How to UnWined during the Apocalypse.

How to Unwined During the Apocalypse explores the lighter side of uncertain times through conversations about wine, spirits, food, culture, and the simple pleasures that keep us grounded. From building the ultimate apocalypse wine cellar to discovering hidden gems, pairing comfort food with exceptional bottles, and debating which wines deserve a spot in the bunker, this podcast proves that preparation doesn't have to be boring. Cheers!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Right now. Welcome to our fourth episode of Salmon Somer. I'm Floyd. And I am Aaron. And we are going to talk about why are we doing this? What is the point of drinking all this wine? What is the meaning of the thing? What's the meaning of this so-called life? Is it just because you know we're just we're ballers? Well, I'm not a baller. Aaron's a baller, but I'm not a baller. He's single and he balls. Me? I'm married and I don't ball like I used to. Gotta change diapers. Gotta make sure kids have food and they eat and you know, stuff like that. So we are gonna talk about why are we doing this? Why are we talking to you guys on a podcast? Why did we just develop this relationship with, you know, the things you know we love talking about, like wine, beer, and spirits. Why do why did we take this up as a career? Why did we jump into this? What do we love about it? There's so many things to discuss, and I think that this is a perfect opportunity for us to get to you guys and discuss and talk about what makes us do what we like doing. And I can either lead off or age for beauty. All right, so well, it's true. Well fuck you. Well, I think that if we are gonna start off this topic, it's you know, we have to understand a little bit about where we all started, where we came from. I think that if you want to understand who I am, I've told you. I I have a wine store in Melbourne, it's a great little store, small, and uh have another store in uh Teaneck, and it's something that I really grew to love getting in this industry. Um I used to be a teacher. I used to teach in West Orange, New Jersey, and you know, it was just something I loved doing. I wanted to help kids, I wanted to be an educator, I wanted to make sure kids were treated fairly and learned the same way. And then it was just something I came to a point where I was like, you know what, I want to make a change. I want to do something different. I want to make a difference out there.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

I want to keep people drunk.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

I want to make sure people have their wine and beer and their spirits. I want to make sure people are having a good time and partying. Um it's like that Dave Chappelle skit, you know, with Rick James. It's like that's how I wanted to be. Drink up and be merry. Drink up and be merry. Welcome to the China Club. Exactly. That's what I wanted to do. So I decided that, you know, a change of career was good.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

So I got into the You want to promote this idea of just uh you you taught math.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Well, I sixth grade math, yeah. I taught math for about maybe nine years, and I just said, you know what, it's time for me to do something that I can learn, I can grow, and I can be passionate about it. I was like that about teaching, and that's why I think I jumped into doing something with wine where it comes to educating and pairing and stuff like that. So it just was a great opportunity for me. I purchased Dorm Millburn and just started learning the business from day one, how it works, how does it work with distributors, how does it work with pricing? I want to learn about all the new world, old world wines, what tastes, what flavors, what profiles, what went what, and how it just everything. And it's just been a great ride so far. It's just I'm constantly learning. So when you heard our last episodes, you know, it's like there's some stuff there's still some things I'm just learning about now. Like I just always think that wine there's always an education, there's always a point where you can learn more. And I felt like, you know, my career change was gonna be great for me because it's something, it's just the start of what I want to do going further. And I think that since it's an ever-changing idea and premise, it's something that will always still be there. People will need to drink, people will still need to go to restaurants and bars and have parties with family members. Yeah, escape. And I think that that's what's great about the business is because you're constantly evolving. Things change. Once you think you know one wine, there's another wine that comes out. Once you think you know one spirit, another spirit comes out. And from our past episodes, if you've if you've heard them, you know, we talk about wine, we talk about bourbons, whiskies, tequilas, vodkas, cabernets, and pinot noirs. We talk about everything. And that's what's great about this business because things are always constantly changing. You might think you have a favorite one day, you have a a favorite the next day. I used to love Malbec.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Now I can't drink the shit.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Uh like Malbecks to me. I never liked Malbec. I was always the person that was against Malbecs. Like a friend of mine used to come visit um for New Year's Eve, and she was always going, You gotta make sure you have Malbecks. I'm like, I don't like Malbecs, they're too spicy, they're too earthy. It's just something about them I don't like. No, they're the things. Yeah, it's like they're the best wines ever. You know, you gotta have them. Like, meh. And this is and going back, funny story, it was like when I first bought my store. And mind you, when I first bought my store, I wasn't I didn't know half the stuff I know. Uh I always tell the story. Like when I first got the store and I first opened it, after the license was transferred over to me. I remember when I was like, wow, I finally got my first store. This is great. I love everything in here. It's looking fantastic. I'm just gonna build and build and build, it's gonna be great. Customer walks in. Alright, I need a full-bodied wine, and it needs to have the following profile. I was like, full bodied. I was like, alright. I'm sorry, it was light-bodied. And I was like, oh, alright, you know what you need? Need a malbec. And the guy was like, wait a minute, you're you're you're trying to tell me a malbec is a light-bodied wine? I was like, yeah, it's light-bodied. Goes with everything. Anything you eat, it's gonna go with. And the guy was like, uh, not necessarily. Do you know what malbecs are? And I'm like, ah, it's a light-bodied wine, it's great, it tastes good, it's grape juice, go with it. And the customer walked out, and I didn't think they ever came back again. But what it showed me was that I needed to learn so much more about the wine game. And what I started doing from there was listen, just educate yourself. Invite more people into the store, more ambassadors from vineyards, learn more about how the wine is made, where it comes from, and are they marketing it way too much, or are they really just trying to sell you something fantastic? And I think that's where I really started to develop like just a big way of uh a different way of looking at wine was because you know what? You can't look at it through it's grape juice, it's fantastic, goes with just about anything. That was the old way of looking at it when I first before I got my wine store, that was the way I looked at wine, was like, it's grape juice, it tastes good, goes with just about anything you eat. Don't worry about it, it tastes it's good. But the more I learned, the more I was able to focus on if a customer came in and said, Oh, well, you know what, I'm gonna have a steak with peppercorn sauce, or I'm gonna have uh tuna sushi, I'm gonna have Indian food, what goes with what? So over the years I just learned so much, and I think that's what I love about wine. It's always changing, it's always like infinite.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

