Kimberly Johnson and the challenges of running a new, small regional winery during the pandemic — and when your daughter doesn’t drink wine
Kimberly Johnson and Denise Roles Matthews picked a terrific time to start Philosophy Winery. a small regional producer in Maryland — just before the beginning of the pandemic.
Which, oddly enough, wasn’t a problem. Their first wine, a 2019 rose, sold out.
“I have to say, we did very well,” says Johnson, Philosophy’s winemaker. “Everyone was home, they had nothing to do, but to buy on-line, whether it be wine or from Amazon. … We also hand delivered.”
So good news for Drink Local, despite the circumstances. In this podcast, we talked about the challenges facing small and regional producers these days — as well as what do when your daughter doesn’t like wine”
• It’s not enough to start a winery with good intentions. Johnson says she and Matthews treated the process like any other startup, complete with detailed business plan. Which, as she found out, is not necessarily a common practice.
• Local wine needs to make itself part of the local agriculture and food movements. The goal, says Johnson, is to convince consumers that wine is as local as eggs, cheese, and vegetables. This means using local grapes.
• One key to Philosophy’s success: Selling at festivals, farmer’s markets, and the like — just like other local food products. You have to give consumers a chance to taste different things, she says.
Click here to download or stream the podcast, which is about 13 minutes long and takes up about 8 megabytes. Quality is good — I’m kind of muted, but Johnson is loud and clear.