Ep. 1876 The new wave of wine media | wine2wine Business Forum 2023

The Italian wine podcast is the community driven platform for Italian winegeeks around the world. Support the show by donating at italian wine podcast dot com. Donate five or more Euros, and we'll send you a copy of our latest book, my Italian Great Geek journal. Absolutely free. To get your free copy of my Italian GreatGeek journal, click support us at Italian One podcast dot com, or wherever you get your pods. Official media partner, the Italian One podcast is delighted to present a series of interviews and highlights from the twenty twenty three one to one business form, featuring Italian wine producers and bringing together some of the most influential voices in the sector to discuss the hottest top fix facing the industry today. Don't forget to tune in every Thursday at three PM, or visit the Italian wine podcast dot com for more information. Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining. We're starting right on time, which is exciting. I'm really glad to see so many of you here so late in the second day. My name is Erica Anani, and I'm a US based marketing communications agency founder, and I'm flanked by two fellow Americans incidentally. Talking about the new wine media. And, it's an exciting time for wine journalism. We seem to have a bigger constellation of voices and a greater mobility of talent in wine media than ever. Which is a nice way of acknowledging that some very talented journalists have had to and been able to build something new. We're seeing innovation, but also a return to subscription models, both in traditional media framework, and with the likes of sub stack and and self driven platforms. We're also seeing a conflation from where I sit as an agency person of journalism and, quote, unquote, content creation. But we're not here to talk about new modes of production and consumption as such, like through AI or new social platforms. Instead, we're looking at a handful of newer outlets that adhere to traditional models, while affirming timeless principles of, journalism, of storytelling that are both useful to the consumer and financially viable for the long term. Christy Canterbury to my right is a master of wine who lives between Brooklyn and the vineyards of the world. She was the seventh woman in the US to earn the MW title. And today, she has a rich roster of professional commitments from serving as brand ambassador for Georgian Wine in the USA to writing for a selected and ambitious group of media titles that transcend borders. She will talk about some common threads between these titles and give us clear actionable takeaways for wineries looking to share their stories. Lisa Perati Brown to my left is also a master of wine and co founder of the wine independent. She lives in the Napa Valley of California. She will present the journalistic model of the wine independent and make the case for a more powerful storytelling approach that includes great visuals and more meaningful wine reviews. So with that, I will turn it over to Christie to kick us off. Okay. Great. Thank you. And thank you, for having me here, Erica. So, my breadth of publications, differs a little bit in how I tend to approach meetings with, with wineries, and it might be a little bit different, from the way Lisa does. There are definitely times when I accept an appointment and I have a very specific agenda in mind. I'm reviewing a certain vintage. For example, just spent three weeks in Burgundy doing that, and that and that's quite clear. And then our our approaches might be sometimes the same. Are you enjoying this podcast? There's so much more high quality wine content available from mama jumbo shrimp. Check out our new wine study maps. Our books on Italian wine including Italian wine unplugged, the jumbo shrimp guy to Italian wine, sangiovese Lambrusco, and other stories, and much much more. On our website, mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Now back to the show. But I often go into a meeting, whether it's in New York, with a winemaker or at a winery, not really knowing what I'm gonna talk about. Once I come out of that meeting, And I'm there to to learn to kind of absorb to to listen, and to hopefully tease out something that is, but that's really special, something different, and something that one of the readers of many of the different publications that I write for would be interested in. And because it's I know that, I'm there to discover and I'm being sold to a a story, and then I have to turn around and sell it to my editors and and readers. And I wanted to, very specifically because it's about Italy, but, about a story, they're at this summer or spring. As you can see, this is for the new wine review, a new publication that just launched seven months ago or so. Period, purely digital. And it's about BB Grates. And, I I particularly love the story, not just because it's my baby. But because it was, not what everyone else talking about at the time. BB was doing a lot of the rounds. He was in London. He was in he was in New York. He was across the US, talking about his new wines, his Bayoggi, which are going to the place to bordeaux. And, of course, there's a very clear story. And I sit down with beauty for an hour or so. And, and we talked about the wines, and we by tasted his about his his toys is by Ochi. And then I said, well, but you're a white wines, you know, this all these white wines, what is this? And what is the Julia Island? And and that his face changed, and I got