Thru The Grapewine

Curious About the Journey Behind Your Favorite Wines? Dive into Maggie Craig's Insider Perspective

• Ute Mitchell • Episode 34

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Ever wondered how your favorite wines make it to your table? Join us for a captivating interview with Maggie Craig, a category wine buyer for wine.com, as she shares her journey from a San Francisco wine shop to managing inventory and suppliers for wine connoisseurs.

Discover Maggie's insights on the value of travel and life experiences in shaping her wine knowledge, alongside her upcoming Scotch tasting adventure in Scotland. Hear her candid reflections on being a woman in the wine industry and her tips for discovering the best wines in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and beyond.

Get ready for a vinous voyage filled with fascinating stories and insider tips from Maggie Craig. So, grab a glass and join us as we explore the tantalizing world of wine together!





 

Purchase the wines recommended by Maggie here:
https://www.wine.com/product/domaine-lapierre-vin-de-france-raisins-gaulois-2022/1247889
https://www.wine.com/product/venica-and-venica-jesera-pinot-grigio-2021/1098477

You can also follow Maggie on Instagram HERE

Email: info@thruthegrapewine.com
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Ute:

Hello once again to Thru the Grapewine podcast. I am your host, Ute Mitchell, and before we meet today's special guest, I want to remind you that the Shop is Life has been for a week now, and you can purchase your custom hand stamp jewelry right now. Have any questions about it? Just message me and we'll get that figured out. So the link, of course, is going to be, as always, in the show . So let's get going. So my guest today is a lovely lady that I've had the pleasure to work with, but whom I have not yet met in person, so this will be fun. Maggie Craig is a buyer for wine. com and she is located in Los Angeles, and today we'll talk a little bit about her journey as a woman in the wine industry. So welcome.

Maggie Craig:

Maggie Hi Ute, Thank you for having me.

Ute:

So this is exciting because Maggie and I have been playing tag for, I'm going to say, about a year now. Right yeah, and it's really great that this is finally happening. So I'm going to just get started with my first question. I know that you've been working in an industry for about 10 years. Can you tell me about how you found the industry and why you got started in it?

Maggie Craig:

Sure. Well, I moved to California from North Carolina about 10 years ago. The wine industry doesn't really exist in North Carolina, or at least I didn't know that it existed. I always loved wine. I always loved other cultures. I actually studied international relations in college. All right, I thought I was going to get into marketing with my degree. But I moved to California kind of just on a whim. I just wanted to get a change of pace, sort of check out what the West Coast had to offer, and it's incredibly hard to get a job.

Maggie Craig:

When I graduated in 2014, everybody was moving to San Francisco. It seemed like the tech industry was booming, there was growth happening there, all kinds of new companies, and I just sort of wanted to see what was going on. So when I got here or I should say there I recently relocated to Los Angeles. I was applying for jobs. I was looking for any kind of entry-level position. I could find sales, marketing, whatever but it wasn't working out. It was really competitive. So I figured I should just get a part-time gig to kind of pay the bills until I found the right thing. Then I ultimately got a job at a wine shop, the Fairy Plaza Wine Merchant in San Francisco and it kind of just took off from there.

Maggie Craig:

I sort of just fell in love with wine. I fell in love with learning more about wine, tasting wine, and yeah, I just kind of stuck with it. I never ended up getting into marketing, I never ended up switching to sales, but it's funny because a lot of people get into wine for different reasons. I personally fell in love with it because of my love for other cultures and travel, and it's sort of ironic how my degree in international relations sort of wove its way into my career anyway in a different way than I anticipated it to. So yeah, I just kind of stumbled my way into it. Honestly, I never planned to get into beverage or wine or any of it. It just kind of happened serendipously.

Ute:

Yeah, and that's basically what happened to me. I wasn't looking to get into the wine industry. It was literally I was a kickboxing instructor at the time and I was just kind of casually scrolling on Indeed, and I saw an ad for a tasting room associate for a winery that's nearby, and I didn't know a whole lot about wine I mean, I've been drinking wine my entire life but I decided to give it a try anyway and they took a chance on me. And here we are seven years later and I'm still in the industry and can't quite get away from it.

