Tor Kenward Of TOR Wines: 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand
We are defined by how we get up, not by the blow that put us there.
As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tor Kenward.
Tor Kenward is an iconic winemaker, who has written, taught, and lectured on wine most of his adult life. Tor began his career at Beringer in 1977, where he spent 25 years as an executive. Tor helped shape Beringer’s Private Reserve and Single Vineyard wine programs; was mentored by notable winemakers from Bordeaux, Burgundy, and California; and launched Beringer’s culinary initiatives. Tor retired in 2001, and with his wife Susan started their dream: TOR Wines — https://torwines.com/about/tor/.
With Tor Kenward’s impressive connection to Napa Valley and his legacy of creating inimitable wines, his new memoir Reflections of a Vintner (https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/reflections-of-a-vintner_9781951836566/) offers entertaining insights into an often intimidating and complex but highly enjoyable world.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I have not completely entered adulthood, so not much backstory. My parents were true bohemians — Dad a writer, Mom a painter, and once famous Broadway actress. Dad’s first play went to Broadway, then made into film — title Cry Havoc, with an all-woman cast. Both parents did not try and steer us. Before I entered the wine business I was partner in a jazz club where I was introduced to the world’s great wines. I have chased them the rest of my life, and made a good living doing so. Some now call me an Icon. I’m still a boy chasing dreams.
Can you share with us the story of the “ah ha” moment that led to the creation of the food or beverage brand you are leading?
1975 in the Heitz tasting room in Napa Valley. Joe Heitz was behind the counter pouring his wines. One was the 1968 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. I can still taste that wine today. Mind mending stuff that has — like me — survived the test of time.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Thinking that I could after 6 or 7 years a dedicated student of wine, and a professional vintner — blind taste any wine and tell you where it came from, who made it, and in what year. I have failed this test more than I like to admit. One of the great early authors of fine wine books and instruction once replied to the question, “When is the last time you mistook a Bordeaux for a Burgundy?” His answer, “Not since lunch.” We need humility in the wine business, and more good humor.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food or beverage line? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Not completely understanding the complexities of the distribution of wine. It is regulated by the same people who regulate selling guns, then widely distributed by very powerful corporations. Prohibition when you look at our current systems of selling wine was yesterday. We need full time compliance people getting our fine wines to you, for each state has a separate set of rules and regulations. It is slowly changing, but slowly is the operative word.
Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
I’ll make this simple. Love the product you would like to produce. Want to learn everything there is to find out about it. Remain curious. Be challenged, and enjoy dusting yourself off when you get knocked to the ground. We are defined by how we get up, not by the blow that put us there.
Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?
Same answer as above. Learn everything you can about the product. If you love it the hours you put in — and you need to put in the 10,000 hours at some point — will fly by. I have no idea where the last 45 years of my life went. So I wrote a book about it; “Reflections of a Vintner”.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
Yes, in a sense. Explore your product with people you think are far smarter than you are. When we stop learning, things calcify.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
I bootstrapped because I did not want to spend a lot of time in meetings. I was a Vice President at a large wine company for 25 years and spent a lot of time in meetings, I wish I had not been sitting through.
Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to file a patent, how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?
This is a very complicated question for a vintner winery owner. I make very small amounts of the best wine I possibly can, so I approach most of this with one thought in mind. Work with the very best grapes you can get your hands on, and people who share your passion for excellence — and things tend to fall into place around this mantra.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Wine Brand” and why?
1. Solid relationships with the best growers built on trust.
2. Learn what vineyards make the best wines and why.
3. Work with an experienced winemaker who loves wine, and has been making it under mentors you respect.
4. Work with the very best winemaking equipment money can buy. This includes barrels.
5. Go out and meet the people who support you, who love what you do. Remind them — they keep the lights on — not you.
Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?
Make sure it is the very best product you are capable of making.
Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Wine is for sharing a table with friends; extending a meal with conversation, and pleasure. I’m not making the world a better place, but I am making the world far more tolerable and pleasant to be moving around in.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Take more time to enjoy and savor good company and family around meals. Fast food and electronic distractions have shifted us away from this the last 50 years. Wine can help, but is not necessary. When it is introduced, it can take us to the places it is made, prolong a meal, and make it just taste better. The movement exists and is called “Slow Food” and I endorse it. I heard it was born on the steps nearby the first MacDonalds in Rome as a protest a few decades ago. When in Rome…..Cheers.
How can our readers follow your work online?
My new book “Reflections of a Vintner” comes out on April 26th, and is available at bookstores nationwide as well as online: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/reflections-of-a-vintner_9781951836566/
More information about TOR Wines can be found at: https://torwines.com
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Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
