When it comes to personalities like Gary’s, as well as the level of notoriety he has achieved, people will either love him or hate him. As of right now, all I am seeing in the fallout of this takeover is a massive amount of support and concern for Gary and his wife, Marcy. Everyone appears to be in shock about this, Gary included, and since no statements have been released by the folks in charge of this takeover we are left to wonder what the hell they are thinking.
Removing someone like Gary from his position at his winery is really bad business. It’s pissing a lot of people off. Many people have already said they will start boycotting the winery. Why would you not come forward and comment on such a shocking and sudden move like this? Gary is Eberle Winery. This is one of those cases where the person really is the brand, the business. It’s equal to Steve Jobs at Apple. You remove the man (the face of the brand) and you lose business.
Now, what’s the flip side? Let’s say Gary did everything wrong and deserves to be pushed out…this takeover was still handled in a very poor manner and, unless something comes out to paint Gary as a creep, this will impact the business, period. It fascinates me when people/ businesses make decisions and from the outside it seems like there was not a single brain cell used in the decision making process. Remember when Tiger Woods waited and waited before finally speaking out? If he spoke out immediately I don’t think his brand would have been “as damaged” as it ended up being.
So, as I wrote yesterday, I really think we need to sit back and wait. There’s nothing more to do anyways. Until these three people finally speak up regarding this issue we are left dumbfounded. Many people have mentioned boycotting the winery but in my opinion we should not…yet. One reason for not boycotting is that as of now Gary is still making money from the winery and the other reason is that we have no idea how this will play out.
A couple of blog posts ago I wrote about how hard 2013 ended and 2014 began for so many people…this trend is continuing. We need to shake the voodoo curse and get back to enjoying our little piece of paradise here in Paso Robles.
I listened to the radio interview that Gary did with Up and Adam. It was so sad to hear how blindsided he is right now over this situation. I wish he and his wife all the best, no matter how this plays out.
Me too, Diane. Still so interested to hear from the other side…bummer.
Nice post, Matt.
Thanks Scott.
Just goes to show you. When you let somebody get hold of your business, they can turn on you like a snake in the grass and strike.
Hardest must be it was family.
When money is involved, there are always people who just have to have more.
Roberta, yep, it was his sister-in-law and two good friends of his that did this. A very sad story!
Well said! Still can’t believe it what is happening, and we don’t even live in PR. There is talk about the takeover attempt up here in Sierra Foothill wine country…
Hugs to Gary and Marcy.
Ken and Dahlynn
It’s definitely big news, Dahlynn. Not just for Paso but for the entire wine community. Thank you and I’m sure Gary is seeing all of this online support for him and Marcy! 🙂
DId you see this morning that Wine Spectator picked up this story? I understand greed (I don’t agree with it, but I understand it as a motivation), but I can’t wrap my brain around how bad all this negative PR is. How can a group of people have thought this was the smart way to go about this? Even if, as you say, Gary deserved to lose his position, the way this was done was terrible.
I just can’t believe anyone with any kind of experience or understanding of the industry would take this tack.
Lindsay, totally agree with you and thank you. I did not see that Wine Spectator picked it up. Do you have the link??
Yep: http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/49504
Thank you!!
What a sad day for Paso Robles. Gary Eberle is the face of that area’s wine industry. We have traveled from Oceanside, CA with a group of friends many times thru the years to attend special “cave dinners” that were always magical and just plain fun. We love you Gary – you have our support which is probably of little value so we will hold positive thoughts for a good outcome for your, your family and your staff. All the best, Robert & Suzanne Drager
Robert, that was very cool of you to say. I would tell you to keep going there so long as Gary is still involved. His plan as of now is to stay so we should continue to support him. Thanks again for the awesome comment.
Just because you have money it doesn’t mean you know the wine business. This attitude of investors meddling into businesses they did not create and they don’t know as well as the original creator often brings about an obnoxious culture. I’ll wait and see if the stench subsides, right now well………….I’ll continue with my glass
of “Gary’s Everly wine
Agustin, I agree. I mean, none of us know all the intricate details and who knows or does not know what but time will settle this out. For now I will still support the winery. I still really want to hear from the other side of this…may never.
Eberle Winery produces great wines. To increase production to the proposed 170,000 to 200,000 cases a year will certainly require buying grapes from outside the region. Most of Paso grapes are already contracted out for. So, does this mean the importation from the central valley and try to pass them off as Paso Robles wine?
Very short sighted and many great wineries have been taken over only for the quality to drop into the bucket. Paso Robles is not bulk wine country.
Maybe they should have considered just leaving Gary Eberle alone and setting up shop over in the valley where they can get machine harvested grapes where they produce up to 20 tons per acre. Gary doesn’t do that. He produces quality wines not the box types.
Roberta, it’s a very odd and surreal thing that’s happening. I mean, regardless of who is right or who is wrong, the way this was handled was crap. Gary, love him or hate him, helped create the Paso wine industry and created an iconic brand at the same time. He has been one of the biggest and most passionate voices for Paso Robles.
Great Post and well said. I can’t imagine the winery every being the same without Gary. Eberle was always a standard visit when guests would visit us in Paso. The rich history was part of what made it interesting (the good wine didn’t hurt either). They sure managed to squash a great thing as far as I can tell.
Tim, it will be interesting to see where things go from here. The people that did the takeover have not released any formal statements and as of now Gary is simply a figurehead there with no decision making ability. Super lame if you ask me…Gary is Eberle and Eberle is Gary…period.
All you have to do is the math. To get to 200,000 cases of wine, it would require 80,000 tons of grapes if you go by the rule of 2.5 barrels per ton with 1 barrel making 25 cases of finished wine.
80,000 tons of grapes? Where exactly are they going to be coming from? Highly doubtful they will be coming from Paso Robles.
Roberta, I agree they must be coming from outside the area and most likely the Central Valley. But until that actually takes place and they decide to go to 200,000 cases it’s only speculation.
This story definitely caught my attention and it will be interesting to hear more details in the coming weeks and months. As a side note to the calculation given above, 2.5 barrels/ton is approximately 150 gallons/ton (from my experience making wine I’d say this is a fair estimate). However, at 150 gal/ton it would take approximately 3200 tons to produce a total of 200,000 cases, not 80K tons. 80,000 tons of grapes would produce around 5 million cases.
Violet, the story is certainly interesting. So far I still have not heard a statement from those that did the takeover…kind of baffling.