Archive for Subscribers
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→
5 Things Every Video Marketer Should Know…Before Production Begins!
Posted by: | CommentsWe recently celebrated the completion of our 175th wine industry related promotional video and had several people ask 
us what the “secret” is to creating something that’s actually effective versus “just another marketing spend”.
Well, the secret is… 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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And The Winner Is…
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It’s interesting these days to look at the results of wine competitions around the country that are open for entry to national and, in some cases, international wines. These days we are seeing a much larger number of winners from states that are not traditionally thought of winegrowing and winemaking states.
For example in the 2011 San Francisco Chronicle wine competition, which had 5,050 wine entries from 23 states, two sweepstakes winners came from wineries that are outside California, one from Washington and one from New Mexico. Out of the six sweepstakes wines selected only one wine was from Sonoma County and none were from the Napa Valley.
This is getting to be more and more common as wineries from all over the country regularly enter and receive medals for their wines. Of course we are used to seeing wines from California, Washington, Oregon, New York’s Finger Lakes and Virginia on the winners lists, but until recently we have not been quite as accustomed to seeing wines from Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Mexico, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia. Missouri, Michigan and South Dakota to name some of the states that entered wines and won medals. And the medals awards to wineries in these states are primarily for vinifera wines, although some are for grapes not grown on the West Coast and some are for fruit wines.
As I travel so much to wine regions around the United States and Canada it comes as no surprise to me that wines from so many different parts of the US are doing so well. I taste the wines and they are delicious.
Congratulations to all the medal winners from around the country and good luck to the wineries that, though they may not have won a medal this time, might the next.
Keep up the good work!
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New Year, New Start…I Assume
Posted by: | CommentsSo how are the new year’s resolutions going? I have already discarded a couple of mine but have high hopes for some of the others. In addition to making (and subsequently breaking) my resolutions for 2011, I have decided that one resolution that I am very much planning on sticking with is one that encourages me to challenge my assumptions.
We assume so much and create so many phantom rules by which we live, that we end up with a brain full of “facts” that actually are dubious opinions with no real evidence that they are indeed… facts. Turning opinions or assumptions into facts can be prevalent when you retail staff makes assumptions as to whether visitors to the tasting room are, or are not, going to purchase wine or join the wine club.
Many times visitors walk into a tasting room and the staff sizes them up, deciding that these particular visitors aren’t going to buy anything. Based on these assumptions they don’t talk to visitors in terms that will trigger a buying response or present them with reasons that will make these visitors want to join the wine club.
Create a different outcome when you’re selling wine or wine club memberships. Do it by simply changing your attitude or assumptions. Instead of assuming that your visitors are not going to join the wine club because they probably already belong to too many clubs already, imagine that the visitors to your tasting room that day are planning to join eight different wine clubs and so far they have only joined two.
Elizabeth Slater- Founder & Vice President of WIN
Our assumptions can just as easily be positive as negative. We really can make it happen. It’s not too late to add one more resolution, especially if you have already broken one, there should be plenty of room.
For a copy of my one-page handout: Challenge Your Assumptions email contact@wineindustrynetwork.com
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It’s Almost Trade Show Season
Posted by: | CommentsElizabeth Slater- Founder & Vice President of WIN
It’s almost trade show season. I say almost because even though it is only November and the first trade show doesn’t happen until January of next year, we all know how time flies… and no time flies faster than between now and the holidays! In addition to the large regional shows: Unified, the Midwest Wine & Grape Conference, and Wineries Unlimited, there are also many conferences happening in individual states.
As Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors the prepared mind”… clever fellow was Louis. It’s not too early to start preparing for the upcoming conference/trade shows. Trust me, there is plenty of prep work to do no matter which side of the booth you’re on.
For wineries, take a look at the conference schedule and pick out the sessions that will give you the information you need the most. After you have honed in on the sessions, take a look at the exhibitor list and prioritize the “have to visit” booths and the “want to visit” booths. Plan enough time to walk the whole show. You never know what’s out there that will make your job easier or your business more successful. And of course, be sure and stop by the WIN booth to visit our team, we will be at all three shows.
If you’re going to be at the Midwest Conference or Wineries Unlimited, definitely don’t miss the full day Tasting Room Profitability/Wine Club Summit and kick your direct-to-consumer sales and service into high gear. Admittedly I am biased about these sessions as I am going to be participating, but I am confident that they are going to be great!
Finally, don’t forget to save some time for networking. Not only is it beneficial, it’s lots of fun too! Talk to people from different countries and from different parts of the county. A new perspective might trigger a new idea for your business.
The best thing about the conferences and trade shows…there is always something to learn and sometimes it’s in the place you least expect it. See you there!
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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