From the LA Lakers Locker Room to Napa Valley vines: Kelly E. Carter on Diversity, Story, and Wine Exploration

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You'll never know everything. And that's what's so intriguing about

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winemaking, is I don't care how much you

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learn. Yeah, right. There's always something more. And if you're a

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curious person that keeps you coming back,

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

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with Paul K. Hey,

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welcome to Wine Talks with Paul Kay. And we are in studio today in beautiful

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Southern California. But to have a conversation with Kelly E. Carter, introductions

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in just a second. Hey, have a listen to a show that I just released

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with Zara Muradian, and she is head of a foundation in

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Armenia bringing Armenian wines to the world. And it's a government

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foundation that is trying to get exposure for this incredibly old

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industry in Armenia. But not while we're here. We're here to talk to Kelly E.

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Carter. She's the founder of the Napa Valley Noir, as well as the New

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York Times bestselling author. And she claims herself to be the

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unofficial mayor of the Yontville. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much,

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Paul. It's such a pleasure to be sitting here with you. It's amazing timing that

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we got this work out. I know, right? And I'm so happy you're back in

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LA in your old stomping ground. Yes. I don't get home often. It's my

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second time here this year. My friends are like, you should come home more often.

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You should come up to Napa more often. Did you grow up in LA then?

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I did. I grew up in Windsor Hills, which is like the black

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Beverly Hills. And my neighbors were Ike and Tina Turner and Ray

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Charles. Dating myself right now. I mean, I

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was born in Inglewood. So you go. Yeah. So right there. Yeah. So it's right

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there. Yeah. Just north of Englewood. My dad was president of the Lions Club,

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president of the Chamber. He had a pharmacy on Van Ness in Manchester. Manchester,

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yeah. Because you had all of those doctors as clients.

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I mean, you're doing tastings for them. Right. That's how he started the company

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was after we moved to the South Bay.

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On Tuesdays, he in that picture right there. He was holding tastings,

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and the doctors would support him. But back In Inglewood, in 19, you know,

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59 or 60, there weren't, you know, we didn't taste a whole lot of

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wine down there. But, I mean, I came along right after that, and

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I was drinking Manischewitz. Yeah. Beautiful. You know, as a kid,

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because my grandmother. I mean, my grandmother's sister, my great. Aunt, it's

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pretty amazing what's happened There. Because I learned how to ride a bike at Hollywood

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park before the form was there. Yeah. My first lemonade stand was on Manchester

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Near Prairie, that kind of thing. And. And then it

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got a little dilapidated. A little. A little. And now it's come back. Oh, my

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gosh. With Sofi and Intuit and even last night,

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I was at ten ten Wine Bar, which is on the. By

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Inglewood. I mean, right at La Brea and Centinella. And

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two black women, two sisters, owning. I've been trying to get them on the show.

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Really? Yes. Okay. Well, I'm. Yes,

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I reached out to them a little bit, and it was a little while ago

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with the aav. Aaav. Yeah.

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Association of African American. Did you know the

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chairman grew up at

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West 82nd Street? And I grew up in West 84th

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Street. No way. And he was born one year behind me. Oh, my

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gosh. Is that crazy? Who's that? Which one? Yeah, I

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knew you're gonna challenge me. I know, I know. Sorry. It's like. But who's it.

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Because they have. Okay, so they have the founders. They. So they've got Mac mc.

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But Max from Check. Max just retired. Yes. He did Vision

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Sellers, which is amazing. It's like. And then the number two guy. Oh, well,

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you have Phil Long Phil. That's

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it. Okay. How embarrassing. I'm going have to cut that out. So in case Phil

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is Phil and I. Case Phil is listening. We were neighbors. You should be listening.

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Yeah, we were neighbors. That part of

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our lives. And we were only one year apart. He went to Daniel Freeman elementary,

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like I did. Not crazy. Yeah. My dad would

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take me to. I'd go to work with my father. We. I'd stamp brochures at

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Manchester and Van Ness. And. And then he'd take me, the driver, the

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prescription driver would drive me to school at Daniel Raymond.

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So anyway. So we're like kindred spirits here. Yes. So tell me, then,

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how'd you end up in Northern California in the wine trade? Oh, my gosh, it

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was a long route. Had I known I could just move from LA up to

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Napa, I would have done so. But I went the long way, and I went

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through Italy. And so my background. You talk

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about the form. Yeah. And so I was the first female to cover the

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Lakers. I started off as a sports writer and decided

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fourth grade to become a sports writer. Fourth. Fourth grade to become a

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journalist. Sixth grade to become a sports writer. In college at

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usc, I set my goal to be. To cover the

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Lakers. And at the age of 28, it was my fourth job.

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By then, I got the job to cover the Lakers. Wow. How

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incredible. And so I've always kind of been this. I set my eyes on

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something, that's what I'm going to do. I always said I would only cover sports

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until I turned 35, because I didn't want to be this old woman in the

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locker room trying to, you know, kind of flirt with you. Locker room? In the

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locker room? Yes, of course, if you're gonna be a sports writer, you have to

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go in for me. But.

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That'S funny. I was always professional. I would tell the guys, hey, if I

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see something I've never seen before, that's what I'm going to write about. Forget the

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game. And so that would, you know, put them at ease. Because there

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weren't a lot of women in the locker room then. No, that was probably cutting

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edge almost. Yes, because that was 91 when I started

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covering the Lakers. How did they receive that? Were they like, yeah, yo, go, girl?

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Well, I remember when I was a student at USC and we could cover whatever

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we wanted to in one sports writing class, and I picked the Lakers, and they

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treated me like a regular member of the media. But I remember they were playing

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the spurs one night and George Gervin, the Iceman.

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And so he's. I could hear him in the shower. There's a woman in the

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locker room. Bring her back in the shower. No,

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really, Seriously. But because I'm so tall,

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six foot one, so the guys didn't really mess with me. And

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that's really interesting. And so that really helped a lot. And there were some, you

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know, I covered Major League Baseball. Reggie Jackson was not always very

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nice. And so. But I would tease him about it later as I got to

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know him. Once I started covering the NFL for USA Today and

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after the game to go to Carmen Policy's box for. He had a

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little post something. And so Reggie would be in there. He was retired by then,

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but I. How interesting. Yeah, but not a lot of stories. You.

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But you were destined to be in journalism. Is that why you went to usc?

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Yes, because it was in best journalism school. And where did that sort

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of, you know, affinity come from as growing up. In

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just growing up. I love to read and write, and I just started writing

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when I was in the fourth grade. I still have what I

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wrote in about someone's house. My neighbors across the street, they

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used to decorate their house. It was hideous.

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Absolutely. About this hideous thing. But I wrote something

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very nice, and I still have that because I'm Working on my memoir. And so

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I have a lot of material that's so interesting.

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So, yeah. So I covered sports, and then I changed to entertainment and

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then changed to travel writing. And

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when I changed to travel writing, so then I moved to Italy and plan

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to stay in Italy the rest of my life. I moved at the age of

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40. What part of Florence for first? And I always

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knew that would be my starter city. And then I wanted to find a

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small place on the sea where nobody spoke

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English. Ended up going to Positano where

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everybody speaks English. And so. But I stayed in

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Positano for 15 months. I was after a year in Florence. Did you

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learn Italian? See? See Italiano. No, Moto

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benett.

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That's very cool. So. And after that,

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people said, why didn't you stay in Italy? I'm like, well, I thought

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I'd get married. I couldn't find accounts I could count on, you know, without cheating.

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Italian men. Count I could count on. I can count

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on. Not even on Sesame Street. So

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I ended up going to New York, and that was really to get my travel

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writing career going because I needed to meet those travel

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editors. And so once I met them in person and then I

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said, okay, because I wanted to do luxury travel, I can do budget travel all

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on my own. Right, that. Right. Right. So that's

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interesting, though, because I just think I was just gonna ask this question because it's

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off script. The I. You know this. I know we have the script. We haven't

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even started. I never even use these things. But

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this whole movement of AI and we were just talking with Josh in the engineers

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booth about how AI has been changing media and changing all kinds of things. Wow.

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Yeah. There's obviously has a bias and it doesn't have common sense.

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It would seem like travel would be one of the least available

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opportunities for AI to invade. Because you really have to

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have the experience of doing that. You have to have these intimate

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experiences when you're traveling to write about. Well, also. And you have to

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know the latest because sometimes I'll type something

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in in chat and ask it just to see what it

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tells me about Napa. It's giving me places that have

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closed, places that are under construction even. Oh, and

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visit Robert Mondavi. Well, Mondavi's construction. It'll be open again

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next year. I mean, there are just some little things they just don't know.

