Sales & Marketing
by Jim GordonSales & Marketing
September 2018Building a Powerhouse Brand Regionally
It has become axiomatic in the wine business that gaining national distribution for a brand is difficult if not impossible. Most everyone knows the chart of two funnels pointing in different directions that illustrates the challenge. Today, 9,700 U.S. wineries need to push their wines through just 1,200 distributor or wholesaler companies. That situation used to be reversed. In 1995, there were just 1,800 wineries fanning out into a wide funnel of 3,000 distributors.
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Sales & Marketing
September 2018Top 10 U.S. Wine Distributors
This is Wines & Vines' second year publishing the top 10 U.S. wine distributors as ranked by the data and research group Wines Vines Analytics. The list is developed with unique criteria chosen to emphasize the interests of wineries, such as how many and which U.S. wineries a distributor represents and the percentage of population in the states they cover. While the top five distributors are consistent with last year, because of mergers and acquisitions, each has seen its business expand by increasing the number of states served and overall wineries represented. One major change, a proposed merger of No. 2 Republic National Distributor Co., and No. 3 Breakthru Beverage Group, has yet to be approved by federal regulators. The distribution of beer and spirits was not taken into account in creating this list.
1. Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits
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Sales & Marketing
July 2018The Most Important Tool in Your Tasting Room
Tasting rooms drive 85% of wine club growth and are the cornerstone of a winery's direct-to-consumer (DtC) business. Regardless of which type you choose, the look and feel of your wine glass helps frame the wine tasting as an experience, not just a beverage.
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Sales & Marketing
September 2017The Challenge of Distributor Consolidation
Since he turned his hobby and passion into a small business in 2010, William Allen has enjoyed what could be described as exceptional success for a fledgling winery.
Allen wasn’t a complete novice when he started making wine. He was the author of the popular blog Simple Hedonisms and had a goal to make minimal-intervention Rhône variety wines. Knowing how to play the game, however, doesn’t ensure success. Allen delivered on quality to the acclaim of several wine writers including Jon Bonné, who listed Allen in his book The New California Wine. Just two years after launching his brand, Two Shepherds, Wine Business Monthly named the label one of its top 10 “hot” brands. And after several years of growth, Allen moved production in 2015 to a renovated warehouse in Windsor, Calif., that’s part of a cluster of other small wine, beer and spirits producers known as “Artisan Alley.”
With annual production now around 2,000 cases, Allen and his business partner and girlfriend Karen Daenen (they both still have other full-time jobs) decided to pause on growing the brand before tackling the next big hurdle for a growing wine producer: the wholesale market.
For all his success, the prospect of finding the right distributor and ensuring that it turns into a mutually successful partnership in a good market is still a somewhat daunting prospect. Most of the wines Allen makes are 25- to 30-case lots, so he doesn’t have the inventory to meet the expectations of some wholesalers. At times he’s been disappointed by representatives who don’t seem to have any interest in opening new accounts. “We’re actually starting to revisit some of our strategy and not push to 3,000 cases,” he said.
An inverse relationship
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Sales & Marketing
September 2017A Conversation with Craig Wolf
As CEO of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, Craig Wolf manages day-to-day operations of the influential trade association based in Washington, D.C., with the help of an annual budget of $11 million, a staff of 23 and a political action committee. Wolf was trained as a lawyer and served as the WSWA’s general counsel for seven years before taking over the organization’s top spot in 2006.
Pre-WSWA, Wolf served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice and for five years worked as an assistant state’s attorney for Allegany County, Md. He is a major in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Founded in 1943, WSWA advocates for wholesalers’ interests with state and federal elected officials, the media, regulators and the law-enforcement community. Membership includes 372 wine and spirits wholesalers and brokers operating in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Wolf estimated that WSWA members handle 80% to 85% of wine and spirits volume in the United States.
Q:Distributor and wholesaler consolidation ranks as a top concern for wineries. Can you reassure small to medium sized wineries that distributors still care about their success?
Craig Wolf: First of all, consolidation’s been happening for the past 20 years in a serious way. Yet if you look at what’s available on the shelves, and available to the consumer, the SKUs have only gone up in our time despite the consolidation.
What’s going to hurt small wineries, what’s going to hurt the craft movement, the innovation, is not the wholesaler consolidation. Wholesalers are going to maintain their SKU level of 15,000 to 30,000 SKUs. What’s going to hurt the brand owners is the retail playing field, and the big box retailers, and the private labels.
What you’re going to see is the squeeze on the shelf space. A lot of big-box guys like Costco, they have minimal SKUs to begin with, and they’re looking for the high volume. Now they’ll throw in a couple local brands to sort of make the portfolio a little broader.
Let’s face it, when you’re talking with Costco, you’re talking 150 to 200 SKUs, that’s it. Now you’ve got some bigger guys like Total Wine that have a huge selection. But if you look at their goals, their goals are private labels.
Q:What’s so bad about chain retailers developing their own private wine brands?
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Sales & Marketing
September 2017Navigating a Changing Wholesale Landscape
For those opening a new winery or trying to get a brand to the next level, the news of every additional distributor merger may seem like another obstacle on an already challenging road. As difficult as it may seem, there are proven ways to find the freeway to wholesale success.
Adam Lee, founder of 30,000-case Siduri Wines of Santa Rosa, Calif., navigated the wholesale market and the direct-to-consumer route for years as he built a brand he’d eventually sell to Jackson Family Wines (JFW) in 2015. Despite his success, Lee, who enjoyed excellent reviews and was in the right place to catch the rising wave of Pinot Noir’s popularity, still recalled the challenges of working the wholesale sales channel.
In addition to his ongoing work with Siduri for JFW, Lee said his non-compete agreement allows him to consult for a few small wineries in sales and marketing. He agreed that consolidation and a changing wine media landscape have made it even harder to gain distribution. Positive reviews don’t carry the same weight they used to. He mentioned one of his clients recently earned stellar scores from The Wine Advocate; while it helped sales, it wasn’t the guaranteed, instant sell-out that such reviews used to bring. “No one writer possesses the weight that they used to,” he said.
But good press and reviews are still valuable, so Lee said wineries should get as many as possible from traditional publications and bloggers, then use those to create a sheet of testimonials that can help convince retailers and restaurants to carry their wine. If a winery owner can land a few accounts himself, then it makes that brand much more desirable to a distributor. “That helps tremendously,” Lee said.
Direct-to-consumer (DtC) sales are often branded as the best way around the three-tier system. Lee agreed, but to a point. “I think it’s ideal, but it doesn’t always work that way, depending on how much wine you have and what you have to sell,” he said.
A winery shouldn’t be in the business of competing with its distributors on price through DtC. And in the wake of a tough harvest or a sudden windfall of publicity that sends demand skyrocketing, he advised keeping a portion back for wholesale even if the profits are tempting. “Don’t cut out the distributors entirely,” he said. “Even if you could sell it all direct at a higher margin, screwing them around in one year to make a quick dollar is not smart.”
Lee said one strategy that worked for him in distant markets was renting a house through Airbnb or a similar service and throwing a party. He said one could hold a tasting for consumers early in the day and then keep the party going until 10 p.m. or later for sommeliers and sales reps when they are done with their shifts. He said he frequently could cover the cost of the house with DtC sales while bolstering trade relations, too.
