plonk's posterous

The trials and tribulations of creating a wine label

A word/question about shipping 'plonk' wine

OK
My first big question is:  How am I supposed to legally send out samples to people in the wine business in order to generate interest?

Quick story - My day job is in the software biz and I recently attended Blog World Expo in Las Vegas to learn more about Social Media.  The keynote speaker was Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV fame.  At the end of his presentation, I asked about the software project I was working and then I gave him a bit of information about the wine project as well.  To make a long story short, Gary told me that if I sent him my wine, he would put it on his show.  Now the shipping part begins.

I go online to boxvendor.com and order 20 2 bottle pack styrofoam shippers.  They took about a week to arrive and cost me just over $100 for everything.  I also bought a large stamp with our 'plonk' logo to stamp the outside of the boxes.  I boxed up 2 2-packs to send to Gary V in New Jersey and also Arthur Perley of VINO! in Berkeley, CA, who I met through this blog - the wine's on it's way Arthur!  

Now comes the interesting part.  I take the 2 boxes to UPS and as they are measuring them the counter person asks if there is wine in the boxes.  Obviously I say, "yes" to which a woman sending Xmas presents responds angrily "you can't do that - that's illegal".  She then goes on to tell the UPS guy that the reason you can't send wine is because it's flammable.  Did you get that - "FLAMMABLE".  Just as I was getting ready to address her 'concerns' I realized that I now have a brand and I must do everything I can to be polite, even in circumstances where a slight correction of misconceptions or misinformation might have been appropriate.

I won't write what happened next for fear of the BATF swat team showing up at my house for trying to send wine to those who may be interested in promoting or selling it. 

The fact that the shipping of wine is illegal, for whatever reason, is ludicrous.  Any suggestions from anyone out there on how this can be remedied?  I understand that the very Distributors that I will be trying to team up with are probably the ones most responsible for this but how am I supposed to get my wines to those Distributors if I can't send it?

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Plonk loves Chico Hot Springs Spa and Resort

For those of you who know of Chico Hot Springs, you will not be happy that I'm letting loose an insider secret but here goes.  Chico Hot Springs is one of the most beautiful, unique vacation/relaxtions spots in the world.  This is a turn of the century Inn located in the geo-thermal rich area of Yellowstone National Park.  It reminds me of a Regal, Old, European Bath House that was accidentally dropped from the sky and landed in a beautifully remote part of Montana.

The General Manager, Colin Davis, is as wine savvy as anyone in the country but you would never know it because of his genuine humility and mastery of hospitality.  The one area that his wine expertise shines is his wine list.  He carries everything from Domaine de la Romanee Conti to Brada Albarino from Rias Baixas, Spain.  You can see why I would want 'plonk' to be a part of this list.

My fiancee, still a strange word to me, and I decided to stay a couple of nights at Chico, introduce the staff to our wine, and see if we couldn't generate some interest that may lead to a placement.  Colin was out of town but he knew we were coming.  After 2 nights pouring wine in the dining room for everyone that would try it, including a full bottle for the kitchen, I think we may have succeeded in creating some 'plonkies'.  We'll see when Mr. Davis returns if the reviews are good enough to make the list.

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Weebees Cafe is the first restaurant to carry "Plonk" wine

Happy to announce that "Plonk" has it's first restaurant taker, Weebees Cafe

Weebees is arguably the best restaurant in the state and the owners, Tiffany and Mitch Hanson, are doing an incredible of serving interesting food with unique wines and making it all very fun and enjoyable. 

They took on "Plonk" last week and featured it on every table in the restaurant with an information card.  Apparently it was a big success for them and it was definitely a big success for "Plonk".  

1 down, 10,000 to go.

Moving on to do a tasting at Chico Hot Springs next.  This place is a state Jewel that gets a lot of international traffic so I have my fingers crossed that they will take us on.  We'll see.

Once I get the website finished and we receive our shipping boxes, we can begin tackling other states and other markets.

Weebeestablepicsmall

Next steps - the plonk website

So now that I have sold my first 2 cases of plonk, I need to start thinking about creating a website. 

