It’s baaaaaack! The incredibly successful “Come Over October” campaign is once again inviting the international wine community to celebrate with the beverage that brings us all together. Everyone is invited, and now is the time to get started by planning for a dozen curated suggestions: –Game Day gatherings with wine and snacks –Best Friend nights centered around cooking dinner together –Neighborhood Potlucks that build community connections –Leaves Changing Color celebrations with white, red, and rose tastings after autumn walks –At-home wine tasting parties for old and new friends –Wine Book Club gatherings that combine reading with regional wine exploration –Renewed Sunday Supper traditions –End of October costume parties featuring bewitching wines –TGIF Wine and Cheese gatherings after work –Love Your Local Winery visits to support the wineries in all 50 states And you can even create your own themes! The

Second-Year Sponsorship Highlights American Wine Industry’s Economic Impact and Community Building Mission  WineAmerica, the National Association of American Wineries, announced today its proud sponsorship of the 2025 Come Over October Congressional Wine Caucus press conference and reception, taking place on October 8th in Washington, D.C. This marks the second consecutive year WineAmerica has supported this important invitation-only industry event, demonstrating the organization’s continued commitment to fostering bipartisan support for America’s burgeoning wine industry.  The reception will showcase wines from across many states, celebrating the breadth, diversity and quality of American wine production from coast to coast. This comprehensive representation underscores the truly national scope of the American wine industry, which now includes 10,637 wine producers operating in every state. Economic Powerhouse Supporting American Communities WineAmerica&r

Join Karen MacNeil, Kimberly Noelle Charles and Gino Colangelo, co-founders of the Come Over October campaign, for a focused webinar on how wineries, wine companies, and wine regions can use this fall’s campaign to promote and sell their wines.

Join wine industry icon Karen MacNeil, RedChirp co-founder Jennie Gilbert, and Laurelle Turner-Clemons from Hess Persson Estates for a practical, idea-packed webinar to help you promote and sell your wine using the Come Over October campaign for creative traction.  Co-created by Karen, Kimberly Noelle Charles, and Gino Colangelo, the Come Over October campaign is focused on telling the positive story about wine by celebrating togetherness, connection, and hospitality. The campaign has experienced extraordinary success thus far—reaching nearly 2 billion media impressions in its first year. In this session, we’ll highlight how your winery can easily participate, benefit, and be a part of Come Over October this fall.  You’ll get proven text message marketing strategies, ready-to-use SMS campaigns, and expert tips to drive traffic and boost sales, all tailored to the Come Over October theme. Whether you're joining for the first time or returning for ano

Join Karen MacNeil, Kimberly Noelle Charles and Gino Colangelo, co-founders of the Come Over October campaign, for a focused webinar on how wineries, wine companies, and wine regions can use this fall’s campaign to promote and sell their wines. Begun in 2024, Come Over October is a hugely successful grassroots consumer campaign in support of wine as the beverage that brings people together. To date Come Over October, and its sister campaign Share & Pair Sundays, have garnered nearly 2 billion media impressions and more than 1400 retail stores will run Come Over October promotions this fall. The webinar will include special guests, plus an excerpt from the campaign’s interview with winemaker Alecia Moore (stage name P!nk). Speakers:  

February 20th, 2025 — Wineries seeking innovative ways to engage wine lovers and drive DTC sales this spring now have a powerful new tool at their disposal. RedChirp, the wine industry’s leading text messaging platform, is proud to collaborate with best-selling author and wine industry thought leader Karen MacNeil—co-creator of Come Over October and Share & Pair Sundays—to help wineries seamlessly integrate this exciting new movement into their marketing strategies.  On Thursday, February 27th at 10 AM Pacific, Karen MacNeil and RedChirp co-founder Jennie Gilbert will host an exclusive webinar: "New Ways to Engage Wine Lovers: Share & Pair Sundays + Text Message Marketing." Attendees will discover the inspiration behind Share & Pair Sundays and gain access to a suite of new tools designed to make participation effortless for busy DTC teams—including prebuilt bulk message templates, expert SMS marketing strategies, and prov

How 'Come Over October' Brought the Wine World Together (WineAmerica)

Come Over October (COO) sprung from a light bulb moment in January 2024, when noted author & wine writer Karen MacNeil was walking her dog and

The Marketing Behind Come Over October Hopefully, by now, you’ve seen some wineries participate in Come Over October, a new program launched to benefit the wine industry. Our industry is facing a critical shift where the cultural narrative around wine is being scrutinized. At the same time, loneliness and isolation are now at epidemic levels, and the simple act of sharing wine, which has always been a catalyst for connection, seems to be losing its place. The goal of Come Over October, launched by wine journalist Karen MacNeil and PR veterans Gino Colangelo and Kimberly Noelle Charles, is to counter these trends. The idea is simple: encourage friends, family, and colleagues to “come over” in October to share a bottle and reconnect. It’s not about fancy wine pairings or breaking the bank—just using wine as a focus to celebrate being together in an increasingly disconnected world. The wine industry, as always, adapts to challenges, and this campaign is a re

Session 2: New Regulations Impacting the Wine Industry Date & Time: Wednesday, April 10th – 10:00 AM (PT)  Seemingly, each year brings new laws and regulations that impact the wine industry and present a maze of compliance issues. This session will feature four experts addressing four areas where new regulations impact vineyards and wineries. FTC Enforcement and Trade Practice Compliance: As part of the current administration’s initiative to increase competition and assist small and medium-sized businesses in the alcohol beverage market, there’s been a renewed focus on federal trade practices that govern how industry members interact. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission has launched an antitrust investigation focused on one of the nation’s largest alcohol beverage distributors. Given these developments, industry members should brush up on the world of trade practice restrictions in order to avoid any potential pitfalls.  Bottle Bill: