While harvest is underway across wine country, we check in with the hosts in this episode. Unsurprisingly, everyone reported mighty tight and busy schedules, with Misty Roudebush Cain just in off a night harvest where she was working with a videographer for St. Supery hours earlier.
Lisa Adams Walter announced a new initiative headed by Napa Valley Wine Academy (NVWA), America’s Premier Wine School, and Albertsons Companies, a leading food and drug retailer with more than 2,200 stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia, across the United States. NVWA has developed a proprietary certification program for professional wine stewards within the Albertsons brands. (Listen to our show with NVWA Founder and CEO Christian Oggenfuss here.) Their beverage stewards can take the courses online while on the job, to earn two different levels of certification: Wine 101 and Wine 201.
During the show Lisa also talks about a very special and rare bottle of sherry from 1906 she recently got to sample (and mighty tasty, she reports) at a special event. And she shares her personal recipe for Frosé, a blended cocktail gaining popularity.
We were all excited to hear from Misty about St. Supery’s latest art gallery exhibit since there have been few shows held in person during the pandemic. Their latest show does follow all safety protocols for those visiting the winery’s gallery.
Celebrating unsung everyday heroes who make a difference in communities and neighborhoods across the country, the #InJoy Everyday Hero project, is an event and exhibit that St. Supéry hopes will inspire people to give back and spread joy.
In addition to highlighting the stories of everyday heroes on the winery’s website and social media platforms, St. Supéry will feature local volunteers at the winery in its art gallery with the #InJoy Everyday Hero Art Exhibit, presented and curated by Virgie Giles Foundation founders Topher Delaney and Calvin Chin. You can even nominate heroes you know to be featured.
Marcia reported in on a number of wine industry stories, of which one of the most intriguing came out of China, where officials made the largest counterfeit Bordeaux wine bust ever. A wedding banquet in China’s eastern Shandong province led police to uncover a whopping haul of US$46.5 million worth of counterfeit Bordeaux wines churned out by a Chinese company that went as so far to fabricate a fictitious war with Château Lafite Rothschild for its Bordeaux estate’s back story.
Closer to home, the hosts were delighted to hear Governor Newsom signed legislation that supports sustainable practice in wine, i.e. consumers can refill bottles at tasting rooms. As bottle glass packaging is one of the biggest consumables that is expensive to transport and recycle, this could be a huge win on multiple fronts for the industry to mitigate climate issues.
Following that good news along the same lines, we learned that International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA) has accepted 12 new applicant winery members from around the globe who have committed to tackle the severity of the climate crisis by taking immediate action to reduce their carbon emissions. These new applicants bring the total IWCA membership to more than 20 wine companies spanning 7 different countries and 5 continents.
With the industry news recapped, we turned back to hosts’ activities. We had conducted a deep dive into Misty and Lisa’s careers in a show last spring. So they decided to turn to co-host Marcia Macomber for news on her business,