Refillable bottles ramp sales, reduce waste

SANDPOINT — Steve and Julie Meyer came up with a business plan that was so good they simply had to bottle it. About two years ago, the owners of Pend d’Oreille Winery in downtown Sandpoint devised a refill program for 1.5 liter bottles of their already popular Bistro Rouge red wine blend. They expected a limited response to a product offering whose primary intent was to keep glass out of the landfill.

With that in mind, the couple produced a first run of 150 bottles — a rollout that became an immediate sellout. When they followed with subsequent runs of 300 and then 600 bottles, customer reaction was the same.

Today, refillable bottles of Bistro Rouge represent 10 percent of the winery’s direct sales. When combined with sales of Bistro Rouge at the retail level, the house red blend now accounts for about one-third of total direct revenues.

“From a business standpoint, it has been a nice surprise to see a new product get that kind of traction,” Steve Meyer said.

For more than five years, Pend d’Oreille Winery has racked up platinum, gold and silver awards for its reserve wines — sometimes sweeping the top three medal categories — in events sponsored by the Beverage Tasting Institute, the Jefferson Cup Invitational and the San Francisco International Wine Competition, as well as regional competitions held in the Tri-Cities, Boise and Post Falls.

As the winery’s chardonnay, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and merlot wines continued to gain notoriety among connoisseurs, the lower-priced Bistro Rouge blend became a favorite choice as the go-to bottle of wine for people who wanted a tasty but affordable house red on hand. Since the blend was constantly in production, the Meyers thought keeping a small amount on hand at the winery to serve the local clientele in a different way might be an interesting new direction.

It turned out to be an unprecedented move, one that has generated interest from some of the largest players in the wine trade.

“We ended up being the first winery in the nation to put something like this into action,” Meyer said, adding that the launch generated a national splash in wine industry publications. “Now the big wineries in Napa and Sonoma are calling and asking, ‘How do we do this?’

“I just tell them that I’m doing what my license says — I bottle wine,” the winemaker continued.

“For the refills, it just happens to be one bottle at a time.”

The business metrics are impressive, with more than 300 bottles of Bistro Rouge refilled each month and a smaller but rapidly growing number of white wine bottles going out the door since Bistro Blanc was added to the refill program last fall. Alongside those climbing sales figures, the Meyers track another statistic — the number of glass bottles that stay out of the trash can by staying in constant use.

“It’s about a half a ton of waste saved every month,” Steve Meyer said.

“Since we started the program, that’s about 12 tons of waste we’ve kept out of the landfill.”

The winery’s refill slogan — Think Green, Drink Red — can be seen on bumper stickers around town. The most powerful marketing tool, though, has been the enthusiasm of customers who nudge their friends toward the refillable bottles as a way to enjoy a good wine and reduce solid waste at the same time.

Beyond that, the program has resulted in a marked increase in personal interaction with customers who now stop into the winery on a regular schedule.

“It lets us develop a relationship with our clients on an almost daily basis,” Meyer said. “It’s kind of like going to the farmer’s market and getting to know the farmer who grows your food. In this case, it’s getting to know the vintner who makes your wine.”

The world of crafting high-end reserve wines is more complex and, given the winery’s award-winning reputation, more demanding, he explained.

Producing Bistro Rouge, on the other hand, is a rolling improvisation in the art of wine making. The blend is always in rotation, made from four to six wine types that are combined by cellarmaster Jim Bopp to create each new version of Bistro Rouge.

For the past couple weeks, the blend has been made up 47 percent Washington cabernet, 25 percent Washington merlot, 23 percent syrah and about 5 percent petit verdot wines. Depending on availability, a different combination could very well be used for the house red the next time customers drop in for a refill.

“Our cellarmaster uses those wines like an artist’s palette to create the blend he wants,” Meyer said.

“It really is fun and you never get bored, because it’s never the same bottle of wine.”

Watch the cash register at Pend d’Oreille Winery for even a few minutes on any Friday afternoon or evening and you’ll witness a steady stream of customers getting wine bottles refilled as the weekend begins. The majority of them have two 1.5 liter bottles in tow, often one red and one white. They currently purchase the initial bottle for $25 and refill them for $16 from then on.

Next year, Pend d’Oreille Winery plans to introduce refillable bottles in the more standard 750 milliliter bottles, a move that should drive those metrics upward once more in the areas of higher sales and waste deferred.

“It’s nice to be able to make a real steady, decent wine that people enjoy,” Meyer said, pointing out that the customer base in Sandpoint is enhanced by wine lovers who drive up from Coeur d’Alene and Spokane to spend a day in town and refill their bottles. “But the thing we’re most proud of is that we’re accomplishing the intent of the refill program — we’re taking a bite out of solid waste.

“It’s a win-win deal,” the winemaker added. “Or a win-wine deal.”

To learn more about Pend d’Oreille Winery’s history, awards and upcoming events, go online to www.powine.com.