Notes From The Winemaker

Finding A Good Fit -- And Not

Yesterday evening I was at Harvest Moon Cafe to taste a squid dish that chef Nick Demarest put together to pair with our 1998 Sunny Oak Syrah (which they carry on their wine list). Wow! What a pleasure to find a place that understands our wines and can match them so well with the foods they love to cook. Excellent fit.

During this visit there was a guy sitting at the kitchen bar tasting some wines with Nick and having a snack -- Nick's squid dish it turns out. I overheard this guy saying "I used to be all about old wines... but now for me it's all about fruit, fresh fruit in the wines." I thought to myself "now here's a guy who would not 'get' my old, complicated and non-fruit-forward wines."

This guy was apparently there to show a couple of wines he's into, maybe selling. Admittedly before we were introduced I may have screwed his presentation by noting that one of the wines was faintly corked. But instead of "aw shucks it happens; let me go get another bottle" this guy sort of goes all attitude on me.

When I was eventually introduced to him as a winemaker he invited me to come by and pour for their panel -- "they have an open call on blah blah blah mornings" where petitioners can show up to audition for a spot in their book. I suggested instead that if he had a spare moment he might drop by the Salon and have a taste and a chat. But he seriously came back with "I'm a busy guy, not some winemaker." WOAH! S'cuse me Mr. Sit-In-The-Restaurant-Cadging-Free-Food, but you don't know how busy this winemaker is. Whatever.

Actually I regularly run into an attitude among many local restaurant and retail wine buyers. I call it the "gatekeeper" mentality -- an "I'm self-important, I'm busy, I know what sells, and you winemaker guys are a dime a dozen anyway so don't waste my valuable time" attitude. Maybe they are overworked and lonely. Maybe they are just overwhelmed with all the wines they have to choose from, and surely sick to death of all the pushy salespeople they have to deal with.

This is probably what dooms me as a marketer: I react badly to this attitude every time, though I understand it and should know better. The gatekeeper attitude sucks all the joy out of just kicking back over a glass of wine and a plate of good food.

So I probably will NOT be coming to a cattle call at this particular guy's place to audition for his list. No matter how good his food is, or how well thought out his list -- it will never be a good fit.

On a more positive note, we continue to be blessed with lovely weather here in Sonoma Valley; cool mornings under the marine layer and clear afternoons with temperatures reaching into the 80's and 90's. The grapes are happy and my newly-planted Pinot vines are not over-stressed though I'm still hoping for a blast of heat in a couple of weeks to halt berry expansion in the established vines.

I'm also happy to note that we just had our best sales month ever. Word-of-mouth is working well for us, and we are making more and more people happy here at the Salon.

And I'm doing my best not to stress out that I'm going to be away from work for four days on a family Fourth of July trip. I'm actually looking forward to the trip itself -- just hoping that I can forget about the winery while I'm at it.

posted 6/30/2006 12:59:00 PM