It's it's always it's it's it's almost like you know, we we talk about or we joke about this idea that uh you know Aaron's going from a caterpillar to a butterfly by getting from wine to bourbon or from bourbon to tequila, but the the idea of wine is that sometimes it's just too much. There's just so much out there, and that's why it's a commitment. And the fact is that, you know, um, you know, I'm not trying to take away from you, but uh you you kind of realize that wine is something that you never really get tired of. There's just different facets or elements of it. So it's like you're talking about like sushi and different types of food combinations and occasions when you have wine. Like I I I can think about certain types of times where I was in a really dark place in my life, and I said, you know what? Uh I I had that Cabernet, and it was like that warming feeling type thing. There was another time where it was celebratory, and I said, you know, let's pop open a really cold bottle of champagne. I'm not talking about Kava, I'm not talking about Cremante, I'm not talking about Prosecco, but like real, like $50, $60, $70 champagne on a good occasion. And again, like it's it's it's infinite. There's so many wines out there it's hard to keep up with, and it never becomes boring.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

No, you're right. It's absolutely true. It's you're never gonna get bored of some of the things they come out with because if you're not familiar with the way the wine industry works, is like, you know, a vineyard could be producing like five varieties of wine. They could have a vineyard where they have a plot of Cavernet, a plot of Merlot, a plot of Sauvignon Blanc, a plot of Pinot Noir, a plot of Malbec. You know, California now they have San Giove's, they're producing that too. So all these different things go into wine production where one vineyard can be like making all these different wines. And a lot of people don't get that. Or some vineyards also, where they make maybe four levels of Cabernet. Yeah. They have their top, they have their, they start to go down and then they have their bottom. But you know, you know, you know a lot about this because you know, when I first met you, you talked about certain wines and you had a certain list and 18, right? Like September 18th. Yeah. And you had your you are always talking about wine and how this wine compared to that wine, this Cabernet compared to this Cabernet was totally different.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

So, you know, why did you, you know, because I this is not like you have a job. You do a job during the week, but then you work at the store on the weekends because you you like I love it. You love it. So explain a little bit about why you're into this.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Uh so I would say, like, you know, at some point, I committed myself to being a recruiter. And don't get me wrong, recruiting is not a boring job. There's always facets of it where one day you have the most outstanding day in the world where you're getting in touch with people, you're making connections, and it seems like you're really making money. You know, I I do a recruiting for RF wireless, you know, semiconductors, defense, aerospace, photonics. It it's exciting stuff. Like it's never actually boring. But there came a time, and I would say it was in the teens, where I got bored. You know, like I just said, like, you know, this is not what I want to do. This is not my passion. If this is all that makes me money, that's great, right? Like, I feel like like most people, I I I know that most people say, do what you love, do what you're passionate about. But it's hard.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

