Kimberly Charles on How ‘Come Over October’ Is Redefining Wine, Connection & Community

Summary

In this episode of The Sipping Point, Laurie Forster sits down with Kimberly Noelle Charles, a marketing visionary and co-founder of Come Together – A Community for Wine, to uncork the story behind her remarkable career and the inspiration for the Come Over October movement. Together, they explore how wine can break down barriers, spark connection, and turn simple gatherings into unforgettable experiences. From pairing insights to myth-busting moments, Laurie and Kimberly celebrate a more inclusive, joyful approach to wine—one that reminds us it’s not about perfection, it’s about coming together, glass in hand. 

Takeaways

• Kimberly’s wine journey began as a college sommelier, blending curiosity with hospitality.
• Wine connects effortlessly to history, science, and culture—making every pour a lesson in life.
• The Come Over October campaign inspires people to open bottles and open conversations. Wine’s true magic lies in how it brings people and memories together.
•  Sparkling wine deserves a seat at every table—not just the celebration one.
•  You don’t need credentials to appreciate wine—just curiosity and good company.

Wines Tasted

Gruet Brut Sparkling Wine

Fox Run Unoaked Chardonnay

Check out Laurie's upcoming Wine Events & Tours:

11/5 - Uncork the Holidays at The Ivy Cafe in Easton, MD

12/10 - Bubbly Bash 2025 Virtual Tasting

10/12-17, 2026 Treasures of Tuscany Wine Tour

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:26)
This week on The Sipping Point, we're talking about Come Over October. It's a campaign encouraging us to invite people over to share wine and connection. So we're toasting to togetherness here in October. I'm going to invite in Kimberly Charles, who is one of the co-founders of Come Over October to join me in just a second. A few reminders, don't forget November 5th, Wednesday, November 5th, I have a wine tasting coming up in.

East in Maryland called Uncork the Holidays, where I'll be featuring five of my favorite wines to take you through Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, all the holidays right into New Year's. So check that out. Go to thewinecoach.com slash events and you'll get all the information as well as my bubbly bash virtual tasting. You can join from anywhere in the world that's on December 10th. And then I still have a few spaces left in my Treasures of Tuscany wine tour.

for October, 2026. All of that is at thewinecoach.com. Click on events and you'll get all the information.

All right, well, Kimberly Charles is a trailblazer in the world of wine and spirits marketing, blending purpose, creativity and connection into every project she touches. With four decades of global wine experience and a knack for turning brand stories into movements, she's redefined how the industry engages audiences. Most recently as co-founder of Come Together, a community for wine with Karen McNeil and Gino Colangelo. Known for her visionary campaigns, Kimberly's work

Bridges tradition, innovation, authenticity, social responsibility, and the belief that wine's greatest power lies in bringing people together. So let's go ahead and welcome Kimberly into the show.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (02:11)
you, Laurie. It's great to be here.

Laurie Forster (02:12)
I'm so excited to have you here. Earlier this year, I had one of your partners, Karen McNeil here to talk about Share and Pair Sundays, but I'm super excited to have you to talk about Come Over October. But I thought you have such a fascinating background.

of experience in the wine industry and a diploma with the Wine and Spirits Education Trust. How did you get involved with wine to begin with?

Kimberly Noelle Charles (02:37)
Well, it's interesting and thanks again for this opportunity. I went to Georgetown University, so not far from where you are in Easton. And while I was there, you know, it was the height of the eighties, I'll date myself now, but lots of fine dining and whining going on. And I was a student and I needed to earn some extra money for expenses. And I had already started to develop an interesting taste in wine. So I worked as a sommelier in Washington, DC.

And I was exposed to all the amazing importers, many of which are still there. And it was just, I always say to people, Washington DC is often overlooked because I think people think about it as a little bit more of a quiet town, a government town, but boy is it international and boy are there amazing wines to be had. So ⁓ I started as a Psalm in college and I started meeting all these great winemakers and winery owners from all over the world.

