We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kim McCullough. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kim below.
Kim, appreciate you joining us today. What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?
Our story is one of passion and perseverance. I am an elementary education teacher and consultant and my husband Aaron is an Army veteran turned MBA business manager. Naturally, we started a winery during a global pandemic in 2021. We wanted to be different. We wanted to create a wine culture in Pennsylvania that was inclusive, conversational and based on education. To accomplish this we started from the ground up. We smashed the traditional service industry model of low hourly wages and tip based employees by offering our team more financial security and benefits. We invest in the continuing education of our team through sommelier training and educational trips. We nurtured a culture of decision making empowerment, challenging everyone to create solutions for problems that they identify, and recognizing and promoting performance.
As a result, the winehouse team has more than risen to the challenge, pushing themselves out of their comfort zones, and creating the coolest winehouse vibes in the entire region. This in turn attracts top talent to join our growing team and the cycle continues. We are proud of our friendly, collaborative culture and we strive to cultivate this with other businesses in our surrounding area.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Aaron, always the entrepreneur, and I, met our head winemaker, Matt Check, in the fall of 2020. Matt’s passion for winemaking melded with our people-first business management style. We knew magic could happen, so we immediately looked for property to purchase to launch our combined vision. We opened Cellar Beast Winehouse in May 2021 with the goal of creating an educational based wine tasting experience for our consumers.
We specialize in high-end traditional French style wines – not the typical sweetened wines found in Pennsylvania. The northeastern region of the United States does not have the climate or the soil structure to produce the quality grapes we need to curate the elevated wines in which we excel, so we work with the best growers from regions in Washington, Oregon and California to bring grapes to the East coast. Matt, a level 4 sommelier from the Wine School of Philadelphia, along with Wine School of Philadelphia level 3 sommelier Brian Crew and UC Davis sommelier Mark Pagaliaro, maintain minimal intervention strategies in their wine production creating a product that is true to the grape. Their wines speak for themselves and they have won awards from some of the biggest wine competitions across the country.
But what truly sets us apart from others is the education that happens in our tasting rooms. Run by Aaron Gratch, another Wine School of Philadelphia sommelier, the tasting room is warm and dark and comforting. We offer guided tastings led by our sommeliers to educate our customers about not only the wine notes they are tasting but to smash the preconceived notions they previously held about their own wine preferences. We have taken a region of customers acclimated to mostly sweet wines and turned them into connoisseurs of Carmenere and Bordeaux blends. We have created a space where our team can be themselves and in turn our customers can ask questions. We offer tastings straight from the barrels so that our customers can compare our wines throughout various stages of aging so their experience is different every time they visit. Our winehouse instills comfort, knowledge and confidence to all who walk through our doors.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Our team is hands down what has helped Cellar Beast Winehouse build its reputation within our market. They are passionate, confident, knowledgeable and fun. They take the time to teach our customers about our wines and in turn our customers are open to trying new varietals.
When we first opened our doors as the only winery in the area focusing solely on traditional wines, our competitors told us we would never make it if we didn’t provide a sweet wine offering. Our team challenged that assumption and held firm to our belief that the region was ready to improve their palates through wine education.
Our customers are great. They are friendly and appreciative. They rave about our wine and appreciate the hard work and passion that produces our quality product. But when it comes down to it, almost all of our customer reviews mention the personable service they received from our team members. Cellar Beast Winehouse is a family and we couldn’t be more proud.
Any advice for managing a team?
My advice is simple: pick the best people, team build at every opportunity, continue to challenge your team and hold high standards. Never compromise on integrity and most importantly, lead by example.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cellarbeastwine.com
- Instagram: @cellarbeastwinehouse
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cellarbeastwinehouse
Image Credits
Red Pup Productions