SoCal with Val 11 21 25 Guest Kyle Meyer 6

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Did you know that the world of wine has its
own version of antique roadshow, Except instead of dusty vases
and old pictures, people are bidding on bottles of wine
worth more than your last vacation. So today on so
Cali val we're pulling back the curtain on a corner
of the wine industry that most people don't even know exists.

(00:47):
Wine options. And guess what one of our favorites, The
Wine Exchange, right here in southern California, has joined forces
with a global powerhouse, Spectrum Wine, opening the doors to
an entirely new adventure in the wine universe. And I'm
really excited about this. Something else to learn about wine

(01:08):
And who better to guide us through this delicious twist
than the man who's tasted more wines than most of
us have ever had fast food dinners, Kyle Meyer. Today
we're talking about the history, the mystery, some big moves,
rare bottles, and why you might one day find your

(01:28):
perfect bottle not on a store shelf, but under a
digital auction hammer. Buckle up, this is going to be fun.
Kyle Meyer, welcome back, and let's start with the headline,
The Wine Exchange has merged with Spectrum wine in your
own words, what does this mean? What does Spectrum bring
to you? And what do you bring the Spectrum?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
You know, it means everything. You know. It's like the
line in that movie, you know, you complete me. It's
it had to come together. You know. We the folks
at Spectrum had always we've had great communication with them
over the years, just respected them as as with what
they did in the auction business and the storage business,
and and they always handle their business really well. You know,

(02:15):
it's just a really good company. And we had been
in talks and the casual talks, you know, just hanging
out having a glass of wine, that kind of deal.
And and eventually casual talks get a little less casual
and they get a little more serious, and and eventually
it got to the point like, you know, why aren't
we doing this? We just kind of looked at each
other and said, this is this is too good. It

(02:35):
makes too much sense. So so everybody put pen to
paper and and we came up with a fantastic deal
for everyone that takes two really really great companies in
the wine business and brings them together. And what it
does is it creates this complete format. You know, we
really are one stop shopping. Now, over the next six

(02:55):
day months, we're going to create a new platform. We're
gonna build a new retail outlet here at Spectrums facility,
their temperature controlled facility here, and we're going to you know,
have the new tasting bar. So think about in six
to eight months, under one roof, we're going to have
tasting bar, full retail floor, wine storage, auction business, all

(03:19):
of it in one spot. And there's really no excuse
to go anywhere else, you know, the customer, they don't
have to go anywhere else. It's literally this spot boom, done, finished,
and that really appealed to all of us. It really did,
especially you know in this day and age, you know,
with you know the wine businesses, you know, with the
with the costcos and these big stores and all these

(03:41):
you know a lot of more people are getting into wine.
Well there's actually less wine being consumed. So it's one
of these inverse relationships right now that that really we
had to take a long hard look at and go
where do we want to be in five years, where
do we want to be in ten years? And this
was absolutely the best way to do it. So everyone's
tickled pink and we're gonna we're gonna rule the wine world.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I can only imagine from my little level of what
I see it and what I know of the hundreds
of messages you must have been receiving, gotten and receiving
from your colleagues and your your admirers around the world.
The jc's, the Heleens, all those people must be excited.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, you know, it was a it was a it
was a big ripple in our little pond. You know.
We yeah, we knew it was gonna shake things up
a little bit. But you know, the business always needs
a little shaking up. And you know, I think in life,
like in Valor, you can probably testify to this. You know,
every I'd say ten or twelve years, maybe twenty years

(04:46):
on the outside. That's you have to reinvent yourself. You know,
the the you know I used to I used the
euphemism like the Lakers. You know that that team can
win several championships and they might be together eight or
ten years, but after that, you know, you'll see a decline.
Maybe they're less interested, maybe the coach doesn't catch their

(05:06):
attention as much anymore, and you have to build a
new team. You have to reinvent. You have to reload,
and I'm a big proponent of that. I think we
have these ten, twelve, fifteen, maybe twenty of your windows
where you can really create be amazing, and then you
have to sit there and go, Okay, what next? What
direction am I going next? And I know you've done
that in your business, and I think it's really important

(05:29):
to do that, just to be doing one thing, the
same thing for like forty years, which I've been kind
of doing the same thing for almost you know, forty years,
but but you did put to do it differently, do
the same thing, do it differently.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
But you have. And let me just add to those
people who don't know you personally, you do that in
your family. You have a daughter who dances, and where's
she going to dance?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Now?

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Where's her career taking her? And now she's a ballet
a ballerine actually in Sweden, I.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Think, is that Yeah, yeah, Royal Swedish ballet.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
But that won't last forever, so she'll go somewhere else,
or she'll become something, or she'll get to the age
where she's got to do something different because of her
body or something. And I've seen you guys, I mean
I was maybe I would love to brag and s
I was one of your first walk in customers at
the Wine Exchange when you weren't quite open yet. So
where you've gone with that and where you are now,

(06:26):
you reinvented yourself. Then you reinventing yourself now. And it's
only to your your credit ten million times what you
built at the Wine Exchange that put you on the
global stage already and put you in a position to
where you were attractive to someone like Spectrum. We said
we need these guys.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, maintaining brand it was really critical. That's that's the
hard work, is maintaining brand and brand value and brand loyalty,
and you know, it's really critical. And the Wine Exchange
brand was a great brand and no doubt about it,
and it'll continue to be a great brand. But you know,
under the Spectrum banner, I don't know if the name

(07:11):
is going to stick or not. That's up to my
bosses to decide. Now I like saying that, But the
point is we did create a strong brand that for example,
you love you know, you liked shopping with us. A
lot of people like shopping with us. I love it,
and a lot of people like doing the auctions and

