Forty Years and $6 Billion of White Zin
Trinchero CEO discusses company's growth and plans for future
The pink, slightly sweet wine was pretty much lightning in a bottle for the once-small, family-owned winery that had just been getting by since brothers John and Mario Trinchero bought Sutter Home Winery in 1948.
Since its almost instant success, the Trincheros have sold $6 billion worth of white Zinfandel and still sell between 3 million and 3.5 million cases of the wine per year, said the company’s president and CEO Bob Torkelson, who was the keynote speaker at the July 23 summer conference of the California Association of Winegrape Growers in Napa.
Torkelson has been at the helm of the company, which is still owned by the Trinchero family, since 2004. After starting his career at E. & J. Gallo Winery, Torkelson worked for Lovotti Bros. Distributing Co. in Sacramento for seven years before joining Trinchero as national sales manager in 2000. He was promoted to the post of senior vice president of sales and global sales manager in 2001.
Today, Trinchero has more than 35 California wine brands, and its products are sold in 50 nations. The company is No. 5 on Wine Business Monthly’s most recent top 30 wine producers list by U.S. case sales. Trinchero sold 18.8 million cases in 2014, coming in behind No. 4 Bronco Wine Co. with 20 million and 4.5 million more than Treasury Wine Estates at No. 6.
Torkelson said the company currently employs 1,800 people, of which 1,600 are in California. About a quarter of all Trinchero’s workers have been with the company for more than 20 years. “We have a stable, long-term group of employees,” he said.
Such long-term employees are one of the “five pillars” that have supported Trinchero’s success. Other pillars are committed ownership—a dozen members of the Trinchero family spanning three generations still work for the firm—partnerships with distributors, innovation and infrastructure.
Massive new Lodi facility
Torkelson said the company is poised to bring a major new piece of infrastructure fully online soon. Its massive Westside winemaking facility near Lodi, Calif., will soon be fully operational. The 850,000-square-foot facility can process 100,000 tons of grapes, and three high-speed bottling lines can accommodate all of Trinchero’s various bottle sizes and package types. The new facility also brings the company’s entire Sutter Home production to one location, eliminating thousands of truck trips up and down congested Highway 29 in the heart of Napa Valley.
The warehouse is a modern automated facility with 90-foot-high ceilings that can accommodate nine high pallet stacks for a total of 72,000 pallets (or 4 million cases of wine).
As new products make nearly a quarter of U.S. wine consumption, Torkelson said Trinchero has sought to keep innovating its products. He said the company was the first to introduce 187ml bottles and now controls more than half of the market. Its non-alcoholic wine Fre continues to be successful, and the surging popularity of red blends shows no sign of abating. The company acquired the Ménage à Trois brand in 2004, when it totaled about 24,000 cases. Today, Trinchero sells more than 3 million cases of the wine. He said he expects red blends to stay hot for some time, and Trinchero released Ménage à Trois Midnight—a dark red blend—in August 2014.
Going forward, Torkelson said there could be potential with Sauvignon Blanc, Sangria beverages and “unoaked Chardonnays seem to resonate well with consumers today.”
Blends the future for low price, high volume programs?
Speaking to CAWG’s leadership, Torkelson was asked what could be done for wineries or growers that support brands with retail prices of less than $9 per bottle. Those programs are suffering as consumers begin to embrace higher priced wines often from North Coast vineyards. Creating what some have dubbed “A Tale of Two Wine Grape Markets” in California.
Torkelson said one answer could be shifting toward blended wines that carry the California appellation yet deliver quality of a regional AVA. He used the wines of Joel Gott as an example, saying some are sourced from throughout California and sold at premium prices. (The 2013 Joel Gott Sauvignon Blanc is made with grapes from Lodi and the North Coast and is listed for $12 on the winery’s website.)
During a reception held the night before the conference, CAWG presented its 2015 Leader of the Year award to the late Volker Eisele, founder of the Volker Eisele Family Estates winery in Napa Valley and a staunch advocate of preserving land for agriculture. The group also presented Andy Beckstoffer of Beckstoffer Vineyards its Grower of the Year award.
According to the group’s most recent financial summary, CAWG has an operating fund balance of $97,554 and a reserve of $861,363 as of November 2014. About 80% of the group’s revenue is split between membership dues and the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, while the rest comes from sponsorships and other sources. Membership services and public policy advocacy account for a little more than half of the group’s expenses, with the rest going to marketing, industry affairs and operations.
SHARE »
