Wine Marketing

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And We’re Off!

May 27, 2011 in Life of a Start-Up, Moving Along, Wine Marketing | No comments

Memorial Day Weekend Wine TastingAlmost. Tomorrow. Hood River. Pouring Wine. At the Old Garage. AND I’M SO EXCITED! I don’t know why, maybe it’s just this coming together of family, a sort of rally to get our wine out in public more– whether or not this weekend’s wine travelers will be our public has yet to be seen; who will dare to venture off the road (or at least turn their heads since we are on a well-known wine road) and pull into a place unmarked from any Memorial Day Weekend Wine Tasting map they may have, a locale to happen upon, and discover us there, a blond-haired little boy almost three out running about, Scott hunkered down because it’s supposed to be chilly, red-white-and-blue banners a-flappin in the stiff breeze we’re expecting, me making sure all the particulars of  our little “farm-stand” are ready for the throngs of adventurers…who will it be? We’ll find out! And THAT’s very exciting!

Here are the particulars —

We will be at the Old Garage, 135 Country Club Road, Hood River, 97031, Sat – Mon, 12-5.

Woohoooo!

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Pushing the Wine Envelope

May 2, 2011 in The Loss of the Unique, Wine Marketing, Wine World Homogeneity | No comments

…And Getting Pushed Back — our latest installment on TheDailyMeal.com.

It’s about how The Grande Dalles, vowing to do things differently than the me-toos out there, is not finding it easy; very few appreciate an individual wine, we’re finding.

Here’s how it beings:

“When we began to even think about getting into the wine industry, we knew one thing: We didn’t want to be like anyone else.

What was the point, we asked ourselves? Does a painter set out to be like Chagall, or a musician like Hendricks? No! And so we set out to make a singular wine based on Scott’s vision — one that had been solidified in a pre-global palate France, and growing in him for 20-plus years. It would use grapes from the vineyard we farmed, the land painstakingly chosen for the wine we envisioned. No way were we going to emulate another country or person’s style. We only wanted to reinstate what we found sorely on the wane in the industry: Wines that dare to be different because of where and who they come from. We were going to push the envelope. Little did we know how hard the industry would push back.”

Anyhoo — the whole story is available for your enjoyment on The Daily Meal here. If you like it, please do rate it with the stars next to the column, so we can keep writing for this fine online community.

Many thanks –

stephanie

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Diary of a Start-Up Vineyard and Winemaker

April 4, 2011 in Life of a Start-Up, Our Wine, The Nuts and Bolts of It, Wine Marketing | No comments

Our first installment is up on TheDailyMeal.Com, Diary of a Start-up Winemaker. Look for our bi-monthly stories, straight out of the wilds of the wine world delivered to the safety of your home/desk/wherever, so you can live the life without the stress and dirt!

Thank you MC, and The Daily Meal!

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James Beard Event, What a Feeling

March 10, 2011 in Moving Along, Our Wine, Wine Marketing | No comments

With some days now between our return from the Empire State (my home state) and our James Beard Foundation “Columbia Valley Terroir” event, we’ve had a chance to actually think about how good it all was — the weather — not too cold, not too warm; our hotel, the Affinia Shelburne in Murray Hill fresh and comfortable; the Flower District and our hunt for table decorations a good jaunt and fun peek into the day-to-day of that busy city; Sarge’s Deli on 3rd Ave now Scott’s #2 for best sandwich ever (the first is a sandwich shop in Brooklyn, near Flatbush Ave, I believe) ; fresh bagels with whitefish spread for breakfast; an outing to Central Park and to the American Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur bones recently discovered by Sam in a Curious George book; but most importantly, our James Beard Event. Up until we showed up that evening, we wondered, “How would people like our wines and their food pairings?” We found out: They LOVED them!
The two things that we heard the most, specifically about our wines were:

1.  “I never liked Riesling until now.”
We’ve heard this many times before. Seems like people we’ve run into have an aversion to the sweet sweet, because with no residual sugar, Leroy’s Finest is far from it. Still fruity, but bone dry.

