Aired April 25, 2009

As you may know, I just returned from NYC right now for my appearance on Wine Library TV with host Gary Vaynerchuk which was filmed on Thursday. The show is “in the can” as WE say in the show biz. I don’t have a firm date on when this will air but it should be this week viewable at  http://tv.winelibrary.com/2009/04/ (episode #659) It is viewable anytime after he posts it. Overall, I think it went fairly well. I had prepared myself for the fact that he wasn’t going to like the wines very much. I still felt that the exposure would be good for the brands even if he panned them. I am certain that I will see some positive effects from this one way or another.

Here are a few things that you should know while watching this episode that may seem odd without knowing what is behind them. I had been very nervous the couple of days prior to it. He had been having some heavy hitter guests on recently and my credentials were not in line with them. He also had his father on the day before and the show was an instant classic. Also, he has been reviewing mostly obscure boutique wines and I knew many of his followers were all going to revolt at the sight of a Pizza Vino bottle. But yesterday, due to my concentrating all day on the journey to get there, I really wasn’t nervous. I got to the store about an hour early and just wine shopped and waited for Gary to show up. I met two other guys that came in from LA who were also filming a show. One was the editor of a beverage magazine called, “The Mutineer”. After talking a while, they made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. We agreed that I would wear a sticker during my taping promoting their magazine in exchanged for a full page ad. This explains my wearing a sticker proclaiming “I’ve been Mutinized”.

I had ordered a couple of pizzas to taste with the wines from a local shop. They arrived just after 2; but Gary was not there yet. I wanted to go put them in the office where the show shoots on the 3 rd floor. I walked up the first flight of stairs before I realized that I need the elevator to get to the third. I go to get on the elevator on the second floor and this is where and when I met Gary. He immediately knew who I was and told me that he needed a few minutes. I had ordered two pizzas; one pepperoni and one a mushroom and green pepper pizza. I had done my homework and watched a previous pizza episode from his show where he declared that was his favorite. He checked the box just before we sat down to record and he was happy to see this. If you have watched the show before, you know that he has a chalkboard behind him with a unique message for each show. He wrote on the chalkboard for mine, “Mushrooms Rule”(or something to this effect). Just before we went live, his father walked in and reminded Gary that it was Passover and that eating pizza (leavened bread) was not allowed. Gary argued with him for a minute but decided that it would be embarrassing for all parties if we ate it and his father came in during the taping and started a religious debate. The pizza stayed in the box. This is unfortunate as many of you know that my wines really do taste better with pizza. The topic of pizza toppings never came up. It later occurred to me that “Mushrooms Rule" may be taken out of context . Maybe I will win over some Grateful Dead fans.

Just prior to shooting, he asks me if I was sure that I wanted to do this. He explained that his review of the wines had to be true and that if the wines scored 58 that was how he was going to rate them. He said that I seemed like a nice guy and he didn’t want to crush my hopes and dreams with a bad score. I told him that I thought that he might be pleasantly surprised by the wines and that I would take my medicine either way. I had checked the wines for corkiness just before and they were ok. I could tell that they weren’t "singing" though as they sometimes did. I was prepared for mediocre scores.

We started with a little Browns talk and sports in general before getting into the wines.

If you have watched his show before, you know that he tastes the wines warm; even the white ones. We start with Once Bitten Riesling. He actually was kind to the Once Bitten Riesling. Do not drink that wine warm. I would have given it a 75 myself. He gave it an 80 and later downgraded it to a 79. I felt my face turning red at this point and realized that I wasn’t talking much. I didn’t want to pile on my own wines but I didn’t want to lose credibility with him by defending this wine. I just wanted to move on. The Pizza Vino Pinot Noir was a really odd. I was actually expecting him to hate the it based on its normal candied/fake fruit aromas. It smelled like nothing. It actually tasted pretty good. I believe he gave it an 82. I might have gone 83-84. The Cabernet was the only one that performed as expected. It smelled right, it tasted good; though the night before I had popped one that was the best that I have had in a long time. I wanted to cork it back up and carry it with me. Damn airlines. He gave it an 84 and said that he would buy that wine for his store. I think he called it a solid effort for the price. Note that when he is talking pricing for these wines and is talking about them being $6.99; they probably would be in NJ. They have volume buying deals and very low markups because they allow competition unlike Ohio.

The one main thing that he kept bringing the conversation back to was the concept of branding first and finding the wine, later noting that his viewers might be put off by this. I told him that most brands are doing the exact same thing as me, they just hide it better. This comment prompted him to ask if I felt like the guy who told the three year old that there was no Santa Claus. I disclose this in cases anyone was going to let their kids watch Uncle Joe on TV. The topic of negotiant (me) versus estate bottled wine is discussed. He showed Buckeye wine and Teacher’s Pet. I tried unsuccessfully to duck the OSU questions. I hope this doesn’t bite me in the ass. I got a good plug in for Steve Ouch the creator of the Teacher's Pet label. I figure that he is going to be on the road with the book; maybe he will return the favor.

We close with my question of the day. I was planning on asking a question about what you like to drink with pizza. Since we never even opened the boxes, I decided to switch it up. I am not sure how I worded this (or anything else that came out of my mouth) but it was something like this. Given the choice between buying a mediocre estate grown, estate bottled wine or a better one from a negotiant brand, which would you choose? I tell you this in advance so you can start working on your answers to post comments after it airs. Please do so. He rates his shows by how many people comment. I kind of called my shot by saying that I would break his record. The night or day after it airs please tell others to do so. They don’t even need to watch the whole show which runs at least 20 minutes.


