Speaker 1: Shift we go again, and we think we've got Scott
Speaker 1: Becker clean in terms of a feed. He is the
Speaker 1: owner of Realm Sellers. Scott is joining us along with
Speaker 1: the winemaker Ben wat Touquette, and they are in zoom
Speaker 1: and Napa Valley with an incredible shot behind them. Gentlemen,
Speaker 1: fingers crossed that the technology is working. I think it's
Speaker 1: easier to make wine than it is sometimes to get
Speaker 1: technology working. Scott, come on back, tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about the approach that you guys are doing at Realm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks for having us, and you
Speaker 2: can hear me.
Speaker 1: Okay, now much better, much better?
Speaker 2: Great, okay, great great. Well, yeah, so you got a
Speaker 2: little hillside view behind us of our vineyard here in
Speaker 2: the sag Leap district in Napa Valley. And as I
Speaker 2: was introducing Realm when we started, we didn't own this
Speaker 2: hillside behind us. We actually didn't known any land.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: We were buying fruit from select vineyards in Napa Valley
Speaker 2: and producing the wine in someone else's facility. We used
Speaker 2: to call that sort of the virtual winery model or
Speaker 2: the asset light model, which was a way to get
Speaker 2: started in Napa Valley today. But if you want to
Speaker 2: make wine at the highest level, we believe you had
Speaker 2: to own the land. And so in twenty fifteen we
Speaker 2: began this migration from just buying fruits to starting to
Speaker 2: own land. And today we have four different estates in
Speaker 2: three different appellations within Napa Valley. We vinify the wines
Speaker 2: from each of these places separately, and we bottle them separately.
Speaker 2: So we think of realm as sort of a portfolio
Speaker 2: of wines that collectively reflect the diversity of this beautiful place.
Speaker 1: How much control more control does that give you over
Speaker 1: the wines that you guys develop, Ben Walk, come on
Speaker 1: in on this, you know, versus working with other vineyards,
Speaker 1: versus actually owning it yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's a huge difference to be able
Speaker 3: to found the way we want to obvious the grapes
Speaker 3: and to be able to process you know, you know,
Speaker 3: we're own facilities. Such a tremendous change. Give us all
Speaker 3: the control from the farming, to the winding, king to
Speaker 3: the aging and guarantee to the old process up to
Speaker 3: the buffing that we do every step under our control
Speaker 3: and specx. So it's a tremendous change for the business.
Speaker 4: So talk to me about the wine you guys, That's
Speaker 4: what I want to get into here. You've got a
Speaker 4: lot of blends which I love. One of them, the Tempest.
Speaker 4: People maybe have heard of it. What exactly sets you
Speaker 4: apart when it comes to your wines and your blends specifically?
Speaker 4: What is your approach Benoir?
Speaker 3: Well, I think we always focus for us on the
Speaker 3: texture and try to capture the vintage, the best weekend
Speaker 3: or ether to some single vinia designated because we're also
Speaker 3: known for that, but also the blend. And here we
Speaker 3: were testing a bar specifically, which is a cabinet savinion
Speaker 3: based wine, and we get fruits from all over the
Speaker 3: valley from Coombsville in the south to Calisto got a
Speaker 3: warmer climate in the north, from zero ft elevation up
Speaker 3: to nineteen foot nineteen hundred feet elevation. So I think
Speaker 3: the goal for us is ready to capture in every
Speaker 3: single vintage what's the essense of the vintage, to tail
Speaker 3: war and find a way to marry all those elements
Speaker 3: together to create a wine that's complex, complete and really
Speaker 3: kind of showcase who we are and having that nice
Speaker 3: flavors we all sort of take.
Speaker 2: You to your port and to your question, Madison, you
Speaker 2: know there's a something like over a thousand wine brands
Speaker 2: in Napa Valley alone, and so how do you what is?
Speaker 2: Everyone has their own philosophy, their own style. I think
Speaker 2: ben Wana over the last decade plus have kind of
Speaker 2: refined that approach for us, and I would describe the wine.
Speaker 2: I think we sent you a bottle. Hopefully it made
Speaker 2: it there. With all the all the news today and banking,
Speaker 2: you should be drinking his last well tell.
Speaker 1: Us actually, and I see you ben Wa drinking it.
Speaker 1: Tell us about you did you sent a bottle of
Speaker 1: the Bard? And I'm gonna put this out on Twitter
Speaker 1: as well, but tell us a little bit about and
Speaker 1: I'm going to actually pour some as you can hear. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we like a little bit of sound. Sorry it wasn't
Speaker 1: so elegant.
Speaker 2: It sounds delicious.
Speaker 1: I am a fan of red wine and I feel
Speaker 1: like the variety out there is incredible. I'm going to
Speaker 1: pass this glass to Maddie and then pour my own.
