Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/658375
32 WINES&VINES April 2016 H ere's an example of two ways to solve the same problem. 1. You need open heart surgery. You have a surgeon (probably a highly recommended referral from your primary care doctor). He or she works with a hospital to book a time and date; all the doctors, nurses, tools, supplies and equipment are in place on the day of your surgery. You defer to their planning and expertise. You eat nothing the night before. The system works. You live a long time and get to meet your grandchildren. 2. You need open heart surgery. You call a few hos- pitals to see who has open surgery rooms. Your No. 1 priority is to get a good price, because, "Hospitals are a commodity, and it's my money!" Then you hire a doctor, bring in some nurses from a temp agency who also gave you a heckuva deal, buy scalpels, bandages and oxygen tanks from a range of vendors (you get to go on one vendor's annual fishing trip if you buy from them), and tell them all to ship to the hospital the day before your surgery date. You don't ask the hospital which surgery supplies they recommend. A scalpel is a scalpel. Also, you hate the idea of surgery almost as much as you hate bottling wine, so you don't waste time keeping tabs on your suppliers to see if they will make their delivery dates. Surgery day arrives and… Wine quality matters. You must have an exe- cuted package that's worthy of that wine and its price, but that can't happen until it is safely bottled with a closure, capsule, TTB- approved label and shipping case. And that's the bare minimum. Do you remem- ber the scene from the film "Office Space" when the manager of Chotchkie's restau- rant scolded Jennifer Aniston for wearing only 15 pieces of flair? "What does that say about you, just doing the minimum?" My premise is that designers, materials vendors and bottling services vendors must collaborate on behalf of winery and brand owners. When that doesn't happen, it's usually not because they don't want to do it, but be- cause the winery doesn't see planning as a critical and collaborative process with potentially divergent cri- teria for each vendor (e.g., cost, quality, speed). Winery owners should note that when bottling day problems arise, winemakers will likely blame vendors for their "crap (insert packaging supply here)", yet a more objective assessment might be that the winemaker planned poorly. Learning from wineries Shelly Rafanelli-Fehlman is the winemaker at A. Ra- fanelli Winery, a 10,000-case facility in Healdsburg, Calif. A fourth-generation family member in the wine business, Rafanelli-Fehlman grew up in the winery and remembers listening to her Sony Walkman during bottling. She compares bottling to "planning a wedding"—an excellent analogy, as the wedding date/mobile bottler date is inching closer whether the flowers were ordered or not. Most of Rafanelli-Fehlman's wines are bottled in March, and planning begins once all the grapes are in tank, around Nov. 1. Rafanelli-Fehlman emphasized the importance of planning to a delivery date, rather than a bottling date. Wherever possible, you want supplies to arrive with enough time so that if there is a problem, there is time to correct it. Her advice to small wineries is: "Start early. Know what you want to bottle, how you want the package to look. Establish a strong relationship with your mobile bottler. A good relationship and tight communication are extremely important. It just runs so much smoother." Rafanelli-Fehlman has worked with the same bottler, Ryan Mobile Bottling of Napa, Calif., for 15 years, and she sees the company as a partner who knows her facility and people. If she plans to use a new bottle shape or vendor, Rafanelli- Fehlman will hand-deliver samples to the mobile bottler months in advance to test capsule, label and cork compatibility. She notes, "A bottle issue can create a label or capsule wrinkle, and at $40 to $100 per bottle, you really need it to be right." Rafanelli-Fehlman uses a big desk calendar to plan bottling and pro- actively sends reminders and adjustments to vendors as the delivery date nears. She saves a lot of money by having labels printed once per year, which requires committing to n ANDY STARR Packaging Planning Is Critical for Bottling Day Winemaking