(07:31):
wine storage with Spectrum. And what I found out is
both teams are fabulous teams. Our team at the store
is great, and the team at Spectrum is also really great.
Bunch of really good people, a bunch of hard working people,
and I think it's going to mesh pretty seamlessly, honestly
the first two weeks. It's only been two weeks since
we did it, and I can tell you that I'd
say we're ahead of schedule with regards to what we

(07:53):
want to accomplish and how we want to accomplish it.
So it's great.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Well, enthusiasm and passion and drive makes up for a
lot of things, and you you certainly have that. And
you've not only created your brand with the name, but
you created a brand with your personalities, your visual your
videos online. People got to know you who otherwise wouldn't
have known you. People made no Spectrum's name, but we

(08:19):
knew the Wine Exchange. We know the Wine Exchange because
we know you. We see you every day, We see
your specials online, We get your emails that say you
and you watch your videos that say you need to
buy this. Okay, I need to buy this right now.
So you've you've created something that's much more than just
a brand. You've created the face, the name, the people
that you think.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yep, yep, that's that's part of it because you know,
in the old days, it was writing right us, old folks,
we still remember writing articles to sell line and we
still do. We still do. But you know we've evolved
from that. Yes, with Ai chatch ept, you can write
incredible articles by telling chat hey, write me an article,

(09:02):
write me an article on romany CONTI in the voice
of Ernest Hemingway, no more than six hundred words. Boom,
it's up. So what is writing now? And so video
we started, you know, we started, of course, you know,
we started years and years ago. You know, we were
doing wine videos, you know, fifteen, you know, twenty years ago.

(09:22):
But what it's done now now it's the daily Like literally,
video is a part of everyone's daily life, whether you're
just listening to it in the car or whether you're
watching it. That's how we can, you know, separate ourselves
from the others. And that and you're absolutely right, our
personalities and who we are is part of that wine
X brand and honestly was part of the acquisition. You know, sure, yeah,

(09:48):
bringing us over just not just to work with retail,
but maybe down the line to work with their auctions,
to work with whatever. But we're really part of that
brand and happy to be a part of that brand,
you know.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
And I for one am excited about what you're going
to bring to that. I can only imagine your personalities
and your videos being brought into the auctions, right, just
the personality of that and the energy and enthusiasm and
the fun and the light, the light part of your
personality that you bring to it. It's not only a

(10:22):
serious auctioneer, right, but you're going to say, okay, let
me tell you about this wine, and you just have
a different personality, which is which is amazing. And I'm
sure that there are a lot of people thinking that
Spectrum is really fortunate to have you, And of course
there are people who who see the other side that

(10:44):
you're fortunate to be able to pair with Spectrum, And
I'm excited. So now instead of going to work for
you selling one, I'm going to have to learn to
be an auctioneer.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Start practicing. You know.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
I've wanted to do that for a long time. I
wanted to ever since I got involved in doing the
Pacific Coast Wine Festival, I wanted to start to be
an auctioneer. So maybe you never know. And you know,
we know we show always aideless, we can always We're
never too old to do that.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's an art and a skill that I would love
to learn at some point.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yes, yes, well we'll have to learn it together. So
you've had these conversations with with Spectrum and amongst yourselves,
and I remember that there's something that happened in your
business not long ago. Well it was long several years ago,
and I remember you said to me. We walked out
of that meeting and we looked at each other and said,

(11:37):
if we don't do this now, and you may not
remember what it was, but your mind, there was a
meeting in another state and you said that. You looked
at Tristan and said, if we don't do this now,
we're crazy. And so what was that moment with Spectrum
and you said now time?

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Well, you know, the negotiations were, like I said, were
always like super friendly and amicable, and they were over
a long period of time. You know, it was this
wasn't a rushed thing that we got into. We really
looked at all the pluses and minuses. We really got
to know each other. You know, we had lunches together,

(12:15):
we broke bread together. We really because if I was
going to do something with someone, I really wanted to
be comfortable with them, you know. I just didn't want
to do a deal for the sake of doing a deal,
because these are people are gonna be working closely with,
intimately with over years.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
So we had a successful business. You didn't have to
leave it. No, no, I mean we all love the
mine exchange. We have one reputation, you're a brand. Like
you said, you didn't have to do something right now.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
No, no, and uh and much much to you know,
Spectrum chagarn. We didn't have to do anything, you know
what I mean. So they were like about you know,
da da da da da, and we'd be like, yeah,
let's see what happens, and right, yeah, no exactly. But
then you know, we got you. We got to a
point where we were in the best position to do something. Actually,

(13:05):
for example, with regards to the least of our building,
with regards to where we were personally and professionally in
our lives, where the business was uh you know, professionally,
where Spectrum was professionally and what they wanted to do
and achieve and and and what happened is all that
just kind of coalesced over a period of time. So

(13:27):
it got to the point where, you know, the Spectrum
was like, well, how about we do something like this?
And uh, then you know, myself and Tristan had another
one of those moments. You know, we kind of looked
at each other and were like, I think we have
to do this, you know. Uh, and you know, and Tristan,
Tristan was tougher than I was, you know what I mean,
because because because yeah, whyte exchange. It's even it's you know,

(13:48):
I was with the company longer. But but it feels
he's tightly ingrained in it. You know, this is something
that he you know, he really is is you know,
he was passionate about something that he helped create. So
it took a little took a little prodding, you know,
on Spectrum's part, but it finally got to the point
where it's like, well, this is amazing. Once we saw
all the all the tools that were available to us

