XChateau Wine Podcast

Latest Episodes:

The American Negociant: Brian Retherford, Claudine Wines Sep 16, 2020

Show notes

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Brian Retherford, founder of Claudine Wines, a modern, American micro-negociant. We discuss the wine market inefficiencies that make a negociant model possible, how the wines of Claudine differ from the wineries’ wines, and where the best deals will be going forward.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

Brain’s background - 15 years in the US Army, now a cybersecurity consultant
Started by doing a Crushpad project - micro winemaking project that ended up being too expensive with insufficient quality
Types of negociant models
- Buying fruit
- Buying bulk wine
- Buying finished wine in a barrel - Claudine’s main focus
- Buying bottled wine
Market inefficiencies in the wine industry
- Takes 3-4 years from harvest decision to selling wine, which creates supply/demand mismatches
- Other opportunities: tasting room that burnt down in the fires, the winery decided not to release a wine it made to focus on the core region, yield variations year to year creating more wine
What can Claudine put on the wine label
- Try to be as specific as possible - using the AVA, but can’t discuss producer, winemaker, or vineyards usually
- Often shares a copy of language with winery before releasing
Sustainability of the business
- Keep small scale (3-5 barrel projects) and do more projects vs bigger projects
- Focus on higher-value - if a similar wine could be bought at Costco, won’t do the project
- Curating great product and building customer trust over time
Differences between Claudine and the winery’s wine
- Might be the same - “the last 100 cases off the line” or already bottled wine
- Some wine that didn’t make it into the final blend and have extra barrels
The wine bulk market
- Bifurcated between top juice and commodity wines
- The upper end is more competitive
Winery options other than negociants to sell excess wine
- Don’t produce (often not done b/c the marginal cost to produce is small)
- Lower price (not a popular option in the US)
- Sell to flash sale sites (e.g. - Last Bottle, WTSO)
- Wine gets “poured out” or destroyed
Claudine customer demographics
- CA - had wine events pre-COVID
- NY, Boston, Kansas City - where Brian used to live
- Brian knows about 1 in 10 customers now
- Skews older in the age group
Upcoming deals - likely good opportunities by focusing on deepening relationship in Napa

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wine Influencer Overview: Juliana Colangelo, Colangelo & Partners Sep 09, 2020

Show notes

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Juliana Colangelo, Vice President of Colangelo & Partners’ San Francisco Office. Colangelo & Partners is an integrated communications agency for food, wine, and spirits brands. Robert and Peter discuss how wine brands should plan, execute, and measure the results of social media influencer campaigns, covering details like budget, how to find the right influencers, and what to expect from the campaign.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

Why use influencers?
- 74% of people use social networks for purchasing decisions
- Reach younger audience - 44% of Gen Z drinking more during COVID
- Build brand awareness
- Influencer marketing a convergence of earned (journalist driven) and paid media advertising
Influencer platforms
- Mostly Instagram - IG reels (new) are like TikTok
- TikTok and YouTube a little
- Web blogs
Content - what are you trying to say about your brand?
- Get real-life situations with brand
- Own the content and can incorporate into brand social and web strategies
Outcomes - brand awareness, build a social following, email signups, sales
- Based on the brand business model - availability of DTC, etc
Tracking - UTM codes in links with story swipes, follower counts around a campaign
Budget - based on the size of influencers and campaign
- By influencer following
  - Nano - 1.5-2.5k followers
  - Micro - 2.5-15k followers; ~$250/post
  - Mid-tier - 20-100k followers; ~$750-1,000/post
  - Macro - 200k+
  - Celebrities - start at $250k
- Some influencers post organically (just for the product)
- Some influencers have media kits with pricing
- Other costs
  - Agency to manage campaign - find target influencers, negotiate influencer contracts
  - Product and shipping
  - Optional: Advertising behind social media strategy
- Normally at least 5 influencer partners, around the same time to create buzz
Goals - smaller wineries target general brand awareness, larger wineries often want to promote a specific wine or new campaign
Types of influencers - 50/50 on non-beverage vs beverage influencers, depending on the audience the brand is trying to reach
Types of content
- Posts
- Stories - usually 3-4 frames, usually cheaper than posts since they are less produced and more casual
- Video (YouTube, other) - more expensive
- Web blog - more permanent, hits SEO
Finding influencers - Colangelo uses DoveTale
- Look at the following and engagement rate
- Content subject (e.g. - have they posted about wine before?)
- Tone of content
- Production quality
Longer-term relationships - can be like a brand ambassador, multiple touchpoints for consumers
The brand direction of content
- If only sending product - no control
- Paid contract - can have brand guidelines (hashtags, tone of voice, keywords, can ask to see content before posted)
Calls to action: follow the brand page, swipe up, promote events/ticket link, donate for fundraising/auctions
Best campaign: Prosecco DOC for Prosecco week - did video content, food pairings, partnered with ~350 retailers and 15-20 influencers

