Kate Dingwall Freelance Writer - Words / Travel / Wine / Spirits

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Jessie
Welcome to Thursday, Thursdays at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. My name is Jessie Ott, the host of this podcast, which is all about beverage innovation. I talk with innovation pioneers from agriculture to glass.

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Jessie
This week

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Jessie
I'm speaking with Kate Dingwall, a Canadian from Toronto

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Jessie
is a very successful

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freelance writer,

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Jessie
and has written for Forbes.com, The Toronto Star Maxim. Serious Eats, Elle liquor.com, wine enthusiast and more.

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Jessie
Kate,

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Jessie
like all entrepreneurs started out

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doing what we all do hustle email call and partner with those in the industries that see the potential

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that we know is there to offer to many.

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Kate knew she wanted to learn the business side of our industry,

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Jessie
So she received her graduate degree from Savannah College of Art and Design and learned all about luxury goods, fashion, wine and spirits, which has helped her immensely in her writing career.

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Jessie
She has a unique lens into the world through her younger sister and how they view the world growing up in the midst of climate change. This generation is putting more money and thought into the brands they choose as the environment is very important to them. They, as we know, are drinking less and looking for alternatives as they strive for a healthy lifestyle.

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Jessie
one interesting fact that Kate shared was they're also digging into buying bottles of wine

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from New

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and unknown areas around the world. Kate is a world traveler and has been to amazing areas around the world like Armenia and most recently to Japan to report on shochu.

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Jessie
Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe to be notified of all new episodes.

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Speaker 1
I'm great. How are.

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Speaker 2
You?

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Speaker 1
No, I

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had no clue what I wanted to do. I went

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through my undergrad

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trying different courses and figuring it out. I actually really loved art history and architecture history and thought I'd do more in that

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realm. But

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wine is kind of a lot of that. So and writing

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relates a lot to that.

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So as I grew up, I started getting more stories and.

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Speaker 1
Well, to backtrack a little bit, I started as the fashion editor of a Canadian fashion magazine. Liked Clothes was thought that was a pretty good gig.

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For.

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Me. So

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that was really fun. But I worked. I grew up working in restaurants. I'd been working in restaurants since I was 15. So that wine bug started very early, but never really like a

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solid career.

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Try telling your parents at

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1617 that you want to

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work in wine. They'll roll your eyes. So

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Nicole's out

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there. You can drink

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lots of wine, but then you figure

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it out.

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I'm

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based in Toronto, so right in the center

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of Canada. Lovely

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city with really great food and drinking scene.

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Born

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and raised, I lived in the States for eight years. In my twenties, I did my masters down there and got a visa through that. So I ended up living in New York and writing there for quite a while.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, the

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prices have definitely gone up. I was down there a couple of weekends ago and we're now living in the world of the $30 martini.

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Great Martini.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. Most major cities are having massive cost of living issues, even here in Canada, it's impossible. It's almost impossible to find a one bedroom under 2020 500 within the city. And how are you? Well, wait, staff is a great point. How are people who are making minimum wage supposed to afford that and working in out downtown core?

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Speaker 1
Yeah, and I think after the pandemic, there were so many.

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Speaker 1
Well, I've worked in service for a long time alongside writing, but there were so many people who are just awful to service people who are in the service industry. Masking, not masking vaccine, passports, etc. That people don't get paid enough to do that. Like, I don't know how you expect people to withstand verbal in some cases physical abuse for.

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Speaker 2
Tips that yeah, that sucks. Why aren't you doing this in?

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Speaker 1
Yeah, but on the flip side, we've seen a lot more restaurant groups work harder to keep their staff offer education programs, health benefits, dental benefits, higher wages, and work that out on the menu side of things to make up for those cost, but create a work environment where people actually want to stay.

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Speaker 1
And you can tell when you walk into a restaurant or bar and your hospitality team is miserable. And then you can tell when they actually where they're working to believe in what they're selling and what their experience they're creating.

