Central Coast Wine Blogs

A Visit with Benito Dusi

 

As clearly as I can recall, Ridge was the first extra-appellate winery to actually put "Paso Robles" as an appellation on their label. A daring move for a winery with a fine reputation—to align itself with an area that, at the time, was commonly associated with cattle farming and the subterranean Salinas River, which disappears entirely under its sandy riverbed every summer.

Imagine it is 1959.  Driving down Highway 101 to the beach towns of Morro Bay and Cambria, Dusi Vineyard was a charming stop on the way to a clamming weekend with the wife and kids. Women wearing loose rayon sundresses, silk stockings and open-toed heels accompanied their husbands on the short walk into the Dusi tasting room—a small, separate cottage between the home and vineyard. A six-foot tasting bar hosts the southern side of the cottage. Magazines lauding the four San Luis Obispo County wineries are still carefully fanned out on the corner of the tasting bar. I pick up the 1959 Sunset guide to California wineries. A two page black-and-white spread with brief descriptions of each of the four wineries also includes photographs of sleepy Cambria, a rickety one-boat dock with a view of the Rock at Morro Bay, and a family clamming on a local beach.

In a daring leap of faith, central coast zinfandel grower Sylvester Dusi and his son Benito raised the price of their wine by ten cents a case. Dusi zinfandel went from $5.90 a case to $6.00. They held their price at $6.00 a case for fifteen years—from 1959 to 1974.

In 1959 Benito Dusi was a young man in his mid-twenties. Although now in his seventies, it’s not hard to see Beni as the young man he was and always will be. He has a way of flashing oblique glances at me under his lashes, as though he knows a good joke but is too shy to tell it. He’s not tall, but he’s muscular in a wiry kind of way, standing upright with his shoulders unconsciously back and open, even when the room is cold. It is easy to see him as a young, bashful, and incredibly smart farmer.

Reviews for '50 Tips for Cellar Rats'

From Sheldon Haynie, Lightheart Cellars, San Martin, CA:

"It's an excellent training manual that we will use to orient new volunteers and as a seasonal refresher for the part time family and friends who may be assisting, as well as for ourselves, as a reminder of things we haven't done in a year. 

Your style of presenting the 50 tips makes it an easy read, and the block highlights set off salient points well. The many anecdotes and observations make the do's and don'ts more sensible in context. 

We'll be buying several."

Editor Eric Arnold at The Daily Sip says:

"The guide is packed with simple, easy-to-read information that you can absorb in less than hour: Everything from what sorts of food and drinks to stock up on for the busy harvest season to how to be clean and efficient on the job to when to speak up--or keep your mouth shut. Many of us here at The Daily Sip wish we'd had such a crash course before our first winery jobs--it'd have prevented some serious drama, not to mention some property damage."

Eric is the author of First Big Crush and a former editor at Wine Spectator and Forbes.

How to Work with Your Wholesaler

In his wine industry blog Fermentation, Tom Wark provides this excellent advice in an article called Ten Things Every Small Winery Must Know:

"Many small wineries will contract with wholesalers in their home state and other states. The biggest mistake wineries make when working with wholesalers is selling them a pallet or half pallet or quarter pallet of wine to them hoping the wholesaler sells the wine. If you really want them to sell your wine after they buy it, you'll need to demand they do so by staying in touch with them regularly. Demand they use the sales materials they get form you. Demand they deliver regular depletion reports. Demand they take time to work with your wine so you are in the market. Demand you have the opportunity to communicate with sales people. If you don't do these things, the likelihood is that your wines will languish in their warehouses as they focus on larger brands."

Mary Woodworth, owner of HarvestGate—a Paso Robles distributor that focuses on central coast brands—has a slightly different take on the subject. Mary's advice to wineries is to build a firm foundation first by studying the market, your brand demographics, and your competition. "My biggest concern is that many wineries want to launch a consumer product but have absolutely no idea where they will sell it. This isn’t a case of 'if you build it they will come'. "

Mary's advice:

1. Know your market—don’t sit back and expect a distributor to create a viable marketing plan for you (unless of course you pay them to do it).
2. Know your competition – unless you’re highly sought after, you have competition and a lot of it. Be realistic.
3. Know your customer – who is it that buys your wine (to drink!) and why. What will you do to reach that pull through?
4. Know the sales reps – treat them with respect as they represent your hard work.

Understanding the market and your competition is key to a healthy sales program because conditions continually shift, like sand dunes. New wineries entering the market may take your place if you are complacent, and new consumer trends may veer retailers away from your product. "The product itself is both subjective and dynamic. In other words, the variables are not constant. It's a moving target if you will," says Mary.

Paso Robles Wine Festival: Ten Tips for Max Fun

A glass full of wine tasting tickets, the aroma of Greek cooking, and rowdy country rock music—you’ll find it all during the annual Paso Robles Wine Festival this coming weekend, May 21-23. Our historic and shady park will host 12,000 visitors heading for wine tasting, music and picnics.

