When Smith Williams says, “I had to roll my shirt sleeves up,” reflecting on his early days with JW Sieg Wines, “and ride with the salespeople and learn the business from them,” he’s talking about real fine shirtsleeves. That’s because the former San Franciscan used to work for Saks Fifth Avenue. Then he joined his father-in-law, onetime beer kingpin Terry Sieg, in his new line of business—regional wine importing and distribution.
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The August charity golf tournament, sponsored by JW Sieg Wines and held at Keswick Hall, will feature a winemaker’s dinner that, corporate VP Smith Williams, pictured with Marketing VP Ashley Williams, says, aims to “bring attention to Virginia as a winemaking region.” |
Williams, the 3-year-old company’s corporate vice president, quickly discovered similarities between fashion and wine: “Certain brands are popular and certain styles are trendy.” But the differences are discernible, too. “We’re selling to everyone, from the tiniest restaurant up to Restaurant Eve in Alexandria.”
Clearly, not everyone can buy a shirt at Saks. But increasingly, everyone can—and does—buy wine. Williams confirms that the national trend is afoot in this area, too: Strong sales of wines that would retail for under $15.99.
JW Sieg made a big play for sales staff from the other major regional wine distributor, Country Vintner, which some would say speaks to the company’s stringent competitiveness. Williams points to another quality that he hopes will define the company, too, as its local footprint grows—community roots. To that end, JW Sieg will sponsor a golf and wine weekend with Keswick Hall, August 7–9. The Music Resource Center will reap the proceeds from the golf tournament, which, according to press materials, will entail teams created by “a select group of the wine elite” playing 18 holes and tasting wines throughout the day. Call 434-923-4363 to register. “Not only is it good to do things for charities,” says Williams, “it’s good for business, too.”
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Speaking of Keswick Hall, sommelier Richard Hewitt seems to have upped the wine game there again. Having created a private label wine for Fossett’s, the hotel’s high-end restaurant, he’s now overseeing a small vineyard, too. Keswick’s half-acre of Petit Manseng could yield its first harvest in either 2011 or 2012, and then it’s headed for private-label bottling.
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Meanwhile, over at neighboring Keswick Vineyards (no relation to the hotel), the grand property, which, with an estate, guesthouse, and 43-acre vineyard, had been on the market for $12.5 million, is no longer for sale. Times being what they are for pricey real estate, the brass at the winery has opted instead to open the property to weddings and corporate events.
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Finally, a couple of weeks ago we interviewed Todd Kliman about The Wild Vine, his biography, if you will, of the Norton grape, the only grape native to American soil to be successfully (some would argue) turned into wine. Kliman called last week troubled by the editing of one of his answers, namely, on the topic of Norton winemaker Jenni McCloud’s sex-change operation. Here then, is an expanded version of his answer:
“I was not interested in writing a book that proclaims my love of wine or my love of a grape. I’m interested in Norton because of its history and its people. To me, Norton is the outsider grape. It’s a story of outsiders, and people on the margins. Jenni’s story is part and parcel of that.
“I am always interested in the moment when people become galvanized by something. Norton is this double blow. To me this story is reinvention. And Jenni is the ultimate story in reinvention. Those decisions to leave behind this life as a businessman and a very hard-charging life in the tech world and embrace this Jeffersonian idea of a gentlewoman farmer—this is the double helix of her life.”
