Luxury Wine Hospitality Exposed: Do Sommeliers Really Care About Customers?

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You gotta remove the ego. I think that's the hardest part is that there's a

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lot of ego in wine. And the moment

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that you remove the ego and that you realize that it's not about you and

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what you know, like good for you. You know so much. Sit

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

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Paul Kay. Hey, welcome to

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Wine Talks with Paul Kay. And we are in studio today in a beautiful Southern

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California, actually about to have a conversation with Farha. I

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just said it. You did just say it, Fajar Zamorano. And I'm going to read

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a little from Chap gtt about her. She has

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built one of the most fascinating careers in the wine world by combining deep technical

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knowledge with passion for hospitality and luxury. Born in Chile and

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inspired by summers spent in the wine country, she has worked across nearly

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every facet of the industry, from retail to distribution to some of America's

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most acclaimed restaurants, including Alenia and

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Gwen. Today, she leads a wine program, Monsieur Dior

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by Dominique Crenn in Beverly Hills, where fine wine

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oat cuisine in one of the world's most iconic luxury

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brands come together. You know, I'm not going to finish it because there's two really

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important pieces here that I wanted to uncover. Yeah, that's what Chad GPT says

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about me. Yeah, that's funny. In 100 words. I asked it for 100. I love

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it. Well, there's two. There's two things that's

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important here. One is you've

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worked well. You're born in Chile is really cool. Yeah. You were born and raised

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there? I was born and raised there. We moved to Cincinnati, Ohio,

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actually, when I was in high school. Well, everybody does that from Chile. Exactly.

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You know, and so. But

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that's where you do. Did you like. Well, you're younger, but

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Chilean wine industry, you know, was kind of young then. I mean, as far as

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the national exposure, really, though, if you think about it, actually the Chilean

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wine industry is quite old. Well, it's old, but I mean, international. Oh, internationally.

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Yeah, sure. The. But Chile is one of those countries that's really ancillary when it

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comes to the wine industry. So, like, if you go to Chile, it's really hard

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to find wines from outside of Chile. So. So Chileans drink Chilean wine.

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And my parents got. I was an only child from my both my

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biological parents and they got divorced and I would go visit my dad. And my

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dad was, you know, a bachelor in his 30s and he would take me to

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wine country and we would, you know, wine because what you have to

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remember, I don't know if you've ever visited Santiago. I have not. This is one

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of my bucket list wine country things in South America. Okay, you have to go.

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So what's really cool about Santiago, which is

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it's interesting to compare it to la, because it's like the complete opposite. What would

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have happened to LA if Prohibition hadn't happened? You have all

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these wineries and vineyards that were planted because

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Santiago was in a valley. So it's great agriculture

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land. So you had all these vineyards that were planted in the

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1800s, 1700s. I mean, like, there's. There's

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records of vineyards being planted as. As far, you know, 1500s.

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So the commercial ones were starting to get planted on the outside

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of Santiago, which was, you know, the main city was the metropolis.

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The outside, the outskirts of the city were,

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you know, at that time, you're talk. You're talking horse and buggy.

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Yeah. They were, you know, an hour out of of the main part

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of the city. But as the city's grown now, you can take the metro to

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some of the most historical wineries. Wow. In Chile that were

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founded in the 1800s. Well, it's a we. My dad's.

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That picture. There might be a Chilean wine in that, even though it's not

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articulated that way, because we were bringing in. The first wine that I

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remember bringing in was Legato Negro, and it's probably from the late 70s

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and so. And then we brought in the Los Vascos before it was even Lafitte

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product. And the reason I brought that up is just an interesting

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pathway for you to start in that territory. You kind of

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left wine as a. As a. As a interest

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level because you were. You say Cincinnati. Cincinnati, Ohio. But

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I. So I, I got to go to, like,

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wineries and vineyards at a young age, before I was actually consuming wine. So what

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fascinated me about it was also

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to note I grew. I'm from the north of Chile. I was born in the

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north of Chile, which is Aracama desert, you know, driest desert in the

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world. So you have desert and you have beach, and it's not

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farmland. I mean, you got like. So it's not like the north part of the

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Argentina, where it's on the other side of the Andes. It's not

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Salta type environment. No. So when you go high

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up, then you get some of those salt lakes and

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whatnot. But the city that I

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was born in is on the plains, which is literally

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at sea level. And then you go up, you have two mountain

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ranges you have the Cordillera de la Costa, which is like the coastal mountain

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range, and then you have the Andes behind it. And then that.

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That high desert, because of the two mountains,

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everything precipitates before it gets past them. That's what creates this,

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like, extremely, extremely arid, you know, climate.

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But so when I would go visit my dad in

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wine country, to me as a young kid, this was like

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fairy tale land. You know, there. It's green, there are like,

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there are horses and cows and chickens, and, you know, there is. It

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was just like, what is this magical land? And then everyone was so

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into this juice, which, to a kid, you know, I'm like, why? How is this

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different than orange juice? Or it comes from a fruit. So, you know, sure, it's

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fermented, but like, they're get all these. Everyone's just getting so into it, and we're

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going on these tours and it's just kind of like. Just it.

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It felt very much like. Like fairy tale land. Yeah. You know,

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that's interesting. I was just so fascinated by it,

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even though I wasn't actually drinking it, know. So when you went to Cincinnati, how

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did you possibly perpetuate this interest? So, yeah,

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even though Ohio was, you know, this. There are a lot of wineries. There are.

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Before Prohibition. Yeah. And even now there's still some wineries and they, you know, they

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have. They. They're doing some. Drink this American

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grapes. So what happened in Cincinnati then?

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So I did high school in college, and then I started.

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I. I didn't. No one in my family works in. In the wine business. Actually,

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in my family in Chile, they're all in. In medicine.

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And so I didn't know that you could work in wine.

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So I just. Before I'm gonna stop you, here's a book a French author

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called Wine is the Best Medicine. So that's. You get that going. I 100

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agree with that. I 100 agree with that. I rarely ever get sick,

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and I'm like, I mean, I work a lot, so it's got to be the

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wine. But so I

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started just studying, just taking classes, you know, at local wine shops.

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I started a little wine club with friends. We called ourselves the Beck

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and Alien Society. And we would just pick a region.

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And I mean, this is like basic, you know, we'd pick a region

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and we'd buy a couple bottles. We tasted

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blind and like, we were in teams. You had to get like

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three bottles of each. So one would get open to.

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To blind, and then the other two would stay on the reserve and Then whatever

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team got the highest scores and it was like very broad, like Italian

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reds, you know, whatever team got the highest score would like get

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the rest of the bottles. I got in the weren't open. And that was like,

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you know, it was just like a fun. What a great thing. But, you know,

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stop you there for a second. That's really important thing. And he said something

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you glossed over and I want to peel it back. And that is you. This

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was a really basic thing. And the industry

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struggles with this. Always has, you know, all the pundits on

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LinkedIn and all that stuff, it's all just chatter. Because

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these issues are never going to go away. They've always been around. And that is.

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You start with the basic things. Absolutely. If you're interested,

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you play with it. If you don't want to bother with it and you just

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want to drink the good stuff, that's fine too. But you chose as your

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friends too. Let's see what this is. Yeah. And we did, you know,

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we had, we had a very limited budget. And I mean, this was,

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this was now. And that's very typical too, right? Yeah,

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exactly. I mean, we were, you know, we were like college kids and

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limited budgets. We're talking, you know, probably spending no more than

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15 bucks a bottle that maybe even less.

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And the, and the, you know, the category, we weren't going through the

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grid or anything. We were just like, do you like it or not? Which one

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do you like best? Which one do you like least? But you wouldn't know to

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go through the grid. Right. How would you know that? That's how you start. Yeah.

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Do you, when you have, when you're working, jump ahead a little bit too?

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And the word that Chap GPT used, which was haute cuisine.

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There's a great book out by. Well, he was a. He

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won't call himself a chef, but he did cook in Paris. But his name is

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Patrick Hugh and his book is called the Last Days of Haute Cuisine.

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It's mostly about Le Pavillon in New York. And

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he's, he's still in town, he's still in la.

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How did you go from like. Ah, we were just broad

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strokes, trying to find stuff we might like and having these little tastings to,

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you know, being part of the luxury brand lifestyle and

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in this case, oat cuisine. Well, I mean, it was, it's. That was many, many

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years ago. I mean, we're talking like early. This was

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late 20. 20 late

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2000s. Okay. Yeah, like

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2008, 2007. Around.

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Yeah, that's when you're doing this. Yeah. 2000, it was. Did that lead to

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this? It was like 2007. Yeah. And then. Absolutely. So I. So I

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was, you know, involved, interested, learning, reading, doing

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courses. And then it was. I had friends

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that were opening at the time. This was a hot thing. It was a martini

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wine bar. It was like martini and wine,

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you know, bar in Cincinnati. And

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they didn't know anything about wine, but, like, it was like a martini bars were

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a thing. And then wine bars were coming up and they were combining the thing,

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and they were like, hey, you know a lot about wine. Do you want to

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help us, like, put the list together and

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maybe, like, work a couple nights?

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And that was the first time that I realized that you could actually make money

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in wine and not just spend all your money.

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Yeah, then. Yeah, exactly. That's true.

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So, yeah. So I was like, okay, cool. Yeah, that sounds fun. I'd love

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to. And then that encouraged me to keep studying.

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And then, of course, at that point, I moved. I knew I

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needed to get out of Cincinnati. Southern California always called to

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me because it's very close. It's very similar to Chile when you look at it.

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Just topography, really. Weather. Yeah. If you.

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Well, to the north of Chile, at least, which is part of Chile that I'm

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from. Wasteland you grew up in. Exactly. But if you fold the world

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at the equator, we're basically. Yeah. Oh, I see. Yeah. Yeah.

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So. So we're basically the same latitude in Southern California as you are in

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the north of Chile, where I'm from. So it's just very similar. You got beach,

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you got desert, you got mountains. So I just

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always really was attracted to this, to California, to Southern California. And then, of course,

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California just made so much more sense for wine and other things

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that were important to me at that time. So I moved out

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here in 2010 and I kept my studies, and that's where I met our mutual

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friend Nareen. We. We were in our WSET school.

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We actually. We met doing our isg, which doesn't even.

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You don't even hear of it too much anymore. They, like, moved to. To the

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Asian market. They're really big in China. It's the International Sommelier Guild.

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So we did. We met doing our level one and then

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became good friends and went through our diploma course

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together, which I highly recommend. Doing it with a buddy. Yeah. So

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let's talk about that for a second. Because I grew up in

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the trade, you know, that picture there, the stuff existed.

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I don't think the Cor Is around yet. Master of wine was

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Michael Broad. My father bought wine from Michael Broadman. But

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it was really, really academic. It was really for people

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in the industry wanting to move the

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needle, but there really wasn't any needle to move yet. You know, you could, you

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could be like my father, who was a very academic guy. He was a chemist

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by trade, had a great palette. Doesn't necessarily

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go get his master of wine or somlier thing, do you? Would you

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recommend that to people that want to get just like you need to do this

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before you get in the industry. Absolutely not. I don't think you need to do

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it before you stump me that absolutely not. Okay.

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No, absolutely not. That's so interesting. I don't think you need to do that before

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you get in the industry. I think if you don't have any other

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form of mentorship and you haven't. I think I truly believe that

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just the, the mentorship, you know,

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ways are the best way to get into any trade that

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is very hands on and

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it's very specific to like wine making. You know, sure, you can take, you can

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learn the technicality in a book all you want, but if you're not seeing it,

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if you're not doing, you know,

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so I don't think you need to do that before you get into the industry.

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I think it is helpful to have that education

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as if you want to move up in the industry. And I think it does

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help you move up faster just because you're getting kind of like,

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you know, download of information of all the aspects of. And of course the court

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and w said are very different, you know, so what about

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like if you were to. If you were like somebody comes

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to the shop and they say, you know, you don't know

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and you know so much about wine, Would you say to a

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client, well, there's these certifications if you're interested

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in studying or just say, look, there's so many places to go online to learn

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wine and study and you just have to spend the time doing it. Like I

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had a friend say, I want to learn about wine. I said, okay, let's go

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to dinner. Went to dinner. I started to explain the label to them. It lasted

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about a minute and. And then he was done. You know, he had lost interest.

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Exactly. Well, and I think that's one of the things too. And this kind of

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applies to, you know, tableside manners as well of like

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for sommelier and for like a hospitality professional in general.

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Like you gotta gauge the level of interest. Like are they interested in

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the Geography side and the history side in the technical side. Like your

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dad, your dad being a chemist, he probably was really into the winemaking side of

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things. Right. But like I love the history

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and culture side of things. I love learning about a place through its

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people and wine is like the perfect vessel to do that through. You

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know, that's why I say that a lot. You've probably heard on the podcast a

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couple times I just got done with producing four TV shows

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in Armenia and the point was like, try and pick

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five things that explain a culture and not include wine in that

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five. It's impossible. It's impossible. If there's wine to be had. If there's wine to

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be had. Yeah, I. So I don't know.

