Regusci Winery is located on a beautiful vineyard Estate with the legacy Napa family name boldly positioned in the entryway. The long driveway up to the visitor center winds through their 160 acres of Estate grapevines, and often the vineyard dogs greet you upon arrival. Guests enter into an old stone tasting room with tables and bars situated for both seated and standing experiences. There is a lovely patio where guests can sit and look out over the vineyards while relaxing and enjoying the tasting menu. The Regusci family heritage is not only known for their wines but also their ranching and agricultural history, and guests are encouraged to take home grown vegetables and fruits on an honor system upon departure.
For all the visits (both during the week and on the weekend) the Legacy tasting menu of 5 red varietals was offered. The hosts as a whole were familiar with the wines and were able to answer most questions about how the wines were harvested and aged. Our shoppers were greeted with welcome smiles on their visits, and tasting room hosts made queries about where they were from and why they were visiting. Unfortunately the effort to connect mostly stopped there. Our tasters were never offered their hosts name nor did they make an attempt to learn their customers’ names throughout their presentations. Although the wines were well represented, the hosts didn’t seem to have a passion to portray anything special about how they came to be. The story of the Regusci’s colorful history of ranching and farming was glossed over and mostly revealed through probing questions when asked about some of the buildings and acreage on the property. After each tasting, attempts to position a wine sale came across as an afterthought or not at all. One host did offer a library vertical when asked about older vintages, but surprisingly made no attempt to position availability of library inventory even as our taster touted his wine collection. Details on the wine club were found in the table menu but were not pointed out by the hosts. Our shoppers left without being asked for any contact information or interest to stay in touch, even after their purchase.
Overall Regusci has friendly staff with knowledge of the offerings, but overall the experience was neutral. The Estate itself is magnificent, the tasting venue is lovely and the wines are memorable, however our tasters didn’t walk away feeling connected to the experience and although they felt welcomed, they would not feel inclined to ask for any particular individual to host them again. Although Regusci fell short across our five DTC Sales weight factors, V Files is giving them a one wineglass rating for their inviting tasting accommodations and in the sales acumen category, a nod for staff knowledge of products.
Regusci Winery
5584 Silverado Trail, Napa, CA 94558
www.regusciwinery.com
WHAT THEY DID WELL:
Nicely appointed tasting areas, Welcome greeting, Knowledge of wines.
AREAS WHICH NEED IMPROVEMENT:
Connecting the business or personally with guests through storytelling or discovery, converting sales or wine club members and making an effort to stay in touch after the visit.
DTC BEST PRACTICES RECOMMENDATIONS:
- CONNECTING & BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH GUESTS:
- Making personal introductions and addressing guests by name
- Learning how to build inspiration and differentiators through storytelling
- Integrating data collection practices into systems and comp plans
- CONVERTING SALES AND WINE CLUB SUBSCRIPTIONS:
- Sales Training: Qualifying and taking guest ques to make purchase suggestions & Instilling passion and using Discovery to personalize the experience and ask for an order
- Sales management focus on staff sales performance & attainment against revenue goals
The V Files™, August 2017 edition by Virtual Vines
THE V FILES™ is a monthly publication (subscribe for free) which offers an assessment and rating of wineries DTC performance in relation to overall guest experience and staff proficiency. Wineries are chosen at random by Mystery Shoppers and are evaluated using a scorecard approach leveraging DTC best practices. The ratings are based on how well each winery delivers a memorable guest experience and staff’s ability to sell, covert and connect with customers.
The Rating System is based on performance in the following categories:
- Inspirational Story
- Connection w/ Host
- Sales Acumen
- Wine Club Conversion
- Collecting Customer Info
Virtual Vines DTC Sales and Marketing Consulting Services help integrate DTC best practices to help wineries build brand awareness, increase sales and grow customer loyalty. For more information please contact us: www.virtual-vines.com, 707-927-3574
