The Wineing Woman » Blog Archive » Who Cares About Local Wine?

Who Cares About Local Wine?

July 29th, 2010

Last week I had the opportunity to get lunch with two coworkers and discuss the topic of local wine, which is something I’m becoming more and more interested in. We went to a local favorite to eat. They source all of their ingredients from New England and even include a map on their menu of where their sources are located throughout the region. Their food is always great and the staff knows us well. However, there’s one thing missing. The local wine. All of the beers on their menu are local but not a single wine is local and while I’m specifically pointing them out, I don’t think they’re the exception. There are oodles of places (it seems) that are advertising local ingredients but serving little to no local wine.

Westport Rivers is a MA winery that I visited last month.

I was glad to get some input from my coworkers on this because we all have experience in different areas of the wine industry. Tomas has worked on the restaurant side and James has tons of experience in retail. I’ve been working on learning more from the wineries themselves and it was all very interesting seeing the different viewpoints.

Restaurants and retailers don’t want wines on their menu or in the store if they aren’t sure that they’ll be able to sell them. I understand that from a business viewpoint and it makes complete sense. Wineries, then, either have a hard time getting distribution or have to do all of the work themselves, which is extremely time consuming. Then, there’s the consumer. Do they want to buy local wine? Do they know what it’s like? Do they even know it exists?

Time and time again, it seems like we’re proven that the average wine consumer sticks with what they know. The hard part that I haven’t figured out yet is how to get other people in our area to really believe that there’s good stuff to be found locally (both in MA and throughout the country). The best idea that I can come up with is that we need to have tastings and pour wines for these people. I can (and will) write about the wineries that I’m visiting and talking to but how much of an effect does that really have on everyone else in the region? I’m not sure.

I think the key to getting more local wine into retail stores and restaurants is for consumers to demand it. Now, off to try and create a demand. I wonder how hard that’ll be.

Filed under: Uncategorized Comments (16)

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Kristin

Hi Amanda,

You are exactly right. For most retailers, there is not much allure in selling local wines because many are not easily accessible through distributors. It takes a lot of legwork to get a robust local section. More importantly, the retail cost for most local wines are from $12-$22, making it a harder sell to those who have lower price point preference as well as those creatures of habit who believe they will most definitely get a better non-local wine within that price.

Tastings have been the best avenue to opening people's eyes to the great possibilities within local wines. They are surely not poor quality or made with Concord grapes. It has been great to have local winemakers such as Marco Montez from Travessia (I know you know his well) and Kip Kumler from Turtle Creek Winery come to my store and meet with customers. Their knowledge and talent has really sold the wines.

Although it may take a little more effort on the parts of retailers and restaurants, promoting local wines and their talented makers should be our obligation. This is something that I am surely passionate about and hope with time others will be too.

Cheers Amanda!

Kristin Braga
Owner
The Reserve Bin

http://www.thewineingwoman.com/ Amanda Maynard

Thanks for the comment, Kristin. I think we're on exactly the same page here. I think there have to be pioneers, especially in this region, who are tirelessly promoting the region and the wines that are here. I'm willing to sign on board and do whatever I can (the first step being visiting and writing about these wineries) but it's going to be a long haul. I love that retailers like you and joining in the fight, though. It's crucial.

Thank you for all that you're doing.

Denise

I've noticed that more restaurants in the Virginia Beach, Norfolk (Hampton Roads) area are serving a few more VA wines, which I am thoroughly grateful. It's about time that Virginians are able to taste their own, not to say I don't like and enjoy other wines, but why not? I never knew so many VA wineries existed!

http://www.thewineingwoman.com/ Amanda Maynard

I'm very glad to hear that! I think it's important to try wines from everywhere, but sometimes people don't even know the wines that are made in their backyard and that's a shame. There are some serious wines being made all over the country and it'd be pretty cool if we all were able to access them a bit better.

I can't wait to visit VA for WBC next year.

Marco Montez

Amanda,

So much could be said on this topic, but I think that the most important aspect is that local wineries need to consistently produce quality wines at competitive price points. Until that happens, retailers and consumers in general will have no “faith” in local wines. Note that I say “wineries”… one or two wineries is not enough. We need every single local winery to be doing this. Then, wines need to be available in enough quantities to fulfill demand if restaurants are to place them on wine lists. Finally, wineries need to work harder than the retailers themselves on promoting their wines to consumers.

Thanks for the great work you are doing in promoting our local wines…

http://www.thewineingwoman.com/ Amanda Maynard

I think you're right about the community that needs to exist in a wine region. I saw that when I went to the Finger Lakes and it was impressive to see so much support between wineries. The Coastal Wine Trail is what could be the beginning of that. It does need to grow and strengthen before it's really a big player in how the wines are seen, but it's absolutely a step in the right direction.