2. “We can’t believe wine like this is already coming from a young vineyard.”
People were amazed at the how such interesting/complex wines (THEIR words) could come from a first harvest/vintage. Most memorable was when Scott spoke to one avid drinker/collector of First/Premier Growth Bordeaux/Burgundy at length, and after dinner he came up to us, looked Scott in the eye, and with some astonishment told him he couldn’t believe this wine was just our first vintage, adding that our future potential was tremendous. He said it two or three times.

All in all, a great evening, a refreshing weekend, even if it was mostly business.

I posted some pictures on facebook (don’t need to be member for this link) on The Grande Dalles page (need to be member for this link), if you’re interested –I didn’t get too many, since Scott and I were “working the room.”

Thank you everyone who attended — it was a great evening. We love New York!

 

 

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Success

February 12, 2011 in Moving Along, Our Wine, Wine Marketing | No comments

At least that’s what we’d like to think it was, The Grande Dalles’ Inaugural Release Party at the James John Cafe. People came, people stayed, no-one tasted our wines and then nervously hustled out, and no-one was spitting, except Scott, who had been “tasting” all afternoon/eve.

First on our tasting list was Leroy’s Finest, our riesling; which many people first declined, imagining it to be sweet, until we told them it was bone-dry. And weren’t they pleasantly surprised by it! Many imagined how Leroy’s Finest would do with oysters and seafood (excellent, of course -just ask David Rosengarten!). Moving along to our reds, there were camps that preferred one over the other, but we expected that. Both have their own qualities and flavours, Home Place maybe more robust, Gampo not so much, but critic/journalist feedback reinforced the wines’ integrity: structured, well-made, fine wines. And with the food that evening: roasted pig and some good home fixins to go with it, everyone seemed to be rather happy.

A big THANK YOU goes out to Joe and Lana: Joe was our pourer, and Lana, his wife, got rounded up for the “Welcome” table. And of course a big THANK YOU to everyone else, for making the event a lively time, and for all the kind words and sales (!). Your support is absolutely priceless.

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Our Inaugural Release Party, Today from 4-7

February 7, 2011 in The Word Spreads, Wine Marketing | No comments

At the James John Cafe, 8527 North Lombard Street Portland, OR 97203 – (503) 285-4930. If you’d like to swing by, please do — tell us at the door who you are and la voila. Or if you can’t make it, at least sign up for The Grande Dalles news and updates, so you’ll have more than a few hours’ heads up; we sent out this invite to that crowd weeks ago. Either way, tonight or another time, we’d love to see you.

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How We Got to the James Beard House

February 2, 2011 in Moving Along, The Word Spreads, Wine Marketing | No comments

Ok, granted we’re not there yet, we have yet to get on the airplane and have our Columbia Valley Terroir event, but we are officially on their March 2011 lineup, and that’s pretty darn good. How did we do it, you ask? With only our  inaugural wines, and even more so as an unknown from a state that only really touts its pinot noir? BECAUSE WE’RE ON TO SOMETHING. And the James Beard Foundation recognized that when we visited them last Spring and invited us to pour at a dinner.

So, we went out and found suitable partners who share the same ideals–it’s not about the show, but what gets shown in the wines, or in their case, the food–and will create the dishes to highlight our wines, and our wines their dishes. It was rather serendipitous, I only asking if our neighborhood’s James John Cafe rented out their space, so captivated was I by its high, tin ceilings and quirky decor, out here where we live in what feels like the outpost of St. Johns in North Portland, Oregon. But after talking to them during our wine tasting, I stepped out and asked if they might be interested in joining us at The James Beard House. And there you go. Of course their training and expertise helped with selling them in to the James Beard House, these two gems of chefs, Suzanne Bozarth and Aaron Solley; each has worked directly with James Beard Foundation Award Winning Chefs.

I know it’s a slow process, getting The Grande Dalles’ wine out and about. And its difficulty becomes compounded by all the surprising number of people who don’t value the new and different, so god bless New York. If you, dear reader, happen to know of any individuals who don’t follow the herd, send them our way, please. Or at least to The James Beard House in New York on March 3.

