Inside The Box: Ep 2 - Angela Aiello, Gibson Family Group
Gibson Family Group with Angela Aiello
Introduction
Don: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode here of inside the box. I'm Don Sagarese and Inside the Box we take an opportunity to meet a lot of wonderful people that help us at Ascari Hospitality Group bring some of our virtual wine experiences to life. Today is a real treat. We've got a super duper wine girl with us. We're in conversation with Angela Aiello.
Angela: Thanks for having me, Don. This is fabulous. I have to admit I brought a glass of wine for this conversation!
Don: You could hardly be called Super wine girl if you didn't show up with a glass of wine. Incidentally, for our listeners, for our viewers out there. You can find Angie @superwinegirl on Instagram. And she's also part of the family of wine angels at www.gibsonfamilygrp.com where you can find Angela's full bio and a lot of the great work she's doing
Q: How is life out there in the virtual vino world these days for you?
Angela: Oh the virtual vino world well, I'm sitting in a you know, in front of a zoom a wine bar backdrop. I’d like to be in a real one but I’m just in the small corner of my house in Toronto with the perfect virtual background where I would really want to be right now. Overall, its lovey lol.
Don: I love that sweatshirt and your tribute to Pinot. I love a good Pinot, these days I’m drinking it from Oregon.
Q: How do you feel about Oregon Pinot and where's your favorite Pinot from?
Angela: Oh man Pinot. It's like the hardest grape to grow so everywhere feels they have to grow it and so it's grown all over the world. I mean, it's a fairly common grape. It’s the one to conquer, it's very challenging to grow and Oregon pinots makes are great, but I love Prince Edward County Pinot. Obviously, I love the home of Pinot…Burgundy. There’s some great pinots coming out of the cool climate in Australia and really interesting ones from Chile. We can’t forget Sonoma County and the amazing wines coming out of California too. So it is one of my favorites…I think I just went into a wine ramble right there lol….
Don: Lol, I really love it. That's why we're here, to learn, and you taught: Pinot grows everywhere.
Angela: Well, I mean, that's a generic statement, generic meaning like it can grow in many places of the world, but there are some places it doesn't grow as well as some very interesting places that it does. In Argentina for example, fossils are often found in the vineyards.
Don I think I'm watching right now on Instagram that you are taking us through a 30 day tour in Africa.
Q: Is that true?
Angela: Oh my God, that's true. I had a 35 week stay Africa and it was the craziest month of my life. It was one of those times where you get picked up and kind of plopped somewhere else in the world to do something very different. It was super memorable and very impressive.
Don: I've been a big fan of yours for a long time. I know that there's lots of great stuff coming in the future. I know that you're passionate about adventure and education. I know you love telling stories, as it relates to every glass. But ultimately, you know, every journey of a million miles starts with a single step.
Q: Where did you grow up? And how does like this mild-mannered gal like yourself end up in the wine business? Because we know it's an entity unto itself? How did someone like you break in? Where do you start? How did you get going?
Angela: I’ve never been called mild mannered before lol but I grew up in in Vineland. I worked and went to school in Smithville. It seems funny in a way.
I think that I started when I was 16. My mom said, Go and get a job. So, I got three, and I've had 3-5-10 jobs ever since. It was work in the world of wine.
I worked in restaurants as well as the four-diamond restaurant at Peller Estates for 10 years.
So, I worked full time, and went to school full time and I didn’t get any student loans. From the beginning the wine industry paid for my education, my business degree, and then I moved to Toronto…I had no friends, but a lot of wine.
It was sort of at the start of the social boom, and I started throwing these Wine Club parties, living in a basement on College Street, and then things grew, and they grew and they grew. And the philosophy of people gathering around wine more and more and more socially, really grew for a long time in Toronto, and then social media really propelled things forward. It's sad now that there aren't any live events, but I feel like they're going to come back and come back with a vengeance.
Q: How have you seen the wine world evolve, or expand or contract based on how involved you are?
Angela: I mean, it's blossoming into something really gorgeous, every day. But you know, with all that growth there are challenges. I've seen one kind of significant change through the social media lens, for sure. Take a look at that those early adopting brands that kind of took on social right away, and then some of the older brands are still to this day coming to terms with the fact that they need social media “right now.” This allows for a balance of opinions.
