Are you passionate about wine and want to start a business in the wine industry? If YES, here are 50 best wine related business ideas & opportunities.
The wine industry is a billion dollar industry. This is because Americans enjoy their wine, and would rather give up food than a relaxing glass of fine wine after a stressful day. No gathering, event, wedding or anniversary is complete without the presence of wine and champagne.
Wine has mended a lot of broken hearts and has sealed many a deal. If you want to be a part of this industry, there are many niches you can choose from as the wine industry is blessed with such versatility. Here are 50 profitable wine related businesses that would help you make a great choice.
Best Wine Business ideas
1. Become a Wine Consultant
A wine consultant is basically one who conducts wine tastings for people in their wine homes and offices. These wine tastings can be done privately or in groups as a means of socialization. As a wine consultant, you would get to teach people wine tasting tips, and you would earn great income while you’re at it.
For you to become a certified wine consultant, you have to be a wine enthusiast. Wine consultants earn a marketing fee for the wine orders placed at their wine tasting events.
2. Wine gift baskets
People who are lovers of wine would always appreciate a wine gift basket. You can start putting together gift baskets for people who are attending housewarmings, anniversaries etc.
You can pair the lively champagne, velvety red, crisp white wine or all three together with the finest gourmet chocolates, cheeses, snacks, nuts and more to make an elegant wine gift basket fit for a king. The bottom line is that your wine gift basket should have something for everyone.
3. Open a wine bar
A wine bar is usually an environment where people gather to relax, drink wine and trade conversations. A wine bar typically creates a space and environment where people can come and hang out.
For your bar to be successful, it should always have good music, something to munch on and a comfortable sitting area. You would need a permit from the government to run this type of business so it is important that you do some research before you start.
4. Own a Vineyard
One of the most profitable businesses in the wine industry is to own a vineyard. So instead of just distributing wine to retailers, you can decide to own a vineyard where you will grow grapes and other fruits used to make wine and sell it to manufacturers in large quantities.
Note that vine growing is quite tricky, so you ought to be quite conversant with the plant before you can farm it on a large scale.
5. Start a wine enthusiast social network
You can start a social network that is dedicated at wine enthusiasts. People can come here to discuss their favorite wines, share their wine experience and ask questions etc. You can make profit from this medium by carrying wine related adverts and from Google AdSense.
6. Start a wine cheese shop
Wine goes perfectly with cheese, and there are particular cheeses that go with particular wines. You can open a shop that pairs wine and cheese for customers, and equally gives expert advise on the subject. If you don’t have enough capital to open a brick and mortar shop, you can opt for the online version.
7. Create a game targeted at wine lovers
There is nothing as attention grabbing as a game targeted at your favourite food or past time. You can create and sell games where people share their wine experience and earn points for accomplishing a certain wine goal. You can share this game on your social media site where people can compete with each other.
8. Wine collector
Just like some people collect art works, coins, stamps and jewelries, some people collect wines. A wine collector searches for rare wines made several years ago, sometimes centuries ago and purchases them for safe keeping in his or her store. You can start a business out of this by collecting rare, fine wines and selling them to people who collect wines.
9. Run an online wine store
If you can’t afford a physical store, you can start and run your wine store online. You have to snap and upload all the available wines in your warehouse and invite people to place orders for the wines. Ensure you have an efficient delivery system in place so you can attract and retain customers. However, you must have the necessary licenses and permits to start such a business.
10. Become a private wine tour driver
If you live in an area that is filled with vineyards, you can become a private wine tour driver. You can take people on private tours to the vineyard, and to wine tastings as well. You can equally double as a tour guide by offering them the history and descriptions of several of the places.
This job is seasonal as demand for private wine tour drivers is from May till October. The average pay of a wine tour driver is $66 per hour.
11. Become a vintner or winemaker
A vinter or winemaker is the person who is responsible for creating the bottles of wine we see in the markets and shops. A vintner is also one of the few jobs in the wine industry that can be lucrative. A vinter can work full-time for a single vineyard, or he or she can work as a free agent and take seasonal jobs to make specific wines for vineyards. You can make a very tidy profit on the job if you a very thorough in your art.
12. Own a wine shop
Wine lovers with an entrepreneurial spirit may find a lot of fulfillment by opening their own wine shops. You can buy into an existing wine store chain or you can open your own.
A typical wine shop carries different types of wine, wine accessories, and some even incorporate a small gourmet shop with a selection of cheeses, breads and olive oils. Most shops also offer tastings and classes on a regular basis to introduce people to wine, and more importantly, to your shop.
13. Become a tasting room host
If you are a wine enthusiast and you have spent some time in a wine country, you must have garnered enough wine experience to run a tasting room.
Each vineyard has its own tasting room and each room has a staff of hosts, and it is their job to get a wine lover interested in a particular line of wine the vineyard has to offer. The host explains the wine’s origin, and allows his guests to taste the wine, after which he gives them some cases to take home.
14. Become a Sommelier
A sommelier is a person who is responsible for all aspects of wine service as well as food and wine pairing at a restaurant.
