Oct 1

Oct 1 ABG Goes to wine2wine: Please Weigh In with Your Input!

ABG is looking forward very much to joining the speaker lineup at the wine2wine Business Forum, held both online and live from Verona, Italy on October 18 and 19.

Our session is titled, "Can working in the wine business be GOOD for you?" Although we have our own perspectives on this (of course we do!), we would love to share the ABG Community perspective on personal well being when alcohol is at the center of our work, particularly during and post-COVID.

Please help us to tease out some answers to that question by responding candidly to the six questions in this anonymous survey. No need to enter your name or email address. Just share your thoughts, straight up.

Thank you in advance for your input and opinions, and we look forward to sharing our experience with you later this month!

If you're curious about wine2wine, check out the program and join us online. As a media partner we have a special ABG community code - see the registration details in the section below.

Namaste,
Cathy

What We're Reading:

Here's what has piqued our interest this week in the world of wine and mindfulness.

A Third of Employees Are Considering Quitting "for the Sake of My Mental Health," Survey Shows – Inc.com
Are some of your employees thinking of leaving because they believe you don't care about their mental state? A new survey suggests they are. Even worse, if you're like most employers, they could be right.

The rise of sourdough - the psychology behind our obsession – Of Small Matters
Many of us haven’t been able to earn a crust in lockdown; instead we’ve tried to bake one. Is there some deeply embedded psychological reason we’re taking to sourdough with such enthusiasm?

How to overcome exhaustion by practicing the 7 types of rest to balance your energy
I'll tell you a secret: sleeping, taking breaks and resting are not the same.

If Your Employees Aren't Learning, You're at Risk of Losing Them – Inc.com
One key factor in the recent barrage of resignations? Lack of training and skill development

Meet the Community!

Here we meet some of the people that make our community so dynamic.

Christopher O’Gorman, Director of Communications, Rodney Strong Wine Estates, and Alexandra O’Gorman, GM Retail & Guest Services, F. Korbel & Bros. Inc. (Sonoma county, ca, USA)

Years in the Industry:
For nearly 20 years, we have both been fortunate to work for some of the best producers in Northern California. We married in 2001 and moved to wine country in 2002 and both took winery jobs, Alexandra as Event Manager with Lake Sonoma Winery and Chris in Communications with E & J Gallo.

Raising two young children, our careers were a juggle with Alexandra orchestrating more than 100 weddings for Lake Sonoma Winery before joining Hanna Winery & Vineyards as Director of Hospitality. She then helped open Coppola’s Geyserville property, before joining Ramey Wine Cellars as Director of Communications, before finally returning to Korbel in 2020 as GM, Retail and Guest Services.

Similarly, Chris left Gallo in 2007 for Merrivale Vineyards in Napa Valley, as the Director of Marketing Communications before a stint with Paul Hobbs, then finally to Rodney Strong Wine Estates in 2015. Today, he is the Director of Communications and still makes time for wine judging in the US and international wine competitions.

Our Three Top Challenges to Wellness:
We love the wine business and feel blessed to be working in wine country. The diversity of our days keeps things interesting and traveling to fun locations and sharing world-class food and wine is something we enjoy, and look forward to.

However, weekly (and sometimes daily) we have opportunities to taste amazing food and wine, and interact with folks that we miss, but as we have aged, the ability to do all of these slowly wanes, so we have had to adjust in several ways.

We are also parents of two wonderful children and as other parents will attest – that is a full-time job in itself. Parents often must set their own needs aside to attend to their kids. This can mean not enough sleep, eating differently, and lack of down time to re-charge.

How We Keep It Together to Stay Well:
We both grew up as athletes and finding time to workout has to be a big, big priority. Buying a Peloton a month before COVID has been a game changer for both of us, and we are each on the bike between three to five days a week.

We love attending events, but increasingly decline offers to keep our wellness in check. Also, we have frequent family check-ins on everyone’s personal health and resting/sleeping habits to be sure we are supportive of each other.

Chris has found that it can be easier to stay healthy on the road, where there is a gym a few floors down and walking - especially in a town like New York City, when it’s easy to walk 15-20K steps a day. He also eats fewer meals on the road with less carbs, although this is offset by evening meals, which are richer and paired with wine.

