This comes from an on-line review of my friend, Carry Capparelli's new line of wines.:
Imagine you’re sitting on an airplane and you strike up a conversation with the guy in the seat next to you and he tells you this story:
He used to be a racing car driver, mostly on the European road circuit, tearing around at a couple of hundred miles an hour and living a life of beautiful and dangerous women and fabulous European wines. One day, hanging around the track, he’s shooting the breeze with his buddy George, and George mentions that, when his racing days are over, he’d maybe like to go into the liquor business.
So you’re sitting on the plane with this guy and he’s not your typical copier parts salesman, so you leave your laptop in its case and let the conversation keep going. He tells you that a few years later he retired from racing and moved home to Chicago, where he got into the PR and racing promotion business. He organized the first motorsport competition between the old Soviet Union and the U.S. and made a little dough. Then, after sports marketing got to feeling tame, he went into politics, running for office in the electoral mud of Chicago’s Democratic machine. He was touted as a replacement for Rahm Emanuel when he left his Congressional seat to be President Obama’s Chief of Staff, but ended up running instead for a Cook County Commissioner position.
It’s about here in the story when the flight attendant interrupts with the drinks cart and you order a whiskey and he orders a red wine, which he sniffs at before drinking and makes a kind of sour face as if the wine displeases him. And he goes on to explain that he’d been poking around the wine business, looking at properties in Napa and Tuscany, but couldn’t make the numbers work. A few years ago he’s down in Argentina looking around and he meets a P.R. guy from a winery and they hit it off and decide that they’d like to work together.
Vineyard in Argentina is available at a fraction of the cost of Napa or Tuscany, and it doesn’t take them long to find a likely target: 58 acres of land at the end of a road lined with wineries. And he calls his old racing buddy – who, as it happens, is a scion of the family that founded and was enriched by the distiller Brown-Foreman, but who wants to make it on his own beyond the confines of the family business. And the guy in the plane next to you says to his old racing buddy George that he’s found a good plot of land for vines and George says: say no more!
They agree to buy and plant the land, an action as reckless in its way as hurtling around the track at Watkins Glen or plunging head first into Chicago politics. They have an idea but no real plan, and when they’re closing on the property – signing papers and handing over checks – he mentions to the notary that he needs to find a winemaker. And she says: my husband is a winemaker. In fact, he’s an Italian winemaker with experience making wine in Argentina and he’s looking for a steady gig.
One thing leads to another and they go into business together, getting the vineyards planted, designing a winery and figuring out their brand. Four of them — the former racing car driver, the guy with aspirations to the liquor industry, the Argentine P.R. guy and the expatriate Italian winemaker — decide to take on the world.
You’re hearing all this, and by the time the plane lands you’re thinking: this guy is full of it, but at least he’s entertaining. His tall tale killed the flight time dead and you didn’t even have to open the Sky Mall catalogue. You’re shaking his hand goodbye and he hands you a business card and, sure enough, he’s in the wine business. His name is R. Cary Capparelli and his winery is called Novus Ordo, which is Latin for “New Order.”
He smiles a genial P.R. smile and says it was nice to meet you.
–
It’s all true. Well, not the airplane part. I didn’t meet R. Cary Capparelli on an airplane. I met him in a prearranged interview that interrupted his dinner. The airplane thing is a literary device to emphasize just how surprising meeting R. Cary Capparelli is. In a business of billionaire tech moguls who dabble in wine and cruise on autopilot through interviews, saying the same things in the same moderate, Stanford-educated tone of voice, Capparellli comes out of nowhere. He has a Chicago accent and talks about the most amazing things as if he were talking about cutting his lawn. He is charming and informative and my candidate for Most Interesting Man of 2010.
Capparelli is travelling right now to sell his wine, which is a bitch because the wine market collapsed between the purchase of the land in Argentina and the new winery’s first vintage. But that doesn’t slow him down even a little because he likes a challenge. He liked it in auto racing and he liked it in business and he liked it in politics, and now he’s a happy road warrior liking introducing a new wine brand in a lousy market.
“They’re all challenges, huge challenges,” he says. “That’s what I look for. It’s in my nature to address them.”
The challenges take two forms. First, the economic climate is not favorable in general for the launch of new wine brands.
“It’s a very very tough business,” Capparelli says. “Very cutthroat. There are a lot of wineries selling wine at cost or even at a loss. It’s hard to make headway.”
And, second, there are an almost infinite number of Malbecs flooding the market. Malbec is, Capparelli says, “the wine of 2010 and 2011. What you see is only going to grow, and it’s pretty popular right now. The market is overridden with lots of wine, but there’s a lot of bad wine.”
