I am new wine start-up, what is the best way to approach wine distributors to sell your product?
A few more points that may help approach my question:
My product is for the on-premise market place
I am virtual vineyard
I am based out of Boston
Any suggestions would help. Thanks in advance for your response.
Brian
FYI: A virtual vineyard is a name for a wine company that does not own land and grow their own grapes.
Tagged with: boston • fyi • grapes • premise • thanks in advance • virtual vineyard • wine company
Filed under: All Things Wine
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
I’m not sure what you mean by a ‘virtual vineyard’, but from personal experience I can say this…
Assuming you have all your permits and licenses, if you are a start-up winery, your best bet would be to market it yourself. This is what I did. Give your wine out to restaurant owners, bar owners, liquor store owners, etc. and tell them that you are a new winery and are trying to get your product out there. If they like the product, and your prices are reasonable, the local guys would much rather deal with you on a one-on-one basis than through a distributor.
The other drawback to distribution is your production quantities. Do you have enough product to regularly supply all the places that a distributor would supply? Start small, a couple restaurants and liquor stores, and as your production increases, and word of mouth gets around about your product, you’ll have people calling you in no time.
Feel free to contact me via email if you need any help or ideas.
You have to go through the state first, because of taxes and all. Once you are done with them, hire a marketing agency to do all the footwork for you.
Don’t waste your time with a marketing agency at first if you’re a small guy… you’ll spend more than you make.
Coming from the beer end of things (which is similar in cases such as this), a distributor is going to want to know everything about your company…
how long have you been around?
what varietals do you offer?
what’s your experience in the wine business?
what sets your wine apart?
labeling?
point-of-sale materials (ie shelf talkers, etc)?
have you held any tasting panels?
won awards?
been rated in industry publications?
And probably most importantly,
What is your growth strategy and marketing plan?
Of course you’ll need all the applicable licenses, etc., but I would assume you already have that info.
Contact me if you need more info, and maybe I can be of assistance…
(edit)
I may not know as much about the wine end of the business as I should, but since when can you self-distribute to retailers? Everything I know says that is against the law. I know there are laws allowing direct shipping to consumers in some states, but as far as I know, self-distribution to retail is prohibited.