Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST

[Part 2] Yanick Arakelov's Journey: Owner of Silk Road Wines from the Country of Georgia

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Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST Now on YouTube!📽 Subscribe and Watch Here!😁💃

📢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. 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏😋 🥂

"Part 2" focuses on the History of the "Silk Road" and why it was important to name their winery after this important part of history. We also taste through 4 wines:

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

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

Wines Tasted   🍷  😋  🎉
Manavi $14.99 Dry White from Kakheti
Khikhvi Qvevri $25.99 Amber 6 months in qvevri from Kakheti
Saperavi Reserve  $45 Dry Red from Kakheti 
Alazani   $13.99  Semi-sweet red wine from Kakheti
https://silkroadwines.com/

Check out this amazing Wine Pairing Wheel that shows tasting notes of each wine and what varietal they most taste like that you know.

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

- 60 Minutes's Segment on Georgian Winemakers  🍷
- 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 #

NOW ON YOUTUBE!!! Thank you for Listening! Join us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!

Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn





00:00:05:00 - 00:00:27:03
Jessie Ott
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. Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe to be notified of all new episodes. Hello everybody! I am Jesse yet with Thursday Thursdays at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

00:00:27:03 - 00:00:35:01
Jessie Ott
I have the Silk Road crew here. We've got Yannick and Keaton. Welcome. Welcome to Thursday, Thursdays.

00:00:35:02 - 00:00:38:02
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
thanks for having us. And we'll just thank you for having us.

00:00:38:04 - 00:01:05:10
Jessie Ott
So we're, kind of going through an experiment here. We're, changing up the format from what I did all of last year. So, we want to jump right into the, brand and do the tasting. We've got four amazing wines we're going to try today. And, we want to make sure that it's, you know, you as a listener can, only get the first 20 minutes or 25 minutes to hear all about the brand, which is what we which is the focus of, of, this particular podcast.

00:01:05:10 - 00:01:23:08
Jessie Ott
But we are going to go into the journey of Yannick and how he formed his company. also, we're going to have, another segment about Georgian wine specifically. So, he's got a lot of knowledge and he wants to share it with us, and I, I get the opportunity to share it with the world. So I'm I'm the privileged one here.

00:01:23:08 - 00:01:37:02
Jessie Ott
I'm so excited. So let's jump in. Right. into the Silk Road, brand and in story. So do you want to kind of start on how it started and, and when you guys kind of formulated the idea of starting this brand.

00:01:37:05 - 00:02:11:05
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Oh, yeah. We just started the Silk Road brand in 2019, and we had our, team kind of come up with the concept. It delivered the history of Georgian wine in that one name, which was the, because it was a birthplace of wine. The Silk Road. Is there, way that winemaking process then went to Europe, Asia and Africa, and that's how we wanted to connect those two things together.

00:02:11:07 - 00:02:15:01
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
our whole, team worked on coming up with that name.

00:02:15:01 - 00:02:17:02
Jessie Ott
And why was it called the Silk Road?

00:02:17:04 - 00:02:38:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
The Silk Road was our trading route that went from basically, one of the roots went through Georgia, from all the way from the east to the west, and, and, on that route, the traders then took wine and route and, and winemaking process and spread it and shared with, everybody else in the world.

00:02:39:01 - 00:02:47:02
Jessie Ott
Okay, that's really cool. Is there any particular reason they called it the Silk Road, or did they did they do some exchanges or something? That was.

00:02:47:02 - 00:03:10:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Amazing. I think your original Silk Road involved lots of trading of spices and silk products, especially from India. and then we kind of took it as a way to then kind of mimic how winemaking spread from Georgia originating there, and then use the Silk Road to spread out to other parts of the world. And people were like, oh, this is fermented grape juice.

00:03:10:23 - 00:03:27:02
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
It's really tasty. and then they started making in other places. and so we're kind of mimicking that. We're creating a new Silk Road for ourselves, where we will once again disseminate the world's oldest wine growing region to the rest of the world in a more modern sense.

00:03:27:04 - 00:03:38:08
Jessie Ott
Like, that's a great story. I really love that. So, right out of the gates. This is so fun. Okay, so 2019. Wow. So you're fairly young company then?

00:03:38:10 - 00:04:15:14
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Well, I actually started the wine. before this Georgia wine import business in 20, 13, 2014 is when I received my first container. That was right after I left the active duty army. I, decided, you know, to do something very different, and something more fun for a living. And I couldn't find a better way to, to do it than to share this wonderful, wine with the people.

00:04:15:16 - 00:04:49:21
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
So, so I started quite, you know, almost, ten, ten years ago now we actually have, a bottle here of his first original label style light, this name of the brand and, interesting. we've grown a lot since. But as you can imagine, with launching in 2019, something very big and interesting happened the very next year, which kind of changed the way everyone approached buying and selling wine and everything else.

00:04:49:23 - 00:05:14:20
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
we had entered the world at a tumultuous time and required us to be kind of scrappy and not necessarily go in the traditional avenues. we found a way to find our pocket and a lot of really unique markets. I think it's continuing to grow and will continue to grow. Yeah. So, and we kind of hit it off pretty well.

00:05:14:22 - 00:05:41:21
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
we were actually presenting our wine to the, Universal Studios, parks and restaurants and hotels there. The whole team, they tasted our wines, they flipped over. They they said, do you want this wine in, you know, in our stores ASAP. it took us one week to kind of get through the vendor packet and the same the following week.

00:05:41:21 - 00:05:50:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Everything shut down. And it was kind of the biggest kind of, toughest moment for us, you know?

00:05:51:00 - 00:05:52:15
Jessie Ott
yeah. Oh, wow.

00:05:52:21 - 00:06:22:05
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah, it was good, bad. But, you know, we took us we we took some time to reorganize Restrategize update our labels. Our labels definitely needed some help. and we, we made, biggest breakthrough in Florida first, which was entering ABC Fine Wine and Spirits. we are the first Georgian brand to ever get into ABC.

00:06:22:07 - 00:06:38:09
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
and stayed there. So. and, our actually our sales and ABC are going, more and higher. Higher. So somebody really liking it and enjoying this morning.

00:06:38:11 - 00:07:08:00
Jessie Ott
Oh that's great. I mean, you know, it's, that whole liquid delicious concept where you got to get them to try it and then the rest is in the bottle. And if the rest is in the bottle and the qualities they're there, you're going to get your repeat purchase. So, you know, it's just getting people to try it, you know, through a demo or through friends or family or, or a restaurant, you know, to, you know, it's harder, I think, to pull it off the shelf than it is to see it on a, on a, on a wine menu.

