XChateau Wine Podcast

Latest Episodes:

From Non-Vintage to Multi-Vintage Collection w/ Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, Champagne Louis Roederer & Xavier Barlier, MMD May 04, 2022

Show notes

As the climate and resulting fruit quality change, winemakers must adapt to achieve the highest quality. That led the historic (246 years as of 2022) Champagne house of Louis Roederer to create Brut Premier in 1986 to overcome the challenges of underripe vintages, particularly in the 1970s. In 2022, another evolution has occurred, where the fruit is consistently ripe, and the main challenge is to preserve freshness. Thus, the launch of the Collection series, evolving the non-vintage Brut Premier into a multi-vintage wine that represents the best of the base vintage, the house style, and the push for freshness. Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, EVP and Chef du Cave at Champagne Louis Roederer, and Xavier Barlier, SVP of Marketing and Communications of Maison Marques & Domaines USA (Roederer’s import arm), tell us about this transition, strategy, and its market positioning.

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Detailed Show Notes:

Champagne Louis Roederer

246 years old
Owns ~600 acres of vineyards
70% of grapes from own vineyards - “grower first”
70% of quality comes from grapes for Champagne

The “New Champagne” trend

Driven by climate change and a resultant change in farming
Grapes have more expression and flavors; picked earlier and healthier
Need to adapt winemaking and farming to these new grapes
Grapes are picked earlier than 40 years ago, but similar to the late 1880s

The Grower Champagne movement - “a fantastic movement”

The growers survived due to the sales prowess of the Houses and have always had a close relationship between them
Due to climate change, it’s now possible to bottle wine themselves, whereas in the past, blending at scale was necessary due to the significant variation in quality
Terroir is now being revealed, of which both growers and Houses are moving towards

Collection series launch

Brut Premier was created in 1986, after the ’70s which were challenging years, so the non-vintage was created to make consistent, even quality wines
Using non-vintage to correct unripe grapes
With climate change, the challenge is different with ripe grapes; need to give freshness to the wines
Collection focuses on freshness, wants to reach the elite of the multi-vintage category, to be the best blend possible instead of consistency of house style
A modern evolution of Brut Premier, which is in the context of Champagne changing (100 years ago Champagne was sweet, 50 years ago it moved to a drier aperitif wine)

Collection production methods

Perpetual reserve (“PR”) - a new tool to ensure freshness and minerality, as well as the complexity of age
PR started in 2012 with 50% Pinot Noir, 50% Chardonnay, lots specifically selected for their freshness
PR has the new vintage added to it every year, and it becomes more and more complex over time
PR is aged in large tanks (1,000hl) with no oxygen, kept at 12C (underground cellar temp) for prolonged aging
Collection blend includes ~30-35% PR, ~10% reserve wines aged in oak, ~55-60% from the most recent harvest
Brut Premier had 6-10% oak reserve wines, which were the house signature of Roederer; Collection increases this signature

Brut Premier no longer made

Removed to have more consistency in the lineup, Collection is more “Roederer” than Brut Premier

Collection pricing

Product is more expensive to make, so pricing is higher than Brut Premier
Collection is multi-vintage (like Krug Grand Cuvee and Jacquesson), at a higher level than non-vintage

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Montepulciano vs. Montepulciano w/ Max de Zarobe, Avignonesi Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

Sharing a name causes confusion. Trademark and appellation laws are there to protect them. However, it can be harder to resolve when this confusion is within the same country. That’s the challenge Montepulciano (both the town and and the wine Vino Nobile di Montepulciano) faces against its bigger neighbor Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. Max de Zarobe of Avignonesi describes the history, challenges, and steps taken to clarify the names and the wines.

