Ep. 1229 Lydia Richards & Maria Calvert | Voices With Cynthia Chaplin

Coming soon to a city near you, Vineita Lee Road Show. Have you ever wondered how to attend Vineita Lee for free? Are you a wine trade professional interested in a sponsored trip to Vienie to the International Academy, or Vien Italy, the wine and spirits exhibition. Coming soon to Princeton, New Jersey, Harlem, New York, and Chinatown in New York City, Cardiff in Wales, London, in England, and Roost in Austria. We'll be giving away our new textbook Italian Wine Unplug two point zero. Find out more about these exciting events. And for details on how to attend, go to live shop. Bn Italy dot com. Limited spots available. Sign up now. We'll see you soon. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. I'm Cynthia Chaplin, and this is voices. Every Wednesday, I will be sharing conversations with international wine industry professionals discussing issues in diversity, equity, and inclusion through their personal experiences, working in the field of wine. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and rate our show wherever you get your pods. Hello. This is Cynthia Chaplin, and today I have the great pleasure of sitting down with Lydia Richards and Maria Calvert, who co founded a project called Hispanic and wine. In September twenty twenty. And it's a nonprofit dedicated test showcasing Hispanic and Latinx roots in the beverage and hospitality industries, which is very needed right now. Lydia is a certified sommelier, so on. And a WST is a for a diploma candidate, just like me. So she's originally from Panama and currently living in New York. And in two thousand and seventeen, she founded her own wine education consulting and tasting events company called Vener Cosierge. In twenty twenty one, she became the PR Manager for TOW Family Companies. Maria was born in Kiso Accador, but grew up in Queens, New York. And Maria was the VP of Global Communications and Charity Committee cochairman at a currency broker on Wall Street. In two thousand and eighteen, she decided to follow her palette into the wine industry, Good choice, and joined the renowned Colangelo PRia agency in New York City, heading communications campaigns in food and wine worldwide. Maria is WST level two candidate, so she's got some catching up to do here, and marketing and communications level two mentor in the Batonage mentorship program for women. So both of these days have been recognized as forty under forty taste makers by wine enthusiasts, wine business monthly wine industry leaders, and imbibe seventy five people to watch. So I feel completely overwhelmed having all of these awards sitting around me here today. But thank you for coming to y to y and being with us here in Verona. Thank you for having us. I'm so excited to be here. It's our huge pleasure. So, Vydia, you're from Canada. When did you move to the US? I know you studied fashion and graphic design. What got you into one? Yes. First off, I just wanna say thank you so much for having us, and they were super excited to be here. So moving to the US, I moved in in twenty eleven. So I've actually almost been here twelve years that we'll see in New York. What really got me into wine was I actually studied fashion and loans, so I had a lot of international friends, particularly a French friend who was really into wine and youth. Our family was almost like a collector. Oh, they have a little smart. I love these French people. They're Yeah. They drag people into wine whether you want to do it or Yeah. Like, she said, I really had a really small thing here. Like, so the main wine, but it would be more like for them, their consumption. I just opened my eyes coming from Emma. I knew a little bit about blowing. Eighteen. So people wasn't friends too. Not even just about unwinding some of the culture and everything experience surrounding it. So I think that's one of the reasons why I fell in love with it. So moving to New York, I still have that wine, passion, that it was just there without in fashion, but I I used to take, like, classes when classes have to work, it was sort of, like, a passion and a hobby. And at some point, I I survived, I became sort of, I started looking into the WSTT, and I was like, wait, what am I and to start thinking about that. It wasn't necessarily, like, about my career. So my parents were, like, who did you just, like, try to see what's down there in the wine world? You know, like, wow. Good parents. My parents were, No. Yeah. I didn't really necessarily understand. It was like, do you wanna be a professional wine, the drunker. Right. But, obviously, it all paid off, but, you know, I'm just happy that that I wasn't Alright. You're good. Awesome. So Maria, you studied Spanish and business admin, and you have a super successful career in finance. So what made you ditch your finance career and go into wine? So You know, I worked in finance for eight years, and I love my job because I'm very geeky in terms of, like, macroeconomics and how, you know, one economy relates to the other economy. We have a definite effect that is what's happening right now. But I realized that never would go on vacation. I would always see if I can go to a local winery. I'm all about culture. I love food, and I love wine as a consumer in general. And I was starting to kind of discover my palette, which like, Fred, some of my Jose's probably wine. And so when eight years after working in finance, I kind of had to reevaluate my life for fourteen thirty. Big magic number. You've had to wonder, well, is my career gonna take this direction or should I do something a little different? So I don't know. I just I had this for me where I felt I was a bit, you know, not doing my passion work. In finance. And so through conversations, networking, going to PR, you know, networking with political food industry, wine industry, someone was like, look, you do this when you