Monthly Archive for March, 2010

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Santa Maria Valley AVA Expanding?

Published on March 19, 2010 in Other News. 0 Comments

Interesting article about the possible expansion of the Santa Maria Valley AVA.  Santa Maria Valley is one of four AVA’s in Santa Barbara County, the other of which are Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Ynez Valley, and the most recent, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara.

Santa Maria, Calif. — After the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) rejected a 2006 petition to expand the Santa Maria Valley AVA (American Viticulture Area), members of Santa Maria Valley Wine Country rallied their resources and redrew their proposal. This time, the TTB deemed the proposal “merits consideration and public comment,” and posted it on the bureau’s website March 8.

The proposal would add some 18,700 acres in Santa Barbara County to the 97,483-acre Santa Maria Valley AVA, which spans parts of southern San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties. (Click here to see a map.) The added acreage currently includes nine vineyards with just 255 acres of commercial vineyards, and another 60 to 200 acres under viticultural development, according to the petition. Santa Maria Valley AVA is the oldest in Santa Barbara County, established in 1981, and drawn up then with more concern for highways and roads than geological or climatic distinctions, according to Jim Fiolek, executive director of Santa Barbara County Vintners.

Why here, why now?
Fiolek told Wines & Vines that the current AVA boundaries bisect some vineyards, and that the redrawn borders make more sense from a viticultural viewpoint. “These lines are drawn with regard for natural drainage, wind, soil, and will make the AVA more uniform for climatic and geologic reasons,” he pointed out. Several grapegrowers and vintners have properties on both sides of the current line, creating obvious difficulties in labeling…

Click Here for the rest of the article.

Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards

Central Coast Wine Symposium

Published on March 17, 2010 in Joanie Hudson. 0 Comments

Tomorrow, March 18, I am attending a Central Coast Wine Symposium in San Luis Obispo.

The Central Coast Insights Program
Priorities for the New Decade: The Importance of the Central Coast to the California Wine Industry
Program* Thursday, March 18, 2010  (8am-5pm)

WINE INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
THE BUSINESS OF CHANGE
WINEGROWERS WHO BECOME WINEMAKERS: IS IT WORKING?
NETWORKING BREAK
RECESSIONARY TIMES AND THE LENDING MARKETS
NETWORKING LUNCHEON
SOCIAL MEDIA MEETS THE BOTTOM LINE: DOES SOCIAL MEDIA EQUAL REAL SALES?
CENTRAL COAST WINE SALES AND RECENT CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
TRENDS IN GRAPE/BULK WINE PRICING: THE RELATIONSHIP TO CONSUMER DEMAND AND ITS EFFECT ON THE CENTRAL COAST
 

Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards

View of Vineyard 03.16.10 and Watercolor Artist Jan French’s interpretation for our Santa Barbara Winery Label

Published on March 16, 2010 in Wine News. 1 Comment

(Click images to enlarge)

The Bottling Season

Published on March 16, 2010 in Wine News. 0 Comments

Today was the first day of bottling season. About 6 months, not of constant bottling, but 6 months of readying the wine, stabilizing it, filtering it when necessary and bottling. Not very glamorous but as the winemaker says, ‘we need to make room for the 2010 vintage’.

The reality is that this process is very important and the winemaker’s total ability and experience come into play. Winemaker Bruce McGuire has been doing this for 28 years and he has an intuitive feel when the wine is ready or when it needs more time.

The images are of the first day of bottling.  The first wine bottled was the 2009 Riesling made entirely from our Lafond Vineyard vines, sightly over 1000 cases. The wine will not be released for at least 6 months – time needed to recover from bottle shock. The wait is worth it the wine is one of the best Rieslings we have made coming in large part from our new Riesling block in the vineyard.
(Click images to enlarge)

The Henry Wine Group CA Trade Tastings

Published on March 15, 2010 in Joanie Hudson, Lafond Winery, Other News and Santa Barbara Winery. 0 Comments

Next week I will be traveling throughout California attending The Henry Wine Group Trade Tastings.  Our wine is distributed in California by The Henry Wine Group, and these tastings provide the opportunity to visit and engage three different markets: San Francisco (March 22), San Diego (March 24), and Los Angeles (March 25). 

These tastings are organized for members of the trade (hotels, restaurants, wine bars, etc.).  If you are in the trade and interested in attending, please contact me at winesales@sbwinery.com for registration inquiries.  The tastings will run from 11am-5pm.

Taste the World of The Henry Wine Group
March 22 2010   Four Seasons Hotel, 757 Market St. San Francisco
March 24 2010   Hilton La Jolla, 10950 North Tory Pines Rd., La Jolla
March 25 2010   Beverly Hills Hotel, Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills

Winemaker Bruce McGuire will be helping me pour at the Beverly Hills tasting.
 
Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards

Bottling Week

Published on March 15, 2010 in Bottling. 0 Comments

Tomorrow we begin bottling of a selection of 2008 and 2009 wines.  Across the street, where our bottling line is, I hear the clanking of glass being run through the machine as Bruce is doing some test runs today and getting everything ready to go for tomorrow.  We have our own bottling line built into our warehouse at the Santa Barbara Winery Production Facility.