Communication has become democratized as a result, and its allowing people to find their own style which they should, not everybody's wardrobe is the same, not the fashion is the same. So your wine style, your collection style, what you drink, what you taste. It's all based on you and your style, which is cool.
Don: Yes, and thanks for sharing that. I think that's a really important message. You know, a lot of people feel like they are prohibited to enter the wine world because there's this preconceived notion that if I, if I lack certain education, or that you know, every movie has that awkward moment where somebody at a dining room table is being handed a wine list, and they you know, they get themselves distraught about it.
What I feel is great about Gibson Family Group is that you really position yourselves as quite educated people, but quite approachable people, and some of the partnerships that that you've created, seem likewise to be approachable.
Q: What do you currently do in the wine world that somebody can pay you for? How does this work?
Angela: I'm doing everything. a bit of a bit of a rabbit in the hat scenario. But yes I do a lot of everything, I have to admit, that kind of how I live.
My talent lies in a little bit of everything. My creativity lies in a little of everything. And I think naturally, as I've evolved in my career, I've had to be a part of everything, to be honest. So, it's been a very interesting evolution.
I have really challenged myself to try different things consistently and learn from them.
Q: What are you learning right now?
So I feel like right now, I'm doing a lot of writing. I'm doing a lot of TV and actually right now I'm doing CTV across Canada. Coast to Coast. You can see me popping in on TV, which is pretty cool. I'm doing some regular morning show segments, which is great. My whole kitchen and condo has become a studio now with lights and everything. It's really wild.
And all this is “in house”. My house. Now I'm the director of my own little show, not just the director or the writer of the script, I do the lighting. I come in and do the soundcheck. It's kind of a wild world we live in because you do have to be a master of all trades -- a Jill of all trades, and learn how to learn very quickly. It’s a world of pivoting out there.
Q: So what's the biggest myth about drinking wine that you can help dispel with everybody out there in the world?
Angela: Yes, I mean, you've got the common ones like you know, “sulphites give me a headache”, which is usually a result of dehydration, not drinking enough water and not eating enough. So it's not necessarily the wine.
There's so much more to a wine than just what you're drinking. There's a really interesting web of things you go into when you open and try a bottle of wine. It's more than just the liquid in the glass.
There's a story, there's an owner, there's a vintner. There's a climate, there's a vintage, there's probably even a screw up along the way.
There's all these great things that happen behind the label of a wine. And so when people judge the liquid too much I think we need to pay attention to the stories a little bit more and become insightful and recognize wine is art and there’s a process.
Q: What inspires you when looking at a wine producer about their connection to the earth? You know, talking about a bigger ecosystem? What types of things are people doing? Not only for sustainability but for the benefit of the full cycle?
Angela: one of the main things I wanted to talk about this year was about wines that gave back.
We could have a whole session on how many ways you can give back to the industry and why you should be doing it. That's a whole other story.
The wines I admire give back to the community in a holistic way, they keep us growing in many ways. And that's not necessarily a story told on the label. There are people and mentors behind the labels.
One example, is Lesle Gibson. She was a great mentor to me. She said to me one day: “Hey, Angie, I want to start this agency.” “And I said, that's great, Les, that's so amazing. She's said, you want to help me find the greatest bottles of wine with some awesome stories around the world, and put them on my list? And I said, that sounds like a great job! Like my dream job! Did you offer me this job, where I get to go around, meet great people and bring their wines to Ontario?!?!” So we started.
So the first place we went was Burgundy…before the pandemic, and I had never been to Burgundy. Burgundy's the holy grail of Pinot. Oh my God, what a place. If you love Pinot and you haven't been to Burgundy yet, go, you’ll adore it. It was a pinot power moment and a power moment for me.
Don: So there’s a Pinot plug from our Super wine girl lol, tell us more about your relationship with Gibson Family Group. You’re all making a great deal of headway in an industry that was to be quite frank was traditionally dominated by men.
Q: Who were some of the female mentors in the business that really helped to help shape your career and your trajectory?
