UnWineding

In early 2020, Heather LaVine left the thriving wine and hospitality empire she and her partner had built from scratch in Upstate New York, moved to Florida, and opened a tiny natural wine boutique. The owner of Golden Hour Wine in Orlando’s Baldwin Park neighborhood talks about her journey from school teacher to minor league baseball employee to local hospitality leader … and explains why she decided to seek a new life as part of Central Florida’s wine community. Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance. 

Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

What do you do after a successful career in the corporate world and a decade spent running your own business consulting company? If you’re Cherié Rivett, you launch a wine distribution business! Cherié is the owner and CEO of Orlando-based Harvest Moon Distributors, a company created to meet a very specific need that soon expanded far beyond its founders’ expectations. Cherié talks about how she built her ship while sailing it, learning the wine industry from the ground up and discovering some hard realities along the way. She also talks about how she managed to shepherd the company through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic so that it could emerge with its small team intact, and she shares her hopes and fears for a post-pandemic future. Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance. 

Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Four years after opening Luisa’s Cellar, a wine bar and cafe in downtown Sanford, Florida, Yellymary (Mary) Montalvo recently announced she and her husband are closing the bar at the end of July and moving to North Carolina to start a wine academy. The decision, she says, was not about money — the pandemic reopening has been lucrative — but about her need to prioritize her health and her relationships. In this special episode, Mary returns to UnWineding for an exit interview. She shares lessons she’s learned about the hard realities of the wine and hospitality business, the newfound passion for teaching that inspired her next venture, and her enduring love for the Central Florida wine community. Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance.

Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Exactly one year ago, UnWineding launched amid the chaos of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions that sent the hospitality industry into a tailspin. Season One of the podcast followed three Florida wine industry professionals through six tumultuous months of the pandemic, as they watched their businesses suffer and their bank accounts dwindle. In this episode, we check in with them again, as vaccinations are on the rise and things are finally looking brighter. Listen as they tell us about their ups and downs, milestones, accolades, and even some big plans on the horizon.

Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance. Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Growing up in a Vietnamese-American family, Nga Ly-Henschen was never exposed to wine. She moved to Orlando to study microbiology at the University of Central Florida, with an eye on a future medical career. But a glass of riesling on a blind date at one of the city’s early wine hubs changed everything. Fast forward a decade and a half, and Nga is now the General Manager of Capa Restaurant and Lounge on the top floor of the Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World. She talks about her journey into the wine world, her transition to a corporate life of working with high-end wines, Capa’s COVID-19 shutdown and reopening, and her dreams for the future.
Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance. Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Mary Elizabeth Howe was just 30 years old when she became North Florida area manager for Augustan Wine Imports, which she describes as the “nerdy fine wine team” for a larger distributor, Breakthru Beverage. That management position was just one in a string of challenges throughout her career that have pushed her outside her comfort zone, starting when she was thrust into the world of fine dining service in her home state of Mississippi. Her latest trial was a four month furlough from the job she loved at Augustan at the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns. She likens the experience to the breakup of a family. But Mary Elizabeth is ever the optimist, and she says even those dark days provided opportunities for growth. 

Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance.

By his own admission, Tim Varan was “an apathetic and disinterested college student” when he was studying finance at the University of Central Florida some 30 years ago. But when it comes to wine, his cup overflows with enthusiasm and passion. Tim caught the wine bug while working for some of Orlando’s early wine pioneers in the late 1980s. He soon went into business for himself, and his eponymous shop, Tim’s Wine Market near downtown Orlando, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. 

Tim shares stories about the early days of Orlando’s wine community, the challenge of resisting the siren song of mass market wines to stay true to his mission, takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic, and his surprisingly rosy prediction for the pandemic’s potential impact on Central Florida’s wine industry. 

Subscribe to UnWineding on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance.

Mary Montalvo and her husband Sascha Weyer own and operate Luisa’s Cellar in Sanford, Florida. They got into the wine business almost by accident when Mary fell in love with a property in Clermont in 2012 and decided to open a wine bar. She left a stable career in the legal profession and threw herself into the business, but she says it’s been tough to keep her passion for wine alive amid the many challenges she has faced along the way.

In this episode, Mary talks about her journey from Puerto Rico to Florida (via Germany), speaks candidly about the realities of being a woman of color in an industry dominated by white men, and shares how she and her business are getting by as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on.

Subscribe to UnWineding on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Thanks to Orlando composer Julian Bond for providing original music for UnWineding and WMFE for distribution and promotional assistance.

Season Two of UnWineding kicks off with a conversation with Matt Coltrin, owner of The Parkview wine bar and restaurant in Winter Park, just north of Orlando.

Matt talks about the generous French wine merchant who got him hooked on good wine, his experience running a wine program at a historic bar and restaurant in Manhattan, and how the September 11th terrorist attacks prompted him to move to Central Florida, where he found himself on the ground floor of the region’s wine renaissance. He also talks about surviving and learning from this pandemic year, which he calls the hardest thing he’s had to deal with in his 25 years in the wine and restaurant business.

Subscribe to UnWineding on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Thanks to Orlando composer Julian Bond for providing original music for UnWineding and WMFE for distribution and promotional assistance.

UnWineding is back starting next week!

Listen to this quick preview to find out what Season Two has to offer. Plus, learn how the Orange County Regional History Center is helping to preserve Season One of UnWineding for future generations.

Subscribe to UnWineding on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Thanks to Orlando composer Julian Bond for providing original music for UnWineding, Amy Tardif for editorial assistance, and WMFE for distribution and promotional assistance.