00:07:08:00 - 00:07:34:18
Jessie Ott
Because if you're at a location and you only have a few wines to pick from, it's a lot easier. Or if it's on the, you know, by the by the glass, it's a lot easier, than trying to find it on the shelves. So I'm curious, how do you classify these grapes then if you are going to be, I guess we should back up a little bit here and talk about the grapes and the varietals, because from what I understand, there's five, at least 500 of them, just about.

00:07:34:18 - 00:07:39:02
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Right, about 500 grape varietals, indigenous grape varieties through Georgia. Yeah.

00:07:39:02 - 00:07:50:11
Jessie Ott
Which is absolutely fantastic. and is there a particular reason that you feel that this region, can support all those different varietals?

00:07:50:15 - 00:08:19:18
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Well, this well is perfect. just like the French have their regions where they grow specific grapes, and make specific wines. Georgia is just like that to have, in the 42 years, in, in the they know through the history, winemaking how will certain grapes performance certain regions. And that's why it's I mean, they've, they've been doing it long enough.

00:08:19:18 - 00:08:46:04
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
They it's they know what works and what doesn't work. and adding in their PDAs are like appellation controlled micro zones that are specifically protected to wines from these regions look like this and have this stylistic property correct. And they and they are called wines that specific, name, just like the Bordeaux, has their name. So they'll call the instead of the Greek varietal.

00:08:46:04 - 00:09:11:06
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
They'll call that wine that by that region. And one of the examples is actually two that you have, monopoly is one of those micro regions, even though it's made with the mid on a grape. And then Amazon is another one. Yeah. So that's monopoly. And just like we said, monopoly is actually, a micro zone. But that, that produces, really unique wine.

00:09:11:06 - 00:09:32:09
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
So having valley grape coming from a different region doesn't have the same characteristics. I this is not a PDO, but it's, it's a region. It's, it's just a, it's a table wine that, everyone is, is one of the most popular also, and no, variety of varietals.

00:09:32:10 - 00:10:02:22
Jessie Ott
So I watched in that 60 minutes, that, the, what do you call it, like a docu series or documentary? Like a short, I guess, was very interesting. Right? It was, they mentioned that I guess there was an American that, bought into, you know, the, the land there, and, and we kind of were talking about him and how, the farmers were able to grow these grapes.

00:10:03:02 - 00:10:24:00
Jessie Ott
I don't remember if it was a certain amount of, quantity or how many kilo or how many, acres. of, you know, or area of land and that they could continue to grow wine, but they were the ones that really kept these indigenous varietals alive and were able to keep them going, which is absolutely fascinating to me.

00:10:24:00 - 00:10:27:19
Jessie Ott
It's that's a that's that's a real rich history there.

00:10:27:20 - 00:11:06:02
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Absolutely. And fortunately, there was a time where, Georgia was, under Communist control and they figured that, they wanted to industrialize and, the winemaking and just standardize. And they, they said, okay, you know, these are like three or 4 or 5 varietals that you produce, and they kind of almost destroyed everything else. Luckily, there's a lot of people that went hunting for these, varietals that were, you know, growing in people's yards and homes.

00:11:06:04 - 00:11:31:04
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And they built that library. So, they and they're working on bringing them back. And that's one of the things we did with our wines as well, is we brought some of the, more rare grape varieties like this. We, this is another one just came in. You get to try it soon. and monopoly. Monopoly, is not a common, wine.

00:11:31:04 - 00:11:53:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
That's, it it's not a big production either. So it's, oh, you know. Yeah. Most of the wine productions are cops. Italian, mostly red production and arabe. But we really wanted to have a diverse portfolio that reflected not just the variety of styles that Georgia has, but the extreme diversity of their indigenous grape populations.

00:11:54:01 - 00:12:09:02
Jessie Ott
Why you created your own label and, and, how you go about finding the different producers that you want behind the labels, different varietals or areas, you know, instead of instead of like importing wines that already exist.

00:12:09:03 - 00:12:32:15
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
With the first one is actually it was very special. I was, talking to my priest and he. Yeah, he happened to mention it's like, did you know about this, satellite monastery? And I was like, no, I don't. And it just so happened that it was the time I was looking to find a name, a brand name for that wine.

00:12:32:17 - 00:12:55:11
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
So I felt like it was God's, way of telling me what, you know, to name it that way. So, And what's really special about this monastery, it's, it's like about 400ft tall. It's a huge pillar. And they have, like a church on top of it. and these monks have been living there for many, many years.

00:12:55:11 - 00:13:14:01
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And whenever that would be attacked, they would all go and, you know, hide in the, on the pillar. That's a very beautiful place. It's actually, amazing. if you ever have a chance to look into it, it it's a place to visit, for sure.

00:13:14:03 - 00:13:16:18
Jessie Ott
Nice. Sounds amazing.

00:13:16:20 - 00:13:40:16
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
With a Silk Road. We wanted to really explain, again, you know what that meant? The message of what? George? is, as far as as it relates to the wine. So. Yeah. And that's why we, you know, we didn't want to go with, you know, any other, you know, Moroni or some other, wine white winery name.

00:13:40:16 - 00:14:02:11
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Because that it didn't tell the story. And we wanted to make that, our mission to educate people because a lot of people don't know where. Where is Giorgio? You know where where's the birthplace of wine? and, you know, most people think it's like Italy or France or Greece or something like that. that doesn't mix up.

00:14:02:13 - 00:14:08:00
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
awesome. Yeah. we're working on that as well.

00:14:08:02 - 00:14:12:03
Jessie Ott
And if it if it does and I, I missed it.

00:14:12:05 - 00:14:38:18
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah. They don't test it. Right. Because there's so many different grape varietals. Right. And so many different, especially when you get into the more natural styles of wine, like blackberries, where the skin contact and exposure oftentimes creates a little bit of discrepancy between each bottling. so it's a lot harder to be like, this is a Bordeaux from, 2013, because the sun was really harsh that year.

00:14:38:18 - 00:15:02:19
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And therefore in the Carmelites, the sugars and the grapes and so the alcohol content is 1% higher than normal. You can't do that in the same way. But we also get to enjoy the beauty and the bounty of what is a natural product. It's of these are a product of a terroir and an earth that's been kind of untouched for a long time in terms of being able to produce these unique varietals.

00:15:02:19 - 00:15:12:11
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And, so it's something that's all at home and I think deserves as much validation and attention as what the Italians and the French wines are getting. Absolutely.

00:15:12:15 - 00:15:31:22
Jessie Ott
So I'm curious, as Covid came to play, what kind of techniques or how did you guys shift, during that time to kind of get you through the, the next year and a half or so? Did you go to social media and try to hit direct to consumer and educate kind of that in that way?

00:15:31:22 - 00:16:00:02
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Well, the number one thing I did was what we did was we hired our, biggest asset, and the genius that helped, with our marketing plan, as Esmeralda Strike is our, marketing director, and, she kind of, made this happen for us. it's one of those things is no matter, how good your wine is.

