Clos LaChance had the opportunity to pour at the first annual Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Rosa on Friday. It was held at the very funky Flamingo Hotel and Resort, which I would totally go back to on vacation. Reminded me of a 1970’s hotel where our family would stay en route to another destination…but it ended up being the best part of the trip. The ground floor rooms opened up to the pool and the layout reminded me of those nights when my sister and I would run around, meet other random kids and play Hide and Seek or something like that. But I digress.

Our role in the conference was to pour one wine for the Live Blogging Tasting—i.e. 150 people (a mix of bloggers and sponsors, probably about half and half) sitting at 15 tables, getting 5 minutes with each winery plus 1 minute to write. It was very loud, a little chaotic, but fun in a way. I personally read about 5 or 6 wine blogs regularly, so it was interesting to meet some of those people face to face.

We had to pick only one wine to pour—so we brought out the 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. I walked and talked for 90 minutes while Sean from Benson Marketing Group (thanks!) handed out stuff and kept me flush with fresh bottles.

One of the things I have been reading about on various blogs and heard discussions about at this event was that old wine media is dead/dying and wine blogs are the way to capture eyeballs. I admit that I have been experimenting a bit with our media samples list—I added a few bloggers this past shipment, just to test the waters.

A few thoughts:

1.       We (and every other winery out there that has wine to sell) send our wines out to publications for scores. I keep my fingers crossed for a good score—and if I get one, I crow about it to anyone who will listen—we put it on the web site, we put it in the tasting room, we tell our distributors etc—in hopes of selling that particular wine and increasing the value of our brand. And a good score = Point of Sale marketing: a shelf talker (that little piece of paper that goes under the bottle in a retail store) or case card (usually a full sized document pasted behind a case stack). Retailers love nice looking POS—it helps sell the wine without much work on their part.  Anyways—to get to the point, I have yet to see a shelf talker with a bloggers score/quote on it. Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, Parker and Wine & Spirits still rule, along with Connoisseur’s Guide (puffs!) and some local pubs in various markets (the SF Chronicle, Chicago Trib etc).

 2.       James Laube of Spectator, Steve Heimoff at Wine Enthusiast, Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate…these guys also have their own blogs. So they are in a sense old media AND new media. Which just raises the volume of their voices louder then anyone else.

3.       The wine blogs that I read the most tend to focus more on issues in the wine industry—personal opinions on wine industry news and somewhat controversial subjects (drinking ages always seems to get people fired up). I also like the in depth discussions about wineries and people. Some blogs focus entirely on a tasting room experience, but digs down deep into it. I just don’t see blogs as the best place for wine ratings—yet. Hence my experimentation with the samples.

In any case, I think the conference was a good one. I was glad we got to participate and enjoyed meeting the bloggers. It will be very interesting to see how this new media translates in the future for this industry and ultimately the producers themselves.

A few of the reviews for our Cab from the bloggers I tasted:

1winedude
Wine Sleuth
Cheap Wine Rataings
Domaine547
Lenndevours
Good Grape, A Wine Manifesto
Vine Views
Wine Case

 

We held our Annual Investor's Dinner on Monday here at the winery. About 100 people attended, and a great time was had by all. Bill, Stephen, Cheryl and Paige spoke about  the overall "state of the winery," Harvest 2008, sales and marketing, and our growing private label business.

Le Papillon did the food. It was incredible, as usual. The pairings were spot on and the presentation was gorgeous.  We also debuted our new retail items....clothing and gift packs.

Click here for pictures of the event, the food, the people and the fun.

The menu, prepared by Scott Cooper of Le Papillon in San Jose. If you haven't been there, you must go. It is a wonderful dining experience.