Laurie Forster (03:21)
Hmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (03:29)
And I thought, well, this is pretty fascinating because I'm studying history. I'm studying language. How fun would it be to be able to delve into this subject a little more deeply? And I fell into it. It became a vocation. so, mm hmm. Yep. Went up to New York right after that and worked for an importer co-brand for about a dozen years and did a lot of travel to Europe and a lot of tasting and events. And my first day on the job, I tasted an 1896 Armagnac and I thought,

Laurie Forster (03:41)
Aha, I love it.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (03:57)
This is going to be good. ⁓ yes, absolutely.

Laurie Forster (03:59)
Wow, that's, yeah, it's hard to go up from there. Yeah, right. Starting at the top, starting at the top. Well,

that's wonderful. And I love to hear that through your love of wine. And then you were able to make it a career. And I guess you studied history and languages. So you're able to kind of weave that into what you do with wine as well, correct?

Kimberly Noelle Charles (04:23)
Without a doubt, know, especially since the old world as it's known really informed so much of winemaking globally in many ways. And so having sort of a focus and a passion for the history of Europe really was a fabulous foundation for me. And you know, it helps with the storytelling. I always say to people that if you're ever gonna get educated, even if you go into a specialty arena.

it's great to have a solid liberal arts background. You know, it just makes you more interesting person, makes you capable of being able to really conduct interesting conversations. And so, boy, did I fall down the rabbit hole of Alice in Wonderland by being able to then travel, you know, and tread grapes in Porto and see vintage harvest being done in Burgundy and go to Piedmont for truffles. You know, I've been really, really lucky.

Laurie Forster (05:09)
Mm. That is really amazing. Piedmont's one of my favorite places

on the earth. So glad you brought that up. But I do find too that, and this will kind of segue into talking about come over October, really any, lots of things that I didn't find that interesting maybe before, once you see them through the lens of wine, become even more interesting. And maybe you didn't, you know, love science, but now you can kind of see the science behind.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (05:15)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (05:37)
wine and flavors, or maybe you weren't into history like you were, but when you're learning the history of wine at the dinner table and how that all evolved over 8,000 years, it becomes more fascinating, doesn't it?

Kimberly Noelle Charles (05:48)
without a doubt. And you know, I was also lucky to live in Europe as a teenager. So prior to me becoming a Psalm, my parents were in Rome and Sardinia. And wine was just part of the day, as we like to say. know, wine is considered food, particularly in Italy. And so I was exposed to, you know, being able to taste and pair at a pretty tender, you know, tender age, but an appreciative age.

Laurie Forster (05:57)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (06:12)
Boy, and to this day now, I do a lot of Eno tourism. Even though I do work in wine, I still find it to be a great anchoring point when you're stamping your passport.

Laurie Forster (06:22)
I love that

because I'm actually bringing groups to Bordeaux in June of next year and then Tuscany in October. So I'm super excited about that. All right. Well, speaking of fantastic, you and your partners have come up with a fantastic program that started last year, I believe was the inaugural year called Come Over October. And what are we coming over for and what was the whole, you know, light bulb moment for you on creating this campaign?

Kimberly Noelle Charles (06:27)
Mmm.

How fantastic.

Well, thank you. I must give due credit to noted author and wine writer Karen McNeil. This is her baby. You know, she was a little dismayed about the narrative around wine and how it was sort of being lumped into an alcohol category along with other beverages. And, you know, she along with myself and Gino Colangelo, who's also a marketing pro, he's based in New York, I'm in San Francisco. We...

We love wine, wine is integrated into our lives, it's part of celebration, it's part of gathering sometimes, even memorializing someone. so Karen just said, enough already. I could write an article about how upset I am with the fact that people are trying to.

diminish wine's impact or its relevance, but ⁓ how about if we just start something called Come Over October? So she called the two of us separately and said, what do you think of this idea? And both Gino and I, said, absolutely yes, absolutely yes, we'll be on board. And you know, I've been in the wine industry for 40 years and I've seen peaks and troughs and we happen to be at a challenging time, there's no doubt. But I think what's coming out of it is,

Number one, with all the tech, a greater appreciation for the information around wine. And I think people are also exploring different ways to celebrate with it. We did an event in Washington, D.C. last week that was with anime and wine. It was a big young group of people getting together. So to get back to your question, Come Over October is basically inviting people to share wine together.

