Trust Your Taste | Robert Cavanaugh | Barrels and Roots

In this episode of Barrels and Roots, I sit down with Robert Cavanaugh, CEO of Adventure Wine, to talk about how beginners can start enjoying wine without feeling overwhelmed or embarrassed. Robert has spent decades teaching wine, leading staff training, hosting live events, and representing wine regions from around the world, and his approach is refreshingly simple: trust your palate and have fun with it.

We talk about why wine can feel intimidating, how regional names and grape names confuse people, and why price, points, and reputation do not matter as much as whether you actually enjoy what is in your glass. Robert shares why wine is meant to be shared, discussed, paired with food, and experienced with other people, not treated like a test you have to pass.

From $9 bottles to Grand Cru Champagne, hotel room wine glasses, nachos, martial arts, music, and the joy of trying something new, this conversation is really about making wine more approachable, more personal, and a lot more fun.

What is one wine you love that other people might not expect?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Uh, I think Jimmy Buffett had the best job in the world. I don't think there's anybody who had a better job than Jimmy Buffett. Teaching wine, traveling, meeting new people of all experiences, brand new to Masters of Wine, the Institute of Masters of Wine. It's always a fun experience. It never gets old, it never gets boring. And uh somebody pointed out last night, they said, you teach that class, and you were the only one in that room not trying the Grand Cru champagnes. I said, Well, you know, I usually have to drive back to a hotel, but it's more fun for me just watching everybody try different wine. They may never have had a rose before champagne, and they they may never have known the grapes of Pinot Noir can also make a white wine. So we talked about all those fun things. Just seeing people get it and knowing when they leave they're going to try new experiences and new foods because we put a lot of food pairing in there too, and mostly to get them comfortable. So the key word is in our first slide is enjoyment. That's what it's all about. It's about enjoyment, about sharing and talking about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

So all right, welcome everybody back to the Burrels and Roots Podcast. I've got an awesome guest with me today uh that I would love for you guys to learn more about. Uh, can you tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Sure. My name is Robert Kavanaugh. I'm the CEO of Adventure Wine. We do a lot of staff training, uh live events, in-store tastings for retailers, restaurants, and mostly we represent wine regions from around the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

That's awesome. How did you get started down this path, Robert? Because it's a really interesting path to me. What was it that that kind of kicked off this catalyst and got you down this, the going down this direction?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Well, I've been studying wine. Uh, I grew up overseas. I grew up in Europe, so I was exposed to wine uh long before I could even drink wine. Um, came back to the US for college, started managing hotels, primarily Ritz-Carlton hotels in New York City and Palm Beach. And then uh two gentlemen named David and Robert Trone from a small little company called Total Wine asked me to be their, you know, their corporate wine buyer back in uh 2001. And so I had a chance to start there and made contacts both on-premise and off-premise. And over the years, I just really gravitated towards training and teaching, so much so that uh Ritz Carlton and Total Wine are still two of my clients all these years later.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

