We’re on the move again! Our ongoing expansion efforts recently led to the inking of our second distributor. Peerless Beverage Company recently joined the Senor Sangria family and will bring Classic Red and White to Northern New Jersey, an area that we felt was not getting the attention it deserved. Peerless will add Hudson, Sussex, Union, Bergen, Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties to the Senor Sangria Map, we’ll finally be doing these areas justice!

Being a company built and founded from the ground up, we here at Senor Sangria are thrilled to have brought in a well-established, family-owned company with an excellent reputation. Peerless Beverage’s history reaches back to 1933, when Charles Salzman and Jake Beim decided they could succeed combining efforts to sell beer following the end of prohibition. 30 years later, Rich Salzman and Norm Beim officially created Peerless Beverage. Today under the direction of the third generation of Scott Beim and Chuck Salzman, Peerless operates one of the largest distributors in NJ. In fact, I am proud to report that after leaving some samples behind with Chuck, I received an email while out with Maria that he and his wife gave a big thumbs up! Big thanks to Rich and Chuck!

So Peerless has been doing their thing for only a few weeks now, and we’re already more than impressed with their level of effort. Their reps are motivated and excited to carry our labels, and after seeing the positive reactions from beverage and store managers, you can almost see them licking their chops. Make no mistake, these guys are a competitive bunch, and now they’ve seen for themselves that Senor Sangria is a product with a quality and consistency that almost sells itself. We’re psyched to see where they can take us through the remainder of this summer season and beyond!

Cheers!

Back on April 5th, we had another production run of our Sangria Classic RED. Normally we produce about 900 cases, but we had our first hiccup ever and were only able to make 300 cases. Unfortunately, this error was due to a botched up juice order. Because we produce in small batches, this put us in a bit of a bind, since we ended up with less product than expected. Our next production run will be much bigger and better with a new addition to our Sangria Family…..

Did someone say Senor Sangria Classic White? Yep, you heard us correctly; we finally bottled our white sangria. On June 6th, we began the 4 day process of bottling our white, as well as more of our red. This is so friggin exciting (excuse my language)! Getting to this point was worth all the hard work and hurtles we encountered during this process. Now we are working hard to get it to the people. Everyone wants it and we are stoked about the positive feedback we’ve been receiving. Due to the high demand of our Sangria Classic White, we expect to sell all of it in the first month. The white sangria is a little sweeter and fruitier, but like the red it still tastes like you made it at home. The debut of our white sangria has grounded us quite a bit and now we feel like a true sangria company…a company that can deliver more styles of quality sangria to the market.

All of our sales force has been talking up our white sangria for quite some time…but one story specifically put a big smile on our face. One of the stores that already carries our red has been very emphatic they don’t want to carry our white because they have plenty of other options. One of our very insistent sales people brought in a bottle and said “I know you don’t want to carry it, but humor me and just taste it.” Needless to say, the manager told him to ignore everything he had said in the past and please place an order for 10 cases. THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!

We will definitely cheers to that!

We are excited to say that the month of May was the beginning of our in-store tastings! You will be able to find us in 50 + locations sharing the Senor Sangria love! We will start monthly contests, so if you see any of our Brand Ambassadors at these tastings you have increased your chances of winning a $50 gift card. These tastings give us the opportunity to stay in contact with the folks that love our sangria and also add lots of new fans! Once you’ve tried Senor Sangria, you can’t go back to anything else

In the hyper-competitive business that is the beverage industry, there are a few cardinal rules.  One is being able to sell yourself on the spot. You have to be able to answer the question, “Why should I buy your product?” on the fly with total confidence and sincerity.

Larger companies that produce oil-tanker size vats of booze spend serious bucks on marketing campaigns and strategies.  They brainstorm catchy slogans, ads and commercials with the goal of generating a “wow factor”.  Many times this involves air-brushed models frolicking amongst each other, implying you will have a really good time with really good looking people if you buy their product.  This is otherwise known as putting lipstick on a pig.

Not here.

Here at Senor Sangria, we know exactly where we came from, who we are, and where we are going.  We are proud of our humble origins; made by hand, with fresh ingredients, and in small batches to be enjoyed amongst friends and family.  Nothing changed when Senor Sangria Classic Red was born into production.  And nothing has changed with our product development.  We still start off new ideas at home.  If we don’t like it – if our friends don’t like it – we keep it in the kitchen until it’s just right.  As we move through pre-production, it remains a closely monitored hands-on process, never afraid to take it a step back. 

This is how a premium product is made.  This is how Senor Sangria is made.  It’s a philosophy that has served us well and that we believe sells itself.  Cheers!

We want to give a big thank you to everyone that has helped Senor Sangria become so successful in such a short period of time.  We are thankful to our friends, family, folks at the winery, the label design team, tasters, customers and the amazing crew at Shore Point.  We feel like we don’t say this enough and want you to know how appreciative we really are.  We are a small company, but the enthusiasm and support we receive about our product is grandiose.  Every year we truly get more and more excited and couldn’t do this without your support.  Thank you for everything you do and we look forward to 2011 being an amazing year.

