October 10, 2023 • 31 mins
Ingrid Best Talks Expanding iBest Wines With South African Wine
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up. It's way up with Angela Yee. I'm Angela
Yee And this is a really fun and exciting surprise
for y'all. Okay, And I'm excited for this because this
is near and dear to my heart. This one means
a lot to me. One of my best friends, Ingrid Best,
is here.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thank you and to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Ingrid, I've talked to you before on the Breakfast Club, right,
and at that point, you have managed partnerships for Bacardi
with Douce, You've managed the partnership with Diagio for Sarrak
and DeLeon, and now you're managing Ingrid Best. Okay, because
you have your own wine that just launched. Actually you
(00:41):
can pre order it today.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yes, pre order today on reserve bar dot com. We're
so excited to be launching I Best Wines. There's been
a labor of love, you know. I've called you many
a days and many a nights, and it really is
a dream come true. So I'm just excited for everyone
to be able to try something that I've poured my
whole heart into too.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And so what I love about this is you going
on this journey has me learning a lot about this industry.
So let's talk about where it all started, because the
spirits industry is not one that has always been favorable
to black women, right and for you as somebody that
how long have you been in the industry, period over
twenty years? Over twenty years? Okay, So let's start at
(01:21):
the beginning of the I Best Wines journey because you
had no idea that this is where we would end up,
you know, over twenty years later. But what was your
first job in spirits?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So my very first job, I was an ambassador and
I launched a small rum brand for Diagio, okay, and
I launched it in San Francisco, New York and Miami.
And it was my very first time ever doing anything
in spirits. I had come from doing street promotions and
I loved it. I was like, oh my god, this
is amazing. And I took a lot of the things
(01:53):
that I did during that time of street promotions because
a lot of it is storytelling and relationships and I
was able to apply it. I did well, and they
were like, this girl is killing it. I took a
quick break. I went to go work for Vitamin Water.
A lot of people don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That I didn't know that either.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, i'd shame with break and I went to go
work for Vitamin water and water was cool. I know
how to sell water too. But I got a call
from Diagio saying we've always wanted you to work for
us and we have a role for you. And that
role specifically was the sales and marketing role. And at
the time I was like, sales, I don't want to
do sales, but it was actually the best thing I
(02:28):
could have ever done, because fast forward twenty years later,
there's not anything I don't know how to do when
it comes to just building a brand, marketing a brand, everything,
selling a brand.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's what I started. That is a valuable lesson and
I want to touch on that because for some reason,
when you had your first job in Spirits, working at Diagio,
they saw something in you that made them say we
would like for you to come back. So, for people
out there who are just getting started in their industry
or maybe don't even know what they want to do,
what kind of advice would you give them when it
comes to your first job that you did that you
(03:00):
feel like should be applied to make you stand out.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, I would say find what you love so even
in your first job, there's going to be something that
you're like, this is the part of the work that
I'm doing that I love. And for me, I realize,
like I really just love connecting with people and telling stories,
and so I would get immersed in these brand stories
and I knew how to then go tell those stories
(03:25):
to other people. So I would say, find what it
is that you'd love about what you're doing. And if
you don't love it, and you have an opportunity to
go find what you love, depending on your situation, go
find it.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Right, Yeah, you got to go find it.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And another thing I want to touch on a lot
of times I've had people ask me, well, you know,
I have kids, and how can I do what I'm
doing when I want to follow my passion, follow my dreams,
but I also have a child, and it's somebody going
to look at me differently if I you know, if
I have a small child at home. It's different for
women than it is for men. And you were a
young mother, what was that part of a bit like
(04:00):
for you, And what advice would you give to moms
out there who are really trying to shine in their industry.
But sometimes people can have some type of preconceived notion.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, you know, I was. I was a teenage mom.
I had my son at eighteen, and I think for me,
the biggest advice that I would give to women is
that having children is not a handicap, Like you're not handicap,
You're not unable to do something. It doesn't put you
at a disadvantage. And you have to be confident in
(04:29):
the way you show up in the fact that you're
a mother to whoever you're working with.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You have to make them comfortable with it.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
And then again it goes back to if they're not,
then you have to make some decisions. We do live
in a world where people still view you know, women
with children, women who are pregnant. I have a woman
on my team that's pregnant. I'm so excited about it.
And I'm a wine brand owner, right.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I'm like, we're having a baby.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You know, I'll take it for you. Yeah, I'm like,
give me wine, I'll take that.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
And so I think for me, it's like it's the
real world.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Have babies.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And imagine if when women were pregnant or having babies,
we didn't work. We got to stay home and do nothing.
What would the world be so.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And by the way, having baby is never staying home
and doing nothing.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yes, it's a job, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So I think for me, the advice would be you
have to get very comfortable with the fact that you
are a mother and embrace it. I think sometimes our
discomfort also makes people uncomfortable. They don't really know how
to deal with it. So you just have to show
up as you are. So I'm so grateful that I
became a mom. You know, at the time, it seemed really,
(05:36):
really difficult, but it's been one of the things that
have really fueled me, and it's allowed me to connect
with young women because I'm able to say to young women,
you're gonna be fine. You just got to figure it out.
Keep your head down and figure it out. So it's
part of my story, all right.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And then when I first meant to you were working
with Hennessy and we actually did some events together. And
I always tell people this stere of just being in
a meeting with ingrid and real life, saying that I
could just shut up and Inger could do all of
the talk. And because you really know your business. And
one thing that I love is how comfortable that you
are because of the knowledge that you have in your
industry to be able to talk to anybody about what
(06:13):
it is that you're doing, and the confidence that comes
with the fact that you have knowledge about it and
you're always trying to further yourself and your education. What
are some things that you've done to make sure that
you're really comfortable to be in those spaces and to
further educate yourself.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Yeah, I mean I think for me, especially where I
am now, I made sure and I immerse myself in
the winemaking process. I spend a lot of time with winemakers.
I spend a lot of time with founders. I mean,
you're one of the people that I oftentimes will ask, like,
what is it like to be fully in this entrepreneurial
space because I had been in corporate America for a while,
(06:46):
and then I would say, specifically on the team going
and finding someone who I really respected to be our
palm right, who could really talk about the technical pieces
of wine, and so for me, I would say, it's
really making sure that you just immerse yourself. I did
something a year ago or two years ago that also
(07:07):
was a bit of a stretch for me. I went
back to school. I went to the Harvard Bem's program,
and it was so transformational to be there, to be
amongst people who Initially I was like, am I supposed
to be here? And literally I was like, you are
right where you're supposed to be. So I think it's
always getting yourself a bit uncomfortable to go seek and
(07:29):
connect with people and just increase your knowledge about everything.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, in that class, I think I know mister Easy
was in your class. We just had him on the show.
