Winery/Winemaker Monthly Features - MAY WINERIES POSTED

[Karen Troisi]

Todd - great idea! Would be interested.

Karen

[Todd F r e n c h]

Don't forget to email me your interest, folks...not just the thread replies. I need to keep it organized.

[Andrew Morris (Online)]

Don't forget to email me your interest, folks...not just the thread replies. I need to keep it organized.

Email Sent.

[Todd F r e n c h]

I've got quite a good list building now!

Here's how I see it playing out, and I invite your input:

At the start of the month, the featured wineries (1-3) will post a BerserkerDay-like deal, hopefully some sort of sample pack (as that was what was universally praised from BerserkerDay, giving people a chance to taste the whole array of what a winemaker/winery does), available for immediate ordering and immediate shipping.

During shipping time, the winemaker/winery discusses the wines that are being sent, perhaps talk a bit about the winemaking styles, farming practices, estate fruit, etc., as an intro.

Once the shipments start to arrive, Berserkers crack 'em open and post notes, and have discussions with the winemakers/winery reps about the wines (good or bad), and then the winemaker/winery also has ANOTHER deal (these need to be good deals or I won't have them featured, as they will get a LOT out of this exposure!) or deals on the wines that were part of the sample pack.

Berserkers chat with the winemakers/winery folks, maybe sign up for mailing lists, but primarily meet and interact with wineries/winemakers on a close and personal level. Any participating winery MUST be available for the month where they are featured, or I'll pull the offer - this needs to be fully interactive.

Now...one question...where should this all be? Wine Talk gets most of the traffic, and many look ONLY there when on the forum (others look only at Asylum, oddly enough), but how do we coordinate all the threads with tasting notes? I think we could create a thread with each of the wines in the sample packs for each winery, and notes can be posted there, plus one 'overall' thread about the featured winery. Should this be in Wine Talk, or a separate forum?

[Rick Gregory]

Post it in Wine Talk but do one of your system wide announcement thingys that appear in all forums that it's up. If people can't be bothered to check Wine Talk even with that, eh.

I'd be fine (as a consumer) even without the second deal frankly. Not that I'd object. Oh and... I'm assuming participating wineries will hold for weather, etc? Do you/the wineries want to do these during summer when there will need to be a several month gap between deal and shipment (and hence TNs and discussion)?

[Todd F r e n c h]

Post it in Wine Talk but do one of your system wide announcement thingys that appear in all forums that it's up. If people can't be bothered to check Wine Talk even with that, eh.

I'd be fine (as a consumer) even without the second deal frankly. Not that I'd object. Oh and... I'm assuming participating wineries will hold for weather, etc? Do you/the wineries want to do these during summer when there will need to be a several month gap between deal and shipment (and hence TNs and discussion)?

Good point on summer shipping...we'll see what the wineries have to say about that, but if it is a problem, we won't be able to do it over the summer, unless they use refrigerated carriers.

So...interested winery folks...what do you suggest as a solution for shipping in warmer months?

[Dave Smig]

Good point on summer shipping...we'll see what the wineries have to say about that, but if it is a problem, we won't be able to do it over the summer, unless they use refrigerated carriers.

So...interested winery folks...what do you suggest as a solution for shipping in warmer months?

Well, this could go in several directions, whether its chilled shipping or one or two day shipping, someone ends up paying for it. I am a small guy and I would rather wait for a colder month to offer my wines as my shipping costs are astronomical when I deviate from Ground shipping.

My cost to ship a 4 pack of wine from CA to NY
Ground - Up to 8 days - $26.10 + 6$ for residential.
2-day - 2 days - $67.00 + $6.00 for residential.
1 day - next day - $90.10 + $6.00 for residential.

I am always looking for better pricing, but I am limited due to my production which is somewhere between 750 and 950 cases a year.

Cheers,
dave

[Jason Hagen (Online)]

Haven't read the entire thread but love the idea! Great!

[Stewart Johnson]

Post it in Wine Talk but do one of your system wide announcement thingys that appear in all forums that it's up. If people can't be bothered to check Wine Talk even with that, eh.