travel. Why don't you go and discover mine? And I never crossed my mind of wine at the PR and lived such a new necessity, but you always think of wine at Russia or wine making. And so I connected with individuals. Someone connected me to the Colangelo agency, and and and magic. Right? Here you are at wine to wine, focus on wine communications for the week. So in that, there is PR is so important for for the wine industry right now. So you made the right move. The one thing that I really wanna ask, sweetheart, how did you guys meet? Right. So we we met at the interle plant. The arc shout out. So we There are partners. So in twenty eighteen, I believe, like, and I was a blurb, mid eighteen, and we were we basically had two latinas in the office, so I remember seeing her name coming up and I was like, baby. And they kinda just came and jumped at her. But after that after that we started working together, I would be developing a really good working relationship with a friendship. No. Very cool story. It doesn't always happen in our office. So, you know, that's that's a good work. I know that you're both really passionate about inspiring and mentoring the next generation, which is gonna be hugely important in the wine industry. And you're you're both, you know, working with Bipoc and Hispanic Latinx. People who are wanting to come into the industry, how are you acting on your fashion? You know, what what gave you the idea for Hispanic and wine? Because it's it is so fundamental right now that we, you know, really reach out communities that are underrepresented in our industry. Our industry is known for being horrendous at this. And because we're women as well, with me, my, my children are all genuine. So I wanna hear What gave you the inspiration? What are you doing? How are you acting this out? What are you gonna do? No. Absolutely. I'm actually going back. So we met at the Colangelo. We started working in all of these incredible, with these incredible brands doing these amazing events, teachings, meetings, sommeliers, and everything was phenomenal that we were learning so much. At Zeta, we were also learning that we were one of the few people that it won't like us. Now some women, but also have patinas, that were in these spaces talking to the white makers, the executives, and it just felt like something that we we both started, like, chatting you before the pandemic was, like, oh, you know, you should do something about this. It never came to fruition. So during the pandemic, we were all stuck at home and evaluating our lives and figuring everything out. Just overlapping. Exactly. It was like at the cheek and, you know, there were so many conversations that started happening around diversity where the lack thereof in the industry and then between a community and black one professionals. It was really something that we're like, oh, wait, we can actually do this. We can create some kind of space. I almost never expected to, right, to go the way it has gone, but, you know, let's just share a read a space where we can share stories of the hispanic allies community that are in the wine industry. Why is the stories that are also people in marketing these things, like, basically what we didn't know why he was. Right? Like, y p r. There's so many things. There's so many roles that you can do with the wine industry. We just wanted to make sure that we were representing that. Absolutely. You can share in those conversations. Yeah. I'm obviously a lot older than you are, but the number of times I've heard people say, I didn't know mine could be a career. Right. Right. When I got interested in mine, I was nineteen and I didn't think it could be a career. So I think we're just putting it out there that, yes, it can be a career. In many ways that you don't think of, like, your dad It's not just about drinking wine wise, but also, you know, people who don't see themselves in our industry, making that space is is super important. So what are your individual roles in Hispanic and why? What are you guys doing? So the general trace. As we do not tonight. Yeah. And, you know, starting to spend some money as a social project in twenty twenty, and it was Lydia myself, And with our pure background, we started off social media, that's us creating the content, doing some of those interviews. We also had a team member, who also participated in helping to gather those messages out there. And fast forward, now being officially a nonprofit in twenty twenty two, we're still doing a bit of everything. So whether that is, you know, outreach for sponsorships for certain, you know, events or just partnering with great organizations like the roots front, right, that's what this process. You know, we also do a lot of admin and we work for a whole behind the scenes. We're in a hallway. Exactly. Exactly. Well, what advice would you give to young people from those communities who want to get into wine? Where do you think the best place is to start and what sort of words of wisdom would you want to share with them? Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp. For fascinating videos covering Stevie Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond. Meeting winemakers, eating local foods, and taking in the scenery. Now, back to the show. So it's something that kind of helped him. It was what would I my clients have told me, like, it's never too late. You can if there's something that you're doing or you're pursuing, go for it. Like, the world you can figure it out as you go along. And also, I think that's something, like, a good example of Marie and myself is that we were in these careers. I wouldn't necessarily have the outcomes to have a change because I think that's important. And also, you know, really, it's all about our presentation. I think that's sort of what we're trying to push with, adding some lines. So don't mean don't be afraid. Even good piece of advice that's linked