Discovery Wins Out Hands Down

Dec 31

It’s that time of the year when we peak into the insights of our newsletters to see what topics intrigued you most over the past year and, those that you didn’t seem to care that much about…. It goes both ways, right?

Vero news subscribers vary from wine loving consumers, to those who work in the wine industry, to wine bloggers and journalists, as well as foodies, chefs, and those who enjoy the whole experience of discovering new wines, foods, places and people. As such, the subject matters we write about in our blog, and share on our YouTube channel as well on other social media platforms, span many topics, although the common denominator is the fascination of discovery and connecting passion when it comes to wine, food, travel and other ways to enrich our lives.

So what insights did we uncover about you, our readers and followers? Hang tight and keep reading…

Discovery Rules, From Wine, Food to Places

This YouTube video gives a recap of the #1 favorite article of our readership spanning consumers, wine trade professionals and writers.

When we started our company almost 7 years ago, we knew who we wanted to get the attention of: engaged explorers.

What is an engaged explorer?

Someone who loves wine and food but looks beyond the glass or plate that in front of them… And it is not just a wine exploring consumer but encompasses also the professionals whose bread and butter is wine and food, from distributors to restaurants, wine stores, wine bars and writers and media specialists, all across America. For more insight into who wine and food explorers are, check out this article.

Rare Wine Grapes Is The Hottest Topic

Our soft spot, when we curate small batch wines from around the world, is wines you never heard of before. Many of them are also rare, like the Boschera grape, which we were the first to import ever into the USA.

Why are so many wine grapes not available in the US?

As we explained in this article about the excitement of discovering an unknown wine grape, which is, hands down, the most popular topic our readers were drawn to this year, after phylloxera spread across Europe and destroyed most of the vineyards there, the government bodies which provide economic incentives to farmers wanted them to replant wine grapes which they deemed to be the most popular. This left out many more obscure, native grapes which were traditionally cultivated and used to make wine prior to phylloxera.

One example of a rare grape to get excited about, which we wrote about in a separate, also well liked, article, is Uva tosca: this forgotten grape is found only in high altitudes where, along mountainsides, you usually don’t come across many vineyards.

This story and curiosity about Uva Tosca wine, and, especially, the article we wrote which touched on many rare wine grapes, caught the attention across the board between consumers, wine trade and wine media.

This YouTube video shows how to make a Brachetto Spritz.

Hard to find wine grape varieties, better yet, used to make wines never before in the US, is by far the epitome of the conquest of a wine forager, like us, and our customers. After all, this is our mission: our company was founded with the idea of introducing authentic wines Americans never had before. So given the high level of interest in this article, we are pleased that our company’s passionate efforts are well received by our readers, followers and clients across America.

A New Spritz to Try

Not too long ago, we introduced a sweet red sparkling wine made from the aromatic red grape, Brachetto, that has US wine lovers buzzing about, especially sweet wine drinkers looking for an alternative to Moscato. Plus, with the Brachetto made by 4 generation winemaking family Ivaldi Dario having made it to VinePair’s list of 13 best sweet wines from last year, it catapulted the curiosity of US wine lovers to try this slightly sweet red sparkler that tastes like strawberries and hibiscus.

While, our founder, Sheila Donohue, was working at a wedding, she had a bottle of Ivaldi’s Brachetto with her. She saw the bartender with lots of fresh herbs and fruit and making innovative cocktails, so she went up to her with a bottle of Brachetto asking what kind of wine cocktail would she make from it. From there was born the Brachetto Spritz, with which, by the way, we had a lot of fun experimenting and writing about. Our readers got caught up in it too, making it the #2 overall favorite article with all wine explorer readers, from distributors, to wine stores, wine bars, restaurants and overall wine lovers everywhere.

Have you made one yet?… What are you waiting for?!

American Traditions Paired with Wine

This YouTube video also gives BBQ food and wine pairing ideas.

As much as we, Americans, love to discover new foods, often which come from foreign lands, we love our own foods and traditions.

Once the warmer weather comes around in the springtime, nothing expresses American culture more than a barbecue.

