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“A premium-performing wine__ with a first-class sense of humor.”
It all began…one
balmy, OC summer’s night, Jim, with 25-years in the wine industry, and Diane, with
20-years in branding and marketing, sipped a lovely California Red and pontificated
on blending their talents and their contacts into a fun, wine brand.
Though technology
had progressively improved the quality, consistency, and production of wines, worldwide,
the face of premium wines remained much the same; conventional, vintner/family dominated,
and unimaginative. The Aussie’s were getting playful with their wines, why not the
Americans.
Jim and Diane wanted to create a wine brand that was not ego based or
intimidating. America was just beginning to enjoy wines for more than just special
occasions. But too often, intimidation left them standing in front of the wine shelves
like a deer in headlights.
“We wanted consistently good, reasonably priced wine,
wrapped in a label that said, go ahead, pick me up and look me over,” says Diane,
native of Upper State New York, transplanted to OC with her husband and two children.
“We wanted to serve the consumer who stood on the sidelines, trying to brave up
to pulling a premium wine off the shelf.”
“But we also wanted a wine that the seasoned
wine drinker would appreciate,” says Jim, a Chicago native. “We decided to do this
with humor, to put great, premium wine in the bottle and wrap it with a label that
poked fun at wine snobs.”
Jim brought in Bob, winemaker extraordinaire, and called
his friends in the wine industry. Diane bought a row of black-tie pigs from a famous
illustrator, and introduced them to Nan, Scott and Stacie, whose seasoned, marketing
communications and graphics talents, breathed marketable magic into them.
Much of
the brainstorming was done beneath Diane’s bougainvillea covered pergola, cell phones
singing, kids arriving hungry from school. Whoever was available picked up the kids
from school, took them to the orthodontist or water polo practice or raced to the
printers to finalize proofs.
Most evenings closed with the whole team together,
kids included, Diane’s husband grilling burgers on the barbeque, Nan organizing
appetizers in the kitchen, Jim pouring the wine, kids contributing their own ideas
for the new business, and Diane interrupting her cell phone conversation to applaud
her daughter’s cheer routine, the one she had been performing during Diane’s entire
discussion with Bob in Napa, confirming the final tasting and the bottling date.
Yet, in a couple of weeks, the pigs had names and a winery, Le Snoot of Snob Hill
Winery, and each Snoot was names to represent a specific varietal: a Cheeky Chardonnay,
a Merry-Making Merlot, and the ever charismatic, Classy Cab.
All holidays were celebrated
together. Non-holidays were celebrated together and by the way still are. A magical
mix of silliness and laughter, responsibilities, and critical decision-making were
shared as a combined family effort. And so__ the synergy of fresh ideas, interlocking
strengths, love of fun and family had created a team, the Access Beverage team__
home of the Snoots of Snob Hill Winery.
The wine_ Bob’s skill as a Negotiant, and
his 25-years of wine making artistry is the envy of the industry. Many of the long
established, best known wineries have chosen not to work from a single vineyard
or appellation, but to be Negotiants. A Negotiant chooses not to limit his selection
of juice to one appellation, but finds that the freedom to roam all the great appellations
serves his wine best. Bob is a Negotiant for exactly that reason.
The Labels_ Officials
from the TTB are in a serious, humorless business. Scrutinizing every detail and
legality of a label is tedious work. Scrutinizing the Snoots and their background
story was a crack-up. One of these officials called Diane when the first Snoot label
arrived. She became a cheerleader for each consecutive Snoot under inspection.
The Bottling_ We chose a high quality, heavy bottle. Jim liked the way it felt in his
hand. We chose a well-respected bottler in the heart of the California Wine Country.
“We stood right there and watched our bottles being filled with our personal chose
of wine, and wrapped in our Party Pigs,” Diane remembers. “It wasn’t the easiest
label they’d ever worked with. The spot varnish was sensitive, the brilliant colors
demanded perfection, it got nerve racking for all us perfectionists, but the end
result was thrilling.”
The Marketing Materials_ We took chances. We played in areas
of distribution and sales materials that no one in the industry had ever played
in before. We laced all serious business with fun, even in our phone conversations
and emails. We opened or closed emails and phone conversations with tags straight
from our Snoot’s dialog. We became the breath of fresh air that blew through an
often stuffy, business-as-usual industry.
“Begin with one meticulously dressed,
portly, party-piggy, stir in his posse of merry-makers, add one finicky winemaker,
steep in noble ethics, and blend until flawless… “Welcome to Snob Hill Winery, Home
of Le Snoot…”civilized, yet not a bore among us.”
The 1st Le Snoot Sighting_ It
was the April 2004 Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) Show. Pure "piggy
panache" drew distributors to the table, pens in hand. With fun-brands in the nine-million-case
category, the posh piggies needed nothing more than their playful snootiness to
command attention. But when the tasting began, the picture was complete. This fun-brand
had great wine in the bottle. Within a week, Le Snoot had distribution commitments
though-out the US.
Our Business is Your Pleasure
Commercializing quality through
playful packaging__ Snob Hill is where seasoned management guides fresh ideas, and
where integrity and a sense of fun are the supporting factors that bond our friendships,
our partnerships, and our distributor relations. All our branding materials reach
out to the consumer with the same integrity and sense of fun. Innovation and uncompromising
quality precede every Snob Hill decision.
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