The 10 Numbers Behind a Profitable Tasting Room

Owning a winery and running a tasting room is a challenge. On top of making the wine and running a business, you’re also running a hospitality venue and trying to make all of it profitable.

Today’s POS systems and CRMs have been a real boon to our industry, because they track numbers that used to be hard to get. The catch is that they hand you far more information than you need. When you have a lot of other things to do, sorting the useful from the noise is overwhelming, and you don’t have unlimited time, staff or budget.

So what should you pay attention to? You need baselines and goalposts so that you and your staff know whether you’re heading in the right direction and what it will take to get there. That’s your road map to sustainable revenue.

When I evaluate a winery, I start with a short list of metrics. These are the 10 data points every winery should track, because they help wineries succeed and become profitable. They’ll be your baselines. I’ve focused on direct-to-consumer sales through your tasting room, because those sales are fully under your control. To help you and your staff get started tracking and evaluating these metrics, I’ve created a free download, the Tasting Room Data Tracker, that lays out how to capture, calculate and review each one.

1. Visitors

The number of people who walk through your door is the starting point for your direct-to-consumer revenue. It’s a simple metric, but one that many wineries overlook. If you don’t know how many people walk through your door, you can’t gauge how well your staff converts visitors into customers. Your visitor count also sets the upper limit of what you can sell in your tasting room, so you need to know it.

Target: set an internal target based on your location and the time of year.

2. Eligible visitors

Not everybody who walks into your tasting room is able to or has the intent to purchase. This is the difference between visitors and what I’ve called eligible visitors. Eligible visitors are legally able to purchase wine and come to you intending to buy, which leaves out children, designated drivers and tour guides, among others. What percentage of your visitors are eligible visitors? The percentage varies because every winery offers a unique experience. A luxury venue charging luxury prices will have a high percentage. A family-friendly vineyard with picnic areas, indoor and outdoor seating and music on the weekends will have a much lower one.

Knowing this number filters out some of the noise and lets you compare your numbers to public industry data. It’s great to have a packed tasting room where people are having a great time, but what you really want to know is how many of them are eligible to buy.

3. Eligible visitor conversion

How many of your eligible visitors turn into customers? This is where the metrics start helping you make decisions, because this one tells you how well your staff convinces eligible visitors to buy your wine. Buying wine is the entire reason for a tasting room. The goal is to bring people in, give them an experience they’ll remember, let them taste your wine, and convince them that what you offer is what they want.

A tasting room that’s running well has an eligible visitor conversion rate in the 90% range. If your number is lower, look at what’s happening in your tasting room:

• How are you telling your story?
• How are you walking visitors through the wines and leading them to a sale?
• Is the wine meeting their expectations?

This should be your easiest sale. These customers picked you. They looked at your wines and prices on your website, many made an appointment, and then they drove to you and paid to taste your wines. I wrote more about why these visitors are your best sales opportunity in The Tasting Room Is Where Your DTC Revenue Starts. Make It Count. If you’re not converting them, it’s time to do some work.

Target: 90% of eligible visitors.

4. Average order value

What is the average order value of your sales? If you know your average order value, your eligible visitor conversion and how many eligible visitors come through the door in an average week, month or year, you can forecast your tasting room revenue for the quarter and the year. That’s fantastic information! You don’t have to run blind, and the forecast helps you manage your cash flow.

You can also work the math the other way. From your average order value, you can calculate how many customers you need to run in the black, or how much you need to raise your average order value with the customers you have. Now you have a goal and a way to evaluate how you’re selling. Several industry reports publish average order value every year, so you can see how you compare to other wineries in your area.

Your average order value depends on the price of your wines. The U.S. average is about $200, according to the First Citizens Bank 2026 DtC report. If your wines sit at the high end of U.S. pricing, your average order value should reflect that; in Napa, it should be closer to $450. If your wines sell at a lower price point, set your target closer to $100.

One thing I love about the wine industry is how much industry information, like average order value, is freely available. Many industries don’t have that. I’ve worked in several, both before and during my time in wine, so I know how rare it is. That gives me a chance to plug the First Citizens Bank (formerly Silicon Valley Bank) industry survey. This valuable resource depends on wineries sharing their information, and the results help both the participating wineries and the industry as a whole see how we’re doing. When the survey opens again, please complete it.

Target: $200, adjusted for the price point of your wines.

5. Bottles per order

Average order value tells you how much each customer spends. Bottles per order tells you how much wine they take home, and you need both. After a price increase, a higher average order value can make it look like your staff is selling more when customers are buying the same number of bottles or fewer. When I tell clients I want customers walking out with boxes, not bags, I mean four to six bottles. Track this metric beside average order value and review the two together.

Target: four to six bottles per order.

