Peter Andrews

And it took a visit on a holiday where my inspiration was absolutely peaked.

And because of that, I started the company.

Yeah, so it's been growing steadily since I got my first container to California, which was only in November of 23.

We were up last year 60%.

Wow.

And year to date, we're up over 150%.

Amazing.

Gen Z and millennials are definitely partaking, but they want experiences.

They want to feel like they are seen in the product.

And so I put on a wine festival here called Hellaschenen that's bringing together winemakers from not just South Africa, but California and France and even Australia this year.

And I think this kind of grassroots element of it and creating community within it is really working.

And so I just kind of keep staying true north with that kind of marketing strategy.

Yeah, so I'm not just trying to grow a business, but an entire category in South African wine.

So how would you suggest to allocate my time and resources between growing cultures, wholesale and DTC businesses, while also increasing demand for South African wine more broadly?

Yeah, totally.

I feel like we need a whole bottle of Chenin Blanc to go into this.

But I think with South African wine, it's the oldest of the New World wine producing regions.

They've been making wine for almost 400 years.

But I think the best quality has been made only in the last 30 since apartheid has ended.

And I think historically what we've seen come into the US has been kind of focused on the value category.