Ep. 2528 McKenna Cassidy interviews Liza and Lucas Grinstead of Grinsteads On The Wine | Next Generation
Next Generation
Episode Summary
<think> I need to analyze the transcript of Episode 2528 of the Italian Wine Podcast, where McKenna Cassidy interviews Liza and Lucas Grinstead of "Grinsteads On The Vine." I'll follow the requested format for a concise content analysis with specific sections. First, let me identify the key themes from this podcast episode: 1. **Authentic storytelling in wine**: The Grinsteads emphasize sharing their genuine journey with wine rather than contrived content. They talk about how their personal relationship and experiences with wine evolved naturally from their wedding and honeymoon in Italy. 2. **Demystifying wine without oversimplifying**: They discuss how wine can be complex and worth studying deeply, but shouldn't be presented in a snobbish way. They advocate for making wine education fun and approachable while respecting its complexity. 3. **Wine as a connector of experiences**: The couple describes how wine connects to travel, food, culture, and other aspects of life (like sports, fashion, and daily rituals). They see wine as enhancing everyday moments rather than being reserved for special occasions. 4. **The importance of curiosity and exploration**: They encourage listeners to be curious about wine, ask questions, take notes, and explore different regions and styles without fear of not knowing enough. 5. **Authenticity in social media content**: They emphasize the value of sharing genuine personal stories rather than trying to create content that might appeal to algorithms or trends. They believe authenticity resonates more with audiences. Now for the summary (max 200 words): This episode features McKenna Cassidy interviewing Liza and Lucas Grinstead, creators of "Grinsteads On The Vine," an Instagram account documenting their wine, food, and travel journey. The couple met in university and discovered wine together, with their passion deepening during their Italian wedding and honeymoon. Despite having no formal wine background (Liza is a scientist and Lucas is a lawyer), they've built a following by authentically sharing their learning process. They emphasize that wine education should be fun and accessible without oversimplifying the subject's complexity. The Grinsteads advocate for curiosity, encouraging listeners to take notes about wines they enjoy and engage directly with winemakers and wine shop staff. They share how wine connects to broader life experiences - from hosting friends to traveling - and discuss specific Italian regions they've explored. Their philosophy centers on authenticity: sharing genuine stories rather than contrived content, and embracing wine's complexity while making it approachable. They conclude with practical advice for wine enthusiasts to deepen their knowledge through documentation and direct engagement with the wine community. Key takeaways (max 6 points): - Wine education can be both fun and substantive without being oversimplified - Authentic personal storytelling resonates more with audiences than contrived content - Wine serves as a connector between food, travel, culture, and everyday life experiences - Taking notes about wines you enjoy helps build personal knowledge and preferences - Direct engagement with winemakers and wine professionals provides valuable learning opportunities - Embracing wine's complexity while making it approachable creates meaningful connections Notable quotes (max 3): - "I don't think wine should be oversimplified... it's really cool that wine can be quite complex and there's so many things you can study about wine, but it doesn't have to be in a snobbish or a mean way... It could just be in a fun way." - "Wine is storytelling. It's all about storytelling and the way... to really focus on being as successful for wineries is to really tell their authentic story." - "Stay curious... if you like wine, don't be afraid to explore, don't be afraid to nerd out. And it's, it can be a beautiful thing to get a little nerdy and study of why, why you prefer this wine or the next wine." Follow-up questions (max 3): 1. How can wineries balance authenticity with the need to appeal to broader markets while maintaining their unique story? 2. What specific strategies have the Grinsteads found most effective for making complex wine concepts accessible to beginners without losing depth? 3. How might the approach of integrating wine with other lifestyle elements (like sports, fashion, or daily rituals) change the way younger generations engage with wine? Now I'll compile this into the requested format, making sure to stay within the word limits. </think> **Content Analysis** **Key Themes (max 5 points)** 1. Authentic storytelling in wine marketing 2. Demystifying wine without oversimplifying its complexity 3. Wine as a connector of life experiences beyond formal occasions 4. The value of curiosity and documentation in wine education 5. Authenticity over contrived content in social media engagement **Summary (max 200 words)** This Italian Wine Podcast episode features McKenna Cassidy interviewing Liza and Lucas Grinstead, creators of "Grinsteads On The Vine," an Instagram account documenting their wine journey. The couple met in university with no formal wine knowledge but discovered their passion during their Italian wedding and honeymoon in 2022. Despite Liza's background in biomedical sciences and Lucas's career in law, they've built a following by authentically sharing their learning process. They emphasize that wine education should be fun and accessible while respecting the subject's complexity, rejecting the trend of oversimplifying