REthink Wine Blog

I recently joined Inertia Beverage Group as the Compliance Specialist after years of fighting the battles faced by small boutique wineries confronting the onslaught of regulatory issues unique to the alcoholic beverage industry. It’s been a journey getting here, but it now seems to be the culmination of all that I have worked for throughout my career.

Along time ago in a galaxy far, far away I was a practicing attorney but, as with many wine lovers, was soon enticed to leave the Dark Side of the legal profession for the bucolic life of the vineyard we all seek. Little did I know at that time that my legal career was just beginning, with regulatory dangers lurking around every corner. Over 10 years ago, I latched on as the business operations manager with Presidio Vineyard & Winery, a small family-owned high-end producer of Pinot Noir and Syrah in the up-and-coming Santa Barbara County wine country (Thank you, “Sideways”!). I soon learned that small “mom & pop” wineries require you to wear many hats, so in addition to my regular accounting responsibilities I soon found myself doing everything from picking grapes to punching down to labeling bottles. Oh yes, and handling the plethora of compliance needs for the winery, which naturally fell to me because I was the lawyer.

Well, it didn’t take long to figure out I soon had enough law and order problems on my plate to satisfy the billable hours of any prominent attorney. Bonds and occupational permits; excise taxes and monthly reporting; Certificates of Label Approval. A daunting mountain of permits, reports and forms. And that was just the Federal government! There were even more California State permits, reports and forms. Enough to keep all of the bureaucrats employed. This, of course, was in the halcyon days of reciprocity prior to Granholm, when direct shipments of wine could be shipped to a dozen or so “reciprocal” states and no paperwork was required. The “non-reciprocal” states were just left alone, ignored to their fate of inaccessibility to the fine wines of Presidio. No muss, no fuss.

As exciting and earthshaking as Granholm and its companion cases have been, its aftermath has created a constantly shifting universe of “direct shipping” rules and regulations enough to scare any sane wine shipper to the point of confusion and denial. Your first reaction is, “Great, I can now ship directly into 33 different states, what a boon for a small winery like me!” This elation is soon followed by dejection and a dull glaze over the eyes as you realize each state requires more permits, more reports and more forms. The temptation is to avoid the problem and just keep operating with business as usual your mantra. But the potential is too great to ignore. New markets to enter, new fans to create for your label. I couldn’t resist so I dug in worked to gain access to as many of these markets as I could. A big job, but one with big potential rewards. Presidio now had access to markets previously unseen, and the potential to increase its margin dollar by moving more of the wines direct to consumers.

Having conquered that regulatory tiger for Presidio, it was time for me to move on and help other wineries conquer their own regulatory tigers. IBG offered me such an excellent opportunity to do so that I soon joined the company. As the leader in finding direct marketing solutions for small wineries just like Presidio, IBG is knocking down the many barriers that are preventing small, resource-constrained wineries from getting their product directly to new consumers and making new fans. The groundbreaking Direct-to-Trade initiative is poised to do the same for business-to-business sales, working to make restaurants, bistros, and retailers open to small wineries lacking the human and financial resources to navigate the regulatory waters all the while operating within the existing self-distribution and three-tier systems for each active state – a number that is growing monthly. I’ve never been one to reinvent the wheel. My work with IBG is allowing me to share the expertise I have developed over the years with as many of the quality-first, wine-driven boutique wineries as possible. These are my kindred souls and helping them to reach their “soon to be discovered new fans” is what it’s all about.

This entry was posted by Matthew Mann on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 11:02 am and is filed under Compliance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.