Dan Panella, the co-owner of Oak Farm Vineyards in California’s Lodi region, has spent considerable time, effort, and money over the past four years to boost the winery’s direct-to-consumer (DtC) business. The biggest change was adding a restaurant-style operation called “The Food Experience,” complete with a chef and dedicated staff.
The result was a boost in DtC sales to some 10,000 cases since 2021, about one-third of Oak Farm’s total production. The addition of what Panella calls “brunch all day” has broadened the winery’s customer base, adding younger visitors, as well as more Latino and African-American customers and those who come for the food but come back for the wine.
Nevertheless, says Panella, the past couple of years have seen soft DtC sales, not much better than what they were in 2022. “There really has been a little bit of a downturn,” he says.
In other words, even those whose DtC sales have been a bright spot amid the U.S. wine industry’s 4-year slump are seeing that DtC, formerly the best-performing part of the market, has stopped being the best performing.
All of which offers a human face to the gloom-ridden 2026 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Shipping Report from Sovos ShipCompliant and Wine Business Analytics, which reported that sales fell 15% in volume and 6% in value in 2025—the biggest declines in the study’s 17-year history. Sales dropped so much in wines costing less than $40 that the average price of a bottle increased, even though fewer people bought wine via DtC.
Alex Koral of Sovos says the numbers were not only unprecedented, but that “what we're seeing in 2025 is a clear signal that DtC is not insulated from the headwinds facing the wine industry. It may, in fact, be feeling them more acutely.”
The market is undergoing a painful correction
The U.S. DtC market includes all wine not sold through retailers and restaurants, such as producer wine clubs, tasting room visits, and the like. It has been worth as much as $4.2bn, and double-digit sales growth was not unusual before the pandemic. In this, it’s a key part of the business for smaller wineries, offering higher margins and, usually, more loyal customers. By one estimate, DtC accounted for between one-half and two-thirds of the typical U.S. winery’s sales in 2025.
Click HERE to read the full article.