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Detailed Show Notes:

Max’s background - in shipping, ended up in wine by mistake

Avignonesi background

Originally a noble family from Montepulciano
Based in the SE part of Tuscany, close to Umbria
Best known for Vin Santo
Top 5 producers in the region (~175ha planted; ~100/~1,300ha of Vino Nobile)

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (“VN”)

From the town of Montepulciano, Tuscany
Historically controlled by Florence
Min 70-80% Sangiovese, trend for all local varietals
Three years to produce
~10M bottles annually
~3x the price of MA
Named “Nobile” due to nobility consuming the wine in history - only two places in Italy were known for noble wine vs. wine for food, Barolo and Montepulciano
Once famed as the best wine in Tuscany - it was imported by Thomas Jefferson to the US (~$250/year)

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (“MA”)

From the province of Umbria (East Italy)
It uses the Montepulciano grape variety
One year to produce
~120M bottles annually

Other naming confusions resolved by the EU: Champagne/Cava, Tokaji/Tocai, Prosecco/Glera. Internationall, cross border conflicts get good support from their governments

Naming conflict a domestic dispute - VN did not get gov’t support as it is small (Montepulciano has ~18k people/~15k voters; Abruzzo is ~2.2M people/~2M voters)

VN is challenged by the squeeze between Brunello (confusion w/ Montalcino, leads the American market due to investment of Banfi) and MA (shared name)

VN promotion challenges & actions

No one spoke English (even the President and GM of Consorzio do not speak English); Avignonesi has organized local English classes for children
Consorzio tried to get support from politicians but unsuccessful
As of last year, put “Vino di Toscana” on the label - limited impact as many don’t know Abruzzo is a province
Want to highlight “Nobile” vs. full VN name
Issue: can’t use an adjective to name a wine (EU law), “Nobile” is both an adjective and a noun; thus the full VN name was adopted
Alliance Vinum, a band of 6 producers, uses “Nobile” by printing it on the “back” label, which is functionally the front label

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Low/No Alcohol Wines w/ BevZero's Debbie Novograd & Kayla Winter Apr 20, 2022

Show notes

The low and no alcohol wine space is growing rapidly. Enough so that a company specializing in spinning cone technology to reduce alcohol, ConeTech, changed its name to BevZero. Debbie Novograd, CEO, and Kayla Winter, Director of Product Services & Winemaking, discuss the technology, the challenges of producing good no alcohol wine, and the market for low and no alcohol wines.

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Detailed Show Notes:

Alcohol reduction technologies

Reverse Osmosis - pass wine through filters, removes water and alcohol, can only bring down abv by a few % per pass, requires multiple passes to get to 0% (more taken out of the wine)
Spinning Cones - creates thin film vacuum distillation with heat added (37C) to extract alcohol w/o cooking wine, only spends a few seconds in still

BevZero history

Founded in 1991 as ConeTech as a tool in the winemaker’s toolbelt to adjust alcohol to hit a “sweet spot”
Before 2018, >14% abv wines had a higher excise tax, alcohol reduction used to bring wines below 14%

Spinning Cone technology

Can pull off different substances with different molecular weights (more than alcohol if desired)
Small units (1,000L/hour) start at $1.5M
GoLo tech starts at $500-650k

Definitions

Low alcohol wine: 5.5-10% abv
No alcohol wine: 0-0.5% abv

Uses of technology by geography

Europe - 99% for 0% abv products
USA - until 2 years ago - 90% for alc adjustment, 10% for low/no alc
USA - 2022 - 30% low/no alc -> 50% in 2023
Very large players doing adjustment
No alc - mostly startups, recently, big players interested

Market Sizing

Non-alc space $2B in 2021 -> forecasts range from $3.5 - 6B over next 10 years
IWSR projects no/low growing faster (7% CAGR) vs. alcohol (1% CAGR)
Wine has been slower growth
North America no alc wine market - $450M in 2021
Low alc mainly US (bigger than no alc) and Australia
No alc beer - 75% of total space

