We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mercedes & Victoria Otano a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mercedes & Victoria , thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
The name of our brand, Malbec Bay, was born from a combination of the Argentinian wine Malbec and the area of the Bay.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My sister Victoria and I were born and raised in Argentina. We grew up in a culture that associates having a glass of wine with having a good time, usually surrounded by family and friends.
The idea of Malbec Bay started in early 2020. It was modified several times due to Covid but also life events that eventually brought us to St. Petersburg. Our goal has always been to introduce the culture of Argentinian wine to the American market and promote Argentinian’s best-known wine variety, Malbec.
In Argentina, it is very common to gift a bottle of good wine to a person you appreciate. One day, we were looking to gift wine to a mentor, but we struggled to find a classy, educational, and personalizable product for the occasion.
We took this experience as an opportunity to bring to life our most unique product; a wine gift box with the added value of learning about the wine while staying personable on any occasion.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The main obstacle, as with many other small businesses, has been the pandemic and constant changes. Our business plan changed many times over the last 18 months.
We also know introducing the concept of wine as an experience is a newer idea. The wine culture in America is rapidly evolving and possesses its challenges. Making sure we communicate exactly what we are offering our clients is our number one priority.
We provide them with an experience that goes beyond the wine. We want our customers to trust us and learn about all wine has to offer including trying new wines like Malbec.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Like with any business, you need to adjust to your audience’s needs and wants. Our original product is designed as a Wine Box with an emphasis on self-learning the art of wine. We include all the information for our clients to learn at their own pace and enjoy wine tasting at home. This year, we began to realize people were seeking connections and preferred learning in person during social gatherings. We saw this as an opportunity and jumped into the event arena. We now hold in-person educational wine-tasting events, wine pairings, and personalized wine bar services. We encourage people to continue their learning experience at home but in most cases, it begins at one of our events. This was a pivotal event for our business and highlighted the importance of remaining flexible in following your client’s needs.
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