That's awesome. You know, one of the things too, I started podcasts because podcasting for me, I used to be a teacher and I taught for many years, and yet I always had a media side hustle, but then my media business took off, and I wanted the an outlet for continuing to teach. And I grew up uh when I was in high school, early high school, like my freshman, sophomore year, my parents moved up to the Napa Valley uh to work at a university there. So I got to be around wine country, and it was this amazing immersion experience about being around wine and winemakers and just everything wine related. But it was really cool because there was this time where um I got to experience things with like this open mind, this this beginner's mind, this motion, you know, like the beauty of being able to be in there and to experience something for the first time. And and one of the things too is I say, as people are coming to wine, um, I would love for everyone to be able to have that that that lightheartedness, that joy that I had of being able to find that. But I want to ask you this because you've been working around wine for a long time. And and if someone walked into a wine shop and said, I don't get wine at all, where would you start them with it? You know?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Well, I would start them with styles. I mean, uh, this is such an overwhelming industry, and uh it is it's it's it's huge. I mean, I feel I feel the same way when I walk into a lot of uh uh craft brew shops. I'm like, there's seven whole collections. I've never heard of 99% of them. But I would say start with styles, you know, try uh reds versus whites, and then maybe Chardonnays versus Pinot Grigios, and then Pinot Noir versus Syrah, things like that. And very quickly you'll find out what you like and what you gravitate towards, and then always just keep trying different styles, keeping an open mind. That's uh that's the key. I wish I would have learned that early on. I was uh I was trying to do everything at once, and that's like uh running a marathon with no training.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Right. It is one of the things, too, that I found is that there's a lot. There's a lot, and like I have a wine podcast. I grew up in wine country in the US, and I have a very American experience about wine. Now, what's wild is that as I'm living overseas now, I'm trying to interact with European wines and Australian wines and New Zealand wines and Argentinian and Chilean. And as I was looking at wines, like California has this thing where you know the US wine is very much grape-centric. Like you have the varietal. And like, so you know, when you buy a bottle, it's a bottle of Merlot or it's a bottle of cab. And when I was looking at European wines, and this was just recently that I was like figuring this out. I have a wine podcast, and that's the embarrassing part, you know. But like for people that don't feel overwhelmed, like, well, you go and it's it's burgundy. Well, how does that equate to what you're getting here? And like, here's the wild thing. I grew up in my country and I didn't ever ask that question. Like, that's the wild part. And you feel embarrassed about asking those questions. And I think that like what I want to do is normalize having people as they come in, go, yeah, it's okay to ask these questions. It's okay to not know these things.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Yeah, don't be embarrassed, be curious. I mean, that's uh and what you what you mentioned is that's a huge hurdle. Understanding the regional names versus the varietal names. If we did it the other way around, we'd be having a glass of Napa, not a glass of Chardonnay and things like that. Instead of under you know, understanding that some places name them after the region or the village or the appellation, and some name them after the variety it comes from. So took a long time to learn that. Right? I'm so embarrassed about how long it's took me. I my beginner slides, which I still use every night when I'm teaching, I said this is the this is the alias box. This is it, it may be Shenon Blanc here in one country, it may be steen in something else, but it comes from another area, it can be very confusing. Why is Syrah called Syrah in the Rhone Valley and Shirah's down under? But in California, it might be petite Syrah, and that's a totally different grape. So it's hard to keep them straight, but once you unlock it, it's it's much easier.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Right. And see, that's the beauty of it. And it's like we both I I I'm going a little bit of a tangent direction, but I love when you message me and you're like, hey, we both have a martial arts background. Do you know what movie, do you know what movie started me? And I'm gonna say it. Um it's I'm not embarrassed to say it. I got started, though I love the old kung fu movies, I love the old samurai movies, I got into them later on, but the movie that got me going was Karatekin, you know, Ralph Monteo.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

It got a whole not just one generation, but uh multiple generations, and now it's come back again. My 14-year-old son is he knows more about code brakay than than I did when I was his age, and it's just fantastic. Um, I love it. I think it's a great thing, and it's there are there are a lot of things kids can get into, but I I will never steer a kid away from the martial arts. That was life-changing. I would say the martial arts and growing up in Europe were two of the biggest influences of my life.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

I love that, and one of the things too, with with the martial arts, too, I I as well, it shaped me so profoundly. One of the things, too, like when you're getting into a martial art, there is this whole area of not knowing. And it's okay to not know. And it's the most important thing that you learn is to ask questions, and like, you know, that whole Mr. Miyagi, you have that that teacher who guides you. And that's one of the things that I think for me was so helpful as I got into it. I might my first great teacher was Dan Linder. He was a jiu-jitsu. I studied Japanese-style jujitsu, which is much more akin to judo than BJJ. So it's a very throw-based. And my teacher, Dan, was just an absolutely stellar human being, absolutely amazing teacher. And he guided me. And he guided me through this experience that was very overwhelming at the beginning. And and I I want to ask you this because as people enter the world of martial arts or enter the world of wine, they can feel intimidated. And you know, and then I want to ask you, why do you think people feel so intimidated? And is that something the industry accidentally created, or is it just something that goes back way, way, way back in time, you know?