(14:13):
from Spectrum and knowing how we work and how we
sell wine, and knowing the tools that they had available,
you know what I mean. It was it was like
just you're a chef and someone hands you a brand
new kitchen and a bunch of wagyu beef and a
bunch of like sushi grade ah tuna and says, go
cook and you go, okay, I know how to work
with this. Yeah, and before you were using blunt knives

(14:37):
and you were doing star kissed tuna from the can
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Like you weren't, but still, but yeah, it's we had.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
A lot more tools available to us, and great more,
a lot more customer access. You know, they're they're they're
they're gonna They're very dependent on us to reach out
to their customer base with regards to retail. So it
really is great because we have our retail base now,
they get to have just in house wine storage that
they can purchase if they want. They can jump into auctions,

(15:05):
they can combine auction lots and retail lots together and
pick it all up at the same time. And this
is just beginning days. You know, it's early days for us.
So we're doing the construction downstairs. We're in the process
of building a new website, which is probably going to
take six months, but that new website is going to
be something else. It's going to be game changing in
the wine business, and what the customer will be able

(15:28):
to do in the customer experience on that site will
be you know, it's blowing our minds. You know, Trisa
and I we were pretty progressive, you know, we're progressive merchants.
But what they have planned for the new setup is Boy, it's.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
Being able to work with someone who's a visionary is
game changing and life changing, especially right now, because number one,
you have to be and the thought of doing something
that's different and someone who gets it, you know, someone
who doesn't say you know. I was in a meeting
with somebody we know recently and I would say, oh,

(16:03):
do you use a I'm one guys, ah, you know
every now and then they said do you use it?
I said, all the time? What do you mean you
use it every now and then? Right? Who are you? Right?
And I have to tell you, you know, and our audience
and our viewers know that. How I how fond I
am of the Wine Exchange. And when I heard about this,
I thought, you know, I wonder they're going to give up.

(16:25):
They're going to give up the Wine Exchange right. So
for me being an independent business builder and having my
own brands and my own things that I change from
time to time. Like so now with Allen, my show
always Ageles. I thought, gosh, I thought maybe you could
like keep your name, so just in case it doesn't
work out, right, Are you sure you want to give
up what you've built? But I can see the excitement

(16:48):
And now the more I've learned about Spectrum that if
they embrace you and they bring in your talents and
your skills and you're all of the all of the
great things that you guys do, it's going to be
a real winner.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, And I think, you know, the brand will always
be there, but you know, the brand could be rebranded
right within the within Spectrum itself. So I don't know
if the brand's going to totally go away, you know
what I mean. Like using having wine exchange somewhere out
there is going to be really cool and we may

(17:22):
use it, utilize it in a different way than it
was before. But I think it's going to stick. But
you know, the names, you know, you can get really
attached to a name, But at the same time, you know,
business is business, and like for example, when we bought
Wine Exchange back in twenty fifteen, right from the Zanodi brothers.
We you know, there was you know, Tristan and I

(17:43):
have some conversations because our company at the time was
Best Wines Online. It was and you know, Tristan was like, no,
I like our name and I want our name, and
you know, and I was trying to tell Tristan, you know,
what if what if Spirit Airlines bought Delta. Do you
think they're going to relabel all the Delta plane Spirit. No,
they're going to label the Spirit planes Delta.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
You know, yeah, good point.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Look at your name. So you know, it was very
easy to take the Wine Exchange name, even though we
love the Best Wines Online. You know, we created our
brand from scratch and and did all the logos and
everything and there's our baby. But in the end, it
was like, no, we're Wine Exchange. And in the end,
you know, the Spectrum group is a is a you know,
a bigger entity than we were. So if they want

(18:26):
everything Spectrum, they get everything Spectrum. But I don't think
we're burying the wye X brand. I think it. I
think it'll re emerge at some point as something else.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
And may I just say, right here on this show,
I could see something like Spectrum minx, right, you could
a vision of Spectrum or something like that.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
So, no, we we we've had some discussions, but for
now we're going to you know, just right now, we're
eating you know, we're eating a whale. You know, yes, yes,
we're all digesting right now.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
So but knowing you guys, as much as as as
difficult it is to make a physical move, to move
all of your inventory and to start over all over again,
so to speak, I just can't imagine knowing you guys
that there must be some excitement inside about Oh, look
at this, this is going to be really cool.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, tickle pink, tickle pink. There's just so much opportunity here,
you know, And you don't get this opportunity too much
in life, you know, where you get a chance to
really make something of something and it's all there right
in front of you. You just have to craft it.
You know, a lot of times we don't get the
raw materials available to us to craft something, or you're

(19:38):
stuck like you can't. You know. One of the things
with Wine Exchange was it's very difficult new customer acquisition
in the wine business is exceedingly difficult because with wine
you can't get on a lot of platforms, you can't
advertise heavily. It's a very specialized client where you know,
it's not mattresses or tires where everybody needs one. You
know why, fine wine is much more specialized. The customer

(20:00):
acquisition costs is incredible, almost untenable. So you get your acquisition,
you get new customers strictly through word of mouth, and
you know, this sort of deal. And with this scenario
we have this, we have a fantastic new base of
customers that we can really work with. I think we'll
be excited for us to work with them, you know
what I mean, Like we're literally handing them exactly what

(20:22):
they want, you know, and anybody.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Who doesn't know you is going to love you so
And I just think how exciting it must be for
you to think I built something that's some that's worth
something to someone else. How lucky we are that somebody
likes Spectrum wants us. Yeah, and we and although certainly
you bring something to them also, but that you've made