6. Wine club conversion

For small and midsize wineries with a tasting room, the wine club is the second largest channel of revenue, and historical industry data (like the annual SVB reports) shows it has the potential to become the largest revenue channel. To know what size your wine club can be, how much wine to allocate to it and what revenue it can bring, you need your wine club conversion rate: the percentage of your customers who become wine club members.

This data point matters because allocating wine to your club is a strategic business decision. Make it early, so your shipments match what members will be drinking at that time of year and line up with your releases, or with wines that history tells you will run long. Well in advance, you need to know you have enough Chardonnay and Cab for your members. That takes a reliable forecast of your club size, and your conversion rate gives you that forecast. Build it at the beginning of the year, when you plan your club, your allocations and your shipments, rather than in the last week or two before a shipment.

Your wine club conversion should be 6% at a minimum. Members bring in dependable cash flow, including during the off-season, so a one-percentage-point jump in this number adds a lot of revenue. Use it to incentivize your staff; training them to raise it is a significant pathway to profitability.

Target: 6% at a minimum.

7. Conversion by staff member

Eligible visitor conversion and wine club conversion tell you how the tasting room is doing as a whole. Break the same two numbers out by the person pouring and leading the tasting, and you can see who is closing sales, who is signing up members and who needs help. Is your whole team below target, or does one staff member have a process that works? This number shows you where you need training and gives your staff goals they can track themselves and work to meet.

Target: 90% eligible visitor conversion and 6% wine club conversion for every person pouring.

8. Identifying information

From what percentage of your eligible visitors do you gather identifying information? You should be collecting their name and email address, and with the rise of text messaging, a phone number matters as well. Do you have a process for gathering this information from everyone, including the people who aren’t purchasing?

What percentage of people walk out your door without leaving you any way to reach them again? The next question, of course, is whether you’re corresponding with them after they leave, but that’s a different blog post. You can’t build a relationship if you haven’t collected their information, and it’s hard to convert a visitor who never hears from you again into a customer.

Target: 100% of purchasers at a minimum. Your goal is 100% of eligible visitors.

9. Wine club churn

Wine club conversion tells you how many members you’re adding. Churn, or attrition rate, tells you how many you’re losing. Your churn rate drives your wine club forecast, and it’s the number my Wine Club Planning Tool uses. I built the tool to help new and existing wineries plan and forecast their wine club, and it’s coming soon. A healthy churn rate is in the low 20% range.

On its own, though, churn matters less than your net wine club growth rate, which the First Citizens Bank DtC report tracks as net attrition. To calculate it, subtract the members who left this year from the members you added, then divide by your members at the start of the year. A club that signs up 100 members a year and loses 100 isn’t growing, no matter how hard your tasting room staff works.

Knowing how many members leave each year and why lets you act early to keep members and make strategic decisions about your wines and your wine club. Members who cancel after their second or third shipment are telling you something about your shipments, your pricing or how often you’re in touch. Every member you keep is one you don’t have to replace from the tasting room.

Target: churn in the low 20% range, and a positive net wine club growth rate.

10. Additional wine club purchases

Beyond what arrives in their club shipments, how much additional wine do your wine club members buy? Each member chose more than a visit: they gave you permission to send them wine, sometimes wine they didn’t even pick. They read your emails and come back to your tasting room again and again. That connection matters to them, and it’s what makes them your best customers.

On average, additional purchases of 100% to 150% of a member’s annual club shipment value are reasonable, and the most profitable wineries reach those numbers. If a member receives eight wines a year, 150% is another 12 wines, a full case.

High-performing wineries pay attention to why people buy and what experience their customers are having. They know their market segment and listen to their customers. Above all, they focus on relationships, and your wine club members are the customers with whom you have the strongest relationship. Ask yourself what these customers want and how you can meet their needs. When you work on that relationship with regular emails, regular contact and club benefits your members want, they buy more wine.

Target: 100% to 150% of a member’s annual club shipment value.

Start tracking your tasting room metrics

Those are my top 10 tasting room metrics. You can’t improve something without knowing your starting point, and without this information, you’re running blind. I’ve created a Tasting Room Data Tracker, which is a free download on my website. You can find it and my other free planning tools here.

Tracking the data is half the job; you also have to review it. Set up automated reports in your POS or CRM so this information lands in your inbox every week, month or quarter, and reviewing it becomes part of your routine.

After 30 years of working with wineries, I know that many are teetering on the edge of profitability. They look into the future and see the horizon where they could be profitable, but they never quite get there. Tracking this data and using it strategically is the difference. It lets you build a road map and answer the question, “How do I make this happen?” Without tracking and reviewing this information, you’ll keep looking toward a profitable future you can’t reach.

If you know you need to track this data but don’t know where to start, or how to turn the data into a road map, contact me. This is what I do.