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My ex husband was Armenian and we're still very good friends and it's

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really funny because Adolmian.

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Wait, I didn't read this in the chapter because it does. That's my personal

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Life. I'm glad ChatGPT is

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disclosing that information. But I love

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Armenian wine and

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on my mom's side of the family, my grandfather, my maternal

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grandfather was Lebanese and they fled Lebanon in the twenties.

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His parents. Really? You're. Wait a minute, some Chilean? Lebanese.

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Oh, wow. That explains a lot. Okay.

255
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And exploring and introducing people to,

256
00:15:43,730 --> 00:15:47,450
you know, Armenian wine and Lebanese wine is something that has always been

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a passion of mine because, you know, and don't

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get me wrong, like we're all Francophiles, but people think of France and

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Italy as like the places that wine came from and that's not

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true. I think though, Gen Z now we're going to talk about the shop here

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00:16:02,590 --> 00:16:06,070
pretty soon. Yeah. So like it's kind of why I called you anyway. Like I

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want to learn about the marriage of oat cuisine and

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today's society. Yeah. And wine. Because it's kind of

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screwed up. Yeah. But let's talk about that for a minute.

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You. Culturally, wine is

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such an important thing and it's so old in Armenia, in Georgia, like, well, when

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you walked in, there's Georgia wines on the floor which are. None of them are

268
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any good in that box right there. But I'm sure there's some very

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good ones and I've had some. But when,

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when we talk about wine from a district like Armenia, a place like that,

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they don't have the hundreds of years of

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repetition. Well, but why, but, but that it all ties back

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to history. Right. I mean there's geopolitical issues of why, why, why. There's why

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Armenia brandy producing country. It's because it was a wine producing country

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and then they were told to stop making wine and. But you got all these

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great vineyards to make some brandy, so.

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But that's like such a. Sorry, I keep like smacking the mic. Such a

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00:17:06,300 --> 00:17:10,140
snippet, like such a tiny little portion of Armenian

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wine culture. We're talking three. Well, no, we're talking

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like 6,000 years and we're going to, we're going to judge it by the last

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hundred. Like that's, that's silly. 10.

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Are there any non French or domestic wines

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enlisted? Monsieur Dior?

284
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We. Well, currently I have French

285
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and California, which is the focus because

286
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obviously it's a French concept. It's a French restaurant.

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French chef Dior's a French company and we're in

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California. So that is the focus. There is a couple of wines from other

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regions, but I don't have, unfortunately I don't have the space

290
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to have a, to get. If I'm going to,

291
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if I'm going to list a country, then I want to properly list

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a country. Well and I, the question was a. Loaded to

293
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see why you don't have it. It was more like, wow, it's got to be

294
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a hand sell. And the point I was trying to make and I lost trail

295
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I thought was the, the Gen Zs and my daughters included

296
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and one of my son in laws seek these kinds

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of things. He won't drink Burgundy, he won't drink Bordeaux, he only

298
00:18:22,110 --> 00:18:25,790
wants Beaujolais and Canary Islands, you know,

299
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Viscon Negro. And when I was in New York

300
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visiting them the few times we did many times. And you go into the wine

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shop, I didn't recognize anything compared to the wine shops in la. So there's

302
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this huge difference between wine. Well, but that's because you also went to the wine

303
00:18:40,550 --> 00:18:44,380
shops. They probably live in Brooklyn. Yeah, I had about a

304
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$75 biodynamic near Diaval and it was terrible. But

305
00:18:47,820 --> 00:18:51,580
besides that, I still remind her of this. But the point is,

306
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is there a generational gap or generational differences between what

307
00:18:55,420 --> 00:18:58,619
people, when they walk into the restaurant, what they seek

308
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or not in that level of cuisine.

309
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I'm in a very specific bubble of luxury

310
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hospitality. So my demographic is so

311
00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:14,320
specific, to be honest. I actually would

312
00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:18,520
love to like, I have a lot of my clientele is

313
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Armenian and a lot of my clientele is Persian and I have a lot of

314
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Persian Armenians. Right, exactly. So having Armenian wine,

315
00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:28,160
if it's, if it's, if it's made in a

316
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traditional classic style, then it would be

317
00:19:32,120 --> 00:19:35,840
an easy hand sell. I suppose. But I, you know,

318
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and I have my opinions like, like, like, like Yakubian Hobbs

319
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type. Wow. How did you bring that up? Well, because it's Armenian and American.

320
00:19:44,190 --> 00:19:46,750
Yeah. Well, I guess to the Paul Hobbs. Right? Yeah. Then Paul, you got Paul

321
00:19:46,750 --> 00:19:50,030
Hobbs and then you got. Very happy to hear

322
00:19:50,510 --> 00:19:54,310
Vickin and yeah, he's a dear friend. Vican

323
00:19:54,310 --> 00:19:57,550
and Vahe. That's funny. But yeah, I, I, I

324
00:19:57,870 --> 00:20:01,470
adore. That would be something. Well, it's Hal Hobbs brand. It's, it,

325
00:20:01,790 --> 00:20:05,500
you know. Well, I, I don't want to get into Grapes of Armenia

326
00:20:05,500 --> 00:20:09,220
yet. We'll do a different conversation. So your

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00:20:09,220 --> 00:20:13,060
career being. Now you're in la, you take the class of

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00:20:13,060 --> 00:20:16,780
Noreen still haute cuisine. And I, I keep

329
00:20:16,780 --> 00:20:20,580
using that term but it is a level of cuisine that not everybody can aspire

330
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to. Nobody understands, everybody wants to participate in it's

331
00:20:24,020 --> 00:20:26,900
tweezer. And I'm trying to figure out, I'm trying to understand. So we were in

332
00:20:26,900 --> 00:20:30,580
Le Petit Paris in, in, in Paris. It's you know, the LVMH

333
00:20:30,580 --> 00:20:34,330
property, the restaurant. When did these luxury

334
00:20:34,330 --> 00:20:38,090
brands move into hospitality and restaurants or when did Dior

335
00:20:38,090 --> 00:20:41,610
do it? Well, Dior's part of lvmh, right. So

336
00:20:44,810 --> 00:20:48,569
it's Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessy. And on the Moet Hennessy side, obviously

337
00:20:48,650 --> 00:20:51,130
there's an entire portfolio of wineries and

338
00:20:52,570 --> 00:20:55,850
spirits. Wine and spirits. And

339
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I mean you have to tie it together. And the thing, when it comes to

340
00:20:59,490 --> 00:21:02,880
luxury, it's. Luxury is very much experiential.

341
00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:06,880
You know, it's the way it's, it's how people are treated. It's how people feel.

342
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:11,360
And you can't really do that without having a full hospitality experience.

343
00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:16,160
So it's a good point. Bringing it in house just

344
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,720
makes it so that they can fully control the experience from, you know, start to

345
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,360
finish. What better way to present,

346
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:27,900
you know, your product than in a way that you can

347
00:21:27,900 --> 00:21:31,420
truly make your client feel

348
00:21:31,820 --> 00:21:35,020
that luxury, feel that experience, feel what it's like to,

349
00:21:36,060 --> 00:21:39,780
to be, you know, consuming these products and, and be wearing this in

350
00:21:39,780 --> 00:21:43,380
like this just beautiful space. So it's, it's all part

351
00:21:43,380 --> 00:21:47,100
of, yeah, like I think part of humanity almost. Right.

352
00:21:47,100 --> 00:21:50,940
Yeah. I think luxury is not just, I think there's

353
00:21:50,940 --> 00:21:54,700
a, there's a misconception of luxury because of social

354
00:21:54,700 --> 00:21:58,450
media where like luxury means flashy and

355
00:21:58,450 --> 00:22:01,690
that's not true. True luxury is actually quite

356
00:22:02,650 --> 00:22:05,690
luxurious. It's,

357
00:22:06,650 --> 00:22:10,290
it's, it's reserved, it's quiet. It doesn't, you

358
00:22:10,290 --> 00:22:14,090
don't, you don't know that it's working behind the scenes. You just experience

359
00:22:14,250 --> 00:22:17,930
it. You don't. The. The. The client

360
00:22:18,090 --> 00:22:21,890
doesn't know all of the things that went on behind the scenes to

361
00:22:21,890 --> 00:22:25,670
make this happen so seemingly, like seamlessly. That's true

362
00:22:25,670 --> 00:22:29,510
luxury. It's interesting. We were in Palermo and I brought this

363
00:22:29,510 --> 00:22:33,190
up on a recent podcast. Maybe you heard it, but. And

364
00:22:33,190 --> 00:22:36,270
I. The two competing stories.

365
00:22:37,230 --> 00:22:40,990
One was in Palermo with the Psalm, who was. I think it was Serbian,

366
00:22:40,990 --> 00:22:44,590
if I can't remember slot. He was Slavic of some sort. And I. I

367
00:22:44,750 --> 00:22:47,950
stepped aside and tipped him separately because I said that was most.

368
00:22:48,830 --> 00:22:52,180
Not only entertaining, inspiring a level of

369
00:22:52,420 --> 00:22:54,980
passion to present a bottle of wine. It was just

370
00:22:55,540 --> 00:22:59,380
Antonore's. Guido La Tasso wasn't like this major thing, but wine we like.

371
00:23:00,020 --> 00:23:03,820
But the way he made us feel by presenting it that way, it was not

372
00:23:03,820 --> 00:23:06,420
at all ostentatious. It was not at all

373
00:23:08,020 --> 00:23:11,860
insincere. This guy just had a love for what he was doing.

374
00:23:12,340 --> 00:23:15,820
On the flip side of that, at a famed restaurant in Beverly Hills, I won't

375
00:23:15,820 --> 00:23:19,460
throw anybody under the bus. I went to a fancy tasting and I was bored

376
00:23:19,540 --> 00:23:23,090
stiff by the song because it was about

377
00:23:23,170 --> 00:23:26,890
who he knew what he knew what he tasted. So when you. When

378
00:23:26,890 --> 00:23:30,090
you're dealing with clients who come in, and I'm sure you have a wide range

379
00:23:30,090 --> 00:23:33,330
of people that either think they understand why, they don't understand why. They really do

380
00:23:33,330 --> 00:23:37,170
understand why. Yeah. How do you deal with that? How do you train your staff

381
00:23:37,170 --> 00:23:40,890
to understand this? And then you just. What do you do? You

382
00:23:40,890 --> 00:23:44,530
ask questions, you try to. Well, I think it's. The basic of hospitality

383
00:23:44,530 --> 00:23:47,980
is like, you're not there for yourself. You're there to, you know, to be

384
00:23:47,980 --> 00:23:51,420
hospitable, to. To take care of someone. So the. The

385
00:23:51,420 --> 00:23:54,020
basics. I think being from

386
00:23:55,060 --> 00:23:58,820
a different culture also helps. Where you like hospitality, something that's really like

387
00:23:58,820 --> 00:24:02,140
kind of, you know, someone. You welcome someone into your home, you want to treat

388
00:24:02,140 --> 00:24:05,940
them a certain way. So it's not about you. It's really getting

389
00:24:05,940 --> 00:24:09,620
to know them and understand what they care about, understand

390
00:24:09,620 --> 00:24:11,940
their palate, understand their budget,

391
00:24:13,300 --> 00:24:17,060
understand also what they're eating. And then at the end of the day, I.

392
00:24:17,460 --> 00:24:21,300
And I will die by this. And not everybody agrees. The. The

393
00:24:21,300 --> 00:24:24,660
purpose of a wine program in a restaurant is to highlight the food.

394
00:24:25,380 --> 00:24:28,980
So if. If someone is the first thing I'm going to

395
00:24:29,780 --> 00:24:33,300
find out before I even go have a conversation with the table

396
00:24:33,300 --> 00:24:36,660
is what they've. If they've already ordered food is what they're having.

397
00:24:37,140 --> 00:24:40,910
And then we'll have that conversation of like, okay, well, based on

398
00:24:40,910 --> 00:24:44,670
what your dinner is, this is what would, you know, best complement it?

399
00:24:44,830 --> 00:24:48,310
But at the end of the day, if that's not something that you

400
00:24:48,310 --> 00:24:51,310
enjoy, then it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether it pears or not. I'm not

401
00:24:51,310 --> 00:24:54,190
here to tell you what you should or shouldn't like. I'm here to

402
00:24:54,990 --> 00:24:58,630
make you have a wonderful hospitality experience and leave happy and

403
00:24:58,630 --> 00:25:02,230
want to come back. And then the next time you come, now you trust me

404
00:25:02,230 --> 00:25:05,630
and we build rapport, and now you want to come to feel good again.