When I was part of the creation of the bar plonk, we were not able to get the domain plonk.com so I purchased plonkwine.com.  Once I had separated from the bar, I decided to go after the plonk.com domain.  I found the owner and offered $500.  In Network Solutions helpful bidding information they suggested that the domain was worth between $11,000 and $13,000.  I thought that my offer would be rejected immediately.  Much to my surprise the owner responded by saying that his wife was wanting some outdoor furniture and that the cost was $900.  "So", I said, "are you saying that you will sell the domain for $900".  He responded "yes.  I immediately called my smart business buddy, who is now one of my partners, and asked if he thought it was worth $900.  He said "hell yeah".

Needless to say, I bought the domain name and all at once I felt as though I had Boardwalk and Park Place by having the "plonk" trademark and the plonk.com domain name.

I am going to try to get something up by December.  The Distributor needs it and so will those who are selling the wine.  We don't have a ton of cash for someone to develop a site from scratch so I think I will look for a template on Template Monster and tweek it a bit.  I want something pro that doesn't cost a fortune.  Tough mix I know but that's where I'll start. 

Anything would be better than what I currently have.  See below

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The first taker - The Wine Gallery in Bozeman, Mt

Once the wine made it to the distributor, he scheduled a "ride with" which is essentially accompanying one of the distributor's sales staff, in this case Porter Elliot, to call on his accounts and try to sell them my wine.  Our first stop was the Wine Gallery in Bozeman.  The owner, Doug Badenoch, is very passionate, wine-savvy guy who has just moved in to a bigger space and is really taking the Bozeman retail wine scene to a new level.

When we arrived, there were Sales people from 3 other distributors who were there.  Since Porter and I only had 1 wine to sample Doug on, he decided to squeeze us in first.  I have know Doug for a couple of years as have my partners, Jerry Nettuno and Jon Robinson.  We have been warning him of our pending project for more than a year but I think he was still surprised to see that we had actually done it. 

One of the interesting things about creating a wine brand is that you can never be absolutely sure that what you approve to be bottled, based on color, aroma, taste, texture and finish will be what shows up at the warehouse for distribution.  Thus you can imagine my very pleasant surprise to find that the wine we have in the bottle is exactly the wine we were hoping would be in the bottle.  It makes it a million times easier to sell the wine if you actually love the wine.  I know that sounds obvious but I guarantee you there are lots of wine people out there selling wines they don't truly believe in.

Anyway, Doug and his assistant Lori, loved the wine and ORDERED 2 CASES!  THAT'S HUGE!  OUR FIRST STOP, OUR FIRST SELL!

This is a picture of Doug with the backdrop of the mountains surrounding Bozeman.  Stock picture for his business.  That's not our wine in the glass - just to be clear.

Winegallerydoug

The plonk backdrop - to be filled in later

The idea to create this blog that follows the growth of the wine label "plonk" is something I wish I would have started about 4 years ago.  There are some great stories involving conversations with well known wine makers, lawsuits with former business partners, ins and outs of dealing with the United States Patent and Trademark Organization, Design firms for labels, State and Federal bureaucracy for working in the wine biz.  Here is a quick article about the bar posted in our local newspaper back in 2004

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/02/15/news/plonkbzbigs.txt

Toward the end of the article you can start to envision the kind of "partner" I would be dealing with later.

I will do my best to interweave these stories in to this blog as it unravels from this point.  Otherwise, I'll just have to just create a separate blog about that portion of the wine world.

Anyway, the story of "plonk" is in the infancy stage of finally being approved for me to ship it to my first distributor in Bozeman, Montana - Winegardner's Wines.  Why Montana?  Because that's where I live.  The wine is from Paso Robles, California and it's a delicious Syrah. 

It was finally shipped in to the Distributor about 1 week ago.  Here is the first pic of the first palette.

 Stay tuned

Plonk_palette

The birth of a global wine brand - Plonk

The Boston Globe has a "Plonk of the Month" wine section that highlights affordable wines that are very enjoyable.  They define "plonk" as, "a word which was used to describe the cheapest wine available in a cafe, goes back at least to the first World War, and may have been an English corruption of the French "vin blanc" (white wine)".

In 2003 I helped open a wine bar in Bozeman, Montana called "plonk".  About a year later, I decided to try and trademark the term to create a brand of wines.  I have since separated from the bar and started a company with 2 wonderful, wine-loving friends, the company is called P3W inc.  Our first wine, "plonk red" just came out and we are beginning to distribute it throughout Montana.

This blog will follow the path of "plonk" from a small town in Montana to worldwide distribution, fame and fortune. 

Stay tuned...........this is going to be fun.

Cheers

Michael Wilson