Redefining Wine, One Can at a Time with Kristin Olszewski - 007

Kristin Olszewski is the visionary founder and CEO of Nomadica Wines. Kristin's journey from being a sommelier to becoming an entrepreneur in the wine industry is not only inspiring but also a testament to her unwavering passion for wine and her mission to redefine how we perceive and enjoy it.

Throughout the episode, Kristin shares her experiences, challenges, and triumphs in the world of wine. From the inception of Nomadica Wines to navigating the tumultuous waters of the COVID-19 pandemic, she offers invaluable insights into what it takes to build a successful wine company.

One of the key takeaways from this episode is Kristin's commitment to making wine more accessible and approachable, especially for younger generations. She recognizes the importance of authenticity in branding and marketing, a concept that resonates deeply with today's savvy consumers. As she aptly puts it, consumers now possess a "B.S. detector" that can instantly detect inauthenticity.

The discussion also touches on sustainability, a core principle of Nomadica Wines, and the exceptional quality of canned wine. Kristin's passion for sustainability and her dedication to offering a top-notch product are evident in every aspect of her business.

Overall, this episode of The DRINKS.COM Podcast is packed of wisdom for wine enthusiasts, aspiring entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in the intersection of wine, marketing, and authenticity. Kristin Olszewski's passion, authenticity, and dedication shine through, making this episode both informative and truly enjoyable. Tune in to discover the fascinating world of wine through Kristin's eyes and uncover the secrets to building an authentic and successful brand in today's competitive market.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everyone, thank you for listening to the drinkscom podcast the business of online alcohol. I'm your host, brandon Amoroso, and today I'm talking with Kristin Olszewski, founder and CEO of Nomadica Wine, a Samae curated, premium, sustainably packaged wine company. Thank you for coming on the show.

Speaker 2: 0:28

Brandon, I'm just so impressed with your pronunciation of my last name. You said it one time before and then it just it rolled off your tone.

Speaker 1: 0:36

I, you know I'll take the credit where I can get it. I'm gonna say beginner's luck on that one, though.

Speaker 2: 0:42

So the person who actually married my husband, and I did not say my name correctly during my wedding ceremony, so I just want to say you're better than him.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Well, maybe I have a future then in a, whatever that term is in, and that was efficient. Yeah, exactly, or I can help with the pronunciation, but thank you so much for coming on. Before we dive in here to some of the topics that we want to cover, can you give everybody just a quick background on you?

Speaker 2: 1:10

Absolutely so. I have been a sommelier in Michelin restaurants for my entire career before starting Nomadica. I actually ended up dropping out of med school to become a sommelier because I love wine so much. My family has still not forgiven me, but spent a lot of time at restaurants like Austria Mosa. I was the beverage director for Sean Brock at Husk and Nashville and you know was by Coastal for a while between and again home Springs, and then worked in San Francisco at restaurants like Stason and Sons and Daughters.

Speaker 1: 1:45

So I have been around and what sparked that initial sort of passion for wine?

Speaker 2: 1:55

So it's funny, I was doing my internship at Dana Farber Cancer Hospital, which is, you know, the best cancer hospital in the US, and every day I would walk in there and I would feel like I was stealing myself to. You know, do something I didn't want. And I think at the time, you know, in my early 20s, I was so concerned with people perceiving me as intelligent. I was the first person in my family to ever go to college and I've always been one of those like gold star humans, like incredibly competitive, just always, like driven to get the checkmark or the, you know, the honors program or the gold star, just without a lot of thought behind it. And I paid for school by waitressing on this little island off the coast of Massachusetts named Nantucket, which is where, you know, moby Dick is set, it's where the 1% vacations.

Speaker 2: 2:54

And I worked at a restaurant that Julia Childs actually opened and it had a very deep Burgundy and Bordeaux seller. I mean, they had been just collecting Bordeaux since the 60s. So the opportunity to taste wines that you know, I haven't even seen in years, to be quite frank, was just unparalleled. And it was a very generous guest. Who that was present there. That was just like okay, I'm opening up this. Pony Montrache, do you want to have the bottle? I'm only going to take a glass. And I really caught the wine bug there.

