Episode 29 - Its the end of the world (cup)

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Andy Pates: 00:00

It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the World Cup as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. And I still have to pick up checks and sell some wine. Hello, and welcome to Samples on an Armageddon Monday.

Andy Pates: 00:27

Not too smoky, a lot better than it was on Wednesday of last week. Jesus. But, yeah. So the World Cup is is over. Congratulations to Spain.

Andy Pates: 00:40

It was an incredible tournament, a well earned victory by Spain. I'm looking at our portfolio. I'm thinking about the World Cup of Cream's portfolio sales by country and by supplier over the past twelve months, what we call the rolling twelve months. And Mexico is our World Cup champion with the largest sales, 3,300,000. And then, of course, we have France followed by oh, sorry.

Andy Pates: 01:24

USA is in second place behind Mexico, then France, then Italy, and, of course, Spain. Mexico is 19.29% of our sales, our 17 point $400,000 sales in the last twelve months, 3,400,000. Then The USA is 3,300,000, rounding up to 19%, 18.76%. Then France France is 2,500,000, And then Italy is 3.07, 17%. These are the big powerhouses, the number one seeds, if you will.

Andy Pates: 02:18

And then, of course, Spain, what, you know, I think and and hopefully many more people start to think it is one of the best values in wine in the world year over year. The diversity of product, the amount of old vines, the amount of organic farming, pre phylloxera vines as well, and just the the range. I mean, if you look at Spain from the Catalonia piece to the Atlantic side with the Sherry Triangle and Andalucia, you look at Basque Country, Asturias, you look at, you know, the wonderful middle of Spain from Rioja to Toro to La Mancha and on and on. I mean, this is, you know, our overall MVP in terms of the portfolio. So I started thinking about our Spanish portfolio and, you know, we you look at obviously, Olay is the top producer, our, you know, biggest supplier.

Andy Pates: 03:41

Reventos is our biggest direct import. Los Monteros is our biggest brand using, air quotes. I would say that Selections Della Vigna is our, perennial problem child and that, you know, Alvaro and Anna have had a lot of challenges with their business over the years, especially coming out of COVID. They have an incredible portfolio of authentic, natural low intervention producers, but they just can't catch a break in terms of building brands and having them stick. So I think the reset, especially with Lauren coming into town, I think that that's going to help reconnect that portfolio with the team and with our clients and some of the new producers that they have.

Andy Pates: 04:37

I think everyone should always think about Selection's Lavinia when it comes to a small artisan portfolio and put them in your mines and put the wines in your bags to give them as a small independent importer producer the attention that's needed in a bigger company like Cream. But more on that later when Lauren comes into the market in a few weeks. Rare Wine Company, the Rare Wine Company, I would say, is probably the most prestigious classical producer. They're easy to sell and then they're not easy to sell at the same time. Think in terms of how they communicate and how they curate a portfolio and price it and place an emphasis on quality and offer back support for content and marketing and just an overall, you know, this truly is the cream of the crop, the best of the best.

Andy Pates: 05:31

I would say that they're the most prestigious portfolio. And recently, I had a conversation about people's drinking, their preferences or or or you know why someone is is drinking wine. You know, that's on everyone's, mind right now with the great reset of, you know, suppliers and consolidation and wineries. A lot of the changes in drinking patterns or preferences or or or what's popular, what's hot, what's not. And, you know, my my opinion is in a general sense, there's there's usually, I would say, four reasons why someone is drinking wine or they're into wine.

Andy Pates: 06:21

And then, you know, we we can talk about all the the influencers out there, the vinfluencers that are, all out in the in the algorithms. I think that's the new Parkerization, the new Robert Parker review, wine spectator review of wine, and that's something that we all benefit from and also suffer from. You know, you get them by press, you lose them by press, you get them by price, you lose them by price. You get them by packaging, you lose them by packaging. Those are all, fleeting trends.

Andy Pates: 06:51

I think the ultimate, you know, the ultimate goal is to drink the person, to drink the family, and to work with authentic wines and authentic people. But in terms of the four categories, I don't know. The same way we have the pillars of the portfolio, we have our four pillars, domestic producers, national importers, suppliers that are national importers, direct import producers, cream imports, you know, that would be number three. So we've got US one, national importer two, cream imports parenthesis direct imports three, and then spirits four. And I would say like the fifth up and coming pillar or leg of the table or category of the company is sake.

