How to sell wine abroad

Selling wine abroad: first steps
From positioning in-field analysis
Vianello Wines, your partner in exporting Italian wines abroad

The love for Italian wine stretches well beyond the borders of our country. This is a fact confirmed by the data regarding export trends that, once again, in 2021 have reached exceptional peaks. Shipments of Italian wine in the first ten months of the past year have generated a turnover of 5.82 billion euros: +13% compared to 2020 and +10% compared to 2019. These numbers are destined to grow even more, seeing the increasing demand for products capable of evoking ancient traditions and precious lands as well as innovation and contemporaneity.

So, how does one start selling wines abroad? What are the strategies for opening out towards unexplored countries and markets?

Selling wines abroad: first steps

As with every well-designed project, a winery internationalization strategy too must start with a detailed preliminary analysis.

In addition to the value that any Made in Italy product has by itself, what makes your wine unique and original? Which markets are the most suited in appreciating your product’s peculiarities and characteristics?

By answering these questions it is possible to identify and enhance the distinctive strengths of your brand and then choose the most suitable markets, assessing the actual opportunities of each product for doing well in each country.

This business analysis requires not only the generic awareness of what is the perception of Italian wine abroad, but most of all an in-depth knowledge of what are the buying habits of the countries one intends to export to. This information is available only to those who operate on the wine market on a daily basis.

To start a successful export activity it might therefore be useful to turn to a brokerage agency that, with a dedicated team and the experience gained in the field, can identify the target markets, the flagship wines, the sentiment and the best communication strategy for making your brand’s authentic values emerge.

Such experts are capable of identifying the product’s distinctive characteristics, the details that make it unique and special. They are capable of embracing your passion and of making it shine when meeting potential buyers.

The role of a commercial agent specialised in export does not end here, however.

From market positioning to in-field analysis

Once the strategy has been defined, what happens next?

Before starting to sell wine abroad it is essential to define the ideal client to be targeted. The export broker identifies the perfect target of reference among the distributors who already deal with him or her and works to find new potential clients.

How? By using targeted marketing strategies, tastings, events that attract pundits of Made in Italy products and of the Italian wine-making tradition, becoming the main meeting point between supply and demand, where only veritable experience with the product being represented makes the difference.

Once the project is concretely under way, the monitoring stage begins. A partner that knows how to listen and is committed towards the brand’s continuing and constant growth carefully assesses the actual reactions of the markets to the product. He collects feedback and reviews and thus identifies the buttons one should continue to push, the strategic changes and the innovative ideas that can increase the awareness clients have of your wines.

This process envisages a long partnership in which the trust put in each other is the common platform that can really lead your project to achieving a well-deserved success.

Vianello Wines, your partner in exporting Italian wines abroad

“Listening has allowed us to precisely identify not who we represent but who we have chosen to represent”. A subtle difference that for us makes all the difference.

Our love for Made in Italy, for good Italian wine, our fundamental roots and the international spirit that never ceases to fascinate us, are the values that make us the proud intermediaries of the wineries we choose to represent. We believe in authentic passion, without which no flavour, aroma or bouquet can be narrated with all of its captivating strength.

We are proud ambassadors, always ready for the next wine to fall in love with and that we will present as if we had made it ourselves.

Want to know more? Contact us