405
00:25:06,590 --> 00:25:10,310
That's a really good point. It's like cheers. Yeah, absolutely. We all love that

406
00:25:10,310 --> 00:25:14,150
cheers feeling. Exactly. It's. But that's a really good point. And I

407
00:25:14,150 --> 00:25:17,630
think, I think you nailed it with, with the idea of

408
00:25:18,350 --> 00:25:21,550
creating a relationship. And I think. Absolutely.

409
00:25:22,190 --> 00:25:25,630
I mean, I'm not, I'm not a huge, I

410
00:25:25,870 --> 00:25:29,670
say proponent. I think part of food pairing and wine is

411
00:25:29,670 --> 00:25:32,450
kind of hocus pocus to a certain point point. However,

412
00:25:33,490 --> 00:25:36,850
the idea that you're understanding what they're eating and what they feel like.

413
00:25:37,570 --> 00:25:41,410
How many people, let's say percentage wise, just say,

414
00:25:41,490 --> 00:25:45,130
find us something and then tell us what it is or come in saying we

415
00:25:45,130 --> 00:25:48,530
want, you know, whatever. I don't know what's popular these days. I'm not going to

416
00:25:48,530 --> 00:25:52,170
say kis or silver oak, but whatever. I don't get a lot

417
00:25:52,170 --> 00:25:55,850
of we want X. I mean, it's

418
00:25:55,850 --> 00:25:59,560
usually if, if I, if, if guests are pretty knowledgeable, then

419
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:03,040
they'll ask for the list and just order something. Right. Without having necessarily a

420
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:05,000
conversation. And if that's the case, and that's the case

421
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:10,280
in, you know, we. Based on what they order, then I,

422
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,760
that also helps me understand their palette. And then we can have a

423
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:18,120
conversation for the second bottle or even about the bottle that they order. And I

424
00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:21,480
can tell them, oh, you know, love this, blah, blah, blah, I have this vintage.

425
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:26,010
But again, like building that rapport. If

426
00:26:26,330 --> 00:26:29,930
people are asking and they have no idea,

427
00:26:30,090 --> 00:26:33,450
then. Then it is truly my job to find out

428
00:26:33,690 --> 00:26:37,450
what they enjoy. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether

429
00:26:37,850 --> 00:26:41,650
the. It's a hundred point wine or, you know, a wine that you

430
00:26:41,650 --> 00:26:44,970
think it's flawed. If they like it and they leave happy, then that's.

431
00:26:45,450 --> 00:26:49,290
Well, that's, that's an interesting point about that because. And I

432
00:26:49,290 --> 00:26:52,800
don't serve flawed wines because I'm in Beverly Hills. Of course not. But, you know,

433
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:56,400
there's a lot of Places in. Actually I was, I was doing a training the

434
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:59,120
other day on mouse, Mouse taint. And

435
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:03,640
I'm really, really, really sensitive to it and I hate it. Like it is,

436
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,480
it's like it ruins my day because it just, it just lingers. It just,

437
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:08,720
that's a wine person for you.

438
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:15,080
But I've seen descriptors on like, you

439
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,480
know, in like the east side of town and you know, the more hipster

440
00:27:19,090 --> 00:27:22,890
wine spots where a descriptor says corn chip, you know, like, and

441
00:27:22,890 --> 00:27:26,610
I'm like, okay, that, that is mouse. That, that is a descriptor of like

442
00:27:26,610 --> 00:27:30,410
the reason you're, you're tasting Fritos is because there

443
00:27:30,410 --> 00:27:33,730
is mouse in that. And we're, but at the end of the day,

444
00:27:34,610 --> 00:27:38,370
what I tell myself is as long as, you know,

445
00:27:38,370 --> 00:27:42,170
if, if it gets the younger demographic drinking wine and being interested in

446
00:27:42,170 --> 00:27:45,570
wine, their palate will, will develop. So as long as they're drinking wine

447
00:27:46,090 --> 00:27:49,890
and even if it's something that I would not touch with a ten

448
00:27:49,890 --> 00:27:53,690
foot pole, if they're drinking wine, then I'm happy. That's the irony of it

449
00:27:53,690 --> 00:27:57,490
all. It's very important and for the listeners. And this is

450
00:27:57,490 --> 00:28:01,330
what I do. I can do it because I've been doing this

451
00:28:01,330 --> 00:28:04,130
so long, but I can look at a list and just know that this has

452
00:28:04,130 --> 00:28:07,490
been properly curated and that no matter what I choose, it's going to be a

453
00:28:07,490 --> 00:28:10,730
really good example of what it's supposed to be. And I don't think you can

454
00:28:10,730 --> 00:28:14,090
go wrong with that in a restaurant that has a proper curation that

455
00:28:14,490 --> 00:28:17,830
whatever they bring you, it may be a nuance. Like, my wife is not big

456
00:28:17,830 --> 00:28:21,190
on Sarah, but when I pour her a good coat, it's like

457
00:28:21,590 --> 00:28:25,310
she, this is really good. But Gyra is

458
00:28:25,310 --> 00:28:29,150
from the Central coast, you know, that gets to her. So I, I,

459
00:28:29,150 --> 00:28:32,950
I do ascertain the list immediately and then I don't

460
00:28:32,950 --> 00:28:35,670
know everything on the list of tasted all these wines, but you don't know. But

461
00:28:35,670 --> 00:28:39,430
I, I'm trusting the list and the psalm because they know what's

462
00:28:39,430 --> 00:28:42,710
on there. And whenever I go to a restaurant, I always want to talk to

463
00:28:42,710 --> 00:28:45,790
the song. And it's funny because I go with friends that are not in the

464
00:28:45,790 --> 00:28:48,190
industry and they hand me the list and I say, you know, I take a

465
00:28:48,190 --> 00:28:51,830
look at the list and then I ask to speak to the

466
00:28:51,830 --> 00:28:55,430
Somme because they know their list better than anybody. And then I'm also always going

467
00:28:55,430 --> 00:28:58,550
to ask, what, what do you have on here that you're really enjoying right now?

468
00:28:58,550 --> 00:29:02,230
Like what, what's what's your. Like, what's. Or

469
00:29:02,230 --> 00:29:05,270
do you have anything that's not printed here that you know? Because we, we do

470
00:29:05,270 --> 00:29:09,030
do that. That, you know, it's like, yeah, sure, that's a great. You know,

471
00:29:09,030 --> 00:29:12,840
you get some. Some hidden gems that you're waiting to sell

472
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:16,600
to somebody that will actually appreciate them. And then based on what

473
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:20,080
they tell me that they're really enjoying, I also know their palette and whether I'm

474
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:23,080
going to like their recommendations. So what, what turns you on about this stuff? I

475
00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:25,840
mean, it's like, is it the expression on someone's face,

476
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:31,240
the knowledge base you have that sometimes you're proud of what we know and

477
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,960
understand and we like telling people about it? Not. Not the way the guy

478
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,800
in Beverly Hills, the other Beverly Hills restaurant that I went to, but in a

479
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:42,530
way that inspires people to want to know more.

480
00:29:42,530 --> 00:29:46,210
Does that get into your skin? Do you like that only?

481
00:29:46,530 --> 00:29:49,970
Yes, I do enjoy, like, sharing knowledge if people are.

482
00:29:50,770 --> 00:29:54,370
If people are interested, if people are curious. Yeah. But

483
00:29:54,530 --> 00:29:58,250
I. Again, when you in

484
00:29:58,250 --> 00:30:01,410
luxury hospitality, it is. It is your job to

485
00:30:02,130 --> 00:30:05,770
be an expert, but not let

486
00:30:05,770 --> 00:30:08,850
anybody know that you are an expert. Like you. You don't want. You can't make

487
00:30:08,850 --> 00:30:12,650
people feel like. Like you're better than them or, you know,

488
00:30:12,650 --> 00:30:16,290
more than them or feel intimidated. That is not luxurious. Nobody wants to experience that.

489
00:30:16,290 --> 00:30:18,690
That doesn't make me feel good. That doesn't make me want to go back somewhere.

490
00:30:19,570 --> 00:30:23,250
Now if they are. If. If they're curious and they want to engage,

491
00:30:23,730 --> 00:30:27,450
then. Then I'm happy to do so and tell you as much, you

492
00:30:27,450 --> 00:30:30,970
know, as you want to know. I can go on for hours, but then that

493
00:30:30,970 --> 00:30:32,850
is that, you know, you have to know

494
00:30:34,690 --> 00:30:37,330
that it's not for you. You got to remove the ego. That's a tricky thing.

495
00:30:37,570 --> 00:30:40,610
You got to remove the ego. I think that's the hardest part, is that there's

496
00:30:40,610 --> 00:30:44,250
a lot of ego in wine. And in the

497
00:30:44,250 --> 00:30:46,890
moment that you remove the ego and that you realize that it's not about you

498
00:30:46,890 --> 00:30:50,290
and what, you know, like, good for you, you know, so much like.

499
00:30:50,610 --> 00:30:53,570
But I mean, even then you walk up to a table and there's,

500
00:30:54,210 --> 00:30:57,570
like I said, thousands of different personalities that are going to

501
00:30:57,730 --> 00:31:01,570
say something and you have to be able to read that person. Sure. You

502
00:31:01,570 --> 00:31:04,810
gotta be a politician. Yeah. To know whether you're going to be

503
00:31:04,890 --> 00:31:08,570
annoying them. You know, I can't tell you how many times I've,

504
00:31:08,810 --> 00:31:12,090
like, listened to something just go, dude, you didn't pay attention. You know, it's like,

505
00:31:12,890 --> 00:31:16,210
I I get it. I don't need. I'll look at the list, I'll ask you

506
00:31:16,210 --> 00:31:19,850
a question. You know, I'm not rude, but I know what's on the list.

507
00:31:19,930 --> 00:31:23,650
I can even tell you who, who, what suppliers bringing the wines in,

508
00:31:23,650 --> 00:31:26,970
you know. Sure, exactly. But you, you have to

509
00:31:28,740 --> 00:31:32,300
make sure that you've got a keen understanding of these people without really knowing

510
00:31:32,300 --> 00:31:35,860
anything. Just in the first couple of sentences. Yeah.

511
00:31:36,900 --> 00:31:39,540
And it is a trained skill, but it does require

512
00:31:40,340 --> 00:31:44,060
listening. And not just listening with your ears, but like observing

513
00:31:44,060 --> 00:31:47,620
body language. And you know, is, this is you.

514
00:31:47,620 --> 00:31:51,060
We, we have guest notes, you know, at, in,

515
00:31:51,380 --> 00:31:55,100
in luxury hospitality, we know the people that are coming, ideally we know their

516
00:31:55,100 --> 00:31:58,480
guests. So like you, you, you approach that table already

517
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:02,120
prepared and knowing that it's a business dinner or lunch or

518
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:05,840
it's, it's a birthday, it's a celebration, these people are, you know, who are they?

519
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,440
What is what? You know, if they've, if they've been in, in the past,

520
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,520
you always take a look at what they've ordered in the past, what

521
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:17,320
they've consumed, the dishes that they enjoy, the wines that they enjoy. Are they cocktail

522
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:20,960
drinkers? Do they start with cocktails? Do they go straight, are they, you know,

523
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:24,650
straight into champagne? All of those things. So you try to gather as much knowledge

524
00:32:24,650 --> 00:32:28,450
as you can and then cater an experience for them. So

525
00:32:28,450 --> 00:32:32,090
the pre meal meeting with the staff is talking about these

526
00:32:32,090 --> 00:32:35,410
things? Yeah, yeah. You go, people have come in before

527
00:32:35,410 --> 00:32:38,489
who's, who's going to be at table two, you know, that kind of thing.

528
00:32:38,890 --> 00:32:42,530
Exactly. You try to prepare the team as much as possible to,

529
00:32:42,530 --> 00:32:46,370
to provide that level of hospitality where it,

530
00:32:46,370 --> 00:32:49,890
to the gas. It truly feels like, you know, they're, you're

531
00:32:49,890 --> 00:32:53,210
anticipating their needs before they even know they need something. And

532
00:32:53,530 --> 00:32:56,330
that is kind of the goal. That is that not kind of, that is the

533
00:32:56,330 --> 00:32:58,010
goal is. Have you seen any

534
00:33:00,330 --> 00:33:03,850
decline is probably too big a word, any Pull, push, pull back

535
00:33:04,970 --> 00:33:08,090
from this brand, this wine

536
00:33:08,490 --> 00:33:11,450
dip in the luxury side of things

537
00:33:13,530 --> 00:33:16,570
like market, what people are buying, whether they're spending as much

538
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:21,000
or does it really matter at that level of. The biggest thing that I've

539
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,560
noticed is not really in,

540
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,760
at the top, like at the top of the market, not the luxury side.

