Prosecco? Try Lo-Secco. Meet the brand stratigest and Founder, Monica Elling.

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The reality that we've never been in worse health as

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a society than we are today. We have

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75% of the young people.

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Military age cannot qualify for the military because they can't

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pass the test, the physical test. We have spiking

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cancer rates. You name the disease, we've got it.

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

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with Paul K. Hey, welcome to Wine

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Talks with Paul Kane. We are in studio today in beautiful Southern California about

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to have a conversation with Monica Elling way out in foggy New York.

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Introductions in just a moment. You have to go online

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and check out an interview I did with Zaya

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Unan. This guy's story is crazy.

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He came to America at 13 years old, had earned enough money to

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fly to America by painting bicycles in Iran,

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and he established his career here. And now he's

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trying to take down or at least compete with lvmh. It's an

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amazing story. Have a listen, but not while we're here today. Here to talk to

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Monica Elling. Welcome to the show. Thanks so much, Paul. Good to be

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here. Good to see you again. Monica is the CEO+ founder,

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fractional CMO of CPG, brand architect

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and growth strategist. Is that accurate?

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I'm the CEO and founder of FMG and I am

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a fractional CMO for companies in the beverage alcohol

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space. Okay, this is an interesting thought and I want you

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back on the show because you've been posting a lot of interesting things and there's

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a lot of scuttlebutt about what's going on in the industry

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and there's all kinds of press and there's the non alk movement and the low

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elk movement and there's the nutrition side of this. And it seems to

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get pretty congested out there as to

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what's happening in the marketplace. I'm not sure anybody really knows what's going on in

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the marketplace, but you did post something recently about was it a

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low elk prosecco you're working on? It is

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more than that, but I think to give a

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background to the entire topic

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would be a good place to, you know, to start

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because things have evolved for, I think,

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the global marketplace. And I'm not just talking about wines and spirits. I'm

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actually talking about consumer health. So I have a background in

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nutrition fitness along with 20 plus years in the beverage

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alcohol space. And as a

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former athlete and raising

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two out of my three children were nationally ranked athletes. The

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reality was I had started to

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truly look at food as fuel early on.

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So some of the things that are called today, keto, low

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carb, intermittent fasting, all these buzzwords, branded

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buzzwords, I was just instinctively doing

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because I being in tune with my body

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for optimal performance, it helped me

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to gauge what the inputs were and how I felt.

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And in that part, I researched the nutrition

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in what I was consuming, realizing that there were

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so many unnecessary and hidden ingredients

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that I wasn't even aware of. And not to mention that

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during the decades as I was growing up and then having my own

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children, I saw so many of the core staple products

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that we're all used to changing by way of

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ingredients. So the feeling was that I would,

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as a, you know, teenager, have a certain type of a product,

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and then decades later, I would have the same product, have a bad reaction.

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And I didn't understand why. It wasn't that I

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changed. The products have changed. And

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all these reformulations on the food side, the additives,

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for whatever reason, have gotten to the point where

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certainly Americans are feeling not

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that well these days. And health has become a big issue.

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Do you think? I mean, this approach by rfk,

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which. Yeah, I have to tell you two stories. One is

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you're talking about athleticism and what parents think and what they've heard

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and what they've decided is good and bad. And I'm talking about a few years

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ago when my daughter was in eighth grade, my wife was doing

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the graduate graduation party for the eighth graders. And this

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woman wanted. She was very upset that there was going to be Coke

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served, which is fine, I get it. But she

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insisted that Gatorade be sold because her

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son was an athlete. And I thought, well, you know,

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that stuff full of crap, I mean, there's nothing

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healthy about Gatorade. And if you think your son's an athlete and this is going

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to be a part of his regiment, I think that's. You make

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a mistake, and obviously that's all changed. But do you think our Kay's on the

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right track then, when it comes to what he's proposing

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to the American palate public? Before I

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answer that, I want to address the Gatorade point, because that's so interesting.

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It's exactly what I'm referring to, actually, because

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the original ingredients in Gatorade were simple.

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There was salt, there was citrus, and a little bit of sugar

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water. That's it. And it has since

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been reformulated so many times, it's unrecognizable

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as a drink. And you're right, it. It is the furthest thing from

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something that a premier athlete should be Having

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so just to. That is so aligned with exactly

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where I'm going. But as far as the

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RFK situation and the Maha movement,

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I think parents, especially over the last

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several decades, have been vigilant about the type

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of reactions their children are having and

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deaths to food, environment, what have you. From the

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standpoint of the allergies, the

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uptick in allergies. You know, I grew up in

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Europe. I had no idea what an

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allergy was until I got here. Never heard of it. Never heard

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of it. Nobody I knew had anything like it. I thought it was some very,

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very strange, obscure American thing. But then, you

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know, I've learned and.

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Interrupted for a second. When you. When you order a drink by the

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color that has to be. There has to be something wrong with that. All

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right, like, I'll have the blue one. That's. That doesn't seem right.

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I want to add on to that anecdote about Gatorade. When I was

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cross country in high school, my coach, you know, felt that was too

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expensive, so he made Kool Aid and threw salt in it.

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And that was horrible. But it was

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the same thing, right? It was water, sugar and

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flavoring and salt. That's all it was back then nowadays.

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Except Gatorade was clean flavorings back then. It is not

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now. But the difference was that was definitely

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Kool Aid was definitely artificial even back then. Artificial flavors and

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colors were coming to fore. But it was an

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evolution, so it didn't happen overnight. And the intention wasn't for

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every product to. To be that compromised, if you will.

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But back to the comments about RFK and

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the Maha movement. First of all, I will just point

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out the reality that we've never been in

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worse health as a society than we are today. We have

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75% of the young people.

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Military age cannot qualify for the military because they can't

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pass the test, the physical test. That's

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just one indication. Then we have obscene rates

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of obesity, people. 75%

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of the country is overweight and then obese. We have metabolic

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disease through the wazoo. We have spiking

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cancer rates. You name the disease, we've got it.

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And at the same time, the narratives are being

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twisted in so many ways away

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from some of the obvious, very logical

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root causes of what we're dealing with.

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I want to point out that if you, if, based

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on what Monica's saying, if you, as a. To the listeners,

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if you go to Disneyland, which we did

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three times this last winter, you will see the

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amazing difference in the health of the people that go there.

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Just in the last few years, the number of scooters, electric

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scooters required to get people around

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blew my mind. This is about two months ago. I couldn't believe it. I just

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thought this is ridiculous that these people have come,

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that the population, I don't think these people, it's not their fault in the sense

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of they're eating what they've been given to eat.

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Buffets like Hometown Buffet and those kinds of things with this horrible food.

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I'm shocked at that. Do you think it can have a

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positive impact? Do you think that the movement at least giving people the

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options to eat more healthy is a functional

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approach? 100%. Because they're

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starting with the food pyramid, which has been upside down for the longest time.

