Take in Baja & The Grape Underground LLC | Application Preview
Take in Baja & The Grape Underground LLC is applying for government grants to fund the hiring of workers for filming educational documentaries and marketing associated wine and food experiences. The business plans to allocate $5,000 to a professional marketing firm to promote these services.
Over the next five years, the business aims to market its private wine, food, and educational tours to local San Diego businesses, while also targeting corporate events with the help of a local marketing service. The intention is to hire and mentor aspiring sommeliers or wine industry workers, supporting their education and fostering new talent in the wine service industry. The focus is on bridging connections between people through wine experiences and celebrating the legacy of older, influential wine makers through documentaries.
These documentaries will showcase the stories of small family and boutique wineries, emphasizing sustainable and biodynamic practices often overlooked in mainstream wine culture. The creator has already filmed a documentary in Santa Barbara and plans to capture the story of Tom Mackey in Sonoma. The goal is to highlight one story from each wine region in California and eventually expand to other states.
The applicant believes their unique narrative approach to documenting the unsung heroes of the wine industry distinguishes them from competitors like SommTV, which tends to focus on sommeliers instead of the wine makers themselves. By sharing these stories, the business aims to educate a broader audience while simultaneously offering opportunities for young filmmakers looking to gain experience in the industry.
The applicant also emphasizes their prior service as a Federal Agent and Law Enforcement Officer, expressing a desire to continue serving the community by mentoring others and ensuring that the stories of pioneering wine makers are not forgotten. This mission-driven approach, combined with a novel business model and a focus on sustainability, positions them as a unique player in the market.
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General Information
Business Registration Number: 844157506
Location: San Diego, CA, United States
Length of Operation: 3
Number of Employees:
Annual Gross Income:
Annual Gross Expense:
Open to Loans: NO
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Funding Usage
This funding will be used to hire workers in order to film the next several educational documentaries I am filming. It will also be used to market those documentaries as well as my private wine and food experiences. I will use $5,000.00 to pay a professional marketing firm to market my wine experiences as well as the educational documentaries.
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Business Plan
From now through the next five years, I am going to market my private wine, food, educational tour and event services to local San Diego businesses. I am going to contract a local San Diego marketing service to help expand my services to the corporate world. Once I begin to book larger corporate events, I want to hire an aspiring sommelier or wine industry worker. I am going to mentor them in the wine industry and help pay for their sommelier or wine education certifications. The goal is to help more young people get their start in the wine service industry and show them how wine brings people together at a table and gets them talking. I am also telling the stories of lineage and legacy of older influential wine makers in their respective wine regions through documentaries. Many of these older wine makers have been forgotten either because they have retired or they have only made wine at a small family or boutique winery out of their passion for the art. Many of the small family wineries do the most for expanding and diversifying the wine industry by utilizing regenerative, biodynamic and sustainable practices. These older wine makers are also responsible for mentoring many other wine makers and wine industry workers during their careers. Telling the stories of older wine makers who will be gone soon, helps to educate the public about small family, boutique and garagiste wineries that fall under the radar of the majority of wine drinkers. I have already filmed a documentary in Santa Barbara in 2021 that will be released in the coming months. If I can receive a grant, I will begin filming Tom Mackey's story in Sonoma, California as early as April 2022. The goal is to film one story from each wine region in California before moving on to other places in the United States such as Missouri, New York, Ohio, Washington and Oregon. These stories in documentary form will be marketed to both large and small streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, SommTV, Roku and Amazon in order to educate a broad and diverse range of people about the little known heroes and visionaries of the wine industry. I served my community as both a Federal Agent and Law Enforcement Officer for the past 15 years. I sustained a grave work injury that has left me unable to continue serving my community in this way. I want to continue my life of service and there is no better way to do this than to mentor other aspiring wine professionals and get people around a table to enjoy a wine and food experience with small family boutique made wines that they have not yet discovered. Furthermore, I do not want people to forget the unsung pioneers and heroes of the wine industry. I want to help tell their stories, so they are not forgotten. This is why I am documenting their history and accomplishments through documentary style short films. I will be hiring three to five young film industry professionals who need work, to help film these documentaries. This will help young film makers and film industry workers earn money and have a professional film to put on their resume.
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Self Identified Competition
There aren't many businesses doing my type of private in home wine and food experiences with the educational spin. I work together with local chefs and wine businesses. I do not look at others as competition because there is a lot of room to work in the wine industry. As it pertains to the documentaries, I believe my main competitor is SommTV. They are a streaming service that does educational wine films, however they do not cover the small family, boutique and garagiste wine industry stories like I do. SOMMTV also focuses on making the Sommelier the star of the show. I believe, there cannot be a Sommelier with out wine makers, hence the reason I am focusing on telling the wine maker's story. SommTV is also backed by a private investor. As it pertains to the documentaries, I believe my main competitor is SommTV. They are a streaming service that does educational wine films, however they do not cover the small family , boutique and garagiste wine industry stories like I do. SOMMTV also focuses on making the Sommelier the star of the show. I believe, there cannot be a Sommelier with out wine makers, hence the reason I am focusing on telling the wine maker's story. I am also bringing recognition to and eliciting support for the small family producers instead of corporately owned large producers of wine. The fact is, responsible small family wine operations have a cleaner product that is not a mass produced chemistry project with additives such as mega purple, saw dust, liquid tannin, etc. Small family wine makers can focus more on regenerative and sustainable processes and a larger corporately owned winery typically can not. I am highlighting these small wine makers and bringing them to consumers who would not have otherwise encountered them.
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Contact Applicant
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