Episode 120: Jordan Winery’s Lisa Mattson

Posted onAuthorWine Two Five Podcast

Episode 120: Jordan Winery’s Lisa Mattson

This week on our wine podcast we are excited to bring you an interview with Lisa Mattson, the Director of Marketing and Communications at Jordan Winery in Healdsburg, CA.

 

 

An interview this week that is straight with no chaser. We’re talking with Jordan Winery’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Lisa Mattson. She is the creative genius behind the latest “Despacito Embotellado” video as well as many award-winning films and videos. Lisa talks to us about the impact of video storytelling in the wine world, her book, “The Exes in My Glass: How I Refined My Taste in Men and Alcohol,” and the grape-squeezing moment in Miami that turned her world around and steered her career toward the world of wine.

Lisa Mattson, Director of Marketing and Communications, Jordan Winery

Lisa possesses twenty years of experience in writing, event planning, public relations, marketing and media strategy in the wine industry. She is considered a thought leader in video storytelling, social media and digital brand strategy for luxury wines and is the creator and curator behind Jordan Winery’s award-winning videos and dynamic blog, The Journey of Jordan.

Under her leadership, The Journey of Jordan and its videos have won four Wine Blog Awards, Best Wine Themed Video at the 2015 Born Digital Wine Awards, Best Music Video at the 2016 International Wine Film Festival and “Films That Make Us Think” at the 2017 Windsor International Film Festival.

Prior to joining Jordan, she worked in public relations and event marketing for a wine importer, a corporate wine company and two wine distributors. She graduated magna cum laude from Florida International University in 1997 and served as a new editor of a wine magazine for four years after college. Her memoir, The Exes in My Glass: How I Refined My Taste in Men & Alcohol, was published in 2016.

 

Lisa’s Path to Jordan

We started by asking Lisa about how she ended up at Jordan eight years ago. Her career had taken twists and turns, but eventually timing led her to the Wine Jobs listings where she saw a luxury winery was hiring. She immediately hit it off with the winery’s owner, which turned out to be John Jordan of Jordan Winery.

Video storytelling

Lisa talks to us about the importance for wineries, in order to better enable wine drinkers to connect with wine, to explore video content. She says that wine is an inherently visual product, and with consumers being more hungry for knowledge than ever, it’s an ideal medium to relate the many aspects of the winery and its operations – as well as the romantic side of the industry.

Statistically, it’s wise to invest in video due to the overwhelming amount of content being driven by video consumption online, through facebook and other platforms, and likeliness to engage due to video influence. Back in 2009 Jordan was exploring this medium because the wine blog world was already approaching saturation. It was a way for them to standout as well as feature the winery in a more media rich, visually appealing way to keep people’s attention.

Despacito Embotellado

In addition to the many award-winning visual storytelling endeavors and annual video projects that Lisa’s facilitated, we had to talk about her latest slice of genius… the popular “Despacito Embotellado” Official Wine Music Video Parody. She came up with that idea on a treadmill in Las Vegas.

“Despacito,” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, is currently the most popular music video ever downloaded of all time, and an indisputable staple of this summer’s soundtrack. The idea for a parody was born as bottling was happening. Jordan hadn’t yet parodied a Spanish song, and many of the team members speak Spanish. After a little asking around, the employees were on board.

It was a great way to get everyone involved, showcase winery operations, and have a little bit of fun while capturing Jordan’s casual spirit. Good luck getting the song out of your head for the rest of the summer.

The Miami Grape Squeeze Moment

Her book, The Exes in My Glass brought back (fond?) memories from the 1990s, the stuff we drank back then, and the way we approached alcohol when we were younger (we won’t mention the men, the bad perms, or the acid wash jeans). But she also explains how that one Wine Technology 101 class turned into a wine “aha moment” for her.

It was when her professor and mentor at Florida International University, Chip Cassidy, gave everyone in the class a white grape, a red grape, and a paper towel. Chip instructed the students to squeeze each of the grapes. The point of this exercise was to demonstrate that all grape juice (with the exceptions of teinturiers – see Episode 109) is clear, regardless of skin color. It’s quite the discovery for a new student of wine to learn that the color, astringency and body characteristics of red wine actually come from the skins, not necessarily the juice.

Conferences

Some of you are also wine bloggers and wine writers. Lisa gave us some valuable insight on conferences, expos, or symposiums that she regularly attends and recommend. One of her recents, which she found quite valuable, was MozCon, which has a lot to do with marketing content and SEO.

Another conference on her agenda is Content Marketing World, where Lisa is speaking in September. It’s going to be in Cleveland, Ohio, and there’s a promo code if you’re interested in attending at a discount. It’s the largest gathering of content marketing professionals that brings in about 4000 people from all over the world!

PROMO CODE contentmarketingworld.com (SPKER100)

Travel, sipping, running, and tripping

Other stories that endeared us to Lisa were her encounters abroad. She scaled back her work in the wine world to be with her husband who had taken a job in Ireland. In addition to finishing her book, she took many opportunities to travel, sip Mojitos in Prague, drink wine along Lake Geneva, and sample the wines of the Canary Islands.

Having many chats over beer or coffee in local pubs while living in Ireland for a year was something she enjoyed as well. We did learn that a rockin’ good time chatting is referred to as a craic (sounds like crack).

We wrapped up with some career advice that you can check out in the audio file, as well as a funny wine story where Lisa went for a run in the vineyards of Burgundy. What could possibly go wrong?

We hope you’ll find great value in this honest discussion and reach out to Lisa to thank her for sharing so much with us!

 

 Contact

Jordan: https://www.jordanwinery.com/

Also visit WineCountryTable.Com, Jordan’s blog on lifestyle, food, wine, travel, tips, & Sonoma County.

Lisa can be found on http://lisamattsonwine.com/, and

 

Factoid:

Jordan Winery uses oak in their wine making, as do many wineries, and so we thought it might be fun to tie in a few oak barrel terms.

  • Tonnelier = the French word for cooper or cooperage, which is a barrel craftsman or carpenter
  • Toasting = the process of flavoring a barrel by directly placing is over a flame. The “toast” can be ordered light to medium, medium-plus, or heavy.
  • Cost of new barrels = French oak barrel upwards of $1,000 each vs American oak around $600.

 

Winoradar:

Reminders

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Wednesday August 9th 5-7pm at the Vault Martini!

There will be Happy Hour Drink Specials, Small Plates and the official Wine Two Five cocktail.

Please RSVP via FaceBook event or email (winetwofive@gmail.com) by August 1st 2017.

 

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Wine Two Five is under the “Arts” Category.

We thank you for spreading the word!

 

The W25 Book Club

Our first book is Bianca Bosker’s “Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste.”

We’ll be hosting a review episode, airing in early-to-mid August, so grab the book, check out our private facebook group, or leave a comment/question on speakpipe so we can get these into the discussion!

 

Shoutouts:

  • Thank you to Lisa Mattson for spending quality time with the Wine Two Five ladies on a Monday afternoon! Also, big appreciation to Jordan Vineyards & Winery for sending us a couple bottles of their beautiful wines.

 

Patreon Love:

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Jeff E from the We Like Drinking! podcast

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Tenacious taster Sebastian of Sassi Italy tours!

 

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