Building Wine Experiences: Kerrin Laz on Napa, Innovation, and Giving Back

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Growing up in New York, you know, de Una Duluc, an iconic brand. I knew

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it very well. I stopped there for a cup of coffee. I asked if they

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might be hiring. My resume had, like, nothing on it. And they asked, well, what

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are you interested in? And I was like, I don't know, like, maybe food or

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wine. And I remember they looked at me and they were like, well, which one?

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And I said, wine, I guess. Sit

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back and grab a glass. It's Wine Talks with

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Paul King. Hey, welcome to

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Wine Talks with Paul K. And we are in studio today, but to have a

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conversation with Karen Laz way up there in Yountville.

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Introductions in just a moment. Hey, have a listen to a new podcast coming out.

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It's going to come out next week. Actually, it'll come out the third week of

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April. And this is called Song of America. And the inspiration came

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from hearing so many incredible stories of immigration

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to America and success in social, political, academic,

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financial, disability. It doesn't matter. It's just stories of

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why we're here and what America's all about that's coming out soon. And I have

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an incredible collection of people to listen to right out of the shoots,

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but not while we're here. Here to talk to Karen Laz of Karen Laz

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Wine. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Paul.

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You call yourself president of Karen Laz Wine. What do you call yourself?

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I don't even think I've given myself a title, to be honest. Oh, well,

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yeah. TBD. Let's do that now. TV day. It's only been

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10 years, so hopefully soon I'll figure that out. Well, maybe we'll figure that, but

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you're a wine. You're a philanthropist in the wine world, so to speak. And I.

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We'll talk about that. But also a native of

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Long Island. Yeah. Which there's an interesting thing in

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your bio about planting Bordeaux varietals. Now,

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I've been doing this a long time, and the wines from the east coast have

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always been focused on mostly German whites and some interesting, you

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know, maybe some indigenous grapes. But all of a sudden, red wines have been

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coming out of there. How did that happen? What did they do that

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made it, you know, suitable to grow red

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grapes? It's, you know, it's.

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It's funny because my dad continually reminds me that

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Long island is making some good wines and I should maybe pay attention more

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to that area. And I finally. And he said it so many times that I

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finally had to just say to him, look, I think there's some good wines coming

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out of there. In their best vintages, they might be very good, but I

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don't think, I think given their

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climate, given their location, given the tour,

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it's hard to grow Cabernet, it's

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hard to grow Pinot to make it exceptional. So, you know,

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they're focusing a little bit more on like the Merlot and the Caffe Franc blends.

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I think they can do pretty well there. There are some good Chardonnays I

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tasted out of there, but I've yet to taste like a great Cabernet or a

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great Pinot Noir. So you don't have, you know, one those

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like heavy hitter varietals. I think it's a little tricky for them, but what

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they focus on is like this incredible agro tourism approach. And

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so, you know, you've got enough of a density of population with Manhattan alone

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and New York surrounding to more than

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make up for, you know, exceptional wines. And, you know, they're

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good and they bring, you know, folks out to the East End. And, you know,

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it's great for the local population, it's great for the local industry and

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the economy out there. And it's fun to go wine

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taste. And I've done it numerous times. And the funny thing is I actually

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tried getting a case of wine shipped to me to California.

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And the, the person that was hosting us

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was like, we actually don't ship to California. I was like.

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Which is like the. I was like, you think that would happen? Yeah, I would

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think it would be a pretty natural thought. And they said, we don't, we actually

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don't ship outside of New York. And I was shocked.

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And so we had a little chat about that and they said we don't really

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have to ship outside in New York. We have enough of an audience to make

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up for, you know, the fact that we, we don't ship outside in New York.

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So I was actually blown away by that. But yeah, you know, it's interesting.

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My daughter used to live in Manhattan and so we used to visit the sort

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of local farmer's markets and

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they always had a wine stand, somebody from Long island or from Virginia or someplace

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nearby. And in my 17 years or 35 years of

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selling wine, DTC monthly subscription, I only

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featured one Eastern wine and that was from

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Virginia. It was a Chardonnay. It was very good. Prince Michelle, I remember it well.

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But isn't Nova Catamart the famed master of wine? Isn't she

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making wine in Long island as well as Napa? Do you know her? I don't

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know her. I think she's very proud of

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that. And the last time I had anything to do with

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Eastern wine, we got off this thing. But I flew to Poughkeepsie,

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New York, okay, For actually a bottle of wine

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club out of New York. And it was like February, and these

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guys were out in their dry suits, you know, pruning the vineyards

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in three feet of snow. And I thought, you know, what could become of this?

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Yeah, it's, you know, it's. It's interesting

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because I actually remember as a. As a kid,

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I remember when, you know, the east end of Long island, especially the north fork,

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which is where most of the wineries are, which would be, you know, going

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out to Orion Point. So it's the north fork. We have two forks. It's

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the North Fork versus the south fork, which has Montauk Point, the Hamptons.

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But the north fork was just absolutely bucolic. I mean, it actually

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reminds me a lot, like here in Sonoma in that.

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Just very agro. Very agriculturally driven

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farms about miles as you could go. And what

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they really. Their forte was actually in nursery, and

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it was also in sod farms and

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potato fields. And all of a sudden you started seeing these potato

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fields and these sod farms changing

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out to vines. And it was kind of these, like,

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really. This is interesting. But Long Island, I think, started in the 70s.

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It's not like it's a brand new thing. It's been around for a. They

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probably have over 100 wineries now. And I think it's.

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I think it's great. I think it's great for the wine industry.

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Anytime we see some region, like, coming into play, I think it just makes the

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industry stronger as a whole. It gets people interested. Are the wines

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exceptional? Are they going to compete on an international stage? Maybe not, but

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I think it brings excitement. I think it's a great starting point for a lot

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of people that are just starting to get into wine. You know, like, why not

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go to the place down the street from you or, you know, get on a

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train or get on a jitney and then, like, go check it out for a

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day. I think it's awesome that they're doing it, but, yeah,

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it's interesting to see. Let's talk about that for a second. Because

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we. Last time we were at Napa wasn't that long ago. I was sitting with

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Violet Gurgich. She was talking about her taste room. Traffic being down, you

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know, 30%. We have good friends up in the hills. The Promise

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Winery which is a membership only kind of thing. Yeah.

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You know, tourism seems to me one of the

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few bastions of success that's going to be left here for

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short term. I don't think we're in the doom and gloom part of the wine

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business. Wine's too old, too established and too

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connected to the human soul for it to dry up. But

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I think tourism really is one of the places that growing

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and people are. I mean, obviously I do it everywhere I go. I try

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to find some place to go visit. But a lot of people that are novices

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at wine do that. Have you experienced that at your shop, for

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one, in Yonville? And. But then I see wine.

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Wine tasting rooms closing up as well. Yes, the.

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I think that's a good point.

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When, when people travel, I think

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food and wine is just so it's an integral part of traveling. Right. And if,

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if you have the means to be able to travel and you're going to a

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place like wine country or even to, you know,

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not even like the most renowned regions of the world, but places where they do

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have wineries and stuff, I think it's an interesting

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thing to check out. It's a cool, you know, it might be an afternoon that

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someone spends doing it or a day trip off of some other area.

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And I think it's just really kind of

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an integral part of where you are visiting.

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Right. So I mean, it's your surroundings. I mean, you wouldn't go to Tahoe and

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probably not, you know, check out a mountain or put on some

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snowshoes. You know, it's like if you're going to be in wine country, probably going

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to check out a winery or two. And for

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those that are younger, getting into traveling more,

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I think if you're going to be in a wine region like you are going

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to visit, we do have guests that come in. We have the most

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experienced collectors and we have the most

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novice newcomers to the scene. And

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fortunately we can play in that spectrum to both.

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And I think it's actually sometimes even better when you have somebody who's so new,

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new to wine, who's basically like, let's just try

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an array of different types of wines. And it's a really good way to

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get, to get that, that guest

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kind of into learning about something on a more macro level

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approach. So, you know, when guests visit us, I mean, we're customizing every

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tasting, we're asking in advance a bunch of questions. So when they come in,

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that lineup is very specifically for them based on varietals,

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based On a slew of other questions we're asking. And so

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we've kind of honed in on like, where we think that sweet spot is for

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them to taste wines. So, yeah, I think that

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we've had really good success with that in that,

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you know, we're tasting thousands of wines a year. So the wines that we bring

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to the table, it could be anything. So we're bringing the ones that we're most

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excited about that we think are going to be the most intriguing for that

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group that's coming in that day. Right? Yeah.

