Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another SMG meetup. I'm not sure about you, but here Miami is already 1 o'clock. And that's what we're going to be bringing with us, the senior editor and project director at Wine Spectator. His name is James Molesworth, and he's going to tell us all about wine, and how interesting it has been to implement it as part of the lifestyle of all this luxury affluent.
There he is. What's going on James? Morning, how are you? Very good, very good.
As I said, it's 1 o'clock already. It's 1 o'clock. Even on the West Coast, it's always 1 o'clock. I love that.
Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me. No, of course, absolutely. I was telling about how you became the senior editor and the project director at Wine Spectator magazine.
You've been with them since 1997, right? It's been a long journey already. I passed the 25-year mark and I'm going to go. Congratulations.
Thank you. So tell us a little bit about what you're doing and what is so exciting about being part of the Wine Spectator magazine. Well, just to get your followers situated, Wine Spectator is the world's most widely read wine publication. It's into consumers.
We have over 3.5 million readers. We review wines and give news and information on the wine and hospitality industries. All of our wine reviews are done blind, which means we don't know who the producer is or what the price is and that way we're objective. And then of course, we cover lifestyle recipes, travel, everything like that.
And it's basically a lifestyle magazine with hardcore journalism at the center. And I got involved way back as you know, in 1997 prior to that, I had been a Samoye for a year at a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. And I had been in Wine Detail for a few years. But when I joined the magazine, I was just a wheel ad and I was helping to set up the tastings for the other editors.
And really accelerated my wine knowledge through that process after both the retail and restaurant side of things. And after a few years, one of the editors left for other possibilities. And so they said, well, you're your next man up. And at the time I started covering, I think it was Loire in South Africa.
And 25 years later, here I am covering Bordeaux, the Rome Valley, California, California, California, California, Pino, a couple of other things. It's been a great ride. Wow, that's amazing. What's your favorite wine?
My favorite wine is the Rome Valley, which is interesting because as a journalist, I can't play favorites. And so when I'm reviewing wines from the Rome Valley, I have to sort of temper my enthusiasm. But if I were stuck on a desert island, I would be drinking Rome wines for sure. I'm glad to see you.
Okay, very good. I mean, I've always do yours, right? Somebody does this for a little. What's their take on this?
Yeah, we have our favorites, but we have to play even because they're so much softer. And the wine world is so diverse and there's so much good stuff. We want to point readers to the direction of all the good wines out there. Now, it's very fascinating to see the entire journey on how you've been going from in 1997 starting on the now senior editorial project director at the magazine.
Now, what are some of the things that you're doing in order to launch these reviews? Like, what goes through the process? So the magazine's been around for 40 years since the 1970s. It was one space on the west coast now.
It's based in New York and our team of editors have specific regions that they cover. As I mentioned, for instance, I'm covering Bordeaux and other regions. We taste those wines. We taste them blind.
We review them and then they go into the magazine proper. So it's print journalism, which is a bit old school, but we also have digital side. We have website. We have social media presence.
And those are things that we're always trying to sort of crack the code on, like the Instagram algorithm, like everyone else. But generally, I think our combined years of experience many of the editors have been around the magazine as long as I have been. Our readership is very loyal and our brand is very recognizable in the marketplace because of that history that we have. Got you.
Now, in terms of collaboration, do you do any collaborations with the brand directly or with other members of the industry? No. Not really because we're a journalistic outlet. We do have our events department, which puts together events.
You could call that a collaboration. One of the events that we do every year is called the New York Wine Experience, which is over a weekend in October. We have a couple of thousand consumers that come to that event and we bring them into contact with about 250 wineries, which are pouring wines that we rate at 90 points or better on our scale. And that all goes to charity.
And that charity is the M. Shankins Scholarship Fund, which goes to put kids through school at UC Davis, which is the main winemaking and bit of cultural school in the United States. We give back to the industry at the same time. So maybe not a pure collaboration, but we definitely work with the industry and try to get back to the industry that we're covering.
