Consider This from NPR - Making Wine More Inclusive and Less Pretentious

Episode Date: December 17, 2022

The world of wine has long had a reputation for snobbery. And it has long been dominated mostly by white men. But that has slowly begun to change. From sommeliers to vineyard owners, the industry is gradually opening up to more people of color and women. Vintner's associations and vineyards have rolled out recruitment plans and scholarships to provide opportunities for equity, diversity, and inclusion in wine-producing regions. Host Michel Martin speaks with sommelier and anti-wine snob André Hueston Mack, host of Bon Appetit's video series World of Wine. He shares some of his ideas for holiday wine and spirits to gift and serve.And we talk with Chrishon Lampley, owner of the wine company Love Cork Screw, one of the few Black women in the wine industry.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. Let me show you how this is done. Hold the glass up and examine the one against the light. You're looking for color and clarity. Now, stick your nose in it. Maybe some strawberry? Oh, there's just a flutter of like a nutty Edam cheese. When do we drink? Big, full-bodied, perhaps a bit baked. Essence of truffles, long finish, Chambartin 76. Bravo, Frasier. I'm getting notes of dried robin's blood, old dirty cashews, and just a hint of a robot's bath water. The sniffing, the swishing, the crazy descriptions of taste and smell.

These are, we are given to understand, the rituals of the wine connoisseur, made famous or maybe infamous in movies like Sideways and the sitcom Frasier, and of course, duly mocked in Parks and Recreation. And while it's usually played for laughs, the wine world does have a reputation for being, well, kind of snobby, an elite hobby for those who can afford to shell out hundreds, even thousands of dollars per bottle and have the time to, you know, sniff and swirl. Wine descriptions to me really don't do anything. They're kind of frivolous in a lot of ways. You know, we don't have them on anything else.

Like you think about a cocktail, you know, there's not these fluffy descriptions about what you should taste or what you should get. Andre Houston Mack is a sommelier, a highly trained authority on all aspects of wine. And while he certainly wouldn't turn down a $1,000 bottle and has worked at the kinds of restaurants where those kinds of prices wouldn't raise an eyebrow, he says his goal is to educate the public about good, affordable wines, to make wine as accessible to as many people as possible. And as a black sommelier, Mac is part of the slowly changing face of an industry

that has been overwhelmingly white and male. Making the wine drinking experience more inclusive is important for him on more than one level. You know, I figure the more people who are drinking wine, and we can demystify it, that, you know, the better for all of us. Slowly, the wine industry is beginning to change, opening up to more women and people of color. In wine producing regions, vintners associations and vineyards have rolled out recruitment plans and scholarships to provide opportunities for equity, diversity, and inclusion. And organizations like Wine Unify and Black Wine Professionals are emerging to provide resources and support for women and people of color who work in the wine industry or who want to. Consider this. Could a more diverse

wine industry make wine more approachable, more fun for everybody? People shouldn't be intimidated. If you want to buy a bottle, you should be able to and not feel scared or anxiety about it and really enjoy it and see where your palate goes. That's coming up. From NPR, I'm Michelle Martin. It's Saturday, December 17th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York,

working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org. When I was coming up in the industry on the distribution side and on the bar ownership side, I did not see anyone that looked like me. There weren't any mentors. People always say that. Did you have a mentor? Did you have a mentor?

Ooh. Krishan Lampley is the owner of Love Cork Screw, a wine company based in Chicago. Lampley has worked in the wine and spirits industry for 15 years and is one of the few Black women in the wine industry. She sees her job as not only selling good wine, but selling a more democratized vision of wine. What I felt my journey was is to be able to spread to the masses. And a lot of vineyard owners, they're okay with never making it into stores

and just selling with their wine clubs. And they're just fine and they enjoy it that way. I have a different purpose. The name of her wine company, Love Cork Screw, was originally the name of her blog and radio program. She says the title was related to her life as a single woman who ran an art bar. When the bar was damaged beyond repair due to a flood, Lampley realized that the knowledge she gained and the connection she'd made running the bar made a good launching pad into her own wine label. Love Corkscrew is a fun way with catchphrases, double entendres, to not take things so seriously. I always say enjoy it, drink it, don't overthink it.

