XChateau Wine Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Bringing the Winery to You w/ Judd Wallenbrock, Charles Krug Winery Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

Art, comedy, food, movies, performance art, outdoor cabanas, food and wine pairings...are some of the draws that bring people to Charles Krug winery in Napa Valley. President & CEO of C Mondavi & Family (parent company of Charles Krug) Judd Wallenbrock tells us about the history of innovation at Charles Krug and the Mondavi family. As the first winery and first tasting room in Napa Valley, Charles Krug has spearheaded many different elements of hospitality and now drives them virtual. Hear all about their programs and what has worked in the virtual space on this episode of XChateau!

Detailed Show Notes:

Judd’s background - 41 years in the wine industry
- He visited Napa as a 16-year-old in 1974 (Charles Krug, Mondavi, BV)
- Did stints in retail, restaurants, a winery rep, and has his own backyard winery
- 4 years ago - became President and CEO of C Mondavi
  - The original Mondavi family business
  - Founders - Cesare & Rosa, who settled in Virginia
  - Did hospitality for miners in 1908
  - Got into wine in 1928 - their saloon closed due to prohibition, and they bought and sold grapes and yeast for home wine kits
  - Sons - Peter and Robert Mondavi
  - 5th generation of Mondavi’s was just born
Charles Krug Winery
- Founded in 1861, oldest winery in Napa
- 1965 - Peter & Robert split, Robert founded Robert Mondavi Winery; both were running winery before, then just Peter
- 1882 - 1st tasting room in Napa
- Charles Krug - created a legacy of innovation
  - Introduced wine press to Napa, taking the idea from apple cider
  - 1st to bring Cabernet to Napa
  - Started the 1st wine club, took wine into San Francisco to sell wine
  - Mondavi innovations - brought in French oak barrels, did cold stabilization
Hospitality at Charles Krug
- Wedding - grandfathered in, limited to ~20 per year
- The aim is to create the cultural hub of Napa Valley - present wine as part of the arts
  - Culinary, art, comedy, host the Napa Valley film festival, “SIP” - series of interesting people, like TED talks, music, performing arts
  - Wine is food, but not in the restaurant business
    - Provide a “teaser” for guests
    - Partnership with Pete Seghesio - makes world-class salumi with C Krug wine
    - Pizzas - hand made in the outdoor pizza kitchen
    - Has the same sourdough starter from the 1940s from the Mondavi family
- See 40,000 guests per year, 10,000 delivered from Napa Valley Wine Train
  - Small relative to ~300,000 visitors/year at Robert Mondavi winery
- Event-based marketing
  - Use events as a discovery vehicle for the brand
  - It gives a reason to come, confident that wines will speak for themselves
  - Events ticket-based, sometimes include wine
  - Some events curated but not put on by the winery
  - Events targeted to break even, then winery’s job to convert people to sales and club members
  - Help generate word of mouth and 3rd party endorsements
  - Build customer database - for follow up marketing
  - Events themselves not always a good selling opportunity, but do post-event marketing (e.g., free tasting for event attendees that come back)
The GAME plan - a method for measuring and evaluating programs
- Goal, Activities, Metrics, Enhancements (after post-mortem)
- Key metrics for Charles Krug
  - Conversion rate to sale
  - Conversion to wine club
  - Club retention rate
  - Referrals (from all categories - events, hotel, restaurants, social media, etc.…)
- Found more intimate and focused events do better for conversion, e.g., outdoor cabanas doubled wine club conversion
Virtual hospitality
- pre-Covid started in-home tasting groups
  - Revolved around club members in their homes, up to 20 people
  - Blew away goals for sales and club membership
  - Also did recruiting for next tastings
  - Moved to virtual during the pandemic
- Doing virtual for consumer, distributors, and country clubs
- Building comedy and trivia night virtually
- The entertainment part is still evolving
- Corporate tasting packs for customers been a big virtual business
- Have a 360-degree virtual tour
Marketing virtual
- Started with the wine club
- Leveraged social media
- Word of mouth and referrals
- Not a lot of advertising, just limited digital (Facebook and Instagram)
Digital best practices - need to keep pace with constantly evolving technology, content matching to the audience is important
Important to always keep things fresh - future release - chocolate truffles that look like the soil from various Napa appellations, with flavor profiles to pair with wines
Other digital programs
- Telesales - none pre-Covid, now a big business - not hard sales, but courtesy calls, customers enjoy hearing from the winery
- E-commerce - release more content, find its building customer relationships
- Website chat box - has been very effective

