Las Vegas Discovers Aphrodise Sparkling Wine, Taste it Before Your next Party, Frank Schilling Reveals

Discover Aphrodise Sparkling Wine, You should taste Before Your next Party, Frank Schilling Reveals

Whether it’s a wedding, party, or just drinks with dinner. We want taste. Maybe we want a few drinks. We also want to protect ourselves from tomorrow’s hangover.

It’s hard to find a drink that can take day to night quite like a Greek rosé and Aphrodise wants to prove it to you.

Frank Schilling, Co-Founder of Aphrodise

Today’s conversation with Frank Schilling from Aphrodise has been edited for length and clarity. For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.

Joe Winger:

Our audience is foodies. We’re wine lovers. What’s the most important message today you want to share with an audience of foodies and wine lovers?

Frank Schilling:

I’m an Epicurean myself. I don’t have a lot of pretense around my love of food and wine, I just love great food and wine and I’ve tasted so many great things.

I’m a character who hasn’t had a meal at home in 22 years. As an internet entrepreneur, I used to work, literally seven days a week for many years and eating out was my escape from my work because it’s the one place my laptop and phone couldn’t rule the day, or the moment.

For me, eating out was that escape and that vacation of the moment.

I created a life around dining out probably like many of your listeners or viewers. And I have a deep well of respect for great food and wine and also for the people who admire it and chase it, it’s a, it’s one of the great things in life.

I’m always stunned by people who don’t truly love food. I feel like they’re missing something and leaving part of life on the table.

Discovering Aphrodise sparkling wine

Joe Winger:

You have this new discovery. Let’s talk a little bit about Aphrodise. Tell me about how you discovered the grape varietal?

Frank Schilling:

I’m a wine lover. I tasted my way through Bordeaux and Burgundy.

All the way through, I could never really tell a Merlot from a Cab. I’d be lying to you if I said I knew what a Nebbiolo or a Valpolicella was and how all those grapes differed from each other.

I do enjoy great brands of wine. I do understand the difference between years and what impacts a year.

But when I was building [my restaurant] it was COVID. I was doing some fingertip math and I realized we’re gonna have to start bringing over a lot of sparkling [wine] for mimosas and for brunch. It was 300 seat restaurant, two seatings, 600 seats on a brunch [shift].

FlavRReport.com on YouTube

You start to do the math and you realize, “Wow, 52 weekends a year, bottomless mimosas. I’m going to need about 3,000 bottles of wine per quarter of champagne. So let’s go out and get some. We live on an island and supply chain management wasn’t really an option.

So we started to taste through different varieties of champagne.

I came to discover what Tom Cruise did in [the movie] “Cocktail”, which is, champagne is like perfume going down, but like sewage on the way back.

It comes from a well meant place, not mean spirited towards the great region of Champagne.

Joining the Aphrodise sparkling wine party

It’s just the nature of Champenois produced wine and that Chardonnay grape that makes a beautiful champagne is such that you just can’t consume a lot of it in the heat or humidity in the sun.

Traditional Champagne vs Aphrodise Sparkling Wine

It just isn’t the type of forgiving libation that lets you function afterwards and you don’t feel good.

The yeast isn’t good for a lot of people. Not everybody’s impacted the same way but, a large portion of the population doesn’t do well with champagne and heat in sunlight as a day drink.

The recovery profile isn’t something that people look forward to.

Aphrodise from the grape varietal called Xenomavro

I discovered that I’d had that problem myself for years. The yeast wasn’t working for me.

So when I discovered Aphrodise, it was a grape varietal called Xenomavro.

A high altitude grape, Greece’s most noble grape.

It’s a very forgiving drink. In a sparkling format, it’s something you can drink in the heat, it’s something you can drink in larger quantities, I can tell you that the recovery profile, for me and for many others, is exceptionally good.

Meaning you can drink a lot of it and bounce back and go again.