(20:46):
yourself an attractive entity, you know, and an attractive asset.
So I think that's really amazing. So tell us now
what your elevator pitch when somebody asked you, So, Kyle,
who are you in this? In this whole big.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Technically. Now, I'm the co director of retail Sales for
the Spectrum Wine Group. That's my official title.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
I have a title now, I've a title before.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah yeah, yeah, hefe boss, owner, partner, buyer or whatever.
You know.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, last one out of the door at night, yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Last yeah, first one in, last one out. You know,
you know how that works. And uh so, now I'm
co director of retail sales and I get to really
just focus on selling, buying and selling product. That was
one of the key things when we put this together
was the Spectrum Group. They were really interested in just
because they're like, okay, so what do you do you know,

(21:46):
they asked me, And I'm like, well, I take out
the trash, I'm off the taste in your room and
the taste room coordinator. I enter all the invoices, I
do all the pricing, you know, we do, we do
all the wine buying, we do all the video. Part
of the time. I pulled the orders and packed them
and they were like, oh my god, no, no, no,

(22:07):
they were like you are going to do this now.
And I was very excited to hear that because because
as a business owner, you know, you're the janitor. Yes,
your hr, your you know, your everything, and and and
what happened is there are so many door knocks over
the course of a day that it really impeded the

(22:28):
ability to sell.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yes, it does.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
And if you can't sell, yes, if you can't sell,
your business doesn't go forward. So literally I started starting
to have to I would have to work from home.
You know. I took one day a week just to
work from home. You know, on Fridays, I just worked
from home because I was like, there's so much to
get done that I really can't be on interrupted. I

(22:51):
literally have to be in front of a laptop for
six hours straight, no brakes. And you don't get that
luxury when you own your own business and you're at
the business and everyone's in your business.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
So that's true. Yes, that is so true. And we
have a saying which I probably have shared with you
if I've known you more than two days, that sales
cures all. So you certainly need to have sales. There's
all these fun things and videos and all this, but
ultimately you have to sell something. Yes, it's a pretty
important part of any organization.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
I'm in retail. That's what retail is. Retail isn't staring
at something. Retail is watching it go out the door
and inviting the new something in.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
And absolutely, definitely, definitely so most people, let's talk about
wine auctions. Most people really don't know about wine options.
You and I know a little bit of well I
probably know less than you do. But we met when
I was working as a coachair of a charity wine auction,
and I learned that there were charity wine auctions around

(23:50):
the country at that time. There were really about six
big ones Atlanta, Washington, d C, Nashville, Napa Valley, There's Naples, Florida.
And when a part of the Houston Rodeo, and that
was a one time a year charity event. It was

(24:11):
done specifically for that charity. Well, then there there are
other auctions I learned that are more like a antique
auction or an art auction. And it happened art, it
happened to wine. Excuse me. And now we see that
spectrum has a I don't know, a different but would

(24:32):
I say a wider scope on the auction business. So
tell us about that. What does really Spectrum do because
I've looked at your well and now I see you
even have like online auctions going on every day, So
tell us how what what this is?

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Well? What I what I always appreciated about Spectrum, being
a wine nerd myself, was the breadth and the depth
of their auctions. I e. They'll take those small lots.
They'll find those, you know, lots of three bottles of
ten year old Boujelt and put them out there, you know,
and then they'll do the lots of roman Que Conti,

(25:10):
they'll do the lots of Chateau pitt Truce, they'll do.
They really work from top to bottom, which I respect
a lot because I'm a retailer that works from top
to bottom. You know. I get the same thrill selling
a ten dollars wine that kicks ass than I do
a thousand dollars bottle of wine, although the thousand dollars
ones maybe a touch more thrilling, as it should be
an auction, but still the juice is the same for

(25:31):
both of those. And I think Spectrum gathered a very
kind of retail esque clientele with their auction business based
on the variety of whins it going to their auctions, right,
So they're not just like super leadists, right, So it's
not just like, oh, don't come to me to send
wine to an auction unless it's you know, you know,

(25:52):
first growth Bordeaux or blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
They do that, but they also do the three yards
in the cloud of dust auctions. As a consumer of
fine wine, I really really appreciated that and a lot
of our customers coming to us, like, you know, because
we were a mile apart, by the way, you know,
the two.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Entities, right, we should announce yes, you only moved a mile,
sot a mile, you can still go there.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
We're literally a mile down the road. So a lot
of customers they would come to us and pick up
their wine and they bought from us and at the
same time to go to Spectrum and they grab their
auction lots that they won the previous week, and they
were always talking about, oh, you know, oh my god,
I got this, you know, fifteen year old cru bougeois
Bordeaux auction for like, you know, twelve dollars, like it

(26:38):
was great, and always appreciated that with spectrum. It was
was the literal spectrum of the auctions that they have.
So you know, they do the fancy stuff. You know,
we just we just did a live auction last Saturday,
and that live auction was all heavy duty gear. I mean,
the cheapest bottle of wine that day I think was
one hundred and ten dollars you know for the hammer,

(27:00):
and went all the way up to twenty thousand dollars
bottles of Romano conte. Well, yeah, I know. It was
a big auction all day, five hundred and something, lots
all premium, you know, top flight Bordeaux, Burgundy, California, Cabernet,
et cetera. So they do that, you know, the Christie's style,
the souther bt style, you know, they do that. But
they also do like these boots on the ground daily
online auctions that I think customers can avail themselves to

(27:24):
some really interesting, cool wines that if they're not trendy,
can be had for really incredible prices. Be cause it's
an auction, right, there's a minimum bid, and then if
no one else bids, you can you can steal something.
You know, it's like eBay, you know, you can walk
away with a great, great deal.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
So the question is what's the difference and I think
you just answered part of it. What's the difference between
buying a bottle of wine X versus bidding on one
at Spectrum?