The wines we are bottling tomorrow will have our new colored vineyard image, replacing the black and white image, but retaining the same graphics.
Wines to be bottled over the next couple of weeks:

2009 Pinot Gris Thompson Vineyard
2009 Orange Muscat
2008 Sangiovese Stolpman Vineyard
2008 Petite Sirah
2008 Lagrein Joughin Vineyard
2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Grassini Vineyard
2009 Sauvignon Blanc Stainless Steel La Presa Vineyard
2009 Dry Riesling Lafond Vineyard
2009 Rose of Syrah
2009 Riesling Lafond Vineyard
2009 ZCS
2008 Syrah

Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards

Pinot Noir bud 3/12/10 (click image to enlarge)

Published on March 12, 2010 in Wine News. 0 Comments

Social Media & Marketing: Personal or Impersonal?

Published on March 12, 2010 in Joanie Hudson. 1 Comment

I find myself thinking a lot lately about the whole concept of social media (which has become a staple in modern day marketing).  As companies build up their reputations in the virtual world, branding is more important than ever.  But what I am drawn to is the way that personalities become more and more what are being built up as brands, in the process promoting whatever company or larger umbrella that they write about or for.  At a time when there is much fuss about the impersonalization of the virtual world, I find that in some ways it is quite the opposite (speaking on a larger scale than communicating with the people that you see and interact with on a regular basis, Facebook anyone?).  I would argue that social media has the effect of bringing people closer together, instead of further apart, and with this in mind also make a case of the importance of strong virtual personalities at any given company to build an audience for the brand through the branding of individuals (ah the beauty of blogging, where run on sentences are OK).

One of the most important lessons that I have learned over the past year when it comes to marketing is the importance of communicating anything and everything to your consumers.  If the consumer or distributor chain is not presented with information about accolades, press, etc., you may as well not even bother going through the trouble of trying to get the press in the first place.  Social media has become a convenient and quick outlet for companies to communicate this sort of information.  Yet in order to have it be effective, the company has to have an audience, and in order to garner an audience, there needs to be a couple of personalities that people are willing to spend their time following (there are only so many blog / news sites we can visit everyday!).

Examples of industry personalities in wine are plentiful.  Think of the handful of reviewers that are considered to be the most influential on a national and international level:  we have Parker, Laube, Heimoff, Tanzer.  These personalities have followers, an audience, and what they say matters and translates to both the establishment and legitimization of a brand / winery.  It works in reverse as well.  There are certain faces that consumers associate with certain wineries, whether it be the owner, winemaker, or members of the marketing and sales team.  Having a face / personality to a brand helps to bridge the gap between virtual anonymity, and building bridges between companies and a broader national audience.  Text becomes something more than just words on the page, it becomes the means through which the consumer is able to relate on a more personal level with the brand.

I started thinking about this after reading my daily dose of Steve Heimoff’s blog (of Wine Enthusiast Magazine).  His recent blog on ‘What I Tell Winemakers’ made me think about how important it is, at least for me personally, to be able to relate on a personal level to a company that I support regularly.  Sure I impulsively buy bottles of wine here or there, but I could put together a list of wineries with which I am a regular consumer – whether that be buying new releases, attending wine dinners or tastings that they pour at, or purchasing their wine by the glass as a “comfort” when I see it on a restaurant list.  This special list of wineries to me has developed over more than just the quality of the wine – it comes from little things like remembering back in the day when I wasn’t into wine seeing the bottles arrive at my house because my Dad was in the wine club for years, or having a really fantastic tasting at the winery, and / or just really respecting what the winery stands for.

Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards

Pest Contol in the Vineyard

Published on March 11, 2010 in Wine News. 0 Comments

Animal control, protecting the vines, is an ongoing struggle. Deer, especially in dry years, when they come down from higher elevations looking for water can be a serious problem and a 7 foot  fence is the only solution.

It is very costly and we use it only where we know there is recognizable deer traffic. Deer can damage the vines by eating the green growth tips during the summer and at harvest the grapes themselves.

Wild boars are also a problem at harvest, they can go through rows of vines and clean them so thoroughly that you think they have been picked. Fences are not of much use since they can burrow under. We a have built a large steel cage to trap them but with little success so far.

In the Spring it is gophers and here is an Email that David Lafond sent me:

As Part of our sustainable farming practices particularly this time of year .. we use trapping to control of our gopher population. The gophers now are mostly on the outside of our vine rows where we did not till at the end of last season. it is important to trap them before they reach critical mass and move to the interior..We employ two men twice a day, morning and afternoon when the gophers are most active..they maintain about 200 traps..This is a constant effort. So far our best score has been 144 in a 48 hour period..The trapped gophers are left for other predators and scavengers coyotes, hawks, owls, buzzards, etc..as a food source .

This is really the most humane way to control the gopher population. We have never used poison or any of the other exotic methods sometimes recommended. There is nothing sadder than to see a mature vine killed by these subterranean villains. In the picture below the flags mark the trap locations. Click image to enlarge.