The Tasting Panel magazine

December2010

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vious generations, and these days much of this is communicated online, which is why we’ve also just made a major financial commitment to rebuilding our website. I think that the key ele- ment to being successful as a fine wine marketer is not something that involves television adver- tising, or having huge media budgets. Public relations and providing all the necessary tools are important, but even before that, it’s commit- ment to quality, because that’s what it’s all about these days. It’s not really about who’s making the best wine, but what is the best value at a specific price point—whether it’s $15, $100 or whatever it might be. The St. Helena, CA headquarters of Wilson Daniels Ltd. We’re acutely aware that the next gen- eration of buyers who have entered the retail and restaurant industries tend to work differently from the older genera- tions, and so we’ve been stepping up our social media activities to get to them. I think the key to communicating, especially with the new generation of buyers, really is through education. Next year, we are also reviving what we call the Wilson Daniels Euro-Tour—a way to bring all our European properties together to meet buyers. The Euro-Tour will go through four major cities—San Francisco, L.A., Chicago and New York—with a few stops in some satellite markets. TP: What other plans do you have for reaching the younger generation of buyers? RC: For both sommeliers and consum- ers, it’s always been about discovery. People love to discover wines and then learn as much as possible about them, and so our job is to get that information delivered to them in ways they’d like to see it delivered. The younger generation is just as hungry for information as pre- TP: Do you have plans to expand Wilson Daniels’ current portfolio? RC: We are exploring new regions for Wilson Daniels, as well as new products and producers from existing regions covered in our portfolio. For instance, we are just about to announce a new relationship with the Lancaster and Roth Estate wineries—two absolutely gor- geous properties in Sonoma. In France, where we are traditionally strong, we’re going to start marketing Château Simard, a grand cru Saint- Emilion. This will be a first in the history of Wilson Daniels, since we have never represented a Bordeaux estate before. It’s a very unique property, owned by the Vauthier family, who also own Château Ausone. It’s very unique because this is an estate that likes their wines to have ten years of bottle age—if you can believe this—before their release. So during a time when current releases of Bordeaux will be from, say, 2007, we’ll be launching Château Simard with its 1999 vintage. A year from now Château Simard will release its 2000, and so between 2003, 2004 and 2005, Wilson Daniels will have some extremely interesting vintages of Bordeaux to offer during the years to come. The Wilson Daniels Ltd. Estates American Wine Estates Clos Pegase Winery (Napa Valley) Gainey Vineyard (Napa Valley) Girard Winery (Napa Valley) J. Davies (Napa Valley) Lancaster Estate (Chalk Hill) Ponzi Vineyards (Willamette Valley) Roth Estate (Alexander Valley) RouteStock Cellars (California and Oregon) Schramsberg Vineyards (California North Coast) SCV (Sonoma Coast) WillaKenzie Estate (Willamette Valley) Windsor Sonoma Winery (Sonoma County) Imported Wine Estates Castello di Volpaia (Chianti Classico) Ceretto (Piedmont) Champagne Delamotte (Champagne) Champagne Salon (Champagne) Château Simard (Saint-Emilion) Clos de Tart (Côte de Nuits) Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune) Domaine Faiveley (Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune) Domaine Leflaive (Côte de Beaune) Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss (Alsace) Domaine Philippe & Vincent Jaboulet (Côtes du Rhône) Domaine Pierre Morey (Côte de Beaune) Felton Road (New Zealand) Grant Burge Wines (Barossa Valley) Kumeu River (New Zealand) Morey-Blanc (Côte de Beaune) Mount Nelson (New Zealand) Prelius (Maremma, Tuscany) Royal Tokaji (Hungary) Tardieu-Laurent (Côte du Rhône) Tenuta di Biserno (Bibbona, Tuscany) december 2010 / the tasting panel / 33

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