Lieb Behind the Scenes – June 2015

Welcome to prime season! Our busiest retail months of the year are June-Oct, so there’s always a sense of relief when Memorial Day arrives and the “on-season” starts. I’m optimistic about this season for many reasons. My team seems to be hitting their stride. Our branding and marketing are on point. We’ve released all of our new Bridge Lane and most of our new Lieb Cellars Reserve wines under their snazzy new labels. We’ve been getting a ton of press for our Rosé and box wine. We’re about to announce some major news about our 2013 Pinot Blanc. And our tasting rooms sales were up 24% Memorial Day weekend. 24% over last year! That’s impressive! We’re working our butts off, our wines are better than ever, we’re passionate and dedicated, and it’s starting to pay off. Pretty cool.

Before I get into the topic of the month – Controversial Tasting Room Policies – here’s a quick summary of what’s going on:

In the vineyard (our farm):
Right now we’re in what’s called pre-bloom phase. Tiny green flower clusters have formed but they haven’t opened and started flowering yet. We expect flowering to come in the next couple of days and last for 1-3 weeks before berries start to form. Rain during this period can be extremely detrimental and cause poor fruit set (or a low number of berries which ultimately means less grapes and less wine). We’re crossing our fingers that Mother Nature has gotten rain out of her system these last few dreary days and the rest of June will be sunny and dry. Come on sun!!

At the Winery (our production facility):
Sparkling!! We just riddled, disgorged and labeled our first batch of 2013 Sparkling Rosé (see previous post for more detail on this process). If you love dry rosé and you love champagne, take it from me – you will LOVE this sparkling rosé. Made from 100% Pinot Noir, it’s delicate and refreshing with hints of peach and raspberry. This very well may be my favorite Long Island wine I’ve EVER tasted (thanks, Russell!). We also just disgorged our final batch of 2010 Blanc de Blancs and dressed it with its new label. They’ll be hitting retail shelves and restaurants starting in July and be released in our tasting rooms this fall.

Crazy, but I’ve also scheduled our official 2015 vintage “pre-pre-production” meeting for the beginning of next month. This is the meeting where our entire team, including Russell, sits down and (generally) decides what we want to produce with the grapes that are just starting to form on our vines. Do we want to discontinue any wines? Make new wines? Decrease or increase production on existing wines? These things needs to be determined prior to harvest so that we can plan to pick the grapes accordingly and be sure not to sell any grapes that we’ll need. In 2013, for example, when we decided to produce a sparkling rosé made of Pinot Noir, those grapes were picked earlier (for better acidity) than they would have been if we used them to make red wine. This is a FUN meeting. And I’m pretty sure I know of at least one wine that will be getting the axe and one new wine that we’ll be adding to the portfolio. This is high confidential information though. If I told you, I’d have to kill you.

In Wholesale:
I haven’t received May depletion reports but based on orders it looks like Pinot Blanc and Rosé continue to dominate wholesale sales. Randomly, we’re also selling a lot of box wine in Rhode Island. RI buyers seem to have gotten the memo that box wine is having a MAJOR moment and are scooping our Bridge Lane boxes UP. If you know anyone who lives in RI or if you happen to visit soon, tell them to look for our boxes and to text us a photo of them. We’re like proud parents when we see our product sitting pretty on out-of-state shelves.

In the Tasting Rooms:
As mentioned, tasting room traffic and sales are both up over last year. We put a new outdoor bar made of recycled pallet wood on the patio at our Lieb Cellars (Oregon Road) Tasting Room and can’t believe we never thought to do it before. Now you can hang out at the patio bar or grab a glass and find a seat. I mean, who wants to go inside at all during perfect early summer weather? Not me! If you haven’t been to our newly remodeled Bridge Lane Tasting Room, you need to stop in. It screams Bridge Lane – bright, fun, modern. And two new features will be added this month: cornhole on the lawn and wine on tap at the bar. Giddy up.

While we’re on the subject of the tasting rooms, a few words now on “controversial” tasting room policies and where we fit into the debate. Which policies am I referring to? Rules on bringing large groups, kids and outside food to our tasting rooms. And why are said policies “controversial”? Because the wineries all seem to have different rules and our customers all seem to be very opinionated about them (“What do you mean you don’t allow limos!??”). Even the press gets involved and publishes articles about proper tasting room etiquette.

Our policies, in a nutshell are: 1) No limos or groups over 8 people at our Lieb Cellars Tasting Room, but both are allowed at our Bridge Lane Tasting Room because there’s a big open picnic area. 2) We allow customers to bring food but it must remain outdoors and the garbage needs to leave with them. 3) We allow kids but parents need to keep an eye on them. Make sense, right?? Well, you wouldn’t believe how ANGRY people get when they show up at Lieb Cellars in a limo and we tell them they can’t stay. Here’s the thing though, we’re not imposing rules for the hell of it. The purpose of these policies is to ensure that every customer has the best possible experience! We don’t want to be a buzz kill. We sincerely want you to have a good time. And because we know our tasting rooms up and down and are very aware of the space restrictions, you should trust us and go where we know you’ll enjoy yourselves.

That said, I do feel that some wineries out here are overly rule-driven, snotty and generally not welcoming. They seem to make rules because they can, not because they make sense. I steer clear of said places. When you come across one, I hope you’ll remember this email and head over to one of our locations instead.

That’s a wrap!

Next month – in light of us getting more and more box wine orders online lately – I’ll tackle web sales and the challenge around getting customers to order wine online.

Til then, cheers! (me with a glass of Sparkling Rosé of course)

Ami Opisso
General Manager & Certified Sommelier, Lieb Cellars