Wine Talks with Paul K.

Next week, I am in Paris. And I have the privledge to document the session on "Rethinking The WIne Business." Two of the prominent panel members are Paul Mabray and Priscilla Hennekam. 
There is a movement in the trade to mix things up a bit; make some changes, move the needle a bit.
Paul Mabray is considered the pre-eminent authority of all things digital wine. Platforms, logistics, user-experience and more, all play into the realm of Paul's knowledge base. 
I have to tell you, having Paul Mabray on the show was a breath of fresh air—no other way to describe it. He's got this knack for slicing through the clutter and getting to the heart of what's happening in the wine world today. You know me, I love a good anecdote and an insightful thought, and he delivered plenty.
Right out of the gate, Paul Mabray hit us with a beautiful metaphor: a glass of wine is a time capsule, a space-time machine connecting you to France ten years ago, or some other corner of the world and moment in history. I was hooked! That's what keeps me coming back to these conversations—a guest who sees past the label and into the soul of wine itself.
We started the episode in my studio in Monroeville, California, broadcasting all the way to Napa. Paul Mabray—and, yes, for the record, both our names being Paul made the "Paul Squared" jokes inevitable—has worn many hats: club manager, consultant, software innovator, and digital pioneer. I reminisced about the early days of my own family's Wine of the Month Club: carbon paper, binders stuffed with customer cards, and handwritten manifests. He nodded knowingly, recalling his own journey at Niebaum Coppola, and the story about hiring Rob Crumb to write Access for Dummies so they could process wine club memberships in 72 hours instead of weeks! That story, I thought, is the kind of practical innovation the wine business desperately needed.
As I listened to Paul Mabray, it occurred to me how much the industry has changed. The old guard—wholesalers, lobbyists—used to make it nearly impossible to ship direct to consumers. Back then, you practically had to sneak into the Wholesalers Association. He reminded me how those lobbying efforts were already fracturing in the mid-2000s, and with COVID, things are accelerating. Consumers are getting what they want, regulations be damned. That's insight you only get from someone who's lived both the analog and digital sides of the game.
We also dove into software innovation—my old-school, "clunky but functional" database meets his experience launching e-commerce solutions like Wine Direct back in 2002. He had me laughing with stories of credit card gateways thinking a massive wine club was a puppy mill for stolen cards. The way he explained the evolution from manual systems to omnichannel cloud solutions made me realize: in the wine business, technology is about scaling human connection, not replacing it.
A favorite moment in our conversation was when we discussed the fragility of relying on the tasting room model. Fires, earthquakes, and COVID have hammered the point home—it's time to reach consumers in Boston, Austin, Anchorage, wherever they are. It's about connection. That's tough for the "gentleman farmers" who often own wineries now, but it's necessary. Paul Mabray sees the golden age of wine online coming, and I'm inclined to agree.
If you want a snapshot of the state and future of wine, these are the conversations to listen to. Technology, branding, regulation, and, of course, the existential experience of sharing a bottle—wine, Paul Mabray reminds us, is a social time capsule.
He left me thinking that the business side, the digital side, and the soul of wine are all lining up for a renaissance. And that's a story worth sharing.

