How to Monetize a Private Channel About Winemaking

Anton Rebizov started with a public channel where he shared basic knowledge about wine. Later, he launched a private community called the “Anti-Sommelier School”, where wine enthusiasts could get insider tips directly from industry experts. We discussed how to change the approach to winemaking, build a community, and monetize practical knowledge through a private Telegram channel.

How It All Started

In 2017, I moved to Sevastopol to dive into winemaking. At the time, I was working as a training specialist for a wine supermarket chain, but I realized I wanted deeper knowledge and more emotional connection with the product. I wanted to follow the entire journey—from grape to bottle. During one presentation, I learned about the opportunity to produce quality wine in Sevastopol and felt inspired to move there and start making wine myself.

I moved there by invitation and took a job as the head of a small winery lab—there were only 12 people. In reality, everyone did everything: if it was bottling day, you bottled; if it was harvest, you picked grapes. I learned by doing, took numerous courses, read tons of professional literature—and eventually felt the urge to share my knowledge.

About the Channel

In 2019, I started a public Telegram channel, mostly to organize my thoughts and answer friends’ questions. In the beginning, I covered the basics—what grapes are, how white and red wine are made.

As I grew professionally, I noticed that many people’s knowledge about wine was outdated. Universities were still teaching from Soviet-era textbooks written 30 years ago. Meanwhile, wine and consumers’ tastes had changed. The 1990s brought imports, the rise of sommeliers, and a new way of positioning wine. Yet consumers often relied on myths and lacked access to real information about how wine is made. I wanted to fill that gap and talk about wine competently and from the inside.

As someone working in production, I made it my mission to offer an insider’s perspective and debunk the common myths. That’s how “Anti-Sommelier School” was born in spring 2024—a private channel. I posted the launch announcement in the evening, and by midnight, the first subscriptions started rolling in.

About the Content

I chose to use the private channel primarily for live streams—both my own and with guest experts. I invite producers, suppliers, and other professionals to join the conversations. Subscribers get direct access to insider knowledge: they can join the live sessions, ask questions, watch recorded streams, and discuss everything in the chat.

The dialogue format allows us to go deeper into the topics and makes the content more dynamic. This is especially valuable for complex subjects like wine chemistry or production technologies. These topics require detailed exploration, but a live conversation with an expert helps simplify things naturally. It’s much easier for viewers to absorb this kind of information through a dialogue.

So now, I focus on finding great speakers and building content around those conversations. On one hand, it makes my job easier; on the other, it raises the value of the channel, because subscribers gain real industry insights.

Of course, there are challenges. First, the wine world can be quite closed. Many producers—especially small ones—aren’t used to open communication or aren’t ready to share behind-the-scenes information. Some simply don’t want to be public. Second, you have to consider your audience—what’s obvious to professionals may be confusing to newcomers. That’s why it’s important to explain complex topics in simple terms.

My live sessions are as raw and real as possible—no editing. Sometimes I stream right from the production site. Most speakers feel more comfortable showing processes rather than presenting slides. My job is to create a friendly atmosphere where they feel comfortable sharing their knowledge. Preparation varies depending on the topic—some take hours, others weeks. For example, right now we’re working on a session about “Wine Chemistry”, and we’ve already spent over a week planning how best to approach it.

About Monetization

Before launching the private channel, I “warmed up” my audience on the main channel: I asked whether they’d be interested in wine education, analyzed the online learning market, and ran a poll outlining the topics I wanted to cover. The response was amazing—over 100 comments on the post, plus lots of reposts from major wine channels.

I then hired a freelancer to gather data on existing online wine courses: name, link, price, topics, duration. That analysis helped me estimate the average market price.

Still, I struggled to set a price. In the wine field, there are established experts with offline courses and set pricing. Undercutting or overpricing felt wrong. Plus, I wasn’t yet confident in the value of my content or sure how well it would be received.

In the end, I set the price at $12 per month. I wanted to both monetize my expertise and filter out passive followers—this way, I’m left with people who are genuinely interested. It also helps me feel more at ease: I can speak honestly, practice my delivery, systematize my knowledge, and answer questions without overthinking.

I chose Tribute for monetization because it’s simple—it all happens directly in Telegram, with no extra steps. If someone’s already reading me in Telegram, it’s much easier for them to pay for exclusive content than to download another app or go to a separate site.

About the Audience

Right now, the private channel has about 50 members, plus I keep all the experts who’ve joined live sessions so they can continue following the project and join discussions. The whole community is around 70 people.

The audience is diverse: winemakers, agronomists, wine project investors, and advanced wine lovers—all of them eager to understand winemaking from a production perspective.

New members mostly come from my public channel or collaborations with other bloggers—joint tastings, reviews, and giveaways help attract subscribers.

This year, my goal is to at least double the size of the private channel audience to feel more stable. I’m also thinking about monetizing another project I’m working on—a channel about vineyard planting. That one probably won’t be subscription-based, but rather focused on selling physical products—like branded merchandise.