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“While Cheramie knows all there is to know about winemaking in the Lone Star state, she didn’t become an expert overnight.” If You Are Not Doing What You Love You Are Not Doing Anything
What comes to your mind when you think of Texas? Well, there’s Texas
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barbeque, cowboys, rodeos, farms, ranches. But let’s be honest, most people don’t think of wine when they think of Texas. Now, that’s about to change because Cheramie Law is on a mission to share Texas wine with the world.
Born and raised in Texas, Cheramie is a former permits, and each of those wineries is only really United States Marine who just started her own focused on their area. Maybe ten wineries are in wine brand, Cheramie Wine, with her life partner, distribution, and possibly less than that distribute Todd Aho. While Cheramie knows all there is to outside of Texas. So we realized there was this know about winemaking in the Lone Star state, market for us in the wine world. We saw that she didn’t become an expert overnight. Her there was a need to push Texas wine because journey wasn’t a straight line at all, and she had to we are doing awesome stuff in this state when overcome adversity to get to where she’s at now. it comes to growing and winemaking and all of After leaving the Marine Corps, Cheramie decided that,” Cheramie said. “It’s time to push outside the to go to college. However, she didn’t do well in state.” school, and she failed to get a degree. At this So they decided to become wine brokers and point, Cheramie didn’t know what she was going formed their wine agency, Salt and Pepper to do with her life. She spent some time working Wine, in 2017. Of course, connecting retailers in a military nonprofit, and although she loved and consumers with Texas Wine was just the it there, she couldn’t stay in that world because beginning. Cheramie and Todd had a vision. They there’s no money there. wanted to launch their own Texas wine brand, Cheramie did get a job in corporate America, but and they did just that in 2019 when they started it didn’t take her long to realize that this career just Cheramie Wine. But then the Covid pandemic wasn’t right for her. “I’m not going to lie. When brought the world to a halt, and the release of I first sat down in a their first wine – a 100% Riesling from the Texas cubicle, I cried. But High Plains American I knew that I needed to make money,” she said. Fortunately, this was only temporary Of course, connecting retailers and consumers with Texas Wine was just the beginning. Cheramie and Todd had a vision. They wanted to launch their Viticultural Area (AVA) – was delayed. Although doing business during the pandemic was a because her life was about to change. own Texas wine brand, and they did just that in 2019 when they started challenge, there were positives as well. Two to three months after During this time, Cheramie was already Cheramie Wine. launching, Cheramie and Todd sold 60 a wine enthusiast, percent of the 84 and she would often visit Texas wineries with cases they started out with, and they even won Todd. One day, they had dinner with one of a silver ribbon at a wine competition. For a Todd’s relatives who happened to sell wine in new name in the wine community, that’s a huge New York, and they asked her what she thought accomplishment. about Texas wine. Her reaction wasn’t a good one, and Cheramie wanted to know why. So for “2020 has been a crazy year for everyone. But about two and a half years, Cheramie and Todd there has also been a good side of 2020, which traveled around the state of Texas and met with has kind of made everybody sit at the house. winemakers, growers, and industry leaders to learn Around the world, we are all on the same schedule. all they could about the Texas wine region. That’s We’re all getting bored, so everybody’s attention when they realized only a few were really selling is online. I sell my wine online. People find me Texas wine outside the state. online. We’ve been featured in the global press. Actually, I’ve been reached out from the UK. “About 95 percent of all Texas wine is drunk Obviously, exporting is on our 2021/2022 plans. within the state. We have about 500 winery People are interested.
It is kind of hard to say, but you have to acknowledge it. It has been good for Cheramie Wine because as a very, very small brand with a very small marketing budget, we’ve been able to reach the highest levels within the wine industry around the world, which is a really cool thing. And it’s all because everybody’s focus is in one place.” Their second wine, a Montepulciano Rosé, is now available in limited quantities. Only 54 cases were made because it was a tough growing season for Texas. However, having such a limited amount available isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “I think the great thing about how we’re doing it is we don’t have to keep it at a standard, unlike grocery store wine. That’s because when you get to a certain size, that loved is gone in that wine. They have to make it uniformed, so it tastes literally the same every year. No matter what happened that season, they have to make that wine tastes like you know that it should taste. That means they’re adding chemicals and other things to make it that way,” Cheramie said. “Of course, we want to be in a grocery store one day, but we hope to always have that little touch of love within Cheramie Wine.” So many people are moving through their lives, and they’re just going through the motions. They’re not discovering themselves. They’re not challenging life, and they’re miserable. They’re playing such a safe game because of all the “what ifs.” Cheramie and Todd didn’t do that. They managed to achieve this because they were willing to take risks. They got in the game, took on adversity, and won. “Todd and I, we looked at each other, and we put out this money down. We could lose it all, but we would have learned so much that we can make it back. The money will come back. But the time, you won’t get that time back. It actually takes a lot longer than you think to grow a business, so you need to start as soon as possible,” Cheramie noted. “Don’t wait for the perfect time. We could have waited until we had a whole portfolio. But I think we would have missed a really awesome opportunity to release where we had people’s attention. So I was like, ‘Hey, let’s release one wine.’”
Remember, now is the best time to start a business. All the planning in the world is useless if we never take action.
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