Brian: 0:12

All right, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach podcast. This is part two of our interview here with Dana from Vino Vero, and in this episode we're going to be talking about the behind the scenes, getting to know a little bit more about what the day-to-day is like for you. I don't know if you say it right, I don't know if it's the right way to say it what it's like doing winery. I don't know. I should probably have Jaws doing the interview here. Chop, that should probably have Jaws doing the interview here. No winery, no.

Dana: 0:42

So, dana, tell us a little bit of like what is a typical day look like for you. Yes, well, I love a clean space so I always spend the morning cleaning. Just to get real serious with you, yeah, always like a little bit of that little, you know, like easy business keeping, so just like brushing up the shop, all the normal things you can think of. But the majority of my time I do.

Dana: 0:59

I do spend a lot of time kind of finicking and fessing over what wines I do have available right now, because I like to change stuff so often. So I do have some mainstay like some, some wines that have kind of like a house wine I guess accreditation that I just always have Things I can't get rid of because I love them so much. But also people have just made it very apparent that they need that in stock. But other than that, I really do try to change the selection. I'd say every six weeks you can see a pretty good 75% overturn of producers. It might be the same style of wine or same region or same grape, but I do like to change up producers and also keeping a price range that's realistic.

Dana: 1:41

I have stuff from like $16 up to I think I have a $1,000 bottle, but I think most generally it's between like $16, $15 bottles of wine all the way up to there's a lot of mid-range stuff. So people can come in not break the bank, but they absolutely can get something very nice if they'd like to as well. So those kind of things. Gabbing with the locals, you know people who come in and like also my. You know getting a text from someone like I need a case of wine put together. You know what I like and like that's the most fun. So that's the majority. And then it's a lot of I don't know, coming up with events.

Dana: 2:17

People in Vero specifically like things to do because it's, I mean, one of the best parts is it's a very easygoing, slow feeling town, but that's also one of the things that can get old. You know, I like doing serious wine tasting nights but also having other fun events that are a little bit more interactive and it's just like oh, the wine is an accompaniment to the fun evening. I mean the day-to-day is pretty like cush in my opinion. That's why I'm still here. I love it. I get a like clean, which I love. I get a curate and then I get a like oh God, this sounds like a commercial, but like then I get to connect with people like the wine reps or customers and yeah, I love like all of those things.

Brian: 2:57

Clean, curate, connect and I'm on the beach.

Dana: 2:59

So, like I really don't know, I couldn't yeah, I couldn't think of anything better.

Brian: 3:04

So, like you're talking about, like the different, like you have some people that reach out to you and ask you to like to curate, like a box of wine for them. And you're bringing in different wines. You know you're rotating them. So, like do you feature that kind of stuff like on your social media page too, for people to check out and see, like, what's going on, to kind of educate them on what you have?

Dana: 3:20

that's a good idea.

Brian: 3:21

I should I got plenty of good ideas, you know I definitely everyone's always like oh, do you have a wine club?

Dana: 3:26

and I do? It's actually funny enough I do. Do I advertise that? I do no, because my favorite thing is someone coming in and being like, let's build together, whereas my wine club is very much like three bottles a month of what I think is really fun that I don't have in the shop, so it's not wines you can then shop in the store.

Dana: 3:44

It's like three ones that I rotate because, at the end of the day, like I could pick a wine club for people. But like that seems so weird, I'm like no, I don't need to be being like, this is what I like.

Brian: 3:54

So, dana, we need to talk later after the podcast, because, yes, you need to be getting that data from people.

Dana: 3:59

Yeah, I want them. I want and like I could have 18 different categories, like, oh, you want a clean and fresh wine club, or you want the bold and heavy, or like I mean, any place you go that has wine clubs, this is. It's the same thing over and over again, and so I maybe I'm a little bit of like a stubborn little woman.

Brian: 4:16

I guess, but like.

Dana: 4:17

I just find that stuff to be so I don't know. It's like then it charges your card every month. You're committed You're in a wine club, you have to get it. There's no, I'm like I want it to be flexible. You come to me when you're feeling like you need some wine and let's talk through what you want and what you like. How it is in here is literally just an accumulation of experiences through my life in the wine industry and like how I want it to present.

Brian: 4:41

Can you explain to me what's the differences like between natural wine and low intervention wine? What does that mean?

Dana: 4:48

Actually those are kind of those go hand in hand. There are many different styles of winemaking. What we're most you know, what most people are exposed to, is conventional winemaking. So anything you're going to get in like a grocery store or some of the bigger labels fall into that category. Conventional winemaking is all done with Western farming. So in the field, in the vineyards, it's a lot of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides to maintain and make a viable high yield crop. We could get so into all of this and all the different levels, but we won't here because this isn't a winemaking podcast.

Dana: 5:22

So there's conventional winemaking, then there's a lot of farming, and then there's sustainable farming, and then you have organic farming and biodynamic farming. So that all relates to farming methods and growing grapes. Once the wine comes into the winery, that's when you can get into the natural and low intervention kind of speak.