As a wine producer, that’s music to your ears. But it’s also nice knowing I’m making people feel better. I’m not putting something in the market that’s going to make you feel sick after overconsumption.

At a party enjoying Aphrodise Sparkling Wine

Joe Winger:

Just to give a little backstory. Frank, I hope you’ll talk to us a little bit about one of your first adventures. You mentioned you’re an internet entrepreneur, you had some success with website domains.

Can you explain a little bit about that and maybe a lesson you learned from that journey?

Frank Schilling:

It’s a lesson that some of your listeners and viewers probably have some experience with.

I registered a domain name back in the dot com era. Then I registered 2 [dot com names], then 10 and I got some generic names like wine.com , cars.com. Names like those.

I started to realize, wow, these names have value.

I wound up registering a lot of generic names and then I had difficulty managing them because in those early days of the Internet, it was all very unwieldy. The infrastructure for managing those names.

So I created a lot of that management infrastructure. Then in the process, grew that business over a 20 year horizon and wound up selling the 3 companies that comprised that enterprise to a company called GoDaddy, which we’ve probably all heard of.

So some of their infrastructure was my infrastructure and is now their infrastructure.

To the extent you like the new GoDaddy offering for managing domain names, you’re welcome, for the small part I played in helping that become a reality.

In the old days, I was traveling a lot. I had an office in Manchester in the United Kingdom, one in Newport beach in California and my main office here in the Cayman Islands. I would travel between the offices, New York, Miami and many other cities, just for work all around the world.

Enjoying Aphrodise Sparkling Wine

At the beginning of COVID that all came to a grinding halt. I sold those businesses and decided that with my love of food, if I was going to stay in the Cayman Islands, I realized I’m gonna have to eat at home more and I realized, the offerings of restaurants wasn’t the depth was hoping for.

So I built the restaurant, as a result of that that then led to Aphrodise.

Joe Winger:

I love the full circle of it.

Since we’ve mentioned the restaurant once or twice. Can we hear more about your restaurant Mykonos Cayman?

Frank Schilling:

Sure. During COVID lockdowns, there was a new plaza going in on the beach and I had mentally designed a restaurant years ago, but sold the real estate for it.

So when I saw the plaza going up, I was crestfallen. These guys built my dream on their land. My fantasy of what a place would look like. But then I was happy to learn that the plaza was a strata titled affair. It wasn’t owned by one conglomerate.

So I bought into that plaza so I could control the real estate. Then once I had the real estate I did a sort of “money no object” fit out that left a very residential-looking restaurant really quite beautiful.

I love the culture of Greece and I love the idea of the long lunch and the lack of pretense in the party and [being] all welcoming, with children, grownups will dance on the table and get really carried away.

The kids are running around. It’s all very loving and family oriented.

Whereas, Ibiza is a little more drug fueled and party, ragey and a little more intense.

I loved the soulful day party of Greece. We’re on an island and the Greeks are on islands. So I thought how nice it would be to bring some of that to my reserved island here in Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman is more of a place you quietly go to escape and enjoy the beach and family.

It’s not really a St. Bart’s where you go to seek out a great party. I always hoped that there’d be room for at least one place like they have in St. Bart’s here.

So I built a really big place, 320 seats, super residential, relaxed, welcoming, But completely devoid of pretense. You can come in, flip flops and shorts, or you can come in a beautiful gown as we’d hope in the evening.

But we don’t have a lot of structure and posture around it. We want you to feel free when you come. So that, I built that venue here, and you can see it online.

It’s called Mykonos Cayman. We have an Instagram where people can learn about the restaurant.

When you come, please come for a glass of Aphrodise on me. Mention Frank said I could have a glass of Aphrodise

Joe Winger:

You introduced Aphrodise at the Las Vegas Wedding Show. How did it go? Why do you think Aphrodise is the best drink to have at a wedding?

Frank Schilling:

It’s the color of love. It’s a beautiful color of red.

We took it to the wedding show because I thought that wedding planners would share the same pain point that I discovered as a restaurateur. Which is, if you want to buy a bottle of great champagne, easy, you go to the liquor store.