Maggie Craig:

Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, the same thing happened to me. I just was sort of scrolling through Craigslist looking for whatever job I could find, and I'd worked in restaurants in college but I've always loved drinking wine and I just saw, oh, a wine shop. That looks kind of fun, you know, let me see what it's all about. And the same thing, they took a chance on me, which, looking back, is kind of miraculous, because oftentimes you know they're looking for people who already have extensive wine knowledge or a history in the wine industry and more experience.

Maggie Craig:

So I'm just I'm grateful that you know the manager at the time gave me a chance, even though I knew absolutely nothing about wine. It's kind of funny to think back to it, but you know, it just worked out and it just kind of felt like maybe this is what was meant to be.

Ute:

I hear that a lot in Claire. So you're currently an associate buyer for French and Italian wines for winecom, and this is actually how we met. We both worked for winecom. Well, I no longer do, but can you tell me a little bit about what an associate buyer actually does? I do have a bit of an understanding of it, but I know lots of people will be like I don't know what that even means.

Maggie Craig:

Yeah, sure, I mean, I get the question all the time, even when I was a buyer for retail stores brick and mortar stores. You know what exactly does a buyer even do. It kind of sounds glamorous when you first tell somebody who isn't as familiar with the industry. But I essentially help curate the selection on winecom. You know, in brick and mortar where you're physically tasting the wine and holding the bottles and handling the inventory. You know you're kind of meeting with wholesalers on a personal basis, day to day, tasting different things, whereas now winecom operates on a national basis, so I can't physically taste every bottle that goes on the site as much as I might like to.

Maggie Craig:

Yeah, so we basically coordinate with wholesalers and suppliers, which are the people who supply the wholesalers with the wine. We kind of just manage the inventory and make sure you know they have what they actually say they have. We, you know, work on expanding and kind of curating new selection. We want to have you know the best wine selection, not everything. We want to have you know everything. That's good too. So, yeah, it's just a lot of communicating a day to day changes.

Maggie Craig:

Some days I'm meeting with suppliers and discussing, you know, items that they'd like to see on the site. Other times I'm helping, you know, make sure the orders are being fulfilled, making sure that you know we have the right labels, which I know you're very familiar with. Sure, content looks great on the site, but yeah, it kind of changes day to day. Sometimes I'm at a trade show, meeting with people in person, but it's, it's, it's not a you know, same day and the life of a wine buyer is the same every day. It's, it's, it's always changing, but yeah, it's, it's. That's kind of how I would describe it.

Ute:

I mean, I'm basically just making sure we have the best selection and Focusing on French and Italian right, right, see, and that actually to me sounds like such a great job To have, you know, because you're not always doing the same thing. I think I'm definitely very much that person who needs variety in my life. This is something that you know not that I didn't like working in the tasting room, but especially for the smaller wineries where we had, you know, the same seven wines to talk about and All day, every day, it was fun, you know, it was fun to, and it was fun to meet people and everything, but I definitely am very much a person who likes that, that variety in my life. So to me that sounds like such a great opportunity.

Maggie Craig:

Absolutely. I mean, I had a brief stint working for a winery as well and I just you know, as, as, like you said, as fun as it was and as cool as it was to sort of see you know inside. You know with the winemaking processes, like and and Becoming a little bit more, you know, knowledgeable about a specific brand and really having a better understanding of those wines. That's great and all. But Probably like you, I got into the industry because I love the variety of wine, I like trying new things and you know it kind of becomes a little stale. You sort of feel like you have the same spiel. You're not really challenging yourself anymore. So, yeah, it's, it's exactly like you said. It's great to have the variety. I love that. You know day to day is different. I never know exactly what's gonna happen when I log on to my computer in the morning.

Maggie Craig:

So yeah, yeah, it's it's a great job, for sure, and it and it sounds, you know, kind of glamorous, but it's. It's not all fun and games. I mean, there's boring reports to look at every day, there's lots of emails to handle, and so you know it's, it's, it's great and all but it's. It's got its challenges too.

