Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Austin Hope on Creating The #7 Ranked Wine in The World - Austin Hope 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon (Paso Robles)

Episode Date: January 19, 2021

Good morning! Today is Tuesday, January 19th, 2021. We're excited to share this killer episode with you. We hope it's one you'll enjoy!Wine Enthusiast ranked Austin Hope's 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon (Paso Robles) as #7 on their top 100 best wines of 2020. This episode dives into the creation and celebration of that wine, with the owner of Hope Family Wines, Austin Hope.If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram and tag us @the.rad.cast | Do you want to hear more from our host? - Give him a follow @ryanalford on Instagram. | The Radcast is a product of @radical_results | #theradcast If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better placed in here. What better time than now? You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? It's Ryan Alford. Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. Here we are in the throes of January 2021. We all were so grateful to get past 2020 and we're just going to ignore some of the shit show still happening around us but nonetheless i am pleased to be joined as i've been telling everyone we're going to be bringing in more and more some of our own personal interests and things that we're doing and everyone knows i know i love wine if you follow me on instagram you certainly see this gentleman's wine quite regularly and a good friend austin hope man what's up brother what's up man how are you great so pleasure to

Have you on the show again. My resident and growing, budding, wine enthusiast friend, and, you know, pun intended there, which we'll get to, and I've got to say it right now. I have to say it. I'm not going to wait any longer. Congratulations, brother. Number seven wine in the world with wine enthusiasts, top 100.

Un-fucking believable. Yeah, pretty crazy, man. Very surreal. No, no question about that. We're extremely blessed and just blown out of water, man. I know. Well, it's been number one in the world for me for quite a bit. And yeah, it always sounds like I'm blowing smoke, but it's not, it's the truth, which is why I seek out this man and love all the relationship that we're building and can't wait to get out the winery here soon. But Austin, so what's happening with everything, you know, since we last talk and maybe start just, you know, like I mentioned pre-episode, you know, our audience is growing. Let's give them a little bit, you know, that synopsis real fast of your background and Hope Family wines and everything there. We'll condense it down, but maybe just start there, and then let's just lead right

into how things are going out in California with everything going on. All right, cool. So a quick synopsis, we, sort of a snapshot of my life. We moved to Paso Robles in 1978 with my parents. I was six, seven years old, came over, and we planted a vineyard. Paso was not really known for much, but. cattle and some almonds and things like that and grain and we quickly became one of the larger farmers for wine grapes in the region by selling our grapes and then slowly we started

getting into the wine business with my uncle and we decided to jump in and build a winery and start brands and all these different things because that's where I you know my head was going with it and my uncle's head was going with it my dad's brother He passed away right when we were getting ready to start everything. I was super young, but told the family, yeah, this is what I can do this. No problem. And the way we went, that was in 95. Started Triana, winery in 1996.

We took over Liberty School, started with those two brands. Myself, took a guy that I hoed weeds with my whole life growing up, brought him in and said, you're going to learn to make wine. I hired a salesman. There was three of us. you know, fairly small beginnings. And, you know, I joke, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't, we got the wine biz the old fashioned way.

We didn't have any money. So we had bank loans and, and away we went. And now we're, you know, we're a pretty good sized company. We're a, we're a global company at this point. We're in about 16 countries in every state in the U.S. And we're about a 60-person company. And we, we shipped about 400,000,000 K. as wine this year.

Just a little bit. Just a little bit of wine. Yeah. And you just had to put your name on it, though, for it to blow up into the at the stratosphere, right? We launched the Austin Hope label in 15 to First Vintage. I know it was out there. But first vintage, 98 points, excuse me.

I don't want to diminish the score, Austin. I got to keep all the accolades right where they belong. So we start with the 98 score right out of the bat. And then most recently, you're all. was it number 10 last year and then for 2020 number seven in the world the the the hope Cabernet correct yep yeah no that was it it was a yeah it really kind of kicked in with the first vintage like we talked about the past you know seven years to create that brand and to really believe you know the goal was to do to create the the standard for luxury

festival's Cabernet and we believed in this is what it was going to be like and tasted it practice released the first so it actually got a 97 the first vintage and that was actually the highest score that wine enthusiast, which has been around for 30 years, because they celebrated their 30th anniversary. A wine from Paso had never got that high of a score ever. So that was a big deal. And then we went into, they've been 95 or 96 point plus wines ever since.

