By Carolyn Gray Anderson
It’s a familiar cliché and a dream many harbor: Achieve financial success in business and pursue your real passion as a second career. Traditionally, MBAs might forge their careers in banking or technology, amass the requisite capital, and, on early retirement, finally open a winery.
But what used to be “nontraditional” industries for MBAs are becoming mainstream as artisanal cheeses and craft beers gain mass appeal. And for the 330-member Anderson Wine Club, the wine industry holds not only great personal interest but also fruitful career opportunities.
Michael Peck (’15), VP of winery outreach for AWC, explains that although AWC is an “interest” club, many of its members are on a serious professional trajectory in the wine business. “The AWC serves as an excellent platform for us to reach out to potential employers and network by inviting them to campus to speak, just as other professional clubs do,” says Peck, who worked for a premium wine retailer in college. Peck also worked the 2008 harvest at Silverado Vineyards in Napa and, after that, supported marketing for Don Sebastiani & Sons in Sonoma. The club’s faculty advisor is UCLA Anderson finance and real estate lecturer Paul Habibi, an avid wine collector.
AWC events may entail field trips to wineries in the Santa Ynez and Napa valleys, as well as tastings at local enotecas; but learning about the business of wine is primary. Even in the club’s most social settings, says Peck, “Winemaker discussions naturally evolve into conversations about crucial marketing decisions, winery operations and logistics, and investments and business structuring.” Industry leaders and renowned sommeliers conduct presentations in Anderson classrooms — much like lectures in the regular MBA curriculum, but with the added bonus that flights of Médoc might line up alongside laptops.
This month, Peck and four other AWC core members are traveling as a team to New York to compete in regional trials of the prestigious Left Bank Bordeaux Cup, which grew out of the 20 sur Vin tasting competition for wine appreciation clubs at the leading Paris higher education establishments. It will be Anderson’s first time fielding a team in the international event, which attracts the world’s top graduate business, law and engineering schools.
The LBBC is organized by the Commanderie du Bontemps, a trade organization dedicated to bringing together principal players in the Bordeaux wine trade and supporting Bordeaux wines worldwide. Peck says it’s important for MBAs because “The LBBC is one of very few events that allow Anderson students interested in nontraditional industries to compete on a national scale against other top universities. The exposure to premier wine producers, distributors and industry groups is invaluable and something we do not typically have access to through traditional forums.”
Competitors are judged on their performance in multiple choice questionnaires, presentations and blind tastings. “We are preparing for the competition by meeting weekly, where we've been splitting our time between blind tasting Bordeaux wines using the Deductive Method and studying Bordeaux history and trivia,” says Peck. “The blind tasting portion is the trickiest; often the subtleties between regions and vintages can be very slight. We likely will need to do very well on the trivia portion as we go into the tasting portion of the competition.”
The team that comes out on top advances in June to the final, held in Bordeaux at the legendary Château Lafite Rothschild.
As the specialty and artisanal foods business booms, so emerges a new proliferation of specialty MBAs. The credential is becoming more common in the wine industry, with some schools offering degrees or certificates, like the wine executive certificate at UC Davis, where AWC member and LBBC competitor Meredith Roman (’16) completed the wine marketing program. E. & J. Gallo Winery devotes an entire section of its Web site to opportunities for MBAs and actively recruits at Anderson.
This is good news for the AWC members for whom wine is a primary aspiration, not a second career. Pallavi Patil (’13), one-time VP of AWC, is now vice president of product at Club W, a venture capital funded e-commerce wine startup, where LBBC team member Brooke Matthias (’15) worked during her summer internship. Margot Bloch (’15) and Rex White (’15), also on the team, became acquainted through the AWC. When White was exploring launching a wine-on-tap retail outlet that would allow consumers to bottle their own wine, Bloch was able to connect him with some industry experts Free Flow Wines to help determine the feasibility of his business. And when Roman expressed professional interest in the larger beverage industry, Bloch connected her with another Anderson alum working at Health-Ade Kombucha, where Roman has secured an academic internship.
“As a first year at Anderson,” says Roman, “I felt rather isolated because my career interests were so different from those of my classmates. The AWC and this competition have provided me with a fantastic support system among peers pursuing similar paths.”
Bloch, whose experience includes providing financial consulting for top Bay Area restaurants, concurs: “My experience with the AWC and preparing for the wine competition has been such a positive source of support and encouragement during my time at Anderson. When pursuing a nontraditional career path, having people in your corner is paramount.”
UPDATED: On January 27, 2015, the Anderson Wine Club team took first place in New York regional trials for the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup and will be heading to France in June! This year's judges said that the top two teams performed better than any teams in past competitions. Team Anderson was interviewed by Bloomberg's wine correspondent and later fell exhausted into bed following their victory. Watch this space for fresh news about the AWC's plans for Bordeaux.
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