M Cellars’ Tara Meineke wins national Tasting Room Manager of the Year honors - Cleveland.com
GENEVA, Ohio – Bottles won’t be the only glass items in M Cellars’ tasting room anymore.
Soon, a shelf in the Geneva tasting room will display a glass award, touting Meineke as the national Tasting Room Manager of the Year. The award comes from Tasting Tap Room Expo, which promotes networking and conferences in the industry. Tasting-room managers at breweries, wineries, meaderies, distilleries and other places were eligible. Meineke’s tasting-room role is critical: About 90% of M Cellars’ wine sales come through the tasting room. If you’re a national brand - say, Budweiser – you are essentially just dropping off your product at bars, restaurants and stores. But if you are a boutique beverage business, like a winery in Northeast Ohio, your business lifeline relies on getting people in to the tasting room, welcoming them, and having them buy your product – and returning.
“We really are hands-on, direct-to-consumer through the experience in the tasting room - which is great because that whole experience part comes from being able to tell our story; that’s what make us unique,” said Meineke about the winery, located at 6193 S. River Road W in Geneva. “There are 30 wineries in the region, and how do you set yourself apart so you have guests who continue to come back year after year?
Since she and her winemaker husband Matt Meineke bought the land for grape growing back in 2007, Meineke has been deft at getting the word out about the winery via social media outreach and events at the tasting room. Developing that “person-to-person interaction” has been key to building a network of repeat customers, she said.
The award simply validates the work Meineke has put in.
“I just thought, ‘Hey, I’m going to go for this, I have nothing to lose, everything to gain. I probably won’t get it because it’s nationwide and I’m up against all these people who have 30 years of experience in the industry.’ ”
When she didn’t hear back when the deadline came, she followed up to say thanks and figured nothing gained, nothing lost. But organizers told her they were still going over the applications. A 30-person panel was involved in reviewing the applications.
Then she received an email: You’ve won.
To qualify she had to meet criteria and write essays covering specific facets of M Cellars’ portfolio, like how the winery stands out in a competitive industry. Meineke said she wrote about the importance of understanding the region’s terroir, among other aspects.
She went to Reno, Nevada, to receive the award this month.
“This is a lesson to be learned, that I shouldn’t not believe that I am not as deserving as everybody else,” said Meineke, who a year ago was honored with an International Legacy Award from Les Dames d’Escoffier International.
“It motivates me to continue to do what I’m doing. … It drives you to continue to strive for excellence.”