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So I think an important thing for sure. Yeah, I think that's.

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I think that's. It's right on. What do you think the

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consternations for innotourism in Napa are right

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now? Like, this is what I heard and you just validate this or you can

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move on from it. But we were talking to

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some winery folks up there. The hotel prices don't seem to

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have gone down. We usually stay at the estate Yonville down the road from you,

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and you know, those prices haven't changed and the concept.

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But their occupancy is not, is not high. It's

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like 30 or 40%. And I, I heard that they,

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they feel like they can run a skeleton crew, not pay as much in overhead

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and live with the rates at a 30 occupancy than. Than to

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drop the prices and be full. But then that has pull through

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issues with tasting room traffic and the rest. Or is it

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just the cost of traveling to Napa right now that that needs to find

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a new home in order to get people to come back up?

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I had a really strong opinion about hotel rates in Napa

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Valley specifically, and I can't speak for other areas, but

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I had very strong opinions for the last couple years about this. And then I

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was talking to a friend who used to be on town council, who's way

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more educated in the intricacies and used to own hotels as well.

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And he basically said you have to understand

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the deeper logistics, like the deeper

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economics behind hotels before you can really talk about

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it. So it has adjusted my opinion

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slightly. But I do think that yes, hotel

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rates, I thought for a long time were just,

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you know, they went up and then they never came down. And

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partly, yes, I do think that a hotel who's running at

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a 50% occupancy rate probably is going to have different margins, and the

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margins might even be a little bit better if those rates stay up and labor

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stays down and, you know, the costs stay down. That being Said

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I also realize now more that

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there are quite a few hotel owners that would love to have

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more of an occupancy, but getting the staffing has been really

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challenging. It's something that we have had a problem with

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since the pandemic when a lot of staffing

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moved because they had to and then they never came back.

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Right. So I mean, we definitely still have a problem with staffing,

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especially for hotels. You know,

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my, my organizations, I haven't had a hard time, but like, I'm a

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tiny organization compared to like what it takes to have a hotel running and

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operating. Right. So I do think

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I've seen prices come down a little bit in the last year. I've

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seen them come down. They're definitely not pretty

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pandemic pricing. But then you have to think about that. That's, you know, we're six

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years later, five years later and the costs

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have increased. You know, we look at costs across the board and so many things

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and they, you know, our prices are not what they were, you know, five years

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ago. So that's a good point. We're coming up, we're going to find

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out. We're coming up, I think the week of the 20th for a few days,

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do some podcasting. So we'll find out exactly where they're at.

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The litmus test. Yeah. Yeah. So interesting.

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I was reading about your career here and you were with Dina DeLuca. How

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is a young girl in Long island move into

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hospitality, particularly wine? And then of course, Diane DeLuca being a high end

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food and purveyor as well. Yeah, it was pretty accidental.

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I think you'd probably hear that a lot. You know, either people were like, absolutely,

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like razor focused. This is my through line for life. It's going to be

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hospitality. And I think a lot of people, actually it was accidental for them

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and for me it was totally accidental. I went to, I did my university

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in North Carolina and was poli

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sci in journalism, nothing to do with wine and kind of went

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sideways. Yeah. And I think it was really sci degree.

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What's that? The old poli sci degree.

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But actually I really thought I was going to be, I wanted to be a

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journalist. That was really my thing. And

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needless to say, I did not go that route. But, but

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having that backing, being educated to be able

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to write and to be able to kind of know what's

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going on in the world has not hurt me at all. Even in this world.

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Like you take that with you. And

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yeah, so I accidentally got into the wine business. I was working with A restaurant

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in Durham, North Carolina.

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And they had outlets in Chapel Hill and in Durham. And

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the idea was that I was going to take over this restaurant. And it

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was a restaurant that had been around for a very long time. Time. They were

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doing farm to table long before farm to table was even a thing.

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And it was just this totally like, revered place. And the

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owner, Mary Bacon, was getting kind of tired and of.

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Of running it. And she'd been doing it for, you know, 20 plus years, 30

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years probably. And the idea is

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that I would learn all aspects of the restaurant business and then take it

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over. And I started back at the house. I became the kitchen

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manager. I learned how to cook, which was incredible.

248
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I lear how, you know what every piece of seafood weighs, every

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piece of produce, all that stuff moved to front of the house and

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then started getting into wine. I did it for a year and

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I had totally burned out. I had no life. And

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I'm like 21 at the time, and I'm like, this is just totally not

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going to be something I can do. And I have huge respect for active owners

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to this day who do this day in and day out. I did it for

255
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one year and I was like, there's no way I can do this again. So

256
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I needed to get a job. And I was

257
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interviewing for some places up in D.C. knowing that ultimately I was going to move

258
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up to D.C. i had a bunch of friends that lived up there, and I

259
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interviewed for jobs in all different directions. Entry

260
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level jobs with journalism and then also with.

261
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With food and wine. And I stopped at Dean and DeLuca for a cup of

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coffee. And growing up in New York, you know, Dean and

263
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DeLuca, an iconic brand, I knew it very well. I stopped there for a cup

264
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of coffee. I asked if they might be hiring. My resume had like nothing on

265
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it. And they asked, well, what are you interested? And I was like, I don't

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know, like maybe food or wine. And I remember they looked at me and they

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were like, well, which one? And I said wine.

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And it was one of those things. And so it was

269
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a series of interviews and then I wound up getting the job. I moved to

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D.C. i became the buyer of the Georgetown store, Dean and DeLuca.

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Wow. And then within a couple years, I had taken over more of the

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operating side for multiple channels. And then we became licensed

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to sell wine on our website and catalog, which was pretty exciting.

274
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And that was like 2000. When

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did I move? 2007, I guess. So I moved out here in 2007

276
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and I've never left

277
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so did you work with Dean DeLuca on Highway 29 there?

278
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So we had offices south of the store. So I oversaw that store as well.

279
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And ultimately I wound up doing work

280
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for our international licensees, helping them get up and running on

281
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the wine side and then also always overseeing

282
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wine domestically, knowing that ultimately if I left the company, that's what I would

283
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want to do, would be starting my own company.

284
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I worked on strategic partnerships, getting

285
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Fairmont as one of our partners,

286
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Lexus as one of our partners, which was basically Dean and DeLuca being

287
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kind of the wine purveyor for wine clubs and kind of for

288
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their different events and stuff, which was all great.

289
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And then we actually wound up selling at the end of 14

290
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and I just had, I mean, just

291
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this incredible opportunity. The previous owner who was really close with me,

292
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Leslie Rudd, he basically helped pay the way for me to be

293
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able to kind of carve the direct to consumer business

294
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for myself. Because I had really,

295
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I grew it, I nurtured it, I kind of made it for what

296
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it was when we sold. And going forward, the new ownership

297
00:18:23,090 --> 00:18:26,570
were like, we want to build like, you know, 300 Dean and DeLucas in 10

298
00:18:26,570 --> 00:18:30,130
years. And like an extreme number. And I was like, this wine program

299
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doesn't make sense in this fold. And like it's not interesting to me. And

300
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what we're doing now is so velvet glove

301
00:18:37,090 --> 00:18:40,850
curated. Like it's just totally. It's what Dean and DeLuca was. It

302
00:18:40,850 --> 00:18:44,210
was, you know, finding the best foraging purveyor, you know, finding the best

303
00:18:44,210 --> 00:18:47,890
purveyors new model, not interested. But

304
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I was able to carve that business for myself and start Kayla's wine

305
00:18:52,050 --> 00:18:55,110
collection. And so I always say it was a startup, but it was a startup

306
00:18:55,110 --> 00:18:58,830
with about, you know, 10 years on its back. So yeah, it's interesting.

307
00:18:59,870 --> 00:19:03,390
I mean you said a lot there that I wanted peel back one of them.