Although much of Paso Robles is always balmy and breezy, downtown Paso Robles is framed by steep western hills that block the ocean winds. The buildings surrounding the town square also limit air flow, so weekend temperatures in the park may be in the upper 90s. For those of you who will be joining us for the weekend, here are my Top Ten Tips for enjoying the Paso Robles Wine Festival in style.

Templeton Farmers Market and Farmstand 46

 
I enjoy going to the Templeton Farmers Market every other Saturday morning. I have a rolling sport cart, which I fill to overflowing with sweet onions, asparagus, and artichokes.

If you are planning to spend a Saturday wine tasting in Paso Robles, there is simply no finer way to start the day than by strolling through the farmer’s market.   And for lunch, a stop at Farmstand 46 is an absolute must.  Enjoy lunch on the outdoor patio with a glass of wine, or pack it up and take it with you for a leisurely wine tasting trip down Vineyard Drive.

In today’s haul I have a seed-strewn flatbread from a local bakery, sold with small, ready-to-serve tubs of orange hummus, and garnished with fresh herbs. My other selections today were bacon avocados, asparagus, red and yellow beets, basil, tomatoes, strawberries, sugar pod peas, and garlic.

Every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the Templeton Community Park is the host for the Farmers Market. Come by and enjoy the selection of locally grown fruits, vegetables, organic produce, dried nuts and herbs, and homemade crafts and gifts. For more information call (805) 239-6535.

Getting Ready for Wine Festival: Managing Large Crowds

Most established wineries know these angles aready, but if you are new on the circuit—or still working through your first five years of post-festival debriefing—get a leg up on organizing for festival crowds with the following tips from other wineries.

First - Choose your top priority

Understand the difference between sales and hospitality, and choose ONE for your priority.  Both goals should be customer-oriented however.   You can DO both, but in order to do so effectively, you must have just one priority.

When it comes to planning, remember it's not about YOU.  Both hospitality and sales planning should be about the customer. 

If you are an established winery expecting large crowds, then sales should be your top priority.   Making sales fast, easy and efficient will help your visitors achieve their goals.  They'll be able to taste, order, and then layaway, ship or accept their order with ease, allowing them time to enjoy your hospitality as well.   Give them a seamless sales experience, augmented by excellent hospitality, and they'll leave with fond memories.

If you are a new winery, remotely located, or very small, maybe you expect to welcome less people, and you'd like to give them a stellar hospitality experience.  In this case, make sure you've covered all the aspects of a good party—shade, music, food, cleanliness, seating, games, and so on.  But even with sales as your second priority, be prepared.  Don't run out of tasting sheets or credit card machine tape, or become otherwise discomboobled on the sales front. 

Second - Define your goals

Common goals for a festival weekend are:

Getting Ready for Wine Festival: Managing Volunteers

Volunteers aren’t really ‘volunteers’ in the usual sense of the word. They are ad hoc assistants. At some wineries they are paid—and paid well, perhaps with a combination of cash and wine.  And you might want to warn them they will work hard on their shifts. You'll also want them to have your best interests at heart—on everything from sales to cleanup.

How many volunteers should you have for an event? Not too many, not too few. Depending on your past years’ experience you should have enough people to handle sales and packing comfortably and efficiency, with extra volunteers assigned specifically to food or tours, and one or two extra for go-fers. Go-fers may sound like a luxury, but they often end up being the busiest of your volunteer staff—they will replenish wine stacks, wash and buff glasses, carry clean glasses and supplies to outdoor stations, step in when others need a break, carry food from barbecue to serving tables, relay messages and run errands, and pick up tourist debris.

Understand that you (the owner or manager) may not be able to work effectively during the event—you’ll be busy supervising and visiting.  Even if you plan to man the barbecue or a sales station, odds are high that your time will be taken up by visitors. Therefore, get all your setup tasks done well before the event. The day of the event (or on each day of the event) you should ideally have an hour of peace and quiet before opening in which to relax, review details, and greet your volunteers.

Use lists! And improve or edit the list after each event. If you are not a ‘list’ person, then delegate the list-making to someone who is—and ask that person to keep you on task as well.

Have a prepatory meeting prior to the event. For locals, maybe a wine and cheese evening.  Be prepped for the prep. Have take-away instructions to hand out, and give out fresh sets the day of the event.  For out-of-towners, email them a complete list of your expectations.  Then call them and go over each item and invite questions.

Your volunteers do not need to be very wine knowledgeable, but they must care about your product and your presentation.  The image they project at an event is an important part of your branding and hospitality experience. A loud guffaw accompanied by, "Aw shucks hon, just drink what ya like!" will not impress a lady who is seriously interested in wine. Each event is an important chance to reach a large number of people with an efficient use of time and samples. Make every second count by ensuring that your volunteers respect this opportunity and maximize it for you.

