These are my NOTES for the Member Bash held at Coyote Sonoma on May 9, 2025
These were just notes, not an exact transcript of the meeting.
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Buckle up = I am going to speed through a recap of the past 12 months…
We coordinated 5 Wine Trails, had about 40 wineries participate in each and sold about 150 to each.
Of course we also hosted our three annual, signature events, Wine & Food Affair, Winter Wineland and Barrel Tasting. collectively selling almost 5000 tickets.
Rebecca Germolus wrote one or two blogs for us each month – all of which add content to our website, give us social content and are shared via our consumer newsletter, with 55,000 subscribers.
Marcy Gordon wrapped up our Varietal of the Month in December and transitioned over to Drink this with That as a way for us to showcase how wine goes with everything. Each of those blogs link to our winery search, so readers can find the perfect pairings.
We finally released a new printed map, which we have distributed in over 50 locations (bay area hotels, visitor centers). The “map box” has a new home at Selby Winery, on Moore Lane here in town, so you can pick up new maps anytime – day or night.
Just after our event season wrapped up in March, we unveiled our new WineRoad website. A project that was about 8 months in the making. We’ve cleaned up the whole look, showcased a winery, lodging and wine on the home page with or Visit, Stay, Sip, which changes every Tuesday. The search is now ONE big page, showing all of the links, we have added web chat and added more information on every winery page. I hope you have all had time to scroll around the site. We are seeing about 10,000 new visitors to our site every month. Which is GREAT – we need to attract new followers, new wine buyers, new visitors!
At this point I hope you are familiar with our Wine Road Ambassador program…which at this point we are closing in on having 400 Ambassadors – from across the country! You should be one too!
Our next big outreach to YOU will be more offers for our Wine Road Insiders. The more incentives we have for them to join the better. Look for information in your in-box, your actual mail and there may be a text – we really need more offers!
The Locals Only program seems to be finally getting some traction – we have paid advertising running, we have signs in several businesses. We continue to promote it via targeted social posts also.
I certainly cannot let the night go without mentioning that our Wine Road Podcast again won 3 Taste Awards. Our listeners, from across the country love the show. They visit the wineries they hear about on the show. I was just invited to speak about our podcast at a winery conference in Richmond Virginia in a few months. The show is very visitor-centric – when Liana calls to book you, it will be worth your time! We let our guests lead the way and showcase what is important to their winery.
May 2025 – here we are:
Tomorrow we’ll host what will be our 8th Wine Trail – they are in a holding pattern of selling about 150 tickets. We really MUST get that number closer to 300. That is our goal – our next Wine Trail is in July, so game on!
In March we wrapped up the Board elections and I’m excited to see what new members bring to the table and if we can find ways to get more of you involved in the association.
In a couple of weeks the Board of Directors will have a half-day retreat, which hopefully will help them set some goals for the coming months, fine-tune some new event plans, incentevise members to pay their assessments, and entice new members to join. It’s a BIG plan for 4 hour meeting. Wish us luck!
Our budget is about 50% of what is was in 2020, so we are having to be more creative with less money and really focus on a few things, instead of being all things to all people. Taking care of the printed map, new website and adding Wine Trails to our line up has been our focus for the past 12 months.
Mysty Steward who is our PR and Social Manager has lined up some influencers to help us promote our Locals Only and Wine Trails in the next couple of months. She continues to help visiting journalists fine-tune their itineraries focused on Wine Road members and TONIGHT if you catch up with her, she’d love to talk to you about collaborating on some Instagram posts. She will have all of the details you need to make that happen. HELP us HELP you on social.
That’s a wrap –
I hope I have quickly showcased that we are not just sitting here doing nothing, we are in constant motion, trying to drive traffic to our members and to keep Wine Road Northern Sonoma County top of mind with wine buyers from across the country.
If you missed the memo – we are also doing that from home…our own homes, there is no longer a Wine Road office. We do try to meet as a team once a week at a different winery.
NOW – I’d love to introduce the speaker panel we have for you tonight.
I asked each person if they could share some GOOD news, something that have done with success at their winery. You may not be able to copy it, but it may give you and idea for something that could work at your winery.
Renae Perry – from Papapietro Perry Winery
Devin Ruddick – from Hook & Ladder Winery
Randy Pitts – from Harvest Moon Winery
They will keep it quick and then we’ll have a few minutes for questions when they are all done.
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