But when you start getting up there and you need 100 cases for an event or a series of events, getting that quantity consistently and getting a good product is actually quite difficult. And expensive.

So we thought we’d introduce Aphrodise.

Knowing that we could go directly to the wedding planners and help their fulfillment and execution and deliver a better product.

Something that people could really lavish in the heat or at an after party where you’re really enjoying the bubbly and then feel better in the morning. That was really the goal.

My first champagne experience was at a wedding and I drank a little too much. For the next day or two, I was laid up.

So we try to bring something to market that is good for people or at least makes them feel good in the moment and helps them recover.

We had a line all day. I poured a 5,000 servings of Aphrodise that day. People loved it.

Let me tell you, that’s a lot of work, opening bottles. It looks very glamorous. But when you’re really going at velocity, my hands hurt at the end of the day.

We got a lot of upstart business out of that. People were like, “Wow, this stuff is actually quite good.’

Joe Winger:

Let’s talk about flavor profile.

Pouring out 5,000 samples, what’s the most common feedback we get about the flavor, aroma, the mouthfeel, what are we experiencing?

Frank Schilling:

So when you sip a drink and you talk about mouthfeel or we have a glass of wine or champagne and you have a sip and there’s a little bit of a yeasty, gamey after taste.

For some people in red wine, it can be somewhat desirable.

In champagne, unfortunately it stays with it as well.

When you’re having champagne, which is more of a celebratory libation, that’s not a desirable quality. You want to have something that finishes clean in your mouth.

If you have lots of sips, you’re going to get a good buzz. You want to be able to recover quickly and elegantly without that headache that comes from the yeast and all those elements that bring its flavor.

So the taste of Aphrodise is a very clean mouthfeel and it finishes with a light crisp apple or cherry. Some people taste strawberry.

It’s a small bubble. Very light charmat, produced in small vats, a naturally produced bubbly effect. It lives in tanks for 3 months and it gains its bubbly in a natural way.

A little more expensive to produce that way. Prosecco, for example, will carbonate. They’ll add carbonation just like you would to a can of soda.

We don’t carbonate. We allow the bubbly to form naturally through the fermentation process, which is how it should be.

Co-Founders of Aphrodise Sparkling Wine

Joe Winger:

When it comes to food and wine pairing. What would be your favorite dish to pair with a glass of Aphrodise?

Frank Schilling:

Aphrodise is literally the only thing that I drink, and I’m crestfallen when I can’t find it.

It’s a dark rosé so it goes nicely with meat – a burger or a steak. Chicken or fish. It’s also a great dessert drink.

I like Aphrodise as a warmup libation and as an after dinner, like celebratory drink if you’re having a party, there’s an after party.

Joe Winger:

You’ve done a lot in your life. You’ve had a lot of adventures, a lot of successes.

Any inspiration or lessons you can share with the audience?

Frank Schilling:

The answer is love for people and love for living your best life, love for conviviality. I have a lot of love for the people that I encountered that have helped me in my journey. Those who’ve just been a part of my life, there for a season or there for a reason, as the saying goes, I try to embrace everybody.

See the good in everybody. There are people you click with more than other people. I say yes to everything unless it hurts me. I have a real lust for life and a good energy level.

Joe Winger:

If you’re loving Frank’s energy and his positivity, you wrote an amazing book. Would you mind giving us a summary of the book and what it was like writing it?

Frank Schilling:

It’s called Omnia Vincent: the universe wants you to win.

I wrote the book as I’d sold my businesses. It was during COVID lockdowns and everybody was [going through a] “The end of the world” mood type thing at that time.

You write a book like this for your grandchildren. If one day they want to know more about grandpa and did our success come from or where did our financial wealth come from?

It’s nice for them to know a little about the person who tried hard and maybe you can see something in yourself. So I really wrote it for my future ancestors.

