Director of Education for the Eastern United States, Brianne Guist, sat down with us prior to a seminar in Fort Collins, CO on the history of Robert Mondavi Winery. She gave us some great insight on what Mr. Mondavi’s contributions have come to mean to the wine industry over the last five decades, as well as some industry tips for when your job requires you to eat – and drink – for a living. Add in some inspirational moments, stories, interesting sips from Steph and Val, along with lots of shoutouts, and you have a packed episode that we hope you’ll enjoy!
Steph: “Welcome back listeners! We have a special interview to share with you today and we’re going to keep this episode as short as possible because our lovely Val needs to focus on her WSET Diploma studies… her test is only a week away!”
Val: “Thank you and yes please! Anyone else lay in bed at night and try to review the soils, climates and grapes and resulting wine styles of all 13 German wine regions from south? I finally gave up and let Ambien gradually decrease my desire to care which two were Anbaugebiete were missing. Better than counting sheep. Let’s drink. What are you sipping on, Sunshine?”
Drinking:
Steph – “Lustau Palo Cortado Peninsula Sherry and I opened it last night after listening to the Premeire Cru podcast with Carlos and Travis. I didn’t have a Fino Sherry at home, but I made do with this nutty and intense Palo Cortado. Plus… it is a little foreshadowing to a July Wine Two Five episode…”
Val – “I’m drinking a wine from Bulgaria. This is a lovely blend from the Thracian Valley region. I was hoping to find some wine made from an indigenous variety, like we talked about last week, maybe a Mavrud or something. However, they export a lot of international grapes (again, like we talked about last week). This is a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling & Gewurztraminer from Bulgariana. It’s a 2012, and still quite fresh & works really well with this green tahini and herb dip from Trader Joe’s, and their goat cheddar cheese. I’ve linked up a super cool video from Bulgariana about their beautiful country and wines.”
Discussion & Factoid & Winoradar – all in one!
Steph: “Val and I had the honor of interviewing Brianne Guist, the Director of Wine Education at Constellation Academy of Wine, while she was in the FoCo last week. Over four cappuccini, we chatted, along with Stacey Swetil-Rust, the Field Sales Manager from Constellation Brands here in Colorado. What a morning! Here’s a little bit about Brianne:
Brianne Guist began working in the wine business while pursuing a graduate degree at Boston University. She worked part time in a retail shop before deciding to leave her graduate program and work full time selling wine. Brianne soon returned to her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio where she spent nearly ten years working for a large wholesale distributor, starting out as an On-Premise sales representative and finally as the Fine Wine Sales Manager, supervising a team of 15 sales people and 2 managers that called on Northeastern Ohio’s top fine wine accounts. Brianne applied her love of academia and writing to pursue successive certifications from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust and, after a total of 5 years of study, completed their Diploma level certification in January of 2012. She joined the Constellation Academy of Wine team as the Director of Wine Education for the eastern United States in 2014. Her favorite area of study is Burgundy and her favorite wines include great Pinot Noir, traditional method sparkling wine and new world Cabernet Sauvignon.”
Val: “She was here to present on the 50th Anniversary of the Robert Mondavi Winery and gave one of the most well-done presentations encompassing the vines, wines and stories that made this quite the experience. We hope you enjoyed that chat with Brianne and Stacey. Even we learned something from her!
Brianne was our guide through 50 years of history & some great wines!
Shoutouts:
Steph: “We have many people to thank for making this interview and seminar possible. Big round of applause for:
Steph, Stacey, Brianne, Val at Cafe Vino in Fort Collins, CO.
Brianne Guist
Stacey Swetil-Rust
Bryce Gonzales from RNDC
Mark Angilletta
Cafe Vino and Hillary Siebels
Val: “Can I give Adam a shout out from Supermarket Liquors who put together the case of practice wines for me? I mean, how many people will take a three-page samples list and put together specific tasting groups by variety, region, etc.? It’s a PITA, and not many folks have the selection, know how, and patience to do that. Many props. Also Dirk from the Wine Seller, who always has some great selections when I pop in there. He’s assembled sample boxes for me in the past too, and has to deal with all my stupid questions, like, “Do you have Croatian wine?” Seriously. Diploma students must be a wine retailer’s nightmare. BTW, the Bulgarian wines came from Dirk also.”
Steph and Adam of Supermarket Liquors! Yes, we were buying…
Steph: “Annnnd that’s all we have for this week. Connect with Val on Twitter @WineGalUnboxed and on the Vino With Val FB page, and on instagram as Vino with Val.
“You can find Steph on Twitter @Albarellosoap and on the AlbarelloSoap FB page, and check out the videos on the Albarello YouTube channel!”
Val: “You can visit us on the WineTwoFive website, FB page, Twitter, Pinterest & YouTube or check out our contact page.
Also, if you want to build your collection of wine books – particularly the ones we’ve mentioned on this show, you can check out our store! We chose some of our favorite items and linked them up through our website.
“We hope that you’ll share Wine Two Five with your friends and online community and appreciate all your involvement and feedback and especially iTunes reviews. One more thing… Don’t forget to use the #W25Challenge when you are trying new wines and drinks. We’ll be drawing the next winner in about three weeks, so start thinking about what YOU want to talk about on W25 and share yours sips!
“Until next week – Cheers!”