Who are some other people that were in that course?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Tiffany Hattish was in that current course, Derk Novinski, That's
Ali Love who I adore. I mean, there were just
some incredible folks. I'm Clarence Seedoff, who was a legendary
soccer player, football player. I mean, I was sitting in
a room like of just brilliance. And the professor Anita
is also just I mean, she's incredible. And so they've
(08:03):
become part of my network, part of my family. They're
so excited about the wine and actually in some of
the campaign images for the wine, one of my classmates
from Harvard offered to be in the shoot. She's a model,
Misa Chin.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And she looks amazing. By the way, it's beautiful, all right,
and so let's discuss this wine. I best wine's because
this wine is from South Africa. I don't think I've
ever had wine from South Africa before. So what inspired that? Yeah?
And where? Because normally we see France, you know, we
see where else do we see wine coming from nay Napa.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Valley, Italy, Chile, New Zealand and now South Africa? And
the truth is South African wine has been around for
over two hundred years. It's not some new thing that
we just discovered, but many of us just discovered it.
And so even for someone like me who's been in
the business for many, many years, I discovered South African
(08:56):
wine five years ago and I was shocked.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I was like, how do I not know about this?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And so part of my purpose with IBS Wines is
to really shed a light on such a beautiful wine
region and such an under I think represented wine region.
There's so much incredible wine coming out of South Africa.
There's incredible wine makers and the region is just breathtaking.
The same way that people travel from all around the
world to go to Napa, there are people that travel
(09:22):
to South Africa obviously, but we want more people to
travel to South Africa and experience the wine region.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And until you do.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Be Winna transport you here.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah, we're gonna transport you to South Africa because it's
really a special place.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
It has my heart.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
And I want to be clear. This is not just
a brand that you white labeled, that somebody came to
you and said, put your name on this, we're gonna
market this. You actually went to South Africa and basically
lived there, and I wanted to come visit you so bad,
but I was studying this show, so I was developing this,
so I couldn't. But what was that process like, because
we a lot of times, see you know, celebrities align
(10:01):
with brands. People align with brands, but they may not
necessarily have gone through this process.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
It required a lot of courage, It required being okay,
being alone a lot, right, because I did all but
move there. I was there for the last two years
a lot more than I was at home. It also
for me to seek out family and community there and
people embraced me, and so I would say, for me,
(10:30):
it's been one of the best times of my life.
It made me stretch myself. It made me understand why
I really do view myself as a global citizen. Yes,
I'm happy that I'm a black woman from America, but
I'm even more happy that I've been around the world
and I've been able to do cool things like launch
of wine from South Africa.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
And something like this is not it's not inexpensive to
do it. Actually, the travel, finding a place to stay,
the bottling, the packaging, the samples, all of those things
cost me money. So this also required you to make
sure that you invested in yourself. And how scary is that?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
It's very scary, you know. I think usually what happens
is a lot of people have great ideas, they have dreams,
and they just don't go. And the difference between me
and someone else is that I was like, it's time
to go, It's time to do it. I am really
fortunate that I made great business decisions.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
In my life.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I invested in real estate, I've invested in art stocks,
and I was able to lean back on those things
in order to launch the brand. I also have a
good reputation, and I think your reputation is equally as
valuable as the money in your bank account, because you
can call people, you can lean on people, and that's
what I've been able to do. But I have fully
funded this myself and it's not been a cheap, cheap
(11:49):
venture at all. It's very expensive to produce a wine brand.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
And when we're talking about expenses and networking and leaning
on people, you have your team here. And I think
this is another really import in part of the story, right,
the team, because I already know that this is going
to be something that anybody would want to be involved
in on the ground level. But I would love for
you to just introduce your team so people who are
watching can actually see who your team is and how
(12:14):
intentional you were about who you chose to work with.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, it's really special for me to have When we
get to drink guy, yes.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And we get a joy except for mom over there.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
But it's so it's so I'll tell you, everyone knows.
I was like, guys, we're doing the Angelie Show. They're
like what, I'm like, we are doing the Angelie Show.
And the reason why I think it's so important is
because people don't build things alone. They build things with
other people. And whether it's your friends who you're able
to lean on and call like what the relation we
have or just women who like believe in you, which
(12:49):
are the women that are on my team, and I
appreciate them so much. So we have Anna, who I
call the architect. Hey, Anna, that's my new name for
Anna is the architect.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, I said, Anna, do you like that? She goes,
I do.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But but what it really a group?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah? We are we a rap group.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
For me, what it really means is like I had
this dream in my head, in my heart for years
and it was my little cousin. At one time that
was like scribing for me. I was like, help me
get this out of my head. But then when I
really decided to go, it was Anna who I was like, hey,
this is the thing, like can you help me?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And yesterday I was like architect it. So she's the architect.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
And then there's Chanel, which because this is my own
money I just mentioned that I'm gonna mention it again.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I finded this with my own money.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
You need someone who is really really solid when it
comes to just modeling and business building from a from
a model perspective, how do we make money from this thing?
How do we make your money last so that you
can even get to this point where we're launching the
brand today, and so Chanelle has done that.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
She so she's she's a she's a fine name.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I gotta wizard. She's like a financial wizard, but she
really is. And thank you so much because you've made
my two dollars feel like two million dollars.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
And Anger loves Chanel, by the way.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Put that out, so it's easy, I.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Do, I do.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And then there's there's Rachel, who I always say is
she's really the foundation of the brand. She keeps us
all connected, she keeps us communicating.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
She also just keeps my head on a swivel. So literally, fifty.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Five times a day, I'm like, Rachel, I'm supposed to
do what or you know?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So she really is the glue.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
And I think a lot of times people think whether
it's finance or the architect, are the glue. Is actually
the person that at the brand manager level is making
sure that we are all doing our part to keep
things going.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So thank you Rachel.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yes, Rachel the glue.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Rachel the glue.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, we are a rap bout for real.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And then there's Grace, who I have been a big
myired for so long on social media. One because she's gorgeous,
but really because she is a psalm. And I was like,
she's a som, she's a mom, she's you know, like
I was like, she's a mom. I was like, I
was like, Anna, we need her, Like I literally I
(15:17):
put the architect on it, and I was like, get her.
And so I just had such admiration for Grace. And again,
I think it goes back to women can be so
many things. Grace is a model, she's also a som.
She's also a mom, she's also a child.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Don't know what a psalm is, somalier, what is that exactly?
And what does that take? Grace? If you want to
come come on, because this is your expertise.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I want I want to get it.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Oh you have to come this side. Yay, come around,
come around.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
This is Grace, y'all. And that's our baby. This is
a team baby.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Because I feel like we've been seeing movies and things
about psalms a lot more lately. That's what kind of
put me on. But I still don't know what it takes.