Build wholesale and DtC
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Sales & Marketing
September 2017Surviving Distributor Power Plays
One of the most common questions I get from winery clients is: “My distributor (in a franchise state) has no incentive to sell my brands, and he knows I can’t fire him. Do I have any leverage at all?”
This is a valid question: Is there anything a winery can do to encourage performance from a distributor in a franchise state? Failing that, can the winery terminate the relationship?
Written distribution agreements
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Sales & Marketing
September 2017Help for Gaining Entrée
The three-tier system has long created complexity for wineries trying to get their product to market. Recent consolidation among major distributors and the ever-increasing number of wine brands vying for on- and off-premise attention has made the job even harder. To navigate this complexity without building out a national sales force, many wine brands have relied on outside sales and marketing companies—sometimes known as “brand aggregators” or the “fourth tier”—to represent them.
Marketing companies aggregate brands to offer a complete range to buyers and better capture their attention. By maintaining relationships with disparate distributors and maintaining a staff more varied in size and geography than all but the largest wine producers could provide on their own, they do a service to both wineries and distributors.
Marketing companies make money either through taking a percentage of the sale or by buying products in advance at volume prices and marking them up. Some focus purely on imported brands, others on domestic, but most focus on both.
Marketing companies that are also importers, where the concept started, help navigate the realities of importing. “We provide legal entrée to the vast and extremely complicated U.S. market,” says Dennis Kreps, co-owner of Quintessential. “We have an experienced compliance department that helps our producers navigate the many rules and regulations governing beverage alcohol sales, from labeling issues through U.S. Customs clearance, not to mention the different laws in every state.”
Access and sales to all states is a strong draw for domestic producers as well, but the model requires partnership and brand building on the part of the producer. “Our partnership with Wilson Daniels has worked well reciprocally, as we provide them with a brand to work with that has an established fan base gradually built since 1965,” says Hugh Davies, vintner at Schramsberg Vineyards & Davies Vineyards in Napa Valley. “They have strong roots in the national wholesale distribution system and have been a good fit for us over these past 21 years. We’ve steadily grown our business, distributing to over 10,000 accounts in all 50 states.”
Not everyone feels marketing companies can effectively represent smaller brands. Cheryl Murphy Durzy, CEO of startup digital distributor LibDib (see page 52 for more details) worked with a marketing company while managing Clos la Chance’s wholesale sales and dubbed the effort a “massive failure.”
Clos la Chance, an 80,000-case winery in San Martin, Calif., had “done everything from our own sales force,” Durzy says, “but distributor consolidation increased. We couldn’t get the attention of the distributors; that’s when we decided to go with fourth tier. We figured they’d have more clout with a bigger book, but consolidation continued, and even those guys had a hard time getting attention.”
Even strong brands need help telling their story to the domestic distributor market, and many value the service that marketing companies offer. Stephen Leroux, general manager of Champagne Charles Heidsieck, which is represented by Folio Fine Wine Partners, said: “We value ethics and a more traditional way to do business. The entire Folio ownership and management are a fully committed, professional and experienced team who convey our values in the U.S. market.”
Marketing companies are motivated to have the best possible portfolio to represent the most compelling story to the increasingly powerful distributors they work with. “We have a great weight with the distributors because we come with the cumulative value of the portfolio,” says Rocco Lombardo, president of Napa Valley-based Wilson Daniels.
Because marketing companies represent multiple brands, they have a finite amount of time to work with each one. So they benefit from brands that have intrinsic brand strength that will appeal both to distributors and their own clients: the restaurants, bars, retailers and ultimately the consumers that buy them. “We have brands that distributor, wholesalers and buyers know, respect and are interested in,” says Paolo Battegazzore, CEO of Folio Fine Wine Partners. “They also are wines consumers ask for at a retail and restaurant level.”
Some marketing companies also own some of the brands they sell, or have equity stakes in them. To some producers, offering similar products can be seen as a conflict. “If I could give one piece of advice,” says Durzy, “don’t go with anyone that owns their own brands. When push comes to shove, you’ll get pushed aside.”
The model requires balance, where the marketing companies act as the sales arm and advisor to brands and products that fit distinctly in their assortment, and the producer focuses on their product and brand. “There’s a lot of added value that we bring for that added step up in margin,” Lombardo says, “allowing wineries to focus on product, quality control and marketing.”
Distributors have become increasingly picky about the brands they represent; some industry insiders have mentioned their belief that they reject far more brands than they accept. Lombardo says Wilson Daniels is still looking for new brands with “a focus on France and Italy,” but multiple marketing companies we contacted chose not to offer comment or “participate” in this article, likely because they were not actively looking for new brands or were hesitant to be deluged by wineries seeking their aid.
Ben Narasin is a venture capitalist and freelance wine journalist. His work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Wine Enthusiast and other media outlets.
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Sales & Marketing
September 2017New Digital Platforms Connect the Tiers
Transformative technology has been bringing old-world industries into the digital age with ever-increasing fervor, and several web-based technology offerings are making an attempt to update the wine industry and help with—or even upend—the historic three-tier system.
This is certainly not the first time internet technology has attempted to recreate the realities of wine sales. Debuting in 1994, Virtual Vineyards (now Wine.com) was one of the world’s first e-commerce websites. More recently, an over-ripe harvest of off-price flash websites such as Invino and Wines Til Sold Out have popped up and garnered venture capital to move excess wine inventory directly to consumers.
But this new crop of digital players is focused on wine wholesale, the channel connecting wine brands to distributors and even directly to restaurants, bars and retailers. In internet-speak, these technology services are known as “platforms” or “marketplaces,” websites that connect buyers and sellers in a two-sided exchange to facilitate or execute transactions. In common parlance they are connection companies.
In an era of ever-consolidating distribution power across larger players, and an ever-increasing number of competitive wine brands vying for attention, these connection companies offer discovery and distribution alternatives for both buyers and sellers that are willing to try their new models. They focus not on circumventing the traditional channels but on augmenting them—or better, enabling them through technology meant to eliminate friction, increase discoverability and generally ease the work required to transact in the wholesale wine space.
Marketplace models in other industries vary online, so it’s no surprise that the generally new connection companies reviewed here have found different approaches to solve the same problem. One, LibDib, is a licensed distributor in its own right, allowing wine brands to list their products for sale directly to restaurants, bars and retailers in New York and California. Two others, Beverage Media and SevenFifty, act as portals for price discovery to enable retailers and restaurants to search across multiple distributors to find products within their specifications and then place orders routed to those distributors. We talked to all three players, and here’s what we learned.
Beverage Media
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Sales & Marketing
September 2017Web-based Tool Gives Visibility to Wholesale Markets
The Distributor Market Service was developed by Wines Vines Analytics to provide visibility about distributors and their portfolios to wineries. Drawing on the comprehensive Wines Vines Analytics winery and distributor databases, the Distributor Market Service enables users to quickly analyze a state market to determine the active distributors and see their wine offerings.
The service was designed to give winery clients a better understanding of where their brands could fit in a particular state and which wholesalers might be the most interested in representing their wines.
