What would you do if you were going to get into the Wine Business? Pt. I of II

Last week, within just a couple of days of each other, the same query came from two different people, “What would you do if you were going to get into the wine business?”

The question is simple, even if the answer is anything but …

On the surface, it’s innocuous, something that fills conversational space like a Jimmy Page guitar run on “Stairway to Heaven.”  Yet, a dashed business plan to open a wine retail shop (with Howard Schultz-like world domination in mind) and a subsequent 18-month professional rebound relationship in Napa working for a technology company that serves wineries act more as a lingering scab than scar with a story and wisdom attached.

My answer to both inquiries?  A plaintive, “Not sure.”

It was an honest response albeit unexciting.  Frankly, I suspect that most people, when posing the question, expect that an exciting story SHOULD be in the offing.  Most are infinitely curious about the wine enthusiast, figuring that a plan to follow the dream is only circumstantially separating the wine enthusiast from manifest destiny; of course, this is something I don’t think is expected of the weekend woodworker. 

I’ve spent most of my professional career with a knack for spotting good opportunities, a humble -leaning, though sometimes faulty cocksure belief in myself, and timing that is usually three years ahead of being in the right place at the right time.  When transposed to a “pie in the sky,” open checkbook, ponderous question, I’m left staring blankly like a three year old who just drew a Picasso on the living room wall.

“Not sure” standing in for the wee ones, “I dunno.”

The fact is, these are turbulent times and making heads or tails of where to position for success in the wine industry seems anything but sure and I’m not even encumbered by the proverbial forest for the trees.

I’d rather bet black or red on roulette.

My flaccid performance anxiety in answering a simple question notwithstanding, I need to get my shit together.  I’m meeting a venture capitalist at the end of the month with no agenda other than we’re mutually curious about each other’s interest in wine.  Still, I need to have a better answer than, “not sure.”

That said, I do think these are very exciting times for the wine business.  Order always comes out of chaos and that’s even when the wind isn’t at the back of an industry as it is with domestic wine these days.

To paraphrase Earl Nightingale, one of the early forefathers of self-help, “You are, at this moment, standing right in the middle of your own ‘acres of diamonds.’”

With my venture capitalist friend in mind, I think there are ‘acres of diamonds’ in the wine business.  Ironically, it also fits within a quote from another self-help guru from way back, Zig Ziglar: “You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

On a couple of occasions, I’ve written about the development of a new Top-Level Domain for the web address extension, .Wine. While that’s one exciting area for sure, even more interesting to me is the shifting dynamics in the automation and services that are happening around the wine business.

Quite simply, wineries need help.

Any management consultant will tell any business, anywhere … “Focus on your core strength.”

The fact is, most of the challenges that small to medium size wineries face are completely unrelated to their core strength – making wine.

In my next post, I’ll get into detail on what I would do if “I were going into the wine business” and where I think the shifting dynamics are occurring … a hint … Wilson Daniels and Folio Fine Wine Partners have business models whose time has come. 

In the meantime, hit the comments and let me know what YOU would do if you had a blank checkbook and open opportunity in the wine business!