I'd be fine (as a consumer) even without the second deal frankly. Not that I'd object. Oh and... I'm assuming participating wineries will hold for weather, etc? Do you/the wineries want to do these during summer when there will need to be a several month gap between deal and shipment (and hence TNs and discussion)?

Good point on summer shipping...we'll see what the wineries have to say about that, but if it is a problem, we won't be able to do it over the summer, unless they use refrigerated carriers.

So...interested winery folks...what do you suggest as a solution for shipping in warmer months?

I agree that to serve wineries' interests in generating timely tasting notes, it's going to have to be seasonal. I think that berserker Day expectations have developed in a way that cuts pretty close to the bone for producers even without contemplating absorbing the cost of expedited shipping. So, a winery's first offer comes out in Spring or Fall, feedback is generated on the board or CT, and the follow up offer comes out 3 months later during Summer or Winter when a significant portion of buyers will want the wine held. I could see some sort of standardized price break for the first offer relative to the second -- maybe the first offer has a 5% deeper discount, with the understanding that, in return, those buyers ought to try to crack a bottle and see if they can't find something to say about it within a couple months of receipt.

[Rick Gregory]

The other issue from a consumer point of view is that the first offer, if it comes with the expectation of us cracking a bottle, probably shouldn't be stuff most of us would want to age, i.e. not someone's top cuvee, etc.

To the wineries... how important is sales vs TN/buzz? Because I'd certainly be fine with a lesser discount in summer if the winery held the wine but there won't be immediate buzz from that. On the other hand, there will be sales... Same question to Todd, btw (importance of acting as a medium for deals vs buzz/traffic).

[Andrew Morris (Online)]

The other issue from a consumer point of view is that the first offer, if it comes with the expectation of us cracking a bottle, probably shouldn't be stuff most of us would want to age, i.e. not someone's top cuvee, etc.

To the wineries... how important is sales vs TN/buzz? Because I'd certainly be fine with a lesser discount in summer if the winery held the wine but there won't be immediate buzz from that. On the other hand, there will be sales... Same question to Todd, btw (importance of acting as a medium for deals vs buzz/traffic).

Firstly, thanks again to Todd for the board and for the exposure that BD gives small out of the way wineries like ours. It is a big help in terms of getting our wines out there and into the hands of people who love wine and talk about it. I think B-Day has been a big success. The monthly program will be even better for everyone.

From my POV, the best thing that can come out of this sort of program is having a few (or many!) Berserkers that really like our style and become ongoing buyers that like the wines and post notes. Even as small as we are, the sales from BDay (so far) are not a big number. I can see them being bigger once a winery already has more fans, but in that case what is (mainly?) happening is the winery is selling wines to fans at a serious discount. For some wineries this might be OK, particularly if they sell a big part of their production FOB, (around 50% of retail), or if they have a lot of inventory, but for small guys like us that sell all of our wine, it might not be great to have people wait around and only buy when there are deep discounts. These are some of the factors that a winery has to think about when it formulates the offer. All that said, for us, the event is great to get the word out to more people outside of our local area.

About the Summer shipping issue, there are two options I see:

1. The program only runs X months of the year, or
2. An (overly?) complicated system where at the end of spring, in time for the last ship date, 4-5 months worth of wineries make offer #1. There is a set schedule for each winery to be discussed. Buyer wait until the designated month to post notes and discuss with the winemaker etc. Then, once it is cool enough, offer #2 for those wineries is made available.

Both of these have issues. Particularly, it will be a lot to ask of the buyers to purchase in April, and then wait until July to discuss, for example.

Hopefully, someone else sees some way around this shipping issue that I don't see.

Thanks again for all of the thought that is going into this program.

Cheers!

[Todd F r e n c h]

It really sounds like, barring any truly innovative shipping opportunities, this can only work in late Fall-Spring

[Stewart Johnson]

The other issue from a consumer point of view is that the first offer, if it comes with the expectation of us cracking a bottle, probably shouldn't be stuff most of us would want to age, i.e. not someone's top cuvee, etc.

To the wineries... how important is sales vs TN/buzz? Because I'd certainly be fine with a lesser discount in summer if the winery held the wine but there won't be immediate buzz from that. On the other hand, there will be sales... Same question to Todd, btw (importance of acting as a medium for deals vs buzz/traffic).