A sommelier is a well-trained and knowledgeable wine professional with a lot of experience, and he or she must have passed a certification course for sommeliers. This profession is much more demanding than of a regular waiter, so sommeliers of top restaurants enjoy a great reputation.
15. Wine Exporter
Wine exportation is also a very lucrative business. If you reside in a country that produces wine, you can decide to be exporting wines to countries that don’t produce them. Before you start this business however, you need to conduct some research to know which countries to focus on, and what types of wines are most accepted in such countries.
16. Vineyard worker
If you love being outdoors, getting your hands dirty and working hard, then you might be interested in working in a vineyard. Though many vine workers are immigrants, but there are also some young American who love the job and want to learn every part of the business.
If you are interested in becoming a vintner one day but don’t want to go to college to do it, you may need to consider starting out as a vine worker.
17. Produce Luxury wines
Some people are so rich that they wouldn’t touch anything that does not have luxury written all over it. You can start a business in this niche making and selling luxury wines and related products. Luxury wine makers go the extra mile to create wines with great taste and exquisite bottle designs. The bottles could be made of expensive materials like gold, diamonds or platinum in order to attract picky buyers.
18. Become a Cellar manager
Most wineries employ celler managers or cellar masters to look after the wine once it has been made. A cellar manager is in charge of taking precise and thorough care of the wine during the aging process, to ensure all the barrels come out as they should. This is done through monitoring and taking daily or regular tastings.
19. Wine tour guide
If you love wine and you are familiar with a wine country, you can opt to be a wine country tour guide. You can work for a particular winery that offers tours on site for wine enthusiasts, or you can get your chauffeur’s license and drive groups around to different wineries for tastings. To become a good tour guide you have to be well-versed in the wines in the region as well as the wine making process itself.
20. Own or run a wine club
Wine club owners typically run a club that has wine cynosures as members. The club owners pick out the wines, write newsletters, and make sure the packing and shipping of the wines to their clients are done according to schedule. After joining a club, members receive wine selections in the mail over the course of a year.
Wineries do sometimes run their own clubs, but you can decide to branch out and start your own online wine club that draws selections from a range of wineries.
21. Wine barrel maker
Most great wines are aged in wooden barrels, and these barrels are made to specification for these wines. A wine barrel maker or cooper is the person that constructs these barrels.
Wine barrels are made from strips of mostly French oak and joined tightly together before being bound by metal hoops, with a single, corked hole in the center of the barrel. In order to become a cooper or barrel maker, you need to be a craftsman with some carpentry skills, an eye for detail and in-depth knowledge about wood.
22. Wine bottle recycling
Recycling is available in every industry including the wine industry. If you are passionate about recycling, you could go around collecting used bottles of wine and selling them to the manufacturers for reuse. This is a business that would help save the environment from degradation.
23. Become a wine distributor
If you do not have the capital to start a winery or to import wine, you can become a wine distributor. You can approach various manufacturers and offer to distribute their products to retailers and consumers. You can make your profits by adding your mark up to the wines sold.
24. Start a wine importing business
If you live in a country that does not manufacture wine or that produces a limited variety, then you can decide to import wine to supplement local supply.
For you to start this business, you have to get a license and fill out a ton of papers and all these would take about 11 months to one year. You need to do a thorough research on where to go to find good wine, how you will sell the wine, and designing a website.
25. Wine investment consulting
You can run an investment consulting business that is targeted at wines. Here, you could find and recommend wines that are good investments to people and help them maintain such investments. You can also connect wealthy investors with wine manufacturers.
26. Wine storage
If you are low on cash but still want to do business in this industry, you could start a wine storage business. If you have a basement, you could store people’s wine for some small fee. They are wine cases that maintain temperature of the wines, but you can start with a simple wine rack if you have the right space.
27. Network marketing business
Around the world, people are seizing the opportunity to work in the wine business through what is known as direct selling or network marketing.
Similar to an Avon representative who comes to a customer’s home with cosmetics to show, try and sell, representatives who handle direct-to-consumer wines arrive with five or six bottles for a tasting. In order not to break the law, the representatives don’t actually sell the wines. They take orders and send those back to the company, which then handles billing and shipping of the wines.
28. Own a winery
If you have the kind of capital that can fund this business, then you can open a winery in your locality. According to Wikipedia, a winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company.
Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of tanks known as tank farms.
The grapes used in wineries may come from vineyards owned by the winery or may be brought in from other locations. Many wineries also give tours and have cellar doors or tasting rooms where customers can taste wines before they make a purchase.
29. Take over a winery
There are some regions in which winemaking has gone out of fashion so that a lot of vineyards and wineries are sitting idle. You can get a few hectares of vineyard for next to nothing in such places. You may not necessarily have the required technical installations, but you can refurbish what you have and start your business.
In some other places, lots of estates are without an heir and/or have gone out of business. In this case, you can take over an entire operation complete with technical installations and without cash payment. If you can handle a winery, then you should do proper research on these places and see what you can get.