00:16:00:04 - 00:16:39:22
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
If your wine is on a shelf and nobody knows about it, it's not going to sell. It's not going to go anywhere. But she's the one that really, helped, develop, our, our brand, our, marketing strategy, and not just for our brand, but she's actually been implemented and helping all of Georgian, wine in the sense that, we've presented a, a marketing plan to Georgia National Wine Agency, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture in Georgia, a few times.

00:16:39:22 - 00:16:52:01
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And they've taken, some of our concepts for marketing Georgian wine in, and implemented it in the with the marketing company that they hired to help promote Georgian wine in the United States.

00:16:52:04 - 00:17:03:07
Jessie Ott
Wow. That's awesome. That is so cool. Yeah. Congratulations. That's that's awesome. So, do we want to get into a tasting or.

00:17:03:09 - 00:17:05:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah, these wines.

00:17:06:01 - 00:17:10:04
Jessie Ott
Okay. Let's do so we're going to start with.

00:17:10:06 - 00:17:16:05
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Start with monopoly. Yes. The yellow label.

00:17:16:07 - 00:17:20:12
Jessie Ott
The yellow label.

00:17:20:14 - 00:17:34:19
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
so for this one, would you like us to describe to you what you should be tasting, or do you want to give your first impressions? And then we'll tell you what the typical results are.

00:17:34:21 - 00:17:36:02
Jessie Ott
you want to test me?

00:17:36:04 - 00:17:45:04
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Well, this isn't all the it. There's no testing here at all. It's just whatever your experience of.

00:17:45:06 - 00:17:58:06
Jessie Ott
I'm getting lemon and apricot so you can kind of see, like, the color is really pretty. fairly clear and a nice, a nice a nice yellow color.

00:17:58:08 - 00:18:28:09
Jessie Ott
A little floral, like, floral notes, white, white flower notes, maybe, yeah, I'm getting a lot of peachy. Kind of, lychee, sort of, totally. You know, a nectarine, kind of dried nectarine kind of flavor. Yeah, it smells delicious. It's really good. So how is this wine made?

00:18:28:11 - 00:18:54:10
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
so this wine is made with 100% mitzvot. A grape. It's aged in stainless steel for six months. I believe. and it's a. A very pure expression of what the grape is doing all on its own. you'll notice the texture on it is something akin to a, I don't know. Am I spoiling it for you?

00:18:54:10 - 00:19:25:08
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
I'm sorry. okay. Now the texture. Yes. The texture she is experiencing. Everyone at home is like that of an Unoaked Chardonnay. so you get some of that more intense viscosity. It's a little bit thicker on the palate. but it doesn't have those over oaky or vanilla notes that are really, prone to come out of, like, the Napa Valley and Chardonnays.

00:19:25:09 - 00:19:39:17
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
it's also got enough acidity in it to brighten and balance it out so it doesn't feel flat. so I like to think of it as the mix between the Chardonnay and like a little bit of a Sauvignon blanc, where the acidity kind of.

00:19:39:17 - 00:19:40:04
Jessie Ott
Yes.

00:19:40:04 - 00:20:01:22
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Pops out. You get those tropical fruit notes. and one of the things that people say to me a lot when I'm serving this wine is that, I typically only drink reds, but I like this. Something about it is just like the texture, mouthfeel.

00:20:02:00 - 00:20:25:20
Jessie Ott
Mouthfeel? Yeah, it's it's definitely got a great mouthfeel. It's not thin. It's got a real nice viscosity to it. I've never tried anything quite like this before. And I absolutely love it. yeah, I could see it's it's almost it's a you're right. It's it's a cross between a shard and insomnia Blanc. Because you do have the acidity.

00:20:25:22 - 00:20:39:11
Jessie Ott
And I don't know if there's a little bit of tart in there as well. So, it's just kind of has all different layers of it's not really complex, but there's different layers that you can kind of experience throughout the, the journey of,

00:20:39:13 - 00:20:51:06
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah. It's not going to open up the same kind of way as maybe the amber that we'll get into next. But, I mean, I could drink this wine every day and just be pleased with that.

00:20:51:08 - 00:20:53:06
Jessie Ott
Yeah. With or without food, you know.

00:20:53:08 - 00:21:07:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
But it's also great with all kinds of food. Right. Like this is a great blue cheese wine or a really good like, seafood and pastas or even like, light cheeses, like goat cheese. Or Brie. Yeah.

00:21:08:01 - 00:21:09:09
Jessie Ott
Hey, you're making me hungry.

00:21:09:11 - 00:21:10:13
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah.

00:21:10:15 - 00:21:18:22
Jessie Ott
I wish I had a charcuterie here. And flavors. And I could try them all together. It's, you know, that's,

00:21:19:00 - 00:21:23:08
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And this is.

00:21:23:10 - 00:22:04:06
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
when we do the next video with the new wines, you can you can be sure to be prepared. Yeah. Actually, Mondavi, a monopoly, is a huge success in Florida. They, especially in the summer, hot summer day. It's very refreshing, crisp type of wine that, by the pool just is perfect. And, I think we've, quite a few awards with this, and, the one of the first ones, we we were picked up by the, the magazine, Wine and Spirits magazine.

00:22:04:06 - 00:22:15:08
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
The owner, about Monami and I was on it, and, since when? We want, silver medals, and Texas Texan.

00:22:15:12 - 00:22:16:08
Jessie Ott
I, I can see.

00:22:16:08 - 00:22:22:03
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Why medals. so it's very good. Yeah. It's really.

00:22:22:04 - 00:22:25:03
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Congratulations on that wine. Yes. Yeah.

00:22:25:05 - 00:22:36:14
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah, definitely one you don't see as often out of most Georgian wine importers. yeah. This is, not a very common Georgian wine that's brought into the United States.

00:22:36:16 - 00:22:37:09
Jessie Ott
What's the price.

00:22:37:09 - 00:22:51:18
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Point? What are we retailing it for right now? It's there in different shops, but, plus, a $16 plus or minus, depending on, who's, who's working on it.

00:22:51:18 - 00:22:52:10
Jessie Ott
So fishing.

00:22:52:10 - 00:22:53:03
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Is selling.

00:22:53:03 - 00:22:55:18
Jessie Ott
It's maybe. Well, closer to 15.

00:22:55:20 - 00:23:11:22
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Oh, you're. So it's, it's 1499 on our website right now, and you can order the wines directly on our website and get them shipped straight to your house, with the exception of, like, nine states, which are weird about it. Yeah.

00:23:12:00 - 00:23:15:05
Jessie Ott


00:23:15:11 - 00:23:53:00
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
but we're also in, I believe, 88 different retail locations across Texas and Florida right now. so you can find us out and about. Yeah. So ABC, is one of the biggest chains, but we also have, many smaller mom and pop shops, boutiques, wine stores, European, wine, stores. and in Texas, we in, with one of the largest, retail chains, you know, as a Texan, you know, we have, is is is amazing.