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This is my first and most obvious commentary about government

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mandated direction, nutrition direction,

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or for some people, the seeming infallibility

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of some of the data coming out regarding wine and beverages

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and so forth and so on. Question all of it, because

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we have decades of the pyramid

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where I think Fruit Loops is pretty much at the top of the

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category and or at the bottom of the category.

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So it's the most amount of food that you're supposed to eat.

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So low fat and essentially full

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of carbohydrates, where meat and good fats are

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being reduced to minuscule amounts, which is the polar opposite

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of what this needs to be for human nutrition.

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It's not like we've invented this. This is how our bodies

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were meant to function. And it's always been

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protein first and protein priority.

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Everything else is secondary or

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non essential. We don't actually need carbohydrates to

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function ever. And do you think that this

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progression to the point we are today, I mean, if you think about it,

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and I talk about those with the wine trade all the time, they talk about

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pesticides, insecticides, organic farming, biodynamic, et cetera.

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It always was that and we screwed it up

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and now we're trying to. Go back and we need

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to because we are damaging not just

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ourselves, but our children. Everybody's so worried about,

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I guess, all sorts of carbon

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footprint and all this. I actually don't care

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because what I care about starts,

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begins with the children that I see that

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are having the worst health outcomes ever.

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So any other topic for me is so, well,

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much later in the conversation because we're not addressing

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the core health of generations to come. And

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how can we as a society and as a race, as a global human

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race, how can we even continue to thrive if,

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if everything that we are putting into our Bodies is

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compromised. One of the comments made early on when I started to

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read about this, and I have Steiner's book here, and

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the book the Third Plate by Dan the Chef

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was that organic farming. And we all know that

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organic necessarily on itself isn't all that great if it's not properly

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done. But let's just take it, let's just assume that all organic farm is good

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for you, that it couldn't sustain itself in

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the world's population of consumption because you can't grow enough. And I don't think that's

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accurate anymore. I think you can grow enough. And then

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is it more difficult today or less difficult today to. To

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eat the way you're proposing to turn the pyramid upside down?

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Is it more accessible or is it becoming more accessible?

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It was always accessible. But the rhetoric was in a complete

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different direction, away from what our bodies really

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require. And we are undoing

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that psychology. And

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that's a tougher call than actual accessibility

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to the right foods. It's choices that are to

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be made upon going to the grocery

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store. And I've always made it relatively easy for my

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family because things just didn't enter the household

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that weren't screened, if you will.

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And I hated to have to look at every single

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thing. But it became so necessary

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when I found that the ingredients were being changed.

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Additives were being put into products I regularly

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purchased for years. And all of a sudden they were not

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what they appear to be. The misinformation on

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labeling. And I know that there is all sorts of government

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regulatory and we're talking food products, not even wine and spirits yet.

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So when you see a salad dressing, first of all you go to

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Whole Foods because you're assuming all sorts of things about

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what you have available for yourself, as in

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better for you or higher quality, more organic, biodynamic,

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what have you. So cleaner products overall. That's an assumption.

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You go into the store, you go and grab

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an olive oil based salad

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dressing and it says extra virgin olive oil made with

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extra virgin olive oil. And that's great.

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And you get home and you're about to put it on your salad and just

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have this gnawing feeling that you should look

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at the back label and, and guess what? The olive oil

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is the seventh or eighth ingredient in there. Meanwhile,

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it's all sorts of seed oils that are first up and

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then other additives and so on. So yes,

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technically there's olive oil, but it's not an olive oil based dressing. So

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I don't even buy dressings anymore. I don't know why anybody

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does. It's so easy to make convenience, occasional

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convenience. I mean, it's so easy. I know, I know. Well, that's where

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I am and I've always made it. But I always had

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a couple of different options. But I think

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the compromise is tricky. Bless you. The

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other thing that I've noticed, and it was a recent

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discovery I was cooking, I had three

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different types of salts and again, I just had

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this feeling I should look at the back label. Guess

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what? Dextrose in the salt. What

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really? Sugar. Salt. Exactly.

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Sugar by many names in

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our salt. These are major brands. And

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seeing it not in one, and then I looked at the next one

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and that had it. And then the next one had it.

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You know, there was a product when I was, when I was a kid, when

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I was in high school and I was playing baseball, my buddy and I went

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to my dad's pharmacy, my dad of chain of pharmacies and

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we, he used to sell a thing called dextro Energin

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and it was a block of sugar basically.

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And you would, I mean, I can't now that you talk about it, because I

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haven't heard the word dextrose in a long time. And I just triggered this thought

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that we'd go take them from my dad's store and chew on these things.

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It was like worse than a sugar cube, right? It was, it was, it was

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supposed to provide some level of energy. But again,

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your body processes energy from two sources. It's

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glucose or ketones. So your body is really meant to

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be driven by ketones and

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glucose is secondary. So when

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you are actually in ketosis,

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you're sharper, your functioning is better, everything is

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better and your metabolism is better.

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But the sugar culture that we're seeing in

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food, unexpected food items,

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it's very daunting to have to navigate

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all of this. But across the board,

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I think the sugar levels in

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all sorts of products from bread to like I said, salt

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is a disconcerting feeling and

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it's hard to control, it's hard to navigate. It's

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also changing our palates. I want to touch on that

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dressing real fast and I want to move into this how America got this way.

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But our go to dressing just for the listener's

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sake is from a very famous New York based

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restaurant. Who. And the gentleman the chef just passed recently, his name

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was Andre Sultner and it was Lutece. Yes.

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And it's, you know, it's avocado oil, olive oil,

285
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some mustard, garlic, salt and a little tarragon. Or tarragon

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vinegar. And that's it. It takes like 30 seconds to make it. And it's so

287
00:18:04,710 --> 00:18:08,270
much better and tastes so much fresher. So just for the listeners.

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But part of this process, I mean, it's even

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referenced in a Rolling Stone song, right? Frozen steak. So somewhere

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along the line, America decided that yields in the

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farm or manipulated

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DNA of wheat to make more or taller or

293
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whatever character they were trying to find

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moved us into this area in the 60s, particularly where there was frozen foods

295
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and all this stuff was just doctored up. And the idea of convenience was very

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important. And all of a sudden, even, like I said in the Rolling Stone

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song, the Housewives making a frozen steak, which is like, big

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deal. Why can't you make a regular steak if you can make a frozen steak?

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Is that big food? Where were we as

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00:18:54,620 --> 00:18:58,060
Americans as a culture

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that we went into this direction compared to Europe?

302
00:19:02,460 --> 00:19:05,740
Yes. So we are a huge country

303
00:19:06,540 --> 00:19:09,820
for one that's a separator. Europe is a

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continent and the United States is an

305
00:19:13,300 --> 00:19:16,780
enormous country. So we do things on a big

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scale. European nations with 10, 20 million people,

307
00:19:20,870 --> 00:19:24,710
15 million people, they approach it differently because they can.