Producing no alc wine challenging

Need suitable grape varieties for base wine - fruit-forward and aromatic work best
Acid, color, tannin get concentrated
Sparkling does well; bubbles mask the lack of weight (bubbles through forced carbonation)
No alc is an FDA product - can add more ingredients (e.g., natural flavors, mouthfeel agents), must have a nutritional panel
Initial no alc wines used bad base wine and added lots of sugar to compensate
Many sweeten with grape juice concentrate, but trend is towards less sweet (now ~high 20g/L sugar)

Price points

Original products were $5-6/bottle, now up to $30/bottle
Majority are in the $10-15/bottle range, largest customer does still & sparkling wine in the $25-30/bottle range

Consumer use cases

Main segment (70%) - people who still drink alcohol, drink both low and no alc wines
Abstainers a small %
Gen Z pushing growth
Low alc targets lower calorie, lower carb segment
Meets a ritualistic need that non-alc fills

Branding and sales

No alc startups sell DTC, leveraging social media marketing
Low alc has some big players - 50/50 develop new brands, some use existing
Specialty online retailers for low/no alc

Higher quality products will drive future growth

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WineTok w/ Amanda McCrossin aka SommVivant Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

With the rapidly changing social media landscape, TikTok has started (as of late 2021, early 2022) to arrive as a place for wine lovers. Wine influencer Amanda McCrossin (somm_vivant) has gained momentum in this “wild west” and now has over 100k followers. She shares her journey, best practices, and what makes TikTok special.

Detailed Show Notes:

Former sommelier and wine director at Press Napa Valley, full background on Episode 12

Featured in SF Chronicle article about TikTok and wine (March 2022)

2 of Amanda’s videos converted well for wineries, 1st proof of ROI
Duhig got 1,100 signups for their mailing list from a video
Massican got $3,000 in sales and 70 list signups from 1 video

Recent shifts that allowed Amanda to excel on TikTok

Understanding TikTok is short form content vs dance videos (not social media)
Time limit increases (15 sec -> 1min (summer 2021); 1 min -> 3 min (Fall 2021)) -> enabled ability to dig in deeper (can technically do 10 min videos)

TikTok vs other platforms

Can’t DM w/ people, need to be following them
Conversations happen in comments
Ability to go live
Ability to reply w/ video in comments (“Duets” - do side by side w/ another’s content, Amanda did one w/ port tongs that has 2M views)
IG reels (only 30 sec - 1 min) don’t have as much educational content, trends usually 3 weeks later than Tiktok
IG feels older, more copycat, behind on trends

Demographics - female leading

Amanda’s - 75% female, 25% male
US, Canada, Australia top regions
Over 21 years old, deep into 30s and beyond, Over 50% of platform is over 30 years old

Amanda’s TikTok journey

Started July 2021 as an experiment
Decanting video got 30k views, but stalled out
Dec 2021 - started posting 2-3x/day, 1 video hit and others started snowballing
Still “wild west” on TikTok for wine
In 1 month went from 250 -> 30k followers (Jan 2022), now 110k followers (Mar 2022)

TikTok best practices

The “hook” is key - 1.5 seconds to catch people’s attention (e.g. - what you do, say, or put on the screen; Amanda puts topic of video on top)
Spend 2 weeks - 1 month to watch and listen
Post multiple times per day (Amanda now does 1/day)
Need quickness in video
Stay within a niche -> helps algorithm find the target audience
Optimal video length - 2 mins for Amanda (was 7-9 sec on TikTok for a while)
Need to react quickly to trends

Restrictions on alcohol (a grey area)

Similar to IG and FB, but enforced differently
No alcohol w/ minors
No excessive consumption
No solicitation of alcohol
Doesn’t drink on videos b/c got a disclaimer flag on one

WineTok creators: winewithdavid, themillennialsomm, jaimeegriffwine, legallywined, lexiswinelist

TikTok for wine brands

Joe Wagner - 30k followers - mostly production videos
Brands should respond in comments
Need a presence so people can find them
Establish relationships with creators first

Social media tips for brands

Don’t recycle content across platforms
Tiktok - looks less polished vs YouTube

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Boxing for the Environment w/ Jason Haas, Tablas Creek Vineyard Apr 06, 2022

Show notes

Constantly looking to improve its environmental impact, Jason Haas, Second Generation Proprietor of Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles, recently released a trial of 3L bag-in-box wines at $95/box. Though this is 15% lower than the normal bottle price, it still represented ~3x the highest boxed wine in the market. However, the potential to lower the total carbon footprint of the wine by 40% led to trialing and a terrific reaction to the 300 box trial, which sold out in 4 hours. Jason explains the rationale, strategy, and process of going bag-in-box and for other alternative packaging.

