Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/705606
w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m J u l y - A u g 2 016 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 9 1 brand and our promise," he says. "We guarantee every wine we ship. If you don't like it — if there were any shipping problems or if it was damaged in transit — we'll replace everything." WALT wines ship directly from the same warehouse as the larger HALL wines label, using the same direct-to-consumer fulfillment pro- gram, permits and compliance engine to run both programs. Just because they ship from the same place, however, Zappelli warns of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to fulfillment. "If you're going to build a smaller brand and you have a larger brand, it's important that the same amount of attention to detail goes to both," he says. "You have to spend just as much time on your smaller brand as you do on your larger brand to get that same quality." Last year, for example, the win- ery spent a lot of time tracking test shipments of WALT wines with a device provided by FedEx called SenseAware, which tracks speed of delivery, G-forces, temperature, exposure to light and other vari- ables. "It was a great opportunity for us to see exactly what fulfill- ment looks like," Zappelli says. WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTION Heritage Vineyards, a family- owned winery located in Mullica Hill, N.J., produces two distinct lines of wine — and employs two distinct distribution strategies. "It's kind of like two different animals," says Richard Heritage, director of marketing and sales. "Our dry wine brand is quite exclu- sive, while our sweet wine brand is focused on a more value-priced model." The winery's Heritage label is a dry, classic style made with all estate-grown fruit and produced in very limited quantities. It's distrib- uted primarily through the tasting room and the wine club, with some direct-to-consumer shipping. The winery's Jersey Wine label, on the other hand, is a collec- tion of sweet wines produced at a much larger volume and distributed throughout the state using a three- tier system. Heritage Vineyards' flagship label is an exclusive, dry wine brand made with estate- grown fruit and is distributed direct-to-consumer. Richard Heritage, director of marketing and sales for Heritage Vineyards, uses separate distribution strategies for the winery's two labels. HALL wines produces 75,000 cases of its flagship brand (left), while its WALT label focuses on small production Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.