Wine Road Board Meeting

October 14, 2020 | 9:00am

Remote, California

In Attendance

☒   Beth Costa (Wine Road)

☒   John Viszlay (Viszlay Vineyards)

☐   Devin Ruddick. (Hook & Ladder Winery) –family emergency.

☒   Lillian Fechter. (Francis Ford Coppola Winery)

☒   Danny Christensen. (Geyserville Inn)

☒   Joe Foppoli (Christopher Creek)

☒   Julia Lander. (Moshin Vineyards)

☒   Oded Shakked. (Longboard Vineyards)

☒   Jack Seifrick. (Cast Wines)

☐   Stephanie Wycoff. (Seghesio Family Vineyards) – was on call, had challenges reconnecting.

☒   Katie Ambrosi. (Wilson Artisan Wines)

☒   Aaron Krug (Best Westen Dry Creek Inn)

☐   Open Board Position – Lodging

☐   Open Board Position – Winery

Treasurers report

Estimated of $35k in Checking, but expenses still need to be paid. Savings still at $150k.

• For W&F Affair : Sold 42 cases of wine. (Beth thinks case #2 is most popular. She will send out list to the board for each case)
• Tasting pass is intended to make revenue, but it isn’t selling. Sold $0. Noted that guests don’t want to travel to Wine Country right now. Too many things are unknown.
• Sold approximately 40 rewards pass.
• Assessments : 96 wineries paid, 24 lodging paid. $80k. Think more may come in.
• December will be second payment for many places.
• Sales tax was a big deduction from accounts.
• Note: Lillian missed 2 minutes of conversation, due to urgent call.

Marketing

Beth is getting calls about WinterWineland and Barrel. She is communicating to guests that we want to plan something in-person for Barrel/WinterWineland, but too much is unknown. She is communicating that we will know more at the beginning of December.

Wine & Food Affair:

• 1,200 people clicked on link to purchase cases. 40 cases sold. Low conversion rate. Unknown why.
• Emailed 30,000 people through SF Chronicle.
• Board asked about remail. Beth said we have sent 3 email blasts so far.

Beth asked “What should social media messaging be?

• Oded : Honestly and truth. Change is uncomfortable. How can we make it more comfortable for customers? Address changes we’re going through.

Beth said she is waiting for sale to end, and until then, future is unknown and we don’t have a lot to discuss.

Liquidation:

• Beth is going to start to liquidating extra supplies, furniture. Asked Dan about selling versus donating to non-profit.
• Doesn’t have anywhere we can cut expenses. Feels like Mysty and staff is necessary right now. She is transparent with them about future.

Discussion centered around unknown of future and difficulty of all boards across region to plan for future

New/Old Business

John questions:

• Is October last podcast?
  • Yes, for awhile. They will record in October and it will air in December, so we have podcasts running through EOY.
• Vacate office by end of year?
  • Beth is going to talk to Jim to see what cost can be. $1,200/month doesn’t seem reasonable to work in 3/days week.   Storage unit will be much lower cost. John is going to see if he has any storage possibilities before we rent unit
• No blogs?
• What will staffing be like after the first of the year?
  • Beth is being transparent with team. We need to sell 500 cases or we won’t be able to float through.

Beth noted:

• Next executive board, we will go through expenses.
• At November exec meeting, we need definitive plan. We will need to account for everything.

Board position empty:

• Chris Lynch resigned because he was named CEO of Opus One. Waiting for January to elect new member.

Julia asked about tasting fees and what other wineries are doing. Beth is going to survey wineries

Posted by Beth Costa

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