Drink Different – Hitting The Wall: What the Alcohol Ban Taught Me About Building a Wine Business
| When the alcohol ban took effect in South Africa, something unexpected happened at our winery. For a moment, all the intermediaries disappeared. It was just the customer and us. And strangely enough, that moment revealed something important about how a boutique wine business actually works. When the Race Was Stopped At around 60 kilometres in the Comrades Marathon, runners hit something called “the wall.” Your legs turn to concrete. The rhythm disappears. Every step becomes a negotiation. Seven years into building Black Elephant Vintners, we hit a wall too. The government banned the sale of alcohol. Not reduced. Not restricted. Banned. For a wine business, it felt like running a marathon and having someone step onto the road at kilometre sixty and say: “The race is cancelled.” Restaurants closed. Export markets stalled. Cellar doors went quiet. Wine is not a tap you can simply turn off. The vines still grow, grapes still ripen, wine still ages in barrels, and the bills keep arriving. From a business perspective, it was terrifying. But something unusual happened at the same time. The noise stopped. When the Noise Disappeared Before COVID-19, the wine industry is full of voices. Export markets. Importers. Retailers. Restaurants. Distributors. Everyone has a role to play, and everyone adds value in different ways. But every layer also adds complexity and cost. When the lockdowns arrived, most of that ecosystem simply stopped. And suddenly something unusual happened. It was just the customer and us. The conversations became more direct. The feedback became clearer. The relationship became more personal. Customers engaged with us in ways they hadn’t before. They asked questions, shared experiences, and supported small producers in a way that felt incredibly genuine. Pricing made more sense. Margins improved. The experience felt more exciting. For a brief moment, the wine business became simple again. The System Rebuilds Itself But industries have a strong gravitational pull. As soon as the world reopened, the old structures quickly rebuilt themselves. Distributors returned. Retail chains expanded. Export markets regained their influence. Restaurants reopened. The ecosystem came back to life. And with it, the layers returned too. The wine industry has a quiet assumption that more distribution equals more success. But distribution often just means more distance between the person making the wine and the person drinking it. Each extra step in the chain adds cost, reduces margin, and dilutes the story. The bottle travels further, but the connection becomes weaker. COVID-19 briefly showed us something uncomfortable. Sometimes the most powerful wine business is the one with fewer intermediaries, not more. This Isn’t True for Everyone To be clear, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all observation. Large wine businesses need scale. They rely on distribution networks and global markets to move millions of bottles. But for boutique producers like us, the lesson felt different. Our strength was never going to be scale. Our strength is the relationship we build with the people who actually drink our wines. In that sense, COVID stripped the industry back to something that felt much closer to what wine should be. A conversation between the person who made it and the person enjoying it. Turning the Tanker Today, we are trying to move our business back toward that simplicity. Fewer layers. Stronger direct relationships with customers. Experiences built around the wines rather than simply chasing distribution. But turning a tanker takes time. Momentum in the wine industry builds slowly, and changes slowly too. We are nowhere near the finish line. The tanker is turning, but the ocean is still large. The Endurance Lesson The runners who finish Comrades are not always the fastest. They are the ones who refuse to stop moving forward when the race becomes difficult. Wine businesses have walls too. Ours arrived seven years in. The race isn’t over. But we’re still moving. Kevin Swart Black Elephant Vintners Drink Different. |