For over five years, I have been writing about Orlando’s wine community and the people and businesses that make it so special. You may have noticed, however, that my posts here on Orlando Wine Blog have been much less frequent lately. I can finally explain why.
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Episode 38: Heather LaVine
In early 2020, Heather LaVine left the thriving wine and hospitality empire she and her partner had built from scratch in Upstate New York, moved to Florida, and opened a tiny natural wine boutique. The owner of Golden Hour Wine in Orlando’s Baldwin Park neighborhood talks about her journey from school teacher to minor league baseball employee to local hospitality leader … and explains why she decided to seek a new life as part of Central Florida’s wine community. Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance.
Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.
Golden Hour Wine aims to create “community gathering space” for Baldwin Park with Old World natural wines
Golden Hour Wine sits on a quiet side street a couple of blocks from New Broad Street, Baldwin Park’s main drag. Clocking in at only 650 square feet, it’s tiny a tiny space, but beautifully appointed, and it somehow manages not to feel the least bit cramped, despite having over 600 different wines on display.
Golden Hour has been open since April of this year, and to say its selection is eclectic would be an understatement. Owner Heather LaVine’s laser focus on natural wines from the Old World means you’re more likely to find a pinot noir from Germany or Switzerland than from California. All but the nerdiest wine lovers will encounter grapes they’ve never heard of from places they didn’t know wine was made, and even the nerdiest among us will make plenty of new discoveries.
But here’s the thing — LaVine finds a way to talk to people about her obscure bottles in a way that normalizes them, rather than playing up the geek factor.
Continue reading “Golden Hour Wine aims to create “community gathering space” for Baldwin Park with Old World natural wines”
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.
Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.
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.
Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.
Episode 35: One Year Later
Exactly one year ago, UnWineding launched amid the chaos of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions that sent the hospitality industry into a tailspin. Season One of the podcast followed three Florida wine industry professionals through six tumultuous months of the pandemic, as they watched their businesses suffer and their bank accounts dwindle. In this episode, we check in with them again, as vaccinations are on the rise and things are finally looking brighter. Listen as they tell us about their ups and downs, milestones, accolades, and even some big plans on the horizon.
Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance. Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.
Episode 34: Nga Ly-Henschen
Growing up in a Vietnamese-American family, Nga Ly-Henschen was never exposed to wine. She moved to Orlando to study microbiology at the University of Central Florida, with an eye on a future medical career. But a glass of riesling on a blind date at one of the city’s early wine hubs changed everything. Fast forward a decade and a half, and Nga is now the General Manager of Capa Restaurant and Lounge on the top floor of the Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World. She talks about her journey into the wine world, her transition to a corporate life of working with high-end wines, Capa’s COVID-19 shutdown and reopening, and her dreams for the future.
Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance. Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.
Episode 33: Mary Elizabeth Howe
Mary Elizabeth Howe was just 30 years old when she became North Florida area manager for Augustan Wine Imports, which she describes as the “nerdy fine wine team” for a larger distributor, Breakthru Beverage. That management position was just one in a string of challenges throughout her career that have pushed her outside her comfort zone, starting when she was thrust into the world of fine dining service in her home state of Mississippi. Her latest trial was a four month furlough from the job she loved at Augustan at the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns. She likens the experience to the breakup of a family. But Mary Elizabeth is ever the optimist, and she says even those dark days provided opportunities for growth.
Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance.
Episode 32: Tim Varan
By his own admission, Tim Varan was “an apathetic and disinterested college student” when he was studying finance at the University of Central Florida some 30 years ago. But when it comes to wine, his cup overflows with enthusiasm and passion. Tim caught the wine bug while working for some of Orlando’s early wine pioneers in the late 1980s. He soon went into business for himself, and his eponymous shop, Tim’s Wine Market near downtown Orlando, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Tim shares stories about the early days of Orlando’s wine community, the challenge of resisting the siren song of mass market wines to stay true to his mission, takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic, and his surprisingly rosy prediction for the pandemic’s potential impact on Central Florida’s wine industry.
Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.
Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance.
Episode 31: Mary Montalvo
Mary Montalvo and her husband Sascha Weyer own and operate Luisa’s Cellar in Sanford, Florida. They got into the wine business almost by accident when Mary fell in love with a property in Clermont in 2012 and decided to open a wine bar. She left a stable career in the legal profession and threw herself into the business, but she says it’s been tough to keep her passion for wine alive amid the many challenges she has faced along the way.
In this episode, Mary talks about her journey from Puerto Rico to Florida (via Germany), speaks candidly about the realities of being a woman of color in an industry dominated by white men, and shares how she and her business are getting by as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on.
Subscribe to UnWineding on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.
Thanks to Orlando composer Julian Bond for providing original music for UnWineding and WMFE for distribution and promotional assistance.
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