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January 30, 2009

stormhoek tasting at harry’s tonight

4 Comments

[The t-shirt design for tonight’s shin­dig etc.]
After a cou­ple of weeks of back-and-forth bet­ween Stormhoek, our US impor­ter and our local dis­tri­bu­tor, I am plea­sed to announce that Stormhoek is now avai­la­ble here in Alpine, Texas.
To cele­brate I’m thro­wing a party tonight at Harry’s Tinaja, my regu­lar local wate­ring hole, at 8pm. There will be Stormhoek wine for the tas­tin’, cheese and crac­kers, plus my friend Israel has smo­ked up some awe­some mango beef jerky for the occa­sion. I’ve also hired my favo­rite local band, The Dood­lin’ Hog­wa­llops to play live.

[The Stormhoek bill­board, currently lea­ning against the outside wall of Harry’s, right by the main road in town, where every­body can see it etc. Click on image to enlarge.]
Besi­des that, my buddy Loren Feld­man is in town, wiel­ding his video camera, so there should be plenty of foo­tage uploa­ded online soon.
Re. the “Dream Big” t-shirt. Yes, that sen­ti­ment is prin­ted on the back label of the Stormhoek bottle. It’s also a line that seems to reso­nate with peo­ple round these parts [Few peo­ple move to the middle-of-nowhere West Texas desert without some sort of alternative-lifestyle-dream-action going on, so there was a tan­gi­ble align­ment there.] As I’ve been saying for a while, “We’re into the same kind of things you’re into” works bet­ter as a mar­ke­ting stra­tegy than, “Here’s why you should buy our pro­duct.“

[Harry, with the first cases arri­ving etc.]
Secondly, Re. Wine mar­ke­ting: Usually, when an impor­ted wine launches in the Sta­tes, a fami­liar pat­tern emer­ges. Hire New York or SF res­tau­rant for the eve­ning. Orga­nize wine tas­ting. Try to get the usual free­loa­ders, PR wannabe’s, and ran­dom warm bodies to attend. If a C-List celeb somehow turns up by some Miracle of God, become ecs­ta­tic. Send Press Release out to the usual sus­pects in the media. Watch Press Release be utterly dis­re­gar­ded by All & Sundry. Watch abso­lu­tely nothing hap­pen after­wards. Wit­ness the entire story disap­pea­ring into the dust­bin of his­tory within nano­se­conds. And so on.
So we at Stormhoek deci­ded to go in the exact oppo­site direc­tion, as far away from the Usual Sus­pects as pos­si­ble. “Hey, let’s launch in Alpine, Texas! Let’s see if we can get real West Texan cow­boys to like South Afri­can wine! It’s totally insane! It’s totally futile! It’s totally wrong! Let’s do it any­way!“
Plus ca change…
[UPDATE: We’ll be strea­ming the party live. Check mine or Loren’s Twit­ter for updates.]

Tags: Dream Big Print, Loren Feldman, South African Wine, Stormhoek, Stormhoek Bottles, Texas

4 Responses to “stormhoek tasting at harry’s tonight”

1. Jyri says:

   January 30, 2009 at 4:13 PM

   This makes me want to go to Alpine, TX. Enjoy, and let us know when Stormhoek’s avai­la­ble in Sili­con Valley.
2. Chef's wife says:

   January 31, 2009 at 6:45 PM

   You last para– so true. Work in PR and hubby-you gues­sed it-is a chef. So should you be in Lon­don and in need of a je ne sais quoi venue[by this I mean loca­tion loca­tion loca­tion ]‘wine tas­ting avec press’ pray tweet moi.
   Ciao
3. Scott Gamble says:

   February 1, 2009 at 5:57 PM

   Any shirts left to buy to those of us who couldn’t make the event?
4. Patrick says:

   February 4, 2009 at 1:14 PM

   I’m glad to see the bott­les are screw cap ins­tead of cork. There’s nothing more disap­poin­ting than a cor­ked bottle, or more frus­tra­ting than not being able to find your god­damn corkscrew.