Bill Green on Wine, Business, and Life

Welcome to the very first episode of Uncorked at Saddlehill – where we dive deep into the world of wine, business, and life. Hosted by Bill Green, the proprietor of Saddlehill Winery, and Jerrold Colton, this podcast brings you engaging conversations with industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and inspiring individuals.

Welcome to Uncorked

Welcome to Uncorked: Wine, Business, and Life with Bill Green. We are coming to you from beautiful Saddlehill in Voorhees. We will be here regularly talking to you about wine, business, and life from the proprietor of Saddlehill, Bill Green.

I want to thank you, Gerald, for agreeing to be my co-host. I've known you for 30 years and I've watched your career flourish with your radio show. I came to check you out at Chickie's & Pete's a couple of months ago and you were just fantastic. For someone who knows me as well as you do to be able to do this, I really want to thank you.

It’s an honor to do this with you. I could not be prouder of you as a friend for all you've done in your life with your family, your philanthropy, and your business success. This new venture you have built is something tremendous for this community. We have never had a winery like this here before.

The Origin of Saddlehill

It was actually kind of crazy. It's really no different than a lot of the things that have happened in my business career. Something bad happened, I pivoted, and did something else that turned out to be really good. In this case, it was during COVID in October of 2020.

A friend of mine invited me to her horse farm in Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, and she asked if I wanted to ride in her beautiful arena. I hadn't ridden in 35 years. I rode horses when I was a kid. Fifteen minutes later, I got off the horse and I said to my wife, "I'm buying a horse." Two weeks later, I was in Ocala, Florida buying Marley.

My plan was to leave her there for the summer, as we come back between Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore. We fell in love and I started looking for a stall. I was looking online and I saw that the Stafford Farm auction had failed. I called the agent and they said it hadn't been farmed in 17 years, was preserved in 2003, and it was for sale. I hit the bid, and that's how it all started.

New Jersey's Winemaking History

We are in Voorhees, New Jersey, just across the river from Philadelphia, next to Cherry Hill. There are not a lot of wineries in the region, and New Jersey historically is not really known for wines. We now have 60 wineries.

It's actually interesting because back in the 1700s, Louis Renault came over from France and set up Renault Winery. They are still the largest sparkling wine makers in the country. They don't really make their own wine anymore; they're more of a resort. The Tomasellos have been around since the late 1800s, and Alba Vineyard opened in 1984. That was really it for New Jersey for many years. Now we have 60 wineries, and I'm thrilled to be the new kid on the block.

Entrepreneurship and Mentoring

Knowing you all this time, I never knew about you riding horses until recently. You have so many interesting things in your life involving success and failure in business and lessons in life. We are here to entertain, to educate, and to inspire.

I had a book published in 2017, All In: 101 Real Life Lessons for Emerging Entrepreneurs. I actually wrote it for my children and my grandchildren; I didn’t even think about a published book. After it came out, I really enjoyed the process and I got into writing. I had a two-year stint with Inc. where I was a weekly contributor on entrepreneurship.

I started mentoring some young folks. You don't have to be young to have a mentor; I still have mentors. Talking about careers, I was blessed when I first went into business to be able to pick up the phone to some really successful people and just pick their brain. I figured the "All In" Bill Green brand would be a way for me to give back in a different way than just writing checks.

Cultivating Quality in New Jersey

People are coming from all over this region to see Saddlehill, to try the food and the wine. The Stafford Farm was preserved, so there are only certain things you can do on this property. It has to be agricultural related. In doing my due diligence, I saw that wine is agriculture.

Being a wine collector for as long as I have been, I didn't know if I could get my head around making New Jersey wine. I learned there are some very good wines in New Jersey. My goal was to make the best New Jersey wine we could possibly make.

One of the first things I did when I was going to buy the farm was have the soil tested. We happen to be blessed. We have 100 years of horse manure on this soil, so the test came out extraordinary. Our goal was to be able to compete in the under-$40 market.

A Blind Taste Test

I've had my team lay out some wines for us here for a blind taste test. A $40 bottle of wine is actually more than most people spend. That price point is probably 98% of the wine market. You can buy a lot of good bottles at a lower price point, but if you go to $40, you really taste the difference.

Saddlehill has wines in the $20s, and we actually do have a $70 bottle of wine that is unbelievable. Let’s try these. These are all Cabernet Sauvignon. Two are from Napa and one is Saddlehill. Cheers to Uncorked.

Comparing Saddlehill to Napa

The first one is pretty young. It’s nice. The second one is much fuller-bodied and really nice. There was a difference between all three. Number two was far superior, with number three being nice.

Julie is our director of marketing. She started here at Saddlehill as our assistant winemaker. She has an amazing palette and she set this up for us. Julie, tell us what we had.

Number one is Charles Krug from Napa. It's a nice bottle of wine, but it finished third on my favorites. Number two is Saddlehill. This is Jersey wine. Number three is Stags' Leap, a really well-known Napa wine.

The two Napa wines were purchased down the street for $39.95. The Saddlehill Cabernet Sauvignon from Ashenfelter Vineyard is $36.95. New Jersey wine can stand up with the big boys. We are only going to get better.

Farm-to-Table and Beyond

We opened in April and have been open nine months. We’ve served over 100,000 people. I don't think it's just the beauty of the location. One of the things I wanted was a true farm-to-table experience. I went to an amazing farm in Mexico that grew their own fruits and vegetables for their restaurants.

