The conference advertised itself as “the only professional wine conference focusing on wine entrepreneurship” and panels were arranged so that the first day covered the wine supply chain and the second day looked at trends (i.e., social networking) and opportunities (i.e., franchising, packaging). Many of the speakers were harvested from the east coast, which was refreshing to see. Here are my key takeaways from each of the panels:
“Wine Making and Winery Development”
The mid-Atlantic growers (two from Virginia and one from Maryland) all envied where Oregon’s wine industry is now. Despite this, there seems to be no momentum behind a regional growers’ association to collectively promote the wines outside their area. I got the impression that each winery is fighting its own fight for shelf space instead of joining forces to present to the quality wines of the mid-Atlantic to consumers and trade. A promotion similar to Uncork New York! does in Manhattan would go a long way to elevating the relevancy of this region to the public.
“Wine Importing and Distributing”
Oh, the damn three-tier system of booze distribution in this country is so simple on paper, but not easy in execution. The number of government agencies involved in importing a single alcohol-related product is amazing, and this is before considering the paperwork for bank financing. Mr. Earle, formerly of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, used his part of the panel to discuss the key factors for success for New World entrants to the USA.
“Managing Wine and Liquor Stores”
Retail has its challenges, but is not dead. Certainly cost cutting and inventory management has been important over the last year, but the key to success in any type of retail is engaging your customer, whether through free tasting at your store or keeping track of customer’s past purchases to help them find something new they might like.
Keynote Speaker: Jean-Charles Boisset, Boisset Family Estate
Mr. Boisset made a strong case for thinking creatively around wine packaging in the future. I had no idea they packaged some of their AOC Beaujolais wine in 750ml aluminum bottles. Is that even legal?
“Managing a Wine Bar/Hospitality Business”
The tighter economy has lead to creative solutions for smaller restaurants. The consultants who presented here shared that, in certain markets where is it allowed, they have collectively leveraged pricing power and purchased for several restaurants.
“Opportunities in Wine Journalism/Wine Blogging”
It’s a great time for wine freelance writing as newspapers are cutting full time staff so there’s more opportunity to contribute. It’s a terrible time for wine freelance writing as it’s ultracompetitive given so many unemployed professional writers. Mr. Meddis shared his ‘Top 10 Tips & Tricks’ for effective blogging.
It’s a great time for wine freelance writing as newspapers are cutting full time staff so there’s more opportunity to contribute. It’s a terrible time for wine freelance writing as it’s ultracompetitive given so many unemployed professional writers. Mr. Meddis shared his ‘Top 10 Tips & Tricks’ for effective blogging.
I have a lot to learn.
“Wine and Charity: How to Use Wine in Charitable Ways”
Both Vintner’s Charitable Cooperative and Charity Wine have original ways of channeling our love of wine into significant cash for charity.
Day two highlights to follow...
(Picture L-R: James Roth of Red, White, and Bleu, Rodolphe Boulanger of The Wine Messenger, and Laurent Guinand of GiraMondo Wine Adventures.)
(Picture L-R: James Roth of Red, White, and Bleu, Rodolphe Boulanger of The Wine Messenger, and Laurent Guinand of GiraMondo Wine Adventures.)
It is interesting to hear the industry thinking creatively about packaging. The traditional 750 ml glass bottle glass, with cork, and label, has got to be the worst, most inefficient, most expensive and most wasteful way of bottling, shipping and storing wine. But, it is going to be difficult to wean us off that addiction.
ReplyDeleteThe uptake of the screwcap/glass stopper took less than ten years to go mainstream (unfortunately, the screwcap is worse for the enviornment than cork), so maybe it won't be so long.
ReplyDeleteSome of the big brands in Australia actually tanker-ship their wines to the UK and bottle them over there, saving a lot on transport and still managing the glamour of a glass bottle. That would be ideal, but I'm not sure we're going to see that wide-spread anytime soon because many old world appellations won't allow it. For instance, Rioja cannot be sold as Rioja unless it is physically bottled in Rioja's delimited borders. It's a matter of fraud protection to them.
That said, I've had the plastic 187ml wine bottles on airplanes. Aluminium is easier to recycle.
I think we're going to see bag-in-box, plastic bottles, aluminum, lightweight glass, tetrapaks and a whole lot more that we can even begin to comprehend over the next decade as the trade and consumers realize that:
ReplyDelete-packaging and transport costs make up an enormous percentage of wine's costs. Savings made here can be passed along to the customer/shareholder/whoever.
-there are much better packaging options for preserving opened wines at home and in restaurants
-recycling, recycling, recycling
As J-C Boisset said, look at all the packaging options for mustard. Once the despotic rule of the glass wine bottle is broken (at least for low-end wines), the barrier to continued innovation will be low.
Do you think winemakers will take the initiative, or will CostCo force it on them?
ReplyDeleteHey, nice site you have here! Keep up the excellent work!
ReplyDeleteEntrepreneur Conference