Member Since April 2021
Skills
About
Kennedy created the Vin Fraîche Wine Group in 2018, after launching three distinct wineries in Napa Valley, Bordeaux and Tuscany. His drive to create wines of freshness, vibrancy and life has created a thread of commonality in the wines throughout the brands. His passion for wines that are complex, long lived and built for food has driven him to assemble a team of winemakers and friends that help create wines of substance. In 2017, Kennedy was named to Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list for his work in the wine industry. He has been called a “Rising Star” by Food & Wine Magazine, “Super-Somm” by Bloomberg’s Elin McCoy and a “Top Young Entrepreneur in America” by Business Insider. He splits his time between Napa Valley, Bordeaux and his hometown, St. Louis. He and his beautiful wife Rachel have two sons. To contact Michael, please email michael@componentwine.com.
Michael Kennedy
Published content
expert panel
Nailing down your niche may require looking inward first. In order for a brand to succeed, it has to be more than a clever idea. A successful brand must meet customer needs, separate itself from the competition and last beyond a passing trend. All of these characteristics combined contribute to a brand’s niche — or a comfortable place in the market. Without this well-defined niche, a brand can struggle to maintain its customers’ interest and, as a result, its rising sales. Whether you’re just thinking about starting a business or you’re trying to get your current endeavor off the ground, consider the following advice for those struggling to find their brand’s place in the market. Here, seven business leaders from Rolling Stone Culture Council offer their best tips for what uncertain entrepreneurs can do to really nail down their niche.
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With so much noise on social media, a strong and well-planned strategy is the key to standing out. Social media has revolutionized the way businesses interact with their customers and followers. Nowadays, it's not just about selling products or services, but also about building relationships and establishing trust with your audience. This is where an effective social media plan comes in. By implementing the right strategies, businesses can engage with their customers and followers on a deeper level, which can lead to increased brand loyalty and advocacy. Below, 10 members of Rolling Stone Culture Council share the different social media strategies any business can use to build better relationships with their customers and why they are so effective at doing so.
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It's not enough to simply define your brand mission — you have to live it every day. For any business, having a clear and meaningful mission is critical for success. To truly live up to that mission, however, you must ensure that it is consistently and clearly woven throughout all aspects of the business. Your brand's mission should be evident in the company's values, culture and day-to-day operations. To help you achieve this, 15 Rolling Stone Culture Council members each outline one specific step or action businesses can take to ensure their mission is fully integrated into their operations and why this is so important for the success and sustainability of the business.
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The end of the year is an ideal time to reflect on what you've learned and how you can apply it to your business moving forward. One of the most important aspects of an end-of-year review is assessing what went right and what went wrong for your business. Setting expectations for the following year based on those statistics helps ensure that your company continues to improve. Here, a panel of Rolling Stone Culture Council members share the most valuable lessons they learned over the past 12 months and the key takeaways they'll implement in their businesses in 2023.
Company details
Component Wine Company
Company bio
Component Wine Company creates single-varietal, single-vineyard wines from Napa Valley & Bordeaux France. Our goal is to provide an intimate & elevated experience in which you learn about the intrinsic characteristics of each grape and each region. How can you discuss the influence of Petit Verdot in a great blend without knowing it intimately first? We hope to aid in that pursuit, while producing some delicious wines along the way. We produce what we believe to be the most honest expression of single varietals from the finest vineyards in Napa Valley and Bordeaux. In Napa, for example, our 100% Sémillon is grown from the oldest organic Sémillon vines in the valley, planted in the heart of Yountville in 1987. We then vinify the wine in concrete egg and neutral French oak, to preserve the freshness and bright character of Semillon. This combination allows this low alcohol wine to express it’s natural texture, structure and vibrancy. In Bordeaux, our Cabernet Franc comes from a small family vineyard named “La Carrière” on the top of the St. Emilion plateau bordering Château Pavie and Château Troplong Mondot, with clay so thick that you need a shovel to dig more than a couple inches deep. Scattered in the soil are chunks of limestone, which is no surprise for this site due to the ancient limestone quarry less that a hundred yards away. And to top it off, the wines from Bordeaux are made by the renown winemaking team from Château Lynch-Bages in Pauillac. Our vineyard sources are as solid as any, but our desire is simple: to give you an intimate experience with varietal and place.