Six wine brands built lasting market position through public relations instead of paid advertising, using community programs, heritage storytelling, packaging, historic moments, scarcity, and digital-first tactics. Each example below solves a different problem for a winery weighing how to spend a limited communications budget. The common thread is a strategy built around how wine actually moves, through distributors, sommeliers, and retail buyers, not generic consumer marketing.
Updated October 2026 with 2025 and 2026 market data and a corrected Judgment of Paris date.
Which wine PR program solves which problem?
Each of the six wine PR programs below solves a different problem, so a winery should start with the problem and pick the matching program.
| Program | Problem it solves | Core tactic |
|---|
| Robert Mondavi | Creating recurring news pegs | Harvest festivals and culinary education programs |
| Penfolds | Keeping heritage fresh for press | Heritage content published on a cycle, plus influencer partnerships |
| The Prisoner Wine Company | Standing out on a crowded shelf | A label based on a Goya etching, plus experiential events |
| Chateau Montelena | Turning one verified moment into a lasting asset | Anniversary coverage of the 1976 Judgment of Paris |
| Domaine de la Romanee-Conti | Building pricing power | Controlled production, limited distribution, and private tastings |
| Kim Crawford | Reaching buyers outside wine trade press | Social campaigns, influencer partnerships, and sustainability messaging |
Why does wine PR need a different playbook than consumer PR?
Wine PR needs a different playbook because wine sits inside three-tier distribution law, state-by-state alcohol advertising rules, and a sommelier and retail buyer network that decides what most consumers see on a shelf or a wine list. A PR program built for a packaged good rarely accounts for any of that. The agencies that run wine PR well track the difference between a Napa AVA labeling rule and a federal alcohol advertising regulation, because a campaign that ignores either one gets pulled or fined before it reaches a consumer. EPR profiles the specialist firms in top alcohol and spirits marketing and PR agencies.
Robert Mondavi Winery built a decades-long calendar of harvest festivals, culinary education programs, and partnerships with Napa restaurants and retailers that produce a steady stream of legitimate news pegs. Each event gives wine writers and critics a reason to return to the property without a paid pitch behind it.
Why it works: a recurring public event is a standing invitation for press coverage that a single announcement cannot replicate, because the brand creates a new reason to write about it every season.
How does Penfolds use its 1844 founding as content?
Penfolds, founded in 1844 in South Australia by Christopher Rawson Penfold, treats its winemaking history as a recurring content source rather than a one-time anniversary story. The brand publishes on vineyard terroir, multi-generation house style, and process, then pairs that material with influencer partnerships aimed at younger drinkers.
Why it works: heritage content gives a wine writer a new angle on an old brand every time a new vintage or re-release gives a reason to revisit the history. A static "founded in 1844" fact does not generate press. A new story about the history, published on a cycle, does.
Why did The Prisoner Wine Company use packaging instead of media placements?
The Prisoner Wine Company, founded in 2000, built its brand primarily through label design rather than press coverage. The label, based on a Francisco Goya etching, is recognizable from across a crowded shelf. Experiential events pairing the wine with art, music, and food extend that visual identity into physical formats a consumer remembers after the tasting ends.
Why it works: in a wine aisle with hundreds of similar bottles, a label that functions as a piece of art gets photographed and shared without a media pitch. The brand's own visual identity becomes the story instead of requiring one.
How did Chateau Montelena turn one 1976 tasting into a permanent brand asset?
Chateau Montelena's 1973 Chardonnay won the white wine category at the Judgment of Paris, a blind tasting held at the Paris InterContinental Hotel on May 24, 1976 and organized by English wine merchant Steven Spurrier. Montelena retailed for about $6.50 a bottle at the time, a small fraction of the price of its French rivals, according to ABC17 News.
The result might have been forgotten had one reporter not been present. George Taber of Time magazine was the only journalist at the tasting, according to Sonoma News. He filed nearly 2,000 words, Time's editors cut it to 362, and it ran in the June 7, 1976 issue under the headline "The Judgment of Paris", according to Food Republic. An earlier version of this page gave the issue date as July 7.
Why it works: Chateau Montelena has never let the story go quiet. Anniversary coverage and the 2008 film Bottle Shock keep a fifty-year-old event functioning as an active news peg. A single verified, well-documented moment, told again on each anniversary, outperforms an ongoing campaign built from scratch, and in this case one reporter and a 362-word article created it.
Can scarcity work as a wine PR strategy?
Scarcity can work as a wine PR strategy when the restraint is real. Domaine de la Romanee-Conti runs the opposite program from every other brand on this list: production stays tightly controlled, distribution stays limited, and tastings stay restricted to private collectors instead of open to the public or amplified through social campaigns.
Why it works: restraint is the message. A brand that consumers know they will likely never taste builds pricing power precisely because the communications program does not chase reach. The wines command some of the highest resale prices in the global market, a result critics and auction houses tie to scarcity, not to marketing spend.
How did Kim Crawford build a US market position without wine trade press?
Kim Crawford Wines, founded in 1996 in Auckland by Kim and Erica Crawford, built its position in the United States through social media campaigns, food and lifestyle influencer partnerships, and sustainability messaging aimed at younger buyers rather than through traditional wine trade coverage. Constellation Brands acquired the winery in 2006.
Why it works: a consistent brand voice and a portable design language let Kim Crawford scale across platforms that wine trade press does not reach. The brand became the default Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc for a generation of buyers who were never reading wine critics in the first place.
How is the U.S. wine market changing for PR in 2026?
The U.S. wine market is in a multi-year correction, and the decline is concentrated in value wines. Silicon Valley Bank's 2026 State of the U.S. Wine Industry report found 2025 wine sales fell 2.0% by volume and 1.6% by dollars, with the correction driven largely by wines under $12 (Silicon Valley Bank release). Volume was 329 million cases in 2025, down from 410 million in 2019, according to Wine Enthusiast's summary. The same report expected the $20 to $29 and $100-plus price tiers to see growth, according to SevenFifty Daily.
Drinking habits are shifting as well. Gallup found that 54% of U.S. adults say they drink alcohol, a record low that held for a second straight year in its August 2026 reading, according to Beverage Information Group. The same report notes that the wine category's volume has now fallen four years in a row.
EPR's reading is that this changes which of the six programs fit a brand's position. Scarcity and heritage storytelling map to the premium tiers that are holding up. Packaging and social-first programs are the route for brands that need to reach younger buyers who drink less and choose more selectively. Value brands under $12 face the hardest case, because the PR job is to justify any price premium in a falling category. Whatever the tier, wine brands should lead with a clear reason the bottle is worth the money, because buyers who drink less are trading up in occasion, not volume.
What do these six wine PR programs have in common?
Each program is built around how wine specifically moves through three-tier distribution, sommelier influence, and on-premise versus off-premise sales, not around a generic consumer product playbook. An agency that cannot explain the difference between a Napa AVA rule and a federal labeling regulation is running a consumer PR program with a wine client attached, not a wine PR program.