Some things to go over:

Getting Ready for Wine Festival: Handouts!

  
When customers flock to your tasting room this coming festival weekend, whether they buy one bottle or one hundred, you'll want each customer to become an ambassador for your brand—and that means giving them information.

I usually recommend to clients that you craft a postcard handout.  Postcards, unlike full size tasting sheets or newsletters, can be affixed to refrigerators and bulletin boards.  And they're inexpensive to print—make the first side full color for impact, and the back in black-in-white to save money.  With a supply of postcards on hand, you can save your more expensive print newsletters for customers who buy $50-$100 or more.  If you have a spare laptop, set it up in the tasting room so visitors can subscribe to your blog and leave comments while they are there.  (You might want to cover the keyboard with a plastic protector.)

Make sure you've got all the winery contact information on your cards, including your winery blog address and Facebook or other social media identities.  Your goal is to get people to visit your website, subscribe to your blog, become your friend/fan on Facebook, and otherwise subscribe for future contact.  
 

10 Signs Your Business is Failing: And How to Recover

Although we are seeing signs of general economic recovery, the last year has been a hard slog for small winery and vineyard owners.  In an economic downturn, the luxury good, hospitality, and travel industries are often the hardest hit.  Among our associates, chins are held high and stories of silver linings abound.  But industry vendors and salesmen are telling a different story--one of back payments requiring COD status, higher returns, downtrending sales, and equipment foreclosures.

Now more than ever, it's important to have a clear-eyed view of your business' health, ratios and sales trends.  In a climate where bankers are looking at every new loan application with a jaundiced eye, and subjecting renewals to greater scrutiny, it's important to be able to identify and address each of the signs that your bankers will be looking at.  Even if you feel that your sales and bottom line are healthy, you may be surprised to see your business in a different light by applying some of the ratios below.  And if your business really is healthy, then you should be able to present these ratios with pride and explain what you are doing to protect and increase them.

A white-paper article by Debra Ellis of Wilson & Ellis Consulting describes the Ten Hidden Signs Your Company Is Sinking and Some Life Preservers.  We'll discuss each of these ten issues in a little more detail, including what you can do to improve your business health, but here is the list in simple form:

1. Customer attrition exceeds acquisition.
2. Your best customers are buying less.
3. Buyers are not completing the life cycle.
4. Your vital signs are erratic.
5. You have more back inventory.
6. Costs are not aligned with sales.
7. Analytics are trending down.
8. You are avoiding innovation.
9. Employees are unhappy.
10. You have lost your passion.

Death, Desire and Cassoulet . . .

 
 
  
What, exactly, does Central Coast Wine Blogs do?

What I do is make your dreams possible. 

In fact, I may occasionally take you outside of your comfort zone and show you the possible. 

For instance, when I met New York cookbook author Brigit Binns, who is also known in culinary circles as roadfoodie, I was instantly charmed. Who hasn't heard of roadfoodie, the sassy vixen who has documented her culinary travels across the US and around the world?   Brigit is the author of 23 cookbooks, including some gorgeous Williams Sonoma selections. When I met her last month she was working hard on a couple of cookbook drafts and  taking a month-long hiatus in Paso Robles to relax and finish her recipe testing.  But her current dream is to write a cookbook inspired by the central coast, where she spent many glorious summers as a child.

To help her achieve that goal, I introduced her to some wineries and local food artisans.  But I really wanted her to experience our culinary connection to the land, so I even went so far as to set up a boar hunt for us.  Dubost Ranch Winery kindly hooked us up with professional guide Matt Tupen (borrhunter@roadrunner.com) and we had the time of our lives. 

From roadfoodie.com, What a Boar:

"I am standing underneath a scarred, ancient oak tree on an isolated ranch far to the west of Paso Robles, in central California, with a dead body, a blond woman, and a strange man—I first laid eyes on him five minutes ago—who is holding a very, very sharp knife.  'It’s a surgical blade,' he says, with disarming cheer."

"The dead body is a 200-pound wild boar, the man is a hunter, and the blond woman is Mary Baker, of Central Coast Wine Blogs; she has opened doors for me in this wine community that I might otherwise have spent months—if not years—knocking on."

You might think that sliding around in the mud in an ATV and learning to skin a boar with a surgical knife is not a typical woman's idea of fun.  And you'd probably be right.  But we loved it  And the boar (pictured above) was parceled out lovingly to local foodies.  In Brigit's hands, he became a delicious and robust cassoulet, which she proclaimed a 'Passoulet', and it was served with Paso Robles syrah and cabernet.

So when you ask me what Central Coast Wine Blogs does, my reply would be . . .

I help you realize your dreams.  Whatever you want to achieve, I can take you there and beyond.