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A comedy of errors
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
It’s been quite awhile since I wrote a diary entry, and
in that time I have probably attended six wine tastings,
including two wine dinners. Actually, quite a bit has
happened, the most notable being that the press release
submitted to BlackPR.com was printed in the Philadelphia
Sun, as was the article that I wrote for the site regarding
Why African Americans Don’t Flock to Wine Tastings.
Additionally, I was contacted by the Managing Editor of
that paper, and given the opportunity to write a wine
column, which I graciously accepted.
Since the last entry, the immeasurable Samuel L. Evans,
III passed on. He was a kingmaker in the African American
world of the city of Philadelphia. I myself was a
beneficiary directly and indirectly of the chess moves that
he made, most notably as a member of his AFNA foundation.
One of his major taglines was “now if we could form a
coalition,” and while that is something that I didn’t learn
from him, it’s something that I have recognized ever since
I had the inkling to pursue my own entrepreneurial
endeavors. It’s something that I believe in doing, no
matter what I am working on; it’s far easier to divide
progress up in a parts, and have more people pushing the
tide, than just one.
In this, one of the things that I am attempting to do is
to connect with wine reps, and get them involved in helping
out with the success of this site. I mean, they sell wine,
and if they start to understand that if they take the time
to address an underserved market, that it will not only
work directly against their bottom line of their
commission, but that it can ultimately propel them
somewhere up the ladder in their own industry. So in this
venture, I am always to connect with wine reps, wine
distributors and wine importers, and when I have a good
tasting wine, I am not too shy to call, or email, the
distributor or even the producer and give them my
compliments.
What’s most interesting are the responses that I get.
Some people are genuinely interested, while others give you
the nice conversation one day, which they can easily brush
aside with a couple of emails, or simply not following
through at all. And in some cases where they are [somewhat
and slightly] interested in what I am saying, I sometimes
have to get them focused on what I am doing, not the starry-
eyed eager beaver attitude of what could happen if they had
the next Cristal. Here is on such exchange that took place
after I approached one rep (a nice guy by the way) with one
asset to the site which could help him… or so I thought.
My initial approach:
XXXX,
I've been thinking, and I am interested in your feedback on
this one.
One of the things that I want to do in addition to
reviewing wines is to allow people to find out where they
can purchase the wine. While this might seem somewhat
daunting, it's actually great for the wine reps, and maybe
I can also post information about the wine reps on the site
as well. The first thing is that I of course need to taste
wines that are on the site, but from there, I can actually
take a csv/txt file with the basic information about the
wines (grapes, sparkling, country, alcohol percentage, ava,
price, name, producer, bottler, vineyard, quality) and
another file of where they can get the wines at (store
name, address, city, state, zip, phone number) and post
that to the site.
Additionally, as you get new wines, I could review and
put them up on the site, and even send out information to
the members that you have something new.
Let me know what you think
His response:
Hi Zachary,
I don't want to be blunt, but I think you are trying to
re-invent the wheel. Wine Spectator, Enthusiast, Tanzer
and Parker to name a few all have sites with HUGE databases
full of reviews, pointers, scores, where-to-buy, etc., most
of which will refer to the wineries website(s). Also,
places like Canals also have a similar SQL database in
place and it's updated quite often as part of their
thriving internet business. They do a very large internet
business from that tiny store. For the sheer love of wine,
you may be able to get something going, I'm not sure how
profitable it will be for you but what the hell, give it a
shot!!!!.
I wish you worlds of success, your attitude alone may
get you there!
My response:
Thanks for the feedback. I guess being from PA keeps you
somewhat cut off from how the rest of the wine world does
things ;-)
I am not looking at this [presently] as being a big
moneymaker; I am really more interested in the television
offshoot of it, but I would still like to get the members
engaged in finding out more, especially from the people in
the industry (those reps, distributors and what not), which
is something that I don't think any site does so far. I
did briefly take a look at Tanzer's site and read about him
on Forbes.com, however, the difference with me is that I am
targeting a group that no one else has taken the time to
develop and market to.