308
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They can manage the size. And

309
00:19:28,870 --> 00:19:32,230
it's definitely a different approach in the US

310
00:19:32,630 --> 00:19:36,430
but does it have to be? So let's look at why some of

311
00:19:36,430 --> 00:19:39,910
this stuff happened and what really

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00:19:40,070 --> 00:19:43,750
went wrong. And that's an

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00:19:43,750 --> 00:19:46,710
entire conversation itself. But

314
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there were movements that created

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a momentum for big food and

316
00:19:56,180 --> 00:19:59,940
cheaper costs of food and so forth and so on. That's

317
00:20:00,500 --> 00:20:04,180
not just food. That happened across all industries, really.

318
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It's just an evolution of a society to some degree.

319
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But where it started damaging,

320
00:20:13,630 --> 00:20:17,230
I guess, Americans first. There were

321
00:20:17,230 --> 00:20:21,070
other cycles happening at the same time that drove this ready to eat

322
00:20:21,070 --> 00:20:24,910
food. And part of it, women going to

323
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work. Whereas you've had families where the mom

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would stay at home, the father was the provider, and

325
00:20:32,830 --> 00:20:36,590
so just a different societal structure. Women going

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to work force the situation of easier

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to prepare food, faster food

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available food, and still

329
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within whatever the family budgets were. So

330
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all of our daily, I guess,

331
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marketing and shopping had

332
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to be reduced to a very different dynamic

333
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:07,320
where you could purchase product for a week or so,

334
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,790
have it available in your kitchen, have it readily

335
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accessible, hence the frozen steak. Because

336
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now that mom is

337
00:21:17,390 --> 00:21:20,790
potentially at work. And it didn't happen

338
00:21:20,790 --> 00:21:24,190
overnight in the 60s, but that was a preparation and a push towards

339
00:21:25,070 --> 00:21:28,750
women. And with the advent of

340
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the pill, all these things were happening basically

341
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simultaneously. And actually,

342
00:21:37,420 --> 00:21:41,140
that's interesting from the food supply angle, none of it for the

343
00:21:41,140 --> 00:21:44,620
better it's all hurt all of us.

344
00:21:46,060 --> 00:21:49,260
But if you think back even before then, the

345
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birth of the cereal and Post

346
00:21:53,180 --> 00:21:56,820
company versus Kellogg and how that happened, that too

347
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was about quick preparation for

348
00:22:00,620 --> 00:22:03,820
a breakfast meal. That's why that

349
00:22:04,060 --> 00:22:07,580
entirety took off. It was no

350
00:22:07,580 --> 00:22:10,940
longer a complicated production. It

351
00:22:12,140 --> 00:22:15,940
really was centered around speed. That's a really interesting part

352
00:22:15,940 --> 00:22:18,780
of the story, and I think you've probably watched or seen on TV one of

353
00:22:18,780 --> 00:22:22,220
the history channels. I read the book in post,

354
00:22:22,540 --> 00:22:26,060
you know, really started as a serial for

355
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:32,600
recovery in a sanitarium. Yep. You know, this

356
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:36,080
is an interesting thought, because are we able to go back

357
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,840
to that type of thing? I was. I had this conversation, I think, with my

358
00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:43,680
daughter, since one of my daughters did not lose her house in the fire,

359
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:47,120
but they were transplanted to our home. They've been there since January

360
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:51,240
as they clean up. And so I've seen how they. How

361
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:55,000
she manages her lifestyle. She works for Apple. She's been working all

362
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,520
the time, and her husband as well, and. And the kids are at our house.

363
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:02,040
And so they still tend to grab towards

364
00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:05,880
simple, fast things, though it seems like they're picking

365
00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:10,080
wiser choices. But one of the conversations we

366
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,840
had was that if you're going to buy organic, whether it's Whole Foods

367
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:17,480
or Gelson's, whatever else, you do have to shop

368
00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:21,000
more often because it does not last as long. And we'll get into the

369
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,840
alcohol side of this in a second. And so that does require you to change

370
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,560
how you manage your life because you were going to the market more often.

371
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:31,960
And then I thought, okay, that's interesting. You've got a Whole Foods right there in

372
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:35,680
Columbus Circle, right in, you know, an office building with a

373
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:39,000
hotel attached to it. Is that part of the

374
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:42,360
movement to get. I mean, it's obviously corporate

375
00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:46,000
America doing this, but to put a market

376
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:50,080
in. In a very urban part of New York and Los

377
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:53,200
Angeles, is that a positive thing for us to do?

378
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:57,040
Absolutely. But it doesn't have to be Whole Foods.

379
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:00,480
And the whole organic labeling and

380
00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,240
conversation is challenging because to me,

381
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:06,400
it should just be food

382
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:11,760
and then GMO food or whatever that is

383
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,360
biochemically prepared mess.

384
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:20,240
So it really should just be food. And we should

385
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,680
be able to be secure that our food

386
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:27,600
is clean, organic, et cetera. That

387
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:31,360
should be the baseline assumption to me.

388
00:24:31,360 --> 00:24:34,640
So we've gone reverse, and

389
00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:38,960
everything is labeled, and unless it says non GMO

390
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,440
and whatever else 10 stickers the product

391
00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:47,320
has on it, you have to navigate each one understanding

392
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,670
what it is that you're actually buying when all you Want is,

393
00:24:51,140 --> 00:24:54,820
is clean food. So it's interesting. I

394
00:24:54,820 --> 00:24:57,780
stop you there for a second because the GMO thing, I had this conversation many

395
00:24:57,780 --> 00:25:00,580
times. I don't know the answer to this necessarily. I did have one

396
00:25:01,860 --> 00:25:05,700
scientist sort of give a better answer than another, but it's not a quiz

397
00:25:05,700 --> 00:25:09,460
here. And that is, I had on the show

398
00:25:10,100 --> 00:25:13,540
a gentleman who created gmo, I mean stated it says

399
00:25:13,540 --> 00:25:16,020
gmo, you know, on the thing. It was a

400
00:25:17,460 --> 00:25:21,170
recovery alcohol recovery shot. And so you take it before

401
00:25:21,170 --> 00:25:24,210
you start drinking. And this genetically modified

402
00:25:24,450 --> 00:25:28,130
probiotic would affect the way your

403
00:25:28,130 --> 00:25:31,850
body process the alcohol. And then you wake up, you feel better. And the

404
00:25:31,850 --> 00:25:33,650
next day I had a non GMO

405
00:25:36,130 --> 00:25:39,850
tequila manufacturer or something, some distilled spirit. And the

406
00:25:39,850 --> 00:25:43,250
question was, how is a GMO different than

407
00:25:44,610 --> 00:25:48,420
naturally hybrid wheat? For instance? Let's say we, we go

