media, content marketing—all of these work better when your positioning isn't dependent on someone understanding where you are, but they don't replace the value of someone actually being there.
The Shift
This requires expanding how you think about your brand, not abandoning what works.
Geography isn't your only differentiator; it's your origin story. It explains how you deliver the benefits you're known for, but the benefits themselves transcend place.
Your tasting room isn't your only growth engine; it's one valuable channel among several. Essential for those who can access it, and not the ceiling on your potential market. Your ideal customer isn't exclusively someone planning a wine country trip; it's someone anywhere who resonates with what your wine represents and how it tastes.
The wineries that master this will build national (or international) customer bases without requiring those customers to visit, while simultaneously creating tasting room experiences that turn visitors into advocates. They'll excel at hospitality for locals and tourists, and they'll have thriving direct-to-consumer businesses reaching people who will never see their vines.
That's diversification. Not choosing between channels, but building strength across all of them. Not abandoning what works, but adding what's missing.
Your next customer isn't in California. They might be. But they might also be in Chicago, or Atlanta, or Austin, or Boston. And whether they ever visit your tasting room shouldn't determine whether you can build a relationship with them that makes them a customer for years.
Build for both realities. Invest in the experience for people who can visit. Invest in the relationships with people who can't. Geography becomes an asset rather than a limitation when you're not dependent on people showing up to succeed.
Adam Bird is Director of Strategy at Highway 29 Creative. He helps wineries build positioning and go-to-market strategies that work for customers who will never visit wine country, while still serving those who do.