Got you. Okay. Now, in regards to your audience, the audience that you're reaching on is, I'm assuming all wine lovers, but is there any specific niche? Yeah, I mean, I think our readership demographically speaking is age 40 and up and affluent, but we would love to have anyone who's interested in wine read our magazine and follow our website.
We think that we speak to a wide range of audiences. We don't try to be super geeky or super technical on wine. We think that either a total beginner or a seasoned kind of sort and collector can read our magazine and get information from it. And so while the readership of the magazine tends to skew for you enough, the website tends to be a little younger or social media obviously has a totally different demographic.
We're trying to put all those things together to cover a wide audience here in the U.S. market. Unless a magazine, you call it at spaces. So let's say I do real estate and I know that you specify on a specific niche market that can buy or that has access to these properties that I care about.
So do you offer those at spaces? There is advertising in the magazine and that's why we taste blind so that the advertising does not influence the ratings that we give to the lines. The advertisers tend to be a wide range. You'll see lifestyles, advertisers in there might be watch companies, private check companies, real estate companies in addition to what you would expect from the wine and hospitality industry.
So restaurants and wineries are also advertising our magazine. Got it. So what's been the most exciting thing about being in this beautiful journey? Well, I got to say getting to travel.
I mean, over the years, everything from South Africa and South America to multiple trips to France and now I'm essentially bi-coastal because I'm covering California in addition to myself in France. So the travel opportunities that the magazine has afforded me has been great. And so I guess you could say I'm living the wine lifestyle, but I want to remind folks that while it looks glamorous from the outside, it's taking wine all day and traveling and writing about it, the job side is a job. It's hard work and you have to take care of yourself.
We believe wine is part of the healthy lifestyle, but within moderation. And so when you're in a run, a lot of restaurants, you'll have to take care of yourself as well. But I mean, it's been fun to see the world. And it's also amazing how much of the world I haven't seen because the wine world is so wide and diverse right now, which is really a huge change over the last two, three decades.
Wine used to not be a big thing in the United States and now it has become a sense of luxury when you add it to your table or when it's on a restaurant table. And we think we're part of the reason for that and we're also trying to cover that as best we can. Now, Dave, let me ask you this because you were talking about luxury. We always ask these questions to our guests and you coming from the wine industry.
Why is it really the meaning of luxury to you? To me, it's about authenticity. I think that word gets used a lot, especially in social media these days when you have influencers and other people trying to spread information. I think authenticity is the main thing.
So whether it's a watch, a wine, a painting, an apartment, the sense that the person who's in the person who's in the world is the person who's in the world is the person who's in the world is the person who's in the world is the person who's in the world. The person who made that wine is farming the land respectfully is putting a product in the bottle that is enjoyable, that stimulates conversation, that makes food taste better, and that it was done by hand. I think that's what luxury is. As a consumer, as a journalist, I'm cautious about that because I don't want people to be scooped by wine.
I think it's only luxury. But I do think it's luxurious to have a bottle of wine on the table with your meal and I think you can do that for $20 a bottle and you can do it for $200 a bottle of defense. But I think being educated about it and understanding the authenticity behind it is really what makes it luxurious. Thank you for sharing that.
I haven't heard that word related to luxury in a while and we always have this question. So I really like to hear that coming from you. Now, obviously everything sounds glamorous, fun, luxurious, and there's always the behind the scenes. What's been some of the, if you have to choose one of the toughest things that you've had to face and what did you learn from it?
In life or just in terms of the job, I mean, in terms of the job, the toughest thing I think is to be fair. Again, why we taste blind. You know, there are over 25 years I've developed relationships with wine makers and winery owners that, you know, I would consider them friends in a way, but at the same time I have to keep a professional distance at the same time too. And keeping an objectivity and impartiality and being just a pure journalist that it's difficult, it's challenging, but it's what makes the job fun and rewarding at the same time.
Yeah, I got to put myself in your shoes. You're establishing these beautiful relationships and you feel like you have this friendship. I've always started everybody in that industry so passionate about their own product that when you don't like them as like the best, they're like, oh, what? Absolutely.
