Wineries that want to attract and retain visitors need to rethink their approach: instead of always playing the role of educators, they should embrace lighter, more entertaining experiences. Gamification, from quiz games to treasure hunts, is proving to be a powerful tool to create emotional connections with guests and drive purchases.
Are you still only offering “serious” tastings in your winery? Maybe it’s time to evolve
When tourists arrive tired at the fifth winery of the day, it’s not because they don’t want wine — it’s because they don’t want yet another lecture about it. The wineries that have figured out how to entertain their visitors are winning.
A few days ago, during a conversation with a client, I came across a reflection that I believe is the turning point for many businesses. He told me that tour operators regularly bring groups of tourists to his winery, but this comes with a problem: his is often the third, fourth, or fifth winery of the day. Visitors arrive tired, bored, saturated with information. And what happens? They often leave without buying even a single bottle.
We need to face an uncomfortable reality: wineries must abandon, at least occasionally, the role of educators they have assigned themselves. Understanding when the right moment is to teach and when something else is needed is essential. The two things can easily coexist, but we must be ready to recognize that sometimes — often, I would dare say — the customer simply wants to have fun.
More and more wineries are finally stepping up to the challenge. They are breaking free from the usual stereotype of wine as serious, austere, almost intimidating. They are discovering that giving the customer a pleasant, light, memorable moment is the best key to creating an authentic emotional connection with the brand.
A concrete example. In our working group Wine Tourism Hub, we recently welcomed Rewine as a partner. It is a software that wineries can use via tablet to offer visitors, while they taste, the “Sommelier Game” — a fun quiz where everyone can test their tasting skills. The most significant data point? People who have used this tool mention it spontaneously in their reviews, because it has become an integral part of their experience.
What are we waiting for to put ourselves in the shoes of those who want to experience wine lightly? There is a childlike side in all of us, especially when we are out with friends in our free time, far from daily responsibilities.
Identity gamification
Some wineries are creating games that directly connect the brand’s identity to the visitor’s experience. I’m thinking of experiences where guests must recognize visual or symbolic elements linked to the company’s history, perhaps through objects to identify or details to discover inside the winery.
Immersive gamification
Here the visitor becomes an active protagonist of the exploration. Treasure hunts among the rows of vines, clues hidden in the production areas, small missions that push visitors to physically move through the winery or vineyard space.
Architectural gamification
There are examples of wineries that use their production spaces as actual game elements. Barrels become scenery for challenges and riddles, stacked bottles transform into puzzles to solve. The physical environment stops being just a backdrop and becomes the heart of the interaction.
The common denominator of all these examples? The awareness that wine can be serious in its quality, but the experience around it can be light, engaging, and fun. The world is changing, tourists are changing. It is time for us to change the way we welcome them.
Key points
- Visitors arriving at their fourth or fifth winery of the day are too tired to engage with traditional tastings.
- Wineries must balance education with entertainment to meet different visitor moods and needs.
- Gamification tools like the Sommelier Game quiz generate spontaneous positive reviews and stronger brand memory.
- Identity, immersive, and architectural gamification are three emerging formats transforming winery visits.
- Creating light, memorable experiences builds authentic emotional connections that traditional tastings often fail to achieve.
