Success Story: Turkovich Family Wines

The Organization

Turkovich Family Wines is a boutique, family-owned winery rooted in the agricultural town of Winters, California. Since its founding in 2007, the winery has cultivated a strong reputation for quality and craftsmanship, producing between 6,000 and 8,000 cases annually. Today, more than 3,300 loyal wine club members call Turkovich their go-to source for distinctive, small-batch wines—many of which are delivered directly to their doors through a thriving direct-to-consumer (DtC) shipping program.

Background

Turkovich Family Wines ships DtC to customers in 35 U.S. states, resulting in a complex web of compliance responsibilities—managing licenses, monitoring shipping volume limits, filing taxes across jurisdictions and coordinating deliveries. For years, this critical work fell to one team member who managed the entire compliance process manually. When that person neared retirement, the winery was at a crossroads. How to pass down years of institutional knowledge about this full-time job to another team member who was already juggling other important responsibilities? Or was there a better way to ensure uninterrupted compliance?

Key Challenges

Burden of manual compliance work and knowledge bottlenecks

Turkovich relied heavily on one team member to manage all licensing, tax filings and other elements of DtC wine shipping compliance. These tasks were not only time-consuming—estimated at around 20 hours per month—but difficult to transfer to others as he approached retirement. The lack of centralized documentation or shared systems made training and continuity a major concern, especially with remote onboarding.

Limited resources at a boutique scale
As a boutique winery producing 6,000–8,000 cases annually and a lean team wearing multiple hats, the company could not afford to spend critical time managing compliance manually.
Lack of visibility into delivery issues
With a growing shipping wine club, the winery was becoming more impacted by delivery exceptions and returns. The team lacked a centralized system to track and manage delivery attempts and failures.

The Solution

In 2023, Turkovich Family Wines implemented Sovos ShipCompliant Direct with AutoFile to streamline and bring greater efficiency to its DtC operations. As their shipping volume grew, they also added Delivery Experience to gain real-time insight into outbound shipments and proactive tools to manage delivery outcomes.

AutoFile relieves the burden of tax filings across states
Rather than manually tracking due dates, entering data and submitting filings, the Sovos ShipCompliant AutoFile team handles the entire tax remittance process.
Customer volume limits are tracked automatically
ShipCompliant monitors each state’s shipping restrictions, age verification requirements and hundreds of other compliance requirements, flagging potential compliance issues, enabling Turkovich to avoid accidental mistakes that could leads to regulatory scrutiny or fines.
Real-time visibility improves delivery outcomes
ShipCompliant’s Delivery Experience helps Turkovich manage the entire alcohol delivery process to achieve first-attempt delivery success and minimize costly returns. With Delivery Experience, Turkovich can quickly search for orders, update shipment details and communicate with customers, all from one place—no logging into multiple vendor sites.
Compliance confidence during a critical transition
As Turkovich transitioned ownership of compliance responsibilities from a retiring employee, ShipCompliant made it easier for new team members to get up to speed without missing a beat.

"[With Delivery Experience,] I’m definitely seeing fewer returns. This last wine club shipment had almost half as many as before."

Laura Acosta

Northern California Sales

The Result

With ShipCompliant, Turkovich Family Wines gained powerful, easy-to-use tools needed to confidently manage a DtC shipping program without overburdening its lean team.

By offloading tax remittance responsibilities to AutoFile, the winery reclaimed approximately 20+ hours per month that were previously spent navigating multi-state tax filings.
As the winery’s direct shipping program expanded, ShipCompliant Direct helped the Turkovich team confidently maintain compliance in 35 states—automatically checking, in real time, against hundreds of constantly evolving compliance rules at the federal, state and local levels. These include licensing, brand registration, customer volume limits, age verification, taxes and more—far more than any team could reliably manage manually.
Within the first year of implementing Delivery Experience, 84% of shipments were delivered successfully on the first attempt and the winery achieved a return rate of just 8%—saving time, money and maintaining a positive customer experience—particularly for club members in remote or gated areas, which can be hard to deliver to.
Having a centralized platform for compliance and delivery management allows the team to move faster and communicate more effectively. Staff can email customers directly from the platform, reducing time spent toggling between systems.

The Sovos ShipCompliant Difference

ShipCompliant has been instrumental in building a more scalable and resilient direct-to-consumer shipping operation. With a small team juggling multiple responsibilities—from sales and inventory to shipping logistics and customer outreach—the winery needed a solution that could lighten the load without sacrificing accuracy or compliance. ShipCompliant delivered on all fronts.

"I’m not a compliance expert, but with ShipCompliant, I don’t have to be. Everything’s in one place, and the support has been incredible."

Laura Acosta

Northern California Sales

Why Sovos ShipCompliant?

Automates the heavy lifting so your team can focus on growth, not paperwork.
Delivers accurate, on-time tax filings across the U.S. with AutoFile.
Connects seamlessly to your existing e-commerce and fulfillment systems.
Provides real-time compliance tracking and hands-on support from industry experts.
Scales with your business, whether you’re shipping to 5 states or 45.

See what Sovos ShipCompliant can do for your business

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