With that, our article on pairing wine with a barbeque was the #3 overall favorite article this year across the board, from consumers, to professionals that work and/or write about wine and food.

In this article, we push the envelope suggesting new wine and food pairings with bbq favorites that you probably never thought about before. Bookmark this article for once the warmer weather rolls around again to elevate the whole barbecue experience.

Italian Comfort Food

The overall favorite food topic was polpette, or meatballs, but not Italian American style meatballs: instead we’re referring to the “original” Italian meatballs, which are called polpette, or polpetta, singular for meatball.

We snagged an authentic recipe for polpette from our friends from Puglia, aka Apulia, where Italian meatballs are a regular part of their cuisine. You typically don’t find them in Italian restaurants in Italy because they are “casalinga” food, or a “housewife” cooked dish, or better translated as Italian comfort food.

Wine loving consumers make up the majority of the Vero news subscribers, therefore the consumer segment heavily influenced which were the favorite articles from 2024. Yet, in this case also wine trade professionals and wine journalists showed a strong interest in this polpette - who knew?!.

Is your mouth now watering for genuine Italian meatballs? If so, check out the article and recipe here.

Alternative Sparkling Wines

This YouTube video talks about Pet Nats, an alternative, yet ancient, sparkling wine style.

Thanks to the popularity of Prosecco in America, US wine drinkers are popping bubbles every day of the week, whereas “before” sparkling wines were reserved primarily for special occasions. So, it’s not a surprise that our article about the variety of ways to make sparkling wines piqued our readers’ interest.

As in our quest to introduce wine grapes that American wine lovers are not accustomed to, we also like to combine different wine grapes with different styles of wine, also made by wine producers you never heard of before, in particular small artisan farmers. Hence, what spurred us on to write this article which you loved.

Besides heightened interest in alternative sparklers by the engaged wine explorers, this past year’s wine research articles have pointed to millennial men who, in particular, have embraced sparkling wine… our founder was just talking with a friend the other day who is convinced that red wine is the wine of choice for men. While it still could be true, younger men are bucking this trend. You go guys!

And it’s interesting to note that the wine trade readers in particular showed the most interest in this article. That’s all good… hopefully it means that you will see more variety of artisanal sparkling wines showing up at your favorite wine store and restaurant in the near future… if not, you can always buy direct from us!

We always encourage our followers, from businesses to consumers, to contact us whenever they are looking for a certain type of wine that we can help source.

Monferrato and the Langhe

This YouTube video takes you, literally, to Monferrato.

Piedmont has become the “new Tuscany” with American travelers. You can see definitely in the Langhe, with crowded roads full of tourists, the presence of touristy stores in the heart of the Langhe, Alba, and even the hiked up prices to attend the donkey palio in Alba, which is now keeping the locals from going to it. We reminded our readers of their love for the Langhe, of both wine and food, in a past newsletter this fall, with our wine trade readership in particular who showed a lot of interest.

Yet, the newsletter about the area that lives in the shadow of the Langhe, Monferrato, was even more popular then our Langhe newsletter, especially from our consumer readership.

In some ways, this is not surprising, if you have talked to any American tourist recently going to Italy: they complain about the crowds in the historically most popular tourist destinations in Italy, like Rome, Venice and the Amalfi Coast. This is driving American travelers to seek off the beaten path destinations… and this is exactly what Monferrato is; not only for sight seeing but also for wine, culture and food. It’s an area ripe for exploration, and we can help you explore!

Pizza dough made fermented with native yeast

Pizza is one of America’s favorite foods, and we love everything about it, from pizza dough up through pizza and wine pairing.

In our article about pizza, we covered everything you would want to know about pizza, including getting the recipe from a baker in Italy on how to make pizza dough from scratch: we mean without the yeast starter packets you buy at the store!… That means, it is bread dough made from a natural fermentation (think sourdough starter).

This topic particularly enthralled our trade followers (sommeliers, chefs, wine buyers, etc.) as well as wine journalists. Do you think it is because of the parallel between both wine and food made with native yeast fermentation?

