The Fundamentals of Wine Business 

The 'Fundamentals of Wine Business' course is designed for an advanced understanding of basic marketing principles as they apply to the wine industry. Topics include the current trends in the industry, branding strategies, digital marketing, the value of the story, tips for converting visitors to customers. Whether you are a current winery owner, a wine entrepreneur, a winemaker or viticulturist, a tasting room employee, a wine event manager, or a prospective winery owner/ employee, this course is designed to provide the knowledge and business acumen necessary to grow your career in the wine business.

Licensing and Compliance in the Wine Industry

This course is designed to introduce participants interested in operating and/or owning a winery and/or vineyard to the myriad of legal issues involved in the production, sale, and distribution of wine. The course will build upon the introductory Legal Aspects in the Wine Industry course, to take a more focused look at a winery's reporting obligations. Course content will frame the legal concepts and issues and provide participants with the framework to research specific laws and regulations that affect their vineyard and winery business. By the conclusion of this course, participants will possess a practical library of resources and strong working knowledge of how to satisfy an operator's legal reporting requirements.

Wine Sales and Distribution 

The ‘Wine Sales' course will provide an advanced understanding of wine sales through various routes-to-market: direct-to-consumer, tasting room and 3-tier distribution. The course is designed to provide a solid foundation in sales knowledge for those working for a winery, a distributor or a retailer. Upon completion of the course, students will have greater knowledge for advancing a professional career in the wine business or wine sales.

Students will dive into this dynamic course for a comprehensive look at key business aspects of wine distribution in the United States. The wine business is ever-changing and dynamic, and this course will cover the basics as well as current trends and challenges. The course is appropriate for winery principals who need to be familiar with the many facets to consider for distributing wine in one or more states. Winemakers or viticulturists wishing to build their knowledge of wine distribution and unique challenges can also benefit. The course will also suit novices looking to enter the wine business, or any wine professional looking to understand how wine flows from a winery to a restaurant or retail shelf.

Digital Marketing & eCommerce

Explore electronic tools utilized in marketing; focus on marketing communications in developing customer relationships. Explore the social media-driven marketing environment and focus on the internet and other technologies that have a profound effect on marketing today.

After taking this course, one should have an understanding of:
● Foundations of Digital Marketing and E-commerce
● Attract and Engage Customers with Digital Marketing
● From Likes to Leads: Interact with Customers Online
● Think Outside the Inbox: Email Marketing
● Assess for Success: Marketing Analytics and Measurement
● Make the Sale: Build, Launch, and Manage E-commerce Stores
● Satisfaction Guaranteed: Develop Customer Loyalty Online

Accounting for Wine Business

This course provides a basic introduction to accounting for businesses and, specifically, financial accounting and the basic financial statements necessary and desirable for wineries. Knowledge/experience with categorizing expenses and income is desirable.  

After taking this course, one should have an understanding of:

• The major forms of business and the pros and cons associated with them
• Cash versus accrual basis of accounting
• Differences between financial, managerial, and tax accounting
• Invested versus borrowed capital
• Some key concepts of financial accounting information and why they're used
• Decisions around workers
• Alcoholic Beverage Compliance
• Primary financial statements, Balance Sheet content, Income Statement content, Statement of Cash Flows content 
• Relationships among the financial statements
• Analysis of financial statement information
• Inventory & Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
• How to better communicate with bankers (or other investors)
• Why strategic wine business unit operations should be kept separate from each other
• Familiarity and knowledge of software used in wine that may need to integrate to accounting system.

Tasting Room Management 

This course will explore all aspects of managing a winery tasting room. It will cover topics such as tasting room "look and feel," merchandising, customer service, customer relationships, sales opportunities, sensory evaluation, staff training and the importance of leadership. The focus will be on customer service, customer engagement, and sales opportunities.