Chances are, if you have a head of lettuce now, it was harvested a month ago and sat on a truck. I thought it would be cool if we could grow fruits and vegetables here and serve them as part of our menu. We also have a "farm-to-body" line. My daughter takes our beeswax and makes lotions.

Our farm manager called me yesterday and asked if I knew loofah sponges grow. I thought it was a joke, but it's a loofah plant. We’re going to plant it this spring and sell loofah sponges in our market. We have jams, preserves, honey, and goat milk soap from our goats. It’s a lot of fun coming up with this stuff.

Renovations and Family Roots

When I was looking at the property, I saw a puzzle. The farmhouse in front, where the Stafford boys grew up, dates back to 1742. It was a mess, and we fully renovated that as our guest house. There was a rickety old barn that Marley stayed in for the first year until we were able to build the Mac Daddy of barns across the driveway.

Everything is new. We went from a cesspool to city sewer, new wells, and city water. It's a little village here—the village of Saddlehill. Wine accentuates life, but your family has been part of your journey in such a big way.

Amy and I have been together 40 years. I didn't have a pot to piss in when I met my wife. When people ask why she married me, she says she thought I had some potential. She’s my biggest supporter and a great sounding board. I have three amazing kids and six grandchildren. I always thought a beach house would be the family compound, but Saddlehill is becoming that.

The Rolling University and Early Ambition

I know you worked hard to get to this point. You took risks along the way that most people wouldn't take. I really got my education on my own. Back in the day, I would buy cassette tapes and listen to them in my car. I had so many self-improvement and business tapes; I called it my rolling university.

When I sold my first business and retired at 43, I went back to college and I did great. But I couldn't keep the entrepreneurial spirit out of me and I had to start another business. I highly recommend college, but it’s not for everybody.

My first business was in the Berlin flea market between my junior and senior years of high school. A few months later, my dad lost his job. He joined me in the flea markets, and then my mom joined us.

My dad was a hardware buyer for E. J. Korvette, so he introduced me to people I could buy hardware from. Phase one of my career was driving down Hartwood Road in Cherry Hill, which was where the rich people lived, and picking their trash to sell at the flea market.

The Growth of Wilmar Industries

In April of my senior year, my dad and I bought a closed hardware store in West Collingswood. It was terrible; nobody came. I saw an apartment complex across the street and went over to see where they got their supplies. The guy told me they didn't buy from hardware stores and showed me catalogs they used for plumbing and electrical.

I ran back to my dad and told him there was something there. He was a "glass half empty" guy, but I started working on a catalog. Next thing you know, Wilmar Industries was formed. We were oil and water. He was happy making $40,000 a year, but I wanted to take risks. I wanted to go into Philadelphia and have an 800 number.

By 1989, we were a $10 million a year company. I told my dad I had much bigger visions. He gave me a buyout number of a couple million dollars. I second-mortgaged my house and did everything I needed to do to take over.

Navigating Success and Retirement

In 1995, I sold half the business to a private equity firm, and in 1996, we went public. By 2000, we took the company private with JP Morgan Chase. I found myself running a $650 million company with 2,300 employees. I woke up one day at 42 and asked what I was doing. I wanted to be a dad and coach my kids' sports.

I resigned, but three months into retirement, Amy handed me a shopping list and I knew it was time to go back to work. Real estate started rolling, and there have been a bunch of businesses since.

Embracing Rejection and Failure

You saw an opportunity, listened to what people needed, and crafted something around it. That is the ingenuity it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. I’m nicknamed "Curious George" because I always want to know why.

I was a paper boy and I would sell stuff door-to-door. You get used to rejection. If you can walk off a porch after being rejected and still have a smile on your face, you’re going to be okay. Rejection never bothered me. If you’re building a business, not everything is going to work. I have a laundry list of failures and a bigger list of successes. No is not in my vocabulary.

How you deal with failure and turn it into success is the ultimate lesson. Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team and he didn’t give up. He worked harder. That chip on his shoulder stayed there.

The Importance of Lifelong Learning

We will be having all different kinds of guests on Uncorked. I’ve learned more outside the walls of a university than I ever learned in them. I spent a year parking cars in Atlantic City, and that was real life. The people I see fail in business are the know-it-alls who aren't willing to learn. If you think you already know everything, you're doomed.

A large number of my closest friends are super successful people who haven't had to work in a long time. In 2000, I was invited to a meeting with Sandy Weill, the chairman of Citigroup. He was 73 and I asked why he was still doing it. He looked at me like I was from Mars and talked about the global opportunity. That was inspirational.

I sold my last company, LendingOne, in 2021. Thank God Saddlehill came along at the right time. It is an experiential venue. You drive in and see goats, alpacas, chickens, and horses. You’re 12 miles from the fifth largest city in America, but you’re surrounded by 70 acres of beauty.

The Vision for Uncorked

Uncorked is another passion project. My goal is to educate. It’s not just about us shooting the breeze and drinking wine; it’s about inspiration. I’ve talked at colleges about my journey, and when I look into those young folks' eyes, I see a void. I want to guide them.

You can't take your knowledge or your life lessons with you. It’s great to share them. Keeping yourself inspired keeps you young. I’ve learned so much from younger people, and I've even learned a lot from my podcast producer, Tyler. You have to keep learning.

We met on the golf course in 1995 and we both still suck at it. I would not be a good retired guy. I have too much energy. I know exactly what I'm going to do going forward. We are going to do this podcast. We are going to do Uncorked: Wine, Business, and Life.

It’s an honor to be here at Saddlehill. We are going to educate, entertain, and inspire. To Saddlehill and to Uncorked.