Posts Written OnNovember 06, 2013

New Proposal Could Allow Wine to be Shipped Through U.S. Mail

It’s not easy to earn unanimous approval of a major policy change in the wine industry, but the issue of alcohol mail restrictions seems to have achieved exactly that. Senator Chuck Schumer is proposing to end the ban that prevents the United States Postal Service from shipping wine, beer, and spirits. After speaking to dozens of industry professionals, the New York Cork Report has yet to find one who disagrees with the proposal. “It would be huge for our industry,” said Scott Osborn, owner of Fox Run Vineyards. “Having the postal service as another provider for our shipping will hopefully…

5 Questions with… Dan Mitchell, Fox Run Vineyards

This week, the New York Cork Report spoke with Dan Mitchell, Keuka Lake native and Regional Sales Manager at Fox Run Vineyards as part of our “5 Questions with…” feature series. Dan has spent the last 9 years with Fox Run Vineyards, four as tasting room manager which then evolved into his current role as regional sales manager.  He now is a wine-fueled road warrior logging over 30,000 miles on his car each year.  Although his territory is primarily New England he has recently found himself as far away as Western Canada promoting Fox Run and the Finger Lakes. What was…

Wine Should Be Expensive. Seriously.

Wine should be expensive — and by “expensive” I mean it should pay for its own existence. Wine, as you well know, takes a long time to grow, a long time to make, a long time to brand, and a long time to sell. When overly-powerful retail-market forces press suppliers to roll back price points that natural competition drives off the last scant profits that may exist for that producer. When distributors mandate ever-increasing contributions to marketing from the producer, usually in the form of actual cash discounts, or dedicated sales representatives, there is very little left for the producer…