Three decades. Contrasting roles, businesses, cultures. Thousands of people, countless bottles. One glorious industry. Richard van Ruth reflects on a life in wine.
What began stacking Adelaide’s Edinburgh Cellars cool room with beer grew into a career that’s taken me across continents, through distribution powerhouses and family wineries, into startups, boardrooms and back to the beginning again. I’ve sold wine, marketed it, moved it, reimagined it, and yes – at times – messed it up.
This is not a ‘how-to’ guide. It’s a highlights reel – the things I’ve learned to do (and not to do) in order to survive, grow and thrive in this wonderfully complex industry.
More than anything, these lessons are about people. The wine business is built on relationships – with colleagues, employees, clients, winery trading partners, mentors, friends, even rivals.
So, here goes – in no particular order:
1. A team of champions is no match for a champion team
Having the best talent in the game can quickly result in dysfunction unless your culture brings the best out in everyone – not just the loudest voices.
2. Your brand is everything
If you aren’t focusing on what your brand’s customer value proposition is, and how it builds trust with consumers, you’re on the slow boat to ruin.
3. Underpromise and overdeliver
Sounds easier than it is, especially when you’re chasing sales/cash. Consistently exceed expectations to build lasting credibility, not to mention greater value for all.
4. Fail fast, fail forward
Failure is something to be embraced, not feared or ridiculed. Learn by doing is another way of putting this. Taking an iterative approach is another. Do, learn, adjust, do better. Repeat.
5. What interests your boss should fascinate you
No, I don’t mean you should stalk their social feeds. Where they relate to the organisation and outcomes, let your boss’s interests become your curiosity, translating them into meaningful results.
6. There’s no such thing as a stupid question
Wine is completely daunting to most. Admitting uncertainty, asking why and how, is the best way to learn and build your career. Remember this once you’re a manager, too.
7. Relationships trump transactions
Prioritise trust and long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships over quick wins. You don’t need to get the last dollar out of every deal.
8. Respect every role
Especially the unseen; today’s glassy is tomorrow’s influential sommelier and gatekeeper to the trade.
9. Make a decision, take a risk, pay the price
Action is the engine of learning and growth. Inaction is the engine of ignorance and stagnation. And, the price ‘paid’ may just be success.
10. Sales and integrity aren’t mutually exclusive
When grounded in truth, service and mutually beneficial exchange, sales is a noble craft. From outback pubs to high end international hotels. From independent retailers to powerful national chains. From airlines to giant online retailers. From neighbourhood Chinese restaurants to Michelin starred fine dining establishments. From the casual consumer to the incurable cork dork. The same basic principle of sales applies to all.
11. Seek meaningful connections, not one-off sales
Build durable value. I’ve found the most satisfying wins have taken months, sometimes years, to come to fruition. Be patient, be authentic, be resilient.
12. Show up in person
Increasingly so, emails aren’t enough, AI isn’t the answer – phone calls matter, face-to-face is best, ideally over a glass of wine, or two.
13. Knowledge is power, and power is sales
No, this isn’t some authoritarian manifesto. Deep product understanding, market insights and honest storytelling empower you to earn trust, command premium value and convert curiosity into sustained demand.
14. Once they taste the sugar, it’s all they’ll want
Discounts are a necessity in any competitive industry, yet if not kept in check discounts pose a major risk to brand equity, not to mention margin erosion. It’s a slippery slope, so make sure you have a safety harness – aka a strong brand. Success is achieved via a carefully planned and calibrated pricing structure, and having the discipline to stick to the course.
15. Don’t chase profitless prosperity
Understand how your business does, and doesn’t, make profit. It’s too easy to chase chunky sales which don’t generate underlying profit. Clue, WET isn’t profit. Build a sustainable business with profitable, repeatable sales channels. Your whole team needs to be champions of profit.
16. Big ideas require big buy-in
Great leadership requires plenty of courage and conviction, moreover the ability to take your people with you on the journey.
17. Culture eats strategy for breakfast
Peter Drucker’s famous quote rings in my ears. Shared beliefs, values and behaviours aligned around a common goal will leave any strategic plan buried in the bottom of the GM’s desk drawer.
18. United we stand, divided we fall
The collegiate culture of the industry is one of our greatest assets. Right now it is under severe threat, yet it is never more important than ever that we face our challenges with locked arms and a steely resolve to get through as one sector. Gulp, did I just write that?
19. Seek to understand, before you seek to be understood
Shut your trap and listen first. Learn to ask the right questions, as that will keep them talking, and nearly always help you overcome the standard objections.
20. Failure teaches what success hides
Leverage setbacks as priceless fuel. As Churchill famously said, it’s the courage to continue that counts. Oh, and applying the learnings.
21. Celebrate all wins, big or small
It’s often easier to focus on what’s not yet achieved. Teams thrive on knowing they are heading in the right direction, even if there’s a few zig zags along the way.