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon.

Detailed Show Notes:

The rationale for trying bag-in-box

Did a self-assessment of the winery’s carbon footprint - on the Tablas Creek blog
For the average CA winery, >50% of the carbon footprint is from the glass bottle (including transportation), as glass requires high temperatures to mold and has a heavy impact on shipping and transportation
Tablas Creek moved to a lightweight bottle in ~2010, which saves ~10% of CO2 footprint; heavier bottles are ~10% more
3L bag-in-box reduces packaging carbon footprint by ~84% and ~40% of the total carbon footprint
A wine blogger commented on Jason’s Facebook that Tablas Creek is well-positioned to create change w/ bag-in-box
Previously topped out at ~$35 for 3L, or ~$7.50/bottle

Tablas Creek bag-in-box trial

Bottled 100 cases of Patelin de Tablas Rose, ~300 3L boxes
Got ~60k views on a blog post on boxes in 2 days, lots of positive comments
In mid-Feb 2022, released the boxes to the member email list and sold out in 4 hours
Wines are currently under screw cap, meaning they are similar and don’t need adjustments to be in a bag-in-box

Future bag-in-box efforts

May extend to all 3 Patelin de Tablas bottlings (red, white, rose), which sell for $28/bottle retail, and other wines not meant for long aging
Likely will not sell in distribution - an “uphill battle,” with the price point being too high vs. the existing market
Bag-in-box ties to Tablas Creek’s mission - “to have a positive impact on the way grapes are grown, wine is made, and how wine is packaged and sold”

Box pricing

$28/bottle retail would be $112 for 4 bottles (1 box)
Cost is less for packaging, which was passed along to customers
Priced at $95/3L box, thought it was good to be under $100

Bag-in-box bottling & storage process

Bottling boxes was the biggest challenge at a small scale
Rented a semi-automated filler (would cost ~$10-12k to buy)
Very labor-intensive, took 4 hours for 324 boxes
There’s now a mobile bottling (boxing) line with bag-in-box capabilities based in Sonoma, may rent this for future boxings
Not a lot of reliable data on how wine ages in boxes outside of 6-12 months, will be tasting and testing
Bags in the boxes have higher oxygen transfer rates (“OTR”) than glass bottles
Once opened, the boxes stay fresh for at least several weeks

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Crafting a Brand for Millennials w/ Ben Matthews, Terratorium Wines Mar 30, 2022

Show notes

Combining a passion for wine with a background in marketing to Millennials from Proctor and Gamble, Ben Matthews launched Terratorium Wines. Building a brand for Millennials has led to creating target personas, packaging elements that lead to more transparency, and pricing to create a fine wine entry point. Hear about how Terratorium is creating brand alignment with its Millennial customers.

Support the show on Patreon.

Detailed Show Notes:

Millennial purchase drivers

Want straightforward, more “natural,” less manufactured products - concern for clean ingredients for products that are “in you,” “on you,” or “around you”
Want alignment on brand values, it’s more than just economics
Like transparency for the manufacturing process
Not as price-sensitive as people think they are
Want to support brands you’re proud to tell your friends about, which increases the word of mouth velocity, e.g., Tom’s Shoe’s “Buy 1, Give 1”
Need the right price point (there’s a ceiling for Millennials) - ~$25-low $40s for a single vineyard, craft wine; the market entry point for fine wine
Millennials are now 50% of parents, which is influencing buying practices, sustainability becoming more important

Developed personas for their target consumers - “who is my who?”