That was a 15 advantage, 16, then 17. We got a phone call and says, you're a number 10 wine of the world. and the top 100 wines of the year and I'm holy shit like I get chills still talking about right and this was like it would just like freak me out like I literally pulled over and like teared up it was super crazy

and then you know so we were thought we were flying high and just like you know completely you know stoked right I mean we believed in the brand I mean not saying it which shouldn't be that but like you know they taste typically taste about 25000 wines throughout from all over the world and then to be narrowed down to editors,

I guess they're editors, they're contributing editors, they do the stories, but the actual critics that work and taste all these wine regions, they, you know, $25,000 wines and to be in the top 100, and then this year they call and they say, hey, you're number seven, I'm like, holy shit, like what are we doing now? It's like, man, like, how do I do better?

Like, it's like, so now it's like I've got all this pressure. You need to leave some room, man. You only have six spots to go. Yeah, right? I know. But yeah, your mind goes crazy, too, you start thinking about it. You're like, holy crap.

Well, now they can't, you know, you possibly can't possibly get, you know, be in the top 100 again. That's what I thought from last year. And I'm like, you know, and then here we are seven. And I'm like, dude, I don't know.

I mean, are we going to continue to keep going this way? Is it like, Hey, man. I don't know. I think we've got lightning in the bottle, man. I don't know. But it's so consistent and so good.

Exactly right. What you said. It's like, you know, like, I consider myself a wine guy, but I'm not a connoisseur of taste or like a salmagnet or anything like that. I know and it's good for me. And I have a hard time delineating with yours. Like if you blindfolded me and gave me, now it's probably putting a little bit of bottle age on it now. So I might take this back.

So you might tell me that too. But between the 15 and the 18, it's just damn good. You know, and it has that smoothness. There's certainly your characteristic. But I don't know that I could tell the difference between those, especially like maybe the 17 and 18, if you blindfold me, they're both just awesome. You know, so I don't know if you taste, you probably taste a little more nuance.

You've got probably a deeper palate than mine, but, I mean, it's just that consistency that's unreal. That's, you know, that's exactly right. You said the word is the most important, right? It's consistency, because if you, you know, for me, just once we once we made it you know i mean that's what i believed in it and and we thought that was the best and then from there you have success so then it's like okay don't you know let's not fuck up let's make sure we make this wine the same every year which is the goal and and you know it's

you say you're not a connoisseur you're not a salmere and all that i mean neither am i right i mean at the end of the day i'm a consumer and i know what i like and and it just happens that you know a lot of people in america like what i like too and so you want something rich supple, taste good, but there is little nuances, there's subtle nuances, and, you know, yeah, I can pick them out because, you know, it's like, it's like your child, right? If you look at a kid, you're like, okay, that kid's got, you know, that one eye is a little bit lower than the other eye, right? It's like, but maybe nobody else's either, right?

But in this case, you know, one pair of eyes of the vintage is like sapphire blue, and the other is like a diamond blue, because these are, these are characteristics aren't like an ear being too large. These are like nuances of beauty. Yeah. I agree. I agree. And I got to get you at the 19.

So we've got to bottle to 19. It's out in the market and just starting to get out the market. Well, shit, dude. I'm still down that one. I guess. I know. Let me order in officially. The, and the reserve.

Geez, delicious. I mean, it's like, that's what's so interesting is like, okay. You know, and it's all. of a different wine and I know there's nuances and things like that things are you know you're your base labels made you know for somewhat of an everyday drinker um or whatever and you've got the nuances with the reserve which are you know it's just a whole another hedonistic experience I don't you know it's just like it's like it's everything you love about the regular bottle but like on like just another kick up or something uh you know yeah it's like on steroids it is yeah it is it is

Like Emerald, right? Just about to throw a little extra in there. Bam! Just kick it up. So what's happening out in pass? I mean, I know you guys are dealing with all the bullshit of COVID like everybody else. But what's kind of the state of the wine industry out there? You know, the wine industry is pretty solid.