308
00:19:03,390 --> 00:19:07,030
The fact that hospitality is. Is so difficult. And I just had a podcast

309
00:19:07,030 --> 00:19:10,830
with Nancy Silverton who's been doing that I just business for

310
00:19:10,830 --> 00:19:13,550
like 40 years. Yeah. And it does take a certain,

311
00:19:15,230 --> 00:19:19,070
it does take a certain character. My daughter's a

312
00:19:19,070 --> 00:19:22,900
baker by trade. She, I mean she thrived on getting

313
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up at two in the morning and going down and baking in New York because

314
00:19:26,380 --> 00:19:29,580
that's just. She would now she's got a house mom. But

315
00:19:29,900 --> 00:19:33,060
I, I think she's chomping a little bit to get back at it. It does

316
00:19:33,060 --> 00:19:36,620
take a certain character of that. But what an interesting path for you

317
00:19:36,859 --> 00:19:40,620
to land on wine and then enter the

318
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fray of not only selling

319
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wine retail, but making it. And I just tasted

320
00:19:48,060 --> 00:19:51,830
the two wines. They're gorgeous. And I, I. The Sauvignon Blanc was just blew me

321
00:19:51,830 --> 00:19:55,350
away just out of the glass. I love that one. Yeah. And the cab itself,

322
00:19:55,350 --> 00:19:59,030
even though it's, you know, monikered Napa Valley, was very

323
00:19:59,030 --> 00:20:02,830
expressive, driven by, you

324
00:20:02,830 --> 00:20:06,430
know, terroir character that you don't get a lot in Napa sometimes,

325
00:20:06,670 --> 00:20:10,510
but in Napa Valley is a large swath of land. But this certainly had

326
00:20:12,030 --> 00:20:15,390
reminiscence of Bordeaux in the sense of that I felt something. I felt it was

327
00:20:15,390 --> 00:20:19,140
coming from somewhere, not just, you know, over extracted

328
00:20:19,140 --> 00:20:22,980
Cabernet from Thank you Valley. But it's, it's

329
00:20:22,980 --> 00:20:25,900
a tough racket. I mean, we know this already. And so

330
00:20:26,620 --> 00:20:30,340
when did you start Klaz? And you know,

331
00:20:30,340 --> 00:20:33,780
how. What are you doing with it? Is it purely subscription? Is it

332
00:20:33,780 --> 00:20:36,940
retail? So Klaas wine collection,

333
00:20:38,300 --> 00:20:42,140
we just had our 10th year anniversary last year. Congratulations. You know,

334
00:20:42,140 --> 00:20:45,940
you blink and it happens and yeah, it's

335
00:20:45,940 --> 00:20:49,700
flown by, though. Like, it literally like it has flown by.

336
00:20:50,500 --> 00:20:54,260
We are in a process of expanding now. So, you know, in

337
00:20:54,260 --> 00:20:57,900
the last couple years, you

338
00:20:57,900 --> 00:21:01,220
know, for me, I've seen, you know, we've seen some challenges in the industry

339
00:21:01,380 --> 00:21:04,020
and, you know, we're in a time right now that's

340
00:21:05,540 --> 00:21:09,180
I've never witnessed anything like, I've never been a part of what we're

341
00:21:09,180 --> 00:21:12,020
dealing with, you know, now. And in the last year, what we've been dealing with

342
00:21:12,660 --> 00:21:14,720
in 24, the

343
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,760
saying that I kept thinking was, I had heard from somebody saying was

344
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survive for 25. So we survived for 25,

345
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and then we got into 25, and I was like, oh, this is an interesting

346
00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:30,560
year. So 25. It's been incredible.

347
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:34,960
That being said, I have to knock on wood. We've been on the

348
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:38,760
right side of this and we've been really smart,

349
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:42,560
we've been leaning, we've been very thoughtful with what we've been

350
00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:43,520
doing. And

351
00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:49,520
we had a good year, and it could have been a really bad year,

352
00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:53,240
but we had a good year. And I also think that there's some opportunity and

353
00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:56,920
in times where there's challenges, I think there's some incredible opportunities that

354
00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:00,760
can be had. And so for the last year and a half, I've been thinking

355
00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:04,440
about this new concept that's just like an extension of

356
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,700
what we're doing, but kind of a little bit

357
00:22:09,460 --> 00:22:12,500
in a parallel direction to what we're doing, but a little bit different.

358
00:22:13,700 --> 00:22:16,740
So we actually are starting construction June 1,

359
00:22:17,460 --> 00:22:21,260
and there'll be some announcements that are going to be made. But I been basically

360
00:22:21,260 --> 00:22:24,660
game planning this new concept that we'll announce in the next month.

361
00:22:25,460 --> 00:22:28,900
And so we're in a period of expansion. I see

362
00:22:28,900 --> 00:22:32,660
opportunity. I think it's going to be an expansion in

363
00:22:32,660 --> 00:22:36,140
Napa Valley of all places, where we are probably seeing more

364
00:22:36,140 --> 00:22:38,770
challenges than other regions. But

365
00:22:40,210 --> 00:22:43,530
I think that there's an incredible

366
00:22:43,530 --> 00:22:47,290
opportunity for the concept

367
00:22:47,290 --> 00:22:49,890
that I'm going to bring to the table because one, it doesn't exist and two,

368
00:22:49,890 --> 00:22:53,730
it should. And in most wine regions, there's like a hundred of me and

369
00:22:53,730 --> 00:22:57,010
the fact that there isn't even one of what I'm doing right now

370
00:22:57,730 --> 00:23:01,530
to grow the business I think is kind of unbelievable. I mean, that's kind of

371
00:23:01,530 --> 00:23:04,370
a tease. I don't want to interrupt you, but it's kind of a tease here.

372
00:23:04,370 --> 00:23:06,530
I'm going to do it. You brought it up. I wasn't even going to say

373
00:23:06,530 --> 00:23:09,250
anything. We're never going to talk about it. We're not going to bring it up.

374
00:23:09,330 --> 00:23:12,750
I wasn't even going to say anything. You asked. So I was like, I can't

375
00:23:12,750 --> 00:23:16,590
lie. So I'm like, I have to come up here in our part

376
00:23:16,590 --> 00:23:20,150
two session, then we'll really talk about it. Okay. But yeah, we're not having

377
00:23:20,150 --> 00:23:23,950
to and not ask you to expose it at all. I'm just teasing it. But

378
00:23:25,949 --> 00:23:29,270
I have a serious issue with some of this and I, with some of the

379
00:23:29,270 --> 00:23:33,070
things that have been going on now. I was part of the, the

380
00:23:33,790 --> 00:23:37,630
wine trade and I sold my company in 2023. So it's not that long ago.

381
00:23:38,110 --> 00:23:41,520
But. But the failure of the wine trade was

382
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:46,080
post 2015 or so when these 50 cent a

383
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:49,640
liter Valencia whites were coming from Spain being

384
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:53,360
bottled in all these different brands and they're being 50 cents, just junk.

385
00:23:53,360 --> 00:23:57,000
And they were being marketed on the Internet. And Groupon, which was the

386
00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,800
death of part of the business because people had no loyalty

387
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:04,890
when they bought some really bad wines that looked, look really good

388
00:24:05,370 --> 00:24:08,370
and they thought they're getting a deal for five bucks. And even at five bucks

389
00:24:08,370 --> 00:24:12,210
it was not good. So that shaped a lot of what

390
00:24:12,210 --> 00:24:15,370
the consumer did. And not only that, the marketing side,

391
00:24:15,450 --> 00:24:18,970
Groupon fostered no loyalty.

392
00:24:19,370 --> 00:24:23,050
And so now you got these, the segments have always been there, but you've got

393
00:24:23,050 --> 00:24:26,770
these fighting varietal, which is an old term, but you walk down the supermarket

394
00:24:26,770 --> 00:24:30,090
at Ralph's and you see all the shelf talkers and everything competing for the same

395
00:24:30,090 --> 00:24:33,930
space. And that's not you. You are catering obviously to A high

396
00:24:33,930 --> 00:24:37,570
end client. I'm not sure if they're collectors necessarily, just somebody that

397
00:24:37,570 --> 00:24:41,370
appreciates a finer glass of wine. This is

398
00:24:41,370 --> 00:24:44,890
the point I wanted to make. On the flip side of that, on the other

399
00:24:44,890 --> 00:24:48,010
side of this trade, there's this whole conversation of innovation.

