It’s time to log off…

Once again I find myself apologising for the lack of posts lately – but we are finally back in our place after renovating and we have our own office – yay – no more fiasco paper work all over the kitchen table and beyond!  I should be able to get blogging again.  The only problem now is keeping the kids off the computer.  Finn has just turned eight and scored a ukulele for his birthday… which has led to two problems: he has decided to turn almost anything I say into a song and he models his songs on Phoebe’s (from the tv programme Friends) masterpieces.  I went in to tell him to get off the computer because it was tea time… and before we knew it we were all singing…”It’s time to log off, log off, log off…”  (Sometimes it’s less painful just to sing along, kinda like listening to someone chew gum – better off just joining them!)

Oh and for nostalgia’s sake, here’s a bit of Phoebe…and I see it’s ‘Smelly Cat’ not ‘Alley cat’ – same diff

Serious wine posts pending – we have bottled our 09 wine!!

Fiascos in the Sounds

Apologies for the lack of posts lately – we  have gib stoppers and painters in our house at the moment so have evacuated to the Marlborough Sounds.   We have often wondered what it would be like to live here fulltime and this has been our chance to give it a go – Mum & Dad’s bach is boat access only from Havelock and Aaron has been trialling commuting back into Blenheim to the winery a couple of days a week.  The trip takes about an hour and a half from the time you shut the backdoor in town, till you tie up to the end of the jetty here.  We are also trying out mobile broadband on our laptop so that we can keep up with e-mails, wine orders etc. 

And how has it been so far?  Well it goes without saying that we’ve had our share of fiascos – some funny and some not so funny.  Our poor little beagle managed to chomp into bait hanging off Finn’s fishing line and put a barbed fish-hook through her lip.  It was no easy job for Aaron to have to push the hook right through to remove it. Yooowwwwwouch! 

And then there was Aaron’s departure yesterday – it came up really gusty and rainy.  He attempted to row out to the boat  in the dinghy (really putting his Indevin rowing team skills to the test ) and after a long battle of five metres forward, three metres back, one metre sideways – he made it to our fizz boat on the mooring and waved goodbye victoriously.    Five minutes later we hear the sound of the boat returning – alas he is back.  We assumed he must have gotten around the point and decided the sea was too rough.  However the problem was his memory, or should I say his eyesight!  The boat is bobbing about in the small storm with Aaron yelling, “I forgot my car keys!”  “Find my car keys!”  “Can one of the kids bring down the keys?”  After much searching and yelling back and forth, we hear, “Ahhhh, I had them all along” and he takes off – even faster than before! 

But fiascos aside it has been pretty cool hanging out here with the kids.  The weather has been a bit disappointing but we’ve still done a bit of  fishing, hill walking, possum hunting, and lazing in the outdoors hot tub.  We’ve coped with the rain by cooking, playing board games and painting rocks ($2 shop fabric paint works a treat )  At times it feels a bit isolated – times like at night when it’s pitch black, stormy outside and you know you have no way out of here.  But with modern technology it’s really easy to connect.  We have cellphone coverage and the mobile broadband has worked surprisingly well and lets us do plenty (as long as gaming and movies are avoided) - and its free until Feb as part of the plan we’ve signed up to.    We’ve also had visitors over the weekend.  I can now see why folk that live in the Sounds get excited when the mail-boat arrives with supplies.  It was most exciting to see new faces and find new food .   We have a week to go and I hope it doesn’t go too fast.  If you’re out and about in the Sounds or want to be picked up from Havelock to come out for a visit – then let me know, you are most welcome!

Back at the winery it is almost time to bottle our 2009 wine and Aaron is busy getting another export order off to Aussie.  Our sales have picked up there which is encouraging.  Our distributor in Australia tells us those he supplies would love to meet the winemaker so it looks like there might be a trip across the Tasman on the cards.

Fiascos on the home front – boys gone mad…

I’m getting a bit worried about the guys in the fiasco family…

It has been pretty windy this weekend and I looked out the window yesterday to see a blur of colour and dare I say it a dash of gray hair…twas Dad flying by in his blow cart.  The sign at the front of the photo states something like:  ”Due to OSH regulations, all those entering the property be warned of general vineyard hazards in the area” - I’m not sure this would qualify as typical.  What ever happened to slowing down and retiring Grandad Max?

And then Aaron almost killed himself last night…we’d all turned in for the night except Aaron who decided to stay up, do a bit of tweeting then go feed the dog (so he tells me – translate: sneak in a sly smoke after a quiet Sat night beer ).  He swings open the doors that lead to our deck – well used to lead to our deck.  As part of the renovations the old deck was removed this week – however it has not yet been replaced, leaving a big drop and a dangerous minefield of piles and nails.  And so it was that Captain Chaos crashed into the night, somehow managing to fluke his landing between the lethal mix of dangerous objects.  And just as well because none of us would’ve found him til morning!  Whatever happened to looking or even maybe thinking before leaping?