Came up with fictitious characters - “Jake” and “Meaghan”
Average older millennial professionals
Creates a brand lens for wine style, packaging, varietal selection, etc...

Terratorium varietals

Try to bring in not quite mainstream varieties
Millennials like learning about things

Packaging - P&G says it’s “the 1st moment of truth” - need to capture the eye

Front label

abstract graphic to visualize tasting notes, colors represent flavors that correlate to tasting icons on the back

Back label

Tasting icons on what the tastes of the wine are
Regional / vineyard information (new) - more hooks to remember the region (e.g. - soil types, climate)
QR code for the website - will be more targeted in the future
The Instagram handle on the back label - try to drive more traffic
In the future - will have ingredients, nutritional information on the website

Winemaking for Millennials

They like lower abv, fresher wines vs. heavier, oaky, more savory beverages

Wine Clubs

likely to remain a viable system w/ Millennials, like regular shipments, discounts, and some form of community

Building awareness through marketing

Active on social media - Instagram, Facebook, YouTube are the main channels for the older Millennials
Partnerships with adjacent categories (e.g., nutritionists, health-conscious proponents)
More in-person events in core markets - create more word of mouth presence, can’t replicate the in-person tasting experience
Podcasts - saw some sales from the Inside Winemaking connection

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Regenerative, the Only Sustainable Farming w/ Jason Haas, Tablas Creek Vineyard Mar 23, 2022

Show notes

Taking over from his father, 2nd generation proprietor of Tablas Creek Vineyard, Jason Haas left a career in technology to dig into the soils of Paso Robles. Spearheading the conversion to Biodynamic farming and now the certification of Regenerative Organic farming, Tablas Creek has pioneered not just the Rhone movement in California, but of Regenerative farming, which looks to take into account the farm’s impact on the soil, community, and region. Jason believes that Regenerative farming is the only truly sustainable way to farm. Listen in to Tablas Creek’s progression from organic to biodynamic to regenerative.

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Detailed Show Notes:

Tablas Creek

Pioneer of the California Rhone movement
Based on Paso Robles - because of the calcareous soils, long growing season, and enough rainfall to dry farm
Founded and run by two families
Robert Haas, Founder of importer Vineyard Brands
Perrin Family, owners of Chateau Beaucastel in the Rhone
All Rhone varieties, including rarer varietal wines
Own 270 acres, 125 planted to vines

Regenerative farming - similar to biodynamics, but thinks more about the externalities of agriculture

Has commitments to less use of shared resources (e.g. - water, power)
Has an additional focus on the big picture (e.g. - climate change with a metric to increase the carbon content of the soil)
Biodynamics is process-based whereas regenerative farming is results-based
Requires a series of audits - soil health audit, animal welfare certification (that they are treated humanely), farmworker audit (paying fair wages, increasing their skills -> led to weekly roundtable meetings)
Focus on the positive impact on the soil, community, and region
Does not have cow horns or the cycles of the moon like biodynamics
Regenerative is an alternative to biodynamics that is more focused on science vs mystical processes

Benefits of the various farming practices

Conventional - cheapest in the short term
Organic - in the long run, not more expensive than conventional. Organic certification in wine has been mostly for lower-end wines in the $10-15/bottle
Biodynamics -Initially believed it would increase the lifetime of vines and gain in quality from older vines. Discovered that lots grown biodynamically were the best lots right away in blind tastings.
Regenerative farming - Less about the grapes vs biodynamics, more in externalities

Regenerative farming pilot program

6 Regenerative Organic certified wineries at the moment
Got invited to the pilot w/o knowing what “regenerative” was or meant
Can use the “Regenerative Organic” seal on their wines (vs just for the grapes)