excited. I'm like, oh, this is different. And because he was very scripted on the Bayochi, and Plastabordo and all this, which is great. And it's definitely news, and it's an interesting story. But he he suddenly went off peace, and he let me go with him and take him further off peace. And it turned out to be a a kind of a fun story because it's a little bit about wine, but it's really about his his childhood summers, on Juliet Island, kind of resuscitating winemaking there, which is very, really just local and for the locals. Only some some wines are bottled commercially. And and so I spent half of my time with him that day talking about Gileo Island. Got to sell that to my editor and then came back around and said, Hey, will you spend another half an hour with me? Promise it'll be just half an hour just to refine the story. And it's a to me, it's a very human interest story. You kind of go down. You you he's he's very visual. He kind of takes you to a place. He makes you smell and think of things. You feel like you're sitting in the Mediterranean in the clear blue sea. And and so it's it's it is wine adjacent and their wine tasting notes attached this, and we talked right about the biochi and all this as well, but it's very much, kind of a different nature of a story. And, so one of the things that I loved about it was just sometimes, you definitely hear a script. It's almost like you're being read a press release, and I understand especially when producers are in a group. You know, when you're talking to multiple journalists at once, okay. You you can't entertain everyone's personal interests. You kind of have to stick to the subject matter at hand. But especially when you have an opportunity to explore something that a journalist kind of teases out and says, hey, that's that's really kind of interesting. Tell me more. It if entertain that, because there might be something truly unique, that comes out. So this is, probably can't read that. My highlights up here. But this is, kind of my this is a one of my Burgundy special reports for Tim Atkinson, who's a master of wine in the UK. I've spent, twenty years going to Burgundy and, have written three of Burgundy reports for Tim. And this is a completely different nature, a completely different style of publication. It's very heavy on geeky details. If you want to know that it rained in July, but you want to know that it rained on the fourteenth and not the fifteenth of July, this is where you go. And, so it's very, it's labor of love, lots of, you know, blood sweat and tears, go into this. And because lots of people do really want the details and want it teased, teased, they te they want them teased out, and they want an inside authentic story, that is different than what I would write for the new wine review, which is a little bit higher level. Give me kind of the, you know, the the the catch phrases of what I need to know about a vintage or about this producer or about the wines they make. Here, you you really get into the nitty gritty. And so, and part of my message with this is don't think about in advance the things that are really quotable to say. One of the greatest gifts at least I'm I would imagine you'd agree, is like when you get someone who's just so quotable, so quotable that you can't keep writing down the things they say because they're just they're just reeling off. They're coming out so quickly. So it's really nice when you have someone who is willing to say spicy things, and and willing to say something that maybe everyone else won't say. Because if you say kind of the same things, oh, it was a tough vintage, but we got through and You know, and and that's fair. Everyone wants to see things positively and have a silver lining. Sometimes when things don't go with this so well, but you risk kind of getting caught up with the crowd and not being quoted. So and here I've got, the twenty twenty one vintage in Burgundy was really tough. Here, I've quoted, Frank Brooks, who spent thirty four, thirty five years this year and is just retiring with Olivier Levieve. And he says, you know, it isn't and say, okay, great. You know, Latin, that's catchy. That'll that'll tier that'll pull some eyeballs in. But then the second quote was definitely my favorite, from Eve Confirot, who is, very plain spoken. He said it was disgusting. I'm like, awesome. I can use that. So it's, you know, it's it's great to have things that are really quotable. And of course, these both of these people are very happy with the wines they made. They make very good wines. But, you know, you have to kind of draw someone in and you need those really kind of those eye catchers, kind of quite kinds of quotes. And and even, I've highlighted further down on the page. I'm Chris Ofti a lot, Louis Latour, and I've got to bend over to see this But he said the vintage, sorry, the vintage causes so much suffering that it's hard to like the wines. So think don't be afraid to say things that are might seem a little bit negative that aren't, you know, everything's growing daisies. Because also, journalists who are serious about what they do, they're not going to take it and make it so negative that you, as we were just discussing at lunch, you don't get invited back. We're we're not here to destroy anyone. We're here to be very honest, and we and we're we're part of the ecosystem. So, but, do give us things that are that are, you know, honest, that are catchy, and maybe it's like, oh, you know, maybe it's not something that you are thinking, about the vintage, you know, something