July 6, 2008 — Kicking off a new business with a wager may be a novel way to begin a venture, but Ansen Sligar and Scott Day are dead serious about their wine company.
Starting out as a bet between two of the members of the Virgin Islands Olympic wrestling team, friends and hobby winemakers, Sligar and Day had wagered on who made the better fruit wine.
The really scary part of the bet was the loser had to move off island.
After months of fermentation, the two took their wines around to six local restaurants for judging and the response from the judges for both wines was so positive, the teammates shook hands, called it a draw and decided to open a wine company.
They ordered vats from the states and made and bottled their mango and guava fruit wines on a shoestring budget at Sligar's house in Estate Mafolie.
When they were unable to get ice to keep the tanks cool enough, they had to get creative to keep the puree going.
"Sometimes we had to hang frozen bottles in the tank for cooling," Day said.
The fruit wines they bottled sold out quickly in local restaurants. The friends and now business partners realized they would have to make some changes to their operation to keep up with demand.
Day and Sligar decided to incorporate commercial varieties of grapes into their wine and traveled to Chile in search of a facility that could meet demand and still supply a product that satisfied their clients' taste and budget.
The results were their first two commercial wines, Sea Spray, a sauvignon blanc and Red Sky, a merlot. Both wines are made from Chilean grapes.
The partners also realized that their homegrown business was in a growth spurt that they were no longer able to handle without outside help.
"It was just the two of us." Day said. "We were doing all of the marketing and advertising."
In 2007, they turned distribution and marketing over to Bellows International, the Virgin Islands' leading importer and wholesaler of beverages.
Both Sea Spray and Red Sky are available at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort, where they are sold in all three restaurants and the gift shop, according to Ken Strelzyk, the Wyndham's food and beverage director.
"It's popular, and a great souvenir," Strelzyk said. "It is a good wine and reasonably priced in the under $20 range."
Gift shop customers will typically buy a bottle of each of the Sea Spray and Red Sky to take home as gifts or souvenirs.
The intriguing name and reasonable price point bring a lot of interest in the wine from the 25 to 34 age group, according to Strelzyk and assistant director Javier Diaz.
Diaz recommends pairing the wine with the dorado al cumino, (cumin-scented mahi) served in the hotel's casual Caribe restaurant, located next to the swimming pool. Diaz describes the restaurant's menu as Cuban-inspired with an atmosphere between casual and fine dining.
Diaz and Caribe's supervisor, Bevrida Brown, held an informal tasting of the label's sauvignon blanc at the restaurant last week.
Diaz said that the Sea Spray's clean, crisp taste is similar to that of a pinot grigio, and works well with the hot climate of the Caribbean. Brown said that she especially enjoyed the fresh flavors of the wine.
Day and Sliger aren't resting on their laurels. Two new introductions will soon be making their way to island tables in the form of a chardonnay and a cabernet sauvignon.
The chardonnay is described in the label's promotional materials as having "tropical fruit flavors, refined with subtle hints of toasted spice and nuts. It is a medium-bodied wine with bursting apple, tangerine, lime, and melon flavors."
The cab is said to have "black berry flavors, with a distinctive touch of chocolate and spice. …blends a black currant and black cherry body, with a nuance of peppercorn and cocoa."
While the business is still in its early stages, Sliger and Day have accrued some handsome accolades, winning two gold Addy awards in 2008 from the American Advertising Foundation for Sea Spray and Red Sky's product packaging.
At this point, Sliger and Day are growing their business and still have other jobs to make ends meet, but Day said that he really wants to focus on making the winemaking venture a success.
"It's all I want to do, but it hasn't taken off enough yet," Day said.
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