Costs of farming

Biodynamic/regenerative - have more hands-on labor vs organic or conventional farming
Less chemical purchases
Cost on a $/ton basis for farming has not increased significantly vs organic (~$3-5,000/ton)
Has not experienced yield reductions, the yield has been more dependent on water (e.g. - 2-2.5 tons per acre in a dry / frost year vs up to 3.5 tons per acre for a wetter year)
Has been able to avoid significant labor issues by maintaining its own vineyard crew (10 FTEs, started w/ own crew in 1996), paying a living wage and good labor conditions have led to good recruitment and retention of crew workers

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Standing Out via AR and Celebrities w/ Ming Alterman, 19 Crimes Mar 16, 2022

Show notes

Seemingly overnight, 19 Crimes, a division of Treasury Wine Estates, has become a Top 15 brand in the US and has a global impact. Re-imagining what a wine brand could be, 19 Crimes has had many innovations, but found lasting success with augmented reality and celebrity partnerships with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. Ming Alterman, Brand Director for 19 Crimes, gives us the history, best practices, and keys to success for the brand and AR.

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon.

Detailed Show Notes:

19 Crimes Overview

A Top 15 brand in the US according to Nielsen IRI, ~500k cases sold at $11.50/bottle average
A virtual brand, no winery, no visible winemaker - disrupts what a wine brand can be - “The non-wine drinkers' wine”
Americans often pick up a bottle because of the look and feel - developed the packaging and story to engage the consumer
1st black matte bottle, collectible corks with crimes on them, and augmented reality (AR
Still need a wine that delivers for the price point and consumer first -> the wine quality creates repeat purchase
Average consumer - 35-55 years old, wants to be a part of something and can relate to the story of the 19 Crimes
Snoop Dogg's partnership has brought in 200k new consumers into wine from beer and spirits

Augmented Reality

App has over 5M downloads
Started w/ both AR and virtual reality (VR) to tell the story of the brand
In 2017 - people didn’t want to put on the headset (VR) in-store but were okay downloading the app and AR took off
Created a 3d puppet of the person, animated it, and recorded lines
AR came a few years after the brand launch, was supposed to be a sales tool, but morphed into a consumer thing
Consumer awareness - QR code on bottle to download the app, invested in POS displays and in-store marketing, some screens in aisles
People scanned and download the app while in the aisle
Success factors - instant gratification, people shared it and it went viral, good shareability, great creativity, and simple
Requires ongoing investment in the app - e.g. - built ability to record in-app
Usage goes up during holidays (people like to share it) or the launch of a new SK

Launching AR

Easier now w/ web AR - can just do through camera phone vs needing an app
Still have the Living Wine app
Apple now recognizes QR codes with a camera, making it easier
Getting cheaper, but still ~$80-200k to develop
Ongoing costs - website updates, tech licenses (e.g. - AR engines), if there’s an app (easily 6 figures), creative updates
Need a reason for people to come back and use it again

Marketing 19 Crimes

Got tons of earned media
Paid for Google Playstore/Apple App Store to get app downloads
PR efforts and social media
Ads feature AR as the hook

Success w/ celebrities

Need them to be really passionate and involved
Need marketing dollars to promote it, not just the celebrity deal
ROI - for 19 Crimes, looked at the impact on the entire brand, not just the dedicated SKUs
Compensation models - equity, royalties, up-front fees, annual fees

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Improving Wine Communication w/ Madeline Puckette, Wine Folly Mar 09, 2022

Show notes

Using her background in graphic design and inability to read large blocks of text, Madeline Puckette, Co-Founder and Content Director of Wine Folly, has transformed wine communication using infographics and other writing methods to enable wine discovery for more people. What started as a content marketing strategy for a planned wine club, Wine Folly has become one of the core landing sites for wine globally and an essential resource for wine beginners in their wine journey. Here about the journey, the business, and the future with Global Wine Database.

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon.