Think of why people like natural wine: wine made without additives, like “yeast starters,” creates an uninhibited “habitat” for the natural elements in the vineyard to come out in the wine: isn’t that why many prefer bread made the same way?…

Wine Education

In line with discovery is education. The more you know about a subject, the more there is to learn. We’ve found that out with wine over and over, as well as food, history, culture, etc.

Sometimes we decide to write about certain topics because we want to learn more ourselves about it. Turns out that we picked some hot topics that wine professionals particularly liked.

Role of Sugar in Wine

This YouTube video opens your eyes on the topic of sugar in wine.

Most of us are unaware of the amount of sugar that is in wines, except for the astute wine tasters who inquire. It is usually not disclosed on labels, and often the natural sugars hide behind acidity in wines, giving the impression that the sugar levels are less than what they actually are. Unless you are counting calories, this latter scenario is a good thing, at least for sommeliers and other wine experts who evaluate wines and seek balance between sugars and acidity and the rest of the structural makeup of a wine.

Viticulture

We did a series of articles on viticulture this year because we felt that it was an overlooked topic in wine. In particular our article on how to train a vine and how to prune a vine was one of the most popular article for wine business professionals and was also an article that peaked the interest of wine loving consumers.

We seek out not only under the radar wine producers, wines, wine grapes, wine regions but also topics that are overlooked, yet ones that wine people are still interested in hearing about.

Turns out that viticulture is one of them, like how to start a vineyard, the make up of the vine plant, and, how vineyards are trellised.

Regenerative agriculture

Regenerative agriculture in wine is explained in this YouTube video.

This year, we have had more customers approach us wanting to find out how to select wines that are sustainably made. We believe that regenerative farming is farming for the future.

While we wrote about this topic several years ago, new findings have been uncovered about regenerative agriculture so we dug into the research and published this new article about it.

While last year our article on biodynamic wine and biodynamic farming was the all around favorite, this year, wine professionals in particular were drawn to read up on the latest about regenerative agriculture and sustainable farming. Who knows - maybe they are getting hit up with the same questions as we are from customers about it?!

One interesting observation of these wine education articles is that both wine trade and wine writing media folks equally showed more interest in our articles to help improve wine knowledge compared to wine loving consumers. By being able to interest both those who are into wine as a hobby and those that use wine to earn a wage, it is a huge compliment for us to know that we are able to attract and inform such a wide range of wine lovers. All the more reason for y’all to subscribe to the Vero newsletter!

Wine Industry Insight

The Search for Real Wine

Our quest for authenticity in wine is explained in this YouTube video.

Our company’s roots are in passion for authentic, unadulterated wines that are ripe for discovery.

Lifestyle journalist, Helen Gregory, found out about us and reached out to our founder, Sheila Donohue, to learn more about what we do. Her findings are shared in this article which is Helen’s recount of what she learned about us and a handful of our women winemakers with whom she spoke. We are thrilled that she “got” our reason for existence and summed it up with the catch phrase “real wine” which is what VeroVino, the name of our company, stands for.

To make it all worthwhile, we saw that, by far, of all of the newsletters we published this year, this was the favorite of all of our wine trade readership. Perhaps they, too, are thirsting for authentic hidden gems of wine to offer to their clients? We bet they are, and we are here for them!

International Perspectives on Wine Trends

Vino and the Dolce Vita was a research piece we wrote to uncover differences in wine trends and wine consumers both at a global level and then comparing between different countries, focusing on the US vs Italy.

This revealed insights into our wine culture in the US, a “New World” country when it comes to wine, versus an “Old World” wine country like Italy.

How does the wine buying behavior of a young person in Italy, who grew up in an “Old World” culture, compared to a country like America where wine is relatively new to our everyday life?

This topic intrigued our professional / trade readership, both those who work in the wine and hospitality industries, as well as wine media. And, honestly, it is an article that takes a different point of view of the wine industry and yet reveals insights that could help those working in wine to make better decisions.

We are grateful to having used our resources to provide value add content to help steer the wine industry forward. After all, it is our bread and butter too.

Anomalies… or Not?...

Has Orange Wine Peaked?

