After this year we will have outgrown the space at Chaine d’Or. We’ve got a few plans we’ve been kicking around and the one we finally choose will largely depend on how sales go over the next 12 months. We could go back to doing part of our production at another facility. There are a few options and a few people we like working with.
We’ve could also open our own facility. We’ve talked about doing this some where in San Jose in either an urban or suburban facility. That would make our commute easier and let us lay things out the way we’d like to do them. That’s expensive though since we’d need a lot of new equipment. If we do that option we know we’ll need to open a tasting room as part of the facility to drive more local sales and offset some of the costs of running the facility.
We’ve talked about what we want from a tasting room and we’re planning this summer on touring in Napa and Sonoma to get ideas on what to do and not to do. I’m really leaning towards a modern or post modern look. Glass and chrome. I like the idea of doing a walk around facility too rather than a bar. Something more like the Apple Store, with pouring and information stations that you could approach and linger at. Maybe one for each vineyard with a slide show of the vineyard you could view. Instead of the pouring staff standing behind a bar looking at you, they’d move around with people in the facility, letting them go to the station they wanted to explore and answer questions in an informal environment.
I’d also like to tie in a lounge area. When you’ve had your fill of information and tasting, a place to sit comfortably and review the wines. Maybe that’s a ‘Wine Club Lounge’ that you could plan a longer visit at with light snacks and music. I’d like really nice professional photos of the vineyards to decorate the walls. We’ve talked about what else we might sell in the area and we’re pretty sure we’d limit it to just a few things and have those be very high quality and unique. Something you wouldn’t see in another tasting room. We also want to have space for visiting artists that we enjoy.
We won’t have $5.99 fake fish netting. I promise, no matter what. I actually was offered that in email today. Something to add to our tasting room. Fake fish netting? Does this make the wine better?
