Tag Archives: pandemic wine

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Winecast 63: Chris Keel and the independent retailer during the pandemic

chris keel
Chris and Deedra Keel of Fort Worth’s Put a Cork in It

Chris Keel’s small wine shop in Fort Worth, Put a Cork in It, evolved and adapted over the past 18 months, offering a number of retail lessons

Chris Keel’s wine shop is tiny, and it isn’t in a typical retail location. Yet, somehow, his Put a Cork in It shop has thrived for more than 15 years and emerged from the pandemic battered but unbowed.

Chalk that up to Chris and wife Deedra, who have terrific wine sense, a great business knack, and know what their customers want. In this case, it’s a small but excellent inventory, priced properly, and absent of the fads and foolishness that propel the wine business.

“We had to shift from more people coming in to less people coming,” says Chris. “But we’re so small, we adapt quickly and chaos is normal.”

I’ve known Chris almost since the store opened; he let me do a couple of cheap wine book signings. So when Chris talks about wine retail, he’s worth listening to. He mentions several top-notch value wines in the podcast: Gonnet Le Reveur”Cotes du Rhone red; the Italian Banfi Col di Sasso red, and a 1-liter rose from Spain, called Arco.

We also discussed:

• Change in approach: The Keels went from three tastings a week to none — and haven’t had one in the past 18 months. Given that tastings drove purchases, they had to find a different way to drum up business. That meant special orders, something most retailers dislike, and then dislike some more. But that has paid off in increased customer loyalty.

• Delivery mattered: Chris never thought his shop would be able to offer delivery, but he was able to find a group of people to help. At its height, the store made as many as 15 deliveries every day. Which is impressive for an operation staffed by a husband and wife and one employee.

• Keeping focus: Put a Cork in It has always focused on less expensive wines,, and that didn’t change. Yes, it was harder to find quality wines costing less than $12 or less, what with the Trump tariff and the pandemic. But Chris added more Italian wines, and that helped bridge the gap.

Finally, we talked about bringing younger consumers to wine, since the store is near the TCU campus. Chris said tastings were especially successful, and he hopes to resume his outreach to 20-somethings once tastings resume.

Click here to download or stream the podcast, which is about 14 1/2 minutes long and takes up about 10 megabytes. Quality is very good.

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Winecast 62: Kimberly Johnson, Philosophy Winery

Kimberly Johnson
Kimberly Johnson: Local wine has to make itself part of local food and local agriculture

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.

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Winecast 61: Michael Wangbickler and what comes next for wine

michael wangbickler
Michael Wangbickler: Wine tourism looks like it’s back, but serious questions remain about wine demand.

Michael Wangbickler: The pandemic exposed a lot of a weaknesses in the wine business

Michael Wangbickler, who runs Napa’s Balzac Communications, is one of the most clear-eyed people in the wine business — no wishful thinking, no this is going to happen because we want it to, no rose-colored glasses. This is one reason why Balzac is one of the premier marketing companies in the wine business. So who else better to talk to about what comes next for wine in the post-pandemic, young people aren’t interested, and hard seltzer days we’re in?

I’ve known Mike for years; he was one of the people who made Drink Local Wine work when we changed the way the world thought about regional wine. And yes, I’m jealous of his beard. We talk about it, as well as the future of wine marketing and wine criticism, on Mike’s “Hit the Bottle” podcast — complete with production effects. It focuses on trends in the wine business, so our discussion is quite detailed for those of you so inclined. And, not surprisingly, I am critical of the Winestream Media.

In this podcast, we talked about the changes on the way for wine, good and bad. Plus, we learn I didn’t drink when I turned 18:

• The pandemic did spur innovation among many producers, who recognized they couldn’t sell wine the same way they had for years. For one thing, many have 21st century websites in the 21st century.

• Direct to consumer — buying directly from wineries — will continue to grow, and despite the legal difficulties. Mike thinks it’s one of the few ways smaller producers can replace the business they lost when restaurants shut down for a year. And he’s not optimistic about the return of the restaurant wine business.

• He also isn’t optimistic about big changes in three-tier, despite reforms made during the pandemic. Change will come gradually, depending on the political climate in each state. That has much to do with the biggest producers and the biggest wholesalers, who have the political clout to prevent wholesale changes.

• Don’t expect a wine boom coming out of the pandemic. People were drinking less before the pandemic, so why would they drink more now? Premiumization, though, will continue — younger consumers drinking more expensive wine as they drink less. They’re also going to drink so-called “healthy” wine — Mike thinks that’s a key trend.