400
00:24:48,570 --> 00:24:52,170
Now, innovation, what I mean, I saw that they're putting

401
00:24:52,170 --> 00:24:55,610
wine in a pouch. I don't think that's innovation because I don't think anybody wants

402
00:24:55,610 --> 00:24:59,450
to enjoy a nice glass of wine, let's say a Klas

403
00:24:59,450 --> 00:25:02,640
Cabernet from Napa Valley in a pouch. That's not the experience.

404
00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:07,360
And it sounds like, and I've always, and I support this all the way,

405
00:25:07,360 --> 00:25:11,120
that the experiential side of innovation in wine

406
00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:14,560
trade is where we need to be. How that feels to you

407
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:18,320
as a human being when you get to experience a glass of wine.

408
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:22,040
Totally, you're right. That's

409
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,720
what's been ingrained in me coming out of the

410
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:27,790
recession in 0708

411
00:25:29,460 --> 00:25:32,940
when we saw traffic go down in Napa

412
00:25:32,940 --> 00:25:36,340
Valley. So needless to say, during the recession,

413
00:25:36,980 --> 00:25:40,660
the dtc, the private client division that I

414
00:25:40,900 --> 00:25:44,580
forged, was born out of the recession. And it was the

415
00:25:44,580 --> 00:25:48,340
idea of bringing the best of wine country

416
00:25:48,420 --> 00:25:51,780
to people's homes. And it sounds like today

417
00:25:51,780 --> 00:25:55,480
everybody's doing it, but if you think about it, in 2008,

418
00:25:56,030 --> 00:25:59,270
far less people were doing that. So the idea was, hey, look, you might not

419
00:25:59,270 --> 00:26:02,510
be coming to Napa Valley for economic

420
00:26:02,670 --> 00:26:06,350
reasons, for the optics, whatever it might be, but

421
00:26:06,510 --> 00:26:10,030
we'll come to you. So we'll bring Dean and DeLuca to you. So the idea

422
00:26:10,030 --> 00:26:13,710
was that we would ship cheese and charcuterie, we would ship the wine, and

423
00:26:13,710 --> 00:26:16,590
then I would fly out or one of someone on my team would fly out

424
00:26:16,750 --> 00:26:20,430
and we would bring wine country to them. And it was

425
00:26:20,430 --> 00:26:23,830
totally novel at the time. Like you just didn't see a whole lot of like

426
00:26:23,830 --> 00:26:27,610
retail establishments doing that. And that's what Daniel and

427
00:26:27,610 --> 00:26:30,890
DeLuca was. At the end of the day, we just gave it.

428
00:26:31,770 --> 00:26:34,730
We gave retail more of an

429
00:26:34,730 --> 00:26:38,530
experiential component. And to me, that's what

430
00:26:38,530 --> 00:26:41,770
it's all about. In the days when we have tougher times,

431
00:26:42,170 --> 00:26:45,850
I think anybody can say this, and in any sector, not just

432
00:26:45,850 --> 00:26:49,530
wine, relationships are going to be what keeps things going. Right. And

433
00:26:49,530 --> 00:26:53,130
so we created a very loyal mailing

434
00:26:53,130 --> 00:26:56,940
list off of that. Right. So even if there were those that weren't participating

435
00:26:56,940 --> 00:27:00,580
in the program and we weren't going to their homes per se, or their businesses

436
00:27:00,580 --> 00:27:04,220
per se, it was a great reminder

437
00:27:04,220 --> 00:27:07,940
that we would do that. And that's something that we offered, and

438
00:27:08,980 --> 00:27:12,780
it became kind of this partnership with our clients, right? I mean, they were

439
00:27:12,780 --> 00:27:15,700
like, we want to bring the best people to the table. And we said, look,

440
00:27:15,700 --> 00:27:19,460
this is on us. But we ask that you bring 5, 10, 20

441
00:27:19,460 --> 00:27:22,680
people to the table that are as into wine as you. That was the give

442
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:26,320
back. So now they're trying to bring their best wine drinking

443
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:30,040
buddies to the table. So it's worth our while, it's

444
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,240
worth their while, you know, that kind of thing. So, you know, when I started

445
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:37,000
Kayla's, it was all about the relationships. I did not even

446
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,680
think to start Kayla's wine collection without getting buy

447
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:44,320
in from the wineries, because I was like, look, if I don't have the

448
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:48,000
wineries working with me, there's nothing

449
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,710
to offer, right? And those wineries that I had either

450
00:27:52,110 --> 00:27:55,830
brought to, you know, the

451
00:27:55,830 --> 00:27:59,430
stage at a really broad level, because you think about Dean and DeLuca, we were

452
00:27:59,430 --> 00:28:03,150
an international, we were national. So, you know, my mailing list is from

453
00:28:03,310 --> 00:28:06,830
all. All over the country, all over the world.

454
00:28:07,390 --> 00:28:11,030
And so, you know, the, the wines that we bring to the table,

455
00:28:11,030 --> 00:28:13,910
they're not the wines that you can find on the street, because that doesn't behoove

456
00:28:13,910 --> 00:28:17,000
us to do that. Right? So the wines we bring to the table, they are

457
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:20,640
either the old guard Colt wineries, we'll call it, the

458
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,640
wineries that have just stayed relevant and are iconic now,

459
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:28,240
they love working with us because we are new. You know, we just bring new

460
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,680
people to the table all the time. And then the newer garden

461
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,440
wineries, where, you know, we helped put them on that pedestal

462
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:39,200
and we said, okay, you're a new wine. Day one. We're

463
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:42,120
buying into this and we're going to put you in a lineup with four other

464
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,880
wineries or five other wineries that we think you're aligned with from a quality

465
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:49,620
standpoint that they could never do, right? We couldn't say to that winery,

466
00:28:49,620 --> 00:28:52,300
you know, that winery could never say, we're going to do a comparative tasting and

467
00:28:52,300 --> 00:28:55,940
we're going to taste, you know, Brian and Colgan and Screaming Eagle and

468
00:28:55,940 --> 00:28:59,340
Harlem, because that's where we're aligned with. They couldn't do that. But we could do

469
00:28:59,340 --> 00:29:02,900
that because we could say, yeah, you're. You're in that. You play in that field.

470
00:29:02,900 --> 00:29:06,460
You know, you're. You're right in there. So it's

471
00:29:06,460 --> 00:29:10,180
created great loyalty and it's created great partnerships with the wineries we

472
00:29:10,180 --> 00:29:13,860
work with. We've had the fortunate ability

473
00:29:13,860 --> 00:29:17,530
to, you know, have. Have an incredible Mailing list. Like our,

474
00:29:18,010 --> 00:29:21,690
our clients are great and I can tell you, the ones that weren't so great,

475
00:29:22,010 --> 00:29:25,770
we just stopped, you know, they were just not getting the emails anymore.

476
00:29:25,770 --> 00:29:29,490
So we've kind of, you know, and I hate to say that, but I mean,

477
00:29:29,490 --> 00:29:31,890
that's just the reality of things. Like you want to work with people you really

478
00:29:31,890 --> 00:29:35,730
enjoy working with and those that you know, aren't so great. You know,

479
00:29:35,730 --> 00:29:39,290
it's just like life is short, you know, it's like we can't. We just have

480
00:29:39,290 --> 00:29:43,000
to move on. So we have an incredible following

481
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:47,160
and thanks to Dean and DeLuca days and then going forward with what we've been

482
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,880
doing at klas. But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day,

483
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,520
it's all about the relationships. I'll give you a little

484
00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:58,480
metric here. Well, the

485
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:02,280
worst year I had until 2023 would have been the worst

486
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:04,800
year I ever had. But the worst year I ever had and I still profitable

487
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:08,360
was 2009. So when you talk about the recession, I mean, it affected our

488
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:12,080
volume. But then we grew again and then Covid was

489
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:15,720
of course really good for us. And then it started to fail again. And after

490
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,600
35 years, my wife and I, you know, we don't want to, I don't want

491
00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:22,160
to fight it, slug it out anymore. So we sold it. We were even fortunate

492
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,960
to sell it because there were no real buyers and it

493
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,360
already sold since then. So you know, that they weren't doing it because they're making

494
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:30,840
too much money. But

495
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:36,150
I sent in 2022, my last full year, I sent

496
00:30:36,780 --> 00:30:40,540
33 million emails. So it was

497
00:30:40,700 --> 00:30:44,540
quite prolific to get the same volume I would have gotten years

