From sustainability to company culture to innovation in both products and packaging, John Sutton, CEO of The Wine Group, has taken a leadership role in creating quality wines at accessible price points.
John Sutton’s route to his current post as chief executive officer of The Wine Group (TWG), may be unconventional, he says it has ensured that he’s achieved the kind of well-rounded experience necessary to lead a company through challenging times, fierce economic headwinds and unprecedented environmental uncertainties.
In the 1990s, Sutton served in the White House under President Clinton as special assistant to the counselor to the president and went on to work as an attorney, eventually working as outside counsel to The Wine Group as an attorney for the firm Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin. Sutton officially joined TWG in 2007, rising through the ranks from his original post as general counsel to chief financial officer and now his current role as chief executive officer, a post he attained in 2022.
“As the industry and consumer preferences evolve, you’ll see us continue to innovate,” Sutton says, explaining that TWG will outmaneuver obstacles through “in-house development, strategic partnerships and acquisitions and continue to grow our premium wine offerings, as well as expand into the broader adult beverage category.”
Since Sutton’s appointment as CEO, he has actively pursued additional premium wine holdings, acquiring Cooper & Thief, The Dreaming Tree and Charles Smith Wines. In the past decade in his roles at TWG, Sutton has helped quadruple the annual retail sales of TWG’s $12+ portfolio from less than $100 million to more than $400 million annually.
In April, TWG announced a national distribution agreement with Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, ensuring that TWG will have, Sutton explains, “tremendous route-to-market efficiencies, national accounts reach and industry data and insights.”
While TWG has been an industry leader for 42 years, focusing on helping the 60+ privately held and management-owned brands in its stable produce excellent wines, the Livermore, California-based company has become increasingly invested in sustainability in all of its forms, from the environment to its people.
“We believe in producing wine using sustainable practices to foster healthy land and agriculture for generations to come,” Sutton explains. “All TWG California vineyards are 100% certified sustainable or biodynamic, and all of our California production facilities are 100% certified sustainable.”
It also comes down to the culture TWG cultivates at the wineries it acquires.
“We’re very focused on keeping families engaged in the wineries they created and have invested in so much, financially and emotionally,” Sutton says, citing the Benziger family, who have remained as involved as they were when TWG acquired them in 2015.
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That passion and commitment has helped earn TWG more than 4,000 awards since 2010 alone, including Franzia’s 20-year reign as the world’s number 1 wine brand and Cupcake Vineyard’s status as the number 1 premium wine brand by volume.
TWG is the second-largest wine producer in the world, with annual sales of approximately $1 billion and shipments of more than 50 million cases of wine across the globe. TWG also imports wine from several countries, including New Zealand, Chile, Spain and Argentina. In other words, TWG’s power and sway would be tough to overestimate. With Sutton leading the company with such a conscientious and holistic approach to environmental and economic sustainability, that means that not just the wineries under TWG’s umbrella—but the entire wine industry—will be headed to a better place.
“The wine industry needs to evolve the way we market to effectively capture a more diverse mix of consumers,” Sutton says. “That means innovating on packaging format and sizes, taking a leadership role on nutrition and ingredient labeling, creating quality offerings at affordable price points and producing wine sustainably.”
For that, Wine Enthusiast feels pride in recognizing John Sutton as the 2023 Person of the Year.
Published: October 10, 2023