Ute:

Oh for sure. Yeah, I remember helping out Gosh. It was before Christmas and Part of the content team was was kind of helping out on that back end and I was like wow, complicated.

Maggie Craig:

Yeah, I mean, the holidays are crazy in this industry, no matter what you have.

Ute:

Yeah, yeah for sure. So you did then go ahead a few years back and I know you passed W said level three, the certification. Did you jump into level two at the point or did you start from level one and then two, three?

Maggie Craig:

Actually I started with level three. Well, you know, I'm really lucky that I learned a lot about wine in my first job. You know we were tasting wines all the time. I was handling, you know, bottles from all over the world. And I actually first started out with the Court of Master Song, leos. I did level one, which is just like a general introduction to wine, kind of just understanding the basics, which I'm pretty sure is similar to level one of W set. But I was told that, you know, just given my background, I should go ahead and just jump to level three. And so that's what I did and I loved it. You know the the court of master songs.

Maggie Craig:

I'm not sure if a lot of people have seen the song documentary and understanding that whole crowd, but it it didn't really appeal to me. The boys club, it's 100% a boys club and it's stuffy a little bit, and you know it's not to bash people who are on that route. But I learned pretty quickly that I had no interest in becoming an actual song. I didn't really. Florida restaurant yeah yeah, you know, service is not necessarily my, my passion. And W set is an amazing program because it focuses on the business of wine as well as understanding Regions and tasting and all of it.

Maggie Craig:

So to me it just felt like a more practical route and I I absolutely loved it. I met some of my best friends through that program and right just felt like I took my. You know, I was able to take my career to the next level by completing it.

Ute:

And, and the fact that it does focus so much on the business side is also what makes the exam so difficult. Yeah because you really have to Think. You know, on a bigger picture, like you know they're, they're gonna say well, if you're a winemaker in New Zealand and you want to produce a seven-young block, you know that is easily available to the masses, and yada, yada, yada. And how would you go about this? And you're just kind of sitting there going.

Maggie Craig:

Oh dear, exactly, you're like I didn't realize you needed to go to business school to, you know, succeed with this program. But no, I I think it's just a more well-rounded way to learn about the industry and so so yeah, I mean, as hard as the exam was and as many hours as I spent studying for it, I, I wouldn't change anything about it. I I think it's just, you know, they're not there to Pressure you. You don't feel like you're being set up to fail. They want you to learn, and that's yes. There's classes, there's instructors, you know, there's study groups and and each week you're learning and you're being taught. I feel like with the court, you're kind of given Materials and told to go study and then you show up for an exam and you know, godspeed. You know the W said it's just, it's, it's truly education, education.

Ute:

Yeah, and we did talk, listeners, about the court before in another episode. I will find that episode and put it in the show notes so you can kind of catch up a little bit on what the court of mass assemblies is all about. So now my question for you is any visions to go for diploma?

Maggie Craig:

It's a million dollar question, yes and no. I. Besides, you know the financial burden of continuing the education. It's, it's a time suck, you know it's. You have to dedicate a lot of your time to studying and tasting and Reading and just it takes a lot of your focus. And While I do think that Diploma could be amazing for me in my career, potentially, I don't know if it's 100% necessary and I also want to just enjoy my life. I like my free time, I, I like my weekends and my partner and I just moved to Los Angeles. It's, it's amazing city. I want to have free time to explore and go taste new wine. And you know, at the same time, when you're so focused on studying, it sort of takes the fun away from wine. It makes it Feel like homework and not you know the thing that drew you into the industry to begin with.

Ute:

Yeah, so.

Maggie Craig:

I go back and forth. I think about it a lot, but We'll see. I I'm not sure. At this moment I don't have plans to do it, but that could change.

Ute:

Yeah, I'm, that's it for me. Level three, I'm done.

Maggie Craig:

Yeah.

Ute:

Oh, I do have the textbook for the CSW staring at my face every day and, and you know, the more I think about it, the more I'm scared of it. But I also I Don't know that part of me just always wants to be in school.

Maggie Craig:

Does force you to continue to learn. Yes, and I do like that. I think it's easy to sort of get into your routine and stop pushing yourself to learn. But yeah, it's, it's quite the undertaking, so I totally get it.

