Florida is an Emerging Market for Luxury Wine. Who’s Next?

As younger generations of drinkers gravitate toward competing products like hard seltzers, winemakers need to pay close attention to markets where wine is on the upswing. In recent years, one such market has been Florida.  

Meninger’s International reports that luxury wine sales have been booming in Florida since 2020, when the state was on its way to becoming the fastest-growing in the country. And according to Wine News, Florida is the second largest wine-consuming state in the U.S.— but it ranks only 11th in per capita consumption, which means there’s still plenty of room to grow.  

How can wineries spot the next Florida and then cater to its demands? It starts with understanding what’s behind Florida’s emergence as a wine lover’s paradise. 

How Florida Became a Big Wine Buyer 

When the pandemic changed the way people worked, it opened the door for office workers around the US to work from home in sunny Florida. From 2021 to 2022, 417,000 people moved to the state, many of whom worked in tech. This influx meant more Floridians with the disposable income necessary to be a regular consumer of high-end wines.  

Florida’s looser COVID protocols relative to other states also meant that hotels, restaurants, and wine bars continued to do business while other states were still largely locked down. Miami, already a major food and drink city, became an even hotter destination for those who wanted to get away. The state’s wine distributors built a lot of momentum as a result, and while inflation has been a bit of a speed bump, the wine has continued to flow ever since. 

 “Every city in Florida has someone pushing the needle,” Erin Jolley, Portfolio Manager for Maverick Beverage Company of Florida, told Meninger’s International. Orlando likes big names like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, while St. Petersburg is a hotspot for natural wine and Naples prefers high-end Italian (which makes sense). Meininger’s also reported that while there are three major distributors that dominate the state, many independent distributors have managed to grab a foothold by focusing on markets where their varietals are trending and making networking inroads before their big push.  

Looking for the Next Big Wine Buyer 

Florida may seem like an outlier considering the role that a once-in-a-century public health event had in making it a major player in the wine industry. But when it comes to recognizing new market opportunities, it’s not those details that winemakers should focus on. It’s about recognizing patterns. 

With the right back-office software like Vinpoint, a winery can use business intelligence to collect specific insights on their sales by category and region. Are reds from 2017 selling suspiciously well in, say, Kansas City? Dig deeper into those numbers and you might discover the reason – maybe a popular local writer or influencer has started a trend – and then you’ll be able to act quickly to take advantage of the opportunity. But if you’re just keeping track of sales on a spreadsheet, you might not even notice that there’s an opportunity there in the first place.   

Sniff Out Emerging Markets with VinPoint 

A wine-specific ERP like VinPoint can do more than just help you manage your financials. It can analyze the data you already generate every day to uncover potential business. The next Florida could be hiding in your data right now.  

To learn how VinPoint could help your winery jump onto trends before they’re written up in wine journals, reach out to our expert team today.