Keeping with the philosophy of fun, her wines have names like Good Times, Good Friends, Pinot Grigio, and we're moving on up Cabernet Sauvignon. And Lampley says if you're stumped on what wines go best with what foods, think of wine as an ingredient. For instance, why would you drink a very sweet wine with a steak? When you think about steak, you think of pepper, you think of more salt, you think of possibly marinating in vinegar. OK, so what's a little more peppery, maybe a little more vinegar? Like, OK, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot. Like, think of realizes that the world of wine is still predominantly a white male world. But she's optimistic that doors will continue to open for others and that the market is what will help drive increasing diversity in the wine industry.

I'm a Generation X-er, but this Generation Z is very intentional on who they support and who they buy from. They want to buy with a purpose. They want to spend their money for a reason. And the first thing they're looking at is who we are, if we speak to them, if they see themselves in us. So it's very important not only to make it an industry that doesn't look like me, but I look at it as breaking every glass ceiling till there's no more to be broken.

Coming up, wondering what wine and spirits to serve and maybe give this holiday? We've got tips from a pro that won't break the bank. I always tell people the larger the bottle, the better. You know, it's a celebration, right? It's supposed to be fun and festive. When we return. This message comes from Indiana University.

Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu slash forward. And I think what gets me up every single day is like, you know, trying to find those gems, those things that cost 15 bucks, but like, you know, drink like 30 or 40 dollars. That's sommelier and winemaker Andre Houston Mackigan. He's worked at world-famous restaurants like the French Laundry and Per Se. He's the founder of Maison Noir Wines in Oregon. And he hosts World of Wine on Bon Appetit's YouTube channel.

And if that's not enough, he also has a bakery, a buttery, a ham bar, and his most recent venture is his own whiskey label, Ryan's Sons. So who better to tell us about the best drinks to make or take this holiday season? But because he has his fingers in so many pies, I wanted to start by asking him what draws his interest at this stage of his life. Yeah, you know, I think at this point in life, you know, I'm drawn to things that hold my interest and that I'm excited about. You know, I cut my teeth in restaurants. I love restaurants, adore them. And then in 2020, you know, me and my wife decided that we would open one small place in our neighborhood, which now has ballooned to six different businesses in our neighborhood, which is fun and challenging and still kind of keeps my bud pumping. And then whiskey, when I first started drinking, it was scotch that really kind of held my interest. And the idea of

bringing that full circle and being able to work with some of my friends and create a rye for all, so to speak, something that is accessible and delicious, is kind of on brand for everything that I do. So as we dive into the holiday season, I am guessing that there are folks who don't usually drink a lot of wine or do not have the money that they could spend on college tuition to spend on wine. And so they're going to be wandering around thinking, gee, how do I find a good gift or how do I kind of figure out what to buy? So let's just, could you just start with like, do you have some rules for this or some words of wisdom just to start us off? The key is searching out a good wine shop. I think

we all want to be able to bring something. I think you can't go wrong with bubbles. It doesn't always have to be champagne. I feel like during the holiday season, that's pretty celebratory. But champagne can be pricey and expensive. But something like cava or Prosecco is always something fun. I always tell people the larger the bottle, the better. It's a celebration, right? It's supposed to be fun and festive. Once you bring a bottle, you should not take it home. If you want to drink it, you should actually open it. And I think a lot of people go to a party and they have a special bottle and you never get around to opening it or anything like that. And I think some people will sneak back in and take it. That's very rude. So if you want to drink it, you should absolutely open it and share it with everyone. People do that? People do that.

At my, even at my house. Stop. Really? Okay. See, those are your friends that you invited over and they do that. That is so, that is really interesting. I'm putting them on blast right now. You sure are. But now I'm going to be checking. Now I'm going to be looking, right? If I have people over because I never bothered to look. Okay.

