Shut up of various wine bottles at a wine retailer
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Wine gross sales and consumption are declining nearly all over the place—save for the record-breaking BerserkerDay wine sale that provides superb offers and takes place on-line by way of the Wine Berserkers group. Certainly, as total wine gross sales falter, Berserkers Day continues to interrupt information. Based in 2009 by Todd French, Wine Berserkers is a web-based discussion board for wine lovers and Berserkers Day is their annual wine sale—this yr on January 30th. Anybody, registered member or not, can view the BerserkerDay subforum and the provides that wineries, retailers, and different wine-related product sellers may have posted.
In 2019, BerserkerDay generated $1.5 million in gross sales. In 2025, the occasion hit a document $2.2 million, and this yr’s sale—scheduled for January 30—is already monitoring larger. Certainly, Wine Berserkers has grown right into a 50,000-member group and hosts an annual 24-hour occasion that connects greater than 100 small American wineries instantly with collectors. As French notes, “BerserkerDay has grown each single yr for 17 years straight, together with by way of the 2009 recession, the pandemic, and the present contraction.”
Oregon Winemaker Kelley Fox of Kelley Fox Wines credit Wine Berserkers for constructing and rising her enterprise, “BerserkerDay has strengthened the relationships with our present prospects whom we love dearly, and has enabled others to have the ability to entry the wines who could not have been in a position to afford them earlier than (as I have been informed), or who hadn’t heard of us. It is rising our group, which for me, is what my work is about,” she defined by way of e mail.
What’s BerserkerDay?
The day began as a method to rejoice the founding of WineBerserkers and has since developed into what some name the Black Friday of wine. Starting at roughly 7:30 a.m. Pacific / 10:30 a.m. Jap, the promoting begins. This yr options about 100 collaborating sellers—together with a number of new wineries that have been hand-picked by members of the WineBerserkers group.
How are Wineries Chosen for BerserkerDay?
The wines provided on BerserkerDay are chosen by the group itself. French recruits volunteers from the discussion board to style potential first-time contributors, often called Newbies. This yr, 37 Newbies expressed curiosity in promoting throughout the occasion.
The vetting course of begins with analysis into every producer’s winemaking model, varietals, and pricing. As French explains, “I take a look at their web site to get a really feel for the enterprise. Then I flip to our Monopole Crü members (that is our premium particular person subscription tier at $100/yr) and ask for volunteers.” tasters fill out a shared spreadsheet noting their preferences—varietals they love or keep away from—and are then matched with acceptable producers.
“Most of those teams are native to one another, so I can get a number of tasters per pattern, which makes the method extra environment friendly,” says French. “The teams style the wines and report again with their suggestions and tasting notes for any producers they assume ought to make the lower.” This yr, about one-third of the Newbies have been finally chosen.
Volunteer taster John Kane, a 41-year-old company restructuring legal professional, explains by way of e mail, “The group tasters vetting wines for BerserkerDay are, with out exception, skilled, educated, and sincere. The sale is about spotlighting small artisanal producers making critically good things. Todd (French) has tasked us with guaranteeing customers should purchase throughout BD with confidence, and so we offer sincere suggestions to Todd about every ‘Newby’s’ wines. In the event that they’re actually good, they get to showcase their wines throughout BD. The method ensures that if it’s on the market, it’s going to be good. And you’ll guess on it even should you’ve by no means heard of the producer.”
What Winemakers Consider BerserkerDay
Marcus Goodfellow, winemaker at Goodfellow Household Cellars in Oregon, produces site-specific Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, glowing wines, and a small quantity of Riesling; he notes by way of e mail that he “would have stopped making wine 7-8 years in the past if not for Wine Berserkers.” Based on Goodfellow, “BerserkerDay brings a exceptional added spike in gross sales. It additionally comes as our second spherical of grower funds comes due, so it’s extremely useful and vital to our enterprise.”
Goodfellow’s first classic totaled simply 189 instances; right this moment, he and co-owner Megan Pleasure produce roughly 4,500 instances yearly. Past the gross sales affect, he values the discussion board’s sense of group, saying, “It’s a excellent place to publish ideas about winemaking.”
One other Berserkers taster, Mike Evans—a lawyer who has been critically concerned in wine since 1993—remarks on the depth of engagement throughout the discussion board. Says Evans, “I’ve a broad and eclectic palate and revel in wine from a variety of areas and kinds. Over the previous 12 months I’ve in all probability tried 300-400 totally different wines at varied tastings and dinners. I discover the notes on Wine Berserkers from the group to be significantly worthwhile, as I’ve been in a position to comply with and work together with varied posters for years so I can get a way of their preferences and of whose palates greatest correlate with my very own. I additionally benefit from the means to dig deeper when I’ve questions on a poster’s impressions of a given wine. Whereas I learn different wine content material and subscribe to some wine publications, Wine Berserkers is my main outlet for wine info and dialogue.”
Kane believes the discussion board welcomes wine lovers of all expertise ranges. “One of many joys of WB is the welcoming and beneficiant nature of the overwhelming majority of customers,” he says. “The person base is all the time excited a few new member who is raring to study. The discussion board has a broad vary of ages, ranges of expertise, revenue, and preferences. The frequent issue is wine. So should you’re new to wine, if you wish to study wine, if you wish to examine wine, even snort about wine, it’s an awesome place to be. It’s an awesome place with nice individuals.”