Laurie Forster (08:11)
Hmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (08:21)
And that can be very simple. can be inviting your neighbors over for a potluck. It can be creating a costume theme party around Halloween with different pairings, food and wine-wise. It can be a book club where you sit down and instead of having the wine be sort of incidental, it actually can be integrated maybe into the plot line of the book or.

Laurie Forster (08:21)
Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (08:41)
Maybe somebody does research on the wine in addition to obviously discussing the book. So we've got all kinds of ideas about how people can activate it. And we think it's a kickoff to the holiday season. know, it's where we really feel it's time to get really started enjoying wine on regular basis. ⁓

Laurie Forster (08:57)
I love that. And I

think you mentioned it earlier when you talked about, you know, being in your teenage years in Italy or in Europe, wine is always there at the dinner table, or maybe even the lunch table. And, I think because a lot of people in the U S did not grow up with wine at the dinner table. sometimes,

Kimberly Noelle Charles (09:10)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (09:17)
It gets lumped in with, ⁓ am I going to have a gin and tonic or a beer or a glass of wine? But those three things are so totally different. And wine is unlike any other beverage, of course, the history, but it is really meant for food. So in my mind, I wonder if, we're still integrating that and we don't have that history that Europe has of always, you know, seeing your parents have a glass of wine with a meal and that sort of thing.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (09:36)
Yes.

Yeah, I think that's a really astute observation. you know, I take a little bit of, I get heartened by seeing what came out of the pandemic where sparkling wine really, pardon the pun, but exploded. People all of a sudden, you know, started drinking more sparkling wine. I think they had a bit of a like, well, you know, Mayswell start celebrating now or commemorating things. And nobody expected that. And I think a lot of people realized that sparkling wine was no longer a special occasion beverage. I always say, you know,

Laurie Forster (09:55)
I love it.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (10:10)
Sparkling wine makes an occasion special. You don't have to wait for a special occasion. But I do think we have some catching up to do. And that is really our message. Thank you for really, I got a little bit of a body goose bump there because I think what we're just trying to impart is the privilege and the incredible opportunity we've all had to be in wine for so long and to love it and to see it's sort of gentler, convivial nature.

Laurie Forster (10:14)
Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (10:34)
And I think we live in a very rushed society. So sometimes it's hard to stop and slow down, but that's our intent. ⁓

Laurie Forster (10:34)
Mm-hmm.

Right. One of the things I love

when I was in Piedmont, one of our guides, when we would have a very, very special Barolo usually or a Barbaresco, those were some of my favorites, she would say, this is a meditation wine. And I love that thought of just sitting down, slowing down, put the phone away, have your girlfriend over, or maybe it's just you and the dog, but just really focusing on

Kimberly Noelle Charles (10:59)
Hmm.

Laurie Forster (11:07)
on that. you know, as a beverage, that's what I think makes it so unique because, you know, what you smell in the beginning may not be what you're smelling after two or three, you know, sips as the wine opens. And when you start eating now, there's a whole different experience of that same wine. And so with meditation, it's a bit of a meditation, they say, and I love that thought.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (11:08)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

It,

so true. And you know, there was a woman out here in California who now is in Hyde Park and she's an instructor at the Culinary Institute. Her name is Christy Dufault and she used to be the sommelier at Gary Danko. And Christy was a yoga fan like many of us in California are and around the country, of course. And she came up with a yoga in the vineyard program where, you you'd spend your day learning about a particular winery and then,

Laurie Forster (11:39)
Mmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (11:53)
You'd have a vegetarian lunch with your wine and then, because that tends to be a little bit more the way yogis eat, but not exclusively, but this was the case. And then at the end of the day, we did a restorative class. So we did an active class in the midday, had a lovely lunch. Then we did a restorative class. And then at the very end of the day, we tasted. And her premise was we were so much more present because we had

Drowned out the noise, the distractions we dropped in and we were able to really use our senses in better ways. And one of the things I love to do when I taste wine is close my eyes. Excuse me. I like to really like block out other external distractions and zero in on what's in my glass.

