CH: Your winery produces a number of brands besides Soleil Mimosa – what’s new with them?
FL: We’re producing wines in New Mexico with New Mexico varietals that are winning national and international wine competitions. Also, the St. Clair Mimbres Red is the number-one selling red wine in New Mexico, above all other brands.
CH: How are you working on retailers to educate them about the products?
FL: The main thing is tastings, tastings, tastings. We need to get consumers to try the product. We’re working
with retailers to explain who we are and what we do – a big part of that is
organizing tastings.
CH: What’s next for Southwest Wines?
FL: We’re working on vertical integration. We want to make sure we know everything that’s in our wines – it all goes back to quality. We can’t compete in volume against the big guys, but we can compete on quality and I think we have the best product out there.
Jeremy Nedelka is editor of Beverage Dynamics, a sister publication of StateWays Magazine. Reach him at JNedelka@epgmediallc.com
