About Wine Business Monthly

Wine Business Monthly

Wine Business Monthly is the trade magazine for the American wine industry, published by the Wine Communications Group of Sonoma, California. Founded in 1994 and published monthly from Sonoma, California, the magazine provides comprehensive coverage of the wine business — from grape growing and winemaking to marketing, distribution, and industry analysis — for winery owners, vineyard operators, distributors, and retailers. Its companion website, WineBusiness.com, is the trade's leading online resource for news, data, and industry tools, and the company also publishes the Wine Analytics Report — the data arm built with the reinvested resources of the merged Wines & Vines.

The 1994 Founding

Wine Business Monthly was founded in 1994, arriving as the American wine industry was entering a period of sustained growth. The Napa and Sonoma wine boom of the 1990s created demand for a professional publication covering the business of wine — the production, economics, and trade mechanics behind the tasting-room glamour — not the consumer-facing reviews and lifestyle content, but the production, economics, and trade mechanics of the industry. For more than three decades, the magazine has delivered timely news, analysis, and commentary to the professionals who make and sell American wine — the essential trade read for an industry where business decisions turn on harvests, markets, and margins — from the 1990s premium-wine boom through the direct-to-consumer revolution and the industry's data-driven present.

The Wine Communications Group

The magazine is published by the Wine Communications Group, Inc. — "the leading information and services provider for the global wine industry." The Sonoma-based company — 'the leading information and services provider for the global wine industry' — publishes WineBusiness.com, the leading website for the trade, alongside its print publications. The company's mission is dedicated to meeting the wine industry's needs for information, analysis, resources, and tools — a B2B media operation serving every link of the wine supply chain. As Muck Rack's verified listing notes, the company publishes WineBusiness.com alongside 'two of the industry's leading print publications, Wine Business Monthly and Wines & Vines' — a B2B media operation serving every link of the wine supply chain, from the vineyard to the retail shelf.

What the Magazine Covers

The magazine's coverage spans the full business of wine. Grape growing: soil management, pest control, irrigation techniques, and practical advice on growing high-quality grapes. Winemaking: fermentation science, barrel aging, bottling, and every aspect of the craft. Marketing and sales: branding strategies, social media tactics, and direct-to-consumer sales. Distribution and retailing: navigating complex regulations and building relationships with distributors and retailers. Industry trends and analysis: emerging markets, changing consumer preferences — organic wines, canned wines — and the global forces shaping the trade. The coverage is deliberately practical: soil management and pest control for growers; fermentation science and barrel aging for winemakers; branding, social media, and direct-to-consumer tactics for marketers; regulatory navigation for distributors — the working knowledge the trade runs on.

The Wines & Vines Merger

In January 2019, the Wine Communications Group merged Wines & Vines — the century-old wine industry magazine founded in 1919 as the California Grape Grower — under the Wine Business Monthly brand. Wines & Vines, published in San Rafael, California, had focused on winemaking, grapegrowing, and wine marketing in North America, with a 2013 circulation of 8,300 (over half on the West Coast). Its last issue was published in December 2018; the magazine's resources were reinvested into the development of the Wine Analytics Report. The merger consolidated a century of wine-trade journalism under the Wine Business Monthly name. Wines & Vines had itself absorbed the quarterly Practical Winery & Vineyard in January 2013 and partnered with the East Coast's Wine East that July — a consolidation history that made the 2019 merger the final chapter in a century of wine-trade publishing consolidation.

The Wine Analytics Report

The resources of the merged Wines & Vines were reinvested into the Wine Analytics Report — the company's data arm, providing the industry with the numbers behind the news. The Analytics operation reflects the Wine Communications Group's evolution from print publisher to information provider: news, analysis, resources, and tools for an industry that runs on data as much as on grapes.

The Trade Audience

The magazine serves winery owners and managers, vineyard operators and consultants, distributors, and retailers — the professional audience of industry insiders who make the business decisions of the wine trade. Its mission, as the company states it: to help readers stay informed, connected, and successful in an ever-changing industry. The coverage is practical throughout — advice on growing grapes, improving winemaking, promoting wines, and navigating distribution.

WineBusiness.com

WineBusiness.com, the company's website, is the leading website for the wine trade — the digital companion to the monthly magazine and the industry's online hub for news, data, and resources. Together, the print magazine and the website give the Wine Communications Group a complete B2B media presence: the monthly's depth and analysis, the website's immediacy.

The Sonoma Base

The Wine Communications Group is based in Sonoma, California — in the heart of American wine country. The location puts the publisher at the center of the industry it covers, steps from the vineyards, wineries, and industry institutions that make the North Coast the capital of the American wine business. From Sonoma, the company's journalists cover an industry whose center of gravity remains the North Coast — even as the magazine's scope extends to the global wine business, from emerging markets like China and India to the shifting consumer preferences reshaping what America drinks.

A Trade Publisher's Mission

"Our mission is simple: to help our readers stay informed, connected, and successful in an ever-changing industry," the company says of Wine Business Monthly. With a team of experienced journalists and industry experts, the magazine delivers timely and accurate news, analysis, and commentary across the trade — a B2B formula that has sustained it for more than three decades while consumer wine magazines consolidated. Whether the reader is a winery owner or manager, a vineyard operator or consultant, a distributor or retailer, the magazine positions itself as the go-to source for the business of wine.

The Data Business

The analytics arm reflects a broader shift in trade publishing: from reporting the industry's news to measuring it. For wineries making planting, pricing, and distribution decisions, the Wine Analytics Report's numbers — harvest data, shipment figures, pricing trends — are as essential as any feature story. The Wine Communications Group's evolution from print publisher to information-and-services provider mirrors the wine industry's own data-driven turn.

The Wine Analytics Report — built with the reinvested resources of the merged Wines & Vines — represents the company's evolution from print publisher to information provider. In an industry where harvest data, shipment numbers, and pricing trends drive decisions, the analytics arm gives the Wine Communications Group a product beyond journalism: the numbers behind the news, for an industry that runs on data as much as on grapes.

Official Website

Wine Business Monthly's online home is https://www.winebusiness.com, the trade's leading website, offering daily industry news, in-depth analysis, practical resources, and professional tools for wine industry professionals. The magazine is published by the Wine Communications Group of Sonoma, California — the leading information and services provider for the global wine industry.