Exploring Artisanal Wines with Master Sommelier Laura Pt. 3

Welcome. Welcome to The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast with Forrest Kelly.

Southern Glazers is a family owned company moving into its third generation. They've been very humble about who they are and what they've done for the industry and for the people that are employed there. That's The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast This is one of the joys that I get from doing the podcast is finding out about companies that, of course, we all have to worry about the bottom line to pay the bills and et cetera.

But once you get past that, that point, what can you do as a company or an individual to make our environment and those around us in the environment better? So I'd love to hear about companies like Southern Glacier's wine and spirits doing great things. And so it's really more focused as well as charitable and community efforts.

So the Chaplin family that owns Southern is incredibly philanthropic.

Looking at the dictionary definition of artisanal, it means something is made by hand or using traditional methods by a skilled craftsperson or artisan. And so taking that, how does that translate into the wine category? I know I'm putting you on the spot, Laura. Yeah, that's a great question, but, you know, it's interesting.

So when I brought the concept to southern glazers, one of the things that had always really bothered me about the wine side of the distribution and importation business is that if up to ten different people with knowledge and ask them, what is fine wine? I'm going to get ten different answers. And all ten of those answers will be correct. But they're all profoundly different. And the industry has consistently tried to define fine wine by price.

But how do you tell somebody who's making 2000 cases of an extraordinary Pinot Grigio that sells for $20 that they're not fine wine? Because they're not, you know, dollar 50 or dollar 80 or dollar 100 a bottle, it just doesn't make sense. So, as the largest distributor, we have a lot of market control and market perception, not just from a dollar standpoint, but marketing perception. And so I, part of the business plan that I presented is why are we not defining the categories of wine?

Big commercial brands that are looking to scale and get bigger. Fantastic. Great. Then there's fine wines that are of a certain production level that may or may not be looking to scale, and then there's brands and wineries that will never scale, because wine is not like spirits. Spirits, you just turn on the still and make more. Essentially, wine's an agricultural product. And in many parts of the world, especially Europe, you can't just plant more vineyards, it's not allowed.

You can't extend your boundaries. Either the law tells you you can't, or there is no more, or it's price to plant more vineyards or to expand the boundary of what your region is. And then even if you can plant more vineyards, you're looking at seven years before you get a grape. A good grape, right, where you can really make some great wine.

Three different categories of wine, artisanal wine, fine wine, and wine. And we've defined it, really, based around production and or availability into the United States, because not every european wine in Italy or in France sells every single bottle that they make in the United States. They have multiple markets, whether it stays within their own country or they sell to Asia or South America or other european countries.

So I imagine that you get a lot of satisfaction not only being senior vice president of commercial operations for artisanal wines at southern glaciers, wine and spirits, but in your role, you're actually being able to add some clarity and definition to this specific category. 100%.

And that's really part of why I pursued becoming a master sommelier, was because sitting there watching these three people talk about wine in a way, as I said that I had never heard anybody speak about wine before, I also realized that no matter how much I knew, I'd always be learning something. Always, always, always. And so I've been a master psalm. I can't believe it. But it's almost 20 years.

It'll be 20 years in November, and I learn something new about wine every day. The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast Don't forget my favorite part.

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