Why Wouldn't I Take This Class!?

While trying to answer the prompt for this week’s blog post, I tried to perfectly articulate why I wanted to take a class on the global wine industry. I wondered if perhaps I could package it all into a neat list of reasons, or share a short but compelling story that robustly summarizes my motivations. However, my efforts miserably failed as I kept getting distracted by one reverberating thought: “Why WOULDN’T I take this class!?”

The TL;DR version: I am a food and drink business writer / content creator / policy advocate who shamefully doesn’t know enough about the wine industry and is thrilled to be properly schooled. 

Foremost, wine complements food and I lack the knowledge to be able to talk about it confidently. Cooking has become a cathartic and creative outlet for me that I love to share with others (food blog with 2.7mm views, MasterChef Season 6 Top 100, subject of ABC Family pilot about cooking). However, my humble Albany, NY upbringing meant that wine only meaningfully entered my life in the past few years through friends who are more experienced in living their best lives. 

Additionally, I love the drink industry but have focused mostly on functional beverages. While the space is growing as demand has been increasing, I have become more known online as the Forbes writer who covers all things drinkable and occasionally upsetting: kava, kombucha and even Soylent (*and even debated a chef on NPR about its societal merits). Clearly being knowledgeable enough to write about wine will fix the dire state of my personal brand. 

Speaking of changing consumer behavior, people are also drinking less. In addition to the aforementioned functional beverages, consumers are looking towards products they perceive to be healthier including teas, sparkling water and even cannabis. In 100+ Startup Garage interviews focused on female cannabis use last quarter, almost every interviewee brought up their desire to drink less while relating their love of cannabis to their love of wine. I want to further unpack this trending comparative relationship, while relating the similar 3-tier systems they both rely upon, if only to justify having emailed 800+ GSB students to shamelessly talk about their vices. 

There’s a lot more that I could share here about why this course excites me. I like thinking about luxury and veblen goods, and food and drink products whose success rely upon regulatory cooperation. Wine is absolutely these things and more, and I can’t wait to soak it all in.