Dana: 5:39

Low intervention in the vineyard is going to be related to organic a little sustainable a little bit, because you're at least mindful of it, but organic and biodynamic farming and that is all with the exclusion of the harsh chemicals and then the addition of a bunch of different other things. With biodynamic farming we could get really deep, but they use different, like you know, winery made composts and sprays. They're not using the chemicals on the vines, they're using natural products. So that refers to wine growing, so grape growing, but in a winery making the wine and there's a lot of different ways to use chemicals and different substances, synthetic materials to create a wine and almost like a recipe. So natural and or low intervention would not be doing that. You're not intervening at all. You're letting the grapes come in naturally from the field. Doing a spontaneous fermentation on their own Instead of using an inoculation like a synthetic yeast would be the first example of a naturally made wine. Low intervention is as simple as it is. You're not intervening, You're letting the grapes and the wine kind of make itself.

Brian: 6:41

This is what I love about having interviews with different business owners running I think this is a wine bar. You sell bottles of wine. Yeah, I love understanding like just getting a glance, not really understanding, because I don't understand a lot of the stuff you're saying.

Dana: 6:55

But I play it off like I do. Yeah, you did great. Yeah, I was like. Everyone knows this, they should.

Brian: 7:01

That's what's so cool about getting to sit down across other business owners and bring their stories out and let them share the process too, because a lot of people that are listening are thinking it's just wine that we would buy from Publix or there's so much more to it and to be able to have you have the opportunity to come and sit behind the mic and help educate us.

Brian: 7:21

I don't know. I just I love doing that because I love bringing that out and let people like. This is why you want to support your local businesses here that are doing this, because you're doing so much research, trying to make sure we get a good experience, not just with coming to the store, but with the wine that we're tasting and and you don't get that everywhere. So that's what's so important about local.

Dana: 7:39

So I love that. That's. That's really cool. I appreciate that and that goes all the way down the line to the like.

Dana: 7:44

If the local mentality with the wine producers that I like to feature, because you know a lot of them not all of them, but a good amount are smaller producers where the it's a family or this or that and like I really do care about, like what you put into your body, I mean that's huge. There's a lot of really, really gross stuff that happens in wineries, um, and so you know, and with just mega, mega, yeah, so your wine should taste different every year. It shouldn't taste the same every year. Um, it shouldn't be a recipe made wine, in my opinion.

Dana: 8:19

So you you talked about how you make your own wine too. Do you sell any? And I have, like, some of my white wine bottles still hiding over there like little relics. So I did. I worked at two different wineries from 2014 to 2020. And then I, in 2020, branched off with a friend of mine and we started our own wine label.

Dana: 8:37

That took us to the Willamette Valley in Oregon and that's where we were really kind of just trading our work for free custom crush. So we needed a facility to make our wine in, but then we had to make wine for someone else, like his interns, essentially. So we needed a facility to make our wine in, but then we had to make wine for someone else, like his interns, essentially. So we came full circle in our careers. So we did. We did two vintages like that where we would. We sought out some grapes that we really loved. We made Pinot Gris the first year and then the second year, pinot Gris, trousseau and Riesling. It was very small and it was an amazing experience.

Dana: 9:06

Learned a lot then too. That was a very big learning experience, but then I moved away. So when you have a label that you do hands-on with your, you know, with two people and one person leaves, yeah. So that was an incredible experience and she will continue on the label out in California, my ex-business partner. She still lives out there and makes wine, so she will carry the torch on. But at Vino Vero I had it in stock for a while but I just opened and sold the last bottle the other night, so that was kind of like a weird end of an era feeling. Those are kind of like the feelings I love in life. It's like oof, yeah.

Brian: 9:40

Stings, but good sting.

Dana: 9:42

It's like, oh, it's over, but we made a good amount Like I'm proud of what we made and sold ourselves, but so that's yeah, no longer. But it was a beautiful label. Oregon has incredible fruit quality, so it was a really cool experience to make wine up there.

Brian: 9:57

So if everybody's listening and they're like, oh, we want to try it, it's like sorry, too late, it is, it was too A woman reserved a case.

Dana: 10:04

There's a case underneath the shelves, but it's already spoken for that's awesome Well if she doesn't come around.

Brian: 10:10

Yeah, exactly, if she doesn't come around, you're going to have an auction on your website.

Dana: 10:18

But that was, it was really cool, and then to be able to have it at the shop and sell, it was also a really, really cool experience. But yeah, yeah, it's something. If I had kids I'd be like I used to be a winemaker, but yeah, it was an amazing decade of my life, but it's, yeah. On to other stuff, that's awesome.

Brian: 10:37

That's good. That's good, all right. Well, this has been a great episode. I'm excited to get into what you love about Vero Beach. So with that, everybody, thank you for tuning in. If you're enjoying the episode, make sure you click that review we would love to hear what you have to say and hit subscribe while you're at it. See you later, neighbor.