541
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:32,760
And, and then you know, you go to the entry level and that's

542
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,320
where you're ready to drinks are you know, destroying the market

543
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:40,280
or not destroying the market, but are like really just

544
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:44,580
kind of. Yeah, it's, it's making it really tough. Right? Yeah,

545
00:33:44,890 --> 00:33:48,410
but it's that Middle range that I think

546
00:33:48,970 --> 00:33:51,530
from my observation, that's really suffering because

547
00:33:52,570 --> 00:33:55,770
the despair, like the wealth disparity is so

548
00:33:56,330 --> 00:33:59,370
apparent, especially when you're working

549
00:34:01,130 --> 00:34:04,770
in the ultra luxury space. The people that can

550
00:34:04,770 --> 00:34:08,370
afford it, can always afford it, can always afford it. And

551
00:34:08,370 --> 00:34:11,900
then the people that can't afford it all the time

552
00:34:11,900 --> 00:34:14,740
but really care are just saving

553
00:34:15,700 --> 00:34:19,380
those, those meals and those wines for special

554
00:34:19,380 --> 00:34:22,740
moments. So it's becoming, you know, instead of going out to eat

555
00:34:23,460 --> 00:34:27,220
every week or a couple times a month, they're just saving all that for

556
00:34:27,220 --> 00:34:30,660
that really special experience a couple times a year.

557
00:34:31,700 --> 00:34:35,260
So do you have those at the restaurant? We do. Yeah, we do. And it's.

558
00:34:35,260 --> 00:34:38,500
And it's lovely and it's. And it's wonderful to, you know, like

559
00:34:39,359 --> 00:34:43,119
make their day and make their anniversary, their 10th year anniversary

560
00:34:43,119 --> 00:34:46,919
or, you know, a special birthday or a graduation, like make it release.

561
00:34:46,919 --> 00:34:49,919
But we have, we have a lot of special locations, I would say, things I

562
00:34:49,919 --> 00:34:53,679
want to talk about and we're never going to get to it all, so. Because

563
00:34:53,679 --> 00:34:57,319
that, I mean, the disparity in income and value that's always going to be around

564
00:34:57,319 --> 00:35:00,799
has been around since Middle Ages. That's just the way life is. And

565
00:35:00,799 --> 00:35:04,639
maybe today it's a little more exaggerated because of the way the economies are

566
00:35:04,639 --> 00:35:08,239
and the way the politicians have been acting. But at the same time,

567
00:35:09,140 --> 00:35:12,860
do you find in your. The circles, you

568
00:35:12,860 --> 00:35:16,420
know, that there's an aspiration

569
00:35:16,500 --> 00:35:19,940
to be able to be part of that

570
00:35:20,500 --> 00:35:23,300
ambiance, to be able to go to a restaurant like Dior? To be able to

571
00:35:23,300 --> 00:35:26,900
go to a restaurant like, you know, Bouchon or something. Is there?

572
00:35:27,140 --> 00:35:30,980
Absolutely. I think that's sort of a I would like to be there

573
00:35:30,980 --> 00:35:34,340
kind of thing. I don't know if it's a. I don't know of an aspiration,

574
00:35:34,420 --> 00:35:37,980
but. But what? Appreciation, maybe. Appreciation, Yeah. I think.

575
00:35:38,460 --> 00:35:41,900
Which is what makes it even more important that the hospitality is

576
00:35:41,980 --> 00:35:45,740
so on top and not in a pretentious way, because that's

577
00:35:45,740 --> 00:35:49,500
something that is not. Again, that doesn't feel good when I show up somewhere

578
00:35:49,500 --> 00:35:53,100
and I'm spending a lot of money and I feel like the staff is

579
00:35:53,100 --> 00:35:56,860
rude or makes me feel like I don't belong or that,

580
00:35:56,860 --> 00:36:00,460
you know, I don't. I don't know, something the sommelier makes me feel

581
00:36:00,540 --> 00:36:04,310
dumb. Like that's not luxurious. I suppose if you stepped

582
00:36:04,310 --> 00:36:08,030
up in your life. Sorry to interrupt you sure. If we had. If I'm part

583
00:36:08,030 --> 00:36:11,710
of, you know, then yes, absolutely. What's it called? My

584
00:36:11,710 --> 00:36:15,350
ladies who lunch Come and lunch with Their Birkins every

585
00:36:15,350 --> 00:36:18,870
day. Yes. Yes. And if I'm. If I go to Sizzler for dinner on a

586
00:36:18,870 --> 00:36:22,310
regular, you know, as my night out, and somehow I'm in Dior

587
00:36:22,470 --> 00:36:26,310
in Beverly Hills, I'm going to be intimidated just walking into the place.

588
00:36:26,710 --> 00:36:30,340
And your job is to make sure I'm not intimidated, despite my. Whatever level

589
00:36:30,340 --> 00:36:33,340
I've come to. Table. Come to the table. Because we want people to.

590
00:36:33,980 --> 00:36:35,340
And I have this theory that

591
00:36:37,180 --> 00:36:41,020
everybody can agree, whether they feel

592
00:36:41,020 --> 00:36:44,140
like they like the character of the wine or not is one thing, but that

593
00:36:44,700 --> 00:36:48,060
this is a good wine that is made properly, that is honest

594
00:36:48,300 --> 00:36:52,020
in representing something. And that happened to me the other night. We were

595
00:36:52,020 --> 00:36:55,500
at the Chop House in Parkway Grill, and I brought a Grand Cru

596
00:36:55,500 --> 00:36:59,020
Burgundy because it was a birthday. And I bought a classified growth

597
00:36:59,020 --> 00:37:02,720
Bordeaux. I don't remember what it was, and I didn't say anything. I just

598
00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:06,480
poured them and it was a very special night. And I

599
00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,720
got these comments from my best friend saying that was really good. Now, they didn't

600
00:37:09,720 --> 00:37:12,880
ask the questions what it was they didn't want. They really want to know, but

601
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:16,560
they agreed there was something very special about the

602
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:20,040
way the wine made him feel. Yeah. And you listen to

603
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:21,960
Ludovic. Ludovic. Yeah.

604
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:28,060
And he. That's kind of the premise of the Smith o. Lafitte. Yeah. Idea

605
00:37:28,060 --> 00:37:31,860
was that. I love that episode. Yeah. And now they're biodynamic wines that we

606
00:37:31,860 --> 00:37:35,180
talked about that. Is there. Is there a question

607
00:37:35,580 --> 00:37:39,340
from your clientele about organic, biodynamic, orange, all the rest

608
00:37:39,340 --> 00:37:42,780
of these natural, quote unquote things? Not so much in.

609
00:37:44,460 --> 00:37:47,500
Not so much. In Beverly Hills, there is questions about

610
00:37:48,940 --> 00:37:52,460
sugar and additives because there's like a

611
00:37:52,540 --> 00:37:56,180
big health conscious conscience

612
00:37:56,260 --> 00:37:59,380
trend that's also part of luxury, like

613
00:38:01,220 --> 00:38:04,820
luxury health retreats and

614
00:38:04,820 --> 00:38:08,660
products. And so from. You got to

615
00:38:08,660 --> 00:38:12,460
remember, it's Dior and it's Rodeo

616
00:38:12,460 --> 00:38:15,940
Drive. And I get a lot of ladies, ladies who lunch.

617
00:38:16,340 --> 00:38:19,380
So a lot of those ladies are very health conscious. And

618
00:38:20,260 --> 00:38:23,980
whatever their dietitian or whoever has told

619
00:38:23,980 --> 00:38:27,600
them, stay away from this, stay away from that. So it's more of on that

620
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:30,960
side. And they appreciate the whole. Like, everything on the list is

621
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:34,480
organic, if not biodynamic, and,

622
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,480
you know, practicing, whether it's certified or practicing. But, like,

623
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:42,480
the farming. The farming has to be right. Like, that's just. That's the basic.

624
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:45,360
If you're not. If you're not treating the plants

625
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:49,440
properly, then we're so concerned as a society about

626
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,520
where our tomatoes come from. And you Know, the eggs and all the

627
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:57,140
things, but no one thinks about where the fruit

628
00:38:57,140 --> 00:39:00,060
that goes and the grains that go into the things that they drink come from.

629
00:39:00,380 --> 00:39:03,660
So, you know, educating the consumer on that is something that I'm really passionate about

630
00:39:03,660 --> 00:39:06,700
of. Like. Yeah, you know how you go to the farmer's market every Saturday? Well,

631
00:39:06,780 --> 00:39:10,540
you should think about the drinks that you're having, that they're coming from fruit that

632
00:39:10,540 --> 00:39:14,220
would be sold at the farmer's market. There was a,

633
00:39:14,540 --> 00:39:18,180
there's a. I, I love those fruit kiosks. Yeah, the

634
00:39:18,180 --> 00:39:21,340
rainbow umbrella. And I had somebody go, you eat from there? And I said,

635
00:39:21,890 --> 00:39:25,410
yeah. She goes, but those, those fruits are from Mexico. I go, have you looked

636
00:39:25,410 --> 00:39:29,250
at the fruit at the market? They're from Chile and they got, they got

637
00:39:29,250 --> 00:39:33,090
picked like seven months ago. Who knows? But you know, it's interesting.

638
00:39:33,250 --> 00:39:37,050
My, one of my daughter, the boulanger, lived in Potsdam, New

639
00:39:37,050 --> 00:39:40,770
York, which is near Montreal. It was very rare,

640
00:39:40,770 --> 00:39:44,570
very rural. And so the beef and the pork, it's all very natural and

641
00:39:44,570 --> 00:39:47,650
fresh and organic meal and things.

642
00:39:48,370 --> 00:39:52,170
But there was an honor market and you would just go, a little tiny shack,

643
00:39:52,170 --> 00:39:55,930
it wasn't even bigger in this room, and, and you would pick what you wanted

644
00:39:55,930 --> 00:39:59,770
and you'd either sell them or venmo them, or you'd write down

645
00:39:59,770 --> 00:40:03,090
what you took and leave them the money. And

646
00:40:03,330 --> 00:40:06,890
their eggs are extraordinarily fresh. Like, there's a, there's a

647
00:40:06,890 --> 00:40:09,570
hatched on date, you know, not hashed on, but a, you know, lay on date.

648
00:40:09,570 --> 00:40:13,330
Okay. And I'm getting to this because I listened, I watched Pepin,

649
00:40:13,330 --> 00:40:17,050
George. Is it George Pepin, the chef. And he was making

650
00:40:17,050 --> 00:40:20,800
omelets on this video and he goes, you know, when we learned cooking school

651
00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:24,240
to not crack the egg at the edge of the pan because that'll

652
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:28,600
shred the shell. You crack it on a flat surface and it cracks in

653
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,920
half. And I can do that at home and it still falls apart. Right,

654
00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:35,760
Right. So, but I go see my daughter and I bring the

655
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:39,360
eggs home and I start doing it and they're cracking perfectly. And the reason is

656
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:43,240
they're untouched. Correct. They haven't gone through any process at all. Right.

657
00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:46,810
And there's a process. I forgot what it is that eggs go through

658
00:40:46,890 --> 00:40:50,330
that change the, the structure of the shell. I think it's

659
00:40:50,330 --> 00:40:54,130
pasteurization. Yeah, it could be just the pasteurization. And I go, now

660
00:40:54,130 --> 00:40:56,410
I get it. You know, and that matters so much,

661
00:40:57,770 --> 00:41:01,250
what we eat. You know, people say, well, you are what you eat. You are

662
00:41:01,250 --> 00:41:05,050
what you eat. Eats Absolutely. Yeah. That's. I mean, and

663
00:41:05,050 --> 00:41:08,890
that's one of the. I hear so many stories of people. You know, it happens

664
00:41:08,890 --> 00:41:11,650
with wine, but it also happens a lot with cheese, where people go to Europe

665
00:41:11,650 --> 00:41:13,570
and they're like, oh, my God, I ate all the cheese. I ate all the

666
00:41:13,570 --> 00:41:17,050
pasta, and I didn't have any issues. Yeah. But then I'm back home and I'

667
00:41:17,510 --> 00:41:21,350
I'm lactose intolerant. I have a gluten intolerance. And like.

668
00:41:21,430 --> 00:41:25,030
But every time I go to Italy, every statement about American.

669
00:41:26,310 --> 00:41:28,790
Yeah, yeah. Is it getting better? Do you know

670
00:41:30,310 --> 00:41:33,910
if you talk to anybody, if you see anything. I mean, I think, again,

671
00:41:34,630 --> 00:41:38,110
the consumer is for sure becoming more

672
00:41:38,110 --> 00:41:41,830
educated and the people that can afford it, because

673
00:41:41,830 --> 00:41:45,630
that's part of the issue too. Right. Is like, it is more expensive. It's so

674
00:41:45,630 --> 00:41:48,910
much more expensive. And it shouldn't be because technically it requires

675
00:41:49,150 --> 00:41:52,910
less. True. To make something, you know,

676
00:41:52,910 --> 00:41:56,750
without additives and without pesticides. But it does require a

677
00:41:56,750 --> 00:42:00,470
lot more care. Care of the soil, care of,

678
00:42:00,470 --> 00:42:03,550
you know, all of that. But the.

