Growth begins under the surface

Custom wine sales analytics, built by someone who's lived it

Most reporting tools make you adapt to them. Understory works the other way around. We take your data, however messy, and turn it into a reporting system designed around your business: your products, your markets, your goals. Clear insights, easy to use, and built to grow with you.

How it works

1. Start with strategy

We learn your business — structure, goals, challenges — and review your data to build a clean foundation for reporting.

2. Build your system

You share your raw data in any format. We turn it into a customized reporting platform designed around your business.

3. Ongoing support

Regular updates, quarterly reviews, budget planning, distributor deep-dives. Whatever your business needs to stay on track.

"We never realized how much time we were losing on manual tracking. Understory provides the clarity we need to make strategic decisions, not reactive ones. It has truly unlocked our sales potential and given our management team an edge no competitor has."
— Jennifer Gill, COO, Provignage

What we deliver

  • Shipment and revenue reports by SKU, region, distributor, or time period - with year-over-year comparisons and the ability to drill into the why behind shifts
  • Custom views highlighting how key markets and products are trending
  • Dashboards tracking progress against goals monthly, quarterly, and annually
  • Market-by-market performance, open PO tracking, and billback analysis
  • Custom groupings for multi-state distributors or regional sales territories
  • Export distributor-ready reports as branded PDFs
  • Centralized inventory reports across all warehouses and fulfillment centers
  • Forecasting models for vintage rollovers, future bottling needs, and production planning
  • Seasonal trend analysis for core wines
  • Recommendations for achievable sales goals, informed by historical performance and growth targets
  • Allocation planning support for high-demand, limited-quantity wines
  • Scenario modeling to pressure-test targets before you commit
“Joanna’s reporting tool allows you to view distributors’ business in various ways and detail, producing insightful content that enables me to understand their business and, more importantly, address and communicate trends in real time. It’s the best reporting platform I have ever worked with.”
— George Staikos, President, The Educated Grape

How we help

Less time wrangling data

Stop chasing spreadsheets and reports. Understory gives you the numbers you need so you can focus on actually selling wine.

Decisions, not guesswork

Clear, relevant information you can act on. No more second-guessing whether you're looking at the right numbers.

Savings you can measure

Better forecasting, sharper billback analysis, clearer priorities. The insights pay for themselves.

Distributor engagement

Walk into every meeting with data-backed insights and a clear picture of where your business stands.

Everything in one place

Shipments, inventory, budgets, and more. One organized platform instead of a dozen scattered files.

Everyone on the same page

Shared visibility into the numbers keeps everyone aligned and focused on what matters.

Who we serve

WINERIES looking for support to stay on top of distributors, inventory, sales goals, and performance across all channels.

IMPORTERS and WINE GROUPS with multiple brands, markets, or teams that need a clear, connected view of performance.

Businesses with HIGH COMPLEXITY or LIMITED BANDWIDTH who need powerful analytics without a full-time hire.

About Joanna

I’ve spent more than 20 years in the wine industry, working nearly every side of the business: sales rep, brand manager, national sales manager, and eventually launching and running a statewide California distributor. In every role, one thing always gave me an edge: data. With the right numbers in front of me, the path forward was always clearer.

When I started consulting in 2021, I looked for an analytics tool that could bring real clarity to my clients' data. Something more sophisticated than spreadsheets and pivot tables. Nothing fit, so I built it. That became Understory: born from necessity, shaped by experience, and grounded in the belief that data should empower you, not overwhelm you.

Today, Understory helps wineries and importers do more with less. The platform turns complex data into clear insights, backed by the practical know-how of someone who's lived the realities of wine sales. The goal is simple: give you the clarity and tools you need to make smarter decisions that save both time and money.

“Joanna actually gets our business. We can see the big picture and the details at the same time, and we're planning ahead using our own numbers.”
— Sashi Moorman, Sandhi / Domaine de la Cote / Evening Land / Piedrasassi