You know, sometimes you just gotta pay the bills. True. The fact is that, you know, recruiting for the areas I'm in, it's not bad at all. It's actually a lot of times it's great. I love the people I work with, but it's not a passion. It's just a way to put food on the table, you know? Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Like anything. Yeah. So one day, um, I think it was it it was definitely 2016 or maybe late 2015. Uh Floyd, I I like all kinds of different music. I'm not sure about you, but I like Eric Prids a little bit. You know what I'm talking about? Not not okay. EDM. No, I do not. Uh he does EDM, you know, kind of like uh electronic music. All right. So at the time I was saying, you know, anytime that this guy does a concert, no matter where it is, whether it's in LA, San Diego, Bay Area, or if it's in the UK, I'll go. Doesn't matter. Alright. My friend and I said, no matter where it is this year, let's commit to it. That year in 2016, he committed to doing a show in multiple locations. So we had the option of going to LA and doing it up there or doing it in New York. And New York was chosen because we said we don't have to worry about air travel or a hotel or spending extra money. So I said, listen, dude, let's get a sick bottle of wine. Happens to be that Eric Prids loves Opus One. So we said, let's find a bottle of it. As you know, Opus One typically goes for what what 325 now? 350?

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Like in that range, like that 300, yeah. Like you're like two, like I've seen in some places, like it's 275, 3 something. It with anything, it always varies. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

So at the time we got it for like 225 because it was 2016. Yeah, it keeps on going up. We got it. I said, this is the best wine I've ever had in my life back then. And I said, I don't know what it is about this. Maybe it's the fact that it's a bond between wine and just having a good time or the occasion. But I said, there's something about this that's just more than just drinking to get drunk. Yeah. You know, it's not like having a shot of J-Mo and a bud. It was really good. So maybe about a year or two after, I said, I want to learn about this more. Got certification. I went for my round two of certification. At some point, I think I met you and I said, listen, uh, you know, I'm not looking to be a box boy. Yeah, I think go fuck you if you want me to be.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

I think you called my store and you were like, look, I'm just looking to get into it. I just want to talk about it. I don't want to work, I don't want to work at a chain store. I want to work at more of like a smaller boutique-ish kind of store.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

No, not even.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

From what I remember.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

I actually put an application into wine library. Which I'll get into another time, but wine could you imagine if I ended up at wine library?

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Oh, yeah. You'd be pushing like their $8 bottle. And I'd be working for Gary V. You'd be like, this this wine, it's a $8 bottle, but it tastes like it's $90. Get off your break.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Get off your break.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

No, it's a continuum, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

No, it's it just uh I think that there's a certain kind of uh synergy between certain types of wine and uh just being able to kind of tell a story. I don't think that wine should be as easy as somebody coming into a store and saying, give me a quick $5 recommendation. I think there's something more to it. There should be more.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

But there is more to it. There is more to it. I think that this business, what's great about the business is you will have customers that they're looking to learn, looking to try different things. Kind of like me. It's kind of like when we sat down, we had a conversation where you wrote up this business model, and you were like, Floyd, we gotta meet, let's talk about this business model, let's talk, we'll go to a common lot, we'll have dinner in Melbourne. And I'm like, all right, let's go. And it's we sat there, we talked, and it's we talked about what our vision was for our particular future, like individually. Was it this by that point? This was part of it. Like this thing, are you talking about the com uh the podcast? Wait, how long ago? What are you talking about? I'm talking about the when we sat when you gave me the business model and you were like, look, I wrote this all up. We need to sit down, we need to talk about all these things I have ideas for. And you gave me like a Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That that oh shit. I I just realized that. So then we went to Common Law. We talked about it, and I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

When you embarrassed yourself that night, heading the toilet, puking. No, I never do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

I haven't done that since college. Disgusting. Disgusting. I haven't done that since college. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

No, no, but it was this was like the tenth idea of 20 ideas.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

But this was like when I forgot about that totally. But this is when I used to little backstory. It's um so Aaron, when he first started, we went to a wine tasting in Summit. And I started talking to Aaron, and Aaron got very nervous. So I was like, Aaron, so uh, you know, so let's say in a year or two, or three years, four years, if I said, look, let's do more with this business. Let's you seem to be into it, let's do it. And all of a sudden, Aaron started stuttering. Couldn't answer me. And I was like, Aaron, I'm not, I'm just trying to talk to you. Like, I got some ideas. And I was like, so how about if I this is my vision for my store? This is my vision for the future for the for the business. How about if I asked you to jump on board? It was like this, it's like the what if? What if, what if? And Aaron was like, Marvel, what if? And you were like, Well, uh, what uh well, I can't, I don't know. Uh uh, and I'm like What do you mean, Channel? I'm like, I'm just asking some general questions. But this and over time. Can I interject for a second?

