Vino Vero - Part 2: Behind the Bottle (Clean, Curate, Connect)

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Dana from Vino Vero pulls back the curtain on her wine shop operations, revealing a refreshingly authentic approach to wine retail that centers around what she playfully calls her three pillars: "clean, curate, connect." From her meticulous morning cleaning rituals to her thoughtful wine selection process, Dana's passion for creating a genuine wine experience shines through every aspect of her business.

What sets Vino Vero apart is Dana's commitment to constant evolution. Rather than maintaining a static inventory, she rotates approximately 75% of her wine producers every six weeks, keeping only beloved "house wines" as constants. This approach ensures that regular customers always discover something new while maintaining accessibility, with price points ranging from $16 bottles to rare, thousand-dollar finds. Her resistance to traditional wine club models speaks volumes about her philosophy, as Dana prefers the magic of face-to-face interactions where she can build personalized collections based on each customer's evolving tastes rather than locking them into automated subscriptions.

The conversation takes a fascinating educational turn as Dana demystifies wine terminology, clearly explaining the differences between conventional, sustainable, organic, and biodynamic approaches. Her insights into natural and low-intervention winemaking reveal her deep industry knowledge, strengthened by her own journey as a winemaker in Oregon's Willamette Valley. This hands-on experience cultivating Pinot Gris, Trousseau, and Riesling informs her current curation, allowing her to champion small producers who prioritize quality and authenticity. For Dana, wine should tell a story of its origins and vintage – not follow a recipe for consistent sameness year after year. Her personal connection to winemaking and passionate advocacy for thoughtful consumption perfectly illustrate why supporting local wine shops like Vino Vero creates a richer, more meaningful experience than what chain retailers can offer.

Want to experience Dana's expertly curated selection for yourself? Visit Vino Vero in Vero Beach and discover why this beachside wine shop has become a beloved local institution where quality, authenticity, and genuine connection flow as freely as the wine.

Presented by Killer Bee Marketing
Helping local businesses in Vero Beach connect with their neighbors.

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Episode Transcript

Brian (00:00):
All right, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach podcast.
This is part two of ourinterview here with Dana from
Vino Vero, and in this episodewe're going to be talking about
the behind the scenes, gettingto know a little bit more about
what the day-to-day is like foryou.
I don't know if you say itright, I don't know if it's the
right way to say it what it'slike doing winery.
I don't know.
I should probably have Jawsdoing the interview here.

(00:22):
Chop, that should probably haveJaws doing the interview here.
No winery, no.

Dana (00:30):
So, dana, tell us a little bit of like what is a typical
day look like for you.
Yes, well, I love a clean spaceso I always spend the morning
cleaning.
Just to get real serious withyou, 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 Ido.
I do spend a lot of time kind offinicking and fessing over what

(00:50):
wines I do have available rightnow, because I like to change
stuff so often.
So I do have some mainstay likesome, some wines that have kind
of like a house wine I guessaccreditation that I just always
have Things I can't get rid ofbecause I love them so much.
But also people have just madeit very apparent that they need
that in stock.
But other than that, I reallydo try to change the selection.

(01:14):
I'd say every six weeks you cansee a pretty good 75% overturn
of producers.
It might be the same style ofwine or same region or same
grape, but I do like to changeup producers and also keeping a
price range that's realistic.
I have stuff from like $16 up toI think I have a $1,000 bottle,
but I think most generally it'sbetween like $16, $15 bottles

(01:38):
of wine all the way up tothere's a lot of mid-range stuff
.
So people can come in not breakthe bank, but they absolutely
can get something very nice ifthey'd like to as well.
So those kind of things.
Gabbing with the locals, youknow people who come in and like
also my.
You know getting a text fromsomeone like I need a case of
wine put together.
You know what I like and likethat's the most fun.

(02:00):
So that's the majority.
And then it's a lot of I don'tknow, coming up with events.
People in Vero specifically likethings to do because it's, I
mean, one of the best parts isit's a very easygoing, slow
feeling town, but that's alsoone of the things that can get
old.
You know, I like doing seriouswine tasting nights but also
having other fun events that area little bit more interactive

(02:22):
and it's just like oh, the wineis an accompaniment to the fun
evening.
I mean the day-to-day is prettylike cush in my opinion.
That's why I'm still here.
I love it.
I get a like clean, which Ilove.
I get a curate and then I get alike oh God, this sounds like a
commercial, but like then I getto connect with people like the
wine reps or customers and yeah, I love like all of those

(02:45):
things.