 And then as if this weren’t enough, I go inside to find that Archie has traded allegiance and gone into marketing for Saint Clair.  I should have been suspect when he did the Saint Clair vineyard half marathon  while in the uterus, then went to the Saint Clair cafe for his great Nana’s 80th when he was a couple of days old…but adopting the monk get up – well that’s just over-stepping the mark!  We love Saint Clair, but what ever happened to loyalty boy?

 

Juggling Act

Life feels like a juggling act at the moment (doesn’t it always I hear some of you sigh!) and that is part of running a small, family based wine label.  In fact I would imagine it’s part of running any small business, particularly when first starting out.  There is no big staff pool to delegate jobs to, no big cashflow to contract work out and you must be a jack of all trades.   The bonus is that you get to do a little bit of everything – there is always plenty of variety in the working day. 

At the moment Aaron works a couple of days at Indevin (a contract winemaking facility) and has the rest of the week to focus on Fiasco.  These ‘fiasco’ days  typically go something like:  6am – Go out rowing with the Indevin team (training for an upcoming inter-business event), 8 – 8.30 am – Get our older kids off  to school while I feed Archie…8.30 am – 12 pm prune grape vines, 12 – 12.30 Lunch break 1 -2.30 pm, Deal to e-mails and do paperwork (invoicing, etc), 2.30 – 4.30 pm Out and about – wine deliveries, supermarket tastings, meetings etc 4.30 – 6 pm do some more pruning if time, 6- 7pm take Finn to Taekwondo (Aaron is president of the club), 7.15- have tea and help get kids off to bed 8.15 -  Twitter time (Tweet up tonight at Dodsons!) and more paperwork.  In between that he is actually making our 09 wines and organising bottling and labelling … and amongst that we are having home rennovations done which Aaron needs to wire up (he was an electrician in his pre-winemaker days).  And on weekends, well its more pruning. 

And what do I do all day?   Well I try to help out here and there but mostly I’m on mum duties – must say I’d forgotten just how a new baby consumes time! 

We are over-flowing with ideas for Fiasco but arghhhh there just aren’t enough hours in the day.  We can’t complain though, we are fortunate that business is busy, we will soon have an inside toilet and a new room, we have a healthy bonny baby boy and a great wider family, and as we tie down the vine canes the sun is shining and spring growth is looking promising.     Oh and those of you eagerly awaiting the purple cows, be patient, once pruning is done and dusted we’ll be fattening the cattle .  For now we’re a bit like the bloke in our logo – running on the barrel …but we need to take his lead and make time for a wine!

The naked winemaker…

I guess a girl can’t complain about having male strippers in her backyard all week…

Yes we are slowly winning the pruning battle.  We’ve made all the cuts and this week have done the stripping (so called as it involves stripping out all the old canes).  Now its onto the final stage –  tying down.  We need to make sure it’s all done before spring bud burst and have to say its been tempting to just pay a gang of workers to come in and complete it in one hit.   But we will get there slowly but surely doing it ourselves.  It has been challenging this year as I am couch bound feeding our little bub Archie and Aaron is often dragged (kicking and screaming   ) from the vineyard to fulfill other winemaking and marketing duties.   We are lucky to have the help of Aaron’s Dad, Noel and one of his mates Geoff Beavis – guys who are willing to use their spare time to give us a hand and who don’t mind being paid in wine!  You guys are legends! 

I asked Aaron to give us a pic for the blog to show readers what stripping involved…WARNING – R18, CONTAINS HORROR – …

Stripping in the vineyard '09'

What can I say – just as well we have the baby…frost bite and secateurs can do dangerous things to a bloke! 

I’m getting more than a bit worried that hubby has been spending too much time alone in the vines…anyone know a good shrink?

differentiate or die

To be honest we were a little apprehensive when we decided to start Fiasco Wines way back in 2008.  The recession was biting, the glut had set in and people were warning us ‘No, don’t do it’.  Let’s face it there isn’t exactly a shortage of wine brands out there either!  But you know when you want something deep down  – you just can’t ignore it.  We totally love making wine – it satisfies us and in a sense come wine lose or draw, we made the right decision.   But there are some big challenges…

A favourite bloggerof mine and noted agent of change is Seth Godin.  Seth believes that marketing as we have known it – and the proliferation of products to meet market needs, along with traditional advertising is broken.  He also suggests that in general, markets are satisfied and that new products (and associated marketing) need to be remarkable to make their way in the world.  Seth uses this analogy ( I will abbreviate- the story is a little longer): Brown cows standing in a paddock look bloody boring to anyone passing by on a daily basis.  Throw a purple cow in there and you can guarantee that some one will pull over and check out the purple cow and herd.

To me Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is changing colour from purple to brown.  In our ‘Marlborough Appellation (cringe) I think we have rested on our laurels and we have not differentiated enough across all quarters.  Unfortunately, brand ‘Marlborough Sauvingon Blanc’ has become a commodity and markets have become satisfied with $5.99 a bottle. 

