In Memoriam : Mark Heinemann
"Posted By : Chris Corley
Recently we lost a good man, friend and member of our industry, Mark Heinemann. His smile and good cheer will be sorely missed by all those that knew him.
Mark was a little older than me, but I can remember Mark all the way back to our elementary school fifth grade camp trip to Occidental. Mark was a counselor the year that we went.
In recent years, I would enjoy talking with Mark about new barrels for the year or joining him and the team at Demptos for one of their events. The vibe was always warm and welcome.
Mark was a good man, whose life was cut short far too soon. We'll keep Mark and his family in our thoughts and send them all the positive energy we can to help them through this difficult time."
Dec 28, 2012 at 7:52 AM
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Comments (1088)Napa Valley's 'Super Seconds'
"Posted By : Chris Corley
There are lots of ways for a winery to measure its success. High ratings and positive reviews provide feedback on wine quality. Sales of individual wines and customer comments also create a dialogue between the producer and the consumer. Gross revenue, profit margins, case sales by geographical region and percentage of sales direct from winery are some of the many metrics that we track to measure how we are doing.
Some other important measures that we keep track of may be somewhat unique to a winery of our small size. Employee retention, for instance, is very important to us. We have a few staff members that have been with Monticello for over 30 years, several for over 20 years, and a large number of staff that has been with us longer than 10 years. Our newest member on the production staff has been with us for 7 vintages. These are important numbers to us. Employee retention extends our family at the winery. Along that line, family involvement is another measure. We currently have five family members working full time at the winery, covering the four main areas of grapegrowing, winemaking, sales and administration. This is also very important to us as a family-owned estate winery.
All that said, we sometimes can condense our goals into somewhat more simple terms. We strive to make great wine and sell it at a fair price.
Recently, we were happy to see our efforts recognized in Steve Heimoff's recent blogpost naming Monticello as one of Napa Valleys 'Super Seconds', a reference to our winery being an elite producer of great wines selling for a fair price. Please follow the link to read Steve's full post at his blog ...
http://www.steveheimoff.com/index.php/2012/12/17/elite-value-in-napa-valley-call-em-super-seconds/comment-page-1/#comment-274151
Cheers, Chris"