Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Ah, you hear that song, You know what it means?
Speaker 2: Maybe a little bit of red wine. That's exactly what
Speaker 2: we have here in the Bloomberg Interactive Broker's Studio. Pangaea
Speaker 2: It's a Greek word that means all the Earth. It
Speaker 2: was used to describe a super continent that existed two
Speaker 2: hundred and forty million years ago, made up of all
Speaker 2: the continents and land masses that are now separate. The
Speaker 2: name comes from the Greek words pan, which mean all,
Speaker 2: in gaya, which mean earth. It'll all makes sense as
Speaker 2: we bring in our next guest, and I know my
Speaker 2: coast Carol Masser is very very sad to be missing this.
Speaker 2: She talked with one of our guests about a year
Speaker 2: ago and yes, sampled some wine. I believe she even
Speaker 2: kept the bottle because the labels alone are gorgeous. Joining us.
Speaker 2: Now back with us Travis Braithwaite, the founder of Pangaea States,
Speaker 2: as well as Pangaa States partner Michelle Roland from the
Speaker 2: Napa Valley. It's good to have both of you with us.
Speaker 2: How are you great?
Speaker 3: Thanks?
Speaker 2: Thank you, yeah, thanks thanks so much for joining us
Speaker 2: talk a little. You know, we have wine guests frequently,
Speaker 2: frequently on Friday, thanks to our producer Paul Brannan, who
Speaker 2: knows what we love on a Friday afternoon. But when
Speaker 2: you think about the market out there, Travis, there're no
Speaker 2: shortage of wines to choose from. It's an incredibly competitive market.
Speaker 2: How do you make Pangaea wine stick out?
Speaker 3: That's true, it is a competitive market.
Speaker 4: I think.
Speaker 3: I think our unique selling point is the innovation and
Speaker 3: the way we've changed what we do. We've changed the
Speaker 3: norm We've stepped a little bit away from tradition and
Speaker 3: we've created something that's a world fast.
Speaker 5: I want to bring you in now, Michelle, into the
Speaker 5: conversation too, because you know, it was just pointing out
Speaker 5: our producer Paul Britain. He also Paul was giving us
Speaker 5: the heads up here that on August twenty eighth, so
Speaker 5: next Wednesday, National Red Wine Day, also conveniently same day
Speaker 5: as in video is earning. So if anybody needs some
Speaker 5: wine potentially after those results there you maybe it'll be
Speaker 5: in video shorts, you know, right right, we'll have to
Speaker 5: see what happens there, but wanted to point that out there.
Speaker 5: But Michelle, it comes to your when it comes to
Speaker 5: what you do here, give us kind of a background
Speaker 5: of how y'all got to this point to our listeners
Speaker 5: who might not know kind of the background of what
Speaker 5: y'all do here.
Speaker 4: Huh, that's it.
Speaker 6: We need a long time. That's a long background now.
Speaker 6: But in fact, my job is winemaker. And you know,
Speaker 6: we inventor on flying wine maker just for me because
Speaker 6: because I was doing wine in a so many countries
Speaker 6: twenty two in in all my life. And when I
Speaker 6: met Travis to do to do Pangaea program.
Speaker 4: You know, when you are getting old like I am,
Speaker 4: you need you need something.
Speaker 6: You need something attractive or or new or interesting and
Speaker 6: and and to blend, to blend different wine from different country.
Speaker 6: What was for me attractive because I did so many
Speaker 6: brands in Bordeaux, in in Italy, in Spain, in California
Speaker 6: or everywhere in the world. And and to do to
Speaker 6: do blending between between five different countries, what was was
Speaker 6: crazy enough to seduce me. And and so that's why
Speaker 6: I said to Travis, you are the man for the
Speaker 6: logistic But I am the man for the blending, and.
Speaker 4: So here we are and we are very happy.