Speaker 2: 3:28

And then when I went back to Boston, there was this one wine bar near my school, the most incredible owner. She was the first person to really expose me to Alta P Monte and Austrian wines, and really outside of the traditional Burgundy Bordeaux champagne route that many, some ways take at first. And unfortunately she got diagnosed with ALS and that was a really big impetus for me to change my life. Because seeing somebody so full of joie de vives, so young, with so much passion, who, from my perspective, kind of had her life stripped away from her, made me aware of you know how short my life can really be without my knowledge and I just decided to say, screw it, I'll be a psalm, like who knows where my wine career will take me. Being a doctor is such a more clear path. Like you, just put one foot in front of the other and then you get to your goal. But stepped into this world and here I am running a wine company.

Speaker 1: 4:38

And what was the evolution like? From you know, Samae, to deciding that you wanted to start your own business, which probably has even less defined path than being a psalm?

Speaker 2: 4:52

I think I really didn't know what I was getting into and I think many young entrepreneurs would never have started their businesses if they knew what it actually entailed. I think you know, coming from the restaurant industry, I've always been used to long hours. I've always worked really hard. That is something that you know, my family instilled in me from a very young age. Like you, work hard and it was never the hours.

Speaker 2: 5:17

I think I was not prepared for the level of stress and anxiety that a company is being an entrepreneur, like people talk about it but, man, it overtakes your life. But so I was like, oh, I'll just start a wine company. And when I looked at it because the impetus really came from the fact that when I was working on the floor of restaurants like Moza, people my own age would come into the restaurants so excited to eat. You know they just watched Nancy Silverton on chef's table it that that exposed a whole different audience to Michelin restaurants, which is really exciting. But they'd come in and they'd drink tequila and they wouldn't order wine and such a miss. I mean nothing is going to pair with your food like a bottle of wine will. Wine will accentuate and uplift your meal Also. There's just something so romantic it's a living beverage. You're sharing it with your dining partner.

Speaker 2: 6:10

And I would notice that the second I walked over to these young people, particularly young women, and brought them into my world, didn't make them feel bad for their pronunciation or judge for not knowing anything about wine. Let them taste by the glass wines to get a feel for what they wanted. You know, didn't try to oversell them, found them a great bottle at a great price. They were hooked. And I wanted to do that on a larger scale, because I think that there's a huge issue facing the wine industry right now. That's not just my problem, it's everyone's problem, which is that young consumers are not drinking wine. You know, every day a wine drinker dies and they're not replaced. So Started in Nomadico to really solve that problem.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Yeah, I mean I don't. Most of my friends and around my age they don't drink wine. They definitely don't buy wine like at a store and collect it at all, and so I feel like there's also competing. You know alternatives that are coming to the market, whether it's in, you know, lower no-alk or cannabis or whatever it may be that are, I think, more relevant at the lower price points than necessarily the high-end price points. You're not substituting, I don't know like 25-year-old Japanese whiskey for you know a quick RTD from the store. But there's definitely a lot of competition coming in as well and competing for that younger generation. So it's like how do you make wine cool? I think is a challenge as well.

Speaker 2: 7:40

That's been the biggest challenge. And you know we talk a lot about the damp lifestyle and I'm such a big fan of the low and no-alcohol movement. You know I, as a Somalia, have seen a lot of people in my industry, a lot of colleagues, fall prey to alcoholism. It is definitely something to be aware of, but I think that's also the beauty of Nomadica. I think one reason why a lot of people don't drink wine as their kind of, you know, Thursday night drink is because when you open a whole bottle you feel immense pressure to consume it all, and sometimes you just want a glass of wine, but a lot of what's in the single-serve landscape is not quality, and so we really solve that problem. For somebody looking to, you know, consciously consume or drink a little bit less.

Speaker 1: 8:32

That makes a lot of sense and making it more approachable. In that way, like for me, when I go to a restaurant, I just refuse to get a glass because I know I'm paying more than what I should be if I was just getting a bottle. But also, especially being in Miami, I always just bring my own wine because the lists are offensive when it comes to the markups that they put on. But that discovery aspect is really important and you know, hopefully you're not killing a bottle by yourself every night and you're having a can instead and testing and trying new things, which I think is really important. I don't understand people who are like I only drink Pinot Noir or I only drink Malbec, that's so. It's so boring. You need to expand the palette a little bit.

Speaker 2: 9:19

I know, I agree. I think that is part of why I got into wine, because it's really a rabbit hole that there's no end, to always learn something new about. You know, my specialty is Italian wine. And then, of course, because I make wine in California, I'm so lucky to be part of such a dynamic scene of young vintners who are really changing the landscape of what we think of when we say California wine. But, man, there's so much more to learn.