498
00:30:44,540 --> 00:30:48,020
earlier, you know, maybe on a million emails. But we were sending, wow,

499
00:30:48,020 --> 00:30:51,780
250,000 at a time. And again I was in a different price range and

500
00:30:51,780 --> 00:30:55,460
a different type of consumer. And that's why I'm intrigued by what you're

501
00:30:55,460 --> 00:30:59,140
doing because that consumer that I was dealing with was always

502
00:30:59,140 --> 00:31:02,980
looking for the best deal on the volume. And how

503
00:31:02,980 --> 00:31:06,720
can we support this though? Covid was, Covid was really good

504
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:10,520
to us. Do you think then that. And I always, I worked

505
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:13,920
for Xerox before I started in the wine trade. And I always felt like the

506
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:17,520
corporate America thought process, the brand

507
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:21,200
building, all the things that go into working for a large organization with a

508
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:24,880
bureaucracy was very helpful. I came

509
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:28,720
to a small company with my father at the time and to

510
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:32,380
make things happen, the structure, the discipline, the totally the

511
00:31:32,380 --> 00:31:35,700
know how that you brought that to the table for klas,

512
00:31:36,020 --> 00:31:39,420
coming from the east coast, to be honest, and I think I'm gonna get killed

513
00:31:39,420 --> 00:31:43,220
for saying this, but growing up on, growing up in New York

514
00:31:43,300 --> 00:31:45,220
is. Is one thing.

515
00:31:47,220 --> 00:31:50,620
Studying on the east coast and working and getting your first job on the east

516
00:31:50,620 --> 00:31:54,180
coast is. It's. To me, it was a great thing.

517
00:31:54,260 --> 00:31:57,780
Like I, I carry that with me. I carry that work

518
00:31:57,780 --> 00:32:01,380
ethos with me. When I came to California working for a company

519
00:32:01,540 --> 00:32:05,050
that was basically an east coast company with

520
00:32:05,130 --> 00:32:08,570
a one west coast outlet, we were east coast mentality.

521
00:32:08,650 --> 00:32:12,410
And you know, I was getting up very early in the morning to deal with

522
00:32:12,410 --> 00:32:16,130
the east coast stores. So my day didn't start, you know, when I

523
00:32:16,130 --> 00:32:19,210
went to my office, you know, just south of the St. Helena store,

524
00:32:19,930 --> 00:32:22,730
it started at like six in the morning because I was having to deal with

525
00:32:22,730 --> 00:32:26,490
the east coast stuff. When we started dealing more with international and when I

526
00:32:26,490 --> 00:32:30,290
started working more with the international, you know, outlets for Dean

527
00:32:30,290 --> 00:32:33,730
and DeLuca then like you're dealing with, with round the clock stuff.

528
00:32:34,050 --> 00:32:37,490
But I think my work ethic and I think

529
00:32:38,770 --> 00:32:42,370
my tenacity

530
00:32:42,530 --> 00:32:45,650
for branding definitely came from Dina DeLuca

531
00:32:46,370 --> 00:32:49,810
branding and kind of building an experience

532
00:32:50,130 --> 00:32:52,770
and curating and how we

533
00:32:53,730 --> 00:32:57,570
talk about wine and how we share the stories about

534
00:32:57,570 --> 00:33:00,440
the wines. I think very much comes from

535
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:05,080
Dean and DeLuca days, for sure. I mean, it totally formed like

536
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:08,880
how I started Klass and it, it was one of the easiest decisions I

537
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:12,120
made to start klas. I don't even think I thought about it more than like

538
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:15,840
maybe like three days I LLC probably three

539
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:19,400
days after my last day with Dean and DeLuca. And

540
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,760
I called it, I called it KLAS Wine Collection because I literally

541
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:26,640
couldn't think of another name. So it was one of these things. Well, you know,

542
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,000
no one's taken my name, so let's just use my name.

543
00:33:30,660 --> 00:33:34,220
Lack of creativity or maybe lack of budget to come up with, you know, get

544
00:33:34,220 --> 00:33:37,060
a branding company on board and all that stuff. But I was like, this is

545
00:33:37,060 --> 00:33:40,580
what we're doing. And it kind of stuck. It was one of the easiest things

546
00:33:40,580 --> 00:33:44,220
I did. It was one of the most challenging. But it

547
00:33:44,220 --> 00:33:47,700
just all made sense. And even, you know,

548
00:33:47,940 --> 00:33:51,780
getting it up to launch, my biggest concern was make sure this mailing list

549
00:33:51,780 --> 00:33:55,380
is active. And that's why I called it klab's Wine Collection because the

550
00:33:55,380 --> 00:33:59,180
last week we had that email offering from Dean and DeLuca. An email went

551
00:33:59,180 --> 00:34:02,760
out to everybody person on the mailing list saying,

552
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,480
hey, Karen's taking this business for

553
00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:10,320
into her own And Dean and DeLuca is going in this direction.

554
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:14,120
Kayla's wine collection is formed here. It was so important for that to

555
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,120
go out. And then the next week, emails were going out again

556
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:21,040
about wine, same idea. And there was no,

557
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:24,720
there was no loss of momentum. That was huge.

558
00:34:26,250 --> 00:34:30,090
The other thing was. Hold on, let me stop it there. So you're.

559
00:34:30,410 --> 00:34:34,130
They gave you the list? Yeah, I mean, they, they were like,

560
00:34:34,130 --> 00:34:37,370
you know, these are all your contacts and we're not using them and you forged

561
00:34:37,370 --> 00:34:41,090
them and they're yours and. Wow, that was very kind of them. Because that's

562
00:34:41,090 --> 00:34:44,330
not corporate America. Like, well, I mean, you know, it was like

563
00:34:44,330 --> 00:34:48,010
inadvertently playing like the long game, which I didn't even try to do.

564
00:34:48,010 --> 00:34:51,650
I mean, I was probably with the company. I was one of the most

565
00:34:51,650 --> 00:34:54,850
veterans, you know, team members with Dean and

566
00:34:54,850 --> 00:34:58,570
DeLuca. And you know, that's just. That shows you the

567
00:34:58,570 --> 00:35:01,570
turnover with retail, I guess. But like, you know, I've been with Dean and DeLuca

568
00:35:01,570 --> 00:35:05,410
for over 10 years and it

569
00:35:05,410 --> 00:35:08,850
was, you know, if I had left earlier, that never would have happened. I think

570
00:35:08,850 --> 00:35:12,650
that was a huge gift. Yeah. I can't for the life of me remember the

571
00:35:12,650 --> 00:35:15,850
gentleman's name that he has a New Jersey wine chain that took over the building

572
00:35:15,850 --> 00:35:19,560
on Gary. Yeah, Gary's food. Yeah. And I thought that

573
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:22,440
was interesting because I had him. I was actually in the shop and we podcasted.

574
00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,600
He goes, you know, while you're here, why don't you fill out a job app.

575
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:29,120
I need some, some guys that know how to sell wine. I thought, well,

576
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:33,440
not sure he really did. Yeah, he did.

577
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:37,200
You know, but it's interesting because you're talking about the east coast and you know,

578
00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:40,920
that's. He's very successful in New Jersey and does a lot of work there

579
00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:44,720
and, and either the location in St. Helena or the size of

580
00:35:44,720 --> 00:35:47,420
the store or the. I don't, I don't know what it is that made it

581
00:35:47,420 --> 00:35:49,900
so difficult to earn money there. But

582
00:35:51,980 --> 00:35:55,420
so are you seeing. And I want to get into your philanthropy here in a

583
00:35:55,420 --> 00:35:59,140
second, but I kind of want to focus on the consumer a little

584
00:35:59,140 --> 00:36:02,980
bit. It was a compliment

585
00:36:02,980 --> 00:36:06,820
to me when people would join my entry level club, which at the time

586
00:36:06,820 --> 00:36:09,500
was 20 bucks for two bottles plus shipping

587
00:36:10,620 --> 00:36:14,340
and outgrew it. You know, they said they call this. And

588
00:36:14,660 --> 00:36:17,300
the key for me was catching them before they canceled

589
00:36:18,180 --> 00:36:21,540
because they outgrew it and not give me a chance to upgrade them to a

590
00:36:21,540 --> 00:36:25,140
different club. Are you seeing a growth in the consumer's interest

591
00:36:25,380 --> 00:36:29,060
in the wine subject?

