Wine, Passion, and Perseverance: Why Human Connection Matters in Hospitality

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Hey O. Hey, Paul K. Here we go. It's Wine

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talks with Paul K. Man, so many things going on here. Wine

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talks with Paul K. Working on a couple of really cool shows.

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I was in Armenia last year and shot five days of

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interviews with winemakers and we're weaving that into a really

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cool show about sort of what it takes, what kind of people it takes, what

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kind of perseverance it takes, what kind of passion it takes. You guys hear it

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be talking about passion, like why. Like,

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it's even hard to articulate because there aren't that many industries though. We

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just got the phone with a vendor. He was talking about the way the industry

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in Los Angeles anyway, with the consolidation of the

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wholesalers and RNDC leaving, just walking up and leaving

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thousands of reps on the street. Not, not this, not

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hundreds of reps, but not at least thousands of brands

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of wines and spirits and all the accessory items

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like tonic water that have been abandoned by

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RNDC because it was a huge company. And so there's a chart somebody has

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posted on Facebook, etc, with the, you know, where these brands

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landed. And so I just got the phone. I went to a tasting last week

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in Culver City. It was incredible. Tasting from a winery, a group called

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Serendipity. And they had some great brands there, new brands

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from. From the collapse of rndc.

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And so I got to catch up with some old friends and some people, and

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these are real marketeers. These are people that really put

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stuff on the street. And I was just talking to the sales manager just a

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few minutes ago about how there's no

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passion in the people that come to the table to sell wine.

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And I've talked about this before, but some of the minimum requirements these

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days, for instance, to get a job in the wine trade is, for instance,

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a wit set W set degree.

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Well, W set one is like red wine is

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usually red, white wine is usually white.

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Is there alcohol in wine? I mean, that's how simple it is. Almost anyone

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in the world could pass W set 1 and W set 2 is not that

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much harder. But it's necessary to start there so you can understand the sort of

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growth of the education. But the idea being that you have to have some kind

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of degree is trumped by the idea that that

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degree can be ascertained by studying and reading and taking

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a test and then you get a job. But do you really care?

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Because the minute you walk into a wine shop or a

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restaurant without the passion, it takes to

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show the enthusiasm for the products that you really love that you're

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carrying in your book that you want people, people

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earnestly to understand when you pour it in

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the glass, you have to have the passion. You have to care. You have to

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just care. I think all industries in the world, if you're a salesperson, particularly,

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you have to care. If you're an executive at, AT and T, you have to

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care, obviously. But this wine, because it's so

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intertwined with food and the arts, because it really is art,

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that passion has to be obvious when you walk in the door.

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I sold copiers for a living and it took passion.

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I got yelled out of offices, literally. And how do

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you recover from that? You've got to be earnestly believe

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that you have the best product to solve the problems of the customer. That's

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just the way life is. So one of the things that's kind of popped up

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is this ambiance of wine and it's

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intimidating. And we've talked about this before and yeah, it is.

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Hello. It's a difficult subject. It's very

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academic when it wants to be. Like when you take these W set

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tests or the master sommelier or the master of wine tests.

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Very, very academic. I was talking to a restaurateur not too long ago

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and he said his bottle sales were off 40%.

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That's a huge nut to, to absorb. I went to wine, I went to

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Napa two weeks ago. Winery tasting rooms,

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walk in traffic off 30%. Man, if you're

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relying on that traffic, that walk in traffic, you are in big

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trouble if you're 30% off. In this case, the restaurateur is off 40%.

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And we just discussed a little bit of things. And I discussed this ridiculous idea

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of changing the language of wine, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, well,

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how's your staff, your waiting staff? How are they trained? And what

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he goes, they don't know. That's what he said.

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And I went a wonder, wonder, wonder,

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wonder who, why sales are off.

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I mean, seriously, if you don't have the passion. So the idea, for instance, of

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proper wine service, I, I don't think it matters if you're a

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novice or an experienced wine drinker

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or people that go to fancy restaurants. What if it's the first time you've been

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to a fancy restaurant and that steward comes out

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with that bottle and the carafe and, you

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know, the decanter and decants the wine and you're just sort of, you're just

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sort of in awe. And I think I mentioned before, when we were in Palermo,

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we went to this restaurant I had the most amazing wine service.

