(Wines&Vines) - Putting numbers behind conventional wisdom governing sales and business practices in the wine industry is the goal of a report released this week by Trellis Growth Partners LLC of Portland.

The report draws upon responses from 107 wineries across the United States (most of them from the Northwest), each of which volunteered information in exchange for a copy of the report and a $10 donation to the charity of their choice for every completed survey. (All told, more than $800 was raised for the Auction of Washington Wines; Salud! and La Clinica, which serves the needs of seasonal workers in Oregon; the Idaho Wine Education Foundation, and the Human Society of Southwest Washington.) 

Trellis collated the surveys with the assistance of statistical research firm Elite Research LLC of Carrollton, Texas, drawing a variety of conclusions regarding marketing practices.

Dixie Huey, founding principal of Trellis Growth Partners, launched the project in 2012 with the aim of finding out how wineries market themselves. The research led to conclusions regarding the relative success of the practices, and the report that was released this week.

“The real question is not how but what do the successful producers do. What actually works?” Huey told Wines & Vines.