“Some people confuse this grounded sense of the work/personal mission with ‘Sales Training.’ Sales training is like giving someone a drink of water in the middle of the desert. It might feel good, but without heart, you’re still lost, and you are going to be thirsty again very soon.”

“It’s sobering to think back on all my years of selling wine and wondering how many times I was asked by a guest, “Colin, what would you do?” Not so many I’m ashamed to say.”

“Will the human element disappear? No more Wine Educators? Actually, I believe that some of the very best wine hosts will survive for a while, but as a luxury.”

“People used to come to the Wine Country and buy our seeds with just a prompt of a nice view and a club discount. Those days are over. If we want to be businesses that survive the receding wave of wine consumption, we should be thinking less about the seeds and more about the lawn.”

It’s no coincidence that rookie wine hosts are taught to ask where else a customer has tasted on their trip so far.  The answer immediately speaks volumes.  Do they have money, do they have access, are they searching out the cool and cultish, are they wine focused, or are they ‘wine tourists’ wandering aimlessly around Wine Country?  Who is their wine tribe? 

“Someone asked me recently, “Why is it so busy in Napa during harvest?”  It seemed a rather obvious question at first, but then you start to think about it and it merits answering.  What is the ‘Shoal Think’ behind this phenomenon?”

“For those of us who work in the business it is an irony that we often can’t afford to buy the things that we laud, at the prices we offer them. This can inhibit sales for those on the tasting room front lines.”

“The first thing that I noticed was that people parking their cars and going in seemed a little over dressed.  At a wine industry event, you normally have to groom that ‘look.’  It’s like you might have just come from the vineyard or cellar, but you might also be going to the French Laundry for lunch.”

“Some people come to the wine country to celebrate, some come to mark a moment in time, something achieved or something lost. Many come with hidden wounds, and we are there to listen and apply the salve of care, in the form of this thing we make called wine.”

I don’t care whether you are a doctor’s office, a plumber, or a winery, a telephone call is something to be celebrated, to be reveled in, and to be validated.