408
00:25:48,420 --> 00:25:51,540
to the lab and we, we make a GM GMO

409
00:25:51,940 --> 00:25:55,380
wheat strain of wheat versus, you know, one of the

410
00:25:55,380 --> 00:25:58,580
40,000 strains of wheat that were made through natural

411
00:25:58,820 --> 00:26:02,580
hybrid selection. They're both doing the same thing, they're both trying to address

412
00:26:03,060 --> 00:26:06,780
the character of the wheat that they're trying to maximize. But

413
00:26:06,780 --> 00:26:10,260
one is done in the lab and one's done, you know, through natural sources. Is

414
00:26:10,260 --> 00:26:13,880
there a difference? Your body thinks so, your body

415
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,440
reacts differently. So one of the biggest

416
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,760
issues that we're all facing at the root of not just

417
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:24,480
metabolic disease, but a lot of different diseases. And mind you, I'm not

418
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:27,680
a doctor, I have a nutrition background

419
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,680
and so on, but I'm not going to get into

420
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:35,240
exactly the difference between GMO and non

421
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:38,960
gmo. What I do know for a fact is

422
00:26:39,120 --> 00:26:42,760
that your body is processing the GMO in a

423
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:46,420
way, as it would a foreign. There are

424
00:26:46,420 --> 00:26:49,460
things in there that create an automatic

425
00:26:49,460 --> 00:26:53,180
inflammation. And it's not necessarily just a one

426
00:26:53,180 --> 00:26:56,460
time thing. These things build up in your system,

427
00:26:57,100 --> 00:27:00,700
hence they become part of the root of

428
00:27:00,700 --> 00:27:03,580
disease. Because these things are cumulative.

429
00:27:05,500 --> 00:27:09,140
Except for the part that now so much of our food product

430
00:27:09,140 --> 00:27:12,860
is compromised that that cumulation is happening much earlier,

431
00:27:13,100 --> 00:27:16,920
much faster, much broader. That's why children

432
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,960
are having unprecedented levels of disease,

433
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:23,240
Obesity, cancer, I mean, you name it.

434
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:28,760
And this is where I started my

435
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:33,160
journey at looking at this topic heavily

436
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:36,280
with respect to beverage alcohol and the narratives out there.

437
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:41,520
Because we've always had beverage alcohol, we've never seen these kinds

438
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,680
of health markers anywhere.

439
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:48,760
And children are not drinking alcohol.

440
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:53,760
So how is it that doctors are

441
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:57,360
seeing cancers and diseases that

442
00:27:57,360 --> 00:27:59,720
they've never ever encountered in children?

443
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:03,800
That's an interesting point that you're making.

444
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,760
So it leads to two things that we should talk about. Some of these products

445
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,890
you come up with, but one of them is this book, as you probably read

446
00:28:11,890 --> 00:28:15,250
before, the French Paradox, which, yes, sort of contrasts American

447
00:28:15,410 --> 00:28:19,130
lifestyle with, with the European and Mediterranean lifestyle. But

448
00:28:19,130 --> 00:28:22,130
I want to say something, you said I'm not a doctor, and that's an important

449
00:28:22,210 --> 00:28:26,010
point. There are some nutrition based doctors

450
00:28:26,010 --> 00:28:29,810
out there who've left the medicine field and, and

451
00:28:30,210 --> 00:28:33,690
gone strictly to nutrition. And, and one of the comments that she, one of the

452
00:28:33,690 --> 00:28:37,330
women made that I was listening to, and it's very compelling, was

453
00:28:38,010 --> 00:28:41,690
she was a Stanford grad, a PhD, MD. The whole thing. She said, I never

454
00:28:41,690 --> 00:28:45,490
took one nutrition. Class and I'm not a

455
00:28:45,490 --> 00:28:49,210
doctor, but my brother is a doctor and he's at the Mayo

456
00:28:49,210 --> 00:28:52,890
Clinic. And I can just say that he also confirmed that

457
00:28:52,890 --> 00:28:56,570
he had one semester of nutrition and he will tell me,

458
00:28:56,730 --> 00:28:59,610
you know, way more about this than I do. So

459
00:29:00,170 --> 00:29:04,010
doctors are there to treat the symptoms that the patient

460
00:29:04,010 --> 00:29:07,530
walks in with. And it's a process of elimination. But

461
00:29:08,090 --> 00:29:11,110
from the nutrition, nutrition side of things,

462
00:29:11,830 --> 00:29:15,390
we do know that our bodies function in

463
00:29:15,390 --> 00:29:18,470
response to how we provide it with

464
00:29:18,470 --> 00:29:21,950
nutrition. And it's, it's an

465
00:29:21,950 --> 00:29:25,750
immediate correlation. And lastly, I

466
00:29:25,750 --> 00:29:29,550
would also add. And we can go down the rabbit hole, but

467
00:29:29,550 --> 00:29:32,070
I, I think we want to get to the wine side here.

468
00:29:33,110 --> 00:29:36,750
The other part is there are chemicals in our

469
00:29:36,750 --> 00:29:40,530
environment. There are things that we're not doing well

470
00:29:40,690 --> 00:29:44,450
because for decades we were told about sunscreen. Second,

471
00:29:44,530 --> 00:29:47,650
you know, you see the sun or even think about the sun, you should

472
00:29:47,970 --> 00:29:51,222
lather up in 15, 30, 50,

473
00:29:51,358 --> 00:29:55,050
200, a thousand SPF. Because, I don't know,

474
00:29:55,050 --> 00:29:58,850
because somebody wanted to sell more of those products. The reality is

475
00:29:58,850 --> 00:30:02,370
the sun is the greatest activator of health and

476
00:30:02,370 --> 00:30:06,210
we're blocking it. Not to mention two years ago in January,

477
00:30:06,290 --> 00:30:09,560
I think it was two years ago, maybe three. But

478
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:15,080
all the sunscreens were recalled from the shelves in

479
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,920
January when people weren't looking. And it was this huge class action

480
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:22,800
suit about all these chemicals that we're spraying on our children or

481
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:26,360
rubbing into our babies, rubbing into our skin that

482
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,960
do what? Cause cancer. So

483
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:33,000
the very thing we're being sold to prevent

484
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,820
cancer is exactly what's driving

485
00:30:36,820 --> 00:30:40,540
upticks that we've never seen before either. That's

486
00:30:40,540 --> 00:30:44,180
really interesting. I know, I did not notice that either. We have a house

487
00:30:44,340 --> 00:30:48,140
near the beach here in Southern California. At the beach, actually I said grew up

488
00:30:48,140 --> 00:30:51,300
at the beach. I never use those things. In fact, we used to put on

489
00:30:52,260 --> 00:30:55,860
Hawaiian Tropic, which is basically Oil. Yeah, it was just oil. And it would

490
00:30:55,940 --> 00:30:58,100
glisten. Exactly.