Back in February we announced that we began working with Shore Point Distributors.  Shore Point is a powerhouse!  We’ve only been working with them for 3 months and they have added over 200 locations to our Senor Sangria portfolio.  There is still a boat load of accounts out there, but Senor Sangria can now be found in over 400 locations.  Everyone on their team is so energized about our product; there is no surprise they’ve been so successful.  When we begin our search for distributors in other states it will be a hard decision because Tony and his team are a tough act to follow.  I can’t wait for them to experience the summer rush that Senor Sangria brings… I think they will be pleasantly surprised about the amount of sangria they will sell.  Thanks again guys, we couldn’t have asked for a better group to work with.  Cheers too many more sales to come!

In the end of January we were invited to serve our sangria at a charity event for The Carmine Brady Foundation hosted by Gerard’s Liquor Store located in Point Pleasant, NJ.  We were a little intimidated when we heard there would be over 300 wines served and about 400 people in attendance, but of course we are willing to do anything for a good cause.  This was definitely a humbling experience for us and we were pumped about all the positive feedback we received from the new fans we gained from this event.  We were also very excited to meet lots of folks that already purchase our sangria and we thank you for your loyalty and support.  This was the first time Gerard’s helped sponsor an event like this and due to the great success they will probably do it again next year.  We are honored and grateful to the family that runs Gerard’s for including us in such a great cause.  We can’t thank you enough for your support in helping promote our product.  Because of you, we have lots of new fans in the Point Pleasant area!

I would also like to give a shout out to my wifey who made a beautiful Senor Sangria basket for the giveaway!

Wednesday, March 9^th was another exciting day for us at Senor Sangria.  We had our 3^rd production run in 2011.  Having 3 production runs in 2 months is a record for us and summer isn’t even here yet.  In order to cover the demand in New Jersey we will be making gallons and gallons of sangria every month from now until summer.  All this work is only for our RED sangria, we are looking forward to even more craziness once our WHITE sangria is released.  This is so exciting and overwhelming because who knows what will happen once we begin to expand into other states.  When I think about how far we have come as a company, I wish someone would just pinch me, so I can wake up from this dream.  I am grateful everyday to all the folks that have helped in our success and would like to say Thank you!  We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you!

Baseball is still arguably our National Pastime.  One of the biggest reasons I believe MLB is truly the national pastime is not what happens in the major leagues.  You’ve got a truckload of millionaires and billionaires; and, games are mucho expensive!  The FCI ( Fan Cost Index) average cost for a family of 4  for the 2010 season was almost $200.  It was over $300 for the Yankees.  In order for a sport to be a pastime, it has to be accessible Mr.& Mrs. Main St..  It has to be affordable to frequent.  That only happens in an amazing labyrinth of leagues and teams that make up Minor League Baseball.

Do you know what the FCI was for the Minor Leagues in 2010?  $57.70.  And these guys are toiling for an average of $850 a month, something the average Joe can relate to.  The games are packed, and the promoters throw everything they have at the production.  Fan interaction (everyone loves the dizzy bat race), giveaways in between innings, fireworks…they’ve got it all!

So why all the backdrop and build-up? 

I want to emphasize how psyched we are at Senor Sangria to have landed an agreement with the Phillies’ Class A affiliate, the Lakewood Blueclaws (I should say the 2-time defending South Atlantic League Champion Lakewood Blueclaws!)!  This is Senor Sangria’s introduction to professional sports!  The concession stands at FirstEnergy Park, baby!  And you know what?  The fans rock too!  They’ve made the Blueclaws the most attended team in the South Atlantic League for 10 years running (4.5 million fans over 10 years).  Oh, man, I’m getting all riled up just thinking about it.  Former NL MVP Ryan Howard and 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels played here (in fact, in 10 years, 36 Blueclaws have made their way to the Major Leagues).  We’ve been offered a golden ticket, and we’re going to make the most of this opportunity.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the folks that made this happen; especially Food and Beverage Services Director Chris Tafrow and Shore Point Distributors.

I’ve said this before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again.  This is just the beginning!  But for now, check the schedule and head on down to FirstEnergy Park to catch some great baseball!  And, while you’re there, enjoy some Senor Sangria!

Play ball!

“March is a month of considerable frustration – it is so near spring and yet across a great deal of the country outdoor activity in our yards seems light years away.” Thalassa Cruso (”the Julia Child of horticulture”)

It’s a hard statement to disagree with, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  On the other side of the fence, the grass is most certainly greener, the grills are dusted off, and the patio furniture is out.  We’re weeks away, baby!  It’s time to re-focus ourselves and restate our goals.  At the top of the list, motivate to get Classic White on shelves this summer.

Last year we tried so frigging hard to get our white sangria formula finalized and approved, but the season’s end caught up to our efforts and we had to pull back.  We’re to a point now where the label is complete, outside of determining the alcohol percentage.  That of course requires a finalized formula, which we had…until one of our suppliers discontinued a key ingredient!  That took us back to the lab to find a replacement that met our lofty standards.  We’re so @$#%ing close; but I will again play the broken record and insist that we will not offer an inferior product that is not to our standards.

Losing that ingredient was extremely frustrating…we had it!  We were so confident that we began brainstorming what would be next.  That’s right!  You didn’t think red and white were it, did you?  They’re the foundation.  What comes next will take us outside the box, outside our comfort zone.  Look for Senor Sangria to offer something a little…….whacky.

Cheers!