An interview with B Wise Vineyards, a 100-acre wine estate located in Sonoma, CA. Read on to see what Colin Heinrich, Director of Marketing Sales and Production, has to say about using social media and what it takes to succeed as a small vineyard and winery.
Tell me a little bit about yourself – when were you founded? What’s your story?
We planted our vines on Sonoma’s Red Mountain (Monte Rosso) in 2001-2002. We’ve been making wine since 2001, at the start we were buying grapes locally to start our brands, since the 2005 all of our Sonoma wines are Estate grown. We make a small production Napa Cabernet from purchased grapes.
Our story in brief is we are wine lovers who have the vision to make wine without compromise. Our low-yield hillside vineyards are hand tended and hand harvested, we pay extreme attention to detail in every step of the winegrowing/making process.
What wine varietals do you produce? Have they been well received by customers so far, or have you really had to get your wines noticed?
We produce bigger red wines based on Cabernet and Syrah grapes. Our focus is an Estate grown Red blend and a Napa Cabernet. Our wines are very well received by the drinking public. It is difficult to get noticed by the media and in the larger wine world despite more aggressive marketing efforts on our part.
Are you carried by a distributor, or are your sales direct-to-consumer?
Our main sales focus is DTC, but we do distribute wine via wholesalers including in NY. We sell wine in 6 states right now and we are attempting to grow into a few more states.
With the economy the way it’s been over the last couple of years, what are some major issues you’ve had to contend with?
With the recession over the last 1.5-2 years the main hurtle is price point. People are still drinking wine but mostly wine under $20 off the shelf. Our wines retail for $28-$70. The other main hurdle in wholesale distribution is competing against the large wine companies with huge marketing budgets/staff, peripheral materials/promotion ability and strong arm sales demands
How is this different from when you got started? Has the game changed? If so, how?
The game had changed since we started in that at one time good fine-wine distributors would seek out wines such as ours, now those same distributors are struggling with suppliers they have and also competing against the big wine wholesalers who have the ability to deeply discount and leverage the wine market. That leaves no room for a small growing winery to enter the game. The wholesale channels are all but dried up for the small winery with a few exceptions.
Your winery has a strong belief in the importance of making connections with people via wine. What are your main avenues for doing that?
Our main avenues for connecting with folks is via tastings/events/promotions and via the web.
When did you start using social media? Which tools do you use the most, or find most useful?
We started using social media about a year ago, mainly we use facebook and twitter.
Using social media is just one tool in the tool-box for communication/connecting/marketing, but it is an essential tool. As Gary V says “the best communicator wins” . It isn’t about the number of fans/followers you have but about the quality of those people and the relationships. Social media is newer to the wine world which in general is slow to adopt. We consider it one essential to our communications strategy.
How important is it in your marketing/branding strategy?
The DTC market is the main focus (or should be) for a small winery like ours. With wholesale channels dried up, the DTC is the lifeline for sales. Social media plays one part in that.
Do you have a specific person, such as a social media manager, who manages most of this, or do you have multiple people doing it?
As a small winery we don’t have an exclusive designated social media person, I manage all our social media activity as part of my role in marketing and sales.
You recently announced the start of a new wine club. How do you expect that will help B Wise Vineyards in engaging with customers?
Our wine club is one way we can offer our wines directly to people and also offer tons of benefits. Making real lasting connections via sharing wine is one of our goals. Knowing the people and the place where the wine you are drinking comes from enriches the drinking experience tremendously. Our goal is to foster that connection. Selling our your wine via a wine club is the holy grail for small wineries today.
We value and work hard with our wholesalers, but it is a difficult market and will only continue to become more difficult as wine corporations strangle the market and thereby make less interesting choice for the consumer when they go down to their local wine shop or restaurant.
For other small wineries, what advice can you give for building a successful brand and making connections?
My advice for small wineries is first care about your customers and your relationships, second communicate honestly and regularly with people who support you, have substance and integrity, work hard on building your connections. This of course comes after making great wine. These days there is so much good wine in the market you can’t afford to have a second rate product and having a first rate product only gets you on the playing field, then you need to hustle to score goals.
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