491
00:30:59,540 --> 00:31:03,380
So into this, we'll start the conversation with

492
00:31:03,380 --> 00:31:06,780
alcohol, with this book, which. The Mediterranean lifestyle, which was

493
00:31:07,100 --> 00:31:09,900
the types of oils you're talking about that are healthier than others

494
00:31:10,860 --> 00:31:14,380
and the pace of life. And then a moderate

495
00:31:14,380 --> 00:31:18,140
consumption of alcohol, primarily wine. And

496
00:31:18,300 --> 00:31:21,900
you said something interesting. There's even a poster which I have somewhere,

497
00:31:21,900 --> 00:31:25,580
actually, I'm trying to find the original. And this is from 1936.

498
00:31:25,900 --> 00:31:29,270
It was a small public service. Now it was post in

499
00:31:29,270 --> 00:31:32,830
Bezier, France, in the south. And it said, drink

500
00:31:32,830 --> 00:31:36,670
wine, it's healthier than the water. And it was in French. In fact, I

501
00:31:36,670 --> 00:31:40,230
had the artist paint on my wall the whole, the whole

502
00:31:40,230 --> 00:31:43,910
poster because. And it was okay to give children at 4 years

503
00:31:43,910 --> 00:31:47,630
old a little wine with that's been cut a little bit. So.

504
00:31:47,630 --> 00:31:51,430
But it was saying there's too much bleach in the water and wine's healthier and

505
00:31:51,430 --> 00:31:54,430
it's not going to make you an alcoholic. That's basically what the poster said.

506
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:58,280
But there's a huge movement now in this direction

507
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:03,320
of non alk, low alk. You know, I've tasted,

508
00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:07,320
I've had the pleasure of tasting a Pinot Noir picked from

509
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,799
one vineyard in the central coast. And I've also got to taste its non

510
00:32:10,799 --> 00:32:14,120
alk counterpart from the same grapes. I mean, you can't compare them.

511
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:18,440
It's almost impossible to drink the Nalan elk. Tell me

512
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,320
where this is coming from and if this is a

513
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:26,040
valid solution to some of these problems. First of all, I would just say

514
00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:29,800
that the water and wine conversation is a

515
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:33,440
really interesting one because water was the

516
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,520
root of so many of those massive diseases,

517
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,440
societal wipeouts through the centuries. Because the water

518
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:44,200
sources were easily compromised and spread disease

519
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:48,560
readily, rapidly, which is why throughout

520
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:52,030
history water was cut with wine.

521
00:32:52,510 --> 00:32:56,350
And that was done on purpose to

522
00:32:56,350 --> 00:32:59,870
disinfect essentially the water source

523
00:32:59,870 --> 00:33:03,630
itself. But still it wasn't a foolproof

524
00:33:04,110 --> 00:33:06,430
process. And those diseases,

525
00:33:08,030 --> 00:33:11,390
insane diseases, came through the water sources

526
00:33:12,830 --> 00:33:16,630
because society didn't know how to treat. Know

527
00:33:16,630 --> 00:33:20,230
how to treat the water in order to be safe for human

528
00:33:20,230 --> 00:33:24,030
consumption. And if somebody poisoned the water

529
00:33:24,190 --> 00:33:27,950
or compromised it with something or there were wars and

530
00:33:28,270 --> 00:33:31,990
the water source got impacted, then you have a

531
00:33:31,990 --> 00:33:34,990
spread of massive disease and wipeout of population.

532
00:33:35,630 --> 00:33:38,990
So that wasn't due to wine. And the

533
00:33:38,990 --> 00:33:42,830
reality there are good news.

534
00:33:44,110 --> 00:33:47,930
The other part is that in terms

535
00:33:47,930 --> 00:33:51,770
of this whole non alcohol, wine and spirits

536
00:33:51,850 --> 00:33:54,170
movement, or what have you,

537
00:33:55,930 --> 00:33:59,050
as a marketer, I understand what they're doing. They're

538
00:33:59,130 --> 00:34:02,810
classifying something and they're branding

539
00:34:03,850 --> 00:34:06,250
something that's existed throughout

540
00:34:06,890 --> 00:34:10,570
decades and in fact centuries

541
00:34:10,730 --> 00:34:14,330
non alcohol anything has existed. There have always been

542
00:34:14,330 --> 00:34:18,040
non alcohol choices and, and we never called

543
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,800
them non. I'm not having a non alcohol water or non alcohol

544
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:25,000
Pepsi or you know, it's sort of

545
00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:29,080
again a branded category

546
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:33,960
established. Yes. So that they can really identify and then try

547
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:36,520
to push products through there. The

548
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,720
choices for people are there all the time. I

549
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:45,199
regularly make really nice spritzers

550
00:34:45,679 --> 00:34:49,519
from teas and whatever types

551
00:34:49,519 --> 00:34:52,919
of products, non alcohol products that I can find that are

552
00:34:52,919 --> 00:34:56,759
interesting, creative and delicious and I do that

553
00:34:56,759 --> 00:35:00,559
all the time. Now why would I instead choose to have

554
00:35:00,639 --> 00:35:03,839
a poorly, poorly made,

555
00:35:04,159 --> 00:35:07,279
sugar laden product

556
00:35:07,759 --> 00:35:11,240
that is now called a non alcohol gin

557
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:14,520
or a non alcohol wine? At 30, $40

558
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,840
this past weekend I had seen where

559
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:22,520
people were buying both the non alcohol and the alcohol.

560
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,759
But I can tell you, I can assure you Paul, I blend wine

561
00:35:26,759 --> 00:35:30,560
around the world for clients. I can make non alcohol wine in

562
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:34,400
my kitchen using white wine

563
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,480
vinegar, a little bit of sugar, some apple juice,

564
00:35:38,510 --> 00:35:42,110
some lemon and a little bit of water

565
00:35:42,750 --> 00:35:46,310
and you know, sugar and get the same

566
00:35:46,310 --> 00:35:49,750
mouthfeel and impact. So that sounds

567
00:35:49,750 --> 00:35:53,429
delicious. Exactly. So the

568
00:35:53,429 --> 00:35:57,070
reality that we have to go through all this trouble to get something called

569
00:35:57,070 --> 00:36:00,790
non alcohol wine. I do appreciate the experience of

570
00:36:00,790 --> 00:36:04,530
having something bottled that looks like wine and then pour the, pour

571
00:36:04,530 --> 00:36:08,210
the sensation of pouring something in a glass and holding