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Within.

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And to use in kind of the upcoming generations.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, and I think the generations that are incoming are grew up in the world of climate change and it really affects them. My younger sister is in that generation and they're being very vocal about how they want the world to look. They're putting a lot more they're putting more money and more.

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Speaker 2
Thought.

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Speaker 1
Kind of thought space into brands that are doing better for the environment. They're taking better care of themselves by drinking a little bit less or looking for alternatives to kind of what I grew up with, which was keg parties and things that I went to in college and.

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Speaker 1
Well, I guess with legalizing marijuana in Canada, it's completely legal. There's several states, I believe. I'm not as well versed in that culture, but and then CBD, which is great for. Yeah. So it's just become a bit more normalcy. I think someone once compared I forget who said it, but alcohol is to their generation, which that Cigaret says to the millennial generation.

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Speaker 1
So it's becoming a bit more less common. no, I didn't. Yeah, I went to school. I went to my undergrad degree at a university west of Toronto, and then I did my masters in Branch in Georgia at this at Skadden. And then I had five years in between those degrees working in media, print media and the state, the state of Georgia in the.

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Speaker 2
U.S..

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Speaker 1
Afterwards.

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Speaker 2
And yeah, if you go to school.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, New York is fun. It was really great. It's kind of a up and coming writer to have those experiences, especially in food and Beverage in New York. It's such a hub for that.

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Speaker 2
Who?

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Speaker 1
Yeah, a nice hidden gem that's always really lovely. My master is a brand direction. So I was in. I had been working in media for quite a while, but I didn't really have a business knowledge. I kind of came up through doing a liberal arts undergrad and moved into fashion and a lot more of the lifestyle coverage but had no knowledge of business.

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Speaker 1
And that's kind of a you're missing a large part of the story if you don't really understand how brands make money in marketing work. So I really wanted to get an education to kind of round out that knowledge and be a better journalist. So I was looking at business programs and the Savannah College of Art and Design had a fantastic masters program just a year that focused on luxury goods, fashion, wine and spirits and how all of those brands are like how to build a brand from the ground up and how to market a brand, which I was really interested in.

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Speaker 1
It felt like it had a lot of parallels when I was covering, and they had a really good scholarship program too, which helped. Media is notoriously horrible paying industry so.

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Speaker 2
And.

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Speaker 1
Get a visa to live in the United States, which was a bit of a it checked a lot of boxes that degree did me ten years ago. Yeah yeah it's a really cool city with such a major arts university there. There's been a lot of people who stay on afterwards and open up their own businesses, restaurants. Ah, so there's quite a youthful, lively energy to the city and their beverage bar and beverage program.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, it was a really fun city.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. So I could well, I could afford to live downtown, which was fantastic. It's still a very small touristy city. Get two classes within 20 minutes. It was fantastic. It was a great quality of life down there.

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Speaker 2
I was.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, I've been freelance for a decade now, so I build my career based on stories I pitched to outlets, relationships with editors, and I'll usually right around 20 stories a month. So that's what I've been.

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Speaker 2
That's.

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Speaker 1
My workload for the last almost a decade now. Yeah, some of them are shorter, some of them are longer. And we'll go up to 38, go down to ten, depending on the breadth and length of a story. last trip I was in the Okanagan a couple of weeks ago writing a story on diversity in Wine out there.

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Speaker 1
So the Okanagan is the southern part of British Columbia, so it's right in the center and it's this wonderful, very budding wine region in the interior, right in the Rockies. Depends on the winery. The southern part of the region is quite warm, so there's a lot of cabernet franc there. But they do get those like very frigid cold winters.

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Speaker 1
So you get a lot of these cool like Bordeaux varieties. Depends on the year there. And since the region in general, it's only 30 maximum years old. There's a lot of conversations around what grapes work best. So you can find plantings.

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Speaker 2
In.

