Some may say Andy Schweiger has his head in the clouds. His winery, is, after all, 2,000 feet off the valley floor on the top of Spring Mountain. With such lofty fruit, one can imagine Andy has top-level quality goals for all his suppliers.
Indeed, Andy admits to working with many different cork suppliers for years to establish his own meticulous list of criteria, service expectations, and quality control standards. “Other companies would nod at my requirements and gave me lip service,” recalls Andy, “but MAS actually listened and took my requests to heart.”
– Winemaker Andy Schweiger
Since that first meeting, M. A. Silva has endured at Schweiger by striving for increasingly high quality in all Andy’s cork deliveries. By periodically announcing new technological innovations like the Dynavox system and SARA Advanced process, the supplier continues to methodically test and improve so they can deliver the highest level of quality cork for every order.
Andy cites M.A. Silva’s penchant for technological advancement in an otherwise ancient process as the secret to their high bar for quality. He explains that his sales reps are perpetually working to improve and educate. “I continue to learn things from them. It’s a true partnership. We support each other – it’s not a relationship where they just sell me things and I just pay them.”
Andy got so comfortable with M.A. Silva with his cork supply that he eventually switched his glass purchases to the company. In the glass marketplace, Andy feels M.A. Silva provides an exceptional quality for the price. “The molds and shapes that they provide and have readily available Is visibly identical of the forms you get from France at 10x the cost,” says Andy.
He continues to explain that M.A. Silva continued to meet his extraordinary quality expectations as his new glass supplier. He found the glass quality control conducted by M.A. Silva to be much more reliable than with former vendors. “With former vendors I kept running into a choke neck problem, but as soon as I switched to the product from M.A. Silva, I haven’t had that issue and we’re able to get more consistent fill heights.”
That continual top-level quality doesn’t come at the expense of sustainability. The lightweight bottles are a hit with both his staff and his clients. Andy can keep his case weight at 38lbs – which is one of the items on Andy’s checklist. “Our staff don’t break their backs and shipping fees don’t break our customers banks,” he says.
The more checks Andy can mark on his quality checklist is all good news for Schweiger Vineyards. Andy knows by partnering with M.A. Silva to meet his high demands, he can keep shipping wine from his mountaintop to his consumers, and trust his wine is in top form.
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*Verfied by Cork Quality Council Data
**All M.A. Silva cork products comply with existing FDA and European regulations for products in contact with food