We'll see what happens
His next email:
Hi Zachary,
I was thinking about your angle on this whole wine
thing. It seems to me that my African Am buddies have a
decidedly different taste than do my white, Indian and
Asian friends. Maybe an angle on differing tastes by
culture? Indian's are for the most part, non-drinkers, but
the one's who do imbibe have a much different palate than
do Asians, or other Americans of difffering cultures. Even
among whites, depending on national origin, and such, they
have extremely different preferences for wines. I think
this may be an exciting new angle to take and I will be
happy to help u provide a selection based upon cultural
preference. How does that sound for an new angle? Let me
know if this might work for you and I see a website in the
future called "Cultural Preferences, The Wine Angle" We
can goof on some of the sterotypes that beset all of our
specific cultures and their interesting preferences for
liquor and wine. (The young Black guy who buys an Old Ides
40, the old white guy who buys a couple of bottles of Jack
Daniels 50 ML, the Asian guy who guys a quart of Sake,
etc. The humor to be had is immeasurible) That is the
juice of life.
This is a fresh, new approach that may be fascinating
for some folks to look at. It may be a home run. A
perfect example is NUVO, a new liquer that is in the market
and seems to be totally embraced by the rap culture. It's
very expensive, but since Diddy likes it, it's a hit. Big
money in this one, but it was originally intended for white
women, and it's doing ok there, but the AF AM is huge with
this stuff. What I'm saying is don't just focus on AF AM,
go the the big hit, with Mexican, Russian, Puerto Rican,
Cuban, Italian, Polish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and
focus on NEW immigrants. They move here, but they don't
have their national beverages that they had in the "old
country". A great example is Cachaca, the national liquor
of Brazil. It hasn't caught on yet really, but will soon.
Let's find another cachaca. So many cultures, so little
time my friend. I was at a party last night and pulled
out your card and we went to most of your sites. We
figured you were a pretty smart guy with a mission. My
friends are some serious folks, not just regular schmucks.
We have decided that you will be successful because of your
intense dedication and talent.
My response:
Good morning,
I am glad that you liked the sites and thanks for the
compliments.
First, when you say Indians, do you mean Native
Americans or East Indians, because the latter are still
technically Asians.
Second, if you look at the bottom of most pages of my
site, it has the mission statement, which states that we
are trying to expose African Americans [and others] to
wines...
While everyone might tend to have different leanings
culturally, that is not to say that that's the only tastes
that people like by culture. That's the initial mistake
that marketers make when addressing certain groups, which
means that while right on one hand, they are totally wrong
on the other. I know a slew of African American
professionals that like dry wines, which is not typically
the African American palate. Also, that would then suggest
that all women love fru-fru drinks. When that happens, you
tend to miss out on many things.
The reality is that for the most part, the culinary
experiences of Americans is pretty much biased with slants
of race, class, and nationality... and this is the
problem. An example of this is the fact that salsa became
such a heralded condiment within the last ten years, but
for the most part, people in Mexico and many South American
countries have been using it for centuries. The same can
be said for chipotle. What people are "discovering" now is
what other people that should have been more inclusive of
influences from around the world were too biased to
actually accept as something that they could pawn off as
classy and charge exorbitant prices for. It is only with
the past 30 years that wines from Spain and South America
have been making a serious entry into the US, and we have
an overinflated yearning for wines from France.
If you look around on the web, most interesting is that
BlackPlanet.com, which really pulls in a lot of urban-
minded African American, is owned by a Chinese firm
(meaning the people are Chinese, but it's not based in
China). I could not effectively guess the palates of other
peoples, nor would I really try to address that without a
slew of research and experiences. In as much, you'll find
that while people in certain countries traditionally eat
certain foods, that is more of a result of what's available
there, and that when people emigrate to other places, they
also start to eat things that are not of their culture.
