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Delemare Vineyard Essay

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Delamere Vineyard

Delamere Vineyard
“Delamere Vineyard is a small, integrated winemaking business in Tasmania, specializing in pinot noir (red) and chardonnay (white) wines. Richard Richardson, Delamere's owner and winemaker, manages and operates the vineyard and winery largely alone. His products have won praise and awards in the past, but Richardson strives continuously to improve. Delamere competes in the high-priced segment, in which quality is paramount. Richardson is well equipped as a winemaker--with a Ph.D. in agricultural chemistry and 15 years' experience.” (Harvard Business School, 2000) Winemaking is a very exclusive, yet competitive business that requires great care and understanding of customer demands.

Problem …show more content…

Often, your gut is just plain wrong – because it’s subject to biases” (HBR, 2001). Decisions that involve where a company’s future is headed and changes in operations must be made with a clear head, and the long time notion of three heads are better than one should come into play. Richardson admits that sales is dependent on the quality of the wine. The process of winemaking is difficult to specifically characterize and replicate for consistency.

Richardson has pinpointed some areas in his business where improvement can be made to set his wine apart from the competition while increasing productivity and sales. His first option involves “consideration to amend winemaking procedures to eliminate the possibility of oxidation as the wine matured. Excessive contact with oxygen, along with other chemicals, induced compounds called aldehydes, which could create a distinct and unpleasant flaw in the wine’s taste, unforgettable bitter aroma somewhat akin to stale oil, along with an unattractive browning of the color” (Delamere Vineyard, 2000). This option leads to a constant output of good quality wine. This process will allow

Richardson to attract a large amount of customers through both mail order and wholesalers due to the fact that this process can produce the same type of wine product every year. Customers tend to feel at ease purchasing wine from distributors who

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