Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST

[Part 1] Yanick Arakelov's Journey: Owner of Silk Road Wines from the Country of Georgia

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📢I talk🎙️with Yanick Arakelov Co-Owner of Silk Road Wines and Keaton Maddox, Director of Communications! They stop by and discuss Silk Road WInes and Yanick's journey from being born in the country of Georgia to opening Silk Road Wines in Orlando, FL. 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏😋 🥂

60 Minutes's Segment on Georgian Winemakers

Born in Tbilisi the capital of Georgia, Yanick migrated to the United States and has served in our military and continues to serve today. In 2009, he joined the  82nd Airborne Division, U.S. Army and has continued to serve via Florida Army National Guard, US Army Reserves and currently working part-time at the Defense Logistics Agency.

Yanick and his team created all their own brands and labels. They source the various varietals from family wineries that are experts in the varietals they produce.

The Silk Road Wine name represents the "Silk Road" that was part of a network of trade routes that connected the world with goods including wine and many other goods.   

Georgia Winemaking
Winemaking tradition dating to 6000 BCE (8,000+ Years)
500+ Indigenous Grape Varietals
100,000 family wineries (2,400 produce commercially)
Kakheti Region is responsible for 95% of Georgia's output, eastern, mountainous
Ferment grapes on their skins in qvevri for years resulting in amber colored wine

- Georgian Wine Pairing Wheel
- New York Times feature on Silk Road Wines
- Wine-Searcher article on modern winemaking styles in Georgia featuring Yanick
- Blog on pairing Georgian wines with traditional holiday foods
- Blog on Modern Georgian winemaking
- Free Education Resource all about Wines of Georgia
- Konstantin Baum - Master of Wine Explains Georgian Wine

#wine #GeorgianWines #fnbinnovation #thirstythursdays

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Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn





00:00:04:20 - 00:00:17:07
Unknown
Welcome to Thursday Thursdays at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. My name is Jesse at the host of this podcast, which is all about beverage innovation. I talk with innovation pioneers from agriculture to glass.

00:00:17:07 - 00:00:22:08
Unknown
Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe to be notified of all new episodes.

00:00:22:08 - 00:00:33:22
Speaker 1
Hello, everybody. I am Jessie at with Thursday, Thursdays at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I have the Silk Road crew here. We've got Yannick and Keaton. Welcome. Welcome to Thursday. Thursday's

00:00:37:02 - 00:00:41:00
Speaker 1
awesome. I'm so excited. So where are you guys calling from right now?

00:00:47:19 - 00:00:58:01
Speaker 1
Okay. Nice. Okay, Both. Both good states. Of course. You know, I live in both, so I have to say something like that.

00:01:01:01 - 00:01:08:22
Speaker 1
Yeah, really close. I didn't realize it was is is quite that close, but. Yeah, yeah, I, I'm going to have to swing by and say how do you guys sometime.

00:01:20:12 - 00:01:22:00
Speaker 1
Yes, yes

00:01:23:12 - 00:01:26:00
Speaker 1
I do like their line.

00:01:26:00 - 00:01:27:12
Speaker 1
There's a lot of people

00:01:27:12 - 00:01:30:00
Speaker 1
also population wise and restaurants

00:01:30:00 - 00:01:31:12
Speaker 1
and gastronomy and whatnot too.

00:01:31:12 - 00:01:39:00
Speaker 1
So yeah. And I mean you in Dallas and Texas, you have so many big cities to, you know, in Houston, just

00:01:39:00 - 00:01:45:07
Speaker 1
huge.

00:01:45:09 - 00:01:46:00
Speaker 1
Yeah,

00:01:46:00 - 00:01:47:12
Speaker 1
Yeah,

00:01:54:00 - 00:02:00:00
Speaker 1
yeah. And as long as the state of California, the people of California keep moving there, who knows how big they're going to

00:02:00:00 - 00:02:01:12
Speaker 1
get.

00:02:01:12 - 00:02:05:11
Speaker 1
Yeah. Anyway, so

00:02:09:23 - 00:02:10:23
Speaker 1
that's.

00:02:12:11 - 00:02:15:20
Speaker 1
That's awesome. No, that's good. I can't wait to, to try them.

00:02:15:20 - 00:02:17:06
Speaker 1
were you born?