592
00:36:29,060 --> 00:36:32,740
The academia of wine and not w set stuff. But I'm just talking

593
00:36:32,740 --> 00:36:36,260
about wanting to Understand more for sure.

594
00:36:36,340 --> 00:36:39,990
I think that we call it graduating, but for

595
00:36:39,990 --> 00:36:43,350
sure it's actually a really good thing when someone drops out of the club because

596
00:36:43,350 --> 00:36:46,590
they want to become a more active buyer. And so like two shipments a year

597
00:36:46,590 --> 00:36:50,270
isn't enough for them. And we're like, that's amazing. That's like our best

598
00:36:50,270 --> 00:36:53,989
dream, right? Or they elevate to the next level. Right. So we have

599
00:36:53,989 --> 00:36:57,630
four different levels for our clubs. We also, but we,

600
00:36:58,350 --> 00:37:01,870
a lot of our business is also, you know, private client basically,

601
00:37:01,950 --> 00:37:05,710
which is texting, phone, whatever. They want to reach out to us is how they

602
00:37:05,710 --> 00:37:08,670
reach out to us and to buy wine. And so

603
00:37:10,380 --> 00:37:13,820
when those that have a less expensive club move up

604
00:37:14,220 --> 00:37:18,020
to your point to a higher end club or they leave a club because they

605
00:37:18,020 --> 00:37:21,740
want to buy more frequently from us, that's great. And

606
00:37:22,620 --> 00:37:26,260
that happens regularly, which is really nice to

607
00:37:26,260 --> 00:37:29,100
see. The thirst to

608
00:37:30,220 --> 00:37:33,980
learn more is the best part. And I think when we

609
00:37:33,980 --> 00:37:37,620
get the return guests, which we frequently do have, are the return

610
00:37:37,620 --> 00:37:41,250
guests and word of mouth to me is, is more

611
00:37:42,610 --> 00:37:46,450
important and more interesting than getting great write ups. And we've

612
00:37:46,450 --> 00:37:50,130
been written up with every major publication you can imagine and it's

613
00:37:50,130 --> 00:37:53,970
been huge. And some have been so impactful. There's three or four

614
00:37:53,970 --> 00:37:57,810
where it just like we're like, that was huge for us, right. And you literally

615
00:37:57,810 --> 00:38:01,090
could quantify that and look at the results

616
00:38:02,850 --> 00:38:06,050
and. But that being said, the word of mouth is huge for us and you

617
00:38:06,050 --> 00:38:09,810
know, the return guest is great because, you know, we hone

618
00:38:09,810 --> 00:38:13,290
in on everything. I mean, we, we know every wine they've tasted with us, every

619
00:38:13,290 --> 00:38:16,010
wine they've bought with us. Data is so important.

620
00:38:17,130 --> 00:38:20,850
We're continually improving our data, you know, systems to

621
00:38:20,850 --> 00:38:24,530
try to make sure that we're not missing anything. But you

622
00:38:24,530 --> 00:38:28,330
know, when we know every wine that we've shared with

623
00:38:28,330 --> 00:38:32,010
a guest and then which ones they've liked, we can even narrow

624
00:38:32,010 --> 00:38:35,050
in even more. So that next tasting and that next visit,

625
00:38:36,010 --> 00:38:39,250
the next wine seminar we host for them because it's not really a wine tasting,

626
00:38:39,250 --> 00:38:42,750
it's more of a wine Semin we are going. And

627
00:38:42,910 --> 00:38:46,270
I think that's been part of our success. It's not like here's five wines and

628
00:38:46,270 --> 00:38:49,590
here's what's in the glass and here's a two minute spiel on each one. It's

629
00:38:49,590 --> 00:38:52,670
a deep dive and it's a deep dive into the trends going on right now.

630
00:38:52,830 --> 00:38:56,470
It might be farming, it might be what was going on during that vintage, it

631
00:38:56,470 --> 00:39:00,190
might be, you know, where are we now? Versus where we were during

632
00:39:00,190 --> 00:39:03,990
that year when those wines were made. The people behind the

633
00:39:03,990 --> 00:39:06,270
stories is so important that the, you know,

634
00:39:07,860 --> 00:39:10,500
so we're kind of touching on all of that. We're more of macro level, I

635
00:39:10,500 --> 00:39:13,540
guess, but we can go real deep or we can keep it like a little.

636
00:39:13,700 --> 00:39:17,540
We can read the guests appetite, we can read the guest knowledge

637
00:39:17,540 --> 00:39:21,260
without overwhelming them or underwhelming them. And I think

638
00:39:21,260 --> 00:39:24,940
that's kind of been our forte. So, yeah, return guests. It's even

639
00:39:24,940 --> 00:39:28,140
better because we're like, okay, let's peel the onion a little bit more, you know,

640
00:39:28,140 --> 00:39:31,380
take one more layer off this. So it's kind of great. Well, let me just.

641
00:39:31,380 --> 00:39:35,190
Before. It's hard to believe, but we're almost

642
00:39:35,190 --> 00:39:37,550
out of time anyway. But I wanted to

643
00:39:38,670 --> 00:39:42,070
just continue that thought for a second, then we'll get into the

644
00:39:42,070 --> 00:39:45,830
philanthropy here. But I

645
00:39:45,830 --> 00:39:49,590
had this theory when we were heavily into social all

646
00:39:49,590 --> 00:39:53,350
the metrics. I can't tell you how many consultants I burned through that didn't know

647
00:39:53,350 --> 00:39:56,830
what they were doing. Not that they know what they're doing, but they

648
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:01,400
were reluctant to understand the wine business, which is so different than any other business

649
00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:05,080
that none of their plays worked

650
00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:08,560
and they were unwilling to make them work or try to figure out what the

651
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:11,880
problem was. Right. So the question is then,

652
00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:16,320
are you dabbling in those metrics in the affiliate marketing, in

653
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:20,120
the ROAS market, all that stuff? It doesn't sound like you need

654
00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:23,640
to, you know, because you're avoiding it. Such a great question.

655
00:40:25,450 --> 00:40:28,490
I've had conversations about this in the last couple days, actually.

656
00:40:29,930 --> 00:40:33,690
Social media, it is its own

657
00:40:33,690 --> 00:40:37,490
entity now. And at a

658
00:40:37,490 --> 00:40:41,250
certain point, and we do our own social media. I

659
00:40:41,250 --> 00:40:44,970
basically do most of the social media. And I will admit

660
00:40:45,210 --> 00:40:48,450
I'm not very good at it and I'm not

661
00:40:48,450 --> 00:40:52,250
consistent and I'm doing all the wrong things. I know I am.

662
00:40:52,770 --> 00:40:56,210
But the one thing that I can say for sure is that it's

663
00:40:56,210 --> 00:40:59,970
authentic. So I don't think that's

664
00:41:00,130 --> 00:41:03,850
developed with all of the intentions of what we're

665
00:41:03,850 --> 00:41:07,490
doing at that moment. There's nothing scripted. It's not like,

666
00:41:07,490 --> 00:41:11,330
okay, what's the schedule? But I think we're missing a little bit.

667
00:41:11,330 --> 00:41:14,650
And I know that there's an opportunity. So that has been part of the discussion

668
00:41:14,650 --> 00:41:18,290
in the last couple of weeks, which is maybe we need some help

669
00:41:18,290 --> 00:41:22,050
and we can maintain our storytelling and we can maintain

670
00:41:22,050 --> 00:41:25,290
the authenticity and being very genuine to whoever is

671
00:41:25,690 --> 00:41:29,210
following us. We get pretty good

672
00:41:29,210 --> 00:41:32,890
reception from the followers that we have. But

673
00:41:33,130 --> 00:41:36,690
yeah, we need to give it a Little bit more tlc. And I don't think

674
00:41:36,690 --> 00:41:40,170
I'm that person. And I didn't just mean social

675
00:41:40,170 --> 00:41:43,290
because. Sorry to interrupt you, but I didn't mean just social because

676
00:41:45,210 --> 00:41:48,530
social's damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you don't do it, you

677
00:41:48,530 --> 00:41:51,330
look stupid. If you do do it, you realize it's a lot of work for

678
00:41:51,330 --> 00:41:54,870
almost very little monetary value in return. And certainly

679
00:41:55,110 --> 00:41:58,630
paying for ads is. I, I, I think it personally, that's it.