572
00:36:08,210 --> 00:36:11,490
it where it's supposed to feel like a wine

573
00:36:11,970 --> 00:36:15,490
experience but from a product

574
00:36:15,650 --> 00:36:18,770
quality level, price point alignment,

575
00:36:19,330 --> 00:36:23,170
taste, I can't, I can't

576
00:36:23,170 --> 00:36:26,130
see it, I haven't found it. They're either

577
00:36:26,450 --> 00:36:30,290
sugar bombs or they lack

578
00:36:30,290 --> 00:36:33,810
balance. There is no purpose to actually

579
00:36:33,890 --> 00:36:37,730
drink them. I would rather buy a good, you know, seltzer that's

580
00:36:37,730 --> 00:36:41,370
flavored and be done. You know, there's

581
00:36:41,370 --> 00:36:44,610
a. Years ago and I was on this diet called the Scarsdale

582
00:36:45,330 --> 00:36:49,090
and it was a, I guess it was a low

583
00:36:49,090 --> 00:36:52,890
carb thing but he, he claimed at the

584
00:36:52,890 --> 00:36:56,130
time, this is the 70s or 80s, early 80s that he had created,

585
00:36:56,690 --> 00:37:00,380
you know, what is currently just a soda water with a lime twist. Because if

586
00:37:00,380 --> 00:37:03,500
you, if you go to the bar and you order a gin and tonic with

587
00:37:03,500 --> 00:37:07,140
a lime, no one's going to know the difference that if there's

588
00:37:07,140 --> 00:37:09,980
no gin in there and you're just holding that same highball that you would have

589
00:37:09,980 --> 00:37:13,740
held if it was gin, it's no big deal. And I remember, I

590
00:37:13,740 --> 00:37:17,580
think in the mid-80s they, they started making non alcoholic

591
00:37:17,580 --> 00:37:21,060
wine at Rodney Strong. It's called Ariel. It's still out There. Yes.

592
00:37:21,300 --> 00:37:24,700
And the point I'm making is when we went to the fancy food show in

593
00:37:24,700 --> 00:37:26,640
Vegas, the primary

594
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:32,600
character of the beverages at the fancy food show were

595
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:36,360
non elk. And I couldn't understand why I would spend

596
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,920
$30 a bottle at Whole Foods for a fake bourbon.

597
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:44,160
I mean, why would you do that? Because they taste horrible and it's just

598
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:47,040
brown. Whatever. And I think

599
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:51,360
you would remember when, when they came out with non fat everything.

600
00:37:52,100 --> 00:37:55,860
Yes. It was basically adding sugar to it to mask the lack

601
00:37:55,860 --> 00:37:59,500
of character. Yes, right. That's what happened. And that

602
00:37:59,500 --> 00:38:02,700
seems like that's what they're doing with this non alk champagnes and wines. And in

603
00:38:02,700 --> 00:38:06,540
fact, yeah, one of my, the vendor that

604
00:38:06,540 --> 00:38:09,820
I used to buy a lot of my juice from when I bottled wine just

605
00:38:09,820 --> 00:38:13,060
bought the largest dealkylization company in America.

606
00:38:13,460 --> 00:38:16,940
And he was telling me that let's say you made a wine, which you have

607
00:38:16,940 --> 00:38:20,380
to start with a wine and let's say it's 14 alcohol and you want to

608
00:38:20,380 --> 00:38:23,840
dealcoholize it, you actually remove another percent.

609
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,840
So you lose 30% of your volume. That's right. By de

610
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:31,520
alkalizing the wine. You can't survive

611
00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:35,480
by giving up 30% of your inventory right out of the chute. So

612
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:39,160
you add back something and this is what you're talking

613
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:42,560
about. Maybe, maybe it is white wine vinegar, maybe it's water, maybe it's sugar. But

614
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:45,800
you got to add back that volume to get to make a margin even in

615
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:49,190
the non alk world. So. But you're a marketeer

616
00:38:50,140 --> 00:38:53,780
and your job is to do what the client wants and to formulate what they

617
00:38:53,780 --> 00:38:57,540
want and to provide a strategy for what they want. And do

618
00:38:57,540 --> 00:39:00,380
you have a lot of non alk, low alk clients right now?

619
00:39:01,260 --> 00:39:05,020
I actually am moving away

620
00:39:05,259 --> 00:39:08,380
from doing that part because

621
00:39:08,940 --> 00:39:12,700
I don't fundamentally believe in the category and

622
00:39:13,340 --> 00:39:17,180
don't want to be a part of it because I like

623
00:39:17,260 --> 00:39:21,010
high quality tape, amazing tasting products. And

624
00:39:21,010 --> 00:39:23,930
I also see a different market gap. So to me,

625
00:39:24,810 --> 00:39:28,530
I've talked about this for some time. This topic has been front and

626
00:39:28,530 --> 00:39:31,610
center for me and I've been looking at it. So the first thing I did

627
00:39:31,610 --> 00:39:34,570
was actually create a brand and a product for myself

628
00:39:35,290 --> 00:39:38,730
because I am, I think, not alone

629
00:39:39,370 --> 00:39:43,010
in looking for wine. That that is a

630
00:39:43,010 --> 00:39:46,810
better experience. And for me, that spelled low

631
00:39:46,810 --> 00:39:50,090
sugar, no sugar. I didn't say alcohol.

632
00:39:50,730 --> 00:39:54,170
And the funny thing is that people naturally

633
00:39:54,570 --> 00:39:58,410
attribute all the negative impacts of

634
00:39:59,130 --> 00:40:02,890
whatever they're drinking to the alcohol side. I would argue

635
00:40:02,970 --> 00:40:06,410
very often your impact is the combination

636
00:40:06,570 --> 00:40:09,450
of the sugar Levels and the alcohol

637
00:40:10,170 --> 00:40:13,780
and to that. And I've created my own brand

638
00:40:13,860 --> 00:40:17,540
and we are launching the wine early July.

639
00:40:18,980 --> 00:40:22,660
I made it in Italy. It's a zero sugar

640
00:40:22,820 --> 00:40:26,580
Prosecco called Losecco. Wow.

641
00:40:26,660 --> 00:40:29,860
Oh, clever. Lo Secco Prosecco.

642
00:40:30,420 --> 00:40:34,100
And the brand will be available via e

643
00:40:34,100 --> 00:40:37,780
commerce in 40 plus markets and then on the

644
00:40:37,780 --> 00:40:41,480
ground is rolling out in 10 and internationally also.

645
00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:43,160
We're going to be numerous countries.

646
00:40:45,720 --> 00:40:47,400
Yeah. And this is,

647
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:52,680
that's the next conversation piece. Was going to be almost that time though already.