00:23:53:02 - 00:24:17:08
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
and, Central Market. Yep. as well. And then specs. Yes. Specs, carries some of the brands as well. Not over. but, it's a combination. So, we're in Texas, probably in over 200, locations. 200. That's stores.

00:24:17:10 - 00:24:31:10
Jessie Ott
That's that is awesome. So I can buy this when I get home in Texas, too. That's awesome. Yeah. This is absolutely fabulous. Yeah. It's going to be a regular rotation around here.

00:24:31:11 - 00:24:35:18
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Well, would you like to add into the complexity and movement?

00:24:35:18 - 00:24:40:05
Jessie Ott
Yes. You want to get into the this amber, wine.

00:24:40:07 - 00:25:04:19
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Oh, yeah. All right. You can see everyone with the color there. Here we have an amber wine. and there's some debate over whether we should call it orange wine or amber wine. Georgians specifically tend to like the term amber. And especially here in Florida, when we try to tell people that we have orange wine, their assumption is that we're making fruit wine.

00:25:04:20 - 00:25:24:11
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Really? which is about it. Yeah. Like this is wine made from oranges. So I've never had that before. I don't know. And it's like, no, this would be that's like the most furthest thing from what we are doing right now. but that's okay. And then we do a whole, I think, rosé. But for anyone who don't know.

00:25:24:13 - 00:25:27:13
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah.

00:25:27:15 - 00:25:30:17
Jessie Ott
Right. like the same analogy, right?

00:25:30:17 - 00:25:43:16
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Right. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. At least they have an apostrophe on theirs to make it different. Maybe if we did orange with the apostrophe.

00:25:43:18 - 00:25:44:07
Jessie Ott
Laura.

00:25:44:07 - 00:25:47:01
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Lauren.

00:25:47:03 - 00:25:50:22
Jessie Ott
Little rose.

00:25:51:00 - 00:25:53:11
Jessie Ott
It's got a little ring to it.

00:25:53:13 - 00:25:55:10
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
There's it does I like it.

00:25:55:12 - 00:26:17:09
Jessie Ott
I don't know how many, but but one of the another podcast that I had, Andrew with War Room Cellars, he's he's all in on, orange wine and it's fantastic. It's so it's so exciting to me. I think, he, he's saying we want a red, white rosé, an orange category. And I hope he's right because I think this is a this is got a place, it's got its place.

00:26:17:09 - 00:26:24:12
Jessie Ott
It's going to take some time. But and you know, we have some education to do. But yeah I think.

00:26:24:14 - 00:26:49:10
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah that certainly does. but but I love orange wine too. And it was because Silk Road had amber wines that I came to work for them in the first place. I think it's just a incredible category the we haven't had enough access to yet. And, now we get to be a part of leading the charge of bringing this into the US.

00:26:49:12 - 00:27:09:06
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah. So yeah, let's talk about flavor from this one. this one is a, an all of the wines for us are very interesting on the palate, and open you up to new possibilities of what you think wine could be. this one hits a little bit like,

00:27:09:08 - 00:27:09:20
Jessie Ott
Yeah, a.

00:27:09:20 - 00:27:38:00
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Sherry. in some ways. and if you take a look at our wine pairing, though, being brought up here, I'll actually, set it up on ours as well. so, Oh, not that heat. It's actually the other one. sorry. If you rotate through. That's our new still, version. This is the one that has every at the end of it, just above it.

00:27:38:02 - 00:27:57:21
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah. Over on the right. No, that's, Yeah, I know all of these names. They all start with the K and the age, and it's like, which one is the sound that they have? The metal in it. so yeah, here we have, our descriptions here we compare it to a Sauvignon blanc, but not in a traditional style sense.

00:27:57:23 - 00:28:21:04
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
I think this is really like a soft rock that, has gone through skin contact. and what that brings out where you kind of get some of the lighter notes. The acidity is stalled. slightly. and then you get these complex notes of lemongrass and citrus, and it feels a little bit like drinking a slightly tannic green tea.

00:28:21:04 - 00:28:26:10
Jessie Ott
Okay.

00:28:26:12 - 00:29:06:05
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
yeah. And so, I, I'm sure that most of your viewers are familiar with what skin contact is in the process. Right. It's like essentially an inverse rosé where they're allowing white wines to have contacts in the skins, whereas normally they would be stripped out. But what ends up being specific about Georgian skin contact wine is that you have the big clay vessel made with, components that Janek was talking about earlier, and then it's actually typically buried in the ground, where it sits for, at least six months in order to have the designation for, for for white wines.

00:29:06:05 - 00:29:41:21
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
It's six months and, roughly two months. Okay. and but one of the things that actually they also do with the, white wines is or the amber wines is when somebody has a child warm, they usually do a, cleverly and they lock it up and wait about 16 to 20 years back. Back then it was, you know, kids get or people would get married around 16, but now it's much older but for age.

00:29:41:23 - 00:29:51:04
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
so they it could easily go between 16 to 20 years in aquaria. Then they would drink that wine for weddings or.

00:29:51:05 - 00:30:01:05
Jessie Ott
Something for 16 years. Wow. And just leave it sealed. Don't check on it. Don't do anything. Just leave it sealed.

00:30:01:07 - 00:30:33:03
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
and crevices have a really unique shape. you can see on our bottle kind of the taper here, or even, our old logo there on the back. and what ends up happening is all of the seeds and skin press themselves down, and it actually, naturally filters the wine. and so you actually don't even have to strain out the top or the bottom that you just pull from the top and all of the skins and seeds falling and creating this gravity pool naturally filters the wine out.

00:30:33:05 - 00:30:53:11
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Wow. Yeah. And and then you can pour from the bottom and use that really intense bit, making to judge Georgia and Georgia is a very, it's like Italian grappa, except for whatever reason, it's much smoother. enjoy.

00:30:53:15 - 00:30:55:17
Jessie Ott
it's been sitting there for 16 years.

00:30:55:17 - 00:31:26:01
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
It's kind of. not every one of them has gone through that has moved us. But. Yeah. but but this the thing about this shape, what makes it what really helps the, Well, clever winemaking is as the bubbles go up, you know, and they kind of create its own rotation and mixing, as the fermentation goes on.

00:31:26:03 - 00:31:54:15
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
So it's, it's very that, great shape is very crucial to, the winemaking as well. You can have the same effect if you were, if you just had like cylindrical shape and, you wouldn't it would do the same things. And that's the big thing that separates this style of winemaking from more popular modern styles of amphora, which are just clay vessels that are then placed on a shelf right?

