LAKE COUNTY >> For the third year in a row, the Lake County Wineries Association put on their annual “Give the Gift of Wine Holiday Open House,” which featured 26 participating wineries in an event that give some tasting rooms a nice bump in their sales. Beginning Friday night, the Wildhurst Vineyards tasting room on Main St. in Kelseyville saw an noticeable increase in foot traffic and sales as compared to last year’s Open House. By Saturday afternoon, Kelseyville’s Steele Wines had sold 20 cases of wine — which were knocked down 30 percent for the weekend — a marked increase from their regular weekend sales.
“Case sales have been boosted quite a bit this weekend as compared to previous Saturdays,” said Steele Wines tasting room manager Raven Sprague.
Further, Steele Wines saw a sizable 200 percent jump in the sale of their holiday gift items, such as jewelry, bottle stoppers and apparel, in relation to 2014. This was a result of less competition, Sprague explained. Last year the winery held a holiday gift bazaar on the same weekend as the open house. They opted to focus on their own gift and consignment items this year instead.
“We’ve sold three times as much merchandise in dollars in the last two days than we did last year in two days,” Sprague said.
Emily Buttitta of Rosa d’Oro Vineyards said the winery saw similar crowds this weekend to those in the past. Considering the tasting room, located on Main St. Kelseyville, had an impressive turnout previously, they can certainly mark this weekend as a success. “Compared to last year it’s been pretty even,” Buttitta said, adding, “Last year was really, really great. I remember how busy it was last year.”
Like Steele Wines, many wineries offered specials, exclusively for the weekend. Rosa d’Oro gave discounts for everyone on wine club memberships and their wine club members received 10 percent off.
Sprague guessed the successful event was thanks in part to repeat customers, who knew wineries would be offering these steep discounts over the weekend. She also gave credit to Christmas in the Country, Kelseyville’s annual holiday event and lighted parade, which took over Main St. Friday night. “It does kick off the holiday season and everyone’s already in that festive mood from the parade, so they feel like they want to Christmas shop a little more,” Sprague said.
There was another deal being pushed throughout the weekend — a special on tickets for the Wine Adventure, the annual spring wine tasting extravaganza. At many of the wineries, if a patron purchased six bottles of wine, they could buy two Wine Adventure tickets for the price of one. As of Saturday afternoon, Steele Wines had sold six tickets.
Wine Adventure ticket sales were appropriate considering Tyler Weiper, the tasting room manager at Wildhurst, described the Holiday Open House as a mini-Wine Adventure.
Sprague agreed, expressing that the Open House is a good, admission-free event to put on halfway through the year. It brings people into the wineries — and the county — during a normally slow season. “Other wine counties have several wine weekends each year, and we only have the Wine Adventure,” she said.
Not all tasting rooms were reaping the benefits of the Open House, however. The Lake County Wine Studio (LCWS) in Upper Lake didn’t see an increase in traffic compared to any other weekend. Susan Feiler, the studio’s proprietor, said only one person came into the establishment knowing about the event. She didn’t sell a single Wine Adventure ticket, even with the discount.
The lack of traffic into LCWS this past weekend might have had something to do with the fact that Feiler isn’t in the position to offer discounts, since the studio sells wine from a variety of other local wineries. Feiler said the biggest discount she can offer if 20 percent, and even then someone would have to purchase a good deal of wine.
But Feiler has seen a boost in sales in the past, specifically when the Wine Association held the Open House a month earlier. That was the case three years ago. “The only time I saw a significant impact was when it was the weekend before Thanksgiving,” she said.
Even with the lower turnout at the LCWS, some wineries feel the Open House is a good avenue to bring attention to the county’s quality wines. “It’s not only taking advantage of that holiday season and those sales, I think a big part of it is trying to get the secret out there … the secret that this is a great wine region,” said Buttitta.
And of course, when locals and out-of-towners alike are discovering new wines, the event encourages them to pick up a bottle or two as a holiday present for someone special. “We try to have food, just get people in the spirit of the holidays, suggest wine as a gift for their friends and family,” explained Weiper.
The suggestion is always met with enthusiasm. Many visitors from outside the county — and there were a fair few over the weekend, according to Sprague — like to take local items back to their homes. “A lot of people buy wine as Christmas gifts,” Sprague said. “I think because when you drink wine and you appreciate wine, you know you would enjoy getting a bottle as a gift.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