00:02:57:01 - 00:03:57:08
Speaker 1
wow. So formative years.

00:03:57:07 - 00:04:05:08
Speaker 1
That's awesome. Thank you for your service. Which branch did you go into?

00:04:05:10 - 00:05:11:06
Speaker 2
Okay.

00:05:11:08 - 00:05:15:07
Speaker 1
Nice. That's awesome. Congratulations. That's. That's really cool.

00:05:15:07 - 00:05:16:22
Speaker 2
So where did you where.

00:05:16:22 - 00:05:36:13
Speaker 1
Did you first move into the United States, then?

00:05:36:15 - 00:05:38:20
Speaker 2
Okay. Nice. All right.

00:05:38:22 - 00:07:37:13
Speaker 1
Very good. So. So you're in Orlando, you come back, and then what happens when you. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, completely. Okay, so you started kind of.

00:07:37:15 - 00:07:37:23
Speaker 2
On.

00:07:37:23 - 00:08:28:06
Speaker 1
Accident, I guess. Kind of getting into, you know, selling it by hand and friends and family and then you just kind of decided that that was a route that you wanted to invest in.

00:08:28:06 - 00:08:42:00
Speaker 1
Nice though. So kind to and generous to donate their time to good tasting that.

00:09:35:07 - 00:11:02:04
Speaker 2
Yeah. Awesome.

00:11:03:19 - 00:11:18:13
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's great. So he kind of helped you figure out which ones were the best for the American palate. So I guess the best quality here.

00:11:18:12 - 00:12:36:06
Speaker 1
Yeah. Well, that's awesome. So he's kind of a mentor. Do you have other mentors that have kind of helped you in the in the space that you want to mention? Yeah, that's that's fantastic.

00:12:36:06 - 00:12:41:01
Speaker 1
I didn't realize he knew you guys for so long.

00:12:41:03 - 00:12:50:09
Speaker 1
That's that's, that's awesome.

00:12:50:11 - 00:12:51:06
Speaker 2
Okay.

00:12:51:08 - 00:12:57:10
Speaker 1
Early, early on and right at the right time to get some good advice.

00:12:57:11 - 00:13:16:05
Speaker 1
What about any resources or anything you want to mention that, you know, kind of help you on your journey whether it be, you know, business or personal or, you know, organizational skills or any podcasts or anything that you listen to that kind of kind of helps you along the way.

00:17:18:03 - 00:17:21:05
Speaker 2
Nice.

00:17:21:07 - 00:17:57:17
Speaker 1
Yeah. Congratulations. Right? No, not at all. Not at all. Even in the corporate world, I mean, does it really exist? I mean, it does. And some companies, but like, you know, they're traditional, you know, kind of I would say old school companies. It's not it's not really it's part of their curriculum or part of their leadership, you know, programs.

00:17:57:19 - 00:18:18:10
Speaker 1
But yeah, no, that's great. I'm glad that you're able to take advantage of that and and you're excited about it. And and want to continue to grow. And in being a kid, I love to learn. I'll never stop learning it. It frightens your day. I guess I'm a nerd, but yeah, I just love learning. Whatever it is. Whatever.

00:18:18:10 - 00:18:35:18
Speaker 1
I'm into today's Jordan Wine business, which is amazing and loving every second of it. It is. Yeah. Fun. I'm just excited to see you guys grow.

00:18:35:20 - 00:18:37:17
Speaker 2
We're I think, you know.

00:18:37:19 - 00:19:22:05
Speaker 1
Some of your pain points that you want to talk about that you've experienced in this industry.

00:19:22:07 - 00:21:17:01
Speaker 2
So.

00:21:20:23 - 00:24:27:07
Speaker 2
nice. So that's great.

00:24:27:08 - 00:24:38:11
Speaker 2
2008 Russia attacked Georgia and even to this day, the 28% of Georgian land, which is not a big country to start with, but.

00:24:38:13 - 00:24:41:11
Speaker 1
Right about the size of West Virginia, the whole country

00:24:42:00 - 00:24:44:05
Speaker 1
Yeah, That's not very big.

00:25:27:20 - 00:25:54:21
Speaker 2
Okay.

00:26:32:16 - 00:26:36:05
Speaker 1
Very interesting.

