Ep. 2505 Ren Peir | Voices with Cynthia Chaplin

Especially right now for queer folks, it's very real. With for fems, for trans people, for non binary people, it is still very, very real. And and if you're kind of thinking like, I don't think that's I don't think safety should be an issue because I think everybody is safe, then I think you need to ask yourself the question of, like, well, are you talking to people? Are you listening to people's stories? Are you actually paying attention? Because it is very, very real day in and day out for my friends, for myself, for my partner, for my community. It's very real. 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 one. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and rate our show wherever you get your pods. Hello. Welcome to voices. This is your host Cynthia Chaplin. And today, I am so excited to have Ren Pierre with me on the show. Ren is a sommelier and a community organizer focusing specifically on inclusivity and safe spaces for clear and trans people of color. She's the wine director at Ninhau in Brooklyn, and the host of babe Winebar with her co founder Trent, and sweeter the juice BK. She also teaches classes at Flat Iron wines and spirits, and she's currently a WSTT diploma candidate. So very busy woman. Thank you so much for coming on today. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Well, it's a huge pleasure. I am so excited to talk to you. I'm I'm very interested in everything that you're doing, and I think it's very important. So let's just get going on this right now. I wanna get some back story Right? Because I know you come from a very academically rigorous background and you had a former career in tech in the corporate world. So aside from the fact that you probably needed some wine, what what got you into wine? Well, I mean, I think just to start off, wine itself I think is probably one of the nerdiest things I've ever encountered. And so in and of itself, there's endless opportunities to learn. And I think that's what really kind of grabbed my attention and kept me there is that you're constantly learning, there's really kind of no end to the amount of knowledge to be gained from wine. So that already was incredibly fun for me and learning about backstories and science and all of that. Also appealed to kind of my nerdy side. But also, you know, I talk a lot about how for wine, with for me, wine was actually a really good access point to kind of a meditative practice. I do suffer from chronic pain, I have an autoimmune disease, that is progressive. And so for me, as opposed to just sitting down and kind of attempting to clear my mind of thoughts as as one does with meditation, I viewed tasting as meditation. You know, you have to sit with the glass. You have to really pay attention to the color, to the smells, to the way it feels, to the way it kind of, the weight in your mouth, you know, all of those kind of structural components really requires a lot of concentration and allows me to ground myself in my body. And, that's really kind of the beauty of wine for me personally. Well, it's I'm so glad you put that in there because that's part of what I've read about you. I'm a I'm a tremendous stalker. I stalk everybody. And I I really connected with that. And I I don't have chronic pain, but, I had some very difficult periods in my life where everything was, like a big train wreck coming at me. And it is interesting how how what you have to stop and think about what you're doing. All the noise around you goes quiet. You you get involved in the glass, backstories, geology history, all of that. So I was interested to see how you connected that physically and meditatively a way that really resonated with me. So I'm glad you put that out there at the beginning of this interview because that was one of the things that drew me to you. Yeah. Oh, thank you. Yeah. It is really, it's really a bonding experience. It is. It really is. It and and it's it's funny how the more people that you talk to about wine, the you become not only bonded with the wine, but also these people who've gone through similar sorts of things. So it's it is wine is one of these things, brings people together. So, I wanna dive right into everything that you're doing, which I think is super cool and very important. So you've been described as, quote, a queer Asian American sommelier and community organizer shaking up that buy the glass list and reimagining what hospitality can feel like when it's built with care, joy, and cultural complexity at its core. So this is completely on my street. I'm very happy about this. So I wanna talk about this with you. I know babe is, a queer wine bar within a wine that you cofounded with Trent, and that's really the starting point here for this conversation. So how did the two of you get this idea for babe tell me all about it and how you're putting this mission and vision for queer and trans people of color, you know, to to have a joyful and safe wine space. Yeah. Thank you for asking this question. Firstly, I feel like that quote also makes me feel like or sound like a pioneer, but really I wanna call out that there have been so many people who, specifically, in the New York, wine industry scene, have really carved the way and paved the way, incredible people who've been doing this work for way longer than myself. And when I first got into wine, I, you know, kind of basically sought out all these people who I considered to be my mentors and who have been people who've really been doing this, this work. So I don't know if I'm necessarily shaking it up, but I think I'm trying to kind of maybe pay homage to the folks who've been doing it, way longer. I think from my point of view in Italy, where we really need you and all of your colleagues to come over here and do this work. This this work is not happening over here. So I think for for me, it sounds even more important than you feel it is, but I think more global exposure, the better. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. I mean, sure. For I we are very much in a New York bubble here. But, yeah, so I, you know, connected with Trent, my co founder, one of the set people who I really admired and has been a wine professional for longer than I have been, in the scene. But, I basically, you know, I think combining my passion for wine and thinking about queer spaces in New York specifically, I felt like there was a lot of missing community, especially for folks who are above the age of, you know, thirty, forty, fifty, because in New York, there are a lot of, queer spaces and parties and bars that are meant and dedicated to maybe a younger crowd or a scene who, a a crowd of people who you know, might partake in community in a different way. And so you kind of tend to age out of finding people who are like you when you don't want to be in a, you know, loud club, that's not to say that's not a great scene to be in. So for me I was like, how do we create, actually, a slower, more intentional space that is meant for folks who are queer, but also specifically queer, queer people of color. And so that's kind of what Trent and I really connected on was how do we bring these, our vision together into into a safe space? And so that's kind of how babe started. It was really just our shared connection and love of wine and our shared age range and identities. So So where did the name babe come from? You know, I was idating with this, with a couple friends, and a friend of mine actually was like, you know, talking about her friend, a guy named babe. That's, like, literally his birth given name. And then we stopped and we're like, wait. Is is that the name of the wine bar? And then I also wanna pay homage to, my friend Alex who also had a, a queer dinner party here for years ca