SPEAKER_01 9:23

I I don't know if if I'm pretty sure it wasn't deliberate, but uh when you look at a wine label and it's it it can literally be greep to you. Um it it it doesn't it doesn't help. There are so many different regions and so many different styles, and it yes, it is very intimidating um until you step back and realize that it's supposed to be fun. At the end of the day, wine is supposed to be enjoyable, it's meant to be shared and discussed and uh emptied often. So that's what you want to look at when you look at a wine bottle. So um right, I would say just step back and enjoy it for what it is, and it's fun.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

I had a really cool experience the other day where I was hanging out with non-wine people, people that were not wine people, people that were just experimenting and they were trying things, and they they got out a bottle of red. It was a red blend from Australia, and then they were like, hey, and they were mixing it with with like soda water, making their own homemade sangurias. And I was just like, Are you sure about this? I was just like, part of me was like, is this the right way to do it? But then they're like, try it. I tried it, and I was like, that was phenomenal. And one of the things too is I think that like it's not the right way, but I think finding people who can allow you to go, all right, well, maybe that's not the way that we normally do it, but here's how you can try it, and here's how you're gonna do and like food and wine pairings. You know, one of the things that you have to do that I think is just try stuff. I had a a red blend tonight, and I had some sushi, and I found out one really interesting thing. That wine and that food did not go well together. It was horrible. It was a horrible pairing. But I think that one of the things that in the past I might feel too intimidated to try it. And tonight, I you know, one of the things with all of my guests come in and say, try it, try it out, try out the wine, see what it's like, and see, you know, how how your palate reacts to it. And I think that's one of the things that you gotta get your palate engaged.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah. And well, and I I think that you you made a good point there. First of all, there are very few uh bad wine and food pairings. There may be some that are better than others. I mean, protein and tannin are a really nice match together. Acidity and tomato sauce, they're a really good match, and that covers a whole bunch of different foods. Butter goes great with certain wines and not so well with others, but in general, most wine and food pairings are pretty good. The few bad ones they'll let you know. But uh in general, just relax. 98% of the time, you're gonna have a great time. I did a uh cover story for a food and wine magazine, and one of my staff members said, I'll bet nobody knows that you were having wine and nachos chips when you wrote that.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Oh, I gotta ask, what wine pairs with nachos? What were you doing with nachos?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Tell me pair with nachos. I mean, come on. I'm currently right now, I'm in Virginia. Last week I was in North Carolina. Um, uh, and as far as taking the snobbery out of wine, that was my whole point. I'm in a hotel room right now. If I could tell you how many times I had a great bottle of uh Bordeaux with a hotel room plastic cup, you'd be amazed. I don't travel with cristal glasses. So sometimes I'm you know, you it's just it's about having fun, it's the experience. A good bottle of wine with a great group of people is a great experience. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

I love that, man. I absolutely love that. Well, when you when you're teaching someone about wine, what's the first thing you want them to feel, not learn, you know?

SPEAKER_01 13:11

To just trust their palate. If if I I say it, uh I've I've written it, I've broadcasted it, I say it almost every night in my seminars. If you like it, it's a good wine. You know, I'm not as impressed about price or points or sometimes even the region. I'm more curious if you like this wine, it's really good. You could have a uh Domaine de la Romanicanti and and not enjoy it. That's okay. I'm not a big fan of caviar. That doesn't mean that I have terrible taste in food, it means I would just prefer something else. So try different wines. And if you like it, if you're happy with what you paid for it, that's good. Now on to the next bottle. You know, try something new and just keep trying because you'll never finish it, you'll never master wine.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