Click here to download or stream the podcast, which is about 15 1/2 minutes long and takes up about 10 megabytes. Quality is excellent — have I finally figured out Zoom?

Whatever happened to the post-pandemic wine boom?

wine demand
This picture may be as close as we get to a post-pandemic wine boom.

It’s looking less and less likely, as the pandemic economy continues to do what it wants – and not what we want it to do

Remember all those predictions for a Roaring’20s wine boom as we came out the pandemic? It may be time to forget about them.

More and more economic indicators are pointing to a gradual overall recovery, and wine seems to be even more gradual than that. For instance:

• The highly-regarded IWSR consultancy says consumption of wine costing $15 and more won’t reach 2019 levels until 2022.

• Wine depletions – a more encompassing term than wine sales – turned negative in March and April vs. a year ago. This compares to spirits depletions, which have shown steady growth for the past 12 months.

• Supply chain problems continue to plague wine producers, and especially imported wines.

No less than Silicon Valley Bank’s Rob McMillan, perhaps the leading wine analyst in the country, says he may have been wrong about the wine boom.

“I might have missed on a prediction that I made,” he wrote earlier this month. “But I underestimated the impact of a single fact. … I ignored the fact that still wine sales have been plagued by declining growth rates since 2017. Even before the Pandemic, growth was effectively zero for the category.”

So where does that leave us? McMillan – who I respect tremendously – was not the only one to see what hasn’t been there. But why not? The U.S. economic situation is unlike anything we’ve seen in a century, and that’s even before taking the pandemic into account. There are near-record disparities of wealth, a gig economy that masks actual unemployment, and supply chain snafus that most of us have never seen in our lives. Buying a bone-in chicken breast in Dallas often requires visits to two or three stores.

So even smart people can make mistakes. But that’s because wine still hasn’t solved the problems that have plagued it since the end of the recession – it’s too expensive and too confusing compared to beer and spirits; it’s seen as something old white people drink, and hence not especially relevant; and the wine business still puts too much emphasis on the Baby Boomers instead of marketing to their children and grandchildren.

The good news? The blog’s unofficial wine analyst isn’t quite as pessimistic as that. He says, despite all the bad news, there are some positive trends in all this gloom. “Core“ wine drinkers – those of us who drink wine at least once a week – are still buying wine. The losses have come from “marginal” wine drinkers, who is everyone else.

So let’s hold on to that, and try to figure out a way to wean the marginal wine drinkers off their craft beer and Manhattans.

Photo: “National Drink Wine Day” by steevithak is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Pandemic or no, e-commerce wine is here to stay

eric schwartzman
“It’s all about ease of use. Consumers want to use as few clicks as possible.”

Eric Schwartzman: “The rule book was written in the 1930s, and it’s all out of date”

There’s e-commerce, and then there’s e-commerce in the wine business, and sometimes it seems like the two are completely different propositions.

Until now, says Eric Schwartzman, a digital marketing consultant and the author of “The Digital Pivot: Secrets of Online Marketing.” His take: The pandemic put the final kibosh on the three-tier system and its century-old restrictions that make it difficult when it’s not illegal to buy wine on-line. And, says Schwartzman, it’s just a matter of time until the walls come tumbling down.

“The rule book was written in the 1930s, and it’s all out of date,” says Schwartzman, who has seen first-hand the difficulties in selling wine over the Internet while consulting for a California winery during the pandemic. “It’s amazing that it hasn’t kept up with technology – and even for alcohol. If you can do that, everything gets easier.”

That’s one of the things that retailers found out during the pandemic, he says. Despite the handicaps they faced, whether legal restrictions or websites that weren’t designed for much more than browsing and showing Google maps, retailers found that e-commerce was more than just a bonus.

“I know I talked to retailers in many categories who saw what happened,” he says, “and who wished they knew more about digital, that they been to digital quicker.”

And wine e-commerce could bring retailers business they didn’t know existed. Says Schwartzman: “It’s all about ease of use. Consumers want to use as few clicks as possible. They don’t want to be hassled by popups or diversions. They don’t want a site that looks like it came from the dinosaurs. They truly do judge a website by its cover.”

As such, there is momentum today – from both retailers and consumers – to reform three-tier that may not have existed before. We’ve noted this before on the blog – and that someone from outside of wine has noticed the same thing speaks volumes.

Ask the WC 27: Pandemic wine sales, red Burgundy, wine competitions

pandemic wine
Binge drinking during the pandemic, baby!

This edition of Ask the WC: What’s the truth behind pandemic wine sales? Plus, looking for reasonably-priced red Burgundy and judging wine competitions

Because the customers always have questions, and the Wine Curmudgeon has answers in this irregular feature. You can Ask the Wine Curmudgeon a wine-related question by clicking here.

