What’s Up with Ohio? Your Best U.S. Growth Strategy May Lie Beyond the Usual Targets
Author: Lauren Bazzoli, Director of Sales
Last spring at Vinitaly and Wine Paris, we met dozens of winemakers, each producing beautiful wines and looking to expand into the United States. As we discussed go-to-market strategy and where Elysia & Co can support, almost everyone named the same three target markets: New York, New Jersey, and California. No surprise, as those are often where suppliers first imagine building a U.S. presence; these markets have visibility, storied wine establishments, and obvious commercial appeal. But as the conversations continued, another pattern emerged; a surprising number of them already had distribution in exactly one state: Ohio. It happened often enough that we started asking each other, only half-joking, "What's up with Ohio?" The answer, it turns out, is even bigger than the record-setting 2,530 lbs Ohio State Fair Butter Cow.
Nobody needs to be told that getting a buyer’s undivided attention and selling wine is hard, or that everyone is fighting for the same shelf and the same page on the same list. While New York, New Jersey and California are dense, sophisticated, endlessly thirsty markets, they are also where every other producer with a good story is standing in line. Ohio, by contrast, reminds us that true opportunity often exists right under our nose, in the places where everyone else is overlooking.
Full disclosure — I've spent most of my wine career in New York and California, and during the pandemic shuffle of 2020, I found myself close to family in Missouri.
While the Midwest and other non-coastal regions may often be considered “flyover country,” we’ve come to think of it as our own little secret.
It certainly isn’t the densest market in the country, but local retailers and restaurants are looking beyond the usual suspects and broadening their wine and spirits offerings. That's not the Malört talking; it's what real-time freight patterns are revealing. As a leading reefer LCL provider, our lane availability adapts along customer demand, and we've seen substantial growth not just in the Midwest, but also the Carolinas and the Rockies. That growth is changing how distributors approach these markets. More are buying directly from the domaine, which means fewer hands on the bottle, and more margin left in the glass.
The importers and suppliers pulling ahead right now aren't the ones chasing all fifty states at once. They're picking a market where they have attentive buyers and some elbow room, before the competition catches up. Don't get me wrong: having the keys to every door is genuinely useful — it's what we do, and those keys are available to our customers when business demands it. But a set of keys isn't a strategy, and it won't churn the butter for you. Launching across fifty states at once can spread you (and your cash flow) too thin. Building one focused state at a time can allow you to sell an inch wide and a mile deep before catapulting into new regions.
So if you're building out your U.S. presence this year, by all means go after New York and California. Just don't let it be the whole plan. The next market worth building may be one you’ve been flying over.