Speaker 1: 9:47

When jumping into the actual business of Nomadica itself. When did you start it? Was it like 2017, 2018? Six years ago, Six years.

Speaker 2: 9:55

Six years ago so, I would say, but our first real year in business was 2020. That's when I left the floor of Moza at the end of 2019 and went full time Nomadica in November of 2019. Of course, we were launching and opening up 10 new states at the beginning of COVID. So what a fun experience that was to survive such harrowing times that we made it.

Speaker 1: 10:23

What I mean. You, when you went to, it was an interesting time for you to start the business, for sure because of COVID. So I guess, how did you think about starting it and expanding and growing and how did you have to pivot because of COVID? And then, like now, how are you thinking about it? As well, as you know, online and retail sort of you know, go back and forth in terms of prioritization for both alcohol brands, but even, just, you know, regular brands in the space that I talked to.

Speaker 2: 10:53

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I am an idealist and so, like, my undergraduate degree is in sustainable agriculture and when I found out that a majority of the carbon footprint and a bottle of wine comes from the actual glass bottle itself, I was horrified. You know, so much of my career as a sommelier has come from telling stories about great farmers and I always felt so, so impassioned by that. I was like what other industry you know, are you supporting great farmers and great agricultural practices and started Nomadica to lessen that? As you know, we only use aluminum that's 100% recycled. We use BPA free liner in our cans. Like and it's true, there is really no difference in the quality of our can Like you put a $20 bottle next to our can and blind taste it 99%. Sure we'd come out ahead on that, but really, really challenging. I had to go convince a bunch of famous winemakers to partner with me because I needed their buy-in on the process. So a bunch of people said no and that I was insane and that it would never work. And Bob Lindquist from Coupe, who's, I think, one of the most legendary winemakers in California you know, he's one of the Rhone Rangers, he's one of the Vittners responsible for the growth of Sira and Grenache on the Central Coast. Like he was the first person to say yes to me and one of the first wines we did was French Camp Sira in a can and I got Bob's buy-in on that and then raised a friends and family round from my regulars at Moza Cause again like I grew up in a well-connected network and so these people who I had been doing their wine for years were like okay, they'll support you, I'll throw like 50K into that. Like let's go. And then just started surrounding myself with great people, great advisors, who helped me open up distribution across the US, and originally I thought you know where can I go that these big wine conglomerates can't? And that was in the on-premise so bars, restaurants, hotels, places where you would be hard pressed to find another wine and can, just because I knew our quality was better than anyone else and because I'd spent 10 years working in that industry. Like that that expertise and those people were my colleagues, not just gatekeepers. And so you know, we got a national deal with the W Hotel. That was kind of our first big break. Or, back in the day, Ryan Bailey, who's now the owner of Kato, which is an incredible Taiwanese tasting menu restaurant in Los Angeles. It's a one Michelin star. He was the first person to take me in at the Nomad Hotel and it was incredibly validating for us and for Can Wine at large.

Speaker 2: 13:51

But we had to pivot pretty hard during COVID. We had not set up D2C, which was a huge miss. It took me six months to get it up and running in 2020. Oh my God, it was awful, and we didn't even have like any retail set up. We were in a few independents but no chain retail, and so it was a catch up game, for sure, and a matter of grit and kind of holding on. But now we're more focused on the natural, organic channel and then e-commerce retail.

Speaker 1: 14:25

Got it okay. And just I assume retail supports e-com and sort of vice versa as well.

Speaker 2: 14:35

Exactly. I mean, omni Channel is everything. You hear it from everyone. Our CMO, shrey Joshi, who was at HealthAid before starting his own agency Good Peeps. I jokingly call him the King of Omni Channel, but he is the reason why my face is all over TikTok talking about wine, because one hand really does feed the other.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Yeah, I feel like that's been a struggle in the alcohol industry, though, to have that mindset sort of trickle through, especially in organizations where you have those that are incentivized purely off of sell through in stores and then those that are incentivized purely off of the sell through online and you have these like competing interests that have been created internally when really it should be like the rising tide lifts all boats type of deal, and consumer habits change all the time. You see, with COVID, crazy e-com spike, then people rush back into stores. Now it's sort of like settling off again. You really do need to be everywhere.

Speaker 2: 15:37

Exactly and you need. I just feel like awareness is everything I mean. You hear it as often as I do attention is the best currency at the moment, and so that's really my focus is how do we communicate all of our messaging and get it out to the young consumer.