Launched in 2015, the web-based subscription service is maintained by a team of researchers that survey wine distributors throughout the year to collect contact information and current portfolios.
“With the Distributor Market Service (DMS), we see the opportunity to supply the wine industry with a resource that will help small to mid-size wineries expand their portfolios into the three-tier system,” said Wines & Vines president and publisher Chet Klingensmith. “The DMS allows wineries to analyze the wholesale marketplace, see what competitors are doing and find where their brand fits in key markets.”
Users can search for distributors by name or market, and they can review a distributor’s portfolio for criteria such as winery region, winery average bottle price and varietals.
A market-specific search will provide all relevant distributor data for a particular state. If a winery is interested in expanding into a new state, such as Texas, a user can filter the data to see which wineries are currently distributed there and by which wholesalers.
In addition to searching by distributor, the Distributor Market Service enables users to search by winery. Users may search for wineries that meet certain criteria including winery region, size and price point. This allows a winery to focus on its peer group competing in a specific market.
The distributors operating in the state can also be searched by the same criteria. So a Russian River Valley winery producing Pinot Noir for $60 per bottle can determine which other Pinot Noir producers at the same price point are getting distributed in a given region. A winery market search can be limited to region, state or county.
Such in-depth information about wholesalers provides users a path to find opportunities in markets where their wines would stand out or with wholesalers that would be more likely to add those specific regional wines at certain price points.
“The DMS is unique in that it provides the most comprehensive database of distributors linked to U.S wineries,” said project manager Jacqueline Wood. “The service not only allows wineries to identify distributors and expand into new markets, it also provides competitive market-research tools through geographic, volume, bottle price and IRI sales data analysis.”
The Distributor Market Service is accessible via the Wines & Vines website at winesandvines.com/dms.
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Sales & Marketing
January 2015Door to China Still Open
A woman samples wine from New York state during an educational session at the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair in November.In recent years the United States was named the No. 1 country for wine imports, but some domestic wineries still yearn to diversify their consumer base beyond U.S. borders—and for many of them, overseas markets are the final frontier.
For West Coast wineries—and a surprising number of Midwest and East Coast wineries—the logical first place to look overseas is Asia. And with 1.3 billion inhabitants rushing headlong into the middle-class, China commands the most attention.
To take a look at the potential as well as the pitfalls, Wines & Vines attended the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair this past November and spoke with representatives from a number of North American wineries about their experiences and expectations of marketing in Asia.
What recession?
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Sales & Marketing
January 2015Tasting Room Pitfalls
Having given at least 5,000 tours in the wine business, I am convinced that people who go on tours buy more wine and join wine clubs at a higher rate than those who do not. Why? Because visitors bond with a guide who conducts good tours.
Guests are choosing to spend their precious weekend and vacation time listening to your winery’s story, and it’s up to you to connect with them. (See “Maximize the Value of Tours” in the May 2014 issue of Wines & Vines.)
When ignored, some other areas of tasting room performance can dampen profitability.
1 Neglecting customer relationships
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Sales & Marketing
January 2015Challenges and Opportunities in China's Wine Market
Photo: ASC fine winesChina’s imported wine market grew at an average rate of 60% each year from 2003 to 2013, expanding from 600,000 cases per year to 31 million cases per year. However, market growth declined for the first time in 2014. While China offers good opportunity for wine sales, recent changes in government policy and the economy also present new challenges. This was the message from Don St. Pierre Jr., co-founder of ASC Fine Wines, the largest importer and distributer of premium imported wines in China, when he discussed the history, challenges and future of China’s wine market during a lecture at the University of California, Davis, on Nov. 6.
St. Pierre spoke as part of the Walt Klenz Lectureship Series, sponsored by Treasury Wine Estates, and named in honor of former Beringer Blass CEO Walt Klenz. The series started in 2006 and is presented by the UC Davis Robert Mondavi Institute and the Department of Viticulture & Enology to have wine business leaders share insights and experiences with students, faculty and industry attendees.
During his introduction, Klenz recalled how St. Pierre and his father came to Beringer in the early 1990s with a proposal to sell Beringer wines in China. Klenz said they did a great job introducing the brand when the Chinese market was starting to grow. Klenz observed, “I don’t think anybody in the world knows more about the wine market in China than Don.”
ASC background
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Sales & Marketing
June 2014Tantalizing Opportunities
Women sample a sparkling rosé at the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair in 2013.One of the most enigmatic problems wineries face when trying to break into new markets is how to explain their wines to customers who might not know anything about wine—let alone where it was produced and the particular conditions under which the grapes were grown.
The problem is compounded when a different language and cultural framework are at play.
This is what makes efforts to sell wine into Asia—the region on which many wineries have pinned their export hopes—a fascinating study in translating wine not only into a new language but also a culture where grape wines are a relatively new product. While the markets are home to savvy, sophisticated consumers, introducing grape wines presents a unique set of challenges.
Presentations at and around the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair this past November told members of the trade that talking about wine in terms familiar to consumers in Europe and North America—where the cuisine and cultural associations of wine differ significantly from those in Asia—wouldn’t cut it. Yet at booths and tastings around the fair, it was common to hear the wines presented in the context of Western cuisine and dining practices, rather than the foods and flavors of Asia.
How then do Chinese consumers view wine?
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Sales & Marketing
May 2014Barrel Tasting and Blending
After completing the process, participants keep a sealed and labeled bottle of their own blends.One of the least publicized jobs of the winemaker is on display at two wineries owned by the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates group.
At Northstar winery in Walla Walla, Wash., visitors can taste through the differences in Merlot from separate AVAs and then craft a blend, while guests of Conn Creek winery in Napa Valley can explore the nuances of that region’s AVAs while making their own Cabernet blend.
Blending Washington
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Sales & Marketing
May 2014Maximize the Value of Tours
Hikers at Kunde Family Estate climb from the valley floor up to 1,400 feet elevation.There are two facets of tasting room operations in which top management can easily hurt profits. It’s critical to look closely at these and other possible pitfalls.
The first is understaffing, and I will address that topic in a future article. The second way managers hurt their profits is not giving tours when they are entirely viable (unlike a storefront tasting room). I have given between 5,000 and 7,000 tours during my 30 years in the business, and I am convinced that visitors who go on tours buy more wine and join clubs at a higher rate.
Plus, as I have mentioned in previous articles, you are not just selling wine, you are also selling memories. I went on the Tillamook cheese tour when I was a teenager, and I still remember the brand along with the huge vats of cheese. This is a critical point: We have something people want to see. We have tours, Jelly Belly Candy Co. has tours, Budweiser and Tabasco Hot Sauce have tours. Your average manufacturer doesn’t have tours because no one wants to watch widgets being made. So the customer is saying: We are willing to spend our precious weekend or vacation time listening to your story (your infomercial if you will). As a winery that doesn’t offer tours, you are saying: We don’t care.
Let’s consider the many different forms of tours. First, the standard tour is usually about 30 minutes long and covers how you grow your grapes and then turn them into a bottle of wine. You are also talking up your story: why you are special (thus the infomercial).