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Yeah. And there's no way to keep up on everything. But you couldn't get

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that feeling that comes from your right perspective

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through. All through AI and it just seems like one of those areas is not

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going to probably ever intrude on. Well, I've seen a lot

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of travel stories written by AI and even when I was working at

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Alpha Omega, and obviously I had a Google

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search on set up. And so every time Alpha Omega was mentioned, and

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one day, this was, I don't know, three years ago, and this travel

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story came through, and I'm like, God, this is the most

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poorly written article I've ever read.

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And it's all incorrect. Oops. And then I, you

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know, we realized it's like, oh, bot wrote this. This

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was not done with by a real person. We were just that the.

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The Villagio version of the youn Phil est. The

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gentleman bought them. Jabara bought Gary. Yes.

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And they were pouring Alpha. It was a tasting night. Thursday was tasting nights. And

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there Alpha Omega girl came. Oh, really? Yeah, she was, you know,

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she's a tasting room gal and she. I love the wines. I

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thought never had them before. Oh, really? Oh, my gosh. After all

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these years, doing this wine's really good. So how did you go from travel to

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wine? I mean, there's obviously travel is part of wine. I mean, that is

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part of it. And even when I covered entertainment, I was working at People

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magazine. And then I went back to USA Today, where I'd covered

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sports and started doing entertainment there.

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And part of that is covering Hollywood. You're always at fancy

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dinners, and I was always invited to a lot of places and, you know,

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so drinking a lot of champagne, drinking a lot of wine. But it was really

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even going back to when I covered the Lakers and the Lakers

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trainer at the time, Gary Beatty, and he's of

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Italian descent, and he would say, kelly, I see you drinking white wine. Because I

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traveled with the team for four years. Wow. And he says, you should

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drink red wine. It's healthier for you. And so Gary got me into red

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wine. When do you think that was? Why? When? Oh, this was

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in. In the 90s. Wow. So just after like the morally safer 19.

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Yeah, it was like 91 through 95. I covered the team. So he already bought

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off on this idea that. Yes. And so that got me into red

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wine more. So. And then when I cover the NFL and

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I cover the six most western teams for USA Today, so I would

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come up to Napa because the Raiders had training camp in Napa.

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And so then I go to the French Laundry. It wasn't quite then the French

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Laundry that it is now, but I would go and do my wine tastings. And

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I still remember, like, the first great bottle

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for me at that time. My first bottle that I purchased was, like, a

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1994 Caymus that I thought was just

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excellent. And I didn't understand about vintages or so.

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And I went back to purchase it later, and they're like, oh, we're all out

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of that vintage. I'm like, what do you mean you don't have any? I don't

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understand. But that's a little. I didn't know. It's like, once it's gone, it's

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gone. I should have bought more than one bottle. And then. But

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that gets you into everything. And just. So that just

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built well. So when I lived in Italy and just going. Going around to

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Tuscany and various wine. Regions,

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the intellectual curiosity to wine.

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No more. The taste. The taste. It seriously was.

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It kind of set you up for something. I know I had some great experience

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even going to Bordeaux and some of the. Oh, my gosh,

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some of the chateaus that I went to, and I'm just like, oh, I

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mean, you know, older than me and. And I should be, like, so

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impressed and. But I would. I wasn't paying attention

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to the production. I really didn't care about that. It wasn't until

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I moved to Napa that I really gained an appreciation for wine making.

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So interesting. And then once I started working at Alpha Omega, I was director

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of communications, but I'm like, okay, I'm going to work harvest.

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So I'm on the sorting table. I'm out in the vineyards. I'm picking grapes.

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I'm, you know, like this with the vineyard manager because I want to learn.

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And then I really got into it. Then I did my w set studies

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and just knocked out 1, 2, 3. People said, why are you starting at 1?

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You've now been in the wine industry. Four years, which is like, red wine.

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Is red wine. Exactly. But I wouldn't build a house

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starting on the second floor. So I wasn't going to build my wine education either.

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Starting at 2. I didn't mind starting at 1 because it even

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gets my mind just thinking a certain way. So. So when you do, we're

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going to talk about the tours here. What will Napi

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Napa Valley Noir is. But you struck. You hit a

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very important part of what we talk about and what

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consumers hear, and that is

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how much education do you recommend or how much.

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How much excitement do you expect to get out of your clients? And

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do you promote that idea or. As

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I am mostly, hey, you get out of what you want to put into it,

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and you're never going to learn it all. It's impossible. But there is

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an intellectual stimulation and an emotional and romantic stimulation to the

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subject. So how do you deal with that with your clients? I mean,

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you just show them a good time and let them walk their own path. No,

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I really want to partner with wineries that have a

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great story. I don't want the story to be such

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and such. Made so much money in wine, I mean, in tech, that they just

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came to Napa and opened a winery. It's like. Or

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surgeon or restaurant. I mean, anybody can do that. I love

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stories. I love. I went to Lark Mead for the first time recently in

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Calistoga. Beautiful story and

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with females. And I was just like, so this is

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enchanting. Yeah. And that's what I love. I love stories. Because at the

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heart, that's what wine should be centered around, stories. I think

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that's what we have to get back to and really help the industry

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get back to what it was before. Completely agree. And

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that picture is 1975, and that's what we sold.

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That's all there was, was stories. Because the idea of corporate wine and the

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idea of bringing in 50 cent a liter junk from Spain and putting in the

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bottle with a fancy label didn't exist. Right. It was. This is all earnest

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storytelling from immigrants coming to Napa or wherever

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they're coming from. Yeah. I think you have to go out in the vineyard. I

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like taking clients to places where they can go in the

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vineyard and they can taste the grapes if it's harvest time, or even

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going into the cellar and just having some kind of

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backstory to it. Even though when I started drinking wine, yes. That didn't always

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interest me, but I think that that's the way you keep people.

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You think that's a natural progression. It is. It is. And that's the first

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glass. Yeah. I love about wine as. And you mentioned. And you touched on it,

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is you'll never know everything. And that's what's so intriguing

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about winemaking is I don't care how much

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you learn. Yeah. Right. There's always something more. And if

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you're a curious person that keeps you coming back. Is

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that part of, you know, part of this part of my career in my life?

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This podcast has stimulated that

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thought process and that interest in that academic and intellectual

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and romantic part of wine. I'm totally with you on the storytelling.

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Is that something that motivates you every day?

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Like, you get up and you go, oh, wow, this. What am I Going to

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learn today at what. What am I going to see today? Or if you have

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a client group coming in, what am I going to show them? And what's the.

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What's the point of all this? Yes. And even when I go out, I'm invited

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to a lot of places. Obviously, everybody is looking for business right

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now in. In Napa and Sonoma. And so I'm

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invited to a lot of places to come and taste, but I have to decide

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where am I going to go. Otherwise, all I'm doing is, you know, trying to

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get to your number of over 100,000 tastings,

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which isn't going to happen. But I really. I don't want someone.

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Oh, and we make these single vineyard cabs from so and so. Like,

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really? Yeah. Yeah. So.

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So I want more than we make these cabs or

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so. And I noticed, you know, Napa's

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problem is Napa has not had to market itself,

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and now it has to market itself. Well, we were just

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talking about the expense of coming to nap, and I didn't finish my thought, and

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I'll finish it off camera. So we don't embarrass anybody. But

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yes, we know. And it's. That's a challenge.

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Napa, you know, I get a lot of inquiries from first timers.

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People are very intrigued by Napa right now, especially

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African Americans, which are. There's the tourism, you know,

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visit Napa Valley release statistics last year,

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and the growth with African American visitors to

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Napa Valley, it's tripled. Wow, that's great. And so. But

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it's a whole thing of bringing people in. Everyone's not going

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to come in and buy $500 bottles of

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wine. That takes a while. And you may never get to that

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point. No, you know, it's. It's a lot. So wineries have to

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figure out, okay, we have to be okay with people

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paying a little less. They're going to level up as people learn more,

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you find your comfort level. That's one thing I always ask

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when I start off talking to a new client, and

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it's on my intake form. What is your bottle price? Comfort level.

305
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And it's 50 to 100. They're telling you the truth. Like, they want to say

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a 50. I know one wants to say, but you'd be surprised how many people

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pick that 50 to 100. And then the other category is

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100 to 150. 150 to 250. 250 plus.

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But you have to be very honest with me with what your budget is.