I want to be the guy who left something for the grandkids and great grandkids to understand a little about my brain. And it’s really just written in short micro chapters.

Joe Winger:

Because you’re an epicurean, if you’re going to have any plate for dinner tonight, what would it be and why?

Frank Schilling:

Tonight I’m actually feeling a Pittsburgh style steak, seared on the outside. I haven’t had good red meat in about a week, and we just got some A5 Wagyu at the restaurant Our chef is a butcher and he’s also a certified Angus ambassador. So he gets great cuts.

We do a beautiful short rib burger, which is really lean short rib again on the outside with a bit of a char finish. We have a charcoal grill inside the restaurant, which is beautiful.

Joe Winger:

Thank you so much for your time. If someone wants to learn more, what are the best ways to find and follow websites, social media for Aphrodise?

Frank Schilling:

DrinkAphrodise on Instagram and the website DrinkAphrodise.com

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Thanksgiving in Las Vegas: the perfect stuffing bread DOES exist – and it’s… [Recipe Here]

By Rebecca Feinstein — 4 weeks ago

This Thanksgiving, the perfect stuffing bread DOES exist – and it’s brioche. As in St Pierre Brioche Thanksgiving Stuffing

No Thanksgiving spread is complete without a hearty stuffing. While add-ins are a matter of preference, choosing the right bread is crucial. One underrated choice is eggy, rich brioche – and with St Pierre Bakery, you don’t need to go to France to get it.

Thanks to its butter and egg content, St Pierre’s Brioche Loaf provides the perfect balance of crisp toastiness while remaining soft and creamy inside, while its lightly sweet flavor adds a decadent quality that can still lean savory. Attached below is an approachable recipe for stuffing allowing for all the craveable crunch for the whole family with minimal effort required.

St Pierre Brioche Thanksgiving Stuffing

By @BrandiMilloy

Ingredients

1 loaf St. Pierre Brioche Bread
1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 medium onion, diced

3/4 cup celery, diced

3/4 cup carrots, diced

1 cup mushrooms, diced

2 large eggs

1 tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped

3 sprigs fresh thyme, just the leaves

1 tbsp. fresh sage, chopped

1 small apple (granny smith works well), peeled and diced

Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut brioche bread into 1” cubes and bake for about 10-15 minutes until toasted.
Meanwhile, into a pot over medium high heat add butter until melted. Add onion, celery and carrots and cook until everything starts to soften, about 7 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and set aside.
Into a bowl whisk together the eggs, herbs, apples, mushrooms, and salt and pepper. Add your cooked vegetables and mix to combine.
Pour mixture on top of toasted bread and stir to combine. Bake stuffing for about 45 minutes. If your stuffing starts to get too brown, cover until finished baking. Enjoy!

As America’s favorite brioche brand, St Pierre’s products are widely available via grocery stores nationwide as well as Walmart.

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Mom/Daughter Cynthia and Lauren Russell from Dancing Wines

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Vegas Crowds Find New Flavor with Dancing Wines from Cynthia Russell, Lauren Russell

By Joe Winger — 2 months ago

Vegas Crowds Searching for New Flavor Find it with Dancing Wines from Cynthia Russell, Lauren Russell in Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County.

The team at Dancing Wines is developing a collection of sensory brands that celebrate life through taste, touch and aroma – inspiring you to find your inner dance and show the world what truly moves you.

Dancing Wines’ red wine trio includes Old Vine, Duo and Estate — three limited-release wines made from hand-picked grapes that showcase the full breadth of the Dancing estate.

Lauren Russell (L) and Cynthia Russell (R) from Dancing Wines Credit: https://instagram.com/DancingSonoma

Today’s conversation with the dynamic Mother / Daughter team Cynthia and Lauren Russell from Dancing Wines ha been edited for length and clarity.

For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.

Joe Winger: What is the most important message you’d like to share today?

Lauren Russell: I think one of them is dancing is art and art is life.

