Ep. 2135 Bobby Stuckey | Masterclass US Wine Market With Juliana Colangelo

As you grow in responsibility, and many of us do, you have to find ways to prioritize things. And for me, you have to look way, way in advance. And I think doing a marathon, locking in to do a marathon, is not unlike locking in to study for the master's similar exam. You've gotta carve out time. Hello. Welcome to Masterclass US wine market with me, your host, Juliana Colangelo. This show has been designed to demystify the US market for Italian wineries through interviews with experts in sales and distribution, social media, communications, and so much more. We'll will quiz each of our esteemed guests in every episode to solidify the lessons that we've learned from the episode. So sharpen your pencils, get out your notebooks and join us this week to learn more about the US market. Hello. Welcome to Master Class US wine market. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome master sommelier Bobby Stucki to the Italian White Podcast. For those of you who don't know Bobby, he began his distinguished career in restaurants in his home state of Arizona, working his way up from dishwasher to management, establishing his position as one of the leaders in the hospitality industry. After stints at the Little Nell and the French laundry, Bobby opened his first venture of Frasca in two thousand four in Boulder, Colorado. The same year, he reached his master sommelier diploma. In two thousand seven, he launched Scarpetta wines with a focus on white wines from Fruley. He is also a marathon runner and cyclist, and his workout and routines a lifestyle and featured in publications such as the daily beast and more. Bobby, it's so great to have you here. Thanks for joining me today. Oh, thank you. I'm so honored, and thanks so much. Absolutely. So, before we dive into today's topic around health and wine, tell us a little bit more about the work you do with your restaurants in Colorado and also about your project with Scarpetta in Italy. You know, I'm an interesting person, interesting because My day job is actually a night job. You know, I run the Fraskah Hospitality Group with my management team. And, when I'm the founder of that, we're twenty years in. Currently, with five restaurants and about two hundred and fifty employees, But I choose to be, you know, the head of the company, but I do that by five nights a week minimum being on the floor with my team. So not everyone who chooses to run a company like that stays involved in service as much, last night, I was this summit, with, Sean Perez at at at Frasca because Jeremy was off. Tonight, I'll be working at Austria Alberico after I finish up with some meetings here. At Sunday vinyl. So my day job is a night job. And then I also fall into an interesting hat where I'm also an importer and a winery owner with Lockland McKinnon Patterson, my business partner. We started, you know, seventeen years ago, which is making about, a hundred and fifty cases of back then. We called it Tocai Friolano, and maybe I should have say our first restaurant, Frroska Food and wine, is based on the cuisine of friuli Venezia, Julia. And, that company Scarpetta is, you know, a hundred thousand cases now distributed in all fifty states and Canada in Latin America's. And this year, we also launched within Scarpetta, a small import portfolio called Ben Vanusa, because we've helped so many Freelano families find importation here in the US. We thought we will continue to do that, but also help some family wineries that have reached out to us that have never been in the US. Maybe we're a good fit for them. So we have about five wineries currently in that section. Wow. Very cool. And and, Bobby, why this concentration on friuli specifically? Well, when we started for Oscar twenty years ago, you know, I come from, on the floor, Similier. I was one director at the French Wand. And before that, the little now, And I fell in love with those wines, and I fell in love with that region, and I could not have been more lucky to have that as our north star because it's just given us so much pleasure. Absolutely. And it's exciting to hear just how much Carpeta has grown. A hundred thousand cases. Congratulations. It's a huge accomplishment. And now that you're branching out into the import site as well, that's that's really exciting. Yeah. We feel very lucky. Yes. Absolutely. So in today's episode as much as I'd love to chat about for Julie, I do wanna talk a little bit more specifically about the role of wellness in the wine industry and how industry leaders like yourselves are setting some great examples for all the rest of us to follow. So, you know, our takeaways and what we really wanna focus on today's master class is number one, the increasingly important role of the integration of wellness into the beverage alcohol industry as professionals, but also as we