XChateau Wine Podcast

Being a celebrity helps and hinders the launch and selling elements of a wine venture. Kyle MacLachlan, an actor with a broad base of work from Twin Peaks to Sex & the City to The Flintstones, details his journey of starting Pursued by Bear (“PBB”) in Walla Walla, Washington and how he thinks about imbuing his personal brand with the wine brand. From getting approval for the brand name from Steve Martin to designing his newly launched tasting room, Kyle weaves his stories around how branding has worked for PBB.

Detailed Show Notes:

Kyle’s background - an actor, including Cooper from Twin Peaks, Sex & the City, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, and one of his favorites is The Flintstones

• He just wrapped filming of Fallout for Amazon, based on the video game
• He grew up in Eastern Washington, always been a wine drinker over beer & spirits
• Met Ann Colgin & Doug Shafer in Napa and wanted to start a Napa brand in the late 1990s, but it was too expensive
• His wife pointed him to WA wine, met Eric Dunham looking for a WA Syrah for his wedding, and partnered in 2005 to launch Pursued by Bear

PBB

• ~3,000 cases, 5 wines
• PBB Cab Sauv (launched ‘05; ~500 cases) - was Cab, Syrah, Merlot blend, now Bordeaux blend
• Baby Bear Syrah (launched ‘08, ~300 cases)
• Rose (launched ‘15)
• Bear Cub (launched ‘16, ~1,000 cases) - an entry-level red blend
• Twin Bear - “prestige wine,” 100% Cabernet

Winery name

• He wanted it to speak to his ‘day job’ of acting and bring it back to the theater, a Shakespeare reference
• Refers to a stage direction in Winter’s Tale - “Exit, pursued by a bear”
• Steve Martin approved of the name, which solidified it

Kyle’s role at PBB

• Took over 100% ownership of the brand in 2016
• Very involved in the business, hands-on with operations (e.g., copywriting for labels) and parts of winemaking (e.g., blending trials)
• Dan Wampfler winemaker since 2008

Leveraging celebrity

• Has helped bring attention to wine (e.g., using personal social media), but most fans aren’t wine people
• Gotten more press than otherwise
• Some product placement (has been in the background of Desperate Housewives and How I Met Your Mother - like an “easter egg”)
• Tries to be an ambassador for WA State wines
• Made short videos during the pandemic - “Beary Tales”
• It is a hindrance at times as people think wines aren’t good
• Hollywood connections have not helped much - many aren’t big wine drinkers or collectors

Customer acquisition

• Most effective has been 1:1 hand selling
• Opening a tasting room in Walla Walla - April 2023
• Zoom tastings were effective at selling wine during the pandemic
• He wants people to feel they are on a journey w/ Kyle around PBB

Tasting room

• Designed to be comfortable - cork floors, oak tables, big bronze bear
• Located in Walla Walla downtown - a wine-tasting destination, mostly from WA, ID, OR, and Canada
• Very little acting memorabilia - a Twin Peaks bobblehead & mug
• Spring Release 2023 - will have 3 musicians playing music, walking around town
• Likes surprise and delight elements, has had discussions w/ an AR company about embedding elements, but hasn’t figured it out yet

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Accidentally filling the big shoes of Michael Broadbent and Steven Spurrier, Jane Anson, wine critic, author of Inside Bordeaux, founder of janeanson.com, and former Bordeaux correspondent for Decanter for nearly 20 years, is one of the world's foremost experts on the wines, history, and region of Bordeaux. Having lived in Bordeaux since 2003, Jane shares her deep insights into how Bordeaux became as famous as it is, how the systems of La Place de Bordeaux and En Primeur work, and the complex terroir of the region. She gives us insight into the content of janeanson.com and how it will be a unique look into Bordeaux, focusing on the drinkability of the wines and many of the unique features to be released.

