We had the good fortune of connecting with A Wine Journey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi A Wine Journey, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
We love how every bottle of wine has its own story and how it creates this magical way of bringing people together and making once in a lifetime memories. That is how it has always been for us. Wine has created so many amazing experiences and continuously takes us on these incredible journeys. Not just the wine itself but the people behind the wine…the winemakers, the winery owners…they all have these fantastic, inspiring stories that not everyone knows or gets an opportunity to hear about! During the pandemic, we started seeing all of these small businesses struggling and it was heartbreaking. Specifically focusing on the wine industry, there are so many amazing small producers that people don’t know about or have not been exposed to and they are out there just kicking ass making these phenomenal wines. These hidden wine gems all over the world that have yet to be discovered and truly deserve to be recognized. At this time, we were drinking these wines together a lot…and we just thought, “Hey, we need to share these wines and stories with others. We need to find a way to bring joy into people’s lives like the wine experiences we have bring joy to us. We need to help out these small businesses. Let’s seek out these small producers, meet them, hear their stores, get to know them and taste their wines. Then we can share all about them with a whole community of fellow wine lovers so they can connect with them and have these experiences too.” How can we do this? Through wine, wine education, interviews, wine tasting experiences, videos, travel, etc. Our love and passion for wine and all its nuances, is actually a huge factor in what created this special bond between the four of us. So it’s almost like it was just meant to be that we start this wine business together with the purpose of taking others on an exciting journey through wine.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We mentioned small producers and small businesses, but we also have a special focus on women and minority winemakers. They are significantly less represented and we want to help change that! It is such an incredible feeling to discover and connect with them. We personally taste everything in our collection and only include wines and winemakers we truly believe in. Our goal is then to connect you to great wines and the people behind them. We seek to cultivate a relationship between the wine brand and the people, so we can deliver wine and their stories in a very authentic way. Has it been easy? No, it hasn’t but we know that comes with the territory when you are starting up your own business! It’s not meant to be easy, it is definitely a process. But we have just learned that with every challenge there is a solution. So we are continuously holding planning meetings where we discuss solutions and strategize ways to move forward or jump over any hurdles that come our way. We believe in our business, our purpose and our mission, and we believe in everyone who is on this journey with us.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We live in Temecula, which happens to be an award winning wine region so we are really fortunate. There are so many beautiful wineries here that can satisfy a variety of palates. Honestly, it’s tough to point any particular winery out so visit and explore as many as you can! Then we have Old Town Temecula with so many fun bars and restaurants. We love dining at Small Barn, Goat and Vine, Corkfire Kitchen, Chef Flavor and Grazing Theory at Vail Headquarters. A must stay if you are visiting and need to stay overnight is The Vine House Bed and Breakfast! Cutest B&B there is and awesome owners.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Big Shoutouts to:

Our families, especially our children…they continuously encourage, motivate, support and believe in us and that gets us to move mountains! We could not do this without them. They are our reasons!

Our friends aka our TRIBE- they believe in us SO hard, will support us in any way they can and are just the best group of friends/family you could ever ask for.

Lois and Dave Cho from CHO Wines for being there with us since day one of entering this wine universe and being a perfect example of WHY we do what we do!

Shannon Burke from Burke Wines- she was a huge factor in getting us started when we didn’t even know where the starting line was. She has been such a valuable asset to us and is just such an amazing human!

Vailia From from Desparada Wines/Dressmaker Wines- She is a bad ass female winemaker and winery owner who inspired us to do what we do. She is so kind and so genuine, we are honored to know her and are forever grateful to her for opening up her doors to us when we were new to all of this.

Website: www.awinejourney.com

Instagram: @a_winejourney

Facebook: A_Wine Journey

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.