The second type is the mini-tour. I invented this style when I was the manager at Trefethen in the ’90s, and the staff and I increased sales by 70%. The mini-tour consists of a 12-15 minute condensed version of the half-hour tour. At that time, Trefethen had a very tiny tasting room. Ostensibly, visitors thought I was taking them on a tour, and I was. But in reality, I was reducing overcrowding (which can hurt sales) by taking half of the crowd out of the room. This relief gave the staff time to close their sales and get caught up before I brought the tour back to them.
The third type would be the in-depth two-hour tour and tasting (usually by appointment, costs $25-$50 or higher, and is for the customer who really wants to know a lot more about winemaking and your wines). These tours should be conducted by senior staff with major knowledge about viticulture and enology as well as your winery’s history and wines. It may also include a tasting of library wines. Remember that “you sell what you taste,” and library wines—if you have enough—can really boost your total sales for the day since they cost more than current releases.
The fourth tour is the off-road tour, where the guests are transported in an off-road vehicle to a remote or difficult-to-access part of your property. I recently did a project for Newton Vineyards in which they instituted a great off-road experience (in addition to their regular tour). Visitors pay $85 to board a Pinzgauer off-road military vehicle that has six wheels and can hold up to 12 passengers. Guests are driven on a 15-minute ride up the mountain to a deck with a breathtaking view of the Napa Valley. The tour guide conducts a 20-minute stand-up tasting and photo opportunity. Guests are then transported back to the tasting room for a short, sit-down tasting. As part of my work for Newton, I went on the tour anonymously. When guests were leaving, I explained what I was doing and then polled them about the quality of the experience. The satisfaction rate was extremely high, and I noticed that sales and club sign-ups after the sit-down tasting were very brisk.
Another important tour is the trade tour. I covered this type in “Profiting From Trade Visitors” in the May 2013 issue of Wines & Vines.
Do’s and don’ts for giving tours
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Sales & Marketing
May 2014How Useful Is a Wine Expert's Opinion?
A study involving wine sensory character, quality perception and preferences by wine experts, trained panelists and consumers indicates consumers have a wider range of wine sensory “likes” than expert tasters and competition judges. The results suggest that consumers are likely better off trusting their own preferences to choose wines they like, rather than relying on “expert” advice. University of California, Davis, professor and sensory scientist Dr. Hildegarde Heymann discussed the study at the Department of Viticulture & Enology’s annual research update meeting, Recent Advances in Viticulture & Enology (RAVE), held in March.
Heymann’s presentation, “Judging wine quality: Do we need experts, consumers or trained panelists?” was based on an evaluation of Cabernet Sauvignon wines from a recent California State Fair Wine Competition by different tasting panels. The wines were from nine different California regions representing regional award categories in the competition. Three wines were used from each region: the top scoring wine (usually a gold or double gold medal), the lowest scoring wine (no medal), and one median score wine (usually a silver or bronze medal).
Parameters for the study
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Sales & Marketing
January 2014Best in Show
It was 3:30 p.m. on the second day of judging for the 2013 California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, and the hour-plus stalemate over best sparkling wine showed no signs of breaking. The field had been whittled down to two contenders—one the color of light straw and the other pale salmon—but the two panels of judges tasked with selecting Best of California had each chosen different winners.A flight of wine is set up for tasting at the Dallas Morning News Wine Competition.READ MORE »
Sales & Marketing
October 2013Sales and Customer Service
The importance of analogies
Compare these two statements for the average wine drinker: “The oak barrel adds flavor to the wine.”
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July 2013Direct-to-Consumer Reporting and You
No matter how a winery files them, direct-shipping reports have become a way of life for those who count on direct-to-consumer sales to aid the bottom line. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Granholm vs. Heald decision in 2005, many states have opened to direct-to-consumer (DtC) shipping, and in turn they have required permits, reports and taxes (sometimes both excise and sales tax) due on a regular basis.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2013Profiting From Trade Visitors
Tasting rooms handle the vast majority of trade visits (buyers, wine writers, sales reps, etc.), and such sales opportunities are among the most overlooked benefits of the tasting room. However, the tasting room receives no remuneration for all the labor used to take care of these folks.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2013Eager Market Requires Strategy
As the past few years of wine surplus found North American companies searching for willing markets, many found eager trade partners in Asia. According to the U.S. Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) in Hong Kong, during 2011 U.S. wines became the third most-imported wines by volume and the fourth most-imported by dollars within the special administrative region of China.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2013Events: Great PR or Waste of Cash?
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in “Spinning the Bottle Again,” a compilation of strategies, tactics and case histories of wine public relations edited by Paul Franson and Harvey Posert. Details: napalife.com/spinningthebottle.htmREAD MORE »Sales & Marketing
September 2012Hong Kong Prepares to Host Wine Fair
More than 19,000 wine trade buyers and a similar number of wine drinkers attended the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair in 2011. This year, fair sponsors are expecting an even larger crowd, with an estimated 900 exhibitors representing more than 70 countries and winegrowing regions.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2012Wines Till Sold Out Now Topping $50 Million in Sales
Wines Till Sold Out (WTSO) reports that it grew to more than $50 million in total revenue last year, and the owners are confident they’ll maintain strong sales in the future.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2012The Slow Boat to China
“With patience comes success,” according to Jeff Harder, managing director of Ex Nihilo Vineyards. The phrase is a Chinese proverb, he said, one of particular relevance to North American wineries looking to enter the Asian market. Ex Nihilo was one of five Canadian wineries in attendance at the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair this past fall, and the brand gained a Hong Kong distributor as a result of the trip, but Harder stressed that forging a trade relationship in the Far East is not a swift endeavor.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
November 2011Tasting Room Focus
WISE Bites
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October 2011Tasting Room Focus
WISE BitesREAD MORE »Sales & Marketing
September 2011Tasting Room Focus
According to veteran tasting room consultant Craig Root, there are four essential product categories that perform best in tasting rooms:READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2011The ABCs of CRM
Though winery staffers focus a great deal on signing up wine club members, they often pay little attention to maintaining existing customers’ interest in the brand. The lifetime value of a committed club member can translate into steady and reliable cash flow. This is where customer relationship management (CRM) comes into play.
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May 2011How Wineries View Flash Sales
Consumers love flash wine sales sites for an obvious reason: the drastic discount prices. But what do the wineries that use flash sites think of them?
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May 2011More Web-based Wine Marketers
Wines & Vines' article about wine flash sales sites (February 2011) generated a great deal of interest among wineries trying to reduce inventory, raise cash and build sales for the future. The sites that Wines & Vines' research team, WinesVinesDATA, determined to be the most active, were Cinderella Wine, Lot18, Wine Shopper, Wines Spies, Wine.woot and Wines Til Sold Out.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2011Selling at the Source
Many wineries are turning to their tasting rooms and other direct sales avenues to replace waning restaurant and retail business, but some have depended on direct sales all along. With that in mind, we interviewed principals from four wineries (two of which share an owner) that are very successful at direct sales.
