This week I’m doing something I’ve never done before, and that’s spending seven nights at a silent meditation retreat in the mountains of North Carolina, outside Asheville. Let me tell you, it’s a little trippy…
All in Community
Lessons from Liège – Takeaways from the Born Digital Wine Awards Summit
At the recent Born Digital Wine Awards Summit in Liège Belgium, numerous topics were discussed, but the group chose to prioritize four topics for further industry consideration: packaging, wine tourism and education, wine media, and health and wellness.
Come As You Are – Learnings from the 2019 Bâtonnage Forum
Come as you are! Such was the edict given by the organizers of last weekend’s Bâtonnage Forum. Founded by Oakland wine retailer Stevie Staconis, the second edition of the grassroots event is aimed at stirring up discussion around issues facing women in the wine industry.
Taking My Own Advice: Let's Get Physical (Therapy)
Being in physical therapy (PT) while maintaining a daily job in any industry is difficult enough, but alcohol is known to be an inflammatory agent for joints and tissues, even though it can seem like a salve to take away physical pain that we may feel.
Gut Check Alert: When We Aren’t Enough
These past few weeks, something’s happened that Beck and I sincerely hoped would happen when A Balanced Glass got up and running two years ago. And yet it still took us by surprise.
The Tribe Gets A Facelift!
Not in the medical injection, freeze-your-face, nip’n’tuck fashion, but the Meet the Tribe section is now an even easier part of the site to see and navigate.
The Magic of Planting the Seeds: A Letter from Vinitaly
It’s the most important trade event for anyone concerned with Italian wine, and Beck and I have been regular attendees for several years now. This time it was different, at least for me…
6 Tips to Managing Sickness while Traveling Or, How to Not Be Sneezy Dwarf!
Traveling for work is stressful enough, with its time away from family and friends, constant wining and dining, time zones, hotel rooms and another multi-course dinner. But there’s nothing WORSE than getting sick on top of all of that.
10 Lessons We've Learned Thanks To You
“We’re glad you’re here.” That was the simple opening line of our first ABG post one year ago today. And here’s 10 lessons you’ve taught us over the last year together.
You Said Yes!! A Balanced Glass Comes to Vinitaly
So we asked you, any interest in an ABG meet-up during Vinitaly? You said Yes.
NO-one has time for meditation during VinItaly, but that is EXACTLY why we are convening this group.
You Don’t Know Unless You Try: Surprising Developments for ABG
A Balanced Glass was invited as guests on an upcoming podcast hosted by Sonoma-based Garden Society, which produces chef-inspired confections with low-dose cannabis as an ingredient. What we discovered was beyond what we imagined.
Men (and Women!) At Work – The 2019 Australian Vintage Begins
Arguably the most stressful time of the year, this week we check in with a bunch of Australian winemakers to hear what is in their tool-box to help cope with the manic months that are “vintage.”
Just When You Thought No One Was Looking…
This week, between a super quick trip to wine country and a full slate of tastings, email threads and meetings IRL, I intentionally sought out efforts by colleagues and friends who prioritize wellness in their lives.
Be Careful What You Ask For – Millennials Respond
This is the second in a two-part series that considers the role and status of the millennial demographic in the future of the wine business. You can read Part I here: “Millennials We Need You”
Millennials We Need You!
If you have tuned in to any wine news over the past weeks and months, there exists a heightened level of concern around the lack of engagement, consumption and overall interest by the millennial demographic with the wine category.
How To Collaborate - Even When You're Not The Boss
Team work can be a great way to get things done in life, but how do you collaborate at work when you don’t feel empowered to initiate it, or when you aren’t leading a chain of command?
Small Things Win. Here’s Why.
Yes, we can do big things. But we can do small things too. And that’s where I’d like to start this year: not with monumental changes or tectonic shifts of disruption or pendulum swings toward massive goals, but with nudges and increments and edging ever so much closer.
Swings and Roundabouts – 2018 Thanks and Beck’s Word of the Year
As Cathy aptly wrote last week when she suggested we consider a “word of the year,” my inner hare set off in a leap of ideas, thoughts, musings and considerations. Pen in hand, I furiously scrawled all indecipherable manner of words – commitment, transparency, ethics, progress, non-judgment. But I landed on a word that jolted me out of my seat at the recent Wine2Wine conference in Verona.
What Are You Holding On To? Four Breath Techniques to Help Let It Go
Stressful situations can all trigger blood pressure to rise, muscles to tighten, and likely cause you to hold your breath as your sympathetic nervous system kicks in, and your body prepares for “fight or flight”. So stop holding your breath and rty thee techniques.
Words of Wisdom from Women in Wine: Encouragement, and a Reality Check
R.H. Drexel, wine writer extraordinaire and a panelist that day, has just released the Woman's Issue of Loam Baby: A Wine Culture Journal, which is chock-full of profiles and straight-talk and narratives and straight-talk and features and did I mention straight-talk?