Rethinking the role of Wine Professionals

Thank you all for joining us again, and for any new readers, welcome and we hope you enjoy this conversation. This is a newsletter that aims to share ideas and knowledge within our wine community, to help each other and grow as a community.

We discuss controversial topics, that others are scared to talk about, because they NEED to be spoken about if we are to improve. The opinions are those of the authors - me today and every second edition, with guests authors every other edition - and we are not necessarily right. These are our opinions, please share your own. I'm trying to create "TED for the Wine Industry", or at least a Think Tank. Charlie Munger famously said:

"We both insist on a lot of time being available almost every day to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. We read and think."

If Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger needed time to think, maybe we all should take more time to stop and think.

OK, let's get into today's topic. If you like this article, please make sure you subscribe to receive future editions each fortnight.

Rethinking the role of Wine Professionals

I’m going to start with a story. Recently I was talking on the phone with a friend in Brazil. We are both fighting to increase demand for Australian wines in Brazil, so we ended up having a very long chat. He has worked in the wine education system in Brazil for 10 years, and is now exploring the business side as a wine buyer for the one of the most premium importers, plus consulting for some of the largest wine companies in Brazil. He told me:

“I thought the wine education system was everything that the wine industry needs. When you are inside this bubble, it is everything you see. It wasn’t until I stepped outside of this that I noticed the wine education system, and its impact on the industry as a whole, is just a small drop in a vast ocean”.

This made me reflect, and I can’t stop thinking about his words. In my humble opinion, I think that most wine professionals have the wrong mindset.

The Wine Industry

The wine industry is a very traditional world with so many different entities, each with their own unique focus. Yet one section of the wine industry really stands out – and I do not think it is helping the industry. I think it’s time we RETHINK the role of wine professionals.

Let’s start by looking at different stages of the value chain:

• GROWERS – First off the ranks we have the growers. There are many grape growers who are essentially farmers, and then there are wineries who grow their own fruit. We will consider the latter in a minute. Grape growers are typically concerned with one thing – running a profitable BUSINESS. They’re doing everything they can to grow the best possible fruit, but this is so that they can charge more for it, to make more money and improve their business.
• PRODUCERS – These are typically wineries, but let’s include bottling facilities, equipment hire companies… basically anyone who’s operations contribute to taking grapes from the vine and converting them into wine. These companies are focussed on BUSINESS, providing a great service / making great wine, selling their service or product for more than it costs them to make it, and ensuring the continuity of the business.
• DISTRIBUTORS – This includes local distributors, logistics companies and anyone involved in import or export. Let’s even include wholesalers in here too. These companies are also concerned with running a quality, profitable BUSINESS.
• RETAILERS – This includes anyone who sells wine to the final consumer. This can include the winery itself, bottle shops / vinotecas, bars, restaurants, hotels… Again, these companies are focussed on their BUSINESS.

and then finally, we have

• WINE PROFESSIONALS – For some reason, most wine professionals are focussed on EDUCATION. Their primary driver is to learn more and more, and often, because this is their primary goal, they give off a sense of arrogance, that anyone who knows less is ignorant, and that they therefore do not “deserve” to drink this wine that they are too ignorant to be able to fully appreciate. It’s like we develop blinkers, and lose the ability to think beyond what we are taught, which dulls our creativity and ability to explore other areas (I know, because this happened to me, too). Most wine professionals do not consider themselves as a BUSINESS, and therefore are concerned with their next paycheck, and not on how to improve their service. Increasing their wealth is only thought of in terms of increasing their salary.

The Wine Education System

I believe that wine education providers also think of themselves as BUSINESSES, but the whole ecosystem that they exist in is so unique, that they don’t operate in the same way as other businesses. Largely due to the way many wine professionals behave, the wine education system has become so elite. Like the chicken and the egg, I do not know which came first, but now it serves both the education providers and wine professionals to continue this dance.

Obtaining your wine education has become extremely difficult. It is expensive, arduous and has a deliberately low pass rate. According to the Institute of Masters of Wine, since the first exam in 1953, only 507 people have passed to become Masters of Wine. That’s an average of 7 per year! Can you imagine Harvard or Cambridge only passing 7 students per year?!

Now not everyone is attempting to become an MW, but even the more common courses are expensive, unnecessarily difficult and have very low pass rates. In Brazil, for example, it is typically only doctors, lawyers and business owners who have the money to invest in these courses, making the wine industry very exclusive - for only a small part of the population, who would never work in the wine industry because it pays so little. Many who do work in the wine industry can’t afford these courses, or make massive sacrifices to do so. Personally, I struggled so much in Argentina to pay for my first wine course; I am not from a rich family, so I worked during the day in a winery, and spent my nights in clubs promoting Fernet-Branca, just to be able to live and pay for my wine studies.

It's time to change this system. We need to make knowledge more accessible, easier to understand and digest, we need to learn to listen to customers, and pay attention to the behaviours that have changed dramatically. It’s time to #RETHINK wine education.

I feel the entire education system is ripe for major disruption, and I think the wine education system needs to pay attention and be ready to change and adapt quickly. I could go on all day about this, but let’s get back to the point.

A Wine Business System

My own eyes were opened, like my friend in Brazil, when I stepped outside the bubble and started my own business. Suddenly, because I started a wine “business”, I became aware of all sorts of BUSINESS things. Like how important it is to be inclusive, the way we communicate, that selling is more important than being the smartest person in the room (in business you’re generally much better in a room full of people much smarter than yourself), etc.

In business, if you’re not focussed on the customer, providing the best service, expanding your network, etc, then you won’t BE in BUSINESS for long. The wine industry is facing its biggest challenge in decades. Another thing I have learned with my business mindset, is that “challenge” can also be spelled O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y. I was listening to Seth Godin recently, and he said:

“When in doubt, we selfishly shout. When in a corner, we play small ball, stealing from our competition instead of broadening the market”. -Seth Godin

Now is the opportunity of a lifetime. The whole world is being reshaped as we come out of COVID. We do not need to maintain unnecessary barriers to keep wine “elite”. We need to take a business mindset, make wine as open and inviting as possible, and welcome this new generation of wine drinkers with open arms.

Imagine if you could only buy a smartphone if you understood how it worked. How many people do you know that would have one? What happened instead? Apple let everyone have one, and showed people how fun they are, so what did the first people with iPhones do? They ran and showed their friends, and then their friends wanted one. Now almost everyone we know has a smartphone, and it’s not just Apple that benefitted. Other phone producers benefitted, app producers benefitted, the whole industry benefitted, and consumers are (arguably) all better off.

Why can’t the wine industry do that? Show people how fun wine can be. Let them tell their friends how great it was, how much it enhanced their meal, or added to their romantic night. Let’s show the world that wine is for everyone!