Ep 11: The O.G. of Wine DTC: Paul Kalemkiarian of the Original Wine of the Month Club

“I am enthusiastic over humanity’s extraordinary and sometimes very timely ingenuity.  If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top buoyant enough to keep you afloat that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver.  But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top.  I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings as constituting the only means for solving a given problem.”  Richard Buckminster Fuller

Happy New Year Small Fortune Podcast Listeners!

In today’s episode, Carol talks to Paul Kalemkiarian, (until last year) the owner of the Original Wine of the Month Club.  Paul describes the arc of his DTC wine sales business from in-person recruitment methods in the ‘70’s ‘80’s and 90’s through the mail catalogue, e-mail, and now on-line methods of acquiring new customers.  As the platforms we currently use to mediate the connection between sellers and buyers become increasingly crowded, and as the platforms take more and more profits for themselves, it’s time to think anew.  There are some good “old” ideas that Paul describes that might just be worth another look here in 2024.

Paul is also a podcaster!  Carol highly recommends “Wine Talks with Paul K” – available at all podcast platforms (link below).  While you’re there, follow Small Fortune!  We’re on all podcast platforms too.

paul@womclub.com

https://www.winetalkspodcast.com/

Andy Steinman’s contact information for the wine DTC opportunity: asteinman@globalwinebank.com

Sponsor: Global Wine Partners https://www.globalwinebank.com/

Music: Nate Collison

Logo Photography: John Corcoran