The Return of "Grandma Hobbies"
and how wineries can tap into the slower, analog moments people are craving
This weekend, my sister Sara came to visit for Thanksgiving, and because she is a knitter (I am too, but she’s much deeper into it than I am), I took her to the grand opening of the Morro Bay Yarn Shop.
The shop was packed. It was so cool to see an entire community of people connecting over a joint passion: yarn.
My sister was very popular. She wore one of the sweaters she’d made, and no less than six people stopped her to compliment and ask her about it. While we were waiting in line, we asked the other patrons what projects they were working on, traded Ravelry patterns, and generally nerded out about all things yarn.
Afterwards, we wandered around Morro Bay, popping into vintage shops and thrift stores (agreeing that with vintage, you pay more for a curated selection and with thrift, you pay less but have to commit to the hunt).
The rest of the weekend, Sara and I spent talking about how great it was to be in community with like-minded people, with part of that discussion taking us into the territory of how cool it is to see “grandma hobbies” like knitting, sewing, and baking becoming the norm.
To me, it speaks to a general desire to step away from the digital world and reconnect with the things we make by hand. And after seeing the drop in engagement and reach across my clients’ social media this month, I’m starting to believe that this renewed interest in analog is directly tied to people's disillusionment with social media and AI.
People are spending less time online, and some studies have indicated that our mental health improves when we take breaks from social media. I think that a lot of people, in general, are shifting their time toward things that feel slower, quieter, and more grounded.
This trend is showing up everywhere: film photography was brought back from near extinction thanks to some of the younger generations wanting to slow down in their photography (myself included). Vinyl and cassette tapes, and even CDs, are becoming more popular again. Handwritten journals, pour-over coffee setups and matcha rituals, sourdough starters, physical recipe cards and books... Everything feels like it’s trending toward folks wanting to do things with more intention.
This connects to a conversation I had a few months ago about mindfulness in wine consumption, which also feels like part of this movement. Robert Joseph of the Substack, Wine Thinking, had argued that not everyone wants to think deeply about their wine, which I totally get. As I mentioned in my comment on his post, there are plenty of nights when I just want something cold and wet, not a whole philosophical experience with my wine. But even then, I still pause, because the wine I keep around even for the more “mindless” moments is still really fucking good.
Which brings me back to my point: You don’t have to be consciously mindful to notice when something was made with care. People are choosing slower and more intentional options in other parts of their lives. They’re buying 35mm cameras and learning to knit. They’re building whole ass rituals around their morning hot beverage. Even Taylor Swift is out here making sourdough.
So why do we assume then that people aren’t bringing that same energy to wine?
Folks want texture again. They want community and slower moments where their brains aren’t yanked around by five apps at once. For the love of god, they want to order their food from a physical menu, not a fucking QR code (but that’s a rant for another day)!!
Substack as a bridge between the analog and the digital
And I think this is why Substack feels like such a relief for me compared to social media. Yes, there’s totally a social media/algorithmically driven component to Substack, but I’ve found the vast majority of my new subscribers these days are coming from people sharing my posts with other folks.
Substack can be an incredible tool for wineries for exactly this reason.
Not to replace social media, but to create a slower, more thoughtful place to tell your story. There are people (including myself) who have created rituals around reading their Substack subscriptions once a week (or even daily). I even saw one person who prints out her favorite Substacks to read when she gets a chance!
Folks are literally treating Substack like they used to treat their newspaper: brewing up a hot beverage, sitting down at an actual table, and reading.
People are craving a more profound connection with the brands they care about, and I believe that Substack lends itself really well to that. It’s essentially a digital version of all these analog trends.
But what does a more offline, slower, and community-based version of wine marketing look like?
I have a few ideas:
Crafty Events
Sip and Stitch evenings (my local yarn shop hosts these once a month, where we get together, drink wine or beer at a local spot, and work on our knitting/crocheting/cross-stitch projects together)
Baking or Cooking Classes (Buttonwood Winery has done this a handful of times with different chefs, and it’s always a hit)
Clay Working Afternoons (I took my dad to a Clay & Chardonnay event at Laetitia Winery a few years ago for Father’s Day, and he still talks about how much fun it was)
Snail Mail
Postcards
Handwritten letters to wine club members
Holiday cards (like those silly ones you get from families)
In short… Experiences
Seasonal maker markets
Photo walks through the vineyard with film cameras (or even just showing people how to take dope photos with their smartphones)
Book clubs or journaling nights (this could be a neat opportunity to partner with my friend Erin of Novel Pairings)
None of these ideas are meant to replace digital marketing; obviously, we’re still living very online. But they might help balance things a little. Plus, they tap into something that is very clearly resonating right now: the desire to do something with our hands, in a room with other people, without screens.
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Love, Peace, and Chicken Grease.
I share your enthusiasm for more analog moments, like reading, not podcasting your post.
The issue with wanting a wine that is just "cold and wet" and without much thought is the price. In order for that beverage to be actually good and made by someone like a Foxen or me. That's gonna be about $20 or more. There is plenty of alternative plonk on the shelf at the big box store for less than $20, including thoughtless beer and bubbly things. That's not our market or the market for vinyl.
Seeing your parallels with tattoo artists, film cameras, vinyl - are premium analog, akin to wine over $20 or maybe even $30 or $40. Hopefully, those same people looking into a hand stitched leather bag or waxed cotton jacket to accompany their film camera and vinyl collection are the same people buying wine produced by people we know and not cheap plonk. I hope you're right.
Hi Heather,
My wife Toni volunteers at Fiber and Fringe (Paso Robles) and is quite proficient at knitting/crocheting. She's planning stitch nights and reading nights our new tasting room in downtown Paso. Not to be overly stereotypical, what about the guys - besides Monday Night Football, have you run across any ideas that would bring them in?