Another is love needs no explanation. I think really the thread between those is we’re trying to create a product and an experience that brings people together and invites them to find their inner dance, which is something we say a lot.

So we want to encourage people to find their unique rhythms. And wine is also really lovely because it is a vehicle that brings people together to enjoy a moment and diverse people together.

I think my Mom [Cynthia] can speak to this as well, but one of the things we thought about when first exploring wine was just how daunting the whole atmosphere is around the consumption of it and the buying and using all the right adjectives.

Especially for my generation I feel like there’s a bit of a learning curve. So I think one thing we really want people to take away from the brand is just like, just enjoy it. Love needs no explanation and you can’t drink wine when your mouth is full of adjectives. We’ve created a great wine just for you to be able to enjoy and to describe however you want and enjoy whenever you want.

Source: WeAreDancing.com

Cynthia: Yeah, I think the measures we created we have a beautiful heritage property that the soil and the climate create this great wine. And me being of an older generation where wine was very intimidating, even though I know a lot about it.

And drinking it for a very long time. I’ve lived in France. I’ve lived in California. It’s still when you order in a restaurant, you’re scared. Do I know enough? I’m going to be embarrassed. Is this the right pairing? And what the good news is that wine making in the world has become so sophisticated that if you are buying wine from a place that is special, including all.

Sonoma or France or Italy, the wines are good, they’re really good and all you have to do is be comfortable with yourself and enjoying it. And so that’s what we’re trying to do is take a product that has thousands of years of history as being a part of our culture and make you comfortable with just having fun, enjoying it and celebrating what wine can do to bring people together.

Source: WeAreDancing.com

Joe Winger: You have a really unique story that you restored a vineyard up in Dry Creek. Can you talk about experience and what you learned from the restoration?

Cynthia: We lucked out. It was a Covid purchase. We spent a lot of time as a family together in very small confined spaces drinking a lot of wine.

We [thought we] might end up needing a place where we have more outdoor space and can be together. So we bought this property more as a farm and then discovered that it was a unique part of the world.

Zinfandel grapes have been growing in this small region for over 150 years.

It was called America’s grape back in the time I think [the] 1850s. Okay, we have these vineyards. They’re really old.

There was one owner at this property for 60 years, an older Italian gentleman. And a lot of the area is multi generation, fourth generation Italian families who came over and cultivated this grape.

We never intended to make wine and yet we were scared to let this history and heritage die.

So we took classes and tried to figure out, can we make wine?

It’d be such a shame to let this history go in this special place.

We made a great discovery, which was that you don’t have to be an expert on wine. You just have to have great soil and a great climate.

Then we launched from there.

Source: WeAreDancing.com

Lauren: We’re always towing the line between the respective tradition and traditional winemaking and the land and all of the old vines and creating something new.

She [Mom, Cynthia] always brings a lens of respect for the older generation and ways of life and what wine has meant to her throughout her life.

I’m always pushing the other direction. We always land somewhere in the middle.

You’ll see that in the brands, it has really playful branding and packaging. But, our winemaking is a bit more traditional. We’re a sustainable vineyard but we have old vines and we respect what the land has to offer and what it’s been offering in that region for a long time.

It creates a better product and brand for us because we get to cater to both audiences.

Credit: https://instagram.com/DancingSonoma

Joe Winger: You have a collection of sensory brands. Can you talk about what that collection is, what inspired the idea, and what we should be looking for?

Lauren: All of the products have been and will be inspired by the backdrop of the vineyard.

When we talk about wine, we talk about this kind of multi sensory experience, whether that’s aroma or where you’re having it, who you’re enjoying it with.

We came into wine knowing that it was going to be not just about taste or smell, but about the holistic experience of what wine could do for someone.

Sort of the thread between all of our products are taste, touch and smell. Again, like finding your inner dance and allowing you to express your personality.

We’re launching a trio of fragrances, which are loosely inspired by the terroir and the vineyard.