So this is a time when a lot of people are just getting back into the party scene. They haven't really been because of the COVID pandemic. People haven't been gathering. So I think a lot of people are really excited about getting back together for the first time, and in some cases for, you know, a couple of years. And the holidays often is a time when people kind of get creative with beverages, or they bring the kind of traditions back in. Do you have some favorites to serve or to serve to your friends? Hopefully not the tacky ones who steal your wine. No, I have to get that right. They don't steal my wine. They actually just, they leave with

the wine that they bought. So they bring it as a gift and then they take it back. You know, there's lots of different things. You know, it's my favorite time of year. And so, you know, we always generally like to start with, you know, a light cocktail or something like that. And for me, it's always kind of like a twist on classics, you know, so gin and tonic is always a favorite of mine, but, you know, using, you know, a tonic syrup to really kind of give more depth and flavor, you know, is one way to kind of like change that classic. And now, you know, mezcal has been really great. And so, you know, favorite drink of mine is Negroni, but we just replaced the gin with mezcal. So we kind of give this like this kind of smokiness to it. And just, you know, I think for me, just like kind

of doing riffs off classics is always a fun way to invite our guests. We do eggnog, and we kind of do that. We spike it with a little Barb and Co. rum, and that's always fun as we decorate the tree. And other than that, for us, I think on the holidays, there's always different types of flavors on the table. It's a feast of sorts. And I always try to go with one particular wine that can cover those cornucopia flavors. You know, so something, you know, medium body, high acid, red or white. But, you know, Pinot Noir is generally where I tend to land in that.

You know, I think people have kind of gotten reacquainted in recent years with the idea that, you know, cocktails can be as creative an opportunity as cooking, right? How do you approach it? Like when you think about what you want to serve, what's going through your mind? I mean, obviously you're thinking about who's coming, you know, and what they might like and what kind of, you know, range of flavors they might like. But how do you think about that? I think that might be because a lot of times people feel like they fall into a rut and they're serving the same thing over and over again and they're kind of bored with it.

How do you mix it up? Yeah, I think for me, obviously I look at the guest list, but then I look at like what's coming, you know, so are we going to be snacking or noshing or, you know, generally I try to use that cocktail hour to help people build an appetite. So from there, you know, it's like I generally try to keep it light, nothing like really heavy, but like, you know, so like using a rye base, I love whiskey and soda. So you have a highball, rye whiskey, and then topping it with soda with a little twist, and maybe a sprinkle of ginger beer, but just something that's more refreshing, and nothing that's really heavy that kind of numbs your taste buds.

It's almost like preparing a cocktail to wake up your taste buds, make sure they're alive, and kind of, you know, like numbs your taste buds. You know, it's almost like preparing a cocktail to like wake up your taste buds, make sure they're alive and kind of get the party started. And before we let you go, a lot of people these days are trying to, or at least they're more honest about this, let's just say, move away from alcohol, reduce the role of alcohol in their lives for all, whatever reason, whatever reason. But they still would like to be included and they'd like something kind of fun and festive to drink that isn't kind of their normal, you know, everyday beverage. Any thoughts about that? How do you make these guests feel included? Well, it's a real movement, you know, sober curious, you know, is one of the terms that I

hear being thrown around. It's a huge sector that's been growing pretty rapidly, and there's tons of different options out. In the restaurant, someone's not drinking, but they're getting ready to have a toast at a table. We always try to pour them a little something different. What I'm really excited about and actually collaborated with was a vinegar-based company that we made these wine proxies that kind of mimic and have the taste flavors of wine, but without the alcohol. It's not de-alcoholization. We're not de-alcoholing the wine. It's a, it's total own thing, vinegar based, which is really amazing. There's different products out there that use tea. I mean, even the spirits market, you know, there's, there's like replacements

for gin and stuff. I wouldn't even say replacements for gin, but you know, that mimic these flavors from different spirits. And it's a real market. I think't even say replacements for gin, but, you know, that mimic these flavors from different spirits. And it's a real market. I think there's even a store that they only carry non-alcoholic. Okay. How do you order that? Because, like, I can't imagine saying, I'd like a vinegar drink, please. I'm sorry.

That doesn't feel very good. No, it's called a proxy. And I think, you know, I think now as restaurants become a little bit more dedicated to that particular sector, just asking, saying, what do you have that's not alcoholic? And they come out. They'll come out with some things that they have them. That part is always interesting. And making everybody feel included is one of the, you know, my favorite part of all of it, right? It's like, oh, wait a minute, we have something for you as well.

That was sommelier, wine and whiskey maker, and restaurateur Andre Houston Mack. He's the host of Bon Appetit's World of Wine on YouTube. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Michelle Martin. Thank you. For all on the web at the Schmidt.org. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org.