Wine Isn’t That Deep | Claire Nesbitt | Barrels and Roots

In this episode of Barrels and Roots, I sit down with Claire Nesbitt, a former wine critic at JamesSuckling.com who went from studying chemistry at Oxford to tasting hundreds of wines a week. 

Claire shares how she left consulting to follow her passion for wine, what it was like learning at Le Cordon Bleu, and how she eventually built a career reviewing wines from around the world. What I loved about this conversation is how Claire makes wine feel less intimidating. We talk about what actually makes a great wine, from balance and intensity to length and complexity, but we also get into the human side of it: sharing wine, talking with winemakers, visiting regions like South Africa, and realizing that the best wine experiences are often about the people around the table. This episode is for anyone who wants to understand wine without the snobbery and enjoy the journey more.

What’s one wine region you’d love to visit someday?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And I think there are two practical things that are great. So if you're living a if you live in a city, I would go to a wine bar or go to a wine shop and just talk to the person in charge, talk to the sommelier, because more likely than not, if you tell them that, oh, I don't really know much about wine, but I'm kind of curious about something, they're more than willy to willing to help you because that is literally their job. Um, so that is a great free way to learn about wine and get a recommendation. Like, don't be shy, ask the psalm. Um, and the second practical thing I would do is either if you live in a wine region, so Napa, if you live in France or Italy, or if you're just going on holiday there where there are vineyards nearby, book a tasting. It's it's fun. The staff there are usually very passionate uh about sharing their stories, teaching about the wine, and it's a great experience because you're doing it with people.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Welcome everybody back to the Barrels and Roots Podcast. I'm your host, Sean Trace, and I have an awesome guest with me today. Would you like to tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me on, Sean. Um, so my name is Claire Nesbitt, and I am currently a fitness coach, but before that, I was a wine critic for six years working at JamesSuckling.com. Um, and I've recently made the tack the transition this year from wine to fitness, but I still I still do a lot of stuff in wine. Um, it's long been a passion of mine.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Well, talk to me about that. You um how did you get into the world of wine? What was it that started you down that path?

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Oh, that's a good question. Um I think I was always into it growing up because my we used to drink wine at home. My dad's into wine. He's not very nerdy about wine, but we always used to have a nice glass of Bordeaux at dinner. Um so I didn't do anything with it at university or my first job. Um, I went straight into a consulting firm. But I was always curious about wine, and I used to buy wine on the side for myself and try different things. Um, and so I decided to take a year out from my consulting job. Uh, this was when I lived back in London. Um, and the firm that I was at, McKinsey, it was very common to take a year out, but people usually did an MBA or a secondment. Um, and I asked them, hey, like, do you mind if I take a year out? I'd really like to do this wine course, um, this diploma in wine. And they said, hmm, yeah, okay, sure. You can do that. You can come back after a year, but we're not going to pay for your course because it has nothing to do with our work. And I said, Yeah, that's that's totally understandable. Um, so I did that. I studied wine at um a school called Le Corps d'Enbleu, which is known for its cooking courses, um, but they also do a really good wine uh and gastronomy diploma. Um, and pretty much as soon as I started, I thought, I I love learning about it. There's there's so much to learn. It's so interesting. Um and I thought, you know what? If you're lucky enough to find what you love, right? Why not why not do it? You know, life is too short to not follow something that you're passionate about. Um, so I made the decision to not go back to consulting and try and make it in the wine world. I started off working at a wine bar in Hong Kong where I'm from. Um, and this was during COVID, so it was a little tricky with hospitality. Um but I managed to find something here, and then um after a few months of that, I met James Suckling, who is uh uh one of the top wine critics uh internationally. Uh he actually had his own wine bar separately in Hong Kong, and I met him there. And he was interested in hiring me. And so I went for an interview, I got the spot and started working at his wine bar. And then after a few months, he realized that I could taste wine really well. That's what I'd been trained to do at my wine course. And so I started coming in before my shift early every day to taste 10 wines for him, you know, write a note, give it a score, he'd look over it. And at the end of the year, he said, Look, I'm gonna switch you over to my main business, which is rating and reviewing wines. And so I did that for the last six years.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Which is awesome because it's like you've tasted and reviewed thousands of wines from around the world. Was there a particular wine or region or moment that made you fall in love with wine in the first place? Was there like a taste that you said, yeah, oh, that one's good. That that region is amazing. Um was it all of it?

