Vino and brides.........

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I'm heading out on a brand new career path. Later this year, I'm dumping my IT career of 12 years and going to run a business for my father-in-law. We're opening a winery.

The Belvoir Winery :: Home

You can read through the full history of the location on the website (just went live today). We own 170 acres of land. The building we are currently renovating is 110 years old. Three of the buildings on the site are registerd on the National Register of Historic Places. We already have advertising in local wedding magazines and have received a large amount of inquiries. The reception area inside the buildings is little more than studs and bare walls right now, which makes it difficult to get too many brides committed, but we'll have it looking much better by April.

Site will also be open for tours that cover the winemaking process and cover the history of the property. The site is also rumored to be haunted and while it has that look, I've personally never seen anything out there. Felt creeped out a couple of times, but that could have been anything.

I'll likely post periodic updates. It's a bit scary to jump into something so new, but my educational background is in business administration and accounting, so I'll be able to hold my own with a bit of hired help to assist. Early feedback from the community has been very positive, so we're excited to get started.

[JPhillips]

I didn't know you were gay.

[chesapeake]

Good for you! You should flesh out the ghost story for the website and do a bit around Halloween to drum up business.

[DaddyTorgo]

cool!

[Butter]

I thought you were buying an ice rink. Which is it, man!

[DaddyTorgo]

if the wine is any good i might even buy some, despite you being MBBF!

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

I thought you were buying an ice rink. Which is it, man!

It's an ice rink... made of wine.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

I thought you were buying an ice rink. Which is it, man!

There's plenty of room to install a synthetic ice rink on 170 acres.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

Good for you! You should flesh out the ghost story for the website and do a bit around Halloween to drum up business.

Yep. Plans are definitely in the works for paranormal tours. There's another site in the KC area that does it and they do extremely well. There's a big appetite for that kind of thing right now.

[JPhillips]

FYI: On Firefox I couldn't get the photo tour to load.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

FYI: On Firefox I couldn't get the photo tour to load.

Thanks. I'll have the designer check it out.

[Swaggs]

Good luck.

I once had an old winemaker tell me that the way to make a small fortune is to start out with a large fortune and buy a winery.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Good luck.

I once had an old winemaker tell me that the way to make a small fortune is to start out with a large fortune and buy a winery.

Yeah, we're lucky enough to have a well-known historic location that we're going to renovate that will provide a steady income through events. The wineries that do the best generally are the ones that don't have the wine as their primary income. It's fine for supplementary income, but not a big money maker.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Yeah, we're lucky enough to have a well-known historic location that we're going to renovate that will provide a steady income through events. The wineries that do the best generally are the ones that don't have the wine as their primary income. It's fine for supplementary income, but not a big money maker.

Yeah, it looks like you have a diverse enough property to be able to do develop a few different areas. The buildings and grounds look great from the pictures, so conferences and receptions should be a reasonably easy sell.

[Mustang]

Oh, and I applaud you for going a different direction in your career path. Never easy. Congrats.

[hhiipp]

Are you hiring? This lady may be looking for a job.

http://tinyurl.com/3bqkd9 (youtube)

[Ragone]

hmm, i live like 7 minutes from the place.. as does kcchief. odd eh?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Ragone

hmm, i live like 7 minutes from the place.. as does kcchief. odd eh?

FOFC Happy Hour??????

[Arles]

Nice work, MBBF. Sounds like a cool idea and I hope things go well. Keep us posted!

[Lathum]

I'm not drinking any Merlot!!

congrats and good luck!

[Philliesfan980]

So you married into money. Congrats!

[Glengoyne]

A winery. What are you making Ice wine? It is freaking freezing here. I'm in St. Louis on business, and thought I'd chime in.

Oh and congrats on the new line of work. Best of Luck!

[Mustang]

By the way, any thoughts into turning parts of it back into a hotel or bed and breakfast? With making it a wedding place, you might have some good tie ins with offering space to stay from out of town attendents.

[spleen1015]

DAMN! This is what happens when you're a fan boy for Sony?!

Seriously, grats and good luck, man.

[tarcone]

I really like Liberty. My wife and I applied for teaching jobs there about 8 years ago. Didnt get the jobs. But we really liked it.

Good luck.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Mustang

By the way, any thoughts into turning parts of it back into a hotel or bed and breakfast? With making it a wedding place, you might have some good tie ins with offering space to stay from out of town attendents.

Already have designed it. Third floor will contain 6 smaller rooms and 1 large bridal suite. The idea is to have enough rooms so the entire bridal party will be able to stay at the winery overnight rather than drive after the reception, but it could easily be used for family too. We need to get the winery up and running to get some income. Once we get some money, we can do the work on that floor and finish the entire building.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I really like Liberty. My wife and I applied for teaching jobs there about 8 years ago. Didnt get the jobs. But we really liked it.

Good luck.

Liberty is opening a second high school in the fall. But I don't think any teaching jobs are available. They were snapped up internally by existing Liberty teachers.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

A winery. What are you making Ice wine? It is freaking freezing here. I'm in St. Louis on business, and thought I'd chime in.

Oh and congrats on the new line of work. Best of Luck!

I would love to make some ice wine, but we don't have the right kinds of grapes planted currently to do that. You have to have a grape that ripens in November to do that.

[lungs]

Sounds similar to a degree to my local winery.

One of my best friends works in the vineyard and I let the owner do arrowhead hunting on my land.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by lungs

Sounds similar to a degree to my local winery.