I know, I mean, it is an industry of passion and that's why people get into it and that's why people get into the industry who don't have a background in wine because they just love wine. And that really fuels the industry in a positive way, I think, and has driven its diversity and its growth. But, you know, as I said, it is a product. Someone needs to help educate and entertain people about that product and I think to do it objectively is the best way to do that.
So I'm thankful for the relationships and I appreciate the access they give me and I get to see things that maybe the regular consumer doesn't get to and I can take that information and pass it along to consumers, but I have to be fair and even handed in doing that. No, absolutely. Well, thank you for showing that. Now, I have a question for, it's been set aside during the journey for you, right?
Over 25 years. What do you envision is happening next with you and the wine spectator? Well, I think, you know, our events have really evolved to a point where not only do they sell out quickly, but I think we continue to fine tune them. I think the magazine is always trying to, while we know what we do well, figuring out what we need to do to bring in a new audience, generally the millennial audience, which right now has not really embraced wine fully yet.
I think we're trying to deal with that going forward. We know that our current readership is loyal, but we, of course, we're always like to break into a new demographic category and I think the millennials are very challenging to get on board. And then just broader industry and general, I see nothing but growth. I mean, if you think about where wine was 30 years ago, 15 years ago, and today in terms of restaurants and who had it on their tables, it's exploded over that time.
And there are now places making wine that didn't make wine before. We're not taking seriously before. So it's not just France and Italy and California, but it's Chile, it's Argentina, it's Greece, it's Croatia, it's South Africa, it's Portugal, it's all of these other places, some of which have long histories, some of which have short histories, but the diversity and the strength of the industry and general, I just see it only going up. It's just such a positive trend line for the industry.
Obviously, now that we're doing this Instagram live and we see how social media has exploded when we look into other categories in that food and beverage industry, we're looking at this guy reviewing pizzas and these guys, these guys reviewing whatever, you know, and everything goes so viral and the new generations, they get attached so much into these reviews about the food. I don't know if there is something like that with wine, but definitely an opportunity in there to utilize the background that you guys already created and the authority and credibility to start using more that new social currency or the new way of showcasing the reviews. Yeah, I mean, I try to be as active on social media as I can be here on Instagram as basically my main social media presence. You know, wine is visual too, so the photographic side of it, the beautiful vineyards, the people behind it, the things that you can't put in print necessarily are obviously what we try to reach through Instagram and social media.
But in the end, we want people to read. I mean, you have to educate yourself and reading is one of the best ways to do that and I think which is oversized and glossy format. So I think the artwork in there is very compelling as well. But as I said, old school journalism is what we do and trying to fit that into the modern world is what we're trying to do.
I think we're doing a good job, but we can always do better. No, amazing. Well, listen, thank you so much for everything. Is there any last takeaways that you would like to share?
I would just say, you know, the more you know the better you can drink and it's the same with anything that's luxury related, right? If you're going to a museum and you're looking at the paintings, you know, knowing who made it, what the timeframe was when they made it, how they made it, that's all part of it. Your watch, your car, whatever it is that you find luxurious wine is the same thing. It's an enormous amount of information out there.
It's exponentially growing every year because there's a new vintage, there's an unwinering, the wineries change hands. There's so much going on. So just educate yourselves and it's just something you can entertain yourself at the same time, educating and entertaining. And that's what we like to do.
I love that. Well, that's a good way to rub this up. It was very uplifting conversation, very informative. And well, after this, I got to just go for a glass of wine.
Why not? It's definitely one o'clock where you are. So yeah, it's fine. All right.
Well, thank you so much. I encourage everybody that is watching or listening either now or later to follow James, follow Wine Spectator. It's such an encouraging and uplifting content and really interesting as well, because what you just said right now about educating and entertaining is just set up fine line that works so well together. So thank you again, James.
Appreciate it. I will definitely let you know next time I'm on that time of the country and if you ever come here to Miami, let me know as well. Okay, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Take care. Bye bye. Cheers. And thanks again for everybody tuning in today.
We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace it's beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.