SPEAKER_01 5:23

I it well, it was it was a lot of it. I think um I think around the age of like 14 or 15, um, like we'd have wine at home every now and then. Uh and it would be good wine, but not like, you know, super expensive wine. And I remember we went out for a dinner with some of my dad's friends one time, and someone had brought a really nice wine. Uh, I can't remember the vintage now, but it was a Chateau Margot, and I tasted it and I was like, oh, you know, I've had Bordeaux before. That's what we drink at home, you know, this red wine from France. And I tasted it and I thought, this tastes a lot better for some reason. Um, so I think it was that moment that I thought, okay, there's actually a lot more to discover here, and some wine is definitely better than others.

unknown 6:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

I I um I think that I grew up um spoiled, really spoiled, because you know, I uh in high school, my parents moved up to this little region that I didn't know, and it was called Napa, and we lived in the Napa Valley, and then I was just surrounded by wine, lots and lots of wine. And like it was wild because the grocery store in St. Helena, my hometown's wine section is ridiculous, and it's just like a cheap, like a regular grocery store. Not cheap, it's like one of the most expensive grocery stores in the US because of where it's uh was it the safe way there? The safe way, yeah. Yeah, I've been to St. Helena. Yeah, it has a great wine section and just Safeway, and you know, and then you go to the other supermarket, which is Sunshine in town, and also a phenomenal wine section, and you're just like, wow. And so, but yet still I was having stuff that was okay, and then one day, I I tell this story a lot, but I was in college and I had just finished work at uh one of the resorts there, Meadowwood. I was working at the Pool Terrace Cafe that summer, and some guy, I guess, had come out and opened up a bottle of Screaming Eagle, had a glass, and then he was like, Hey, you guys can have the rest. And I was hello, don't mind if I do. And on up to that point, I'd had nice wine, but there was just a point where like it was just like we were like, Wow, that that's special. And I didn't know how to put my finger on it. What was the thing that made it special? And that's what I kind of would love to ask you, because so many people have had might have had wine and good wine, but like what makes a great wine? What makes you a wine that you go, wow, that's something I'll say? Because I've I've had it and I've had multiple balls where I'm just like, oh my goodness, but I don't know how to explain it.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, I think I think ultimately the most important thing about wine is that you enjoy the wine. So there's nothing wrong with enjoying a wine that's $10, or there's nothing wrong with enjoying a wine that someone else doesn't enjoy, or vice versa. And for that, it's usually dictated by personal tastes, you know, just what you might what you prefer drinking might not be what I prefer drinking. But that's that's when we're talking about wine style. But when it actually comes to wine quality, um, there are definitely objective factors that trained wine tasers can agree on. Um, so stuff like Streaming Eagle, Chateau Marco, they're expensive and good for a reason, right? Um, so if you're tasting wine, what we usually look for are four main things. It's the balance, uh, the intensity of the wine, the length of the wine, and the complexity. So I'll give you examples for all of them. Um Balance, that's when all of the components of a wine are in balance. So that's sweetness, acidity, tannins, alcohol, uh, and flavor. Um, let's say, let's take a really great sweet wine. So sautelne from France, uh, some of the great sweet wines from Germany, or Tokai from Hungary, they're ridiculously sweet, but they're balanced by really high acidity. So you don't actually feel it. That's what I mean by balance. Whereas you take a really cheap sweet wine from the supermarket, um, maybe not the supermarkets in Napa. Um, but you know, your regular sweet wine that's like, I don't know, $5. And it's a bit flabby, it's not that interesting. Uh, it's sweet and it's clawing, it doesn't have the acidity to back it up. So that's what we call an unbalanced wine. Um, then concentration, that's a pretty straightforward one. The concentration of aromas and flavors. Uh, you don't want it to be dilute or thin or watery. The length of a wine, so how long the taste lasts in your mouth after you drink it? If it's just a couple of seconds, it's short. If it lasts for a longer time, maybe even like a minute or two, that's a longer wine, and that's a sign of a really good wine. So maybe when you taste the screaming eagle, it stayed in your mouth for a long time afterwards, and you thought about it and you thought, wow, well, why can I still taste this amazing wine?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Um It's actually 100% true. And it's interesting too because um as when I when I tasted it, it did, it had this taste, it this stay. But you know, one of the things too is like I love what you two things you said. First of all, um I think that what was so special about that wine too is that it was this amazingly balanced, wonderful wine. But then at the same time, I had it with my friends, you know, and I was able to go and drink this bottle with a group of people at this amazing location. And it's like, if I had that bottle alone by myself in my room, would it have been phenomenal? Yes. With a nice, like, you know, some great music on, I would have enjoyed it. But it was way, way better because we did it, you know, with other people, you know, and I think that that's so interesting to me is like there's this magic that I find in wine that is like part of it is the you know, you're going for the flavors, and there is like objectifiable ways to have a better wine, but at the same time, like you might have the best wine in the world if you're not drinking it with someone that you enjoy. It can be so much, you know, less of an experience.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah, 100%. I think it's it's a great product, but it's it's one of the few where you can sit down, enjoy it, and have a conversation for hours about it. I think that's what's so fascinating about wine. And I think you're right, like the joy of it is sharing it with other people.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Right. I I wanted to ask you this though, because you studied chemistry, you know, at Oxford, entry in the wine world. Did your scientific background change the way you taste, evaluate, or understand wine, or was that just icing on the cake?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Um I think so, for sure. I think my so I studied chemistry and it gave me a bit more of an analytical background, which I think I drew from a lot when it came to tasting a wine, like assessing it, assessing the structure and the balance and everything, and giving it a score out of a hundred. That was that was literally my job. Um yeah, I I view it as a bit of both. Like you need to if if you're if you're a wine taster, you need to have that analytical side, but then you also need a creative side um and tap into that as well. So yes, yes and no.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