communicate to consumers. Number two, how different hospitality and beverage companies are incorporating wellness into their businesses and what their employees And finally, you know, there's a lot of runners in the wine industry myself included and of course yourself too. So what do we think running and wine have in common and and why it's attracted so many, beverage alcohol professionals? So For starters, Bobby, tell us a little bit more about your own individual approach and philosophy to wellness. I know you have a background in cycling before getting into wine. So just tell us a little bit more, you know, about your journey as it relates to to fitness and wellness. Yeah. Well, my journey, I started busting tables in nineteen eighty three as a young punk rock dyslexic kid, but I was already a runner because my parents, I don't know how, but got me running ten k's, when I was, like, seven years old. And my family has an endurance sports background. And then, yes, you mentioned I was a former domestic pro cyclist in an amateur in Europe in the late eighties, early nineties, but all the while, was when I was in restaurants. And I early on, and I'm so honored to be on this show because I'm very passionate about this. And a lot of times, my passion about this subject falls on deaf ears with journalism or coworkers or employees is literally in the mid nineties, I was working at the Little Nell Hotel, and I'd already had a career in the restaurant business. And one thing that I thought was not sustainable, even back then, was the gluttony excess of our beautiful industry, the restaurant industry and the wine industry. I really saw it as a young professional as this is not how we should be living. I love this industry so much. I wanna do this forever, and I saw people complaining about the stress of the restaurant industry, and I really realized early on that that's not the way. And, obviously, I had a background in this, but when I went to go work at the little now, I was coming out of being a domestic pro cyclist, I had finished that a couple of years before, and I was not fully back into working out like I started to again at the now, just because I'd maybe had been a little bit burnt out, maybe a little bit And I was starting my career at the little now, and I'm like, I'm gonna re engage. I didn't have time to ride as much, but I brought running back in. And I really said, wait a second. This is what we should be doing. To have longevity in this beautiful career. And I was studying to be a master simulier. I was working with a little now is, at that time, one of the similes, I ended up becoming the wine director there. But I was just like, I think And it was right at the time period where food journalism started. That was when we were writing these these very prolific pieces about people like Marco Pierre White, you know, talking about him doing cocaine, and it was all about the bad boy's chef. And that went on way too long. That really started in the mid nineties, and I really didn't believe in it. I thought it was there's no way this is right. Is it happening? Yes. Is our food journalists trading in seventies rock stars for nineties chefs? Yes. And I I didn't think it was sustainable. And I really just on my own, really tried to add that balance in. And I remember every year during the Aspen Food Wine classic, which is one of the busiest weekends at the little now. I would wake up every morning and make sure I would do an eight to a ten mile run before my shift. Just to center myself. And then I started realizing, in around nineteen ninety nine, I stopped going out after work. And I I wanna be really clear, I'm not a t totaler. I love balance. And I love wine, and beer, and spirits. I love it, and it's very much a part of my life, but I also realize I wanna be excellent at work. And to be excellent at work, Excellent. If you're getting a grade in high school or college is ninety percent and above, and you can't be ninety percent and above if you show up one of your five day work weeks, not being laser focused. If you're kind of banged up, and the best you're gonna be that week is eighty percent if you ace the other four days. So believe it or not, I stopped going out after work in nineteen ninety nine, Mind you, I'm I was at the time in my late twenties in Aspen, Colorado, a town notoriously known for late night activity. And I I said, I'm gonna stop going out after work. Wow. If you recognize it quite early on, it sounds like Bobby. I mean, I imagine your background and your upbringing, your childhood had had something to do with this, but it sounds like from from quite early stages, you recognize this need for more balance. You know, in in the hospitality industry. Yeah. And Julian, I did, and I put it I just worked with myself. But the funny thing was I have mentioned it to people forever, and it really for a long time fell on death