Overall, it was a great experience. Gary couldn’t have been more gracious. He seems like a great guy. There are a hundred things that in hindsight I wish that I could have said. I also realized that I rarely looked at the camera. I am sure that I am going to hate it after I see it. It will probably come off as a conversation between two wine industry guys. The masses are going to kill me on the comments. I really don’t care. They can only not buy my wine…which they probably aren’t doing now anyway. But 80,000 people watch that show and about 300 usually comment. I am banking on the fact that of the other 79,700, I made more than a few curious to go try Pizza Vino, Once Bitten, Buckeye and Teacher’s Pet.

 

The best of everything,

 

Joe Zaucha - President

JZ Wine Company

631 Chestnut Blvd.

Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221

330-945-6668

 

1984 - Big Brother

2010 - Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

For those of you who are not familiar with me (Joe Zaucha) or my company (JZ Wine Company), I am a one man wine business based out of a home office in a small town in Ohio. I am a wine broker, importer and negociant. Most of my business comes from creating uniquely labeled, value priced wine brands and then marketing and selling them to distributors in select markets. I contract various wineries to produce, bottle and label several wines that I sell under my own trademarked brand names. Pizza Vino, Once Bitten Riesling, Teacher’s Pet Chardonnay and Frost Bitten Ice Riesling are my current brands. Some of these have been and are still available in a few or even multiple states. They all are available in Ohio. They are particularly popular in Northeastern Ohio. With their popularity being centered only miles from the PA border, I have always been interested in selling into PA; but the barriers to entry to that market have always been very high. They declined Pizza Vino despite the accolades that it had received and the success that it was enjoying in Ohio just miles away.

With my latest brand “Frost Bitten Ice Riesling” selling well in its few months of existence in Ohio, I have been seeking out other distributors for it. With this in mind, I thought it was time to solicit the PA Liquor Control Board one more time as a potential customer. I was actually glad to see that they had just changed their procedures for new label submission on February 2, 2010. Attached here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/yhgmyr5. I was optimistic that they improved the system to make it easier for small suppliers like me to make new items available to the consumers that were already crossing the border to buy them in Ohio. My optimism was fueled by their mission statement:

“To seek out best practices and translate them into a profitable and efficient business model that strives to meet the needs and preferences of the beverage alcohol consumer.”

I read on into the document to find out the specifics of these “best practices”. Here is what you need to do if you wish to sell wine into PA.

First, you have a Federal TTB license. I have that…check.

Next, I read that “A vendor’s permit fee of $265.00 and a filing fee of $700.00 are required when submitting the completed application.”

Lastly, “A non-refundable listing proposal fee of $150.00 per item, per size, in the form of a check made payable to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. This fee covers all of our administrative costs in reviewing the feasibility of the product, and getting the product ordered and into store distribution. Payment of the listing fees does not guarantee the listing of your product.”

Let’s recap this. For the right to bring an item to the table for consideration to be listed; you must pony up $965 in fees. Then, you need to pay another $150 per item to be to even be evaluated. The average brand that has 4 SKUs is looking at a total of $1565 in fees with no assurance of ever being accepted or ordered.

After rereading the Mission Statement, I recall the slogans for Big Brother in the book 1984:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

As far as I can tell there is one word in the mission statement that is actually true: Profitable.  It is profitable for the state, for sure. But also profitable for the few mega suppliers that will benefit from the enormous barriers to entry to compete with their mass produced, overpriced, inferior quality wines.

If anyone in the world believes that the Pennsylvania Liquor control Board actually “strives to meet the needs and preferences of the beverage alcohol consumer”; I am guessing that you believe that ignorance is strength as well.

 

Best regards,

Joe Zaucha

JZ Wine Company

As the name suggests, Teacher’s Pet is a tribute to all the teachers of the world.  The wine is as ripe and delicious as the apple pictured on the front label, and with hints of buttery oak, it goes perfectly with seafood or chicken.  It’s also a great companion for grading papers or a deck party during summer break.  If you are a teacher, if you’re married to, friends with, or if you have ever been in the same room with one, you should consider trying a bottle or two.  We’re sure you will agree that Teacher’s Pet Chardonnay deserves high marks.

 

Teacher’s Pet Chardonnay seeks to attract Chardonnay lovers whose palates have grown tired of the over sugared Yellow Tail or the overpriced Kendall-Jackson. Teacher’s Pet Chardonnay delivers a high quality balanced wine from California in an eye catching package that tastes great and retails for only $9.99.  The provocative label art was provided by Steve Ouch, the author and artist of the book, “Steampotville”.

 

Teachers are one of the best specific demographics as a target market for Chardonnay. Consider these facts. There are over 8 million teachers, over the age of 21, in the United States.  Roughly 70% of all teachers are women.  Chardonnay is easily the best selling varietal with an even larger margin when you only look at wine purchased by women.  Women purchase nearly 60% of all wine. 

 

Teacher’s Pet is the latest offering from Ohio-based JZ Wine Company. Other wine brands owned and marketed by JZ Wine Company include: Pizza Vino, Once Bitten and Buckeye.  For more information, contact Joe Zaucha at (330)-945-6668 or email joezaucha@jzwineco.com

I will use this website to update those who are interested on the progress of Teacher's Pet wines.  The first item of the line will be Teacher's Pet Chardonnay.  The very interesting and unusual label was created by Steve Ouch. His claim to fame is that he is the author and artist who created the children's book Steampotville (www.steampotville.com).  His unique use of photo manipulation techniques led me to contract his services for this label. 

As it stands today, I am still evaluating samples of wine to be bottled.  I have one that I like quite a bit and would not be disappointed at all if I went with it; though there are few more that I need to taste before pulling the trigger.  I am hoping to have product available fore sale by June or July.  I will keep you all updated.

Cheers,

JZ

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