I I think that's interesting, but you know, I wanted to ask you another question too, because I I hope that more people can find the world of wine. I love wine, and to me it was it's a journey. Like I don't drink a ton of wine, but when I have a glass, I'm so always excited about it, and it's always a great time with with my family and friends, you know. But for someone completely new to wine, what do you wish they understood that would make wine feel less intimidating and more like more I'm not gonna say completely accessible, but just more of a fun experience?

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good question. Um, I I do think that unfortunately a lot of people are intimidated by wine just because there's so much out there and there's so much you can learn. But I think if you're if you're interested in wine and you're just getting into it, it's it's a fun journey. I'd begin just by trying different wines and experimenting without feeling like you should be drinking certain things or without feeling a sense of judgment. Um, so just experimenting, buying lots of different things. So wine from different regions, wine from different grape varieties, and then making little notes, like it doesn't have to be super complex or detailed, you know, just saying I like this because it tasted like strawberries, you know? Um yeah, so just taking a note of that. And I think there are two practical things that are great. So if you're living a if you live in a city, I would go to a wine bar or go to a wine shop and just talk to the person in charge, talk to the sommelier, because more likely than not, if you tell them that, oh, I don't really know much about wine, but I'm kind of curious about something, they're more than willy to willing to help you because that is literally their job. Um, so that is a great free way to learn about wine and get a recommendation. Like, don't be shy, ask the psalm. Um, and the second practical thing I would do is either if you live in a wine region, so Napa, if you live in France or Italy, or if you're just going on holiday there where there are vineyards nearby, book a tasting. It's it's fun. The staff there are usually very passionate uh about sharing their stories, teaching about the wine, and it's a great experience because you're doing it with people.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