680
00:41:59,030 --> 00:42:02,430
It's imploding on itself because it's just the

681
00:42:02,430 --> 00:42:06,230
consumer just barraged. Yeah, but I'm, there's all that back end

682
00:42:06,230 --> 00:42:09,710
stuff, you know, all like for instance, you were talking about word of mouth and

683
00:42:09,710 --> 00:42:13,030
your customers, how they tell bring their friends. And that's like the most important

684
00:42:13,350 --> 00:42:16,710
part of what you do. It has to be because. Correct. The other way that

685
00:42:16,790 --> 00:42:20,630
the other way is, is for instance, top 10 wine clubs,

686
00:42:20,630 --> 00:42:23,950
you know, from Forbes magazine. Well, that's all paid for. That's all

687
00:42:24,030 --> 00:42:27,790
affiliate marketing where somebody comes in and bids on the highest spot.

688
00:42:28,270 --> 00:42:31,950
And I used to drive me nuts because I was never included in those.

689
00:42:32,510 --> 00:42:36,110
And I never thought that there was that there's any monetary value

690
00:42:36,190 --> 00:42:40,030
associated with those. But if you're not on them, you can't point

691
00:42:40,030 --> 00:42:43,630
to them. And so it's just become this vicious cycle. Right. Anyway,

692
00:42:43,710 --> 00:42:47,560
we'll get into that the next time. Time tell me. There's an article,

693
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:51,400
there's a conversation here about your mother and she had Alzheimer's and you had this

694
00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:55,480
concept to create a

695
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:59,720
philanthropical. Philanthropical. Philanthropic.

696
00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:03,000
That's an interesting word. Philanthropic

697
00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:06,440
organization in the wine business in Napa Valley

698
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:10,600
to raise money. Not just Alzheimer's, but is it

699
00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:14,400
just Alzheimer's? Alzheimer's and dementia. Yeah. And you have

700
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:18,200
an event that's coming up. Actually, it's like April 24th to 26th. Very

701
00:43:18,200 --> 00:43:21,760
much. Coming up. Three day inspire Napa Valley Spring

702
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,360
Wine Weekend. And where does that take place?

703
00:43:25,720 --> 00:43:29,560
So it is day one will

704
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:33,160
be the VIP dinner. The kickoff is at

705
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:37,240
Gamble Estates at Tom Gamble's place. Oh, yeah.

706
00:43:37,720 --> 00:43:41,570
In Oakville. So it is going to be kind of a

707
00:43:41,570 --> 00:43:45,410
deep dive into Oakville. His place is amazing. And

708
00:43:45,490 --> 00:43:49,290
people, I mean, there's no signage or anything. So I mean, you go high, you

709
00:43:49,290 --> 00:43:53,050
go up Highway 29. You'll miss it every time. I've missed it a

710
00:43:53,050 --> 00:43:56,050
couple times and I've been there so many times and I still miss it sometimes,

711
00:43:56,930 --> 00:44:00,730
but yeah. So that'll be the kickoff night and then Saturday morning we

712
00:44:00,730 --> 00:44:04,210
have a really Exciting. It's. My

713
00:44:04,210 --> 00:44:07,300
scientific advisors will be

714
00:44:08,020 --> 00:44:11,860
kind of talking in a roundtable discussion about kind of where

715
00:44:11,860 --> 00:44:15,460
we are now, where we're going with research, clinical trials,

716
00:44:15,700 --> 00:44:19,460
kind of all the advances. Because right now, what's happening in

717
00:44:19,460 --> 00:44:22,339
the Alzheimer's and dementia space is so promising, and

718
00:44:23,700 --> 00:44:27,460
it's so quickly moving, and it really hasn't been that way until, like,

719
00:44:27,460 --> 00:44:30,860
the last, like, five years. It's on this, like, incredible

720
00:44:30,860 --> 00:44:34,460
trajectory right now. So that'll be really exciting to share with the guest guests.

721
00:44:34,620 --> 00:44:37,500
And then we'll lead and we'll follow that with

722
00:44:40,060 --> 00:44:43,620
the wine seminar, which will be led by Antonio Galloni,

723
00:44:43,620 --> 00:44:46,300
who is the founder of Vinnis, and

724
00:44:47,420 --> 00:44:51,260
my friend Ray Isle, who's the executive wine director of Food and Wine magazine.

725
00:44:51,260 --> 00:44:53,660
They come out every year. They've been supporting, Inspire,

726
00:44:55,340 --> 00:44:58,780
flying them, getting themselves out to be a part of this.

727
00:44:59,100 --> 00:45:02,510
And then we'll round that out with. With panelists, Maya

728
00:45:02,510 --> 00:45:06,350
Dalaval from Doll Vineyards, Michael Salachi from

729
00:45:06,350 --> 00:45:10,110
Opus One, Bruce Phillips, who owns Vine Hill Ranch,

730
00:45:10,270 --> 00:45:13,310
and we got Tom Gamble. And

731
00:45:14,270 --> 00:45:17,990
trying to think if I have anyone else there, that's six of them.

732
00:45:17,990 --> 00:45:21,790
Memorable. Very small group. The main event will be

733
00:45:21,950 --> 00:45:25,710
at Louis Martini. We had it there last

734
00:45:25,710 --> 00:45:29,350
year. It was a great setting. And. And it's a grand tasting

735
00:45:29,430 --> 00:45:33,230
of 40 wineries. And these are 40 wineries that

736
00:45:33,230 --> 00:45:36,950
you would never, ever see in one space, tasting

737
00:45:36,950 --> 00:45:40,350
their, you know, sharing their wines. And I can say that I've been to every

738
00:45:40,350 --> 00:45:43,829
event throughout the country, and I could tell you these 40 wineries never

739
00:45:43,829 --> 00:45:46,790
assemble in any other places. That's pretty special.

740
00:45:47,750 --> 00:45:51,390
We keep the audience down because I want.

741
00:45:51,390 --> 00:45:55,210
I'm not a fan of, like, huge crowds. 2. When

742
00:45:55,210 --> 00:45:58,970
you get this caliber of wineries to the table, I think it's really important that

743
00:45:58,970 --> 00:46:01,650
there's actual connectivity with the guests and the wineries.

744
00:46:02,930 --> 00:46:06,050
And so we limit the number of guests. I know we could probably raise more

745
00:46:06,050 --> 00:46:09,730
if we opened it up to more guests. We could also probably raise more if

746
00:46:09,730 --> 00:46:13,410
we had more auction lots. But, you know, auctions can get really

747
00:46:13,410 --> 00:46:17,010
long, and people stop paying attention, which really annoys me. And,

748
00:46:17,010 --> 00:46:20,570
you know, everything is getting donated. So when you're doing these big

749
00:46:20,570 --> 00:46:24,290
asks and you're really asking these small wineries to give

750
00:46:24,550 --> 00:46:28,230
of the way these guys are giving, I want people paying attention. Like, I want

751
00:46:28,230 --> 00:46:31,230
the guests to pay attention. I want the wineries to get the most that they

752
00:46:31,230 --> 00:46:34,910
can out of being a part of this. So we'll do grand

753
00:46:34,910 --> 00:46:38,750
tasting followed into a Wine country dinner paddle raise. We'll

754
00:46:38,750 --> 00:46:42,510
do 12 auction lots max. And then Sunday we

755
00:46:42,510 --> 00:46:46,070
have. This is the one constant. Everything else has changed

756
00:46:47,110 --> 00:46:50,710
intentionally. The VIP dinner, the theme. I change the theme every year. But

757
00:46:51,430 --> 00:46:55,070
Sunday is the farewell brunch. It's one of my favorites. It's my favorite event.

758
00:46:55,070 --> 00:46:58,690
It's like I. You can take a breath. It's at Thomas

759
00:46:58,690 --> 00:47:02,490
Keller's Ad Hoc Gardens. So the gardens behind Ad Hoc

760
00:47:02,490 --> 00:47:06,250
in Yonville. So that kind of finishes off the weekend. That's

761
00:47:06,250 --> 00:47:09,890
really fun. What's that?

762
00:47:09,890 --> 00:47:13,090
Isn't it. Isn't there a burger thing in the back of that property?