in your, try to network connect with people that are already doing the work that you want to. That's really important. I mean, that's a great use some advice. Exactly. Finding your people. I think they're gonna support you, and then, you know, be there for you and have your back. I think it's super important. Absolutely. And you you see it as a key up, we have social media. There's an easier communication channel for everybody that you can download worst thing that you can do is not respond. And even what, there's plenty of other people that you can reach out to them even with a happy response to reach out and and get mentors. That's great. That's that's really good advice. It it's really interesting because we know that, bipog and Hispanic and Latinx communities are growing at a huge rate, not just in the US, but everywhere. And, you know, because of the nature of the world today, as you said, economies are making it such that people have to leave their home, go somewhere else to to get a job. What does the wine consumption look like? Particularly in the US because that's where you guys are. In these communities. How are they, you know, I know how I feel about language keeping people out of line. So how is the wine consumption coming up in young communities that aren't hugely represented that haven't really you know, been invited to the table. What's what's it looking like for them? They're wanting consumption. How should wine producers try to engage with people who've been, you know, kind of kept out and wear it? And I love this question because, you know, we just presented Jeremiah's wine just about that exact subject matter. And one thing that we love to highlight, for anyone who's unaware about these panic and light necks, consumer or just demographic in the US said it's significant segment. We're talking the economic power group also the size. We're talking about like it's a demographic of sixty two point one million Hispanics. Let's just say that again. Sixty two point one million Hispanics in the US. And in terms of economic power. I mean, look at the US Petina and GDP, which is a gross domestic product. In two thousand nineteen, it was two point seven trillion with the team. Again, those numbers speak for themselves. And so when we look at this data, You're like, well, Charles is fun, but related and relevant to the wine industry. You know, research firm in in the US and California, we wanted to cancel alongside with us, produce a great research report outlining that the Hispanic consumption increased by forty two percent over the last couple of years. Yeah. It's outgrowing up facing the other groups. And do you think that has to do also with women buying power? Absolutely great. We are the biggest wine consumers within our standards. Absolutely. And a lot of those wine consumers look like genzys and millennials. Twenty percent of them are Hispanic of that marketing democrat things. And so I think when we we speak on on a producer level of how to weigh each size and a consumer, I think that, you know, something that we've covered and it is not it's about you not doing it yourself. It's relying on the community. So there's connectors of the communities, and that means leveraging the wine trade who are Hispanic who understand culturally the the consumer and can be that kind of before you throw out your supply chain. There's also, you know, working with we do need driven organizations, like the roots about incentives in wine, a huge society, lift collector. There's just so many out there now, connect with them. They can guide you. And tomorrow, so what is your strategy? What is your angle with the wine consumer? Let's talk about this. Right. I think that's so important for producers to understand particularly Italian producers, you know, let's face it. Me too and things like that. Haven't really gotten to it away yet. We're we're we're working on it, but it hasn't really gotten here. It's a little depressing to a lot of age and bald white cis men who don't really wanna understand what's going on. So I think that's a really important point not to try to do it yourself, but to find the connectors within the communities that are gonna already be out there and and be connected and people trust them. So, for an Italian wine producer reaching out to, like, new society roots fund, that's a great movie though. That's not something I've heard said before. So I think that's really an important strategy for for producers. How to reach this completely untapped, you know, group of consumers who have a lot of money and are interested. So that's that's a really interesting piece of information. We talked briefly and and anyone who listens to me normally knows that wine education is one of my real, passions. So how do you think wine education is reaching these communities? I mean, is representation going up among wine trade professionals or are we, as a side dude to a room full of straight, old white pens. I just have to say a laugh when I saw this question. And gladly, that's not gonna be the case. We are definitely we are already seeing the change in how these rooms look like in terms of, like, the the tastings, the events, everything, beyond that. I think from when we started it has to do with that long term, I mean, we definitely see the difference. My education is certainly growing, and there's a lot of opportunities through these organizations for educational scholarships and financial assistance. So I it's definitely reaching. It could be better. I think we need y'all need to do a collectively, a better job community. Yeah. And of course, we can't say we're supporting education if we don't put money to access those scholarships is super important that we need people to support that and to, you know, really come in as as sponsors. Sure. And I have to find the work the roots on ourselves at hispanics and wine, people in a huge society that are really putting