I guess that I hope that the discount is inducement enough for people to "take one for the team" during the first offer; e.g., if you buy 3 bottles of a particular wine for the price of two, you might feel you can afford to take an early peek at the one that was, essentially, free and cellar the other two if it seems warranted. We get plenty of people who want to check in on, say, Mt. Eden wines upon release in order to get their own sense of the vintage and its potential even though they know ahead of time that the wine will want cellaring. I think we just make it clear that this is the sort of participation that we hope to get in round one, though there is nothing obligatory about it.

[Evan Pontoriero]

We would be interested. Good idea.

[Gideon]

Like the idea and would gladly participate. Agree with a number of the issues discussed.

I'm not sure I understand why shipping has to occur immediately (at summertime) for this to work. Some years you cannot safely ship Ground during the winter either, for risk of freezing. We only ship when weather allows - summer or winter - and wait when it does not.

[Gary Schulte]

Like the idea but as others have mentioned there needs to be a couple of details worked out. A couple of ways to get around the seasonal shipping issue is to have: (a) a mix of east and west regional wineries(using the Mississippi divider) each time during hot/cold seasons or (b) make use of regional distribution. I would enjoy the chance to try more wines from NY, PA, MD, VA, etc. If we are having non-US winery participation, as in the past, the latter will be the avenue. Can Canadian wineries direct ship into US? Would look forward to wines from Okanagan & Niagara....Gary

[Todd F r e n c h]

Like the idea but as others have mentioned there needs to be a couple of details worked out. A couple of ways to get around the seasonal shipping issue is to have: (a) a mix of east and west regional wineries(using the Mississippi divider) each time during hot/cold seasons or (b) make use of regional distribution. I would enjoy the chance to try more wines from NY, PA, MD, VA, etc. If we are having non-US winery participation, as in the past, the latter will be the avenue. Can Canadian wineries direct ship into US? Would look forward to wines from Okanagan & Niagara....Gary

Perhaps regional participation might solve the shipping problem as well.

[Nicolas R. Elliott]

I would love to be involved when the time is right, it sounds exciting and a very good way for people to see what a winemaker is all about.

[Joe Webb]

Sounds like a great way to have some in-depth comments and interactions between winery and customer.

[Todd F r e n c h]

I'd like to start this next month - still ok to ship, etc. Any recommendations?

[Andrew Morris (Online)]

Shipping is still OK, as long as we keep an eye on the weather to make sure there is not freak hot spell in the works. Hopefully, shipping can happen by mid April.

My 2 cents.

[Todd F r e n c h]

So I've got two so far...looking for a third and final, hopefully Napa/Sonoma area, as we've got other regions covered.

[e chin (Online)]

Todd, can you give us some idea how and when this will happen? I have an idea to help maximize participation on both ends. Place these offers during the lulls on mailer release notifications. I have read on numerous occasions how someone had to pass on an allocation or a purchase because they met or exceeded their $$$ for the month already. I am not sure what months those are being still very new to this and have never kept track, but I am sure you would have a better grasp as to when they all happen. Also it would be beneficial to the small targeted wineries on a cash flow basis. Just my $0.02.

[Todd F r e n c h]

Todd, can you give us some idea how and when this will happen? I have an idea to help maximize participation on both ends. Place these offers during the lulls on mailer release notifications. I have read on numerous occasions how someone had to pass on an allocation or a purchase because they met or exceeded their $$$ for the month already. I am not sure what months those are being still very new to this and have never kept track, but I am sure you would have a better grasp as to when they all happen. Also it would be beneficial to the small targeted wineries on a cash flow basis. Just my $0.02.

Not all consumers buy from mailers, and not all mailers are timed at the same time, so I'm going to focus on what works for the issues we will have to deal with, which is, primarily, shipping during warm months. We can't run this program from June-September, essentially, but hopefully we can get April and May, then restart in October.