00:31:54:17 - 00:32:20:00
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Specifically because of the way the shape works. It has to be buried because you're not standing right on this point. but that's not part of the process for other people that are just using clay vessels as a form of aging and, and the ground and helps it, keep the temperature stable. So it's, it's also playing as a secondary role in it, stabilizing it.

00:32:20:00 - 00:32:26:15
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And, helping it, you know, come out the perfect way.

00:32:26:17 - 00:32:35:04
Jessie Ott
Each of the wines that are produced in Georgia are aged in a very quick query query.

00:32:35:06 - 00:32:41:09
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Where every. Which wines are aged, and that.

00:32:41:09 - 00:32:46:06
Jessie Ott
Is 80% of the wines,

00:32:46:08 - 00:33:19:19
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
from. No, it's a, very it's a much smaller number. it's getting bigger nowadays as there's more interest, but most of the wine that was produced and that's due to the, you know, the influence of, the, Soviet Union, where they mass produced, wine and stainless steel and with just a few grape varietals and, you know, kind of almost destroyed the, the authenticity, integrity.

00:33:19:21 - 00:33:40:19
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
But, you know, now we're kind of bringing things back. Certainly every winemaking and skin contact is a media darling because it's something very uniquely Georgian. but I think one thing that we as a company are trying to express out there also is that it's not just that style of winemaking. The Georgians have been making wine in the more modern European style for over 200 years.

00:33:40:21 - 00:33:55:19
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
So they develop these more contemporary styles, and now they're using it on their native grapes in ways that produces very consistent and delicious wines that we haven't had access to in the Western world up until very, very recently.

00:33:55:19 - 00:34:02:03
Jessie Ott
When you say modern, are you saying they use different types of oak aging as well?

00:34:02:05 - 00:34:25:10
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
oak aging is definitely incorporated. We have, one the Michael Zanni, is one PDO that, it's aged in French oak for at least eight months. in some situations they use either stainless steel, and some use different styles or types of oak and incorporate those into their winemaking styles.

00:34:25:12 - 00:34:30:14
Jessie Ott
Nice. Well, it's I could listen to this for forever. It's so interesting to me.

00:34:30:16 - 00:34:31:11
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
That's.

00:34:31:16 - 00:34:39:00
Jessie Ott
I believe they just take the stems in the, in the grapes and throw it in a square. V for 16 years.

00:34:39:02 - 00:35:00:07
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah. Ideally they do pick out most of the stems. I think that, you don't throw all them in because then what happens if you don't trim too many of the stems that you end up with a lot of tannins, which can be very intense. It's really good with food. And that's one thing, especially with people that maybe you've tried an orange wine and they're like, oh, this is really funky.

00:35:00:07 - 00:35:30:12
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
I don't, I don't even know where to, like, place this on a memory in my mouth. I think food is so, so important because when Georgians are sitting down and drinking wine, they're not just drinking wine, they're eating it with they're having a big meal or a supra, and especially like really salty foods, intense cheeses or sardines, things that really pack that, mommy punch, make or kalamata olives, things in that nature.

00:35:30:12 - 00:35:51:11
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
They'll make your mouth salivate with the salinity. those make the wines just blossom, because the tannins actually work to strip and satisfy and and kind of make your mouth thirsty again with, with the ability to taste those intense foods for the fresh first time every bite.

00:35:51:13 - 00:35:56:02
Jessie Ott
Yeah. No, I haven't tried it yet. So, I was just trying to.

00:35:56:04 - 00:35:58:22
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Oh, you're still sitting there smelling good.

00:35:59:00 - 00:36:03:15
Jessie Ott
More kind of evolving to me now.

00:36:03:17 - 00:36:07:20
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yes. Like, that's, it's nectarines.

00:36:07:20 - 00:36:33:22
Jessie Ott
Like, it's almost the more intense flavor of the the first one. but you're right, it does. He has kind of like those that aged sherry, the sherry kind of flavor notes. But, it still still has a tropical kind of, you know, again like nectarine dried nectarine flavors or smell to it. Yummy. well, that was really fun.

00:36:33:23 - 00:36:40:04
Jessie Ott
Yeah. oh, that's really fun. It's different.

00:36:40:05 - 00:36:59:18
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
You know, a lot of people, say that, if you were to drink this wine. Oh, the, with your eyes closed, you might think it's, red wine because it's got some of the real strong tannins and stuff. And we're not used to tannins in white wine. Yeah. Okay. Oh.

00:36:59:20 - 00:37:23:06
Jessie Ott
Again, it's got that that thicker mouthfeel to it kind of ends. it doesn't have like a really long finish. It's kind of a short finish, but it's got the notes. Yeah. Like like, like a, I don't want to say tart, but a little tart. Like a dry tart, punch to it at the end, which is really fun.

00:37:23:06 - 00:37:26:09
Jessie Ott
And you can really play with that, I'm sure with a lot of different types of foods.

00:37:26:11 - 00:37:41:16
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah. And, as you kind of pointed out, it involves one of my favorite things to do with an amber wine is I'll open it up at the beginning of the meal, and we'll taste it with the appetizers, and then we'll let it sit for a little bit, and then we'll taste it 30 minutes later with the entrees.

00:37:41:16 - 00:38:12:16
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And it'll be totally different. So much more. That's or that. And you know, maybe you may not enjoy the wine as being your favorite thing at every stage, but it's an experience every single time. So this is a 2017. So. And like I said Amber wine has a very long shelf life. we've tried some of the wines from to 20 ten, 2009.

00:38:12:18 - 00:38:40:19
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And you know, there were just incredible the well, the age and how, how much they evolve is amazing. And the things that, you know, hard to, really explain without trying it, but we're so used to aging with red wine. Well, yeah, we kind of think, like, after four years of white wine just probably gone bad.

00:38:40:21 - 00:38:43:00
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
But, George, you don't necessarily think that actually you're.

00:38:43:00 - 00:38:46:22
Jessie Ott
Not trying to.

00:38:47:00 - 00:39:06:13
Jessie Ott
You know, they have 16 year old wines credible to me. do you think it's because it has such low oxygen contact for whatever months you put it in, therefore that does that kind of set the stage for, it being able to age a little longer.

00:39:06:15 - 00:39:26:05
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
All right. Well, I think part of it is that it it's changing your expectation of what you're looking for out of the wine. And especially when we have, like these young, lively, bright white wines, the second that they maybe start to dull out a little bit, we feel like they're past their prime. Right? And then they're not good anymore.

00:39:26:07 - 00:39:51:03
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
But with the wines, you're expecting the flavors to evolve and grow, and there's actually something there that is helping to manifest that and grow those flavors. It's not just getting worse, but actually they're awakening a little bit afterwards. so I think there's there's more for for more room for growth in the cranberries than there are in the the non skin contact whites.

00:39:51:05 - 00:39:57:10
Jessie Ott
Right. Well that was lovely. What does that retail for similar price price point or 25.

