Wine & YouTube Video Trends

Wine Industry

May 30

Here at Vero, we believe wine is more than just a drink: it’s the journey of discovery, the shared moments, the cultural tapestry, and the confidence gained from understanding what’s in your glass.

This philosophy guides everything we do, from sourcing our wild and scarce wines globally to how we connect with you, our vibrant Vero Community. With an omnichannel approach to our sales and communication, platforms like this VeroBlog and our YouTube channel are vital for sharing all of aspects of undiscovered small batch wines. With there being so many wines to choose from, we strive to get the word out and educate our followers and customers. Ultimately, you wind up appreciating the wine more once you get the full backstory and bolster your wine education.

Our strategy to get the word out about the wild and scarce artisanal wines and olive oils we seek out started with written media, aka our blog, and along with Facebook, Instagram, X (aka Twitter) & LinkedIn. Meanwhile on YouTube we used it initially as a channel for broadcasting our VeroTalks, which are intimate winetasting chats with Vero Producers.

Then, we made a strategic decision 2 years ago, like our blog, to produce our own content to reach out to those who prefer discovering and learning about wine and food on a platform like YouTube which is more education focused. What have we seen since starting to make this investment?

Out of all the social media platforms, YouTube, in particular, has emerged as a rapidly growing and significant learning platform. We see it as an invaluable marketing tool and a great way to connect with our community through long-form content, fostering deeper engagement than other more scroll-likely social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. Our YouTube channel has since become a significant part of how we interact, share, and get feedback from wine lovers across the country, and really the world. It gives us a unique opportunity to see what truly interests people when it comes to the world of wine (and food).

What has resonated the most with our YouTube audience? Find out in this article.

Our YouTube Channel

Since its start, our channel has grown to feature (at the time of writing) 255 videos with over 1,500 subscribers. Our videos have been shared over 160 times, and nearly 160 of you have commented after watching. Our videos have been viewed close to 150,000 times as of end of May 2025.

Our YouTube channel started mainly as a way to see recordings of our VeroTalks, which are in-depth talks and winetastings with our producers and wine industry professionals with the goal of learning as much as we can from the winegrower and winemaker. Naturally, these videos are longer, and we saw the opportunity to create shorter, more succinct videos each covering highlights of topics which we cover in our VeroTalks, blog, and other platforms of communication. So, in February of 2023, we started creating custom YouTube videos to enhance the discovery, learning and appreciation of wine and food. The observations in this article stem primarily from the analysis of the 113 videos that have been posted as such (exclusive, tailor made content), starting with our tasting of Aldo Clerico’s Barolo Ginestra video.

So, let’s look at over two years of data from these 113 videos spanning a wide range of wine and food related topics from all sorts of how-tos, to philosophical takes, trends and industry deep dives, to recipes, wine and food pairings, and tastings of individual wines…. and everything in between.

What Stood Out

Some of the most obvious observations are noting the “best” performing videos.

When we evaluate our YouTube performance, we normally look at a few different “KPIs” (Key Performance Indicators) for a video, such as views, impressions, and watch time, just to name a few of these performance metrics. And it is through digging into these KPIs and data that reveal some fascinating insights into what truly captivated our viewers. So let’s look at a few of these KPIs and see which videos excelled across in each.

Most Shared Video

Our video, All About Barbera, takes the crown for the most shares.

“Shares” is a powerful indicator of content resonance and organic reach because when viewers share a video, they are actively endorsing it to their friends and family, acting as brand advocates and significantly expanding a video’s potential audience beyond our direct subscribers. We personally get a lot of satisfaction when anyone likes any of our videos enough to want other people to see it too!

Our All About Barbera video, which is a deep dive into this Piedmontese grape which makes Barbera wines, is a standout, indicating its broad appeal and shareability within our community of wine lovers.

Video with the Most Likes

Coming in on top for a second time, the video All About Barbera racked up the most “likes”. Likes reflect strong positive sentiment and viewer agreement with the content, and a high volume of “likes” signals to both other viewers and YouTube's algorithm that the video is considered high-quality and valuable, often contributing to its visibility.

Video with the Best Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Our video Get to Know the Red Moscato: BRACHETTO D’ACQUI had the highest CTR or click through rate. The click through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who saw your video's thumbnail, also known as impressions, and then actually clicked on it to watch. A high CTR signifies that your video's title, thumbnail, and topic are compelling enough to entice viewers to click, effectively grabbing their attention amidst a busy YouTube feed and converting an impression into a view.