I have to say that I can pick ém. My love of Bordeaux and the volume of Bordeaux I have tasted has lead me to Chateau Haut Bailly. Under the tootlidge of Veronique Sanders-Van Beek, the winery continues to make great strides not only in quality, but developing the experience of wine. You see, wine it not just a beverage, it has a soul, a connection, an expression of its place and of it's time.
I have been fortunate enough to consider Veronique a friend and I look for opportunities to tell the story of the Chateau. Here I speak with Cyprien Chamanhet, Marketing Director of the Chateau.
I have to tell you, having Cyprien Champanhet from Chateau Haut-Bailly in the studio was a real treat and just the sort of conversation that reminds me why I love hosting Wine Talks. We sat down in Southern California on a January day, and from the get-go, Cyprien brought an honest and unpretentious energy to the discussion—he cuts straight to the point. "Do you like the wine?" he asked, and it was refreshing to hear someone in the trade boil things down to pleasure and emotion, not just technical complexity. Even with fine wines, the fundamental goal is enjoyment. That's a sentiment I think too often gets lost in the shuffle in our industry, which can sometimes take itself a bit too seriously.
We quickly dove into the DNA of Chateau Haut-Bailly. Cyprien is both Sales Director and Marketing Communications Director, but more than wearing official hats, he embodies what makes the estate special—the constant drive to improve, to question, and to never stand still. It's not that they have some rigid, well-documented strategy; it's woven into their identity. Every decision they make at the château pivots on the question: will this improve the wine, the hospitality, or the relationships with their partners? That's where the magic really happens, not just in boardrooms, but passing in the vineyards, talking among the team, and always with the Wilmers family, their deeply involved owners.
Speaking of the Wilmers, Cyprien talked about Chris Wilmers, their chairman, and professor of ecology at UC Santa Cruz. Now, there's a boardroom influence that definitely filters down into the vines—and you see it in their approach to sustainability. It's much more than lip service. The château doesn't use weed killers or insect killers, maintains century-old vines, and considers not just organic or biodynamic approaches, but a kind of "third way" that balances environmental impact, carbon footprint, and even workers' and neighbors' health. I love seeing how that academic, ecological mindset brings practical, tangible benefits to the vineyard. It's a beautiful fusion of tradition and progress.
We did some deep thinking around terroir—that mysterious, oft-referenced concept that supposedly starts and ends in soil. But as I prodded Cyprien, he agreed terroir extends into philosophy, history, and—yes—the boardroom. The energy and ethos of a place, its leadership, and the team all seep into the bottle. That's why I've never bought the idea of "bad vintages" at places like Haut-Bailly. As long as what's in the bottle is an honest expression of what nature and experience handed you that year, it brings emotion and memory—like a great piece of music with recurring themes and intriguing variations.
One of my favorite moments came when Cyprien talked about how the industry tries to please the consumer—with supermarket formula wines versus character-driven bottles. He wasn't going to pander; at Haut-Bailly, the style is distinctive, loyal to its roots, and never sacrificed for fast trends. The real reward is in education and curiosity—getting people excited about differences in vintage, terroir, and story. And as we swapped stories about wine tourism, he lit up describing the new tasting room and the personal touch they offer visitors. Every guest becomes an ambassador, every experience becomes a memory, and suddenly, the conversation around the table at home is about what happened at the château, not just what's in the glass.
I have to say, trading observations and anecdotes with Cyprien made me optimistic. We're in an industry built on pleasure, memory, and shared stories. And if you ask me, keeping it honest and humble—like Haut-Bailly does—will always be the real cutting edge.
 
YouTube: https://youtu.be/DuX-gXglUy8
#WineTalks #ChateauHaultBailly #Podcast #WineIndustry #Bordeaux #WineTourism #Sustainability #Terroir #Winemaking #WineExperience #WineEducation #FineWines #ConsumerDriven #WineEmotion #WinePleasure #WineMarketing #Sommelier #WineVintages #VineyardLife #WineConversation

Crazy story. 
Walter Georis wrote the soundtrack to the iconic surf film, The Endless Summer. With desires to make it big in music, the soundtrack would be their swan song in show business. What happens after, is shear career poetry.
I have to tell you that sitting down with Walter Georis was the kind of podcast taping that makes me glad I do this show. There's something about a man whose life story connects surf music, fine dining, art, and wine that just puts a smile on your face—especially when he unspools it with such humble, matter-of-fact wisdom.
Now, I didn't know much about Walter Georis before a friend tipped me off. I got an email out of the blue—one of those you almost skip past in your inbox. My friend, who I used to surf with in Palos Verdes, had been up late thinking about "The Endless Summer." He does a quick search, and boom—finds out that the guy who wrote the music for that iconic film now owns a winery up in Carmel Valley. He tells me, "Paul, you've got to talk to this guy!" And, boy, am I glad I did.
From the start, Walter Georis came off with a grounded, European sensibility—someone raised on the value of seasons, making things from scratch, and, most importantly, letting nature express itself. I loved his opening line: "I don't do anything to the wine to manipulate it…" For him, a vintage is a vintage, and that's the story in the bottle. As someone who's spent a lifetime talking with both big-shot and backyard winemakers, this kind of honesty always jumps out at me.
What floored me about Walter Georis was the stories. Here's a Belgian kid, can hardly swim, never surfed, but ends up shaping the sound of California's surf music scene in the sixties! He and his buddies, playing in garages and school gyms, end up composing for "The Endless Summer"—and not by luck, but because they show up, put in the hours, and play for the right parties (and some of the right glassers, too—if you know, you know). And, this is the kicker—he does all this as a French speaker, blending right in with the "stoked, it's a trip" Southern California crowd.
But Walter Georis's life isn't about hanging onto some faded record label glory. He's got this restless, creative spirit. After the music, he turns to art, painting eight hours a day in Carmel, living on the cheap. He spends years finding his style, blending the abstract with the figurative—until, naturally, he finds himself in the hospitality business, opening Casanova and La Boheme Song with his family. This is what I love: the European model, building legacy, not just chasing a fast-growing, flash-in-the-pan restaurant business. And Walter Georis gets it right—places that become international, drawing in everyone from actors to race car drivers, all wanting a piece of that Carmel magic.
But for me, this episode really shines when we dig into the winemaking. Walter Georis talks about honest wine—the idea that you don't mess with what the vineyard gives you. He gets animated describing the soil, the minerality, the farming, the blending. He talks of Merlot and Cabernet, about planting olive trees, raising sheep (well, until the insurance company got involved)—all these things that anchor you to the land and seasons. He reminds me that great wine isn't about ego or a label; it's about caretaking, patience, storytelling.
The conversation wraps with stories of his mother giving birth during the Battle of the Bulge in a wine cellar. There's a sense that all these threads—history, survival, family, creativity—flow right into the glass he pours. A life, a terroir, an honest wine.
And that, my friends, is why I do Wine Talks.
 
