The South Australian Business Chamber Today

Sisters create their own fierce dynasty

Friday, October 28th 2022

When the original Miranda family business sold in 2004, the three Miranda sisters ensured their family’s wine legacy by establishing Lou Miranda Estate in 2005. Sisters Lisa and Victoria started at the helm, while middle sister Angela refined her wine-making talents internationally.

We knew that Dad was not entirely finished with the wine industry. He had always shared his business know-how, brought us to essential meetings, and explained exactly how he ran the business, says Victoria.

Dad is always there to challenge our thinking. He has spent decades in the wine business, and even he is still learning. So he makes sure we are keeping ahead of the game.

As a female-run family business, our relationship as sisters is essential, and we have a greater drive to make it work. All the ways to make any relationship work are also true here for our family business, like setting aside the ego and listening to each other.

In a small business, you cannot have your own agenda as each of us has to be across everything. As a marketer, that even, unfortunately, includes accounts for me. 

For the first few years, Victoria kept her full-time job with a design company, and she and Lisa gave themselves lots of time to set up their business. 

When developing the label, we were stretched for time also juggling our restaurant. We hadn’t quite found our niche in the wine market but couldn’t find the time to devote to get us there. There were some distribution knockbacks too, and that was disappointing.

So we took some fierce steps. In 2019, we brought in an external company to run the restaurant, we convinced our middle sister to come back and join the business, and then we started working with the South Australian Business Chamber facilitator Trent Mader and the Australian Government Entrepreneurs’ Programme.

COVID almost took the pressure off for us. It gave us that time to think and learn more. Like Dad always has, I will continue educating myself on how to run the business best. 

Next minute, we had Fierce III. This range included stalwarts like Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Also featuring in the range are Sagrantino, Pinot Grigio, a Shiraz Grenache Mataro blend, Dry Rose and a Prosecco. The bottle and label format takes us in a new bright direction aimed at a younger demographic. We wanted to entice the consumers to try and buy.

As much as COVID did give us that breathing space, it also impacted our distribution network. With capacity restrictions, restaurants were closed or not ordering as much wine. The distributors weren’t on the road as much with staff out with COVID. It did set us back. But it did not keep us down. 

Trent was a real bonus at this time, he would give us encouragement and confidence in our decision-making. Our work with the Entrepreneurs’ Programme helped us improve our customer-facing and internal systems. We introduced a digital direct-to-consumer avenues and Austrade activities to strengthen our export sales.”

The Fierce III wines from Lou Miranda Estate are available for purchase thru the cellar door in the Barossa where they also offer subscription orders. Or find them in Adelaide at The Unley, Peter Rabbit on Hindley Street, Mediterranean Café Ristorante (Glenelg), Pony & Cole, ACES, Sidways and the Parafield Airport Liquor Store to name a few. 

For more information, visit https://​loumi​ran​daes​tate​.com​.au/​f​i​e​r​c​e​-iii/

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