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Otherwise I'm going to go crazy because I'm going to show you the

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best time. I mean, my specialty at the club was

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10 to $18. I mean, that's what I lived in. Right. Which is

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that marketplace has changed. Let me ask you the question. Something happened. I forgot what

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social upheaval we had. Maybe it was the early 2000s,

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and I reached out to the AAAV, the Association of African American Vendors,

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to see. I forgot what my inquiry was. But there were only five

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members at that time. Oh, my gosh, there are so many. It was like maybe

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two or three after it was formed. And then. Yes. And then now there's like

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200 plus. Right. Went to the tasting. The tasting of that.

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The Oxbow. I missed the one I had. The next Oxbow actually had to come.

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Oh, I'll be at the next one in. Yeah, I'll be at the one in

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April. I tasted every single wine there. You did? I had to miss. I was

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down here in la, actually. But let me. Let's talk about the. Culturally. You came

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from Inglewood, around Inglewood. I was born there. You just went

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to 1010, the Boing Bar there. Which. Which I've.

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I've known it to be in existence for. For many years already. Well, they've had

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that. What is they. What did they just have? It's been open, what, three years,

328
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four years, I can't remember. Functional business now. Oh, my gosh, it was

329
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packed. It was like last night. And I had to, you know, run by.

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And Leslie, the owner, was in. She's. Oh, you're in town, you know. So is

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that. Is wine culturally new to the African American base or is

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it pretty much. So people are. Yes, I think it is.

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I mean, obviously there are people who. Most of us

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didn't grow up with wine cellars. Like I said, I grew up. My mother. My

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parents drank spirits. My great aunt who lived with us drank

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Manischewitz. And so. Well, that was fermented grape juice. Anyway, so I drank

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that. But generally it's new and it's

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aided by the hip hop community, the

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athletes in particular, NBA players. People like

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LeBron, you know, made it very sexy.

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Even Kobe Bryant, you know, Kobe came up to

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Napa. I blended wine with him at the Napa Valley

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Reserve. How cool. Oh, my gosh. And they. It was. He was doing a

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promotion. Oh, Hublot. The watch company had

345
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come out with a new watch for him, the Mamba. And so they did the

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unveiling at the Napa Valley Reserve and did a

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wine blending session. And I told Colby I said, oh, you should

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move up here after you retire. And I was trying to get him

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up here. Well, you know, there's. I was talking to the Somme at

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Boa Steakhouse, which is. Yes. Culver Studio in that area.

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And he said that it's almost nightly on a home

352
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game if, depending when it ends, they get a phone call from LeBron or somebody,

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they say, hey, pull out the Lafitte or whatever they're gonna drink, get a

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couple of rib eyes going, and we're gonna be there in 10 minutes. You see

355
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what these guys are drinking. I mean, Jimmy Butler with the warriors, you know his

356
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sellers. Oh, Sasakaya, he like loves it.

357
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And there are a lot of hip hop guys in music and they

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are. They have podcasts and they're really talking about some of

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these ultra premium wines. That's really interesting. And so that has really helped.

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And that all stems back from Greg Popovich, who was the San

361
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Antonio spurs coach. Big wine guy.

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And so he would talk to, you know, Tim. Duncan. Duncan, different players about

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wine. Tony Parker didn't mean the same Tim. I don't know if Tim's right, but.

364
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Tony Parker, Cote Duron, I think, or

365
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something. Tony. Tony does. Yes. Right. Yeah.

366
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So is that what spawned Napa Valley Noir?

367
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In a sense. It spawned it in a sense, but also what

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I saw. I saw a lot of people. I saw the

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black tourism growing in Napa,

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but no one really reaching out to them

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to let them know what actually is possible.

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We come up and we go to Brown, and I love

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Brown. They have their downtown

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tasting room, which is limited in size. They did used to

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see visitors at their estate and. But it

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wasn't. And that was. I was like, okay, you. You've got to do more. You've

377
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got to get out. And there are wine dinners you can have in a cave

378
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and lunch in a vineyard. And you can have access to

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winer, winery owners and winemakers. And.

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And we have the money for that. You know, when you're talking about access, that

381
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generally comes with a purchase expectation. You

382
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know, someone's not going to show up. And you're buying a 50$1 bottle of

383
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wine for six people. You're not going to get a winery owner

384
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to come out and, you know, sit down with you. You set that

385
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stage before you do these things. Yes, you have to. It's managing

386
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expectations on both ends. You don't want to put the client in an

387
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uncomfortable position. And you certainly don't want to

388
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ask something of a winery owner or winemaker. If

389
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you have to make it worth their time. Yeah, it's time. Yeah, it is time.

390
00:23:50,460 --> 00:23:54,060
And time is money. Yes. And sometimes. And people don't mind popping by to say

391
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hello because they know it's all about that

392
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interaction and that's what's going to keep people coming back. Oh, my gosh.

393
00:24:01,260 --> 00:24:05,090
I had the best experience with so and so or I had a chance

394
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to meet, you know, so they may not sit down and have a tasting, but

395
00:24:08,210 --> 00:24:11,970
those certainly come by and say hello. Well, you don't think your friends in

396
00:24:11,970 --> 00:24:15,570
that video that saw Thomas Keller. Yeah, I mean, Thomas

397
00:24:15,570 --> 00:24:19,410
Keller magically appear. Yeah. So they're gonna go to Bouchon and they're gonna go

398
00:24:19,410 --> 00:24:23,210
to French Laundry or ad hoc or whatever they're doing. But I would see

399
00:24:23,210 --> 00:24:27,010
that when I worked at Alpha Omega and the owners, Robin and

400
00:24:27,010 --> 00:24:30,740
Michelle Baggett, as Robin would love

401
00:24:30,740 --> 00:24:34,300
to, you know, they just live down the street from the winery.

402
00:24:34,780 --> 00:24:38,540
Robin loved to just walk around on the terrace. Hi, I'm

403
00:24:38,540 --> 00:24:42,060
Robin. I own Alpha Mate. You know, sit down, have a

404
00:24:42,060 --> 00:24:45,860
glass of Chardonnay with them or something. And those are the kind

405
00:24:45,860 --> 00:24:49,540
of things that stick with people. And it also shows that

406
00:24:49,540 --> 00:24:53,260
it's not a corporation that owns a business and it's

407
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not Constellation and Treasury and everything. And so when you

408
00:24:57,020 --> 00:24:59,340
know that Snoop Dogs, Cali Red. Yeah,

409
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:04,240
but those are things you have to. But that's an interesting thought. I just. You

410
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,320
triggered a thought because in the 80s, when

411
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,880
Pat Ture brought Wolfgang Puck out of the back of the kitchen

412
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Maison and brought him to the front and that became

413
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hospitality. Yeah. And I love this idea, what you're doing,

414
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because I believe in, like you do, in that, you know, tourism,

415
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:27,440
experiential tourism is where the wine trade has to go

416
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,200
back to this little patch here. And I've told this story through a thousand times

417
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to the listeners, so maybe they can turn it off for a second. But this,

418
00:25:32,660 --> 00:25:36,100
this is Les Ami Devan. It was 150 chapters in America.

419
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And you would go and Mandavi would speak and

420
00:25:39,700 --> 00:25:43,380
Lawrence Bowser, Robert Bowser and Harry Waugh

421
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and people in Palos Verdes, where my dad's store was, would go to dinner

422
00:25:47,780 --> 00:25:51,300
and then they would taste Mondavi's wine. And then that was indelible.

423
00:25:51,860 --> 00:25:55,620
That conversation was indelible. And those tastings, I

424
00:25:55,620 --> 00:25:58,760
think you're on the right track in that regard that we need to bring that

425
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:02,520
experiential part back, right? Yes, you have to, because that's what people

426
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,640
are going to remember and that's what they're going to post.

427
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:10,160
We're in social media world. That's new, right? That's. People are paying

428
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:13,920
attention. You know, they plan their whole trips around Tik Tok. Yeah.

429
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,680
It's true though. It's really interesting. Yeah. And so they'll, they'll go

430
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:21,320
with you. You're going to take them around to what, what's, what can I expect?

431
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,360
I'm going to call you tomorrow and come to town. What are you going to

432
00:26:24,360 --> 00:26:27,430
do for me? Me? I am going. So I just had a client

433
00:26:27,910 --> 00:26:31,670
fly. She left yesterday. Now this was a lady who

434
00:26:31,670 --> 00:26:35,390
had never been to Napa before, traveling solo from North

435
00:26:35,390 --> 00:26:38,550
Carolina. Wow. Which I thought was very interesting.

436
00:26:39,110 --> 00:26:42,950
Even when her inquiry came in and it was a Hotmail email address.

437
00:26:42,950 --> 00:26:46,630
I'm like, oh, this is a fake. She just wants to know what my prices

438
00:26:46,630 --> 00:26:50,070
are. Nobody uses hotel. Yeah. Hotmail, aol.

