The Napa Valley Wine Train Incident — No Comment
Those in the wine business in the Napa region and outside it have been reading, seeing and listening to a great deal of commentary about the recent Napa Valley Wine Train incident. In fact, those not in the wine industry, both in the Napa region and outside the region, have been reading, seeing and listening to a great deal of commentary on the Napa Valley Wine Train incident.
In light of this, I thought I’d offer my simple five-point plan to wineries and wine industry members on how to communicate about the Napa Valley Wine Train incident.
1. Say nothing about it
2. Write nothing about it.
3. Make no comment about it if queried
4. Try hard not to think about it
5. Forget about it.
If the basis for this simple five-point plan is not evident to you, simply ask yourself and answer this question:
In what way will saying something, writing something, responding to something, or thinking about the Napa Valley Wine Train Incident and the various commentary that has followed help you sell more wine or more wine services?
I’ve been contacted twice now to comment on the incident. In both cases my response has been: “No comment, and that’s off the record”. This will continue to be my response if contacted again for the simple reason that I’ve asked and answered the question above.
Well said all around. Employees should also be told in the tasting rooms or on sales calls to say: “I am not aware of the details of the event and can’t add anything to what has been reported.” If it isn’t any of your business don’t try and make it your business. Employees that don’t follow managements instructions should probably not work in a public contact area. Personal opinions off the property is protected speech but still comments point to a lack of sound judgement and an appreciation of a good job.
While I think Steve’s points are well taken. I am frankly appalled at Tom Wark’s proposal. We do not live in a vacuum, and while we do not know the circumstances of the incident. An owner saying nothing or no comment and this off the record, is frankly bullshit. It suggests that the train conductor or whoever made the decision to eject the women did so because of the color of their skin was right in doing so. There is no other way to interpret it. It sends a message that Napa Valley wine is only for rich white people. It projects an exclusionary image of the valley, which is sad.
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in times of moral crisis, remain neutral. If the same attitude that you put forth had been the case in the Civil Rights era, we be even worse off today. Stand up for what you believe to be right. Don’t hide behind the hood of no comment.
I agree with everything here except #4 and #5. It should be a wake up call to TR’s, bars, restaurants etc. to make sure their staff and management is trained for not just ABC/TIPS training but also diversity training, proper company social media protocols and possibly crisis management.
Internal conversations to be had, certainly not public-facing or external.
The wine train has always irked me. The fact that they got Federal Subsidies to re-build a private train line that essentially offers no benefit to the local community or soft public transit, is a travesty.
Their recent ads plastered around San Francisco say, “The Wine Train, A ferry ride away.” I found dubiously misleading, as if you could ferry to the train and get to Napa wine country. I’d hate to be the tourist that Ferry’s to Vallejo on a misnomer.
And while this incident of supposed racism remains unique to the history of the Wine train, ignorantly defending an enterprise that adds little value and is exercising questionable hospitality values and white-lie marketing. (not to mention the photoshopped image of the wine train with vineyards on two-sides of it, the train always borders Hwy 29 on one side or the other.)
At any rate, the wine train seems to be doing a fine job of mismanaging their messaging, and perhaps they’ll join the ranks of the mustard festival soon enough. Or ideally re-vamp themselves to provide a true value to Napa and their patrons.