I love tasting, and I think that a lot of people don't realize how enjoyable and fun of a experience tasting is because they're like you think you're gonna go there just to um just to have some wine, but the reality is at the same time, you're getting there and you are learning so much interesting information about um the vineyard, the people that made it, and often like some of the the most interesting people I've ever met were some of the people that were helping me taste. Like they were just telling me the most interesting stories, and I just had a blast. So I love that. And there are so many great wines, and this is one of the things that I think is so special now. There are wine regions around the world now. Wine is like has gone so international, and you pick a country, I guarantee you that you're gonna find some wine read. Well, maybe not every country, but there's a lot of places with wine, you know? And I that I wanted to ask you about that because you've traveled extensively through some of the world's most famous wine regions. Were there any places that left a big impression on you, or places that you go, all right, everyone should go here some once?

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Oh, that's a great question. Um there are so many places that I would recommend visiting for wine. But let's say, I guess you have different criteria, right? You've got the wine itself, um, or the type of wine that's made in that region. Um, you've got, you know, the people in that region. Some are more friendly, some are less friendly, some are more farmers, some are more um like salespeople, if you know what I mean. Um, you've got the landscape of the region, you know, what else there is to do around there, how beautiful it is. Um, and then you've got the food and culture as well. So I think all of those things combined, it's kind of hard for me to just pick one place that I think people should visit. Right. Um but so I covered several regions when I worked for James, and one of the ones that I really love going back to was South Africa.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Ooh, talk to you about that.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

For a combination of all of the above, so it's a very beautiful country, massive, massive mountains, like it makes you feel insignificant driving through them, gorgeous landscape. The people are very humble and very friendly. Um so it's economically challenged as a country. So their pricing for the wines, the food, everything is quite low. And sometimes they struggle to put their wine on the international market, but that doesn't mean it's because the wine is bad. Like the wine is fantastic, so great value for wine. The food is incredible, um, and the people are super lovely, and it's a wonderful place.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

I love that. I um I I one of my goals is to go to so many wine regions around the world, and I I haven't had the chance yet. I mean, I grew up in a beautiful place that has beautiful wine, but you know, I want to see all of these places, and as I've been doing research for guests, I've been fascinated by all the regions and all the places. Like I didn't know Japan has a wine-growing region now. Like there are like this wine, like and I was from phenomenal, I tried some phenomenal wines coming out of there, you know. Obviously, there are places like New Zealand and Australia, you know, but there are places that I had never known were starting to grow wine, and you know, just the idea of being able to go, all right, let's do a wine tour of South America. Like, I I'm so excited to kind of continue exploring. But what are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about wine, about what makes a wine good? You know, I I think that there's a lot of misconceptions. I think wine is a funny world because there's so many things that people think, but then aren't as important as people think they are. But then there's other things that people go, it's not a big deal, but then they're really important, you know, about wine. But what are some misconceptions that you have or that people have?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

This is a really good question. Um, I think there's a couple of uh misconceptions. One is that a lot of people think the bigger or the heavier the bottle that the wine comes in, the better the wine. And that's just not true. Um it's actually it's worse for the environment, it's a heavier bottle. Um, some brands will differentiate between their products by putting their better wines in a bigger bottle, but it doesn't inherently mean that the wine is good. I think that's one misconception. People think, oh, it's a really heavy bottle, it must be really good and expensive. Um that's one. I think that the age of the wine, as well, for people who don't really know about wine, they might think that the older the wine, the better it is. Um and that's a bit of a tricky one because most wine is not meant to be aged. Like, I don't know, 99% of wine is meant to be drunk within the first year of being made or being released onto the market. Uh, there's only a small amount of wine that has the structure and the complexity to be able to age. So, yes, I think the wines that are supposed to be aged, um that's a better wine, you know, like you get an older wine, get an old, you know, Bordeaux or Napa Valley wine, um, and it's supposed to be aged, then you're gonna get a lot more complexity from an older wine. But let's say you buy a regular wine and it's 10 years old. Maybe it's just been left for 10 years and isn't supposed to be drunk when it's 10 years old. Um, so that's another one.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