O.K., let’s be honest. He sounds like every other winery tout in the world when he says, “Just making wine was not the objective. Making a real wine is what we wanted, regardless of cost.”
The wine he’s making is different, surprisingly Italian in its approach: more tartly acidic and food-friendly than Argentina’s more familiar fat Malbecs.
“We are trying to make an Italian character to the wine,” says winemaker Giuseppe Franceschini. “Argentina is used to sweet flavor with lower acidity, and I come from the country of bitterness. We have coffee that is bitter. Italian chocolate is bitter. I like wine with good acidity, fresh fruit, clean, clear. Cary said that was O.K. because he likes that kind of style, so he leaves me free.”
The first vintage is 15,000 cases made from grapes grown on land that Novus Ordo has leased with an option to buy. The vines on the land Novus Ordo owns are too young to bear good fruit, so it will be a few years before those grapes end up in Novus Ordo wines.
In the meantime, Capparelli is travelling, something he says he got used to back in his racing days. He hits the road at every opportunity. Like a politician running for office, he introduces his wine to anyone who will shake his hand, or anyone who will listen to him on an airplane.
The dinner my interview interrupted was a celebration. Novus Ordo’s first vintage had been reviewed in Wine Spectator and received an 87-point rating.
“That’s not a bad start,” Capparelli says. “That was three months after it’s bottled. Now it’s in the bottle nine months, it’s a lot better.”
The second vintage, 2009, is going into the bottle soon. Capparelli will have 15,000 more cases to sell. He will do whatever it takes to do that, he says.
“This project is unique,” he says. “One day you’re selling wine and the next day you’re building a winery and then you’re writing copy for ads. But I like it because we have control. We can actually control the direction we want to be in.”
And that direction, I think, will be forward. Always, obsessively forward.
UPDATE: Just to clarify: Novus Ordu is in no way connected with Brown Foreman.
UPDATE: A couple of people have asked my opinion of the wine. I didn’t include it because I wasn’t writing a wine review. Still, I’m a blogger and I ought to have an opinion. As it happens, I do. These tasting notes are based on a bottle of 2008 Novus Ordo Malbec that I paid $19 for at a local retail store.
Crystal clear, dark garnet to the edge. Nose is clean and a little hot, with more fruit than a typical Malbec. Berries. Reminds me of the aroma of a solid Bordeaux cru bourgeois. On the palate: high acidity, medium/low tannins. Light bodied, sleek. There’s a bright attack and then something kind of darkly sour in the long finish. Sour cherry.
My overall impression is that this is a well made wine, a more grown-up version of Argentine Malbec that is, to my taste, almost too polished. My taste in Malbecs runs to the rustic — though my wife, who’s a pretty good taster in her own rite, loved it. The winemaker is right when he describes it as being Italian in style. Put it into a blind tasting with a bunch of good quality Italian reds and I doubt anyone would suspect it was a New World wine.
Wine Spectator gave it an 87. I don’t give scores, but I’d say 87 is about right. I’d buy it again, without hesitation.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Friday, July 31, 2009
Cover Letters - Take Out The 'Self' And Put In The 'Sell'
I just came across this article and found it to be very worthwile.
It is by Joyce and Todd from Integrity Career Transitions
Cover Letters - Take Out The 'Self' And Put In The 'Sell'
To be truly effective, cover letters, like resumes, need to address the needs of the employer. Submit a cover letter which does nothing but sing your own praises in terms that the employer cannot relate to and he will simply switch off.
Your job, as an applicant, is to convince a prospective employer that you are the best possible match for the position and for his company. In order to achieve this, your cover letter needs to do several things:
1. Tell the employer why you are unique
The body of your cover letter should set out your Unique Selling Proposition, the thing that you can lay claim to but that no other can. Perhaps you achieved the best results in a particular field or area or were recognized by an award or have a unique set of skills and experience. Whatever it is, it must be unique to you, you must be able to back it up and it must be set out in specific terms. If you claim to be the top-selling salesman in your region, then you must be able to back it up with facts and figures.
2. Demonstrate that you understand what the job entails
Cover letters can never, ever be generic and it is down to you to demonstrate that you know precisely what is involved in each and every job that you apply for.
3. Demonstrate that you understand the employer's priorities
Two employers advertising a position for a production manager, for example, may have two completely different sets of priorities. One may be looking to increase output, while the other is more concerned with improving quality standards. Not only do you need to establish through your research which is the case, but you need to show the employer in the body of your cover letter that you understand his needs.
