GaragisteCon Schedule (All Times are Eastern):

11 am – Noon

Lessons I Learned Opening My Winery – Mike Gamble, Blue Mule Wines
Opening up a small-scale winery business takes lots of preparation and planning. But even the best plans don’t always account for all the surprise twists and turns of a winery business start-up venture. Hear real-life lessons learned from small winery owner Mike Gamble in Texas about the realities of launching a small winery so hopefully you can avoid some unexpected surprises yourself.

Improving Winery SOPs – Jenne Baldwin-Eaton
Any winery no matter the size needs to have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place to make sure best practices are followed for key tasks and operating equipment. SOPs need to be well documented and easy to follow so future mistakes can be avoided. But that doesn’t mean SOPs should be static and set in stone. They should evolve and get better with time. Learn how to write better SOPs and improve the ones you have in place.

12:10 – 1: 10 pm

Winery Financials 101 – Geni Whitehouse, CPA.CITP, CSPM
Every industry has its own key financial metrics and certainly a small-scale winery is no exception. Understanding the important numbers for your winery business will help you set goals, make more-informed decisions, and achieve better results. Learn about our industry’s financial metrics to track with winery CPA Geni Whitehouse . She will go over what you should be keeping an eye on to track the financial well being of your winery resulting in a stronger overall business.

Turning Social Media Posts into Wine Sales – Julie Rhodes, Not Your Hobby Marketing
There’s no doubt social media is an important tool for small wineries to interact with existing and potential customers. There’s also no doubt it takes time and effort to create all those posts, so why not put those efforts to good use generating revenue. Learn how to take your winery’s social media efforts to the next level resulting in real dollars and boosted sales. Julie Rhodes advises craft beverage companies on how to maximize their social posts for sales and she will share her insights and tips with you to put right to use with your own winery’s social media.

1:20 – 1:50 pm

GaragisteCon Sponsor Q&A with Vinmetrica
Join event sponsor Vinmetrica for a 30-minute session where you can get your wine testing equipment questions answered.

2 – 3 pm

Your Small Winery Lab – Chik Brenneman, Baker Family Wines
It doesn’t require much space or expense to add the basic gear you need to set up a lab for your winery so you can test your wines and improve quality control. Small winery co-owner Chik Brenneman will cover the lab equipment you can add cost-effectively to help you make better wine and the lab tests you should be running as a commercial winery no matter your scale.

Renting Winery Equipment to Fit your Scale Goals – Lisa and Brad Warner, Rutherford Equipment Rental
There’s no doubt winery equipment can be expensive, especially when you only use certain items a few times each year. One solution some wineries look to as a result is renting equipment to fill their seasonal needs for specific gear and also allow meeting their scale goals without as much investment dollars spent up front. Learn more how wineries use rental equipment and how the rental process works with the owner of Rutherford Equipment Rental in California.

3:10 – 4:10 pm

New Yeast Technologies – Phil Plummer, Montezuma Winery
Many of us in winemaking were trained to trust Saccharomyces yeast and not leave our wines to chance with wild strains. But winds of change are in the air and yeast companies are now turning to many non-Saccharomyces yeasts for certain purposes. Learn more about the world of sequential fermentations, mixed cultures, and non-traditional yeast species as a new tool to optimize wine quality bringing a distinctive touch to wines compared to that of only a S. cerevisiae fermentation.

Determining New Winery Equipment Needs – David Wonder, MoreFlavor!
How do you know what sized equipment you’ll need at your planned winery and even what equipment you are going to initial use your start-up dollars to invest in having on site when you open your doors? What scale does the equipment need to be to meet your planned production goals? Walk through these questions and many more David Wonder of MoreFlavor who is the perfect person to help you come up with strategies for the equipment planning on your start-up winery.

4:20 – 5:20 pm

Moving the Needle on Winery Profits – Geni Whitehouse, CPA.CITP, CSPM
There is absolutely no reason to rely on hunches when making business decisions when you can use your sales and financial numbers as your guide. Learn how wineries can improve their bottom line and maximize profits. There is a wealth of information at your fingertips if you understand what numbers to track that will make a difference on your winery’s profitability.

Mitigating Smoke Taint – Clark Smith, WineSmith
With wildfires on the rise in many wine regions around the world, smoke taint has become a common phrase. Learn about it and different ways you as a winemaker may be able to try to make the best from affected grapes and mitigate the impact of smoke taint on the final wine in the bottle you’re selling. Learn the latest tips from the front lines from commercial winemaker and wine chemistry expert Clark Smith.