May 25, 2021

This paid piece is sponsored by Vanguard Hospitality.

Tim Meagher was about to start his own wine company just to prove a point.

“I’d become so frustrated with a certain California winemaker,” said Meagher, the COO of Vanguard Hospitality.

“I knew there had to be a way to deliver a replacement for people who liked that taste profile but could spend less.”

Meagher’s unhappiness is shared by others in the industry, said Shauna Wallace, state profile manager for Republic National Distributing Co.

“There are some very big names in the wine industry that have become a go-to for a lot of consumers, but there’s a lot of frustration from locally owned restaurants and retailers,” she said.

“The expectation from those producers is if you want to carry this prestigious label, you have to carry all their other labels as well, as you may not see the value in those or have the buying power to make it happen.”

Meagher found a kindred spirit in Heather Taylor, owner of GoodSpirits Fine Wine &Liquor.

“He came into my store, and we started chatting about how it would be great if we could come up with our own wine against this big huge corporate giant,” she said.

She contacted a representative for the Taub family, owners of Palm Bay International, who connected the Sioux Falls team with its custom winemaking company.

“They asked for a profile of what we were going for and put together a barrel sample,” Meagher said.

As Meagher began to see his vision coming to fruition, he didn’t exactly discontinue the higher-priced cabernet at Morrie’s Steakhouse, but he did repurpose it.

“As a toast to their restrictions, I made their wine into a milkshake,” he said. “But if I’m being honest, everybody loved the milkshake, so the joke was on me. It did deflate me a little.”

But that didn’t last. As he and Taylor tried the samples of their custom wine, they knew they had hit the mark.

“It’s exactly what we wanted it to be,” Taylor said. “It is a wine that will rival the particular product we wanted to go up against, and it’s $30 to $40 cheaper per bottle, so you get the best of both worlds – enormous quality of product at a fairly reasonable price.”

They called it Sling & Spear, a nod to their “David and Goliath” mentality, and the team from Taub Family Selections brought it all together.

Meagher served the first bottle at Morrie’s Steakhouse last summer.

“Guests are surprised by it and love the story,” he said. “We had one guest recently come through who owns an Indy car race team, and he was a wine guy and tasted it and said it was the best wine he’s had for the money, stylistically for cabernet, and he just gave Sioux Falls lots of compliments for doing this and loved the story.”

The Taub family is a leader in the industry and has been a great partner, Wallace added.

“This wine really overdelivers for the price. We’re seeing prices through the roof in Napa Valley, and to find that level of quality at that price is a real value,” she said. “And now it’s popping up in other retailers, and it’s gotten really popular in Pierre and Rapid City. They’re making a splash everywhere. You just can’t deny the value.”

At GoodSpirits, the cabernet sells for $53.99, and a Sling & Spear chardonnay developed second sells for $23.99.

“It’s one of the easiest $50 bottles of wine I’ve been able to sell in a very, very long time,” Taylor said. “And it’s not a one-time purchase for customers. They go to Morrie’s and have a beautiful glass with a fantastic steak, and then we have repeat buyers. It shows we’ve made the right decision with the flavor profile, and it will have some longevity.”

The cabernet is sold by the bottle and by the glass at all three Vanguard restaurants – Grille 26, Minervas and Morrie’s – and the chardonnay is at Grille 26 and Morrie’s.

It “really maintains a nice level of balance in the acidity and not letting the oak get out of hand and overrule the fruit flavor we want to see out of those Russian River wines,” Wallace said. “It’s a beautiful acid balance that’s starting to become kind of hard to find with California producers.”

Sling & Spear sold out nationwide fast last summer, but South Dakota is able to maintain a supply, Meagher said. There’s also a Dry Creek Valley zinfandel coming out later this summer.

While the locals don’t have any ties to the product beyond helping conceive the idea for it, it’s still a point of pride, Taylor said.

“In the almost 30 years I’ve been in the wine business, this is probably one of the most exciting things I’ve been part of because we got to see something from beginning to end become such a big success,” she said.

“I’ve got great friends at Vanguard, and we came together, and I think it will be a highlight of my career. It’s amazing to be part of a brand that’s becoming a national product.”

For Meagher, who thinks the cabernet compares to an even more elite brand than the one he set out to compete with, it has been nothing but a win.

“The customer is winning entirely,” he said. “If you like that silky soft, textural wine with integrity, you owe it to yourself to try Sling & Spear. It gets me excited because I love it when people win, and customers completely win with that wine.”