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August 2010Direct Shipments Up 8.9%
More signs that the wine industry is climbing back from a two-year recession came from a new study of direct-to-consumer shipping by ShipCompliant and Wines & Vines. The monthly dollar value of DTC shipments grew by 8.9% from April 2009 to April 2010, while the monthly shipment volume rose by 4.9% to 266,000 9L case equivalents.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
June 2009Succeeding in a Poor Economy
In 2008, about 22,000 people visited Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles, Calif.People ask every day how our sales are holding up and what we're doing to survive the current economic struggles. Most people look surprised--and then relieved--to hear we're doing pretty well, all things considered. Our wholesale sales were down 11% last year because of a decline in the fourth quarter, but our tasting room sales were up 15% for the year and down just 3% in the fourth quarter. Our traffic was up 5% for the year. Sales to our wine club were up 21% for the year, and despite slightly higher cancellation rates, we ended the year with about 3,400 VINsider wine club members: an increase of more than 500 from the beginning of the year.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
March 2009Message in A Bottle
A custom machine drapes each bottle of Coppola's Black Label Claret in gold netting.A scan of the well-stocked shelves of America's fine wine shops, big-box retailers and gourmet groceries rarely reveals a more consistently edgy or innovative approach to packaging than that espoused by Francis Ford Coppola Presents.
READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2009The 'Sideways' Effect
CaptSandra Oh and Thomas Haden Church co-star in "Sideways." Was the film disastrous for Merlot?A version of this paper was presented at the Sonoma State University's Department of Economics Seminar Series as well as the annual meeting of the American Association of Wine Economists in Portland, Ore.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
July 2008Long Road to the Short List
It was a big day for Mary Ann Hardman and Persimmon Creek wines, grown and made near the north Georgia mountain town of Clayton. Two private aircraft were making their way north from Sea Island, Ga., to a small local airport near the winery. In the planes were the sommelier and most of the wine staff from the Georgian Room at The Cloister (above), a fancy Sea Island resort famous for corporate golf and a recent G8 Summit meeting.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
June 2008Selling Face to Face
How much of your direct sales come from the tasting room?Despite the buzz about web-based sales of wine, North American wineries continue to do much more of their direct-to-consumer sales face to face in their tasting rooms than online, according to a new Wines & Vines survey.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2008Many Consumers 'Overwhelmed'
As wine consumption in the United States reached an all-time high in 2007, wine producers celebrated the long-awaited arrival of a "wine culture" in America. But according to an 18-month study commissioned by Constellation Wines U.S., a large segment of the consumer population is still "overwhelmed" by wine. The results of "Home & Habits," the second phase of Constellation's "Project Genome" study, were released March 7 at a news conference.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2008Behind the Bar
Washington's Maryhill Winery draws about 6,500 visitors monthly to a remote site above the Columbia River. Since it opened seven years ago, owners Craig and Vicki Leuthold have built and stocked cabinets that display wine and other merchandise.$40,000 for a container of 20,000 imported wineglasses. That was the most expensive purchase on Robert Renzoni's shopping list when he began setting up the tasting room at his new winery in Southern California's Temecula Valley this spring. In March, Renzoni was still in the process of bottling his first vintage: 6,000 cases of wines from Robert Renzoni Vineyards.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2008The Fourth Tier
Wilson Daniels' impressive Napa headquarters aptly conveys the image of its prestigious winery clientele.Complaints about the American three-tier distribution system are nothing new, but the reality is that for small wineries, the American continent is so big, and regulations so complex, that three tiers aren't always enough to do the job right. The fourth tier--middle marketing companies, importers and brokers--offers small wineries marketing muscle and an array of other services that keep product moving through the system and allows wineries to concentrate on doing what they do best: making wine.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2008How Green Is Your Packaging?
Boisset America is bottling its Yellow Jersey Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc vins de pays in lightweight PET plastic.Will wine lovers soon refuse to consume any wines produced beyond a 100-mile radius of where they live? It's not likely, or feasible, in states other than California, Oregon and Washington, among others, but it is a question consumers and producers alike are currently pondering as awareness of CO2 emissions--and their contribution to global climate change--grows keener.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2008Tasting Rooms in Spokane
Easily spotted from Interstate 90, Latah Creek's signature tower beckons visitors to the Spokane Valley tasting room.Spokane, Wash., home to Washington's second-largest population mass, seems an unlikely epicenter for wineries and tasting rooms, yet more than a dozen have emerged in the defacto capital of the Northwest's Inland Empire. These wineries are not clustered in any particular neighborhood, but seem to be distributed almost at random among dramatically different settings. And, although some have a few acres of vineyards, the vast majority of grapes are purchased from Central Washington's premier growing regions, a hundred or more miles distant.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2008When Charity Is the Message
Superstars and the super-rich mingle with the locals at Napa Valley Vintners' legendary charity auction and related events.People get into the wine business for very personal reasons. Maybe they seek a more rural life for their family. Perhaps they are intent on building a family legacy. Whatever the reason, most will have to face many of the same decisions. Where should they plant their grapes and to which varieties? Which barrels should they use and what yeast? How long should they age the wine and at what price should it be sold? Oh yeah, and of the myriad of charity organizations that ask, to which should they donate?READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 20082007 Sales & Marketing Editorial Index
Why Boutiques Like Alternative Closures S. Gannon Jan.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
December 2007Uncovering Biodynamic Wine
READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
October 2007Case Studies in Exporting
It's no surprise that large wineries with productions upward of 100,000 cases routinely export to markets outside the United States. What is surprising, perhaps, is that a growing number of small wineries--some producing well under 20,000 cases per year--are putting their toes in the oceans, both Atlantic and Pacific.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
September 2007Temperature-Tracking Labels
Now that many boutique wineries are able to ship directly to consumers--and Homeland Security has declared passengers' tasting room purchases unwelcome in carry-on baggage--thousands of wine bottles are being entrusted to the tender mercies of common carriers and the vagaries of weather conditions across the country.
"Our labels have not gone mainstream yet in the wine industry. The wine industry just doesn't know about us yet."
--Amy Childress, PakSenseREAD MORE »Sales & Marketing
September 2007States Switch From Reciprocal Shipping
Transitioning Reciprocal to PermitPrior to the Supreme Court's 2005 decision on direct shipping, 13 U.S. states operated under reciprocal shipping agreements. The reciprocity system was a fairly simple one, which allowed participating states to ship to consumers in other reciprocal states, with minimal reporting and tracking efforts required.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
August 2007Going Pro: The Sales Call
The guy on the other side of the desk in his cramped office high above Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco was waiting to taste one of the thousand or more samples he'd received in the past 11 months. Seated across from him, I removed a full bottle of Segue Cellars '05 RRV Pinot Noir from my shoulder bag, produced a corkscrew, and proceeded to pour a small amount into the two Burgundy glasses he placed before me.
