The Most Undervalued Marketing Play in the Beverage Industry Right Now
Let us be honest about where the industry is.
The numbers are not pretty. Total market volume is declining. Consolidation at the distributor level is reshaping access to the market. Consumer habits are shifting in ways that have not yet fully settled. Walk into any industry gathering, and the conversation is the same: things are tighter, slower, and stranger than they were three years ago.
That is exactly why what you do with your future marketing dollars matters more than it ever has.
Here is the problem. The traditional playbook is not built for this moment. PR firms charge $100,000 or more to represent a single brand for a single year. What does that buy you? A few press placements, some outreach to journalists who may or may not cover you, and a retainer that keeps going regardless of results. For a small or mid-size producer, that is not a marketing strategy. That is a bet.
Then there are influencers. A single Instagram reel from a creator with a meaningful following runs anywhere from $300 to several thousand dollars. Per post. Per bottle. And the content disappears in 72 hours. A mid-campaign creator package can run $10,000 to $30,000 for a handful of posts and no guaranteed reach.
And trade shows. A booth at a major industry event costs thousands before you add team travel, sample allocation, and the hours spent standing on a concrete floor hoping the right buyer walks past. The shelf life of that investment is the weekend of the show. Then it is gone.
TERROIR is a different calculation entirely.
We built TERROIR out of seven intriguing categories that we feel based on the data, current attitudes, and future outlook will lead the growth into 2027: Touriga Nacional and Portuguese varietals, Emerging spirits, Riesling, Rum, Obscure, Italian varietals, and Rye. Each category represents a space where producers are innovating, professionals are seeking deeper knowledge, and consumers are increasingly open to exploration. Together, they form a cross‑section of grapes, regions, and spirits that are historically rich yet commercially underleveraged — categories that reward education, storytelling, and hands‑on engagement. By pairing a coordinated online-media program with immersive Speakeasy events with a dedicated Content House, TERROIR ensures that these wines and spirits are not only tasted but contextualized, photographed, discussed, and incorporated into the creative processes of industry professionals who shape market perception.
T — Touriga — Portuguese Varietals
Portugal produces some of the world’s most distinctive wines from indigenous varieties found nowhere else on earth. Touriga Nacional — the backbone of Port and increasingly the star of dry Douro reds — delivers extraordinary depth, violet aromatics, and aging potential that rivals the finest Cabernets or Nebbiolos at a fraction of the price. Alentejo, Dão, and Bairrada add further intrigue with their own indigenous grapes and terroir-driven styles. Portugal’s broader family of indigenous varietals represent one of the most compelling intersections of heritage, sustainability, and value in the global wine landscape.
Portugal has become a quiet leader in dry‑farming and low‑input viticulture, practices that increasingly influence how buyers, sommeliers, and media evaluate long‑term category relevance. These methods aren’t marketing claims — they are structural realities of Portuguese farming where steep terrain and limited water access have shaped viticultural discipline for generations. The result is wines that express place with clarity and resilience. At the same time, Portuguese varietals deliver an unusually strong value‑to‑quality ratio, making them ideal for by‑the‑glass programs where operators need character, consistency, and affordability in equal measure. Touriga Nacional, Baga, Encruzado, and dozens of lesser‑known grapes offer depth, aromatics, and aging potential that outperform their price tiers, giving beverage professionals a category that is both commercially practical and creatively rewarding. TERROIR captures this momentum by building bartender, media, and sommelier champions from scratch — people who will pour, recommend, and talk about these wines for years to come.
E — Emerging Spirits
‘Emerging’ in the TERROIR campaign is deliberately broad by design. It captures the entire frontier of beverage culture — everything that doesn’t fit neatly into a traditional wine or spirits category but represents the future of the back bar and the wine list. These are unexplored opportunities in today’s beverage landscape — a space where curious bartenders, sommeliers, and consumers are actively searching for something new, distinctive, and culturally grounded. This includes: Mezcal and rare agave spirits (Sotol, Raicilla, Bacanora), Sake produced in the U.S., Cachaça, Pisco, Soju, Baijiu, Arrack, Clairin, and the rapidly growing category of functional/adaptogenic non-alcoholic spirits and alternatives.
For bartenders and sommeliers, Emerging Spirits offer creative range — new acids, textures, aromatics, and cultural narratives that expand what a cocktail or pairing can be. For buyers and media, they signal where the market is moving. TERROIR positions this category as a frontier worth understanding, giving producers a platform and professionals a structured way to explore, taste, and translate these spirits into menus and stories.