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Well, you know, with the bids, it's like eBay, right,
you know, you post some en up on Spectrums wine
auctions and it's up there and there's a window of purchasing, right,
so you have like what four days to bid or
however long the auction is. It could be a week,
it could be four days, and it can go up
or you watch the you're watching the product, you're keeping
an eye on it. So and you know, just like eBay,

(28:17):
you know, it might go up to a certain point
you're like, I'm out, or you might be that person
right at the end with two seconds left in the
auction clicking clicking, clicking, clicking to get that bottle of
wine that you really really want. And you know, with retail, retail,
the price is the price. It's a super cool wine,
we sell it for that price and there you go.
But the auctions, there's always that thrill, there's always that
sense of adventure, that sense of danger, you know, and

(28:41):
I enjoy that. I think it's really interesting and if
you're the person selling it, you never know. But and
if you're the person buying it, you never know. So
that that always fascinates me. And that's the main difference.
Prominence is still really great, and you know the quality
of the wines. These guys are really good. They do
a lot of fact checking, just as any great auction
house should, you know, for the providence and the quality

(29:03):
of the material as well.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
So then how do you know if the wine you're
buying or bidding on it auction is a good one?
Now I'm assuming that the higher price it is. It's
pretty obvious because the only people would buy those that
are wine kindo seurs that are familiar. But if I
want dare and I saw something for twelve dollars, how

(29:25):
would I know if it's a good wine or not.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, well, you know the wine nerds, they do their research.
You know, it's a collectible, it's a hobby, just like
anything else. So if you see a bottle of twenty
nineteen Foyard more gone from bousel a come up at auction, right,
so you know that regular retail on release that would
have been like a thirty or thirty five dollars bottle
of wine. But it's at the auction and right now

(29:49):
the low estimate is like eighteen dollars or something, and
then you gotta pay like twenty three percent buyers, you know, premium.
So you know you're looking at that wine could be
twenty two dollars. So then you sit there and go,
well's foy Ar a good producer. So you research the
producer and you go, wow, fyr it's a great producer.
You know. Then you sit there and go, what about

(30:10):
the vintage twenty nineteen? Is that a really good year?
Then you can you know, ask chat eptu chat chpt
how how was the twenty nineteen vintage in Boujelat, you know,
and Chad will be hey, Kyle, that vintage was outstanding.
It had warm weather right during harvest, the grapes were
picked the peak ripeness and dah dah dah da da
da dah. So then you go mm hmm, Okay, I
have a great producer. I have a great vintage. The

(30:32):
wine can be had for ten dollars under original market
price six years ago. I think I'll bid on this right. So,
like with anything else, it's research, whether it's numismatics, whether
it's coins or stamps or you know what I mean,
Native American antiques, you know, tapestries. The research is still

(30:55):
the research and it's all out there for you if
you know where to find it.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Yeah. A good point, good point, and great answer. Thank
you for that. So so let me ask a question.
Does the wine stay when it's when it's sent up
for auction? Put up for auction? Does it always stay there?
Or if they don't get there must be some that
they don't get the price and they just pull it off.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Yeah, it can happen either way. It can be if
they don't get the price that particular week, it can
remain at the auction house and we put up for
auction later. You know, maybe they take a two week
break or something, and then they'll put it back up
again to see if it sells. Sometimes the seller will
simply take it back. You know, the seller might be like, eh,
and I don't want I don't want to sell it

(31:40):
for that price. I'll take it back and then they
take the product back or you know, a number of
things can happen. The number of things can happen, but
generally almost every lot sells. You know, the thing is
the the minimums. You know, the minimum bids are actually
pretty low. You know, the what do they call it,
the reserves, the you know the reserve. Yeah, the reserve

(32:01):
is like really pretty low on a lot of these items,
you know, because because the auction house Spectrum doesn't they're
not going to take an auction lot from you and
then have you say, I want to sell it for
more than the market bears. Of course, you know the
point of auction is to get a deal. So if
a want is five hundred dollars in the open market,
the customer wants to get it for you know, four

(32:23):
hundred at auction. You know, the customer doesn't want to
pay six hundred, why would they do that? So so
a lot of action.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Right, the seller wants this, the buyers want this.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
No, exactly exactly, So the minimums are are usually pretty low.
So I think the vast, vast, vast majority of their
lots sell. Very few lots don't sell, you know what
I mean, because the Spectrum will just be like, you're
asking too much for that product, So we're not too
interested in doing that auction for you, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Because all right, and Spectrum has a reputation for turning
things over. It doesn't do them any good to be
an auction house. If nothing's so.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Right, correct, correct, we get it.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
So, just to answer this question, why does something go
to auction anyway? Why does a seller, an individual or
a store anybody. At what point is it does someone
do that?