00:39:57:10 - 00:40:38:03
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
99. That one's a little bit more. Yeah. And you know one of the reasons, where why square wines, tend to be a little bit more expensive is because of the, process of winemaking. It's it's, it's very labor intensive. there's, a lot of, work that goes into it, these, and it's pretty much I would call up, like, handmade wine, you know, natural, from from, from the beginning to the end, just, you know, no additives.

00:40:38:05 - 00:41:03:20
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
and that's what we love about this one. It's just clean wine. All right? The vessels made by hand. The wines are the grapes are hand-picked in the field by people that live in the local towns. then everything is put together and, like, very specifically, watch the. The vessels are cleaned by people, and some of them are actually so big that a whole person can fit inside of them, so they can clean with them.

00:41:03:23 - 00:41:36:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
We have a great video of that on our Instagram. If you guys want to check it out. Yeah. And, and they use, ancient techniques, the, the through the knowledge, like, they use the bark from the, specific trees that are like antibiotics to, clean the vessels inside. And so it's, it's still that traditional old, way of winemaking and maintaining the square rings because it's every, every cycle of wine.

00:41:36:23 - 00:41:42:20
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
They have to we do it over and over to make sure it's everything is just right.

00:41:42:22 - 00:41:58:22
Jessie Ott
Awesome. I do believe I've seen, an entire human inside of one of those things, and it caught me off guard because I know that they're big, but you're like, wow, there's a human in there.

00:41:59:00 - 00:42:11:13
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
They they hold, down on average, the ones that, we we're getting our wine from our bottles, 1300 bottles or so, and one.

00:42:11:15 - 00:42:12:20
Jessie Ott
Yeah.

00:42:12:22 - 00:42:39:09
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
We've actually purchased one every that had one for every. That was a rosé. the first organic rosé they made. And so we bought the whole thing. Yeah. Certified organic and biodynamic. We were so excited. Right. Yeah. That's really hard to get out there. You know, there's so many steps and processes. And while we say that these are natural wines, we don't have the ability to get the organic certifications on every one of them.

00:42:39:09 - 00:42:57:06
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And for most of the people in Georgia, they don't care because this is just the way you grow. All right. Why why would they go out of their way to certify that they do the things that everyone always has done? we're just kind of special here in America where we we'd like to shortcut way more than.

00:42:57:07 - 00:43:21:08
Jessie Ott
Yeah, we wanted certifications on everything. So, well, I guess it's because there's so many different levels of people making wines that, we want to be sure what? You want to know what you're drinking. But. Yeah, I guess I get it. If you're just drinking mostly wines made in your in your local area, you know, you just know it's you already know it's certified organic.

00:43:21:10 - 00:43:30:13
Jessie Ott
but it would be interesting if that. Yeah. You know, I wonder if that is a, a selling point here in the U.S where you guys, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.

00:43:30:15 - 00:43:58:17
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
It definitely helps. I think the fact that we have at least one wine that did receive that certificate, and then we brought in a lot of other wines from that same winery. They just hadn't gone through the extra money and steps to make sure each individual batch was certified. so I think that kind of shows that our ethos is on track, and we're hoping that as we move more in towards the future, that we'll be able to get more certifications on our future imports.

00:43:58:19 - 00:44:03:00
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
but for right now, the most important thing is it's getting the juice into people's mouths.

00:44:03:02 - 00:44:05:06
Jessie Ott
Yeah. So speaking of which.

00:44:05:08 - 00:44:41:16
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
So speaking of which, do you want to do, what, would be our most luxurious dry red or soft gravy? Reserved, which we introduced earlier this year. Nice. black label, very chic. so this one is, this one retails for 45. so it's a little bit pricier than the others, but, a high luxury product, silky smooth, with just enough tannins to make it hold up the stuff you get.

00:44:41:17 - 00:45:05:06
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
there's notes of, like deep currants and cherries. this one is aged in oak for eight months, and it's a very selective group of grapes from, pretty much all over the country. Right. so it's a blend of what they selected as the best grapes of the harvest from the year in to caddy. to make this particular wine.

00:45:05:08 - 00:45:39:00
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
and we a 2016 is actually a very good vintage, as well, there's multiple wineries that have an amazing 2016, service SAP and, but we pick I think we pick one of the best. And, this this, is actually very interesting. story, but, it was it was we were for a hunt for one of the best wines, and we found it.

00:45:39:02 - 00:46:00:22
Jessie Ott
nice. No, it's very good. great. On the nose. It smells almost, you know, perfumes. not quite full bodied, but full bodied, like a, like you can tell it's got a lot of nice, structure to it. And then when you, when you actually, it's a lot lighter than you than I thought it was going to be.

00:46:01:00 - 00:46:06:23
Jessie Ott
not like a pencil lighter, but it's a little bit lighter than, like, a traditional cab, I guess you could say.

00:46:07:01 - 00:46:35:14
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Right. You're expecting to be, like, super punchy or like something like a Sirah, but it mellowed out, right? Like it? It's a lot easier to drink than you might expect out of something that has such a big aroma. And, and alcohol content and actually, you know, decanting it, changes, changes quite drastically as well. So, if you let it sit for, ten, 20 minutes, it evolves a lot as well.

00:46:35:16 - 00:47:14:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
and, I've had that. Zachary, is amazing. Grape. it with 22,009 vintage. And the way it aged was just unbelievable. It was almost like drinking, dark, liquid chocolate. That kind of as it kind of, ended up being like that, and I, I think, one of the things, you know, we can tell you this opera, we grape varietal is very unique.

00:47:15:01 - 00:47:40:16
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
It's a 20 year grape, one of the. That's one of the reasons it's so dark is because not only the skin is, dark, but also the flesh is red as well. And, and it's a thicker scoop, skin, grape variety, which naturally has the anti, pesticide and, it's more resistant to, to things.

00:47:40:16 - 00:47:43:13
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
So it naturally kind of grows.

00:47:43:15 - 00:48:07:21
Jessie Ott
All right. So yeah, I was just saying you're right. It does kind of have like, serranos where it's kind of you can smell the spice. Cassis. you know, kind of a darker berry. And then you get this, kind of a peppery sort of finish to it, which is, really nice. it's. Yeah, it's definitely not tasted a wine like this before.

00:48:07:23 - 00:48:32:08
Jessie Ott
every it's like there's different, different elements of different grapes kind of coming into 2 to 1, you know, and it's it's just a unique, lovely experience. The texture's great. The finish is great. Yeah. That's I can see this. And then this is a 2016. So Yeah, it's definitely it. Got some time in the bottle here. I didn't check to see what the alcohol is.

00:48:32:10 - 00:48:37:10
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
It should be around 13%. yeah.

00:48:37:12 - 00:48:39:07
Jessie Ott
14. I think.