Speaker 1: 15:58

And what are some of the ways that you are capturing that attention? You mentioned TikTok, like. What are other ways that brands that are listening should be thinking about when trying to capture that awareness and attention from potential customers?

Speaker 2: 16:14

I think obviously just organic, social, is the best, especially for a brand like us. Very few wine startups are run by women and also somebody with industry expertise. We're really taking a lot of notes from the beauty industry, like some of my favorite brands, like do skincare just glossier, even started by experts or aficionados who use their expertise as a way to crack open the door, and so we are giving our customers a chance to learn about wine with me and become many sommeliers through the act of interacting with our content and drinking our wine. Real life activations are also really important for us. There's no better way to get your product out there than actually getting liquid to lips, and I think Aiden Duffy, our creative director, myself, have really thought about what is the most authentic to us and our brand, and so we do artist partnerships.

Speaker 2: 17:27

For each can, we have the artist's name on the back of each can and a link to their Instagram, and we pay our artists, which I really like to overemphasize. It's not just hey, we'll do this for exposure. I kind of think that's bullshit. But we activate in gallery spaces. We love to support our artists. We love to partner with chefs and brands that are our friends, that align with our ethos. We did a dinner in LA recently with Osma, which is a sustainable clothing company that my friend Chloe Cooks did all the food for, and it's all farm to table like incredible apparel style spread and just showing up in an authentic way and getting people to try your product who are in your community and your network is essential.

Speaker 1: 18:18

And how do you tie out, like doing those in-person activations and translating that over into you know real sales or longevity of a customer, versus these sort of flash in the pan moments of the in-person activations?

Speaker 2: 18:35

Yeah, that's a jury question. That's one of the most challenging things, I think. Again, going back to the attention, content is key here. So, however we can for example, the Osmo thing we were able to get a slew of contact, some incredible photos, and then we can ship out through email and SMS recipes from that to our entire subscriber list. So it's like, okay, you don't live in LA, but you love this clothing company. Make this anchovy dish at home and pair it with our sparkling white wine, the same way that we're doing at this event in LA, and bring it home with you.

Speaker 1: 19:18

Got it, so being able to have that take home. Next step, and then do you leverage I assume you're pushing them towards e-com after the fact as well and leveraging email and texts to reengage with them.

Speaker 2: 19:32

Doing all the things. Also, we're really focused right now at driving people to Whole Foods. Of course, it's our retailer that we love the most and we launched our orange wine in partnership with them this past July, and it's just the right channel for us. It's the right consumer. Whole Foods has really strict parameters in place with how they source their wine, and that's our ethos, as well as all of our wines are sustainably farmed no chemical manipulation, low sulfur, because we just don't need it when you're canning wine.

Speaker 1: 20:09

Would you say that your price point lends itself and also the packaging lends itself better to in-person and the retail environment than necessarily e-com?

Speaker 2: 20:22

Yes, I do. I feel like people buy our wine because they like how it looks. I think most consumers purchase based off the label, and everything about our package screams premium. Our creative director has done an incredible job of communicating how great the quality of our wine is, although online there is so much content to engage with that you don't get at the store level. This has been a big challenge for us because our demo is a young female 25 to 35 year old female and so online you see my face, you know it's female, founded, you know it's founded by an expert. I can talk you through the tasting notes and the quality of it and talk about how it's fermented dry so there's zero grams of sugar, whereas on the shelf it's been more challenging to communicate all of those value props and reasons to buy.

Speaker 1: 21:20

Got it, because that's an interesting point, because I actually think it's the reverse problem for wineries, like when I went to Napa this summer and went into the tasting room, they did like a phenomenal job, since they're there, like of explaining the product and the unique differences behind it and the history and whatnot, but then you go to their online website and you're like I don't even know what this is Like. It just is not tied together in any way whatsoever. And I think it's interesting. Brands like yourself, where you're coming at it more from a digitally native standpoint and very, you know, social media savvy, but you don't have, like you know, the vineyard that you have people coming and visiting and in the tasting room, and then you have the other end of the spectrum, which is those, those businesses, and there's this gap.