Andy Pates: 07:43

In the past twelve months, we're we're we're pushing about 4% of total sales with sake. But if you look at those pillars and the way that it applies to Spain, Ole is a national importer. Reventos is a direct import. Los Monteros, we buy that from Butano. We import it, but it's you know, it has a national importer of Butano.

Andy Pates: 08:09

Selection Zella Vigna is a national importer. Rare Wine Company is a national importer. But going back to the reasons why someone, would purchase a wine, drink a wine, be interested in a wine. You know, I think if we look at the kind of the pillars of the categories in the same way, it's like, okay, well first and foremost, somebody wants to drink something whether or not they want to get drunk or whether or not they just want a glass of wine with dinner. You know, it's the end of the day, you wanna unwind, you know, watch a movie, etcetera, meet some friends at a bar and and and and just have a wine as a cocktail.

Andy Pates: 08:48

Whether or not they wanna get hammered or drunk, you know, that's I think totally subjective. That's obviously that person's, tolerance level. As Philippe Blanc would say, we exist somewhere between, abstinence addiction. So let's just say that it's someone who just wants to drink. The second reason I feel that some people are into wine or wanna drink wine is they care about the ingredients.

Andy Pates: 09:18

So they're treating wine as food. Essentially, what's in your food? What's in your wine? This is the farmer's market person. This is the person that is aware of their health and what they're putting into their body and the certifications of organic or biodynamic, all of that.

Andy Pates: 09:40

It's just clean living. They don't want something that is overly has a lot of sugar in it. They don't want something that has a lot of additives in it. They just want, you know, a raw food, situation. So they want a raw wine.

Andy Pates: 09:52

The third reason why someone would would wanna buy something, drink something in my opinion is they're interested in the back story. You know, wine is history. Wine is art. Wine is travel. All the anthropological reasons behind wine and it's incredible seven millennial, history is all there for those that want to nerd out and want to geek out on the history and travel and what grows with it goes with it.

Andy Pates: 10:21

The cliche is so true and a lot of the food around the world initiated from the beverage that was created and vice versa. So the backstory is important. And then the fourth I think has to do with an overused term right now, the vibes. You know, I think that that could be a variety of things. That could be, you know, the the sense of community that wine offers.

Andy Pates: 10:52

I think that's the positive side. If you look at the natural wine side, it has a very strong community and is doing really well. But this community could also be a bunch of tech bros that, you know, have moved beyond tea, ruining the tea industry with the tea bro culture and now they've moved on to Burgundy and Jura and they want to collect and fetishize and brag about what they have in their second home wine cellar. And so that's a community. Those are those are vibes there.

Andy Pates: 11:21

So, you know, there people are using wine, to they're using it as a vehicle to be elitist essentially or they're using it as a vehicle to connect. And so it's those, those four reasons, I think. There could be more is why people are buying, drinking, talking about wine. And so apply that to this, you know, Spain World Cup champion. Spain is a is a category to cream.

Andy Pates: 11:48

And those general categories that we have, how we organize our suppliers and just apply that same those four reasons on why somebody would buy something. It's like, okay. Somebody just wants, a glass of wine, uncomplicated. They don't wanna talk about it. Get out of my face.

Andy Pates: 12:05

Leave me alone. I just wanna be out with my girlies, and I don't wanna talk about nerdy stuff. Los Monteros, for sure. You care about, what's in your wine, the ingredients, well, then we have plenty of organic and certified organic. Navarron, for example, the sparkling wine, the Cava, and we're gonna have that, winemaker in town, and and we'll all taste on that Tuesday morning.

Andy Pates: 12:34

It's a certified organic property. Obviously, they're not spraying any pesticides or chemicals. If it's, you know, a situation where no somebody doesn't want anything, you know, including sulfur or or any sort of additives, well then, you know, that could be a pet nat situation, a single fermentation of of a wine. It, you know, doesn't necessarily need to be Spain, but it's anything that's an ancestral method or the petien natural where, you know, I think France really shines in this category, but there's other producers that are that are doing it. Reventos, Pepe Reventos made one from Chirello, for example.