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wine Influencer: @grapechic - Nicole Muscari Sep 02, 2020

Show notes

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview wine influencer Nicole Muscari (Instagram: @grapechic). Nicole tells Robert and Peter about her journey from a career in dance to fashion and then into wine. Having built a 23.5k+ Instagram following and launching a wine blog, Nicole has become the Private Client Sales rep for the Northeast for Chateau de Pommard.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

BFA in dance, her first job was with Carnival Cruise Line
Worked at Walt Disney World and wanted to be Princess Jasmine
Visited Napa in 2014 and fell in love with wine
Quintessa was the experience that stood out, and she’s still in their wine club
Founding member of The Chelsea Wine Society
- Started when Charlotte (thelondonwinegirl) was in NYC
- Invited a group of Instagram wine folks to a Chapel Down tasting
- Became a study group for WSET courses
- Members would post on IG, which got wineries wanting to send them wines and do tastings
Fellow Instagrammer (idream.o.vino) asked her if she was interested in wine as a job and introduced her to her current job
Private Client Sales for Chateau de Pommard
- Manages direct sales for the Northeast US
- Launching a members-only, interactive platform soon
  - Pay a yearly membership fee
  - Live experiences for wines/regions from all over the world
  - Wine advisors host experiences
  - Get sent small tasting tubes to try
  - Option to buy the wines
Social media platforms
- Instagram focus, started 3 years ago, was part of the “1st wave” of wine influencers - grew to 10,000 followers in 1st year, lots of engagement to grow base (answering comments / DMs)
- Has FB, Twitter - just mirror content
- Pinterest - never pinned
Social has a side hustle
- Press trips, samples, sponsored posts
- Does ~2 paid sponsorships/month
Interacting with wine brands
- Transparency is key - say right off the bat if you want to just send samples or do a paid partnership
- Email is preferred over DMs
- Has media kit
  - Regular posts (usually with 3-5 stories)
  - IGTV tastings with brands
  - Live Tastings (30 mins about the wines)
  - Website / blog packages
- #ad - reach is usually less than without it
- Paid sponsorships - a brand can boost the posts (Gerard Bertrand did this on Facebook)
- Successful partnerships
  - Lovejadot - Giveaways, Instagram Live, and Posts
  - Wine regions - Vinho Verde, Loire Valley, Discover Bojo
Print vs social media
- Print is longer-lasting, enables search, good SEO articles have a greater impact than social
- Instagram gets more engagement, but because it’s easier, posts die after a while
Instagram demographics
- 55% male, 45% female
- Female younger (25-35), male (35-45)
- US, Italy, France, UK, Brazil
- Cities - NY, Paris, London
Content Strategy
- Closer photos work better than further away
- The wine matters - better wines get more engagement
- Known for her shoe collection
Wine education - adds value to the content

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wine Influencer: @attorneysomm - John Jackson Aug 27, 2020

Show notes

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview John Jackson (Instagram: @attorneysomm), an attorney by day, wine drinker by night. We ask John about how he got started in wine blogging and built his 11,000+ Instagram account in less than two years. Robert and Peter discuss the methods John used to build his following, the Sips Around the Globe Initiative (Instagram: @sips.aroundtheglobe), and how he works with wineries to build their brand awareness.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