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Even Cooler Than You Think w/ Chris Taranto, Paso Robles Wine Feb 10, 2021

Show notes

“Even Cooler Than You Think” and “Where Wine Takes You” sum up not just what the Paso Robles region is about but also the names of marketing campaigns and the Paso Wine Country podcast. Chris Taranto, Communications Director of the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, tells us about the diversity, friendliness, and character of the Paso Robles wine region. As well as how they promote and position the region within the state and across the country. From Zinfandel to Rhone blends and weekly zoom webinars to consumer events, Chris educates us on all things Paso.

Detailed Show Notes:

Paso Robles wine region overview
- Halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles
- Along the California Central Coast (Monterey to the North, Santa Barbara to the South), close to the Pacific Ocean
- 41,000 vineyard acres, >600,000 acres total
- 11 different AVA’s
- 60+ different grape varieties
- ~200 wineries, ~170 physical wineries
- ~600-2,200 ft elevation for vineyards
- Population - ~30,000 people in town, ~100,000 in county
- Up to 100+F during the day, but cools off to 50F at night due to the impact of Estoro / Morro Bay creating invection fog through the Templeton Gap
Rhone varietals
- Syrah introduced by Gary Eberle in the late 1980s, early 1990’s
- Tablas Creek (the Haas and Perrin families) - imported grapevines from the Rhone (Chateau Beaucastel, owned by Perrin’s) and propagated
  - TCV (Tablas Creek Vineyard clones) - shared these clones, jumpstarting the region to embrace Rhone varieties
  - Perrins chose Paso due to calcareous soils, similar to limestone
AVA’s - started in 1983 when Paso Robles AVA was created
- York Mountain was excluded because the owner of land in the area believed it was very different from the rest
- Submitted for all 11 AVA’s at once, took 7 years, approved in 2014
- Have conjunctive labeling law - wineries must include both sub-AVA and Paso Robles, which must be of equal or greater font size
Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance
- Mission: promotion and preservation of Paso Robles
- Marketing organization - preserve the Paso brand and brand integrity
- Works with member wineries with educational tools
- Market Paso to different audiences - consumers, sommeliers/retail buyers, journalists (3rd party endorsement)
- Metrics that are measured
  - Consumer events - P&L, experience surveys
  - Advertising - reach
  - Articles / PR - audience numbers
- Members are primarily growers/vintners but capture the whole wine community, including hotels, restaurants, and associate memberships (e.g., suppliers like bottle or label manufacturers)
- Fees are a sliding scale based on case production or vineyard acreage, room count (for hotels)
- Almost all wineries are members - ~190 of 200 wineries are members
- Have sponsorship opportunities for suppliers -> allows them to speak to the members
Trade & consumer events
- In-market events are mostly budget neutral
- Local events - profits help augment the operating budget
- Volunteer participation for wineries, most have no fee (except for one annual event in Cambria)
The geographic focus of promotion
- California (south of Paso is a big feeder market, Bay Area more challenging due to competition with Napa / Sonoma)
- TX, IL, NY, FL also important
- Export - mostly Canada, and most activities through the Wine Institute
Most effective promotions are 3rd party endorsements / PR strategies - journalists, bloggers, etc.…
- Advertising more to get lots of eyeballs at once
- Hosts a weekly Zoom webinar - “Paso Wine Hour”
- Tell members to tell your own true story; Paso is full of mavericks and cowboys, no real rules
- Paso Wine tries to layer up personalities of Paso in PR messages
- Podcast - “Where Wine Takes You”
  - The audience has mostly been driven organically
  - Anecdotal evidence of driving sales, but no hard data yet
Member education
- Have a monthly education series - for growers, winemakers, tasting room managers, hospitality
- Bring in expert guests to provide educational tools for their businesses
- One of the next ones - building a playbook on how to present your brand on digital platforms best
Tourism important for the region
- 2015 - tourism economic impact of $1.5B for Paso Robles ($1.9B for the county, San Luis Obispo) with tourism spending of $194M
- A lot of messaging is to drive people to visit
- Consumer tagline - “Where Wine Takes You”
Major issues for Paso Robles
- Water - there’s a moratorium on new vineyard planting within the water district. It doesn’t get a lot of rain
- Wildfires - no meaningful impact in 2020, but a constant issue
- Sommelier/trade perception that the region is too hot for grape growing - came up with the tagline “Even Cooler Than you Think” - though wines may be high alcohol, they are balanced
- Consumer messaging
  - Don’t try too hard to understand the AVA map yet
  - Get the personality of the region - there's friendliness to it
  - Be adventurous. There’s lots of diversity