648
00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:56,440
But which is. It's very not

649
00:40:56,440 --> 00:41:00,240
simple, I'm going to say. But there's certainly wonderful wines that are real

650
00:41:00,240 --> 00:41:03,840
wines that are just low alk and don't have to have residual

651
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:07,390
sugar or very small amounts because

652
00:41:07,870 --> 00:41:11,430
it's just growing conditions and climatic conditions can change the

653
00:41:11,430 --> 00:41:15,190
alcohol content of the wine very, very naturally and have

654
00:41:15,190 --> 00:41:18,670
a positive effect on your health and a positive

655
00:41:18,830 --> 00:41:22,430
feeling when you drink it. I mean it's. I don't think that's a huge

656
00:41:22,430 --> 00:41:26,030
step. Instead of bastardizing what you started with,

657
00:41:26,350 --> 00:41:29,710
I'm with you. And there's a reason why

658
00:41:29,950 --> 00:41:33,700
fresh aromatic white wines are part of

659
00:41:33,700 --> 00:41:37,420
the long term trend. And even in places that

660
00:41:37,420 --> 00:41:40,900
didn't used to have that, as in China. But for me,

661
00:41:42,260 --> 00:41:45,980
I think I'm not even tampering with

662
00:41:45,980 --> 00:41:49,740
the alcohol at all. It's standard 11% just like any

663
00:41:49,740 --> 00:41:53,060
other Prosecco. It's just as a.

664
00:41:54,420 --> 00:41:58,100
When I, when I blend wines, when I make wines, I always

665
00:41:58,100 --> 00:42:01,660
find that if I withdraw

666
00:42:01,660 --> 00:42:05,180
or reduce the sugar levels, the aromatics

667
00:42:05,420 --> 00:42:09,260
are popping. And that's exactly the case of

668
00:42:09,660 --> 00:42:13,420
this particular product. And when you do

669
00:42:13,420 --> 00:42:17,260
it in a lineup and you just take the glasses and

670
00:42:17,260 --> 00:42:21,020
you smell them and the aromatics of Glara don't

671
00:42:21,020 --> 00:42:24,740
pop in most Prosecco's because you have so

672
00:42:24,740 --> 00:42:28,540
much sugar in there for the most part. But I did come

673
00:42:28,540 --> 00:42:32,260
across something the other day and this is a great

674
00:42:32,260 --> 00:42:34,660
time to mention it because I'd love your input.

675
00:42:35,940 --> 00:42:39,540
So we make it very challenging for consumers in general

676
00:42:39,780 --> 00:42:42,660
on every part of the wine universe.

677
00:42:43,700 --> 00:42:47,140
One of the ridiculous things that we do and

678
00:42:47,460 --> 00:42:50,820
I believe this should change and needs to change

679
00:42:51,380 --> 00:42:54,580
is to realign the classification

680
00:42:55,410 --> 00:42:59,170
of what the brutes and the

681
00:42:59,650 --> 00:43:03,490
extra dry and all these categories actually mean because

682
00:43:04,930 --> 00:43:08,370
we know that extra dry is anything but.

683
00:43:09,090 --> 00:43:12,450
So why are we calling it extra dry? It's a good question. Trying to

684
00:43:12,530 --> 00:43:14,610
totally confuse the consumer.

685
00:43:16,530 --> 00:43:19,250
It's actually a really fun thing to tease people with,

686
00:43:20,210 --> 00:43:23,900
like what's drier, extra dry or brut? And then like, like, oh, of course,

687
00:43:23,900 --> 00:43:27,500
extra dry. I Don't know the answer. I have to go research that why that

688
00:43:27,500 --> 00:43:31,100
happened. But Prosecco is not generally

689
00:43:31,100 --> 00:43:34,140
labeled that way. Yes, it is. Yes it is.

690
00:43:34,780 --> 00:43:38,460
So if, if it's brutes, which hardly any are

691
00:43:38,700 --> 00:43:42,540
the real. The reality is most of them have very high sugar levels.

692
00:43:42,780 --> 00:43:46,380
People don't realize, but they're between 16 and 40 grams of

693
00:43:46,620 --> 00:43:50,370
sugar per liter. Wow. Very high. Very high. And then

694
00:43:50,370 --> 00:43:54,130
they add Aperol or whatever and now you've got a sugar

695
00:43:54,130 --> 00:43:57,970
bomb. So what? The reason they're

696
00:43:57,970 --> 00:44:01,730
not labeled is because they don't meet the criteria. But the ones

697
00:44:01,730 --> 00:44:05,570
where you see a brute, then okay, it's

698
00:44:05,570 --> 00:44:09,130
out there. And some have taken to labeling extra dry,

699
00:44:09,770 --> 00:44:13,570
but that is the exact opposite of what that particular consumer

700
00:44:13,570 --> 00:44:17,050
would be looking for because they haven't been educated on all these categories.

701
00:44:18,110 --> 00:44:21,910
Losecco happens to be Brut Natur. We have

702
00:44:21,910 --> 00:44:25,750
a nutrition label. Wow, that's

703
00:44:25,750 --> 00:44:29,310
bold. Absolutely. It's normal when you're

704
00:44:29,310 --> 00:44:32,910
communicating about a better for you product. And

705
00:44:33,150 --> 00:44:36,990
we want to make sure that people understand that they're going to have a

706
00:44:36,990 --> 00:44:40,430
better experience drinking this and not

707
00:44:40,430 --> 00:44:44,110
feeling any kind of negative impact. So no blood

708
00:44:44,110 --> 00:44:47,950
glucose rise, none of the after effects really.

709
00:44:47,950 --> 00:44:51,590
Because as I said, a lot of the things that they're attributing

710
00:44:51,590 --> 00:44:55,270
to the alcohol percentage is about the combination

711
00:44:55,270 --> 00:44:58,990
of sugar and alcohol in the drink. You're not seriously thought.

712
00:44:58,990 --> 00:45:02,350
Because you'd think that. Yeah. Okay, let's say we're talking about the

713
00:45:02,350 --> 00:45:06,030
confusion between extra dry Brut and other

714
00:45:06,110 --> 00:45:09,630
various demisec and all those kinds of things. People

715
00:45:09,630 --> 00:45:13,390
don't know. But how many people that, that maybe

716
00:45:13,390 --> 00:45:17,230
are diabetic or have on the border of being diabetic or pre diabetic,

717
00:45:18,430 --> 00:45:22,190
go down the market aisle and grab a bottle of Cabernet or

718
00:45:22,190 --> 00:45:25,950
Apothec red or something and they're consuming, you know, almost Saturn

719
00:45:25,950 --> 00:45:29,230
like sugar levels. Exactly. And thinking,

720
00:45:29,630 --> 00:45:33,390
not even really thinking about this. Probably a huge percentage of the people that

721
00:45:33,550 --> 00:45:37,230
buy those wines don't realize because they're. And

722
00:45:37,230 --> 00:45:39,390
the point, the reason I came to that thought was

723
00:45:41,050 --> 00:45:43,290
when you're talking about the sugar levels of these brands.

724
00:45:44,570 --> 00:45:48,170
And why? Well, because a. The palate.

