Sharing Their Love of Wine

Three years ago Lil Lepore and Shari Frazier set out to share their love and knowledge of wine through a small specialty wine store in Santa Clarita: Vino 100. The warm atmosphere in their store has helped lure a loyal client base that has grown to include novice consumers and expert wine connoisseurs all seeking unique, artisan wines at affordable prices, as well as some friendly chit chat every now and then. Despite the economic recession, Vino 100 is holding strong, constantly reaching out to customers through a myriad of wine events held regularly inside and outside the store. Lepore and Frazier, partners in business and in life, also run a fashion accessory business, Frazier Lepore & Associates, which they launched 23 years ago, and through which they represent manufacturers and sell wholesale to clients such as Nordstrom, Kitson and Fred Segal. Lepore and Frazier, who believe every wine has a story and are eager to share that story with their customers, also abide by the philosophy conveyed on a sign by their register that reads: “Enter as strangers, leave as friends”. Since opening in Santa Clarita they’ve embraced a community spirit participating in many charitable and community events including the Betty Ferguson Foundation Vine to Wine, Taste of the Town benefitting the Child and Family Center, SCV Classic Wine Auction benefitting the Senior Center Foundation and Soroptomist International of Greater Santa Clarita Valley Wine Affair. Vino 100 has also supported a number of organizations with fundraisers benefitting the Sheila R. Veloz Breast Imaging Center, Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Foundation, Circle of Hope, Santa Clarita Autism Asperger Network, Hunger Defense Fund, AIDS Project LA, Local 47 Musicians Union Foundation and Valencia High School among others. Question: How did you get into the wine business? Answer Lepore: The truth of the matter is Shari and I have always had a passion for wine and over the years we’ve developed a palate. What happened was we were going away to Europe and we had some wine we had purchased a while before, and we wanted to make sure the wine was properly stored and taken care of because it was during the summer and the heat would fluctuate up and down. So Shari was looking in some trade magazines in search of a wine refrigerator and she read an ad that said “Do you want to own your own wine store?” There you have it. The joke is this is the biggest and most expensive wine refrigerator anyone could ever have. Q: Why did you choose the Vino 100 franchise? Lepore: It’s something that we did because we liked the concept of the franchise and the fact that they would come in and help with the design of it but aside from that the franchise let’s us do what we want to do. We order our own wine, we run our own business, there’s no interference. There are no stipulations from their part. We’re basically paying them a royalty, other than that, Shari and I run our business the way we see fit and run it as well as we can. Q: You also run an accessory business, are there any plans to merge that with the wine business? Lepore: We sell to retailers; we don’t sell to the public on the fashion accessory side, so that’s why there wouldn’t be much of a crossover at all. If we were able to do that [sell to the public] that’s a different story because we have a customer base already built here and then it would add to the customer base of the fashion accessory business, but it doesn’t work that way. Q: You’re on both the wholesale and retail side of business? Lepore: We were on the wholesale end of things for such a long period of time that opening up a retail establishment was not a very big stretch although they are two completely different animals; it requires a lot of different skills and different focus than the wholesale side. Frazier: What I love about having both, the retail and the wholesale, is that a lot of the things that I hear from the wholesale perspective – when I’m out talking with a lot of different stores, from the small specialty store, to a catalogue or to a national chain such as Nordstrom’s, about what they are doing to implement sales and ideas – becomes useful for us in the retail end and it’s funneled back into Vino 100. A lot of the strategies we can certainly incorporate on a smaller scale. Q: What is at the heart of running a good wine store? Lepore: You need to have some basic wine knowledge, that’s the first thing, because your customers are going to rely upon you to make recommendations to them and they’ll look to you as the expert. So that’s first and foremost. Frazier: People skills. I think it’s the customer walking in here and feeling embraced. There are not many stores that people walk into and get a hug, but that’s just sort of an understood thing that happens in here. They call us “Cheers.” There’s a real big comfortable factor that we bring to the table. That’s part of what sets us aside from every other venue in Santa Clarita and also the San Fernando Valley. Q: How did you get your wine expertise? Lepore: It was probably about 15 years ago when I first started to appreciate some wine. Wine is much more of a social activity because you’re sharing something with people. You don’t share a bottle of beer, you don’t share a Cosmopolitan with somebody… but you share wine with people whose company you enjoy. So that’s very different and that part is appealing to us because it’s very romantic and it’s social and it’s also very civil. Q: Is that what you love most about the wine businesses? Lepore: Yeah. It’s fascinating. It’s something you can never know everything about. You can spend a lifetime learning about wine and not know anything. It’s the constant search for knowledge, a constant learning experience. Frazier: We could sit and have a glass of wine and all three of us could have a different experience. Two of us may like it and one may not. Everybody’s tastes are different. We’ll all taste something different in the wine. Wine is always changing, always growing. Q: Did you take any courses on wine? Lepore: We took a few. They were fun. They were the short courses not the long programs. Ultimately what I would love to do is get my sommelier certification. That would be fabulous. But the education continues everyday talking to distributors, talking to wine makers, visiting wineries, going on some trips, going to Europe and going to France and going to the vineyards there, or visiting the vineyards in Tuscany. All of that is a compilation of knowledge. Frazier: We love to travel; we just recently went to Napa. We spent five extensive days up there just tasting. Ultimately what we want to do is bring that knowledge back to the customer. Q: What’s new in the world of wine? What do you see here with your customers in Santa Clarita, any trends? Lepore: We just celebrated our third-year anniversary and it’s been a journey and I think that what we’ve done in the three years is we’ve gotten a good handle on the palate of Santa Clarita. And I would say that palate is pretty much a new world palate, so the old world wines – the French and the Spanish and the Italian wines – they embrace but not as vigorously as they embrace