This is new series of interviews with entrepreneurs that we will be posting weekly. We are trying to provide more resources that allow entrepreneurs to teach other entrpreneurs.

What got you in to wine? Did you grow up in wine country?

My interest in wine started as a hobby. My family is Dutch; throughout my teens and 20’s, when I traveled throughout Europe, as well as South America, New Zealand, etc. ~ I always enjoyed visiting wine regions. It was through my intense hobby-ism in wine at Stanford Business School that I ended up being greatly involved with, and later co-presiding over the 400-person wine club. I spent a summer in between my first and second year at business school working for an importer of boutique New Zealand wines and much of my second year at school doing research on the U.S. Wine Industry and writing the first rev of the Bottlenotes business plan.

What have you learned about wine through this process?

Wine is a wonderfully rich, complex product. I doubled majored in art history and political science at Yale (undergrad). I fell in love with art history as a subject as art for me served as a wonderful point of entry to learning about people, places, politics, and cultures. Post-college, art continued to serve that role…but wine began to as well.

In short, the key thing I’ve learned about wine that people might not know, or might not always consider, is that behind every wine is a great story: one of agriculture, one of hand-crafted products, as well as one of marketing trends, technological innovation, talented people, and fascinating geography.

And yes, I’ve of course learned about tons of new wines from our Members. I frequently receive emails asking if we carry “this cult wine from Italy” or “that great bottle that we tried for dinner in Chicago.” We make it a policy to always follow up on such inquiries- and more often than not, it leads us down an adventuresome road of discover. Each time, I learn something new from our Members.

The virtual wine cellar technology is a great part of your site: what has been the most challenging part of developing that software?

Not having been trained as an engineer or Product Manager, I stepped into my role as CEO of a start-up technology company with idyllic views of what technology development would be. I assumed it would be that we provide a vision, graphic mock-ups, and budgetary constraints, and poof! Technology gets developed.

Thanks to our phenomenal technology partners in the San Jose based boutique engineering firm, The Code Works, Inc., this has in many ways been the case.

What I have learned is that technology is a living, breathing thing, also much like art. And with that comes all the challenges of the creative process: focus, on-time releases, scope creep, etc. What I thought would be a 6 month, one-stop-drop for product has been an ongoing 18-month development campaign – and we still have an 87 page product plan for CY 2007 about which I still fantasize that we will execute in its entirety!

In short, the greatest challenge to me in technology development has been prioritization. All projects seem so appealing and the question really becomes which one will “move the dial” for the company, ie: short vs. long terms trade-offs.

However, I’ve enjoyed the technology development far more than I anticipated. It has become one of my favorite parts of running this business.

Bonus: What’s the best experience you’ve ever had at a winery? Where was it and when?

I have two for you:

1. Storybook Mountain Vineyards, 8am, May 2005

Dr. Jerry Seps was a tenured history professor at Stanford when he left his safe post to pursue his dream of planting a then-unknown grape (Zinfandel) in the untrodden portion of Napa (the hills north of Calistoga). 30 years later, the bet proved prudent: Seps now makes one of the most coveted, and my personal favorite, California Zinfandels.

One of my favorite winery experiences was driving up route 29 at 7:30 am, coffee spilling on my lap, only to arrive at the wrought-iron gates of Storybook Mountain Vineyard into a bubbling brook and beautiful winding road up to one of the most picturesque wineries in Napa Valley. Then, by foot we hiked up the steep, rolling vineyards of Storybook Moutanin, with Seps leading the charge, to hear the historian himself tell us his auto-biography, fog dancing at our feet all the while.

He’s a gem of a man: if you have the opportunity to visit Storybook, I highly recommend.

2. Fisher Vineyards

Fisher Vineyards is THE most picturesque winery in Napa Valley- nuzzled squarely off an obscure mountain road in between Napa and Sonoma.

The drive is well worth the thrills as the Fisher family is one of the most warm, welcoming, and inspired wine-making teams in the Valley. Whitney Fisher, their eldest daughter, is now the winemaker, and Rob, the son, the business guru. The flowers, the rolling hills, the winery designed by Turnbull - all make Fisher Vineyards appear as if, like Storybook, you are in a fairytale from the moment the gates upon til the moment they close after you.

If you are extra lucky, Whitney will explain her winemaking process to you in person in their exquisite caves, or Rob will take you up to the crest of their Mountain Estate from which you can see both sides of the Valley.

Copyright © 2006 by Sonia Aggarwal

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