Speaker 1: But tell us about the bar. We've got about a
Speaker 1: minute and then we'll bring you back and talk some more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the Bard has done. While was starting
Speaker 2: to introduces it's cabernet. It's predominantly cabernet, but from vineyards
Speaker 2: all over Napa, and I think of that house style
Speaker 2: for us is the tension between richness and freshness. So
Speaker 2: if you think of it, hopefully, you know the wine
Speaker 2: will come across as a big wine, a bold wine.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, I just did a sniff
Speaker 1: and it's really full. It's really lovely.
Speaker 2: Yep, and so and that the counterpoint to that, hopefully
Speaker 2: is the freshness and the tension that's in the wine,
Speaker 2: the structure that it brings. And so we think of
Speaker 2: the wine as obviously showing well today, but ultimately the
Speaker 2: test for any great wine around the world is how
Speaker 2: well it ages and evolves over time. And so that's
Speaker 2: where we come up with this expression of the wines
Speaker 2: are big but light on their feet, or an offensive
Speaker 2: lineman who's also a ballerina.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a great why you've got you've got my
Speaker 1: producer laughing in the control, but it's a great way
Speaker 1: to describe it. I think about all the people who
Speaker 1: describe wines that is really just precious. We want to
Speaker 1: those get back to our guests as we wind down
Speaker 1: on this Friday, we're speaking with Scott Becker. He's the
Speaker 1: owner of Realm Sellers and with us as also realms
Speaker 1: winemaker ben Wa Touquette. They are still on zoom in
Speaker 1: Napa Valley, California, and I have to say, gentlemen, in
Speaker 1: the break, I use the viv you app and I've
Speaker 1: downloaded it. So my husband's like, what kind of wines
Speaker 1: do you want? I have a birthday coming up, and
Speaker 1: he's like, uh, you know, and this is what I
Speaker 1: like to do. But anyway, it is a lovely wine
Speaker 1: and it really is pretty impressive. And I'm curious, you know,
Speaker 1: as you guys are now owner of a vineyard, how
Speaker 1: do you deal with one of the things that is
Speaker 1: running a business that increasingly all business owners have to
Speaker 1: deal with is the instability that is brought about by
Speaker 1: climate change. And the wine industry in particular on the
Speaker 1: West Coast out in Napa has seen it in a
Speaker 1: big ways firsthand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a big topic. It's a topic we talk
Speaker 2: about practically every day. It's sort of the existential question
Speaker 2: that looms over Napa Valley or any wine growing region.
Speaker 2: Just to take you back, you know, the first fires
Speaker 2: that in this modern era came in twenty seventeen. Thankfully,
Speaker 2: they came late enough that most producers had most of
Speaker 2: their crop already in. In twenty twenty, the fires came
Speaker 2: back to Napa Valley and it started to occur much
Speaker 2: earlier in the growing season, in mid August, and so
Speaker 2: in our case, that affected the entire crop. So we
Speaker 2: didn't produce a wine from a red wine from the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty vintage, and so you can imagine that the
Speaker 2: entire years worth of livelihood goes up quite literally in smoke,
Speaker 2: and so it's a factor. I think there's a little
Speaker 2: bit of resiliency here and trying to stay positive. I
Speaker 2: think technology is part of a solution. We've gotten much
Speaker 2: better as a state and as a county and as
Speaker 2: a wine growing community at understanding how to mitigate the
Speaker 2: effects of fires or how to prevent them from turning
Speaker 2: into two massive, ten thousand acre plus fires. I think
Speaker 2: there's some treatments and experiments that are ongoing in the
Speaker 2: vineyard and in the cellar to try to improve things
Speaker 2: there as well. But whether it's fires, whether it's heat,
Speaker 2: whether it's drought, earthquake in twenty fourteen, you know, those are.
Speaker 2: But on the other hand, that's agriculture. There's a little
Speaker 2: bit of this that that's what you sign up for
Speaker 2: in this business, and so I think we can continue
Speaker 2: to try to do our best, but we also have
Speaker 2: to stay positive and not overreact here. And so thankfully
Speaker 2: after the devastation of twenty twenty, we have two good
Speaker 2: vintages in twenty twenty one and twenty two, so the
Speaker 2: cellar is full again and we can continue to look forward.
Speaker 2: But all it's ever present on our minds.
Speaker 4: It's a great and really important part of the conversation.
Speaker 4: I'm sure it has a huge impact on your bottom
Speaker 4: line when things like that happen. Not to be so bloomberghee,
Speaker 4: but another thing impacting every business owner right now macroeconomic
Speaker 4: headwinds the economy. The bottle that Carol and I are
Speaker 4: happily tasting right now comes in around one sixty five
Speaker 4: dollars for the bottle. How are you thinking about growth
Speaker 4: and your customer base given the current economic situation we're in.
Speaker 4: Are you changing up who you're marketing to and you know,
Speaker 4: any of your pricing because of the economy.