[e chin (Online)]

Todd, can you give us some idea how and when this will happen? I have an idea to help maximize participation on both ends. Place these offers during the lulls on mailer release notifications. I have read on numerous occasions how someone had to pass on an allocation or a purchase because they met or exceeded their $$$ for the month already. I am not sure what months those are being still very new to this and have never kept track, but I am sure you would have a better grasp as to when they all happen. Also it would be beneficial to the small targeted wineries on a cash flow basis. Just my $0.02.

Not all consumers buy from mailers, and not all mailers are timed at the same time, so I'm going to focus on what works for the issues we will have to deal with, which is, primarily, shipping during warm months. We can't run this program from June-September, essentially, but hopefully we can get April and May, then restart in October.

That was quick. I got it, was just a thought.

[Todd F r e n c h]

Okay - we've got two confirmed, and a third pending, for the month of April.

Biggio Hamina Cellars (McMinnville, OR)
Briceland Vineyards (Humboldt, CA)
(third one pending - should know tomorrow)

I've asked Todd and Andrew to start thinking of their sample packs, and we should have them ready for ordering on April 1 (without April Fools, hopefully, although maybe one will stick a bottle of Domaine Rudy Conti '45 in there, too!).

Orders will be placed, sample packs will be shipped, and the discussions can begin!

Still trying to figure out the best way to run this in terms of where the threads will go. I'm thinking of a thread for each Featured Winery, where the sample pack info, discussions and tasting notes are all consolidated. Then they can proudly be featured in Wine Talk, if they are all in one master thread for each winery. Thoughts?

[Beau Carufel]

I like the concept of one thread per winery, that would appear the tidiest option as well as the easiest to use for those of us who are participating. The other option (not sure how much work it would take) would be to create a separate forum strictly for the Berserker Wines o' The Month Club discussions..or whatever you wish to call them.

[Michael Hafitz]

I like 1 winery / 1 thread. Good for all of the reasons previously stated, for future reference purposes and for new users researching what's here (count me as one of those).

[Andrew Morris (Online)]

I feel honored, and a little nervous to be part of the first outing of this program.

I am thinking of doing 3 reds, 2 whites and a sparkling.

Do you think you can handle that many wines?

[Todd Hamina]

Definitely unchartered territory, should be fun and hopefully we'll be good guinea pigs!

edit- I too will do a 6 pack: 1 white, 5 reds.

[Jonathan W]

Andrew and Todd,

Any chance you could consider an option for a 3 or 6 bottle sampler pack? Some of us have a tighter budget due to just being hit up for several mailing lists.

Thanks,

Jon

[Beau Carufel]

Andrew and Todd,

Any chance you could consider an option for a 3 or 6 bottle sampler pack? Some of us have a tighter budget due to just being hit up for several mailing lists.

Thanks,

Jon

I'll +1 to this, for me at least, 3-packs are very desirable, along with an option to order more in the future.

[Dave Smig]

Not sure if this will help Andrew and Todd, but it is the direction I am planning to go, as I want to get new customers as well as provide a deeper deal for current customers who are familiar with my product.

a 3 pack mixed discounted and a 4 x 3 pack mixed with free shipping on the case. if you offer more than three wines, which many of us do, then maybe a couple different 3 packs as options. Just a thought.

[Todd Hamina]

I'm cool with a three pack and I believe Andrew is too. Since the three of us are guinea pigs for this, let's get together with Todd's blessing and work this out so that it's easy for everybody to know what the offer is; one deal fits all kind of thing. Then we can all move forward on it. I use a third party for pick and pack so I need to spell things clearly for them to execute well. Will call you tomorrow. It should be fun! A little scary, but fun nonetheless...

[Dan Rinke]

I'm cool with a three pack and I believe Andrew is too. Since the three of us are guinea pigs for this, let's get together with Todd's blessing and work this out so that it's easy for everybody to know what the offer is; one deal fits all kind of thing. Then we can all move forward on it. I use a third party for pick and pack so I need to spell things clearly for them to execute well. Will call you tomorrow. It should be fun! A little scary, but fun nonetheless...

Todd, Andrew and Dave thank you for being the guinea pigs on this. This is an interesting concept and sounds like it should be fun for all. Count Johan in the next time you are looking for a Willamette Valley winery.