Ute:

Yeah that sure is. I think now and and I keep bringing this up, but I'm an emptiness or now, and you know so I'm kind of filling my time anyway with just you know, things that I want to be doing. I just had a conversation with Maria Ponzi, which the episode just released, and she and I are very much on that same page of, you know, wanting a variety of things in our lives, and it's not just that one thing I want to do. It all, yeah. So now I have all of this time on my hand and I actually can, so it's it's gonna be really interesting those next couple of years to see where this journey is gonna take me for sure.

Maggie Craig:

I actually just listened to that episode and she's amazing and I. What I thought was interesting is she was talking about, you know, that year after Selling the business and they traveled, but then with this freedom came you know, new challenges that Just were kind of unexpected and and so it's. You know, no matter which decision you make, it's you're always gonna find things to kind of distract you.

Ute:

But that is very so. Have you traveled to any of the regions that you're buying these wines from? Like is there? You know? Do you make these connections sometimes and going oh yeah, that's.

Maggie Craig:

Yes, I am really lucky to have traveled to a few places. I could kick myself, because in college I actually spent a significant amount of time in Italy and this was before I was even in the wine industry and Thinking back to all the opportunities I could have had if I knew what I was, even when I was and how close I was some of the most incredible places in the whole world I would have done it all differently. But Now, since getting into the industry I a couple years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to the South of France with my mom, which was a really special trip, and we spent some time in Provence, which was just incredible and yeah, honestly like heaven on earth, and so that was.

Maggie Craig:

That was the first time traveling abroad since getting in the industry and going to wine region and it changed the way I, I I feel like I studied wine and now when I come back, you know, having touched the soil and taste of the wine, and when you come back, and anytime I drink a rosé from Provence, I'm immediately transported back to that trip and I can, you know, remember the smells and I can remember the sounds and and it's and it's just a really special thing and so now I'm kind of hooked. So I also had the opportunity to go to Tuscany a couple years ago with my partner, chris, and he's also in the wine industry. So that was really special for us. You know, just again touching the soil and just seeing the physical location of where these vineyards are, it's just, it's it really just changes everything. And I love that aspect of you know coming back and Smelling the wine and and truly just being able to remember everything about the trip and you just have fun memories that pop up from that.

Maggie Craig:

So I'm hoping to be able to visit some more. I don't have any trips coming up to wine regions. This one's a little bit different. I'm actually going to Scotland in the fall with my family and we're gonna be doing some scotch tasting. So my gosh, yeah, yeah, I actually fun different than wine, but it's still great.

Ute:

I so want to go to Scotland. That is one of our big trips on our on our Bucket list, though I don't drink scotch like I will drink bourbon scotch and and I realized there are some not so smoky scotch Varieties, but I just generally they're. They're far too smoky for me, mm-hmm. I'm having a really hard time with them, but you know I could drink something else in Scotland.

Maggie Craig:

That's definitely an acquired taste, for sure, but you know that's gonna be a small part of the trip. We're going to also, you know, see the beautiful land and my family where we have Scottish heritage and we're going for my dad's 70th birthday, which Was in 2020. So the trip got pushed a little bit, yeah. But so, yeah, you know it's gonna be really special, so that's amazing.

Ute:

Yeah, makes me want to travel.

Maggie Craig:

I know that's the dangerous part of this job is you know, anytime you pick up a bottle from anywhere, you're like huh, let me just look and see what this looks like. Oh, there's a baby feeling to these places.

Ute:

Yeah, so the breeze up. I just need to. You know, I don't know when the lottery or something cool like that, and I can always travel travel for a living.

Maggie Craig:

Yeah, wouldn't that be nice to.

Ute:

You know recordings in every country and, and you know, bring Women of the wine industry of the entire world to take it on the road. That would be so amazing. Okay, moving on. So I feel like we've kind of already covered this question, more or less. Many people find that once they join that industry, there's no getting away from it. Do you feel this way? Do you see yourself working in the wine industry for decades to come?

