Friends for Life

Brown Brothers

Milawa

Wine lovers are spoilt for choice at Brown Brothers’ cellar door in Milawa, Victoria. Each year they have up to 45 different varietals (traditional and innovative) available for tasting.

And it’s a successful formula with about 90,000 visitors a year dropping in!

“Discovering a new wine is one of life’s great pleasures and we are always encouraging our customers to do that, or in some cases discover wine for the first time” CEO Ross Brown says.  “We are currently trying new ways to introduce customers to Pinot Grigio by inviting them to taste it blind alongside Sauvignon Blanc.”

“My father always believed that the cellar door customer was the ultimate market research participant.  For decades we have been making important decisions about what wines we should pursue (and which ones to delete) by talking to our cellar door visitors about their likes and dislikes and monitoring what they purchase.

“Cellar door customers will only pay for wines they enjoyed tasting, so, in a sense, they are voting for a particular wine with their pockets.  There is much to be learnt at cellar door as long as we go out of our way to provide every visitor with an enjoyable, relevant and compelling experience. Winning a customer for life through a great visitor experience is more important than a cellar door sale.”

Brown Brothers is celebrating its 120th year.  “So there is a lot of history to be absorbed at cellar door,” Ross says.  “There’s an intriguing story to be told about almost every wine on our list – from wines that are unique to Brown Brothers like Orange Muscat & Flora and Cienna through to the unusual varieties and blends we have been dabbling with for decades like Graciano and the iconic Shiraz, Mondeuse and Cabernet.  These stories, combined with the beautiful grounds and the pioneering wine and food matching we offer at our restaurant, the Epicurean Centre, seem to resonate with visitors.”

Although Brown Brothers was not directly affected by the bushfires, it has had a negative effect on visitor numbers.  “The King Valley and the wider North East Victorian region has much to offer from a gourmet food and wine point of view and right now is such a beautiful time to be exploring this wonderful part of the world”, Ross says. “There’s a lot of great work being done by the Australian wine industry at the moment and the best way for people to show their support is to get out and reconnect with some of their favourite wineries by taking the time to visit.”

Brown Brothers is running its biggest consumer promotion for the year, Wine for Life, which gives three lucky winners the chance to win a carton of six Brown Brothers wines delivered to their door every month for the next 25 years.  While it is primarily an independent store promotion, Brown Brothers is also running it at cellar door. “It’s a great opportunity to potentially reward our loyal visitors,” says Ross.