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Speaker 1
Dozens of different grape varieties out there, depending on the elevation of where the winemakers are in the valley, they'll plant maybe cooler climate on the west side of the valley. East side of the valley is planting like roses, the bottom bottom of the earth, grapes that work well in roses. So since all Grenache vajra, bottom of the valley is quite hot and it's protected from so it gets a lot of sun exposed.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. So you're getting some people were debating Grenache, which is kind of cool.

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Speaker 1
So it's still a budding one, kind of redefining. Well, they're defining what they want to be in terms of style, climate, etc..

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Speaker 2
With.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, I was in the Valley, I got a loop about four weeks ago with some fantastic Mexican wine importers and I had the chance to talk to quite a lot of producers down there and get a good feel of what the industry is currently at. And that was really, really cool. That was one of my favorite trips I've been on.

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Speaker 1
Yes and no. So Mexico, especially in that area, divided Guadalupe has a very long history of being a winemaking region. They have grapes planted back to, I think like 400 years. Correct me if I'm wrong, but so they have a very long history of winemaking, but for a long time their focus is return to Brandy. So growing grapes that were better suited for brandy and grapes like that aren't necessarily great for still wines.

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Speaker 1
So over the last 30 years there there's been a lot of producers kind of taking a step back and being like, Hey, we've got this fantastic land. We've got some really old vines. Why aren't we doing that? I think maybe in the nineties there were only ten producers of Still Wine in Nevada, Guadalupe. So over the last kind of 20, 30 years now a lot of producers have been replanting and making their own wines and not making brandy and trying to figure out what the future looks like for that region.

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Speaker 1
Is it sparkling wines? There's been a lot of and in long, which is I've had a couple of Chenin Blanc from that region and it's fantastic. Like it's got a little bit of that minerality you want from a classic French onion, but a lot of texture. It's really a beautiful wine region and I think a region we're going to see a lot more of in the future.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. I was with a couple of folks who import to the United States Mexican wine and they're starting to get more and more traction in major markets and in smaller market. So they're doing a lot of work on the ground and it's cool to see in that region the producers are all excited for each other because it's such a region that's unknown outside of Mexico to a lot of wine folks.

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Speaker 1
All of the winemakers are talking to each other and they're all really proud of each other. They're all kind of having a lot of conversations with their college like colleagues and peers on what works in that area, what doesn't. And they really see a win for one winemaker as a win for the entire region.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, and I know we talk a little bit about the younger generation and a lot of the information we're seeing on that demographic is they're super excited about new regions.

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Speaker 1
Like I can barely afford white Burgundy anymore and it's one of my favorite bottles and it's so younger generations are really getting priced out of like the classic Bordeaux, Burgundy, things like that. And younger generations are having to look to cool new wine regions. Hey, maybe I can afford this Mexican wine because it's a relatively unknown region. They can't command those prices anymore, even though the quality is there and the work is there.

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Speaker 1
And so those kids who are coming in, turning 21, turning 25, they're buying bottles from weird regions of Portugal, the Azores, Mexico. They're exploring the world through wine, which is a really, really cool trend. We're seeing.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, I think from a lot of the samples I pulled in the producers, I chatted with that for that article. The quality is fantastic.

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Speaker 1
They have to do quite a lot. That said, they have to do quite a lot of work to break down all of the well, the bad rap that boxed wine as I remember being in college and we buy boxed wine because it was cheap and the quality wasn't fantastic, but the bang for your buck was there. But a.

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Speaker 2
Lot of it.

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Speaker 1
Was there. It was great. A lot of the new producers, they're a little bit more expensive than the garbage box line you used to purchase, but it's a more sustainable format, it's more recyclable, it uses less gas, which means it uses less carbon emissions. During the production process. The quality is quite good and it's really like speaking to moderation, like we were chatting about earlier.

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Speaker 1
It's a lovely format. If you don't want to drink a bottle of wine, I, my partner doesn't drink. So when I want to have a glass of wine, it's kind of okay, well, I can open the bottle and drink half the bottle tonight and half the bottle tomorrow and that will be bad. Or I can just let the bottle go bad.