439
00:26:50,310 --> 00:26:54,070
Yeah. These are red flags for me. But that taught me

440
00:26:54,070 --> 00:26:57,890
to take everybody seriously because she committed immediately.

441
00:26:58,290 --> 00:27:01,810
Some people, they see my rates and like, yeah,

442
00:27:01,890 --> 00:27:05,450
okay, yeah. You never hear from them again. Sign me up.

443
00:27:05,450 --> 00:27:09,170
Business. Yeah, it's business. You're not going to get everybody and that's,

444
00:27:09,170 --> 00:27:12,809
that's fine. And but what I did for her and she

445
00:27:12,809 --> 00:27:16,370
didn't need all four days curated. She wanted one

446
00:27:17,410 --> 00:27:20,730
day. It maybe did one and a half days. When was hot air balloon that

447
00:27:20,730 --> 00:27:24,580
didn't go up because we've had some kind of bad weather. But

448
00:27:25,300 --> 00:27:29,100
even a place where she didn't. I didn't curate for her. She

449
00:27:29,100 --> 00:27:32,900
just happened to mention she was going because she was staying downtown

450
00:27:33,220 --> 00:27:36,580
the day she got in. So she said I'm going to go to Brown and

451
00:27:36,580 --> 00:27:40,420
I'm going to go to Celadon for dinner. And I said okay. And

452
00:27:40,420 --> 00:27:44,140
so I sent a note to send an email to my

453
00:27:44,140 --> 00:27:47,700
contact at Brown. I said I have a client coming and she's coming in on

454
00:27:47,700 --> 00:27:50,730
her own. I didn't book her but she'll be there. He said, oh yeah, I

455
00:27:50,730 --> 00:27:54,530
see her name. She's coming at 4:30. And I said okay.

456
00:27:54,530 --> 00:27:57,970
I said just give her an extra pour or something like that. Right? Yeah. And

457
00:27:57,970 --> 00:28:01,810
then I get an email from her two hours later she's oh, thank you

458
00:28:01,810 --> 00:28:05,050
so much. They gave me a complimentary experience and a

459
00:28:05,050 --> 00:28:08,770
charcuterie black. Oh wow, that's great. Thank

460
00:28:08,770 --> 00:28:12,530
you. So those are things and

461
00:28:12,530 --> 00:28:16,290
I can't always do that. But I, I appreciate that. Brown did

462
00:28:16,290 --> 00:28:19,940
that for me and I have eight clients going to them in, in two

463
00:28:19,940 --> 00:28:23,700
weeks or so. Well, they appreciate the business is business, right? I mean, yeah. At

464
00:28:23,700 --> 00:28:27,340
some point. Yes, exactly. And it's just keeping them

465
00:28:27,980 --> 00:28:31,820
fresh. But it could be. If I'm going to call you, it's. Everything's custom.

466
00:28:32,939 --> 00:28:36,780
I tell you what I want and you. It depends. I'd like to

467
00:28:36,780 --> 00:28:40,620
know what someone's palette is. I was referred to. Someone referred me

468
00:28:40,620 --> 00:28:44,420
to a colleague. The guy was coming to Napa to speak

469
00:28:44,420 --> 00:28:47,300
at a convention, a guy from Texas,

470
00:28:48,500 --> 00:28:52,260
wine drinker. And I get on the phone with him.

471
00:28:52,260 --> 00:28:56,060
I said, so you love Napa's big red cabs? He said, no,

472
00:28:56,060 --> 00:28:59,900
I hate them. I'm like, oh, really? Okay, let

473
00:28:59,900 --> 00:29:03,460
me see. Okay, what do you like? And he said, bordeaux blends.

474
00:29:03,460 --> 00:29:07,180
He said, left bank Bordeaux. So I said, okay, let me figure

475
00:29:07,180 --> 00:29:10,660
out. What am I going to do? And he was coming. It was a very

476
00:29:10,660 --> 00:29:14,380
short amount of time, so a couple of places, and he only had Sunday

477
00:29:14,380 --> 00:29:18,120
to taste. A couple of places I would have sent him were

478
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:21,320
closed on Sundays. Others were booked.

479
00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:25,240
And then I said, oh, you. Some

480
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:28,920
connections got him into assome on Atlas

481
00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:32,440
P, you know. Yeah, right. Yeah. That Heidi Barrett has an interest in. They pour

482
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:36,120
so many different types of wines. And I told

483
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,880
them what his palate was and his traveling partner's palate.

484
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:43,790
They bought a lot of wine. Wow, great. Contacted

485
00:29:43,790 --> 00:29:47,550
Alpha Omega, where I used to work. And even though they're known for their single

486
00:29:47,550 --> 00:29:51,350
vineyards and everything, but I know that they

487
00:29:51,350 --> 00:29:54,550
do a left bank and I know all the wine. I know their skus. So

488
00:29:54,950 --> 00:29:58,430
I asked Eric, the tasting room manager, I said, hey, can you put together a

489
00:29:58,430 --> 00:30:01,870
tasting, Put together a flight just with these

490
00:30:01,870 --> 00:30:05,510
wine? He said, sure. And so those are the connections that I

491
00:30:05,510 --> 00:30:09,110
have where I can contact a winery and say, okay,

492
00:30:09,270 --> 00:30:12,910
don't pour this, but pour this. And this is what they like. And so

493
00:30:12,910 --> 00:30:16,610
I mentioned to know and I want to talk about the book. Actually, I

494
00:30:16,610 --> 00:30:20,410
did stop and bring one of my books. People say, think that's

495
00:30:20,410 --> 00:30:24,050
me? So what. So what is. This is. Oh, this was Venus

496
00:30:24,050 --> 00:30:27,650
Williams. This is the New York Times bestseller. Yeah. And when did that come up?

497
00:30:27,650 --> 00:30:31,410
This came out in 2010. And it's a book

498
00:30:31,410 --> 00:30:35,210
about really what sports teaches

499
00:30:35,210 --> 00:30:38,730
you. We had some really heavy hitters interviewed for this book.

500
00:30:38,730 --> 00:30:42,010
Everybody had their own chapter. So you have Sir Richard

501
00:30:42,010 --> 00:30:45,850
Branson, Ken Chenault, who's the CEO of American Express at the time. Bill

502
00:30:45,850 --> 00:30:49,570
Clinton, Phil Knight, you know, started Nike. Marcus Samuelson,

503
00:30:49,730 --> 00:30:53,530
Meg Whitman, Jack Vera Wang. So what inspired you

504
00:30:53,530 --> 00:30:57,250
to make this book, write this book? Well, the publisher came to me. Oh,

505
00:30:57,250 --> 00:31:00,850
well, that would be one inspiration. But I was trying to. I'D met the

506
00:31:00,850 --> 00:31:04,290
publisher at a seminar

507
00:31:04,370 --> 00:31:08,180
for secrets of book publishing or something. I'm pitching my.

508
00:31:08,180 --> 00:31:11,780
I just moved from Italy to New York, and so I'm trying to write my

509
00:31:11,780 --> 00:31:14,380
memoir about my two years living in.

510
00:31:15,820 --> 00:31:19,500
Living in Italy. And so she was kind of interested, but

511
00:31:19,660 --> 00:31:23,419
then she had me in, you know. Anyway, months later,

512
00:31:23,419 --> 00:31:26,060
she came back to me and she said, hey, I think I have a first

513
00:31:26,540 --> 00:31:29,980
great book project for you. Because writing a memoir,

514
00:31:30,140 --> 00:31:33,830
and I've been a magazine writer and a

515
00:31:33,830 --> 00:31:37,110
journalist, a newspaper writer, it's hard to write

516
00:31:37,590 --> 00:31:41,350
a memoir, I would think. So that's actually one of the questions. Is, like, how

517
00:31:41,350 --> 00:31:45,110
do you balance. Very hard. So this book is great because it's

518
00:31:45,670 --> 00:31:49,110
46 people who were interviewed. They all have their own chapter.

