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In Reply to: RE: Wine getting less complex posted by jimbill on October 23, 2011 at 20:24:23
...is that you have to sell the wine!!!!
So many people think that its all about making the wine. Wrong, wrong, wrong. You have to sell what you make. And I'll tell you, on bottling day when you see all those pallets start to stack up, you get weak in the knees.
I spend way more time selling than making and that goes for most wineries. Probably 99%.
So how do you make life easy for yourself? Well if you are smart, you spend time on your brand development (you don't pick a name that's impossible to pronounce or remember and you don't use your wife's artwork for the label to make her happy, and god forbid you don't save money by doing it all yourself!!!)
You make sure you have a good genuine personality. What? Selling is a people business, first and foremost. if you can establish a relationship with someone, you are way more likely to have longterm sales. There is nothing better than being on the road and walking into an account when some arrogant horse's ass (more often than not from Napa...but we have them here too) has preceded you by 15 minutes. Buyers both wholesale and retail respect you when you are genuine and honest and you can empathize with them. Boy I never thought selling brake calipers for my dad would come in handy, but it sure has.
And then there is the wine. I would guess that 95% of the people who buy my wine (and this is the super premium category believe it or not..I go from $16 to $80), don't have a great interest in how wine is made, how it differs by region, etc. They are not going to age the wine long term. They are at one of my places to have a good experience. Yes they have to like the wine but its just as important that they like me and my story.
These are not wine geeks. They are wine drinkers. I take the opportunity when I can to try and educate telling them to wait a while before the crack the bottle open. Some listen and will hold, but most won't. I don't make apologies for my wines. It's not plonk or anything, but this is a business and I have to do what makes sense in the marketplace.
Follow Ups:
if sales and money were not an issue, would you do anything different in the way you make wine?
Also, what are your thoughts on the "loss of complexity" issue?
Honestly I wouldn't change anything. My style wasn't a marketing choice planned ahead. It just sort of evolved from people I had worked for. You pick up something you either like or don't like from everyone along the way.
I wasn't smart enough to think about a "house style" before I started my brand!
Complexity? This is a tough one...it's based on so many things. On the whole, people pick much riper than in years past. That much is clear. But that can't account for all of the differences. I happen to like some herbal characteristics in my cab.I pick plenty ripe so the herbal notes are site specific, not under ripe fruit. I think in the race for high scoring fruit bombs, winemakers discard those sites that aren't purely fruit driven.
I also think winemakers have used too much new oak covering up all those differing characteristics.
Also picking super ripe leaves the resulting wines unbalanced if you don't correct by adding acid, etc in the fermentor. A highly alcoholic low acid wine is just not going to age at all.
Really, I could go on and on and on!
...a combination of farming and chemistry.
It's got to be a hard job, but very rewarding when it comes out like you want.
I'd much rather just drink it.
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