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Speaker 1
So it's formats like boxed wine would allow me to have one glass with a movie or one glass over the drink the bottle over a course of a couple of weeks, which is really nice. I never really want to drink that much bottle of wine over a couple of days. No cans are similar. That's a similar trend you're seeing coming in and the quality is fantastic and some really, really good canned wines recently.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, those wines are definitely formulated to drink it. Now. You are not sitting on that.

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Speaker 2
No, I was in.

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Kate
A recent one. That trip that really resonated with me. I was in Armenia, was one of the oldest winemaking cultures in the world. To discover what's going on there with the wine scene right now. And it was a really beautiful community. A lot of small winemakers, a lot of medium sized winemakers, all just trying to work with indigenous Armenian grapes and bring more of a focus on this history that's thousands and thousands of years old through their wine.

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Kate
The landscape is gorgeous as well. The people are so warm. They've had a real tough go of it. So but they're so welcoming to strangers and to visitors. And they really made us feel like home when we were in their houses and wineries.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. And yeah, like you mentioned, it's not a one, it's not a wine region that's on classical exams.

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Speaker 1
And yet it was perhaps the oldest region. It goes back and forth between Georgia and Armenia. I think the oldest wine growing our wine grape was found in Georgia, but the oldest wine equipment was found in Armenia and these dates back literally thousands and thousands of years. It's really, really cool. So it has such a history of wine, and modern day winemaking was really born out of Armenia and Georgia.

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Speaker 1
So it's

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Speaker 1
it's.

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Speaker 2
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
And I'm sure more they're still doing excavations in both countries and places they think that there were winemaking facilities so I'm sure we'll go back and forth. Rages where Georgia finds a new thing. Armenia finds a new Square V or a clay pot, but both have the moral of the story as both have very, very historic winemaking regions.

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Speaker 1
The Armenia was I was at the there's a place in Armenia called the Irani Cave, and that's where they found the oldest working wine networking, oldest winemaking facility. And a lot of it was used as a place for human sacrifices. So they found all these bodies in the old clay vessels. It's literally in the side of a cave and you have to kind of hike up to it.

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Speaker 1
It's really wild to see.

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Speaker 2
What we.

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Speaker 1
I was thinking about this, but honestly, not that many wines. But we've come a long way in terms of gender diversity and general diversity in wine. But when I started, it was pretty male dominated and a bit bullish to enter. But I'd say the people who mean the most to my career are editors who kind of took my, my God.

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Speaker 1
I was looking through some of my story ideas that I'd send people like eight, nine years ago, and they were awful. They're brutal ideas, and they were. Every once in a while I have to go back and forth, like through my email and find information, and I'll look at some of these ideas and they're awful. I'm embarrassed to read them, but I still had some editors who I'd pitch blind, like I'd never met them.

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Speaker 1
I just emailed them with an idea how I want to write about it and they take a chance on it. And I can name I'll probably six or seven editors who took a chance on some pretty mediocre ideas and work with me to form a series, kind of teach me about like take a lot of time out of their own workday to edit my pretty awful, very green stories and teach me how to be a better writer and how to be a better voice in the wine industry.

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Speaker 1
So I know I still work with a lot of these editors today. They've moved publications, I've moved publications, etc., etc. and they're still wonderful people. So I really they're all women, actually. So I just really taking the time on young writers and people who may be artists established. And that still means a lot to me, like years later that Well, thank you.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. Now I, whenever I see young writers and I try and be as excited about it as possible, the wine industry always needs new voices, especially new voices from people who aren't middle aged white men. So it's really exciting. The new people come into the space and it's something I think we can all cheer for in well, wine is a really beautiful space and I do write about spirits as well.

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Speaker 1
So this does extend to it in which you can never know everything. Like no one knows everything about wine. There's always something to learn. There's always a new region to discover, there's always new grapes to learn about. I still get so excited when someone mentions a grape and I'm like, I've never heard of that before in my life.

