My father sent me an encouraging text message last week after we spoke by phone and discussed how I planned to lead the Foundation in 2019. He wrote, “Think of the product you represent - of all the moments of uncertainty it suffers. From the initial planting to bottling and aging until the mouth. What a journey it goes through. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes not, but drinkable and enjoyable.” There are several themes to unpack from his message: uncertainty, process, refinement, anticipation, and joy. I think that our industry creates products born from passion and love. This ultimately makes working in this industry and savoring its products a joyful part of life despite all the uncertainties experienced during the journey.

Philosophy provides a basis to orient our mindset and attitudes, however we then need to take action in order to get to the finished product. I continuously pursue different resources to grow and develop my leadership abilities. Given the amount of time that I spend travelling, I often turn to podcasts for inspiration. I enjoy podcasts like How I Built This , Optimal Living Daily , and Freakonomics. I recently discovered that one of our own industry leaders, Erica Paolicelli, Co-Owner of Three Brothers Winery, recently launched her own podcast, Tenacious We , which is a podcast about how to run a successful business in Upstate NY. I listened to her episode with her co-owner at Three Brothers Winery, Dave Mansfield, and I was inspired by the story of his personal journey. I learned from Dave that it is important to stay determined and never give up, and despite any obstacles, keep going until you can savor that delicious first sip from the cup of victory.

Erica begins each episode with a “Tip of the Week,” basically a lifehack to increase your productivity. In this spirit, I would like to offer our Press Deck readers another way to enjoy this message without having to read it.  Matt Spaccarelli from Benmarl Winery and Fjord Vineyards, commented to me last year that he values receiving the Press Deck every week, but he finds it hard to always read it. He suggested that we find a way to create an audio version that could be listened to while working in the vineyard. Well, thanks to Suzanne Hunt from Hunt Country Vineyards, I learned from her that enabling “Speech” in the “Accessibility” options for the iPhone (or Android devices) will transform written content on your phone into audio. Try listening to this week’s Field Notes using this method!

If philosophy and leadership conversations are not your idea of fun, I recommend that you revisit the podcasts about the New York Wine industry that we created in partnership with Lawrence Francis, Host of Interpreting Wine. There are 25 different episodes with New York winemakers, importers, sommeliers. And, Lawrence was recently interviewed by Meininger Wine Business International about the value of podcasts for communicating and educating about wine. Lawrence sees a growing appetite for content about wine and audio will remain an important space for reaching wine loving audiences.

Happy listening,

Sam Filler, Executive Director

New York Wine & Grape Foundation