Laurie Forster (12:19)
Hmm?

I love that. And I think, you know, I've

seen around the country this yoga and wine pairing, goat yoga, regular yoga, all kinds of different yogas. And that is so perfect that, you know, her yoga is kind of getting you to relax and then you're able to experience the wine in a different way, which, you know, I think is the idea of come over October. people...

Kimberly Noelle Charles (12:39)
Thank

Absolutely.

Laurie Forster (12:55)
Don't stress, I have a little sign that I'm looking at here in my wine room that, real friends don't care if your house is dirty, they just care if you have wine. ⁓ So, you know, you don't have to clean the whole house, you don't have to decorate your living room or cook the grandest meal. You know, you could grab a bottle and I'm gonna introduce you to what I would have you come over for wine-wise today.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (13:04)
That's right.

Laurie Forster (13:17)
grab some McDonald's fries and open a bottle of bubbly. It could be that simple or maybe Chick-fil-A waffle fries. But you know what I mean, it doesn't have to be, know, beef bourguignon or, you know, something fancy. And that's, I think, part of what Come Over October is, is that wine is just part of an enhanced life, you know, in moderation and it's a connector of people. Tell me a little bit about

Kimberly Noelle Charles (13:19)
I'm

Mm-hmm. Ooh.

Absolutely.

Laurie Forster (13:43)
about your thoughts on wine and connection.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (13:45)
well, let's see. We recently conducted, Karen conducted an interview with Alicia Moore. She's known as Pink. this is what, and I have this same thing above my refrigerator. I have all my favorite wines and they're on a French drying rack. And in her case, she writes down.

who she had the wine with, what date it was, and anything else she wants to notate. wine is, don't, if you have a matcha with somebody, okay, lovely, but it's not something that you propose with, right? So you propose with a beautiful bottle of sparkling or a very momentous wine. And so taking that bottle down, remembering the moment.

Laurie Forster (14:18)
Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (14:26)
It's great, as somebody once said, I'm not in the wine business, I'm in the memory business. And it has that incredible power, I think. I also think too, know, here's something that's happening. Canada took on our program this year. The whole, in fact, I'm having to call them a little bit with the head of the wine growers of Canada. And what they did was they put cards in front of each person at a communal dinner.

Laurie Forster (14:34)
Mm-hmm.

Great.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (14:49)
And the question, there were questions on there, icebreakers, you know? And so if I wanted to get to know you better, I could ask you one of the questions on my card and it would elicit something from you. And you know, you make a table of strangers, friends at the end of the evening. And I don't think too many other beverages really could do that. And so, yeah, that's how I would ⁓ respond.

Laurie Forster (15:02)
Mm-hmm.

I agree. There's an old

proverb that I use a lot when I'm doing events and it says over a bottle of wine, many a friend is made. And I do think exactly, because I've always, when I've done wine tastings, I always do communal tables because I want people, meeting people that they didn't come there with as well, and they'll start

Kimberly Noelle Charles (15:17)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (15:29)
talking about the wine, because that's kind of the focus of what we're doing. But by the end of the wine dinner tasting or whatever it may be, they're talking about their kids and their passions and so much more than when they came in. come over October is the perfect way to do it. Let me show you what I brought and then let's talk about what people can get on your website. But so this is

Kimberly Noelle Charles (15:39)
Mm-hmm.

Please do.

Sure.

Laurie Forster (15:49)
This is one of my absolute favorites. mean, of course I love champagne as well, but the Gruay sparkling wine from New Mexico. This is the Brut. The Gruay family hails from France, but actually came here and found this land, New Truther Consequence. And it's just a great everyday bubbly as what I call it. I found it for around 1799. So you don't feel bad popping this on a Tuesday or a Wednesday or any other day really, or even

Kimberly Noelle Charles (15:52)
Mm-mm.