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Speaker 1
So the.

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Speaker 2
Biggest thing.

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Speaker 1
Even pronounced that like what is a Muscat? But so the biggest kind of thing you can do for yourself in wine spirits is just keep reading and keep learning. Buy a new wine book, sit on the couch, pour a glass of something mentioned in that book and just learn about it. So I think that's why I've ended up in wine.

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Speaker 1
I just I was always a big school nerd, so I have entered a life full of school basically is how I see it sometimes.

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Speaker 2
But yeah.

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Speaker 1
Learning is fun. Just read. Figure out what wine writer you really like. Read a lot of their stuff, buy a bunch of books, buy some wines you've never heard of from a region you've never heard of or made from a grape that you've never heard of. And just figure out what it is. It doesn't have to be a big endeavor.

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Speaker 1
I'm not asking you to write to read a 700 page world or wine book right now, but just take on a chapter. Just learn a new tidbit. It's it'll help your education and that'll take you everywhere. No, I haven't organized, but it's.

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Speaker 2
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
I'm actually going over there with a soju importer. And so Chiu is a Japanese distilled spirit, not soju is Korean, but it's a Japanese distilled spirits. So I'll be over there to visit a bunch of distilleries and kind of taste through things and understand a bit more of the diversity of the category. And I'm very excited for that.

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Speaker 1
I've never been to Japan, so there should be a new experience for me.

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Speaker 2
I'll be centralized.

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Speaker 1
Down in the south where most of the soju distilleries are, because I think we're going to try and hit three distilleries a day for five days. So that's where most of the distilleries are centralized.

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Speaker 2
Where I'm.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, I'm very excited. So circle back with me in a couple of weeks when I have more to say about it.

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Speaker 2
But I'm expecting a.

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Speaker 1
Lot of good food and a lot of fantastic highballs. Yeah, I've seen quite it's quite established in, I'd say New York and Toronto. There's a big is introduced to a lot more restaurants and as a beautiful pairing options a friend of mine runs a fantastic restaurant in Toronto that has so many soca is and every time I go there I'm just blown away by pairing like the diversity of the category.

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Speaker 1
By the pairing opportunities. I always taste something new. I always I think I know about soca and then I go there and I learn 75 new things and I'm like, I know nothing. This is beautiful, this is fantastic. And now there's American breweries, which is really, really cool. So they're kind of translating the thought of terroir and soca over to the American climate, which is really, really cool.

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Speaker 1
there's now a saké brewery in Mexico.

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Speaker 2
Over there.

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Speaker 1
Chicken rice. It's really good. And the products are beautiful. It's really it's I don't think it's exported into the United States yet, though. I know I've been traveling. I was debating, extending and kind of doing my own personal trip through Japan, but I've been traveling quite a bit lately and my partner would like me to spend a little bit more time at home.

00;43;40;07 - 00;44;46;25
Speaker 1
So I'm using this as kind of an introduction to Japan and thankfully I get to travel for work, so I'm sure I'll be over there again soon and next time I'd love to extend and travel around a little bit. I think the conversations around in coming generations have been really funny to see. I. I've been in Napa six or seven times this year and there's everyone I'm well,

00;44;46;25 - 00;44;55;08
Speaker 1
I'm not sure if you saw the Silicon Valley banks report this year that declared that young people aren't drinking wine.

00;44;55;10 - 00;44;58;27
Speaker 2
Which caused a bit of a.

00;44;58;29 - 00;45;24;16
Speaker 1
Upset outrage kind of crisis of self for a lot of winemakers, like what are we going to do when these like when all of our drinkers age up and pass away? Like who what is the future of our winery look like? And as someone who's worked the floor as a som for a long time, I don't I'm seeing like young kids spend money on wine.