00:26:53:05 - 00:27:11:15
Speaker 1
know, but that was really interesting. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's the story of wine, right? I mean, the the that's the beauty of of the wine industry is this. There's a story behind every bottle, you know. So what is your outlook then, for 20, 24

00:27:24:23 - 00:28:54:00
Speaker 2
Nice. That's great. Yeah.

00:28:54:02 - 00:28:58:06
Speaker 1
Congratulations. That's exciting. It's a whole new outlet for you.

00:29:04:12 - 00:29:30:20
Speaker 1
That's. Well, I didn't know you guys were that distributed, so. That's fantastic. Yeah, you guys are ready to. You're primed for the next level. Next level stuff. That's. That's super exciting. Congratulations. That's. Well, you know, the proof is in the bottle, isn't it? Right. So it's. You're turning heads. You're you're converting people over. I mean, again, yes.

00:29:30:22 - 00:29:55:21
Speaker 1
It's the stories in and the quality. And I think that those two go hand in hand. And, you know, you've got a great team and a lot of support and get the right people in place to really kind of make things, make things happen. So I'm super excited to see what happens in 2024. I will have to keep in touch and if you have, do you want to come out and do any product releases?

00:29:55:22 - 00:30:19:01
Speaker 1
It's something I'm going to try and work. Work on for 24 is to do any line extensions and mentioned them today. If you want to go, go, come on in and taste some sort of 1015 minute segment. We'll do it real quick so people can kind of come here when when there's something new, they can they can come to Thursday, Thursdays, and they know that there's new new products.

00:30:19:01 - 00:30:31:05
Speaker 1
You know, they're learning about new something different and innovation and then like line extensions, too. So you guys put all those categories. So, you know, keep me in mind.

00:30:31:05 - 00:30:33:00
Speaker 3
I just want to throw in something really.

00:30:33:00 - 00:30:35:14
Speaker 1
Quick for a few things

00:30:36:06 - 00:31:09:06
Speaker 2
Yeah, okay.

00:31:24:11 - 00:31:46:17
Speaker 1
nice. Great idea.

00:31:46:17 - 00:32:21:22
Speaker 1
rounding out here, any passions outside of, you know, workers, you know, selling wine around the country?

00:32:21:22 - 00:32:24:15
Speaker 2
we support.

00:32:24:17 - 00:32:29:22
Speaker 2
We had a couple of galas. We raised

00:32:53:10 - 00:32:55:06
Speaker 2
very cool.

00:32:55:06 - 00:33:06:01
Speaker 1
of natural wine and skin contact wine as trends for the American poet.

00:33:06:01 - 00:33:09:04
Speaker 1
grow, right? Like, I don't think that that's going away.

00:34:22:09 - 00:34:23:18
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:34:45:19 - 00:35:54:14
Speaker 2
No way. that's.

00:35:54:14 - 00:35:57:19
Speaker 1
Cool.

00:35:57:21 - 00:38:25:03
Speaker 2
that is awesome. That's the. Yeah.

00:38:25:05 - 00:38:56:20
Speaker 1
that's funny. I love all this history. These history lessons. It's so much fun, and I love it. That's really cool. They did mention some some of the on the 60 minute documentary, too, which is really interesting. Such a rich, rich, rich culture that goes back so many, so many thousands of years. I know my my cousin, my wife's cousin has spent some time in Georgia and he's like, yeah, it's the birthplace of why am I What are you talking about?

00:38:56:22 - 00:39:17:11
Speaker 1
And I've never heard that before. You know, it's still so stupid. But but he's like, my gosh, there they, it he, he explained it just like that in the sense that it's just such a part of their culture. They have a lot of pride and, you know, they all kind of think they all kind of make their own own lines, as you mentioned, or, you know, in their gardens, in their backyards.

00:39:17:13 - 00:39:38:02
Speaker 1
And it's just so intertwined with what who they who they are and they're so proud of, from what I gather from my cousin, that they're just so proud that they want to share and they want you to taste. And it's kind of part of it's part of their culture to to to to eat and drink with them. And and they're they're prideful and sharing.