One of my best friends works in the vineyard and I let the owner do arrowhead hunting on my land.

Thanks for sharing. Pretty cool place.

[Ragone]

You may wanna put some sort of direction/address/mapquest link on that site.. so you can get more potential traffic mbbf..

Obviously i know exactly where it is, but random surfers may not.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Ragone

You may wanna put some sort of direction/address/mapquest link on that site.. so you can get more potential traffic mbbf..

Obviously i know exactly where it is, but random surfers may not.

Yeah, someone suggested that before. I'm going to be adding some more information on directions and prices for room rentals this weekend. Of course, we don't want anyone showing up yet since we don't open for another 6 months. I may boldface the part of the front page that says Opening August 2010 just to get the point across.

[stevew]

If we could somehow mend this thread with the fragrance making thread, it would be awesome.

[Izulde]

Congrats, MBBF. This sounds like an awesome career path.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by stevew

If we could somehow mend this thread with the fragrance making thread, it would be awesome.

Originally Posted by Izulde

Congrats, MBBF. This sounds like an awesome career path.

The timing on this had to be planned.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Of course, we don't want anyone showing up yet since we don't open for another 6 months. I may boldface the part of the front page that says Opening August 2010 just to get the point across.

A possibility to help avoid that while still improving the geographical understanding of where you are might be a short but hard to miss text paragraph describing the location as "conveniently located X miles East of whatever and less than an hour's drive from Y&Z", etc.

Would make it tougher for premature lookie-loos but still make it more identifiable for potential customers.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Make sure you send me a few bottles...Purely for testing purposes you understand.

[Marc Vaughan]

That place looks incredible - best of luck

[Karlifornia]

They sure as hell don't have wineries like that in Austin, Texas!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I received a dose of good info yesterday. Met with a beer distribution representative yesterday. Found out that I can get tents, rolling bars, and cups for free. Two good things about that:

1. Before now, we were quoting rental prices on tents to brides. Some couldn't afford the site rental and the tent rental. Now, we can offer a basic tent at no cost and allow them to still have their wedding on our location. If brides want fancier tents, they can still rent them.

2. We're likely going to use the free tents to host an Octoberfest event every Friday night on the property during October. Should be a great way to get the community out to the site while making a good piece of money.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

I received a dose of good info yesterday. Met with a beer distribution representative yesterday. Found out that I can get tents, rolling bars, and cups for free. Two good things about that:

Careful about putting up a beer tent, a football game could break out.

[MrBug708]

I went to school in beverage marketing with an emphasis in wines. Good luck

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

I went to school in beverage marketing with an emphasis in wines. Good luck

Did you major in marketing the wines or drinking the wines????

[Swaggs]

Everytime I see this thread title, I can't help but think about "Boats and Hoes."

[sterlingice]

I missed this thread the first time around.

Congrats and good luck!

SI

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Did you major in marketing the wines or drinking the wines????

I majored in Hospitality Management in college, with an emphasis in Beverage Marketing. So I actually received college credit for almost getting drunk. I also ended up becoming a Sommelier and was the teachers assistant for the Intro Wines class. My advisor in the program runs the LA County Wine Faire, so I've been able to mingle with some pretty important wine people over the years. It was great at the time, but not very useful in the real world IMO.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Karlifornia

They sure as hell don't have wineries like that in Austin, Texas!

Not in Austin proper, but we do have two awesome ones here in little ole' Driftwood (pop. <300)!

The Mandola Estate Winery

Driftwood Vineyards

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by cartman

Not in Austin proper, but we do have two awesome ones here in little ole' Driftwood (pop. <300)!

The Mandola Estate Winery

Driftwood Vineyards

Thanks for posting those sites. The Driftwood site design is terrible, but I love their pavillion and deck areas. Would really love to build something like that at our winery. A big open air pavillion with a roof.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Went to the Missouri Grape and Wine Convention over the weekend. Learned a ton of stuff about how to optimize the marketing of the winery/event center. We also purchased 300 Chambourcin and 300 Vignole grape vines for planting in the spring.

Oh, and we had more wine in one 3 day weekend than most people should every be allowed to drink.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Things are starting to pick up. We just booked our third wedding. We currently have one wedding in September 2010, one in May 2011, and one in July 2011.

I'm currently talking with around 20 brides about having their weddings at our winery. One thing I've found is that their decision process goes much quicker if another bride is interested in their date. Two of our recent commitments occurred when another person expressed interest in the same date being considered by another bride.

I've found that it's best to be very honest with the brides and their family. They know exactly what they're looking for and you have to tell them up front if their plans may not work exactly as they'd like. We've had several brides come by and it just wasn't going to work out with them, but most of them commented that they'd be back to the winery once it opens just to enjoy the wine and historic nature of the property.

We've also managed to stir up a lot of civic pride mostly by word of mouth, newspaper articles in the local paper and Facebook. A lot of times, you wonder if it's working, but we've had an increasing amount of feedback from people that are excited that their town is going to have a winery that they can come visit, bring guests, and even get married or hold corporate functions. We've even been approached by the local symphony and local bands about holding concerts on the property.

One of the best ways we've got the word out is that my father-in-law is a family practice doctor who has patients pouring through his office doors every day. He can put up things in his office and it quickly spread the word about the opening along with events once we open. He's always been very good to his patients and I know they're very thankful that he's restoring a city landmark to something everyone can enjoy.