Sharon Sevrens is the kind of wine shop owner who likes interaction. She teaches wine classes at both the Montclair and Morristown locations of Amanti Vino and encourages casual browsing, random discoveries, even regular wine tastings. That sort of wine shop model is forbidden for the foreseeable future.
But that’s no problem for Sevrens, who adapted to COVID-19 restrictions early, temporarily moving her wine teaching skills online. In late March, she launched her first-ever online Amanti Vino wine classes on Zoom, including a “Novizio” wine 101-type class, and a four week-long “Master Class” that covers red and white Burgundy, Rioja, and the Piedmont region. No shock, issues of affordability come into play: the Novizio class was $130 for the hour-long session and the Master Class series is $450 total, but you are getting three bottles for the hour-long session and a dozen bottles for the Master Class series, plus an hour-plus of interaction. For wine lovers trying to enrich a rather dry quarantine time, it’s not a bad investment.
We caught up with Sevrens, who was fresh off her first two weeks of classes, to talk about transitioning something as convivial as wine to the Internet, what subjects we can expect in the next phase, and how many bottles we can expect to open at a time.
Table Hopping: You run very interactive wine stores. How did you handle the onslaught of COVID-19 restrictions?
Sahron Sevrens: I actually closed to the public before anybody else did. I have an amazing team and we worked together for a long time, having discussions on what to do. On Saturday, March 14, we were still open to walk-ins, but I started to feel a little funny. Sunday I did a shoot for CBS. I knew people weren’t feeling safe, that the staff wasn’t feeling safe. Monday morning came and I sat down to write an email to say “No more walk-in business tomorrow” but then I thought “I’m going to make this effective right now.” Monday the 16th we said “Okay, that’s it. Curbside pick-up and local delivery only.”
TH: What was customer response like?
SS: Customers, 99 percent of the time, said they totally get it, “Thank you for doing this proactively.” Though that week was really controlled chaos. But as each day passed, people were calmer. They weren’t just saying “Give me whatever.” They were thoughtful with their picks. But by Friday the 20th, I was worried about our supply chain: a one-month supply was gone in a week.
TH: Speaking of supply, how has Amanti been impacted in general? Is business dropping?
SS: I’m still nervous at this point. Both of my markets, Montclair and Morristown, are very reliant on BYO restaurants. We’re all hoping retail would pick up slack where restaurant business has dropped off. And people are definitely drinking through all of this! But they aren’t stockpiling in the way they were.
TH: What about customers shopping online? It has to be harder to “browse” inventory with a website. Are there any ways to showcase the depth of your inventory online?
SS: That’s a great question, and the reason online business has never been such a large piece of our business. We’re really heavily active in email marketing. We send several targeted emails every week to people, track what they buy, make recommendations. We still get cases of sample wines to try and try them as a team and when we fall in love send an email about it, just like we always have. But without customers to walk in and peruse the shelves, we either need them to call in to talk to us or get intrigued by an email. So much of my business is about wine education.
TH: Speaking of, how did you begin the virtual wine classes?
SS: I have a classroom in both of the stores. I teach everything from professional-level for the Wine and Spirits Education Trust to casual Saturday afternoon classes. So as soon as this all happened, I thought “How am I going to teach?” I launched the classes almost immediately. I started with two different classes, on Zoom. One was a wine 101, called “Novizio,” covering four bottles. The other is “Home School Master Class.” That’s three bottles for each class, for four weeks.
TH: And the idea for both classes is you order the wine for the class in advance?
SS: Yes, we deliver, or people pick up, a certain number bottles and a bunch of handouts. And if they can’t watch it live, they can catch up with the link at their convenience.
TH: The Novizio class was a one-off, but how did you decide what bottles to cover for the Master Class series?
SS: I started with regions I love the most. I’m always happy to talk to people about white or red Burgundy, Rioja or Piedmont. We’ve actually mapped out the next two months of classes as well. We’re going to do the rest of Spain, outside of Rioja. And we’re going to do a class on the new California.
TH: What is the new California? And will class subjects be harder and harder to come by?
SS: The New California to us are these producers who are making more Old World-style wines— less extracted, lower-alcohol, more terroir. A lot of them are on the Sonoma Coast. We do so many classes throughout the year, I’m always creating new content. One of the other classes planned for next month is the “Funky Varietals,” which is normally done in both stores. Customers want to learn about a new grape, like Ramisco. We’re teaching people about grape varieties they’ve never heard of. With each additional class, we’ll go deeper.
TH: What about teaching something as convivial as wine online? Is it awkward?
SS: One thing I learned—the first, Novizio, I did on my own, and it was just me talking into a camera. But what I love most about teaching is the interactive component. So I invited my International Sales Manager Wesley Kirk to join me on camera for the Home School Master Class. Even if a customer wasn’t asking me a question about Burgundy, Wesley would say something, chime in. It was so much more fun.
TH: What about student interaction?
SS: What I try to do is talk for a few minutes and kind of set the stage, and then talk through a tasting note, and then open it up and say “What questions can I answer?” Some will be directly related. Some are really sophisticated, like “Why are the Grand Crus grouped together in Burgundy?” Then we get into a discussion. The best part of teaching is you introduce material and let the conversation go.
TH: How many people have shown up per class?
SS: Novizio was about 15 people. We didn’t give that much advanced notice. I had about 30 people logged in for the first Master Class. It was nice, there was a lot of interaction. And it’s really interesting. We’ve gotten people coming from across the country. A customer who used to live in Montclair and still gets our emails saying “I live in Ohio, now I can take your classes again!”
The first series of Master Classes winds up on April 16, but another starts up a week later; a new bank of “Saturday Sessions” classes begins on April 18. Once you register, you can arrange to pick up the wine or have it delivered. You do not have to take the classes “live” if you can’t attend on time (the Master Class meets from 5:30–6:30pm on Thursdays, and Saturday Sessions are 4–5pm), but you will be missing out on that little bit of “socializing” we can have these days, so if you can try to set aside the hour (and a quiet room for some thoughtful sipping).