I mean, it's I think there's people, I think it's feast your family, quite honestly. And I think it's like that for a lot of businesses, right? It's like if you weren't aggressive in the beginning, you didn't set up and, you know, if you didn't wake up in April and be like, okay, we've got to get aggressive. And, you know, for us, we could be talking about before. It's like, I mean, our business was 62% of our business nationally was restaurants. So when, you know, after I got out of my, you know, went through COVID because we got it. I think I told you that.

We got it in London. We were in London at a white event and then came home and then realized we have it. And like, oh, shit. And then go through that, then I'm depressed. And then I just woke up and I'm like, dude, we've got to get aggressive. So I rallied all the sales team. And I'm like, I don't, you know, we've got to make up this loss for these restaurant business that's, you know, going down.

And I said, I don't care if we sell wine at 7-Eleven, man. You better get your ass out there and start making calls. And we just started being super aggressive. And luckily we had, you know, we have brands that people want. We were able to expand in our, expand. in the supermarkets. We were, you know, we had really good data, you know, everybody goes through IRA data and all these different things,

Nielsen data. So we could show like, hey, look, these are our, this is our trends. Like, we're selling. We're, we're a hot brand where you need to get behind us. I know we're not authorized. And fortunately, we were able to muscle in and just keep pushing, you know, we grind hard and we grew. We're up this year.

So, I mean, it's crazy to think. But I think a lot of, to your point, a lot of your question, There's some wineries that are hurting, not just some paths of it, in Napa and a lot of places, right? So I think if you didn't get out there, and then we also, you know, jumped in with the, you know, we got a pretty big mailing list, right? We got, I don't 30,000 people on our email list. And, you know, we've got about 6,500 wine club members. And we just started communicating, you know, we over communicated. I made cooking videos.

My wife filmed me at home. And, like, we'd pair wines with food. She made a playlist We just we kept talking right I think that I think the people that didn't communicate They just kind of put their head in the sand I thought I was going to blow over I think they're in trouble

But I think the people that You know if you had a legacy brand I think you're probably okay if you but if you do new Or if you didn't really get in there and be like I mean we were delivering wine man I put wine in my car I'd be like driving to people's house They were scared to come out

Truck dude I'll bring it to you here we go And you know lucky then we we started partnering with, you know, national restaurants, the, you know, the Mortons, the Ruth's Chris, the, you know, bigger chains and be like, hey, we, we want to be part of your go-to, buy the glass, I mean, a pickup, you know, when people come pick up food, they condense their wine list. You didn't get to look at 100 different wines. There was like seven or eight wines on there. We were one of them. And so, you know, all in all, I mean, we grew, everything, all of our brands grew. It's like, so we're super blessed. It's, but, you know,

we worked we didn't sit around and wait for people to call we called them it's so interesting we did a podcast talking about like the impact of COVID and stuff like that and we talked about that exactly thing that strangely enough the brands that are surviving and doing well with all of this you would think you know no in store no winery tasting whatever your business is you would think it pushed you further from your customers but the ones that are booming and doing well have realized that they need to be more transparent, more real, more open, more sharing. It's brought them closer to their customers. And for the long run, it will pay dividends.

And I think that's exactly what you guys have leaned into. I think you're totally right. Because, you know, I mean, I had meetings with the head of the head of LTVO, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, right? I mean, Zoom meetings. Like we sent them a meal kit, right? And I'm talking to them. I mean, these people are, it's a monopoly, right?

So, I mean, they could say, yeah, or day, or we're not bringing your wine in. And during this, I'm launching and pushing luxury high dollar wine into the Canadian market. And they're like, well, you don't, we can't sell these prices. I'm like, just give me a chance. Just give me a chance. I kept grinding, grind and grind and we've got wine we can't sell. I'm like, I'll give you the wine. And if it doesn't sell, it won't sell.

