First there are the regional associations. We are members of the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association and the Wineries of the Santa Clara Valley. These organizations are important to us for two main reasons.

1. They are primarily focused on getting attention and recognition for their particular region—and therefore attract visitors and buyers to the winery.  Sell, sell sell!

2. It is a great way to get to know your fellow local winemakers. One thing that I have found to be really cool in the wine industry is that people are very interested in talking about how they made something. People discuss the grapes they used, the barrels, the fermentation methods, the ageing techniques. They also share stories about accounts and distributors (good and bad) and even certain customers that are “memorable.”  There are very few secrets in this part of the world—and the a-hole to non-a-hole ratio is pretty good. I would say 2/100. Most people are in this industry because they love it and are passionate. They want to be here vs. HAVE to be here.

We used to be members ofMonterey County Vintners Association when we had a tasting room in Cannery Row, but have since dropped out since the tasting room closed.  But every winemaking region has a Regional Association. The Napa Valley Vintners Association, Livermore, Sonoma, Oregon, Long Island etc. I would venture to say that if there are wineries in an area, there is bound to be an association close by.

Then you have the California winery associations. The Wine Institute and Family Winemakers are the two we are really active with. Both of these are very important in terms of lobbying in Washington on behalf of wineries. They also offer marketing opportunities in the form of tastings, International support and compliance advice. There’s also Free the Grapes, which has been instrumental in opening up the direct shipping channel for wineries all over the country—therefore increasing sales and customers overall.

Then there are the consumer organizations. These are often broken down by varietal or category of wine: Zinfandel Advocates and Producers and Rhône Rangers are two that we are involved in. But there are so many more: PS I Love You (Petite Sirah), RAP (Rosé), Sweet and Fortified Wine Association, Cal Italia, Women for Wine Sense to name a few.

So how does one breakthrough all the noise and decide what to be involved with? Honestly, it’s hard. We want to reach as many customers as possible….and each group caters to a different audience. However, it costs money to join these organizations—and time to attend the meetings, pour at the tastings and maybe do some actually work if you get involved on a board or a committee.  

Sometimes it’s really overwhelming.  And we have discovered that it is not really worth being a member of an organization unless we can dedicate the time to be involved. So being the good delegator that I am, I dole these organizations up amongst everyone here. My dad is really involved in the Wine Institute, I do the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers and Free the Grapes stuff, Dominic is part of the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley and Melanie is involved with ZAP. It’s good networking for all of us and keeps any one person from becoming overwhelmed. We still have a few more we need to get moving on. There are a few other groups that we are members of—but don’t actively participate in.

I wonder if at the big wineries there is an actual position of “Winery Associate Liaison” or something of the sort. Wouldn’t it make sense to have one person leveraging every possible opportunity?  And what a good job to have! Go to tastings and promote the winery, go to meetings and meet wineries (and drink wine…cause at every meeting, it is pretty much mandatory to bring a bottle to share). But not as good as the 10K per month to twitter about wine for Murphy-Goode.

There are so many types of wine related groups that I haven’t even mentioned here….grape growing, winemaking, wholesalers, retailers, restaurants etc. It’s incredible. But the power of 100 voices vs. 1 is much more impactful….it’s just a matter of figuring out which ones work for our business.