ears from food journalism, and you're just now getting to see it. I saw that great article in wine spectator this year about winemakers and people in the industry doing positive things. And to close this loop, I remember running the New York City marathon. Might have been o eight or o nine with Daniel Whom. He and I ran it together, went to the start together, and then and I couldn't believe there wasn't more attention on Daniel Whom run-in the marathon, but eater that week had a piece on a chef. I'm not gonna say his name, but having a kegerator on the line. And I'm like, really, this is how we wanna spin journalism. And so, yes, that's a long answer, but holy moly, I think this is so important and I want to get to the top of the the mountains and scream this to everybody that this is trust me it works. Right. And I think what I hear from you, Bobby, is that integrating it into your career early on can have a lasting impact because it's something you did from a young age and you're still doing today. So, you know, how do we educate and inform and imbue this sense of responsibility into the industry to recognize wellness, to incorporate exercise, both physical, but also for your mental wellness, wellness into you know, into the culture. Right? I what I was curious about was when you're in your late twenties in Aspen and you're not going out after work and you're running before your shifts, like, what were your coworkers? What did they think? Like, were they, you know, getting kinda like made fun of and being called a nerd? Or were they like, oh, that's just Bobbie? Like, how did people, like, your peers react? No. I don't think they reacted. I just said I'm not going out today. I didn't make a big deal about it. I just quietly fell off that, but I was, you know, I was doing trail running races and things like that. So they just assumed, oh, he's kinda hard run the next day. Okay. Yeah. I didn't, like, wear it as a badge. I just made it what I did. And I would steal my night off, go have dinner with friends and drink great wine or have a good time. But just taking that out after work, it gave me so much more energy. I became so much more measured and precise in my work. It just it sends to me. But I never went, like, said, hey, guys, I don't go out anymore. You know, it also helps that if you're trying to do something like train for a race or whatever, you gotta have some process involved. And people just, oh, he probably has a workout tomorrow or something like that. Yeah. Absolutely. Now that that's a really good point. And, Bobby, now, you know, you're running multiple restaurant programs, Verpetta, new import business as well. How have you incorporated Wellness into your routine now that you have I what I imagine is an incredibly busy schedule. You mentioned earlier, you're on the floor too. So how do you maintain your exercise habits with such a chaotic schedule? Well, I think any schedule doesn't matter if it's your exercise, If it's time with a loved one, it would ever recharge or just getting your work done. As you grow in responsibility, and many of us do, you have to find ways to prioritize things. And for me, you have to look way, way in advance. And I think doing a marathon, locking in to do a marathon is not unlike locking in to study for the master's similar exam. You've gotta carve out time. And so a marathon, normally, I like around sixteen to eighteen weeks of prep for a marathon. I'm kinda like a diesel engine. I'm a little bit bigger for a marathon runner. Takes a while to get in shape. This year, I had a hamstring injury and I got kind of truncated to about thirteen weeks, but still, even on a truncated version, I've looked at every week that I have for thirteen weeks, twelve weeks, in advance, and kinda plotted out. Oh my god. If this meeting gets put at this time, what time do I have to get up to do this? And running a marathon, like, if you're gonna run it hard, whatever hard is for you, if you're Elliot Kipchoge and you're trying to break the two hour barrier or you're a a slower runner or enthusiast, Whatever you're challenging yourself, you can't just run. You have to do certain workouts. You gotta have a long day. You have to have a second long day. You have to do some intervals. I have to look I'm already looking at what my travel schedule for Scarpetta is in September and October and knowing where I could plot certain runs to make sure it works. A lot of planning, a lot of organization. And, you know, I know myself, I'm similar when I'm training for a marathon. I've got for Lynn coming up in six weeks. And Yeah. Yes. I'm excited. And I I'm going to a friend's house later, and she said I've got some pet nut in the fridge. And I said I'll be bringing my NA beer because I'm I have my long run tomorrow, and I wanna feel fresh. So So is this your first Berlin? My first Berlin and my fifth marathon. Oh my god. I'm so