Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 8:04 AM
Subject: Wine at Orangewood Consulting - 14
To our Wine Aficionados,
Another newsletter – another event, another restaurant and
time for reflection.
The remaining content of this newsletter is as follows:
Sales
Time for Reflection
Restaurants
Tarbell’s
Rancho
Pinot
Wine Bars
Cave Creek
Coffee Company
Duck and
Decanter – Event recap
Retail Outlets
Epicurean Wine Service – UPCOMING EVENT
Portfolio
Marinda Park
Logistics
Feedback
Sales
Time for reflection
We have been running around, like
chickens with our heads cut off, trying to find outlets for our wine. We
now have 6 restaurants, 2 wine bars, and 3 stores carrying various subsets of
our portfolio. We are somewhat comfortable with the wine bar and retail
part of this, but less so with the restaurants. We are especially short
of restaurants to carry the Italian wines. So for the next little while
we will be targeting Italian restaurants – focusing primarily on Il Poggiolino
and Noceto wines and selling the RustRidge if the selected restaurants show
interest. We will continue to stay mostly on the corridor that runs from
Central along Camelback to Scottsdale Rd and then North up Scottsdale Rd.
Plus Cave Creek/Carefree. Of course we will continue to keep our existing outlets
happy.
Restaurants
Tarbell’s (New) - 3213
East Camelback Road
Another new restaurant!
Located between Tomaso’s and Sportman’s Fine Wine and Spirits at the southeast
corner of Camelback and 32nd Street, this restaurant has been here a
while. Jim Gallen is the General Manager and Wine Guy for both Tarbell’s
and Barmouche (less than a block West). He is also chief greeter and bon
vivant. I have been working with him for a while and I am on a first name
basis with Carla, the lady who answers the phone and relays messages. Jim
signed up to carry the RustRidge Zinfandel at Tarbell’s. The restaurant
has been designated the best place to eat at the bar by one of the local
newspapers – it is. If you find yourself at the bar and Chris is the
bartender, ask him whether he also works at Richardson’s, but be discreet.
Rancho Pinot -
6208 North Scottsdale Road
Tom Kaufman told me that he now
has the RustRidge Zinfandel on the wine list – but that nobody has bought a
bottle. What are you guys doing out there dieting?
Wine Bars
Cave Creek Coffee
Company - 6033 East Cave Creek Road
So much for opening “Way before
the next WOC anyway”! The current words are “maybe by Next Weekend”
(February 16/17).
Duck and Decanter - 1651 E
Camelback – Event recap
The wine event went very
well. We took over the upstairs part of the store; they produced bread,
cheese, salami and stuff. I poured wine and talked about it until my
throat was sore. Our thanks to the many of you who attended – it was
great to see you all there.
Retail Outlets
Epicurean Wine Service - 7101 East Thunderbird – UPCOMING EVENT
John Scremin is dedicating his
Friday night event on February 22 to the 4 wines he carries from Orangewood
Consulting – the two Noceto Sangioveses and the two RustRidge Reds (Cabernet
Sauvignon and Zinfandel). For $10 you get a generous pour of each of the
four wines, an opportunity to munch on cheese cubes, a risk of hearing yours
truly making stuff up about wine and the chance to buy the Noceto and RustRidge
wines at a discount. I think John is the current low price leader for our
wines in Arizona. If you have not yet had the pleasure to taste these
wines, this is another chance to get with the program.
Portfolio
Marinda Park
We are making progress with the
ATF. They rejected the labels! Mark and Belinda are coming
unglued. The name Marinda Park derives from their names smooshed together
(a linguistic term), plus Park which is where they decided to park after globe
trotting for Measurex and Honeywell.
Logistics
A major part of being a wine
distributor is the logistics. We are responsible for shipping the wine
from the winery (or port of entry for imports), for warehousing and for
delivery from the warehouse to our customers. We have taken care to
ensure the wine is not overheated at any point in its life. We hire
trucking companies with refridgerated trucks to haul the wine and we rent space
in a refridgerated warehouse. The warehouse is just south of I–10 near
43rd Avenue in a warehouse district near the railway. This warehouse is
huge, and a small part of it (185,000 square feet) is maintained at 65
degrees. They store for two other wine distributors but the bulk of their
“grocery section” is food, drink and pharmaceuticals. While I was
there last week picking up a few cases, I got the chance to see a
tractor-trailer driven by an expert. The tractor and 53 foot trailer came
zipping in, did a U-turn in the courtyard and backed into a space between two
other trailers. There was barely 2 feet of space on each side of the
trailer. The driver didn’t do any to-and-froing, just brrrm, and there it
was, perfect. When I told the driver how impressed I was, he said he has
been doing this for 35 years. I was still impressed.
Feedback
I received positive feedback on
the tasting at Duck and Decanter, both at the event and subsequently.
Thanks again for the support.
Richard and Laurie