Maggie Craig:

I definitely do. I love this industry and the beauty of it is that there's so many different routes you can take. There's, within this industry, there's 100 different jobs that you can have. I've had a focus on retail and I've done a little bit of work in wine bars too, but I just love that, everything that this industry has to offer. I love the people for the most part, and it's hard to find a bad day. At the end of the day, we're just talking about wine and drinking wine and learning about other cultures, and travel and food goes hand in hand with this role too, and so it's hard to complain about it and I can't really imagine myself doing anything else. I feel like I'm lucky that I got into it at a young age and fresh out of college and it's my first job out of college, so I just I love it. I don't see myself switching gears. Never say never. Anything could happen, but I definitely don't have plans to leave.

Ute:

Yeah, yeah, I can appreciate that I actually I was ready, you know and not to be taking that into the wrong direction but I was ready to stick with winecom. Unfortunately, you know, I was one of the people who were laid off, but I was having a really good time, Like it felt very, very good as a company. I loved my team, you know, the content team Alma was an amazing manager for me, and so I could have totally seen myself continuing on that route. But, with that said, I may not have ever started my podcast. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's definitely one of those things that I decided doing after. You know, I had to ask myself so now, what, you know, what do I want to do? So it all kind of worked out serendipitously in the end. But so, as a woman, when you think of yourself as a woman in this industry, did you ever encounter any roadblocks that you feel men did not and, if so, how did you overcome them?

Maggie Craig:

Yeah, I mean I wouldn't say that they were obvious roadblocks or, you know, major hurdles, necessarily, but snide comments, you know, I think, just in addition to being a woman in this industry, I was also very young when I started. I was, you know, 23 years old when I first started in the job and I actually became a manager of a retail shop pretty quickly, which again I'm grateful that they gave me that opportunity. But I think youth, coupled with being a woman, kind of contributed to issues that I had, whether that be with fellow management thinking that I'm below them, or customers saying well, you know, there must be somebody above you I can talk to, or, you know, just maybe people assuming that I don't have the knowledge and education that I do and I am qualified to be holding these positions, and so, yeah, those things definitely, you know, reared their ugly head and, like we mentioned earlier, the boys club mentality that comes with some of the higher education in this industry. That's there and it's definitely present. But I was really lucky that the owner of my the fairy of Plaza Wine merchant the first job I had in this industry was a woman and she was very powerful and strong and she was an inspiration for sure.

Maggie Craig:

But you know I looked up to her and I could just see the way she handled things and you know she didn't let anybody bring her down or talk down to her or, you know, get in her way at all. She was just really an inspiration. So that was something I looked up to. And I had another coworker who then turned boss and now friend, give me my first buying job and just having women who kind of paved the way ahead of me, it just helped me keep going. So to just kind of ignore the comments, ignore, you know, the attitude that I could sometimes be faced with, but you know I tried not to let it get to in a way. You know I also have an amazing supportive partner and I come from a really strong mother and she, you know, just having the support that some people maybe don't have, kind of help you keep going.

Ute:

But yeah, I think it definitely does help to have these other female role models. I definitely I have a very strong mother and it's so interesting because, you know, she's post-war Germany where that generation was really kind of breaking out of this mold. You know, by the time my mom was a young adult, she was like you know, what are you saying? I can't have my own bank account. What are you saying? I can't make my own decisions about where I'm gonna work? And you know all of those decisions, and so she was definitely one of those. I'll show you so. And then, of course, you know, having other women in the industry is very, very helpful, I think, to look up to, and this is why I love having you know some of these women on the podcast and being able to talk to them and having them be very, very open and candid about what they think you need to be doing in order to get where you want to be.

Maggie Craig:

Right, no, totally. And just listening, I've listened to several of your episodes and just hearing everybody and you know what they've gone through and the different positions they hold, and it's just very inspiring and I love the community that you're creating and you know, I love that there's so many women and wine, you know gatherings and boards and it's just, it's really a special thing.

Ute:

Yeah, I agree. So to pivot just a little bit, you obviously started out in San Francisco and then you relocated to Los Angeles. Can you share some locations in both of those cities that you think any wine lovers should absolutely try? It can be a wine shop, bar, restaurant, something Sure.