22. Learn to say no
Sometimes it’s best not to make a sale which you can’t see leading to the next one. It might cost you in the short term, but pay dividends in the long run.
23. The rising tide floats all boats
This metaphor will always hold true. If you’re in it for the long term, you’ve got to find a way to stay in the deepest channel during the ebbing tide. And, while the tide is high, bury barrels of cash in between the vineyard rows!
24. Failure to plan is planning to fail
Benjamin Franklin. What does good look like? Might be blue sky dreaming, might be a short-term objective. Both are important. More important is a mechanism to break down goals into steps for you and your team.
25. Ask for help
It’s ok to admit vulnerability. Indeed, it’s often the best way to learn, and build stronger relationships. Whether you’re asking your boss, a colleague or even a customer, the vast majority of people will be glad to assist as they want you to do well.
26. You can’t manage what you can’t measure
In addition to your own key metrics, develop robust business intelligence gathering systems to track your own customer behaviour, competitor analysis and market dynamics. It’s far better than staring at a warehouse full of wine which nobody wants to buy.
27. Do what you’ve always done, get what you’ve always gotten
Our industry prides itself on tradition, which is absolutely wonderful. However, failing to adapt to a rapidly changing world is bound to result in obsolescence and/or irrelevance.
28. Build your personal brand with care
As an individual, it’s your greatest asset and something you should nurture over time. If that means saying no, even when it costs you something, so be it. Over time, your credibility is worth far more.
29. Pay it forward
Remember, we were all newbies at some stage. Our industry’s future lies with our ability to attract and retain the brightest minds. Generosity with time and knowledge is a good place to start.
30. I’ll finish with ‘start with why’
Yes, Simon Sinek’s famous video. People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Think deeply about this before you hit send on your next EDM, make the next sales call, send that follow up email. Your wine, naturally the best you’ve ever made, got 95 points? Why should anybody care?
I’ve been incredibly fortunate. Not every idea worked, and not every risk paid off, but every chapter has taught me something – and the through-line has always been people – the lifeblood of this industry. Well, any industry.
There isn’t enough paper to thank everyone who offered guidance, gave me a shot, shared a tough truth, raised a glass, or believed in what I was trying to do.
If you’re just starting out, I hope these learnings help. If you’ve been around a while, maybe they’ll remind you of truths we all need to hear now and then.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned above all else, it’s this: in wine, as in life, the relationships you build are the true measure of success. Money is always a byproduct.
A life in wine…
Edinburgh Cellars – Adelaide
September 1995 – February 1999.
Bottle shop attendant – the wine industry found me.
Kent Town Beverages – Adelaide
February 1999 – November 1999.
Sales representative – time to hit the road.
Mildara Blass Ltd – Adelaide
November 1999 – March 2001.
Area manager – First time headhunted and a shock to the system.
David Ridge Wines/Distinguished Vineyards – Adelaide
March 2001 – December 2002.
Area manager/key accounts manager – stepping up a notch, or two. I’ve got the hang of this, or do I?
Independent Distillers – Nottingham, UK
February 2003 – June 2003.
Area manager – first and only foray outside the wine game. Never again.
Career break including vintage in Tuscany
June 2003 – January 2004.
Europe – kissing the dirt in France, Italy and Spain.
Liberty Wines – London and Bristol, UK
January 2004 – October 2006.
Area manager – a humbling, and totally awesome experience. What a business, what a team, what a market.
DiGiorgio Family Wines – Coonawarra
November 2006 – October 2008.
Sales and marketing manager. Back home, baby in arms, out of distribution and into a winery. As Joni Mitchell sang, I’ve seen it from both sides now.
Primo Estate – McLaren Vale
November 2008 – June 2017.
Business development manager/general manager – my dream job with my dream family brand.
McLaren Vale Grape Wine & Tourism Association
2013 – 2016.
Director – stepping up for the betterment of king and country.
South Australian Wine Industry Association
2013 – 2016.
Executive committee member – was dobbed into this one, but learnt a lot from some very smart people.
Ootra Pty Ltd
June 2017 – September 2019.
Founder and managing director – fortune favours the brave? More like you don’t know what you don’t know until you don’t know it!
Wine Depot – Adelaide
October 2019 – October 2020.
Business development manager – want cream on that humble pie?
Nimble Wines Pty Ltd – Adelaide
March 2020 – Present.
Founder – post startup (ootra) failure therapy and, finally, my own wine label.
Wine Storage & Logistics – Adelaide
February 2021 – Present.
Business development manager – doing the hard yards in a chronically undervalued part of the supply chain.
Vitis Drinks Pty Ltd – Adelaide
October 2023 – Present.
Co-founder – you pay for your education.
Woodstock Winery – McLaren Vale
November 2022 – Present.
Advisor – chuffed to help a multi-generation regional icon shape a strategy for the future.
Norfolk Rise Winery – Mount Benson, SA
July 2024 – Present.
Board advisor – when your greatest weakness is also your greatest strength.
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