The California wine industry is rich with characters, mavericks and risk-takers. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy meeting and learning about the pioneers who put California’s wine regions on the map.
One of those pioneers passed away recently—Robert Haas. He co-founded Tablas Creek Vineyard, establishing Paso Robles as a world-class wine region and introducing Americans to French-style Rhone varietals. New Yorkers might recognize the wine and liquor store his father owned—M. Lehmann (now Sherry-Lehmann). Haas worked with his father for years as an importer before heading west to start his own winery.
In 1994, when Haas teamed up with a legendary French wine-making family—the Perrins—to start a venture in California, most Americans were unfamiliar with red blends mixing varietals by the names of Syrah, Mourvedre, and Grenache. If the wine didn’t say Cabernet, Chardonnay or Merlot, consumers weren’t interested. Haas had to sell it, and he relied on the storytelling techniques he learned as an importer of French wines on the East Coast.
According to a Wall Street Journal story about Haas, his years of negotiating wine deals convinced him that wine was an emotional business. Haas had to learn to sell the story if he wanted consumers to change their habits. “You can’t just walk in, negotiate a price and walk off,” Haas said. “Buying wine is not like buying Tinker toys. You have to understand that the man just spent a whole year of his life making that particular crop and he’s not going to part with it without some show over it.”
The selling of wine carries valuable lessons for the sale of most any product. The people who make the product are true scientists—they study chemistry and viticulture. Making wine is highly technical, but buying wine is often an emotional decision. Several years ago, I was invited to speak at a conference of Master Sommeliers meeting in New Orleans. If you’ve seen the documentary, Somm, you’ll know how difficult it is to be named one of only 150 master somms in the U.S. It takes years of intense study and testing.
“I know a little about wine, but I’m not a Sommelier, I told the organizers of the meeting. “What could I possibly add?”
“We don’t need to know about wine; we need to know about storytelling,” she responded.
Story and wine pair perfectly. I learned that consumers are much more likely to buy a particular bottle of wine when they learn the story behind it: the people who make it, the history of the winery, or interesting stories of where it’s grown.