Maggie Craig:

Sure, I am still a huge fan of the place I worked in San Francisco, the Fairy Plaza Wine Merchant. It's a huge retail and wine bar. It's in the fairy building on the Embarcadero kind of in downtown San Francisco. They got an amazing selection and they rotate their wine list every week and it's right on the water so it's, you know, just a really beautiful place to check out. It's. They have an awesome farmers market on Saturdays and Wednesdays so I love that place. Whenever we go back I'm always popping in to say hey to everybody. And another wine shop in San Francisco is called Arlequin Wine Merchant. They have an incredible selection as well and they have some older vintages that you can check out and they have an incredibly beautiful patio that's tucked away from the street, so it's kind of a little escape. And then a wine bar that I loved. There they focus a little bit on natural wine but which is great if you want to kind of taste some things. It's called Fool's Arendt and that's on Divisitero. I love all three of those places.

Maggie Craig:

I was a frequent shopper, drinker, all of the above. And you know I'm still new to LA, I've only been here about a year, but checking out some places. There's the famous Wallies, which is in Beverly Hills. I'm in front of that. Yes, yeah, they're massive, they have you know, their walls are lined with bottles. It's pretty impressive. That's in Beverly Hills, which is a scene Kind of a different pace than what I'm used to, but it's really really cool place. And then somewhere I recently discovered is a wine bar called Marvin and it feels very European. You walk in it's got this great little like bistro lounge they do you know cafes and or espressos and lattes and you know kind of coffee shop by day, wine bar by night, kind of I, which is a great place.

Maggie Craig:

Really really cool. That sounds cool, yeah. And then of course I, you know, order my wine from work at winecom a lot and spend a lot of time at home drinking. I don't spend a lot of time at home drinking, but you know what I mean. Like I said, my partner is also in wine, so we have a good time cooking and TC music and yeah.

Ute:

So that sounds amazing. Well, thank you for that. I will try to put some of that information into the show notes with links. Now, if someone wanted to get into some French wines, italian wines, but they don't really know or don't want to spend a ton of money you know yet, how would you suggest that they go about it? I know that winecom has a really great search tool that lets you filter by region and by price and varietal and ratings etc. But any other words of wisdom for breaking into those French and Italian wines?

Maggie Craig:

Yeah, I mean, like you said, winecom has great tools to kind of teach you and show you things, but I also think, just popping by your local retail store whether that's a K&L or a smaller independent retail shop and seeing if they host any tastings, I think that tastings are a really great way to not only try a bunch of different wines but help you understand the differences between wines. You know, when you are new to wine you can try. You know, whether you're trying a barbara for the first time or a San Giovese for the first time, it's hard to understand the differences until you taste them side by side. Sure, and sorry for the loud noise, but I think that you know tastings are a really affordable way to get the most bang for your buck. You can try a variety of things without fully committing to a bottle or buying something and not really knowing what you're getting and sort of regretting your decision once you open the bottle. So if you're new to it and you don't want to necessarily commit, you know checking out wine shops, they're really really helpful. You know, in there too, they want you to learn, they want you to, you know, find the bottle that you like, no matter what your budget is yeah, I used to say that all the time to people.

Maggie Craig:

You know they'd say that I want something that's, you know, around $15, but can I even get a good wine? That's $15 and it's absolutely you can, and you know, whatever wine you like, that's a good bottle of wine, you know. It doesn't have to be a $100 bottle or more. And if you're not going to pick up on the nuances of some of those higher priced, more expensive bottles, then don't, you know, feel the pressure to buy it just because somebody tells you it's go or it has, you know, great ratings. Yeah, so I think, just checking out some local spots, and again, they want to help you and, and you know, winecom has a really great chat program where there's people on the other side of the computer actually helping you. It's not a bot, you know. There are people helping you pick up.

Ute:

Yes, they're real people, guys, they are. I've met them. They're real people and they will help you.

Maggie Craig:

They're real people. They will help you and they want to help you and no matter what, you know, your parameters are whether you have something in mind or you want to try something new, or you have a pretty strict budget. You know they're. They're really great and there's a ton of variety out there.