4. Demonstrate that you have the necessary skills and experience to fill the position
Tell a prospective employer about skills and experience which are not directly relevant to the role that you are applying for and you will be wasting your time. Fail to make a direct link between relevant skills and experience and the role that you are applying for and you will also fail to hit the mark. If the role being advertised is for a manufacturing production manager and the employer's chief priority is to increase manufacturing output, if you have the planning, organizational, technical or whatever skills to achieve this, then don't just tell him so in no uncertain terms, but show him how you used those skills and that experience in past positions to achieve great things.
5. Demonstrate that you get results
Be specific about the great things that you achieved in your previous roles. Tell the reader by what percentage you increased output and what the consequent increase in turnover or profits was in dollar terms. Wherever possible, try to relate your success back to how much money you earned or saved your previous employer. In most cases, whether his priority is increasing output or improving quality, his ultimate aim is to achieve greater profits through increased sales or lower costs.
6. Tell the reader that you have even more relevant experience which is covered in your resume
The aim of your cover letter is to get your resume read, so it is imperative that you entice him into reading it. After providing several examples of the benefits that you will take to his organization, just adding a simple sentence such as, 'As you will see from my enclosed resume, I also have a great deal of experience in.../possess excellent ... skills' will leave him wanting to find out more.
You might feel worn out by the effort of creating a tailored resume to suit every application, but if you fail to create a tailored cover letter to accompany it, you will have wasted your time. Employers admit that often they do not spend more than literally a few seconds scanning each application during the first sift. Make your cover letter one that stands out by truly demonstrating an understanding of the employer's needs, and you will be the one to get the call back!
It is by Joyce and Todd from Integrity Career Transitions
Cover Letters - Take Out The 'Self' And Put In The 'Sell'
To be truly effective, cover letters, like resumes, need to address the needs of the employer. Submit a cover letter which does nothing but sing your own praises in terms that the employer cannot relate to and he will simply switch off.
Your job, as an applicant, is to convince a prospective employer that you are the best possible match for the position and for his company. In order to achieve this, your cover letter needs to do several things:
1. Tell the employer why you are unique
The body of your cover letter should set out your Unique Selling Proposition, the thing that you can lay claim to but that no other can. Perhaps you achieved the best results in a particular field or area or were recognized by an award or have a unique set of skills and experience. Whatever it is, it must be unique to you, you must be able to back it up and it must be set out in specific terms. If you claim to be the top-selling salesman in your region, then you must be able to back it up with facts and figures.
2. Demonstrate that you understand what the job entails
Cover letters can never, ever be generic and it is down to you to demonstrate that you know precisely what is involved in each and every job that you apply for.
3. Demonstrate that you understand the employer's priorities
Two employers advertising a position for a production manager, for example, may have two completely different sets of priorities. One may be looking to increase output, while the other is more concerned with improving quality standards. Not only do you need to establish through your research which is the case, but you need to show the employer in the body of your cover letter that you understand his needs.
4. Demonstrate that you have the necessary skills and experience to fill the position
Tell a prospective employer about skills and experience which are not directly relevant to the role that you are applying for and you will be wasting your time. Fail to make a direct link between relevant skills and experience and the role that you are applying for and you will also fail to hit the mark. If the role being advertised is for a manufacturing production manager and the employer's chief priority is to increase manufacturing output, if you have the planning, organizational, technical or whatever skills to achieve this, then don't just tell him so in no uncertain terms, but show him how you used those skills and that experience in past positions to achieve great things.
5. Demonstrate that you get results
Be specific about the great things that you achieved in your previous roles. Tell the reader by what percentage you increased output and what the consequent increase in turnover or profits was in dollar terms. Wherever possible, try to relate your success back to how much money you earned or saved your previous employer. In most cases, whether his priority is increasing output or improving quality, his ultimate aim is to achieve greater profits through increased sales or lower costs.
6. Tell the reader that you have even more relevant experience which is covered in your resume
The aim of your cover letter is to get your resume read, so it is imperative that you entice him into reading it. After providing several examples of the benefits that you will take to his organization, just adding a simple sentence such as, 'As you will see from my enclosed resume, I also have a great deal of experience in.../possess excellent ... skills' will leave him wanting to find out more.
You might feel worn out by the effort of creating a tailored resume to suit every application, but if you fail to create a tailored cover letter to accompany it, you will have wasted your time. Employers admit that often they do not spend more than literally a few seconds scanning each application during the first sift. Make your cover letter one that stands out by truly demonstrating an understanding of the employer's needs, and you will be the one to get the call back!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Southwest Job Network and GCC to Host "Slow Networking" Event
Southwest Job Network Meeting
Go Slow to Go Fast in Your Job Search
The Southwest Job Network (SJN), previously known as Scottsdale Job Network, in partnership with Glendale Community College (GCC) is hosting a West Valley seminar and networking event, "Slow Networking Monday, July 13, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Glendale Community College-Student Union, Room 104, located at 6000 W. Olive Ave. in Glendale.
