Wines & Vines

October 2018 Bottles and Labels Issue

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PACKAGING INTERVIEW 58 WINES&VINES October 2018 J im Cahill of Rutherford Wine Co. grew up in a small Wisconsin farming community, but he developed an early interest in wine, taking a cue from his wine- loving father. Cahill's undergraduate degree is in English from Brown University in Providence, R.I., but he knew that wouldn't determine his career. He wanted to get into the wine business. Cahill moved west and attended the University of California, Davis, earning his master's in fermentation science in the late 1970s. His classmates, he says, went into wine production, while he went into sales. One of his first jobs was for Ernie Van Asperen, who wanted to take his Round Hill wine brand national. Cahill set up a sales network and worked for Van Asperen for about a dozen years. He also has held sales or managerial positions with E.&J. Gallo Winery, Pernod Ricard and Supreme Corq. In 2011, he approached Rutherford Wine Co.'s Zaninovich family,. He had known them as grape suppliers to Van As- peren, and the family had pur- chased Round Hill in 2000. Cahill signed on as general manager for domestic operations for the Napa Valley company, whose portfolio includes Round Hill, Rutherford Ranch, Scott Family Estate, Rhiannon, Predator, Lander-Jenkins and Four Virtues. Q Your company has ac- quired some brands and started others from scratch. What are the challenges of each approach in terms of building a brand identity? Cahill: Brands that are acquired have gener- ally developed a market niche. Customers have been habituated through purchases to expect a certain price and a certain quality. It is very hard to upgrade to a better appellation and increase price. A label refurbishment is often worthwhile, though, as it enables you to attract the attention of new consumers and give an old brand new visual appeal. Take, for example, Round Hill wines, a brand with a long history and significant following at a premium price segment ($7-$10). At Rutherford Wine Co., we gave the brand an updated, more modern look but have not raised prices significantly. At this price segment, a fluctuation of even a few dollars a case FOB can kill a deal. With legacy brands, it's not in our best interests to cut off our noses to spite our faces. In the case of developing a new brand, we are able to match up the wine source, the package and message, desired audience and suggested retail price with fewer limitations. It's a clean slate. With that freedom, however, you also have the challenge of communicating that whole package to the distribution channel. One must work very hard to create internal buy-in from sales teams and distributors and then also work externally to create demand through marketing communications and PR. Q Some of your brands, such as Rutherford Ranch and Scott Family, have fairly traditional labels. Others, like Rhiannon, are more whimsical. How do you decide what's appropriate for a particular brand? Cahill: Our belief is that a brand should reflect its appellation or character. Rutherford Ranch is a Napa Valley winery, and we believe the labels should reflect the quality of the varietals we produce here -- hence the classic white wine labels with descriptive font. Scott Family Estate wines are Pinot Noir and Chardonnays from the Arroyo Seco and Carneros sub-appella- tions, both recognized for their high-quality Pinot Noir and Char- donnay wines. While these la- bels have more color than those of Rutherford Ranch, they are also very classic in their design, signifying that these are serious wines for today's serious wine drinker. For the Predator and Rhian- non brands, we chose very differ- ent labels. Predator is a silk-screen bottle with a ladybug crest. The la- dybug is a reference to the sustainable farming practices of the family. In the vineyard, the nymphs of the ladybugs take the place of insecticides to reduce the population of predators that can damage the vines in their infancy. In this case, the predators are quite small: aphids and white flies. Predator is a tongue-in-cheek reference to natural predation, which is an environmentally friendly way to maintain vineyard health. It's priced at about $15, so we were able to have a little fun with this brand, aiming to appeal to a younger wine drinker who really appreciates the sustainable approach. Rhiannon was developed to pay homage to the family's Welsh roots. The goddess Rhiannon is a mythological figure from Welsh or Celtic mythology known for her ability to restore harmony in nature. She is associated with magical birds and horses, as well as the contrasting qualities of change and steadfastness. With this A CONVERSATION WITH Jim Cahill of Rutherford Wine Co. By Laurie Daniel

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