Judith Smelser UnWineding - A COVID-19 Podcast, Wine News

Episode 37: Cherié Rivett

What do you do after a successful career in the corporate world and a decade spent running your own business consulting company? If you’re Cherié Rivett, you launch a wine distribution business! Cherié is the owner and CEO of Orlando-based Harvest Moon Distributors, a company created to meet a very specific need that soon expanded far beyond its founders’ expectations. Cherié talks about how she built her ship while sailing it, learning the wine industry from the ground up and discovering some hard realities along the way. She also talks about how she managed to shepherd the company through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic so that it could emerge with its small team intact, and she shares her hopes and fears for a post-pandemic future. Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance. 

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Cherié Rivett, Owner & CEO of Harvest Moon Distributors
Judith Smelser UnWineding - A COVID-19 Podcast, Wine News

Episode 36: Mary Montalvo “Exit Interview”

Four years after opening Luisa’s Cellar, a wine bar and cafe in downtown Sanford, Florida, Yellymary (Mary) Montalvo recently announced she and her husband are closing the bar at the end of July and moving to North Carolina to start a wine academy. The decision, she says, was not about money — the pandemic reopening has been lucrative — but about her need to prioritize her health and her relationships. In this special episode, Mary returns to UnWineding for an exit interview. She shares lessons she’s learned about the hard realities of the wine and hospitality business, the newfound passion for teaching that inspired her next venture, and her enduring love for the Central Florida wine community. Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance.

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Yellymary Montalvo with her husband and co-owner Sascha Weyer at Luisa’s Cellar (Courtesy Yellymary Montalvo)
Judith Smelser Wine News

Luisa’s Cellar wine bar closing in downtown Sanford

“I have learned, the older I get, that dreams are one thing and realities are the other,” Yellymary Montalvo told me last November during an interview for the UnWineding podcast. “It was a very nice dream, but it’s a very challenging business — a wine bar.” 

Yesterday, the energetic and outspoken owner of Lusia’s Cellar in downtown Sanford announced on social media that she and her husband and co-owner Sascha Weyer are getting out of that challenging business at the end of July.

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