How Scotto Cellars Finds the Perfect Blend in Family and Business

By Kim Honjo

Family, friends, food, and wine. For many of us, that sums up the perfect way to spend time together. Nobody knows this better than Scotto Cellars’ CEO Anthony Scotto III, whose family has been in the wine business for five generations. Scotto started his company in 2004, and operates it along with his brothers and sister, growing their family business steadily. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, he now leads the charge in making quality wines that everyone can enjoy.

Scotto recently spoke with Salesforce where he talked about the changes in the wine industry, the importance of hiring the right talent, and his keys for growth and productivity.

What’s your advice for novices picking out wines? Besides looking for interesting labels, that is.

Find a knowledgeable retailer and ask for recommendations. Tell them the flavors you like, and it doesn’t have to do with wine at all. Tell them if you like fruity flavors, if you like vanilla, smoky, citrus, or woodsy. Start buying wines and tasting them. There’s just so much good wine out there that you don’t need to spend a lot of money. We’re talking $10–15 a bottle. Don’t let others tell you what you should like; you need to experience it for yourself. Overall, don’t feel embarrassed about asking questions. That’s something the wine business hasn’t been very good at — making people feel comfortable with asking things and learning.

Do you mean the wine industry’s reputation for being kind of inclusive and pretentious?

Yes. It’s not so much the producers, but sometimes people in the trade. They can come off like it’s so special that they know about wine. Look at my family for example: we’re 5 generations in the wine business. My brother, who oversees our winemaking operations, went to UC Davis and has viticulture knowledge. We’re knee-deep in wine, but there’s nothing spectacular about that. We don’t treat it like we have this magical gift that can turn fermented grape juice into wine. Wine is something you should enjoy. It brings people together and it’s the moments that come with it that matter. It’s a chance to talk and connect with people. That’s how we view it.

Speaking of five generations in the wine business, you literally grew up working on your grandfather’s winery. How did those early days shape the way you run your own business now?

I learned that there’s a certain level of care in how you operate, that you take in hand personally. We’re a family business and we have 77 employees, and they’re our extended family. My father and grandfather always had employees at the dinner table and there was always a family atmosphere there. That set the precedent for how we operate now, from finding talent that shares our values to building that level of trust and confidence in our employees in that they know the family understands what’s going on their world and can do every single job they do as well. I think working at the winery also instilled the drive to be an entrepreneur and having the freedom to think and be creative. I saw that firsthand.

What has been key to Scotto Cellar’s successful growth?

Having a united front with my brothers, sister, and father. Without it, we wouldn’t have anything. That unity permeates throughout the whole company. We have a clear objective: We treat work and family as one. We’re not doing this for personal financial wealth, but wealth in terms of doing what we love, passing on traditions, and sharing our wines with everyone. Those values help us build our brand and differentiates us a small business. It all starts from my family and trickles down to our crew, distributors and customers.

What are your company’s top 3 priorities now?

1. New product launches and brand extensions. We recently introduced a line extension to our Rare Wines brand: Rare Black. So that line extension is my top priority at the moment and ensuring its success. Lots of information has to be given to our distributors and attention given to the launch.
2. Finding quality talent. We’re constantly looking for people who share our same values and can carry that ethos above and beyond what we do now. We want to find people who can give our customers personalized touch and attention and help us grow throughout the country.
3. Balancing creativity and pragmatism. It’s that entrepreneurial dilemma of being creative and agile, while instilling processes and practical ways of doing business every day.

What kind of creativity? It seems like the industry wouldn’t be open to much change.

In some ways, it’s really old and stuffy and hasn’t changed in years! So that’s been a challenge. How does a young entrepreneurial family implement fresh ideas in a sometimes stagnant industry? What can we do to penetrate the market in new ways? It could mean partnering with a blogger in Tennessee to talk about how we deal with their restricted market. Or it could mean presenting our products directly to retailers or on premise accounts. We also believe in supporting family-owned businesses. For the most part, there is a very systematic approach to distribution, so it’s all about thinking creatively and finding new ways to approach opportunities.

What are other challenges you face as a small business owner?

On a larger scale, the consolidation within the wine industry is tough for small wineries. There are some huge conglomerates out there. One distributor can represent about 30 percent of the market, so they dictate what consumers are exposed to. If you don’t sell to them, your wines don’t get the exposure. Retailers have also been consolidating over the years. It’s a disservice to consumers since they’re only getting exposed to what the conglomerate is funneling down. If you go to a large grocery chain, 80 percent of the wines there are controlled by only 10 suppliers around the world. Hence, finding new ways to penetrate markets and get to the consumer is critical.

On a more personal scale, it would be not having enough time to focus on all the priorities. There’s no lack of opportunities out there, but it’s figuring out which ones are going to give you the most bang for your buck. But that’s what Salesforce helps us with anyway.

How does Salesforce help you prioritize and stay productive?

I use Salesforce for prioritizing every day. We have so many balls in the air that Salesforce helps us understand when a few of them are on the ground. We have 40 different brands and over 200 wholesale customers, not to mention retail partners, so keeping up with opportunities and what’s going on is a challenge. When my other responsibilities keep me from running the sales team and monitoring daily operations as much as I would like, a tool like Salesforce helps me keep my finger on the pulse. We have a small in-house sales team, so it’s the larger sales force that we don’t have.

I probably use the Opportunities section the most. It’s great for keeping track of all the steps we took to win an opportunity. We can apply that knowledge to other opportunities, which is key. It’s also been great for streamlining meetings. Instead of recapping meetings, I can gather all the details from Salesforce, and email it over to the people I’m meeting with as a reminder. Then we can just move forward in the meeting as opposed to reviewing notes from the last time.

What is the one piece of advice that you want to share with leadership of other small businesses?

Take the time to memorialize things and plan out what you’re doing. Every Sunday, I plan out my week, read my manager’s reports, and share what’s going on with my family. I regularly review Salesforce and always discover new areas where we can take advantage of opportunities. But it’s the planning that puts it into action; planning is key.

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