Passed Appetizers:
Housemade Mortadella with Grain Mustard
Lobster Brandade w/ Browned Butter Vinaigrette
Trout with Dashi Cream in Fillo
Truffled Hamachi Tartare with Preserved Lemon
Lamb Terrine with Horseradish Sabayon 
 

First Course

House Smoked Sturgeon with Rasin-Almond Relish and Lemon Emulsion
Paired with 2005 Liebeler Vineyard Chardonnay

 

Second Course 

Roasted Breast of Mary’s Organic Chicken with “Coq au Vin” Jus & a Foie Gras Biscuit

Paired with 2005 Biagini Vineyard Pinot Noir

 

Third Course 

Duck Ballotine with Chestnuts

Paired with 2005 “Lila’s Cuvee” Special Selection Series Rhone Blend

 

Fourth Course
Braised Shortribs of American Kobe Beef with Parsnip Puree & Pressure Cooked Cocoa Nibs

Paired with 2005 Special Selection Series Meritage

 

Cheese Course 

Vermont Cheddar with Dried Apricot & Lavender

Paired with 2006 Estate Late Harvest Semillion “Nectar”

 

Dessert
Black Mission Figs with Chocolate & Zin Syrup

Paired with Estate Zinfandel Port

 

 

 

Had a great dinner earlier this week...it was at the winery and hosted by us for a group of media from Europe. CordeValle provided all the food. Here's the menu: Amuse: Marin Gold Brie with Huckleberry and Port sauce, paired with Amber's Cuvee Sparkling (new release coming soon!) Watsonville Artichoke Soup with Crisp Pancetta and Lemon Oil, paired with 07 Sauvignon Blanc Semolina Dusted Crab Cake with Fennel Celery Root Slaw, paired with 06 Santa Cruz Mountains Chard Prosciutto wrapped Angus Beef Short Ribs, Butternut Squash, Potato and Blue Cheese Gratin, Pomegranate Port Wine Jus, paired with our 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Spiced Warm Apple Dumpling, Mascarpone Cheese, Whiskey Carmel Sauce, paired with our 2006 Late Harvest "Nectar" Semillon

OND stands for October-November-December. It is our busiest season (usually about 40% of our business happens in the OND timeframe).

It is only the first day of October, and I can already feel the pressure of OND start to build. And in the midst of it all, harvest is in full swing and the grapes are steadily being brought in for processing.

A few snippets of things going on here at the winery:

-Paige is working with Dimitar and the bottling team to bottle and label up 9 different products, today. It takes about half an hour for EACH label change on the line. And this is if things go smoothly. She has also been on the phone with a client and label printer dealing with "issues."

-Kristin is dealing with a vineyard customer that is angry about not getting the fruit yields he was hoping for. No comment...just click here or here or here. 

-Melanie is working on closing a big corporate holiday gift program. Keep your fingers crossed.

-Cindy just ran Wine Club, so her phone hasn't stop ringing with people updating their credit cards, changing addresses, canceling (we hope not!).

-Colleen is dealing with our sales reps requests and trying to help them with computer issues. As well as developing the International channel for the brand. She's getting ready to go to India and Korea this year!

-Linda is plugging away at "retro-fitting" our accounting systems to be more streamlined.

-Cheryl is writing this blog entry, doing label approvals for the next vintages, running end of month and quarter reports, reviewing orders and depletions, filling out forms for potential National Account placements, writing sales materials, creating POS. And has her fingers in (or has at least heard about and expressed her sometimes wanted, sometimes unrequested opinion on) all of the above.

-Bill is playing golf with a customer today, left after the third hole to come back to the winery to help with the corporate presentation, then went back to playing. Should be on about 14-15 by now?  Tough work, but someone has got to do it (I need to learn to play golf).

-Not sure where Brenda is, but she's on email somewhere.

-Stephen and Ben are bring in grapes, grapes and more grapes. Stephen cut his hand pretty badly yesterday while giving a retailer a tour. He is doing one handed grape sorts today.

-Dominic is celebrating his Saturday today (since he works on the weekends).

I am sure there is a lot more, but I have got to get back to multi-tasking. Welcome to OND!