Speaker 2: No, I think in this business you have to think
Speaker 2: long term when we planted this hillside behind us. That
Speaker 2: was a thirty year decision, and so of course we're
Speaker 2: acutely aware of what's happening. We're seeing it in the
Speaker 2: wine business, some of those inflationary supply chain pressures. Our
Speaker 2: shipping costs of members and customers this year is up
Speaker 2: eight percent over last year. You know, the same thing
Speaker 2: on quarks, harder to get glass. We're just dealing with
Speaker 2: long lead times on paper for labels. So the industry
Speaker 2: is seeing it just like any other industry. But I
Speaker 2: think you know the benefit of this business is we
Speaker 2: have to think long term. You know, the wine that
Speaker 2: you guys are having today, we hope will continue to
Speaker 2: age gracefully for twenty or thirty years. And so when
Speaker 2: you take that long view, we always say, we have
Speaker 2: to continue to play for the long view, but we
Speaker 2: have to survive the short term. And so there's a
Speaker 2: little bit of understanding what's happening and making sure that
Speaker 2: we're tracking budgets and trying to be smart about things.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you know, we see incredible
Speaker 2: upside potential for Napa Valley wines. Internationally. That's not something
Speaker 2: there's historically most California wine has been consumed inside the US.
Speaker 2: And while we think the US consumer for high end
Speaker 2: wine anyways is still quite healthy and is still spending.
Speaker 2: Maybe they're not on as many marrying lists, so they're
Speaker 2: not buying as much, but they are still buying. And
Speaker 2: so you want to be one of those brands that
Speaker 2: are remembered. But internationally we see incredible growth potential, not
Speaker 2: just for US but frankly Napa Valley, California as a whole.
Speaker 2: So I think there's still a lot of upside potential
Speaker 2: for the wine market as a whole.
Speaker 1: It's got and I feel like, you know, we've talked
Speaker 1: a lot about the luxury space, you know, LVMH and
Speaker 1: so on and so forth, and whether it's Chinese buyers
Speaker 1: or so on. And it's interesting when you talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, selling overseas. I don't know how much you
Speaker 1: can share with us, but in terms of US, I'm
Speaker 1: assuming is your biggest market now, But is it the
Speaker 1: growth rate? Is it overseas that you guys are really
Speaker 1: looking forward to?
Speaker 2: I think so. So we sell eighty percent of our
Speaker 2: wine what we think of as we call it direct
Speaker 2: to consumers, So people who sign up on our mailing
Speaker 2: list on the website and then we offer them wine
Speaker 2: during these campaigns. The other twenty percent goes to trade
Speaker 2: partners in the US and around the world. Of the
Speaker 2: twenty ten percent of that is US and the other
Speaker 2: half is overseas and that and that is growing. I
Speaker 2: think Asia and Europe continue to have more and more
Speaker 2: interest in Napa Valley wines, and so we're focused on
Speaker 2: a lot of markets within those two regions, Ben Wall, when.
Speaker 1: You think about you know, it is a crowded space.
Speaker 1: I walk into a wine star and sometimes I'm overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: but I also kind of revel in it because it's
Speaker 1: so nice to have so much choice and variety and
Speaker 1: just new wineries coming out. How do you think about
Speaker 1: how you want to, you know, kind of tweak the
Speaker 1: brand or come out with new wines if you will.
Speaker 3: Well, I think we try to grant brand awareness. I mean,
Speaker 3: people get to get to North so we we are
Speaker 3: able to brate production and hopefully to touch more and
Speaker 3: more people. The bond that you're tasting right now was
Speaker 3: originally Favorite Cases. I know it's ten thousand cases. So
Speaker 3: our hope is to create awareness around the brand and
Speaker 3: people to enjoy the fruit of our work and hopefully
Speaker 3: we have the word of mouth will be a best
Speaker 3: ambassador for us. It's people that will refer over of
Speaker 3: wine to others, and we hope that like that we'll
Speaker 3: be much more known and nationally and internationally. Well.
Speaker 1: I have to say it's a pretty incredible wine. I
Speaker 1: drink a fair amount of red wine. My name is Carolyn.
Speaker 1: I drink a fair amount of red wine responsibly. It's
Speaker 1: really incredible and so glad that we could spend some
Speaker 1: time with you, and we appreciate being able to sample
Speaker 1: what you guys are doing and really look forward to
Speaker 1: hearing more and hope you never have a year like
Speaker 1: twenty twenty where you guys are dealing with really the
Speaker 1: severe impacts of climate change. Come back, let us know
Speaker 1: how things are going. We'd love to kind of continue
Speaker 1: the conversation. Have a great weekend. Scott Becker, owner Realm Sellers,
Speaker 1: joining us along with the winemaker ben Wa Touquette. They
Speaker 1: joined us as you could see for those watching on
Speaker 1: YouTube and Bloomberg Originals the incredible fields behind them joining
Speaker 1: us from Napa Valley Carol Master along with Madison Mills
Speaker 1: and this is Bloomberg Radio. Cheers everybody,