679
00:42:04,270 --> 00:42:08,110
Yeah. I think at the high. In the, you know, luxury market,

680
00:42:08,670 --> 00:42:12,390
there is for sure an education that has happened and

681
00:42:12,390 --> 00:42:16,070
people do care about the provenance of things. And that is

682
00:42:16,310 --> 00:42:19,990
something that brands are realizing in that luxury space where

683
00:42:19,990 --> 00:42:23,630
it's not the. It's not the ingredient itself that's luxurious anymore.

684
00:42:23,630 --> 00:42:27,150
Like, it's not that it has caviar. Well, where does the caviar come from? Because

685
00:42:27,150 --> 00:42:30,390
that makes a difference. That's an interesting point.

686
00:42:31,110 --> 00:42:34,790
That. Especially that level caviar and the types of, well, wine

687
00:42:34,790 --> 00:42:38,550
and. Same with wine. Absolutely. So why were you shocked then to hear about

688
00:42:39,030 --> 00:42:42,790
Smith or Lafitte being biodynamic? I wasn't shocked. I was just. I was. I was

689
00:42:42,790 --> 00:42:46,630
very happily. I knew that they were like, organic, but I was

690
00:42:46,790 --> 00:42:49,830
just listening to the story as to why they are. Biodynamic

691
00:42:50,550 --> 00:42:54,310
was just like. It just makes me happy. It wasn't like a surprise of like,

692
00:42:54,310 --> 00:42:56,710
oh, I had no idea. It was more like, oh, my God, that's awesome. Like,

693
00:42:56,710 --> 00:43:00,550
that just brings joy to my heart. Well, the point, like, because I made

694
00:43:00,550 --> 00:43:03,790
it to Ludwig, which was. It was always

695
00:43:03,790 --> 00:43:07,390
biodynamic. Correct. And then we screwed it up. Correct. And

696
00:43:07,390 --> 00:43:10,530
then we pat ourselves on the back for. For going back to the way it

697
00:43:10,530 --> 00:43:14,370
was. Yeah. And I would have never known by the character of

698
00:43:14,370 --> 00:43:18,090
the wine. Yeah. That this was now biodynamics, except there was

699
00:43:18,090 --> 00:43:21,250
a life to it because your. Your perception of

700
00:43:21,250 --> 00:43:25,050
biodynamic has been introduced from, like, the

701
00:43:25,050 --> 00:43:28,090
natural Wine movement, which. So you assume that it's going to be flawed, which is

702
00:43:28,090 --> 00:43:31,650
not. It's a farming practice.

703
00:43:31,730 --> 00:43:35,170
It's not like this is the thing to make. And I tell

704
00:43:35,530 --> 00:43:39,050
people this is a whole nother conversation. You can get me going on for three

705
00:43:39,050 --> 00:43:42,890
hours. But I love telling people everybody knows

706
00:43:42,890 --> 00:43:46,530
Crystal, right? Crystal is like rap. People rap about it?

707
00:43:46,530 --> 00:43:50,130
Yes, they rap about it. Crystal is Biden

708
00:43:50,130 --> 00:43:53,770
mimic. Is it really? I didn't know. Yeah. Did you learn that from Noreen?

709
00:43:53,930 --> 00:43:57,570
No. Well, actually I knew that before Noreen, but I

710
00:43:57,570 --> 00:44:01,210
love. That might be a little warm now. That's okay. That's okay. Okay.

711
00:44:01,610 --> 00:44:05,080
But I love telling people that same thing with like

712
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:08,920
Boca style. Chateau Boca Stell is biodynamic. And there's.

713
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:12,080
I love having like sharing with people

714
00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:16,040
that these well known luxury

715
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:19,800
brands have been farming the right way for a long time because that's how you

716
00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:23,600
move the needle. But for them, and what's interesting to me

717
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:27,040
for most of my conversations with these people is that for them it wasn't about

718
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:30,640
a contemporary marketing thing. No, absolutely not Doing the right thing

719
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,720
100%. Because, because when, when you're talking. But you got to remember

720
00:44:34,720 --> 00:44:38,480
brands like, like houses like this, they're. They're thinking legacy.

721
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:42,280
And when you're thinking legacy, you're. You think about how

722
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,840
you treat your assets and the best way to take care of your

723
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:49,600
asset, mean in the asset being here, wine, is to take

724
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,640
care of the soil that the wine is made in.

725
00:44:53,360 --> 00:44:57,010
If, if the soil ends up completely just inert

726
00:44:57,010 --> 00:45:00,250
and there's no life in it, do you think any fruit's going to do? Well,

727
00:45:00,250 --> 00:45:02,970
I wonder if American, you know, I wonder if that wasn't.

728
00:45:04,490 --> 00:45:07,330
It's a very European thing. Cheers. Thanks for bringing this, by the way. We're talking

729
00:45:07,330 --> 00:45:11,170
about in a second. But it's, it's a very European thought process. And

730
00:45:11,170 --> 00:45:14,410
I'm jealous of this since you alluded to Francophile

731
00:45:15,770 --> 00:45:19,570
tendency, which I consider myself a Francophile, is

732
00:45:19,570 --> 00:45:23,290
that they protected their cheese, they protected their, their wine,

733
00:45:23,290 --> 00:45:26,800
they protected their other parts of their,

734
00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:31,600
their culture, their agriculture. And I always thought, how cool is that? You

735
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:34,960
know, so cool. And then in America, though, but then they come here,

736
00:45:36,240 --> 00:45:39,840
Jadot and Druin and all these famed French companies.

737
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:43,760
Cathy Ards from Smith o Lafitte. Because it's free and

738
00:45:43,760 --> 00:45:47,120
you can do whatever you want. Right? So it's. I always thought that's really interesting.

739
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:51,370
But as Americans, I look back at why you're not. I love going to Europe

740
00:45:51,370 --> 00:45:54,690
because I get to experience that. That

741
00:45:55,170 --> 00:45:58,130
Inalienable culture. That's never going to change.

742
00:45:58,850 --> 00:46:02,210
But I think something to remember is they're coming,

743
00:46:04,850 --> 00:46:08,050
like, it is nice to have kind of like an open

744
00:46:08,290 --> 00:46:12,010
playground right. Where they can do whatever they want. They're not

745
00:46:12,010 --> 00:46:15,850
restricted to grape varieties, they're not restricted to yields, they're not restricted to things like

746
00:46:15,850 --> 00:46:18,150
that. Although they, you know, they can't,

747
00:46:19,830 --> 00:46:23,470
you know, we technically can't capitalize here and they

748
00:46:23,470 --> 00:46:27,030
do true. So. But,

749
00:46:27,750 --> 00:46:30,310
but they're already coming with a foundation of

750
00:46:32,309 --> 00:46:35,990
proper farming. Right. And like, and, and what

751
00:46:36,150 --> 00:46:39,470
going back to the point I was trying to make earlier, to make true. Like

752
00:46:39,470 --> 00:46:43,030
to, to make. If, if you're going to make quote, unquote, natural wine, if you're

753
00:46:43,030 --> 00:46:46,100
going to practice biodynamics in, in,

754
00:46:46,820 --> 00:46:50,540
in the vineyard and you're going to be as hands off and as natural as

755
00:46:50,540 --> 00:46:54,100
possible in the winery, you need to be so technical. You have to

756
00:46:54,100 --> 00:46:56,900
know your shit because

757
00:46:57,940 --> 00:47:01,740
it's. You are, you're ultimately. All of

758
00:47:01,740 --> 00:47:05,300
the additions are ways to fix human error. So if

759
00:47:05,300 --> 00:47:09,060
you are able to, to be so technical and

760
00:47:09,060 --> 00:47:12,340
so clean and so precise with your, with your winemaking that you don't need to,

761
00:47:12,580 --> 00:47:16,390
you know, protect in case of then incredible.

762
00:47:16,390 --> 00:47:20,230
Amazing. But that is expensive and that requires so much knowledge and

763
00:47:20,230 --> 00:47:23,990
it requires time and effort. And that's not like harvest

764
00:47:23,990 --> 00:47:26,710
after harvest after harvest. Correct. To know what you're going to get and then the

765
00:47:26,710 --> 00:47:30,510
changes because, and you have to be so present in the vineyard because you

766
00:47:30,590 --> 00:47:34,350
literally like day to day, you have to be observing the

767
00:47:34,350 --> 00:47:38,190
plants day to day. It's a living being. So like climate,

768
00:47:38,430 --> 00:47:42,260
anything can trigger, you know, a storm that

769
00:47:42,260 --> 00:47:45,660
happened down in Mexico can trigger,

770
00:47:48,380 --> 00:47:50,460
you know, a pest to fly up to

771
00:47:51,980 --> 00:47:55,660
Southern California because they're escaping, you know,

772
00:47:55,660 --> 00:47:59,300
and now so like you have to be so on top of everything. So it's

773
00:47:59,300 --> 00:48:02,780
a lot of work and it's more expensive because it requires. You can't like

774
00:48:02,940 --> 00:48:06,620
just standardize and like machine fix in the lab. Exactly.

775
00:48:06,750 --> 00:48:10,310
You six in the lab, which when I, my career was

776
00:48:10,310 --> 00:48:13,990
focused on 15 to 20 wines and I tasted everything and my dad

777
00:48:13,990 --> 00:48:17,750
taught me, you, if you even smell you, even if you smell the

778
00:48:17,750 --> 00:48:21,350
flaw, you need to taste it to understand the flaws. That's how I

779
00:48:21,350 --> 00:48:25,110
learned to taste the flaws and understand the wines. And then it got to

780
00:48:25,110 --> 00:48:28,190
the point where I started tasting the additives,

781
00:48:29,230 --> 00:48:32,830
the chap. You know, the grape sugars or the mega reds

782
00:48:32,830 --> 00:48:36,410
and the deforming agents and all the things that go into doing

783
00:48:36,410 --> 00:48:40,170
this. Yeah. And so now I am sort of Snob that way.

784
00:48:40,170 --> 00:48:43,690
The acidification, it's really, it's. Once you taste it, it's

785
00:48:43,850 --> 00:48:47,530
acidification is like really easy. And so my nephew's getting married

786
00:48:48,010 --> 00:48:51,809
next Saturday at the Langham and I told my, my brother, I said, you

787
00:48:51,809 --> 00:48:55,610
are not getting wine from the hotel. I said,

788
00:48:55,610 --> 00:48:58,970
you're. We're going to find, we're going to pour. We're actually pouring the collection. The

789
00:48:58,970 --> 00:49:02,650
Pastorel. Amazing. I had to collect my own in a, in a entry level

790
00:49:02,650 --> 00:49:06,390
Chablis, which is really good because why would you

791
00:49:06,390 --> 00:49:09,230
want somebody to leave the wedding going? Yeah, it was great food, what a fun

792
00:49:09,230 --> 00:49:12,950
time. But the wine sucked. You do that, Take it out of the

793
00:49:12,950 --> 00:49:16,670
band, you know. Yeah. Throw a little extra to the experience. So,

794
00:49:16,750 --> 00:49:20,350
so tell me about this. Classically Italian, right?

795
00:49:21,550 --> 00:49:25,390
Where's this from? No, it's run art. Oh, so it's champagne. I look at

796
00:49:25,390 --> 00:49:28,190
the wrong. Oh, you're right. She's sorry.

797
00:49:30,710 --> 00:49:34,230
This blanc to blanc, it's a Blanche Blanc. So run art is, is a,

798
00:49:34,470 --> 00:49:37,590
is a champagne house. That

799
00:49:38,470 --> 00:49:42,230
is. There's the nose. They champion Chardonnay. So

800
00:49:42,630 --> 00:49:46,310
they're standard. You know, the standard run art is a Blanc de blanc. And stylistically

801
00:49:46,310 --> 00:49:49,950
it's very. They, they really want to show the fruit expression. Just like fruit.

802
00:49:49,950 --> 00:49:53,790
And I know with these big, with the big houses in

803
00:49:53,790 --> 00:49:57,520
Champagne, they really want consistency. So regardless of, you know,

804
00:49:57,520 --> 00:50:01,040
what the base vintage is, when it was discouraged, it always tastes the same. So

805
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:04,480
you know that Runer Blancablanc is going to taste a certain way. This, on the

806
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:07,000
other hand, and then they have Dom Rune Art, which is their vintage that, you

807
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:10,520
know, comes out only in exceptional vintages and

808
00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:13,360
whatnot. This is. The Blanche is amazing.

809
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:17,680
Which is something that doesn't really make it into the US

810
00:50:18,080 --> 00:50:21,600
but going back to speaking about farming and speaking about

811
00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:24,230
climate change and these luxury

812
00:50:25,750 --> 00:50:29,470
brands actually caring about this and the consumer

813
00:50:29,470 --> 00:50:33,110
caring about this. So this was made specifically to

814
00:50:33,830 --> 00:50:37,430
kind of showcase climate change. So it's, it's 100%

815
00:50:37,430 --> 00:50:41,150
Chardonnay, but it's 80% of a single vintage. So this is the

816
00:50:41,150 --> 00:50:44,390
18th edition of the. Of, of the singular.