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah, of course. Okay, so you gotta keep in mind something here. That uh when I first met Floyd and we were working, my first wine tasting was just very boring. It was it was meant for like a like a concert for the community. And it was like, you know, just I don't know, 40, 50 people. The next one was a bigger one, and it was really fun. This one was almost like an office suite.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

This was a barrel tasting of the burgundies that were coming out.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Yes. So it was but but it was it was small. It was small. It was small, but the fact is that more inclusive. There were certain burgundies we were trying that were retail priced at $2,500 a bottle. Yeah. So you gotta keep in mind, me and Floyd were both trying to take advantage of this price point. So we were not exactly sober when we were having this conversation.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Yeah, towards the end, no.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

But when Floyd decided to ask me about my actual future in this, and I was saying Weren't we hanging out by like the most expensive?

SPEAKER_01 20:31

We were hanging out by the most expensive one.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Oh no, I remember there was there was a whiskey barrel, or there was a wine barrel. There was a wine barrel. We hung out by the most expensive burgundy. There was three burgundies on there, and I was practically hugging the barrel and saying, like, nobody, nobody, nobody go near, I'll bite your fingers off. But no, we we we were taking advantage of the fact that there was some really good burgundies. So when Floyd was asking me this, sure, I was stuttering, but at the same time he thought I was asking him to be a partner.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

He was like, wait a minute, I don't have I can't do what this is too soon.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

There was a time where Floyd's eyes rolled back and he was asking me to write him a check for 30 grand. It'll work every now. It'll work out. Yeah, 50 grand. Exactly. Now it's 40 grand. Uh but the whole idea is that, like, in general, there are people that feel like they're in shitty circumstances. They do not want to exactly admit that they're in shitty circumstances, and uh wine seems to be a very calm denominator between me and Floyd because we can kind of talk about it in this very holistic way. There's not one type of wine that we like or dislike. It's broad. And I think the argument is half the fun.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Is it not? Oh, most definitely. I think that's that's why. If you live if you've listened to the like the other episodes, we always talk about you know we don't always agree, but we have fun talking about it. So why stay at a store and talk about it and nobody gets to listen to this? So to go back to where we were at Common Lot was more of like the fact that okay, we had this, we were discussing this business model, and podcast was one of them. And I had mentioned him, my sister-in-law said, You gotta start a podcast, that'd be great. She said, You you two sound like you would be hilarious on a podcast. And I said, I don't know. He gets nervous when I talk to him about anything, about doing something. It's always like he's scared. I don't know. She's like, No, no. And I said, Well, he I I don't know. I I just have this feeling he might not go with it. And what do you notice is on the top of his list? Podcast. And I said, Alright. So I said, obviously, this is a sign we gotta do it. We gotta get out there, bring all of this joy, fun, hatred, laughter, everything we talk about to the masses. And it was something we said we're gonna do. And I think that it's great that you have two people with different ways of looking at things putting it all together and putting it out there for people to listen to and continue to listen to us because we have a lot to offer. I think that when you look at wine, it's always changing. People are coming up with new ways to make things, they're figuring out new ways to market, produce. I think with spirits, there's so many spirits coming out. I think that when we talk about bourbon, man, there's bourbons coming out from every state. I don't even know which state to start in. Shit. No, no, but look at Caribou Cross. Look at Caribou Crossing, what you talked to me about.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Canadian different episode, different crap different episode, but it's Canadian. Actually, that's episode five.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

It's what's in a label. What's in a label? But I mean, like, that's what's so great about all this, is because and it makes our job easy, is because there's so much to talk about. Your job is not easy. Where's too much to talk about? I'm talking about the podcast. There's too much to talk about. We have a plethora of things. Like, it's like we talk about bourbon, wine, this, that, this, but that's what makes this fun. Is you have two different ways of looking at things. You have one way of going, look, there's spirits, there's wine, there's two ways of appreciating it. And which do you choose? Not even which do you choose, which do you agree with a little bit more than the other? Which do you want to go with? Which do you want to go with? Yeah, exactly. But I think our talking about it is what's gonna make it fun. And I think that the reason we got into doing this podcast is because I think your wife sounds like she's angry, right? I think she's angry. I think that I think that's that's what makes it fun. It's like we have to continue to educate people and make it an experience, not just go into a store, I'm just gonna buy this, I don't know what it tastes like. But we want to make it more of like if you come to our store, you're gonna try it, you're gonna love it, you're gonna bring it home. And if you don't, the next time you come back, we're gonna make it better. Because everything changes. On that note.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

On that note, I good bye.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

We'll talk to you later, and thank you for listening to Salmon Summer. Have a great day.