wine. The Grinsteads describe how wine connects to travel, food, culture, and everyday moments - from pizza nights to basketball games. They advocate for curiosity, encouraging listeners to take notes about wines they enjoy and engage directly with winemakers. Their philosophy centers on authenticity: sharing genuine personal stories rather than contrived content, and embracing wine's complexity while making it approachable. They discuss specific Italian regions they've explored, including their discovery of San Leonardo's Carmenere, and conclude with practical advice for wine enthusiasts to deepen their knowledge through documentation and direct engagement with the wine community. Their approach demonstrates how wine can enhance daily life without pretension. **Key Takeaways (max 6 points)** - Wine education can be substantive and fun without being oversimplified or snobbish - Authentic personal storytelling resonates more with audiences than manufactured content - Wine serves as a connector between food, travel, culture, and everyday life experiences - Taking notes about wines you enjoy helps build personal knowledge and preferences - Direct engagement with winemakers provides valuable learning opportunities beyond tasting - Embracing wine's complexity while making it approachable creates meaningful connections **Notable Quotes (max 3)** - "I don't think wine should be oversimplified... it's really cool that wine can be quite complex and there's so many things you can study about wine, but it doesn't have to be in a snobbish or a mean way... It could just be in a fun way and make, you know, be a little bit sarcastic about it." - "Wine is storytelling. It's all about storytelling and the way... to really focus on being as successful for wineries is to really tell their authentic story." - "Stay curious... if you like wine, don't be afraid to explore, don't be afraid to nerd out. And it's, it can be a beautiful thing to get a little nerdy and study of why, why you prefer this wine or the next wine." **Follow-up Questions (max 3)** 1. How can wineries balance authenticity with commercial pressures while maintaining their unique story in an increasingly crowded market? 2. What specific strategies have the Grinsteads found most effective for making complex wine concepts accessible to beginners without losing educational depth? 3. How might integrating wine with other lifestyle elements (like sports or fashion) reshape traditional wine marketing approaches for younger generations?
About This Episode
The speakers discuss the importance of bringing "tually interesting" wine into their content and their love for Italian wine, including their honeymoon in Rossobbe and their love for Italian wines. They also talk about the natural and hedonistic nature of the experience, the importance of learning to taste and smell different flavors, and the natural and unconventional nature of the craft. They also discuss the importance of demystifying wine and bringing it into various aspects of life, including fashion, lifestyle, and beauty. They stress the importance of telling a good story and being approachable in the world, and emphasize the importance of learning about winemaking and finding the best ones. They end with a conversation about the region's favorite wines and the importance of finding the best ones.
Transcript
So bringing that fun edge as well into our content is, like, really important. Totally. Because it's fun to study, and I don't think wine should be oversimplified. That's another thing I maybe wanted to highlight is that Mhmm. I don't think there's a there's a lot of that kind of, like, let's demystify wine, let's simplify wine. I think actually it's really cool that wine can be quite complex and there's so many things you can study about wine, but it doesn't have to be in a snobbish or a mean way or putting somebody down way at all. It could just be in a fun way and make, you know, be a little bit sarcastic about it, be a little bit jokey about it, and, people people love that's the reason why is, you know, people love things like memes because it's just sometimes we just need to laugh ourselves a little bit and you'll feel better. So true. Welcome to the Italian Wine Podcast. This is the next generation with me, McKenna Cassidy. For the next episode, I invite you to explore with me what young adults are up to in the Italian wine scene. Let's feast on our discussion of Italian wine and culture. Grab a glass with us. Cinci. Hi, everyone. I'm McKenna from next generation of the Italian wine podcast, and I'm joined by Lita and Lucas. So happy to be with you both. Thank you for joining us from at Grinstead on the vine on Instagram. This is a huge treat. Thank you so much, McKenna, and we're so excited to be here. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Big thank you for having us. Really special. Such a treat. We're excited to to chat with you today. Of course. Thank you. This is gonna be a great convo for everyone listening. Please go on Instagram and pull up Grinstead on the Vine. You're gonna see this amazing feed of food, wine, travel, and storytelling from Italy to France to all over the world. And you'll see you'll see a special new pup called Nebbiolo, who we'll get to chat about later, which I'm so excited about. So let's get into it. This will be a blast. Guys, could you start at the beginning and just tell me a little bit about, like, how you started Grinstead's on the Vine? You know, where did this journey with food and wine and travel begin? I know you met at uni in 2016 at the age of 19. And so just tell me what that was like and your your family backgrounds in wine and then how you personally