"The whole thing made me realise
I had this fantastic network of corporates who were dying for a
bit of direction and advice on what they should be doing with their
cellars."Two years on, the 31-year-old Melbourne
mother with more than 10 years' experience in the wine industry
has launched Palate Pilot — an online "wine solutions" business.
The website, www.palatepilot.com.au, allows people to buy their
wine through Ms Walton, who can also provide personal cellar appraisals
and palate assessments to check that subscribers are drinking the
wine they like and at a price they are willing to pay.
"When I sit down with people and talk to them about what they like to drink,
how often they drink and how much they want to spend, I usually find that people
either enjoy drinking white but have a cellar that's 60 per cent red or they
only want to spend $16 to $20 on a bottle most days but their cellar's full of
$35 bottles of wine," she says.
"So it's all about working through what they want. A lot of people don't realise
that if you buy wines properly you will end up saving money."
Ms Walton has been stunned by the number of clients storing expensive investment
or special-occasion wines incorrectly.
"I went to someone's cellar the other day and there were bottles of Grange leaking
out of the cork. What do you do with a $300 bottle of wine that's leaking? You
can't sell it at auction, it's probably past its use-by date and it ends up being
a massive waste," she says. "People are equally shocked when you tell them how
much their cellar is worth. The lowest cellar I've looked at was valued at $20,000."
With grape prices falling below the cost of production for many Australian
growers, the site also provides reviews and advice on what is worth buying
and when.
"Australian wineries are suffering from oversupply these days, so no one ever
really knows if they're getting good wines or the crap that somebody's trying
to get rid of," Ms Walton says. "For that reason, I'll only sell wines that score
more than 90 out of 100."
After risking about $8000 in start-up costs, Ms Walton hopes the quality of
her service will protect it from future competition and industry fluctuations.
"The big chains will probably start to move online, which could make things hard
for me in terms of the price I can offer, but I'm hoping that won't happen for
the next five years while I build up a loyal customer base and buying power," she
says.
With a two-year-old son and another child planned, the former wine saleswoman
has her eye on steady growth.
"About 400 to 500 clients would see me comfortably working about 20 hours a week
and the odd weekend," she says. "I'm hoping that within five years, I can turn
over about $1 million a year to profit 10 per cent to cover costs and to live."
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