Archive for Members
People: Robert Merletti
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There are people in the Wine Industry that don’t own vineyards or make wine, yet their impact on our business is indisputable. They are the people behind our winery associations, our media and our trade and they’re making a difference. “People” was created to acknowledge their role and celebrate their successes.
Writer: Jim Brumm
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Vineyard and Winery Management Magazine publisher Robert Merletti brings experience, knowledge, and integrity to the industry he loves.
Robert Merletti, CEO and publisher of Vineyard and Winery Management Magazine, is arguably one of the most influential people in the wine industry today.
Merletti grew up in the wine producing Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. His stepfather, Bill Moffett, was a grape grower who started the publication (under a different name) in 1974 to help highlight the region and bring information and news about grape growing and the wine industry to others in the business.
After high school Merletti attended the Rochester Institute of Technology, earning a degree in business management. He wanted to join the family publishing business but he was initially discouraged by his parents. “They told me to get a real job,” he said, laughing.
For a while he entertained the idea of going to law school, but ended up working as a broker on Wall Street, and later in the banking industry. Eventually his parents did offer him a job with the magazine and in 1995 he packed up his belongings and moved to Sonoma County, California to begin “two years of isolation,” working alone in a small office selling ads and growing the business. As time went by he was able to hire an assistant and move into larger offices. He became the magazine’s sales manager and eventually purchased the business from his folks.
Under his leadership the business thrived and expanded. Today Vineyard and Winery Management occupies 4300 square feet of office space in Santa Rosa, CA and has a staff of 15. It has become the leading wine trade magazine in Read More→
Crop Insurance: The deadline for insuring this year’s crop is approaching!
Posted by: | CommentsWriter: Jim Brumm
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“Would you pay a few hundred bucks an acre for a spray that would guarantee you seventy-five percent of your grape production every year?”
So asks Michael Applegate of St. Helena Insurance Associates, in Napa Valley, California. Unfortunately there is no such spray, but he reminds us that good crop insurance can do the same thing, and that the deadline for purchasing insurance for next year’s crop—January 31, 2012—is fast approaching. Crop insurance is potentially the best investment a grower can make.
Crop insurance offers protection from losses caused by natural events, such as frost, drought, wind, rain, hail—pretty much anything Mother Nature throws our way that can damage grapes on the vine. In addition, damage to irrigation systems can be covered if caused by acts of nature.
Grape growers, like all farmers, face many perils each year, and these perils vary depending on location and climate. “In Napa Valley, for example, there are lots of different micro-climates,” said Chris Maloney, owner of Chris Maloney Crop insurance, LLC, in Petaluma, California. “There are different vineyards at different elevations; they all have different risk exposures.”
Maloney pointed out that there were losses from adverse weather conditions in Read More→
People: A Wine-Drenched Life: Sue Straight, AKA, The Wine Wench®
Posted by: | CommentsThere are people in the Wine Industry that don’t own vineyards or make wine, yet their impact on our business is indisputable. They are the people behind our winery associations, our media and our trade and they’re making a difference. “People” was created to acknowledge their role and celebrate their successes.
Writer: Jim Brumm
Printable PDF Version
A woman sits across from me at a local coffee shop in Santa Rosa, California. She is animated and upbeat. As usual, she is talking about wine, and as usual, her story ends with a laugh and I can’t help laughing along.
“I think people take wine way too seriously,” she is saying. “I think that wine should be fun.” She goes on to tell a story of filling her bathtub with red wine and bathing in it. I form a mental picture of this . . .
Meet Sue Straight, AKA the Wine Wench®. Sue is not your typical wine reviewer/writer/taster. Sue is not your typical person.
Born in Santa Monica, California, Sue grew up in the San Fernando Valley (and she does a mean “valley girl” imitation). Living on a small ranch with her family, she said she was “riding before I was born.” As a girl she wanted to be a horse veterinarian when she grew up, but that was not to be.
“I’m a failed Jewish American Princess,” she said, laughing. “I was always too bohemian to fit into that world.”
