Sipping Beyond the Surface: Wine, Diversity, and the Modern Drinker

BeamReach & Beyond

Joining us today is someone I´ve followed and admired from afar for quite some time: Aidy Smith. So you can only imagine how excited I got when Aidy very quickly agreed to participate in this episode despite his very busy schedule and high profile. So yeah, forgive me for a bit of a girlfan vibe during the episode :)

Aidy Smith is most known as the host of the show 'The Three Drinkers'. He is a wine and spirits presenter with a key focus on the modern drinker. As the wine and spirits columnist for The Independent and official Brand Ambassador for Vivino, Adrian has spent his career developing a fun and curiosity-peaking mind-set to drinks.

He is also the founder of Drinklusive, which is the drinks industry's first Inclusivity Mentorship aimed at increasing the representation of drinks personalities from all diverse communities.

In this episode, we discussed:

• how wine evolved from being a commodity beverage accessible to all, into something elite and exclusive
• the lack of diversity in the wine industry
• how the needs and perceptions of drinking are changing for the modern consumers
• cultural differences when it comes to wine understanding & consumption
• neurodiversity, gender, sexual orientation, race and class when it comes to the professional wine community and the future of wine consumption

Let's dive into this fascinating conversation!