excited for you. I love Berlin, and it's really, like, not to stereotype, but it is pretty freaking organized. I mean, it is a major that Getting to the Portolet is pretty easy. Like, you can walk to the start from many hotels, big fan. Good to know. Good to know. Bobby, I wanna talk a little bit about this shift we've seen because you mentioned, you know, late nineties early aunts, you know, the media is covering the rock star shift, and and that's really what was in the headlines. And we know how powerful media is to impact reality. Right? It's it's undeniable. But we've seen in the last three, four years a shift in the headlines. You mentioned the white spectator story, but so many countless articles around wellness, not just around alcohol, but just in general. And then at the same time, we've also seen some more negative headlines around the impact, alcohol on your health and wellness. So for starters, what do you think caused maybe the shift in the wide media or the the media around beverage alcohol and and, restaurants to start covering the topics of wellness and mindfulness and exercise more regularly. Like, where do you think we saw that shift and why? I think media kinda dodged a bullet because I think media was really intertwined with a lot of that party boy chefs. And when that me too thing happened with a lot of big name chefs, I guess, what was that? Two thousand sixteen, seventeen? There were a lot of articles, you know, that there's the John Bash piece. There was the Mario Patel, all those pieces. And I I don't even have to mention the chef's names. We all know what went happened. But if you think about a lot of those people, they were really in the solar system socially of a lot of journalists. I think it was like time is up about writing articles about that. Anymore might not be a good idea. That's my thought. And then, you know, they've gotta look for something else to write about. Well, thank god. It was about positive things. And, you know, there's a lot of articles about mental health and things like that. But eventually, we started seeing some really good articles, which is great. But really good articles about adding balance in. And I just wanna echo this. I'm in my mid fifties, and I'm still on the floor. It is a great industry. Wine is a great industry. Just don't make it harder than it has to be. And I think a lot of the pain in our industry is self inflicted. And so I love when journalists can write about positivity stuff because it's just so good. Just don't make it harder than it needs to be. Those are great words to live by and a great philosophy, I think, you know, to to take forward as we look at the industry. Bobby, are you seeing other companies out there, you know, in wine hospitality industry, restaurant groups, wine companies, etcetera, that are incorporating maybe health, wellness, programs for their employees. What are you seeing out there around the topic? You certainly do. I think you see it so much, you know, I used to live in Napa Valley and that it was not when I lived there twenty five years ago, a really big piece. But now you see Napa Valley wineries, having bike rides with their team. I I I do an event that Daniel Janice has brought me to. I did not get to do it this year, but I've done it a few times. It's a fundraiser over in Burgundy, and, they've done it in Burgundy in Bordeaux, and, and, with different similes and chefs from around the world. And I love seeing the Harlem family estate bring their whole team over to that. And the camaraderie, I I tell Will. I'm like, jeez, man. What great energy, and and they're all they're riding these hard routes. It's it's awesome. So you see that. And, you know, obviously, I spend a lot of time in the Italian wine aesthetic. And, you know, me getting to run with winery or ride bikes with winery or restaurant people in Italy is really something I didn't used to get to do, like John Palaveneca, and I will get some really soulful runs in the hills of polio together. There's an importer distributor in Colorado, Craig Lewis. He's a former stage winner of the Gerodia. And when he takes his team over to Italy, he's running with different winemakers. It's it's amazing. That's so cool. It's really cool. Now I don't recommend unless you're really ready to go out for a run or a bike ride with Craig Lewis, unless you're really ready to do that. I've been a victim of that. I will be tomorrow morning. Wow. Well, good luck. You better get to bed early tonight. But I like Bobby what you said about incorporating running and, you know, cycling while you're on those supplier trips or or visiting partners abroad. I mean, I've I found myself so often on these trips where it feels like you never move and you go from car to winery to dinner and there's, you know, very little time incorporated to get movement in And I think what a a great way to incorporate that movement into