817
00:50:44,790 --> 00:50:48,390
And then the other 20% is perpetual reserve. And it's a

818
00:50:48,390 --> 00:50:52,210
pretty, it's a pretty substantial perpetual bottle age already like this

819
00:50:52,210 --> 00:50:56,050
wonderful depth. So this just, this was just released this year and it's

820
00:50:56,050 --> 00:50:59,490
18 vintage. Right. So so it started seven, eight years old.

821
00:51:00,130 --> 00:51:03,770
Exactly. It probably has a discouragement date. Yeah. So this was

822
00:51:03,770 --> 00:51:07,410
disgorged in December of 22. And then there's also this wonderful citrus

823
00:51:07,410 --> 00:51:10,690
character by it, which must be coming from the. The Chardonnay. 20%.

824
00:51:12,130 --> 00:51:15,650
But they're. They're making this particularly

825
00:51:16,190 --> 00:51:19,630
to showcase this, a single expression

826
00:51:19,710 --> 00:51:22,190
of climate change. And

827
00:51:23,630 --> 00:51:27,470
so explain why that happens. I mean, for the listeners.

828
00:51:27,470 --> 00:51:30,910
Wine certainly has been affected by climate change.

829
00:51:32,430 --> 00:51:35,870
When you pick and what you're picking. But how is it that they.

830
00:51:36,110 --> 00:51:39,390
Vince something around expressing that

831
00:51:40,910 --> 00:51:44,750
the goal is to have it. You have the perpetual

832
00:51:44,750 --> 00:51:48,270
reserve there to add, you know,

833
00:51:48,270 --> 00:51:51,910
levels of complexity. But there's 18% or, I'm sorry, 80%

834
00:51:52,230 --> 00:51:55,950
is a specific vintage. And they really want to showcase

835
00:51:55,950 --> 00:51:59,750
that vintage. Now this I see. So they're showing you what that

836
00:51:59,750 --> 00:52:03,510
vintage. It's not quite vintage Champagne, but it's. But this is the

837
00:52:03,510 --> 00:52:07,110
thing. This is a route nature. So this has zero dosage. Right.

838
00:52:07,670 --> 00:52:10,430
The reason that it needs as much time in the bottle as it does and

839
00:52:10,430 --> 00:52:14,270
that in that, you know, 20% of. Of perpetual reserve is because

840
00:52:14,270 --> 00:52:18,110
they're not adding any sugar and. But yet. Can you. Does it feel like

841
00:52:18,110 --> 00:52:21,910
it doesn't have any sugar? No, it's not as cloying and drying. I

842
00:52:21,910 --> 00:52:24,790
mean, drying is as some wines. Yeah, it's super balanced.

843
00:52:26,550 --> 00:52:30,150
But it's truly like. It's like I had an extra dry

844
00:52:30,550 --> 00:52:34,270
the other day and it was like, wow, it was really thin and,

845
00:52:34,270 --> 00:52:37,950
like, hard at the end. It tears off your enamel. It's

846
00:52:37,950 --> 00:52:41,590
not nice. And you have, you know, trends.

847
00:52:43,350 --> 00:52:46,870
Jean Baptiste, like at rotor, they're doing it. They're doing the same thing.

848
00:52:47,750 --> 00:52:48,630
They're showcasing

849
00:52:51,110 --> 00:52:54,750
brutnatures, but with a lot of perpetual reserve, if not all

850
00:52:54,750 --> 00:52:58,310
perpetual reserve. Or they are getting

851
00:52:58,710 --> 00:53:02,030
plenty of times on the lease before they're being disgorged and then some time in

852
00:53:02,030 --> 00:53:05,790
bottle before. But you are seeing that trend in Champagne

853
00:53:05,790 --> 00:53:09,510
more and more of. Is sparkling a big

854
00:53:10,070 --> 00:53:13,790
seller at the Dior? It is champagne. Champagne

855
00:53:13,790 --> 00:53:17,550
and dessert wine are things that, like psalms, love to sell but

856
00:53:17,550 --> 00:53:19,910
never get to. And we actually get to sell quite a bit of it, I

857
00:53:19,910 --> 00:53:23,590
think. Well, when you came in, we did the Ecamm lunch. Yes.

858
00:53:23,670 --> 00:53:27,310
How'd you know that? Because I was there. You were there. Oh,

859
00:53:27,310 --> 00:53:30,790
well, thanks for noticing me. I didn't know that.

860
00:53:30,950 --> 00:53:34,710
Yes. I was gonna bring it up. I poured you your wines. Oh, that's incredible.

861
00:53:35,720 --> 00:53:39,360
Have fun. Do we talk? We chatted. We

862
00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:43,120
chatted a little bit. I was. You had to run because you

863
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:46,960
were recording at. Exactly. You're doing the podcast at Wally's. Can

864
00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:50,760
I. I'm gonna say something. That I totally screwed that

865
00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:54,120
thing up. Something failed.

866
00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:58,400
Now I'm a Huge. Like at Wally's. Yeah. I'm a huge proponent

867
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:01,130
of redundancy when it comes to cameras and

868
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:05,760
recording. I did everything wrong. And so

869
00:54:06,080 --> 00:54:09,440
we had to heavily manipulate the sound quality

870
00:54:10,240 --> 00:54:14,040
because his mic failed. Oh, no. Yes. And we

871
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:16,880
came out all right. It's a little tiny tinny,

872
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:20,720
but I had sent it to a guy in Serbia to fix it for me.

873
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:24,600
Wow. He's a really good sound engineer. And I was so grateful that he did

874
00:54:24,600 --> 00:54:28,160
it because I would have really blown, like this great

875
00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:31,920
guy coming to LA and all this pompous circumstance. And then I don't. Even

876
00:54:32,720 --> 00:54:35,200
the mic. I don't know. It's a wire. I think it was the bad cable.

877
00:54:36,240 --> 00:54:39,920
They don't know that. They probably won't listen. So it's okay. Well, I'm sure that.

878
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:43,600
I mean, I'm sure I. I couldn't tell. So. Yeah. Okay, good. Such a

879
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:46,800
pleasure having here. I hope we can do it again because this is crazy. It's

880
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:50,600
already been an hour that we've been talking and I. I feel

881
00:54:50,600 --> 00:54:53,120
like we didn't even get to have your question. I know.

882
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:57,490
Happens because it's about understanding your

883
00:54:57,490 --> 00:55:00,610
perspective on things and what's going on out there. So I think people got a

884
00:55:00,610 --> 00:55:04,210
good round of that. And I appreciate this champagne. How

885
00:55:04,210 --> 00:55:07,930
fun. Really special. I really love champagne

886
00:55:07,930 --> 00:55:10,690
and I love teaching people about champagne. I think

887
00:55:12,130 --> 00:55:15,770
I taught him. Good, good. We got. We got to spread

888
00:55:15,770 --> 00:55:19,570
the knowledge of. Champagne is just a. It's a wine with bubbles.

889
00:55:20,050 --> 00:55:23,620
Sparkling wine in general is wine with bubbles. So you can have it throughout the

890
00:55:23,620 --> 00:55:25,980
meal. And they're. They're very different expressions.

891
00:55:27,740 --> 00:55:31,380
And he'll tell you it's just not just for celebrations. Right. So I.

892
00:55:31,380 --> 00:55:35,180
Yeah, I just. I just saw Clovis when he was here. The redo.

893
00:55:35,180 --> 00:55:37,660
The launch of the Comte

894
00:55:39,020 --> 00:55:42,180
up in a hotel. Yeah, I didn't get to go to that. I was working.

895
00:55:42,180 --> 00:55:45,980
I don't know that it's too late. They did. He did

896
00:55:45,980 --> 00:55:49,580
an after party at it at a

897
00:55:49,580 --> 00:55:53,420
restaurant in Beverly Hills that I went to after work and then. Yeah.

898
00:55:53,420 --> 00:55:57,100
But I. I adore. Adores. He's really.

899
00:55:57,100 --> 00:56:00,740
Is a really philosophical guy. He's on the show twice.

900
00:56:00,740 --> 00:56:04,580
Has really been quite interesting. We get nothing really

901
00:56:04,580 --> 00:56:07,900
about wine because that's what's cool about wine.

902
00:56:08,060 --> 00:56:11,100
It's like. It is very philosophical. I mean, we. Can

903
00:56:11,820 --> 00:56:15,260
you. Can you start. Maybe we're not done yet because we have to peel this

904
00:56:15,260 --> 00:56:18,860
back. It's even an hour. This is the issue. And I. I think it plagues

905
00:56:18,860 --> 00:56:22,240
the wine industry and it's going to at Millennium

906
00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:26,320
and always has. There's this understanding that

907
00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:30,000
is being spoken about right now. The. The

908
00:56:30,800 --> 00:56:34,640
experience of what it is when you taste a real

909
00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:37,960
wine, what it makes you feel, versus the

910
00:56:37,960 --> 00:56:41,600
marketability and the requirement to market wine. And we went to Wine Paris

911
00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:45,000
every. And I came to. It hit me like I'm walking down this aisle. There's

912
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:47,720
thousands and thousands and thousands of wine, and

913
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:52,440
everybody in that room is trying to sell the same thing. Even though they're from

914
00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:56,200
different parts of the world, different grapes, all that, we're still in the same market,

915
00:56:56,520 --> 00:56:59,720
trying to get the same restaurant list, trying to get the same store to take

916
00:56:59,720 --> 00:57:03,440
the wines. And I thought, what other product in the whole world is there a

917
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:07,080
convention where every booth has exactly the same thing, except in different

918
00:57:07,080 --> 00:57:10,640
forms, and there isn't any other product. So if you

919
00:57:10,640 --> 00:57:14,290
listen to Otomi Global, the think tank for wines out

920
00:57:14,290 --> 00:57:17,850
of. Out of their own, actually, they'll

921
00:57:17,850 --> 00:57:21,690
say wine is consumer driven. It is.

922
00:57:22,090 --> 00:57:25,570
I get it. You got to sell it. And I think that's the irony of

923
00:57:25,570 --> 00:57:29,410
most people that start to bite off this luxurious lifestyle to be in the wine

924
00:57:29,410 --> 00:57:33,170
business. Yeah. And then realize, you got to sell it. There's a quote that

925
00:57:33,170 --> 00:57:36,490
I heard of many, many years ago is, how do you make money in wine?

926
00:57:37,290 --> 00:57:40,010
Or how do you make a million dollars in wine? You start with five. Yes.

927
00:57:40,410 --> 00:57:44,250
Five million. Even Kevin o' Leary told me that joke when

928
00:57:44,250 --> 00:57:47,110
he was show. But the point is,

929
00:57:47,990 --> 00:57:51,790
there is a space between what we

930
00:57:51,790 --> 00:57:55,590
understand about it and how we appreciate it and the idea that we need to

931
00:57:55,590 --> 00:57:58,670
sell as much as we can to make it work. And then are you willing

932
00:57:58,670 --> 00:58:02,230
to sacrifice as a winemaker and a winery owner,

933
00:58:03,670 --> 00:58:07,230
what you're producing to get to this niche where you're going to like a

934
00:58:07,230 --> 00:58:10,590
josh or an apothecary or put in a can or put it in a tetra

935
00:58:10,590 --> 00:58:14,080
pack or something like that. I wouldn't be. But,

936
00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:17,880
man, you know, you've. It's so hard out there right now. You got to sell

937
00:58:17,880 --> 00:58:21,600
something. You got to figure something out. This is true. But I think

938
00:58:21,600 --> 00:58:25,240
this is where, you know, there. If. If you're looking

939
00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:29,000
at wine as a product, then of course, then you do

940
00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:32,480
whatever needs to be done to that product to sell it and monetize it.

941
00:58:32,800 --> 00:58:36,000
If you look at wine as a part of,

942
00:58:36,640 --> 00:58:40,470
like, as a. As a food and a part of

943
00:58:40,470 --> 00:58:43,830
culture, then yes, then you do

944
00:58:43,910 --> 00:58:47,190
adjust to the market. But you're not completely

945
00:58:47,670 --> 00:58:50,070
just throwing away. You know,

946
00:58:52,150 --> 00:58:54,710
it's taking that mindset of,

947
00:58:55,830 --> 00:58:59,510
yeah, it's like that consumerism mindset, which is. I'm not interested in it. You know,

948
00:59:00,310 --> 00:59:04,150
that's a problem. Yeah, you have to do it. But it was

949
00:59:04,150 --> 00:59:06,870
different in 1975 when that picture was painted taken.

950
00:59:08,330 --> 00:59:11,970
It was. The industry was not in that. There was certainly white Zinfandel that

951
00:59:11,970 --> 00:59:15,810
just started and that became a phenomenon. But there wasn't

952
00:59:15,810 --> 00:59:19,610
any real. But even white Zinn, for example.