Speaker 2: 22:13

Right now, I feel like 100% and I think it's it's kind of the biggest issue right now. That's why I'm I've been so inspired by this recent string of acquisitions by Gallo this past summer. You know Bev Rohnbauer and Mastakin like wow, what in? What an interesting series of business decisions there. And I think Bev has done such a great job of being a digital native brand and talking to the young consumer and showing up on the internet when people were rolling their eyes about it within the own industry, proving that it does matter. And same thing with Mastakin. I mean, two years ago he came out with like his own drink emojis and he did NFTs and has just he is. He is crossed over into spaces that you know traditionally wineries don't, and it's just so inspiring to see.

Speaker 1: 23:16

Yeah, the those acquisitions have been interesting and it also, I think, sheds light to what the bigger players in the industry are focused on. Or are, you know, looking outwards, ahead of? Because I don't know any of those businesses, you know financials or anything like that, but I could just about guarantee that they didn't buy them because of the revenue or they didn't buy them because of their profitability. They bought them because of their ability to, you know, connect to customers. To get all of that first and zero party data, to be, you know, trendsetters. And then you know, by merging the two of all the resources of, like, the larger business, but then you know the creativity and the social savviness of the of the more digitally native brands, they'll be able to actually go after the younger generation in a way that you know clearly is not actually happening right now, like I've yet to see a traditional winery really tap into, you know 30 and under in a way that is in any way relevant whatsoever versus all the aforementioned brands and that you said as well as yours.

Speaker 2: 24:24

So 100% I'm. I am excited to see how it changes as a whole. I do feel like everyone is shook right now. Like, I don't know if you saw, chateau Saint-Michel is not buying the quantity of grapes that they bought in the past. I think they are only taking 40 or 60% of what they bought in the past. Like the wine industry is waking up and I think a few years ago, where they were, you know, rolling their eyes at wine influencers and all the social content around it, now they're realizing that it's a necessity and they're they're running to jump on the bandwagon.

Speaker 1: 25:07

Yeah. So you know, outside of those sort of key things, when it comes to social activations, what are you most excited about going into next year for? For Nomadica, like there, anything that you, if you had to pick three, I would say? Or you know, what are you most excited about?

Speaker 2: 25:35

I'm the most excited about the launch of our boxed wine, which is happening in early October, and we're doing a small launch and expanding, you know, and scaling up as it, as it grows. I really see boxed as the future and I'm very excited about it as an opportunity. I'm also, we launched Orange Wine in July. We kind of reverse engineered our, our perfect orange wine. So my expertise is in Italian wine, which you know. That's kind of how skin contact wine reemerged in the market.

Speaker 2: 26:11

Obviously, of course, it is a traditional style of winemaking that the Georgians have done for thousands of years but was reintroduced in Friuli and Northeastern Italy in the 70s. And so I sent our winemaker my favorite examples of Italian skin contact wines that I think hit all the benchmarks in terms of fruit, low tan, in high acid, approachability. So that if you're an orange wine lover, you'd love this, but if you're just having your first skin contact wine, it's not going to, you know, blow your face off with a volatile acidity or anything. And so we settled on Pallobea Sintakiaura being like our wine, which I like if you can, if you can find it, drink that right now.

Speaker 1: 26:58

I'm not literally, I think I bought it. I have it pulled up on my, on my, on my browser here, because I just got a case of it delivered yesterday, so which I only yeah, because I only discovered it at Kisbaka.

Speaker 2: 27:14

So we're just yeah, we're like ships in the night here. I think that's a perfect wine in my book, so I sent that to our wine maker, coriel Berry, who is so talented and really comes from the vineyard management side. So again, we love farming and we made a skin contact Chardonnay, albarino, griner, certified organic fruit from Potter Valley in Mendocino. That is our California homage to Palo Bella.

Speaker 1: 27:45

OK, well, I'm going to have to try it then.

Speaker 2: 27:48

Yes, Multiple big buyers have said it is one of the best orange wines that they've ever had in bottle or can, which is such a testament to me. And then I'm also. I'm really excited about social Like. I was so afraid to put my face on the internet and our CMO has been mean to me about it.

Speaker 1: 28:14

I'm like make a video.

Speaker 2: 28:15

What's wrong with you. And then you know, every time I make a video he's like why are you doing this weird lip thing? And I'm like, what are you talking about? But we hired an incredible person to come on board and she's, you know, young, really excited, gets it and has been working with me to make all of our content and the response has been tremendous and I'm just excited to make more of that. I, like want to be the Pied Piper for young people and wine on the internet, so that's an awesome to see a lot.

Speaker 1: 28:51

That's an awesome way to put it. I'm going to have to tap into my younger generation roots and get back on TikTok then so I can get some of these, some of these, some tips.