So and I respect it. So I want you to
tell it so that we don't mess it up.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yes, I mean, it's funny like the technical answer would be,
you know, we are wine professionals and we serve to taste,
so we make sure we can translate what you think
or what you feel you want a drink or taste
in your gastro experience, and then we translate it into
what technically is going on in the wine. So you know,
(16:18):
some people say they want like they don't want fruit,
like they don't want it to be sweet, and usually
they just mean that they don't want a lot of
like apricots, peach, like melon, pineapple. They don't want fruit
really really like sate like sweet smells in the wine, right,
And so that's our job to translate that. If you
want something savory, like if you want something that's going
(16:38):
to go with your meat, we're talking about things that
have spices or tannins and so like you don't need
to know all that, I'll translate that.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
That's okay, yeah, okay, perfect, I love it. And that
does take a lot of training. So that's not an
easy yeah and an easy thing.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It's super important for me anyway, as someone who's been
for the most part celebrated as a marketer and now
a wine negotiat, to have some one who from an
education standpoint, and Grace was being very humble. The amount
of study that psalms have to do, the amount of
sheer study is not for the faint of heart, and
(17:13):
it's why not a lot of people are psalms. The
beautiful thing is that we're starting to see more and
more black and brown people.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I was gonna say, so, do you know, and I
just want to talk about just even owning vineyards and
wine companies, Like what percentage? I don't know if you
know this number at all, But when you look in
the space and from what you've seen, you know, is
it something that is still not a very diverse field?
Can you give us any insight into that?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Ye, it's not.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I mean it's less than a percent. I believe less
than one percent.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, are of black.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
And brown people own vineyards, own wine brands, are producing
wine brands. It's there is a very very small percentage.
It's changing, it's changing and it will continue to change.
And that's why people like myself and Done from Leafrette
and the McBride's sisters are doing the work that we're
doing right to say like this is for us, we
(18:06):
can be in this industry too. I talk about that
a lot, because I think for a long time, black
and brown people just didn't see themselves in wine, and
they didn't didn't see themselves and so now you're seeing
yourself through me, right and so, but it's also a
very expensive industry to be a part of. This is
(18:27):
not something that you can just wake up tomorrow and
do without like really spending the time to map it
out and model it out, which is why Chanel's role
was so critical. Ultimately, listen, the pack is beautiful, We're
so proud of it. The wine is exceptional. The region
needs to be celebrated and it will. But the wine
(18:47):
and what it costs to do all of this right
is as an investment.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
It is an investment. And that is why.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Working for over twenty years to get to this point, you.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Get to this point.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Yeah, And if you look at what wealthy people invest in,
they invest in wine like wealthy people. That's why they
have wine cellars and why they spend the money they
spend because wine is an asset. And so for me,
I also want people to just look at this as
a real story and asset building. This is my asset.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So from concept to where we are now, where you're
launching this today. By the way, you can go ahead
and pre order that on reserve bar.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yes, reserve boar dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
How long did this process take for you to get
to this point?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
So two years, But.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
I always say it's been in my head in my
heart for many, many years. And I do think you
have to sit with things, like you typically just don't
think of something and then you have to sit with it.
So it's been in my head in my heart for
a long time. But two years, which really isn't a
long time, it's felt like a long time. And I've
had people say when's the wine coming, when's the wine coming?
And I'm thinking, you go, try to launch your wines.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
See how you do it, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
But two years years and it's been two of the
best years of my life.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
And even though.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I've slept the least I've ever slept, I've spent a
lot of my money, I you know, have seen very
little of my family, who I adore. It has been
the best time of my life because there's something about
unlocking your courage. You know, when you unlock your courage,
you just feel so good, you feel so free.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
And it's a lot of sleepless nights. I will attest
to the fact that it'll be like seven in the
morning here and Inger's in La It's four am, and
she's texting me like, hey, I'm like, what is she
doing up right now? Right? I'm like, I'm not even
awake and I just woke up and saw a text message.
But you know, it is a stressful thing, and sometimes
you do have sleepless nights, but the payoff, the reward
(20:49):
can be so amazing. I do really have been staring
at this wine because honestly, this is my first time.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yes, it's your first time, it's Ange's first time. And
I will tell you Angela was the first person that
I I called when I decided that I wanted to
resign from my very big job.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That everybody was so excited that I had right.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
And I remember calling and saying, I feel like I
need to do this, and she was like, you got
to bet on yourself. It's time to go, Like this
is the time. And so this is a special moment
for me too, because you know, I've been saying it's coming.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
She'd say, where's the wine. I'm thinking, here you go.
Everybody want to know w.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Understand the patience that has to come with launching a
brand and getting it right, because you do want to
make sure that you launched with everything as perfect. I mean,
there's always things that will happen, but as perfect as
you can control. You want to make sure that it's right.
You don't want to rush anything ever, because you're making
a first impression and you were definitely back and forth
testing things. I mean, I've heard of stories about flights
(21:46):
getting I mean, all kinds of things that life will
throw to you. But you've been very resilient and you know, persistent,
and this is very well deserved and so important. You know,
just a network of people that you have around you.
If there's people around you that aren't adding to what
it is that you're trying to do, that don't believe
in you, that aren't supportive, that you don't feel comfortable
(22:07):
being able to share good and bad news with, and
those are not the people that you need to have
around you in your circle at all. It's just so
important to make sure that you know, the conversations that
we have are these types of entrepreneurial conversations where we're
talking about the future, investing in ourselves, making sure we
have generational wealth, and things that we can pass down.
(22:28):
So I'm ready, thank you, I'm excited. Which one should
we try first?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Let's start with the grace where you want us to
start with the white? Yeah, let's start with the white.
That's what I thought, Dan, you're not having some wine?
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Come on, Dan, Come on, Dan.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So this is I best wines white blend. It is Charnay,
Shinnen Blanc and Savon Blanc. I was very deliberate, and
we were very deliberate because this wasn't something that I
just did alone. But we were really deliberate in making
sure that we wanted to do a blend because we
want to show the breath of wine coming out of
South Africa. Okay, and so this is a great way
(23:04):
to experience two beautiful varieties, excuse me, three beautiful varietals,
one of which is kind of.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
The crown jewel of South Africa.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
People really know Shennan Blanc from South Africa, but Chardonaye
from South Africa and Savigon Blanc is equally as good.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So that's the white blank.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That's how you could tell somebody to just let their
name on the product, okay, when they could talk about
it like that with passion some mom am I supposed
to like do this? How did we do this?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Okay, doing this way.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Itself, that's the only thing.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Okay, my little hot hand cheers to the team.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Ives wine's y'all, this is a white blend. It's incredible.