R — Riesling
Riesling is arguably the most misunderstood grape on earth — and the most exciting when properly understood. For too long, ‘Riesling’ in the American market meant ‘sweet,’ a reputation built on the mass-market styles that flooded shelves in the 1980s and ’90s. That era is over. Today’s Riesling story is about Grosses Gewächs (GG) –Germany’s elite dry Riesling classification — and about the extraordinary diversity of styles from Mosel, Rheingau, Alsace, Clare Valley, and the Finger Lakes. Riesling is also one of the few noble grapes thriving across shifting climates. Producers across the globe are all investing in Riesling precisely because it adapts: it maintains acidity, expresses site with precision, and responds transparently to changes in temperature and soil.
For beverage professionals, this adaptability translates into creative range — dry, off‑dry, sparkling, skin‑contact, and even low‑ABV formats that fit modern drinking preferences. For consumers, Riesling offers a clear path into exploration: familiar enough to feel approachable yet varied enough to reward curiosity. Bartenders have begun to rediscover Riesling as the ultimate cocktail-adjacent wine: its bright acidity, pure fruit expression, and low alcohol make it the perfect pairing partner and increasingly a base for low-ABV cocktail builds. The TERROIR campaign positions Riesling as a category ready for rediscovery, giving professionals a structured way to taste across regions, understand the grape’s versatility, and translate that knowledge into wine lists, cocktail menus, and food pairings.
R — Rum
Rum is in the middle of its most significant cultural moment in decades. The category — long dominated by mass-market mixers and spring break connotations — has undergone a complete renaissance driven by craft distillers, single-estate agricole producers, and a new generation of bartenders who treat Rum with the same seriousness they once reserved for Bourbon and Scotch. The result is a category of extraordinary depth: long‑ferment Jamaican high‑ester rums, AOC‑regulated agricoles, rum from India’s expansive sugarcane plantings, Pacific portfolios from Fiji to Hawaii, and emerging continental American craft producers. This combination of heritage, diversity, and renewed integrity makes Rum a category ready for deeper discovery –exactly the kind of space TERROIR was designed to elevate.
TERROIR captures Rum at its greatest inflection point. Producers who enter this campaign gain access to the exact audience — bartenders can use Rum to expand cocktail programs with styles that introduce new acids, aromatics, and textures; media and educators gain access to production stories that resonate with audiences seeking authenticity; and buyers can build value‑driven lists that differentiate their programs and portfolios.
O — Obscure
Obscure champions lesser‑known grapes, regions, and beverage categories, giving them the cultural and commercial oxygen they rarely receive. For bartenders and sommeliers, the value is immediate: these professionals are constantly searching for new levers of differentiation, new stories to tell, and new flavors that set their programs apart. Obscure gives them a structured platform to explore underrepresented varieties, from grapes like Teroldego and Fernao Pires to categories like Madeira or Rakija, and to translate that exploration into compelling menus and guest education. In a market saturated with the same dozen grapes and the same predictable spirits, the campaign restores a sense of discovery—something beverage professionals crave because it strengthens their authority, deepens their craft, and keeps their guests engaged. The Obscure category also supports regional economic resilience by giving small producers visibility in markets where they rarely have distribution leverage.
For consumers, Obscure fills an equally important gap. Most drinkers want to explore but lack the context, confidence, or exposure to move beyond familiar labels. By spotlighting lesser‑known regions and categories in an accessible, story‑driven way, the campaign lowers the barrier to entry and reframes exploration as an invitation rather than a risk. It empowers drinkers to understand why these wines and spirits matter—culturally, historically, and sensorially—and why they often deliver exceptional value. In doing so, Obscure strengthens the entire ecosystem: bartenders and sommeliers gain new tools for creativity, producers gain visibility, and consumers gain a richer, more adventurous drinking life.
I — Italian Varietals
Italy produces wine from more indigenous grape varieties than any other country on earth — over 350 authorized varieties and counting. Yet the American market is dominated by a handful of familiar names: Chianti, Pinot Grigio, Barolo. TERROIR’s Italian Varietals category explores everything, both these popular names and those beneath that surface. This is a landscape of micro‑regional DOC and DOCG zones, volcanic and alpine terroirs, and centuries‑old varieties that sommeliers and curious consumers are only beginning to rediscover. This includes Nerello Mascalese on Etna’s volcanic slopes, Fiano and Greco in Campania, Amarone producers challenging the world’s top reds at every price tier, Ribolla Gialla and the radical orange wine revolution in Friuli, plus the diverse zones in Alto Piemonte.
