New World Winery Equipment, LLC
You Deserve It! 10/10/2011
 
The right hand side of the winemaking country deserves great quality, service, and support from its vendors, too.

Too often, I am told a story by a customer that sickens, no mortifies me when I imagine what the repercussions would be for that vendor if he or she were located in Napa. My suspicion is that a customer service horror- story would travel up route 29 or the Silverado Trail so fast that no reasonable winemaker would ever buy from that person again.

OK, maybe it does happen out there, too. But isn't it logical that the lower density of wineries in a vast area like the eastern 40% of the U.S. makes it easier for a winery equipment, tank, cork, barrel, etc. scheister to keep going? I have heard the detailed descriptions of the challenges in viticulture and enology all over our territory for almost a decade now. It has become very clear that you wine producers in the East work harder for less at the end of the day and face more obstacles.

I look at it like its our duty as suppliers to make doing your job and doing business as painless as possible. I am personally and professionally committed to being better at representing and supporting all of the inputs to commercial wine manufacturing that we offer than the next guy. I hope I deliver on that philosophy from time to time.

"Reputation is not a thing that is earned by telling someone what you are going to do." -Henry Ford 
 
 
  Economic and Environmental Sustainability Practices of the Wine Industry.

This is food for thought on how the wine American wine industry can help the U.S. economy by being careful when they buy inputs to production.

We all know what the state of our nation is. Blame whoever or whatever you like. But we now have the ability to drive with the rear view mirror for a minute, so humor me on this. Would it have done   anything to help our economy if every winery and vineyard in the United States established a directive to their purchasing department (read: “promise yourself that you will try” ) to add American workers to their requirements for new equipment or supplies? You bet it would. And how many of your visitors would go back to work on Monday with a keener interest in buying American and being more conscious of their environmental impact if you stressed the fact that your wine was made with American fruit on American Equipment with a focus on helping the planet at the same time? Would your wine, which costs a little more than that imported factory wine, have more value than just the quality in the bottle when you could tell this story with it? 
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Do you think that part of the story of your wine should be about commitment to our natural and economic resources? How can that not help you to sell wine? How many families in America could we support if the entire industry got on board with this? What if the trend spread to other sectors in the economy? Would we not simply end up with a stronger industry on the whole?  

Some places to start:

Where are your labels printed? Was the paper recycled?

Do the cork trees live? Well yes. And are they printed, treated, packaged in the U.S.? Is YOUR cork company recycling corks?

Can you find the name of your must/ do all pump on a map of the U.S.?

Who coopered your barrels?

Was your basket press built in America? Really?

Where are your bottles made? What percentage of the glass was recycled?

Where are your tanks made?

Are you using solar or wind energy at the winery?

Do people sit on American made furniture in the tasting room?

What have you done this year to reduce/ reuse/ recycle?

Is it really about price? If the whole country is unemployed enough to drop your sales by 10%, did using imported equipment really save you money?

That’s all for now. Just please remember to ask your salesperson where it was made and require the companies who supply you to explain the origin of everything you buy.

Joe