Château Meridian had a problem most wineries would envy: their subscriber list was growing faster than their allocation. But with growth came a new challenge — how do you maintain the intimacy that made people subscribe in the first place?
Their winemaker, Isabelle Renard, had always been transparent about her process — sharing harvest notes, tasting updates, and the dilemmas that come with every vintage. The idea of turning one of those dilemmas into a collective decision felt like a natural extension of what she was already doing.
The decision we opened up
The 2022 vintage presented a genuine three-way tension: Parcel A had produced a fruit-forward, immediately approachable wine. Parcel B was structured and austere, built for ageing. Parcel C offered aromatic complexity but lower volume. Isabelle knew what she wanted to do, but recognised that the community's perspective might sharpen her thinking — and would certainly deepen their investment in the result.
“I expected people to just pick the option that sounded nicest. What I didn't expect was how well they understood what they were choosing between.”
We structured the vote across three rounds over six weeks. Round one set context — subscribers told us how they typically drink the wine (cellared, or opened within a year). Round two presented the parcel characteristics with Isabelle's tasting notes. Round three asked for the allocation split. Each round included a short written response field, which generated over 800 comments we shared back with the community.
What happened
Participation exceeded every benchmark. 73% of subscribers engaged with at least one round — compared to a 22% open rate on standard newsletters. The final allocation sold out in six hours. More significantly, 340 new names joined the waitlist in the two weeks following the campaign's conclusion, having seen posts and conversations the community had shared publicly.
Isabelle used the community's input directly in her final decision — not because she was bound to, but because it clarified her thinking. The result leaned slightly more toward structure than she'd originally planned. She wrote about that in the release note, crediting the community explicitly.
“They didn't just buy the wine. They bought a decision they helped make. That's a different kind of loyalty.”