David Coffaro Vineyard
          and Winery Winemaker's Diary

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Thursday May 2, 2013

We have always had a search engine provided by Goggle on my diary entry page, so you also can now find it on our front page. Just search anything that has been on our website........

The Passport to Dry Creek Valley has caused me many problems in the past. I used to be on the committee to decide how the event would be handled. The head person was very strong and she ruled in the end. Since she left, now after several years the event has been handled in a better way by not having only a lottery, but still the tickets are too high. For us to realize the benefit of the Passport to Dry Creek Valley, we have to sell wine. The Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley sponsors the event and takes in a great deal of money from customers. Customers buy less wine because they are charged so much. I have thought a lot about this event and why we only receive half the sales as we had several years ago when the price of tickets was lower.

The Passport to Dry Creek Valley attracts many people but because the valley is so small, only a few thousand tickets are sold. The organizers are concerned about the traffic flow in this small 10 mile area. Also over the years many more wineries have been allowed to participate so of course our sales are down for that reason. But then I thought about the value of this event for the customer and thought about comparing it to other things an adult can do.

At a restaurant, a meal can be enjoyed for the food. The purchase of wine or any other alcohol is only voluntary, just like our event. If you go to a sports event or concert or play, food and alcohol is voluntary. As a participant of The Passport to Dry Creek Valley, a person receives entertainment, great food and free wine. There is no requirement to purchase anything else including wine. The cost of Passport is similar to the other experiences I mentioned so most people decide not to purchase additional wine. We as wineries survive on wine sales and I feel we would sell more wine if the cost was lower. What is the organization doing with all the money they take in......marketing Dry Creek Valley. As most of you know I hate marketing and I do not spend any money on promoting my wine. We do donate wine for some of our customers fundraisers, but only a handful of people have told us they had tasted out wine at a fundraiser and decided to buy from us.

I will be 70 hopefully tomorrow on Friday, May 3, 2013. It has been a very busy two weeks leading up to My Day and the Passport event last weekend.




For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com

Dave


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