My dad is a big sports fan, and the other day when I was home, ESPN was doing a piece called "Better with Age," featuring former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe. He was doing his interviews in what looked like a brand new tasting room and discussed his football days (he famously lost his job to Tom Brady) but also how he had gotten into wine as a second career. I looked into it some more and found out that he actually grew up in Walla Walla, Washington, which is why he decided to launch his winery there. The region was not known for wine when he graduated from Walla Walla High School in 1990, but it then developed as an emerging wine region and during his NFL career he noticed that some of his favorite wines were from Washington state. He bought land in the Columbia Valley in 2003 and now owns two wineries (Doubleback and Bledsoe Family Winery). Doubleback produces premium cabernet sauvignons that retail for as much as $120, while Bledsoe Family Winery uses a broader selection of grapes including chardonnay and syrah. I thought it was a wonderful story and a great example of how wine can be a fruitful (ha) second career!
Fun fact from Bledsoe courtesy of the ESPN article: "If you pick up a bottle, you buy that bottle 87% of the time."
To read more:
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28549696/drew-bledsoe-brady-barolos-life-nfl
https://www.espn.com/watch/player?bucketId=5060&id=8b20b651-d1f6-4d22-be1d-f0119b620e44&playertech=brightcove&roadblock=false&hidenav=true
http://bledsoefamilywinery.com/
https://doubleback.com/the-story/
https://www.winespectator.com/articles/wine-talk-drew-bledsoe-4361
This last fact is fascinating about how often those who pick up the bottle end up actually buying it. It makes me wonder what the numbers are for other food products, let alone other beverages in the alcohol section. This is also something I struggle with because when I buy wine, I often view the ones with the flashiest label as the most mainstream, consumer, "lazy" choice, which I assume to not be very good. This for me is the exact strategy of apothecary from Cupcake wines. However, now knowing that 87% of bottles picked up get purchased, it makes a lot more sense why the labels need to be flashy, consumeristic vs. more traditional. I will give those flashy labels a second chance now and not immediately discount them. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteBledsoe is also one of the reasons that the law changed to allow direct shipping of wine and beer to Massachusetts! Once he started his winery in Washington, he was hoping to ship to Massachusetts, but he was legally prevented from doing so. He campaigned individually and then joined Free the Grapes to promote direct shipping and the law was overturned in 2014.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/07/14/direct-wine-shipping-massachusetts-budget/
That last fact makes me wonder how distributor's bid on shelf space. It's common for other goods to be placed on different shelves and locations within a store based on a slotting fee pricing system, as certain locations sell best for certain products. Based on rudimentary research this definitely happens at the large, national and regional retailers, but it is unclear if this system is used in smaller, boutique wine shops and liquor stores. This seems like a missed opportunity for both small retailers and wine distributors if this fact does hold true.
ReplyDelete