Cynthia: We have a fresh perspective on Sonoma. Every time we arrive, we have this nose full of these incredible senses:, the smell of moss, crushed grapes, barrel, fire and oak.

Yeah. So we’re like, wow. Every time we arrive, we’re like, wow, this is really cool.

This is so distinct and unique and just elevates your experience of being there.

We are going to bring more experiences to the brand when we can, like having an artist in residence, creating visually beautiful contributions.

We have an art collection there that inspired us to bring art to the brand. It’s largely from a diverse group of artists from the West Coast who are very colorful and young and also push boundaries. So our idea with the senses is like we’re trying to This is a brand that you enter into our world and you get to experience people and life in a way that’s very unique and bold and

Credit: https://instagram.com/DancingSonoma

Joe Winger: What are both of your backgrounds outside of wine?

Lauren: I was raised in Connecticut and went to Dartmouth for undergrad, was a creative non-fiction writer, so always had that storytelling bent.

After school, I worked at a lot of businesses in marketing. Uber Eats, Refinery29, right before the pandemic, I worked for AB and Bev that was my first kind of foray into alcohol.

Then during COVID, I got my MBA at Columbia. We all got this massive reset of our priorities. I come from an entrepreneurial family. This opportunity arose

Cynthia: We’re a family who really believes in experiences. I have dabbled in many different areas. I went to Scripps college. I actually was a dance major until I was not. I became an international relations major. I lived in France for a while. Then moved to New York City and worked for JP Morgan trading stock, money market securities.

I didn’t find that was my passion, so I went to Harvard Business School and I got a master’s in business. Then I worked for American Express where I started a weekend travel program. It was a little startup within the travel segment of American Express. I got my “sea legs” of starting a business.

I quit that business because I had kids, then I started my own mail order company then I decided again, that maybe I needed a little more education.

I went back and got a doctorate at Columbia in organizational leadership.

I have a consulting firm on the side where I consult leaders and organizations about how to handle complex challenges in a complex world.

So my daughter [Lauren] gets through business school and we decide to marry all these wonderful experiences together and create something really new and unique.

Credit: https://instagram.com/DancingSonoma

Joe Winger: Let’s talk about your wines.

Lauren: We launched with our rosé which is really beautiful. It’s an intentional rosé. From our Primitivo grapes and we harvested them early and intentionally for rosé.

It has this really beautiful distinct, watermelon, almost Jolly Rancher aroma, and it’s really playful and full, but also dry. And it’s been a really big hit so that was a fun debut for us.

We just launched our trio of reds, and what makes them unique goes into the story about the restoration of the vineyard.

We’re still learning our land and learning from it.

We chose to harvest from different blocks and treat the wines in a similar fashion and bottle them separately to see what personalities they expressed.

One is the Old Vine Zinfandel, which is from our oldest head trained vines which is the deepest, moodiest, richest wine. It’s really lovely.

Credit: https://instagram.com/DancingSonoma

Then we have an estate wine, which is actually from Primitivo, a different word for Zinfandel. That one is a bit lighter.

Then we have a third, a duo which is a blend of both. And so it’s really helped us to understand. And they are quite different.

They’re obviously all Zinfandels in their expressions, but they’re all quite different.

People say Zinfandel is like a map of the land and I think that’s really true here. Which is super cool.

But we have two forthcoming sparkling wines because I think it really speaks to our ethos about being playful and to my generation.

Cynthia: It’s really fun for us because being on the East coast, Zinfandel is a really unknown varietal and we think it’s underrated. Californians know it’s been around for a long time. It has a lot of possibilities with food. And so what we’re trying to do is bring to light this really good wine and do it in a slightly different way.

We pick ours earlier, trying to have it be less jammy, juicy, heavy; lighter, less alcoholic than some of the more traditional Zinfandels that are on our street.

That’s really trying to address the changes consumer changes.

Our wines are chillable, super easy to eat with most any food, especially ethnic food, spicy food.

2022 was our first vintage. 2023 is already in barrels and we’ll be bottling that in probably in March. But it’s going to be a little different because the climate was different that year.