For Alexandra, comedy podcasts on the evening commute are a perfect stress relief and helps her to “leave it” at work and be more present for my family when she arrives home.

When not on the road, we try to actively avoid alcohol Sundays through Wednesdays, however if we’re cooking an amazing meal, it’s difficult not to pop open something that would pair well and elevate the entire meal.

Finally, we both drink a TON of water, constantly throughout the day, which we believe is a big reason why we stay healthy and avoid sickness.

What Inspires Us:
Our family. Great art and music. Good people doing good things and treating people well. Trying to see both sides of issues and reducing the drama in our lives with things within our control.

Quotes We Love:
“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always” – Robin Williams
“Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up” – Jim Valvano

You can connect with Chris and Alexandra on Facebook at Chris O’Gorman and Alexandra O’Gorman and Instagram at @chrisogwine and @wine.alexandra

wine2wine Business Forum, October 18-19, 2021

Discover new market trends, travel around the world with international speakers, be inspired, and create new opportunities and actionable plans for boosting your business.

Tickets are € 89 + VAT (online) and € 180 + VAT (in-person) with all sessions recorded and available for playback. Want to join us? register here and in the session “Other”, use our promotional code: ZPEV8JFPO2815.

We hope to see you!

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Cathy Huyghe

Cathy Huyghe is a dynamic media professional with a special interest in wine and the spirit of hospitality. She is also an effective, engaging public speaker on subjects ranging from wine and gastronomy to digital media and entrepreneurship.

Cathy is the co-founder and CEO of Enolytics, a big data startup providing business intelligence for the wine industry. She also currently writes for Forbes.com about the business and politics of the wine industry, and for Inc.com about entrepreneurs with a special focus on women. She is the author of the award-winning book Hungry for Wine: Seeing the World through the Lens of a Wine Glass; she was a finalist for the 2016 IWSC Wine Communicator of the Year award; and she won the 2016 Innovator of the Year award from Diaz Communications.

Cathy's writing has appeared in print and online for both general-interest and wine industry publications including the Harvard Business Review network, The Atlantic, Decanter, Food52.com (where she was the "Wine, Unfussed" columnist), DailyBeast, The Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast, GlobalPost, Grist.org, and Daily Candy. She has also been featured on the BBC, WNYC, WGBH, and Nevada Public Radio.

Cathy is the founder of 365daysofwine.com and Red White Boston, a digital media company for the wine industry. Red White Boston produced daily content, monthly tasting events, and a location-based iPhone app of video wine recommendations from their network of 30+ local partner stores. While in Boston, she also managed the wine cellar at WGBH public broadcasting station and managed wine events for donors and the public.

Cathy’s restaurant experience started when she knocked on the kitchen door at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. She also has worked for Jean-Pierre Vigato in Paris (at Natachef bistro and at his two-star restaurant, Apicius) and for Thomas Keller at Bouchon in Las Vegas. She studied at La Varenne École de Cuisine in Burgundy, France; she completed the Wine Studies program at Boston University; and she received Advanced Certification from WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust).

Cathy received a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard in 2004 and a second master’s degree in Journalism in 2010, also from Harvard. Before that, she received a master’s degree in comparative literature from the City University of New York in 1998 and a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in 1995. She is also a trained mediator, and worked for two years at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School on a project in the Middle East.

In April 2008 she founded the Harvard Alumni in Wine and Food special interest group, which provides educational and networking services to the Harvard alumni and current students. She has also served as the President of the Harvard Club of Georgia, and she has begun a term of service on the Board of Directors for the Harvard Alumni Association.

Her other non-profit involvement includes the Women's Solidarity Society at the new National Center for Civil & Human Rights (Atlanta), grant reviewer for the Food Well Alliance (an Atlanta-based organization that supports the local network of 350 urban farms and community gardens), Coach at GOTR (Girls on the Run) in Atlanta, Board Member at the Greening Youth Foundation (Atlanta), Board Member at The Food Project (Boston), and Mediator at the Neighborhood Justice Center (Las Vegas).

She lives in Atlanta with her husband, their twin boys, and their Bernese Mountain dog, Coco.

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