May 12, 2020

Our office continues to be CLOSED until further notice.
Debbie has been out on unemployment since March 15. Emily worked 2 days prior to the shelter in place order, so she's waiting to come back to work. I have been volunteering my time, working from home since March 16 and going into the office once a week to get mail and pay bills. The office really is closed - people keep asking me when we'll be in, I'd like to think June 1st.  

Please share, if you haven't already. Help get the word out about our curbside pick-up options.

"50 Ways To Get Your Wine Now"

This is the link to the music video
Have your video post link to our Car Hop Wine Shop page. https://www.wineroad.com/sipsonoma/
A HUGE thank you to all of the winery folks that threw caution to the wind and sang for us... all of them questioned the idea, (some were pretty funny about it!) but they went for it anyway. It turned out GREAT. Thank you for having faith in John Beck our filmmaker and following the lead of our local singer/songwriter Steve Pile.  I also have to thank the cute guy that opens the video for us, my son Dustin Costa. We hope the video puts a smile of everyone's face and encourages viewers to buy some wine.

70 out of 170 members have completed this 2-minute winery survey. It would be helpful to get more responses.
I will leave it open until end of the day Wednesday.

These are broad-brush questions about re-opening, your individual winery responses will NOT be shared. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/readytoopen
In case you missed the update I emailed on Saturday, you can downlaod it here. It is a recap of what different winery orgnaizations have been working on, in reguard to re-opening stratetgies with Permit Sonoma, ABC and Public Health. 
This is the Wine Institutes recommended guidelines - not yet approved.
This is the Sonoma County Vintner's recommended guidelines - also not yet approved.

Car Hop Wine Shop - the page is live HERE

For the month of May we will be promoting the wineries that are offeing curbside pick-up or FREE (or almost free) local delivery

WAY TO GO - 

So many of you are adding posts to our website. 
It's great!
- Virtual Tasting
- Wine Specials
- Shipping Offers
- Something Different!   ← this is new
KEEP IT UP - continue to add new tastings and experiences.

Get Drinks Delivered - new online platform. 

This was in my "in-box" so I'm just passing it along to you. If you are going to continue offering curbside pick-up for the next few months, this may help you connect to a broader range of customers. People can search for restaurants, bars, wineries, etc all within a geographical area, then make their purchases & pick-up. You may want to check this out, see exactly how it works and if it a good fit for you.  Until May 30 there is NO fee to register your winery.  Questions: Steve Williams
Observation...many of you think 4:00 pm on Thursday is the prime time for a virtual tasting. If 30 of you are on at 4:00 Thursday, customers have to choose one. Think of other times zones, realize people are home and available earlier, these days every day is the same as the next, so Thursday is not the ONLY option. Experiment with other days and times and see if your views go up.
More food for thought. This video is really for tourism boards or destination management companies. It brings up the idea of promoting what will be different now when you visit. Why go back to business as usual or aim for that, now is the time to aim higher. Worth watching.
We are continuing to support these partners via our social media posts...visitors will be back and when they do come back, we hope they connect with our partners.
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