The rosé was just a fluke. Our winemaker wanted to try a Zinfandel rosé. Most people love it. It’s so distinct and unique.

Our 24 Rosé will come out in March. The reds will come out in the early summer. We’re going to bottle the sparkling in January, but that will be at least a year until you’ll see that. The pétillant naturel will probably be launching at about the same time as the rosé

Credit: https://instagram.com/DancingSonoma

Lauren: What’s fun about having both an early release sparkling and a [second, additional] later release [sparkling wine] one is going to be lighter, more effervescent, maybe geared towards the younger generation and the other will have that toastier champagne flavor.

Joe Winger: Do you have a favorite wine and food pairing?

Lauren: This one’s so hard. Rosé and oysters or any seafood is just awesome. Sparkling wine and a burger is one of my favorites.

In terms of red, when I think of Zinfandel, it’s Thanksgiving foods. It speaks to the hominess in our story. Bringing everyone around the table. Kind of experiential pairing.

Cynthia: Yeah, that resonates with me.

We have a lot of ethnic food, so it holds up really well to spice, to sweet and sour, salty and sweet. So it’s great with Indian food, Mexican food. Apples in your pork chops.

A burgundy is usually killed instantly by those kinds of flavors. It’s too fragile.

[Ours] is not fragile, but it still has so many nice aromas and flavors to enhance whatever you’re eating.

Lauren: It’s great with pizza. Pizza and a nice glass of Zinfandel

Source: WeAreDancing.com

Joe Winger: What’s something magical about Sonoma that you learned through this journey?

Lauren: True of both Zinfandel and Sonoma it always has this underdog energy to Napa. One of the hidden gems, we wake up really early and drive to the Redwood forest to watch the sun rise through the trees.

We eat a burrito because we have terrible burritos in New York.

There’s an amazing food community, 3 Michelin star restaurant, chefs, farm to table.

Cynthia: The distinct part of Sonoma is how important nature is to everyone there. It’s not just about wine. It’s incredible nature.

We both traveled a lot, lived in a lot of places. I’ve never seen such natural beauty in such a small area.

Lauren: That’s what the idea of our products is too. We have to bring people here in some way, differently than just having them taste the wine.

So as many dimensions as we can bring people into that realm to experience [00:29:00] that it’s like definitely the dream.

Joe Winger: Whether it’s social media, website, or other ways, what are the best ways for our audience to find and follow Dancing Wine?

Lauren: We have our website, which is wearedancing.com. We also are on Instagram, which is at DancingSonoma.

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American Film Market 2024 in Vegas: AGC’s Stuart Ford & Anton’s Sébastien Raybaud to Take Stage

By Joe Winger — 2 months ago

American Film Market 2024 in Vegas: AGC’s Stuart Ford & Anton’s Sébastien Raybaud to Take Stage

The American Film Market® (AFM®) is set to raise the curtain on its 45th edition and first-ever show in Las Vegas next week with Exhibition space sold out and Buyer and Attendee registrations running strong with participants confirmed from 80 countries.

AFM24 will run over six days, Nov. 5 – 10, 2024 at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The move to Las Vegas was announced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance® (IFTA®) and its Board of Directors in March 2024.

This year, AFM will host Market activities in a single location at Palms, including Exhibit Space, 200+ AFM Screenings at the Palms’ Brenden Theatres, and The AFM Sessions.

Physical Exhibition space for Market sold out last month and AFM will open with 286 sales, production, and distribution companies, along with international trade organizations, film commissions, and national umbrella stands from 34 countries. Exhibitors include A24, AGC Studios, Altitude Film Sales, Anton, Arclight Films, Bankside Films, Beta Cinema, Black Bear Pictures, Blue Fox Entertainment, Capstone Global, Charades, CJ ENM, Cornerstone, Embankment Films Limited, FILMAX, Film Mode Entertainment, FilmNation, Gaumont, GOODFELLAS/Wild Bunch International, Gravitas Ventures, HanWay Films, Lakeshore, Lionsgate, Mister Smith, NEON, Odin’s Eye Entertainment, Pathé Films, STUDIOCANAL, , Toei Company, Trust Nordisk, The Veterans, Voltage Pictures, WME Independent, and XYZ Films, among many others.