Ute:

Yeah, for sure, yeah, and I mean they want you to come back. You know, ultimately I think that's what's so important is, not only do those wines exist, but as a you know salesman, you know, you know you can do that, you can do that, but as a you know salesperson, or as winecom or whatever, I, I want your business. I want you to come back. So you better believe that I'm going to help you to find whatever it is that you need at this point in time.

Maggie Craig:

No, exactly, and you know, maybe, I, maybe it's different in other industries, but in our industry in particular, I mean, we're passionate about the wine we're drinking. We want to share, you know, our knowledge and we want to share what we think is so special about certain bottles. So it isn't just us trying to sell something for the sake of selling it. I I, I, you know kind of geek out when I'm talking about wines that I love sometimes and maybe I take it too far and people don't know what I'm talking about. But I, you know, it's because I want to share it and I want you to get the most out of it as well.

Ute:

Yeah, I know how when I talk about a wine. So I manage a tasting room right now and we have like 20 different wines and every now and then I will just go out on like this whole tangent about this wine and because I always kind of adjust my language to who I have in front of me, you can hear me talk about. This is such a perfect marriage of you know the Tempranillo and the Sera. We call it the surreal and you know the Tempranillo is the wild one and the spicy one and then you have the Sera and it kind of balances it out and you know the perfect yin and the yang situation. And people eat that shit up. Man.

Maggie Craig:

Yes, they do. It's so true, it's completely true. Yeah, but I'm always pointing out like specifics in the wine when you're drinking with somebody, they're like oh wow, I never noticed white pepper before I get that now and yeah, yeah. So it's just, it's fun. It's fun to kind of go, you know, on a tangent, but it's, you know, more fun when people actually understand what you're saying. Yeah.

Ute:

And yeah, I love it. And you know I say people eat that shit up like it's something bad, but really it's so fun because when I notice a light bulb, you know, above a person's head, I know that I did something, you know, and that excites me because I, you know, I almost feel like I ignited a little fire or something. Yeah, for sure I'm not gonna guess that may sound, but it really does feel that way sometimes and I love it, love, love, love it.

Maggie Craig:

Totally agree. That's one of those fun things about our industry, yeah yeah, for sure.

Ute:

So can you then recommend a few labels that you think we so me, my listeners should try when we try to break into the Italian and French wine market?

Maggie Craig:

Sure, there's a winemaker in the Beaujolais region of France that I love called Marcel La Pierre, and you know the grape there is, gamé, which if people are not that familiar with it's a lighter-bodied, kind of juicy red wine, and I gravitate towards the style of red because I do a lot of tasting for my job and at the end of the day my palate is sometimes really exhausted and I just want something that's lighter and easy to drink. And some of the wines can come in at a higher price point from him. But there's an entry-level wine called raisin galois that comes in under $25, maybe around $20. That's a great one and I think it's a great introduction to the region if people are, you know, not familiar with it.

Maggie Craig:

And then another wine that I've been drinking a lot this is, I think, a great example of what Pinot Grigio can be. It comes from a producer called Vanica and it's a true example of Pinot Grigio. I think a lot of people picture super crisp, dry, almost like clear-colored wine when they think of Pinot Grigio, but this one actually has a little bit of color to it. It stays with its skin a little bit longer, so it's not fully an orange wine, but it's got a hint of like a pink hue to it and it's incredible. It's just complex, it's got different layers to it and, yeah, I just think it's a great representation of what the great Pinot Grigio can be, because I think sometimes that it's sold in mass production and just kind of taste like cold white wine and, you know, the grape can actually be really, really beautiful and have you know more complex notes to it.

Maggie Craig:

So both of these are on winecom. I can send you the link for it.

Ute:

Yeah, that sounds great. Well, I love that you made those recommendations because it's oftentimes, you know, if somebody you know gives recommendations, they'll go like really complicated with their wine, and I feel like you know Pinot, grigio and Beaujolais are such easy wines to get into. So I think those recommendations are great. So thank you so much for that. I appreciate it.