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The Benefits of a WSET Wine Education w/ Peter Marks MW, Napa Valley Wine Academy Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

Educating students about wine is more about the “psychic paycheck” than the monetary one for Peter Marks MW, partner and Vice President of the Napa Valley Wine Academy (“NVWA”), the leading provider of Wine & Spirit Education Trust (“WSET”) courses globally. Peter tells us about the different levels of the WSET (from Level 1 to Diploma), the full costs of wine education, and the benefits. He also discusses the innovations happening with online learning, including sending wine kits out with their courses and best practices for virtual seminars. Listen in on this deep dive into wine education from one of the foremost leaders in the field.

This episode is sponsored by Sonoma State University’s Wine Executive MBA program. A 17-month, transformative program that builds leadership skills and business acumen focused on the specific needs of the world of wine. Learn more about SSU’s Wine MBA programs here. If this is something you’re considering, the next session’s enrollment deadline is Feb 28, 2021, for courses starting in April!!

Detailed Show Notes:

Peter’s background
- Started in wine retail in 1981 (worked at Drager’s markets)
- In wine education for the last 20 years (with Copia and Constellation Brands)
- 2019 - joined NVWA and became a partner
Being in wine education is more about the “psychic paycheck” - getting feedback from your customers and students
Napa Valley Wine Academy
- Founded in 2011, offering Wine & Spirit Education Trust (“WSET”) programs
- Now the largest WSET provider in the world
- An Approved Program Provider (“APP”) for WSET - it’s like a franchise, NVWA buys materials, study packs, and exams from WSET; grading is done by WSET in London
- 65% of business in WSET, 35% other wine programs
- Develop proprietary courses - e.g. - Wine 101, Wine 201, Napa Valley Wine Expert, Oregon Wine Expert, the Business of Wine (with Tim Hanni, MW)
WSET
- 4 levels, 1 through 4 (4 is called the Diploma)
- Levels 3 & 4 provide more understanding of the subjects
- The diploma includes the business of wine and is a precursor for the Master of Wine program
- Geared towards all aspects of the wine industry, very broad view vs other programs (e.g. - Court of Master Sommeliers focused on restaurants/service and Society of Wine Educators focused on education)
- Wine industry (or “trade”) participation in courses
  - Level 1 - ~90% consumer, 10% trade
  - Level 2 - ~75% consumer, 25% trade
  - Level 3 - ~40% consumer, 60% trade
  - Level 4 - ~10% consumer, 90% trade
  - More consumers are coming into the program
- The benefits of a wine education, the 3 C’s of the WSET
  - Credential - showing your accomplishment
  - Confidence - knowing the facts about wine, speaking with confidence
  - Culture - participating in the culture of wine...the pay may be low, but being a part of the friendship and social aspects of the wine industry
- ~100,000 WSET students/year - now the “go-to” wine education organization - it covers the entire industry and is global
- Recent changes to the program - giving students what they want
  - Launched a Sake program
  - Split spirits from Wine for the Diploma
  - Introducing Beer soon
Virtual classes
- Has always been an option - was called “self-study” and had to go in person to take exams
- Exams for L1 and L2 now offered online, L3 and Diploma cannot be because they include tastings
- NVWA launched wine kits (wine samples re-bottled into small vials) for virtual classes - do virtual tastings with them, the wines are disguised to be blind
- Had to learn how to better engage students online - using breakout rooms, polls/quizzes, reducing seminar times to 1-2 hours, best practice is to engage with students every 3-5 minutes
- Do live webinars that are recorded
- Students save money by not having to pay for travel to classes, academy saves a bit of cleaning of facilities
- Pricing is the same as in-person, but not travel costs
The cost of wine education
- Course fees, wine (for Diploma ~200-220 wines are recommended to know, wine can cost $500-2,000 for samples), travel
- Wine kits are included in course costs
- Can have mentoring for an additional fee
- Scholarships
  - WSET offers some, but after having passed for the top scores
  - NVWA has several partners for scholarships
    - Wine Unify for L1-3
    - Wine Access
    - The Roots Fund
    - John Hart (former NBA star) - for the BIPOC community
  - The diversity of students is growing
The return on wine education
- Constellation Brands paid bonuses for employees who passed WSET qualifications and also offered tuition reimbursement

