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Barrel Oak Celebrates First Year
Barrel Oak Celebrates First YearBy Bill Walsh
Times-Democrat Staff Writer
There's no telling how many bottles of wine Barrel Oak Winery might have sold had its first year of operation been, oh, pre-recession 2006 or even 2007.
That Brian and Sharon Roeder moved about $1 million worth of reds and whites through their Delaplane winery in their debut year during a deep recession is testament to a number of factors, key among them that the Roeders make good wine, and good wine is proving pretty recession proof.
There's that, Brian Roeder said last week, but there's more: The key to Barrel Oak's success is in the aspirations to community of its owners.
"Before we ever even started designing a winery, we talked about what we wanted to achieve," Brian said. "We didn't want to just sell wine; we wanted to create a place of community."
As that community has grown and developed, it encompassed, among others, parents with children, people with dogs, folks who like to have a good time, and people who like to support the causes in which they believe.
In more nuts-and-bolts business terms, "we try to make sure that every weekend there is something happening here at the winery," Brian said.
It's not enough that your customers tell you they had a good time and want to come back; you need a plan to actually make that happen, he said.
Inviting the Porsche Club, for instance. Members show up, but so, too, do automobile enthusiasts.
"Dogs," Brian said. "We have a lot of dog-related events. We are very dog friendly, and that has been very popular in terms of bringing people in."
The next piece of the puzzle that fell into place, Brian said, was to realize the he and Sharon were living their dream, and customers wanted to share that with them.
Every Friday, he e-mails everyone on the winery's mailing list, some 6,000 people. The text deals with something that happened during the week, or something that is coming up over the weekend.
"My e-mails say, 'here's the experience; here's what the dream looked like this week,'" he said.
Because the Roeders are dedicated to creating community, non-profit charity groups figure prominently into the mix.
"On Veterans' Day, we did a fundraiser for Fisher House, which builds housing for military families whose loved ones have been injured in the wars, to they can stay close to them without going bankrupt on hotel bills. It was one of our first fundraisers," Brian said.
"We did a barbecue and raised $1,500 for Fisher House just by selling hot dogs and hamburgers."
The typical charity activity involves the Roeders bringing in a band, at their expense. The charity may collect a cover charge for the entertainment and certainly collects 10 percent of the bottle sales for the day from the hosts. Charities can make money from whatever else strikes their fancy: a silent auction of donated goods, for instance, food concessions, and so forth.
In the first year of operation, charitable organizations "are raising $3,000 to $5,000 a pop," Brian said.
From day one of its operation, Barrel Oak Winery has given 10 cents to charity for every bottle of wine it has sold.
"We haven't made one cent from these events themselves," Brian said. Pay the band, pay the extra help that the events require, kick in 10 percent, and you are hoping to break even, he said.
And that's just fine.
"What we have gotten, is we have met some wonderful people who are meeting us for the first time and love the [Barrel Oak] experience."
Meeting people is golden in and of itself.
"When you're building relationships rather than selling a product, you give yourself the opportunity to have something of an exponential growth curve, if you do it right," Brian mused.
"People come, and they love it. They come back and bring their friends, and they all love it. So they bring their friends. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger."
The challenge, Brian said, is to "manage the impact of [an inrush] of traffic coming through the door," in terms of still providing personal service."
That, and selling the worth of the experience.
"Value isn't just about dollars" Brian said. "Whether our prices are high or low, the way that we succeed in the business is in how we get our customers to see the value of their visit to this winery. All of the things that we do contribute to the idea that this is a valuable place to come."
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