00:48:39:09 - 00:48:42:07
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
14. Yeah.

00:48:42:09 - 00:48:52:21
Jessie Ott
Bottles. Yeah. Right in line there. So yummy. So. Yeah. This is so fun. All right, so the fourth and final, tasting.

00:48:52:22 - 00:49:27:21
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yes. The. Alyssa, do you want to talk a little bit about the process of how they make our sonic wine? yes, sure. So, Allison, so one of the ways that, we have three different semi-sweet wines, one is Amazon. We also have kings of our holy and French cara. but, how they make, these, some of my sweet wines, one of the processes, they they, wait till the sugar.

00:49:27:23 - 00:49:55:15
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
the certain amount of sugar is converted to alcohol, and, then they stop the fermentation by lowering the temperature to, zero degrees or 32°F, or close to it, which leaves the natural sugars in the wine. So there's no additives to it. There's no added sugar to it. It's just it's a naturally, grape, left the residual sugar in it that makes it semi-sweet.

00:49:55:17 - 00:50:05:04
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And, my wife calls it a no headache wine because she. So you can drink it and not worry about it the next day.

00:50:05:06 - 00:50:10:08
Jessie Ott
oh. That's awesome. I like no headache wines.

00:50:10:10 - 00:50:33:21
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
that is guaranteed. but, yeah, Allison is our actually our most popular, wine. It's our number one seller because it's just a super accessible table wine. It does not require other food contacts in order to be delicious. it has kind of a sweet start and a dry finish, so it doesn't feel cloying like that.

00:50:33:21 - 00:50:37:07
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Some other sweet wines would.

00:50:37:09 - 00:50:57:07
Jessie Ott
I again, I have never tried anything like this before. It is. It is a completely different experience when you talk about it being, you know, semi-sweet. I expected it to be to feel sweeter, but it's it's not it's it feels so natural, natural to the flavor of it, you know, from the from the nose on through.

00:50:57:07 - 00:51:10:19
Jessie Ott
And when you smell it, it smells a little bit like a, a heavier, darker wine, you know, because it's got your slightly darker notes on it.

00:51:10:21 - 00:51:16:05
Jessie Ott
I don't know if I'm getting tobacco. Is that possible? I could get some of those dark notes in there. yeah.

00:51:16:10 - 00:51:30:18
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Well, this is 100% the same grapes as the last one you just dried. So they're both made with with separately. So all of those notes are going to be in there in the same way. They just are going to manifest slightly differently.

00:51:30:20 - 00:51:55:05
Jessie Ott
Yeah. That is smooth from from start to finish. I'm still tasting it. you know, 30s 45 seconds later and it is very smooth. And that is very that's a silky one. I wouldn't even call it sugar. I call it silk because it's just smooth Silk road. There you go. Circle folks, that, this.

00:51:55:06 - 00:51:59:18
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Is not the name of the brand right now. Panel no.

00:51:59:20 - 00:52:11:18
Jessie Ott
Yeah. No, that's like velvet. That's that's lovely, I get it. Why? That's, a big seller. because again, you can drink that on its own or I'm sure it's fabulous with food as well.

00:52:11:20 - 00:52:16:17
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah, it's also, our most accessible wine price wise at 1399.

00:52:16:19 - 00:52:25:08
Jessie Ott
Okay. Yeah. It's yummy. Yeah. I don't want to say it's my favorite, but I kind of want to say it's my favorite because.

00:52:25:08 - 00:52:27:13
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
I, I there's nothing wrong.

00:52:27:15 - 00:52:31:10
Jessie Ott
But again, that's such a little. Yeah, it's.

00:52:31:11 - 00:52:49:06
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
It's our number one seller. Just, it kind of goes to any palette you can, can enjoy it. It can, also pair very well with, big, variety of foods and cheeses and really good with spicy dishes.

00:52:49:08 - 00:52:49:23
Jessie Ott
Yeah.

00:52:50:01 - 00:53:23:11
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
yeah. And, so when we were creating the wine pairing, we'll, we we're trying to find comparative varieties for all of our different wines. And we actually kind of ran into a problem here with the apples, only because they're not good representations of slightly sweet red wines that are out there. Most of them, like Rosa, don't or, you know, things that are like a port, like these things are way sweeter than what we have here.

00:53:23:13 - 00:53:49:02
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
we ended up choosing, Jordan Felder, which is, a semi sweet Italian wine. is a German. German? it was German, but, yeah, there aren't great expressions, like and even like semi-sweet white. Right. It's either like, very intensely, like sickly sweet, like Moscato. It's or even like Rieslings, which could have been so good and so dry.

00:53:49:02 - 00:54:09:18
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
But, I think that this is a great example of how you can have a balanced sweetness in your wine, and especially because it's naturally occurring sweetness, natural sugar from the grapes. It's not just pouring stuff into the bottle like what we do with a lot. Like what our whatever two buck chuck is. How much is in there?

00:54:09:19 - 00:54:28:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
that is not actually. And you know that the only product in this bottle is great. And yeah, you you you taste what the what that farmers product, that agricultural product actually created. And now it's in here.

00:54:29:01 - 00:54:52:18
Jessie Ott
It's awesome. I think that, you know, with our consumer base here in the United States liking that sweet red wine, this got a lot of potential because you can crossover to people that don't, I'm not a sweet wine personal drinker, mosquito or, you know, setter or something every once in a while. But, you know, it's not my go to.

00:54:52:18 - 00:55:13:00
Jessie Ott
But this is something I would definitely drink a little bit more often than, normal, obviously, I, I oh, I don't want it's favorite kind of is my favorite just because of the experience of drinking. It is so different. I mean, all of them are very different. But that one was just like a silky, velvety, journey is very lovely.

00:55:13:00 - 00:55:16:08
Jessie Ott
Is nice. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this with me.

00:55:16:10 - 00:55:28:02
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Yeah. Our pleasure. Thank you for sharing them with everyone else. and hopefully some of your listeners will be maybe tasting these along with you somewhere along the way while they're listening.

00:55:28:04 - 00:55:32:00
Jessie Ott
Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's. And that's another idea we could, we could do down the road.

00:55:32:00 - 00:56:00:23
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Maybe one of the things we're also developing because we have such a, you know, big, portfolio now is, bringing in, flights into restaurants where they can, you know, try, try Georgian journey through with life through wine and try five, six, wines at a time and kind of see what they like. So it's it's coming soon.

00:56:01:01 - 00:56:08:05
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
We're, we're working on developing that, for, restaurants.

00:56:08:07 - 00:56:38:23
Jessie Ott
That's a that's a great idea. especially if you can work with a chef to get any kind of semi Georgian type foods to kind of pair with it. Would the, the v a lot of fun? I, you know, a wine dinner could do a wine dinner. from different participating, you know, restaurants. So going talking about that just a little bit on the on premise in terms of, incorporating it into different restaurants.

