I just came across an interesting study by some folks at Cal Poly on the profile of  e-commerce wine purchasers.
My key takeaway is that online buyers are the center of the target for us for premium (>$12/bottle) wine brands.   It’s an indicator that’s much more precise than demographics or psychographics of their receptivity and likelihood to buy better wines.

They:
-buy more wine
-buy more expensive wine
-consider themselves knowledgeable about wine and talk about wine with friends. They are regarded as the experts in their social circle and are more influential than all the wine magazines and websites …probably combined!

Not surprisingly they’re more likely to use phone apps, websites and search in Google…and less likely to use print as wine information source.

Here are some of the details and conclusions

Online wine buyers are more likely to:
-Consider themselves a wine enthusiast
-enjoy talking about wine
-Consider themselves knowledgeable about wine
-Consider themselves a wine connoisseur

Online wine buyers vs. non online buyers
-buy on average two more bottles of wine/month
-spend more on wine/month:$135 vs. $81.61
spend more than 18.50 on a bottle
-interested in wines that are: premium quality, from a recognized growing region, from a family owned and/or boutique winery. (Also less interested in wine at a sale price)