Laying the Foundation

• Wine & Food Affair
  • 40 wineries agreed to host based on survey
• Website updated with 2022 event dates
• Assessments have gone out
  • 80 wineries | 19 lodgings – renewed to date
  • 26 wineries | 7 lodgings – outstanding
  • 7 wineries not renewing
• Visitor Survey – information on ticket prices, preferences etc.
  • 1,300 responses interested in special offers
• $12K sponsor from Healdsburg Tourism – social media posts, event tickets, podcast guests, consumer newsletter
• Perks and Privileges – re-evaluated; looking at application with subscription option and special offers
• Wine Road special newsletter – Road Runner. Consider re-starting?
  • Mobile Up – member subscription service, customized by Wine Road
  • Another option is a Sebastopol business offering an app that can be managed by wineries and Wine Road

Wine Road Subscription Plan

• Need success stories to share with members
• Wine Road tickets – 10% discount
• Membership/subscription to all Wine Road events with a monthly fee
• Create a multi-brand wine club program
  • A business model that is self-sustaining
  • Organization structure to establish the model?
  • Partner opportunities
  • Help Wine Road subscribers experience new wines
  • Mystery cases – anticipation for shipment
  • Add tasting ticket
  • Provide offer sheet by winery
  • How many bottles to include in the shipment?
  • Retail partner needs to be addressed first
  • Focus on top 5 shipping markets
  • How to address customer concerns about the wine in the shipment?
  • Build the brand for the Wine Road Wine Club

Next Steps

Beth will meet with a couple board members to plan out the approach

• We are bringing the Wine Road to you
• Quarterly wine shipments plus a monthly fee for membership
• Top tier – One bottle wine/week + event tickets
• Messaging/Podcasts talk about wines from quarterly shipments
• Special events held in certain regional areas
• Could create wines you can only get through Wine Road
• Reach out to Bottle Barn about interest in partnership
• Need to address the compliance issues [Wine Connect]. Shipping? Customer service?
• Partner needs to be a quality organization
• Core issue is dealing with customer experience. It is a Wine Road process and service.
• Need to keep DTC wines protected by wineries. Specific products for the Wine Road offering.
• How to continue to bring in new customers
  • Variety of shipment will bring in new customers plus retain them
• Need to look at varietals offered in each shipment

Corporate Connections

• Make corporate connections with a percentage to Wine Road
• Use Wine Road connections to reach corporate entities
• Clearinghouse for corporate entities to come to one location to refer to wineries. A conduit. Make the connection.
• Premium for access or a percentage back to Wine Road
• Link on website for corporate gifting program
• Reach out to local businesses about offerings
• Benefit for Wine Road members – diversification of Wine Road offerings
• Under COVID, the business model for engagement is different. We are seeing increased interest from corporations for online events.
• Reach out to corporate executive assistants to offer the services to corporate events
• What is standardized approach to ensure it meets the Wine Road customer experience expectation?
  • Beth coordinates initial referrals to members
• How to make it equitable for Wine Road member participants?
  • How are wineries selected by the corporation?
• Short-term plan – website page – is there business case for offerings?
• Long-term – corporate outreach
  • Greater investment of time to reach out to corporate
• Virtual offerings -component
• Onsite offerings – another component
• Website – outline concierge services

Next Steps

• Build website
• Include in next Wine Road communication
• Reach out to Wine Road members interested in offerings
• Ask for feedback from referral
• Generate a list of corporate partners (sell list to WR members).

Staffing Needs

• Funds approved for staffing
• Need to generate money first
  • Wine/Food Affair income
  • Renewed memberships
• Critical to staff up if Wine Road Club is moved forward – absolutely!

Events: Wine and Food Affair

• Can’t run the organization on events alone
• Event reimbursement – Idea $2/pp up to maximum customer service levels/capacities
• If the event is canceled there is no reimbursement
• No guarantee on reimbursement at this point
• Pricing – $150/weekend | $110 Saturday only | $70 Sunday only
  • 30-40 wineries
  • Food not as good
  • COVID restrictions
  • Reservation system will help
• Change the name W/F Affair “Lite”
  • $50/day or $60 Saturday | $40 Sunday. $75, $65/day
  • 2-day event
  • Food both days (2 days)
    • Cap number of wineries you can attend in a day – 5 (factor in drive time)
  • $75/day with 5 bookings
• Lower spaces available on Saturday; higher on Sunday
• Close ticket reservations earlier so you can get a better event count?
  • Buy early to get wineries you want.
  • Close on October 26
• No reimbursements
• Food item listed in the program
• No recipe required; encouraged
• 500 ticket sales target
• Same weekend in November (first weekend)
• Beth will come up with new potential names and share with Board.