2007 Opus One - the wine that got him into wine
His favorite wines - Northern Rhones and older wines
Start with Instagram
- Nov 2018 - when he transitioned his personal account to attorneysomm
- Used it as a creative outlet for his business travel
- Posts 2-3x/week because of large time commitment to respond and engage with followers, he gets ~200 comments per post
Other social platforms
- Facebook - mostly just mirrors the posts
- Twitter - just started trying to figure this out
- TikTok - claimed the name, but haven’t done much yet
Wine education - in the process of doing the WSET Diploma
Following demographics
- ~33% US, Italy, France, Brazil (6.5%), UK
- 60% male, 40% female
- 82% 25-55 years old
Growing his followership
- Trips and winery tours built some followers
- Watched YouTube videos on how to grow followers for a month
- Staggers content to not be too repetitive
- Good content is key
- Responding to people
- Supporting others who support him
Mistakes in growing followers
- Follow for follow back
- Posted more about restaurants vs wine - good to have a niche in the algorithm, moved food content to stories
Sips Around the Globe
- Group of 11 influencers, each in a different country
- >100k collective followers
- Works with wineries to reach a broad range of people globally
- Brands send wine and work on a schedule, usually a 2-week collaboration
- Each influencer has a different angle
- Wineries choose which countries to post in
- Mostly European producers so far
- Started in May 2020 - IG page has 1,500+ followers (July 2020)
Content that works
- High-quality price ratio (“QPR”) wines
- 1st growth Bordeaux gets the most engagement
- Layout formats don’t do as well as regular pictures
- Consistency in what you’re posting about
Working with wineries
- Payment sometimes in samples, sometimes in cash
- Need to enjoy the brand and the wines to have consistency for followers
- Takes into account winery size and means
IG Lives
- Wineries mostly reached out to him
- Have done Chateau Lagrange and Charles Heidsieck

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wine Influencer: @thiswaywithtay - Taylor Wilson Aug 19, 2020

Show notes

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Taylor Wilson (Instagram: @thiswaywithtay) about becoming a full-time wine influencer on Instagram from a career in real estate. Robert and Peter discuss how Taylor’s mother’s love of wine inspired her to learn more about it, wine education, building an 18,000+ IG following in one year, and how certain clothing choices can help engagement.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

Inspiration of wine love from Taylor’s mother
Wine Education - WSET 2 at Napa Valley Wine Academy - enabled her to ask winemakers more educated questions
Start as a travel blogger while a real estate agent with a degree in fashion
Other social platforms
- Tried TikTok
- Wants to expand into Pinterest, YouTube
- About to launch a blog
Focus on food and wine pairing
Now full-time Instagram
Content creation
- Writes captions the morning of posts to harness more creativity and authenticity, not as pre-planned
- Spends ~20 hours/week on Instagram
Engagement with wine brands
- ~10 brands / day reach out on DM
- ~50% for samples / ~50% for business requests
- Nobody asks to post for free anymore
- Wine Access relationship
  - They are looking for more awareness
  - At the beginning - pay per post + $/new customer
  - Used link in bio and swipe up to track
  - Also did a discount code for tracking
- Louis Jadot
  - Giveaway for 1 year IG anniversary
  - 2 Zalto glasses
- Hierarchy of paid relationships
  - Lowest - posts for free products
  - Stories
  - Giveaways
  - Paid posts
- Most successful partnerships
  - Wine Access - longest running
  - Burgundy - going to do a new, big campaign
  - Love Jadot giveaway - best 1 post
- Sends stats a week later to brands, wants to track more stats
- Determining wine brands to work with
  - Must be authentic with brand / IG
    Max 2 things / week goal -> story must be about Taylor’s wine journey
  - Says no to a lot of things and free wine
  - Often tries the wine first before agreeing to promotions
# giveaway / contest - IG blocks the promotion
Uses brands’ contracts now, but will develop her own soon
Media Kit
- Shows pricing, demographics of followers, engagement
- Changed pricing 5-6x in the last 4 months -> as followers grew, one of the highest engagement in the industry
Following
- 18k+ followers
- 65% male, 35% female
- 25-54 years old
- US (NY, Seattle, W Coast), London, Paris
- US, Italy, France, UK, Brazil
Building a following
- 18k in 1 year
- Being consistent
- Posting regularly - didn’t post for 1 week, took 2.5 months to get back
- Comment on every comment
- Finding like minded people in the community - other wine blog girls, etc…
- Replying to DM’s (IG loves this)
- Hashtags
  - Used hashtag generators at the beginning
  - Made a list of relevant hashtags by size (small - up to 65k, med - up to 200k, large - 1M+ posts) - pulled a few from each section
  - Used to used 30, now 20, some say magic number is 7-14
- Mistakes - not replying after posting, not posting for a while
Posting as creative outlet
- Can make borderline inappropriate captions in posts
- The “Tay” pose
Advice for brands
- Email influencers, DMs are full
- A lot goes behind posts
- Influencers are a great tool, people trust us