Brian (02:45):
Clean, curate, connect and I'm on the beach.

Dana (02:47):
So, like I really don't know, I couldn't yeah, I
couldn't think of anythingbetter.

Brian (02:52):
So, like you're talking about, like the different, like
you have some people that reachout to you and ask you to like
to curate, like a box of winefor them.
And you're bringing indifferent wines.
You know you're rotating them.
So, like do you feature thatkind of stuff like on your
social media page too, forpeople to check out and see,
like, what's going on, to kindof educate them on what you have
?

Dana (03:08):
that's a good idea.

Brian (03:09):
I should I got plenty of good ideas, you know I
definitely everyone's alwayslike oh, do you have a wine club
?

Dana (03:15):
and I do?
It's actually funny enough I do.
Do I advertise that?
I do no, because my favoritething is someone coming in and
being like, let's build together, whereas my wine club is very
much like three bottles a monthof 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.
It's like three ones that Irotate because, at the end of
the day, like I could pick awine club for people.

(03:36):
But like that seems so weird,I'm like no, I don't need to be
being like, this is what I like.

Brian (03:42):
So, dana, we need to talk later after the podcast,
because, yes, you need to begetting that data from people.

Dana (03:47):
Yeah, I want them.
I want and like I could have 18different categories, like, oh,
you want a clean and fresh wineclub, or you want the bold and
heavy, or like I mean, any placeyou go that has wine clubs,
this is.
It's the same thing over andover again, and so I maybe I'm a
little bit of like a stubbornlittle woman.

Brian (04:04):
I guess, but like.

Dana (04:05):
I just find that stuff to be so I don't know.
It's like then it charges yourcard every month.
You're committed You're in awine club, you have to get it.
There's no, I'm like I want itto be flexible.
You come to me when you'refeeling like you need some wine
and let's talk through what youwant and what you like.
How it is in here is literallyjust an accumulation of
experiences through my life inthe wine industry and like how I

(04:27):
want it to present.

Brian (04:29):
Can you explain to me what's the differences like
between natural wine and lowintervention wine?
What does that mean?

Dana (04:37):
Actually those are kind of those go hand in hand.
There are many different stylesof winemaking.
What we're most you know, whatmost people are exposed to, is
conventional winemaking.
So anything you're going to getin like a grocery store or some
of the bigger labels fall intothat category.
Conventional winemaking is alldone with Western farming.
So in the field, in thevineyards, it's a lot of

(04:57):
pesticides, herbicides,fungicides to maintain and make
a viable high yield crop.
We could get so into all ofthis and all the different
levels, but we won't herebecause this isn't a winemaking
podcast.
So there's conventionalwinemaking, then there's a lot
of farming, and then there'ssustainable farming, and then
you have organic farming andbiodynamic farming.

(05:17):
So that all relates to farmingmethods and growing grapes.
Once the wine comes into thewinery, that's when you can get
into the natural and lowintervention kind of speak.
Low intervention in the vineyardis going to be related to
organic a little sustainable alittle bit, because you're at
least mindful of it, but organicand biodynamic farming and that
is all with the exclusion ofthe harsh chemicals and then the

(05:41):
addition of a bunch ofdifferent other things.
With biodynamic farming wecould get really deep, but they
use different, like you know,winery made composts and sprays.
They're not using the chemicalson the vines, they're using
natural products.
So that refers to wine growing,so grape growing, but in a
winery making the wine andthere's a lot of different ways
to use chemicals and differentsubstances, synthetic materials

(06:03):
to create a wine and almost likea recipe.
So natural and or lowintervention would not be doing
that.
You're not intervening at all.
You're letting the grapes comein naturally from the field.
Doing a spontaneousfermentation on their own
Instead of using an inoculationlike a synthetic yeast would be
the first example of a naturallymade wine.
Low intervention is as simpleas it is.

(06:25):
You're not intervening, You'reletting the grapes and the wine
kind of make itself.