519
00:31:49,350 --> 00:31:53,190
And the first part of the book is Venus. I would write the stories,

520
00:31:53,350 --> 00:31:57,110
send them to Venus. She would read, write about what

521
00:31:57,110 --> 00:32:00,670
resonated with her, and write how come she wanted to become a

522
00:32:00,670 --> 00:32:04,310
businesswoman when. While she was still playing. Things that her

523
00:32:04,310 --> 00:32:08,150
parents taught her. Wow. So the book is really about the

524
00:32:08,150 --> 00:32:11,750
lessons that you learn from playing sports that help make you a

525
00:32:11,750 --> 00:32:14,390
success in life in Compton. Yeah,

526
00:32:15,110 --> 00:32:18,870
exactly. Exactly. Growing up in COMPTON, Venus was 10

527
00:32:18,870 --> 00:32:22,630
years old when I first found out about her, and

528
00:32:22,630 --> 00:32:26,150
I was covering tennis. Is there something on the horizon that you're writing now that's

529
00:32:26,150 --> 00:32:29,890
not related to editorials and a couple of things. So

530
00:32:29,890 --> 00:32:33,610
I'm working on my memoir, Bellini for one. And so

531
00:32:33,610 --> 00:32:37,410
that it's based around my time living in Italy. Bellini

532
00:32:37,410 --> 00:32:41,010
for one. Bellini for one. Because I'm a solo person. I'm always

533
00:32:41,010 --> 00:32:44,770
at a bar by myself, eating by myself. Bellini for one. Table.

534
00:32:44,770 --> 00:32:48,570
Interesting perspective. Yeah. And it's. But it's my life, but it's

535
00:32:48,570 --> 00:32:52,110
more. I thought it was enough to just write

536
00:32:52,420 --> 00:32:56,180
these great stories, kind of like A Year in Provence, which. I love that book.

537
00:32:57,060 --> 00:33:00,660
And people said no. To write a memoir, you have to develop

538
00:33:00,660 --> 00:33:04,500
the character, and you have to. There has to be an arc, and they have

539
00:33:04,500 --> 00:33:07,980
to go through something. I said really didn't change when I lived in

540
00:33:07,980 --> 00:33:11,620
Italy. I think living in Italy taught

541
00:33:11,620 --> 00:33:15,100
me things about myself. But it wasn't until I moved to

542
00:33:15,100 --> 00:33:18,820
Napa that I really changed, I think, and became

543
00:33:18,820 --> 00:33:22,210
the person who I am today. So now I'm bringing the

544
00:33:22,370 --> 00:33:25,570
memoir all the way to Napa. So it's a lot of

545
00:33:26,130 --> 00:33:29,890
cutting down. No one wants to read. It's not an autobiography. I

546
00:33:29,890 --> 00:33:33,650
don't want to bore people. Do you think you need. I always

547
00:33:33,650 --> 00:33:37,170
ask this question of winemakers because I think it's an important question

548
00:33:37,410 --> 00:33:41,090
if you're making wine in Italy or making wine in Australia and then you come

549
00:33:41,090 --> 00:33:44,650
to Napa and you've now made wine in many parts of the world before you

550
00:33:44,650 --> 00:33:48,300
settle at your final career spot. But I want it from a life's

551
00:33:48,300 --> 00:33:51,860
perspective standpoint. Do you don't think. You said you weren't sure that you

552
00:33:52,500 --> 00:33:55,860
learned more about yourself a little bit in Italy, but there wasn't till Napa that

553
00:33:55,860 --> 00:33:59,620
you landed there. But it would seem to me what a great

554
00:34:00,580 --> 00:34:03,860
perspective change. It would have to live in a foreign country

555
00:34:04,500 --> 00:34:07,980
and then to learn about yourself and then have a chance to expand the

556
00:34:07,980 --> 00:34:11,420
boundaries a little bit where. It does teach you about yourself. Because you can see

557
00:34:11,420 --> 00:34:15,050
how much you want to grow. Learning a new language at the age of

558
00:34:15,050 --> 00:34:18,890
40. People thought it was crazy. It's not easy.

559
00:34:18,970 --> 00:34:22,810
No, it's not easy. And our brains are pretty fixed, right?

560
00:34:22,810 --> 00:34:25,930
Exactly. But it's part of that. It's part of that growth.

561
00:34:26,570 --> 00:34:30,130
And you know, I thought I loved, you know, the Renaissance

562
00:34:30,130 --> 00:34:33,690
period. Then I, after a while I got bored with looking at. I love

563
00:34:33,690 --> 00:34:37,090
Botticelli and it's like the art, you know, Venus

564
00:34:37,090 --> 00:34:40,730
butterfly and everything. It's like. But after a while I said

565
00:34:42,250 --> 00:34:45,650
everything looks the same. I don't see any people of color. And I know there

566
00:34:45,650 --> 00:34:49,010
are people of color. We've been whitewashed out of everything. I got tired of looking

567
00:34:49,010 --> 00:34:52,850
at in Florence Renaissance. Yeah. And I lived across the street from the

568
00:34:52,850 --> 00:34:55,689
Feetsi. I lived on Via de Bardi is my

569
00:34:56,410 --> 00:35:00,090
incredible apartment without. With fresco ceilings and

570
00:35:00,490 --> 00:35:03,610
right on the river. And I could see her. I can see her

571
00:35:04,250 --> 00:35:07,140
intensity of just talking about. Oh my gosh, it was

572
00:35:07,690 --> 00:35:11,370
incredible experience. And I would move back there. Yeah, yeah. We're going to

573
00:35:11,370 --> 00:35:14,330
Rome in two weeks. We got invited to meet the Pope.

574
00:35:15,050 --> 00:35:18,170
Really? Yeah. They're canonizing an Armenian

575
00:35:18,730 --> 00:35:22,130
bishop. And. And somehow, I don't know, my friend said, hey, you want to go?

576
00:35:22,130 --> 00:35:25,210
You got two weeks to make it. You know, we're going in two weeks. Okay.

577
00:35:26,570 --> 00:35:28,730
Yes, I'm available. You're ready to go.

578
00:35:30,170 --> 00:35:33,210
You know, my daughter is a French trained. And my friends are going to give

579
00:35:33,210 --> 00:35:36,850
me crap about saying this again, but she's a French trained boulanger.

580
00:35:36,850 --> 00:35:40,570
And I'm saying this for the perspective of living in a

581
00:35:40,570 --> 00:35:43,610
foreign country and then learning the culture because I think that's the most important part

582
00:35:43,610 --> 00:35:46,930
is like, how do we talk about the wine and culture now? But

583
00:35:48,210 --> 00:35:52,050
she had an apartment on the sixth floor which used to be

584
00:35:52,050 --> 00:35:55,650
for the housekeepers. Of those old buildings, the room

585
00:35:55,650 --> 00:35:59,010
was smaller than this stage, the set here.

586
00:35:59,490 --> 00:36:02,510
And as far as she was concerned, she had an apartment in Paris. I couldn't

587
00:36:02,510 --> 00:36:05,070
even go in the room. It was so. I was so claustrophobic, I couldn't even

588
00:36:05,070 --> 00:36:08,510
stand there, you know. But her perspective was, I have an apartment in Paris.

589
00:36:08,670 --> 00:36:11,910
And so she got to live that life for a few months and walk the

590
00:36:11,910 --> 00:36:14,950
streets, and she would bake bread, and then she. That whole thing. And I think

591
00:36:14,950 --> 00:36:18,790
that's so culturally rounding. Oh, my goodness. It's amazing

592
00:36:18,790 --> 00:36:22,630
experience. You know, when I lived in Italy, and it

593
00:36:22,630 --> 00:36:26,270
takes you a while, especially in Florence, before they work up, they think you're a

594
00:36:26,270 --> 00:36:29,920
tourist for a while. I remember when they really accepted me,

595
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:33,600
and it was a place I buy my produce, and

596
00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:36,720
so they're used, and they would see me come in, I get my head of

597
00:36:36,720 --> 00:36:40,440
lettuce. And one day the owner reached down

598
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:44,240
and he pulled out a beautiful selection for

599
00:36:44,240 --> 00:36:47,920
me. Wow. Like, I've made it. Wow. Yeah. You really arrived.

600
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:51,760
I know that. Yes. I am a real local here. And so. How exciting.

601
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:56,120
Yeah. Because I, I. I sat down. My father spoke French. He spoke

602
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:59,880
five languages, actually. And before he passed away, I thought, you know, I'm

603
00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:03,600
gonna learn French for him, to just talk with him.

604
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:06,960
And so I did. And what that does, as you with your

605
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:10,720
Italian, it expands your horizons

606
00:37:10,720 --> 00:37:14,360
culturally because you can't learn a language without learning the culture along the

607
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:18,120
way. You have to study Napoleon a little bit to

608
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,530
understand the French culture. You have to understand the revolution, the Renaissance. You have to

609
00:37:21,530 --> 00:37:24,450
understand the revolution. You don't understand all this stuff in order to sort of get

610
00:37:24,450 --> 00:37:27,930
a perspective on the language. Yeah. And you. And here you are getting a special

611
00:37:27,930 --> 00:37:31,690
tray of vegetables. It's like, totally arriving.

