Mazza: Growth has been a 'mixed bag'

The wine caucus at the Pennsylvania Winery Association on June 4 followed the unveiling of “Vintage 2012,” a five-year plan to double the impact of the Pennsylvania wine industry that was launched last year. Association president Bob Mazza said during a wide-ranging chat Thursday night that both the plan and the caucus are essential to fulfilling long-term goals as production increases and wineries continue to multiply.

“What [Vintage 2012] really means,” said Mazza, “is basically developing a funding steam that’s going to be consistent and something we can count on year after year so that we can begin to do some of the long-term marketing and some of the long-term quality initiatives to develop a reputation for Pennsylvania wines. It can be done to a certain extent, by individual wineries, but that’s very, very difficult. And we don’t have the size and scope of wineries in this state to accomplish that. Certainly if we had a Robert Mondavi located in Harrisburg or Adams County or something like that, Pennsylvania would get noticed. But we don’t have that type of producer. There’s a couple that kind of think they are, but they’re a long way from it. But, you know, we just don’t have the notoriety. I always say, boy, it’s a darn shame that Mario Andretti had to go to California to open up a winery when he was basically from Pennsylvania. It’s a darn shame he didn’t open up his winery in Pennsylvania. That would have been a real boost for our industry to have someone with that name recognition to be in our industry.”

Mazza Vineyards is located in North East, Pa., smack up by Lake Erie, with New York a hop, skip and a jump to the east and Ohio a bit farther away on the western horizon. Welch’s is the major employer, and it’s one of only a couple of towns in the United States that has more than five wineries. Six currently are in operation there. Mazza said his was the seventh winery to be established in the state, back in 1973. He noted that while there has been plenty of growth across the state, “in certain areas we probably have not met our expectations and in other areas we’ve probably exceeded them, so its kind of a mixed bag.”

He continued: “To be honest with you, I didn’t envision as many wineries as we have in Pennsylvania, but I also had expected that he the wineries that would be in business would be considerably larger than they are. I guess I expected fewer wineries and larger producers, but in fact we have the numbers greater but they’re tending to be smaller operations. . . . I guess I just expected the growth curve to be a little bit different.

“Some of them start fairly small and very conservative, and others are starting out almost California-style, investing millions of dollars in their facilities . . . and, you know, I don’t know what their expectations are. But often times I see a lot of money being spent and I look at wineries that have been around 20, 25 years and those wineries could barely justify that type of investment. But everybody gets into the business for different reasons, I guess. Some folks, as I say, [it’s] California style. They’re looking to make a statement. Put up a facility perhaps that’s very prestigious and that’s fine. That’s good for the industry. But if I take a look at what their return will be, it will never be an operation that . . .will give a decent return on their investment.”

This recent caucus was encouraging, Mazza said, not only because it’s the first of what hopefully will be many but that so many legislators participated. More than 25 attended along with members of the wine association and the state Department of Agriculture. No doubt, Mazza agreed, part of the lure is how much making and drinking wine are in vogue these days.

“I firmly believe that it’s a type of business that’s exciting and its growing and there’s a lot of interest in it,” he said, “and people want to be involved and they want to be associated with it.

“It’s definitely a very sexy business, there’s a certain amount of romance and sizzle . . . to the wine business. It’s got a certain amount of cachet in the business world. I see it in different events that I attend. I’m sitting at a dinner. It s a diverse group of people, and as soon as they figure out you’re in the wine business, boy, the attention and the conversation just kind of swings over to the wine. You maybe have people in the construction business, whatever else they’re in, but it just seems like wine just kinda like, boy, it’s something people want to talk about, they want to learn more about it. It just has that kind of draw, I guess.”