Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/912565
december 2017 / the tasting panel / 63 up the company infrastructure to handle these things," Tyler said, pausing occasionally to eat his fish. "The systems infrastructure is part of the foundation that's helped to scale up our business. You basically limit your scalability if you rely on your old systems to do new things. In order to play the game, you have to get into things like advanced analytics and really understand what your business is doing for strategic planning purposes." Al would pepper Tyler's buffet of information with a relevant story or two before Tyler eagerly jumped back in to talk about CellarWatch, the information portal provided for Scheid's custom crush and winery clients. "The custom- ers that use our CellarWatch tell us that they get better information out of our portal then they get out of their own winemaking system because we show every single cellar operation: all the racking, the movements, the blending, custom crush, even pictures of the grapes when they come in," he said. "There's always been this kind of tech- nology bent. Innovation and technology are part of the DNA of this company." THE FARSIGHTED FAMILY At the end of our visit to the winery the next day, I finally sat down with Heidi Scheid. Although she's the last Scheid mentioned here, she'll be the first to say hello. As the warmest member of the family (which is already good humored) and equally as sharp, Heidi previously worked as a manager at the first California Pizza Kitchen in Beverly Hills. That's probably why she's also the wine savviest of the bunch as a Certified Specialist of Wine, but it also speaks to her work ethic. Heidi received her BS and MBA degrees from the University of Southern California and worked for quite some time as a valuation consul- tant for Ernst & Young. After the birth of her first child, Heidi decided to visit Al and Scott at their office and noticed something when she arrived. "Ernie, our controller, had this big green ledger paper and was working away with a pencil. I asked him what he was doing and he said, 'Depreciation schedules.' I was like, 'Why don't you do that on Lotus?' and he said, 'What's Lotus?'" Heidi recalled with a laugh. When I admitted I didn't know either, Heidi explained that she'd used Lotus, a spreadsheet program, so frequently at Ernst & Young that she "was kind of the spreadsheet master back in the day before spreadsheets were widely being used in businesses." After that visit—and while still on maternity leave—Heidi stayed at Scheid to put all the depreciation and inventory schedules into the program. In 1992 she officially came aboard as Scheid Vineyards' Director of Planning, eventually working her way up to Executive Vice President, and by the early 2000s, the leadership quadrant at the company was complete. Noting the Scheid knack for forecast- ing the future, I asked Heidi what was next for the 45-year-old company. She responded that they're "really focused on a winner": the company's District 7 brand, which is available on Kroger and Ralphs shelves, Lucky/Save Mart, Gelson's, BevMo, and, starting in January, at Northern California Safeways. "Nothing in the wine industry is actually an overnight success. District 7 feels like it's just kind of hitting that stride and now it has to prove itself," Heidi said. "We think the wine is great, and we've gotten good response on the package as well. It's authentic Monterey at a great price point. We work really, really hard on wine quality, and we can sustain that because we source every- thing from our estate vineyards. It feels like it checks off all the right boxes, but as my marketing professor told me in graduate school, 'Ultimately the market decides.'" Beyond the growing success of District 7, Heidi said she's also "really excited about Metz Road." "This last 2017 vintage for the Chardonnay, we did a native yeast fermentation in the vineyard, which is great because I love that Burgundian style of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. It's a higher price point so we'll see where that goes," she said. Stokes' Ghost—"100% Petite Sirah behind a great story"—is another label to watch. "I think the goal is to just keep nurturing these core brands in our portfolio and help them reach their potential," Heidi added. I wondered how the Scheids will reach that potential—less out of concern than curiosity, because if any family has the ability to do so, it's them. As if she'd read my mind, Heidi answered, "We're always trying to get distributors to come out here. We can do the presentation in Ohio or wherever and show pictures of the tanks and the open-top fermenters and the vineyards, and they'll be convinced we're believ- ers. But when you actually hang out for a day in the vineyard and see the winery and meet the whole team, you'll not only believe it in your mind—you'll believe it in your heart." The current Monterey-based District 7 lineup from left to right: 2016 Sauvignon Blanc, 2016 Chardonnay, 2015 Pinot Noir, and 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon. The dense and dark Stokes' Ghost 2014 Petite Sirah from Monterey.