dwallace1701 Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 We are starting a new craft distillery in beautiful Northern Michigan and are looking to have the distillery on our farm. 2 miles off the state highway, 2 miles from a 4 seasons ski and golf resort. We are on a gravel country road. In anyone's experience, will be be able to get people to come to our tasting room given the "off the beaten path" location? A second question if I may....how important is it to get people into our tasting room as compared to working the distribution channels? Thanks for your time and advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shindig Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Welcome dwallace1701- I for one think "off the beaten path" can be a great thing! Look at all the wineries in NMI. Tandem Ciders is WAY off the path and they do just fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdkolstad Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost Best wishes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 You have a great opportunity. The Charm of the Farm tasting room has a lot of advantages to building your brand. Do not forget to collect names and emails of your new friends to continue establishing relationships. Be sure to work with partners at the resort to offer something else for visitors to do in the area. Just a couple things to think about. Best of Luck, Allan Artisan Craft Distilling Institute Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rumfarmer Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 We have spent years building something very similar in Hawaii. We are very much off the beaten path, and hope to start pushing tours our way within the next few months. Only time will tell as to whether or not people will go out of their way to experience a true farm-to-bottle distillery, but I am confident they will. In fact, I am so confident that we have chosen to never sell any bottles retail in Hawaii. The only place to buy our agricole rum will be at our tasting room. Here, we can tell the full story and engage the consumer. Of course, the island I live on gets over 3.5 million visitors on an off year, so I have a lot of potential customers to target. Nevertheless, it takes a lot of marketing and relationship building to convince tour operators and individuals to include you on their tour. Just work with anyone and everyone near by that might push people your way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveflintstone Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 8 million visitors last year. Start bottling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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