00;45;24;16 - 00;46;04;06
Speaker 1
They're just doing so a lot more thoughtfully. They're supporting a lot more brands that are environmental and ethos and sustainable in practice and a lot more earth friendly and or just practicing farming and winemaking in ways that are very conscious and a lot more kind of fun brands that wouldn't be counted in the Silicon Valley. Beck's report. So I'm curious and I don't have an answer, but I'm curious to see how in coming generations enter the wine industry and how they interact with the wine industry and what their values are and how that relates to purchasing and bottle choice and what wine regions they support.

00;46;04;06 - 00;46;08;29
Speaker 1
And I think there's a very huge generational gap right now

00;46;08;29 - 00;46;41;29
Speaker 1
with

00;46;41;29 - 00;47;53;21
Speaker 1
I think there's a lot of things at play. I think

00;47;53;21 - 00;48;11;12
Speaker 1
a big thing that fuels kind of the concern around the Silicon Valley Bank is older generations used to base their purchasing agree or purchasing decisions off like Robert Parker scores and other major magazine scores. And younger generations don't really care.

00;48;11;12 - 00;48;33;03
Speaker 1
There was a report that came out a couple of days actually, that said, like, why publication scores and reviews are the least priority when millennials and younger are picking a bottle of wine. So I think they're just looking for brands that are, I don't know, active on Instagram, things like that, or just tell a bit more of a story and a sense of place and a sense of people.

00;48;33;06 - 00;49;01;08
Speaker 1
So yeah, there's also the diversity of categories. Canned wine is a thing. There are hard seltzers, there's canned cocktails, there is a lot more convenience based beverages which are taking shares from primarily beer, But so there's a lot of change in the industry right now. And it's interesting to see how that will come out. Now, you can purchase wine online, which is a big thing that we didn't really have for a long time.

00;49;01;08 - 00;49;23;22
Speaker 1
So now people are shopping and your digital presence for your winery or beverage brand is way more important than it used to be. So there's just all of this kind of tectonic plates shifting in wine and spirits and beverages. And we'll it'll be interesting to see where we land because I think a lot of brands are kind of abused.

00;50;13;22 - 00;50;21;20
Speaker 1
Yes. Or even wine marketing. 20 years ago, it used to be we have Robert Parker's favorite tab of the year. And that was kind of.

00;50;21;22 - 00;50;40;26
Speaker 2
Like, well, I.

00;50;40;26 - 00;51;43;26
Speaker 1
Think they care. Well, I think they care about wine and what they drink. They just have different priorities. We're talking about digitally native generations who grew up on computers and phones and are very globally aware and self-aware and very conscious of the environment. So I think they just have different purchasing priorities and I score. They need more of a story than a score.

00;51;43;28 - 00;51;49;14
Speaker 1
Yeah,

00;51;49;14 - 00;52;11;28
Speaker 1
yeah. And I don't even know if there is a voice for that generation. Like, is it someone on Tik tok? Is it someone on Instagram or is it just a wine writer? Is it their friends? Most I think there are some statistics around most people in that those generations care more about the review of their friends who really like the wine and they brought it over rather than a score on paper.

00;52;11;28 - 00;52;27;28
Speaker 1
So I think marketing wise and we're trying to figure out what that generation looks to and who is their North Star when it comes to deciding if a wine is good and purchasable.

00;52;27;28 - 00;52;47;04
Speaker 1
Yeah, and that's kind of a lot of what I already do. Write about.

00;52;47;06 - 00;52;48;06
Speaker 2
This.

00;52;48;09 - 00;53;43;21
Speaker 1
You will not get me on TikTok, though. Yeah, I already run my own business. I'm not about to start a side hustle on TikTok. I just when I have more free time maybe I try to make a real of my trip to Guadalupe. And it took me so long and I kept accidentally deleting things and I'm like, I'm so much for people who make reels and tiktoks.

00;53;43;21 - 00;54;04;21
Speaker 1
It's such a hard skill to learn and they do such beautiful jobs, a bit like, my God, after Trump, like, great, this is your talent. So that's what I'm going to stick to words. That is what I'm good at. Thank you.

