WTN Blog

“I’m like old wine. They don’t bring me out very often, but I’m well preserved. ”
Rose Kennedy  , (1890-1995) family matriarch, on her 100th birthday

“Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.”
–Kahlil Gibran   

Innovation, excellence in service, listening to customer needs are the conerstone of WTN Services and are shared visions of our winery and wine retail partners.  2008 and planning for 2009 is underway for many of our partners and certainly for WTN. A success tip is to ensure your WTN Services Account Manager is participating with you in planning the next years activities. From budgeting of fulfillment services spend, to ways we can help in margin improvements, special projects and more the sooner your account manager is involved in your planning the better we can deliver opportunities for innovation and margin enhancement discussions for you. Speak with the WTN Services account management team today…

“The world is so fast that there are days when the person who says it can’t be done is interrupted by the person who is doing it.” –Anonymous    

Every day our business and that of our winery clients are faced with choices to explore new ventures, keep the status quo or move forward  in a new or unproven way. For wineries it may be launching a new wine club, hosting a special event, releasing a new email campaign, developing a new brand or brand identity, testing a new marketing model, direct to trade or something else.

Hank Aaron hit more home runs in his day than anyone else he also struck out more. He will always be remembered for attempting to make the hit and finally succeeding more than anyone else.

Today take the leap, present an idea, take a chance at something new, take a chance toward success. Those that don’t may be left behind by those brands and leaders taking a chance at greater success and doing what you are doubting can be done.

Georgians would be able to order up to 12 cases of wine directly from wineries each year over the Internet or phone under legislation that won final approval Monday in the Georgia Legislature. The measure now heads to Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Christian conservative who doesn’t drink, for his signature. Perdue has all but promised to veto other legislation allowing Sunday alcohol sales at package stores. But he has not stated an opinion on the Internet wine bill.

Supporters of the measure argue it will help Georgia’s winery industry, which is centered in North Georgia. The liquor industry has fought the idea of allowing direct sales from wineries in the past, but it did not object this time around. 

Similar direct sales are allowed in 37 other states. The bill passed the Senate 40-6. It had earlier overwhelmingly won House approval. The Senate also gave final approval to a bill that would allow winery tasting rooms to sell beer and booze. The measure passed 35-6

Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution for full story…

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/03/31/booze_0401.html

WTN Services encourages your participation and attendance in the Consumer Direct Symposium Thursday and Friday, May 1-2, 2008, Meritage Resort, Napa, California Presented By Coalition for Free Trade and Free the Grapes!

WTN Services has signed on as a major corporate sponsor since this is a fundraiser in recognition of the work the Coalition for Free Trade and Free the Grapes has done on the front of consumer direct shipping.  We value their partnership and of course value the topics of this symposium and encourage anyone in the consumer direct wine sales or distrubution to attend, learn and partner.

To learn more about the symposium visit…

http://www.coalitionforfreetrade.org/symposium/index.html

 Topics for the symposium include…

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Friday, May 2, 2008

WTN Services and www.Ambrosiawine.com team-members spent Sunday evening, February 24th hosting, pouring wines and assisting in volunteering for the Napa Valley Red Carpet Gala- an Academy Awards Viewing Party at Sterling Vineyards. WTN Services volunteers partnered with Diageo and Sterling Vineyards in hosting and in corporate sponsorship of this event. Over 28 great Napa Valley Restaurants participated and thousands of dollars were raised benefiting the Care Network at the Queen of the Valley Hospital which provides outreach and case management services to folks in the Napa Valley battling AIDS or Cancer.

To learn more news stories around this event are below…

http://pictopia.com/perl/gal?gallery_id=R1034955316&process=gallery&provider_id=193&ptp_photo_id=3757830&sequencenum=&page=

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/02/22/food/doc47bf920a49c78815808124.txt

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/02/22/food/doc47bf90c7a22be980471372.txt

WTN Services team members had a great time in partnership with Diageo, Sterling Vineyards and the leadership team of Michael Holmes and Chris Edwards as event co-chairs in contributing, participating and helping our wine community.