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wine Influencer: @wine.gini - Georgia Panagopoulou Aug 11, 2020

Show notes

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Georgia Panagopoulou (Instagram: @wine.gini) about creating digital content on social media and supporting wineries in the digital marketing space. Robert and Peter discuss Georgia’s experience with the OIV Masters of Wine Management, how she built her brand and @wine.gini, and working with wineries to tell their stories as both a wine ambassador and digital marketer.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

Falling in love with wine in Spain - through a university exchange with the Erasmus program
Getting a Masters in Chemical Engineering and how she approaches communication with an engineering mindset
Moving to Santorini, the center of wine in Greece
OIV Master of Wine Management - traveling to 30 wine-producing countries, based in France, mostly for wine entrepreneurs and executives
Moving to New Zealand - to blend the old world and new world perspectives
Engaging with wineries
- Smaller wineries want her to travel to the property and work as a wine ambassador telling the story
- Bigger brands mostly want wine placement and building brand awareness
- Brainstorms with brands on how to bring more value than just executing what they want
Zonin Project - annually invite sommeliers to the property, engaged Georgia to work as a social media ambassador for the event
Greek wineries - mostly use traditional marketing techniques currently
Measures of success
- Mostly brand awareness - people reached / impressions
- Don’t really ask her to sell wine
Wine.gini audience (100k+ followers)
- Both wine lovers and wine professionals
- Top markets: US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, & Brazil
- 25-50 years old
- 50/50 split male/female
Ways to grow a social following
- Much easier in 2017 (when she started) - could get 100 followers/day easily, if you posted a lot, IG would promote you, started posting pics of herself to do more storytelling and created a personal style and brand
- Hit 40,000 followers in 1 year
- Today - more difficult to build a following - do advertising, be super niche and special, or post bikini or ab photos
Ways to not grow a following today
- Follow and unfollow people
- Interact with accounts that aren’t relevant
- Don’t fall into the trap of always doing what works well, vs expressing your unique style
Wineries want help building the story and better communicate with consumers to get the right message out

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wine Influencer: @sommvivant - Amanda McCrossin Aug 03, 2020

Show notes

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments so you always know what goes into your bottle.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Amanda McCrossin (Instagram/YouTube: @sommvivant; former Sommelier at Press Napa Valley) about creating content on social media and telling the stories behind the wines. Robert and Peter discuss how Amanda works with wine brands on telling their story, her theatre background, and best practices for wine influencers and for brands to interact with them.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

Background in theatre, film, & TV - has always loved being on screen
Restaurants got her into wine, wine education helped her get sommelier jobs
Former Sommelier and Wine Director at Press Napa Valley - a “life-changing” decision
The lack of discussion of the history of Napa Valley was the inspiration to start her social media channels (e.g. - a vlog to track wineries in Napa to visit, creating an access point for people to learn about wine)
Finding community on social - often through DMs
Follower demographics:
- YouTube (~6k followers) - heavy male (65%+), 30-60 years old
- IG (~24k followers) - heavy female, ~25-50 years old
- Males seem to enjoy longer form content
- Very diverse group: trade, consumers, aspirational collectors, moms
- Global audience: US big, then South America
COVID pandemic has increased viewership
Content monetization - 70% non-paid, 30% paid
YouTube content often more for brand awareness
Tailoring content for the audience
- As an influencer, need to be steadfast in beliefs
- Listen to the audience - DM’s, engagement -> more than numbers
Advice for brands & influencers
- PR agencies can help
- As a brand, you get what you pay for
- Brands need to do due diligence to see how it will reflect on the brand (e.g. - dig into comments)
- Prefers to work on a long-term basis: more like a brand ambassador model
Types of content: posts, IG Live, YouTube videos, webinars, speaking engagements; very little on Facebook
Believes the stigma around paid content is untrue
Feedback from brands
- Mostly positive
- One winery -> says they get 20-30 signups per post
Building a following - “don’t take the easy way”
- Build organically
- Respond to comments, engage with others, follow others
- Kevin Kelly - the “1,000 true fans” essay - about finding your tribe