California because we’re in the middle of wine country, and it’s so easy and so accessible. There are wine lovers in this Valley. They enjoy wine. Some of them are collectors; some of them are very knowledgeable about wine. I would say most of the customers are more red drinkers than they are white…so we have more red wines in the store to accommodate those particular tastes. Frazier: We see a lot of Central Coast fans, we see a lot of customers focused on Paso Robles and Santa Barbara and are really looking for those big Zinfandels that have 16.5 percent alcohol, which is crazy, that’s not the norm. Normally you see 13.4-14 percent alcohol. Another thing that’s hot is Lil just found some great wines out of Baja in Mexico, and everybody’s flipped over them. Q: What about the economy? Lepore: Customers are much more price conscious today than they have been in the first couple of years and that’s understandable because of the economy. They’re still nevertheless buying wine and drinking wine. They may not be buying as much of it but they still are buying it. We’re holding our own. Knock on wood, we’re doing okay. It’s about constantly trying to find the right product for them, and keeping it fresh and different and bringing to them good quality wines for really affordable prices. That’s our goal. Q: What is the price range of your wines here? Lepore: Most of what we have is between $10 and $25 dollars. That’s the bulk of what we have. And that’s what people are really gravitating towards. We have probably over 140 labels. We don’t go any more than about $120. We keep it really reasonable so people can really come in and afford to have fun. Q: How do you compete with the Wal-Marts and the big chain stores? Lepore: Because we don’t buy those wines. Shari and I look for really, very unique, hand crafted artisan wines. These are very small producers that are not out there on the mainstream. These are family owned vineyards most of the time; they are not these big conglomerates, so they may produce 75 cases a year to maybe 15,000 cases a year, which is really small in the world of wine. So to keep us separate and different from everybody else I really seek those smaller hand crafted wines and those wines are not going to be in Wal-Mart and they’re not going to be in all those big chains. There are so many wines out there, that there is no reason why everybody should carry the same things. Q: You seem to be very involved with the community. Do you enjoy that? Frazier: We’re extremely involved. Lil and I have certainly been successful in our careers and we’ve certainly had a nice income and there’s a part of giving back that we didn’t necessarily have the opportunity to do the way we wanted to do in the past with the other business, and so it just feels right. We’ve made a lot of friends. It’s become a pretty big community in that sense, there are many things we just feel fortunate to be part of. It’s a two- way street. Lepore: It’s been an interesting experience to be involved in a community like this. This is a very giving community and they expect a lot as well, so it’s an interesting situation. Q: What’s in store for the future? Do you have anything up your sleeves? Frazier: We have a couple of things but we’re not ready to talk about them yet. We’re entrepreneurs at heart and we’re always looking to do something different. There is something else in the works, it’s almost done, and it’s related to wine. We’re really looking to continue to grow Vino 100 but then take that wine knowledge and expand it out. There’s a new website coming in addition to our Vino 100 website. Lepore: I’m a firm believer that all new technology and all new marketing opportunities we have with social media, Facebook, Twitter, Podcasting and blog radio, all that is very important to grow the business and to expand out. I think that we acknowledge that and in the next aspect of this, it’s going to be an integral part. Q: How else do you grow Vino 100? Lepore: We really try to keep our events really fresh and new and part of what we are trying to do is expand out of the store and do events outside the store as well as inside the store and give our customers some quality education as well as good food with wine. So we’re starting a four-part series starting October 1st, it’s going to be demystifying the food and wine pairing aspect, and we’ve got someone who’s going to partner with us, she’s a chef and teacher, and she will be preparing, presenting and teaching these classes…. So that’s exciting. We’re doing outside events as well, corporations want to come here, they want to hold customer appreciation nights, we do girls night out, and fundraisers. We’re always trying to do something different to mix it up, to change it up, to keep it fresh. Q: What is the most exciting aspect of owning a wine store? Lepore: The fun of learning something new everyday. It’s a lot of fun. Frazier: The travel. Traveling to the wine regions is my favorite thing in the world to do. Q: What advice would you tell other small wine business owners? Frazier: Just don’t give up, keep fighting. And when it looks very bleak give it a few days because that bleakness does go away. Just like Lil says, failure is not an option. Lepore: It’s about reinventing yourself. You always have to keep reinventing yourself. Complacency is not going to work in this business or any other business. You can’t wait for somebody to walk through that door. You’ve got to go to them, you’ve got to find ways, find new marketing ways of doing things to attract new customers and keep the ones that you have. It’s a 24/7 business. But you need to stay the course and you need to hang in there. And you need to always think there’s something better the next day. Q: Do you find that this industry is very male dominated? Lepore: Oh yeah. It’s a good old boys club. How do we compensate for that? By being stronger women and knowing what we’re doing and what we want and demanding as much as we need to demand. Our money is as green as anybody else’s. But this is not new to me. I’ve been in male dominated businesses before, it just makes me fight harder and expect more. Q: What keeps customers coming back to your store? Lepore: What draws them back to us is the fact that it’s comfortable, it’s safe, It’s a warm environment. What happens at Vino 100 stays at Vino 100. Q: What kinds of things happen here? Lepore: We play many roles. We play confidante, friend, guidance counselor, psychologist…. Some people who own businesses come here and want to talk business owner to business owner. Then there’s the mother having problems with her kid, or the wife who thinks the husband is doing things…We’re not gossipers. That would destroy our business immediately. This is their little space to be safe, chill and unwind – it could be for 15 minutes or for hours. Q: How important is your partnership to the success of your business? Lepore: It’s really important. We work really well together. We each bring different sets of skills and complement each other to create a synergy. Shari brings a lot of the creativity, the wine store was her idea, and I’m the facilitator. I get it done. It’s about respecting who we are and what we bring to the table.