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Caught between rocks and a wine truck - Foulques Aulagnon, Wines of Alsace Jan 27, 2021

Show notes

Historic influences of both France and Germany have shaped the region of Alsace and its wines. Foulques Aulagnon, Export Marketing Manager of Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d’Alsace (aka - “CIVA” or “Wines of Alsace”) tells XChateau about how CIVA promotes this small corner of northeast France globally. CIVA takes Alsace global to spread the word about some of the world’s most underappreciated wines, from Wine Trucks to an emphasis on food and wine pairing.

This episode is sponsored by Sonoma State University’s Wine Executive MBA program. A 17-month, transformative program that builds leadership skills and business acumen focused on the specific needs of the wine world. Learn more about SSU’s Wine MBA programs here. If this is something you’re considering, the next session’s enrollment deadline is Feb 28, 2021, for courses starting in April!!

Detailed Show Notes

Alsace background - “a pearl” of a winegrowing region
- 38,500 acres
- 2 million-year-old soils
- 2nd driest wine region in France
- 90% white wine, 10% red wine (all from Pinot Noir)
- 25% of production is Cremant d’Alsace (sparkling wine)
- German influence (varietal on the label)
- Mosaic of soils and grape varietals (e.g., Sylvaner, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Noir)
- > 300-year-old family estates
CIVA responsible for everything but the rules of production, with 3 major roles:
- Business monitoring and strategic planning
- Technical viticultural support
- Marketing communication
Mission & purpose - increase positive awareness of Alsace globally and boost wine sales
Main areas of focus (marketing side)
- Public relations - programming with media and trade
- Promotions and communications - in-store, social media, POS, educational materials
- Commercial development - support wineries looking for importers, distribution
How does CIVA measure success?
- Sales increase in value and volume
- PR / press impact - readers reached and exposure
CIVA members - every independent winegrower, co-operatives, and negociants - anyone in the AOC is automatically part of CIVA
It’s a private organization but recognized by the French state
Funding is through mandatory contributions by winegrowers with small support from the EU
Market focus and support examples:
- Investing in over 15 countries
- Historically active in EU, especially Northern Europe
- Now more in the US, Canada, and Japan
- Examples of support
  - Switzerland grocery store chain - provided media support to boost sales
  - Wines of Quebec - offered content and help to bloggers to produce content on Alsace wines
  - Provide info on food and wine pairings and consumer events
  - Provides information for visiting the vineyards of Alsace
  - Alsace Rocks - a 360-degree program of press, trade, and consumer events, started in New York City in 2018, went global afterward
  - Wine Truck Tour in Canada (Ontario and Quebec) - a food truck styled wine tasting with a terrace, tables, and chairs; competition to win Alsace wines, taste at your own leisure, and opportunities to share on social
WWII Impact on Alsace
- Became French again post WWII
- History of being both German and French gives the region strength
- But, only being consistent since WWII has resulted in Alsace being a bit behind in building its reputation as a wine region
The leader in organic and biodynamic wines
- In 2020, 32% of the wine was certified organic
- 1st producer of biodynamic wines (in the 1960s)

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Minerality: Loose Rocks or Loose Terminology? Jan 20, 2021

Show notes

A tasting term, specific elements in the soil and grapes, and even geological elements and rock types; the term minerality in the context of wine has taken up a rather broad usage. Robert and Peter explore a bit of the science, the use of the term as a tasting descriptor, and how the industry has used minerality as a sales tool. Listen to grasp a hold on how the term is used and what it is used for.

