First off, this is not a how-to or a proper study of the U.S. wine retail market. This is my understanding of it based on my short period as a part-timer at one wine shop in Southern California which is also influenced by my previous experience in the imported FMCG retail space in Lebanon. The U.S. is its own monster with many businesses

My work experience in Beirut and my certifications in wine were not why I got the job at Woodland Hills Wine Company. I recently learned that being part of the LA Somm Community, a private Facebook group where other wine professionals share opportunities and resources, played a huge role in my being considered for the sales position I was offered in September 2021. My admission to that group was facilitated by Rhys, a listener of the B for Bacchus podcast in New York City. She connected me to a friend in LA who then connected me to Cristie Norman. Cristie and I had a video call and I got to join the Facebook group. Because of this, I was contacted by WHWC in April 2021 but I wasn’t hired until they were looking for people again 5 months later. Essentially, I got a job by being vouched for by 3 people I had never (and still haven’t) met.

I wasn’t aware of WHWC’s reputation and impact when I applied to work there and when I started, it became very clear how much I didn’t know about the rest of the world’s wine. I had never had access to such a vast inventory or knowledgeable clientele. Basically, I quickly realized you need to know your shit to work at a store like this. No one was going to teach you the ropes and the managers and customers expected you to be an expert right off the bat. With time, just being in proximity to such a collection indirectly expanded my understanding of the international wine market and as a result, what Lebanese wineries were up against. Simultaneously, it was clear that no one there, customers and staff alike, had the access to the Lebanese wine world that I had had and in this, there was a gap to fill.

On my second day, I was given the green light to bring in some Lebanese wine and start my own corner. I began to slowly fill a rack and, over the next 12 months, I created a regional section instead of only focusing on Lebanon. Although that choice meant I’d be giving up slots I could use for more Lebanese bottles, I felt that highlighting the Eastern Mediterranean region

Starting Slow and Small

If I wanted to build a section and go from only Chateau Musar

To get them to trust my palate, I made sure that the team tasted samples and voted on favorites before I added any SKU to the rack. It wasn’t going to be just me that decided who would make it through and it wasn’t because I lacked buying confidence. I wanted their addition to the store to be because the wine was good instead of the assumption that they were only there because I was. I wanted the support to be separate from what was assumed to be patriotic duty. Blind-tasting my coworkers on Lebanese wine when they didn’t expect it became an artform (they expected it 99% of the time) but it is still one of the most satisfying ways to surprise and wow seasoned wine drinkers.

One bottle at a time, I included the sales and warehouse staff in tastings and shared some of my own bottles that were not available in the U.S. Seeing Lebanon as a wine-producing country needed to go beyond just what we could buy and sell. My goal was to convey that despite all that was broken, there existed a culture of winemaking, an industry of enotourism, and an innate talent for generous hospitality. Not everyone can book tickets to see it firsthand so I wanted to reconfigure and resculpt what the media told them Lebanon was.

Once it became known that there was an “oddball” or “eccentric” buyer at WHWC, reps would ask if I was interested in other others like Croatian or Slovenian wines. If I had more spaces to call my own, I would’ve diversified WHWC’s inventory further. But with a quarter of a rack that I needed to keep stocked for fear of losing a slot to encroaching Portugal, I had to be selective with how far I’d stretch my jurisdiction.

In the process of building this section, the managers proposed filling another quarter of a rack with “natty” wines, or natural and/or biodynamic wines. This mission I shared with the other under-35 recruit felt complementary to the one I was already on alone as it would a) attract new/younger clientele, b) neighbor my Ancient World rack which could c) double as an extension of the natural offerings since so many practice low-intervention methods traditionally anyway. It was a symbiotic relationship and the aisles around these two racks became my classroom where I would explain Lebanon’s topography and history in 4 minutes or less.

The Final Link in the Supply Chain

Unfortunately, what I had initially suspected before my move to LA has been confirmed during my time at WHWC: Lebanese wineries put all their energy into entering the U.S. but not into entering the fridges of Americans, and therefore, the last link in the supply chain is the weakest.

Lebanese wine is not an easy sell. Most shops will stock Musar because it has reached a level of recognition where it sells itself. It requires no effort from the distributor or the retailer. Other Lebanese wines are not guaranteed sellers and the category as a whole is not top-of-mind for the typical retail buyer. Vendors may not bother wasting time and gas on a hard sell when they need to hit sales targets.

I’ve also witnessed many wineries changing hands too frequently. The extreme desire to enter the U.S. market may mean that Lebanese wineries don’t have the luxury of choosing or holding out for the best representation deal. Plus, no matter what the options are, these partnerships start as an act of faith. While wineries have many reasons for changing importers or distributors that I’m not fully aware of, doing so results in closeout price-slashing on remaining inventory with their previous distributor, blocks in sales of said inventory if there is already new representation within the state, and a poor track record of sales in that state’s market (even if it’s a sign of a poor sales tactics rather than poor products). Picking your business partners should be a long-term marriage not only for the sake of growth but for the sake of protecting brand equity. Although I see the benefit of joining a distributor with a wide, established network of accounts, tiny producers from tiny Lebanon will get lost in those distributors’ massive PDFs. Without sales reps dedicated to the Lebanon portion of the portfolio who are willing to do the legwork and who can speak on the complexities of the Lebanese tapestry, it will be impossible for these wines to get in front of buyers and they risk being dropped for being slow movers. If our wines do manage to get onto a shelf, the salespeople then have to push them into the hands of consumers or they risk being dropped for being slow movers. These last steps in the sales journey are forgotten in the grand scheme of entering the U.S. market but they are what will keep the wine flowing in that direction. If the consumer comes back to the well for more, the well will continue to need refilling.

Getting into the U.S. is its own quagmire

Painting a Full Picture of a People

Unintentionally, elements of Lebanon slowly infiltrated my workplace. My station’s desktop background is the Raouche seaside, a landscape of Lebanon none of my coworkers had ever imagined. I brought zaatar crackers, sanioura cookies, and malban when I came back from my two trips to Beirut. Besides the many Lebanese wines I had opened for and explained to them, I tasted them on 3 different brands of arak. There is even a shaffeh coffee cup at the front counter that we keep extra pennies in. I wore my own merchandise so I was a walking billboard for my own shop and what it promotes. It was a great testing ground for my clothing and so far, every single item started conversations about Lebanon. Even the simple decision to pronounce my name properly (after a year of not doing so) served as a way of asserting my heritage and planting a symbolic flag.

None of these things was strategic manipulation. All were side effects of me missing my culture and wanting to share it with those around me. By simply being there and being Lebanese, as upsetting as it is to admit, I’ve humanized what being from Lebanon meant to anyone who walked into the shop or received my emails. I communicated what Lebanon is to me and I contextualized the industry within our current, precarious situation instead of using tasting notes and tech sheets to sell a product. To understand a place, you can’t solely depend on winery proprietors who may have to paint a sexy picture or narrative because it’s connected to their bottom line. You have to deconstruct the mechanisms at play and you have to see the whole timeline.

Lebanon is one little sliver of the Ancient World with a lot of history to unpack but like I said, even today, this active player is always changing and it needs active champions across the world to drive that message home.