Denise Gardner Winemaking

Home / Podcasts / Season 2, Episode 13: Flavor Forward: How to Leverage 2026 Trends for Innovation and Growth

Season 2, Episode 13: Flavor Forward: How to Leverage 2026 Trends for Innovation and Growth

Release Date: June 12, 2026

This episode not only reviews some of the top marketing trends of 2026 that keep coming up on repeat from various wine marketing experts we have talked to, but it also dives into addressing one of the top trends of the year: flavor integration. We’re not talking about wine flavors, but top flavors that take over the food and beverage industry. While we discuss how to make formula wines and ready-to-drink (RTD’s) that touch upon the top flavor trends of the year, I’m also discussing how more traditional wineries can utilize flavor trends to help promote their wines. 

Links for things mentioned in this episode:

  • Having a difficult time marketing? Here are the topics we keep hearing from marketing experts in our podcast interviews:
    • Wine accessibility: get wine out of the tasting room. Wine should be served in establishments that serve alcohol beyond the hours of a tasting room. You can also consider new locations that have good proximity to a lot of people. Finally, develop collaborations that can benefit your wine brand. 
    • Improving the tasting room experience: The experience should be engaging and connect with consumers. These episodes discuss engaging experiences:
    • Imagery: We don’t see wine in popular media (e.g., TV, movies, sporting arenas, etc.). There needs to be a movement that shows where people can
    • Development of or tweaking your wine loyalty program (wine club): Consumers have to make their dollars stretch farther than ever before. Maintaining a strong loyalty program ensures annual income for wineries, and managing an alluring loyalty program has never been more important. These episodes discuss the benefits of a strong wine loyalty program:
    • Improve wine quality: The market is competitive both locally and nationally. Right now is the moment to avoid compromising product quality. Someone in the market is making wine better than you, and consumers tend to gravitate towards quality, deals, and value. These episodes discuss the importance of maintaining wine quality during this time:
  • How do wineries absorb the flavor trends into their winery or wine brand right now?
    • Producing wine products that have a flavor ingredient within them. They are shelf-stable, packaged wines. An example includes an added flavor to a wine base (e.g., Peach Moscato or Moscato Peach). A second example includes a ready-to-drink (RTD) product. Most of these are packaged cocktails (e.g., margaritas, Sangria, Spritzers, etc.)
    • In-house wine cocktail crafting. We previously talked with Jayme Henderson at The Storm Cellar (Cultivating Wine Cocktails with Jayme Henderson; Season 1, Episode 18) for how they have integrated amazing wine cocktails in association with their series wine brands. However, this trend can also look like integrating wine slushies, Sangria’s, and spritzers with rotational flavors and/or leaning into trending flavors. 
    • Flavor matching through recipe development or pairing in which the recipe features prominent or trendy flavors. This is usually a great angle for traditional, estate-driven wine brands. More on this towards the end of the episode. 
  • Developing formula wine products (For more information, please refer to The Winemakers’ Blog post, “From Prototype to Package: A Winemaker’s Roadmap to Formula Wine Success.”)
    • Define your flavor or flavor profile. You will have to be specific and detailed in what you are expecting from the flavor (i.e., fresh vs. cooked). 
    • Get your product description written down and detailed. This includes describing the dominant aroma/flavor vs. background flavors. Also include the wine(s) you plan on adding as the base. If they have a dominant flavor, include that in your description.
    • Talk to your flavor vendor about what you are looking for in a flavor. This should include the description discussed, above, and that you need the flavor TTB Approved. Additionally, try to limit your flavor options to 3 – 5 options, max. 
    • Bench trial your flavors. This is where most winemakers get stuck because flavors are quite complex. Many flavors come with a dosage rate, but sometimes the dosage rate works for the wine and sometimes it won’t. A lot of winemakers get frustrated with this step because it may appear as if the whole product is not working or doesn’t match their expectations. (This is the step where Denise ends up helping most of her clients because it becomes such a challenging exercise for many winemakers. If you need help, consider joining the DGW Elite Membership program or checking out the DGW Client options.)
      • Make up your base wine first. 
      • Always do your taste evaluations – for both the base wine blend and when you add in flavors – in the morning. This is when you are most sensitive to picking up flavors and mouthfeel attributes. 
      • When it comes to the dosage rate of a flavor, sometimes the total amount of flavor is going to reach that dosage rate concentration. It does not mean add the max dosage rate of each flavor is required. It also is highly probable that you won’t be able to identity every single flavor you want to add.
      • Use the rule of halves when altering flavor concentrations. If something seems too chemically in flavor, cut the concentration in half and taste again. 
      • Stop tasting after you have tasted 10 wines. Put it away and restart tomorrow. Also, you do not have to taste 10 wines. You can stop at 3 or 5 wines and make a decision. 
      • Make your bench trials ahead of time and then bring them to a tasting. 
      • It does help to have a group of people to evaluate the bench trials. It’s not about liking or not liking the wine. It is about making sure the wine product delivers what you are marketing. 
  • Extra considerations for making formula wine products:
    • Remember that packaging decisions can impact product quality. In the podcast, we mentioned that putting RTD’s into cans can influence the flavor intensity or flavor perception within 6 months of packaging, which is a shortened shelf-life compared to what we are used to with table wines. 
    • Submit for TTB Formula Approval before putting together a commercial batch of a product. 
    • Consider tasting the product every month after packaging to evalute product longevity. 
  • Working with flavors (as ingredients):
    • Flavor houses are a part of the food and beverage industry. Ordering flavors usually requires a lead time. Sometimes it takes 8 weeks to order and receive a flavor sample (for bench trials) and an additional 8 weeks to order a flavor.
    • Storage details vary depending on the flavor. Make sure you store the flavors properly and use within its shelf-life.
    • Altering mouthfeel should include things like tannins, mannoproteins, and/or polysaccharides. I tend to avoid the overuse of concentrates due to their storage considerations. 
    • More flavor does not equal better; sometimes less is better. You have to keep this in mind when you are making these products.
  • In-House Wine Cocktails:
  • Flavor Matching:
    • This is especially important for wine brands that don’t want to lean into crafting formulaic wines, but any winery can use this to their advantage. 
    • Create cocktails that use your wine as an ingredient. Remember to consider current food/beverage and flavor trends. For marketing, wineries can provide cards, tags, QR codes, etc. that highlight their cocktail recipes. 
    • Some wineries work with chefs to create appetizers or entrees that take food trends into consideration. This becomes opportunities for marketing and advertising, especially via social media, newsletters, and blogs/vlogs that connect with consumers. 
    • These types of creativity and marketing opportunities also open up doors for collaborating with other individuals or small businesses that help enhance the wine brand’s community. 
    • DGW Blog Post for ideas relevant right now: 2026 Food and Beverage Trends Wineries Can Use

The views and opinions expressed through dgwinemaking.com are intended for general informational purposes only. Denise Gardner Winemaking does not assume any responsibility or liability for those winery, cidery, or alcohol-producing operations that choose to use any of the information seen here or within dgwinemaking.com.