The Exchanges

Q Let's step back a little bit from the wine process itself and talk a little bit more about cause-centric commerce. This is something, obviously, you're one of the first successful companies in this area that's really focused on commerce, focusing on a cause. Like, why, why, first of all, why do you take that approach? What, what inspired you to do that?

A Well, I loved when I first saw in the grocery stores companies using causes to market their brand and creating alignment and a mutually beneficial relationship between their brand and some nonprofit where they would increase sales. And, um, by doing so, they'd also donate a portion to that cause. I thought it was really cool and it actually spoke to me. I was a consumer that cared about that, but I also thought it was pretty gimmicky that it was, you know, temporary and it'd be A few weeks during October for breast cancer awareness month. And then by November, all of the pink ribbons would be gone. And so the idea was like build it into the brand year round, make it authentic, make it woven into the fabric of the brand.

AI assessment note: “I loved when I first saw in the grocery stores companies using causes”

Q So, um, how long do you, how long do you age most though? If you're buying a 25 dollar bottle, how long did that age for?

A 25 dollar bottles. Usually we're aging at like four to six months, um, versus, uh, some of the really complex, uh, extraordinary wines in our iconic collection, reserve collection. The reds will be 22 to sometimes 33 months. Um, we have a new kosher wine that just came out that was aged 33 months. We've got a, uh, A diamond, uh, a red diamond, um, uh, AVA from Washington, one of the, um, best rated AVAs in general in the world. Um, and that is, uh, that's 30 months aged. And then our Fumé Blanc here, um, is 10 months aged in new French oak as a white wine. And so we'll age some of the nicer white wines, 10 to 12 months.

AI assessment note: “25 dollar bottles. Usually we're aging at like four to six months”

Q And then you, and you build relationships with the farmers, get, get access to the grapes. You then build relationships with the people who are doing the next part or what?

A Um, yeah. So, um, early on, Um, we were able to partner up with the Mondavi family, and Rob Mondavi Jr., Robert Mondavi's grandson, the creator of Robert Mondavi and Opus One, and really, um, I think the pioneer of our last generation who put Napa on the map along with a few others. Rob, um, would make our wines along with Tony Coltrane, their longtime family winemaker. We started getting to a scale where we really needed our own full-time winemaker that would just do our wines, and so we hired a woman named Mari, uh, Wells Coyle, And, uh, she's an extraordinary winemaker. She's the one who's made some of these, um, incredible like rated wines and gotten these accolades. Rob's also worked with her on collaborations. And so we do all of our wine making in house, um, even though we outsource the majority of our farming. So we're very asset light, but then we control the processing from that point forward, even though we also borrow other people's wineries to continue to stay asset.

AI assessment note: “we do all of our wine making in house, um, even though we outsource”

Q How do you do that? How do you create the extraordinary wines?

A Is it, is it first yet to build relationships with the, um, farmers that farm the best vineyards here. And so that was one of the big, one of the hardest places when you talk about the underbelly, right? Um, One of the hardest things I did was creating trust and relationships with some of the greatest farmers in the Napa Valley, because there's a lot of people who are really passionate about growing the best grapes, but they're not marketers. They don't want to sell the wine. They just want to farm. And so you go and find them and, and you give them a house. Um, we're a very asset light business, so we own about one percent of our vineyards and we work with some of the best vineyard families.

AI assessment note: “first yet to build relationships with the, um, farmers that farm the best vineyards”

Q you think about the duty of the corporation here? Cause there's different points of view. Some people say you have a good mission and then you just make profit and that's enough. And some people say that if there's people around your community who are suffering, it's your job as a corporation to go and figure out and solve those problems. And how do you, how do you approach this?

A Yeah. So I don't think that, It's everybody's duty to have to, um, donate to a specific nonprofit. There's other ways to give back to the community and to get involved. I do think it's everybody's duty to get involved in the community and, um, and help give back along the way, not just at the tail end. You know, you, um, back in the day, you used to make a lot of money in your lifetime, and then you'd bequeath it to your kids and maybe to a university at the end of your life. And I really think you and I understand the time value of money and, um, donating and volunteering today, it compounds down the road or it should. And so when I think about it, it's really a progression and it should be at the heart of a business from the very beginning, even if it's really small.

