News Headline September 13, 2010
TV Show Dresses California Vintner
Appearing in "On the Road with Austin and Santino" boosts Pilot Peak Vineyard's wine club signups by 50%
by Kate Lavin
Jacque Wilson of Pilot Peak shows off the dress designer Austin Scarlett (right) created with Santino Rice during a party on the winery terrace.
Penn Valley, Calif. -- In the world of fashion, one day you're in -- and the next day, you're out. Millions of viewers of the TV show "Project Runway" hear supermodel Heidi Klum utter this catch phrase each week, and according to Jacque Wilson, co-owner of Pilot Peak Vineyard & Winery, it also holds true for winery marketing. Wilson should know: This summer a twist of fate landed two of the television series’ best-loved personalities at her doorstep, where they sipped Viognier, made her a one-of-a-kind gown and drove traffic to her winery’s website through the roof.
It all started one afternoon when Wilson was doing some shipping at the winery. A woman called saying she’d seen the Pilot Peak website and, drawn in by the beauty of its Sierra Foothills location, was interested in doing some filming in the area. Suspicious that the caller was looking to film an expensive informational video, Wilson pressed for details; that’s when the caller mentioned "Project Runway."
“I immediately switched gears,” Wilson said. “Wineries in these economic times have to do lots of things to get as much free publicity as we can.” Wilson, a “Runway” fan herself, surmised that the cable network that airs “Project Runway” is Lifetime, which bills itself as a women’s network, and that a majority of retail wine purchases are made by women.
“I’m always trying to market our winery and do everything I can to get this kind of exposure,” she said. So when the scout told Wilson that she should apply to be part of this spinoff series, she did just that.
After Wilson’s application made it through three rounds of eliminations, site scouts came to visit, and she was chosen to appear on the new show, “On the Road with Austin and Santino,” which finds former “Project Runway” designers Austin Scarlett and Santino Rice traveling the country and making custom gowns for a handful of lucky women.
Camera crews film designers Austin Scarlett and Santino Rice talking with Pilot Peak winery co-owner Jacque Wilson.
The bottom line
About 1.3 million viewers watched Wilson’s episode, which first aired Thursday night, and she says that since then she has seen mailing list signups rise more than 50% above what is typical for her 2,200-case winery. Pilot Peak wines are sold exclusively through the winery and The Grass Valley Wine Co. cooperative tasting room (both of which appeared in the episode), which also pours Bent Metal, Montoliva and Solune. Since the episode aired, Wilson has received personal messages from as far away as Georgia and the Cayman Islands.
Other fans of the show have written from Sacramento indicating they plan to visit the winery, which is precisely what Wilson hoped would result from her reality television experience. “I wanted to get into the Sacramento market and the East Bay,” she told Wines & Vines.
This weekend, Pilot Peak hosted a 250-person event to benefit the Penn Valley Community Center, and Wilson estimated about 100 of the attendees told her they’d watched the show.
Wine country lifestyle
The episode featured Scarlett and Rice touring Pilot Peak, which crushed its first grapes in 2004, making 600 cases that sold out within three days of their release. Wilson said that when it opened, the winery was only the seventh in the area, which now is home to three times that many.
Pilot Peak grows its own Grenache, Mourvèdre and Sauvignon Blanc on a 5.5-acre vineyard, and it purchases 35-40 tons more from area growers. Winemaker Lynn Wilson, Jacque’s husband, focuses on Rhône varieties, especially Syrah. This year his dessert Syrah, Porta Joyas, won the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition’s best of class award.
Jacque Wilson said that while Rice and Scarlett may have been novices about the work that goes into winemaking, they both embraced the experience, and Scarlett in particular enjoyed the Pilot Peak Viognier and Rosé. At one point, the show’s producers asked Wilson if the two designers could stomp some grapes, but, because the show was filmed in July rather than at harvest time, she had to think outside the box.
“I said, 'It’s not the right time because things here are green. We can stomp some Thompson table grapes if you want.…'” In the end, Wilson convinced Scarlett and Rice to partake in another Sierra Foothills activity -- water skiing.
Austin Scarlett (left) and Santino Rice (right) chat with Wilson's friend Dottie Teague while camera crews are filming.
The dress
In addition to an enhanced mailing list and the hope that her turn on the small screen will become revenue for Pilot’s Peak, Wilson ended the filming experience with a more tangible benefit: the Grecian-inspired teal gown hanging in her closet. Wilson says she was impressed by the sheer artistry behind creating such a garment, expressing awe at the sketches each designer made prior to showing her their ideas. The final gown, made from five layers of raw silk and chiffon, is unlike anything Wilson had worn before, but her favorite detail is one you can’t see: the label. “The boys signed their names, and then Santino actually embroidered them onto the label.”
Another favorite moment was one that viewers didn’t get to see: “Santino did a great Tim Gunn,” Wilson said of Rice's well-known impresonation of the designer and Project Runway personality. “That was one of my birthday presen
ts.”
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