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (16:17)
spraying a little OJ in it for a mimosa, because that is the proper way to make a mimosa. ⁓ But I just absolutely adore really all their wines. I find fabulous and just such a great value. like you said, you kind of teed it up for me here. Sparkling wine or champagne doesn't have to be for a special occasion. It's making the occasion special. And I think you're right. We've finally broken through that.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (16:21)
Yeah, indeed.

Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

Laurie Forster (16:43)
idea that you can only have bubbly at like weddings and New Year's. You can have them any day and you can have it with food and it goes with so many great things. So that's my pick. Yes.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (16:50)
especially salty, crunchy things. I love it. That's beautiful.

And have you ever noticed, Laurie too, that if you're out at a restaurant and you hear the pop of a cork from a champagne or sparkling wine bottle, all of a sudden your wine choice changes or you think, I think I want a glass of sparkling before dinner. So I love that, which is really fun. Another thing I wanted to share on along the lines of sparkling wine, because it is a passion of mine. It sounds like between Chick-Sole, champagne and sparkling wine, you and I would really get along and have a fun meal together.

Laurie Forster (17:03)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (17:18)
But Eileen Crane, the former CEO of Domaine Carnero said, get a bottle of sparkling wine and make sure you get a good stopper of Bouchon. Open it on a Monday, have a glass and you have five glasses for the rest of the week, one a night. And I always thought that was the most fun idea. there you go. Perfect. Those are my favorites too. yes, those do well. Well, I brought a bottle of Fox Run Chardonnay. ⁓ This is an un-oaked Chardonnay from Seneca Lake in New York state.

Laurie Forster (17:32)
Got my champagne saver.

Mmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (17:47)
and it's owned by Scott Osborne and his family. It's been around since 1984. And I'm sure you're well aware, know, all 50 states make wine. New York in particular in the Finger Lakes region, as well as in Long Island and other areas is really renowned for particularly Cabernet Franc know, un-oaked wines, Riesling, many other varieties.

And a lot of it is the geology of those lakes, you know, how extraordinary that is, but then the temperate effect as well. In fact, when Herman Wiemmer arrived from Germany, and I think it was the seventies, he saw prune tree, plum trees and cherry trees growing. He said, I can, I can grow grapes. So I have late, I'm spoiled living in California and having access to lots of beautiful wines from the West coast, Oregon and Washington included. And so I've been

You know, I'm, I'm a bit of an omnivore and I really love sort of changing my focus from time to time and spotlighting a specific area. And so I love this wine. It is absolutely it's under screw cap, ⁓ which really is really nice. I kind of like that about it. It makes it very consumer friendly and, it's. It's really got some lovely notes. I wouldn't say those assertive tropical notes, but a little bit more like a stone fruit, peach, white peach, a little bit of.

Laurie Forster (18:48)
Okay.

Okay.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (19:03)
the classic wet rocks, a little bit of like orange blossom and the un-oaked nature of it makes me want oysters. And we of course have so many great oyster beds here. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (19:07)
Mmm.

Yes!

Same, we have lots

of great ones too, yeah. So different styles, right? But we've got our oysters and crabs is also the big thing here, as you know.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (19:16)
Mmm. Mm-hmm. Mmm.

yes, I do.

I used to in high in college grab newspapers and get those Maryland crabs and do the cracking right on the table and that was delicious.

Laurie Forster (19:30)
I love

that you're featuring the Finger Lakes though, because last year, last May, I got the chance to go for the first time. I've always been a huge fan and I've had Megan Frank who runs the Dr. Frank winery on the show before. They're another one of the foundational wineries of the region. But I was just so impressed by how many wineries and how much great wine I tasted over the course of

Kimberly Noelle Charles (19:38)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (19:57)
three or four days that I was there, I definitely need to go back. Now that I went and I understand the magnitude of it, and I got to go to Wiemer So big fan. Next time I'm going to have to go to Fox Run and check them out now that I have the recommendation.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (20:06)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yes, and of course her father, I guess it would be her grandfather, Konstantine, is that right then? Yeah, he was the one who really pioneered the way to grow grapes in cold climate. mean, even though the geology and the ambient temperatures were decent, but those winters were quite harsh that didn't allow for the grapevines to necessarily make it. But he came up with all that great engineering of the soil to really revolutionize the region. So that's awesome.