I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
About Oh, this is delicious, this is delus. I already
know this is amazing, and I want to tell y'all
before I taste it that I knew it would be
amazing because Ingrid is a perfectionist and she does not
play when it comes to where you stay, where you
sit on the flight, the clothes that you wear. Okay,
it's a lot, but that is why we are here.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It's good, It's really good. I love it.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I'm so excited and I'll tell you for me, like
every time I just taste it, it like brings me
back to certain moments in the process. And Anna was
with me when we were like blending and she was
architecting with me, and you know, we would say no,
not this, no, not that, and then we got to
a point where were like, we need to let other
(24:35):
people taste the wine, Like we don't want to just
do this in a silo because I think people do that,
like they build their businesses, they do their thing in
a syl and it's like, come on, like you're doing
this to sell to people, so you would want someone's
point of view. And so it's really been beautiful to
just watch us land on this white bland and I
like that. I'm so happy you got to try it,
(24:56):
and so we're gonna move.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Wait before we try the red, I just want to
say one more thing. All right, now that you've launched,
let's talk about your first purchase. Okay, any clients that
you've had already on board? Can you talk about it yet?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
First purchase?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Like first client? Yes.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
So my first sales call while in New York was
with Virgin Hotels. Okay, and someone that I knew from
work that I had done in Miami. She used to
be at a hotel group there. She literally sent me
a message and was like, we need to meet. I'm
ready to support you. I know whatever your building is
going to be amazing. So did meet with them, yeah,
(25:34):
and had a chance to meet with her taste the wine.
She was like, this is incredible and has committed to
putting us at Virgin Hotels. So I'm super excited. About that,
and I literally videoed the meeting with her.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
I was like, you're my first sales call. You know.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
It goes back to that question that you asked me,
like where did I start? And where I started was
in a commercial marketing role and I had to go
out with my wine bag and with my liquor samples,
and I would taste owners and retailers and have to
tell the story. And so it's really special for me,
and I think anyone looking to build a business, there
(26:10):
can't be any part of that business you can't do right.
I agree with you, And now you have to know
how to do all the things.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
I heard the sales background that you have and how
you've implemented that. But I also heard reputation right when
you made that first call, and she called you and said,
I know whatever you're doing is going to be great.
And those are things that we talked about. And then
not only do you get your foot in the door,
you have to have a quality product. You know, you
have the relationship, you have the reputation, the product better'd
(26:37):
be amazing. And this is amazing. Now let's try the
next one.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Yes, this is the red plan, which I'm so excited
about and I'll tell you a little backstory. Initially, we
really just thought, okay, launch a white wine and then
we'll launch a red wine. And we were being very conservative,
right because I think you approach thing sometimes from a
perspective of like are you doing too much too fast?
And then it was like, nah, we're launching for these
because they're amazing. And you know, because my background is
(27:04):
music and it's my first love, I really look at
the white wine as like the A side and the
red wine is the B side, So we're gonna move
to the B side.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Okay, the B side. Sometimes that B side hits, you know,
that B side.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
So this is a red blend. The I best wine
is red Blend. It's cab Shara's Petite Sarah and Malback.
And again, the purpose of blending all of these varietals
one is because I love them and it came out beautiful,
but two was to really tell the story of the
breadth of wine that's coming out of South Africa. And
I think there's just a lot of people that you
(27:38):
read the back label and it says Malback and it's
like mal Back South Africa, and it's.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Like, yeah, that's my mom's favorite wine back side. Okay, good,
all right, well cheers, cheers lady. I'm gonna start using
the word varietals too. I just learned that.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Isn't that a good one?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
I love that? Yeah, this is so good, guys. I'm
so excited.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
I'm happy you finally got to try it, taste it.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I'm so happy that it's here. And listen, I know,
I know this is your baby for real. So no,
honestly I wanted to bring you up here and listen.
I know, full disclosure, we are friends, like really really
great friends, but I would have had you up here regardless.
You know, just because of the work that you've been
putting in in this business. You deserve to be uplifted
(28:28):
and this does not disappoint. So how can people support
Ibst Wines?
Speaker 3 (28:32):
So you can support Ibst Wines obviously launching today pre
sale on reserve bar dot com and also in a
few weeks we'll be selling directly on our site, ibestwines
dot com, which is which is an incredible thing for
us to be able to sell direct to consumer. And
then we're just listen, hitting the pavement. Just like I
(28:53):
had my first sales call, we are going out talking
to folks, singing the gospel of I best wines and
for those people who like good wine and good stories
and want to support good people, You're going to start
to see it in the restaurants and bars and on
the shelves, and really, for me, it is trying to
grow the footprint of South African wine most especially, I
(29:13):
would say in restaurants and at retail because you just
don't see a lot of South African wine. I have
a lot of South African wines that are my favorites
as well, So this isn't just about me. It's about
South African wine in general deserves to have full sections
at the wine shops, just like Napa does, just like
France does, just like Italy does.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
The wine is exceptional.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Do you find that you've gotten a lot of support
in your industry, even from people who you used to
work with.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, definitely, I mean, I definitely feel like people are
very supportive, They're excited.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
One of the things I can say is I've never
burned any bridges. There's not anybody that I've ever worked
with that I can't call. And if I can't call them,
it's just it was meant for our season to end.
It wasn't because there was something that happened. You know,
I gotta I gotta voice smail from Puff yesterday saying
I'm so proud of you, like this is this is
(30:07):
what I love to see and so it feels so good.
Obviously old you know, supplier friends and retailer friends. That's
a lot of liquors sales talk. You guys are like,
what is she talking about? But just old companies that
I worked with.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
The head of Hennessy, uh, Jasmine Allen reposted about the wine.
You know, things like that that people think, why would
the head of Hennessy be posting about this wine. It's
because it's all love, you know, and we're all here
trying to build great things.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I love that, all right, Tuck that Tuck miss Ingrid
bet I told you guys, I don't have to say
anything with Ingrid's around. But again, you guys can go
to ibest Wines.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yes, ibestwines dot com and a few weeks we'll be
selling directly. But right now it's about Reserve Bar dot com.
