Tasting success with VinDiego

By Morgan M. Hurley | Editor

When David Fraschetti walked away from his lifelong career as a sales executive to work for himself, his friends thought he was crazy. But he said he just kept reminding himself of that infamous line in the 1989 film, “Field of Dreams”: “If you build it, they will come.”

For decades, Fraschetti was in pharmaceutical and dental equipment sales and he traveled all over the country meeting clients, organizing large sales meetings and managing trade shows.

Today he produces the annual VinDiego, a two-day wine festival taking place April 10 and 11 at NTC Liberty Station.

“It’s all about logistics,” he said.

He and his wife Lynn have always enjoyed attending wine shows and once he got the idea in his head to launch his own festival, they spent two and a half years doing their due diligence in market research.

“We attended 18 different festivals … up and down the coast, and from Arizona up to Washington state,” he said.

At each festival, they approached the wineries in attendance and asked the people pouring the same two questions: What would you change, and, what did you like about the festival?” He said they got the same answer about what the wineries would change every single time.

‘“Get rid of the beer and the spirits,’” he said they told him. ‘“We’re tired of dealing with a bunch of drunks that don’t even know what the heck they’re drinking.’”

The entrepreneur said it is clear that many wine festival organizers try to be everything to everyone, often including craft brews, tequila, rum, scotch and even vodka.

“One shot of tequila and your palate is shot,” Fraschetti said, adding that usually by the time attendees get around to the wine booths, they are too inebriated to appreciate what is being poured. “The wineries all call them ‘drunk fests.’”

Avid wine lovers themselves, the Fraschettis noticed that same trend in San Diego’s wine scene, where too many spirits and food vendors were diluting the whole concept of a wine festival. As a result, many wineries weren’t seeing the benefit and were pulling out.

“It’s a new crop of wineries all the time, year after year, because they all say ‘heck with it,’” Fraschetti said.

He and Lynn, a full-time fashion recruiter, decided to change that. VinDiego is built on several important premises: 1) there are no spirits, just a limited number of great wines; 2) only the finest wineries are chosen to participate; 3) there is a cap on attendance; and 4) the number of food vendors are also limited.

The focus at VinDiego is on wine, wine, and more wine. With that formula and a business model in hand, Fraschetti said he makes a promise to each winery.

“VinDiego is going to be a high class, high-end event, not a typical drunk fest,” he said he tells prospective clients. “You’re going to find that our attendees — because we’re not going after the super young demographics who are just there to get hammered — are people who enjoy wine; whether they be serious sommeliers or people who just want to have a great glass of wine and learn more about it.”

He’s definitely doing something right; VinDiego’s first year sold out at the Port Pavilion on Broadway, and they doubled in size the second year, relocating to Liberty Station. Now in its third year, he has a 72 percent return rate on the wineries, something he calls “unbelievable,” but not when you consider those wineries are continually thanking him for keeping his promise.

“It’s a small operation and it’s amazing what we can accomplish and get done,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, but man oh man, it’s rewarding to see how popular it’s become.”

You can sense his enthusiasm for his new career, though Fraschetti still travels the country throughout the year meeting with clients. His visits are something the wineries tell him is unusual, claiming they are the ones doing the traveling to get included at such events.

“It is important because they truly are my partners in this,” he said. “I can’t do it without them. I’ve been in sales my entire career. I know how important customer service and that relationship is. They need to know who I am and the VinDiego story and what we are creating here.”

Though Temecula has a burgeoning wine country right in our backyard and a number of wineries are popping up in Ramona that are trying to establish themselves, Fraschetti has only chosen a handful of wineries from all of San Diego County to participate, because he wants his attendees to have a one-of-a-kind experience.

“We are very, very selective as to whom we allow to come to VinDiego to pour,” he explained. “Our tickets are not inexpensive and we want great quality wine; unless that winery can show us and demonstrate to us that they consistently produce great wines, they’re not invited. I don’t even reach out to a lot of wineries for that same reason.”

VinDiego started as a one-day event in 2013, but last year they added a special fundraising element on Friday night called the “Sunset Rare and Reserve Tasting.” It will take place April 10 from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at NTC Liberty Station’s McMillin Event Hall and include less than a third of the wineries on hand for Saturday’s Grand Tasting event.

With Brad Perry from KUSI emceeing and only a maximum of 350 tickets available to ensure it remains intimate, Fraschetti said for $125, attendees will enjoy live music, tray-passed hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, and tastings of the very top end wines that these 20 wineries produce — none of which will be poured on Saturday.

Proceeds from Friday night’s silent auction and a portion of the tickets sales will go to Jacobs and Cushman San Diego Food Bank.

Tickets for the Grand Tasting on Saturday are $95, with VIP $125, which gives ticket holders admission an hour earlier. Groups of 10 or more will pay $70 each for general admission.

Fraschetti recommends attendees “scour” the VinDiego website before they arrive, since links to all 75 participating wineries are readily available there.

Wineries at the Grand Tasting will be organized geographically by region: Paso Robles; Napa; Sonoma; Santa Barbara County including Santa Ynez Valley; Santa Lucia in Monterey County; Oregon; and a few small wineries from Lodi and San Diego County.

In addition, a special Paso Robles CAB (Cabernet and Bordeaux) Collective will be on hand to share their best wines.

Food, while not the focus, is indeed a necessity at an event like this, and Fraschetti has signed up a diverse group of 17 food vendors.

“Good food pairs with great wine and that’s what we are all about,” he said.

“I’m just like a little kid when I’m at VinDiego. I look around and see smiling faces and I have to pinch myself.”

VinDiego’s Grand Tasting is Saturday, April 11, from 4 – 7 p.m. with a special “Rare and Reserve Tasting” fundraiser for Jacob and Cushman San Diego Food Bank on Friday, April 10, from 6 – 8:30 p.m. at NTC Liberty Station. For more information or to buy tickets, visit vindiego.com. 

—Morgan M. Hurley can be reached at [email protected].