 
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I have been selling direct to the consumer in the wine trade for over 35 years. The industry certainly is not what it was; in some ways, better, in other ways,  not so much. I've seen it all...well, at least most of it. 
The month and year I started with the Original Wine of the Month Club, my father was featuring a Romanian wine; mind you, Romania was still under Soviet rule. In this episode, I speak with Dr. Marinella Ardelean, expert on Romanian wine.
I have to tell you, having Marinella Ardelian on the show took me back, and not just because she reminded me that the first Romanian wine I ever sold—way back in 1989—was a $2.50 Sauvignon Blanc from a winery called Premiat. There's something poetic about opening an episode by unearthing an old newsletter my late father wrote about that wine, especially since it was the same month I joined the family business. Wine really does have a way of sharpening your memory. The nose, the flavor, even the price tag—they stick with you.
The conversation started with that kind of serendipity, but Marinella Ardelian quickly brought us to the present. She's based in Venice, waves the flag for Romanian wine, and has this bright, unfussy way of making big topics feel accessible. I love guests like that—insightful without being pedantic, and uncannily good at weaving personal experience into global perspectives.
Right off the bat, she fine-tuned the narrative: Romanian wine doesn't need to come "back" to the world stage, it needs to stand in the spotlight it deserves, shoulder to shoulder with France and Italy. I'll admit, I never would've guessed Romania is now in the top six worldwide for vineyard acreage—and domestically, folks there are still drinking 30 liters a year! Sure, the numbers dance around a bit, but the underlying story is about a country with real wine culture.
We spent a little time reminiscing about the communist days, when the government controlled everything and Vinexport was king. But the part that struck me most was her clear-eyed take on why Romanian wine isn't chasing the bottom shelf in America. "Romanian wines are not cheap," Marinella Ardelian declared, and she meant it. With high domestic demand and only a sliver of production exported, those who do ship overseas bring quality, not just volume. She's keen on stories and education—Romanian wine, she said, needs context, not just curiosity.
This segued beautifully into the broader question of how a wine region markets itself. Marinella Ardelian made a compelling case: you can't just sell the wine, you have to sell the country. Romanian wine, for her, is inseparable from Transylvanian castles, farm-to-table food, and the dramatic scenery. I found that refreshing. Too often, we get obsessed with varietals and forget there's a living culture behind every label.
She also explained that since the fall of communism in 1989, a whole generation of winemakers has embraced indigenous grapes like Fetească Neagră—known as the "Black Maiden"—with all the finesse of Pinot Noir and the spice of Syrah. That's the kind of local color I live for. And with the second generation now taking the reins and forming actual cooperatives (something even Armenia, my ancestral homeland, struggles with), you can sense something big is building.
Wine tourism, she told me, is finally taking off in Romania. Visitors can ride horses, hunt mushrooms, and sip estate wines in places that wouldn't be out of place in Bordeaux or Barolo. That's the future—experience, narrative, and authenticity.
If there's a takeaway, it's that Romanian wine is at a crossroads, one foot in ancient soil, the other in the modern world. Marinella Ardelian has a vision for both—and I left our conversation convinced it's only a matter of time before the rest of the world catches on. I can't wait to revisit this story in a few years and see how far it's come.
 