We gave them the exclusive pre sale. We love what
they're doing with Spirited Change. They've really focused on brands
that are owned by black and brown founders, and so
we thought it would be great to partner with them
on our on our pre sale. So we're excited. I
(31:02):
appreciate you, and I have a shameless plug. I want
to come and co host with you.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Okay, look at Ingrid all right, comfortable in it. Listen,
that's the risk, that's the rest one. And I'm going
to follow up with her on that and make her
do that. But I also told her on National Wine Day,
which is in May. I looked it up, I did. Yeah,
she'll be up here for that as well. So I'm
getting ready for this because really I just want her
(31:27):
to bring some wine. But thank you so much everybody
for showing up. I love to see this. I love
the team. I love you, Ingrid, love you too, and
I love his wine and I love y'all guess wines,
y'all
What's up. It's way up with Angela Yee. I'm Angela
Yee And this is a really fun and exciting surprise
for y'all. Okay, And I'm excited for this because this
is near and dear to my heart. This one means
a lot to me. One of my best friends, Ingrid Best,
is here.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thank you and to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Ingrid, I've talked to you before on the Breakfast Club, right,
and at that point, you have managed partnerships for Bacardi
with Douce, You've managed the partnership with Diagio for Sarrak
and DeLeon, and now you're managing Ingrid Best. Okay, because
you have your own wine that just launched. Actually you
(00:41):
can pre order it today.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yes, pre order today on reserve bar dot com. We're
so excited to be launching I Best Wines. There's been
a labor of love, you know. I've called you many
a days and many a nights, and it really is
a dream come true. So I'm just excited for everyone
to be able to try something that I've poured my
whole heart into too.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And so what I love about this is you going
on this journey has me learning a lot about this industry.
So let's talk about where it all started, because the
spirits industry is not one that has always been favorable
to black women, right and for you as somebody that
how long have you been in the industry, period over
twenty years? Over twenty years? Okay, So let's start at
(01:21):
the beginning of the I Best Wines journey because you
had no idea that this is where we would end up,
you know, over twenty years later. But what was your
first job in spirits?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So my very first job, I was an ambassador and
I launched a small rum brand for Diagio, okay, and
I launched it in San Francisco, New York and Miami.
And it was my very first time ever doing anything
in spirits. I had come from doing street promotions and
I loved it. I was like, oh my god, this
is amazing. And I took a lot of the things
(01:53):
that I did during that time of street promotions because
a lot of it is storytelling and relationships and I
was able to apply it. I did well, and they
were like, this girl is killing it. I took a
quick break. I went to go work for Vitamin Water.
A lot of people don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That I didn't know that either.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, i'd shame with break and I went to go
work for Vitamin water and water was cool. I know
how to sell water too. But I got a call
from Diagio saying we've always wanted you to work for
us and we have a role for you. And that
role specifically was the sales and marketing role. And at
the time I was like, sales, I don't want to
do sales, but it was actually the best thing I
(02:28):
could have ever done, because fast forward twenty years later,
there's not anything I don't know how to do when
it comes to just building a brand, marketing a brand, everything,
selling a brand.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's what I started. That is a valuable lesson and
I want to touch on that because for some reason,
when you had your first job in Spirits, working at Diagio,
they saw something in you that made them say we
would like for you to come back. So, for people
out there who are just getting started in their industry
or maybe don't even know what they want to do,
what kind of advice would you give them when it
comes to your first job that you did that you
(03:00):
feel like should be applied to make you stand out.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, I would say find what you love so even
in your first job, there's going to be something that
you're like, this is the part of the work that
I'm doing that I love. And for me, I realize,
like I really just love connecting with people and telling stories,
and so I would get immersed in these brand stories
and I knew how to then go tell those stories
(03:25):
to other people. So I would say, find what it
is that you'd love about what you're doing. And if
you don't love it, and you have an opportunity to
go find what you love, depending on your situation, go
find it.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Right, Yeah, you got to go find it.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And another thing I want to touch on a lot
of times I've had people ask me, well, you know,
I have kids, and how can I do what I'm
doing when I want to follow my passion, follow my dreams,
but I also have a child, and it's somebody going
to look at me differently if I you know, if
I have a small child at home. It's different for
women than it is for men. And you were a
young mother, what was that part of a bit like
(04:00):
for you, And what advice would you give to moms
out there who are really trying to shine in their industry.
But sometimes people can have some type of preconceived notion.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, you know, I was. I was a teenage mom.
I had my son at eighteen, and I think for me,
the biggest advice that I would give to women is
that having children is not a handicap, Like you're not handicap,
You're not unable to do something. It doesn't put you
at a disadvantage. And you have to be confident in
(04:29):
the way you show up in the fact that you're
a mother to whoever you're working with.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You have to make them comfortable with it.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
And then again it goes back to if they're not,
then you have to make some decisions. We do live
in a world where people still view you know, women
with children, women who are pregnant. I have a woman
on my team that's pregnant. I'm so excited about it.
And I'm a wine brand owner, right.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I'm like, we're having a baby.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You know, I'll take it for you. Yeah, I'm like,
give me wine, I'll take that.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
And so I think for me, it's like it's the
real world.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Have babies.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And imagine if when women were pregnant or having babies,
we didn't work. We got to stay home and do nothing.
What would the world be so.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And by the way, having baby is never staying home
and doing nothing.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yes, it's a job, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So I think for me, the advice would be you
have to get very comfortable with the fact that you
are a mother and embrace it. I think sometimes our
discomfort also makes people uncomfortable. They don't really know how
to deal with it. So you just have to show
up as you are. So I'm so grateful that I
became a mom. You know, at the time, it seemed really,
(05:36):
really difficult, but it's been one of the things that
have really fueled me, and it's allowed me to connect
with young women because I'm able to say to young women,
you're gonna be fine. You just got to figure it out.
Keep your head down and figure it out. So it's
part of my story, all right.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And then when I first meant to you were working
with Hennessy and we actually did some events together. And
I always tell people this stere of just being in
a meeting with ingrid and real life, saying that I
could just shut up and Inger could do all of
the talk. And because you really know your business. And
one thing that I love is how comfortable that you
are because of the knowledge that you have in your
industry to be able to talk to anybody about what
(06:13):
it is that you're doing, and the confidence that comes
with the fact that you have knowledge about it and
you're always trying to further yourself and your education. What
are some things that you've done to make sure that
you're really comfortable to be in those spaces and to
further educate yourself.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Yeah, I mean I think for me, especially where I
am now, I made sure and I immerse myself in
the winemaking process. I spend a lot of time with winemakers.
I spend a lot of time with founders. I mean,
you're one of the people that I oftentimes will ask, like,
what is it like to be fully in this entrepreneurial
space because I had been in corporate America for a while,
(06:46):
and then I would say, specifically on the team going
and finding someone who I really respected to be our
palm right, who could really talk about the technical pieces
of wine, and so for me, I would say, it's
really making sure that you just immerse yourself. I did
something a year ago or two years ago that also
(07:07):
was a bit of a stretch for me. I went
back to school. I went to the Harvard Bem's program,
and it was so transformational to be there, to be
amongst people who Initially I was like, am I supposed
to be here? And literally I was like, you are
right where you're supposed to be. So I think it's
always getting yourself a bit uncomfortable to go seek and
(07:29):
connect with people and just increase your knowledge about everything.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, in that class, I think I know mister Easy
was in your class. We just had him on the show.