953
00:59:19,610 --> 00:59:22,890
I love like introducing people to like Turley White Zen. Right. Because

954
00:59:23,770 --> 00:59:27,410
there's a. His, There's. There's. It's a fun fact. Exactly.

955
00:59:27,410 --> 00:59:31,170
There's a story behind it. There's. It's a. It's. It's some. It's a cool thing

956
00:59:31,170 --> 00:59:34,870
that whether you care about wine or not, you just learn something. And it

957
00:59:34,870 --> 00:59:38,710
was. It, you know, like people watch TV for a reason. Do

958
00:59:38,710 --> 00:59:42,430
you pour that? Not currently, no. Do you have rose on the

959
00:59:42,430 --> 00:59:45,710
list? I do have rose on the list. The

960
00:59:46,430 --> 00:59:50,190
consumer. It's. The rose market is insane. I mean,

961
00:59:51,470 --> 00:59:55,150
eight years ago you could not. I mean it was. It was all day

962
00:59:55,150 --> 00:59:58,790
everything. Right. And now it's back to. People don't really

963
00:59:58,790 --> 01:00:02,510
care about what the is. They just want a. They're not looking for

964
01:00:04,000 --> 01:00:07,120
Sicilian rose or. No, I mean I think

965
01:00:07,120 --> 01:00:10,880
Sardinia again in those mark in like, like

966
01:00:11,120 --> 01:00:14,600
in Brooklyn, I think, you know, you can still get some really cool stuff. But

967
01:00:14,600 --> 01:00:17,760
like. Like Chateau Simon, like Palais Rose.

968
01:00:18,080 --> 01:00:21,600
I. I don't sell any of it, but I have it on the list because

969
01:00:22,720 --> 01:00:26,280
why wouldn't I. Was it Whispering angel and it's not on the list. Desk

970
01:00:26,280 --> 01:00:30,030
allowance that aren't those are not Minuti's on the list

971
01:00:30,180 --> 01:00:33,860
List. Oh really? Minutis are by the glass. Which is part of the LVMH

972
01:00:33,860 --> 01:00:37,580
family. Yeah. And that was another thought. And we'll finish

973
01:00:37,580 --> 01:00:40,780
this thing because we're going to run out of time. But I went to a

974
01:00:40,780 --> 01:00:44,100
taste a wine bar in Hermosa beach

975
01:00:44,420 --> 01:00:48,140
the other day. Was it friends of the family or the Vine? No, I

976
01:00:48,140 --> 01:00:51,700
don't know the name of it. It was a couple. The guy was from Southern.

977
01:00:52,820 --> 01:00:56,180
They had just opened. It was a soft opening, maybe two days. It's on Pierre

978
01:00:56,180 --> 01:00:59,990
Avenue. Right. Okay. And I just wanted to say hi.

979
01:01:00,390 --> 01:01:03,350
They poured a glass of wine. I said this is what I do. And they

980
01:01:03,350 --> 01:01:07,190
were very leery of the guy walked in, was the wine business. And then

981
01:01:07,190 --> 01:01:10,030
we had this huge conversation. We were there for like two hours and it was

982
01:01:10,030 --> 01:01:13,630
like they understood that we get it. And everything on their list was from

983
01:01:13,630 --> 01:01:17,230
Southern. And we've had this consolidation of. Of

984
01:01:17,230 --> 01:01:20,950
wholesalers in this world, that epic's gone and, you know, there's the serendipities

985
01:01:20,950 --> 01:01:24,320
of the world and all that. But as a corporate environment,

986
01:01:24,560 --> 01:01:27,840
do you try to keep things focused on

987
01:01:28,800 --> 01:01:32,280
one or two vendors so it makes it easier for accounting? No, no.

988
01:01:32,280 --> 01:01:36,000
Accounting hates me. My purchasing department,

989
01:01:36,160 --> 01:01:39,800
I am their biggest nightmare. I will work especially

990
01:01:39,800 --> 01:01:43,280
because we're in California, and in California, and this is a little bit of like,

991
01:01:43,760 --> 01:01:47,600
you know, baseball talk or whatever. Inside baseball. Inside baseball.

992
01:01:48,410 --> 01:01:52,210
California is the only state where you can spot price. You

993
01:01:52,210 --> 01:01:54,690
can't do it in New York. You can't do it because we're a producer. We're

994
01:01:54,690 --> 01:01:57,850
such a large producer state. So you can get

995
01:01:59,130 --> 01:02:02,850
pricing just for you based on an

996
01:02:02,850 --> 01:02:06,650
agreement that you have with. With, you know, and it's usually with the winery.

997
01:02:07,530 --> 01:02:11,050
So I will happily work with winery direct.

998
01:02:11,290 --> 01:02:14,010
Like when I was at. When. When I was

999
01:02:15,410 --> 01:02:18,130
the wine director and beverage director at Gwen and for Curtis,

1000
01:02:19,170 --> 01:02:23,010
I worked with over. Over a hundred. I think it was. At

1001
01:02:23,010 --> 01:02:26,690
one point, it was. We had 130 different vendors,

1002
01:02:26,690 --> 01:02:29,890
like wine vendors. You're kidding. Because Arthur J. And man,

1003
01:02:30,770 --> 01:02:34,530
they have a hundred. And I thought they must hate you with

1004
01:02:34,530 --> 01:02:38,050
corporate. Well, but we weren't corporate. You know, Curtis was still your

1005
01:02:38,050 --> 01:02:40,690
accountant. We weren't corporate. Yeah, but at the end of the day, if. As long

1006
01:02:40,690 --> 01:02:43,250
as I'm on top of my invoices and I'm processing all of it and I'm

1007
01:02:43,250 --> 01:02:46,850
making sure that, like, our AP's on point, then, like, it's not any more work

1008
01:02:46,850 --> 01:02:50,690
for you. I'm doing all the legwork and I'm getting to work with, you

1009
01:02:50,690 --> 01:02:53,530
know, winery directs. I'm. I'm

1010
01:02:54,330 --> 01:02:58,170
supporting, you know, small producers that they see.

1011
01:02:58,250 --> 01:03:00,730
It's a. It's a mutually beneficial.

1012
01:03:02,010 --> 01:03:05,850
Does Dior carry that extra weight? Sorry to interrupt you again,

1013
01:03:06,010 --> 01:03:09,770
but did, like, if I'm Joe Blow and

1014
01:03:09,770 --> 01:03:13,410
my little first restaurant, Italian Place, am I going

1015
01:03:13,410 --> 01:03:17,010
to get the same sort of attention? No,

1016
01:03:17,570 --> 01:03:21,410
probably not. But honestly, the most of the attention

1017
01:03:22,210 --> 01:03:25,930
wasn't because of, like, all of those types

1018
01:03:25,930 --> 01:03:29,530
of deals aren't necessarily because it's Dior. It's

1019
01:03:29,530 --> 01:03:33,010
because I've built relationships in this town and like. And then people.

1020
01:03:33,170 --> 01:03:37,010
That's more important. I. Absolutely. Because restaurants come and go and like, I mean,

1021
01:03:37,550 --> 01:03:41,390
Osario Gucci, closed, so like it.

1022
01:03:42,430 --> 01:03:44,510
But you, you know, creating.

1023
01:03:45,950 --> 01:03:48,830
Creating relationships and really, like,

1024
01:03:49,390 --> 01:03:53,110
creating loyalty to brands is something

1025
01:03:53,110 --> 01:03:56,390
that is really important. It's really important. The luxury market, because that's one thing about

1026
01:03:56,390 --> 01:04:00,190
the luxury consumer. They're super loyal. Yeah, they are loyal. Like, they're.

1027
01:04:00,590 --> 01:04:04,380
If. If they are the Macallan drinkers, like, you cannot convince

1028
01:04:04,380 --> 01:04:07,820
them to drink anything else. You can convince them to try that along

1029
01:04:08,220 --> 01:04:11,260
their Macallan. Right. But not instead of.

1030
01:04:12,620 --> 01:04:16,140
And the. So

1031
01:04:16,300 --> 01:04:20,060
and I think that carries on to. To, you know,

1032
01:04:20,460 --> 01:04:24,180
to people, to buyers, to sommeliers, where, like, you build

1033
01:04:24,180 --> 01:04:27,980
a relationship with a winery and you. And it's. Especially if it's based

1034
01:04:27,980 --> 01:04:31,810
on values, not on swipes. That's true. And

1035
01:04:31,810 --> 01:04:35,090
that's important. I think this industry is clearly about

1036
01:04:35,090 --> 01:04:38,850
relationships, particularly now when it. When there's so many

1037
01:04:38,850 --> 01:04:42,410
less people playing on the wholesale side. And

1038
01:04:42,410 --> 01:04:46,210
speaking of loyalty, we went to the Dior Museum in Paris.

1039
01:04:46,210 --> 01:04:49,250
Oh, nice. How exciting that was. When did. When were you there?

1040
01:04:51,970 --> 01:04:55,690
We've been there a few times the last couple years. The last time

1041
01:04:55,690 --> 01:04:59,070
was, I think in February when I went to.

1042
01:05:00,350 --> 01:05:04,150
Oh, yeah, Wine Paris. Yeah. So we're gonna wrap it up, but I

1043
01:05:04,150 --> 01:05:07,710
have a trivia question. I usually ask a question from this book, which is about

1044
01:05:09,070 --> 01:05:12,870
human ailments and the curative wine. They're all French

1045
01:05:12,870 --> 01:05:16,150
wines. You gotta remember that. I listen to your podcast. Yeah. So. So I might

1046
01:05:16,150 --> 01:05:19,790
know the answer. But the answer. The question I'm going to ask you

1047
01:05:19,790 --> 01:05:21,950
now, we've already discussed.

1048
01:05:23,800 --> 01:05:27,490
So we've been to Louis the 15th in. In Monaco, cost us 7,

1049
01:05:27,590 --> 01:05:31,360
€800 a person. Many other restaurants kind of like that. But what

1050
01:05:31,360 --> 01:05:34,680
do you think the most expensive restaurant?

1051
01:05:35,480 --> 01:05:39,320
I think. I think it's in the world. It certainly is in the US Is.

1052
01:05:41,880 --> 01:05:45,400
And you're, you know, you have old cuisine. Madam. Madam as well. Old

1053
01:05:45,400 --> 01:05:49,110
cuisine. Yeah. Is it just for the menu or the,

1054
01:05:49,110 --> 01:05:52,110
like, average. Like check average. Check average.

1055
01:05:55,550 --> 01:05:58,910
Check average. Most expensive restaurant in the U.S.

1056
01:05:59,310 --> 01:06:03,150
i'm going to say, is actually not a real restaurant. It's a

1057
01:06:03,150 --> 01:06:06,910
restaurant slash nightclub. And it's going to be Tao in Las Vegas.

1058
01:06:07,470 --> 01:06:10,750
Tao. That makes good sense, I think. Connor, you've been the towel. Right.

1059
01:06:12,030 --> 01:06:15,880
If we're going by check average. And what do you think that check average is?

1060
01:06:16,440 --> 01:06:19,480
Didn't you go to Tao in Vegas with the armor and all that?

1061
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:25,120
It's a club. Well, it's a restaurant club. Right. It's a restaurant that turns into

1062
01:06:25,120 --> 01:06:27,080
a. The first time you guys were all out there.

1063
01:06:28,440 --> 01:06:31,880
Okay, okay. What do you think that average is?

1064
01:06:33,080 --> 01:06:36,280
I'm gonna say check average is

1065
01:06:38,280 --> 01:06:42,090
$10,000 a person. No, no, per person. Well, per person.

1066
01:06:42,090 --> 01:06:45,770
Per person. Yeah. Per

1067
01:06:45,770 --> 01:06:48,130
person job average would be probably.

1068
01:06:52,130 --> 01:06:55,890
$1800. Wow. Well, I don't know. The

1069
01:06:55,890 --> 01:06:59,010
Answer to that question. I don't know the answer. That's. How's response.

1070
01:06:59,730 --> 01:07:03,330
But. But if we're talking restaurant restaurants, I don't know,

1071
01:07:03,330 --> 01:07:06,970
because they're. Because they're a restaurant club. They have like bottle service and it gets.

1072
01:07:06,970 --> 01:07:10,670
Yeah, the bottle service, like 500 look. So let's just go pure restaurant. Pure

1073
01:07:10,670 --> 01:07:11,550
restaurant. Okay.

1074
01:07:14,510 --> 01:07:18,270
Is there any three star Michelin restaurants in la? Yeah, I would say Somni

1075
01:07:18,270 --> 01:07:21,950
is probably getting up there because they also make you choose your.

1076
01:07:22,590 --> 01:07:25,990
You have to choose a pairing when you make the

1077
01:07:25,990 --> 01:07:29,150
reservation. So between the menu and the pairing,

1078
01:07:29,310 --> 01:07:32,950
you're. Before you even walk in the door, you're spending a

1079
01:07:32,950 --> 01:07:36,640
minimum of 800 bucks ahead. Well, let me tell you, young lady. Yeah.

