Grapes, quakes and wags
A conversation with Sam Waghorn, founder of Wag & Co. Wine Distribution
Wine is a mystery to many of us. We go to the shops, select a bottle we recognise or something with a pretty label (on special for $14.99) and drink it with a level of enjoyment dependent on the setting and company. Students typically stick to their discounted Fat Bird and chug it to avoid actually tasting the stuff, alternating mouthfuls of greasy $10 nasi goreng. But Aotearoa’s wine industry is a serious business, and one that Sam Waghorn knows inside and out.
Sam represents many of Aotearoa’s top wine and beverage brands from around the country.
Sam (or ‘Wags’ to his friends) is a business owner, entrepreneur and viticulture grad, and he’s been running his wine distribution company Wag & Co. in Welly for the past 18 months. In that time, he’s built a reputation for himself as a no-nonsense rep who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, bringing together good people and good wine along the way. Representing brands nationwide, he uses his background in the wine and hospitality industries to offer a superior service—one backed by an understanding of what and who makes good wine, good.
Growing up in the south island, the Waghorn family moved around quite a bit before they eventually settled in North Canterbury. “When I was 12, my parents told me to get a holiday job. I was like ‘get outta here! (laughs)’. I ended up working for some family friends on their vineyard during the winter. It’s nowhere near as nice as the summer work, trust me.” Surrounded by wine from an early age, you might presume his path from here was pretty straightforward, but it turns out he had other ideas.
“I wanted to do landscape architecture since 4th form. At school I did all the creative subjects: design, painting, printmaking etc and loved every minute of it. I went on to study landscape architecture at Lincoln and after one year decided I hated it.” He then switched to viticulture despite “not knowing the first thing about science”. In saying that, it’s a rather artistic science, one that affords a great deal of creativity from how you grow the fruit to when you harvest.
The next three years consisted of theory and hands-on learning plus field trips around the country where they got a real taste of the industry (and plenty of wine, no doubt). Studying in Canterbury at that time had some additional challenges, “The first week after moving into our flat the (February 2011) earthquake happened. That was really hard. Then there was a major aftershock during one of my exams on the 7th floor of the Burns Building. I remember thinking ‘this is it, im going to die in a lecture theatre’. It was pretty depressing.”
There were also a few perks. During the course of study, Sam was able to make about five dozen bottles of Pinot Gris which he’d drink on the weekends, “it was rather miserable, I still have one bottle left though.”
“You can make wine in about a month, from harvest to bottle. Usually it will sit for about six months before sale to recover from ‘bottle shock’.”
Following study, he got a job working as a sales manager based in Christchurch. One of the brands he represented was Astrolabe Wines, owned by Simon and Jane Waghorn, and from there he moved to Marlborough where he worked for Astrolabe for three years. Seeing a gap in the market, he decided to “take a terrifying leap of faith” and start his own business, so he pitched the idea for the company to a few wineries and Wag & Co. was born.
Starting out was relatively simple, beginning with a Google search for how to register a company. He has some advice for other entrepreneurs, “There are three things you need to do from the get-go: register your company name, get a domain and get an accountant. That last one takes a lot of pressure off the financial side of things.”
Working in such a competitive and saturated market means it can be tricky to navigate the politics of the industry, “I’ve definitely pissed some people off, it goes with the job,” he says. “It’s just about being persistent and hustling to get the work done, I pay myself fuck all so unless I hustle, I’m not getting paid.” The day to day operation of the business is varied, usually beginning with admin and order fulfillment, retail and grocery calls in the morning and restaurant visits after lunch service. These visits are all about educating people and sharing his knowledge, by going through an existing wine list or new food menu and working out what he can replace and where fresh offerings could be slotted in. “It also doesn’t take long to learn which brands are reliable and who the good winemakers are. If a winemaker I like goes from brand ‘A’ to brand ‘B’ then I might try that ‘B’ brand because he or she is making the wine now.”
“I’m super honest and straight up, which I think people appreciate. People don’t want to hear hard sales all the time. Just chill, bro.”
Evenings are reserved mostly for events and tastings, and despite there being some long hours, the flexibility of the work gives Sam a lot of freedom in his schedule. The thing he loves most about his job is helping people learn and understand more about wine. The hardest thing? “Couriers. Hands down, ask any wine rep in the country. Breakages, failure to deliver, leaving a card to call when the restaurant is open. Occasionally they’ll nick a case, it will just mysteriously vanish.”
Staying organised is a whole other beast, with so many moving parts it takes a fair amount of discipline to pull off successfully. A combination of Outlook Calendar, Pipedrive and Xero, keeps a record of everything. “And I use a notebook which is super old school. If I don’t take notes in that meeting then I may as well not have gone. I genuinely don’t remember anything.”
With what little spare time he has, Sam likes gardening (“veggies and pretty things”), op shopping (“for general shit”) and coaches rowing for Wellington College (“that’s kind of another job, but it’s fun”). I asked him to tell me about his Foxy Russell Terrier, Boy. “We’re best mates, I’ve had him nearly ten years. My flatmate bet me I wouldn’t get a dog, so I did. It could have gone really badly, but he’s the best thing in the world and everyone loves him. He’ll come to meetings with me, he acts as a bit of an icebreaker and it’s a good judge of character too. If someone likes my dog then I like them.”
Apparently, ‘Boy’ wasn’t the first name in mind for the little guy. “I was going to call him ‘Steven’, but mum said I can’t call him a human name.” Whether Sam is the ‘Wag’ and Boy the ‘Co’ (or vice versa) remains to be seen “it could go either way really”.
By this point in the interview we’d been sitting for more than 40 minutes, Sam sporting a hangover after the previous night’s Parrotdog Hospo Party and myself due for another appointment across town. I asked finally, “What is your biggest goal for the next 12 months?” Answered simply, he replied, “To start swimming and stop treading water. Maybe get another ‘co’ involved with my wag. A human ‘co’. I feel sorry for them already.”
Wag & Co. Wine Distribution, bringing together good people and good wine.
Find out more on Instagram @wagandco.wines or at www.wagandco.nz