Speaker 2: 29:00

Yeah, you need to be engaging with my content, Brandon Come on.

Speaker 1: 29:05

I'm terrible. I, like you know I can't stand Twitter or X. I, you know, haven't ever really gotten into TikTok. I'm like I'm like my mom, like I'll send Instagram real memes to people and that's about it and that's my, that's my level of social engagement, but now it is. It is very important and especially in, you know, categories like wine. I see it in other categories where maybe it's real estate or things like that, where those have just been inundated with all these quote unquote influencers and and it's like you know, what's real, what's not, there's a lot of crap, but within the wine space, that doesn't really feel like anybody is doing what you're, what you're doing, at least not at scale or not definitely not on those types of platforms either, maybe like YouTube per se, but much more formal and traditional, not like your short clips that are fun and catchy and, you know, educational to a different type of audience.

Speaker 2: 30:05

Totally yeah. I mean, when I'm asked about our motes and biggest pieces of defensibility, you know I'm number one. I don't think anybody else in my space can show up with the type of authenticity that we can you know, I didn't start Nomadica to become a bajillionaire.

Speaker 2: 30:29

I started it because I love wine and want to share my love of wine with people, and I think today's consumer, today's young consumer, is incredibly savvy, brutally savvy. I think they can see through, you know, greenwashing and all the, all the lives and marketing tricks that a lot of businesses have historically used to get consumers, and so it's created the really great opportunity for us.

Speaker 1: 31:03

Yeah, now that. Yeah, what I've seen in other verticals is the. The brands that have the authenticity but also have the founder who can be the face of it are more successful, especially when it comes to social. Like you know, customers don't shop from brands anymore, they really shop from people and the founders behind them, unless you're like I don't know, nike or something like that, but that's sort of a different case. All the you know startups on Shopify that I've seen become very successful for the most part are very founder led, where the founder's story is baked into the product. The founder is. On social, the founder is, you know, sending out the SMS marketing message with, like a selfie of them in the warehouse, like all that breeds a connection that's more one-to-one. You even see it in like LinkedIn. If I post something, you know it could get great engagement. If electric posts something or drinks post something, it gets, like you know, one-tenth of the engagement, because people don't connect to the company or to the brand in the same way that they can connect to a person 100%.

Speaker 2: 32:07

I mean, I've been so amazed with what Jeremy Kim has done and Nectar Hardseltzer. I am obsessed with that brand and obsessed with their entire team and how they just activate and bring like the digital into the real life. He'll have people lined up at HEB in Texas to meet him and be in a video with him and grab some seltzers and he just he shows up as his most authentic self on the internet and it really resonates with people. It's just great to see.

Speaker 1: 32:40

And the BS detector of consumers is like through the roof now. So you can't get away with, you know, anything that's not genuine, and I think it's better for the long run. But I got a couple of fun questions for you before we wrap things up here, first being, what is your favorite wine memory?

Speaker 2: 33:03

See you, david. Okay, so I think my favorite wine memory is it's going to sound like so annoying and somelier, but I love Barolo. I guess Italian wine expert worked at Moza and the first time I had Conterno 14.0, which is kind of thought of as the best Barolo ever on the planet, and it was 2002 vintage, which was a really difficult year in Barolo. A lot of producers did not make their single vineyard wines and Conterno did it. And I could wax poetic about my love of Conterno's Barolo forever, but we'll save that for another day.

Speaker 2: 33:58

And I just remember I grew up in Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts like very rural farmland. My family are all farmers and agriculture has just been such a big thing in my life and obviously the seasonality of Massachusetts like follows our season. You know, if anyone's ever seen like Gilmore girls, like that's the appeal of the show. It's like cozy fall time.

Speaker 2: 34:24

You know the beautiful foliage, the brickline street and my first time smelling Moza 14.0 like brought me back to fall fields, like people just like would build these huge piles of leaves and burn them and it just it brought me back to through like walking on an early morning damp field. You can smell the burned leaves, you can smell the wet earth. There's like this crispness in the air. You know, apple trees are everywhere and it felt like being home for a second. And I've lived in California for a decade plus and I always was just amazed at how the sense of smell in a wine can take you back to a whole other spot. And it's always been amazing to me that, especially a wine like Barolo, which, neveolo, is just the most aromatic, flirtatious grape on the planet that a wine can have so much depth to it that you can just sit there and want to smell a wine for 30 minutes straight.