like, oh, me, my nonna always said that in cold vintages, this happens when you age them for twenty years, whatever it is. But something that will help, help us bring the readers to you and think, oh, okay. I wanna learn more about that man or that woman and the wines that hears, pardon me, he or she made. And then I wanted to talk very briefly about a a new, again, new this year of publication that is, so edgy. It's retro, and it's actually paper. Very pretty paper, not glossy, that big recycled paper, very inclusive ideas. This is, Lauren Bussello, full pour. She was, previously previously the one enthusiast. And this is actually a magazine that might give many of us here a little bit of Agida. I think, oh, god. Don't don't talk to me about, you know, cannabis, in drinks and things, but, it's very inclusive. There are articles about tea grown in America. But it's really very much for the next generation. I have copies. You can come look at them if you would like afterwards. But it's there are even talk about telling a story differently, bringing in the new generation, making them interested in beverages. And this happens to be about beer, but it's a comic strip about, how vice beer, was very popular, fell out of popularity and was brought back and and is doing very well today. But, very beautiful, very different. Again, I think very retro appeal that is paper. It is physical. There are some wine reviews, but it's more about stories about wine. Stories about what is funk and wine? How do you talk about it? What's good fun, what's bad fun? But trying to just be honest, include lots of different kinds of beverages and very much appeal to the next generation, but in in a very rich throw way and and and very beautiful, just incredible illustrations. So, yes, if you are I don't know that he's in here, but, you know, if you're if you're doing something really different, winding cans or, RTDs and cans, this is definitely the kind of publication that that you would want to reach out to. And to me, to write about it for them, you know, pass this on. You take a list. Oh, okay. Yes. So a couple of takeaways, from this is just, you know, again, if a professional journalist wants to take you on a sidebar, please entertain it. There's, again, if you're not speaking to a whole group and you have time for one on one, they're looking to tease out something. They see something special. They see something different. You know, not to sound jaded, but we hear lots of the similar stories a lot of the time. So when we want to kind of go down, a Golden Brick Road, We we we we we feel like we've got something, very different. Also, as I was saying, you know, say say things that are quotable, think about quotes in advance. And also don't ever be afraid with a professional journalist again we always want to see you again. But don't be afraid to tell us things that and say that they're off the record. I mentioned I was in Burgundy. I had someone telling me something that I can't tell you about because he asked me not too. And he said, no, no, no, no, don't even write it down. But I want you to understand what I think about it and what I see and how I think this is affecting Burgundy right now. Just don't repeat it. And I did specifically say, I said, can't I say that a producer in the coat door set. And he said, please don't say that. But I want you to understand what I think this is doing to the region that my family has been growing grapes in for hundreds of years. But it because it helps us understand and helps us look for other avenues, other other things to talk about, in in various wine stories. I've already talked about the, you know, the the the gift of great quotes, and and just one final request. Never ever ask a journalist to read your piece in advance of it being published. That is, I have definitely had to eliminate producers, who've asked me, to review what they have, what I have written about their property previously. It's very uncomfortable, because you're always on record unless you say that you're not on record. And if you don't trust a journalist, they probably shouldn't be in your presence. But I I recently had a, an issue with an importer in New York, who and I I did actually say, look, listen. Here's your part of it. I understand you work for a giant corporation. Just tell me if there's something that you know, is going to make you lose your job tomorrow. I knew that there wasn't. And I I did entertain that. And he came back to me with actual edits, and his English is very good, but he he edited errors into my story. And I said, thank you so much. I really enjoyed speaking with you, and I didn't change anything. So I just that's, I think, there has to be a pathway, a two way pathway of trust. So that's just one thing I would I would ask in return. Thank you, Christy. I'm really glad you send that because it puts some spice into my experience of this seminar. As a publicist. This is a little bit hard to read, and I really respect you for requesting it, particularly where you say, the story isn't yours because I hear you, and it must be really hard for a winery though, to to hear that. And that this is a partnership and it's a relationship that is fundamentally based on trust. So I think what you said about choosing to talk with a journalist whom you trust and to to trust, a professional journalist is a point really well taken. Thanks. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud Apple Podcasts spotify, email ifm, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time.