Detailed Show Notes:

Madeline’s background
- Grandfather got into wine through mail order and reading
- Dad bought a wine subscription to K&L Wine Merchants when she was 21 (in 2004) at art school, which got her into wine and provided her “Aha!” wine moment - a Cotes du Rhone that didn’t taste like fruit but like black olives
- She was a musician and a graphic designer
- After she lost her job in 2009, she helped out at a wine bar which exposed her to more wine
- Did the Ruinart Challenge competition in San Francisco and got runner up on a Chardonnay blind tasting
- Went on to pass Certified with the Court of Master Sommeliers (“CMS”)
- While in the startup community in Seattle, she wanted to combine web with a wine concept and started Wine Folly
Wine Folly’s founding
- It didn’t want to have a blog
- The initial concept was to have an online wine club with videos exploring the wine regions of the world
- 12/25/2011 - 1st post on how to wrap a bottle of wine for Christmas
- Wine informational content started as a content marketing strategy to get high search engine optimization (“SEO”) but became what people wanted
Wine Folly today
- An online portal for the topic of wine
- 1st infographic - “how to choose wine” - was a joke but went viral and the Facebook account grew by 7,000 in 1 day
  - Printed and sold the infographic as posters - sold 52 in the 1st two days
- Uses an inverted pyramid writing style - articles start with the simple, straightforward answer and then grows with more details at the bottom
- Wine Folly users - the focus is on wine beginners - there are always more people getting into wine
Marketing Wine Folly
- Viral things tend to peak and go down
- SEO “long tail” work - content marketing, posting 3 articles/week for years for free was what built the site
- Tried some paid marketing for products
- Social media - “like a billboard,” metrics are smaller than everything else (
- Key metrics - reach and revenue are primary metrics / OKRs
- Defining reach can be complex - can include duration of visits, looking at a 2nd page, etc.
- ~20M unique visitors/year on the website
- Launching online classes - including a French wine course in March, uses a self-challenge model to force people to learn and figure things out
- Seeing a declining interest in wine - the “wine” search ranking has been declining over the last 5 years
YouTube channel
- Has been growing rapidly recently (~60k followers in Jan 2022)
- Need consistency of content to do well - 1 piece/week would be ideal
- Wine is challenging on YouTube to create a digestible format because wine is just in your glass. It’s all in your head -> success might be more about personality
- Other successful wine channels - Wine King, Bon Appetit w/ Andre Mack
- YouTube is a place to self-learn
Social media strategy
- Need to have content that matches the purpose of the social media channel
- Wine Folly does a lot of analysis on what does well or not
- Consistency is the core strategy
Business model
- Launched a wine club in 2021 in partnership with Wine Access
- “Like a Food52 of wine” - wine accessories (e.g., tools, maps, wine flavor charts, visual learning tools)
- No advertising, but investigating it now, looking at partnership/sponsorship opportunities
- Tools and book section are the most successful, courses coming up fast
Books
- 1st was in 2015, 2nd in 2018
- More a marketing opportunity to get credibility
- Sales primarily field by people on Wine Folly’s email list
- Not great financially
- 2nd book - wants to be the guide to use to pass CMS Certified
- Sold on website packaged with a Wine 101 course to compete w/ Amazon, which sells the book cheaper
Merger with Global Wine Database (2019)
- The quality of the information in the wine industry is bad
- GWD is an initiative to get all wines and wineries to put their product information into the database
- There are free and pro subscriptions
- Have created region guides and trade guides to explore wine regions with the data
- Producers can create tech sheets with the product
- Future applications - API for retailers, recommendation engine by taste
- Synergies with Wine Folly - to provide better data to create better products, Wine Folly adds content structure over the database

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Telling Stories w/ Jason Wise, SOMM TV Mar 02, 2022

Show notes

With an outsider's perspective, Jason Wise, director of the SOMM movies and founder of SOMM TV, has been able to find stories in the world of wine that interest a broad audience. In order to control more of the content pipeline and how the shows are distributed, Jason founded SOMM TV. Using "Somm" as more of a curator, SOMM TV has wine at its core and covers food, travel, and other alcohol, making it appealing to a broad (and younger) audience. Learn more about the business of wine films in this episode of XChateau!