Speaker 2 (33:15):
It could be a number of reasons, you know, these
auction lots come up for a number of reasons. One
maybe the person has a large collection and there's a
certain section of their collection that they just not interested anymore. Maybe,
you know, they bought across a varied number of styles
of wine and suddenly maybe as they get older, one
style doesn't appeal to them anymore. You know. For example,

(33:36):
I had one customer many years ago actually, but he
had this great seller full of burgundy and Bordeaux, and
in the end he was like, you know, I just
want to drink you know, white burgundy, red roans and zinfandel.
And he let all of his red burgundy collection go

(33:56):
and it was fantastic stuff, and he was just like,
that doesn't do it for me anymore. We have a
lot of customers that graduate, you know, they started drinking
California Cabernet. Then they worked their way into French Bordeaux,
and then they go Cabernet Boom. You know they call
the auction house. You know, there's lots that you know,

(34:18):
one of the big auction lots from this past weekend
involved a store back in Connecticut that had gone out
of business. They had been in business for like one
hundred years and they went out of business. But when
they went out of business, they still had a bunch
of wine down in their basement. All the wine was
stored in the basement of the store. So all this pristine, beautiful,

(34:41):
older wine just sitting in the basement. And Spectrum was
able to finagle that connect collection. You know, they went
back and they and they got it and they brought
it all out to California and they auctioned it off
last Saturday. A bunch of Christine Burgundies, you know from
the nineties, some stuff from the eighties, and you know,
thirty forty year old burgundy just an impeccable condition. So

(35:02):
that happens a number of reasons.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Yeah, So can anybody play in the auction game or
must it be someone who's just on a high level
or who's really sophisticated in wine.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Anyone can play like I said, that information is out there,
and well I said earlier. One and the things one
of the cool things with Spectrum is there's some fun
stuff on there. You don't have to spend a million dollars,
you know. It's there's some really reasonable lots where you
can buy it.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
I wouldn't have expected hearing this story about I just
got something great for twelve dollars.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
It's yeah, yeah, I mean you can you can buy
two bucks.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
I need to go there right, I knowed you can buy.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Two bottles and it can be like, you know, forty
bucks or something. So it can be fun. And it's
a great way to learn because you get access to
some cool older wines that aren't just like your mainstream
older wines, you know what I mean. It's it's a
wonderful opportunity to learn and take these things you don't
normally get the taste by kind of working the corners,

(36:03):
maybe older Cheptain of the Pop, maybe an older Crows
Mutage and the Rowan Valley, maybe an old Boujelat, maybe
an old California's infantel. Just there's wonderful opportunities there without
spending a bunch of money. So no anyone, anyone you know,
can can get it. Do the wine auction thing. It's
it's it's really no problem. It's and it's fun. It's

(36:25):
really fine. I looked through their lots and I'm like,
that's cool. You know, I get caught up, you know,
in my own juice, you know what I mean. Sure,
you know last weekend, you know, Tris and I, you know,
bought a couple of lots at the auction, you know,
just because there was some stuff that was too cool.
We couldn't pass it up, you know, like that. You know,
we work with the company, but we put the paddle up,
you know, we were like, we'll take that.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
So if someone said, okay, my limits twenty dollars, they
could still go on there and just by a matter
of watching, keeping their eyes open right that they could
set their limits and find something.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, twenty dollars a bottle, thirty dollars a bottle. I mean,
probably won't find too much stuff like at twelve or
fifteen dollars, you know what I mean, because it's not
worth their time get the photos and that kind of stuff.
But you can find stuff. I think I think you
can find a pretty damn respectable bottle of wine at
auction with some bottle age for like thirty bucks.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
I'm sure. And if someone likes to do that for
the fun of it, but they still have a limited budget,
they could do that.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Absolutely. It's just really easy to open your account. It's
click and shoot, just like eBay. It's it's like wine eBay,
you know, click and shoot, boom done that. You can
have a ship to you or you can come to
the facility to pick it up Fridays or like pick
up days here, you know, because I think the online
a lot of the online auctions end on Thursday, like today,
and then a lot of folks will come in the

(37:39):
next day and pick up their pick up their winnings.
You know.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Well that sounds exciting and then they've got something to
talk and brag about over the weekend. Kyle, what's one
of the most surprising bottles that you've seen go to auction?

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Surprising h or wildest wildest? Well, you know, some of
the some of the older wines can be really interesting.
There was what was it nineteen There was a nineteen fourteen,

(38:15):
I think nineteen fourteen Lafitte at this past auction and
seeing some of these older bottles come up, you know,
just real, real treasures, you know, these things from nineteen fourteen,
nineteen twenty eight, nineteen twenty nine, you know, these bottles
that are you know, over one hundred years old. When
they pop up, those are always really interesting to me,

(38:35):
and sometimes they can be had for very reasonable prices,
you know what I mean. God, what was the one
there was a bottle that we were really shocked, something
from the fifties. I think it was like a fifty
five Latour or a fifty five Marco and considering the
pedigree of the winery, and fifty five is actually a
sneaky good vintage. And this and that wine hammered for

(38:59):
I think maybe eight hundred dollars a bottle, which, considering
what we're talking about here, was not crazy, you know
what I mean, Like that was a really good price
to get something, as you knows, as historic as that.
And those wines always shock and surprise me just seeing

(39:20):
those bottles, and you can't believe there's still some of
them left out there, you know, you think at some
point they'd all get drunk or broken or go bad,
and no, you still find bottles of these really great
old wines popping up with great providence.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
And then someone will ask, but does anybody drink them?
Do you ever open those old bottles?

Speaker 2 (39:41):
It's yes and no. I think some people buy them
the having the cellar and look cool, you know, and then.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Maybe open them.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Maybe open them at some point. And then other cats,
they'll literally buy him and then take them to a party,
you know, because folks, folks of means can secure these
bottles and then just bring them to a Tuesday night
hanging out with their wine buddies and crack open, you know,
one hundred year old bottles of Bordeaux. I've been I've

(40:13):
been fortunate enough to go to those parties. I've been
part of that. And yes, yes, it's pretty extraordinary. You
got to call the uber.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
Yes, yes, absolutely absolutely well, and I have some we
have we have one, and we're certainly not at that level.
We're not eight hundred dollars bottles, but we have one
that we're saving for my granddaughter's wedding. So I hope
when she gets married that wine is still good and
that we picked up at a wine auction somewhere in
our cellars.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
It's always fingers crossed, you know, but a cork, A
cork is can be evil sometimes, yes.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
So do you ever see people who buy one and
an auction they save it and then they reauction it.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Oh, sure, I've seen that. You know, if you can
steal something like an else, just like getting back to like,
you know, like a vase or a great piece of furniture,
if you can steal it at one auction and then
realize it's potential at another auction, that's something else, you know,
because you know, for example, if you buy a like