So now all of a sudden, we're the fastest growing luxury brand. in Canada with the Austin Hope and the Sriana Cabernet, which and all these agencies said we couldn't do it, but we kept pushing. And because of what your point, like, we're talking to people like, I mean, I talked to, you know, we were on the phone with the head of HUB.

We did Zooms with that. We did, you know, I was just, I just did a Zoom tasting with all the Walmart team, right? Like, and that's a whole thing, right? I mean, I never thought in my life I would be in Walmart. But you know what? They build all these super stores, and they've got $100 balls.

of wine in there. People were buying it. They took Austin, Hook, Cabrade, we made a pitch to them. They were like, I thought they were going to say, oh, we'll take liberty school, you're lower price wine or trollmaker, you know, but now you start to see how they've evolved their business, you know, from being the, you know, the cheap crap that everybody goes to

get deals, and now they're super stores, I mean, you walk into those places and they're they've got an organic produce section that's bigger than most corner stores, you know, and you're like, holy crap. And now you got Ossoap Cabernet sitting on the shelf for 60 bucks and I'm like this is crazy it is but you're right you've got to

communicate and I think we've over communicated we've picked up more fans uh you know we have a full-time woman that all she does now is um is she's basically a concierge to wine people you call and say I want to do a I want to do a zoom tasting she does them every week I mean big ones and now we've got like big corporations that are calling and like we want to want to do a like we put together gift programs like for the holidays they we partnered with a meat company we know because they're thinking outside the box partner with a really really great uh meat company a flannery beef get check their meat out it's unbelievable and started shipping that to all these corporations you know they usually are you know sitting in their people stuff and then all of a sudden now they get a

you know you get a bottle of a balticabournay and a big big prime bone in um rib eye and And then next thing, you know, Tara is on a phone, on a Zoom with, you know, 150 people from a corporation. And they're all just loving it, right? So we're communicating. Communicating is what, and it is making it as closer because I'll tell you what, you know, we always had, what's interesting, we always had our distributor, right? We're a three-tier system, right?

So we make the wine, we sell it to our distributor. Our distributor goes out to our customers, right? At the end of the day, they go to the supermarkets, then they go to, you know, the restaurants. then I've got an ancillary, my team of 16 sales people across the country and then one in Canada. And they go in there and follow up, right? Well, the distributor's got all these different brands. And to a certain extent, I've got to be a little careful because some of your listeners might be a distributor. It's like they blocked us a little bit, you know, they kind of cock blocks.

Like, you know, we're not going to give you everything because we've got, you know, we've got hundreds of other brands to sell. Well, now because of this, we're talking to the customer. Like, we're now not being blocked because those guys can't. get to them. You know, there, you know, with all the clothes shut down, all this other stuff, like, and, you know, people aren't taking in person meetings and it says changed. I think it's changed the dynamic, and I don't know that it'll ever come back, right? Like, the way we sold wine in the past, I mean, with big companies, is, I've got 16 people running around basically with suitcase of money, said, hey, where do you want to go?

You want to go to Florida? You want to go to Mexico? Oh, you want to Palm Springs? You want to pay Pebble Beach? Okay, I need this here. I need this here. And all this incentives, right? all these people who are flying around, all this bullshit, that's gone, right?

So now we're just having meaningful relationships, be it over a freaking computer, which I hate, but it's happening, right? You know, I mean, I can call the head of Walmart right now. I can call the head of HV right now, you know, and it's like, for years we were being blocked, right? You know, by our distributor, which is our partner. They're wonderful. We couldn't do it without them, but it's a... I've wondered, like, how's your D to C, like, to that point is your e-com, your e-coms got to be picking up.