So right. I think that's a good thing to realize, and like, and you don't have to. You can be, you know, one of the things as a martial artist um that I've realized is that I'm actually quite good. I got my black belt in Denzanry Jiu-Jitsu. I've been training Muay Thai for 10 years. If someone came up to me on the street and wanted to start something, I would be okay. Like, that's okay, you know, and I know that. But if I wanted to go to the UFC, no man, there's no way. I'm not I'm not a professional MMA fighter. And that's okay. It's okay to be on your journey. It's okay to go and, you know, and when I train now, you know, as I'm getting older, I'm realizing that I don't want to train like like I used to. I I want to train for health, I want to train for wellness. I go in, like I sprained my wrist the last time I went in. So tonight I took it easy. Tonight I did cardio and rested and focused on just what is experientially fun for me. And I think that's the thing too, is like, get out and try stuff and enjoy it. You know, like with wine, are you, you know? So it's really interesting that I find people that they create these wine identities for themselves. You're like, well, I drink Pinot. I drink, I'm a cab guy. And at the end of the day, you know, like, well, why are you always drinking that? And I ask a lot of people, have you tried these other wines? And one of the funniest things is it's like, well, no, because I really enjoy this. I was like, well, how can you say that you're a cab person when you haven't tried these other things? And and so, you know, I like trying to get people out of the box. But you've done this for 30 plus years. What actually makes a wine experience fun instead of boring?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Uh well, first of all, a good corkscrew can eliminate all chances of boredom. A good corkscrew, get that wine open. But honestly, I think one of the best things is just the people that you're around, whether they're beginners or experts. You know, I put quotations around experts because um I just think everybody should try different wines. Uh, I've never had, I don't think I've ever had a boring experience with wine. And uh I do this every night. Every night it's a different group of people. Some know a lot about wine and they're fun to talk about on one level, and others are just beginning. And quite honestly, I like that probably even more because they're experiencing something. It's uh it's it's something new to them. And and you can literally see it in their eyes, they're like, now I get it. Now I understand how balance and sweetness and acidity and tannin all work together. And at the end of the day, I'm gonna ask the same question Did you like the wine? Yeah, if not, you got 77,000 others for you to try. So, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:49

I love that. I love it, and you know, and it's like I had this one of wine that someone poured for me once, and they're like, This is one of the finest wines that we've ever had. And I tasted it and I didn't like it. And my friend pulled me aside, and it was a really expensive bottle, and I was just like, I don't know why. I feel bad, I feel shame, and I wanted to cry, you know, I don't like this wine, and I said, I, you know, it's so expensive, and I know it's so supposed to be so great. My friend looked at me and he's like, That's okay. It's okay that you don't like it. It's like some people like chocolate, some people don't, and that's okay, you know? It's what you like, and the the joy is it's more tonight. Um, my family, uh, we had we just had a great dinner, and I had a great red wine blend, super light, super chill. But you know what? The red wine blend was so so. It wasn't great, but you know what was great? It was the fact that we were all drinking it together and that we had this lovely dinner and that we got to spend that time together, and that was what was really special for me. You know, my wife and my my sister-in-law are still texting me right now while I'm in this podcast, going, what a fun conversation! And that to me is special. But I want to ask you too, what's one of your favorite and most special memories around wine?

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Oh, jeez. Um, oh, I'll I'll give you one uh kind of similar to what we're talking about. On Sunday, I was in Ocean Isle, North Carolina. I'd never been to Ocean Isle before. It was just one of those perfect days, and we did an upscale Madoc seminar, the great wines of Puillac and Margot and Saint-Estep. And afterwards, we sat outside of the winery that was hosting it, and I opened up a I had a $9 bottle of Pique Pool de Pine that uh Fran Casello brings in. And it was just such a glorious bottle of wine. We had just tried $100 bottles of deep, rich, red, full-bodied wines, but I was having so much fun with the people there. There was a guitarist there, and uh, I see all the guitars in the background, and I was able to speak his language a little bit. We ended up getting in a whole side conversation about the Eagles and all the different great guitarists, Joe Walsh. And we it was just such a fun time. So I had half, you know, just it was the experience, it wasn't even necessarily the wine. The wine was fantastic, and it was nine dollars a bottle, and it was just the people and the winery and the weather and the music. That for me is what the wine industry is all about.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

So I am in the same boat with you, man. I want to ask you this because it's like if a restaurant or wine shop wanted to make people care more about wine, what's one simple thing they could do better?