I I love that you bring that up. And I think it's something that is such a um it's wild because I think that so many people get so much of what they believe about stuff from movies. And movies don't do two areas that I talk about. I talk about I have two podcasts I've got a lot of podcasts, and you know this because you came on one of my other podcasts. But I um I've got four podcasts that I do and And one is the Sean Trace show, which is about resilience, people doing awesome, cool stuff. But I also have a personal finance podcast that's all about how people can not just invest in, but just learn to have a relationship with money. And that one's hilarious because personal finance, like most people know stuff all from uh from movies as well. And like, hey, I'm a Wall Street guy, you know, and like when people go to invest, like when they meet their planner, it's not that. And with wine, like I laugh every time someone pulls out wine in movies because it's just like it's all of your stereotypes like in one. And it it cracks me up because um, you know, there's always the wine is always aged, there's always this big cellar that they they walk down into, and like um, and then to me, I think that some of the best wine experiences I had were things that would make um, and these some of these wine experiences were with like really amazing winemakers. We were just out at a barbecue or something, and I saw some like big winemaker drinking their wine from a Dixie cup or something. And I looked at them and I said, Are you serious right now? And he's like, I make good wine, it's gonna be good whatever I drink it from. I'm like, fair enough, fair enough, you know. But like it was always cracking me up because certainly I said, you know, is that how your wine's supposed to be enjoyed? He's like, no, but I left my glassware at home, and this is what I've got right now. But you know, I think that it's funny because I think that in the world of wine, um, certainly I'm not recommending everyone go drinks wine from Dixie cups. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying that finding ways to enjoy wine is probably the most important thing. You know, if you're out at a picnic with a bunch of great people, um, find a way to enjoy that. Hopefully you brought some glassware with you. But, you know, if you didn't, improvise and enjoy the wine.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Yeah, 100%, 100% agree with you.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

After tasting hundreds of wines every week, how do you keep your sense of curiosity and excitement alive about wine? You know, I would be worried that I would think, I've seen everything, there's nothing new at this point, you know?

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Yeah, yeah. That's a good question. I I was tasting about 200 wines a week every single week.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

That's insane. That's insane.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

