Central Valley Business Times

AUDIO: Family finds ‘abundance’ in wine business

LODI
February 25, 2009 12:01am

• Abundance Winery expands despite recession

• ‘It’s a matter of being rewarded by what people think of our product’

• Check out our audio slide show

Dino Mencarini

Abundance Vineyards and Winery in Lodi opens a new tasting room this weekend – in a way indicative of how the family owned company has prospered by doing things in a different manner.

The bright new tasting room building on Turner Road, with a suite of company offices on the second floor, reflects the family’s tastes with a Tuscany theme, says Dino Mencarini, who, with his brother Ron owns the smallish winery.

Abundance ships about 7,000 cases a year, selling most of its wine in the eastern U.S. with only a small amount – 8 percent – sold in California.

He says he hopes the new building, which does not house the actual winery – it’s on another side of Lodi – will become a destination for entertainment and education in addition to wine purchases.

“It isn’t a matter of cases, it’s a matter of being rewarded by what people think of our product and what they get out of what the heck we’re doing here,” he says.

(Dino Mencarini talks about the new tasting room but also about how to survive as a small business despite economic downturns in today’s CVBT Audio Interview. Please left-click on the link below to listen now or right-click to download the MP3 audio file to your computer or mobile media device.)

Dino Mencarini is well known throughout the Central Valley thanks to more than 20 years as a buyer of winegrapes before he became a winery owner. His travels took him from Kern County to the Central Coast to the North Valley, not just at harvest but also throughout the year.

Even now, on a mild February afternoon, he can step outside his new office and quickly spot how his vines are doing as they emerge from dormancy.

But knowledge is not the only building block for success in the wine business, he says. So, too, are flexibility and a willingness to change as circumstances dictate.

“You should always be prepared for change. I think anybody that’s in the business knows that a certain portion of their total … has to be dedicated to change,” says Mr. Mencarini.

He explains that he got into the winemaking part of the industry when he was asked to be a partner in a small custom crush winery. But the business fell on hard times.

“Little by little, my brother bought the partners out and moved it into Lodi where we’re at right now,” Mr. Mencarini explains.

He says his brother now concentrates on the vineyards while he handles the business side.

“I’m not really the winemaker. I’m the guy who pays the bills,” says Mr. Mencarini.

One of the partners in the custom crush winery was a distributor on the East Coast. He began selling Abundance wines to clients there, even while the California vintner was little known at home.

“That’s part of what I want to do with this building – is start to grow from the inside out where in the past I really grew from the outside in and that’s not the way to do it,” Mr. Mencarini says.

Mr. Mencarini says “the passion for the wine business” keeps him going. And he has little patience with the snootiness shown in some parts of the wine business, calling them “cork dorks.” His company offers moderately prices wines that are “zero intimidation,” he says.

And he’s not openly concerned about opening a new facility while the nation is in a deep recession.

“There’s always a need for alcohol, it seems,” Mr. Mencarini says. “When times are bad people drink and when times are good people even drink more.”

Comments on this story