Andy Pates: 13:17

And then the, the historical side, I mean, look no further than Reventos starting in 1497, the originators of growing grapes in Catalonia and, you know, the family started the deal of Cava, left the deal of Cava to start their own grower concept in the Conca De Rio De Noia. I mean, history, culture, art, Reventos winery was designed by a Gaudi student. The winery across the street was also has an architectural history to Catalonia and Barcelona and Spain. So you know, there's no shortage of great history in our Spanish portfolio. I'm just singling out Rebentos because I'm keeping in theme with that, the sparkling wine idea.

Andy Pates: 14:14

And then, you know, as far as, like, the the vibes or community you're collecting, I wish that people viewed Spanish wine as a collectible item. I mean, certainly, the great wines from the Rare Wine Company are collectible with Palacios, Pinguis, with, Pichinia. You know, those are, historical collectible wines. And but also there's a situation of the natural wine community, and I think that's where Alvaro de la Vigna's portfolio can come into play and having those conversations, especially with the zero zero zealots. There's, some zero zero wines in there, but there's also organic farming, no additives.

Andy Pates: 15:12

This particular natural wine tasting, that particular event or pop up that's going on, I think that that's another great way to look at it. So in terms of sampling this week oh, and then in terms of like the great collectible iconic soon to be. I can't believe I didn't buy more of it when I was, when I was younger and and and had the the ability to collect wine is the Masta Searal from Pepe Aventos. I mean, that is considered to be one of the greatest sparkling wines of Spain. For those who have tasted it and had time to meet Pepe and talk to Pepe about it, he had his Clos Petit launch this past Monday.

Andy Pates: 15:55

So I think that know, Reventos can offer everything that we talked about. We know that it's on focus. We know that it's important to us, but we do have other suppliers in Spain that need attentions. I think if you also look at categories in Spain, exciting categories, I think chocoli, whether it's chocolina that is the, slightly effervescent version or chocoli, which, in most cases is more of the the Venice and still wine version. I think the the spritzy effervescent version is a very popular category in Chicago.

Andy Pates: 16:44

I mean, was certainly helped to be made famous by Amistoy, which is imported by one of our friendly competitors, De Maison, who's a national importer represented by Maverick. Andre Tamers was one of the first people to bring that in. We have an incredible value oriented authentic chocolaty in Anchola, which is made by Zadugaray. And, you know, we are able to get palettes of this wine. And so it's a situation where because we're direct with Zidugarai and Anchola, we're able to source multiple pallets and place multiple orders and provide continuity.

Andy Pates: 17:27

It's not just the the wine arrives in the late winter, early spring and sells out in the summer. We end up crushing our competition by having this in stock for, I don't know, ten to eleven months a year depending. So we have other chocolate, of course. Know, Olay, our biggest importer, biggest supplier, as I said, they have Gainza, which is delicious and doing really, really well. And then Selections of La Vina is, we're gonna be kicking off with Lauren's visit, a new very delicious, chocolina.

Andy Pates: 18:06

Super spritzies, got the super cool, I don't know. It just has like a taste it it it just tastes natural. I mean, know it's hard to make natural wine in in the Basque country with all the humidity and I'm sure versions of like certified organic is you know a little bit, I think it's hard to get certified organic. So I I don't think we should promote that this is necessarily an organic or natural producer but it just had an energy to it that was like you know had full mallow and some secondary flavors that were really interesting. So I'm excited for you to try that producer when Lauren comes into town as well.

Andy Pates: 18:46

She's gonna have about a half an hour in front of the team. So yeah, Choc O Lee, we are crushing it with it. You're doing a great job. So that's also categorically something that we play in across the the different pillars of the company. So that's all I got.

Andy Pates: 19:01

I think I've gone a little bit too long. Stay safe out there. Wear a mask when you're out in the, Canadian wildfire smoke situation. Hopefully, that subsides soon. If you don't have to be outside, don't.

Andy Pates: 19:16

And appreciate all you do. I'll see you guys when I see you. Thanks for listening. Ciao.