(41:16):
a seventeen hundred's Philadelphia desk, but it was in an
auction with a lot of non furniture items, right, so
everyone at that auction was thinking more about, you know, porcelains,
but then this desk was part of the auction. Then
maybe that desk slips through at a price that it

(41:39):
wouldn't if it was being sold at an antique furniture
auction on the East Coast. You see what I'm saying.
So you can, yeah, you can. You can buy one
auction lot at Spectrum and then maybe you know, a
year later, you know, send it off to Christie's. And Christie's,
you know, does their thing in New York and somebody
in New York goes, I need that one.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
It can happen, Yes.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
It can happen. I think a lot of people though,
I think a lot for wine auctions. From what I
can tell, a lot of folks aren't speculating. I think
a lot of these folks are buying these wines and
putting them in their cellars, you know, fleshing out their cellars,
because a lot of these wines are super rare, you know,
these romane Conti wines and such, you know Doujacques and
these big names. It's one bottle here, two bottles there.

(42:26):
This isn't a scenario where you can just like secure
cases of these wines that are made in two or
three barrel quantities. So yeah, I think these cats really
are buying and placing them in their cellars.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
And I think something I think of is that, you know,
in asking the question why should someone buy at an auction,
it seems to me that when we go to your store,
you might have a situation where someone came in and
sold you where you picked up two or three bottles
of something on consignment, But as a general rule, that's
not what your story is about. Right, But then something

(43:00):
might be in an auction situation that they were able
to pull out and post two or three bottles of
this or one bottle of something, right, which you could
find on an auction, which wouldn't find if you just
walked into the wine exchange.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Right, Those those older bottles, those bits and pieces of
older premium bottles, that's those are those are those are
the cool aspects of auction. You know, we find older
wines on a retail level when we go hunting in France,
but we're trying to secure larger volumes, you know, of
those wines. So we're looking for something we can buy
two hundred and forty bottles of to sell to you

(43:37):
and other folks at auction. It could be two bottles
of this, one bottle of that, four bottles of that.
But it's all super cool bits and pieces, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 1 (43:47):
And how fun for you now because anything is okay
for you to buy now, right.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
If you see something before you say, oh, dearly doesn't
fit us, and now you can say I know what
I can do with that? Right?

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Yeah? Yeah, it's open season. It's open season. And if
there are larger lots of certain wines that come into play.
Then you know, we as a company, I think have
the potential to allocate certain lots towards the retail side
of the business if we so choose, and certain lots
towards the auction side. So it creates great flexibility with
what we can do with all these individual wines that

(44:20):
will be coming our way.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Sure, and for somebody like you who enjoys the excitement
of a new adventure, right a new adventure could be
just one bottle, or it could be you know, any
kind of an adventure, going to a new winery something.
So for you who like you and Tristan who like that,
this is just going to be like being in a
new candy store.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Yeah, it's Christmas every day, man, Christmas every day.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
I can imagine this. So we need to take a
few minutes because of the season when we're recording this,
which let's let our audience, our listeners, and our viewers
know it's the week before Thanksgiving, so let's talk about
holiday winds. What should our people be buying? What's good

(45:05):
right now? What can we get at? Are? So are
you officially are what should we say? What can you
get at Spectrum? You are you are officially your title
is now spectrum. Absolutely, So what should we be looking for?

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Well, holiday stuff based on which holiday, because there's a difference.
You've got two different sets of foods happening here. Traditionally
for Thanksgiving holiday feast, I would tend to go lighter
reds and on oakes whites. Let's talk turkey.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Let's all right, let's talk turkey.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Turkey is not my favorite thing to eat. It is.
It is a tough bird. It is a large bird,
difficult to cook properly. It is a dry bird. Accordingly,
oak from chardonnay doesn't pair well with it, and neither
does bold tannic red wines. You know, Cabernate and turkey

(46:03):
do not go together. So I like pouring boujelat French boujel,
you know game, I like pouring pino noir, right, great
pino noir at the Thanksgiving is fabulous on oaked whites, reestlings,
Alsatian wines. I love Alsatian whites on the table at

(46:26):
the Thanksgiving because you also have that cornucopia, if you will,
of other flavors on the Thanksgiving table and a lot
of ore sweet sweet potatoes cranberries. You know, these sorts
of things. So you need the whites and the reds
that can go against that type of food. Right, So
it's a general rule Thanksgiving, that's what I'm looking for
on my table. At Christmas, it can be different, right, Christmas,

(46:49):
we have multiple options. If you do a Christmas ham,
then you're going back to those options again. Right. The
Thanksgiving options are in play. If you're doing you know,
the rib roast, well, now you're in Cabernate country. Right now,
you're talking Bordeaux. Now you're talking a fine claret with

(47:10):
your roast. You're talking, you know, big roans. Northern Roans
can come into play. Rioja does beautifully with a rib roast.
Or if you're doing lamb a lot of Christmas, I'll
do I'll do rack a lamb. Uh. Yeah, I love
doing rack a lamb at Christmas. And rack a lamb

(47:33):
with some Rioja or great Northern Rhones Sarah is like incredible, yep.
And then also that's Christmas is when you can pull
out those burgundil white burgundies, the chardonnais, the California chardonnays,
something a little more oak and structure to them. The
food on the table at Christmas is gonna work. It
works better with those types of wines at that juncture,

