Why I'm taking the course - Elisa Albella

Wine means....

I cannot remember a single Sunday lunch without wine at home. Wine means family to me, wine means coming together, wine means enjoying the food and life.

Coming from Spain, I have grown up surrounded by a very strong wine culture. My family comes from the North of Spain where there are many wine yards, where “La Rioja” wine is made. Indeed, I can remember my grandfather giving me a sip of wine when I was little as a way of “educating” me, or my father having wine in every single meal.

It wasn’t until after high school that I became more interested about the industry, when I got the right to drink it, of course... I believe the different options, the different intensities of flavor and smell and the huge world behind the industry captured me.

I was not alone in this passion, I had the luck to have friends whose families worked in the industry. We organized some trips with friends to the different regions in Spain where wine is cultivated (La Rioja, Ribera del Duero), where we learnt about the different grapes and methodologies of the process of making wine. After one of these trips, one of my friends whose family owned a small private vineyard decided to register the brand and started commercializing it “for fun”. I helped her with the design of the brand and the distribution of the product. I have to admit the wine in question is not the best one I have tried, but we managed to set up a young brand which was appealing to young customers and five years later the wine is still in the market (see picture below of the brand design).

Another friend’s family runs Cavinsa, which is the exclusive distributor of “Luis Cañas” and “José Pariente” in Spain, two of the wines that have gained the most popularity recently. They have become the option by excellence to buy or order in a restaurant thanks to a competitive price (~25€ per bottle), a good quality (>92 points), an easiness of drinking and an extremely powerful communication.

Having lived these two wine business examples I had no doubt when I came across this course. Not only I am a wine lover in terms of how much I enjoy it and how emotional it makes me, but also in terms of my interest for the industry as a business. I am really excited to learn in a more serious and formal way about it, specially about the industry trends in the world and not only in Europe. After the first class, I was impressed and curious about how the industry is changing across the world: how Chinese consumption is booming, how new countries are entering the market, etc.

In conclusion, I’m hoping to learn while enjoying and having fun with one of the things I love the most in life: WINE.  

Igniting the Senses

Sadly, for me, I grew up in a house without wine, gin martinis were the drink in our household (but not for me). While in college, I tried other less savory concoctions, Kahlua and diet coke, tequila and lemonade, Jagermeister and anything, you get the idea. Fortunately, soon after college, my eyes were opened to the world of wine.

New to New York City and craving connections, I became a member of Sotheby’s Young Collector’s Club. Sotheby’s intent was to hook the 20 something crowd on the auction scene by teaching them just enough about different periods of art and design to peak their interest. Once a month, they would hold a cocktail party with one of their experts.

My interest in wine was first ignited the evening Serena Sutcliffe, Sotheby’s wine expert spoke. She lured me in with racy stories of vintners, and wonderful descriptors of the wines they produced.

30 years have passed since that fateful evening at Sotheby’s, and my interest in wine has grown steadily. My husband and I have a large collection of wine that we enjoy sharing with friends and family. Our two sons, now in their twenties, have been exposed to a great deal of wine, both at home and on family trips.

For me, wine has always ignited all of my senses: visiting vineyards, which from afar, represent a visual patchwork, touching the grapes and vines as you walk through their straight rows, smelling the grapes as you open your car window on a drive through Napa or Bordeaux, tasting the complicated, layered flavors of wine, and last but not least, hearing the laughter and conversation sparked by a good bottle of wine.

After 30 years in fashion and design, I am here at Stanford as a DCI Partner to explore other interests. Most of my coursework has been at the GSB, focused on entrepreneurship, with the balance of my courses in sustainability and earth systems. I am currently in my second term of Startup Garage, where I am on a team hoping to develop a media platform for the wine industry. I am looking forward to digging deeper and learning more about the Dynamics of the Global Wine Industry.

Why Wine?

Wine is something that has been an integral part of family traditions for my entire life. My mother is obsessed with tradition and sentiment, and we would have Friday-night shabbat dinners every week with a blessing over wine as one of the crucial ingredients to starting off the meal. I never gave much attention to what was in the glass at a young age, instead taking pleasure out of drinking before I was legally of age. As I grew older, I began to ask more questions about the differences in what we were having, where it was from, etc - but still never gained the knowledge to fully appreciate and understand that there was much more to what I was drinking than just the liquid in the glass. I figure now is about as good a time as any to start figuring that out!

In the fall, my mother visited campus and we went to her favorite vineyard which happens to be up in Napa - Shafer Vineyards. We did a tasting and heard about the history of the vineyard as well as how they positioned themselves in the market. They also discussed a lower-cost brand that they created to explore new markets. I had never really thought about the wine as a business versus something that I had enjoyed every Friday night with family. When exploring course options, I was pleasantly surprised to see this listing and then began to think further about what I could learn by enrolling. In addition to expanding my knowledge of the basics of wine and gaining a deeper appreciation for new and varied bottles, there is much to be learned by studying the business principles of a global, ever-changing, and omni-present industry.