It's a lot of wine. It's a lot of wine. Um, and you you need to get used to it. You need to like train yourself up to do it. Um, and I'm not gonna lie, a lot of the wine that I tasted was not good. It was average, average wine. Um, because we would taste wine that was about to be released onto the market. Um, so I wasn't tasting old wine every day. I'd be tasting wines that were young, um, some of them ready to drink, some of them would need a few more years. Um but I think that, you know, every time you taste a really good wine, it just makes you stop and think about it. And I I haven't lost my joy for wine. I still I love wine. Um, so I think from when I was tasting, it was probably the comparison with a lot of the mediocre wine that I was tasting that would make me stop and appreciate a good wine. But also, kind of like we mentioned earlier, um, it's sharing it with people. So some of my best experiences were when I was actually tasting at the winery with the winemaker and talking about the wine and feeling their passion for it, listening to their stories about it, um, and tasting it in that setting. I think those were those were some of the best experiences that I had.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Hands down, 100% agree. I um just recently went back to Napa and uh actually I was in Sodoma where this winery was at. Uh, Gloria Ferrer, my friend Kyle, is the winemaker. And when he sat down, he walked us through the whole thing. We made a video about it for Barrels and Roots, which was super fun. Uh vlog style video. And then we sat down and he started talking to us about the personalities of his wines. And he, Kyle, doesn't like, you know, like this is this, it's got these flavors. For him, how he is able to like think about his wine is he like pairs them with celebrities. And I was like, oh dude, now we're talking. Like I can, I get that. Like, he's like, all right, this wine, this is my um, this is my lady die. This is my lady Diana wine. Like, this is that's how I see this. And then another one, he's like, All right, you just had Lady Diana, now we're gonna have Freddie Mercury. And I was like, oh, I want to know what Freddie Mercury of wine is all about. And we had it, and I was just like, I tasted it, and I was like, I couldn't go back from like, yeah, I understand Freddie Mercury. Like, right now, like you've got me. Like, that is a perfect explanation for the difference between these. This one was refined, elegant, but like, like um, you know, the lady die wine was refined, it was elegant, but it was accessible. It wasn't that stuffy royal, it was something that you could touch that you could be part of and and experience versus the Freddie Mercury was like, well, goddamn, you know, mm-hmm. Like, yeah, there was some spice and some sass to it. And it was interesting because if I had had those wines by myself, would have I enjoyed them? 100%. But when I got to hear them described by the winemaker and hear about the personalities that he thought each of these embodied, it was just like such a cool experience. And you know, and winemakers, like, they love talking about their wine. If you're lucky enough to be at a winery and the winemaker is in the room, you know, just like happened to walk by, that's gonna be such an amazing experience because this is like one of the things I think people don't realize is that I'm not talking big corporate wineries, which do their thing and do it well, but like small wineries, these are mom and pop places that are like they are proud of this. This is like, this is like the parent that's at the high school sports game watching their kid compete, and it's like, well, you know what? Let me tell you about Bobby. When Bobby was in fifth grade, Bobby used to run up and down these hills. I knew he was gonna be an athlete, you know. And like I've had so many experiences like that. Well, you know, when the vineyard was getting going, this is what I had. And I just sat there and I'm enthralled. And I'm just like, tell me about this while I'm enjoying this amazing beverage, you know?

SPEAKER_01 28:17

I was just gonna say, it's like the wine is their children. Um each each type of wine they make, it's it's like a child because they they're there throughout the whole process, you know. You have to grow the grapes, tend the vineyards, harvest at the right time, then do all the processes in the cellar to make the wine. And that takes a year or more. It's yeah, you know, we just see the finished product in the bottle, but they see everything. And that gives the wine, you know, it gives the wine history, it gives the wine personality. They know the struggles that went into making the wine, or you know, the joy of, you know, when the wine started turning out to be the way they wanted it to be, the way they envisioned it. Um, so it just brings a lot more depth to that conversation by talking to the winemaker about it.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Right. Well, I want to ask you this. Um, was there a um you know, you talked about Bordeaux being a foundational part of your wine experience. You know, every day there was a glass of Bordeaux on the table. But was there a producer, a mentor, or an experience early in your career that helped shape the way that you think about wine? You said that you went to this amazing wine program that you learned a lot about wine. But was there anything else? I mean, obviously, your experience of tasting all of these wines every week, I'm sure, can you know, I God knows that I would love, love, love to go have some glasses with you and like have you go, this is why this is good. I'm like, okay, that's awesome. And this is why this is bad. But was there something that really helped you understand wine more deeply or just shape the way you look at wine in general?

SPEAKER_01 30:04

I think it was a gradual process for me. I mean, I was interested in wine, but didn't know very much about it when I was a teenager in a university. Um but when I did this wine course at Le Corps d'Anbleu, I had a really good teacher. His name was Mathieu Languerre, he was um or is uh master of wine. Uh sorry, master sommelier. So he's really into his wine tasting, and I think he instilled that passion for tasting in me. Um like we could talk about wine for for ages, and he he I think I think I I was already passionate about wine, but learning how to taste from him was a really fundamental and formative experience.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

That's amazing. I want to ask you this too, because when you go tasting, um, is there anything you go to a winery, is there anything that you focus on in the the experience at the winery that you think other people might miss or are not focusing on?