got into it. Love it. Thank you so much for such a kind intro. Where to start? Exactly. So we met, you know, when we were quite young at university. People drink all sorts of different stuff at university. Obviously, we're in England, so drinking age here is 18. Yes. So which is might be different for the for the American, listeners. But, yeah, we actually I feel like straight away, there was this psycho romance that came with wine and, you know, just the start of our relationship when we started, you know, going on a little date, started, yeah, first seeing each other. It was always kinda like cheese and wine or, like, cooking a steak and having recognized wine with it. We had no idea what it was that we were drinking, knew nothing about wine. Somehow, I feel like we kind of knew what tasted better and, like, what tasted good and what didn't, but why we had no idea. And, yeah, we're always quite curious about it, but didn't learn about it at all. And then in terms of, like, our family backgrounds, my dad, was always quite a big fan of actually Italian wine, funnily enough. You'd be pleased to know. And then Lucas, your dad quite liked a lot of Bordeaux, didn't he? Yeah. He was into more into, like, Bordeaux old school styles, but also some South African. And, I think as a result, we have this, like, built in sense of what tasted good, but we had the sort of experience or why it tasted good or or any experience at all. So that's sort of, I think, where it started. And we were just, like, surrounded by wine, but didn't know much about it until then. We sort of met and started trying more and more. Yeah. And I think I think we were quite lucky as well to try some good wines with our families, but again, like, it definitely was not the stuff we were drinking together in uni when we were just, you know, going through our kind of university life. But then afterwards, you know, as we started to travel more together, you know, we sort of essentially grew up together along a whole kind of relationship. We always loved to travel and yeah meet new people kind of cultures, new cultures has always been part of our journey together. I think where it really like where the, I suppose the passion really started was our Italian wedding. So we got married in Florence in 2022, which was a very beautiful wedding. I have to say I take a lot of credit for planning it because Would you be willing to share where in Florence Definitely. Where the wedding was? Yeah. So it's called Vila Corsini. You can look it up Okay. On Instagram. Beautiful. It's a very, very stunning, yeah, stunning venue with sort of, like, stunning frescoes in the dining halls and a beautiful sort of view of the Chianti Hills in the background. Fabulous. A sort of wedding outside. Sounds boring. Indeed. Yeah. And we obviously were completely sort of in in love with Italy. I think Italian wine specifically has this kind of soul about it. And you can tell about the honeymoon, I suppose, which is where probably we we actually started to nerd out about it. Yeah. No. We were so lucky. We did our honeymoon in Liguria Coast, like, Portofino sort of area. Tried lots of different wine around there. Went to Cinque Terre, which they also have some nice little, very small production of wine there. That was really fun. And then we went up to Lake Como, tried also lots of exciting wines there, and visited lots of different, like, wine shops in Old Town Of Como. They have some wonderful ones. And then slowly slowly started just learning more and and loving it. We had this one night on our honeymoon where we just had, like, a super basic pizza at a really lovely little Italian family spot. Sure. But we we ordered the Barolo not knowing knowing too much about it, and it was our honeymoon. So we thought it was fun, and the waiter was super excited telling us all about it. And we were just having this, like, whole pizza with with delicious Barolo, and that's really, that's really how it'll how it'll, like, properly, like, super interest in it. I love how your relation like, with the growth of your relationship so to grow your kind of personal academic passion for wine, and that moment just fully encapsulates both the special occasion of wine, but also the casualness of wine. Like, pizza, but also honeymoon. Barolo, but also pizza. I just think that is a beautiful juxtaposition about the truth in wine that you clearly have experienced yourselves, which is so cool. Well, I know this whole experience took three years to plan because of COVID, so it's just amazing that you got to finally enjoy your wedding and honeymoon and clearly have had just a huge bouncing off point from that in sharing about wine in detail, about the details of the different regions to the soil, to the climate, and helping young people and people of all ages kind of get exposed in a very natural way on social media. So what was that kind of like from you? I know you both didn't study wine in college. Lisa, I think you have a science background. Just tell us about that and kind of how that formed into your your Instagram sharing. Yes. Absolutely. I completely agree, obviously, that we we didn't we didn't initially come from wine, but I think where wine sort of was sort of the middle ground, I suppose, for us, I don't know how to word it, is that we're both quite big romantics, but also we are quite nerdy and academic at the same time. And I think that's kind of where wine is sort of that perfect middle. I actually studied biomedical sciences and pharmacology in Oxford. So I'm a scientist by background. I was stuck in the lab doing a lot of non romantic KEYWORD, I wo
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