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wine-in-romania-meet-the-expert-and-wine/id1462215436?i=1000647229708
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2kiWrgS5fH8p85I6iS6Gnp?si=McZCVWPEQ6W9T-3jfGGMCQ
Wine Talks: https://www.winetalkspodcast.com/wine-in-romania-meet-the-expert-and-wine-comtessse-marinela-ardelean/

Wine branding is slow. It is different than other products; more rules, a limited set of consumers, and big brands standing in your way. These are the typical headwinds; unless your Samvel Hakobyan.
I am convinced, despite the current tone of nah sayers and industry pundits looking for some kind of magic bullet to ease the woes of the trade, that proper and tested principles of business are more important now than ever—Persistance, perseverance, and passion; if you do not have these principles in your quiver, you are done. Where do these principals come from? are you born with them? Can you learn them? Can you read them in a book?
The answer to these questions lies in this podcast with Samvel Hakobyan.
I have to tell you, hosting Samvel Hakobyan on Wine Talks was one of those moments that reminded me why I'm addicted to these stories—especially when they connect so many worlds you wouldn't expect. But today, I want to linger on the Michael Franzese thread, because that's where grit, fate, and transformation collided like a flash in the cellar.
Let's set the scene: Samvel, a young Armenian immigrant whose family had just clawed its way out of a bankrupt pizza shop in Sacramento, grows up idolizing one of the mob's most notorious figures—Michael Franzese. Not for the notoriety, mind you, but because Franzese's story is one of transformation. Here's a man who was the biggest earner in the mob after Capone, who finds God in a prison cell, and emerges not just clean, but on fire with a completely different purpose.
So, how does a nineteen-year-old kid in California, hustling in door-to-door roofing, go from being a fan to actually sitting across the table from Michael Franzese? It's pure Armenian inspiration. Samvel told this story with the kind of detail that gives you goosebumps: Challenges at every step, flights canceled, Uber rides missed, and yet, by sheer persistence, Samvel finds himself pulled up to a hotel in Texas at the exact moment Franzese steps out to get into the very Uber they just exited. I mean, come on—if you wrote it, nobody would believe it!
What kind of young man sidles up to a former mob boss and asks for his phone number? Only one who expects more out of himself and the world around him. And Michael, ever the seasoned reader of people, tells him, "If you have the guts to ask, I'll give it to you." There's a lesson in that right there: Opportunity doesn't knock; you do.
Fast-forward through a winding road—Samvel helping his family, digging out of debt, building a marketing agency, and yet never dropping that thread with Michael. When the time came to link Michael's story with Armenian wine, Samvel saw it instantly: Combine a narrative of personal transformation with the oldest wine culture in the world. Who better to front a wine about rebirth, legacy, and endurance than a man who lived the mob life and now stands in the pulpit? Michael wasn't just a celebrity face. He became a real partner—a man who insisted the wines were as good as his redemption story, who put his thumbprint on the bottle and packed the aisles at Costco in person, shaking hands and turning heads on social media.
When Samvel talked about getting Michael to speak at his events, launching wine, and explaining to skeptical Armenians why an Italian-American's name is on the label, I saw something much deeper: the courage to look outside your own comfort zone, to make new friends, and to tell a bigger, bolder story. Samvel's partnership with Michael Franzese is not just branding—it's building a bridge, and showing that the best of Armenia's wine tradition is strong enough to carry a narrative of transformation all the way to American shelves.
What I took away from Samvel, and from Michael's improbable turn from mobster to mentor, is that you can't underestimate the power of reinvention—or of simply reaching out in the moment the universe opens the door. These are the stories that get passed along a hundred tables, over a hundred bottles, making us all believe just a bit more in second chances—and in the boldness it takes to ask for them.
Cheers to that.
 
YouTube:  https://youtu.be/QaLEcGd-gC8
#WineTalks #ArmenianWine #MichaelFranzese #Entrepreneurship #ImmigrantStories #WineMarketing #Resilience #ChristianFaith #ArmenianHeritage #Transformation #BusinessStorytelling #PapaJohns #Salesmanship #SocialMediaMarketing #WineIndustry #Kroger #OvercomingAdversity #BrandBuilding #AncientVineyards #FamilyLegacy