30. Wine provision and consultation
You may have to live in a more affluent area to do this business. Here, you would be required to recommend wines for particular occasions and bring it to the events.
31. Wine purchase advising
You can offer wine advice to people who want to buy and store wine, maybe to drink or sell someday.
32. Run a wine magazine
You can start a magazine that is dedicated to all things wine, and the wine industry. You can showcase new wineries, conduct interviews, showcase new brands of wine, and just about anything else.
33. Produce a wine-themed movie
If you are a movie producer, you can produce movies centered on wine, or centered on changes in the wine industry. For instance, the movie “Bottle Shock,” loosely based on the book “Judgment of Paris” by George M. Taber, provides an entertaining portrayal of the French-California wine tasting showdown.
34. Hold blind tastings
Blind tasting is a method of tasting wine which avoids having or creating any preconceived perceptions of a wine by concealing the variety or label of the wine.
By concealing the information of the wine, a taster can judge and/or analyze the wine without any bias or preconceived opinions. This is often practiced for those testing for a sommelier certification, proving that, as a professional, one can identify and analyze a wine without any knowledge of specific wines. You can offer this service.
35. Produce wine decanters, glasses and carafes
A decanter is a vessel used to transfer a liquid which may contain sediments. It is believed that wine can only achieve its fullest flavor when thoroughly mixed with oxygen and that is where decanters come in to help the procedure. Wine decanters come in various shapes, sizes and designs.
Decanters are generally made from glasses and crystals. You can start a business of making and selling decanters, but you can equally add wine glasses, carafes and other barware.
36. Market Luxury wine machines
A new entrant into the wine settings, the luxury wine machine is a contraption that preserves, chills and dispenses wine. You can contact these companies or individuals and help them market their products.
37. Wine delivery
You can offer delivery services to wine retail shops that also run online stores. The more stores you offer your services to, the greater your profit.
38. Manage social media for wineries
Wineries face special challenges in promoting their business on social media. The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, known as the TTB, controls social media advertising, and regulates what wineries can do on social media.
If you are familiar with TTB rules, and also the social media, you can offer your services to wineries, but you have to be careful not to contravene any of the laid down rules.
39. Start a wine school
If you have the right training and professional requirements, you can start a wine school where you can train people on the wine profession.
You can offer sommelier classes and sommelier training courses that can elevate people to the professional status of wine aficionado. You can offer your services to restaurants, hotels, wine shops, liquor stores, wholesalers or importers, and individuals with a passion for wine.
40. Become a wine bartender
Bartenders typically man bars and mix drinks for customers. Being a bar tender requires basic skills, because you need to know how to mix and match drinks including wines, and be able to make recommendations to customers. If you have such skills, then you can make a career in the industry.
41. Start wine subscription boxes
You can start a wine subscription box business where you get people to subscribe and get their monthly wine allocations delivered to their doorsteps. If you are considering launching a wine subscription, it is important to learn all the rules around alcohol licensing and shipping.
42. Start a paint and wine studio
Anyone who runs a paint and wine studio is in the industry to create art but in a fun and relaxing manner, and of course with a relaxing glass of wine.
43. Become a recruiter for wineries and related businesses
You can become a recruiter for the wine industry. You can recruit for companies and collect commissions. You can also up your capital base by offering training services for the companies.
44. Become a wine researcher
If you can conduct research and studies; you can decide to focus on the wine industry in order to discover breakthroughs in the industry. You can focus on vine growing, wine manufacturing or in the area of consumption. There are always new discoveries in the wine industry and you can contribute your quota and earn good profits from it.
45. Manufacture and sell wine cooler
According to Wiki, a wine cooler is an alcoholic beverage made from wine and fruit juice. Sometimes, it also contains soda or another carbonated drinks along with some sugar. It has low alcohol content and is preferred by people who like drinking for the taste as opposed to getting drunk. This is another niche area in the wine business.
46. Wine-dedicated crowdfunding platform
You can run a wine-dedicated crowdfunding platform where you would concentrate on funding new wine related businesses.
Research has shown that crowdfunding is ideally suited for the wine sector and that winemakers could exploit both the financial and marketing opportunities it offers, so you can tap into this business by starting your own crowdfunding site.
47. Start a winebulance
A winebulance is basically a delivery service that can deliver wines at very short notice. They can bring parties back to life with their speedy delivery, and by getting you whatever wines you want in whatever quantity. The fee depends on how much wine that is purchased.
48. Make and sell aluminum drip catchers
It is a fact that wine drips when it is poured and this problem led to the existence of wine drip catchers. You can make and sell this product to consumers.
49. Start a wine vending cart business
You can start a business of selling wine from a vending cart. Although selling alcohol is strictly regulated in most countries around the world but you can sell at concerts, private events, parties, fairs, and festivals.
50. Start a micro-winery
A micro-winery is a small wine producer that does not have its own vineyard, and instead sources its grape product from outside suppliers. The concept is similar to a microbrewery in that small batches of products are made primarily for local consumption.
If you want to own a winery but you have very little start up income, you can start a micro-winery and sell your wine in your community.