Who are some other people that were in that course?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Tiffany Hattish was in that current course, Derk Novinski, That's
Ali Love who I adore. I mean, there were just
some incredible folks. I'm Clarence Seedoff, who was a legendary
soccer player, football player. I mean, I was sitting in
a room like of just brilliance. And the professor Anita
is also just I mean, she's incredible. And so they've
(08:03):
become part of my network, part of my family. They're
so excited about the wine and actually in some of
the campaign images for the wine, one of my classmates
from Harvard offered to be in the shoot. She's a model,
Misa Chin.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And she looks amazing. By the way, it's beautiful, all right,
and so let's discuss this wine. I best wine's because
this wine is from South Africa. I don't think I've
ever had wine from South Africa before. So what inspired that? Yeah?
And where? Because normally we see France, you know, we
see where else do we see wine coming from nay Napa.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Valley, Italy, Chile, New Zealand and now South Africa? And
the truth is South African wine has been around for
over two hundred years. It's not some new thing that
we just discovered, but many of us just discovered it.
And so even for someone like me who's been in
the business for many, many years, I discovered South African
(08:56):
wine five years ago and I was shocked.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I was like, how do I not know about this?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
And so part of my purpose with IBS Wines is
to really shed a light on such a beautiful wine
region and such an under I think represented wine region.
There's so much incredible wine coming out of South Africa.
There's incredible wine makers and the region is just breathtaking.
The same way that people travel from all around the
world to go to Napa, there are people that travel
(09:22):
to South Africa obviously, but we want more people to
travel to South Africa and experience the wine region.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And until you do.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Be Winna transport you here.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah, we're gonna transport you to South Africa because it's
really a special place.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
It has my heart.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
And I want to be clear. This is not just
a brand that you white labeled, that somebody came to
you and said, put your name on this, we're gonna
market this. You actually went to South Africa and basically
lived there, and I wanted to come visit you so bad,
but I was studying this show, so I was developing this,
so I couldn't. But what was that process like, because
we a lot of times, see you know, celebrities align
(10:01):
with brands. People align with brands, but they may not
necessarily have gone through this process.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
It required a lot of courage, It required being okay,
being alone a lot, right, because I did all but
move there. I was there for the last two years
a lot more than I was at home. It also
for me to seek out family and community there and
people embraced me, and so I would say, for me,
(10:30):
it's been one of the best times of my life.
It made me stretch myself. It made me understand why
I really do view myself as a global citizen. Yes,
I'm happy that I'm a black woman from America, but
I'm even more happy that I've been around the world
and I've been able to do cool things like launch
of wine from South Africa.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
And something like this is not it's not inexpensive to
do it. Actually, the travel, finding a place to stay,
the bottling, the packaging, the samples, all of those things
cost me money. So this also required you to make
sure that you invested in yourself. And how scary is that?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
It's very scary, you know. I think usually what happens
is a lot of people have great ideas, they have dreams,
and they just don't go. And the difference between me
and someone else is that I was like, it's time
to go, It's time to do it. I am really
fortunate that I made great business decisions.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
In my life.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I invested in real estate, I've invested in art stocks,
and I was able to lean back on those things
in order to launch the brand. I also have a
good reputation, and I think your reputation is equally as
valuable as the money in your bank account, because you
can call people, you can lean on people, and that's
what I've been able to do. But I have fully
funded this myself and it's not been a cheap, cheap
(11:49):
venture at all. It's very expensive to produce a wine brand.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
And when we're talking about expenses and networking and leaning
on people, you have your team here. And I think
this is another really import in part of the story, right,
the team, because I already know that this is going
to be something that anybody would want to be involved
in on the ground level. But I would love for
you to just introduce your team so people who are
watching can actually see who your team is and how
(12:14):
intentional you were about who you chose to work with.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, it's really special for me to have When we
get to drink guy, yes.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And we get a joy except for mom over there.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
But it's so it's so I'll tell you, everyone knows.
I was like, guys, we're doing the Angelie Show. They're
like what, I'm like, we are doing the Angelie Show.
And the reason why I think it's so important is
because people don't build things alone. They build things with
other people. And whether it's your friends who you're able
to lean on and call like what the relation we
have or just women who like believe in you, which
(12:49):
are the women that are on my team, and I
appreciate them so much. So we have Anna, who I
call the architect. Hey, Anna, that's my new name for
Anna is the architect.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, I said, Anna, do you like that? She goes,
I do.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But but what it really a group?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah? We are we a rap group.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
For me, what it really means is like I had
this dream in my head, in my heart for years
and it was my little cousin. At one time that
was like scribing for me. I was like, help me
get this out of my head. But then when I
really decided to go, it was Anna who I was like, hey,
this is the thing, like can you help me?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And yesterday I was like architect it. So she's the architect.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
And then there's Chanel, which because this is my own
money I just mentioned that I'm gonna mention it again.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I finded this with my own money.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
You need someone who is really really solid when it
comes to just modeling and business building from a from
a model perspective, how do we make money from this thing?
How do we make your money last so that you
can even get to this point where we're launching the
brand today, and so Chanelle has done that.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
She so she's she's a she's a fine name.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I gotta wizard. She's like a financial wizard, but she
really is. And thank you so much because you've made
my two dollars feel like two million dollars.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
And Anger loves Chanel, by the way.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Put that out, so it's easy, I.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Do, I do.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And then there's there's Rachel, who I always say is
she's really the foundation of the brand. She keeps us
all connected, she keeps us communicating.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
She also just keeps my head on a swivel. So literally, fifty.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Five times a day, I'm like, Rachel, I'm supposed to
do what or you know?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So she really is the glue.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
And I think a lot of times people think whether
it's finance or the architect, are the glue. Is actually
the person that at the brand manager level is making
sure that we are all doing our part to keep
things going.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So thank you Rachel.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yes, Rachel the glue.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Rachel the glue.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, we are a rap bout for real.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And then there's Grace, who I have been a big
myired for so long on social media. One because she's gorgeous,
but really because she is a psalm. And I was like,
she's a som, she's a mom, she's you know, like
I was like, she's a mom. I was like, I
was like, Anna, we need her, Like I literally I
(15:17):
put the architect on it, and I was like, get her.
And so I just had such admiration for Grace. And again,
I think it goes back to women can be so
many things. Grace is a model, she's also a som.
She's also a mom, she's also a child.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Don't know what a psalm is, somalier, what is that exactly?
And what does that take? Grace? If you want to
come come on, because this is your expertise.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I want I want to get it.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Oh you have to come this side. Yay, come around,
come around.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
This is Grace, y'all. And that's our baby. This is
a team baby.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Because I feel like we've been seeing movies and things
about psalms a lot more lately. That's what kind of
put me on. But I still don't know what it takes.