612
00:37:31,850 --> 00:37:35,570
I know. It's like. Yeah. Because otherwise, it's, you know, who knows what they're going

613
00:37:35,570 --> 00:37:38,970
to. You just get to pick whatever you think. You think Americans,

614
00:37:39,930 --> 00:37:43,410
you'll be in the Napa wine trade, and you hit it on the head. There's,

615
00:37:43,410 --> 00:37:47,010
you know, the. The famed surgeons and the restaurateurs and

616
00:37:47,010 --> 00:37:50,670
the, you know, the government contractors that made their money and they went up,

617
00:37:50,750 --> 00:37:54,030
you know, and opened the big chateau and realized,

618
00:37:54,590 --> 00:37:58,310
I'm a farmer now. Yeah. And this is really hard. And I can't make

619
00:37:58,310 --> 00:38:01,950
a dollar. Right. I mean, do you think there's a lot of that? There is

620
00:38:01,950 --> 00:38:05,470
a lot of that. But it teaches you, you know, you see where you

621
00:38:05,470 --> 00:38:09,070
rank and you're not in charge. Mother Nature is in charge of

622
00:38:09,070 --> 00:38:12,750
everything. And you have to accept that it's a tough

623
00:38:12,750 --> 00:38:16,260
life being a farmer. I gained so much, and I don't garden or

624
00:38:16,260 --> 00:38:20,060
anything like that. I tell people, it's like, I don't make any. I don't

625
00:38:20,060 --> 00:38:23,820
cook. I make reservations, you know. But what a respect

626
00:38:23,900 --> 00:38:27,580
I have for the farming community. Yeah. Our farm workers.

627
00:38:28,540 --> 00:38:32,300
Well, the true passion. I sent a young girl that

628
00:38:32,300 --> 00:38:35,660
used to be an intern here to Bordeaux this last summer. She's a

629
00:38:35,900 --> 00:38:39,500
Cornelli knowledge student, and she. We got her an internship in

630
00:38:39,500 --> 00:38:43,350
Bordeaux on the Left Bank Chateau Bail. And she goes, uncle Paul,

631
00:38:43,350 --> 00:38:46,110
I don't want to. I don't want to work in the vineyard. And that's what

632
00:38:46,110 --> 00:38:49,350
they're asking. They're going to ask me to do. I said, look, girl, I go,

633
00:38:49,350 --> 00:38:51,470
if you're going to be in the wine business, you're going to be in the

634
00:38:51,470 --> 00:38:55,230
vineyard. Right. This is where it happens. You know, you're going to be a farmer,

635
00:38:55,310 --> 00:38:58,670
and then all the rest of it's going to be. You know, the part you

636
00:38:58,670 --> 00:39:02,350
think is going to be fun is really sex for the box office at this

637
00:39:02,350 --> 00:39:05,870
point. You're just. You're going to have to learn how to tend. And she started

638
00:39:05,870 --> 00:39:09,710
in the vineyard at the internship, and she texted me. She goes, this is

639
00:39:09,710 --> 00:39:13,550
unbelievable how. And I haven't had a chance

640
00:39:13,550 --> 00:39:17,390
to completely wrap up with her, but she came away with this

641
00:39:18,030 --> 00:39:21,630
incredible insight into what wine is. Right. You really

642
00:39:21,630 --> 00:39:25,310
gain an appreciation for every glass. Yeah. Every sip.

643
00:39:25,310 --> 00:39:29,070
It's a lot that goes into it. So your daily routine in

644
00:39:29,070 --> 00:39:32,670
Napa is organizing trips. Organizing

645
00:39:32,830 --> 00:39:36,510
trips. Reaching out to people. Because as much as I,

646
00:39:36,510 --> 00:39:40,190
you know, I purposely name my company, I wanted the name

647
00:39:40,190 --> 00:39:43,790
Noir in the company to reflect, let

648
00:39:44,190 --> 00:39:47,870
my people know that there is a face looking out for

649
00:39:47,870 --> 00:39:50,670
them. But I always tell people it's not a

650
00:39:51,310 --> 00:39:55,110
limitation. No. Right. Well, that's interesting thought. Yeah.

651
00:39:55,110 --> 00:39:58,870
Because I've had some of my corporate clients. Todd's, the Italian

652
00:39:58,870 --> 00:40:02,630
fashion house, which goes back to a relationship that I developed

653
00:40:02,630 --> 00:40:06,210
when I lived in Italy. You know Mohawk, which is a global

654
00:40:06,210 --> 00:40:10,050
flooring leader. Yeah, that's right. The clients of yours. Yes. Wow.

655
00:40:10,130 --> 00:40:13,530
Yeah. My friends in flooring. That's why I know this. Okay, so nobody knows

656
00:40:13,530 --> 00:40:17,210
Mohawk. You really have to be like, they did $10 billion in sales

657
00:40:17,210 --> 00:40:21,050
last year. Yeah. And I curated experiences for

658
00:40:21,050 --> 00:40:24,450
them. They were blown away. Wow, that's. That's exciting. Yeah.

659
00:40:24,850 --> 00:40:28,650
There was a woman, maybe you've met her, Joanne Dupuis. Heard of

660
00:40:28,650 --> 00:40:32,100
her. Well, she's like 95, maybe

661
00:40:32,100 --> 00:40:35,820
97 now. Okay. You should listen to her podcast. One of the first

662
00:40:36,060 --> 00:40:39,820
California, you know, tourism people. Oh, really? She was responsible

663
00:40:39,820 --> 00:40:43,580
for taking Stephen Spurrier around to Freemark Abbey and Chateau Montalain and

664
00:40:43,580 --> 00:40:47,140
all those places to find the wines for the Judgment of Paris. Yeah. And she

665
00:40:47,140 --> 00:40:50,860
was the first woman to ever speak in front of the Napa Valley Vintage Association.

666
00:40:50,860 --> 00:40:54,620
Okay. Like Brother Timothy. Yeah. And Louis Martini and all those guys.

667
00:40:54,780 --> 00:40:58,460
Amazing. Yeah. It's really a cool story. So she has a podcast now? No, she's

668
00:40:58,460 --> 00:41:02,170
been on the show. Okay. I was gonna say, if she's, like, 95 and has

669
00:41:02,170 --> 00:41:05,490
that energy to do. What you're doing, I'm gonna get you the book. She wrote

670
00:41:05,490 --> 00:41:09,090
a book called the Rest of the Story, and it was written after

671
00:41:09,090 --> 00:41:12,890
Bottle Shock came out to prove that. That most of Bottle Shock was kind of

672
00:41:13,050 --> 00:41:16,690
pocus. Right. And she was there. Yeah. This is what really

673
00:41:16,690 --> 00:41:20,450
happened. So is there. I know there's lots of competition for, you know,

674
00:41:20,450 --> 00:41:24,090
tourism, and I think, yes. There'S a lot of it, but there's. Everybody has their

675
00:41:24,090 --> 00:41:27,850
own connections and everything. And, you know, one of the

676
00:41:27,850 --> 00:41:31,610
people who's been so instrumental in me getting to

677
00:41:31,610 --> 00:41:35,450
where I am, getting off the ground successfully would

678
00:41:35,450 --> 00:41:39,130
be viewed as my competitor. Yeah. Right. But she gave me my first client, and

679
00:41:39,130 --> 00:41:42,850
she called me two weeks before I was ready to launch. She's like, kelly, I've

680
00:41:42,850 --> 00:41:46,690
got too much business. Can you take a client? Wow. And

681
00:41:46,770 --> 00:41:50,570
she's like, are you ready? Sure. Coach put me in. I

682
00:41:50,570 --> 00:41:54,290
can do it. You know, book of Private

683
00:41:54,290 --> 00:41:57,690
Chef. And, you know, and it was like. Oh, there's a lot of

684
00:41:57,690 --> 00:42:01,330
camaraderie amongst the, you know, tourists in terms of. For the most

685
00:42:01,330 --> 00:42:04,370
part, yeah. There's only been one person who I

686
00:42:04,770 --> 00:42:08,370
reached out to and said, oh, I'd love to get together with you. It's like.

687
00:42:09,570 --> 00:42:13,250
But it's. And it's not to. You know, we're sending people

688
00:42:13,410 --> 00:42:17,090
to a lot of the same places, but it's what you do for

689
00:42:17,090 --> 00:42:20,820
that purse, what else you do. It's going that extra step,

690
00:42:20,820 --> 00:42:24,100
and that's when you have to find out everything you can about a client

691
00:42:24,500 --> 00:42:28,180
and go that extra step to make them feel like a vip.

692
00:42:29,140 --> 00:42:31,340
We're almost out of time, if you can believe it, because there's so much more

693
00:42:31,340 --> 00:42:33,580
to talk about. We have to do it twice. So I'll do it when I

694
00:42:33,580 --> 00:42:37,380
come to Napa. And. Yeah. John. Phil. But have you.