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Just enjoy the experience of wine and food together, how wine complements food, and take away all the Fraser Crane nervousness about wine and food pairing. Don't be so uptight about it. Try a different wine, try a high tannin red with a little bit of uh protein or cheese or stews or something like that, maybe a spicy Syrah with something right off the grill and see how they work together. And you like it or you won't. So try different wine and food pairings. I used to think when I was studying wine, everybody was saying turkey and pinot noir was just the no-brainer. And I was like, you know, I really like this Gewürztreminer with turkey. Yeah. What am I doing wrong? Is what I felt back in the time. What am I doing wrong? And now it's like, well, of course, Gewürztreminer goes with turkey. You know, just uh try different things. And again, trust your palate. You'll know if you like it or if you don't. Uh, that's why a lot of the times I won't even tell people the prices of the wines. We did a Grand Cru seminar last night in Virginia, and I didn't want to tell people this is a $209 bottle of champagne, because everyone would say this is the best champagne. When in fact, I think the most popular one was the $56 Grand Cru Brute Reserve. So people enjoyed it, and that's what we want.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

That's the thing. I remember um, I remember so many times that you know you get some product or thing that just gets this buzz, and everyone's like, oh yeah, that's the best. But the reality is, is like if you don't tell people what to think and they go in and they just get their own experience, it's like often a more clear and true uh representation of what they truly like, you know. And there was a a friend of mine uh was telling me about a beer here in Vietnam, and it was a a chocolate beer. And you know, and I tried it and it was one of the most delicious things I've ever had. And I was like, and then my friend was like, you know, I don't really like this. And I was like, wow, I I did. And I am I wrong for liking it? Is it, you know, is it is this something that I did wrong, or am I, you know? But at the end of the day, I think that it's just like, yeah, get out and experience and try stuff. And and it led me to this thought like. Too, because like people might try to get into wine, but they feel like they're they don't know things and they're they're making mistakes. What's the biggest mistake that people make when they're getting into learning about wine?

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Probably exactly what you said, that they they feel nervous, they're they they feel like they're making a mistake. That what's wrong with me? I like this nine, $10 wine better than I like the $40, $50 wine. There is nothing wrong. That's your palate right now. I remember very clearly I had a great first teacher. Kevin Zraeli was my very first teacher back in 1993 at the World Trade Center in New York. And I remember the day I moved from uh a particular jug wine, which I won't say the name, which was a very good jug wine, you can still get it today, to a trim bock Riesling. And I remember he just kind of nodded, he goes, Now you're getting it. Now you're trying different things. So I said, Well, I want to branch out more and learn all about this.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

So I love that. I remember the first car I had, it was a beat up Subaru 1986 Subaru GL wagon. It was beat up. It was, I mean, it was not beat up anything, but it was old. It was just really old. But you know what? That was my favorite car. And up to that point, it was the best car I had ever driven. And I didn't know that it was an old, beat up Subaru. I didn't know that it was secondhand and it didn't have all of these bells and whistles, didn't have air conditioner, didn't have power steering. But yet it was my favorite car to drive, you know, and the fact that it was mine made it all the better. And then I got to try to drive other cars. One time my friend drew my friends nice Toyota, and I was like, wow, this is much nicer. I do my other friends Honda Accord, I like this better, but you know, I still loved my Subaru, just in a different way. And I think that was one of the things too, is like as you start, like you say, you know, as you start broadening your experience, your palate, your awareness of what's out there gets deeper. And I think that that just being patient with that process is a really good thing. And I think that's one of the powers of of getting out and doing tastings.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Yeah, no, I I I totally agree with that. And um as far as whether people would say that they are experts in wine, they can say that. That's you know, that's up to them. Uh, I I kind of like uh looking at the guitars in your background. I kind of like what Eddie Van Halen used to say. He he did not want to be called the greatest guitarist in the world. He goes, because that means I have nowhere to go. I want to keep moving up, trying new things, experimenting with new pickups and bridges and things like that, and just trying new sounds and techniques. That I thought was one of the greatest from someone who is, you know, arguably one of the greatest ever. You know, that I thought was a refreshing attitude. Keep trying new things, whatever the discipline may be, whether it's martial arts or music or love of cars or wine or food. I don't know of any chef that would say that they know it all. Any chef that when we used to train black belts, we would say when they would get their first degree, we would say, okay, you're allowed to feel happy for all week. You got the whole week to enjoy that black belt that you've worked for years to get steady through the ranks, and then you come back and you start on your second degree. Because if you think you know all, you're right. You're done. You're done knowing it all. So keep learning.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

I love that. I love that because you're right. Like at the end of the day, it's about getting back in and trying that experience. The the experience of learning, of being open to something new, you know, because the the something new is that you are continuously opening doors and seeing what's out there. Um, and to me, that that's awesome. I want to ask you this one too, because you know, when I think about wine, um, you know, I I have a much more amateur experience, but like when you're hosting tasting or events, what's something that you do that most people wouldn't notice, but makes a huge outcome?