I mean, I know some states still don't ship. I'm sure there's some of that going on, but that's opened up even more. I mean, you know, we're getting eerily close back to you saying, this genie's not going back in the bottle, you know, like that D2C is coming like a freight train for industries like this. It's already here, by the way, but like about to steamroll certain layers here. I mean, is that, that's got to be kicking up big. It is. And it's, you know, and we've grown, excellent.

eventually and we've, you know, it used to be, you know, you, you know, we'd sell, you know, a few thousand cases. I mean, you know, a couple hundred cases. Then we went to like a couple thousand cases. And now we're, you know, we're selling real, real meaningful things to where we have a whole direct to DTC team now. Like, we have office. Like, it's like, it's like, you know, now we're, you know, we've got 6,500 people on

our wine club, right? That get, you know, shipment twice a year. So now it's like all of a sudden we've got to have a new fulfillment center so we can keep up with everything. So we've actually moved part of our organization into another state. So we hold wine there so that when somebody actually orders it, we can deliver to them fast, right? And we've changed the market where it used to be most people who don't ship wine in the summer. Like they won't do it. It's always been very traditional and very cookie cutter what people do.

I mean, our business is super archaic, right? And I said, I don't care if it's 190. five degrees outside, you put ice on it, you ship it. Like, I want the customer, as soon as they buy it, I want it to be at their door within two days. How long we would ship an Omaha steaks? You know? Yeah, exactly, right? So, but, like, all of a sudden, it's like, I was on a board of directors of a couple

different things that I was, in a meeting, we, something was like talked about before the meeting started. They're like, yeah, well, you know, the fall shipments coming up. I'm like, fall shipment, man, we started shipping before. Like we came up with ideas like, I told my team, I said, I don't want to ship the traditional timeframe. And I'm like, well, I don't care. You spend the extra money on the ice packs, put them in there, and you ship it.

And my theory was, because everybody does a save thing, right? It comes October, they ship. Everybody gets their fall wine shipment, right? Then I said, forget October. I said, let's go in August or September. So let's be the first wine club that person received, because I bet you, there ain't no way you're going to Like you're going to cancel because I'm the first one at your door. But all of a sudden, like people come out and they do wine tasty and they have a couple of drinks, give a little buzz.

Like, oh, hey, I'll sign up for the wine club. And then next thing, you know, in the spring and the fall, you've got all these boxes come in. And then, you know, somebody at the house is like, this is too much wine. This is too much money. And so the attrition happens, right? So like attrition is like, you know, between, you know, usually like six to 10%, you know, 12% somewhere in there you're going to drop, right? So for every one that you get, you know, or every 10 you get, you're going to lose one every year. Well, by us changing the model and shipping earlier, our attrition is so minuscule, it's ridiculous.

Like, it's crazy. So adapt, overcome, man, come up with new ideas, think outside the box, really. Have you seen the new app clubhouse? Have you seen that, the new talking, like you go into rooms and you talk? almost like a live podcast all the celebrities influencer on it anyway like great Cardin

and you'll walk you could walk into a room but we need to start the Austin Hope experience you know actually I see like back to the Zoom thing these are free ideas man I'm giving you free advice here you know let's start

we're going to do wine trading for this but the Austin Hope experience you know needs to happen if you're already doing the Zoom stuff you need to do like once a month the Austin Hope experience and you do the Zoom and all that, but you get people paying for this experience and they get the bottle of wine shipped to them. They get the Zoom experience with you and you tasting the wines or whatever. Maybe once a quarter. You probably can't figure it out

once a month. But then you layer it in with your own clubhouse room where you're talking, people can access you. That's how you grow organically right there. So anyway, a little free nugget when you were talking about that earlier. I was like, man, that's how you get it right there. People pay for that house to have a big experience. Now, well, now you just, you see your stairs throwing free shit my way. So now I got to, I got to get you some 2019 year away. Yes. Or let's just let me execute it for you. Let let's do it together. Either way. I'll take some wine too. But yeah, it'd be fun. I'd love to do that. And, uh, but hey, how's um, so wine industry is kind of, you know, okay, but, uh,

but kind of getting it. The restaurant business, though, especially in California, I mean, here it's okay and coming back, but is that still just down significantly? Is there any hope of that? Like, I know it will come back, and I know we agree that normal is not going to be normal, but is that coming back at all? Yeah, I mean, you know, we're a little bit isolated because we're in a rural community. And so I think it's going to come back. I think it's already starting to come back.

But I think that, you know, the people that were on the edge is the unfortunate part, right? I mean, they might be great, but maybe not good operators or they're good chefs. Those guys are gone, right? You know, the corporations, the big guys, the landrys, I mean, they're going to make it. They've got deep pockets and they were aggressive, right? They've got good marketing companies behind them. I mean, you might be part of some of them. I don't know.