00;54;04;24 - 00;54;06;08
Speaker 2
Not my business.

00;54;06;10 - 00;55;23;29
Speaker 1
I have other talents. I will leave this to people who are who are good at it. interesting. I like that. Yeah. Balance out your skill set beyond what we talked about. I think just seeing new generations age into appreciating wine will be cool. I think the younger generations have such a focus on taking care of our planet and seeing winemakers kind of embrace that and catch up to that is really beautiful, I think.

00;55;23;29 - 00;55;25;00
Speaker 2
Well.

00;55;25;02 - 00;55;36;13
Speaker 1
We see the fires, hard frosts like all of the global disasters going on and it's a bit hard to ignore that. And as someone in wine, it's horrifying to see that like we're.

00;55;36;13 - 00;55;37;16
Speaker 2
Seeing.

00;55;37;18 - 00;56;39;12
Speaker 1
Champagne completely have barely any vintage. We're seeing the Okanagan this year is going to barely have any vintage because of frost snaps and other climate crises. So it's horrifying. And I think especially as someone who is younger, like, it's pretty scary to think about what the wine industry will be like in 40, 50 years. I think the focus on sustainability and environmental impact being more a louder conversation within wine is promising for me, and I think that'll be just continue to be a larger shift.

00;56;39;14 - 00;56;40;28
Speaker 2
Yeah, I.

00;56;41;00 - 00;56;54;25
Speaker 1
Was planting grapes that suit better to a warm climate. It's kind of, Well, what about when that frost hits in August? Like what are you supposed to do? Then your grapes wouldn't have fully ripened, so you've lost your entire crop like.

00;56;54;27 - 00;56;55;28
Speaker 2
It's.

00;56;56;00 - 00;56;58;15
Speaker 1
Crazy. Yeah, it's.

00;56;58;17 - 00;57;26;22
Speaker 2
Like, Yeah, I think.

00;57;26;24 - 00;57;48;28
Speaker 1
I take a lot of film photography. That's always been fun for me since I travel for work a lot. And it's usually at quite a harried pace that taking a moment to take a nice film photo and you only ever get one or two, it's always been really important to me, gives me a sense of kind of slowing down and being a little bit more precocious and studied about my time.

00;57;48;28 - 00;57;59;14
Speaker 1
So that's something I've really enjoyed.

00;57;59;17 - 00;58;01;22
Speaker 2
Even if it's definitely.

00;58;01;24 - 00;58;33;19
Speaker 1
Like I just iso on my camera. Yeah. Especially when I fly around the world to go to Armenia for three days. Like, it's nice to have some memories that aren't just me in a car trying to stay awake with seven coffees. Yeah, that's the downside of most of these work trips. Japan for five days is pretty long, actually.

00;58;33;19 - 00;59;39;15
Speaker 1
That'll be nice. Yeah. In Canada and the United States, nonalcoholic bottle shops, products, menu placements have become huge like I think was on which is the non alcoholic bottle shop has five or six locations now around the United States and it's a fully dedicated nonalcoholic bottle shop for spirits, canned drinks, etc. all that have zero proof in terms of menu placements.

00;59;39;15 - 01;00;04;17
Speaker 1
Like I mentioned, my partner doesn't drink, so when we go out we'll try and get a non alcoholic cocktail. Since he doesn't drink, I'm far more conscious about my consumption around him, so I try and get one and then swap to a nice non alcoholic drink that's still tasty. And I've noticed that almost every restaurant bar we go to has nonalcoholic options and they used to be a bit of an afterthought, like a Coca-Cola or a craft soda.

01;00;04;17 - 01;00;29;27
Speaker 1
But they've become very conscious and thoughtful and creative. Nonalcoholic cocktails, nonalcoholic wines, nonalcoholic like spirits are on the menu, and a variety of them used to just be seed, which is a fantastic brand and has done so much for paving the way for nonalcoholic spirits. But there's dozens and dozens and dozens of nonalcoholic products on the market now, and it's great.