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Keeping it Real

January 14, 2011 in Wine Marketing | No comments

We’ve been trying to round up a photo for use for our March James Beard debut, so they can market the event (I’ll fill you in on the JBF event in a future post). Here’s the dilemma: we don’t have any “glamour” shots where we’re toting a glass, or sniffing one (perhaps empty, like Gianfranco, or full like everyone else); or throwing our heads back in mirth having a Hollywood moment; or  standing in a silk wrap, I think it was, in front of a vineyard like we saw Helen Turley doing on one Wine Spectator cover; or like countless others holding a glass in front of a barrel, these images so expected like photos with Santa at Christmas where the set all looks the same. No superbly dirty hand shot; no child feigning sleep on our shoulders; no borrowed hilltop that we try to pass off as our own; no picture of Tuscany that we want you to think is just like our place. None of that. Odd, don’t you think? I mean, we ARE in the wine business.  But we’re also in the business of keeping it real. And just like we don’t doctor the grapes from our vineyard, we don’t like to doctor our lives, even for marketing. Yes, we need some “pretty” shots of the “real” that make up what we do, and I’ve been meaning to have Kim Miller come out to the vineyard and snap our goings on out there (the wine bottles below are Kim’s work). But until then, what we have is what we have: mainly photos I’ve taken, so really there are none of me; and they’re not glamourous. They’re real.

Wine bottles by K Miller Photographs

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2010 Top Ten

January 4, 2011 in Moving Along, The Nuts and Bolts of It, Wine Marketing | 1 comment

How golden the sun on December’s last day,
Not rainy like last year’s —now faraway.
A brisk winter’s afternoon light fills the sky
And the colored bulbs wait for the moment when night
Descends all around us, a new year’s fresh start
As we all celebrate in the bright of this dark.

Happy New Year, One and All – Stephanie, Scott, Samuel, and Jack

*******

2010 Top Ten Highlights (in no particular order)

  1. Sold some wine!
  2. The Grande Dalles’ wine and story are getting out.
  3. David Rosengarten told us he found Leroy’s Finest the best American Riesling he’s ever tasted.
  4. Proper sleeping arrangements are now in order.
  5. Sea turtles.
  6. We got an up close look inside The Machine.
  7. Thankfully, our grapes ripened just right.
  8. Our third harvest, and Sam turned two!
  9. Samuel started asking for his own glass of wine at dinner.
  10. Little House on the Hill Project takes a shape.

Read the rest of this entry »

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A Stacked Deck, by Scott

December 16, 2010 in Scott Speaks, Wine Marketing | 6 comments

For the most part, really all parts, I know industry rules want me to bow before the machine that it is, but I don’t really care about what a critic or journalist has to say about our wines. But as one very prominent journalist told me “you gotta get in the game.” Ok fine, so we hemmed and hawed for months on which wine publication(s) best suited us and which ones we had the best odds of getting real consideration; the top publications like Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, Wine Enthusiast, don’t guarantee they’ll even taste your wine, and small producers not nationally distributed are even more unlikely to be considered. However, Wine & Spirits looked fair and reasonable to us—they guarantee that all submitted wines are tasted, and not just by one palate, but first by a pre-screening panel of industry professionals (journalists, sommeliers, winemakers, etc.), and then generally a majority fraction of those wines are sent on to the critic for rating (100 pt scale). All rated wines make it into the print and online edition for the reader.

We submitted our wines to be considered for the December issue of Wine & Spirits because they called for “All New Release” wines. But as it turns out for Oregon, they only rated and published pinot noir and pinot gris wines. Why is that? From reliable, second-hand information, I’ve found out that because so many Oregon pinot noir/gris wines were submitted they decided only to consider those varieties. Now, we all know that Oregon is famous for pinot noir and I guess pinot gris is the next big thing, but there are plenty of other grape/wine varieties made south and east of pinot noir country that deserve fair consideration.

So in the end I agree, it IS a game, and it’s fixed.

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