Earlier this year, we reported on the launch of Foot of the Bed Cellars, an Upper Haight-based wine subscription service started by local resident Luc Bergevin and sommelier Martin Sheehan-Stross.
Foot of the Bed officially launched a couple of months ago out of Bergevin's living room on Page Street, and is now wrapping up deliveries of its second monthly release. So we checked in with Bergevin to see how his business is going.
Foot Of The Bed bottles and distributes blends of wine made from overages by California producers, which are sold under their own label on a subscription basis. They're currently wrapping up deliveries for their second release: an un-oaked Chardonnay from Santa Barbara County, and a Zinfandel from the Russian River Valley.
"Ours is 98% pure zin," he said, "and has made believers of some folks who never found a zin they really liked."
Membership has doubled in the company's second month, and Bergevin is considering expanding distribution statewide, "which was something we thought would be a ways off initially." With that said, the company "is not getting out of California anytime soon—sorry, East Coast friends."
Bergevin adds that Foot of the Bed has also "started doing a lot of corporate tastings and happy hours," in addition to monthly member tasting parties. They're also going to launch a library feature, for customers to re-order past releases they enjoyed.
Overall, Bergevin said, the launch has been scrappy but successful. "There have been a lot of late-night cardboard box folding parties. But we're getting better every day, and feel really good about the progress we're making."