Laurie Forster (20:17)
Yes, yep.

Yes.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (20:39)
I know that we were going to see you at our Wine America event that we had to postpone, but I don't know if you knew that there are 763,000 acres of vines in the US, which is pretty extraordinary, you know? Yeah, yeah.

Laurie Forster (20:52)
That's amazing. Yeah. And so this could

be part of your come over October celebration. If you're listening, you know, grab some wine from your local winery. And we have, many wineries here in Maryland now. I mean, Virginia, every state has something they specialize in or that they do well. And so that is, that's exciting. I feel like, but I love, you know, imported wine. So I just can't pick. have to, I have to have them all.

If people are thinking of having a come over October, just inviting a friend or maybe even having several on the website, there's some great resources. where should people go? What's the best way to use the website? Cause there's so much there.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (21:17)
Hahaha

Mm-hmm.

Sure. Well, it's comeoveroctober.com. We've made it very simple. There's a section where it says entertaining and ideas. So you can click on that. And there's another section that you can click on to find out a little bit more about what's been going on with wineries, what retailers are involved. By the way, Total Wine and More across the country is supporting and promoting Come Over October, which is great.

I also encourage people for like creativity and inspiration to follow our Instagram. It's the same handle come over October. And there are just plenty of ideas there where, know, whether it's movie night, ⁓ pairing a movie at home with a bottle of wine, you know, or, the book club, as I mentioned before, there are just many, many ideas that we've got. and also that the general public has come up with, which is really fantastic.

Laurie Forster (22:17)
Mm-hmm. That

is great. And I love that there was also a section with, you know, if you are a history buff like Kimberly, there's some history of wine and some different features that you can go through there. And then on page, I was inspired by, there's some themes out there

One of them was called Go With the Flow and it was all wines from volcanic soils. And I found that fascinating. If you're into geology, that might be the theme wines that score or wines that were, you had a list of wines produced by athletes or former athletes, correct?

Kimberly Noelle Charles (22:39)
Yes.

That's

right, exactly. that's still, the list keeps growing all the time. The Jackson family out here are supporters of WNBA and CJ McCollum is someone. And if people are interested in hearing interviews with VIPs on our website, there's something called Wine, Food and Friends. And Karen has interviewed, much like you do, Laurie, so well, a number of people from the culinary world, from the sports world, from the entertainment world.

Laurie Forster (22:59)
Mmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (23:15)
from the wine world naturally, but they're long, they're about maybe average between 50.

15 to 20 minutes thereabouts. And they're really fun. So you can hear insights from other folks, which is great and how they remember wine and share wine. But yeah, there's, there's, I'm glad you took a little tour of it. You know, so many sporting events happen. have the world series. We have the lead up to Thanksgiving. In fact, in Canada, this past Monday was their Thanksgiving. So, you know, so, so there's plenty of events that you can watch. I'm a college football girl, so I love watching college football and sharing.

wine with friends while I'm doing it.

Laurie Forster (23:50)
I agree, I love college football. It's my favorite. I think it's a little more exciting. Yeah, exactly. So you have a number of you mentioned Total Wine and more.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (23:52)
Mm-hmm, lot of spirit.

Laurie Forster (23:59)
as a supporter and I know you have so many great sponsors and supporters that are there and connected to comeoveroctober.com. How do the sponsors, I know Maryland Wineries Association is on board with Come Over October. I saw that on their page. How do your different sponsors and supporters, how are they involved with the movement? We'll call it a movement, yes.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (24:00)
Mm-hmm.

Yes, well

thank you. Yes, we have some foundational sponsors. I mentioned Jackson Family before. We also have Freshnet Mianetto. We also have JLohr. these foundational sponsors have really helped what they get when they work with us is an opportunity to be interviewed, but then an opportunity to also sponsor our press conferences and our.

big events that we do and of course we give them lots of love. And what they end up doing, for instance, in the case of, let me just pull Jackson Family, each of their properties on the West Coast is now doing something called the Social Hour, where they invite people to come to the winery to bring a guest and each winery has a slightly different program, but basically during the month of October, it's free tastings, it's special pricing on wines.

