Road to Wine Expert

Rich Frank, founder of Frank Family Vineyards, shares his story of how wine changed his life. Rich's first tastes of great wine while traveling the world led him to Napa where he's faced multiple challenges including starting out, fires and selling wine during pandemic.

Remember to support your favorite wine producers, and buy and drink great wines made by great people.

This episode was edited by the talented James Gralian — jamesgralian.com

and features music from the following artists:

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Randy Smith is better known as The Wine Writer across the internet. He focuses his blog on winemaker, wineries and other people based in the Central Coast.

Beyond telling great stories about the wine industry, Randy does something admirable which is niche down into a very specific region. With the wine world being so large, I think many people struggle with where to begin. This is something I talked about with Chappy Cottrell during on our podcast episode.

If you're like Randy, then choosing a region to discover is going to help you understand wine much better than picking bottles at random. The next time you taste a wine you like, I'd recommend that you ask yourself questions about what you're drinking.

• Where is this wine from?
• Who made this wine?
• Have I had other wines similar to this one?

These questions will lead you down exciting avenues, and paying a bit more attention is going to serve you in the long run.

If you're starting out, listen to the wines that speak to you.

Then, dig in.

Discover what makes wines you love special and then learn as much as you possibly can about each one. You'll thank yourself later because you'll begin to establish a basis for knowledge while pursing something that is making you happy (win-win).

If you're ready to start a wine blog or wine-related project, you'll want to listen to Randy's interview below.

To learn more about Randy Smith, visit: https://roadtowineexpert.com/randy-smith/

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I'm continually impressed by Chel Petras and the wine knowledge she's gained in the past two years.

One of the most rewarding parts of looking back on these interviews is to witnessing the continued growth of many of the speakers from the summit.

When I listen back to this interview compared to my recent conversations, Chel seems like a different person. And I mean that in the most positive sense.

Her maturation as a wine personality is due in large part to her dedication to wine education. So much so, that WSET made her an ambassador and she's sharing her studying on Instagram. You can follow along and take her quizzes by checking out @chelloveswine.

She's due to take the test in August so please wish her good luck.

So, let's rewind to connect with Chel and discover how she got started.

To learn more visit: https://roadtowineexpert.com/chel-petras/

The following songs were used in this episode:

Funky Souls by Amarià
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Living with the Road to Wine Expert Summit and now podcast is like living with a time capsule.

Or maybe more appropriately a high school yearbook.

Every so often, I can go back to listen to the knowledge my guests shared and see where I was in my journey.

For those new to the podcast, these interviews were originally recorded as part of the Road To Wine Expert Summit: a 10 Day virtual conference with 34 interviews from varying voices in the world of wine and spirits.

The Summit was a hit list of my heroes and influences who I reached out to in order to better understand their wine journey.

There was no one more influential than Cal Fussman.

Cal Fussman is one of my all-time favorite guests of Tim’s podcast. And if you haven’t listened to it already, you can find it on Tim Ferriss's blog here.

Cal’s interview with Tim pointed me to Cal’s article Cocktails Before the Collapse.

It always gives me the chills and it brings me to tears every time I read it.

It was a piece that inspired me to go on a wine journey. To say, screw it all. And, I actually did.

I quit my job to freelance. Then stumbled into a part-time job in a wine shop. I started taking wine classes, and then I landed on the idea to do a summit.

So this interview is several years old. It was originally recorded on June 7, 2017.

For most of my interviews, I started with the question of “what was the transformative experience that got you into wine?”

But in this interview, Cal jumped right in and answered some of my pre-interview questions.

For those of you who have read the article and listened to the original interview, Cal compares wine with music.

So, I had asked Cal in the pre-interview, “What wine pairs well The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction and Hanson’s Mmm Bop?”

Cal came out firing with his response.

So, here for the first time, is my interview with Cal Fussman completely unedited.

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/// About this episode

October 9, 2020 marks the four year anniversary from my first wine education course. James Cluer's wine education company, Fine Vintage, was the program provider for WSET Level 1 which I took in Chicago. The program would be a catalyst for my own wine journey, so I thought it would be fitting to republish my conversation with James as it highlights what it takes to create a wine education company from scratch and what it truly means to be a "wine expert."
Apologies for the potato quality of this recording. If you'd prefer listening to reading, click the show notes link above.

/// About the Road To Wine Expert

The Road to Wine Expert documents the career paths of people in the wine world. We'll uncover the success stories, the pitfalls and the shortcuts to learning wine fast. I like to say, "If you drink wine, you are my friend." So grab a glass, and let's dive in.

// Music

Opening and Closing Credits

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Podcast Intro

"Dj Quads - It just makes me happy" is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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