Also known as skin contact wine, orange wine has been around since ancient times, since the early “winemakers” who were really just farmers, made wine, red or white, with a long amount of time on the skins, or maceration. They must have figured out that by making wine with extended skin contact, there is more chance of maximizing the native yeast on the grape skins to allow for longer fermentation, resulting in drier, sometimes more complex, wines, but also increasing tannins, or polyphenols, which allow for longer aging, since tannins are a natural preservative, and polyphenols is one of the components in wine which is tied to studies showing health benefits from wine.

Despite our newsletter on Orange wine not getting a lot of traction from wine drinking consumers, to the contrary, this YouTube video on the topic is performing well.

Despite our own enthusiasm for orange wines, our wine drinking consumer readers were not super interested. Yet, this was not true with our wine trade and media readership.

Does this point to any trend? Certainly, we don’t have sufficient numbers to make any statistically significant conclusion, however, this could be an indication that the popularity of orange wine has peaked, or at least, is well enough known among wine drinkers that their curiosity is not necessarily piqued by the topic.

What’s up with Moscato?

In the spring, we decided to write about Moscato. Despite Moscato being quite a “common” wine, Moscato d’Asti wine is an important part of Italian wine history, and with moscato grapes grown across the globe, different types of Moscato wines found almost everywhere around the world, we believed that Moscato needed some attention. Also we felt wine lovers needed some tips to find a really well made Moscato d’Asti, aka one with balance and not cloyingly sweet.

Our founder often likes to give an analogy using Ivaldi’s Moscato d’Asti, which we import, saying that it tastes like having chamomile tea with lemon and honey as a sparkling wine: there is always a time and place in your day for some chamomile tea, right? Why not fitting in the right time and place for some really good Moscato d’Asti?

And did you know that you can use the moscato bianco grape to make more than just sweet sparkling wines? Like how about an Orange wine made from moscato?… you see, there are more ways to skin a grape (non pun intended)…

And yet, many of our consumer readers didn’t want anything to do with moscato. In fact, that article had a fairly high number of unsubscribeds from our consumer readership.

Meanwhile wine trade and wine media wanted to get the scoop on this underrated aromatic grape, so, to the contrary of consumers, the professionals united in showing interest in this topic. Interesting, huh?

It’s worthy to note that we have seen an uptick of Moscato d’Asti sales in 2H24. So, whatever phenomenon was going on this spring with this newsletter, it may have just been an outlier.

What’s Going on with Wine Media?

As we headed into the 2nd half of this year, the Presidential election was top of mind for most people. Those who work selling wine, as well as professionals in other industries, would talk shop amongst one another with a commonly observed trend being a slow down in consumer purchasing. The election was the scapegoat, with many sales people anticipating the end of the election “drama” so to “magically” get their sales numbers “back to normal.”

Who we hadn’t really heard much feedback from during this time period were wine journalists. They have been a “quiet” lot, and while we just kept doing “business as usual,” there was a noticeable fall out from wine media’s interest starting from mid June this year. Let’s see… what could have been going on then? After all, that was before the Biden Trump debate, before Trump got shot and before Kamala entered the Presidential race… but the lagging interest from wine media in our articles continued all through the rest of the year. This phenomena was just with the wine media folks, and not wine loving engaged explorers and wine business folk. Boh… (that’s Italian for “who knows”)…

What Next?

First off, if you are not yet getting our newsletter, be sure to subscribe. It is considered one of the best wine blogs around.

If you have any insights of your own, feel free to share them at the end of the article, tag us on social media (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Tiktok, X (formerly known as Twitter), or contact us directly. We’d love to hear from you!

We have both wine trade and wine consumers as part of our readership because we sell our small batch wines and olive oils to businesses and consumers across the US, ranging from distributors across the country, to licensed trade stores and establishment in certain states and to wine lovers and corporates who seek out unique, sustainably made wines and foods. We have gotten awards, like with our wine club, as our wine producers have received accolades for their incredibly delicious wines. Like the ones below, which you all expresses interest in trying over the past year.

Cheers to a fruitful New Year!