Detailed Show Notes:

Bordeaux Overview

• A port city far enough inland to be a safe port
• 12th century - duchy of the English crown, wines were sold in the London market
• The system of chateaux, merchants, and negociants was built for export
• Terroir is very complex (which may be why it's not talked about much), e.g., of the 61 wines in the 1855 Medoc classification, all of them are on 2 specific gravel terraces (#3 & 4) of the 6 terraces of the Medoc
• Mostly clay underneath with gravel on top
• Lots of micro terroirs
• St Emilion - has pure limestone, clay, and gravel

Issues that have hurt Bordeaux

• Every vintage is not great, though Bordelais often say that
• Frustrate people based on the prices they ask (e.g., 2009/2010 vintages - many people who bought lost money)

Advantages of La Place de Bordeaux

• Business to business, sell to merchants that sell to consumers
• Virtual marketplace - enables access to 10,000 clients globally
• Includes chateaux, brokers, and negociants
• Sells wine into every level of the food chain - has specialists for on-trade, off-trade, hotels, corner shops, supermarkets, etc.
• It doesn't build your brand but makes sure it gets everywhere
• Good at giving the illusion of scarcity
• Can use La Place for specific markets - La Place has expertise in the Asian markets (e.g., China, Vietnam, Japan)

Disadvantages of La Place de Bordeaux

• Creates a very competitive environment - low-end wines compete with each other
• It protects Bordeaux well, and merchants need to buy in bad years to get allocations in good years
• No direct contact with consumers for wineries
• Less effective for small guys that aren't established brands

Non-Bordeaux wines selling on La Place

• Gone from nothing to 60 wines 5 years ago to 90 wines in 2021
• Provides access to global markets - shows wines next to the great wines of Bordeaux
• Opus One - the 2nd non-Bordeaux wine on La Place (after Almaviva), has sold wines since 2004 and opened an office in Bordeaux.
• Barriers to joining La Place - need enough volume to get everywhere, need to do your own brand-building work, and meet customers
• The increase in overseas wines has hurt smaller Bordeaux estates -> negociants have limited budgets and drop them

En Primeur

• From the early 1980s, Parker injected excitement into the En Primeur system
• People used to make money, but now they are often better off waiting until wines are in bottle with certain exceptions (e.g., tiny production Pomerols)
• No longer has the same sense of urgency
• Tranche system - release a small amount of wine at one price, then release more later at higher prices
• non-Bordeaux wines price more consistently than Bordeaux wines
• Latour dropping out of en primeur, they wanted to store wines and release them when best for consumers
• Chateau Palmer - sells 50% en primeur, 50% 10 years later

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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!

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As the pioneer of Vitis Vinifera in the Eastern US, Dr. Konstantin Frank is one of the key leaders of the Fingers Lakes region in New York. Meaghan Frank, a fourth-generation vintner, has been leading the charge to evolve its hospitality program to create brand ambassadors for the winery and the region. Its 1886 Wine Experience has won Best Wine Tour by USA Today in the last two years. Meaghan breaks down their hospitality program and its impact on their business.

Detailed Show Notes:

Finger Lakes region, NY - 150 wineries (of 400 in NY), NW NY State - 5 hrs from NYC

• Skinny, deep lakes that moderate weather
• Glaciers left diverse soils
• Tourism-driven, seasonal visitors (spring to fall) for lakes, hiking, close to Niagara Falls, Corning Museum of Glass

Dr. Konstantin Frank - PhD in Viticulture from Odesa, Ukraine; a grape scientist; fled to NY during WWII

• 35 years of cold climate grape growing experience when moved to NY
• 1st to plant vinifera in Eastern US
• Planted experiment station in the 1950s - 68 varieties, including Furmit, Pedro Ximenez, and Touriga Nacional) to research what would work best

Dr. K Frank Winery

• 17 vinifera varieties → 40 wines
• 60% wholesale, 40% DTC
• 40 states, 9 export markets (5%, incl Japan, Aruba (lots of NY visitors), UK)
• DTC 60% e-commerce (driven by wine club), 40% hospitality

Hospitality program

• The goal is to create brand ambassadors and loyalty, get the word out about the Finger Lakes
• Inspired by Australian hospitality programs - private, educational
• ~40k visitors/year (#1 PA - 1 hour away, NJ, OH, NY core markets) - all seated, paid
• Pre-pandemic - ~80k visitors/year for free bar tastings
• Moved to an experience-driven program with wine educators, take advantage of lake view