After high school she worked for a while at a veterinarian hospital in southern California and met and married a man who was both a farrier and a musician. Sue trained horses during the day and waitressed at night. She would roller skate down Ventura Boulevard to work each day. (At one point she was offered a chance to try out for the Los Angeles Thunderbirds roller derby team, but that’s another story.)
In 1981 Sue moved to Healdsburg, in northern California’s Sonoma County. One evening, while working as a waitress, a regular customer who managed a nearby tasting room offered Sue a job at her winery. “I thought, okay . . . I like wine,” said Sue, with a smile. She accepted the Read More→
Direct-to-Consumer Sales
Posted by: | CommentsWriter Jim Brumm
Are you getting all you can from your tasting room?
The most profitable way to sell wine has always been to sell it directly to the consumer. When you add middlemen such as distributors and retailers, the margins shrink as each takes their share of the profit off the top. For most wineries, especially smaller ones, this means that their primary hub of profitability is the tasting room.
For visitors wandering through wine country, whether in California, Virginia, Oregon of some of the other emerging wine regions across the country, the tasting room is often their first exposure to your winery. They come in because Read More→
Why Choosing the Right Attorney is Critical for Winery Owners
Posted by: | CommentsWriter: Jim Brumm
While few non-lawyers want to deal with the often scary and nearly always confusing world of law, a winery owner may find that a good lawyer who is well versed in winery law may be his or her best friend.
If you are part of a large, well-established winery, it’s likely that you have a good team of lawyers in your corner already. If you are a small, family winery, or just starting out, there are some important legal issues to consider before you make large decisions about your business. The dream of having a vineyard and bottling your very own wine for sale to the public is one many of us can relate to, but making it happen takes more than coming up with a clever name and designing a label. Read More→
Wine Industry Associations…Helping Members Thrive in Today’s Economy
Posted by: | Commentsby Jim Brumm
Making great wine is hard enough, but layer on the marketing, compliance, employees, taxes, permits, distribution, vendors, receivables, etc…it’s easy to see how overwhelming it can get. There is much to take care of and often not enough time to learn what you need to know before you have to make a decision. Sometimes a little help is called for.
For many grape growers and winery owners, joining an association is the answer. In California alone there are nearly 60 winery and grape grower associations, each helping its members support and promote their region with pooled marketing efforts, training, continuing education, industry updates, and government lobbying.
Tapping the power of the collective, winery and grower associations coast to coast are proving the old adage that there is Read More→
Solar Power Growing in Wine Industry
Posted by: | Commentsby Brian Wright
It’s no surprise that wineries are pioneers in a green industry like solar as the success of the grape grower can be measured by how well they interact with the environment. Clean energy and agriculture go hand in hand… and solar is proving to be more than the “vintage du jour” in the wine industry, it has taken hold and is here to stay. Read More→
Nick Young Joins Wine Industry Network as Membership Operations Manager
Posted by: | CommentsGeorge Christie, President of The Wine Industry Network (WIN) is pleased to announce the appointment of Nick Young as their new Membership Operations Manager who will be key support for the rapidly expanding industry resource and marketing platform. “Nick has extensive experience with membership retention and customer management. His technical knowledge and proven track record in direct marketing, web design and management will add value to our organization and push our level of customer service over the top,” said George Christie.
Young brings with him a versatile background in marketing, database management and design. He has spent his past five years working as Information Services Director for the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce, an organization that has experienced tremendous growth and success in recent years. His contributions to the chamber have been numerous including the migration to digital communications, maintenance of database systems, and implementation and maintenance of social networking channels. Additionally, Young is a local Healdsburg native with a rich wine industry heritage as the grandson of Robert Young, renowned winegrower and industry icon.
Young’s ability to build and maintain customer relationships along with his versatility and resourcefulness were the deciding factors for Christie. “His entrepreneurial spirit was a big plus for me,” says Christie. “I’m looking forward to Nick bringing his strong interpersonal skills, fresh perspective, and energy to WIN.”