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The guy could have been pouring, you know, two Buck Chuck. Well, it's not two

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bucks anymore, but he could have been pouring, you know, Cali

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red from Snoop Dogg, and it

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wouldn't have mattered. You would have just gone, wow, this is incredible. I'm not sure

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what it tastes any better, but sometimes it does. It just feels like it

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tastes better. But, you know, I don't think proper wine

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service is the snobbery of wine. I think it's the requirement

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to express how ethereal

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a glass of wine can be and how important it is to the human

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condition to have that wine. And it changes it. When you do it

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properly, it makes it feel better. It makes you feel better. It

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adds to the ambiance. It adds to the

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circumstance, you know, the pomp and circumstance of having a glass of

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wine at a restaurant. I decant at home just for that reason. So

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it's not the snobbery of it. It's the class of it. Is

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that a better word, the class of it? You know, try and guess what I

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am now. A zit. Hey. All right. It's classy. It makes

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you feel like you're being taken care of when the proper wine service

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comes. And I don't think that should be abandoned. I don't think it's gonna go,

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and I don't think it's gonna be abandoned. I think I discussed this

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idea, for instance. The opposite idea of what I'm talking about. Yeah, the exact

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opposite. We were up in Monterey years ago, and we were sitting at the bar,

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and we're watching these amazing supercars go by the

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street. Everybody and their mother that had a supercar was in Monterey for the

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Concours d'. Elegance. And we were there the first night. We were in a restaurant

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right then, downtown Monterey, and happened to be right next

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to the waitress's station at the bar. And across the bar

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was the house pour wines, which was a brand called

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Crane Lake. And I know it well, so. But somebody

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had thought this was a good idea at the bar level of service

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to put in big, big black felt pen letters,

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big black felt pen numbers, the date that the wine

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was opened. Now, you know that a red wine that's.

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I'm not gonna say instable, but that's sensitive to condition changes,

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like a vintage Bordeaux or something. You know,

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it can last a day with very little degradation, but after a

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day, you start to sense it. It's called oxidation. And there's

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lots of devices to help prevent that or slow it down. But in this

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case, we're talking about, I mean, literally, you're talking about at the time

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what they call a house pour wine sold by a very well known distributor that

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probably cost them like four doll. Not that concerned about

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making sure the wine lasts more than a day or two because you're probably going

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to pour through it anyway. Anyway, the date on the Pinot Noir that was front

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and center of this group was at least two weeks old, if I

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remember right. At least two weeks old. Now there's no way

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that that wine is going to last two weeks. I don't care if you use

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the greatest vacuum, you know, system in the world

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or gas it yourself. It's going to, it's not

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going to be good. And so waitress walked up and said, I'll need a glass

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of Pinot as she's, you know, crumbling receipts and moving

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stuff around and putting lemon slices in a glass of water while she's waiting

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for the pour. And the waiter puts the glass right in front of me and

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starts to pour the glass for the waitress. And I look at him, I go,

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that's coming back. He goes, what do you mean, sir? I go, look at the

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date. I go, seriously? And he goes, thank you.

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And he opens a fresh bottle. So here's the problem I have that. I mean,

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this is proper wine service. Why, why isn't somebody

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making sure that those dates are current? And why

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would you put on the front label and big black felt band? That's just, you

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know, gauche. But anyway, the, the, if that had gone out, if

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I hadn't sat there, it would have gone out. The waitress is too busy

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worrying about making sure her client's happy and delivering when she does not

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need to make that trip again because the wine's so bad. So

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either one of two things is going to happen. The patron's going

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to go, ah, what is this? And tell the waitress who's now

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run off to another table to do something else but has to come back and

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deal with the complaint and go back and get a fresh glass or they're not

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going to say anything and they're going to come away with this terrible experience. And

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I'm not sure in today's world, in particular in

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hospitality, we can afford to have bad

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experiences. You know, when I was doing the Wine of the Month club, we had

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100% guarantee. We never asked the question if you

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just didn't like it, even though I sent you a wine of good example of

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what it was, we would send you a replacement. And it

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wasn't worth the shipping cost, typically to get an open bottle back. So we just

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shipped another one without any questions asked. And that was an important feature of the

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club at the time, was that guarantee that you're going to love the wines if

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you don't. If you don't love them. So it just. It's

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just a fine line to dance where we're talking about the

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generations coming behind us that don't really care about their. The experience

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of wine that our parents did or that I did as my.

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As a parent. But at the same time, there's still those

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generations that appreciate that, and I think all generations will come to

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it to understand the value of that

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ceremony. It's a great ceremony to have that,

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to have that, hey, other things going on.

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We're headed to Rome to meet the Pope. That's right.