Maggie Craig:

For sure, and it's not just, you know, recommendations I'm trying to think of. I order these wines on repeat all the time, you know, and they have great house staples for me and you know the nice thing is that if you try some of these, you know these are grapes that you can find everywhere too. So if you like this style of wine like if you've never had gamé before, and you try this wine and you like it, you can go into your local wine bar or shop or even grocery store. They sell gamé at Trader Joe's. You know, you can. You can find different producers that you like and it's just great talking points. For if you went out to dinner and you're, you know, and say I had a gamé the other day, what do you have on this list that's similar to it?

Ute:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maggie Craig:

And that's how you find new wines.

Ute:

Yeah, that's great, awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah, you're welcome. So, to finish this off, if you had to start over in this industry, would you do anything differently or do you feel like your path is just exactly how you would hope it to go for literally anyone looking to break into the wine industry?

Maggie Craig:

Honestly, it's going exactly the way I would want it to go. If I'm, if I'm being truthful, I love that I've worked in different areas of this industry. I love that I have retail background. I love that I've been a server at a wine bar. I love that I have, you know, been hands on and I'm, you know, I learned pretty quickly that I was interested in the buying side of this industry.

Maggie Craig:

I, you know sure, I had kind of an idealized version of that in my head of what I thought it would be when I, when I, you know, first got started. But I, I love kind of, you know, the curation aspect of it and I love tasting and I just am really grateful for the opportunity I've had to you know, both do that in brick and mortar retail and I worked, you know, briefly at a gourmet grocery store and now doing it kind of behind the scenes for winecom and on a national basis. I'm really happy with where I am and I don't think I would change anything. Honestly, I, I, like I said, I learned early on that I didn't want to get too far into service and so ultimately I'm just I'm happy where I am and I think that you know my experiences. I wouldn't change anything because I don't think I'd be in this position today if I did Right.

Ute:

Yeah, I think I would agree with that. For myself, it was definitely a good progression, starting in a tasting room with very little knowledge and then kind of making my way through a couple more tasting rooms a wine bar, winecom, of course seeing thousands of labels and lots and lots of ratings and ultimately, you know, ending up with this podcast after meeting so many women in the industry and feeling like there's a really good niche for me to fit into. And then, who knows what's what's going to be on the horizon. That's yeah, I got a few years, I hope.

Maggie Craig:

Absolutely and a lot of it's trial and error. You know you, like you said, you started in a tasting room and then you kind of thought, well, you know, I love maybe a little bit more variety than this. And then you know just kind of switching gears and you know I learned early on I don't love being a manager at a retail store. Management is not my forte, same with service. It's. It's, it's great and you learn a ton and you learn how to talk to. You know all walks of life, but it's, you know, it's about kind of just, you know, weaving in and out and finding the right fit for you and some of that is okay. I learned I don't like this. Okay, I learned I love this. Now let me figure out how to, you know, stay more connected on this side of things so yeah.

Ute:

Well, excellent. I think that's it for us for today. I thought it was a really lovely interview. We didn't go on too many tangents with great, but this is why, as listeners you may or may not know this I always have questions prepared before these interviews so that my guests know exactly what's going to be asked. Plus, it really kind of helps us to stay on course with the podcast so that we don't record two hour sessions, because I could easily talk for two hours and I think yesterday's interview well, I recorded it yesterday, so it'll be a week after when your episode comes out, but anyway. So Maria's episode was definitely an example of that, which was like oh, it's just ongoing. You know you, just once you're getting into this conversation, you could talk forever and well, women and wine, it's great.

Maggie Craig:

For sure. I mean, it's easy for that to happen when you know it's two people who are in the same industry and have the same love for the same thing. So you know you can start going on and on and on, and so I appreciate the questions that you had for me, just like you said, kept us on track and asked my first podcast, so very easy to talk to you. It was very, very, you know, comfortable.

Ute:

Awesome. Well, I'm glad to hear that. Thank you so so much, Maggie, for being here. Maggie is on Instagram and we're going to have her Instagram handle, of course, down in the show notes. And with all of that, all I have left to say is, of course.

Maggie Craig:

Prost, prost. Thank you so much, ute.