Jason Moore Of Modus Operandi Cellars: 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand

… Going thru the motions of creating a winery or brand for the sole purpose of “making money” or “huge tax write offs” or “clout” but without having true passion and love for wine will also (or at least should) be obvious to the consumer… and even if it’s not obvious initially, lack of passion and authenticity will become evident via wine quality and how they interact with their customers. In today’s environment, people want to support brands that they can feel good about supporting.

As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Moore.

Jason Moore is the owner and winemaker for Modus Operandi Cellars and Vicarious Wines from Napa Valley. Mr. Moore discovered his love for wine when working in the restaurant industry in Dallas, TX as a young man. At the age of 24, Moore sold everything he had and with his wife moved to Napa Valley, California to pursue his passion of becoming a winemaker. In 2004, Modus Operandi Cellars was launched. Modus Operandi Cellars has since become one of Napa’s most well-regarded wines and respected by some of the most acclaimed wine critics.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I grew up in a rough neighborhood in south Dallas in the late 70’s. My father was a carpenter his entire career, so very much a blue-collar tradesman. I was always a bit of a misfit… did ok in school and spent most of my days hanging with the wrong group of guys, getting into trouble, and skateboarding until all hours of the night. Ultimately, I got expelled from high school and was content just working fast food, but this was also right around the time I started playing ice hockey and hanging out with a much more positively influential group of guys on the ice. One of my hockey buddies heard that my suspension from school was over so he insisted on driving me to re-enroll in high school, and insisted on picking me up and driving me to school every single day. This positive influence really impacted me, so I dropped the less desirable group of guys and skateboarding and focused on school and hockey from there on, ultimately getting into honors classes. Hockey and those wonderful guys saved my life as I would not be where I am today without them.

I began working in fine dining restaurants in my late teens which is where I found my interest in wine. The sommeliers noticed that I was interested so they took me under their wing and exposed me to some of the world’s greatest wines. The interest evolved into a passion… and so it began.

Can you share with us the story of the “ah ha” moment that led to the creation of the food or wine brand you are leading?

In my early 20’s I got my real estate license and was a residential agent for about a year, but as my girlfriend so gracefully brought to my attention… I was really bad at real estate and should try to find a career that I actually was passionate about. We kicked around some ideas, and then she said “wine… how about wine?” That was the lightbulb moment… I wanted to become a winemaker! Which is a lofty aspiration for a waiter from Dallas with no roots in the industry, no family in CA to help, and no money of my own to do anything with. About six months later, we had a 3 weeklong garage sale, sold everything we owned, got married in total secrecy, and moved to California for me to pursue the dream of becoming a winemaker.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I was racking (the process of pumping out all of the wine from every barrel in a lot to a tank to homogenize, then returning that homogenous blend of wine back to the cleaned-out barrels) a large number of barrels to a tank in another room in the winery. Once the wine was all pumped from the barrels to the tank and the wine was homogenous and the barrels were cleaned, it was time to return the wine to the barrels so I got the racking wand (stainless tube that is inserted thru the bung hold of the barrel to remove/fill wine to/from the barrel) in the first barrel I was going to fill, went up to the winery and opened the valve to allow the wine to flow down into the cellar and ultimately into the barrel to fill it. You usually have a little time as it takes about 4–5 min to fill a barrel. Well, something distracted me (or the wine was flowing faster than I thought) and when I opened the door to the cellar I saw an ERUPTION of wine spewing out of the bung hole of the barrel. I frantically ran down the stairs to close the valve and save the wine but when I got to the cellar floor (I was wearing Crocks) I slipped and fell, got up, slipped again, got to the barrel and by the time I was able to close the valve I was soaking wet with red wine! I just stood there for about 45 seconds in complete silence reflecting on what had just happened then I thought about what that scene would have looked like from someone else who would have been in the room and seeing me freak out, fall, and get soaked… I busted out in laughter till my abs hurt!

What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food or wine line? What can be done to avoid those errors?

So many people spend all their time making the wine and letting it age in barrels for a few years while totally forgetting to begin “building the brand” and community of people who will support it. They wait till they have wine in bottle ready to sell before telling the world that they are a wine brand. So much time and anticipation build up opportunity has been wasted at this point and the launch suffers. This is a brutal business with INTENSE competition and extreme financial requirements so the moment a person decides to become a winery or brand is the moment they should start the list building and storytelling of that journey.

Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Talk to a few trusted friends about the product to gauge their response and see if the product actually solves a problem for the consumer. The product can’t just solve a problem for the business, it must solve a problem for the consumer, or they will never be emotionally driven to buy it.

Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?

Find mentors in your industry to guide you and allow their experience to help reduce both the time to market and mistakes that they’ve made before you, so that you don’t repeat them. Also find others who have been successful in the industry and learn as much and copy as much (without plagiarizing) as you can. No need to fumble thru the time and energy reinventing the wheel when others have already figured out what works and what doesn’t. Finally… test, test, test… Making a product is only part of the equation… selling it is arguably the harder part, especially if it is a newer concept.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

It all depends on the business, scale, and initial launch/splash desired. As a waiter and son of a carpenter with no money or industry experience, I didn’t have the ability to do anything without venture capital from outside investors. In hindsight, I wish I had bootstrapped, started smaller (hard to even imagine possible), and grow with revenue from initial sales. This is essentially what I did, only with someone else’s money, only now I don’t own 100% of the company, regretfully.

