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C O M P L I A N C E co u n s elin g by Ann Reynolds, Wine Compliance Alliance Q&A with five winery compliance veterans "I would like to get a job doing winery compliance. How can I get started?" T his question has been asked many times since I started my business as a winery compliance consultant in 2009. The truth is there is no set path to follow for becoming a winery compliance expert. I did not set out to become one, but rather unknowingly crossed paths with it along the way — a "right place at the right time" sort of scenario. It was late 1997 and I was working at Sterling Vineyards in Calistoga, Calif., as a harvest cellar tech. I had already been there since spring 1996, so I was a known and liked commodity. The winemaker asked me to take over managing a new database program the winery had recently installed. I was always up for a challenge, and being given this task at a winery that had volume in the six figures on site was definitely that! I did not realize it at the time, but that is when the compliance chapter of my wine career began. It struck me that since my story did not follow a straight line to running my business (Wine Compliance Alliance), others currently managing compliance at wineries must have their own unique stories to share about how they came to work in this specialized area of the wine business. I contacted five of my colleagues from five different wineries. I decided to not only find out their stories about how they got started in compliance but also ask them what guidance they would share with others who are interested in learning about it. The colleagues I contacted (in alphabetical order) are: Wendy Fantozzi, compliance director at Laird Family Estate Kendall Hoxsey, compliance manager at Napa Wine Co. Dana Stemmler, associate winemaker at Bogle Vineyards Shannon Valladerez, director of finance & personnel at Monterey Wine Co. Jeremy Weiss, winemaking billing/ information specialist at Michael Mondavi Family Estate During the interviews I asked the same set of seven questions, and have included their answer to No. 1 in their bio paragraphs. Question No. 1: How did you get started doing winery compliance? Wendy Fantozzi (WF) worked at three other wineries before starting at Laird Family Estate in 2003. She is quite the veteran with 25 years of experience. At the second winery she worked for, she had the experience of going through a TTB audit (which they passed), and she learned more about TTB regulation as a result. Her original background is in accounting, and many of the tasks she was given at wineries over the years correspond directly to a bean-counter type of mentality. Kendall Hoxsey (KH) has had a strong connection to the wine business her entire life. (Her dad is Andrew Hoxsey, managing partner of Napa Wine Co.) Kendall had just finished her bachelor's degree when, due to staff departures in spring 2008, her dad asked her to temporarily take on Napa Wine Co.'s compliance manager position. In 2010, further staff changes resulted in her taking on the position permanently. Since then she has even managed to complete Sonoma State University's Wine Business MBA. Dana Stemmler (DS) graduated from UC Davis with a degree in viticulture and enology in 2005. She started at Bogle Vineyards in a work order data entry position in 2006. This was her initial exposure to wine tracking compliance. In early 2013 she was promoted to associate winemaker. Shannon Valladerez (SV) has been with Monterey Wine Co. since 2003. Her early background was in human resources with large agriculture businesses, so she already had familiarity with positions directed by government regulations. She also had worked in local government, with economic development, which is what led to starting at the winery. Jeremy Weiss (JW) had gained winery compliance exposure at another facility before coming to Michael Mondavi Family in 2010. He worked at other wine companies where he "picked up the slack" as far as compliance and would do the research to find out answers to ques- 98 p r acti c al w i ne ry & v i n e yard NOVEMBER 20 13 tions that came up. It is worth mentioning here that in my interview group four of the five are managing compliance at wineries that host custom-crush and alternating proprietor clients. In part, what that translates to is an extra level of customer service involved in their jobs. This means they are having to explain federal regulations to their clients who almost always have no concept of the intricacies involved. Question No. 2: What were some of your challenges with learning wine compliance? WF: Not knowing where to turn to for learning about it and trying to interpret federal and state regulations into the winemaking world. There is a lot of selfteaching. KH: I did not have any compliance training when I first started in 2008; the hardest part was learning the database program. The other parts (forms) I was able to figure out from studying them and using the manual created by a previous staff member. Compliance really is a learn-as-you-go subject, and it has taken me a while to get as comfortable as I am with it. DS: Having a general sense of knowledge of what happens in the cellar (winemaking) is a big help in doing work order tracking. The on-site winemaker when I started showed me how things were done, so I learned that way. I was given guidance for what to look out for from him. The most challenging is printing the alcohol on the label before the product gets into the bottle. A communication breakdown between departments would sometimes occur over what was printed on the label and what the wine qualified for. SV: The biggest challenge was having no exposure to the wine business, so I relied heavily on the winemakers and staff at other wineries to learn about it. Others have made mistakes along the way, so you can learn from them. You have to survive in a new company, so you develop that local network and you develop other contacts outside of that. You grow and learn and educate yourself as you go. I saved my first TTB seminar handout packet from 2004 and still reference it. That was how you survived back then. JW: The TTB is still trying to figure out how modern wineries, especially custom crush and alternating proprietor facilities, can operate within their often outdated regulations. The TTB needs more unification and streamlining to how they regulate us. Modern winemaking practices present the TTB with many of these challenges.