(47:55):
you know. So as a jungle.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Sounds like we need to have Christmas a whole separate
episode talk about wines at Christmas. Let's go back to Thanksgiving.
You talked about Pino and Beaujelai. So if I come
to your store to day and I want a nice pino,
it does have a specific one or two or three
that you recommend. Right now, I have a.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Couple of general genres to recommend. Twenty three as a
vintage in both California and in France is terrific for
red pino noir. It's a fabulous year. So without you know,
without settling on one particular wine, what I would say
is come in and say, hey, I hear twenty three

(48:39):
is great for pino noir in California. You know, what
do you have, and then we can work with you
at any price point, you know, from from twelve to
you know, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred dollars a
bottle and get you the right wine. But you know,
twenty two is a very warm, hot year, and pin
and noir doesn't like heat, so much, you know what

(49:00):
I mean, Like Pan and Noir. We've talked about this
in these pages before. Pan and Noir likes a long, cool,
extended growing season to fully ripen and develop those flavors.
And twenty three was that season. Twenty three was that vintage.
They were picking in October, which is super late late,
So yeah, I would tell you in general, and twenty

(49:21):
three was also great for Boujulat, you know, for the
game grape and Boujela. It was wonderful vintage. So we
have opportunity here with the twenty threes in general across
the board to really get a hold of some really
dynamic wines. And they're drinking great. They're impeccably balanced. You
can drink them young, they'll age really really well. They're

(49:42):
more balanced than the twenty two's and they're they're terrific wines.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
And just to clarify, we can come to your store now, right.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yes, we are under construction, so it's going to be
like a pard in our dust thing. Yeah, that's all right.
You can come in kick the tires and a lot
of our stock right now is still in the back room, right,
so it's all of fifty five degrees. It's all being
sorted through and reinventoried and recataloged for when we open,
when we fully opened the new retail setup here at

(50:13):
Spectrum on East Saint Andrew Place. So we're in the
process of that right now. Our team is working diligently.
You know, all the group, all those cats you see
up front when you walk in, they're all in the
back room right now in fifty five degrees and their
jackets sorting through. You know, we moved eighty palletts of wine,
fifty sixty thousand bottles in thirty six hours to the

(50:37):
new facility. It was a heck of an undertaking. But
we packed it all up, we wrapped it all up,
and now we have to unwrap it and unpack it.
And so that is a that is a time consuming process.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yes, the process of downsizing and decluttering as we talk
about it, and certainly decluttering wasn't one of your issues. But
but just moving all of that, yes, we appreciate what
an undertaking that.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Is pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Involved in moving things that we didn't want to have
to do exactly.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
So, so come visit us, and there is some stuff
on the floor. We have some wines, on the floor.
Not but not nearly all. It's only about a quarter,
you know, or a fifth of our total supply. But
everything is available online and you can still buy online
and still purchase and come pick it up. But just
bear with us a little patience because it's taking us.

(51:30):
It's it's a lot of diligence and a lot of
hard work going through all these boxes and picking and
pulling these bottles for the orders. And everyone's been very
understanding so far, but realize it's going to take a
little longer for your order to ship, take a little
longer maybe to be available for pickup. So maybe call
us first. All the phone numbers still work, it's still
the same phone number, is still the same emails and

(51:51):
just say hey, if by chance is my order ready,
you know, and we'll let you know one way or
the other.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
So well, we'll for sure come next week and do
a little video and the time. I do have one
more question. Tell us you are now also a storage company, correct,
So if anyone has their wine stored in another local
storage facility, we can talk to you about moving.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
It absolutely, absolutely, yeah, And I'm not in charge of
that side of the business, but yeah, you just call
Spectrum and ask us we speak to someone in wine storage.
Trish and a couple others here are super knowledgeable and
there are some lockers available. But I will say the
storage business is a good business and they're probably, you

(52:33):
know that ninety percent occupancy. So call and find out
what type size locker you need and then from there
they can either put you on a list or maybe
have something available. But it's it's pretty tired, it's it's full.
It's a huge facility and it's full. It's something we'd
love to.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Do that, but there's something that warms a heart to
walk down the aisle and know that that's your locker.
We have a little one and we love that. We
love that. Kyle, thank you so much. We are so
excited for you. We're proud and blessed. We've had the
opportunity to be a teeny part of a customer and

(53:15):
your journey and all you've brought to us and to
Orange County and to the wine world, and some of
our customers who've come to you, the McCartney family for example,
some of the things that you're helping them with. It
has been an absolute blast, and I'm so excited for
all that we're going to learn and see and be
able to experience because of this merger brought you together

(53:36):
and what it's going to do for your customers as well.
You've taken us to your grocery store aisles, to the
global stage, to the rare bottles that now get their
moment under the spotlight. And most of us didn't even
know this world existed. So now our listeners not only
know what a wine auption is, they might be able
to raise a little paddle of their own, so to

(53:56):
our so cow with Foul family. Whether you're an occasional sipper,
you want to celebrate and this season you're a curious
explorer or a future winner of a seventies Bordeaux or
a fifty five Bordeaux bidding more, this merger means a
lot more stories for us, more access, more incredible wine
right here in our backyard, and more opportunities to have

(54:19):
Kyle Meyer with us. How congratulations from the bottom of
our hearts, most sincerely for this new chapter of your life.
You interested in Patrick and your team. We can't wait
to follow your journey to learn more about wine auctions
and wine from you. Cheers to this adventure and Thank
you so much for being with us today, and happy
Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Yeah. Thanks Val Upward an omorous same to you. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Thank you,