Laura of Southern Glazers Wine and Spirits - Why Women Are Leading the Wine Revolution. Pt. 5

Forrest Kelly
00:00:00

Welcome. Welcome to The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast with Forrest Kelly.

Laura DePasquale
00:00:06

The other thing is, and this used to kill me 15 years ago, the main buyer of wine, the largest consumer wine podcast.

Forrest Kelly
00:00:18

Okay, Laura, going to take that multitasking talent you speak of, going to put it to the test here.

Now that you've seen the increased involvement of women in leadership roles within the wine and spirit industry, have you witnessed or seen a change in the way products are consumed and marketed?

Laura DePasquale
00:00:34

I think one of the things that women have brought to the industry that was much needed is the ability to think quickly and multitask. I'm making a huge generalization here, right.

But women have a lot on their plate, and I think with women in the business, we make decisions quickly and we can handle a lot of things at once. And as business has become faster and faster and faster, and that's really because of things like technology.

You know, one of the things that has changed the industry is the ability for accounts to order products online. Nothing replaces the ability of a sales consultant to walk into an account and pull a cork and taste that customer online.

You can't taste a new wine or a new spirit online. You can't.

You can read about it, you can get the pricing, you can actually even order it, but you can't taste it, and you can't hear the story, and nothing will ever replace that. But I think with women in the industry, we've been able to really push further.

The other thing is, and this used to kill me 15 years ago, the main buyer of wine, the largest consumer, are women. So why are men telling us what we want to buy?

And so as more and more women have gotten seats at the table, have become general managers of wineries, you've really seen a shift in the way wine is marketed, the way spirits are marketed. It's about the social aspect, the coming together. You know, the big program happening in October is come over October.

So all of the wine and spirits companies are marketing this idea. And it's not about let's go out and get drunk. It's about let's be social. Was the piece during COVID that we're still dealing with as an issue.

Our kids, just being with my mom, who's a senior, you know, her biggest issue is isolation and loneliness, lack of social contact. It really changed her. And so there's a social aspect to having a glass of wine with friends.

I'm in a book club, and part of the book club, when we get together every month, is not just about the book, it's about where we going most of the time?

We go out to a restaurant, you know, and we've got our favorites that we go to, and we order a bottle of wine and we catch up with each other and what's happening with kids or grandkids or our jobs or whatever. And then, of course, the book, speaking.

Forrest Kelly
00:02:53

Of storytelling, oh, I can see that storytelling definitely enhances the customer experience, especially when it comes to offering wines from small boutique wineries 100%.

Laura DePasquale
00:03:05

You'll often have customers, retailers and restaurateurs that specifically only want to work with small boutique wineries. They want to be the ones to come out and say, hey, you know, to be able to tell that story to their guest.

Right, sitting at the table to make that guest experience something special. So they'll specifically say, hey, you know, I've got this new wine, and it comes from this really tiny region in Sicily.

It's two brothers that took over the vineyards from the grandfather. The grandfather and the father used to just sell the grapes, and now these guys started making the wine like they want those stories.

So it's a very targeted market.

I think that there's, with the world being so big and the world being so complicated and business being so competitive, no matter what business that you're in, those points of difference, those personal stories, those connections are more important than ever for my division. We specifically target those customers and those accounts that are looking for those types of products.

And those tend to be the more Michelin star, Trendy, hip, James Beard chef, award winning restaurants.

So, yes, when you're talking about a wine program in a restaurant that's very large, it's important that that restaurant has a program that appeals to everybody, so that the person that doesn't want to deal with a sommelier or a waiter that loves to drink Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon has Keymas Cabernet Sauvignon on the list, because that's a great wine. But you've got the other customer walking into this restaurant that's had K, Ms.

K Renee Sauvignon, 25 times, and they want to try something different. And so they're looking to that restauranteur going, listen, I love this wine. It's a great wine. I drink it at home. But what do you have that's new?

What's different? And so we're really targeting that clientele, which has become bigger and more important. As the world has become flat and the world has become big.

People relate to that artisanal touch. So those stories really relate to people. It's not for every customer. It's not for every restaurant.

There is a large, growing contingent of restaurateurs that are specifically looking for that. Because to own a restaurant today, post Covid, is more difficult than ever, and the failure rate is higher than it's ever been.

And so for southern Glazer, being an established, stable, well financed, well run company, we're able to keep these small wineries alive. We pay our bills in time. We have the logistics to move their product.

We're not struggling to do that, and that is really important, especially in today's economy.

Forrest Kelly
00:05:45

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