Video that Gained Us the Most New Subscribers

The Language of Wine Part 1 brought in the most new subscribers. This is where someone directly subscribes from a video, rather than the channel’s main page. While gaining new subscribers is crucial for long-term channel growth, we particularly like this indicator in terms of video performance since it shows that viewers not only enjoyed a specific piece of content but found enough value to commit to watching future videos, signaling a deeper level of engagement and a desire for ongoing learning.

Video with the Best Viewer Retention

All About UVA TOSCA, which reveals the re-birth of a forgotten grape variety from the Modena province of Emilia-Romagna, was so interesting to our viewers it garners the award for best viewer retention.

Retention, also called average percentage viewed, measures how much of your video viewers watch of a video before clicking away. High retention is a critical signal to YouTube that your content is truly engaging and holds viewers' attention throughout, even for niche topics, often leading to greater algorithmic promotion.

While videos like this one about Uva Tosca might not have the highest views, they seem to engage our viewers more, showing us that those who do watch, find it captivating enough to finish the video.

Video with the Most Impressions

All About Barbera secured a third trophy for having the most impressions. While this sweep of “bests” for this video wasn’t a surprise since it was the most viewed video for many months before eventually being usurped by our current reigning view champion (to be revealed soon).

For this indicator, impressions refer to the number of times your video's thumbnail was shown to viewers on YouTube, whether on their homepage, in search results, or in suggested video feeds. High impressions mean YouTube's algorithm is actively recommending your content to a wide audience, indicating its perceived relevance and potential to capture attention. It is a classic sign of being “loved” by the algorithm.

Most Viewed AND Most Watched Video

And the champion is... The Language of Wine Part 1! This video, the first in our wine lingo series, helped define common wine tasting terminology, and wins the double crown of “most viewed” and “most cumulative watch time”.

Total views indicate the broad reach and popularity of a video, while cumulative watch time, the total time all viewers spent watching the video, is arguably one of the most important metrics for YouTube's algorithm, as it directly reflects the value and engagement provided by the content.

This video’s dominance in both of these performance metrics underscores its broad appeal and sustained interest to our viewers.

Reflections of Our Viewers’ Interests

These top performing videos, along with a wealth of other overall channel data and personal audience feedback, like individual comments left on videos, offer a captivating glimpse into the minds of our viewers.

As we reflect on two years of consistent content creation, a few distinct patterns have emerged, painting a clear picture of our audience's interests and behaviors. By analyzing what people clicked, watched, shared, and subscribed to, we've been able to draw meaningful conclusions about the kinds of wine experiences they seek and how we can best deliver them. We have broken these observations into these macro-categories to better think about them in context of the larger picture.

Education & the Power of Practical Knowledge

Our most popular videos consistently emphasize wine education. Content like our “The Language of Wine" series and general other "how-to" guides on, for example, wine and food pairings, empower viewers with practical knowledge and help them gain confidence in navigating or even staring out, into the world of wine. The conclusion is clear: people are interested in learning new skills, brushing up on basics, and gaining confidence. Whether one is seeking, say, to be more "in the know" about wine in social situations or to overcome a fear of ordering wine at an important business lunch, these videos offer tangible value and can help enhance a viewer’s overall wine experience.

Discovery & the Joy of Exploration

Another significant category for Vero, and one very important to our overall mission as well, is that of discovery. Videos inviting viewers to explore specific wine and food topics, especially lesser-known grapes, consistently resonate.

Our popular videos on Barbera, Uva Tosca, and Brachetto d'Acqui exemplify this. This passion for exploration aligns wonderfully with our blog readers and their preferences too. You can see similarities between our Youtube viewers’ interests and those of our blog readers. If you look at this most recent recap of our blog readers’ favorite articles, the analysis revealed a strong reader interest in deep dives into indigenous grape varieties and regions, as well as wine and food pairing guides that offer fresh perspectives.

This demonstrates that whether through video or text, our audience loves uncovering new facets of the global wine experience, always seeking to deepen their knowledge and expand their horizons.

The Wine Industry Interests

While we serve both wine lovers and wine industry professionals, we've observed different behavior between both groups on YouTube versus our newsletter / blog readership, specifically regarding industry and thought leadership pieces of content.

As we noted from our blog readership from last year, analysis, trends and topics we published about the wine industry attracted the most attention from our professional subscribers.