AI assessment note: “it should be at the heart of a business from the very beginning”

Q Are some of these families starting to thrive more? Like we're talking about, we're talking about America as a whole. Like what's, what's the experience right now, the Mexican families in Napa, as far as you know?

A I mean, they, they really are from, uh, the snapshot that, Uh, I get to see, and when I think about our, our team here, just the idea that they're, um, sending their kids to college and their kids are getting college education. And granted, you and I could talk about how important a college education will actually be going forward and how much of that is brand versus true education. But the idea of higher education, um, and being the first in their family and their parents giving them that opportunity, they're only really one generation behind what you and I, how are the, how are the parents able to afford that as farm workers? Um, well, these, these people are in hospitality, but, um, as farm workers, like a lot of it comes through grants and a lot of it comes through the support of, uh, the wineries around here. And so Napa is extremely charitable and, uh, gives back a lot relative to the U S who relative to the rest of the world gives back a lot as corp, uh, in the corporations. Um, but here, um, it is a big focus in addition to building a health clinic for our farm workers so that they could, um, all get, Uh, quality healthcare, and we built a beautiful center in downtown, uh, Napa for LA health, and we're part of that. Um, but on top of it, um, groups like us are starting to think this way and support, um, the education of not only, um, them, but also their future generati…

AI assessment note: “they really are from, uh, the snapshot that, Uh, I get to see”

Q see the challenges. Well, right now, the brand honestly is very strong, and you honestly are growing quickly. You know, a lot of people right now are pessimistic about the country. You're obviously part of building something really successful and helping a lot of people, so you must have a lot of optimism around you. What would you say to those who are pessimistic and who are worried about America?

A You know, I've never found that an abundance of pessimism has created the greatest things in this country, and The opposite I have found quite true. Abundance of optimism, um, can create great things. I mean, we have hope in our brand name, right? One hope one is about uniting people and bringing them together and hope, um, is our product. You know, I used to think about our service being wine tastings, but our service is actually bringing people together around the table to drink wine and have food and create memories and our product. I used to think about being wine, but our products really hope. And so when I think about, um, These companies, if you want to have a chance, uh, it's, it's hard even if you are an optimist, but if you're a pessimist, there's a very, very small chance you're ever going to make it, and why would you be a pessimist? We're living in the greatest time, at least the standard of living, um, that we ever have across the world. Um, people have better lives than they've ever had. Um, we took a little dip there in life expectancy for a little half, a micro generation, But we're on the way to where people are expected to live to like a 150 that are being born now. Um, and, uh, if, if people actually look at where we've come relative to where we are, it's pretty obvious that we're living in this great, amazing time. Um, and even if you just zoom down on our …

AI assessment note: “why would you be a pessimist? We're living in the greatest time”

Q So how do you, how do you make, how do you make good wine for only that much money? Like how's this, how's this business work? Tell us about the seedy underbelly. What's actually happening here?

A Yeah. So the, um, one in Napa, we're in the epicenter of great wines, at least for the US. And so the next wine is better than the next is better than next. And that chase after that hundred point wine is kind of this goofy thing to some of us cause it's so subjective. So You want to create really memorable, great wines. And, um, our brand promise starts at being able to bring that to people's doorsteps for 25 dollars and under, um, when they buy it by the case. And, um, when we think about, um, making great wines, it starts in the vineyards. And so grapes are really a commodity. So you can actually buy incredible grapes for a pretty reasonable price. Even the best grapes, um, where the real, uh, differentiation is made, um, is after Because you can only control so much in the vineyards, the terroir here, the sun, the light, the water, um, those are variables that we're sitting in Rutherford as part of Napa right now.

AI assessment note: “grapes are really a commodity. So you can actually buy incredible grapes for a pretty reasonable price.”