Dave Moore, General Manager of Schugg Carneros Estate Winery and Author of "Launching Your Alcohol Brand in the U.S." is our guest this week. We dive into Dave's vast experience from wine distribution to overseeing a long-standing family winery brand and everything in between. Our discussion also covered Dave's amazing book, which he has made available for 1 day only, 9/1/25, as an ebook download on Amazon. Click here.

This week we go to the eastern U.S. with guest Erin Robertson, Co-Founder of Hally Wine Company, a full-service wine industry consulting firm. Erin leads the sales, marketing and business development side of the consulting practice. After years of winery marketing experience in Napa, Erin and her winemaker husband/business partner moved to Charlottesville, Virginia. We talk about DTC in CA versus VA.

January Wiese, Executive Director of Texas Hill Country Wineries Association, shares with us the differences between Texas and California wine tourism. We talk about what's going on with wine tasting in Texas and the successes they are seeing.

This is an episode you won't want to miss! Texas wine influencer, Monica Jones, known on Instagram and the web as The Black Wine-O, gives us her insights into wine tasting in Texas. We also spoke about why she is passionate about "Creating A Simplified Approach To Wine Consumption for Millennials of Color."

In this follow-up to our talk with Jacki Strum, Wine Enthusiast President, we spoke with Anna-Christina Cabrales, the Tasting Director at Wine Enthusiast. She gave us an incredible view into their wine review processes and procedures to ensure all their reviews are fair and unbiased. She also covered how and where reviews are published.

This episode is a wealth of winery investment knowledge! Guest Pat DeLong, Founder and Managing Partner of Azur Associates Strategic & Financial Advisory, shares his insights on the current investment climate for wine businesses. His vast experience in the industry made for an amazing conversation about what is currently going on in the industry and what we might expect in the future.

So many hats, so little time! The life of a boutique winery owner/winemaker is a lot, even for Robert Schermeister, who owns Schermeister Winery with his wife, Laura. Rob talks with us about his journey from aspiring scientist to assistant winemaker at a couple of famed Napa brands to starting and running his own boutique winery.

In this episode, we are honored to talk with Jacqueline Strum, President and Publisher of Wine Enthusiast Media. Our discussion focused on what wine industry professionals should understand when it comes to wine publications that are written for the consumer. She gives us insight into how they find editorial pieces and how they approach creating content differently for print versus online.

Guest James Barrett, Senior VP, Commercial Banking at Comerica Bank, gave us some insights into the relationship between wineries and their banking institutions. These are challenging financial times for everyone, but James is optimistic and says there are good opportunities out there.

Think you know what the end-to-end marketing of wine entails? Guest Theresa Sanchez, Principal Instructor of the Wine Marketing Program at UC Davis's Continuing and Professional Education, talks to us about the annual program that takes place in July. From amazing speakers to networking with others, this program covers more than you might think. It's never too late to learn a bunch about the wine industry!

Want to be a winemaker? Whether you do or don't, you'll enjoy listening to guest Cindy Cosco (owner/winemaker of Passaggio Wines) talk about how she went from a harvest temp to lab manager to winemaker at large custom crush facilities. She's an advocate for the wine industry to come together to solve the challenges the industry faces.

Today's guest, Brigid Harris, has over 25 years of executive experience in marketing and sales. She has run DTC programs for Markham Vineyards, Stag's Leap, Robert Mondavi, Prisoner, and more. Now, she and her husband own Bedarra Vineyards. We asked her about her experience developing tasting programs that attract and engage guests.

We questioned guest Jeff Nordeen, Co-Founder of NordicClick, about all things SEO, Paid Media (aka Paid Search) and Analytics. Ok, we couldn't cover EVERYTHING in just an hour, but we covered a lot. Our goal was to help you understand what these things are and why wineries should consider using them to improve their performance.

We’ve all experienced that manager, the one who is a jerk and seems to want to sabotage their staff. Kelly Burke, Founder of Breezemont Group, talks with us about developing effective management and positive workplaces at wineries. From her work as a professional coach, Kelly gives us the lowdown on what it means to be an effective manager, how to invest in your team members so they become more effective, and how to foster a work environment where everyone thrives, including your bottom line. If you’re a manager, what can you work on to be better?

In this episode, we spoke with Sam Filler, Executive Director of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, about the wine and grape growing industry of New York. NYWGF promotes the image of New York grapes and wines to benefit farmers, producers and consumers responsibly. You don't have to be a New Yorker to gain some insight from this podcast!

President Jim Tresize and Executive Vice President Michael Kaiser of WineAmerica (aka The National Association of American Wineries) spoke with us about public policy and the wine industry. WineAmerica works to advance public policy favorable to American wineries and vineyards. We touched on topics such as tariffs, nutritional labeling, agriculture labor needs, and the 2025 Economic Impact Study of the American Wine Industry. So, just a couple of light topics! Ha, ha.

If you think of shipping wine as a DTC hassle, you're missing a critical customer touch-point and running the risk of losing customers. Guest Karin Strykowski, Director of Customer Success at WineShipping, talks to us about the importance of a shipping strategy to save money and create positive post-purchase experiences.

This week we chatted with guest Ed Feuchuk, General Manager of Farm Collective Napa Valley including Tank Garage Winery and James Cole. Our wine industry conferences conversation covered what they offer, why they're important and how they can be improved. Ed is a committee member for both the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium and the DTC Wine Symposium.

Should your winery pay for membership with your regional association? Our guest this week is Adam Acampora, Executive Director of Washington's Woodinville Wine Country Association. We discuss the benefits they offer member wineries from their efforts to attract visitors to Woodinville for wine tourism to business and educational benefits they offer their winery members.

Our guest this week, Hunter Rudd, Founder and CEO of SommSays, was a blast to talk to. His ideas on making wine tasting more accessible and extending it beyond the tasting room are exciting. With an MBA from Duke, this former Special Forces soldier is not only making wine tasting approachable for people of all wine knowledge levels, but bringing the data his wine game captures back for producers and wine sellers to capitalize on. How? You gotta listen!