Detailed show notes:

Minerality as a wine term started in the 1980s
- A tasting term - related to flint, matchstick, chalk, saline characters
- Mineral elements - e.g. - potassium, phosphorus, calcium, etc…
- Geologic elements - e.g. - quartz, limestone, etc…
As a style of wine
- Minerality is like a macro tasting term, like “fruity”
- Can have sub-elements to the category, e.g. - reduction/sulfur related compounds, stone related, saline / salty related
As a flavor, it is not from the actual minerals in the rocks in the soil
Minerality could be a positive term for the absence of fruity and floral flavors in a wine
It comes from a combination of terroir and winemaking
Wines generally associated with minerality
- Whites: Chablis, Sauv Blanc (e.g. - Sancerre), Gruner Veltliner, Alvarinho, Chenin Blanc, Rieslings, Assyrtiko
- Reds: Pinot Noir, Cab Franc
Using minerality as a sales tool
- Some wineries have labels that specify rocks/soil types
  - E.g. - Didier Dagueneau’s Silex; Mullineux’s Schist, Granite, Iron; Dr. Loosen’s Blue / Red Slate Rieslings
  - But, these wines may not necessarily be referring to minerality in the wines
- Sommeliers and restaurants tend to enjoy minerally wines and may have sections on their wine lists for them
- Retail stores that are organized by wine style do not yet use the term, but may in the future
- Randall Graham of Bonny Doon experimented with infusing rocks into wine, but that led to higher levels of other trace materials and was shut down by the government

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Chasing Counterfeits w/ Maureen Downey, Chai Consulting Jan 13, 2021

Show notes

From being body checked at a La Paulee tasting to responding to detailed questions from noted wine counterfeiter Hardy Rodenstock, Maureen Downey, CEO of Chai Consulting, tells us about the long road to becoming one of the world’s leading experts in wine fraud. Maureen gives us insight into the global world of wine fraud, what’s being counterfeited now, and how she’s pioneering methods to authenticate wine with The Chai Vault. A must-listen for anybody interested in collecting or investing in wine!

Detailed Show Notes:

Maureen started in wine auctions in 2000
Learned about counterfeit wines from a counterfeiter - Hardy Rodenstock asked for a lot of details about bottles that were being sold in auction
Rudy Kurniawan case - helped track counterfeit bottles, worked with the FBI, and worked with a group of international wine fraud experts
Counterfeit wine market - it’s in the Billions per year, vast majority sold privately, by brokers, retailers, NOT the auction market b/c auctions are the most visible source of counterfeits
- Estimates 20% of all wine sold is counterfeit - supported by Interpol, consistent with other high-end products
- Lots of IP infringement, low-end wine fraud (e.g., Rose in the South of France)
- Modern trend - counterfeit current, recent production wines
- Most counterfeits come out of Europe (hot spots: Switzerland, Italy, France, & Belgium)
- Asia
  - High-end buyers in Asia assume something is counterfeit until proven real
  - Flooded with fakes from the US when markets first opened up
  - Mainland China - high import taxes leads to the use of “coyotes” (import smugglers) for old and rare wines, and have little recourse for counterfeits
Hard to know what old wines taste like - even some wine critics tasting notes may be based on counterfeit wines made by Hardy Rodenstock and Rudy Kurniawan
Main methods of counterfeiting
- Digitally printed, current production wines
- Can re-fill real bottles of wine
- Sassicaia counterfeit ring was recently broken up - they got proprietary glass, capsules and made excellent copies
There is a big need to track the supply chain to identify and prevent fraud
Tips for getting real wine as a consumer
- Makes sure retailer has not had problems in the past
- Get to know the people at the wine merchant
- Ask questions and demand answers
- Get to know a consultant and have someone vet the wine first, not after
Latest information on wine fraud found on Wine Berserkers and winefraud.com
Systems producers use to protect against fraud
- Prooftag - this is mostly cosmetic, can be digitally printed, and needs proximity to the bottle
- The Chai Vault
  - Wines input into blockchain secured system, can be accessed anywhere in the world -> helps with supply chain tracking
  - Has an NFC chip underneath capsule that can get read; for secondary market wines, puts a PVC overlay over capsule which cannot be read if the capsule is pierced
  - 2nd generation of NFC chip coming out Jan 2021- very low failure rate, better antenna for longer range
  - Costs - $8,500 for bottling line additions + pennies per bottle (starting point, costs more money to add transfer of ownership and other features)
Authentication adds ~20-30% to the value of wine (based on Domaine direct auction sales)