Italian wines are the backbone of American wine culture — but there’s a generational push past the familiar names into indigenous variety and sub-regional exploration. BevFluence’s TERROIR campaign meets this desire, bringing the producers who make those discoveries possible into direct conversation with the industry professionals who matter most. Bartenders and sommeliers can use these wines to build more distinctive by‑the‑glass programs, expand pairing options, and introduce guests to varieties that feel both new and grounded in tradition. Media and educators gain access to stories shaped by geology, history, and regional identity — narratives that resonate with audiences seeking deeper understanding.
R — Rye
Rye represents one of the most historically grounded yet still under‑explored opportunities in the spirits world. It is the original cocktail whiskey — the base of the Manhattan, Sazerac, and countless pre‑Prohibition classics — but its modern resurgence is driven by factors far more interesting than nostalgia. Rye is becoming a terroir‑driven spirit in a way American whiskey hasn’t seen before: producers are reviving heirloom grains like Rosen, Abruzzi, and Danko; farmers are experimenting with single‑field and single‑varietal plantings; and distillers are exploring regional styles that highlight grain character rather than barrel dominance. At the same time, Canada’s century‑old rye traditions are being rediscovered by bartenders who value their spice, structure, and cocktail versatility. This combination of heritage, grain specificity, and regional diversity makes Rye a category ready for deeper professional and consumer exploration — exactly the kind of opportunity TERROIR is designed to elevate.
Thus, today’s Rye landscape is extraordinarily diverse: from the 95%-rye high-rectified Indiana-sourced products that built modern cocktail bars to the single-estate heritage Monongahela style of Pennsylvania, from many producers’ farm-to-bottle programs to Canada’s underappreciated century-old Rye traditions (Lot 40, Alberta Premium). TERROIR captures this full spectrum — and gives Rye producers a platform to educate craft beverage professionals. Bartenders can use grain‑specific ryes to build cocktails with clearer structure and more intentional flavor design; educators and media gain access to production stories that resonate with audiences seeking authenticity and agricultural connection; and buyers can differentiate their whiskey programs with bottlings that offer both value and narrative depth.
What happens to your submissions?
BevFluence® ensures that your submission is evaluated multiple times.
We’ve watched too many bottles, cans, and drams get shipped off to conferences, campaigns, and media — used once, then forgotten. Years in this industry taught us that waste like that isn’t just a hit to your marketing budget. It’s a disregard for what actually went into that liquid.
That’s why we built a program that puts every sample to work multiple times over — squeezing real value out of every pour, every can, every dram. We know what it takes to produce that juice. We know how hard it is to part with it. So, we made sure none of it goes to waste.
TERROIR incorporates both a virtual marketing campaign plus multiple in-person industry events we call Speakeasies.
In the marketing campaign, every submission is activated across our network of skilled creators who produce authentic, high‑quality content. Posts, reels, stories, long-form reviews, and educational pieces. Analytics from previous campaigns show that the posts reach 3 million-plus engaged followers in the beverage community. Buyers, bartenders, enthusiasts, and decision-makers who care about what they drink and who makes it. BevFluence® will inform you where to send your submissions and you just sit back and engage with all the content from your new brand advocates.
Your submission will also be showcased during all 2027 BevFluence® Speakeasies. These are intimate gatherings of curated attendees. We spend three days providing education, production access, curated tastings, mentorship, creative time, memories, and of course tons of authentic content.
Each Speakeasy starts with a blind panel review of all submissions. The individual evaluation notes are saved in the BevFluence® Collaborations platform and are available for brands to review. Reviews are also published in the BevFluence® 2027 Holiday Beverage Guide. But the blind tasting is, perhaps, the least interesting part.
Every submission goes through BevFluence® Discovery Labs, where our attendees get hands on creating blends, pairings, cocktails, menu strategies and more. If we haven’t explained it well enough yet, every bottle, can, dram and drop gets used many times, as we create tasting notes, funky pairings, holiday reviews, videos, hero shots, and more. Beyond any reasonable expectation we use every submission many times.
The Early Bird submission fee is $435. Six or more entries drops every single submission to $325. Standard pricing opens February 1, 2027 at $600. Early activation is highly recommended. Submissions received before October 31, 2026 will benefit from two cycles of Holiday content – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and more for 2026 & 2027.
For context: $435 is far less than a single post from a micro-influencer with 50,000 followers. It is a fraction of a trade show booth deposit. It is a rounding error on a PR firm retainer.
What you get in return is the largest concentration of content creation, blind reviews, editorial coverage, industry activation, and live event exposure that any beverage brand can access in a single submission. As some experts have claimed, our programming is a “Magical Combination” that exists nowhere else.
If you decide to skip this campaign, what is your plan?
TERROIR is where that work gets done.
Registration is open now through October 31, 2027. Early Bird pricing closes January 31, 2027.
Register at BevFluence Collaborations.
PDF Media Kit for TERRIOR Campaign.
