Wines We're Drinking:

What happens when a BIPOC wine writer, AI strategist, and astrology enthusiast decides to build the bridge between all three? You get Erin Ortiz, and this is one of those conversations you're going to want to come back to.

Erin has been in the wine industry for nearly a decade, writing about BIPOC issues in wine and building a career in account development before founding Brand Arcadia in 2024 to help boutique winemakers and BIPOC brands leverage AI in their digital marketing strategies. She's currently collaborating with Parra Wines on AI video content and building Celestial Somm, an app that pairs wines with astrology transits to make wine more accessible and culturally relevant, prioritizing Latiné-owned and independent brands.

This conversation goes deep: we talk about what it really means to use AI as a tool without losing your voice, why the wine industry is falling behind with younger drinkers, how AI is reshaping search and why now is actually the golden moment for niche brands, and the very real racial bias Erin encountered when she first started using AI-generated images. Oh, and we may have had a little debate about AI video, porque I'm not gonna lie, I had some feelings.

In This Episode We Cover:

[00:04] Wines We're Drinking: Para Wines Tomaté Frío and Envino Blanco

[07:00] New Jersey wine shipping laws and how they're hurting independent wineries and BIPOC brands

[11:00] Erin's origin story: growing up in Manhattan, the projects, and an unexpected path into wine

[18:00] How Erin started writing about BIPOC wine issues and what took her from bartending to brand strategy

[24:00] Why AI is a powerful tool for storytellers, and how she used it to build the Para Wines AI video content

[27:00] Jessica's honest take on AI photo and video, and why transparency about what is and isn't AI matters

[32:00] How AI-generated content around the Iran conflict changed skeptics' minds about visual storytelling

[33:00] Why being "weird" and specific is now a competitive advantage in AI-powered search (AEO vs. SEO)

[35:00] Gen Z and wine: are they actually not drinking, or are they just not drinking your product?

[40:00] The biggest challenge in AI-driven brand strategy: the rules change overnight

[41:00] Introducing Celestial Psalm: the app that pairs BIPOC wines with astrology transits

[43:00] What a "transit" is, explained through wine terroir and a metaphor about umbrellas

[47:00] How the app assigns zodiac personalities to wines instead of winemakers, and why that matters for discovery

[50:00] Erin's ethical line: AI amplifies your story, it does not replace it

[51:00] AI's racial bias problem in image generation, and how it's (slowly) getting better

[53:00] Erin's favorite AI tools, why she left ChatGPT, and a little love for Claude

[56:00] What Erin has learned about authentic storytelling from years of wine writing, including the article about ICE raids in Napa Valley she was nervous to publish

[59:00] Brand Arcadia's mission: drawing out unique stories, getting BIPOC brands visible in search, and a free audit offer for the first three listeners

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We're here turning every conversation into a celebration, one glass at a time. Salud!