763
00:47:13,730 --> 00:47:17,090
Yeah. So they'll open that memorial weekend, which is ad hoc.

764
00:47:17,650 --> 00:47:20,850
It's cool. It's picnic tables, it's gardens. It's super chilly.

765
00:47:21,170 --> 00:47:24,780
Yeah. And so you've raised 8.75 million

766
00:47:25,020 --> 00:47:28,700
since the inception of this Inspire Napa, which is a formidable

767
00:47:28,700 --> 00:47:32,380
sum of money, and that goes to various

768
00:47:32,380 --> 00:47:36,060
Alzheimer research grants or funds or where does it go? Yeah.

769
00:47:36,060 --> 00:47:39,500
So as of finishing 2025,

770
00:47:39,580 --> 00:47:43,340
we've raised over 9 million. We had our winter event,

771
00:47:43,660 --> 00:47:46,860
which kicked us over the 9 million threshold. And

772
00:47:47,750 --> 00:47:51,590
up until that point, we were giving

773
00:47:51,590 --> 00:47:55,430
100%. I was giving all of the proceeds. I was giving everything

774
00:47:55,670 --> 00:47:59,350
to the Alzheimer's Association. I

775
00:47:59,430 --> 00:48:03,150
set up the foundation. 2026 is the

776
00:48:03,150 --> 00:48:06,870
first year. It is in my mother's name, the Judith F. Laz Foundation

777
00:48:07,190 --> 00:48:09,830
Inspire Napa Valley is the dba. And

778
00:48:10,790 --> 00:48:14,470
this is our first year where, with the help of my scientific advisory board,

779
00:48:14,470 --> 00:48:18,230
we will be direct funding into organizations

780
00:48:18,230 --> 00:48:21,810
in addition the Alzheimer's Association. So

781
00:48:22,770 --> 00:48:26,370
I have already earmarked out giving funding to

782
00:48:26,370 --> 00:48:30,050
the local Alzheimer's association chapter. I think

783
00:48:30,050 --> 00:48:33,810
the local chapters are incredible. They

784
00:48:33,810 --> 00:48:37,170
help families and caregivers navigate

785
00:48:38,210 --> 00:48:41,810
getting a diagnosis with loved ones and trying to figure out there's no

786
00:48:41,810 --> 00:48:45,610
playbook. So it's very complicated to what do you do? How do you deal

787
00:48:45,610 --> 00:48:48,970
with this? How do you go forward? I think the local chapters are great for

788
00:48:48,970 --> 00:48:52,670
that. I've also earmarked funds to be given to.

789
00:48:53,230 --> 00:48:56,510
It was called collaborative Care, but it's basically our

790
00:48:57,150 --> 00:49:00,750
local Napa Valley center

791
00:49:00,910 --> 00:49:04,350
that help again, those who have been diagnosed,

792
00:49:04,910 --> 00:49:07,549
caregivers, you know, dealing with

793
00:49:08,590 --> 00:49:12,390
the diagnosis. And then with the help of the scientific advisors, the

794
00:49:12,390 --> 00:49:16,150
remainder, which is going to be the majority of funds, we'll figure out

795
00:49:16,150 --> 00:49:19,950
how to direct into clinical trials, how we develop or how we

796
00:49:20,820 --> 00:49:24,500
fund research organizations, whether it be universities,

797
00:49:24,500 --> 00:49:28,340
whether it be different clinics, stuff like that. So

798
00:49:29,380 --> 00:49:32,900
we'll be announcing that after we get together, and it'll be more than likely in

799
00:49:32,900 --> 00:49:35,500
the summer, we're going to Try to figure out where we give the funds. But

800
00:49:35,500 --> 00:49:39,100
the whole point is to one, this has to grow because it

801
00:49:39,100 --> 00:49:42,700
is so much work. This had to grow. It also has

802
00:49:42,700 --> 00:49:46,340
to give efficiently and effectively. We're not going to hold on to the money.

803
00:49:46,340 --> 00:49:48,420
We're going to give it, we're going to raise it, we're going to give it.

804
00:49:49,380 --> 00:49:52,630
And we're going to be doing inspired Napa valleys throughout the country. Country. So that's

805
00:49:52,630 --> 00:49:56,150
kind of our growth phase. So starting probably

806
00:49:56,150 --> 00:49:59,590
2027 in January, we'll have an inspired Napa Valley in New York.

807
00:50:00,070 --> 00:50:03,350
And we're going to have one in D.C.

808
00:50:03,750 --> 00:50:07,510
we're gonna have one in Scottsdale, Arizona. And

809
00:50:07,510 --> 00:50:10,870
stay tuned. Texas will probably be another one. And all these

810
00:50:10,950 --> 00:50:14,470
places that we're doing it, it's not because I just like threw a dart. It's

811
00:50:14,470 --> 00:50:18,030
because what are the strengths of the regions, you know, these locales for

812
00:50:18,030 --> 00:50:21,850
klac. So I'm leaning on that, I'm leaning a lot on the Klass

813
00:50:21,850 --> 00:50:25,490
connections to get inspire going where the wineries

814
00:50:25,890 --> 00:50:29,570
strong. And that makes sense because we got to get wineries to help us.

815
00:50:29,970 --> 00:50:33,610
And then also, you know, these are going to be intimate

816
00:50:33,610 --> 00:50:37,090
events. The three day weekend will always be in Napa Valley. This is going to

817
00:50:37,090 --> 00:50:40,610
be the more like intimate. You know, it might be 50 to 100

818
00:50:40,610 --> 00:50:44,290
guests. It's going to be leaning very heavily on one great connection I have

819
00:50:44,290 --> 00:50:47,730
that is, is like basically will open the doors of that city for me.

820
00:50:48,130 --> 00:50:51,490
So, you know, I have some great friends that are like, hey, you know,

821
00:50:51,570 --> 00:50:55,170
we'll, we'll get you into DC. How many guests do you want? 75, 100 guests.

822
00:50:55,170 --> 00:50:58,890
It's like, great, let's do it. So, you know, again, it's the

823
00:50:58,890 --> 00:51:02,290
relationships that's going to keep this going. Such an important

824
00:51:04,450 --> 00:51:07,970
philanthropic, you know, what's the word I'm looking for?

825
00:51:07,970 --> 00:51:11,500
It's such an important subject in the situation at the tip of

826
00:51:11,500 --> 00:51:14,940
everybody's tongue these days with the, with the use of Alzheimer's and

827
00:51:14,940 --> 00:51:18,220
dementia. So congratulations on the success. Thank you. And it

828
00:51:18,220 --> 00:51:21,980
continued. I mean, as my mom would have said, you don't let moss grow under

829
00:51:21,980 --> 00:51:25,540
your feet. You're obviously clearly driven not only

830
00:51:25,540 --> 00:51:29,380
for business, but philanthropy. Yeah,

831
00:51:29,380 --> 00:51:33,020
I got that one right. You got that right this time. And I'm

832
00:51:33,020 --> 00:51:35,820
so, I'm honored to have you on the show and I'm honored to hear and

833
00:51:35,820 --> 00:51:38,310
keep tabs of what's going on. And I hope we get a chance to, to

834
00:51:39,110 --> 00:51:42,030
sip a glass of wine next time we're up if you're going to town because

835
00:51:42,030 --> 00:51:45,790
you'll be, you'll be very into, into this,

836
00:51:45,790 --> 00:51:49,270
getting this project going. But we're up all the time. And this is

837
00:51:49,510 --> 00:51:53,150
very inspiring and it's been an honor to have honor to have you on the

838
00:51:53,150 --> 00:51:56,590
show. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me on, Paul, I'd love to see

839
00:51:56,590 --> 00:52:00,230
you when you come into town. I'd love to raise a glass

840
00:52:01,510 --> 00:52:04,630
and I'd love to have you as a neighbor at some point, you know. So

841
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:08,560
I'm working on it. My wife, she's like, you know, any way I can help?

842
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:12,040
Yeah, so we'll have that

843
00:52:12,040 --> 00:52:15,440
conversation with her and maybe you can sort of. That will work.

844
00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:19,320
Yeah, I can, I can, I can help. I can help. I can help

845
00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:22,800
you with that message for sure. Thanks so much. I

846
00:52:22,800 --> 00:52:24,400
appreciate it. Cheers.