Geerlings & Wade - Cutting Through the Vines (2,787 words)

Since not all employees are wine connoisseurs when hired, the company takes care to bring them up to speed. "Our people are wine lovers, but they don't put on any airs about what they do," says head of operations Kober.

Most of this advising is by phone, he says. About 98 percent of orders are direct, with 13 percent of those direct sales made through the Internet. Kober says one of the reasons the company has so few orders placed in person is the remote locations of the sites, which is necessitated by the need for large warehouse space. Yet some customers still wish to see the labels and feel the bottles, so they come in, he says.