Illustration: Michael GreaneyREAD MORE »Sales & Marketing
August 2007London Calling
Producers from Texas and Georgia poured their wines at SUSTA's booth; Washington and Oregon shared a stand and the New York industry had its own exhibit.California is now the fastest-growing category on British wine shelves, so the sound of more U.S. accents moving through the London International Wine & Spirits Fair should be no surprise. But it is surprising how many American wine producers from outside California made the trip to Britain this year.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
June 2007Let's Put on a Show
Thousands travel long distances to enjoy top-flight performers like Crosby, Stills and Nash in the spectacular amphitheater at Washington's Maryhill Winery, with the Columbia River Gorge in the background.Summer's here, and the time is right for dancing in the… vineyard. Or the winery, or the tent. As the industry has evolved during the past few decades, wineries and associated organizations have increasingly turned to public events--concerts, festivals and auctions--to generate publicity and revenue.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
June 2007The Tempest in Bordeaux
Although declassified like the rest of St. Emilion's châteaux, Troplong Mondot continues defiantly to proclaim itself premier grand cru classé, under the auspices of a private organization, Groupment de premiers grands crus classes, for which it hosted a 2006 barrel tasting.For a few short months after the 2006 harvest, St. Emilion wines were officially reclassified--as had been the custom every 10 years since 1954. Wine chat boards the world over buzzed with excitement as celebrated wines like Château Troplong Mondot and Pavie Macquin were upgraded from grand cru classé to the more prestigious premier grand cru classé category.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2007How Shipper Design Helps Sales
On a spring-like Sunday afternoon in Manhattan's chic Chelsea neighborhood, Melanie Mann is presiding over a brisk business from behind the counter at Chelsea Wine Vault. As the general manager, she manages an inventory of approximately 850 SKUs, and says she's "obsessed" with the new varieties of shippers that have been arriving on her loading dock in the last year or so, many from foreign producers and larger wineries.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2007Wine by the Keg
You picked the perfect restaurant--a cozy café in the city with romantic lighting, European flair and the best thin-crust pizzas this side of Naples. "I feel like celebrating," you announce to your loved one as the server approaches. "Waiter, bring us a lusty super-Tuscan-style red--the best in the house," you say. "Excellent choice," he answers. "I'll just go and tap the keg."READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2007Back Up Your Brand
The team at Oregon's Troon Vineyard considers each wine one of its offspring, and uses the back labels to ease its acceptance into the marketplace.What's on your wine's back label? Is it a mere afterthought? A repository for all the required verbiage that you don't want cluttering the front of your bottle? Do you even need a back label? Technically, you don't: As long as your package includes all required data and government-mandated warnings, you can leave your backside bare. (See what's required for label approval at ttb.gov/regulations--the example shown includes everything on a single label.)READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2007The Anatomy of a Wine Label
Everyone in the business knows that a wine label's job is to sell the bottle, and there are plenty of label designers and marketing people to tell you how that works, if you are willing to listen.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2007Training the Front Line Troops
At Navarro Vineyards in Mendocino County's Anderson Valley, it's a morning routine for tasting room staff to sample and discuss the wines they pour, led here by founders Ted Bennett and Deborah Cahn (from left).With direct-to-consumer marketing becoming an increasingly vital segment of the American wine industry, and with tasting rooms the major direct sales channel for most small wineries, staffing those tasting rooms with motivated, well-trained people is an essential consideration for even the tiniest boutique operation.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2007Using Digital Label Printers
Most wine marketers and resellers agree that labels are important factors in why consumers select one bottle of wine instead of another. According to research quoted by printer maker Hewlett-Packard, "Consumer studies show that 80% of those who pick up a bottle off the shelf will buy it."READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
March 2007High-Fashion Package for Italian Wine
Leave it to the Italians to take a fashion-forward approach to wine packaging. While other producers are experimenting with distinctive labels and closures, Voga Italia is presenting a whole new bottle. Launched in the spring of 2006, Voga's Pinot Grigio ($10.99) is packaged in a sleek, cylindrical, 750ml bottle that evokes high-end vodka and mineral water packaging. In January 2007, the company launched a similarly packaged companion wine for the Pinot Grigio, a red blend called "Quattro." The wine is a blend of Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet and Pinot Noir, and retails nationwide for $11.99.
Is it really wine? Voga's sleek bottle would look as appropriate on a vanity as on a bar.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
March 2007Raising Label Profiles
If you've ever savored a glass of great Châteauneuf-du-Pape, chances are good you've also dreamily traced your fingers over the raised glass of the embossed papal crest on the bottle. Producers from Châteauneuf have been embossing some variation of that logo on their bottles since 1939, beginning just after the AOC was recognized in 1937. It's hard to argue the detail doesn't add something, whether it represents tradition or authenticity, implies quality, or adds another subtle layer of sensuality.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
March 2007Off the Vine
Let's compare wine shopping to dating. People in a committed wine relationship tend not to play the field-- they grab their bottle and go. People looking for new love, so to speak, start from a position of already having some idea of what they are looking for, and the search process is closer to speed dating than courtship. It's entirely natural for people to seek out clues, shortcuts, etc., when searching for something to suit their tastes, whether it's in a mate or a wine. Wine labels are supposed to communicate. Grape and place names are basic reference points, but is that enough information these days?READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
February 2007The Blue Tooth Tour
The Blue Tooth engine, (left), and the tour's private dome car, (right), await the tour's resumption in St. Louis. The charter allowed participants to unpack once and entertain consumers and press in the comfort of their cars.It is wise to be wary of anything that needs a powerful public relations push to get your attention, particularly something you're certain you don't need. One recent vinous PR ploy had a company re-inventing an old label by sending samples in the most handsome, beautifully carpentered wine box you have ever seen--this for wines selling at just over 10 bucks a bang.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2007Why Boutique Vintners Like Alternative Closures
When it comes to experimenting with closures other than cork, there's a growing consensus among smaller producers. Many believe they make too little wine to afford even a handful of cork-tainted wines that could very well alienate a customer forever.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2007Carmel Valley's Tasting Room Express
For many people, visiting wineries as part of an organized tour group can be a little too, well…organized. Stops are usually limited to wineries that can accommodate large busloads of visitors, and riders are given a set amount of time to spend at each location. In addition to being restrictive, guided bus tours can be expensive. On the other hand, piloting a car along those winding wine roads can be dangerous after one-too-many free samples. What's a wine-loving tourist to do?READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2007Finding a Distributor
Congratulations are in order if your winery business has reached this point: You are making high-quality wines, your tasting room staff is well trained and responsive to your customers' needs, your wine club and website are state of the art and your customers love you.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2007Should You Export to India?
Wine's international cachet is appealing to sophisticated young Indians, and white wine pairs well with spicy Asian cuisine. Here, Lisa Bose, Meera Jegathesan and Deep Dhillon share a bottle at Maui's Sansei sushi restaurant.India's wine market has been growing 30% each year since 1999, and the nation's population currently numbers more than 1 billion. India's economy as a whole has grown 7.5% every year from 2002 to 2006 and its middle class has increased fourfold since 1985. Prosperous Indians are very much into consumption, and enjoy buying more imported cars, more trendy clothing and more wine every day.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2007Off the Vine
This much is certain: Advertising--especially where boutique wineries are concerned--is more challenging than making good wine. At least winemaking is grounded in science; you can steer it, monitor it, craft it. Placing ads is notoriously unscientific, difficult to track and may well feel to many small winery owners like an expensive carnival game--the prize is enticing, the objective is clear, but success is about as easy as tossing that ring around the Coke bottle neck.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
December 2006East Side, West Side
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Applications for two new subappellations in the Central Coast's Paso Robles AVA prompted other local growers and vintners to band together to decide if, or where, the lines should be drawn.
