Wine Marketing Podcast · Heather Daenitz

What Makes a Wine Collab Actually Work? with Erin Kirschenmann of Wine Business Monthly & Novel Pairings

·55 min·3 clips

Erin says wine has to become “ancillary” if a collaboration is going to work.

Heather Danitz opens the conversation with Erin by asking what makes a wine collaboration actually work. Erin brings her long run at Wine Business Monthly into the discussion. She has been with the company since 2012. Her work spans business, technology, sales, marketing, and symposium programming. She also joined Napa Valley Wine Academy as a WCET instructor in 2022, has judged the International Concours Mondial de Bruxelles since 2016, and landed on Beverage Dynamics' 40 Under 40 list in 2025. From there, Heather and Erin get into the real question behind the episode: which partnerships feel natural, useful, and worth the effort? The answer keeps coming back to fit rather than flash. Erin makes the case that a collaboration does not need a huge budget to matter. The conversation returns again and again to audiences with shared habits and real enthusiasm. Grandma hobbies come up as a useful example of that energy. Knitting, crocheting, and cross-stitch all get airtime as communities with a strong identity. Heather points out that wineries already overlap with some of those worlds through vineyard sheep and wool. That opens the door to ideas like a local knitting shop event or a special label for a hobby community. Erin and Heather also talk about working with influencers who actually live inside those niches. The episode keeps leaning toward support over self-promotion. A winery should show up as a good partner, not try to dominate the room. That can mean choosing a simple activation that feels specific and sincere. Novel Pairings adds another layer to the conversation because Erin is also building a no-pressure community around books, wine, and life. The result is a practical, friendly discussion about collaborations that people will actually care about.

As heard by us

The best collaborations start with fit, not flash.

Wine collaborations work best when they fit a real audience, not when they are dressed up as reach for its own sake. Heather Danitz and Erin Kirshenman keep the discussion practical, with attention on niche communities, low-cost activations, and the simple idea of showing up…

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Why you'd press play

You want a collab that feels native, not pasted on.

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