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon.

Detailed Show Notes:

Jason's background
- Former bartender, went to film school, started as a filmmaker
- He got into wine because he loves history, there were lots of stories that he could make films about, and his (now) wife's father loves wine, and he wanted to impress him
- He did a travel show and learned about wine
SOMM movie (2012)
- The genesis of the movie
  - Made when he was fresh out of film school (where he didn't focus on documentaries)
  - Met Brian McClintic, who asked him to watch their tasting practice
  - Found the practice similar to a sporting event
  - Met Ian Cauble and found his determination to become a Master Sommelier
- The success of the film
  - The obsessive personalities made the film
  - Builds to an actual event (the MS exam)
  - The wine industry was ready for something like the movie
  - Not a "wine film," a different way of looking at wine
  - Introduced a new group of people who can tell you what to drink (vs. magazines)
  - Documentaries became popular with Netflix
  - Not made by wine people, the outsider perspective made it enjoyable to outsiders
Wine needs storytelling
Other wine films
- SOMM 2 - a" "wine fil"", SOMM 3 - the" "bullshit facto"" of wine, SOMM 4 - more history driven
- Auction 288 (to be released June 2022) - a movie about a bottle of 1874 Perrier-Jouët Champagne, more of a history, business story
Media business model
- Movies usually have a distributor
- Theaters are a big marketing arena for wine
- iTunes - make a % of revenue
- Netflix
  - pays distributor a fixed fee, if put on the 1st page can reach millions of people
  - Often pays based on what it costs to make
  - Can own rights outright or rent the film
- Amazon - get paid 6+ months after it's up and receive a minimal cut of incremental revenue
- YouTube - doesn't make any money on
- Created SommTV to control more steps in the business model - more control of content pipeline, partnerships, place to premiere new films (e.g., SOMM 4)
- Before Covid - events were a big part of the business
Media platforms
- Hulu - Jason's favorite, takes the most significant swings in content
- Stars - has the best movies
- Netflix - very careful, content is very similar to each other; often licenses something then makes their own version if it works (e.g., Uncorked is a similar series to Somm)
Cost of making films
- Big range - SOMM 2 ~$100k vs. ~$850k for another wine film made by someone else
- Documentaries - can be millions, when there's real music, at least $500k
  - Do not pay people usually to be in the film
SommTV business model
- Employees on salary, which is unusual in film
- 90% original content
- It started with originals, now trying to license other content
- Focused on wine, food, and alcohol; food is going to be a big part
- Started the streaming service because it's an underserved audience and wanted to super-serve them
- Content pipeline - would ideally love to have new content every day
- Hundreds of thousands of subscribers (as of Jan 2022) - believes the potential audience is in the millions" "Som" is defined by Jason as someone who curates - wine at the center, but food, travel, etc…surrounding it
- Pricing - $6/month, $50/year
  - Did a series of testing to determine pricing
  - Current entertainment content wars - other services are losing money to add subscribers (except for HBO Max)
  - Lower cost doesn't necessarily mean more subscribers
- Technology - a mix of own developed and 3rd party apps, goal is to bring technology in-house
SommTV subscribers
- Younger, usually 24-37 years old (~70%), middle class
- Screenings/events - more varied audience
- 52% male, 48% female - women growing fast
- Key markets - US largest by far, UK, Brazil, Nordic countries (not allowed in Iran or China)
Sparklers - new cooking and wine pairing show
- It covers various sparkling wine regions with cooking challenges
- It has a "perfect bite" - a meal on one spoon
- Contestants have to judge each other
- No one would have predicted the ending - the final episode aired Feb 8, 2022
Podcasts part of SommTV didn't have a marketing budget, so made podcasts which drawback to SommTV
- Guests feed into each other's shows
- Not expensive to make
- Free, don't have to subscribe

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