Courtesy of Paso Robles Wine Country AllianceFifteen years ago, the mere mention of establishing subappellations within the Paso Robles American Viticultural Area (AVA) caused contentious dispute among the region's vintners and growers. But early this year, a small, bold group of wineries created a petition to establish a new "Paso Robles Westside" AVA. That was the impetus that finally motivated 39 vintners and growers from the west and east sides of the region to cast aside their differences and form the Paso Robles AVA Committee to delineate not one, but up to a dozen subappellations within Paso Robles.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
November 2006Embracing Alternatives
On a recent Sunday evening at Veritas in New York's Flat Iron district, sommelier Yoshi Takemura poured a pair of wines for a table tucked into a quiet corner--the first, a 2004 Pfeffinger Dry Riesling from Pfalz for $35, the second a $125, 2004 Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 5 from New Zealand's Central Otago region. It was a typical tableside presentation, except for the fact that both bottles were sealed with screwcaps.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
November 2006Picking a PR Approach:
There has long been a debate in marketing circles about which is more effective--agency or corporate public relations. While an in-house PR director has an insider's perspective on the company's strengths and inner workings, an agency may have better media contacts, and can represent a sizable cost savings for small wineries with limited budgets.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
November 2006Off the Vine
Time for a current events pop quiz. What do the following people have in common with a Japanese robot?OK, you're reading a wine magazine, and you probably catch the news now and then, so you probably figured it out instantly. These people, like the Japanese "Winebot," all featured prominently in wine-related stories that garnered mass media attention in recent months.
- Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z
- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
- New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
- Deceased U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.
READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
October 2006What Sommeliers Want
"There is lots of great wine that's still under the radar. If I think somebody's wine is good, why not help promote it?"
--Mark Mendoza, wine director, Sona, Los AngelesWith all the recent excitement about direct-to-consumer shipping, it's important not to lose focus on traditional sales channels. According to Restaurant Wine's annual ranking of the 100 best-selling wine brands in restaurants, on-premise sales now account for 22% of overall wine sales by case volume and nearly 50% of dollar value. Restaurant placements remain a crucial element in a small winery's sales and marketing strategy--especially if your wine is seen in all the right places.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
October 2006Why Form an AVA?
A trace of morning mist lingers over Las Lomas Vineyards in the Borden Ranch AVA, one of seven new sub-appellations formed within California's Lodi-Woodbridge district.
Photo courtesy of Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape CommissionEstablishing an American Viticultural Area (AVA) can be a lengthy exercise in jumping through bureaucratic hoops. An AVA application takes hundreds if not thousands of hours, and requires thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars. Yet growers and wineries around the country continue to charge at those hoops, because they believe AVAs pay off in terms of consumer awareness, higher wine prices and eventually higher grape prices, too.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
September 2006Small Wineries Opt For Online POS
Visit Maisons Marques & Domaines' website, click on the POS you need, print it out and it's available instantaneously, like this label for Roederer Estate L'Ermitage Brut Rosé.As recently as five years ago, most wineries distributed their point-of-sale materials the old-fashioned way: They had hundreds, even thousands, of copies printed, then boxed them up and shipped them to sales representatives and accounts across the country. In addition to paying for printing and shipping costs, wineries had to find space to store boxes of extra shelftalkers, sell sheets and case cards--which often ended up in the recycle bin after a vintage change.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
September 2006Styrofoam Or Cardboard For Direct Shipments?
One overlooked area of wine packaging is direct-to-consumer shipments. These can come straight from the winery, through a shipping service or from a retailer, either online or bricks and mortar. Often, packaging decisions are made based on getting the customer to step up and buy the product. But the first duty of the direct-to-consumer package, commonly called a "shipper," is that the wine arrives safely. Second, it should also look good, with no scuffed labels.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
September 2006Dare We Critique The Critics? Why Not?
Part I of my analysis of three major "glossy" wine magazines in the U.S. arena (July 2006) focused on their buying guides and stuck close to the nuts and bolts--how the wines actually get tasted, numbers of wines reviewed, the ratings systems the critics employ, the promotional nature of label reproductions, what's stated by the magazines and what's not. For Part II, I'm going a little more freestyle.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
August 2006Innovative Packaging Ignites 50% Sales Growth
The numbers would have been unbelievable five years ago. According to ACNielsen, a company tracking wine sales in grocery stores and some other chain outlets, sales of premium bag-in-box wines, combined with wines sold in screwcap closures, were up more than 50% in 2005. As a separate category, wines in screwcap closures alone were up 51% in 2005, a growth rate three times faster than the total 750ml bottle category.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
August 2006A Twist On Central Coast Wine
As consumers become increasingly receptive to the snap of a screwcap as opposed to the pop of a cork, more of California's Central Coast wineries are experimenting with aluminum twist-offs. In fact, several highly regarded vintners who've switched their entire line to screwcap closures candidly explain, it's neither romantic notions nor lower cost that has them turning their backs on tree bark. It's the unacceptably high incidence of TCA contamination, which they blame on faulty natural corks (see story "Cork Suppliers Make A Compelling Case", for an update on natural cork.) With everyone in the industry from sales representatives to sommeliers embracing the idea, the screwcap's time has come, and it's no longer relegated to jug wines. Winemakers in Napa Valley and Santa Barbara County are touting the qualities of the screwcap, and three mobile bottling companies based in San Luis Obispo County are ready and able to meet their bottling requirements.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
August 2006Better Half's Distinctive Design And Distribution
Packaging wine in a 375ml bottle isn't a new idea, nor is bottling it under a screwcap. Modern, unpretentious label designs are becoming the norm for New World wines, and selling wine through a distributor network is certainly nothing new. But when all of these elements are combined in a creative way, something distinctive emerges.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
July 2006Even Small Producers Saw Big Results At the London Wine Fair
Sellers and buyers flocked to the ExCel Center for the 26th annual London Wine & Spirits Fair; many paid a call to Wine Institute's exhibit.It seemed like most of the wine world was pouring into the United Kingdom during the middle of May this year. The 26th annual London International Wine and Spirits Fair attracted nearly 19,000 visitors to the ExCel Center in the capital's renovated--if remote--Docklands area, where 1,300 exhibitors from 35 countries came to do business. The cosmopolitan atmosphere reflected Britain's position as the leading export market for almost every significant wine-producing region. But America's wine industry played a primary role in the success of this year's show. According to event organizer Brintex, numbers from the U.S. were up by 85%.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
July 2006Yellow Moon:
While Old and New World wine producers are casting covetous eyes toward Asia's thirsty billions as an emerging export market, at least one American seeks to reverse the tide, bringing vinifera wines grown and made in China to the U.S. and Canada. Darryl Chomin, who has worked with both private companies and the Chinese government for more than 14 years, has formed Yellow Moon Imports, Inc. (yellowmoonimports.com), a Philadelphia-based firm that represents two Chinese wineries and a distillery.
