The Death of a Winery

It seems that many of us (myself included) have this rose-colored picture of owning a winery.  That of a casual, fun-loving lifestyle of picnicking in vineyards, going to lavish parties, being treated like a rock star, and hosting grand feasts at your estate where the wine flows aplenty.  Now, wine country marketing certainly contributes to this perception, but the reality is that owning a winery is costly and risky and requires a lot of hard work.

This is why I was somewhat surprised but extremely disappointed when I received the email from Peter Young back in August.  Peter is the proprietor of Grey Stack Cellars, a fantastic, small-production winery located in obscure and remote Bennett Valley in Sonoma County.  The first line of Peter's email read: "It is with considerable regret and a great deal of sadness that I announce that Grey Stack Cellars is going on a 'hiatus' from wine production for the indefinite future."  Boom.

Grey Stack's wines are excellent.  They make (made) probably my favorite Sauvignon Blanc, as well as killer Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Grenache and Syrah.  Fairly recently, they had earned some respectable scores from Wine Spectator in the high-80s and lower-90s.  Their product was, in my opinion, reasonably priced.  So, why is Grey Stack closing its doors?

As Peter said in his email, "turns out it takes more than good wine to make a financially successful winery."  He goes on to explain that Grey Stack needed to grow its production substantially in order to survive, but first needed to grow its direct sales percentage in order to grow.  Meet the difficult chicken-and-egg proposition that small wineries face:  wineries need to produce more wine in order to sell more wine in order to grow revenues and invest in growing the business.  Oftentimes distributors aren't interested in picking up "boutique" wines because the small supply just isn't worth their time (I think there is a real sub-market opportunity here, but that's another blog).  So, small producers are forced to rely on direct sales from their tasting rooms or on their websites (to those states that allow it).  In an out-of-the-way place like Bennett Valley, I can imagine this is hard to do.

I only know of Grey Stack because, a few years back while trying to get into the wine businesses, a marketing guy sent me a case of Grey Stack in hopes that I would pick it up as a boutique distributor.  Believe me, if my enterprise had taken off, I would be slinging Grey Stack today.  I immediately joined the mailing list and became a devoted customer.  I enjoyed Peter's dry sense of humor, which he used on his website, mailing list correspondence, and on his wine labels (one year he declared on a label that the vintage had contributed to his receding hair line).

Grey Stack has now sold all of its remaining wine inventory, including bulk juice, so the best chance you might have to try some (unless you come to my house) is finding it online.  A quick check at www.wine-searcher.com showed that a few Grey Stack wines are available for only slightly inflated prices.

So, soon I'll be toasting Grey Stack with Grey Stack.  I hope the "hiatus" is only temporary.  The world - at least my world, anyway - was a better place with Grey Stack Cellars in it.