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wine Influencer: @clayfu.wine - Charlie Fu Jul 27, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Charlie Fu (Instagram: @clayfu.wine and Wine Berserkers moderator: c fu) about wine collecting and the impact of social media. Robert and Peter discuss how Charlie got into wine, his engagement in Wine Berserkers, and how he uses Instagram and Cellar Tracker to discuss and engage with other serious wine lovers about wine.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

Charlie’s background - “Attorney by day, wine drinker at all other times”
The “epiphany wine” - 2003 Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
Favorite wines - Burgundy, Northern Rhone
Instagram
- Started with photos of his dog, food, then went into wine
- Split out a wine-focused IG page
- Interested in talking to people who are serious about wine
The importance of honesty and candidness of wine opinions
Puts wine notes into IG, migrates to Cellar Tracker, and posts some to Wine Berserkers for discussion
Wine Charity Auction
- During the protests around police brutality
- Sold raffle tickets for donations and auctioned off wines donated from collectors’ cellars
- Raised $60k in 42 hours, plus other contributions
- Money donated to NAACP Legal Defense Fund
- Leveraged Wine Berserkers (largest contributor), Instagram, Reddit, Facebook
Wine Berserkers
- Founding - an offshoot from the Robert Parker web forum
- User base - >27,500 users, ~3 million posts, upwards of ~2,400 online at a single time
  - Mostly male
  - Med age - ~late 40s/early 50s
  - Serious wine collectors
  - Well educated, high income
- Berserkers Day
  - An annual event where producers sell their wine
  - Can offer anything, but usually interesting wines at a special price
  - Some wines balance their budget on that day
- Berserkers business accounts
  - Annual service
  - Businesses can advertise and promote their wines
  - Helps with server costs
- Grand Cru Cru
  - Annual subscription
  - No ads
  - Priority access to Berserker Day
  - Blurbs on avatar
  - Variable payment (min $25/year)
- Tips for wineries -> join the community
Being a “wine influencer”
- Doesn’t accept wine for free
- Doesn’t want taking wine to tarnish his opinion
- Willing to buy wine and review it

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NFL Wine Guy - Will Blackmon the Wine MVP Jul 20, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Super Bowl Champion and founder of The Wine MVP wine club Will Blackmon about his love of wine and how he ended up in the wine business. Robert and Peter discuss the NFL and wine, how Will got into wine, and the business of The Wine MVP.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

The influence of Charles Woodson of wine on the NFL
Reverse blind tasting the wine Will’s dad drank
Will’s love of wine - the importance of context and the experience, including the story and the history
Importance of wine education - the language, understanding, and respect for Will’s passion for wine
The NFL Wine Guy - the impact of an article on Will on the front page of USA Today Sports
Will’s wine travel bucket list - Lynch-Bages, Lafite, Catena, Champagne, Alsace
The dream of launching a wine brand...the key is being able to sell the wine
The Wine MVP - a new wine club -
- Carefully curated wines
- “All Access” - learn about wine together with Will
- 2 premium bottles every month, $79.98, shipping included
- Has the luxury feel, but for everyone and educational
- Wine trading cards - has the wine stats, food pairings, Will’s notes
- YouTube channel - educational, approachable videos about the wines
- Concierge side - tours, trips, centered around wine education
Filling the cellars of NFL players
Using social media platforms to get the word out - Instagram the most effective for Will
Education videos on Instagram translating into wine club signups
NFL vs NBA with wine
Athlete and celebrity wine brands

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Social Media: Brand Pages Jul 13, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung discuss building and managing a brand page on social media for wineries, retailers, and other wine businesses. Robert and Peter discuss how to get started, build followership, engage with your audience, and then create calls to action. This episode will give you a head start and helpful tips on how to manage a brand page on social media.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

Claiming your real estate - getting the usernames/handles across social platforms
Creating consistent content - you’re training the audience’s expectations based on the content you share
Building followership - content, hashtags, links
Who to follow and following others as an awareness strategy
Engaging your audience - the need to not only build followership but engage and interact with your audience
Creating call to actions - getting people to sign up, buy, or participate in actions off of the social platform
Campaigns, giveaways, and contests - using these methods to create engagement and action
The tradeoffs of managing the brand account in-house vs outsourced

If you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.