Having a Run-Away QPR:

[Don Giovanni]

Having a runaway seller and selling out

a winemakers mixed feelings

As a winemaker I push the envelope...I make wine from the natives(Delaware and Catawba) and make them dry, white, not pink or sweet...so I get this idea for a White Merlot from a bottle I had from a mass producer in CA...I make an estimated two years worth...sold out in six months...no I won't give numbers...a boat load for a small boutique winery...so what happens I make it xxxxx times better than the box houses...I cause a small disruption at one trade show...at another I again cause a big interest...SO I AM NOW SOLD OUT AND IT $UCKS...I am happy for the hit...I will make 4 times more this year...now this is why I am down... the RS on these wines are 4 % RS and 7 % RS and I was born a dry red winemaker,lover, consumer...this is so not me...I put my guts into my dry reds and yes they are a big hit...but sad for my ego as a dry wine lover...my wife who inspired the White Merlot in the first place now has bragging

rights as she was the one who bought that first bottle of White Merlot...

I guess I will get over it...pass me another bottle of dry red please...give that bottle of White Merlot to the highest bidder...or my wife...

Edited August 19, 2007 by Don Giovanni (log)

[Rebel Rose]

Brand focus is a good thing. We also learned this the hard way. We had a contract for some fruit that Dan was less than happy with, so he made a tasty little table red, which we sold for $10 a bottle. We had meant it to be a little QPR wine for the tasting room, appealing to the pop-n-go crowd. Unfortunately, it became a big hit. Our distributors loved it, stores in NC were doing floor stacks of it, and customers were loading up their SUV's. But it was so not what we're trying to do here. Now the 'Renegade Red' is gone, no more. We published a notice via email and on our blog, but we still get requests every weekend.

It wasn't sweet, but one good lesson we learned from the experience is that there is a huge market out there for tasty, inexpensive wines.

I had a lovely, semi-sweet rose from a local vineyard this summer, but the producer won't be continuing it, because it doesn't fit his desired profile. I can't blame him. Consumers expect wineries to have an easily identifiable identity. Three or four word associations per label, I think.

[Don Giovanni]

Brand focus is a good thing.  We also learned this the hard way.  We had a contract for some fruit that Dan was less than happy with, so he made a tasty little table red, which we sold for $10 a bottle.  We had meant it to be a little QPR wine for the tasting room, appealing to the pop-n-go crowd.  Unfortunately, it became a big hit.  Our distributors loved it, stores in NC were doing floor stacks of it, and customers were loading up their SUV's.  But it was so not what we're trying to do here.  Now the 'Renegade Red' is gone, no more.  We published a notice via email and on our blog, but we still get requests every weekend. 

It wasn't sweet, but one good lesson we learned from the experience is that there is a huge market out there for tasty, inexpensive wines. 

I had a lovely, semi-sweet rose from a local vineyard this summer, but the producer won't be continuing it, because it doesn't fit his desired profile.  I can't blame him.  Consumers expect wineries to have an easily identifiable identity.  Three or four word associations per label, I think.

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Mary,

How do you know me so well...I have very mixed feeling about this...now I have people who are asking for the date of release of the next white Merlot...people were starting a list with my wife ...I stopped this, now we tell them to see the web site...this is not me folks...I like to make dry red wines a wine that will live for 30 years or more...like my Ice wine this one will go for 100 years...anyone want to take that bet we will let our heirs see who wins...anyhow I have many things to do...if I post less it's not because I don't to want to it's because my arse is deep in grape must or harvest ...one that has started very early...could be the harvest of a decade... better than 1995 for us...I will be in and out until then...Mary wishing you a great harvest and crush...

[MattJohnson]

I'm not in the industry, but I am in an industry. Wouldn't everything be so much easier if it weren't for all those pesky customers?

Couldn't there be a solution where you spin the white merlot off onto a different label? You could sell it, make tons of cash to help fund your "real wine" business?

[Don Giovanni]

I'm not in the industry, but I am in an industry.  Wouldn't everything be so much easier if it weren't for all those pesky customers?   

Couldn't there be a solution where you spin the white merlot off onto a different label?  You could sell it, make tons of cash to help fund your "real wine" business?

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Matt,

You my friend are a smart person..Your idea of a second label is what I thought of well before I bottled the wine...I have two labels one the "Don Giovanni Wines" the other the "Silver Springs Wines"...my higher end wines are from the Don and the regular ones are from SSW so I have that covered...I know marketing all too well and applied this to my wine business..

[MattJohnson]

I should have figured you already did that. I suppose the issue is more that your love of making a certain wine is at odds with the demand of a certain percentage of your customers - and that kind of hurts. Like a concert pianist being asked to play chopsticks.

[Don Giovanni]

I should have figured you already did that.  I suppose the issue is more that your love of making a certain wine is at odds with the demand of a certain percentage of your customers - and that kind of hurts.  Like a concert pianist being asked to play chopsticks.

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Thank You...YES......

[MaxH]

one good lesson we learned from the experience is that there is a huge market out there for tasty, inexpensive wines.

Earlier this year at the Pinot Noir conference in Anderson Valley, Bill Turrentine (wholesale grape and wine broker) gave interesting statistics and predicted a "sweet spot" in the market for $12-$20 wines (of that particular varietal), assuming yields adequate for profitability while retaining varietal character. I talked also to some informed folks about this tonight -- US markets have been buying box and "two buck" products and $75 connoisseur products, but numbers of the non-winegeek public seems ready to spend $12 or $15 for something more interesting than bulk wines.

(Remarkable tangent: Turrentine's hard data on Pinot Noir volumes were dramatic. A big surplus of California PN was available to the bulk market after about 2000. Partly from investment for "millenium" sparkling wines, some of which got diverted to still wines. Then the curves show this surplus "falling off a cliff" in the latter part of 2005 -- what Turrentine called Academy Awards Night in honor of a certain helpful movie. From 2005 to 2006, the spot-market price for PN grapes doubled.)