in the work and, like, creating all of these opportunities for for people that are, you know, interested in getting into wine. So it's like we're just trying to get them into the table. And they are doing some amazing social media too. And I think that's something that, producers in Italy don't really understand as well as they might, the the power and the energy and and for the vitality of a lot of the social media that's going on particularly with new organizations that are trying to sort of bring new people to the table, get some, get some support, get some momentum going. So social media as well is is pretty crucial. So we're we just wanted to talk about we were speaking before we we started to this after about the position of five o'clock winemakers are vineyard stewards, the people who are really feet on the ground, hands on the vines, often undocumented, no legal representation, no health care, And and they're kind of the unofficial workers who support our industry without these people. We would not have wine in our glass still to be honest. And I just wanna talk to you about how you think the industry can shine some light on on these people and protect them and engage them. I know you're doing some initiatives, and you're working on support for Vineyard stewards. Tell me what that looks like because I I was saying to you earlier, I recently interviewed Brian Liva who did a documentary about the children of the vine. In California where Roundup is still used, and there's a huge incidence of cancer among Vineyard stewards and and children in general. And these people are not able to access, legal representation. So are you guys reaching out? What are you what are you doing? What initiatives are you taking to support and, engage with the video stores? Yeah. I think that for us, you know, being freshly minted, nonprofit organization, you know, we're at the stage of, like, fundraising for next year's program, and one of our pillars is focused on helping move in your stories. Right? And through that is really supporting the local organizations that have been doing a lot of degree of work on the ground because our purpose for as banks and wine is to be able to support. It's not just proprietary things, like, we work better in community. And that's something that we've seen such a huge success when we partner with other organizations, because again, collective work makes the dream work. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, like, for example, last year for, when we worked at the Latinx Wine summit, you know, our ticket sales a hundred percent of those proceeds went to this non profit organization called the botanical bus. And they're based in Sonoma. And what they do is, wellness clinics for, food and stewards and their families. And they just pride all these great holistic services. That might not be available to these list community. And so for us, it's all about what can we do to support these great initiatives? And you're bringing that to them. They don't have to go somewhere else to get it. You're bringing it to them. And I'm gonna find it worse through our platform, making sure that will know that these incredible organizations are already doing the work. They just so all these people who are listening who want to support you and sponsor you and give you money and get involved, how do they find you? So through our website, it is that we can do that, hispanics and wine dot com. You can DM us on Instagram. We're make that not computer yet, but we will be on LinkedIn you can certainly find us and so even our who are personal counsels, Lydia, who are struggling to concierge and Maria, are a follower. Like, we're here to help and we're here to really put those dollars that we get to actual work. We will make sure that that's all in the show notes so people can find that because I think people often want to get involved and want to help and support and reach out and they don't know how to do it. So, I wanna make sure that we do that. So Just before I let you guys go, what would you most like to see happen in our industry that could further open doors for more people who are curious, but kind of hesitant a little nervous, a little shy of pulling up their chair to the table? What would you say? What would you like to see happening? Absolutely. I think, they did kind of all those back to, like, you know, we wanna be seeing representation matters. So the work that we're doing, it's also to be visible to for other people to understand, like, oh, you know, if you look like this, we want me to give you a a list of performance, you know, background, and I can also work in one. So I think that's really important. Like, you know, reach out to us. We want at anyone as much people as possible to come at us and tell us, like, you know, why not want to get into the industry halfway and doing that? So I think if we're able to communicate that, it also gives it to unwinders or, you know, awareness around the world, they can are able to provide our work so we can get more people involved a bit better. That's great. That's absolutely great. I'd love to see some internships happening, more mentorship programs happening. So I'm really excited about what you guys are doing. Thank you so much for coming and taking time out of your conference at Y to Y'all to come and chat with me. I really appreciate it. No. Thank you. And I hope that today's conversation just sparks, I can update questions because that's the way to start a conversation. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for listening. And remember to tune in next Wednesday when I'll be chatting with another fascinating guest. Italian wine podcast is among the leading wine podcast in the world, and the only one with a daily show. Tune in every day and discover all our different shows. You can find us at italian wine podcast dot com SoundCloud, Spotify, Himalaya, or wherever you get your pods.