Luxury wine is one of the fastest-growing segments within the broader wine industry. Alex Ryan, President, CEO & Chairman of The Duckhorn Portfolio, joins Cheddar News' Hena Doba on a Walk and Talk to discuss the demand for luxury wine, consumer trends in fine wine, and so much more.

The Walk and Talk: Duckhorn Portfolio CEO

and luxury wine is now one of the fastest growing segments within the broader wine industry. And our Hannah dopa caught up with Alex Ryan, the president and Ceo and even chairman, very busy of Duckhorn portfolio all to take a look at the company's success coming in at almost one year as a publicly traded company and of course taste of wine as well. Here's a look at their walk and talk at the new york stock exchange. All right, thank you, cheers. Here's to you. And of course Duckhorn portfolio recently reported earnings beating on revenue estimates. Congratulations. How are you driving growth at this company? We're providing the luxury wine consumer with all the different styles of luxury wine where they want to buy them. Were very active as you can imagine their restaurants and stores. We have a complete direct to consumer business at home in the tasting rooms as well as online, really touching all the consumers wherever they want to buy fine wine, you're coming to a full year as a publicly traded company. How are you approaching the 2023 fiscal year? Well, we're reading the paper and with a little bit of caution every single day, but we believe that the luxury wine consumers going to continue to stay with luxury. We believe that they're still gonna want to celebrate with their friends and family. So with the slight cautious tone, we believe that people will continue to stay with the trusted brands they have and we've been there for over 45 years. So we believe we're within that cadre and um we're going to continue to deliver the expectations that the price once they want. I'm also very fascinated by you because you started at the vineyard work your way up to the founder, dan Duckhorn thought my ability to pick up rocks was so strong that he was going to continue to give me opportunities. I started in the fields picking up rocks in the early eighties and um what worked my way through, I consider myself a president from the production side, my skill sets on the production side, vineyards and winemaking and uh, and frankly became smart enough in my later life to hire really, really smart people who are smarter than I am and they help me help me run the company, we were talking about inflation a moment ago. What consumer trends are you seeing right now? I see, uh that's a really good question. It's interesting. Um, I believe in the luxury consumer, I believe in people who want experiences and that's what really fine wine is all about. So I believe what I'm seeing now is cautiousness except for trusted brands. I think that trusted brands are those brands that will do well during trying times and and I think after 45 years of practicing the art of making we've earned the trust with our consumers. What are the type of wines? People seem to be into right now, sparkling is hot, sparkling is exciting, sparkling is hot salvia blanc during the summer season, etcetera is really hot and frankly, you know, in our family, what we look at is anytime you're with friends is the right time to drink wine. So they're all hot. Thank you again for sharing your wine. Tell me what we're drinking right now. We're drinking the 2000 21 Duckhorn vineyards, napa Valley sauvignon blanc and it is amongst our summertime favorites. I mean this, there is no other wine we drink at my house or in the better part of the United States that they're not enjoying luxury white salvia blanc together. Tell me about the notes here, tropical fruits, right? You're thinking about passion fruit. It's a unique, very bordeaux style blend it very complex with a lot of mango fruit, a lot of orange juice, fruit, a lot of citric and types of acids. That is just a very full flavored rich sauvignon blanc. That's the style we've been making since 1982. Actually, let's talk about the portfolio. Duckhorn is the only publicly traded pure play luxury wine company in the US. What are some of the brands in your portfolio? We make vineyards, our flagship wine as you can see they're decoys, really our powerhouse commercial brand. We also makes a lot of number different anwar's cost a brown, a really elegant luxury car from, from California, Golden eye from Anderson Valley, the redwood coast portion of California, canvas back from the great state of Washington and there is a small piece of my heart clara is the reason that great Noirs exist in California. It's a rich, rich story. And we were able to buy that particular brand about five years ago and it now resonates as, as the Mick jagger of noir in California. That's the ultimate title right there. What do you look for when you're adding new brands, authenticity? Um, I think the important thing is authenticity. Uh, as you said earlier, we're only in wine, we're only in the luxury space. The luxury consumer expects that, why do you have a reason to be there? You specialize in a, in a varietal or flavor or style or a region and that authenticity requires vineyards and investment in winery and, and really that's the D. N. A. That we know. So, um, when we look at creating new brand or possibly buying another brand authenticity and legitimacy in the luxury space. But the fancy words meaning it better, just taste really, really good is important. Speaking of adding more to the brand, do you plan on doing that? We do. Um, we are, We're very vigilant in looking at adding to it. We wanted to make sense. We wanted to make sense for the consumer. So we're very, very careful about what we had to, the brand portfolio have done. We've acquired two different brands and created about eight different brands over the last 45 years. So we're, we're slow and meticulous, but I think that I'm very, very proud of and the success speaks for themselves of those brands we've either acquired and or started, so we'll continue to do more overtime. I'm looking only at the long term. That's kind of what the wine business about success. All right, thank you. Thank you. And that was our head a double with Alex Ryan, the president, Ceo and chairman of the Duckhorn portfolio on their walk and talk.