I have had a lot of feedback from the market lately and it is “please no more SauvignonBlanc from Marlborough- it all tastes the same”  and  “Well, give us a reason why we should take yours, what’s your story”…….

Well, this is where I think we have let brand Fiasco Wines down!  We need to paint our wines a little more purple

We do things differently here at Fiasco….actually we do it all come to think of it!  Unusually, for a Marlborough winery, we are only small at five acres, we prune and tend our own vines personally, we make the wine, and we sell it to our friends.  There are only the five stakeholders: Jacinda, Tahlia, Finn, Archie and myself.  We really are family run, my Dad is currently spending his weekends helping me prune and we live on Jacinda’s parents’ property (Stembridge Vineyards) where her Dad is always at hand to give valuable advice on the block we lease.  There are no mass produced wines,c orporate backers or foreign monies and that’s how it will stay, we promise!

Ohhh, we have a couple of purple calves in the barn…they are nearly ready for the paddock.  Stay tuned!

Do you have a purple cow?

Cheers a heap!

Aaron

It’s not all about the wine – jerks

I get this…A LOT from people..and some make wine too! “Hey Fiasco, how’s the Tweetering, Twottering or whatever you call it going you big Twit”  and  ”how much piss are you selling on there” or ” I guess people must sucker into buying it because they haven’t got much else to do being on the computer all day”…..I usually don’t say much to these little wind-ups because these people really don’t understand.  Their loss, our gain…

Right. I think the wine industry at large (this is especially so for the bigger brands) have treated their customers like ‘widget grabbers’ or ’stock unit snatchers’ and little attention has been paid to the actual person drinking their wine.  PERSON is the optimal word here too!  Actually, I tell a lie.  The attention towards people is usually centred around focus groups where they brainstorm new ideas, deals, or concepts that will help speed up or increase the ’snatching process’.  We all know that a well run campaign, whether it be a neck tag offering a prize, or a new critter label – or whatever – can do incredibly well for the producer.  But I guarantee this,  at the end of the day that wine producer (through market intelligence etc) may know who buys their wine, but I guarantee they don’t know them!   Well get this…the world is changing, and if you produce anything and you are not actively attempting to know your customer personally, through the tools that are now available, then you could be in trouble.

The Social Media revolution is just starting and it has been a total revelation to us.  We’ve not only met some incredible people but they have become our friends.  I also know this. Take away the wine – they will still be there!

Sure we make wine.  SO WHAT!

Cheers,

Aaron

Trading Fiascos

 

Aaron arrives in as I am trying to cook tea and sort a restless little Archie.  He kindly says, “Hey you want me to take over?”  He tries to take the spatula from me – “Oh no you don’t” I say, “You can have Archie.”  I thought I’d soon put an end to his plan of sipping Black Pearl, giving the mince the odd stir and watching the news.  I handed over the grizzly lad.  Aaron took him with a big smile: “No worries, I’d love to have Archie.”   I smirked to myself, little did he know what he was in for… ten minutes later I poked my head into the lounge to see how they were getting on…I was sure to find a fiasco of nappies and Aaron pacing the room with a crying restless baby…

The boys were sound asleep on the couch!!!!!  How do they do that?? 

I should add that then I fluffed around getting photos and generally coming out of shock – before realising the oven was beeping and the lasagne looking decidly blackish on top.    So in finishing, apologies blog posts have been a bit sporadic of late – I will be back onto it soon, just gotta survive the first few weeks of newborn fiascos…and use Aaron more!

FIASCOTV: BLENDING REMINDER

Hi all,

Here is another we vid of the big guy!  Archie is doing well and is very fond of milk if you know what I mean.  Once again, thank you everyone for your well-wishes.

Just to remind everyone that the 7th (Tuesday) is fast approaching!  We hope to get the four blending samples away that day, to each of you.   What we do need is your address….very important this!!  Just send it through on a Twitter DM or via email to info@fiascowines.co.nz for those that haven’t

You should get the wine by the following weekend, then the fun can begin.  Why not ask a few people around and make a night of it!!

Ohh yes you can have a Fiasco!!

Our latest great release

Well we are all on cloud 9 around here!    At approximately 12.12am this morning we welcomed little Archie into our lives.  This boy is perfect and weighed in at 8 pounds – 12 ounces.  Jacinda did an incredible job, she’s such a good Mum….and the kids and I absolutely love her to pieces!!  We are all totally besotted with this little guy, and it’s amazing how all of lifes troubles seem to pale into insignificance when a bubba arrives on the scene.   Archies birthday is extra special too,  because he arrived on his Great grandmothers birthday, she turned 80 today.  Happy birthday Twinks!

Thanks to all our friends, and especially Family…with out you, well, we’d be lost….LOVE you all!

Just look at big bro, and sis……mmm Finn I may have a job for you boy!