This is both an incredibly exciting and wonderfully anxious time in my life. I've spent the past several months wrestling with so many ideas, so many concepts, so many dreams and demons that my work days have turned in to 10-hour-per-day, 6-7 day-per-week affairs. Launching this new web-store has been a concept buried deep in the back of my mind since the days of early 2002, when I watched the floor-sales of our Village shop transform, taking a new identity as we moved into "e*mail-based" marketing.
Join me now as we officially launch:
CEPAGE NOIR -- "Where the Boutique meets the Big Box® "
www.cepagenoir.com
Join us as we begin this journey - One that combines the exciting products of the "Boutique" Merchant - as we've always offered - with the incredible and often untouchable pricing of the "Big Box" Retailer.
HOW? By working to completely eliminate the carrying costs involved with high inventories. We are now able to work with our distributors - who act as our warehouses - to bring our clients "just in time" inventories.
Each and every e*offer we release will come with producer background and details, as before, but now with a new twist; we'll show you the old-way: the antiquated, Texas / 3-tier-State price*, then the best internet price**, and finally, we'll follow those with the Cepage Noir price.
Our retail "Stations" - no longer considered store fronts, as the wholesalers now carry that burden - perform as a place of socializing; we meet our clients at these "Stations" to taste wines, develop new relationships and allow for the retrieval of newly delivered, pre-purchased products by our clients.
Naturally, as "Boutique" is first in our mission, these "Stations" will be extremely comfortable, very user friendly and inviting, and will encourage a sense of community and comradery between our clients and working partners.
Our services, as offered in the past, will continue, to include professional wine storage in our 55 degree, 24,000 bottle wine cellar; wine tastings; consultations; Bordeaux futures; and more...
With the proliferation of market changes (the massive increase of Internet-based merchants, the consolidation of the big retailers here and abroad, and the appearance in this market of the "Big Box" stores) I've watched as our e*sales have become nearly 90-95% of our transactions. These sales have resulted in three of the best years we've yet recorded, with increases from 2005-2007 of more than 40% overall. Yet I've also watched as many less than positive issues have arisen as a result of this move to becoming almost an exclusively e*based store.
The most obvious challenge we face, daily, comes in the form of wine-searcher.com. There was a time when what we brought to consumers held a value; the research and development we offered on our products; the writing of the newsletters; the care we took to insure the proper shipping of the wines; all of the tastings we hosted; these services held a value. And we offered these services in the most "Tony" neighborhoods, with serious overheads. We took great pride in these things...
But today's savvy wine buyers, precisely the type of wine buyers we've always catered to, want more than that. They accept with great gratitude the services offered while at the same time clicking that web-site I referenced a moment ago. And if our prices aren't in line, the sales are gone. Perhaps the wines are extremely rare, perhaps no one else in Texas has access, perhaps we are the only folks to know the wine-maker. No matter, "Have a competitive price -- or the very best price, I hope -- or I'm shopping in another State."
I recently sat with a man who explained a theory to me. A theory that finally, combined with everything else brewing in my mind, pushed me to make this move. Basically, it states that we're no longer trying to sell 300 bottles of something, making $15 on each bottle. Let's make A Buck, maybe $2, but let's sell 10,000 of 'em!
If you are one of the lucky few to receive this notice via e*mail, it is because you are a part of our existing e*base. By being a member of this original database - that will expand exponentially when our marketing campaign begins - you are guaranteed first review of all upcoming offers.
A new and completely separate database will be formed as additional folks sign up at the new Web-Store. You, as a part of the original community, will receive a more comprehensive newsletter, while the new members will view a condensed version, complete with a link to the web-page supporting the letter you're viewing in your in-box. And while everyone will benefit from the same amazing prices, be certain that our original community will always have first-dibs.
Our first offer from CEPAGENOIR.com aired to all of you with the release of the Pali Wine Co. selections. That release is now the initial "weekly specials" offer at the new Web-Store.
I have elected to open this Web-Store with only a fraction of the items it will ultimately offer - eventually it will stock literally thousands of items from across the globe.
I do this in the hopes that you'll return to our Web-Store every week - perhaps even daily - to find out just what types of new and exciting offers we have "In Store" for you...
All the best in wine and life,
Christopher Massie
Diplome D'Honneur de Sommelier
713-524-9144
1958 WEST GRAY
Houston, TX 77019
www.christopherswine.com
www.cepagenoir.com
CWW/CFW
DBA - CEPAGE NOIR
"Where the Boutique meets the Big Box® "
Dedicated to the discovery and enjoyment of the world's finest wines.
*the standard Texas 3-tier price refers to the standard mark-ups found when old-fashioned "bricks and mortar" stores purchase products through Texas based wholesalers whom have purchased these products from wineries or importers, as dictated by the antiquated Texas laws that require 3 levels of interaction and markup for every bottle of wine sold in the State: the wine must, by law, originate from a winery or importer (level 1), to be sold to a Texas wholesaler (level 2), then to be sold to a Texas retailer (level 3); this is the law in Texas and it results, in the old-school way of retailing, in higher prices to the consumer.
**the best posted internet price is most often easily acquired by the use of a free, internet-based search engine called wine-searcher.com; while this service works incredibly hard to guarantee the authenticity of each merchant they report to the world wide web, it is possible for consumers to receive inaccurate or outdated information; however, by using this guide, as we do, one can feel very certain that one is securing a tremendous price for the products they are purchasing. If this service is unable to assist in the location of a wine, often the case with extremely collectible wine, we may turn to our list of other web-only merchants in our efforts to secure the very best price available on the world-wide web.
***minimum requirement for $50 gift certificate is $500 in total purchases, which may be accumulated over time or all at once, contact store to enroll.