So and I respect it. So I want you to
tell it so that we don't mess it up.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yes, I mean, it's funny like the technical answer would be,
you know, we are wine professionals and we serve to taste,
so we make sure we can translate what you think
or what you feel you want a drink or taste
in your gastro experience, and then we translate it into
what technically is going on in the wine. So you know,
(16:18):
some people say they want like they don't want fruit,
like they don't want it to be sweet, and usually
they just mean that they don't want a lot of
like apricots, peach, like melon, pineapple. They don't want fruit
really really like sate like sweet smells in the wine, right,
And so that's our job to translate that. If you
want something savory, like if you want something that's going
(16:38):
to go with your meat, we're talking about things that
have spices or tannins and so like you don't need
to know all that, I'll translate that.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
That's okay, yeah, okay, perfect, I love it. And that
does take a lot of training. So that's not an
easy yeah and an easy thing.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It's super important for me anyway, as someone who's been
for the most part celebrated as a marketer and now
a wine negotiat, to have some one who from an
education standpoint, and Grace was being very humble. The amount
of study that psalms have to do, the amount of
sheer study is not for the faint of heart, and
(17:13):
it's why not a lot of people are psalms. The
beautiful thing is that we're starting to see more and
more black and brown people.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I was gonna say, so, do you know, and I
just want to talk about just even owning vineyards and
wine companies, Like what percentage? I don't know if you
know this number at all, But when you look in
the space and from what you've seen, you know, is
it something that is still not a very diverse field?
Can you give us any insight into that?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Ye, it's not.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I mean it's less than a percent. I believe less
than one percent.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, are of black.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
And brown people own vineyards, own wine brands, are producing
wine brands. It's there is a very very small percentage.
It's changing, it's changing and it will continue to change.
And that's why people like myself and Done from Leafrette
and the McBride's sisters are doing the work that we're
doing right to say like this is for us, we
(18:06):
can be in this industry too. I talk about that
a lot, because I think for a long time, black
and brown people just didn't see themselves in wine, and
they didn't didn't see themselves and so now you're seeing
yourself through me, right and so, but it's also a
very expensive industry to be a part of. This is
(18:27):
not something that you can just wake up tomorrow and
do without like really spending the time to map it
out and model it out, which is why Chanel's role
was so critical. Ultimately, listen, the pack is beautiful, We're
so proud of it. The wine is exceptional. The region
needs to be celebrated and it will. But the wine
(18:47):
and what it costs to do all of this right
is as an investment.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
It is an investment. And that is why.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Working for over twenty years to get to this point, you.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Get to this point.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Yeah, And if you look at what wealthy people invest in,
they invest in wine like wealthy people. That's why they
have wine cellars and why they spend the money they
spend because wine is an asset. And so for me,
I also want people to just look at this as
a real story and asset building. This is my asset.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So from concept to where we are now, where you're
launching this today. By the way, you can go ahead
and pre order that on reserve bar.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yes, reserve boar dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
How long did this process take for you to get
to this point?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
So two years, But.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
I always say it's been in my head in my
heart for many, many years. And I do think you
have to sit with things, like you typically just don't
think of something and then you have to sit with it.
So it's been in my head in my heart for
a long time. But two years, which really isn't a
long time, it's felt like a long time. And I've
had people say when's the wine coming, when's the wine coming?
And I'm thinking, you go, try to launch your wines.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
See how you do it, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
But two years years and it's been two of the
best years of my life.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
And even though.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I've slept the least I've ever slept, I've spent a
lot of my money, I you know, have seen very
little of my family, who I adore. It has been
the best time of my life because there's something about
unlocking your courage. You know, when you unlock your courage,
you just feel so good, you feel so free.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
And it's a lot of sleepless nights. I will attest
to the fact that it'll be like seven in the
morning here and Inger's in La It's four am, and
she's texting me like, hey, I'm like, what is she
doing up right now? Right? I'm like, I'm not even
awake and I just woke up and saw a text message.
But you know, it is a stressful thing, and sometimes
you do have sleepless nights, but the payoff, the reward
(20:49):
can be so amazing. I do really have been staring
at this wine because honestly, this is my first time.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yes, it's your first time, it's Ange's first time. And
I will tell you Angela was the first person that
I I called when I decided that I wanted to
resign from my very big job.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That everybody was so excited that I had right.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
And I remember calling and saying, I feel like I
need to do this, and she was like, you got
to bet on yourself. It's time to go, Like this
is the time. And so this is a special moment
for me too, because you know, I've been saying it's coming.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
She'd say, where's the wine. I'm thinking, here you go.
Everybody want to know w.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Understand the patience that has to come with launching a
brand and getting it right, because you do want to
make sure that you launched with everything as perfect. I mean,
there's always things that will happen, but as perfect as
you can control. You want to make sure that it's right.
You don't want to rush anything ever, because you're making
a first impression and you were definitely back and forth
testing things. I mean, I've heard of stories about flights
(21:46):
getting I mean, all kinds of things that life will
throw to you. But you've been very resilient and you know, persistent,
and this is very well deserved and so important. You know,
just a network of people that you have around you.
If there's people around you that aren't adding to what
it is that you're trying to do, that don't believe
in you, that aren't supportive, that you don't feel comfortable
(22:07):
being able to share good and bad news with, and
those are not the people that you need to have
around you in your circle at all. It's just so
important to make sure that you know, the conversations that
we have are these types of entrepreneurial conversations where we're
talking about the future, investing in ourselves, making sure we
have generational wealth, and things that we can pass down.
(22:28):
So I'm ready, thank you, I'm excited. Which one should
we try first?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Let's start with the grace where you want us to
start with the white? Yeah, let's start with the white.
That's what I thought, Dan, you're not having some wine?
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Come on, Dan, Come on, Dan.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So this is I best wines white blend. It is Charnay,
Shinnen Blanc and Savon Blanc. I was very deliberate, and
we were very deliberate because this wasn't something that I
just did alone. But we were really deliberate in making
sure that we wanted to do a blend because we
want to show the breath of wine coming out of
South Africa. Okay, and so this is a great way
(23:04):
to experience two beautiful varieties, excuse me, three beautiful varietals,
one of which is kind of.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
The crown jewel of South Africa.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
People really know Shennan Blanc from South Africa, but Chardonaye
from South Africa and Savigon Blanc is equally as good.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So that's the white blank.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That's how you could tell somebody to just let their
name on the product, okay, when they could talk about
it like that with passion some mom am I supposed
to like do this? How did we do this?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Okay, doing this way.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Itself, that's the only thing.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Okay, my little hot hand cheers to the team.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Ives wine's y'all, this is a white blend. It's incredible.
