Another well-received suggestion involved capitalizing on the popularity of sauvignon blanc, “The one category of wine that has increased price and number of cases sold over the last year,” Lee said. The campaign will likely present a free sauvignon blanc tasting for a month, in hopes of drawing folks from the Bay Area who would come for the sauvignon blanc and stay to sample other wines. As with the Taylor Swift idea, the campaign was met with enthusiasm and a number of additional suggestions, including a possible event at the Sonoma County Wine Library. “We could get this up and running by November,” one attendee said. Work is continuing on the project, with Russian River Valley Winegrowers, Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley and Alexander Valley Winegrowers collaborating. Regarding the project, Alan Baker, co-founder of Cartograph Wines, asked, “When you say a small fee will be paid to somebody, where does that check go?” Lee responded, “If we were going to run Facebook ads, whoever is handling the item could say, ‘Here is the cost of the Facebook ad, it would reach this many people in the area and if we had 30 wineries participating at $100 apiece, we could do this with $30,000 in Facebook advertising.’ “I don’t mind fronting the cost and having people pay me later,” Lee added. Those two suggestions were for the short term. A third suggestion, more for the medium term, involved using the 40th anniversary of the movie Pretty in Pink coming up Feb. 28, 2026, to promote rosé wines. Another idea was to establish regular meetings of the region’s marketing organizations—Sonoma County Winegrowers, Sonoma County Vintners, the county Tourism Board—as well as the county’s American Viticultural Areas, designated grape-growing spots with unique geographic and climatic features. Kruse, who attended the meeting, embraced the idea with enthusiasm: “One hundred percent.” In an interview, Kruse said she is organizing the first of such meetings to take place in November, when members of the wine community will no longer be busy with the harvest. Sonoma County's grape harvest season runs primarily from September through
Ideas ranged from free sauvignon blanc tastings and Taylor Swift to the ‘Pretty In Pink’ 40th anniversary and social media campaigns.
a Zoom brainstorming meeting. A mere four days later, over 70 people attended the meeting. In preparation for the meeting, Lee organized the suggestions into groups— immediate, medium-term and long- term. He presented the ideas at the meeting and the group selected which ones to pursue in a highly congenial brainstorming session marked with enthusiasm and even occasional humor, especially during a few moments of computer malfunction. “My own thought is that we need a guerilla marketing effort, faster, leaner and less expensive options, at least in the short term,” Lee said in the meeting, as he introduced the suggestions. Inspired by pop singer Taylor Swift’s Oct. 3 release of her new album, The Life of a Showgirl , one of the most popular ideas was dubbed “The Life of a Sonoma Girl.” The group brainstormed a social media campaign including an Instagram account
with pictures of Sonoma County women winemakers/harvest workers/vineyard workers doing what they do at harvest. Kathleen Inman, the owner, winemaker and general manager of Inman Family Wines, “Basically, the Wine Improvement District has introduced useful and inclusive conversations.”
—Prema Kerollis, president of Sonoma County Vintners
volunteered herself and her daughter Ashley, who’s experienced in digital communications, for the campaign, which went into high gear on Instagram and TikTok in September.
46 NorthBaybiz
October 2025
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