What I can learn from the wine industry

I am taking this class for two main reasons:
1) I want to become a more knowledgeable wine consumer.
2) I am interested in the insights in branding and sales channel management that I can glean from the wine industry.

Regarding my potential as a savvy wine consumer, I have some big disadvantages. Firstly, I don't have a great sense of smell. I cannot easily perceive how much oak there is in wine. I don't easily detect "notes." Secondly, I don't generally like white wine. I have difficulty differentiating the subtle distinctions in taste and texture in white wines, and I have a hard time justifying spending more than $15 on a bottle. Thirdly, my father (quite generously) spoiled me as a teenager with great wine during dinners at home, wine that is resolutely out of my price range for the near future.

Given these disadvantages, I am eager to learn some ways to distinguish good wines from bad, determine the best wine pairings with food and specific occasions, and appreciate some of the complexities and nuances that each wine can have, all at price points that are accessible to me in my present stage of life.

Separately, I have three years of experience in consumer goods at Kraft Heinz and am quite interested in the relationship that consumers have with brands, how brands are built, and how businesses can manage sales channels as new technologies evolve. I believe that several of the insights about the wine industry from this class could be applied to consumer goods in general, and I can't wait to benefit from those learnings.

Wine with Family and Friends

We're 25 and 26 years old now, but that sibling rivalry is still going strong. Wine has been present at many wonderful Villa family experiences, and I couldn't help but feel green with envy as I heard my brother discussing the finer elements of each bottle with my parents. The Cornell hotel school graduate had taken all the beverage classes his university had to offer - beers, wine, and spirits. 

Even with my uncultured palate, I could feel the way in which wine had enriched many of my own experiences. My parents started to become serious about wine when I was in middle school, to the point that my father converted a spare bedroom into a small cellar and started collecting. I had my first drink in the form of a glass of wine at our kitchen table, and just a little over a year ago, my father opened a bottle of Screaming Eagle he'd been saving for ten years to celebrate the birth of my nephew, his first grandchild. The wine itself was not the center of the experience, but it served to commemorate a beautiful moment for our family. Time and time again, I have seen this dynamic play out, in the form of special bottles consumed at family birthdays, weddings, and graduations. 

With my friends, the wine quality may be lower, but the good memories are just as many. I remember many late night conversations with friends over (too) many bottles of wine. When the bottles my dad had left for us ran out, we would sneak into his wine fridge and pull out a few more, doing our best to avoid accidentally drinking anything too valuable. This resulted in me trying lychee wine for the first and last time ever. Here at Stanford, wine has been a wonderful way to connect with my classmates, and again, some of my fondest nights are conversations shared over glasses of wine. 

I want to take this class to be able to engage more deeply with my family on wine discussions, while adding new insight into the economics and business elements that go into bringing each bottle to our table. I already have some insight from my wonderful GST to Argentina and Chile, where we studied both country's wine industries, but I would like to develop a more global perspective. 

Furthermore, while I currently shop for wines based primarily on price point and region (and sometimes a cool label gets me too!), I aspire to become a more educated consumer of wines. Maybe I'll finally be able to gift my parents a bottle that they actually enjoy :) 

Falling in Love with Malbec & Argentine Culture

Back in the summer of 2009, the world felt shaky. As the United States was just emerging from the trough of the Global Financial Crisis, I was finishing up my first year of college and was supremely grateful to be in school. An aspiring economics major who was unabashedly excited to jump right into the labor force, I quickly learned that no firm on Wall Street would be willing to hire an unskilled 18-year-old economics geek (or really anyone, for that matter) at this bleak point in time. Moreover, in the wake of the financial crisis, I was keenly aware that the global banking system had failed millions of people. And so, somewhat disillusioned with the traditional financial industry, I set out to test the theory that financial services could be used to promote financial inclusion and enable upward economic mobility for the poor. This hypothesis is how I landed my first (very much unpaid) summer internship at a tiny microfinance bank in rural Argentina. 