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Full-Funnel Data w/ Aaron Sherman, SevenFifty Jan 06, 2021

Show notes

Displacing pen and paper isn’t that easy in the wine world. SevenFifty, an online wine marketplace, has been innovating in the full value chain of wine to bring things online. Starting with distributors, Aaron Sherman, CEO of SevenFifty, tells Robert and Peter about his plans to become a full-funnel sales & marketing platform for the wine world, with solutions for distributors, suppliers, and both on- and off-premise retailers. Aaron digs into how the platform works today and the innovations on the horizon.

Detailed Show Notes:

Aaron’s background - grew up in a restaurant and wine family was a sommelier and beverage director in New York and Los Angeles
The inspiration for SevenFifty - wanted a better way than pen and paper, which is what distributors used back in 2008-2009
The SevenFifty Platform
- From the trade account perspective
  - a wine buyer, sommelier, or beverage director signs up, attaches an account to a liquor license, then can search what’s available in their market
  - They can build lists of items, build orders online, send credit applications to distributors with one click, and view a local events calendar
- For distributor sales reps (~35,000 sales reps have access to these tools)
  - Can see the competitive set in their market
  - Can explore their own portfolio and build tasting sheets, proposals, and digital order forms
  - Includes a lightweight CRM to track customer interactions
- For producers
  - Can claim their products
  - Consolidate data across their distributors
  - Add more product information
The intention is to target all parts of the supply chain, starting with distributors
The biggest challenge today is integration into the “source of truth” - accounting or ERP systems of distributors, focused on integrating to other 3rd party systems to drive online ordering
Has built the largest product data library in the country
SevenFifty today - the largest alcoholic beverage marketplace, active in almost every state, >1,000 distributors, >100,000 on and off-premise retailers, >$1 billion in gross merchandise volume (sales volume on the marketplace); ~100 employees in 2020
How users search for wines - ~50/50 split between looking at categories of wines vs. looking for specific wines and brands
How do distributors sell more wine with SevenFifty?
- Access to customers
- Lets buyers discover products within a distributor’s portfolio
Business model - subscription-based software for distributors, suppliers, and the newest product, storefronts (for retailers); in the future, plan on launching a product for on-premise accounts
Bridge Acquisition - great technology for wine retail e-commerce, synergistic with Beverage Media Group’s BevSites (also acquired)
Beverage Media - long history of representing distributors, editorial content compliments SevenFifty Daily

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Hindsight is 2020 w/ Jane Anson, Carlton McCoy, and Guest Host Charlie Fu Dec 16, 2020

Show notes

A year that felt like a century...tariffs, the Covid-19 pandemic, massive wildfires, social upheavals for both gender and race...2020 is one for the record books. Carlton McCoy, CEO of Heitz Cellars, and Jane Anson, writer for Decanter Magazine and author of Inside Bordeaux, join Robert and special guest host Charlie Fu (Wine Berserkers moderator) to recap all the twists and turns of 2020.

Detailed Show Notes:

Wine tariffs
- Anson - had an immediate impact when they went into place in Nov 2019 on the French wine industry, pre-Covid (~April 2020), French wine was down 30% with Bordeaux down ~12%, the French had to battle with the US, China, and Brexit -> may lead to a bumpy start to 2021
- McCoy - mostly entry-level SKUs hit in Europe, made it challenging to offer the same wines by the glass in the US; impacted in the late spring / early summer as importers brought in containers ahead of the tariffs
Covid-19
- McCoy
  - Was able to shift sales more seamlessly from on-premise (restaurants) to off-premise (retailers) because the Heitz group started Domaine Estate, a domestic and international negociant
  - Focused on how to support restaurants and bought a lot of high-end wine at retail from restaurants
  - Heitz invested in outdoor furniture and golf carts to host guests outside in the vineyard
  - Increased digital marketing (social, email) and phone campaigns (which worked very well) -> increased direct sales 3x over 2019
  - Heitz was able to double down on tasting room construction during Covid
- Anson
  - Has seen a direct marketing ramp, wineries want a more personal relationship with people
  - Bordeaux chateaux - a little suspicious at first, now getting on board
  - Union de Grand Cru (“UGC”) wanted En Premier to be the normal way but canceled one week before and instead sent samples of wine all over the world
  - 67 Pall Mall, a private wine club in London - started Zoom tastings with sample bottles very quickly, after 6-7 months of events is evolving to more of a YouTube-like channel with higher production quality
  - European restaurant scene
    - France - better at supporting restaurants, also had clearer communication of the lockdown rules
    - UK - rules changed every week, very difficult to follow, some reports say ~30,000 restaurants closing
    - In France - a case of one restaurant winning an insurance claim for the closures, which is a big case to watch for precedent-setting for the industry; currently being challenged as most policies exclude major catastrophes
- McCoy - in the US, zero government response from restaurant associations seeking relief, >100,000 restaurants closed, many likely permanently
- Anson - launching Inside Bordeaux (Berry Bros, $80) during Covid has been challenging - issues with printing to furloughs at the publisher has made it a challenge
Social Justice / Black Lives Matter (“BLM”) / Female Rights Movements
- McCoy - 2020 was a continuation of movements that have been happening for >100 years, not unique to black people, but they are just the most outspoken; the support is more diverse now than it ever has been before
- Anson - Europe and the rest of the world embraced the movement, realizing that this impacts everybody and not just the US; heavily focused on identifying opportunities for people to get into the wine industry
  - Roederer pivoted from wine writing awards to diversity scholarships
- Fu - raised $60,000 for the NAACP in 2 days on Instagram and Facebook through a wine auction, was surprised how political it was perceived
- McCoy - the Court of Master Sommelier sexual misconduct scandal - “no one was surprised,” the restaurant culture is promiscuous in general -> the CMS is being forced to restructure like an actual company
- Anson - gender issues still a major issue in Europe with control and power still entrenched in a few white males, the En Magnum in France published a sexist cartoon, and when female journalists spoke up, they were hushed
Wildfires
- McCoy - fires have always happened in the West (of the US)
  - Heitz left 80% of the fruit on the vine in 2020
  - Believes that no one understands the science of smoke taint
  - Believes that reports that the whole vintage was lost in Napa were due to irresponsible journalism
  - Multiple samples of the same wine from labs showed different results for smoke taint - believes lab results are inaccurate
- Anson - Australia also hard hit by wildfires, especially the Yarra Valley and Kangaroo Island
Best Wine Book read this year
- Fu - Inside Burgundy by Jasper Morris MW
- McCoy - The Great Winemakers of California by Robert Benson
- Anson - Wine for Normal People by Elizabeth Schneider
Best Wines Tasted in 2020
- Fu - 2017 Liger Belair La Romanee, 1974 Heitz Cellars Martha’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, 1991 Chave Cuvée Cathelin Hermitage
- Anson - 1998 & 1999 tasting of Petrus, Lefleur, and Le Pin
- McCoy - 2002 Rene Engel Clos Vougeot, 2018 Jaimee Motley Peter Martin Ray Cabernet Sauvignon
- Vernick - 1964 Gaja Barbaresco, 1991 & 1994 Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet

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Fanning the Flames, Understanding Smoke Taint w/ Dr. Anita Oberholster Dec 09, 2020

Show notes

With four years of extreme fire season in Northern California, the study and importance of smoke taint is at all-time highs. Leading the charge is Dr. Anita Oberholster of UC Davis, who is collaborating globally to better understand the chemistry of smoke exposure and taint, how to measure it, what to do about it, and how to create new solutions to monitor and manage it. This episode packs everything you’d ever want to know about smoke taint in 50 minutes!