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And, you know, the Vatican. My favorite trivia question

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throughout most of my career was what

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country is the highest consumption of wine per

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capita? And by the way, nine times more per

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capita than the number two country is the

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Vatican. So I'm not sure what that means, but it's

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a lot of wine going through there. But we got a chance to meet the

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Pope and I emailed ahead

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to see if I can get a podcast. And why? Well, you know, wine

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is quite biblical, and it's mentioned

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dozens and dozens of times in the Bible. It has

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great root meaning to the life of Jesus Christ

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and the church ceremoniously uses

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it. And so I thought, well, what if

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somebody in Vatican who actually would sit down if I take my little podcast studio

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and somebody in Vatican would actually sit with me? I mean, I don't think the

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Pope's going to do it. Do you, though? He is a White

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Sox fan, and maybe if I bring a White Sox hat or something he autographs.

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I don't know. We'll get it done right? But

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I'm waiting to see what they say. They may just say, hey, this American guy's

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coming. He's in the wine trade. They look at all the people been on my

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show and they say, yeah, we like to do that. We like to have that

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conversation. It's good publicity for us. Maybe I shouldn't bring up

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the per capita consumption of wine at the Vatican for that

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at that moment. But, you know, what's the

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big deal? You know what I'm saying? In the meantime, I started a new podcast.

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I'm going to release it the next couple days called Song of

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America. Gentleman named George Mardikian,

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who was a friend of my grandfather's, actually and my family's. But he was

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a restaurateur in San Francisco. If you listen to a couple of the old timers

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on the podcast, you will hear them talk about a restaurant called

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Omar Cayenne's. And Omar Cayennes was

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a very well known Middle Eastern restaurant owned by a gentleman

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named George Mardikian. His book that he wrote, his

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autobiography is called Song of America. And if I,

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if I were you, if you're in the restaurant trade, hospitality or just

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interested in interesting immigration stories, this is a book,

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it's well written and it's really quite extensive. For instance,

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George Mardikian was

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planning on a restaurant in San Francisco and he decided to get a job

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on a cruise line with the contingency that he could jump ship whenever he felt

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like it and pick up the next one when it came to port to study

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food recipes, primarily Armenian food recipes.

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So he jumped ship in a few places, including Singapore and,

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and Venice. Why Venice? Because there's an Armenian

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monastery in the harbor or in the river

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outside of Venice, and they have ancient Armenian recipes that

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he mined out there for the restaurant. So Omar

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Kayans. So many people, not so many people. Many tomes,

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restaurant books of the day, you know, in the food.

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The food change in America was in the 80s with the famed LA

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chefs Ken Frank, Nancy Silverton, Jonathan Waxman.

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And they credit Pat Ture of Maison

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of bringing the chef

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out of what they call the back house to the front house and greet the

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guests. And if you go to Spago today in Beverly Hills and

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Wolfgang's working, he will come out and greet you

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every table that's not new. That was

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happening in the. You could not leave Omar

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Cheyennes without Chef Mardiquian coming out to say hi

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and watch you eat. This is the Armenian trait. Watch you eat. The other thing

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George Mardiquin did, which is not. Which is not touted as new, but it's,

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you know, it's touted nowadays as a, as a aspect amazing thing, which is farm

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to table. George Martian owned one of the greatest

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parcels of land in the Napa Valley. Grew no

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grapes. That land now is Quintessa Winery, one of the most valued

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properties. But he grew new grapes. He grew. He grew new grapes, he

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grew no grapes, he grew vegetables for the restaurant.

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So you were getting farm to table. The other thing he did is if you

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wore your uniform as a man of

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military, you ate free and known for that. So people would go there,

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like even Bruce Nyer of the Napa Valley, who's one of the

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original guys up there that will tell you. I used to put on my uniform

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and go eat because it was free. So Song of America as a podcast

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is about immigrants. Such a hot subject now, right?

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But immigration has all kinds of forms and so many

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nationalities. And you know, it's rife with Armenian stories,

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which we have a few already in the can. But this is

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not for Armenians only. It's going to be all flights to America

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and coming here and having social, financial

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or political says, however you want to define success and

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hearing these great stories about how great this country is

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for people like that. My father in law, my grandfather came here in

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1920 something, I think it was,

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and he had a. I wish, you know, I wish podcasting

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and the equipment you need that, the portability equipment you need to

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do these stories was around then. But he was, he

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was the carpet man to the stars. He had a huge

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carpet store on Santa Monica and Vine in the heart of Hollywood. He was the

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president of the Hollywood Rotary Club. This guy with this heavy Turkish accent,

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seriously, in the 1950s, was president of one of the great

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American social clubs. That's how great America is. And they

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used to tease him as a kid. I would go to the meetings and they

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would tease him of his accent, but he was the leader, he was the

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main guy. And I thought that was really cool for that to have happened.