00:56:38:23 - 00:56:59:04
Jessie Ott
So for, for example, you're going to expect French restaurant fresh French wines at a French restaurant or Italian wines at a Italian restaurant. So what's the key to success here? To to showcase the Georgian wines. Is there is there any particular styles of cuisine or is it just everybody?

00:56:59:06 - 00:57:23:04
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Well, actually keeping did quite a few dinners, that were, pairing with Georgian wine. I can tell you a little bit more about that. Yeah. So we, I've tried a couple of different things at different restaurants all over the state. one probably closest to you is in de very, and that's, called the salted goat.

00:57:23:06 - 00:57:46:02
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
the owner of reached out to us because she had studied abroad in Georgia when she was younger and wanted to find a way to bring a little bit of her personality to her menu. so now they have Silk Road wines by the glass, which is really cool. And we did a pairing dinner with them where they, they made traditional Georgian foods, but it's also just on their menu every day.

00:57:46:04 - 00:58:18:11
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
we've also done a couple different tastings, flights where we come in and do a special for two nights and just introduce 4 or 5 different Georgian wines that night. Never gets to try the whole gambit, but I mean, it's really about figuring out the right space for someone who can ham sell the product, right? And when I worked in New York, it was a lot easier to access the types of people that would really get excited about Georgian wine.

00:58:18:13 - 00:58:41:17
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
in Florida and Texas, you don't get to lead with the hook of, oh, I have this thing that's super trendy and is on every menu in town. No, you have to start with education first. and you have to really invest in finding a champion within the organization. That's not just going to get excited about it with you while you're there tasting the wine with them, but that is going to every day.

00:58:41:17 - 00:59:16:09
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Go out and be how excited they are about this thing they discovered so they can share it with someone else, who then shares it with someone else. that's really the only way that this works. And so it's really about people, you and in terms of the on premise stuff, but I personally prefer to pursue chef driven restaurants, places that are chefs owned if possible, because those people really care about the palates and the the pairings and the combinations, and they want to discover something unique.

00:59:16:09 - 00:59:38:07
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And that is going to bring what's special about their curation to the menu. And, and we have the ability to help contribute to that a little bit in our own unique work. And recently we also had a, food pairing of an Italian restaurant. And it was kind of amazing how well, the Italian dishes paired with the wine as well.

00:59:38:07 - 01:00:08:15
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
So, I don't even like that Indian restaurant. Right? Like that. There are some really interesting things out there, and obviously it's really hard to walk into a Spanish tapas spa and say, hey, I know you're selling all these Spanish ones that you can't get anywhere, but you should sell these Georgian wines that you can't get anywhere. but it's there's definitely the right audience for the creative chefs and restaurant tours that, that really care about what they're serving.

01:00:08:17 - 01:00:28:10
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
because the ethos is there, the story is there, and the product is good. It's just about someone who's willing to invest in and sharing the time with their customers. And I think those who have done it have had tremendous success, and other people don't necessarily have the time of day for it. And that's okay, too.

01:00:28:12 - 01:00:47:19
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's not for everybody, you know, but you can't be you don't want to be everything to everybody. You want the right places and fit in the right concepts that make sense and that they're behind you on it. So I think that's yeah, that's that's that's totally fine. but you know, I think you're right.

01:00:47:19 - 01:01:07:08
Jessie Ott
It's going to be, not only a little bit more nontraditional in how you approach different accounts. Like you said, it's more of an educational component to it. And I'm sure that once they actually have the time to try them there, it's it's, you know, the answer is in the bottle, right?

01:01:07:10 - 01:01:49:17
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
So yeah. And we always find someone likes at least one of our wines. Like no matter what your palate, there's something in this lineup that's going to invigorate. Yeah, absolutely. It's and I've seen it personally, over and over. we actually, had a big, promotional event in Central Market in, Texas, a couple of years ago, and we did the March, grill event that, during which we had ten days in ten, Central markets where we sold over half a container of wine.

01:01:49:22 - 01:02:08:03
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
People just, we set records every day, about how much wine we sold. our. And it was literally every person that tasted the wine found something that they wanted to take home with them. At least a bottle of not a few bottles.

01:02:08:05 - 01:02:29:04
Jessie Ott
Oh, wow. That's awesome. Yeah, no, I can I can see it. The proof is in the bottle. So, I guess we're kind of concluded then with the the wine tasting. So do we want to go back into, your journey in kind of how you got here? I know we talked a little bit about it, but,

01:02:29:06 - 01:02:33:09
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
If I could, I'd like to just show off something. Really? Yeah.

01:02:33:09 - 01:02:34:06
Jessie Ott
Of course.

01:02:34:08 - 01:02:58:09
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Before we dive into that, because we just got these, and I. I'm very, very excited that we've been waiting a long time. is are here. That didn't work as well as I thought. All right. We're going to lift them off one at a time. So we have these new sparkling wine. Okay. From Georgia. this is not very common in terms of US importation stuff.

01:02:58:11 - 01:03:25:19
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
but we we have access to them. We have a brand new sparkling rosé that's made with, 70, 70% ricotta, Italy and 30% SOP gravy. Then we have a amber sparkling, and all these are using a, a secondary fermentation period. So it's similar to, like, a pet, not, so it's lightly sparkling. and this one is a blend of ricotta Italian.

01:03:25:19 - 01:03:33:16
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
That's Bonnie Casey and Chardonnay. So they're they're really kind of getting exploring. But you have this beautiful.

01:03:33:18 - 01:03:33:22
Jessie Ott
it.

01:03:33:22 - 01:03:35:12
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Is Amber color to create.

01:03:35:12 - 01:03:38:14
Jessie Ott
Color.

01:03:38:16 - 01:04:02:08
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
and then here we have an extra Brut, which is a mix of records. Italy and Miss Bonnie. so it's more of, like a champagne style. and so we just got all of those as well as brand new Hickory and Kissy and these beautiful blue. Yeah. And, Tiffany.

01:04:02:11 - 01:04:08:11
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Very pretty. Awesome. So you're eating.

01:04:08:12 - 01:04:33:02
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
Growing. I just want to. We are expanding and growing. All of those wines have been on the pairing wheel since we got that printed, but we have been waiting for them to finally come in, and we could share them with everyone else. And it just happened yesterday, so it was a great day. Is very busy unloading. but we had a pretty good celebration with our team because, those wines just are amazing.

01:04:33:02 - 01:04:40:14
Yanick Arakelov & Keaton Maddox
And we're we can't wait to get the feedback from everybody. But I think people are just gonna fall in love with these wines.

01:04:40:18 - 01:04:56:07
Jessie Ott
That's awesome. Yeah. I'm curious about the sparkling wines that I will. I will wave goodbye. Until next time. Okay. this week's episode was produced by for Dora J productions.