695
00:42:37,620 --> 00:42:41,020
There's a whole issue right now in the trade. Of course. Wine sales are down.

696
00:42:41,020 --> 00:42:43,940
You've got the gen zers, and, I mean, There's a million reasons

697
00:42:44,660 --> 00:42:48,380
social marketing is imploding. There's just all kinds of

698
00:42:48,380 --> 00:42:52,170
problems with the trade. I'm a romanticist. I think that that

699
00:42:52,170 --> 00:42:55,610
will. The ebbs and flows and it's going to happen. Things will change again.

700
00:42:56,090 --> 00:42:59,810
But do you see that in, you know, tourism in Napa Valley right

701
00:42:59,810 --> 00:43:03,410
now that there's a less interest by generations or just

702
00:43:03,410 --> 00:43:07,050
by the cost? What is it? I don't think there's less interest.

703
00:43:07,210 --> 00:43:10,450
The interest is there. It's a cost that is really

704
00:43:10,450 --> 00:43:14,250
prohibitive for a lot of people. Now. Some of the people don't know

705
00:43:14,250 --> 00:43:16,730
if they're going to wake up and have a job the next day. That's true.

706
00:43:16,730 --> 00:43:20,330
And so they're booking very last minute, even with I know one

707
00:43:20,330 --> 00:43:24,110
proper manager. And so she said she'll get a last minute

708
00:43:24,110 --> 00:43:27,790
booking for a house for 10 people. Because people just don't know if

709
00:43:27,790 --> 00:43:31,430
they can. It's true. They don't know if they're going to have. People

710
00:43:31,430 --> 00:43:34,630
are drinking less. I had an inquiry from one

711
00:43:34,950 --> 00:43:38,350
client. It was going to be five. Five

712
00:43:38,350 --> 00:43:42,030
couples flying private, just coming up for

713
00:43:42,030 --> 00:43:45,390
two days. They don't drink wine. They want to go to the French

714
00:43:45,390 --> 00:43:49,170
Laundry. And when all wellness and they wanted to

715
00:43:49,170 --> 00:43:52,730
go. So I curated this whole wow,

716
00:43:53,130 --> 00:43:56,770
everybody. Not everybody's drinking wine these days. But what

717
00:43:56,770 --> 00:44:00,610
Napa Valley offers is tremendous wellness. And you can

718
00:44:00,610 --> 00:44:04,450
go bike riding in the vineyards, you can do olive oil tastings, you

719
00:44:04,450 --> 00:44:08,090
can go to Calistoga and do mud baths. And there are all these different things

720
00:44:08,090 --> 00:44:10,970
that you can do and they didn't even want to do because I was going

721
00:44:10,970 --> 00:44:14,780
to set up a tasting to do something with the alcoholized

722
00:44:14,780 --> 00:44:18,620
wines, which I drink. So I know you cringe. Are you

723
00:44:18,620 --> 00:44:21,940
kidding me? There are some good ones. There are.

724
00:44:22,500 --> 00:44:26,180
They have some good ones from Germany, from Spain.

725
00:44:26,980 --> 00:44:29,620
I'm still trying to find a good one from Napa.

726
00:44:30,820 --> 00:44:34,460
Well, you know the process, right? It's kind of a disgusting process. But they apparently

727
00:44:34,460 --> 00:44:37,060
there's been some new molecular difference

728
00:44:37,700 --> 00:44:41,140
processes that have changed. Don't tell me how the hot dog is made. I'm just

729
00:44:41,140 --> 00:44:44,950
going to my hot dog. But when they pull the alcohol out, it pulls out

730
00:44:44,950 --> 00:44:47,350
all kinds of stuff and they got to put it back in. Blah, blah. Yeah,

731
00:44:47,350 --> 00:44:50,430
yeah. Some of it tastes like grape juice. And so you do.

732
00:44:51,070 --> 00:44:54,790
I haven't found a good. I have found decent reds, but they're out of

733
00:44:54,790 --> 00:44:57,630
Spain. You know, it's interesting. I used to feature in when I had the gift

734
00:44:57,630 --> 00:45:01,270
basket business here. We. I didn't have there

735
00:45:01,270 --> 00:45:04,950
Wasn't d alc was around. Ariel was the first one that I remember from the

736
00:45:04,950 --> 00:45:08,260
80s. It's still around, but, you know, I wouldn't sell it. So

737
00:45:09,210 --> 00:45:12,410
castor sellers in Paso would

738
00:45:12,650 --> 00:45:16,250
bottle white zinfandel before it fermented. Okay. But

739
00:45:16,250 --> 00:45:19,890
the problem was it wanted to ferment, right? Yes. Right. Because

740
00:45:19,890 --> 00:45:23,450
it naturally wants to do that. And so he was. My biggest problem is it

741
00:45:23,450 --> 00:45:27,210
was corked cork, finish, glass, bottle 750, the whole thing. And it was

742
00:45:27,210 --> 00:45:29,930
kind of fun because you can uncork it and you poured this wonderful sort of

743
00:45:29,930 --> 00:45:33,570
sweet. I just don't understand why that's not the alcohol. Why did it not

744
00:45:33,570 --> 00:45:36,530
just drink that than wine that's been removed? But that's not the point. Let me

745
00:45:36,530 --> 00:45:39,930
ask you this other question, and we'll wrap it up. We. We spend a lot

746
00:45:39,930 --> 00:45:42,650
of time at the beach in the south Bay here. And it's a. It's a.

747
00:45:42,650 --> 00:45:46,090
It's a very healthy lifestyle. You just. I live in Arcadia. We live in the

748
00:45:46,090 --> 00:45:49,850
valley. Maybe it's because it's our daily routine. It doesn't feel

749
00:45:49,850 --> 00:45:53,610
like the health lifestyle is healthy. Napa feels

750
00:45:53,610 --> 00:45:56,730
like it could be that lifestyle. If you lived in Napa, lived in yon. Feel

751
00:45:56,730 --> 00:46:00,250
that you're playing pickleball, you're going on walks. I know they've

752
00:46:00,250 --> 00:46:04,060
expanded bike trails throughout the valley. Yes. And is it

753
00:46:04,130 --> 00:46:07,130
it starting to feel like that, or has it always been that way? The sort

754
00:46:07,130 --> 00:46:10,970
of. The spa life? No, it is going more toward

755
00:46:10,970 --> 00:46:14,530
that. There are. There's yoga in the vineyards that you can do

756
00:46:14,530 --> 00:46:18,290
really sound baths. I mean. And you're gonna start hearing more about

757
00:46:18,290 --> 00:46:22,090
it. Visit. Napa Valley just brought someone on to be like a wellness

758
00:46:22,090 --> 00:46:25,930
ambassador. Yeah. And so they realize that's really where things are

759
00:46:25,930 --> 00:46:29,770
going. Yeah, I can see that. You have to have more than wine. I

760
00:46:29,770 --> 00:46:33,500
mean, not. I personally don't need anything. You need any more. Yeah.

761
00:46:33,820 --> 00:46:37,580
Neither do you. Wine's fine. No, but you do have to have more. You know

762
00:46:37,580 --> 00:46:40,980
what happens to me when I have these wonderful inspiration conversations? I start thinking about

763
00:46:40,980 --> 00:46:43,660
wanting to drink tonight. Yeah. I started, like, when I go home, I have a

764
00:46:43,660 --> 00:46:46,980
Napa Valley cab, or am I going to have, like a Bordeaux or whatever? What

765
00:46:46,980 --> 00:46:50,420
are you going to have tonight? I don't know. I'm a Burgundy guy. Yeah. But,

766
00:46:50,420 --> 00:46:54,140
you know, that's a very expensive habit. Yes, it is. It

767
00:46:54,140 --> 00:46:56,460
is. And it's so amazing. I mean, it's like,

768
00:46:58,230 --> 00:47:01,910
how come wine is so expensive anyway? Well, here's a. Here's a.