Meanwhile, on YouTube it seemed to be the opposite: YouTube videos focusing on the nuances of the wine industry itself, such as our video on Corporate Wine vs Farmed Wine, generally have garnered less widespread interest on YouTube compared to our educational or discovery based content. This shows a difference in wants and needs from these 2 different segments, consumer wine drinkers & wine professionals, on these 2 different forms of media. It seems that our YouTube audience comes to the platform for practical, accessible education & how-tos along with curiosity to discover something new, not necessarily for insights into the behind the scenes aspects of the wine industry.

However, it's crucial to note that these videos still serve a vital purpose: while the YouTube format might be less engaging for broad industry topics, it still provides a valuable touchpoint for the industry professionals we serve, keeping them connected to the industry they're passionate about in perhaps a more fun and engaging way than reading and industry journal.

Outliers & Unexpected Outcomes

Not every success can be neatly categorized or replicated, and sometimes, a video simply decides to take off on its own timeline. We've seen fascinating instances where content, like The Language of Wine, was published for several months and then suddenly started gaining significant traction and “took off”, proving that virality often has no rhyme or reason and can be quite unpredictable. It’s the magic of that ineffable algorithm.

These observations also extend to the types of content that resonate differently across platforms. It seems our "how-to" videos consistently do well on YouTube, delivering practical, visual guidance that empowers viewers. Conversely, stories and narratives often find a stronger resonance in our blog posts and newsletters, where readers engage with more in-depth storytelling in a textual format.

We've certainly tried to reverse-engineer success; for instance, we tried to mimic the success of our All About Barbera video. We tried filming more videos outdoors, creating visually similar thumbnails, using similar keywords, and even trying to rehash the topic. But we quickly learned that it wasn’t necessarily any one of these things that was the secret ingredient to its virality. Ultimately, because of that aforementioned ineffability of the algorithm, we believe in mixing up our subjects and experimenting to find the next spike. Some topics, like broader cultural or historical explorations of wine, tend to have less widespread appeal on YouTube, yet we still think they have a certain appeal to viewers in their own way. In the end, this reinforces that while some content trends, others are simply outliers that remind us of the unpredictable nature of online content.

Miscellaneous Trends & Fun Memories

Beyond the hard data, we've picked up on some intriguing patterns that shape the overall wine experience we deliver:

Listicles Reign: Our multi-topic "listicles," such as those on wine lingo, cheese pairing tips, or uncommon grapes, consistently attract interested viewers. People seem to enjoy concise, digestible compilations of information.
Quality over Quantity (of Views): While our specific wine tasting videos (e.g., of a particular wine) might not boast sky-high view counts, such as our Tasting Marchese Japo video, they consistently show higher average percentage viewed, or retention. This means that the viewers who do click on these videos are highly captivated and watch a significant portion, indicating a dedicated and deeply engaged audience for niche, in-depth content.
The Production Journey: It’s been a significant learning curve for us from behind the scenes. From our presenter, Jacqueline: “Starting out with my partner filming, we had to learn so much from scratch! From optimizing lights and camera settings to scripting, editing techniques, and even refining my presentation style, every video is a step forward in our production quality. Just lighting alone for example: at the beginning that very first Barolo Ginestra video, I remember sitting for hours while my partner fiddled with light settings and colors. Now, we can whip up a setting and lighting in just a half an hour!”
Unexpected Moments: And yes, sometimes funny things happen, like the unexpected exploding of a Pet Nat cap while filming a video on Zanon’s Col Fondo Prosecco! And lots of things that don’t necessarily make it into the video, like Jacqueline’s repeated attempts at mistakenly reading scripts, or wine going down the wrong way when tasting on camera. They are moments that remind us of the lively, authentic nature of wine itself.

Lessons Learned

Our two years on YouTube have offered invaluable insights into what truly interests and engages our audience and the Vero Community. Our collected data clearly shows a strong preference for educational and discovery-focused content, reinforcing that our viewers and customers are eager to learn, grow, and expand their wine knowledge and experiences.

While our blog serves as the primary hub for in-depth industry analysis and broader narratives, YouTube excels at delivering concise, visual "how-to" guides and specific grape deep-dives that build confidence and spark curiosity.

This recap isn't just about celebrating popular videos; it's about understanding our audience’s behavior to refine our content strategy and continue positioning Vero as a thought leader in the wine and food space. By consistently providing content that educates, inspires discovery, and shares the authentic journey of wine, we aim to continually enrich our fellow wine lovers’ experiences and enjoyment.

Time to Taste the Trends

We appreciate your support and love being able to share our passion and our wine stories with all of you. For even more in-depth articles, wine insights, and to stay connected with Vero, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and sign up for our free Vero Newsletter. It’s a great way to keep up to date on all the movements of Vero and the incredible producers and wines we discover.

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