Wine as a Tool for Connection
We arrived in Sicily last week and stayed on the slopes of Mount Etna. Etna is a wildly feral place. It is currently an “active period” for the volcano. There have been two major eruptions this month, both closing the local airport for some time. On our first day, we hiked the lateral craters and saw several eruptions. Etna is synonymous with magic. The last time we were here was 2019. Returning to Italy always inspires me, mostly because some of the richest moments in my career in the wine business have happened here. The way they outpour hospitality is palpable.
My First Wine Trip…
In 2006, Sean and I saved the little money we had and we planned our first wine trip. We went to Piedmont, in Northwestern Italy. Because he sold wine, we were given a house to stay in, in a vineyard, for free by a generations-old winemaking family. It was rustic, but this was a far cry from the hostel travels of my recent past. One late afternoon, we met with Luca Currado from Vietti. Luca comes from a long line of winemakers: six generations to be exact. He wore a brightly colored sweater and jeans. He told animated stories with his hands. He showed us where his father hid wine from the Nazis during the war in the walls under the church of La Morra, and then he and his wife Elena, took us to dinner. On the windy roads on the rolling hills of vineyards dotted with castles, a song came on the radio. Luca grabbed his phone, made a call, turned up the radio and he and Elena sang their hearts out. It was a pop song and they were having the best time. When he hung up, he looked back at us and said in his thick Italian accent “This is our daughter's favorite song!’ They had to call to share the moment with her. When we arrived for dinner, I ordered Bana Cauda upon Elena’s insistence, and we went to the cellar to pick the wine. Luca’s family lived in La Morra for generations, and this restaurant had likely been in this place for just as long, so the number of times he had visited this cellar, one can only imagine being in the thousands. I watched his face light up like a child on Christmas morning. It was infectious. He danced around the massive cellar showing us where everything was stored. When you study wine, these places and these people become like celebrities, but we were here, we were with them, and they were human. He picked the wine and we went back upstairs to the table. They opened a 1982 Aldo Conterno Bussia Barolo. This was something I had only read about, from a producer that I idolized and a vineyard that was my favorite, but was well out of my economic reach. The wine was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was incredible. I couldn’t help but think that Aldo himself had likely walked that case over to this cellar in 1986 or so, just after it was bottled and it hadn’t moved since. Luca and Elena began speaking in Italian to each other for a bit. Elena looked up and said ‘We were just discussing where we were in 1982 and what we were doing.’ Then she paused and looked at me and said ‘Oh, it’s your birth year, isn’t it?’ It was. This was an average Tuesday night for them, but for me, it was a moment imprinted on my memory and my life that I will never forget. We have stayed connected with them, and so many like them, throughout our careers. It doesn’t matter when or where we see him, Luca lights up like a kid on Christmas, grabs our faces, and kisses us. He, like so many others in this business, is LOVE.
Early in my wine career, I sought out moments like this. Authentic connection with people and places that I had only ready about. There was always food, a shared meal. They always made me feel wrapped in a warm blanket, loved. Wine migrated from a status symbol in my mind to a place where true humanity could be felt, seen, and experienced. I am in Italy now because I still seek these experiences. It is the people behind the labels, the families, that inspire me, that have made me choose to dedicate my life to this profession.
For me, wine is a tool. It is a storytelling device. When shared in the right context, it puts people at ease. Acquire was born to deliver the level of hospitality I have received in my life, on scale. When we say that we use food and wine as a connecting force this is what we mean: we use wine as a way to disarm people, to put them at ease, but to also create “wow” moments that make you and your brand unforgettable. To imprint on people’s memory so that when they look back months or years later, they remember you because of the experience that was created for them. Wine is personal and a shared experience is memorable. Whether online or in person, crafting high-level experiences is where we shine. We would love nothing more than to show you what we do.