the socialization and the time you're spending together with your partners abroad. And my next question was gonna be, you know, how as our alumni of our listeners are living in Italy, working for Italian wineries, How should Italian wineries when they're coming to the US and doing market work or market visits be thinking about this topic or maybe be looking to incorporate, you know, wellness and exercise into the the work they're doing in the market? Well, it depends on what they wanna get out of it, but one thing you can do, and I've done this, is send an email to your distributors. Hey, is it anyone's a runner? Does anyone wanna wake up with me and go for a run? Show me the sites. It's amazing. There's always a few people. And then one thing I do, and it goes back to the planning thing, is, look, there's so many tools now. Like, okay. Let's say I am going to let's just pick a city. I am going to Toronto for Scarpetta to see our distributor. I'll choose a hotel close to the lake that I can jog to and get they run it. And when I'm in any city, if it be Los Angeles or New York, I will choose my hotel kind of based on what I want to accomplish for those mornings and they might have different needs. If I'm traveling on a Tuesday, Wednesday, and I can't really move my threshold workout in, I I would probably wanna be close to a place where I could do something like that or whatever. And, you know, using strava or map my runs, you can find anything anywhere nowadays. Totally. Yeah. There are so many tools. As the saying goes now, if you don't post it in strava, you didn't you didn't do your run. So Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Well, Bobby, this is such a interesting conversation, and thank you again for sharing your personal perspective and journey on this topic. As we wind down, we'll do our rapid fire quiz we do it end of every episode. So if you can do your best to answer these questions in just about one or two sentences. Question number one, what is your number one tip for mastering the US wine market? Yeah. For Italian wineries, it's just planning your visits. Remember, we have a different responsibility as Italian wineries is that you gotta work with your distributor and make sure they're showing you to the accounts that are most in love with Italian wines. There's nothing worse than when it's a a day of work with not planned out properly and you're just seeing restaurants that are a accounts, but not maybe a Italian accounts. Right. Okay. It's a lot of communication with your partners and and planning ahead. What is something you might have told your younger professional self about working in the wine industry? I think the one thing I would have done differently as a young person when I was first entering the wine industry would be find a mentor that you can touch base with. Actually, I did this a lot, but they even more so, like, someone that you could that can hold you accountable as a mentor. You don't necessarily need a cheerleader. You need someone to say, are you doing this? Are you holding yourself to those standards? Right. I love that. So find yourself an accountability partner, in your mentor. And finally, we talked a lot about travel and planning, but what is your favorite travel hack when you're you're traveling for work? Favorite travel hack is to take a couple water bottle, empty water bottles with me. And I come with the single servings of scratch lab, And then they don't wanna have the single servings for the recovery mix. So I just bring those in plastic sandwich bags and have a little bit of fuel with me, and I bring some instant coffee mix in case there's not a coffee maker in the hotel. If I have to get up really early to get a run-in before I get picked up, I need to have everything right there when I go to bed. Water bottle for the morning, a little bit of coffee. Maybe have some almond butter or something like that. So I have a little bit of food just so I can make sure I don't have to go track down a coffee shop or go to the hotel restaurant if I'm really I gotta think about those things ahead of time. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, Bobby, thank you again so much for joining us today on the Italian wine podcast. How can our listeners connect with you and follow along with you? You know, you can see us in one of our restaurants at the Frroska Hospitality group. I'm on the floor. So you got a good chance of seeing me there. Or you can connect with me on, you know, my Instagram is just Bobby Stucki MS. Perfect. Or you can just reach out to me at one of the restaurants. Alright. Thank you again, Bobby. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining me today. Stay tuned each week for new episodes of Master Class US wine market with me, Juliana Colangelo. And remember, if you've enjoyed today's show, hit the like and follow buttons wherever you get your podcast.