Well, the answer is NO, but recently I have been involved in several conversations about the wineries in Paso Robles and how some of these big guys that are moving in to the area with all this money are hurting the small wineries…I just don’t buy it.
This area would not and could not survive with only small wineries and could also not survive with only the big guys. One thing I think we have going for us in Paso Robles is that we have a huge variety of options to choose from. If you are in to the small 1,200 case winery we have those all over the place, and you can go enjoy until your pants fall off. On the other side of the fence we have the 1,000,000 case J. Lohr Winery that has some fantastic wines as well.
How Could Wineries Help or Hurt Each Other???
How does a J. Lohr hurt a Silver Horse or a Caliza? And to flip that coin how would Silver Horse or Caliza hurt a J. Lohr?
You’re right…they don’t hurt one another. The community benefits from having choices because those choices lure more tourists here. In addition, all the wineries that belong to the PRWCA (Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance) are benefitting from the huge amounts of money that wineries like J. Lohr are paying in to be in the group. The other great thing is that if people are coming to Paso Robles because they love J. Lohr, Castoro, Niner, or DAOU…you know they are also going to other wineries and more often than not those other wineries they go to are the small, mom and pop tasting rooms.
Industries and communities don’t thrive without diversity; therefore, stop bitching and moaning about this winery or that one and just let it be. In the same way that the weak animals get thinned from the herd so will the weak wineries…big or small, and that’s due to capitalism. I just get tired of people complaining about winery owners that move into Paso with their millions (or billions) of dollars , revenue is a good thing…this area will not survive without it.
Rather than piss and moan, just don’t go to the wineries that you don’t want to support. I’m a huge fan of the small mom and pop wineries and we go to them often. We also promote them regularly through our blog and on our social media sites as well as in the local restaurants when we’re ordering wine off the menu. I suppose the purpose of this article has nothing to do with wine really, it has more to do with just how much people complain and just how much I find that annoying.
Bottom line…the big guys bring the revenue in and the little guys make Paso what it is, quaint and freakin’ awesome! So just enjoy, go support the ones you love and ignore the ones you don’t. It’s just that easy. Hope to see you on the wine trail, cheers!
Related articles
- Silver Horse Winery Friday Night Sunset Party (hootnannieblog.com)
- Paso Robles Wine Festival 2012 (hootnannieblog.com)
- JUST Inn at the Justin Vineyards and Winery (hootnannieblog.com)
I could not agree more Matt! A common known fact taught in economics 101 is that if you have a burger place, and another burger place opens up next door, more business will be brought to the area. (Just think about Big Bad Bubbas & the strip of new business in recent years)
Knowing that most people only eat one burger….and that they will not go to the next door burger spot because they are full…and yet this example is used in business school to simply say, hey competition is good for the business owner too.
When we turn this over to the tasting room business model, most people hit multiple tasting rooms in a day. This example is now a sure bet that more business will be brought to the tasting rooms surrounding the big boys. I think many wine travelers want a mix up and not all big tasting rooms. They want a diverse mix in their day. All this simply to say, I agree 100%.
@awanderingwino Absolutely Shawn…examples of how well this works abound. I think at the end of the day this issue is not wine or even business…it really is that some people genuinely love having something to bitch about. So it goes right? We all know “those folks”.
Cheers man, see you at the Chard Symposium!!
AMEN! Everyone’s tastes are different and diverse and there is something out there for everyone’s palate. The personality of the wine is passed along thru the wonderful workers and owners who produce their product with pride. If you truly believe in your product, you will have folks that follow you and be your loyal patrons. We have found that it is truly amazing to have our loyal customers return for the third year to the local Lincoln’s Farmer Market to purchase our Liberty Jerky. They seek us out and chat it up and we are VERY happy to serve them… and believe me when I say we are competing with the large chain stores that carry a product that has lots of BIG money behind them. We will never be a ‘mega big’ company, because we are ok with the ‘mom & pop’ tag and want to keep the quality at the top of the scale and enjoy meeting folks that absolutely LOVE our jerky. We do the ‘jerky tasting’ every week in the summer at the market and have gained our customers with a good product and and having fun. It has been a fun ride with frustration and challenges, but this will take us into retirement with lots of fun and joy!
@mabrowne That’s how it is…most businesses aren’t big businesses, but the little guys couldn’t really survive without them. I just think people need to stop complaining so much and find stuff in life that makes them happy…lol.