Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/230154
+ How big is your distribution area? supply chain. And, Greene asked, is the day far off when wineries selfdistribute but hire distributors as consultants? In the end, de Wet said, the answer to the self-distribution question comes down to pricing. "We have higher costs, since we're a small producer," he said, "and we're competing in an environment where there are corporate, international wines with lower costs. We're going to self-distribute where it helps us be price-competitive." If you're in Walla Walla on the eastern edge of Washington, and the biggest market is four hours away west, in Seattle, then self-distribution becomes much more difficult, said Clubb. On the other hand, if you're close to a metro area, as Kiepersol is in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, selfdistribution is more manageable. + How much wine do you make, and is there enough to sell outside of your tasting room? If the answer is "very little," as with Boulder Creek, then there is little need to find an outside distributor. + How do you want to manage your brand? "When we had a distributor for our local area, it was selling to every little grocery store it could find," Clubb said. "That didn't help us, to see it in places where it didn't belong. We want our wines to be in accounts where someone is knowledgeable about the brand, and where they can hand-sell it." FINDING A MIDDLE GROUND All of this helps to answer the self-distribution question, but it doesn't take into account how much distribution has changed over the past several years, Greene pointed out. "The market is more complex and more difficult than it was 15 years ago," he said, "and it requires more flexibility on the part of producers." To deal with those changes, distributors have become flexible as well. When Kiepersol started out, its wines were self-distributed. It later found a small Texas distributor for all of its wines. Some years after that, de Wet said, he moved to a dual distribution system: The winery kept its local-market and retail sales, and employed Republic National Distributing Company to handle restaurants and wine bars – outlets that it didn't have the resources to service effectively. "The distributor came to us because it saw a demand for our products," de Wet said. "It w w w. v w m m e d i a.com Jeff Siegel writes regularly about Pierre de Wet of Kiepersol Estates winery in Texas self-distributes to local retailers and uses a distributor to handle restaurant and wine bar sales. could work with those on-premise accounts and keep them in play in a way we couldn't. This made it a two-way street, where we both work together to make the best of the deal." These kinds of hybrid systems, Cekola said, could become even more adaptable in the future. It might be possible, depending on state law, for distributors to handle warehouse and delivery duties for small producers without actually selling the wine, charging a fee for the work. A winery would still do sales and marketing, but wouldn't have to worry about feeding the Texas wine for a variety of consumer and trade publications. To see more of his work, visit his blog at www.winecurmudgeon.com. Comments? Please e-mail us at feedback@vwmmedia.com. Advertise Now Online e J a n - Feb 2014 In Print 800.535.5670 | V INE YA RD & W INE RY M A NAG EM EN T 131