I'm throwing a little intro to wine tasting at my house next month for a few friends who are Bruins fans and I'm going to taste them through six wines, two of which will be local. It's a very small operation, but I think it's the best way to get people interested. Get them to taste. Then, they will believe the quality.

And thank you for being a mentor whenever I have questions. I'm only just getting started

http://twitter.com/IsaaksofSalem Isaaks of Salem LLC

I wanted to chime in here, after only just now getting a link to this post. Local wineries are trying, but as Marco from Travessia says below, we need to try 2x as hard as the next gal. You can't be happy with one placement, you need to fight for every single placement, and constantly communicate to the customer why New England wine matters, and why it should matter to them that they drink it!

It isn't good enough to make good wine (although it certainly helps!) you need to promote and get the message out to people. Then if it ever catches on, you need to have enough inventory to not loose momentum (again I reference Marco's point below). The restaurant will take a chance on you, as long as you are doing your part in the deal. Running out of a wine that is selling at any retail store, restaurant or bar will not win you any accolades.

The last point is that 'we' (the local wineries) need to not see each other as competition to one another, but focus the message on California as contrast to our products, and the wines of the rest of the world. Pointing out that they are not from New England, and therefore can not represent our sense of 'place'.

http://www.thewineingwoman.com/ Amanda Maynard

I totally agree with what you wrote and the distribution issue isn't only the issue of New England. Even much larger regions have issues with distribution (New York being the one that jumps out at me). Hopefully when we all work together (that's essential), we can get more recognition and more respect from the people within and outside of out region.

As for the sense of place that you're talking about, that's a whole other issue and another blog post for another day. But suffice to say, there are still wineries here making wines that don't really represent New England because the raw materials aren't from here and that can make it confusing if you're not upfront about it with your consumer audience. I'll leave it there for now

RichardPF

This is a popular topic lately and has been highlighted on a number of blogs and online venues. Bloggers and others can do their part in promoting local wines by questioning local restaurants and wine stores. Ask them why they don't carry local wines, especially if they promote local food. You might find the restaurant/store owners don't know much about local wines, giving you the opportunity to educate them about the better local wines. I have found some wine store owners to be very receptive to such recommendations. If those places do start carrying local wines (or if they already do), then they deserve promotion on your blog. Give them credit where credit is due. It might give others an added incentive.

http://www.thewineingwoman.com/ Amanda Maynard

That's a very good point, Rich. I think I'm going to start out by emailing this particular restaurant and see what I can do to get to the bottom of this one. It'll be a long journey, I assume, to affect large scale change but every little bit helps and it's a fight I'm willing to help out with.

Jason Phelps

In New Hampshire I hear more often that getting wines into distribution is a key roadblock and some wineries don't even bother because they sell out of all of their most popular wines without it. If individuals are buying the wines the restaurants and stores might not even be seeing it. Growing to meet a greater demand is not easy and not always a priority for some of the smaller businesses. We have to be careful in our thinking that all of these wines should be on billboards. Maybe having to discover them in the woods is part of the allure.

Jason Phelps
Ancient Fire Wines
http://www.ancientfirewines.com
Londonderry, NH

http://www.thewineingwoman.com/ Amanda Maynard

That is true but I have seen some wineries in the MA area struggle with getting their wines into stores and restaurants even though they want to. That's where this post came from. People want to eat local, it seems, and they're even opting to drink local beers, but not so much local wine. If the wineries want their local wine out there, why aren't the restaurants who serve food with only local ingredients not helping? It just seems like a logical next step to me.

http://ancientfirewineblog.blogspot.com/ Jason Phelps

I think that is the problem, we aren't dealing with something logical. Having run several small businesses I can attest first hand that wanted to have greater reach and being able to grow to meet its demand is not simple.

Everyone is helping, but sometimes not everything that makes stereotypical sense makes good business sense.

Jason

http://www.suburbanwino.com suburbanwino

I wrote a whole paragraph here, and my stupid internet connection crapped out. dammit.

Anyway, when talking to some wineries in “non traditional” wine growing regions (Temecula, CA and Dahlonega, GA in particular), many showed little interest in selling to local retailers or restaurants. The logic? When a winery can sell out all its wine at a retail price to weekend visitors, why take a margin hit by selling at a discount to a wholesaler?

It spits in the eye of a “locavore” movement in the purest sense, but beeswax is beeswax, right?

http://www.thewineingwoman.com/ Amanda Maynard

Yeah, that logic does come in to play a lot up here too, but I'm seeing and talking to a number of places that want their reach to be larger and they want to be in retail shops and restaurants. In MA, we can't ship wine out, so the only customers they can sell directly to are tasting room walk ins and other residents of MA, which limits them. It just seems like a good next step to get in good with some restaurants that are the locavore type of thing (which is increasingly more and more).

Who Cares About Local Wine?

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