769
00:47:01,910 --> 00:47:04,990
I didn't bring this up. We were talking about it briefly, but we visited a

770
00:47:04,990 --> 00:47:08,710
good friend of mine. His name was Chris Phelps. He made wine at Petrus. He

771
00:47:08,710 --> 00:47:12,110
was the Dominus winemaker when they first opened for 12 years. Makes

772
00:47:12,110 --> 00:47:15,590
wonderful Cabernets from Yountville Sleeping Lady

773
00:47:15,590 --> 00:47:19,310
Vineyard. But they have that Bordeaux structure because of

774
00:47:19,310 --> 00:47:22,990
his experience. Right. And we're talking about it. I mean, the

775
00:47:22,990 --> 00:47:26,490
bottom line is, if you want decent grapes without getting into the

776
00:47:26,490 --> 00:47:30,290
boring metrics of the wine business, if you're paying $15,000 a ton, I mean,

777
00:47:30,290 --> 00:47:33,930
the. The rough sketches, you got to charge $150 a bottle. Yeah,

778
00:47:34,010 --> 00:47:37,450
you do, in a sense. And then. But some people get away with

779
00:47:37,770 --> 00:47:41,370
less. Yeah. I mean, there's a guy who does Custom

780
00:47:41,450 --> 00:47:44,890
Crush at Alpha Omega. His wine is $65

781
00:47:45,050 --> 00:47:48,250
a bottle. Oh, that's great. He doesn't do it to make money. No. Does it

782
00:47:48,250 --> 00:47:51,690
to donate to all. Nobody does this to make money. No. Well, yeah, that

783
00:47:51,690 --> 00:47:53,450
exactly. You know the joke about that,

784
00:47:55,310 --> 00:47:58,750
but, you know, it sounds good and everything. And you have these,

785
00:47:59,310 --> 00:48:02,910
you know, these trophy wines in your cellar that you never

786
00:48:02,910 --> 00:48:06,590
plan to open. I know. I go to people Sellers and I'm like,

787
00:48:06,590 --> 00:48:09,310
when are you going to open that? Oh, no, I don't want to open it.

788
00:48:09,470 --> 00:48:12,910
I said, just refill the bottle with coffee or something like that.

789
00:48:13,070 --> 00:48:16,830
Drink the wine. No, it's a. It's a disease. It

790
00:48:16,830 --> 00:48:20,440
is in that regard. And I never had it until I sold my company. Yeah.

791
00:48:20,910 --> 00:48:23,230
And they did. They wanted none of what was in the cellar here, which I

792
00:48:23,230 --> 00:48:26,150
had collected during COVID and all these other things. And I may end up being

793
00:48:26,150 --> 00:48:29,950
like, 2500 bottles of wine is a lot. And there's some classified growth and

794
00:48:29,950 --> 00:48:33,110
Grand Cruise and all that stuff are in there. And I get them. I get

795
00:48:33,110 --> 00:48:35,950
the mentality now, because if I open it, I don't have it anymore.

796
00:48:37,310 --> 00:48:40,430
If I don't open it, I never get to experience this. And if you die

797
00:48:40,750 --> 00:48:44,590
before or you. Let it go too long. Yes, that

798
00:48:44,590 --> 00:48:48,410
is the thing. It's like, oh, my God. Gosh, that's the worst. You

799
00:48:48,410 --> 00:48:51,490
uncork a bottle, you're all ready, and then it's like,

800
00:48:51,970 --> 00:48:55,690
ah, should have opened it last year. I will tell you. We were at. At

801
00:48:55,690 --> 00:48:58,090
a restaurant in the Yonville. I won't tell you what it is because I'm sure

802
00:48:58,090 --> 00:49:01,890
it's just a fluke. I ordered a bottle of Rosa de Mono

803
00:49:02,530 --> 00:49:05,650
and it had bubbles in it. And the. And the

804
00:49:05,970 --> 00:49:09,730
waitress agreed. She goes, yeah, this

805
00:49:09,730 --> 00:49:13,120
got bubbles. So that came back to me from the gm, saying, that's the way

806
00:49:13,120 --> 00:49:16,200
those wines are. No. And I'm like, that's. That's.

807
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:22,120
Possible, you know? Yes. See, I think you said, that's

808
00:49:22,120 --> 00:49:25,800
impossible. Yes. And I thought,

809
00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:29,240
you know, I have to say something. On the way out. They fixed it. They

810
00:49:29,240 --> 00:49:32,200
brought something else. But I said, you know, I've been doing this for a long

811
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:36,040
time, and I've tasted a lot of wines and roasted. The Montaccino is not bubbly.

812
00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:39,400
No. It's just not the way it is. And that clearly is a huge.

813
00:49:39,710 --> 00:49:43,470
Usually a heat problem. Right. Stored properly. Yeah. So this has been

814
00:49:43,470 --> 00:49:47,310
such an honor and pleasure. Oh, no, it's my pleasure. We want

815
00:49:47,310 --> 00:49:50,670
to talk about. But we can do it again. And we are in Napa quite

816
00:49:50,670 --> 00:49:54,510
a bit. In Yountville, particularly. Yeah, I'm right in Yountville. You'll see me. You'll

817
00:49:54,510 --> 00:49:58,030
see Thomas Keller pop out from behind me and welcome.

818
00:49:58,110 --> 00:50:01,390
Yeah. That's standard operating procedure. Right. We all know this.

819
00:50:02,270 --> 00:50:06,070
And actually the. The Village, the vintage estate, are now the

820
00:50:06,070 --> 00:50:09,780
state of Yonville has a little upstairs office. Yes.

821
00:50:09,780 --> 00:50:13,620
They let me use podcasting, so. Good. We could do that. Because so much

822
00:50:13,620 --> 00:50:17,380
to talk about. Not only on camera, but off the camera. Yeah, for

823
00:50:17,380 --> 00:50:20,860
sure. No, it's like, I think back to my,

824
00:50:21,100 --> 00:50:24,860
you know, my basketball writing days, and you talk about Armenia,

825
00:50:24,860 --> 00:50:28,260
and I'm like, Tark the shark. I look at you and I'm thinking of Jerry

826
00:50:28,260 --> 00:50:31,580
Tarkanian and all the fun I would have. Well, his brother

827
00:50:32,700 --> 00:50:36,540
lives. He just passed away, but he lived two doors

828
00:50:36,540 --> 00:50:39,700
down from me. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right here in Arcadia. Oh, my goodness. Myron

829
00:50:39,700 --> 00:50:42,700
Tarkanian was his name. Thank you.

830
00:50:43,340 --> 00:50:46,900
Thank you. What's. What's next? Are you going the weekend off? You're going to see

831
00:50:46,900 --> 00:50:50,300
friends, I think you said. Tonight I'm going down to Newport beach

832
00:50:50,380 --> 00:50:54,100
and for my best friend, who's high

833
00:50:54,100 --> 00:50:57,940
powered sales exec, anyway, she has to host some people in

834
00:50:57,940 --> 00:51:01,730
a suite. So she's like, come on down. We're. Oh, nice. So I'm

835
00:51:01,730 --> 00:51:05,090
gonna go down there and then I'm at a symposium

836
00:51:05,090 --> 00:51:08,130
tomorrow for head and neck cancer.

837
00:51:09,010 --> 00:51:12,730
That's interesting. Yeah. I actually had. You had.

838
00:51:12,730 --> 00:51:16,570
You had that. I had a rare cancer. I beat

839
00:51:16,570 --> 00:51:19,890
it. Wow. I'm here before you went to library. When you got back

840
00:51:20,530 --> 00:51:23,730
two years ago. Oh, incredible. Congratulations. Thank you.

841
00:51:24,050 --> 00:51:27,770
Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. So and so are you

842
00:51:27,770 --> 00:51:31,530
speaking or just going to listen? I'm listening. I did speak at ucsf. Did

843
00:51:31,530 --> 00:51:35,130
a head and neck cancer patient symposium

844
00:51:35,130 --> 00:51:38,290
in August, and I was on the patient panel. I'm like there,

845
00:51:38,770 --> 00:51:41,890
you know, I try to get poster child. Yes. I try to give people hope.

846
00:51:42,530 --> 00:51:45,770
You can have cancer and you can look like this

847
00:51:45,770 --> 00:51:49,570
afterwards and get on with your life. You go. And so

848
00:51:49,570 --> 00:51:52,850
I really try to be a support to others. Yeah, that's

849
00:51:53,090 --> 00:51:56,760
excellent. It's a very traumatic. It is. It can be very traumatic. And

850
00:51:56,760 --> 00:52:00,560
that's another book that I'm writing too, is on my first year of diagnosis.

851
00:52:00,560 --> 00:52:04,240
I was diagnosed in 2023 with a rare oral

852
00:52:04,240 --> 00:52:08,000
cancer that only 4 in 1

853
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:11,280
million people a year affected with. That's really rare.

854
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:15,280
It is. I always thought I was one in a million. Yeah, well, four

855
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,080
in a million. Well, sorry you can't have everything. No,

856
00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:23,320
but it's all about attitude, getting on and, you know,

857
00:52:24,270 --> 00:52:28,030
soldiering on. We'll continue that conversation. Yes.

858
00:52:28,030 --> 00:52:29,790
Cheers. Okay. Cheers to you.