I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
About Oh, this is delicious, this is delus. I already
know this is amazing, and I want to tell y'all
before I taste it that I knew it would be
amazing because Ingrid is a perfectionist and she does not
play when it comes to where you stay, where you
sit on the flight, the clothes that you wear. Okay,
it's a lot, but that is why we are here.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It's good, It's really good. I love it.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I'm so excited and I'll tell you for me, like
every time I just taste it, it like brings me
back to certain moments in the process. And Anna was
with me when we were like blending and she was
architecting with me, and you know, we would say no,
not this, no, not that, and then we got to
a point where were like, we need to let other
(24:35):
people taste the wine, Like we don't want to just
do this in a silo because I think people do that,
like they build their businesses, they do their thing in
a syl and it's like, come on, like you're doing
this to sell to people, so you would want someone's
point of view. And so it's really been beautiful to
just watch us land on this white bland and I
like that. I'm so happy you got to try it,
(24:56):
and so we're gonna move.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Wait before we try the red, I just want to
say one more thing. All right, now that you've launched,
let's talk about your first purchase. Okay, any clients that
you've had already on board? Can you talk about it yet?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
First purchase?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Like first client? Yes.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
So my first sales call while in New York was
with Virgin Hotels. Okay, and someone that I knew from
work that I had done in Miami. She used to
be at a hotel group there. She literally sent me
a message and was like, we need to meet. I'm
ready to support you. I know whatever your building is
going to be amazing. So did meet with them, yeah,
(25:34):
and had a chance to meet with her taste the wine.
She was like, this is incredible and has committed to
putting us at Virgin Hotels. So I'm super excited. About that,
and I literally videoed the meeting with her.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
I was like, you're my first sales call. You know.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
It goes back to that question that you asked me,
like where did I start? And where I started was
in a commercial marketing role and I had to go
out with my wine bag and with my liquor samples,
and I would taste owners and retailers and have to
tell the story. And so it's really special for me,
and I think anyone looking to build a business, there
(26:10):
can't be any part of that business you can't do right.
I agree with you, And now you have to know
how to do all the things.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
I heard the sales background that you have and how
you've implemented that. But I also heard reputation right when
you made that first call, and she called you and said,
I know whatever you're doing is going to be great.
And those are things that we talked about. And then
not only do you get your foot in the door,
you have to have a quality product. You know, you
have the relationship, you have the reputation, the product better'd
(26:37):
be amazing. And this is amazing. Now let's try the
next one.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Yes, this is the red plan, which I'm so excited
about and I'll tell you a little backstory. Initially, we
really just thought, okay, launch a white wine and then
we'll launch a red wine. And we were being very conservative,
right because I think you approach thing sometimes from a
perspective of like are you doing too much too fast?
And then it was like, nah, we're launching for these
because they're amazing. And you know, because my background is
(27:04):
music and it's my first love, I really look at
the white wine as like the A side and the
red wine is the B side, So we're gonna move
to the B side.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Okay, the B side. Sometimes that B side hits, you know,
that B side.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
So this is a red blend. The I best wine
is red Blend. It's cab Shara's Petite Sarah and Malback.
And again, the purpose of blending all of these varietals
one is because I love them and it came out beautiful,
but two was to really tell the story of the
breadth of wine that's coming out of South Africa. And
I think there's just a lot of people that you
(27:38):
read the back label and it says Malback and it's
like mal Back South Africa, and it's.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Like, yeah, that's my mom's favorite wine back side. Okay, good,
all right, well cheers, cheers lady. I'm gonna start using
the word varietals too. I just learned that.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Isn't that a good one?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
I love that? Yeah, this is so good, guys. I'm
so excited.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
I'm happy you finally got to try it, taste it.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I'm so happy that it's here. And listen, I know,
I know this is your baby for real. So no,
honestly I wanted to bring you up here and listen.
I know, full disclosure, we are friends, like really really
great friends, but I would have had you up here regardless.
You know, just because of the work that you've been
putting in in this business. You deserve to be uplifted
(28:28):
and this does not disappoint. So how can people support
Ibst Wines?
Speaker 3 (28:32):
So you can support Ibst Wines obviously launching today pre
sale on reserve bar dot com and also in a
few weeks we'll be selling directly on our site, ibestwines
dot com, which is which is an incredible thing for
us to be able to sell direct to consumer. And
then we're just listen, hitting the pavement. Just like I
(28:53):
had my first sales call, we are going out talking
to folks, singing the gospel of I best wines and
for those people who like good wine and good stories
and want to support good people, You're going to start
to see it in the restaurants and bars and on
the shelves, and really, for me, it is trying to
grow the footprint of South African wine most especially, I
(29:13):
would say in restaurants and at retail because you just
don't see a lot of South African wine. I have
a lot of South African wines that are my favorites
as well, So this isn't just about me. It's about
South African wine in general deserves to have full sections
at the wine shops, just like Napa does, just like
France does, just like Italy does.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
The wine is exceptional.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Do you find that you've gotten a lot of support
in your industry, even from people who you used to
work with.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, definitely, I mean, I definitely feel like people are
very supportive, They're excited.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
One of the things I can say is I've never
burned any bridges. There's not anybody that I've ever worked
with that I can't call. And if I can't call them,
it's just it was meant for our season to end.
It wasn't because there was something that happened. You know,
I gotta I gotta voice smail from Puff yesterday saying
I'm so proud of you, like this is this is
(30:07):
what I love to see and so it feels so good.
Obviously old you know, supplier friends and retailer friends. That's
a lot of liquors sales talk. You guys are like,
what is she talking about? But just old companies that
I worked with.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
The head of Hennessy, uh, Jasmine Allen reposted about the wine.
You know, things like that that people think, why would
the head of Hennessy be posting about this wine. It's
because it's all love, you know, and we're all here
trying to build great things.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I love that, all right, Tuck that Tuck miss Ingrid
bet I told you guys, I don't have to say
anything with Ingrid's around. But again, you guys can go
to ibest Wines.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yes, ibestwines dot com and a few weeks we'll be
selling directly. But right now it's about Reserve Bar dot com.
We gave them the exclusive pre sale. We love what
they're doing with Spirited Change. They've really focused on brands
that are owned by black and brown founders, and so
we thought it would be great to partner with them
on our on our pre sale. So we're excited. I
(31:02):
appreciate you, and I have a shameless plug. I want
to come and co host with you.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Okay, look at Ingrid all right, comfortable in it. Listen,
that's the risk, that's the rest one. And I'm going
to follow up with her on that and make her
do that. But I also told her on National Wine Day,
which is in May. I looked it up, I did. Yeah,
she'll be up here for that as well. So I'm
getting ready for this because really I just want her
(31:27):
to bring some wine. But thank you so much everybody
for showing up. I love to see this. I love
the team. I love you, Ingrid, love you too, and
I love his wine and I love y'all guess wines,
y'all
Way Up With Angela Yee News
Host
Angela Yee
Show Links
Official WebsitePopular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!