“The Wine Industry Network is breaking new ground in the industry,” said Nick Young. “Their model is extremely exciting and innovative and is a perfect fit for my interest and experience. I am eager to be a part of such a dedicated group of people.”
About the Wine Industry Network :
The Wine Industry Network (www.wineindustrynetwork.com) is a comprehensive business-to-business (B2B) Internet marketplace and resource site specifically created to help wine industry professionals more effectively and efficiently locate and connect with suppliers and service providers, regardless of region or category of interest.WIN is dedicated to the business of wine and to providing information crucial to the success of the entire wine industry.
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Does Social Networking Sell Wine? Yes!
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It seems that the question most asked these days about social networking is whether or not wineries are actually getting visitors into their tasting rooms or into restaurants and retail stores to buy wine that they have learned about through Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare among others.
It seems that wine consumers are visiting wineries they may not have heard of because of the wineries’ presence in social networking forums. One example we have is from Michel Schlumberger, a winery in Healdsburg, CA, who found this blog from a consumer visiting Healdsburg:
“I checked in on Foursquare that I was in Healdsburg. Foursquare also automatically updated my Twitter account. A couple hours later I get a Twitter reply from the Michel-Schlumberger winery inviting me to come visit; that they are only 8 minutes away. We already had a list of wineries we wanted to visit and they were not on the list. But….Because of the invite I went to their website. We were both impressed with the winery and decided to add them to the list of visits on Saturday. WIN!
Fast- forward to Saturday. We arrive at the winery and I again check in on Foursquare. I am immediately given a coupon for one free tasting because of the check-in. WIN! We sit down for our tasting and immediately fall in love with their wines. So much that we decided to have a picnic lunch on their grounds and buy a bottle of wine right then to have with lunch and another bottle to take with us. WIN! Now guess what. They have two new customers. How much did they have to spend to acquire us? Some time on Twitter and Foursquare and one free tasting.”
The erstwhile visitor – now a connected customer added a great review of the winery to Foursquare and told some relatives who often come up to the area about Michel-Schlumberger.
Michel-Schlumberger uses Foursquare and other social media channels to invite people who may or may not know about their winery to visit and once there gives them reasons to become connected with the winery. For the cost of one free tasting, they began a relationship that they can build on for years to come.
Quite impressive.
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Tell Me A Story…
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Elizabeth Slater- Founder & Vice President of WIN
My friend John says often, “We are known to the world by the stories that we tell… I love telling stories and I love hearing stories. In my work I talk to lots of winery folks and hear lots of winery stories. Here is one of my favorites:
“We are a family owned winery, only using the finest grapes to make handcrafted, award winning wines.”
The reason I love this story so much; because it’s used by most of the wineries in North America to describe their winery. Many times the word small is inserted as the fourth word in the sentence. Do I think it’s a story that will differentiate a winery from most other wineries in North America? Not for a second!
While these are good things to tell visitors, customers, the press, distributors, wine shops, your dentist and the lady at the dry cleaners, it is not a sentence that will make you stand out from the crowd and bring people rushing to your door.
Is your story about terroir, quality, soil, micro-climate, grape clones or French oak? All good things, but will these things differentiate you from hundreds or thousands of other wineries? Once again, a resounding NO!
Keep this information as part of your story, the part you tell after you tell your real story, which could just as well be about the history of the land – A meteorite fell just two yards from your winery in 6000BCE (or BC) and is still stuck in the ground – or the fact that your dog can howl the tune to Red Red Wine by Neil Diamond (if the dog thing is true, make sure your post a video of the dog doing that on your website).
Okay, so one of those two is a little silly (you decide which one). My point is that your story can be about anything that will interest people and keep them delving further into your website and subsequently visiting your winery.
What is your story? Tell me your story through this blog or through WIN’s Facebook page and I will, in a future blog, post my favorites from the ones we receive, point out why these are good stories and how you can structure your stories to help promote your winery and wines to potential customers.
Can’t wait to curl up with a glass of wine and start reading!
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