If the scope of the business is such that its bigger than what you alone or a small team can accomplish, and if you want to create a business vs a job for yourself, then venture capital is for sure the right way to go and can really help set up the company for greater success with less stress and heartache along the way, although that is almost inevitable either way!

Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to file a patent, how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?

Finding a distributor in the wine world is hard as a small producer. The distribution company and sales reps really only make money when they sell wine, so when they spend the time exposing the wine to their network of retail and restaurant client buyers, build the brand with sales, and come back to the winery for more wine to fill orders and keep the momentum building, only to be told that the winery is sold out because they only made a few hundred cases, the distributors get very frustrated and move on to a brand that can keep supply flowing so that they can keep their commissions flowing.

So, finding a distributor that is a good fit for both the brand and the distributor has to be the goal so that all expectations are met and the relationship stays positive and beneficial to both parties.

Here is the main question of our discussion. What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Wine Brand” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

Consumers can smell a fake brand a mile away and there are a lot of brands in the world so having a compelling story that the consumer can get emotionally attached to will be a huge help. My story, for instance, has inspired high fives, tears, and passionate fist pumping because everyone loves a David vs Goliath, American dream come true success story. In this winemaking valley (Napa), most winery owners made their millions or billions in some other industry, then retired to Napa to start their project with seemingly infinite resources, the best winemakers, the best vineyard owners, the best marketing team, and huge budgets for it all (and there’s nothing wrong with that… rising tides rise all ships). I’ve been called a “David in a valley of Goliaths” due to my story of being a waiter in Dallas and son of a carpenter… a very blue-collar upbringing… and against all odds was able to start my winery very small, and slowly and quietly grow to where we are today. Other businesspeople who share the “humble beginnings” story in their own life can really relate to my path and for that, they emotionally invest in my success, the wines, and the relationship.

Authenticity, going thru the motions of creating a winery or brand for the sole purpose of “making money” or “huge tax write offs” or “clout” but without having true passion and love for wine will also (or at least should) be obvious to the consumer… and even if it’s not obvious initially, lack of passion and authenticity will become evident via wine quality and how they interact with their customers. In today’s environment, people want to support brands that they can feel good about supporting.

Quality, there is one thing that is for sure… there is PLENTY of amazing wine in Napa/Sonoma and almost all of them are making fantastic wines. Do I make great wines? Hell yes. Am I special because of that? Hell no. BUT because there is so much quality to choose from, you better be damn sure you’re making the best quality wine you possibly can as there are plenty of other brands that will take your customer if you lower your guard and allow less than stellar wine to be released. I use the analogy of Gordon Ramsey and how he interacted with his sous chefs and kitchen staff. He always said “your cooking, but my quality.” When the food is delivered to the table and the guest tastes the food, if they don’t like the dish they are not going to say “line chef #3 is a bad chef”… no! Gordon Ramsay’s name is on that plate, so the guest is going to say “Gordon Ramsay is a bad chef” so again… “Your cooking, but my quality.” You only get one chance to make a great first impression.

Customer Service, great customer service seems like an obvious thing to strive toward for any and all businesses for 1 obvious reason and 1 not so obvious reason. The obvious is that it instills trust and confidence in your customers mind which will result in repeat business, and more importantly, referrals! The not so obvious reason is that of reviews… in today’s world of marketing the consumer is inundated with ads on their computer screens, Facebook-Instagram-TikTok-Twitter feeds, in their podcasts, and everywhere in between… so the consumer has been trained thru this beratement of advertisement to ignore it and trust it less. But if a friend gives a glowing review of a product, the consumer is WAY more likely to trust the source and try the product. HOWEVER, if bad customer service is given, consumers are two to three times more likely to write an angry review than customers who had a great experience are to post a happy review. One negative review online (when not countered by positive reviews) can cost up to 30 new customers.

Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?

Simply put, create a product that is attractive, easy to use without any kind of friction, and most importantly one that solves a problem for your customer.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I’ve always had a desire to be benevolent and help when I can. After hurricane Harvey hit my home state of Texas, flooding most of Houston and surrounding areas causing 125 billion in damages, I created a GoFundMe campaign and sent the plea for help to my mailing list raising $14K, all of which was donated to the fund helping people get through it. Also, in 2014 after the earthquake in Napa causing around 1 billion in damages, I created another fund raiser and raised another 12K of which I wanted to directly impact the local waiters who greatly depend on the tourism and visitation for their livelihood. I’d go dine at a restaurant, buy a burger, and tip $1,000 after making sure that the money would be split amongst the entire staff. We bought lunch for entire winery staffs of 20–80 while they were undertaking the life-threatening task of digging out the fallen wine barrels. We slipped $1,000 checks under local business’ doors to help offset the lack of business due to the inability to operate.

I’ve also paid my knowledge forward by mentoring several young winemakers, a few of which are now successful in their own wineries and careers.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

In these divided times filled with anger and “sides”, remember that we are all Americans, we are all brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors, countrymen, and humans who ALL bleed the same red blood when we are wounded. We need to get back to treating each other with kindness.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.