Sandlands Vineyards

Decision to make:

1. Invest family money (around $500,000) to buy Eastside Meats building to build a Winery to
produce 5000 cases per year in future.

Obstacles:

1. Both Passalacqua and his wife Olivia have full time jobs which they don’t want to leave.
2. Thy will be putting their savings to buy the building.
3. Wine business is not a very profitable business hence chances of bankruptcy.
4. Old vine grapes required for production of Sandlands wine are in limited supply.
5. Target market for Old vine wines is limited.
6. Old vine have significantly lower yields )1-2 tons per acre), costs considerably more to grow
and harvest

Opportunities:

1. Chance for Passalacqua to unite the complete wine production process. He could unite his
Kirschenmann Vineyards and the Sandlands vinery, which until now he was running as
separate projects.
2. The building also gives him an opportunity to ramp up production in future.
3. Passalacqua is well respected in wine industry. Further, the Sandlands wines launched till
date have been well received both by premium wine consumers and critics.
4. Sandlands wine potential can also be judged by the premium prices they are commanding in
the grey market.
5. Passalacqua is targeting wine connoisseurs interested in wine made from forgotten classic
California variety of grapes that have been farmed for many generations but are out of
favour with larger wine makers.

Passalacqua Sales and distribution strategy:

1. 75% to his wine consumers directly and 25% through two distributors located in California
New York (the largest wine markets), and Colorado. All three were small to mid-sized
distributors that dealt in wines which resonated with what Passalacqua was trying to do with
Sandlands.
2. Passalacqua was using social media and web (apps like Vinespring) to sell reach and sell
directly to his consumers.
3. Passalacqua was using distributors as a channel to reach influential people who he couldn’t
reach on his own. By 2017 there were 3500 people on his wine list and Sandlands wine were
now available at some of top restaurants in the country.

Strategy:
1. Working with small, old vine vineyards that were being ignored by larger wine companies.
2. Passalacqua had cultivated a good relation with growers, because of the trust that he had
cultivated with them he got best grapes from them. Growers were willing to work with him
without written contracts (both sides preferred verbal contracts) based on trust.
3. Sandlands brand was created to reflect where the wines came from, the label was designed
to relate Sandlands with California’s wine culture of the past and how this brand was
 bringing that to the consumers of today. The packaging of bottle was also done to make it
stand out from other wines.
4. Passalacqua priced his wine affordably ($24-$28 retail prices). This was done so that wines
were affordable and a larger section of consumers would be willing to try his wines. If he
priced them higher, say at $ 60 it would be lot more time consuming and difficult to
convince customers of the quality of his wine. It was possible but at present Passalacqua
didn’t have time or resources to spend on this activity.