But it's like, they stayed relevant. they stayed, you know, kept pushing. But I think the, I think the restaurant is going to, it's going to change. I think the dynamics will be, you know, it's already a really low margin business, right? I mean, to be honest with you, the only reason restaurants even make it for, I mean, like, fine dining restaurants is because of us and spirits. Yeah. Because that's where the margins are, right?

I mean, there's two to three, two to four percent is what you're going to make on food, but you can make 50 to 80% on wine and cocktails. So I think you're going to see, I think you'll see menus might get dumbed down a little bit until they can get back to their good profits. But I do, I do my only, probably my biggest fear. And anybody that's out there that's corporate restaurants, don't hate me because I love you guys and your good partners.

But I worry that we might get to that point to where it becomes homogenous where it's just the big guys that are there and those small independent mom and pop restaurants are going to have a hard time making it that that's my only concern as far as long-term vision looking to see what's going to happen and that's tough because the same thing with like walmarts and uh you know of course amazon and all that like every other industry is the same way it's like you don't you under we both believe in capitalism certainly you know as americans yeah like uh it's been good to both of them us but I think at the same time like the ugly head of this whole thing is just you know where is

small business you know where do they shake out of it all and that you know like there's nothing better than going to the hidden gym restaurant it's like you're you know the independent spot and I look I like some chain places too so I mean I'm not like knocking it just like you and we work with some of them so definitely not but but at the same time that experience you just don't want to see that gone and I don't I you know I hope that we can get on the other side of this thing so we don't you know lose any more gems than we already have yeah no I think I think that's exactly right that's that's that's that's the fear right is we're gonna just go into you know it's gonna be the chains and that's all it's going to be there and what I don't know it's where um any new wines

anything new on the horizon for for the family Yep, we're crazy enough, right? It's COVID, so what do we do? We launch a new brand. So we're actually rolling out a new brand. We'll pee on shelves. Let's see, it'll be February 1st is we're rolling out a brand new brand. With the same conversation that we've had, you know,

global domination of Paso-Robo's Cabernet is our goal. And so we're releasing a brand called Austin. And it's a $20 cabernet. And that is going to go out. And it's pretty interesting, actually, because there's a couple things that's happened with this brand that is, like, we'll see. I'll send you some. We're bottling it next week. I just tasted the blend yesterday.

And I'm actually headed back to the winery after this to go taste the final blend to make sure that it's all dialed in. but it's it's it's it's really cool because it's a the label design that I did has never been done before. Oh. And I actually got pushback a little bit from distributors, but luckily I'm in a position where, you know, I'm at top of the game right now so I can talk a little shit and say this is what we're doing. This is what we're having. This is happening. Get over it. Yeah. So the whole typically and you'll, you'll appreciate this because this is what you do for a living, right? You brand. Oh, yeah.

You create and you, so it's always you want, when you look at a wine label, you want to see, you want to see the brand, the variety, the region. And that's what you want your eye to do when you look at a bottle of wine. You want to see brand, variety, Appalachian. Well, what I did is the whole friggin label, the top of it, it just says passeroble's. Like if you look at it, you would think the brand's called pass robles. Okay. And then the name Austin is just at the bottom, more subtle. So it's really, it's a gamble, but I believe in it, right?

It believe in the region. And I want to promote our region. Let's face it, you are the region, brother. Yes, I love it, though. That's so dope. I want to taste it, though. Yeah. Is it, I'm sure it's similar style.

is it, you know, it's got to be in that family. It's in the family. And, you know, it's, and it's a little bit of a gamble, right? Because, you know, we're having so much success with a $60 bottle of wine. You know, why would you go? But, you know, again, we've talked about it in the past, it's like, like, I really, in my team, like, one of our, like, mantras is over-deliver, right? I mean, that's a good feeling, right? I mean, everybody wants to feel like they got something, right?

this is, wow, man, this is, I paid $20 for this. I mean, and that's honestly why Asanova Cabernet has done so successful because I know it drinks like a, like a hundred to $200 bottle of wine. I know that. Yeah. I mean, I taste these wines all the time. So, I mean, I know. And, you know, and it got into some people's, you know, some people's, you know, skin a little bit. It's like, dude, how is he doing this and how's he, how's he creating a, you know, creating volume at this level of quality at this price?

