Seattle, Wash. (Mar. 31, 2016) – Butch and Jerry Milbrandt, co-owners of Milbrandt Vineyards, announced today they’ve resolved their current sales and marketing contract with the San Francisco Wine Exchange. They are now partnering with DrinkSpace, an agency focused on supporting the winery’s new growth and strategies on value-added lifestyle content for consumers.
“DrinkSpace understands sales distribution as well as what we are doing to inspire customers,” said Butch Milbrandt. “We want to reach consumers on a new level that elevates their lives through food and wine education. Our quality of wine speaks for itself, but we want to start speaking directly to the customer’s needs. We feel DrinkSpace can help us do that.”
Recently, the winery invested in a series of high-quality wine and food pairing recipe videos, recipes that are also found on the back of its bottles. The social videos, along with other lifestyle content, are available on the winery’s website. The DrinkSpace partnership will help elevate the social seeding of this kind of educational multi-media for wine consumers while strengthening distributor relationships. Traditional efforts through vital distribution sales channels are extremely important to the Milbrandt family.
“DrinkSpace has fresh energy, experience and respected distributor contacts in the industry,” said Jerry Milbrandt. “This is as close as it gets to having our own in-house sales team with this tightly held and talented group of professionals.”
In a memo to distributors this week, Butch Milbrandt stated, “Milbrandt Vineyards will be partnering with this new team of veteran wine professionals, and we will be investing in the ownership of our sales and marketing blueprint.”
DrinkSpace, led by wine industry veteran Thomas Vogele, marketing veteran Steve Reed, and National Sales Manager Chris Zehner, has created “a truly innovative and successful sales and marketing agency whose structure is fit for the current selling environment we are all experiencing at the wholesale and account level,” the memo continued.
With the respected talents of winemaker Joshua Maloney and his recent 90-plus scores on some of the winery’s most important spring and summer varietals, the Milbrandt family feels the timing is right for the transition.
“Having helped establish two of Washington’s most renowned AVAs with Ancient Lakes of the Columbia Valley and the Wahluke Slope, Butch and Jerry Milbrandt are true pioneers with respected grit in the industry,” said DrinkSpace Founder Thomas Vogele. “We are excited to take this bold brand and its superior wines to the next level of success by creating an opportunity for all to connect to its value.”