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Something they wouldn't notice, uh, the temperature of the wine. People tend to drink their their whites and especially their roses a little too cold. So we'll take the wines out a little bit. We'll just let the temperature come up a little bit. And the reds, we do just the opposite. You know, the average room temperature is 70, 71 degrees. Uh, as soon as we get people in any seminar room, the temperature goes up a bit. So we may cool the reds down just a little bit, just a tad. And people say, boy, there's just something about it. And they almost always look at the glass. They say, it must be the glass. Like, no, it's the temperature of the wine. We want to, we want you to be able to taste the rose, taste what you're getting in that in that glass, taste what you're getting out of the white wine, whether it's a V. We really want it, we don't want it ice cold. We want it cool, but not cold. And the reds a little bit, you take the temperature down a little bit. I once was able to influence uh a banquet house wine at Ritz Carlton. I said, Okay, you got to do a blind tasting with the rest of the executive staff. I'm like, I've I've got to let housekeeping pick my my house wine. You know what that could do to my costs? So we tasted six wines blind, but one of them was slightly cool, the one I wanted.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

So that's that's awesome. Kind of stacked that a little bit. It's interesting too because again, there is this preconceived idea of how it's done, but then getting people the permission to try something different, try something a little bit outside the box, or it might be just a different way, you know. And like finding, I had a great tasting recently, and they were pairing um the type of crackers they had uh were really simple, and then very simple fruit plate with the tasting. And I was just like, man, this is really good. And my friend was like, Yeah, I try to keep you when he was the one running the tasting, he's like, I try to keep things really simple so that you know it cleanses the palate, but it's just it's a fun light experience. It doesn't have to be overwhelming, it doesn't have to be so like intense because he's like, you know, there's a lot of intensity everywhere, so might as well just let the people have fun with it and and enjoy it a little bit more. And that was wild because I didn't think about just I I I compare it to cars and things like that. But going back to the car experience, one of my greatest experiences driving a car was when I I just got that first car after I graduated from high school, that old beat up Subaru, and I was driving up the PCH from San Diego up to LA, and I had my window rolled down, and the fresh air was coming in off the beach, and I had I had a cassette deck in there with the uh top gun soundtrack, and it's super awesome. Listening to um, what was it, Danger Zone or Gun Zone?

SPEAKER_01 29:07

I knew you were gonna say that.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Danger zone, and I'm driving past the Miramar area up the coast of San Diego to LA, and the F-14s are flying overhead. It was one of the most magical experiences of my life, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

You know, as soon as you said Top Gun, I said, I know the song. I got pulled over, I got pulled over uh by a cop in his 20s. I was clocked in the 90s, listening to the 80s, and I didn't turn the music down. I was a smile as a role. He goes, Would you please turn it down? I said, Do you not know this song? Officer, this is a great song. He laughed. He goes, Okay, you've already got you've already talked your way out of the ticket. Now turn it down a little bit. I said, I don't have this song since 1986. That's awesome. And I I had the car vibrating with that song. That's a great driving song.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

So that's awesome. That's absolutely awesome. I I love it, and one of the things that I think is really impressive with that is the fact that it's life, and you know, to me, in this time period where everything is so we're getting all of these artificial experiences around us. To me, wine is still authentic, and it's one of the things that is something that people can still uh experience in a really beautiful way. And if you had to teach wine to a pure beginner to understand without using fancy words, how would you explain it?