Brian (06:29):
This is what I love about having interviews with
different business ownersrunning I think this is a wine
bar.
You sell bottles of wine.
Yeah, I love understanding likejust getting a glance, not
really understanding, because Idon't understand a lot of the
stuff you're saying.

Dana (06:43):
But I play it off like I do.
Yeah, you did great.
Yeah, I was like.
Everyone knows this, theyshould.

Brian (06:49):
That's what's so cool about getting to sit down across
other business owners and bringtheir stories out and let them
share the process too, because alot of people that are
listening are thinking it's justwine that we would buy from
Publix or there's so much moreto it and to be able to have you
have the opportunity to comeand sit behind the mic and help
educate us.

(07:09):
I don't know.
I just I love doing thatbecause I love bringing that out
and let people like.
This is why you want to supportyour local businesses here that
are doing this, because you'redoing so much research, trying
to make sure we get a goodexperience, not just with coming
to the store, but with the winethat we're tasting and and you
don't get that everywhere.
So that's what's so importantabout local.

Dana (07:27):
So I love that.
That's.
That's really cool.
I appreciate that and that goesall the way down the line to
the like.
If the local mentality with thewine producers that I like to
feature, because you know a lotof them not all of them, but a
good amount are smallerproducers where the it's a
family or this or that and likeI really do care about, like
what you put into your body, Imean that's huge.
There's a lot of really, reallygross stuff that happens in

(07:50):
wineries, um, and so you know,and with just mega, mega, yeah,
so your wine should tastedifferent every year.
It shouldn't taste the sameevery year.
Um, it shouldn't be a recipemade wine, in my opinion.
So you you talked about how youmake your own wine too.

(08:10):
Do you sell any?
And I have, like, some of mywhite wine bottles still hiding
over there like little relics.
So I did.
I worked at two differentwineries from 2014 to 2020.
And then I, in 2020, branchedoff with a friend of mine and we
started our own wine label.
That took us to the WillametteValley in Oregon and that's
where we were really kind ofjust trading our work for free

(08:31):
custom crush.
So we needed a facility to makeour wine in, but then we had to
make wine for someone else,like his interns, essentially.
So we needed a facility to makeour wine in, but then we had to
make wine for someone else,like his interns, essentially.
So we came full circle in ourcareers.
So we did.
We did two vintages like thatwhere we would.
We sought out some grapes thatwe really loved.
We made Pinot Gris the firstyear and then the second year,
pinot Gris, trousseau andRiesling.
It was very small and it was anamazing experience.

(08:55):
Learned a lot then too.
That was a very big learningexperience, but then I moved
away.
So when you have a label thatyou do hands-on with your, you
know, with two people and oneperson leaves, yeah.
So that was an incredibleexperience and she will continue
on the label out in California,my ex-business partner.
She still lives out there andmakes wine, so she will carry
the torch on.
But at Vino Vero I had it instock for a while but I just

(09:18):
opened and sold the last bottlethe other night, so that was
kind of like a weird end of anera feeling.
Those are kind of like thefeelings I love in life.
It's like oof, yeah.

Brian (09:29):
Stings, but good sting.

Dana (09:30):
It's like, oh, it's over, but we made a good amount Like
I'm proud of what we made andsold ourselves, but so that's
yeah, no longer.
But it was a beautiful label.
Oregon has incredible fruitquality, so it was a really cool
experience to make wine upthere.

Brian (09:45):
So if everybody's listening and they're like, oh,
we want to try it, it's likesorry, too late, it is, it was
too A woman reserved a case.

Dana (09:52):
There's a case underneath the shelves, but it's already
spoken for that's awesome Wellif she doesn't come around.

Brian (09:58):
Yeah, exactly, if she doesn't come around, you're
going to have an auction on yourwebsite.

Dana (10:06):
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 Iused to be a winemaker, but yeah
, it was an amazing decade of mylife, but it's, yeah.
On to other stuff, that'sawesome.

Brian (10:25):
That's good.
That's good, all right.
Well, this has been a greatepisode.
I'm excited to get into whatyou love about Vero Beach.
So with that, everybody, thankyou for tuning in.
If you're enjoying the episode,make sure you click that review
we would love to hear what youhave to say and hit subscribe
while you're at it.

(10:46):
See you later, neighbor.