01;00;30;00 - 01;01;11;18
Speaker 1
It's embraced you have nonalcoholic Camaros. I have a nonalcoholic scotch in my cupboard right now. Yeah, there's lots of rums. There's tons of vodkas. There's so many different alternatives. The GIA ones are really good. They're little canned, like Amaro spritzers. Tilden makes great pre-mixed, like cocktails in a big bottle, like a three, 750, which are delicious. Who else do you like?

01;01;11;20 - 01;01;35;23
Speaker 1
Proxies. Makes lovely nonalcoholic wines. They don't mimic actual varieties. They just kind of are lovely wines that they build off a lot of like seeds and juices made grape varieties. So those are really, really I can see a bottle on my kitchen counter right now. Actually. Yeah, I'm home for a week, so we didn't want to drink too much.

01;01;35;25 - 01;03;03;12
Speaker 1
My body needed a break from drinking for a little bit, so I've been having a glass of that. Yeah. And I think what was the SA number was like three quarters of people who purchased nonalcoholic products are people who drink, who just are a little bit more concerned about moderation, taking a night off, etc., etc.. So the category has huge staying power.

01;03;03;15 - 01;03;14;05
Speaker 1
Yeah, makes them feel more included to rather than just drinking water. Well, I'm having a glass of wine. That kind of sucks.

01;03;14;08 - 01;03;30;01
Speaker 2
We.

01;03;30;03 - 01;03;44;19
Speaker 1
thank you.

01;03;44;21 - 01;03;56;21
Speaker 2
Yeah. You too much. Sounds great.

01;03;56;23 - 01;04;02;08
Speaker 1
Thank you. And thanks for having me on.

01;04;02;11 - 01;04;03;16
Unknown
Thank

01;04;03;27 - 01;04;04;19
Jessie
Next week.

01;04;04;19 - 01;04;10;01
Speaker 1
I'm speaking with Stephanie Houston, president and co-founder of Island Getaway Rooms,

01;04;10;17 - 01;04;13;02
Speaker 1
which are island inspired and Texas made

01;04;13;02 - 01;04;27;16
Speaker 1
down in Dripping Springs, Texas. Stephanie's family comes from the Canary Islands by way of Mexico to Texas over 100 plus years ago. She's the first Latina run producer in the state of Texas and beyond.

01;04;27;18 - 01;04;32;00
Speaker 1
We discuss how to ask for help as you embark on any new adventure.

01;04;32;01 - 01;04;35;22
Speaker 1
and as in her case, now they jump into brand building and distribution

01;04;35;22 - 01;04;43;12
Speaker 1
as a new brand picked up from R&D by way of lip Deb. Congratulations, team. That's huge. That's awesome. Woo hoo!

01;04;43;11 - 01;04;53;05
Speaker 1
She's built and sold businesses as big as nearly 700 people and owned and run a music venue to help revive Deep Ellum.

01;04;53;08 - 01;05;16;17
Speaker 1
She then moved to Austin to recharge and think about her new venture. Soon after she found her place as an owner with Island Getaway Rooms, and she's never looked back. Stephanie is a strong entrepreneur, dedicated not only to her brand but also an activist and celebrating and lifting up other women and Latina owned companies.

01;05;16;17 - 01;05;21;26
Speaker 1
She truly believes when you help one grow, you help them all rise up together.

01;05;21;28 - 01;05;43;13
Speaker 1
The rums are extremely high quality, but a beautiful package in branding and for the retail price, it's second to none. It's one of the best deals in the market. Do not miss this opportunity to try these rums or potentially invest in one of the best products and certainly the best rums in the market.

01;05;43;14 - 01;05;46;29
Speaker 1
Tune in next Thursday and have a great week.

01;05;46;29 - 01;05;52;27
Jessie
This week's episode was Produced by Fedora J Productions.