Speaker 2: Well one of my sure our viewers and listeners understand
Speaker 2: exactly what's going on, So correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2: But the blend of grapes includes grapes from the blend
Speaker 2: of wine includes grapes from five different countries, Travis, Is
Speaker 2: that right?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: So it's it's a classic border style blend. So Cabinet
Speaker 3: Frank from South Africa, Pativado from Spain, Malbeck from Argentina,
Speaker 3: Murder from border of France, and Cabinet Savion from Napavelli
Speaker 3: in the US.
Speaker 2: So it's about thirty three percent, Cabinet Samon thirty nine
Speaker 2: percent or low nineteen percent, mal Back, Cabinet franc six
Speaker 2: percent and petite Ferdh three percent.
Speaker 3: Yes, on the vintage you have, Okay, that's the.
Speaker 2: Twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: Year.
Speaker 2: Okay, how does it? How has it changed in recent years?
Speaker 4: I mean?
Speaker 2: And why does it change?
Speaker 4: Depends of my humor.
Speaker 2: You're the boss, but really, I mean, how do you
Speaker 2: how do you know? How do you know? Wine takes
Speaker 2: a long time to me make, so how do you
Speaker 2: know what you want? In terms of the blend?
Speaker 3: You ahead of time, so we know what we want
Speaker 3: from the wine itself. We want something harmonious, balanced, powerful,
Speaker 3: elegant and with structure. So we kind of go into
Speaker 3: it knowing the style of wine we want to make,
Speaker 3: and the blend is made at the time, we sit
Speaker 3: and try each of the varieties and whatever is standing out,
Speaker 3: and Michelle is in the master of the blend. We
Speaker 3: create the perfect wine from the components that we have
Speaker 3: every year.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I've got the twenty sixteen Red Blend
Speaker 2: in my hand. I'm going to pull a Carol Master.
Speaker 2: I'm going to do my best Carrol Master and try
Speaker 2: to put the work on the air without Now I'm
Speaker 2: very self conscious.
Speaker 7: Hold on, hold right, oh, perfect, Okay. I would say
Speaker 7: the timing in hindsight, the time wasn't great. There was
Speaker 7: a little too much sence though. Yeah, maybe set it
Speaker 7: up well. But all right, so Jess you ask a question.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to pour some samples for ourselves, because
Speaker 2: you know it's Friday afternoon.
Speaker 5: Yes, thank you, and then you can pour me one
Speaker 5: as well. Travis, I wanted to bring you back into
Speaker 5: the conversation, talk to us about what's distinctive about each
Speaker 5: Red grape component here.
Speaker 3: So with each of the components in the blend, we
Speaker 3: particularly picked the regions of the world where it's grown
Speaker 3: because the region and the terwir in each place allows
Speaker 3: the grape to ripen the best and show itself the best.
Speaker 3: So what you have in the bottle is a real
Speaker 3: representation of each of the varieties showing off the best
Speaker 3: it can.
Speaker 5: And Michelle will kind of build on this too, because
Speaker 5: how are the blending sessions for the twenty two vintage
Speaker 5: progressing at this point?
Speaker 6: Blenny two and we just be we we are were
Speaker 6: you know every years, almost the same. We have we
Speaker 6: have the wine, we have the wine coming. That's very important.
Speaker 6: What what mentioned Travis. Each wine is done to be
Speaker 6: blended one day in in in Pangaea. So so the
Speaker 6: cap Front is coming from from South Africa. We we
Speaker 6: are doing it thinking we we have to blend one day.
Speaker 4: Pativiado is coming from Spain. We do it. We do
Speaker 4: it for that Mellow is from France. I'm close to
Speaker 4: to it because because.
Speaker 6: I know very well Bordeo and Mellow in Bordeaux, melbag
Speaker 6: from Argentina.
Speaker 4: So we are making the wine first and and.
Speaker 6: After that we we tried to put in the same
Speaker 6: room all all the all the components we taste and
Speaker 6: we try to to see in which way we are
Speaker 6: going to make the brand. That's why I mentioned before
Speaker 6: is variable. We don't have a percentage of each variety
Speaker 6: the same every year.
