Valerie Kathawala, Wine Writer, Co-Founder and Co-Editor of TRINK Magazine (New York City, USA)

Years in the Industry:
Six years. After more than a decade of full-time parenting, in 2016 my youngest child went off to kindergarten, giving me six glorious hours a day to dig into the intellectual challenges I had been missing.

My background was as a writer, editor, and translator. I had zero formal wine education or work experience. What I did have was bottomless curiosity. I religiously listened to podcasts like Levi Dalton’s I’ll Drink to That. At first, 90% of it went over my head. But I looked up every term I didn’t understand — canopy management, blocked malo, lieu dit, DTC — and taught myself.

With literally everything to learn, I started out writing marketing copy for a prominent New York fine wine retailer. I quickly realized the air was too rare there and jumped at an opportunity to write for Grape Collective, a wine shop in my neighborhood that combined journalism and bottle slinging years before that became such a popular intersection. It was a terrific place to learn: the whole team both wrote for the website and took turns working the floor a few shifts a week. Having to sell the wines I idealized was also a powerful reality check.

In late 2019, I connected with a fellow alum of Bates College, Paula Redes Sidore, and we quickly realized we shared bizarrely parallel lives, including an obsession with “German-speaking wines.” One thing led to another and in October 2020, we launched TRINK magazine, which we now co-edit from opposite sides of the Atlantic, she near Bonn, Germany, I in New York. In addition to that project, I have the great privilege of getting to explore the topics I’m most passionate about — the intersection of wine with ecology, social justice, history, and culture — through my freelance work for a variety of publications.

My Top Three Challenges to Wellness:
1. Juggling Skillfully
Family, freelance writing, my role in managing and editing TRINK, feeding the social media beast, and even just managing the incredible array of opportunities New York City presents on a daily basis takes planning and prioritization that are themselves time consuming.

2. Finding Solo Time
As an introvert, this is indispensable to recharging my batteries.

3. Creating and Sticking with Routines that Support Physical Activity
As an obliger, I'm hardwired to meet others' needs and wants before my own. This can easily leave me feeling depleted unless I set boundaries and prioritize.

How I Keep It Together to Stay Well:
I’m up before dawn, pretty much every day. Mornings are sacred! I make time for a single mug of excellent black coffee, plenty of water, silence, yoga, reading in another language — all before I switch anything on. With that foundation in place, I’m ready to meet the morning swirl, get out the door for my (equally essential) daily run, and tackle the workday with energy and élan.

What Inspires Me:
My family, nature, fresh challenges, opportunities to learn, and visualizing a job well done.

A Quote I Love:
"Be the change." As commonplace as this quote has become, it works at every level, from parenting, to community, to planet. The impact of our individual actions never fails to amaze me.

You can connect with Valerie on Instagram and Twitter, and on her website.