There are gathering events so that people can get together and have little nibbles and drink wine together. you know, our sponsors tend to use this as a platform to activate business that either is existing and events programming they're doing to sort of say to people, hey, bring some friends, you know, it kind of widens or widens the tent, I guess you could say. In other cases, it's a chance for them to do completely original programming. So we help them brainstorm with ideas and what could get done.

Laurie Forster (25:23)
Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (25:31)
But we have over 150 supporters, including even the ride share Lyft and Yelp this year that Yelp is new, which is really great. So we have a whole listing on our website about how you can get involved as a sponsor. You do not have to give us cash. If you don't have it, you can simply be what we call a booster or an advocate or a champion and implement, come over October with.

how you reach out to your mailing list or the people who come to your winery on a regular basis or shop in your store. So what's nice about it is it's really a simple idea. As Karen likes to say, it's a very simple idea, but it has actually been probably in my career, the most unifying message I've seen the whole industry get behind. And I think we all realize we need it. yeah.

Laurie Forster (26:00)
Love that.

We had some neighbors

over last night for some beef stew and wine. So I guess I've already partaken in the come over October. ⁓ But you know, it could be just as simple as one person or you can do a themed party anywhere in between. No pressure. That's true. Get your relatives or friends. Yeah, from across the country and just zoom a tasting. I know.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (26:20)
Ooh.

Hahaha

Mm-hmm. this too. You could, you know, gather people online and bring your wine.

huh.

Yeah.

Laurie Forster (26:40)
I think COVID taught us

that we can translate these things over the airwaves as well. Before we go, is there any, I love to ask people and with all the experience you have, are there any wine myths that you would like to dispel that you feel just keep rolling around out there in the minds of maybe people who are just getting started in wine or love wine?

Kimberly Noelle Charles (26:46)
Indeed.

Mm.

Laurie Forster (27:04)
Anything that you'd like to just for the record, clear the air.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (27:08)
Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. It does not require a diploma to understand and appreciate wine. Trust your instincts, trust your senses, trust your memory, you know, and have your own personal imprint on your experience. Don't listen to other people. You know, listen to someone that you trust if you want a recommendation, but go with your own gut.

Laurie Forster (27:24)
Mmm.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (27:30)
And I think that's really what it is, is that you must be really well informed in order to enjoy it. And that's not true at all. And so, I mean, certainly it's the most inviting journey if you decide to do that, as you well know from your own educational journeys, but not required.

Laurie Forster (27:42)
Yes.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (27:45)
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Karen is the sort of brain child for mentor of this idea has the wine Bible and she's working on the fourth edition now. ⁓ And so I highly recommend that book as well as Jancis Robinson's Oxford companion to wine. If you really want some doorstops that in turn will actually keep you really, really in, you know, involved in and never ending in terms of your curiosity.

Laurie Forster (27:55)
Yes.

I agree. have both of those on my bookshelf upstairs in my office. Well, Kimberly Charles, this has been amazing everybody. can go to comeoveroctober.com for all of the themes and entertaining tips in history. And I think we gave you an easy formula to get involved. Just invite someone over, break open a bottle of wine and enjoy. Kimberly, Thank you so much for joining me on The Sipping Point. Cheers.

Kimberly Noelle Charles (28:12)
Well done. ⁓

Thank you, Laurie. This was

wonderful. Cheers.

Laurie Forster (28:38)
Cheers.

Laurie Forster (28:38)
I hope this has inspired you to invite someone over for a glass of wine in October. Comeoveroctober.com is a great place to go. So many resources there to inspire you if you want to have a little gathering, but it doesn't have to be grand. Just invite someone over or go over to someone's home with a great bottle of wine. I bet they'd be pretty excited about that. I'll post the links to the wines that we introduced you to as well as Come Over October.

and Kimberly Charles's company as well on the show page. And don't forget to go to thewinecoach.com, click on events, and you can check out my November holiday tasting, my December bubbly bash, and get all of the information on my upcoming wine tours. All right, until next week, cheers.