Speaker 4: We can do that. We are doing the best wine,
Speaker 4: the best wine. We use the five varieties.
Speaker 6: But we can we can law or increase some some
Speaker 6: cabinets of mail bag and we have we had already
Speaker 6: since fifteen to twenty one, we had every year different
Speaker 6: different vintages and different percentages of of the of the
Speaker 6: variety we use. And so today the day I'm beginning
Speaker 6: the bland for the n for one particular vintage, I
Speaker 6: have no idea which which is the potan a can use.
Speaker 6: I tried to do the best and that's it. And
Speaker 6: after Travis tell me you are right, you got wrong.
Speaker 4: But but.
Speaker 1: No, but.
Speaker 2: I want to bring you back into the conversation. Travis,
Speaker 2: you have a really interesting background. You're from Stellenbosch, which
Speaker 2: is essentially the Napa Valley of South Africa. It's the
Speaker 2: Cape Winelands. If anyone's ever been there, just a absolutely
Speaker 2: gorgeous area which with fantastic wine. I'm curious how the
Speaker 2: wine industry globally has changed over your lifetime, specifically with
Speaker 2: regard to climate change, because now you find yourself in
Speaker 2: northern California where fires are a huge concern. How are
Speaker 2: you thinking about climate change when when it comes to
Speaker 2: wine production.
Speaker 3: I think all around the world, the challenges are actually
Speaker 3: ensuring that your vineyards can can move through periods of
Speaker 3: extreme climate change. You know, from drought in most of
Speaker 3: the areas is becoming a bit of an issue. So
Speaker 3: farming practices have to change. The varieties we plant to
Speaker 3: have to change, and the way we manage vineyards. So
Speaker 3: I think, for example in Stutembosh, it's getting very very warm,
Speaker 3: So having having the right rootstock to the right plane
Speaker 3: and managing the process of farming through that process is
Speaker 3: the hardest challenge we have.
Speaker 2: What about when it comes to travis to the wine
Speaker 2: business and how nowadays you are trying to appeal to
Speaker 2: a different demographic. There's some concern that younger people aren't
Speaker 2: drinking as much as earlier as older generations. Talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, I mean, I think that's a concern
Speaker 3: for the alcohol industry in general, you know, for wine,
Speaker 3: wine has always been a product that has been enjoyed
Speaker 3: in the company of food and with friends, and it's
Speaker 3: a very much a cultural product in a lot of
Speaker 3: the world. It's something that we grow up with that
Speaker 3: we see our parents enjoying. And I think wine can
Speaker 3: weather the storm and whether these challenges and changes if
Speaker 3: people are willing to innovate, to try new things and
Speaker 3: to appeal to different markets. I think the hardest part
Speaker 3: for us is to find a way to appeal to
Speaker 3: a younger generation, to enjoy our products in moderation and
Speaker 3: enjoy them in the right environment, and to sell our
Speaker 3: products as something that can be enjoyed in that way.
Speaker 5: Hey, Michelle, we only have about thirty seconds left. But
Speaker 5: what comes next for you?
Speaker 6: No idea, But I want to say something about the
Speaker 6: new consumption and the new people now now.
Speaker 4: The new people.
Speaker 6: Before before was was very traditional consumption, so Peopole was
Speaker 6: liking Bordo, even Burgundia, Italian or Spanish. But okay, but
Speaker 6: today today is the new generation is looking for a story,
Speaker 6: and today's the story is very important. So they are
Speaker 6: looking legs, they are looking in alcore like in wine
Speaker 6: and wine. I think we have to do to find
Speaker 6: some way to make more fun and to give more
Speaker 6: fun and and we imagine with Travis, to make wine
Speaker 6: for funny.
Speaker 2: Funny is a good word to describe the wine industry.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have to leave it there, guys, Pangaea Estates
Speaker 2: partner Michelle Roland and Travis Braithway, the founder of Pangaea Estates.
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