Even before we acquired the land that would become Silkbush Mountain Vineyards, marketing RSA wine overseas was an intrinsic part of our evolving, entrepreneurial business plan. Ever since April 1994, when Dave Jefferson, SILKBUSH cofounder, made his first of now some 24 extended trips to South Africa, we concluded there would be a market for the best South African wines in North America and other markets once they were available in sufficient quantity. By July of 1996 Dave started laying the groundwork for SILKBUSH Vineyard while evaluating prospective Cape wine acquisition opportunities for Beringer Wine Estates.

By early 1998 Beringer changed its corporate priorities, but Dave and Anton Roos, SILKBUSH's present vineyard manager and cofounder, had worked well together and professionally bonded. It appeared optimal to aggregate overseas equity capital, acquire a local vineyard needing replanting, produce largely export quality red wine, and establish an overseas distribution network. Accordingly, their business relationship and objectives soon became known to other Breedekloof (Breede River Valley) growers and wineries, which urged them for help overseas in marketing their wines immediately! However, even though Anton is a respected viticultural consultant, local grower and winemaker, and Dave has been a California grower and winery owner and investment advisor for over thirty five years, exactly how they would sell wine nationally was not clear.

The first step was to create a licensed importer entity to receive and distribute wine samples, to qualify wine labels with the U.S. Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), and to evaluate the interest and creditworthiness of prospective distributors. In 2003 we created South Atlantic Wines, a new division of our Novato, CA management company. South Atlantic gained Federal and California wine importer licenses (no small feat itself) and is working with various Cape wineries to obtain wholesale representation in selected US markets.

By 2008 we had sufficiently mature vines and were enjoying large enough crops that SILKBUSH could supply both our client wineries and have enough grapes available for wines under our own Lions Drift label. The 2008 Pinotage, with SILKBUSH Mountain Vineyards on the label as “vineyard designate,” was introduced into a select few US markets in 2010. In 2012, we have substantially greater wine supplies available from the 2009 harvest so as to be able to open more US states and certain EU markets, especially in Scandinavia, and the Russian Federation.

Learn more about our LIONS DRIFT

Where our wine is available in the US

We anticipate being able to add 4-6 additional states in 2012 now that the 2009 vintage is available. Thank you for your patience.

South Atlantic’s European Marketing Team

No matter how good the wine is, how fascinating its history, and how reasonable the cost, wine cannot sell itself. Somebody must present it, be able to explain in detail the product’s origin and attributes, and facilitate the delivery of orders to customers. For these reasons, we have started building a sales and marketing team in Northern Europe as well as in the USA.

FINLAND

In 2001, Dave traveled to Helsinki, Finland, and recruited a South African-born, now Finnish permanent resident, Ms. Violetta Teetor, to market RSA wines in Scandinavia. In addition to multiple language skills, including eloquence in both Afrikaans and English, Violetta has a superb palate for wine, boundless energy, and sales enthusiasm. After attending her first CapeWine event in April 2002 in Paarl, she returned to Finland to become a licensed wholesaler and to represent numerous Cape wineries. Violetta sells to largely to top hotels, restaurants and corporate accounts, and larger chain orders are in the offing. It is very clear that an opportunistic yet strategic approach to international wine marketing is both cost effective and the best way to introduce South African wines to distant but profitable markets. Violetta may be contacted directly at violette.teetor@gmail.com.

Below Violetta is shown the highest planted Pinotage site at SILKBUSH by Anton Roos, Vineyard General Manager and Director.

RUSSIA

In August 2007, South Atlantic Wines opened its Moscow office, headed by Renat Akhounov, Director, Eastern European Business Development. Renat attended American University in Paris, France, holds dual citizenship (in Russia, where he was born, and in the US, where he starred as a soccer player and graduated from Tamalpais High School, Mill Valley, CA, where his mother lived), and is well spoken in both demanding languages.