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Well, um uh again, I would say start with different styles. First of all, take a step back, don't be overwhelmed. It can be overwhelming. Take a step back, try a couple of different wines, try a red versus a white, and then see which way you kind of lean, and then try all the different go through the little tree of varieties. And understand there's gonna be some that you like and there's gonna be some that you won't. But the idea is okay, if we didn't care for this one, there's 90,000 more to try, and that's just in Italy alone. So we we always are finding new grapes. I love one of the things, great things about teaching is is we get to learn too. I yeah, I'm doing uh a bunch of classes where I'm teaching grapes like Caracanti and Cadarato that I had never really experienced. But once I started trying, I'm like, why am I not? I I I actually said this rhetorical question out loud to some staff members. I said, Why am I not drinking more of this? He said, There's 24 hours in a day. How much more are you gonna possibly? Right, there's only so much time, man. I'm not a heavy, I'm not a heavy imbiber. I I know there's just a certain limit, but um it's just it's the experience, you know, and and communicating it to others.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Every time someone talks to me and they like they realize they say they hear that I have a wine pad cop podcast, they're like, Oh, you must have wine all the time. I was like, actually, I don't. I I don't drink a lot, but one of the things that I do is that you know, when I do, it's a beautiful time. It's a time with family, it's a time with friends, and it's something that brings us together in a way that not a lot can, you know, and and I want to ask you too, because like after all these years traveling and teaching, what still excites you about sharing wine with people?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Oh, uh what I'm first of all, what doesn't? I mean, uh, I think Jimmy Buffett had the best job in the world. That that that I don't think there's anybody who had a better job than Jimmy Buffett. Teaching wine, traveling, meeting new people of all experiences, brand new to Masters of Wine, yeah, the Institute of Masters of Wine. It's always a fun experience. It never gets old, it never gets boring. And uh somebody pointed out last night, they said, you teach that class, and you were the only one in that room not trying the Grand Cru champagnes. I said, Well, I you know, I usually have to drive back to a hotel, but it's more fun for me just watching everybody try different wine. They may never have had a rose before champagne, and they they may never have known the grapes of Pinot Noir can also make a white wine. So we talked about all those fun things. Just seeing people get it and knowing when they leave they're going to try new experiences and new foods because we put a lot of food pairing in there too, and mostly to get them comfortable. So the key word is in our first slide is enjoyment. That's what it's about. It's about enjoyment, about sharing, and and talking about it.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

So I love that. Um, one of the things, too, I wanted to ask you um, do you have a favorite wine that you love to drink right now?

SPEAKER_01 33:57

An open one. Uh favorite wine, uh favorite wine right now. Uh, I I like everybody else, I go through different phases. Right now, I am uh teaching classes on the Rhone Valley, and so I'm doing a lot of northern and southern Rhone's. And I honestly believe a wine like Vignier is just an amazing white wine, just so, and it's towards my style. I like big, rich, full-bodied whites, not overly oaky, but a lot of uh fruit and power and flavor to it. Um, just uh not too acidic, great with a wide variety of foods. That's today. Uh, tomorrow it might be something totally different, a temper neo, or once I try Spanish wines, I dive into that rabbit hole. Sicilian wines, uh, a good narrow davila could really make a meal and then sharing it with others. But I like when people share wine with me. My staff, they they constantly, I don't know where they're finding these new wines, but they're like, try this, and like, wow, we just go right back to the to the basics and just enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

If you were to pour three glasses for me right now, without knowing my preferences, what would you pour me?

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Oh god, that's a good question. Um, I would pour a medium-bodied white, maybe a Chenon Blanc, just to see how you would react to it. Maybe a light-bodied red, uh, maybe such as a Pinot Noir, and then maybe something a little bit fuller bodied red, just to try the light versus the full, maybe uh uh Rivera del Duro wine. See if you like the big inky black, full-flavored, full-bodied bombastic, or maybe the softer, more austere, uh, slightly more acidic red wine, like a Sangiovesi. See which way your palette leans, and then kind of go from there.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

So I love that. I love that. Well, where can people go to find out more about you and what you do?

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Uh well, I'm in a lot of retail stores. Uh, they can go to the Adventure Wine website. Uh, they can always drop me notes. Uh, it's a very easy address, Robert at adventurewine.com. I answer questions all the time. I'm on the road constantly. I'm on the road right now, and I'm gonna be heading on the road once we finish this. So, more classes. So that's awesome. It's great just sharing it with people.