00:39:38:04 - 00:40:11:04
Speaker 1
And what that means to them, to others. And so I thought that was extraordinary. I think just that's very special because it's not certainly not our culture here. So I thought it was fascinating just to hear his version of of going over there and experiencing, you know, what it's like to live there and how people embrace others. Yeah, no, I'll go anytime.

00:40:11:04 - 00:40:52:03
Speaker 1
Yeah, I would love to go experience it and see the pictures, you know, are amazing, but it's just looks like such a beautiful, very old, preserved, wonderful culture. And they talk about the different types of foods that are offered there too, because of the different invasions over the thousands of years and different cultures that have lived there. Kind of reminds me of the Sicilian, you know, history, where they've been conquered up and down and sideways and backwards and have all the this collection of different flavors that they've kind of combined into their into their own, which is really fascinating and unique.

00:40:52:03 - 00:41:00:02
Speaker 1
legacy of Prince Alexander. I don't want to I don't want to say his name and make myself too embarrassed.

00:41:00:04 - 00:41:01:18
Speaker 2
Shevardnadze

00:41:01:18 - 00:42:58:04
Speaker 2
to check.

00:42:58:06 - 00:43:00:00
Speaker 2
Okay. So he's yeah, kind.

00:43:00:00 - 00:43:06:15
Speaker 1
Of took the through wine to the to the next level and import exporting

00:43:06:15 - 00:43:12:00
Speaker 1
is you can't really export aquavit.

00:43:12:04 - 00:43:14:04
Speaker 1
We can certainly try.

00:43:14:07 - 00:43:49:02
Speaker 2
yeah. Good luck That's

00:43:49:02 - 00:43:51:01
Speaker 2
So do you.

00:43:51:01 - 00:45:04:15
Speaker 1
Have, like, your own winery over there where you source the different grapes and then you have a winemaking team that kind of gauges them and put them together or labels them that kind of thing, or.

00:45:04:17 - 00:45:11:12
Speaker 2
Are nice,

00:45:11:12 - 00:45:16:00
Speaker 2
that actually they all history of winemaking. And then

00:45:47:10 - 00:45:52:23
Speaker 1
No, thank you. Thank you for doing that. It's they're they're awesome.

00:45:53:01 - 00:45:55:06
Speaker 2
So in closing.

00:45:55:08 - 00:46:23:01
Speaker 1
I just have one more one more thing. And I want a perspective from a you know, the person from Georgia is there a tug of war at all with Armenia and Georgia because of some of the evidence that could have been involved? Or is it just hands down everybody knows and this is Georgia, because I feel like after the media and things I've read, it's like hands down Georgia

00:46:23:02 - 00:47:34:14
Speaker 1
until further evidence is found.

00:47:34:16 - 00:48:14:03
Speaker 1
Exactly. Spoiler alert. That's nice. Well, that's exciting. More innovation. Now, do do they use similar techniques in Armenia that you use in Georgia, or are they it or are they different?

00:48:17:15 - 00:48:36:01
Speaker 2
Look

00:48:36:08 - 00:49:12:23
Speaker 1
And do they use curves and stuff for their winemaking? As much as you'll do in Georgia?

00:49:29:08 - 00:49:30:23
Speaker 2
Okay, well, more.

00:49:30:23 - 00:49:35:22
Speaker 1
More to discover then more to learn.

00:49:35:23 - 00:49:39:13
Speaker 1
shout out your your website or anything?

00:50:11:05 - 00:50:21:13
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:50:21:13 - 00:50:50:00
Speaker 1
thank you both so much. I'm so excited for where you guys are at and where you're headed. It's super exciting. Keep keep me posted in touch and hopefully we'll get to meet soon. thank you. Great. Likewise. So far.

00:50:49:23 - 00:51:00:15
Speaker 1
yes. Hi, Doug. Yes, He's the one that connected us. I've known Doug for 2025. I don't know, almost last as long as I've been in the business.

00:51:00:15 - 00:51:17:03
Speaker 1
Actually, he's a great guy. I worked with him a couple of different times, and. And, yeah, I'm so glad he connected us, so that's fantastic. With that. I will. I will wave goodbye until next time.

00:51:17:05 - 00:51:21:02
Speaker 2
Okay. Bye.

00:51:21:03 - 00:51:27:01
Speaker 1
This week's episode was produced by four Dora J Productions.