Now, I know that you are thinking something along the lines of, "Nike, stop rambling about finance for once and just write the damn blog post about wine." Ok, well here you have it: I went to Argentina to discover microfinance (this is its own story), and I accidentally ended up falling in love with Malbec. At the tender age of 18, I had not yet been exposed to wine (at least not the kind that didn't come in a box), and so I was thrilled to be of age in Argentina. I was even more thrilled by the fact that the exchange rate allowed me to buy very nice bottles of wine for next to nothing. In a country where I knew no one (except my host family) and was not yet fluent in the language, Malbec facilitated my introduction to the people and culture of Argentina. During my time in Argentina, I opened many a bottle of Malbec (typically from the Mendoza region) with my coworkers, host family members, and anyone else who was willing to befriend a helpless yet aggressively friendly American. I loved the big, juicy, slightly spicy flavors I discovered in those bottles, and I loved even more the conversations about Argentine politics (which are messed up to say the least), Argentine economic history (even more messed up than the politics, unfortunately), music, food, and politics that ensued. Not surprisingly, the Malbec loosened up my tongue and allowed me to flex my Spanish language skills and try out distinctly Argentine phrases without inhibitions. These experiences allowed me to develop my fluency in Spanish and later caused me to pursue a minor in Spanish. Before I knew it, I was an American speaking Spanish with an Argentine accent (I accidentally broke into Spanish in my calls back home more than once...I know this sounds pretentious, but it actually happened), and I was completely mesmerized by the warmth, resilience, and general spiciness that characterized Argentine culture and people. Strangely, I felt very much at home in my new, adopted country, and this incredible experience largely colored the rest of my personal, academic, and professional experiences (in fact, my time in Argentina wove its way into all of my business school applications).

At the end of the summer, I took my love for Malbec back home and introduced my family and friends to my delicious new discovery. (Side note: I did not bring home the Argentines' affinity for mixing cheap red wine with Coke or Fanta, which still makes me want to gag.). Interestingly, in 2009, Argentine and Chilean wines were still relatively unknown in the United States. The available selection as well as the price tags on Malbec have expanded since 2009, but I am happy to see the growing awareness of New World Wines in the U.S. 

Since my time in Argentina, I have developed a growing appreciation for New World Wines, especially those from South Africa (I was so excited to visit the Stellenbosch region last Spring!) and Australia. One thing I'd like to explore in our class is the economic history, as well as the economic outlook, behind New World Wines.

Basically, I am saying that I am a huge economics dork, and I would love an economics-based reason to continue to study (and drink!!) great wines. 

There's always a story

I'm a bit nervous to admit to the class that I'm not really an aspiring wine connoisseur, nor do I drink it regularly enough to become one, but I find myself increasingly fascinated by the craft and the stories surrounding it. 

A glass - or way too many - have been cornerstones of some of the most cherished memories of my life and they are often the beginning (or end) to a great story. The wine-and-dine extravagance of my first job offer, the lubricant of 6 hours of conversation deep into the night on a Paris street corner, the accompanying toast to a romantic evening of live music on the lawns of Ravinia. 

Wine creates stories, but I want to learn about the stories of its creation - how passion is infused into its making, the history behind the craft, and what future it aspires to. I'm inspired by the passions of others and the dedication they bring to their life calling. 

Though maybe an unfair characterization, Somm (the documentary) really embodied how far the journey into a lifetime of wine really could be and just how deep one could go and still not really understand it all. The the hallmark of a calling, something I can improve on every day but never perfect is what I can see in wine. It shares the same characteristics - complexity and everlasting learning - that underpin some of my favorite hobbies. 

So for me, this class is an opportunity to get one level beneath the surface - hear the stories and learn a bit of the craft that has given me a lot to tell already. 

Italian wine and consumer brands

I first fell in love with wine in 2013. I was working in banking at the time and had organized a dinner to celebrate the closing of a deal with the bankers, the management team of the company we were working for, and the lawyers. We had reserved the private room at Locanda Verde, an upscale Italian restaurant in Manhattan, which had a hefty minimum attached. With only about 12 people at the dinner however, the only way we could meet the minimum was by ordering wine from the Reserve wine list. I distinctly remember my MD ordering a variety of wines from Piedmont, including several Barolos, and I will never forget how delicious those wines were. Since then, wines from Piedmont have always been my wine of choice (although I stick to the Barberas that are <$10 a bottle).

When I traveled to Italy the following summer, I spent a day touring vineyards in Montalcino, and grew to love Sangiovese wines as well. I will never forget the vineyard Podere Il Cocco, where my friend and I spent nearly 5 hours with the vineyard owner, who had taken over the family business and managed the production of large volumes of Brunello di Montalcino by himself.

I love that wine is a universal language that can bring people of all ages, backgrounds, and socioeconomic statuses together. Similar to food, it is something that people can easily bond over, and can immediately bring joy to someone's face. In response to the question "what would you do if you could have any job in the world," I have always answered that I would own a vineyard in Tuscany with a restaurant attached to it, bringing together my love for both food and wine.

I am also fascinated by consumer brands, and having spent a lot of time analyzing brands in the apparel, accessories, and restaurant spaces, I am interested in learning what makes for a compelling and sustainable wine brand. Is branding even important to a wine drinker? I am curious how wine producers think about creating authentic customer experiences, and differentiating their products, given that the wine market is growing increasingly crowded. Lastly, I spent the summer at a direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand in the beauty category; similar to wine, beauty is a category where consumers have historically been reluctant to make purchases online, and I am interested to learn how wine producers and retailers think about increasing e-commerce penetration.