Early beginnings...

I'd like to ask the professional winery owners a question. When you first started out professionally, how many cases did you produce your first year and how did you determine that number?

Starting a winery where there once was none is tough enough, but to try to figure out what type of inventory to hold costs money, especially for a winery right out of the gate. It would be nice to sell out, but then to have a winery with no wine is not an asset to growing a business. But having pallets of inventory is wasting money.

Currently, I have been trying to generate interest by social media and asking friends to taste my wines. The satellite location which will basically be my sales room generates lots of customer traffic (even though I will have small sales area). I'd like to have controlled growth, but I want to satisfy the customer's desires.

What wisdom can you impart about your early days and what mistakes should a new winery avoid?

certainly a marketing plan and financial plan will dictate what you do. I started a winery in 2007 then sold it to my partner two years later to do physical problems on my part. we had a saying" they talk dry but buy sweet". meaning that semi sweet and sweet wine will be the wines most purchased. I started with about 20 gallons of wine for each type we wanted. we started with quite a few but 2 whites and 2 reds might be a good start. 20 gallons would give you about 100 bottles. monitoring your sales should give you enough wine to make new wine as the other are sold.. I was making wine all of the time. Introducing new wines as we went along.Make fruity white and red wines that can be bottled quickly. go ahead a make some reds that require ageing but leave them to be released later. have a wine available for just a holiday release thus creating demand. one for Valentines day, Christmas and other local holidays.

the real problem isn't selling the wine it is getting the traffic. Events such a music , group wine tastings with snacks etc. should draw traffic.

Be prepared to work hard. Good luck

okay, the TTB wants me to show that I own my house. How did you show that you owned your home to the feds???

You should have a title in your name and/or Karen's name, similar to a title for your car. If their is a lean on the property, then the title would be held by the bank.

we are totally free of owing anything on the house. I need to check the strong box....

The warranty deed will show who owns the house and you can get a copy at the county clerk's office. Also your annual property tax bill should be in the name of the owner.

We are in our first year, and I produced 450 cases. About 1200 gallons of wine.

hey jd, what varietals did you bottle? What are all your wines? I was told to start with 3 wines and then do blends to come up with 6 wines.

I made four whites from juice, Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc, Riesling and Chardonel. I bottled each of them as pure varietals. For one of my reds, I made a Bordeaux style blend using Cabernet Sauv., Cabernet Franc, Merlot and a hybrid called Noiret. It is quite good. The other red was a 50/50 blend of Chambourcin and Chancellor grapes. Also pretty good. I also experimented with a small batch of Port style red, which turned out to be a big seller. It is completely sold out. I used Noiret for it as well.