Detailed Show Notes:

Dr. Oberholster is an Extension Specialist in Oenology at UC Davis, which means she interacts more with industry than teaches, lots of applied research
From South Africa, she studied Biochemistry and has a Ph.D. in Wine Chemistry from South Australia
Definitions:
- Smoke taint - overpowers the wine, makes it one dimensional, and reduces the quality
- Smoke exposure - can have different levels of exposure, no index yet exists to track, but academics are collaborating on it
Smoke exposure is less about proximity, but how fast the smoke gets to you => very fresh, dense smoke = higher risk of smoke taint
Volatile phenols decay in the atmosphere, if it’s more than 24 hours old, there’s less risk
The ultimate goal - have a low-cost sense that detects volatile phenols to determine the smoke risk
Vineyards are most susceptible when there are berries on the vine
There’s no carryover effect from prior year fires
Testing grapes vs. wine - wine tests are more accurate because there are more free volatile phenols vs. bound with sugars
~20-25% of people aren’t sensitive to smoke taint
Testing is expensive and laborious, requires a gas chromatography, mass spectrometer
Crop insurance - covers grower if smoke exposure is above a certain level; it’s heavily subsidized by the government
There’s no correlation between thin and thick-skinned grapes and smoke taint
Alcohol (if >10%), sugar (if >3g/L), and phenolic compounds mask smoke character, and green character enhances the smoke character
Rose - gets ~30% of the volatile phenols vs. red wine but may still show taint relative to the lower concentration of compounds
Carbonic maceration - one of the worst for smoke taint
Sprays to prevent taint - results very variable so far
When there’s wetness/oiliness on berries, then to absorb more smoke taint
Washing fruit - unclear if this has any impact
Most wineries will not take the brand risk to release smoke tainted wine
Best practices for growers and wineries:
- Buy crop insurance for growers
- Contracts between growers and winery need to be as clear as possible, with a cutoff for smoke taint

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Dissecting the Price of Luxury Wines Dec 02, 2020

Show notes

Robert and Peter discuss how luxury wines are priced, delving into the core insights from the Pricing Chapter of Peter’s book, Luxury Wine Marketing. They discuss the luxury wine price segments, the types of luxury wine buyers, and how you need everything to be working right to build a luxury wine brand. “You can’t just stick a label on two-buck chuck and price it at $1,000.”

Detailed Show Notes:

Luxury Wine Marketing (“LWM”) was published in late 2019
- Contains industry best practices for how to sell luxury wines vs. more “commercial” wines
- Includes new research on the market size, customer segmentation, and frameworks for marketing luxury wines
Wine pricing segments
- The overall wine market has an average price of $7-8/bottle
- That makes $20+ sometimes classified as “luxury.”
- In LWM, luxury wine is more of a luxury good - where the product is used to differentiate
  - $50-99 - affordable luxury
  - $100-199 - everyday wine for the luxury buyer
  - $200-499 - special occasion luxury
  - $500-999 - icon wines
  - $1,000+ - dream wines
Luxury wine consumer segments
- The Wine Collector
- The Wine Geek - seeks knowledge.
- True Luxury Buyer - buys top brands.
- Aspirational Buyer - looks up to the True Luxury Buyer.
Brand impact on the price
- Dom Perignon is a special occasion wine at $170/bottle vs. if it was $40/bottle.
- Price signals an element of quality.
- Price makes some people think it’s better quality.
Strategies to launch luxury wines
- Build-up - start lower-priced and build-up
- Build-down - start higher and build-down
- Need a good story and quality to back up pricing
- E.g., Penfolds - from Grange to $10-15/bottle wines, Grange provides the halo effect for the cheaper wines as people to associate themselves with the brand
- Luxury branding - using price over value as the luxury driver, e.g., Harlan Estate
Luxury wine demand
- Sometimes when you increase the price, you increase demand
- 2 types of demand - consumption and investment demand
- Wineries want people to drink, not sell the wines, to keep the secondary market high
- Still need to have value - quality and reputation of the wines
- Burgundy - driven by wine collectors who want the scarce and rare
Tricks and tips for buying luxury wines
- Know what you like and target those types of wines
- If you want something special - brand strength is important, a la the gifting culture in China
- Follow critics whose palates are similar to yours and track there scores to find values
- Check out the best wines from less well-known parts of the world
Winery pricing strategy has 4 major determinants
- Quality
- Brand strength
- Competition
- External factors
How do some Napa wines come out of the gate pricing $250+?
- Sometimes they leverage the brand strength of the winemaker.
- Mostly selling to friends and family.
- Sometimes they need to play the long game and sit on wines for a while