Small Business Week: For Geoff and Chantelle Mace, Creating Calerrain Wine Is a Dream Come True
Name: Geoff & Chantelle Mace
Business: Calerrain Wine
Milestone: Second year in business, 15 years dreaming about it!
Location: Gilroy, CA
Launched: September 2016
Geoff and Chantelle Mace have long shared a passion for wine and for exploring California’s wine country. As a young married couple, they loved to buy a new or unknown wine from their local grocery store, try it and then visit the winery that produced it. Traveling up and down the coast to sip and better understand their favorite beverage inspired Geoff and Chantelle to set a lofty goal for themselves: One day, they vowed, they’d own and operate their own winery.
The dream, says Geoff, was 15 years in the making – which makes achieving it even sweeter. Today, as owners of Calerrain Wine, Geoff and Chantelle are building a sustainable family-run business and producing wines they hope are “intriguing and delightful” and perfect for sharing with family and friends. We say, cheers!
Calerrain Wine is a featured vendor at Intuit’s Small Business Week celebration this week in Mountain View, CA, April 30 to May 4.
Geoff, how did you get started in business?
I have a background as a winemaker for large, corporate wine companies, and I was an officer in the Marines. Chantelle was a pharmacist. We both spent a lot of time dreaming about making our own wines. Fifteen years ago, on a trip to beautiful Sonoma, we decided we really wanted to make it happen.
In 2010, I left my job to study winemaking and viticulture at Fresno State. Six years later, we felt the time was right for us to go out on our own. We’d saved enough money to buy our first four tons of grapes. A local winery co-op was just starting out, and they had space for our grapes. The timing couldn’t have been better.
What do you love, and what’s most challenging, about your work?
What I love most is sharing the end result -- our wines. After I’ve put a year or more of hard work into the production and crafting of the wine, nothing is more fulfilling than seeing people enjoy it.
The most difficult thing is waiting from 12 to 24 months for the product to be ready. We always have bills to pay!
What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned working for yourself?
I’ve learned to focus on what I’m good at and to hire consultants and contractors with the skills I don’t have. Taking this approach has really enabled us to accelerate in business and get us to where we are today.
Tell us about a typical day at Celerrain Wine.
My day starts in the cellar. While there is a lot that goes into running a business -- from accounting to marketing to finance -- I try not to lose sight of why we started this business in the first place. We want to make great wines.
Which year of being in business was the most difficult and why?
For us, the upcoming year will be the challenge. With our tasting room now open on Saturdays and Sundays, we are learning a new side of the business. Balancing those needs, which requires time and money, with trying to forecast where the business will be in two years so we make the right inventory investments will make this year exciting!
Geoff, what do you know now that you wish you known when you were starting out in business?
I wish I’d known how great it is to be your our boss. I should have done this a long time ago! The flexibility of running my own business allows me to spend more time with my kids. Instead of being caught behind a steering wheel of a commute, I can now drop off and pick up my kids from school.
What do you hope to gain at Intuit Small Business Week?
I hope to introduce people to our wines and our brand. I also want to make folks aware that the Santa Clara Valley now has 32 wineries that are just 25 minutes down the road from Mountain View!
Before you go
QB Community members, which small businesses will you support during Small Business week?