Renat has been living in Moscow for a number of years and is anxious to expose high quality South African and other wines to his fellow countrymen. Additionally, he received a degree in Music Production and Sound Engineering from the California Recording Institute, in San Francisco. Renat is also a Certified Personal Trainer and Dietologist, and has worked as a disc jockey and chef. Clearly he is a man with multiple interests, but growing career interests in wine, food, and healthy living. Renat may be contacted at renat@southatlanticwines.com.

Renat Akhounov at White Oak Winery, Alexander Valley, Sonoma County, California

Representing other South African wineries overseas

Frequently, RSA wineries want a US importer to take on all US sales responsibilities, including credit evaluation of wholesalers and payment assurances. Moreover, what has always been clear, few RSA wineries can afford to send people overseas to pioneer in the United States, Canada, or the Caribbean resorts. At 8 Rand or more to the Dollar, RSA wines are price competitive but overseas travel, lodging and entertainment expenses paid in Dollars are tough to swallow for most South Africans. Further, the time zone changes, jet lag fatigue, and simply not "knowing the territory" are major hurdles for Western Cape based wine sales people. (It's also not the "united” states when it comes to regulation of beverage alcohol, but more like dealing with 50 foreign countries.) Nevertheless, people with wine growing and production knowledge in both the States and the Capewinelands are best at representing honestly and accurately what wholesalers, retailers, and consumers need to know about South African wine. Accordingly, it became increasingly apparent that Dave, Anton, and their colleagues represent a unique combination of skills and experience of value to businesses on both ends of international wine marketing transactions.

Because most South African winery owners and marketing directors are more comfortable speaking Afrikaans than English, we believe initial contact regarding overseas marketing will frequently be made with Anton. If a quality brand at fair and reasonable pricing is available, the ball will be passed to Dave if the winery wants to engage Silkbush's assistance.

We expect to add additional wineries that are interested in engaging SILKBUSH's agency services on multi-year agency contracts as additional distributors are identified. Agency fees are payable by wineries to SILKBUSH when the exporting wineries have received 100% cash payment for their shipments to North America. Those wineries or importers that wish to explore the possibilities in greater detail should contact either Dave Jefferson (in California) or Anton Roos (in the Breede River Valley) at their respective email addresses. Some distributors wish to deal with established labels and others are more interested in private label programs; each relationship will likely have to be as handcrafted as the wines are themselves.

Required procedures for sending wine to the US

Other than the invoice valuation, the first two paragraphs apply whether your shipment is a case of samples or a container of cases. Obviously the last paragraph in not applicable once your winery is shipping commercial quantities.

1. A commercial invoice must be given to the Carrier upon pickup of the wine. The invoice must contain the following information:
   • A detailed description of all wine (i.e. color, bottle size, varietal, vintage)
   • A monetary Value for each wine. The invoice must state “Value for customs purposes only, not for resale” (We see most producers using roughly USD$2/750ml) The importer will be responsible for any US excise taxes payable but there usually are none for reasonable quantities of samples.
   • The importer FDA registration number; South Atlantic Wine’s is:12740870780
   • The importer federal import permit number; SAW’s is: CA-I-4356
     (Our CA importer license number is: 406517)
   • The exporting winery’s FDA registration number. If you do not have an FDA registration number, you can obtain one for free at www.access.fda.gov/oaa/, but be prepared to spend about an hour in the process.
2. The exporting winery, or its agent, must file a Prior Notice of Arrival with the FDA when the wine is sent. This is IMPORTANT. There may be severe penalties for anything shipped into the country without a prior notice of arrival.
3. All bottles must have labels that state “Samples only/Not for Resale” and “Contains Sulfites.” Especially if you are shipping finished and labeled wines, additional wine labels with this information need to be affixed. Any bottles that do not have these labels will either be returned to the shipper or destroyed by Customs. (Either way the samples may not arrive, the exporting winery is out the courier costs, and then they must do it over again.)

Please contact us if you need further details.