Fractional Leadership for Wineries — From Vineyard to Visitor, and Every System in Between

At Wine Hound, we believe every interaction with your brand — from a guided tasting to a digital purchase — should reflect the richness and character of your wine. We're a husband-and-wife consultancy that brings fractional, executive-level leadership to wineries: the experiences your guests feel, and the technology and intelligence that power them.

We work first and foremost with wineries — and we're equally at home with the wine-country hospitality groups that surround them, where tasting rooms sit alongside lodging, dining, events, and weddings. Bring us in for a defined slice of senior leadership, without the cost or commitment of a full-time C-suite hire. And because we both hold the WSET Level 3 Award in Wines, our work always comes from people who understand the wine, the guest, and the business behind them.

Fractional Leadership, One Team

Fractional Chief Hospitality Officer / Chief Member Experience Officer

Led by Hannah

Hannah brings executive-level hospitality and member-experience leadership to wineries — and to the wine-country hospitality groups that surround them. She's spent her career designing high-touch experiences and member programs at scale: signature annual conferences, a virtual education series, executive dinners and networking events — while leading a team and overseeing a multimillion-dollar budget. As a professionally trained facilitator with executive leadership development behind her, she also brings genuine credibility to corporate gatherings and high-stakes events. Depending on what your business needs, she can step in as your fractional:

Chief Hospitality Officer (CHO)
When hospitality is central to your brand — your winery and tasting room, or a hospitality group spanning lodging, dining, events, and weddings — Hannah sets the vision and the standard for the entire guest experience. She can:

• Define your service standards and build a hospitality culture that lasts
• Design signature guest experiences, tastings, tours, and events
• Build staff training and education programs that elevate every interaction
• Align every touchpoint, onsite and online, with your brand story

Chief Member Experience Officer
For wine clubs and membership-driven experiences — and the membership programs within larger hospitality groups — Hannah owns the member journey from first impression to lasting loyalty. She can:

• Design onboarding and the full member lifecycle
• Build programming, events, and engagement that keep members coming back
• Develop loyalty and retention strategies that grow your community
• Surface member insights and trends to guide smarter decisions
• Lead and develop your member-facing team

Featured: Corporate Events & Facilitation
Wineries are a natural setting for corporate offsites, retreats, and team gatherings — and Hannah is trained to lead them. With professional facilitation training through Leadership Strategies and executive leadership development and mentorship through the Telos Institute, she can design and facilitate corporate events, workshops, and planning sessions that go well beyond a tasting — opening a valuable new revenue stream for your winery. She also creates the print and on-site marketing materials that make in-person events feel polished from the first invitation to the final toast.

Fractional packages are scaled to your business — from a focused engagement to ongoing executive leadership. We'll right-size the role to where you are today.

Fractional CIO/CTO

Led by Sam

Sam brings more than a decade of technology leadership to wineries — and the hospitality groups that operate them — as a fractional CIO/CTO. That's executive-level insight without the full-time hire, and a track record focused on growing revenue and protecting margin. As a current professional-services VP and former CTO, he turns technology complexity into action you can measure. He can:

• Audit and improve your wine club, POS, inventory, and CRM systems
• Plan and prioritize IT initiatives aligned with real business goals
• Oversee eCommerce enhancements and technology vendor evaluations
• Connect your systems through integration and automation so data flows and your team stops doing work software should do
• Translate technology decisions into measurable business outcomes

Featured: AI & Automation
Sam developed the AI practice and real-world use cases for his consulting firm, so AI is built into how he leads technology — not bolted on afterward. As your fractional CIO/CTO, he can help you cut through the hype and put AI to work where it actually moves the needle:

• Identify high-value AI use cases and build a clear, prioritized roadmap
• Implement virtual sommelier and personalized recommendation tools
• Apply demand forecasting and inventory or production analytics
• Automate routine club, fulfillment, and customer-service workflows

Featured: Digital Marketing & Growth
Sam helps wineries turn visitors into customers and customers into regulars, with marketing that's measurable and built to scale. He can:

• Grow organic traffic with SEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) enhancements
• Run paid advertising and retargeting campaigns across the channels that reach your buyers
• Build and grow your customer email lists for direct, owned-audience marketing
• Plan marketing calendars for promotions, new releases, and wine club drives so your outreach stays consistent and on-brand

Packages available from 10 to 30 hours per week. Typical engagements include strategic planning sessions, solution design, vendor reviews, and quarterly performance assessments.

Why Wine Hound

Most consultants know hospitality, or they know technology. We're a team that does both — and we work as one.

Hannah shapes the experience your guests and members remember; Sam builds the systems and intelligence that make that experience consistent, scalable, and profitable. It even shows in how we handle marketing: Sam drives the digital side — search, paid, email, and the marketing calendar — while Hannah owns the in-person side, from facilitated corporate events to the printed materials that greet your guests. From first click to final toast, you get one coherent strategy from two specialists who happen to share a dinner table, and a basset hound named Jerry.

Something Else in Mind?

Fractional hospitality, member experience, technology, AI, and marketing leadership are where we spend most of our time — but they aren't the limit of what we can help with. If you have a project or a need that doesn't fit neatly into the roles above, we're genuinely interested. Leave us a note about what you're trying to accomplish, and we'll set up a conversation to understand the scope and put together a custom quote.

Our Philosophy

We're not just consultants — we're wine lovers with a mission. We believe that hospitality, technology, and AI, used intentionally, can transform how people experience wine at every touchpoint. From the moment a guest discovers your label to the final sip in the tasting room, we help you create deeper, more memorable connections — with no jargon for its own sake, and no snobbery.

Ready to Get Started?

Fill out the form below to schedule your free consultation. Tell us a little about your winery — or hospitality group — and what you're hoping to improve: the experience you want to elevate, the systems giving you headaches, the membership or marketing you want to grow, or something else entirely. We can't wait to help bring your vision to life.