Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2005 3:11 PM
Subject: Orangewood Wines News - 18

To Our Wine Aficionados,

Introduction

Sometimes we address strategic things, other times it’s all tactical.  June was the latter.  A couple of long term sales campaigns are paying off, but otherwise it has been a matter of keeping things pointed in the right direction.

Box Score

New Restaurants/bars: 3

New Retail outlets: 0

New Sales people:         -1

New Wineries:               0

Contents

New Locations

      Nello’s, Old Scottsdale

      Cowboy Ciao, Scottsdale

FioRita’s, Tucson

Upcoming Events

Sales Folk

Rambling

New Locations

Nello’s, Old Scottsdale

For quite a while, Nello’s has consisted of 4 locations, each run by one of the four Mei brothers.  Geno decided to sell his restaurant last year.  Another brother, Ray, decided to start an extra restaurant.  Ray and his wife, Marguerite, leased a location on 1^st Avenue just east of Scottsdale Rd.   To say they have been busy refitting the location would be like saying a marathon is a 26 mile stroll.  However, this new Nello’s is now open for business and they have some wonderful wines available by the glass and by the bottle!

Cowboy Ciao, Scottsdale

      We have been working to get into this place since forever.  I tried back in 2001; Alison tried; Dick tried; Steven Young, owner of Young’s Vineyard, tried about a year ago.  What is it that Beth has that the rest of us didn’t?  A sale!  Our first placement is for the 2001 Frank Family Cabernet Sauvignon.  Get in there and ask why they don’t have any other wines from Orangewood -especially Young’s.

FioRita’s, Tucson

      Craig tells me that he has been going to this place for years.  I happened to be with Greg (see rambling) when he delivered to this drive through Italian food restaurant.  If Craig likes it, it’s worth visiting – especially as they now have some of our wine.

Upcoming Events - http://www.orangewoodwines.com/wine-events.htm

These events are usually described on our web-site.

Sales Folk

I have done so much adding and subtracting from the wine sales people that I’m sure that you have lost track, so here is a list of the people selling wines for Orangewood.  The order is based on start date:

Richard Corles – I still have a few accounts, and I enjoy dealing with them.

Dick Kirkpatrick – started in mid 2002.  Some of you have thought that this was me using a nick name.  Not so!  Dick is his own distinct character and has the first name “The”.  Dick grew up in Auburn, California, and has been a champion of the Sierra Foothills focus that we have.

Bill Kolkhorst – started in early 2003.  Bill continues to work full time for BMW, but has done an outstanding job of developing the Arrowhead AJ’s to be one of our lead accounts.

Rob Haugen – started in mid 2004.  He called me just as a help wanted ad was about to appear in the local Cave Creek paper.  It was meant to be.  Rob focuses on the NE part of the Valley.

Craig Stancliff – started in late 2004.  I ran into him at Tom Hamilton’s phoenixwine store.  Craig is based in Tucson and that is his primary territory.  He is a consultant who represents other wine distributors. 

Jim Blean – (Pronounced blain) I had been trying to get Jim to sell wine for me for a long time, but he made his first official sale in February 2004.  He focuses on Prescott, Jerome and Sedona.  He also keeps a horse on our property so he can feel at home shoveling processed hay with me.

Beth Reiswig – started in early 2005.  I ran into her at Tom Hamilton’s phoenixwine store.  (Note to self, must hang out more at Tom’s).  Beth is primarily responsible for central and southern Scottsdale.  Beth also represents other distributors. 

Rambling

So Greg, our now 84 year old driver, is heading to the warehouse at 6:15 am for a Tucson run.  I am planning to meet Greg to give him samples to take to Craig, so I am heading towards the warehouse also.  Greg calls me (cell phones are sometimes wonderful).  Richard, says Greg, I’m halfway to the warehouse, but…I’ve just been rear ended by a truck.  Greg was fine but our Scion xB had given its all to protect him from the 15 mph collision.  Fortunately, I am driving my in-laws’ van while they are out of town, and it needs a run!  Don’t worry, I tell Greg, I’ll do the warehouse pickup and see you soon.  I didn’t know this route, but if you head south on 51^st Ave it goes around South Mountain and the Estrella Mountains on the west side, thus avoiding the morning rush on Interstate 10.  The shortcut goes through the Gila River Indian Reservation and hits I-10 at Riggs Road – well south of the traffic snarl.  I meet Greg just as the xB is loaded on the tow truck and the policeman is closing his notebook.  We direct the tow guy to the Tempe Toyota dealer and follow him there.  It turns out that Greg had been avoiding a dog on the road.  The F150 truck was swerving to avoid the same dog but in doing so didn’t notice that Greg had now stopped altogether for a puppy.  Metalwork apart, people, dog and puppy all survived.  Laurie and I were scheduled to be rafting down the Colorado River two days later.  Fortunately we managed to get the xB totaled and a new one ordered before we left.

 On our return from vacation I got to deal with the wine dinners that Ninetta’s Passion Bistro had arranged with Vino Con Brio.  Vino Con Brio (wine with passion) and Ninetta’s (food with a passion) thought that all this passion was too much of a coincidence and arranged a cooperative effort.  I signed up to get the wine into Arizona for the events.  No problem.  I had a shipment of Frank Family Chardonnay and Vino Noceto wines lined up to be shipped from Frank Family warehouse central (not our usual pickup point).  Anne Matson, marketing director of Vino Con Brio, daughter of the owners and allegedly a former hooker (in the rugby sense) arranged to get the wine to the same warehouse as the Frank Family wine.  Vino Noceto did, too.  When the shipment showed up at our Phoenix warehouse, however, only the Frank Family wine was there.  Oops!  So we lost our week of schedule pad.  Plan B.  Send our usually reliable trucking company back to try again.  On Wednesday, two days before the event, I knew they had picked up something.  I was hoping it included the Vino Con Brio stuff.  I met the truck at the warehouse on Friday, the day of the dinner, and was relieved to find the wines were on top of the pallet.  Phew!

I rambled on about logistics for a while there because I usually let you all imagine that such things always go smoothly.  Just so you know.

So with all this driving I got to hear one of my favorite songs.  You can guess who it was as it has prominent use of Temple blocks and includes the immortal lines:

“I’m just searching for clues at the scene of the crime.”

“I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do.”

“It’s hard to leave when you can’t find the door.”

So that’s enough rambling for me this month, hopefully it was enough for you too.  Let me know.

Ciao,

Richard and Laurie

Richard (newsletter writer) and Laurie Corles (editor)

Orangewood Consulting LLC

480.488.4794 or 602.410.3774