1080
01:07:38,000 --> 01:07:41,760
21 royal in Disneyland is 1250 a person.

1081
01:07:42,800 --> 01:07:46,080
And that's. If you fill it up with 12 people, it's

1082
01:07:46,080 --> 01:07:49,280
$15,000 to walk into the place. Yeah. It could be

1083
01:07:49,760 --> 01:07:53,040
you and a spouse or it could be you and 11 other people.

1084
01:07:53,520 --> 01:07:55,920
And that's your friend, Matt Ellington. Yeah, that is our friend.

1085
01:07:57,360 --> 01:08:01,120
And I've stumped everybody in that question. They're like, Disneyland. I'm like, yeah, Disneyland. That's

1086
01:08:01,120 --> 01:08:04,390
where it's at. I've been. I. I'll put it out there for all my Disney

1087
01:08:04,390 --> 01:08:08,230
people. Happy. If you can get me into, you know, Club

1088
01:08:08,230 --> 01:08:12,030
33, please. Club 33

1089
01:08:12,030 --> 01:08:15,870
is fun. Yeah, I'll be, I'll be anyone's guest. So an

1090
01:08:15,870 --> 01:08:18,430
honor and a pleasure to have you here. Such a pleasure. Thank you so much

1091
01:08:18,430 --> 01:08:21,470
for having me, Paul. This has been just an absolute delight. We're going to come

1092
01:08:21,470 --> 01:08:25,110
see you. Yes, please. I made all the women jealous last night watching the

1093
01:08:25,990 --> 01:08:29,759
soccer game that, that you're coming in from Dior

1094
01:08:29,759 --> 01:08:33,119
and we're gonna, you know, Dior is really,

1095
01:08:33,439 --> 01:08:37,239
really. So Rosalia just performed. I don't know if you know

1096
01:08:37,239 --> 01:08:40,999
who she is, but she's a global artist. She's from Spain. Extremely talented woman.

1097
01:08:40,999 --> 01:08:44,799
She's a like classically trained flamenco, et

1098
01:08:44,799 --> 01:08:48,599
cetera. She just had her concert here and Dior fully

1099
01:08:48,599 --> 01:08:52,119
styled her. Her every outfit she wore was a Dior outfit.

1100
01:08:52,119 --> 01:08:55,439
And this is what I'm talking about, about like going back to

1101
01:08:56,140 --> 01:08:59,860
what is luxury. That experiential like. And it is

1102
01:08:59,860 --> 01:09:03,420
aspirational as well. Right. Like, you don't. It's not just a

1103
01:09:03,420 --> 01:09:07,140
Runway show. It's literally what one

1104
01:09:07,140 --> 01:09:10,820
of the top global artists who probably is going to win album of the

1105
01:09:10,820 --> 01:09:14,540
year, every single. And her performance is very artistic. Every

1106
01:09:14,860 --> 01:09:18,540
outfit that she wore that she's wearing on the Tour is, is

1107
01:09:18,620 --> 01:09:22,100
Dior, is a Dior outfit. You know, there was a show that you could listen

1108
01:09:22,100 --> 01:09:25,840
to. His name was Zaya Unanimous. Z A Y A Y O U N

1109
01:09:25,840 --> 01:09:29,320
A N. He was sat right there. I

1110
01:09:29,320 --> 01:09:32,760
gotta think he's a billionaire. Sure. Really close.

1111
01:09:33,400 --> 01:09:36,920
But came to this country with nothing. 25 bucks in his pocket

1112
01:09:37,240 --> 01:09:40,600
and no escort. Just a 13 years old, got on a plane, flew to LA,

1113
01:09:40,600 --> 01:09:44,320
flew to Chicago, and he is building a luxury

1114
01:09:44,320 --> 01:09:47,960
brand. And his explanation as

1115
01:09:47,960 --> 01:09:51,809
to why is this wants to take on lvmh,

1116
01:09:51,809 --> 01:09:55,449
which is going to be a tall order. But regardless, that

1117
01:09:55,449 --> 01:09:59,209
aspiration for him to do that. And he talks about some of

1118
01:09:59,209 --> 01:10:02,969
his employees and their annoyance to

1119
01:10:03,289 --> 01:10:07,129
him and unknowing to them that he was mulling this idea around

1120
01:10:07,129 --> 01:10:10,569
to have premium cigars, premium vodkas and gins,

1121
01:10:11,129 --> 01:10:14,569
premium wines. He bought three estates in Santa Mill. I mean

1122
01:10:14,889 --> 01:10:18,489
really going after this idea and his explanation of it is really,

1123
01:10:18,850 --> 01:10:22,330
really interesting and a brilliant man. The story's brilliant.

1124
01:10:22,330 --> 01:10:25,530
Anyway. But the fact that this is his

1125
01:10:25,530 --> 01:10:29,250
aspiration to be in a luxury market. What, but what is this?

1126
01:10:29,250 --> 01:10:32,690
What is its explanation? Well, you have to listen to the podcast.

1127
01:10:32,690 --> 01:10:36,450
Okay. Yes. I haven't listened to that ever since I'm from an

1128
01:10:36,450 --> 01:10:40,250
immigrant family as you are. Yeah. My in laws

1129
01:10:40,250 --> 01:10:43,970
are from Iran, my dad's from Cairo. Part of it might be

1130
01:10:44,050 --> 01:10:47,720
that. That what they saw growing up and what they

1131
01:10:47,720 --> 01:10:51,320
see the American lifestyle can be a luxury lifestyle can be not just

1132
01:10:51,320 --> 01:10:55,000
American, but that certainly Americans aspire. You're

1133
01:10:55,000 --> 01:10:58,400
free to aspire to that level of wealth. That.

1134
01:10:59,600 --> 01:11:03,360
That was a goal. Sure. You know, and that's. That's.

1135
01:11:03,680 --> 01:11:07,040
I feel like I've arrived. Yeah. If I get to experience this.

1136
01:11:07,520 --> 01:11:11,280
And that's. Whether it's a noble goal or not. Does not.

1137
01:11:11,490 --> 01:11:15,170
Not our side. Absolutely. But it's something that people look forward to doing

1138
01:11:15,170 --> 01:11:18,050
and trying to do. And I think it's really cool that you're part of that.

1139
01:11:18,530 --> 01:11:22,130
That you get to, you get to continue

1140
01:11:22,130 --> 01:11:25,850
that inspiration. Yeah. And I truly, truly

1141
01:11:25,850 --> 01:11:29,330
do believe that when you are in luxury hospital, like as, as a.

1142
01:11:29,970 --> 01:11:33,770
As someone in luxury hospitality, you

1143
01:11:33,770 --> 01:11:37,410
have a responsibility because the. Like

1144
01:11:37,720 --> 01:11:41,560
both on the consumer education side and then on where you

1145
01:11:41,560 --> 01:11:45,400
put your, your money and efforts, you

1146
01:11:45,400 --> 01:11:48,800
know, the platforms that you've been given to make sure that you're helping the

1147
01:11:48,800 --> 01:11:52,520
needle go the right way. Yeah. You know, really

1148
01:11:52,520 --> 01:11:56,280
great. Congratulations. Thank you. That's very kind of you. Thank you.

1149
01:11:56,440 --> 01:11:59,040
Cheers. I think. Oh, I need to point. Yeah. Okay, let's do that. You get

1150
01:11:59,040 --> 01:12:02,840
it. You need more. You need more champagne. Artist. She's from

1151
01:12:02,840 --> 01:12:06,200
Spain, extremely talented woman. She's a like classically trained

1152
01:12:06,800 --> 01:12:10,520
flamenco, et cetera. She just had

1153
01:12:10,520 --> 01:12:14,360
her concert here and Dior fully styled her. Her every outfit she wore was

1154
01:12:14,360 --> 01:12:18,000
a Dior outfit. And this is what I'm talking about about

1155
01:12:18,000 --> 01:12:21,360
like going back to what is luxury. That experiential

1156
01:12:21,600 --> 01:12:25,120
like. And it is aspirational as well. Right.

1157
01:12:25,120 --> 01:12:28,400
Like you don't. It's not just a Runway show. It's literally

1158
01:12:29,600 --> 01:12:33,410
what one of the top global artists who probably is going

1159
01:12:33,410 --> 01:12:36,730
to win album of the year. Every single. And her performance is very

1160
01:12:36,730 --> 01:12:40,450
artistic. Every outfit that she wore that

1161
01:12:40,450 --> 01:12:44,290
she's wearing on the tour is. Is Dior, is a Dior outfit. You

1162
01:12:44,290 --> 01:12:47,490
know, there was a show that you could listen to. His name was Zaya Unan.

1163
01:12:47,570 --> 01:12:50,610
Z A Y A Y O U N A N. He sat right there.

1164
01:12:52,450 --> 01:12:56,210
I gotta think he's a billionaire. Sure. Really close.

1165
01:12:56,930 --> 01:13:00,360
But came to this country with nothing. 25 bucks in his pocket

1166
01:13:00,680 --> 01:13:04,040
and no escort. Just a 13 years old, got on a plane, flew to LA,

1167
01:13:04,120 --> 01:13:07,800
flew to Chicago and he is building a luxury

1168
01:13:07,800 --> 01:13:11,520
brand. And his explanation of as

1169
01:13:11,520 --> 01:13:15,320
to why he wants to take on lvmh,

1170
01:13:15,320 --> 01:13:19,000
which is going to be a tall order. But regardless that

1171
01:13:19,000 --> 01:13:22,720
aspiration for him to do that. And he talks about some of

1172
01:13:22,720 --> 01:13:26,270
his employees and their unknowing.

1173
01:13:26,830 --> 01:13:30,630
Him unknowing to them that he was mulling this idea around

1174
01:13:30,630 --> 01:13:34,030
to have premium cigars, premium vodkas and gins,

1175
01:13:34,590 --> 01:13:38,030
premium wines. He bought three estates in Santa Milion. I mean

1176
01:13:38,350 --> 01:13:42,110
really going after this idea. And his explanation of it is really,

1177
01:13:42,190 --> 01:13:45,830
really interesting. He's a brilliant man. The story's brilliant

1178
01:13:45,830 --> 01:13:49,030
anyway. But the fact that this is his

1179
01:13:49,030 --> 01:13:52,750
aspiration to be in a luxury market. What. But what is this?

1180
01:13:52,750 --> 01:13:56,190
What is its explanation? Well, you have to listen to the podcast.

1181
01:13:56,190 --> 01:13:59,950
Okay. Yes. I haven't listened to that ever. So. Because I'm from an

1182
01:13:59,950 --> 01:14:03,750
immigrant family as you are. Yeah. My in laws

1183
01:14:03,750 --> 01:14:07,470
are from Iran, my dad's from Cairo. Part of it might be

1184
01:14:07,630 --> 01:14:11,390
that what they saw growing up and what they see

1185
01:14:11,390 --> 01:14:15,150
the American lifestyle can be a luxury lifestyle can be not just American,

1186
01:14:15,150 --> 01:14:18,800
but that. That certainly Americans aspire. You're free

1187
01:14:18,800 --> 01:14:21,960
to aspire to that level of wealth. That.

1188
01:14:23,080 --> 01:14:26,840
That was a goal. Sure. You know, and that's. That's.

1189
01:14:27,240 --> 01:14:30,600
I feel like I've arrived. Yeah. If I get to experience this.

1190
01:14:31,080 --> 01:14:34,840
And it's a noble goal or not. It's not.

1191
01:14:34,840 --> 01:14:38,680
Not our side. Absolutely. But it's something that people look forward to doing

1192
01:14:38,680 --> 01:14:41,480
and trying to do. And I think it's really cool that you're part of that,

1193
01:14:42,130 --> 01:14:45,970
that you get to continue that

1194
01:14:45,970 --> 01:14:49,610
inspiration. Yeah. And I truly, truly do

1195
01:14:49,610 --> 01:14:52,850
believe that when you are in luxury hospital, like, as, as a.

1196
01:14:53,490 --> 01:14:57,250
As someone in luxury hospitality, you

1197
01:14:57,250 --> 01:15:01,010
have a responsibility because the, like,

1198
01:15:01,090 --> 01:15:04,450
both on the consumer education side and then on where

1199
01:15:04,770 --> 01:15:08,290
you put your, your money and efforts,

1200
01:15:08,790 --> 01:15:12,270
you know, the platforms that you've been given to make sure that you're helping the

1201
01:15:12,270 --> 01:15:16,070
needle go the right way. Yeah. You know, really

1202
01:15:16,070 --> 01:15:19,830
great. Congratulations. Thank you. That's very kind of you. Thank you.

1203
01:15:19,910 --> 01:15:22,590
Cheers. I think. Oh, I need to pour. Yeah. Okay, let's do that. You get

1204
01:15:22,590 --> 01:15:24,310
it. You need more. You need more champagne.