Lessons from California

Every great wine region has garnered respect for its vintages by growing quality fruit and developing winemakers serious about their craft. Those are certainly ‘givens’ but are truly only part of the story. In our area, as we seek to move from ‘regional respect’ to ‘national acclaim’ for our wines, there are many things we can learn from our friends in California.

First: Location: Napa is synonymous with ‘exceptional California wine.’ It has the state’s best soils and climate for producing great Cabernets. When you drive through the Valley, you will see lots of stores, hotels, restaurants, etc., but Napa County has enacted rules to protect against commercial development on the best-growing sites. We have our Lake Erie as well as the Grand River Valley and Conneaut Creek regions. As a community of growers and vintners, we need to continue to identify the best grapes we can grow, put them in the ground, and find ways to protect the most sensitive microclimates from over development and excessive commercialization.

Second: Education: Beginning with UC Davis, continuing with Fresno and Sonoma State and now extending throughout the California higher education system, Golden State students have access to exceptional instruction, forward-looking research, extension programming and technical training that has served as the underpinning of the modern California industry from its earliest days through today. We have the good fortune to have the Ohio State University programs in Wooster, at our Kingsville Station, and through research and extension supplied, in part, the state-funded Ohio Grape Industries Program. Most recently, with the launch of the Kent State Ashtabula Viticulture and Enology degrees, our industry will have its own pool of well-trained students to launch their own wineries and to serve our long-established ones as they expand and move onto the next generation of managers.

Third: Investment: In the ’70s Napa had only a handful of wineries. Today when going up Rte 29 and down the Silverado Trail, every year, literally hundreds of wineries attract millions of visitors to spectacular buildings and gorgeous grounds. It is fun to look at brochures from our region when Debonne’ Vineyards was just a tiny A-frame building, Ferrante’s Ristorante was a pizza place and Laurello’s was a roadside market. Our Vines and Wines Trail will soon have 25 beautiful wineries with state of the art production facilities and thousands of visitors flocking through our front doors every weekend.

Fourth: Marketing Strategy: California [often led by the brilliance of Robert Mondavi] spread the word about their emerging industry via wine tastings, festivals, good relationships with distributors and retailers, media placements, and more. Ohio has studied and copied many of their efforts….and frankly is leading the national industry in the areas of social networking and direct to consumer sales in tasting rooms. [Evidence: Ohio hosts the License to Steal Conference at the Geneva Lodge has been praised by Wines and Vines Magazine [the industry ‘Bible’] as the most effective wine marketing conference in the nation.]

Fifth: Community support: From the earliest days in its modern era, as the California industry emerged, the citizens of that state have always led the country in per capita consumption. Its restaurants have featured ‘only California,’ its ancillary industries like lodgers and shops have always adopted ‘winey’ themes. With support from our Visitors Bureau plus restaurants, lodgers, livery services, and more all across the state, we’re building our own ‘brand’ around grapes and wine.

We have a generation of work ahead, but we surely are well on our way to fulfilling the lessons learned from California’s wine industry…just watch us grow………….

For additional information: dwinchell@OhioWines.org.