You'd be also wise to know that white people consume
more malt liquor in the US than do black people. And that
the capital of cognac consumption in the world is Detroit,
where it's consumed by African Americans, and whites [and
others] that have been influenced by them. Now, this last
point addresses the fact that more people are influenced by
what African Americans do in certain parts of the American
experience, and that resounds more than anything else.
With regards to that, I am addressing your reference to
NUVO, and how it's becoming a drink that is purchased in
enmasse by [a subset] of the African American community.
While some African American celebs can influence a
percentage of the population, they don't necessarily
influence all of it, and the highest amount of disposable
income is held by those over 40 years old; this group
requires a mature marketing approach that doesn't play in
to certain stereotypes or buffoonery.
You'll also find out that when people come here, they
still bring their own drinks, and that the crossover speed
is very slow; it's taken how many years for some big
companies to address the Cuban tastes of mojitos and lime?
And for these companies, the overall result will be that
they will have more failures than successes (lime tinted
beer?).
The key in America is to get people to try things of
other cultures, and not to stereotype people or the
beverages they produce. For years, California wines were
looked at with disdain. People are now discovering the
beauty of wines from Chile, Argentina, Australia and New
Zealand. I have had a Chardonnay from China that was
great, and have tasted Slovenian wine as well. I would
love to try wines from every country in the world. While
in college, I usually drank beer from around the world; San
Miguel (Philippines); Negro Modelo, Tecate, Dos Equis
(Mexico), Kronenbourg (France); Xingu (Brazil), and the
list goes on and on. Friends used to stop by to see what
new stuff I had and to try a taste. I have gotten people
to purchase anywhere from a single bottle of wine to
several cases based on a quick conversation with them in a
wine store; and these were people that I only met while
shopping for wine. I love meeting people like you when I
am out in the pursuit for a new taste; because of you, I
picked up two bottles that I might have not tried for
months, if ever I tried them at all. I love conversations
with wine reps and with restaurant owners and employees, as
we see what's on their wine lists which might interest me,
and in those tete-a-tetes, I develop new associations and
friendships. And while most African Americans might not
have the charisma and boldness to step forth into the world
of wine like me, and challenge some of the conventions and
attitudes not only in regards to the world of wine, but
also towards the African American influence in it, there
exists the need for someone to not only bridge those two
divides, but to also act as an icebreaker and middleman. I
am not saying that I should be the only one, but that I
will do my part.
Right now, I am interested in focusing on wines, not
other drinks, because mainly I only drink wine and beer.
While wine doesn't have the highest ROI, it still is
something that is more stable, and comes at you with
sincerity, not pomp and flair [for the most part].
Wouldn't it be great that within a year, I could taste
something of yours and immediately put in an order for 1000
cases?
While what I am trying is a very hard and undertaking
endeavor, what's most interesting is how serious people
take me on it, and how they either help me with it, or just
sit on the sidelines. No one realizes that those first
impressions and actions are the most important. Just think
about the people in the music industry who passed on both
Eminem and 50 Cent? I just hope that what I am doing is
not a flash in the pan thing, and I intend to give it a
good twelve months out of my own pocket. In two to three
months, I intend to start filming/producing a video version
of the site with an intended target of cable television.
That's a 13 to 22 episode block of shows, and while I
already have the episode themes chosen, I have not chosen
all of the wines yet to feature. And in addition to the
show, I intend to do a couple video clips each week on one
to two wines.
Now, let's do some business. ;-)
Followed by his response:
Thanks for the great response Zachary. I wasn't trying
to generalize, just wanted to demonstrate the need for a
forum. And by Indians, I meant Asians from India. Keep up
the good work and I will see you soon. I am also "that
guy" who goes out of his way to look for new and different
products to try. That's what got me hooked on Korean and
Japanese food and sparked my interest in Chinese herbology.
Summarily what you see is how one person sees what I
should be doing, versus what I am actually doing, and it is
attitude like these that don’t get us our foray and entry
into the world of wines like we need.
Well, as it is now, it seems like I might also be
writing for another website, which is a good thing. Now,
if I can just win the powerball.
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