Hey, WC:
You keep insisting there hasn’t been been a spike in drinking during the pandemic, but I see stories all over the place that we’re drinking more at home than ever. What’s the truth?
Baffled

Dear Baffled:
There are a couple of things going on. First, alcohol sales in the U.S. are difficult to measure, since companies like Nielsen mostly only record sales at large retailers. So thousands and thousands of independents aren’t surveyed, and neither are most restaurants or wineries. So while supermarket wine sales did increase, no one knows about independents, and we do know that winery and restaurant sales tanked. The best guess comes from Silicon Valley Bank’s Rob McMillan, who says the gains and losses in the various channels evened out. That’s a difficult concept for most reporters to understand, and especially when the bosses frown on them doing actual reporting. So when they see a survey that says, “Supermarket wine sales up 40 percent,” they write that we’re all drunk. Second, many of the medical studies, including the one in your link, rely on the dreaded “Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test” — the one that defines wine with dinner as borderline alcoholism. Of course, given that definition, we’re binging ourselves to death.

•

Dear WC:
I have never had a bottle of red Burgundy, the French pinot noir, since I’m put off by the high prices. Is there an American pinot noir that is comparable to the French? Or a reasonably-priced French red Burgundy that is easy to find? I don’t mind spending a reasonable amount, but when it gets into the hundreds of dollars, I can’t do it.
Looking for value

Dear Value:
That’s one of the great dilemmas in wine today, made worse by the tariff. There’s really nothing like red Burgundy in California, though Patricia Green and Panther Creek in Oregon have wines in the mid-$20s that are close, but only close. Anything decent for red Burgundy is going to start at $40, and even then there’s no guarantee. This is one of those areas where you need a local independent who can help.
•

Dear Wine Curmudgeon:
I haven’t seen anything on the blog lately about you judging wine competitions. Used to like to read about all the wine you had to taste. What’s up with that?
Curious

Dear Curious:
I’m mostly retired from judging wine competitions. I had cut back before the pandemic; tired of the travel, for one thing, as well as tasting 300 wines in two days. That starts to wear on one after a couple of decades. I may still do some regional events, though I will wait until we’re mostly rid of the pandemic. And, honestly, so many competitions are dominated by Big Wine these days that I’m one of the last people that organizers want to judge that stuff since I don’t give out a lot of gold medals.

Welcome back, restaurants: Please let wine drinkers help you return to normal

pandemic wine
Want to fill those empty tables? Then meet wine drinkers halfway.

Five suggestions to increase restaurant wine revenue and make wine drinkers happy

Dear restaurant business:

I know we haven’t always been on the best of terms, given restaurant wine prices. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want restaurants to recover as we begin to come out of the pandemic. Because I do understand how bad the past year has been – in jobs and store closings, as well as $27 billion in lost sales.

And, despite our differences, we both understand that restaurants and wine are part of each other – when one suffers, we both do. So please, don’t exclude wine drinkers as the recovery begins. Let us help you:

• Don’t take us for granted, and assume we’ll be back just because. Because we may not be. Many of us discovered that home cooking isn’t as bad as we thought it was.

• Keep experimenting. Many operators tried something different during the pandemic, and much of it worked out quite well. Or, as one Texas restaurant official told me about cocktails to go: “How do we help to provide opportunities for restaurants, and especially since what looked like it was going to be a two-week crisis has turned into 10 months? This was a way to do that.” So why stop experimenting now?

• Meet us halfway on pricing. Why expect the old rules from the old normal to be relevant given all that has happened? So consider (where legal) offering wine bottle discounts. Or (again, where legal) buying two or three glasses to get the next one free. Or even cutting wine markups from 3- and 4-to-1 to 2- and 1½-to-1. As noted on the blog many times before, this can bring in thousands of dollars of revenue that would otherwise be left on the storeroom shelf.

• BYOB is an opportunity to regain customer loyalty and trust, and not – as some complain – lost revenue. What better way to win back those of us who enjoy drinking wine with dinner than to let us bring it to your restaurant? We would be happy to pay the corkage fee, and you’re getting two or three or four people at the table who might otherwise stay home.

• Shake up the wine list. Offer us something that we haven’t seen at the supermarket or Drizly or a chain retailer. This is an opportunity to replace the wholesaler-driven, Big Wine brands that you use because it’s easy, with wine that’s interesting and different. Which is how you think about your food, isn’t it?

As always, let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

Your pal,
The Wine Curmudgeon

Photo: “Restaurant tables” by TChapman9 is licensed under CC BY 2.0