The Planet Friendly team is proud to announce that the bins for Cell Phones for Soldiers have arrived at all 1800flowers.com retail locations and our WTN Services brand supports this company wide effort toward recycling for a cause. Cell Phones for Soldier’s mission is to support our troops overseas by providing them with pre-paid calling cards. Through generous donations and the recycling of used cell phones, they have already distributed thousands of calling cards to soldiers around the globe. 
We have already successfully designated retail locations within our parent company as drop off points for this great cause and very own Carle Place 1800Flowers company headquarters will have have bins distributed throughout the building in an effort to faciliate this strategy.

Chris McCann has already made the first donation and now we need your support! So, start collecting any old cell phones you may have and drop them into our blue recycling bins. Don’t forget to tell family and friends about the drop off points at  retail locations so that they too can support this great initiative. Our goal is to collect as many cell phones as possible so we need everyone’s support!  After all, our efforts will make a tremendous difference in the lives of our soldiers and their families! 

If you would like to learn more about this great organization and how your winery can help please visit http://cellphonesforsoldiers.com/

An interesting article that was published discusses the Glitz of Celebrity Wines.

 http://calibre.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=296572731

Interesting fact of note…

“Gaining marketing leverage from celebrities as diverse as film director Francis Ford Coppola, former NFL coach Mike Ditka, professional golfer Greg Norman and recent releases from Martha Stewart and Paul Newman, celebrity wines are on the rise. Celebrity wines are up nearly 19 percent in grocery store sales since last year and represent 0.9 percent ($41.8 million) of total wine sales. Celebrity spirits sales show the same growth rate (19 percent) in grocery stores and represent 0.3 percent ($7.5 million) of the total spirits category. In liquor stores, celebrity spirits are growing at an even faster rate, showing a nearly 21 percent increase since last year, compared to celebrity wines’ liquor store growth rate of 8 percent.”

It would be very interesting to track these same trends as specific to internet marketing and or winery or online wine retailer sales.

A few of you may have seen posters go up recently up and down the Napa Valley and heard mentions in the media about the Napa Valley Academy Awards Party February 24th at Sterling.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Napa fundraiser for the Care Network at the Queen of the Valley Hospital. The Care Network provides case management and support services for individuals inflicted with Cancer and AIDS.  If you have not heard of the event here is the scoop.
Diageo and Sterling Vineyards graciously stepped up to host the annual fundraiser. WTN Services and Ambrosia are helping with corporate sponsorship and volunteers to staff various tasks for the event day February 24th.
 
The event will include a walk on the red carpet then ride up the tram to all attendees to visit the Sterling Visitors Center. Within the visitors center participants will sample Sterling Wines and be treated to appetizers from 12 of the 25 featured restaurants. Chefs on site offering samplings for this event include Thomas Keller, Bob Hurley, Peter Halikas, Ken Frank, Kelly Macdonald, Peter Pahk, Maria del Pilar Sanchez, Cindy Pawlcyn, Christophe Gerard, Jeff Mosher, Gayle Keller and Alex Dierkhising, Octavio Barrera, Stephen Barber, Gary Wood and more.Featured restaurants include…

Over 60 million bottles a day are being tossed into U.S. landfills, where they can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade according to Planet Friendly. Producing those bottles burns through 1.5 million barrels of crude oil annually–enough fuel to keep 100,000 cars running for a year. Recycling helps but a better answer is to use less bottled water.  Wineries, retailers and fulfillment companies such as WTN Services all play a role and can have a positive impact in using less bottled water and helping our environment.

Two reasons for your company to turn on the tap and wean away from bottled water…

1. Tap water is tested daily and may be safer for your employees and clients.
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, water suppliers are required to provide an annual report on the quality of your local water and to test tap water daily. By comparison, the FDA examines bottled water only weekly, and consumers can’t get the agency’s results. You can easily get the lowdown on your state’s drinking water quality at  http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html . If you are still concerned, your water vendor can supply a filtration and cooling system to your tap water providing additional filtering.