Over the past couple months of constant twittering and no real blogging, I seem to have thoroughly confused many of my friends with whom I haven’t really been in touch. Before I dive into an inevitably long-winded explanation of my new business venture, let me answer the most common questions:
- I do have a job.
- It does not consist (solely) of drinking wine - that’s just the most fun part to write about in 140 characters or less.
No, I don’t work 9-5. I do not have an office (unless you count the desk I set up in sister’s room in my parents’ house in Connecticut), nor do I really yet have a salary, per se. I do have a highly portable computer, an iphone, a lot of friends willing to let me sleep on their futons and work out of their living rooms, a great passion for fermented grapes, and a long list of contacts that I’ve made over the past 5 years selling them. Perhaps most importantly, I also have a wonderful and accomplished business partner guiding my way, Heather Willens, who has been living in Buenos Aires for 4 years and working as an agent for some of Argentina’s best family-run, small production wineries.
Now, with our powers combined, we are Uva Buena, protecting humanity from overpriced and unbalanced wine.
As Uva Buena, we act as the United States representatives for a small portfolio of boutique wineries; the kinds of hands-on operations where the head of sales is often the winemaker’s brother (or father, or daughter, as the case may be) and in an ideal world would be doing all of the sales duties himself. However, many small scale wineries don’t have the resources to travel regularly to (and around) the US, nor would they necessarily feel entirely comfortable doing so. This is where we come in. With bi-lingual agents in both Buenos Aires and New York, we are able to cover the market for our clients more efficiently and less expensively than if they were to do it themselves from Mendoza - and we try to do it with almost as much love.
What this really means is straightforward, although it’s taken me longer than it should’ve to figure out how to explain it in simple terms. Our goals are two-fold: first to find importers for our products, and then, as Brand Managers, to support them in the marketplace.
For context, you probably need to understand a bit of how wine is imported into the United States. In many parts of the country - including my home market here in New York - it must go through what is called the “3 Tier System” before you, the consumer, drink it. The wine passes through 3 sets of hands (and inventories, and delivery trucks….) before it arrives in your glass; it is purchased from the winery and brought into the country by an importer, who then sells it to a distributor, who then sells it to the wine shop or restaurant where you buy it. Each tier requires its own licensing - and it is illegal for one entity to hold all three. Although in some cases the importer and distributor might fall under one umbrella, they have to have two licenses and two separate divisions, and cannot obtain a retail license as well.
In this scheme of things, we at Uva Buena are the middlemen (sorry, Heather - middlepeople) between the winery and the importer, ensuring that the wine is purchased regularly and delivered efficiently. Once it has been imported our duties become those of Brand Managers - we visit each market where our wine is being sold, supporting the local sales teams as much as possible through education, marketing material, and our presence in their accounts.
Now, even in a sturdier financial market, this is no simple feat. For each winery we’re looking for the right importer, who works with likeminded distributors who in turn are able to handsell boutique wines and spirits to their accounts. This means seeking a client who not only likes a product, but whose profile in the marketplace matches it, and who will give it the attention that we feel it deserves. This is Brand Management in a nutshell: not just to sell the wine, but to ensure that it keeps selling, that as it passes through each of the three tiers the wine retains its history, which makes it so exciting to me, and romantic to many of you.
There’s Huarpe, named for Mendoza’s indigenous people. Las Perdices, evoking the pheasants that once roamed the vineyards. Ambar “Amuleto,” which tells the story of the Karzovnik family, who escaped from Russian pogroms and arrived in Argentina with nothing more than an amber amulet to comprise their fortune. Tapaus Distillery is unique in Argentina yet uniquely Argentine, with small batch spirits distilled from Mendoza’s famous grapes and infused with only domestic fruits (and dulce de leche…). Each of our properties has its own tale - but I’ll let you wait until our site is up for the unabridged versions. (UvaBuena.com - coming very soon!)
It’s been a long process since I left The Vines at the end of last year, and while there’s still much work to be done, I’m thrilled to “officially launch” Uva Buena here on Vino e Vita. Hopefully, wherever you are, you’ll soon be able to taste all of our products themselves.
(For a list of what you may already be able to pick up locally, just shoot me an email).
May 28th, 2009 | vino, vita | 2 comments