Enterprise of Drinks Podcast Highlights One of many Brightest Spots in Wine Retail
NEW YORK, NY (Might 21, 2025) — As a lot of the wine retail business is struggling amid flat gross sales and shifting client preferences, one firm stands aside: Benchmark Wine Group. In a brand new episode of the Enterprise of Drinks podcast, founder and CEO David Parker reveals how Benchmark reached $45 million in gross sales in 2024 — a greater than 12% enhance from the prior yr — and is on monitor to hit $50 million in 2025.
So what’s driving the success? “We play within the uncommon wine phase — wines which are not possible to seek out anyplace else,” Parker says. “This high-touch, high-trust mannequin has saved us resilient, at the same time as different retailers have contracted.”
Underneath Parker’s management, Benchmark has advanced right into a multifaceted uncommon wine and spirits ecosystem. The corporate contains BenchmarkWine.com, Brentwood Auctions, Washington D.C.-based Benchmark Wine & Spirits, Napa’s Wine Spectrum, and First Development Applied sciences, a proprietary information and analytics platform powering Wine Market Journal and Spirits Market Journal.
Highlights from the Episode:
- Uncommon wine focus fuels progress: Benchmark’s give attention to hard-to-source bottles and back-vintage wines — typically from personal cellars — is outperforming mainstream retail fashions.
- Millennials drive 30% of gross sales (!!): A shocking 30% of Benchmark’s greenback gross sales now come from Millennial collectors, a demographic that’s reshaping the uncommon wine panorama with totally different tastes and digital discovery habits.
- AI and automation take the lead: Benchmark has constructed a proprietary software program suite, added real-time API integrations with platforms like Liv-ex, and is exploring AI-powered personalization to raise the collector expertise.
- Increasing into uncommon spirits: Benchmark’s D.C. operations, which may legally promote uncommon spirits, grew by greater than 300% year-over-year.
- Buyer belief by provenance: The corporate’s “Provenance Assure” ensures each bottle’s authenticity and situation, with Parker noting that returns are uncommon sufficient to depend on one hand per quarter.
Benchmark Wine Group’s success story represents a important vivid spot in a difficult market. By combining deep business experience, cutting-edge expertise, and a dedication to collector service, the corporate isn’t just surviving — it’s thriving.
Watch or take heed to the total interview with David Parker on Enterprise of Drinks, streaming now on Heritage Radio Community and all main podcast platforms.
About Enterprise of Drinks
Enterprise of Drinks is a podcast and model advisory based by Erica Duecy, who has been referred to as “a powerhouse within the drinks business” (Sommeliers Selection Awards). She is likely one of the drinks business’s most achieved digital and content material strategists. The weekly Enterprise of Drinks podcast, hosted on Heritage Radio Community, options probably the most compelling and profitable entrepreneurs in drinks, from Invoice Shufelt on how he launched and constructed Athletic Brewing, to Gallo’s Britt West on rising Excessive Midday to greater than 24 million instances, to Fawn Weaver of Uncle Nearest on how she constructed a billion-dollar model. Enterprise of Drinks showcases the brightest spots within the beverage enterprise, sharing the profitable gross sales, advertising and marketing, product, and operational methods of manufacturers which have proven progress over the prior yr. The aim is to assist drinks companies — throughout classes — to develop and thrive.