Three experiences:

• Eugenia’s Garden - modeled after great grandmother’s garden, most casual, can do a la carte glasses/bottles/flights; enables people to enjoy the day; targets a younger demographic
• Signature Seated ($15pp) - most popular, educational, 1 hr, 6 wines, 5 different themes that are part of the winery’s story (e.g., traditional sparkling, Riesling pioneer, groundbreaking grapes, red wines)
• The 1886 Wine Experience ($75pp) - only May-Oct, 2-2.5 hrs, led by wine educator, a tour of the vineyard, sparkling and still wine cellars, seated tasting of 4 wines with bites, followed by additional tastings; won best wine tour by USA Today last 2 years; lots of 1st-time visitors book 1886 due to unique nature
• Lessons learned - used to do 6 wine flight w/ bites, which was too many; did themed months (e.g., sparkling) - did not work with mostly tourists
• Differentiators - spend lots of time, has a separate private space for 1886

Wine club evolution

• Used to have people pay upfront for the year - bigger barrier to signing up, always feel like “playing catchup” to ensure value delivered, concentrated work during shipment periods
• Moved to more subscription model - quarterly, 3 wines w/ default package, fully customizable, no upfront fee, 20% discount on wines, and get free tastings (no limit)
• 8% club conversion - the only way to get free tastings now, used to waive w/ 4 bottle purchase
• Locals small portion of the club - pickup option only 10%, PA #1
• Avg tenure 1.5 years, seeing it extend with the new club model

Popular wines

• Hospitality - Rkatsiteli #1, traditional method sparkling
• Wholesale - #1 & #2 - dry & semi-dry Riesling
• Riesling 60% of production, traditional method growing

Increasing issues around climate change - 2023 had the largest spring frost in history, increasing water issues

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In part 2 of our series with Nick Ramkowsky, Owner of Vine Connections, Nick describes how he builds brands in the US market, striving to turn “annual” brands into “perennial” ones. Partnering with distributors both directly and working independently with consistency helps create a virtuous cycle of long-term relationships. Nick also covers his interest in sake and how it overlaps with sales strategies for wine.

Detailed Show Notes:

Two types of brands

• Perennials - brands where accounts grow in value each vintage; very few become this
• Annuals - need to sell the same case to a new account each year; everything starts here

The goal is to build brands into perennials

Getting to perennials includes having value in the bottle, packaging (VC has three designers on staff), relationships (finding the right spots/customers for brands and supporting the accounts (staff trainings, consumer events)), identifying champions on the distributor sales team, and press

Creating brand value as an importer - consumers believe in the importer’s book through consistent producers and quality across the portfolio

Consistency helps develop brands

Marketing strategies to build distributor demand

• Press (primarily critics)
• Effective distributor work withs (distributors need confidence importer will support them)
• Creating credibility in the marketplace (trade events, work withs, samples, incentive/launch programs)
• Can’t outspend more prominent importers for incentives, need to create unique ones - e.g., one supplier affiliated w/ custom made shirts, created incentive around the shirts

Setting suggested retail price (“SRP”)

• Through tasting, looking at the competitive set, and where the winery wants to be
• $1 in home country becomes ~$3 at retail in US

Sales strategies

• VC has ten salespeople across the US
• Do work withs with distributors, but also on their own to not overwhelm distributor reps
• Partner with reps, sending recaps for follow-up

Sake - started in 2002

• He went to Japan to work in a brewery to study the process
• Had to make more accessible - standardized back label, 1st to put English names on front labels
• They use the same distribution network as wine
• Place importance on education; VP of Sake Monica Samuels is a great educator
• Now, 20% of the Japanese imported sake market
• Recommends drinking sake from a wine glass, at cellar temp, or warmed to order for hot sake
• Kome website is more focused on the style of sake (e.g., fruity/floral vs. round/rustic) vs. grade now
• 46 prefectures brew sake - lots of expression of place
• Gluten and sulfite-free

Wine importing trends - people drinking less, but better (Gen Z - less alcohol, and non-alc drinks, believes they will look at wine more as they age; value premium products that are authentic, smaller, good stewards of land)

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