Back when Katie and I first conceived this blog, we promised that we'd present the real world of owning a winery, the ins and the outs, the goods and the (few) bads. I'm actually writing today about one of the less positive things in our business, because I'm not really sure what's up with a scenario that occurs at certain wine tasting events. I'm hoping that it mostly boils down to a few people misunderstanding the nature of the wine tasting, so I want to let you in on the reality of what it takes for a winery to participate in a charity wine event, such as the one Tom and I did yesterday.
Westport Plaza, St. Louis, during the MIssouri Winefest
We attended the 24th Annual MIssouri Wine Fest to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. I love these types of events - the majority of people attending charity wine tastings are wonderful, and spending my advertising dollars on something that also does a bit of social good in the world is pretty cool. The only problem is the small percentage of people who believe that their $20 entry fee - which goes to the charity - gives them license to get stupid drunk by returning again and again (yesterday, up to ten or more times!) for "samples." Five hours worth of samples. When the wine is for sale both by the bottle, and by the glass to support the charity. Seriously bad form, in my opinion.
This is an advertising expense for the wineries that attend. The booth fee at this particular event was $125 (for a half booth) paid to the charity, licensing came to an additional $71, gas money to get our SUV full of that much wine to the St. Louis location wasn't cheap, and we provided over $600 (retail value) in sample wine, a good portion of which went to those multiple-samplers. Tom and I did the tasting ourselves to avoid the additional expense of employees, but we were overwhelmed and if we do this tasting again we will have to hire at least one more person, not to mention that our little half booth was a bit lost among some of the bigger booths, a problem that would require another $125 for the full booth, and yet another employee to manage that size booth.
That being said, I actually really like this format; our wine gets tried by new people, they learn about our winery, they can actually buy our wine at the event, which is huge in offsetting any cost - as advertising dollars go, these are very well spent, and I get that warm/fuzzy feeling from supporting a worthy cause. But seriously people, your $20 support of the charity does not give you the right to take advantage of us and treat us disrespectfully. Yesterday, Tom finally put the taster bottles away about an hour before the event ended and walked away from the booth, hoping to simply discourage the abusers and return in a few minutes - but one of the moochers actually stole a glass off our table! Really???
Anyway, this is only a very small percentage of wine tasters out there, but they, of course, leave a very bad taste in our mouths (pun intended.) I meet so many more wonderful people in this business that the frustrating ones are hardly worth a thought, except that I can hope to clarify for them that our reason for being at the event is NOT for them to get freebies; we are ALL there to support an important cause. Together. Don't tarnish an otherwise great event like this - it is the charity that will ultimately loose.
Feel free to frown sternly at any of these people you may happen to run into the next time you attend a charity wine event, with my thanks.
Happy Trills,
Laura
