What Wine Opinions does

Wine Opinions is a privately held U.S. wine market research company founded in 2005 and headquartered in Saratoga Springs, NY, operating as Wine Opinions LLC. The firm provides quantitative and qualitative market intelligence to wineries, wine marketing companies, and wine trade associations globally, with services spanning online surveys, Zoom-based focus groups, in-person focus groups, moderated wine tastings, baseline and tracking studies, and custom market analysis.

The company's core technical and competitive asset is two proprietary nationally representative panels: a U.S. wine trade panel of more than 4,700 members spanning all tiers of the trade, and a U.S. consumer panel of more than 20,000 wine drinkers, 86% of whom are high-frequency wine consumers. These panels are recruited through online sign-up surveys on the company website, with participation incentivized via cash drawings ($500, $300, $200) and honorariums for discussion groups. Wine Opinions layers its proprietary panel research with data integrations from Nielsen, Wine.com, bw166, Gomberg-Fredrikson, and SipSource to produce combined shipment, sales, e-commerce, and consumer-attitude intelligence for clients. A bi-monthly free industry newsletter serves as a top-of-funnel engagement channel for the wine trade.

Wine Opinions generates revenue through project-based professional services fees for custom research engagements, with pricing not publicly disclosed. Distribution is direct-to-enterprise, built on the firm's 20-year brand reputation and the domain credibility of its three-person executive team, each of whom has 20+ years of wine research experience including prior leadership roles at Wine Market Council, Nielsen, and UC Davis. The firm operates without disclosed institutional investors, parent company, or subsidiaries, and ownership appears concentrated among the founding team.

Name

Wine Opinions

Legal name

Wine Opinions LLC

Website

https://wineopinions.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Wine Opinions is a privately held U.S. wine market research firm founded in 2005, providing quantitative surveys and qualitative focus groups to wineries, wine marketers, and trade associations using proprietary 4,700+ member trade and 20,000+ member consumer panels.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Saratoga Springs

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Custom Research Projects: Wine Opinions performs custom market research projects for wineries, wine marketing companies, and wine trade associations. Projects include quantitative online surveys, qualitative focus groups (Zoom and in-person), wine tasting evaluations, and custom market analysis. Revenue is generated through project-based fees for research design, execution, and reporting.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Wine Opinions is a wine market research firm that provides quantitative and qualitative research services to wineries, wine marketing companies, and wine trade associations. The company leverages proprietary panels of more than 4,700 wine trade members and over 20,000 U.S. wine consumer members to deliver custom market intelligence, concept testing, consumer segmentation, and competitive analysis. It also publishes a regular newsletter summarizing trends in the U.S. wine market.

Product overview

Wine Opinions is a wine market research company offering a suite of research services and proprietary data panels. The core offering consists of quantitative research (online surveys) and qualitative research (Zoom focus groups, wine tasting evaluations, and in-person focus groups), all supported by two proprietary national panels: a Trade Panel of over 4,700 U.S. wine trade members and a Consumer Panel of more than 20,000 U.S. wine consumers. Custom research services and a bi-monthly industry newsletter complement the panel-based research. The company does not operate a software product platform with modules; rather, it provides research-as-a-service to wineries, wine marketers, and trade associations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Quantitative Research Custom quantitative research studies, including surveys of consumer and trade panelists, designed to measure preferences, attitudes, and behaviors for wine producers and marketers.
• Qualitative Research — In-Person Focus Groups Traditional in-person focus group sessions with consumers or trade members, used to explore wine-related concepts, packaging, branding, and messaging in depth.
• Qualitative Research — Zoom Focus Groups Remote focus group sessions conducted over Zoom, allowing wineries and marketers to gather qualitative feedback from geographically distributed wine consumers and trade members.
• Qualitative Research — Wine Tasting Evaluations Structured tasting-based evaluations designed to assess consumer and trade reactions to specific wines, including blind tastings and sensory assessments.
• Custom Research Bespoke research engagements tailored to the specific strategic questions of a wine industry client, combining quantitative, qualitative, and panel-based methodologies.
• Wine Opinions Newsletter A regular publication summarizing the latest data, trends, and analysis from Wine Opinions' consumer and trade panel research for the U.S. wine market.

Quantifiable outcome

• Nationally representative trade panel of 4,700+ members across all tiers of the U.S. wine trade
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• NielsencoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWine Opinions collaborates with Nielsen to combine proprietary primary research with Nielsen commercial wine market data, yielding comprehensive and authoritative views of the U.S. wine market for clients.
• Wine.comcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWine Opinions integrates Wine.com e-commerce and consumer purchase data with its own proprietary research to provide comprehensive U.S. wine market intelligence for clients.
• bw166coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWine Opinions partners with bw166 to incorporate shipment, sales, and market trend data into combined research reports that offer clients a fuller picture of the U.S. wine market.
• Gomberg-FredriksoncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGomberg-Fredrikson provides wine market tracking data which Wine Opinions combines with proprietary consumer and trade research to deliver authoritative market intelligence to clients.
• SipSourcecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWine Opinions integrates SipSource wine market data with its own proprietary panel research to offer clients the most comprehensive and authoritative views of the U.S. wine market.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Numerator: Consumer insights platform combining panel-based and receipts-based data. Provides overlapping consumer and shopper intelligence to CPG/beverage clients and competes for the same enterprise research wallets as Wine Opinions.
• Ipsos: Global market research firm with established consumer and trade research capabilities. Competes with Wine Opinions for enterprise research budgets among large wineries and CPG beverage clients, though at far broader category scope.
• Nielsen: Global consumer research and measurement giant. A named Wine Opinions data partner today, but with the capital and infrastructure to build competing wine-specific panels, making it both an enabler and a strategic threat.
• Kantar: Global market research and consulting firm with established beverage industry practices. Comparable full-service research offerings to Wine Opinions but at much greater scale and broader category coverage.

Emerging players

• Toluna: Tech-enabled consumer insights and panel provider with self-serve research platforms. Emerging alternative for beverage clients weighing in-house or DIY approaches versus Wine Opinions' full-service research.

Direct peers

• bw166: Wine industry analytics provider supplying shipment, sales, and trend data to U.S. wineries and trade associations. Comparable vertical specialization and customer overlap with Wine Opinions' consumer and trade research.
• Gomberg-Fredrikson: Wine market tracking firm providing shipment, depletions, and inventory data for the U.S. wine industry. Comparable wine-vertical focus and overlapping client base (large wineries, trade associations) with Wine Opinions' trade research.
• Wine Market Council: Non-profit industry research body that conducts consumer studies of the U.S. wine market. Closely comparable mission and target audience (wineries, trade associations) to Wine Opinions' research services, and even shares leadership lineage via founder John Gillespie's prior tenure.
• SipSource: Wine industry data provider offering shipment, depletions, and channel intelligence to wineries and distributors. Comparable wine-vertical focus and overlapping customer base with Wine Opinions' trade panel work, making it both a partner and a partial substitute.

Others

• Cint: Global panel-management infrastructure provider for the market research industry. Not a direct competitor, but a potential infrastructure supplier or competitor for Wine Opinions' proprietary panel operations.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/wineopinions
• Facebookfacebook.com/wineopinionsLLC
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wine-opinions

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Wine Opinions