Hello my people and happy weekend—happy long weekend for those who may have the three-day due to President’s Day on Monday. What is up with me, you ask? Well this weekend, I’ll be moderating the Rhone Rangers Experience in Paso Robles. Looking forward to seeing folks I haven’t seen in awhile, making some new friends, and of course tasting some fabulous wines.
What else? Oh yes, I’ve started teaching WSET classes, most recently at the newly created Odyssey Wine Academy. It’s so wonderful to share the knowledge and passion I’ve acquired over the years through my studies with fellow wine enthusiasts.
Alright, that’s all of my selfish news. You can find the real news below. Enjoy!
Hello my people and happy weekend. I’ve got your weekly newsy round up for you, featuring a lot of fun stuff. I’m particularly in love with this new NY restaurant concept. And have totally bookmarked this wine-with-soul-food article.
On a personal note, I’d love to share a bit what I’ve been working on. Coming up next week, Wine Industry Network is hosting its annual (virtual) leadership conference. I’ll be moderating the session about Wine Business HR. Registration is FREE. I also just finished recording a podcast for the Green WineFuture, along with Jason Haas (Tablas Creek) and Richard Leask (a man with MANY talents in the viticultural sphere) all about—you guessed it—regenerative agriculture. You’ll definitely want to listen in on the podcasts leading up to this one. Ours will be released in just a few weeks (episode 6).
At the end of the month, I’m moderating the 2022 Rhone Rangers event seminar “Rhone Essentials.” Tickets are still available. This is an in-person event, so if you’re local or in the area the weekend of the 20th, pop by! There’ll be a Grand Tasting and you’re sure to see yours truly wandering around and sipping some of my favorite wines.
I’ll also be judging at a few local wine competitions, including East Meets West (let the battle of the coasts commence!) and the Foothill Wine Competition (definitely looking forward to some interesting wines). Stay tuned for winning results.
And if that’s not enough, I’ve taken my first steps to becoming a WSET educator. More to come on when and where.
That’s all from me. Hope everyone is safe, healthy, happy. Don’t be shy, drop a line. Cheers.
Hello and happy weekend my people. Crazy busy week here and just as an FYI there will be no posts next week, as I will be taking my last WSET Diploma exam (fortification), so you can understand where my focus will be, I hope. This week I want to call attention to an article I wrote for Wine Enthusiast, “The Wine Industry Pledged to Improve Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity. Has Anything Changed?” This piece was a labor of love. I spoke to a lot of people in preparation for this article, some of whom aren’t even mentioned but whose insight and advice were much appreciated whilst researching and writing. I have to say one of the reasons that this piece means so much to me is that I, myself, had to confront this issue—believe it or not—while writing this article. I won’t go into detail about the who, what, where, when, why, but I will say that experiencing first-hand the ignorance within our industry, again, while writing an article on equity in the wine industry, was very telling to me just how much more work has to be done.
With that spirit in mind, I want to call out that Julia Coney—writer, educator, speaker and founder of Black Wine Professionals (who also allowed me to speak with her for the above mentioned article)—has been named one of Wine Industry’s Most Inspiring People by Wine Industry Advisor. Well deserved, indeed. She’s not only an excellent business woman, an extremely intelligent wine educator, and just a down-right nice person—she’s also on the frontlines of confronting the industry’s need for more diversity, equity, and inclusivity. But, as Julia says in this article, she cannot do it alone. We cannot rely on certain individuals to make the noise, raise the alarms, call the industry to action. This as to be a group effort.
We cannot be what we want to become by remaining who we are.
As always, there’s plenty more to read. So I hope you have a good glass of wine on hand as you scroll through. Wishing all the best in the week ahead. ✌️🍷💚