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But Song of America is going to document these stories before they're all

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gone and give inspiration to people that,

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that live them or the people behind them that live them

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for the rest of the public to hear them. Another one I missed, though. You

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can hear part of the story on YouTube or on Vimeo, which is a guy

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named Art Ikanyan A Y K A N I A N.

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Art was my wife's uncle. He invented the straw

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that bends. Now isn't that one of those things you say to yourself,

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man, I wish I had a penny for every one of those I got. I

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wish, you know who thought of this idea. He did

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not only think about how to make a machine that would bend a straw because

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there was always the bendy straws, like in the hospitals that would turn into paper.

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But he invented the plaster one and then he invented

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the spoon straw, the straw for the Slurpee.

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And so he's got those patents and you would never know it.

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In fact, there's a book out of immigrants of all the famous

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inventions in America that were by immigrants, like the ATM machine

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is an invention, the cement mixer an invention. All

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immigrants, America is immigrants. There is no, I mean,

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besides The Native American. Everybody else is an immigrant,

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and that's who we are. It's a melting pot. It's an

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amazing place. And these stories aren't being told.

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The success of these people that come here with a

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dream, and the dream's still alive. It's still alive.

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I have a dream. I posted this on one of my beach rants the other

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day. I have a dream to take wine

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media to the household, the regular

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household, and all the objections I've gotten so far from Hollywood, etc. Of

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course, Hollywood's in a mess right now because of the portability of filming

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and the cost of American regulations in different cities

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that so much of the work has gone out of the country, even,

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or to different states, for sure. So Hollywood's struggling, but the number one thing

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I get is get us a celebrity like Stanley Tucci and we'll

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do a show on wine. But wine, I don't want to do a show of

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swirling and sniffing. Who cares? That is intimidating, and that

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does propagate the aristocracy of wine. But the stories, these

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stories, same stories as the immigrants, possibly. Same idea. Song of America. These

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stories behind the people. And when I say I tasted 100,000 wines of my

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career, I did just sheer mathematics, but I

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heard a hundred thousand stories. I mean, literally every wine that was poured in my

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glass had something to say. Some more interesting than others,

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but something to say. And my job was

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sort of to decide whether that story was obvious through the glass of

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wine. So I heard 100,000 stories,

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and some of them are amazing. Some of the passion it takes to do this

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are amazing. Like, for instance, get on the

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podcast and look for Zaya Unan,

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an Iranian immigrant. That story alone, the first, like,

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25 minutes, where he. How he got to America. Well, he just

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invested $300 million. $300 million in

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vineyards in Saint Emilion on the Right bank of

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Bordeaux. Why? Why? Why do people

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wonder, wonder, wonder why people,

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when they are successful financially, seek

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wineries, wine regions, in his case, Saint Emilion.

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But so much of Napa is built up because of

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wealth that was acquired through being a doctor or

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government contractor or whatever you did to make your wealth. Why? Why does

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that happen? What is the expression of wine that's. So that requires you

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don't. You don't go off and buy a packaging company. Like, I made a lot

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of money, some of my packaging company. You don't go off and buy,

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you know, businesses that have no ethereal

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human soul to them. But when you've arrived, it

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seems to some people

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financially, the idea is let's go back to our

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human roots with wine. That's interesting to me. So

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Zion, who did that after brilliant career in

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engineering, has now got three Saint Emilion Bordeaux

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wines in his name. I had a conversation with Kelly E. Carter

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last week. Her podcast comes out, I think Thursday or it's already

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out. Wow. What a story about. She

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was like the woman in the locker room story. She's a tall woman. She

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was in the Lakers locker room. She blended wine with Kobe Bryant. She.

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She knows all about the history of celebrity

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status of wines. And she we

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just had a great conversation. We could talk for two, three hours without any problem.

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But listen to that passion call and how

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her celebrity status and her writing

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as a journalist in general. She was the sports

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writer for USA Today. I mean, all this amazing career

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and now it's in wine. And she has a company called Napa Valley

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Noir and it's a private touring company in the Napa Valley.

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And she knows what she's talking about. Wow. Why? Why?

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I used to write books. In fact, she won

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LA Times. She's not one. She was a New York Times best selling author with

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Venus Williams, the famed tennis player and their book

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Come to Win. Great story. I want to finish reading it. So that's today's

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rant. Got a lot more to talk about. And we're going to continue to talk

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about the things that make me mad. No.

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Okay. Cheers.