Angela: I’ve been very lucky to be honest. Many wine angels have been sent to me. Clients, friends. May great women who’ve helped me in my career. The nice thing about all of these great women is that we meet regularly, we check in with each other, and we help each other, and I think that's been really, really lovely.
Right now we're talking about women and women in wine, and it is very important for young women to have a solid place in the industry. Women have always been there, we just haven’t heard from them.
The Gibson Family Group has an amazing portfolio of really great women that we're going to bring forward. And that was always a big strategy for me. When I ran my business I hired a lot of women naturally, I'll be honest, probably 99% of the people I hired were women and I believe that empowerment really helps create a family.
I've also been lucky enough to grow up in an Italian family and I have three sisters. My mom is a very powerful courageous woman too and I believe I inherited that.
So I feel that there's powerful women that are going to help change this business and what we are going to see is massive evolution to the industry and a transition that’s going to be very exciting.
Q: How many places? How many wines?
Angela: I feel so lucky. I didn't travel until I was 28 years old. In University when they asked me what I wanted to do, I said: “I want to see everywhere in the world.” Now, I'm 39 and I've gone to so many places, and I said yes to everything I could. I'm just going to put in my time and do it. And it's been the most amazing time. I mean, I've tried like 10,000 wines. At least…I think…I tried to count once but I think it's minimum 10,000. Seems a lot, but when you're trying like 120 to 200 wines a day and you're doing a tasting, or judging overseas you taste a lot of wine.
Q: What is happening when you’re tasting wine?
Angela: You’re thinking about the wine, so you're sipping it, you're smelling it, you're swirling it you're going through it, you might be taking notes. Maybe you'll grade it out of 100 like the wind critics do, or you could give it like a thumbs up or thumbs down emoji.Often, there'll be somebody that would be standing there telling you about the wines, you’ll get an intro, and then you discuss at the very end.
Q: When you’re judging, you’re on yes?
Angela: Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean, you're on your game. I mean, you're being paid for what you know. Your credentials are on the line.
Q: When is the prefect time to taste wine?
The perfect time to taste wine is in the morning. Its when your palate is at its freshest. That's when you can taste everything the most. Your palate is at its prime in the morning. This is when its best for analyzing the technology of the wine and the science of the wine.
Don: So now we understand a bit of what's required from the sophisticated palate of a judge. But then there's this whole concept of day to day wines. Me, I’m standing in the store googling pairings for everyday food.
Q: What's your favorite food wine combo in the world?
Angela: I personally love talking about pairing wine and food using a color theory and using color theory using color matching. Because I think it's a very artful way to look at food and wine. Look at your food colors, and attach it to a wine color that compliments it in an artistic way. “ I’m having salmon, try a rose.” Darker foods, darker wines. Doesn’t work 100% of the time but there’s no one rule for pairing, and it gets more complicated the spicier food gets.
Q: Why does bringing the heat hurt the pairing?
Angela: It fusses the elegance in a wine and so we want to kind of combat it with a little bit of sugar. A little bit of sugar, not sugary wine, but with texture and sugar that can add to the spiciness you get in curry and kind of things like that.
Q: Have you ever thought about just saying, I'm going to go back to Vineland, I'm going to buy a plot of land. And I'm going to start making my own brand. Have you ever thought about this?
Angela: Every day
Q: What do you see happening with the wine world?
Angela: I think its going to undergo a Renaissance. Its going to be more interesting. Its true artform is going to come out full centre.
Q: Will people’s palettes improve?
Angela: You can train your palette. There has been really interesting research actually, by Brock University that proved there are three different types of palettes in this world, according to science, and it's built on the quantity of taste buds on your, on your tongue. What this means is that the same bottle may taste differently to everyone at the table….and that’s just fine…like the wines, we’re all built differently.
End
Angela Aiello
Angela is an award-winning writer, host, educator and business guru. She has spent 20 years working in the global wine industry and has traveled all around the world to learn about and taste wine. During the blogger boom she established one of the largest wine clubs in Canada and operated her own wine institute for close to a decade helping to bring Wine Confidence to thousands and thousands of people. She's hosted international wine tours, TV show wine segments, hundreds of wine events and loves to bring people together with unique dining and tasting experiences. She brings adventure, education, and storytelling to every glass she shares.