725
00:45:48,490 --> 00:45:51,930
It's comfortable to the palate to have sugar and it

726
00:45:51,930 --> 00:45:55,690
masks other problems as well, bitterness. You know,

727
00:45:55,690 --> 00:45:59,130
if you're making pasta sauce and you've

728
00:45:59,210 --> 00:46:02,530
it's too bitter, you would probably throw a little sugar in it just, just to

729
00:46:02,530 --> 00:46:06,370
soften a little bit. So it's being, it's being put in there for a

730
00:46:06,370 --> 00:46:10,130
reason and the American public probably is

731
00:46:10,290 --> 00:46:13,810
not ignoring it. But doesn't really realize it there. And here you are. If you've

732
00:46:13,810 --> 00:46:17,010
got a product with I love this idea with the nutrition label because

733
00:46:17,810 --> 00:46:21,410
that's an argument going on right now. And you voluntarily are doing it

734
00:46:21,490 --> 00:46:25,010
to prove to the public that this is what's in here.

735
00:46:25,730 --> 00:46:29,490
We want to inform the public and I think we

736
00:46:29,730 --> 00:46:33,490
in the wine space have cryptic information, enough

737
00:46:33,490 --> 00:46:37,210
cryptic information as is. I'd like to be as transparent

738
00:46:37,210 --> 00:46:40,950
as possible with what we're communicating to our customers.

739
00:46:40,950 --> 00:46:44,350
And all I care about really is the consumer. So

740
00:46:44,510 --> 00:46:48,350
that consumer that you just described, prebiabetic, diabetic,

741
00:46:48,590 --> 00:46:52,070
what have you metabolically challenged in

742
00:46:52,070 --> 00:46:55,910
whatever stage that they are in. I had a

743
00:46:55,910 --> 00:46:59,510
buyer at a restaurant, we were showing the wine in advance

744
00:46:59,510 --> 00:47:03,190
of the shipment arriving and she said right

745
00:47:03,190 --> 00:47:06,830
away, oh, I'm diabetic. I'm constantly looking for something

746
00:47:06,990 --> 00:47:10,620
that will work for me. This is phenomenal. And

747
00:47:11,100 --> 00:47:14,940
not that we created a product, but given how many people in this

748
00:47:14,940 --> 00:47:18,340
nation are in that zone, this is a

749
00:47:18,340 --> 00:47:22,020
factor. And then we can talk about the Ozempic fad where,

750
00:47:22,020 --> 00:47:25,260
oh, we're not going to be interested in drinking. Not true.

751
00:47:25,899 --> 00:47:29,660
They are rebelling. And the flavor profiles, or

752
00:47:29,660 --> 00:47:33,140
rather the palate is rejecting the sugar

753
00:47:33,140 --> 00:47:36,800
load. We have, if you will, the Ozempic

754
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:40,560
wine because it's not

755
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:44,120
impactful in that way. It's fresh and clean and

756
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:47,600
bright and none of this sugar

757
00:47:47,600 --> 00:47:51,280
reaction that people who are on those GLP

758
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:54,880
ones are experiencing. You should use

759
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:59,120
AI and find all the Ozempic users in America

760
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:02,720
and target them. We don't have to. It's word of

761
00:48:02,720 --> 00:48:06,560
mouth and we're not even in the market yet. And I have to

762
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:09,900
say the reaction has, has been epic to the wine from

763
00:48:11,180 --> 00:48:14,980
consumers, from retail, on premise distributors.

764
00:48:14,980 --> 00:48:18,820
I've never ever experienced this kind of reaction. One of the

765
00:48:18,820 --> 00:48:22,540
things that showed me

766
00:48:22,540 --> 00:48:26,300
immediately that we are going to have that path that I already

767
00:48:27,020 --> 00:48:29,900
envisioned but didn't have proof of yet.

768
00:48:31,020 --> 00:48:34,770
It was just the second it

769
00:48:34,770 --> 00:48:38,410
was described, it wasn't even tasted by anyone. But when

770
00:48:38,730 --> 00:48:41,770
we were describing it to just

771
00:48:42,410 --> 00:48:46,130
wine lovers across the board, the reaction

772
00:48:46,130 --> 00:48:49,930
was not only do I want it, I want to tell all my friends about

773
00:48:49,930 --> 00:48:52,730
it because we're having this conversation

774
00:48:54,010 --> 00:48:57,370
and it's going to roll out. July, July, early July,

775
00:48:57,610 --> 00:49:01,410
early July. And you said 40 markets. So where's

776
00:49:01,410 --> 00:49:05,070
that start? It's. It starts online. So

777
00:49:05,230 --> 00:49:08,750
the first and most important thing is for anyone interested to

778
00:49:09,070 --> 00:49:12,630
sign up online for the pre

779
00:49:12,630 --> 00:49:16,350
sell because we are going to activate the

780
00:49:16,350 --> 00:49:19,950
second the wine arrives. So we're going to be fulfilling.

781
00:49:19,950 --> 00:49:22,910
We're going, we're going to be in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut,

782
00:49:23,550 --> 00:49:27,110
down south, and those will be the first markets that we're

783
00:49:27,110 --> 00:49:30,740
rolling out. Also there will be a couple of

784
00:49:30,740 --> 00:49:34,260
spots in the middle of the country. And who's doing the fulfillment and the direct

785
00:49:34,260 --> 00:49:37,940
to consumer stuff. So we have a platform that

786
00:49:37,940 --> 00:49:41,700
we're working with, a compliant platform that ships in multiple states.

787
00:49:42,660 --> 00:49:43,460
Compliant.

788
00:49:47,940 --> 00:49:51,660
I wish it were easier, but it's not. It should

789
00:49:51,660 --> 00:49:55,140
be called indirect to consumer because it's not direct to

790
00:49:55,140 --> 00:49:58,820
consumer. I really, I don't know who came up with that language, but

791
00:49:58,820 --> 00:50:02,560
I find it troublesome. And again, it's bad wine speak. It's

792
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:06,240
indirect to consumer. We're still maintaining three tier system.

793
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:10,880
Yes, we get the computer, the consumer data, but it's anything

794
00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:14,280
but direct to consumer. I don't, Yeah, I don't and I don't think it changing

795
00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:17,880
soon. It's been tried many times. This has been a fascinating conversation.

796
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:21,560
Monica, it's always a pleasure to see you and I always follow what you're

797
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:25,320
doing on LinkedIn, et cetera, to see what's going on in

798
00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:29,060
your camp. But certainly if we get back to New York,

799
00:50:30,580 --> 00:50:34,380
we'll go up to the Baccarat Hotel bar and have a drink. Love to

800
00:50:34,380 --> 00:50:38,220
have you here. Thank you so much, Paul, for

801
00:50:38,220 --> 00:50:41,460
having me. It's my pleasure. It's good to see you again. Thank you.

802
00:50:41,460 --> 00:50:42,820
Likewise. Take care.