Mystery Shoppers Visit Pine Ridge Vineyards

Pine Ridge Vineyards is located on a strategic stretch of the Napa Silverado Trail within the Stags Leap District. They are known for their single vineyard varietals harvested in some of Napa Valley’s most prestigious AVA’s. The visitor center offers by appointment tastings in their caves and cellar or for walk-ins, a standing tasting bar upon entering. Tastings at the bar are $45 for a flight of 5 wines, and their “Elevated Tastings” are available as a tour and cellar tasting ($85) or a cave & culinary cabernet pairing for $125. The Hospitality center has a lovely patio, however, it is reserved for wine club members.

For all the visits (both during the week and on the weekend) our shoppers arrived as non-appointment walk in guests, so each visit was conducted at the tasting bar. Upon arrival, cursory greetings were made and on two occasions the staff negotiated among themselves who would be delegated to host. Once a host was assigned, although they wore name tags, no introductions were made, and on all visits the tasting menu was printed, but the hosts failed to explain the offerings, the price, or what one could expect for a $45 tasting experience.

On the first visit the host recited scripted information about the wines, but did not offer any foundation as the premise of Pine Ridge, how the wines came to be, or why they were special or unique. On other visits there was shallow knowledge of the foundation of the wines, and one host had to consult with other team members for answers to basic questions on wine production and history of the winery.

There was some reference to being a new hire, but after further dialog discovered the tenure was months, not days or weeks… certainly enough time to understand the basics. On every visit our tasters felt like they had to force dialog, probe to learn more about the wines and the winery, and were not proactively offered information on how to purchase or details of the wine club. Certainly the wine club would be an easy topic to breach, since all of the seated areas were set aside for members. One would venture to guess the Pine Ridge Tasting Room staff are not incented on sales as all of our shoppers left the tasting room paying only tasting fees and disappearing without a trace. There seemed to be a lot of behind the bar activity going on among the staff, discussing internal logistics regarding inventory and other customers, and during one visit a host actually was bantering with colleagues while marrying two bottles of wine in front of the guests.

Pine Ridge has a rich legacy in Napa Valley for its’ single vineyard cabernet sauvignon. Their wines are beautiful expressions of some of Napa Valley’s most prestigious AVA’s. Unfortunately, unless you are a wine club member or pay around $100 for a hospitality experience at the visitor center, one may never know all the richness Pine Ridge has to offer. From a prospective customer perspective, Pine Ridge came up short across all five of the DTC Sales weight factors, and as such, The V Files ™ gives them a half point rating based on combined or attempted ad hoc staff performance during all three visits.

Pine Ridge Vineyards
5901 Silverado Trail, Napa, CA 94558
www.pineridgevineyards.com

WHAT THEY DID WELL:

Friendly staff, Intermittent knowledge of wine portfolio.

AREAS WHICH NEED IMPROVEMENT:

Connecting with guests, knowledge of product and winery story, passion and inspiration, converting guests into customers through wine sales or wine club memberships, attempting to stay in touch after the visit.

DTC BEST PRACTICES RECOMMENDATIONS:

Connecting & Building Relationships with Guests:

1. Making personal introductions and addressing guests by name
2. Establishing trust- Instilling passion and inspiration about the winery and offerings
3. Providing a more intimate tasting venue for non- elevated tasting experiences 

Converting Sales, Wine Club Subscriptions & Staying Connected after the Visit:

1. Mandatory staff sales training: Qualifying, connecting, using discovery and closing sales
2. Implementation of sales incentive plans to reward on sales, wine club & email collection.