The goal of this seminar is to educate job seekers on how to conduct a mutually beneficial Slow Networking meeting. During the event, participants will learn step-by-step techniques for executing effective 20-30 minute discussions that result in professional referrals, job leads and new network connections. This event will also help job seekers expand their network by building new connections with fellow workshop attendees. Workshop registrants should come to the event with a prepared elevator speech. Course pre-work will be emailed prior to the workshop. Call (480) 513-1491 or email info@southwestjobnet.com for additional information.
Please pre-register at http://sjn-wv-slownetworking-07132009.eventbrite.com/
The Southwest Job Network (SJN) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides training, personal connections, access to resources and moral support for individuals in career transition. SJN leaders and trainers are volunteers who come from various industries including technology, healthcare, government, finance and human resources. Members represent the entire career spectrum of the metro Phoenix area. For more information, visit www.southwestjobnet.com
About SJN
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
SJN North Phoenix Southwest Job Network Meeting
Southwest Job Network Meeting
Tuesday July 21, 2009 8:30-11:45 AM
Southwest Job NetworkYOUR MARKETING PLAN: RESUME, LINKEDIN, AND OTHER TOOLS
Build on your career vision and create a personal marketing plan. Assess your skills inventory, decide who you want to dance with and clarify the benefits you offer to potential employers and/or clients. You will develop a personal marketing strategy and a tactical plan for getting visibility. Learn how to communicate your value in spoken, written, and online media, with a consistent message across your elevator speech, resume, LinkedIn profile, business cards, and executive bio. Successfully communicating your value will help you during networking and in your interviews.
Registration & Details:
http://sjn-ne-marketing-07212009.eventbrite.com/
Location: Temple Chai - 4645 East Marilyn Road Phoenix, Arizona 85032
Thank you,
Bill Austin
Email: | Southwest Job Network | Voice Mail: Phone: (480) 513-1491
Southwest Job Network
Southwest Job Network
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Scottsdale Job Network Meeting Feb 3, 2009
Scottsdale Job Network Meeting
Improving Your Interviewing Skills Part 2
Scottsdale Jobs NetworkJoin us on MEETING: Tues, Feb 3, 2009 8:30-9:30 AM Resume Reviews, Open Networking 9:30-11:30 AM - Meeting with Guest speaker
Location: Temple Chai - 4645 East Marilyn Road Phoenix, Arizona 85032
STARTING OR WORKING IN A SMALL BUSINESS
Facilitator: Doug Bruhnke will moderate a panel of entrepreneurial business founders and owners to discuss what its like to start and work in a small business. Considering the current economy, all work options should be considered!
Panelists:
Lon Safko Lon is an award-winning entrepreneur, inventor, CEO, consultant, author and speaker www.lonsafko.com His 18 inventions and more than 30,000 papers are in the Smithsonian, and he was recently selected by the Smithsonian to represent The American Inventor at their annual conference Lon is the founder of eight successful companies, including Paper Models, Inc. His latest book The Social Media Bible by Wiley & Sons unlocks the mysteries of the hottest new Internet wave, Social Media, such as Facebook and YouTube.
Abhay Jajoo Abhay is a serial entrepreneur with growing businesses in Phoenix. One of his companies is Eupath, which provides US and Canada-based companies with software development, analytics and legal processing services to incubate and scale operations at lower cost in India while keeping their proprietary business processes in-house www.eupath.com
Lesley Gates-McCulley Lesley is the owner of Gates to HR www.gatestohr.com which she founded after leaving Phelps Dodge. She has extensive human resources management experience in diverse corporate and work site environments, including small business through Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies. Throughout her career she has created HR infrastructure and led project teams aimed at starting or working in a small business.
Jeffrey Taylor After a corporate career with Citibank and Peat Marwick, Jeffrey read an issue of Entrepreneur and became one. During his successful consulting career he published two textbooks which are still used by global financial institutions. In the last couple of years he has lectured on Sarbanes-Oxley to major financial institutions, developed business plans for start-up companies, prepared companies to go public, helped companies raise both private and public capital and made independent movies. His new book, Going from W2 to 1099?, will be published this summer.
Thank you,
Bill Austin
Email: | Scottsdale Job Network | Voice Mail: Phone: (480) 513-1491
Scottsdale Job Network
Scottsdale Job Network
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