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Um, I think it's a bit of a tricky question because in the last few years, if I went to a winery, it was on work. So it was to assess the wine. Um so I I was essentially a journalist for wine. So I would assess the wine, write a tasting note, give it a score, and also take notes on the vintage or the challenges of that year, or other things that I could write in my report. Um so I think I was definitely a lot more attentive to a lot of things than your regular person visiting a winery. Um and I think I'd ask more questions about um, you know, the process behind things or trying to make the link between what I tasted in the wine and why that is, you know, the wine-making process. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

I love that. I want to ask you this though, because like for me, um I have a weird taste in wine. I I I am eclectic, but I love Pinot. I love um oh man, what else do I love? I love Sauvignon Blanc, but I love Chanon Blanc. I I I like to tend to like more mellow wines, you know, things that are drinkable and easy, but I've been getting to know things that are I had an amazing Barolo the other day. And but for you, what what what do you start pouring for yourself? You're gonna go out and have a you know, uh three glasses. Let's say you're gonna pour three glasses for yourself and your friends. What are those three glasses gonna be?

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Oh it's challenging. Um I I like I like a lot of wine, but I would say that if I'm kicking back after a long day, um champagne is probably something that I could drink any day with anything. Um I I just I love it. It's one of my favorite drinks. So let's say I had three glasses, one would be a nice champagne, one might be a nice Chardonnay, not a super rich and buttery Napa style, but maybe either a burgundy or something fresh from Oregon or from New Zealand or from South Africa, and then I'd probably have a Pinot Noir as well, uh, also something a bit more elegant, um old world style.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

I love it. I love it. I love the uh I love the old world Pinot's and I I do also enjoy I never got into the Napa shards, like they're so buttery, they're so so buttery, and I like a a shard that's a little bit smoother. I don't know, just me.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Again, it's it's all personal taste. I think it's what you're used to, and I think your taste can shift over time and it can even double back and circle back on itself, you know, in a few years' time. You might like drinking what you did 10 years ago, who knows?

SPEAKER_00 34:22

Yeah, right. If you were to um have a Aladdin's lamp, magic lamp, right now, and you can go poof, and there's any bottle in front of you, what would you like to have suddenly magically appear in front of you? Any vintage, any year.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

Oh my goodness. Can uh could I change it? Could I have that lamp transport me to a cellar? And then I could walk around the cellar and be like, oh, let me check out what library vintages there are in that cellar.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Yes, that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Um oh man. I don't know. I mean, there's so many.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

The problem is gonna be we're gonna pull the whole thing that you're not allowed to do. We're gonna wish for more wishes because there's just a lot of more cellars, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

I'd I'd transport myself to some of the old cellars in Champaign. Those those caves stretch for like miles. I'm not joking. Like they literally stretch for miles. Um, and you've got some stuff from like you know, World War II, if you were lucky. So I'd probably go to one of those, maybe go to you know, one of the longer houses like Tetanger, Paul Roger, I don't know. Yeah, just explore.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

I love that. Uh for someone who's watching right now who wants to get a little bit more into wine, what what do you recommend they do?

SPEAKER_01 35:51

I'd recommend that no matter what you're drinking, share it with someone and talk about it. Even if that other person isn't into wine, I think they're still most people are still curious, right? And if you start a conversation, you might end up looking up information about the wine. You could end up down a rabbit hole about the story of the wine or where it's from. So I think sharing it and talking it with someone is one of the most important things you can do. And then secondly, to be mindful about the wine that you're drinking. So have it with food, maybe, and focus on the interaction, or pair it with music and be mindful of that interaction as well. Just savor the wine no matter what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

I love that. Where can people go to find out more about you and what you do, whether that be your fitness or any of your wine journey?

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Um, I'm active on Instagram, so I've got two handles. There's Claire.nesbit underscore. It's what I use for wine mostly. Uh, and then Claire Nesbit underscore coaching is what I use for fitness. Um, I'm also on LinkedIn, but I'm not super active on that, even though you managed to find me there. Um, yeah, I'd say Instagram is probably the way to go.