Speaker 1: 35:32

So that actually leads me to one question Since people are having your wine out of a can, do you recommend that they pour it into a glass, or are they drinking it out of? The can Okay, okay.

Speaker 2: 35:46

So drink it. However, you want to drink it again. This is like my wine philosophy is no pretentiousness. Like I want to really recalibrate what we think of as a traditional song because, like I'm not a traditional song, I'm a woman, I'm like, I have tattoos. I like to talk about wine in an approachable way. I don't want to be pretentious about it. I don't want to make people feel bad, want to rewrite that narrative. I think there are no rules for wine. However, I do suggest that, if you are able to, if you are at home, pour it into a wine glass. It will taste better and we do not need to hide behind the can. If I like to say.

Speaker 1: 36:26

Another good tagline. I hope that makes sense. Second, if you had to pick one bottle and to drink, and then who would you be drinking it with? But you can't pick Palbea because you already covered that one, so that has to be something different.

Speaker 2: 36:45

Oh no, If I get to pick one bottle, it's Crue Grosé. Okay, Like period. I think I have one bottle in my cellar and I'm like when am I ever going to drink this? I'm like too scared to open it.

Speaker 1: 37:01

You got to go find a second one so that you feel comfortable drinking one of them.

Speaker 2: 37:05

I know, true, I. You know, moa Hennessy, if you're listening to this, I will accept the bottle of Crue Grosé. And who would I want to drink it with? Man? I feel like you know that is, I think, my favorite thing about being a founder and I really try to remind myself about this a lot because obviously founders were out there raising money a lot and, especially as a female founder, it is a lot more difficult for us to raise capital. People who say that it's not are just liars. The data speaks for itself the fact that female founders have raised it was 2% and now it's 1.5% this year of all allocated capital.

Speaker 2: 37:46

But I have been so in love with how many interesting people I've met on this journey and that's why I try to remind myself in any fundraising conversation, like, if this goes nowhere, at least I got to talk to an interesting person for 45 minutes that I would have other never wise met. So I think would I even want to meet? I don't even know. Oh, I do know it would be Carrie Brownstein from Sleeter Kinney. It's like my favorite band. I was an a riot girl band all throughout high school and in college and she's just the best. She's also like later on in her life, you know, was on Portlandia and became kind of a comedian, but she's like they were the first band I ever saw live, like ninth grade. You know. You buy the shirt at the door and throw it on over your shirt because you're just so obsessed with that band and I like read all of their biographies and I used to have like a blog online about them. So I would want to drink cruegrosé with Carrie Brownstein.

Speaker 1: 38:46

Okay, that is definitely the one of the more interesting answers I would say, but the common theme throughout all of them is that you know the wine itself is special, but the people that you're drinking it with, or you know the scene or whatever it may be, is really what makes it a complete you know sort of experience, which I think is unique to wine, in a way that you know other categories and other products don't have 100%.

Speaker 2: 39:18

I mean, we even were talking about starting, like how fun would it be to do nomadic, a speed dating where you share a can of wine with somebody and the date only lasts as long as that can of wine?

Speaker 1: 39:31

Well, if that orange wine is as good as the Palo dea, I'd be at that date for 15 seconds, and then I'd have to move on to the next.

Speaker 2: 39:41

I'll invite you to our first one.

Speaker 1: 39:43

Perfect, I'll post about it. On TikTok, I'll get Shreda. You know, go my TikTok game up a bit.

Speaker 2: 39:50

We'll get you on TikTok at the end of this.

Speaker 1: 39:52

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. Before we hop off, though, can you let everybody know where they can find you and Nomadica online?

Speaker 2: 40:04

So our socials are, of course, nomadica on Instagram, nomadica wine on TikTok. And then I am. It sounds so dumb when I have to say it out loud instead of texting it, but it's Kristen. Underscore, underscore, underscore. Oh, kristen with an iron.

Speaker 1: 40:22

Awesome.

Speaker 2: 40:24

And then you can buy our wine online at explorenomadicacom or at select Whole Foods around the country. We have a stock list on our website. If you want to put in your zip code, it'll tell you everywhere that you can get it.

Speaker 1: 40:38

Awesome. Well, we'll include that in the show notes so that everybody can reach out and then also start following you on TikTok for all that interesting behind the scenes and experiential tasting stuff. But again, thank you for joining us. For everybody listening, this is Brandon Amoroso. You can find me at drinkscom and we will see you next time.