And, you know, that's what we spent a lifetime trying to figure out. We've got it. But then there's the people that can't afford a drink $60 bottles of wine or $125 bottle of wine, right? And why should they not be able to have a kick-ass bottle of wine for $20? All right. I want exclusive D to C marking rights on this thing. You know, you know, that's what we do. You got to get the word out.

That's right. Yeah, no, let's talk, man. It's fun. I think it's exciting because it's – And what, you know, now I'm sounding like I'm an arrogant asshole, but I'm really not. I mean, you know me. I'm very humble. I know.

Everyone knows you, you're not that. I've already told everyone. Everyone that listens knows where you stand. But no, look, it is what it is. I mean, it's a delicious wine that over delivers and that people love. So, I mean, you know, and you should be proud of that. No, yeah, we're excited. I mean, we've got, and we've got stores that have already taken it sight unseen.

and not tasted. And I'm like, that makes me really happy, right? That means we've built trust and belief with our, not only our, our, our distributors and our clients, but I mean,

they believe in what our products are now. And we've got, you know, street cred. And so now we're launching a brand that, and, you know, Albertsons,

Vavilions, those guys, like, they've already got it on a program in February. It's like going in, it's a program. It's going to be in the corner here, there.

HVs already jumped on board. They're like, we'll take it. We want it. And it's like, I'm like, shit, this is amazing, right? So. But yeah, you know, you've got to build awareness about it. And, you know, to your point, we're going to get in a, what did you call it, a duck house, a clubhouse or something like that. Oh, yeah.

Let's talk. We'll talk about that. I'm going to buzz you. We're going to get a meeting on the calendar. Let's talk about that. We can help. We're doing this for every brand. And I want to do it with you.

I want to work together. You know, you can pay me in wine. D. We'll figure all that out. I don't care. I just want to get involved. But hey, man, I really appreciate you coming on again. We're going to touch space in six months every six months. You and I are going to talk frequently like I do, and I'm sending you on my boat,

like pictures of me drunk on the boat, like drinking Austin Hope and everyone going, oh my God, it's Austin. And so we'll talk about that today. How about when you asked me to send a video, I was one of my favorites. Oh, my God. It really doesn't think that I know you. They were so pumped. Oh, my God, it was awesome.

They couldn't believe it. But, brother, I really appreciate it. Best of luck with everything going forward. And I know you and I will talk soon, but we'll be back on the podcast and another six months to talk all things. Paso wine, Austin, Hope, Austin, where we're at and how we're blowing up the world by then, because that's the story we're going to be telling. So, all right, brother.

We know where to find you at Hope Family Wines on Instagram, hopefamilywines.com. Anything else we want to drop for where to find you? No, that's it. man my personal if you want to follow me i'm i'm at austin hope man i just i'm a i'm a very half-ass uh instagrammer but usually uh you know when i uh run into something fun i'll go on a rant and do like some fun stories and it might be about family or dogs or ducks or something but it's uh entertaining at the least of course all right brother we really appreciate it and that's all

for today's episode of the radcast you've got to get out and try austin hope wine all the labels It is the best. He's the best. The family's the best. And guess what? You can find us at the radcast.com or at Ryan Alford on Instagram. And we'll see you next time. Yo, guys, what's up, Ryan Alford here? Thanks so much for listening.

Really appreciate it. But do us a favor. If you've been enjoying the radcast, you need to share the word with a friend or anyone else. We really appreciate it. And go leave us a review at Apple or Spotify. Do us a solid. Tell more people. Leave us some reviews.

And hey, here's the best news. the ball. If you want to work with me directly, you want to get your business kicking ass. And you want radical or myself involved, you can text me directly at 864, 7293680. Don't wait another minute. Let's get your business going. 864, 729, 3680. We'll see you next time.