How I Became the Export Director for CasaVides

This is the true story how I became the export director for La Casa de las Vides…

When you get to a point in your entrepreneur life that you have to face that your company is not going to generate the amount of money you need to support your family, it is time to look for a “real” job. It was the in summer of 2007 that I put my nose to the grindstone and started to search for a steady job in the wine business.

It took me about 5 months to finally update my Curriculum Vita,and in January of 2008, I applied for export director/manager positions. After more then 10 years being self-employed, it was my first experience with job applications through internet. Within a few hours after I had finished my CV, I was contacted by six wineries, completely amazed by the amount of export management jobs available in the Spanish wine sector.

The first interview in Alicante was not a success, to say the least. Actually, I knew too much about the problems the winery was facing. My second interview took place during the wine fair, Alimentaria, in Barcelona in March of 2008. But the week before the second interview, I received a call from a headhunter suggesting an interview with the owners of the winery La Casa de las Vides, a completely unknown winery from Valencia. To be honest, I thought I knew more or less what kind of wineries were around the area of Valencia and Alicante, but I never had come across the “La Casa de las Vides” winery, not even in the Spanish wine guides. So, I told myself, “this has to be a completely uninteresting low profile winery with no future for me, or something is happening there that I am clearly not aware of”.

Sitting down at the table in the stand for my interview with La Casa de las Vides, I spoke to the owners Francisco and Reme Gandia (brother and sister). It was as if I was a potential client and they, the owners, were selling the winery. In a way, this was true. I admit I was skeptical about the winery when I had the interview. I remember that I thought: “if I don’t like the stand, or the way they sell their wines, and I don’t like the wines, than I just say no”. But the thing was, as the interview continued and we tasted the wines, I liked the wines, and the way they sold the quality aspect. And there was something about the stand that was refreshing and distinctive.

Francisco and Reme, the owners, told me that the wines were made by Ana Martin. I met Ana Martin once in 2005 at a Verema tasting in Valencia. Since then she has been one of the great white wine makers after I had tasted her Itsasmendi and the Guitian. But she’s also collaborated with wineries like Terras Gauda, Pazo Pondal, Casa Gualda, Traslanzas and and many more. La Casa de las Vides is the only winery in the Mediterranean coastal area where Ana Martin makes wine. The opportunity to work with “her” wines was an appealing offer. Suddenly, I began to get excited about this job and left the stand with a good feeling about the interview. Although I was promised a second interview, I didn’t hear from Francisco and Reme for the another 5 weeks.

After a few weeks, I assumed that the winery was not interested in me. I almost forgot about La Casa de las Vides, and sent many more applications to wineries in Spain. Then, suddenly, in April, the headhunter contacted me again.

A second interview.

This interview was much more concrete. We discussed my profile in detail, and I understood that the winery was looking for somebody who could take La Casa de las Vides close to the top 100 of Spanish exporting wineries. After four years, they fully intended for this winery to be more than just a small average Valencian winery - especially when considering the number of respected wine professionals supporting the project.

La Casa de las Vides is a vine nursrey and one of the most respected ones in the Valencian area (actually I learned that the Valencian vine nurseries in general have a very good reputation in Spain). Three years ago, La Casa de las Vides decided to start their own winery. And when Ana Martin finally agreed to collaborate, it was a major step in the right direction.

In the second interview, I also learned of the close link with the fashion industry. A close friend of the winery, with exporting experience to more than 70 countries in the fashion industry, advised them to hire an export manager. Additionally, the husband of Reme, Juan Carlos, is a fashion designer who happened to design the corporate image of La Casa de las Vides.

Now, I remembered why I liked the stand at the fair during my first interview: it was different from the rest of the stands. Without a doubt, I felt as if the winery understood the basics of “image“.

However, I was not convinced that I was going to be the right candidate for the job, as we had some strong differences in opinion, but three days later, I received a phone call that I was selected.

In June of 2008, we met again. Just before that third interview ,I had the chance to talk to Ana Martin at Vinoble in Jerez de la Frontera, where she was doing a presentation for the first sweet Txacoli wine. Ana was confident that the quality of the wine was growing. She praised the team behind the company, and she told me that she was proud to work with this winery in particular. Knowing that Ana has worked with some of the finest wineries in Spain, her comments were a great help, and important for my decision to agree to work with La Casa de las Vides.

On Monday 16^th June 2008 ,I started to work with la Casa de las Vides. On my first day I attended the yearly held tasting of Valencian wines in the botanic garden of Valencia. The whole team was there, and although I felt a bit uneasy after a period of six years working as a self employed wine agent, I looked at the other wineries at the tasting and I knew I had made the right choice.

I new start in my career and for for the export department of La Casa de las Vides

Emilio Saez van Eerd, export director for La Casa de las Vides

Note: Some of you might know me from Tintoralba, the winery specialized in producing wine from Garnacha Tintorera. Bodegas Tintoralba’s export department is now in charge of my former colleague Javier Navarro.

New wine movie

Acabo de encontrar el anuncio de una nueva pelicula sobre vino Bottle Shock en varios blogs de vino.  Dicen que va tener tanto exito como la pelicula Side Ways (mejor conocido en España como Entre Copas) de 2004.  Lo que me interesa es que el vino puede ser perfectamente el protagonista en el cine.

Si Entre Copas al final ha despertado el interes por el vino de Pinot Noir, esta pelicula Bottle Shock seguramente va despertar el interes por el vino de California en general.  Como director de exportacion doy mi apoyo a cada pelicula sobre vino o despierta el interes por la cultura del vino.

Me pregunto ya desde hace 4 años cuando ví Entre Copas por la primera vez en una vuelo de Amsterdam a Singapore, cuando se va rodar una pelicula sobre los vinos de España?  Una pelicula sobre vino español daria un empuje importante al vino español.

No hace falta que sea una pelicula sobre vino de Valencia (aunque me ayudaría en exportar nuestros vinos). Pero lo que a mi siempre me ha llamado la atencion es la historia del vino en España. Por ejemplo el vino fondillon como vino mas antigua en los cortes reales de la antigua Europa, el Vino de Jerez, la revolucion de los vinos de Rioja, la importancia del puerto de Valencia y Alicante durante la época de la filoxera. Hay muchos ejemplos mas que merecen la pena ser mencionados.

Como amante de vino me gustaria ver como minimo cada año una nueva pelicula de vino,  y cada 4 años como minimo una pelicula sobre el vino español.

- Emilio Saez van Eerd