They Say Wine's Changed, They Wanna Know How I Feel About It
Still Stevie. Remember these videos?!
I’m getting sent a vlogging kit for one of my projects. “Have you ever used any of this gear?” someone asked.
“No,” I responded. But that is when I remembered that actually, I still have the fancy camera, tripod and external mic Josiah and I bought during our film days. I have used this type of gear! It’s all still right here in the guest room closet next to me. I had somehow forgotten all about our escapades. I had somehow forgotten all about…
A Drink With Friends
!!!
You guys! Do you REMEMBER A Drink with Friends?! (Trailer HERE!) The video series that Josiah and I launched in 2012 where we hung out with various professionals to learn their craft from them, then taught them a bit about wine while drinking it together?
As in:
The whole theory of A Drink with Friends was that learning about wine is often b-o-r-i-n-g and lacks context. What if we taught about wine the way we actually enjoy wine: By sharing and engaging with diverse people, expressing interest in them before trying to tell them all about us?
What we loved then (still love!) about wine is the way it can bring together totally disparate groups of people with completely different backgrounds and interests around a shared, physical, communal experience. When you drink wine (not just taste it, not formally study it), you are connecting physically as well as spiritually with other people, learning about them, gleaning insights about what truly matters to them. In exchange, you get to share something about yourself and what you love with those same people. Most crucially: In our experience, we almost invariably find common ground.
Wine is one of the few (only?!) products in the world today that necessitates this type of shared, physical interaction. And that is why I love it. We need more of THAT in this world. We need more wine.
Anyway, I felt like sharing these throwback videos would be fun (look how young we look!) and a good reminder for the wine industry (all industries actually) that we need to care about other people first, before we try to sell them our own shit.
Also, in re-watching our A Drink with Friends videos, I was surprisingly struck by how good they are! How progressive we were — making fairly polished, fun, interactive yet legit educational wine videos in 2012?! Take that, TikTok and all y’all influencers!
Which is a little haughty, I know, but then it reminded me of the song “Still Dre” (one of my ALL TIME favorite songs everrr, just ask my 9-year-old who is now super into rap and hip hop and asks me every other day, “Mama what’s your favorite rap song?” and this is what I answer):
They want to know if he still got it
They say rap’s changed
They wanna know how I feel about it
(If you ain’t up on thangs)
Dr. Dre is the name
I’m ahead of my game
So yeah. They say wine’s changed. And media, writing and editorial have changed. I’ve changed in a lot of ways, too, but the more that I think about it the more I’m convinced: Wine is still the same beverage that’s been crafted and enjoyed in community for over 8,000 years. People still read words, especially if it’s engaging and relevant to their deeply human humanity. And I’m still me, still obsessed with bringing people together and ideally doing it over my favorite beverage.
And I still got love for the streets. It’s the Ste-V-I-E.
(Cheesy as ever; you know you love me.)
You crazy kids