Last year, Yellow Moon imported 800 six-bottle cases of wines from Chateau Changyu-Castel, a joint venture between France's Castel Group and Changyu Pioneer Wine Company, Ltd., the oldest producing vineyard in China. The alliance was forged in the 1990s, but the vineyard was established in 1892, when China was first opened to Western trade.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
July 2006Off The Vine
I am shocked--shocked, I tell you--by what has become of consumer wine magazine "buying guides." But if you expect me to reveal evidence of altered scores, advertiser patronage and other nefarious dealings, perish the thought. As the former executive editor of Wine Enthusiast (from 1988-1998) as well as a close watcher of wine media ever since going freelance, I consider myself well attuned to the ways and means of wine-rating systems and the editorial products they spawn. And as a "recovering wine critic" who has often railed against the 100-point scale, perhaps readers would anticipate a sense of scandal as I delve into this subject.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
June 2006Creating Effective Winery Web Sites:
What's the worst thing that can happen when a visitor comes to your winery's Web site? Answer: The visitor flees after hitting your home page, never to return. What's the most expensive visit to your Web site? The one that results in a bad experience that is subsequently shared with others. How can you prevent these woefully disadvantageous outcomes? The first step is to understand how your site ranks on the visitor effectiveness scale. From there, you can take some simple steps to improve the visitor experience for all.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
June 2006Direct-To-Trade Sales Options Could Open New Doors
For many boutique and start-up producers, trying to get placements in out-of-state restaurants can be frustrating. Landing distributors isn't always easy--even when you have an excellent product to sell--and even if a winery manages to do it, getting brand-laden distributors to focus on your products can be an uphill battle. In most states, making your own restaurant placements isn't an option--but it soon could be.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
June 2006How Francis Mahoney Repackaged Himself
At 50-plus, Francis Mahoney is reinventing himself. Mahoney, an icon for Carneros Pinot Noir at Carneros Creek Winery, launched the new Mahoney label last year and has also relaunched the Fleur label, originally established in 1991.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2006Designers Take On Label Trends
The most obvious and arguably the most important part of the wine package is the label. The label has to stand out on the shelf--that's the obvious part. It also should reflect the wine in the bottle, which is not the same thing as simply catching the eye.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2006Security Packaging Offers Brand Protection
Online and auction purchasers of fine collectible wines have been duped by counterfeits. High-tech "smart" packaging can prevent such debacles.Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it can be damaging when it comes to collectible wines. A well-faked bottle of first-growth Bordeaux or California cult wine could fetch hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars at auction, leaving a bad taste in the duped buyer's mouth and hurting the brand's reputation.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2006Small Packages In The U.S. And Japan
By 5:30 p.m. on Daimaru department store's food floor in Tokyo Station, businesspeople shuffle in long lines to purchase their nightly ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages. Salespeople work at a frantic pace, popping single servings of wine, beer and cocktails-in-a-can into small shopping bags, each with a plastic cup.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2006Pinot Gris/Grigio: Mayo plays the name game
Mayo Family Winery president Jeffrey Mayo is an experimental kind of guy. The winery is known for small lots of unusual, single-vineyard wines, like a Carignane sourced from 90-year-old Alexander Valley vines. Mayo was a pioneer in the food-and-wine tasting room concept, starting last spring with its Kenwood Reserve room beside Highway 12, and expanding to a similar venture in Healdsburg this February. That makes a grand total, so far, of five Mayo Family tasting rooms in Sonoma County: the first at the winery in Glen Ellen, one on the historic Sonoma square and another co-op in a Sonoma hotel.
Which would you pick? Pinot Gris outsold Pinot Grigio twofold.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2006New Bag-In-Box Options: from cubes to tubes
Chef Daniel Boulud, sommelier Daniel Johnnes and vintner Dominique Lafon packaged their Dtour French Chardonnay in a tubular package, hoping to evoke a more upscale image.It's always interesting to look back at old issues of Wines & Vines (our archives date back to 1920) to see how the industry has changed. In the case of bag-in-box wines, I only had to time-travel to the year 2002 to find the start of a dramatic trend. Just four years ago, quality bag-in-box wines were a rarity, and three brands dominated the market: Franzia, Almaden and Peter Vella. Five-liter boxes were just about the only game in town--at least in the U.S. market--and the emphasis was on price, rather than lifestyle or quality.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
May 2006Off The Vine
There is laughter inside every bottle of wine. Sometimes the mirth spills out after the first sip; other times it stays tucked in until the last glass. Unfortunately, there is no easy means of reliably pulling that feel-good sweetspot out in a way that will generate repeat sales.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
April 2006Wine Evolution: a dose of reality for exporters
For small, high-end American wineries, the lesson from Wine Evolution 2006 was clear: All other wine regions are targeting the United States as the most attractive wine market in the world, but few overseas markets are ripe for any American wines except those at the low end.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
April 2006Adopt-A-Vine Programs Bring Consumers Into The Family
Vine adopters at Faire le Pont in Wenatchee, Wash. enjoy getting hands-and-feet-on with the product at four convivial events every year.The alluring image of the "wine country lifestyle" is perhaps as appealing to consumers as the beverage itself. Agri-tourism has become a profitable means of promotion for individual wineries and entire winegrowing regions around the world. While thousands of wineries nurture a sense of connection to their brands through Web sites, blogs and wine clubs, so far, only a handful have taken that connection from the virtual to the hands-on, through adopt-a-vine and adopt-a-vineyard programs. As expressed below by winemakers and "adopters," these programs cultivate both familiarity and enviable brand loyalty. And, we are told, they are relatively simple and inexpensive to initiate and maintain.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
March 2006Off the Vine
If your job has anything to do with wine marketing, and you have a pulse, you've probably spent more than one sleepless night wondering what makes consumers tick. I don't claim to have the answer (beyond a shot of brandy), but I do think my perspective as a wine entertainer--devising tastings weekly for all sorts of wine drinkers--may shed a little light on this nagging black hole of wine-selling savoir-faire.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
March 2006SLO Tasting Room Draws Crowds, Sparks Controversy
A staffer replaces a bottle in the Enomatic machine, from which consumers can serve themselves.
Photo: Dan HardestyThe Central Coast has a new "bar" in downtown San Luis Obispo called Taste, and despite a soft opening without announcements, it received a steady stream of visitors eager to check it out. While this hardly seems noteworthy, Taste is remarkable because it's the first wine tasting room of its kind. Unlike the cooperative tasting room where several winemakers share commercial space, Taste is wholly owned and operated by the San Luis Obispo Vintners, a consortium representing 23 wineries in the Arroyo Grande, Avila and Edna valleys.READ MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2006Casa Nuestra Takes The Direct Approach
Casa Nuestra Winery on Napa Valley's Silverado Trail has an especially loyal customer base. I've always been a fan of the wines, particularly the Chenin Blanc, which is finished dry. Not many wineries in California pay much attention to Chenin, which can be a very good wine when made right. Casa Nuestra makes it right. Recently I paid my first visit to the tasting room. It was immediately clear what attracts consumers to the wine and what builds such customer loyalty.
Gene KirkhamREAD MORE »Sales & Marketing
January 2006Off The Vine
It's that time again. Time to break out a fresh calendar and dust off the ol' crystal ball--which, to be honest, I've always considered to be three holes shy of a bowling ball. Anyway, here are a few thoughts on some best/worst developments in 2005, as well as possibilities that may become reality in '06.READ MORE »CURRENT COLUMN ARTICLES »