Countries, including China, France, Germany, Italy, Romania and Thailand, will host dedicated Umbrella Stands showcasing national companies and producers. Exhibitor Offices and Meeting tables will be located in AFM’s designated hub, Palms’ Fantasy Tower floors 8-17, 25, and 26 as well as in Nove. In addition, LocationEXPO at AFM will welcome Film Commissions, Government Agencies and Production Service Companies from the U.S. and as far as Barbados, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. LocationEXPO will be located in the Palms Ballroom on the 2nd Floor. View the full Exhibitor List.

Alongside the sales and licensing activity, LocationExpo and Screenings, The AFM Sessions presented by Wrapbook & Film Hawaii, will present 100 leaders, experts and influencers on 30 panels and presentations across two stages. A key attraction of this year’s Sessions, “The Innovators” will welcome two of the independent industry’s most prominent figures, Stuart Ford, Chairman & CEO, AGC Studios, and Sébastien Raybaud, Founder & CEO, Anton, to the stage Thursday morning, November 7 for engaging, one-on-one interviews with Jeremy Kay of Screen International and Scott Roxborough of The Hollywood Reporter, respectively.

Other Session highlights Include: (See the full schedule of AFM Sessions).

November 6:

From Local to Global: Developing Stories & Content for Worldwide Appeal – Main Stage

Matt Brodlie, Upgrade Productions
Katie Irwin, WME Independent
Matt Mueller, Screen International
Peter Van Steemburg, XYZ Films

Finding Gold: Discovering Captivating Narratives and Essential Story Ideas for Your Next Project – Main Stage

Miranda Bailey, Cold Iron Pictures
Karin Chien, dGenerate Films, Art & Action Productions
Phil Goldfine, Producer
Michele Kanan, Producer, Writer and Director
Michael Musante, Cherokee Film

Producing and Financing Films for Social Impact – Main Stage

Mary Aloe, Aloe Entertainment / Partners in Kind
Josh Harris, Peachtree Media
Jonathon Glucksman, Wondermind
Robert Rippberger, SIE Society
Jarnell Stokes, Stoked Bros. Media

Working with SAG-AFTRA as an Independent – View Stage

Olga Rodriguez-Aguirre, SAG-AFTRA

November 7

Finance I – Independent Film Financing in Today’s Financial Landscape – Main Stage

Jill Goldsmith, Deadline
Jon Gosier, Film Hedge
George Hamilton, Protagonist Pictures
Paula Paizes, Pressman Films
Miguel Palos, AGC Studio

Confronting Fear – Transcending, Challenging & Elevating the Horror Genre – Main Stage

Gregory Chambet, WTFILMS
Emily Gotto, Shudder
Tom Malloy, Glass House Distribution
Bob Portal, AMP
Priscilla Ross Smith, The Coven

November 8

Finance II: How to Choose a Location to Maximize Your Budget – Main Stage

Ryan Broussard, Wrapbook
Jeffery Greenstein, A Higher Standard
Andi Isaacs, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Formerly Summit Entertainment
Simon Williams, Palisades Park Pictures

Black Culture at the Epicenter of Hollywood – View Stage

Kyle Bowser, NAACP Hollywood Bureau

Casting for Low-Budget Films – View Stage

Monica Kelly, CSA, Treadwell / Kelly Casting
Jennifer K.M. Treadwell, CSA, Treadwell / Kelly Casting

The Untold Realities of Global Film Sales: What’s Really Shaping Today’s Market?

Clay Epstein, Film Mode Entertainment
Tiffany Boyle, Ramo Law PC
Mimi Steinbauer, Radiant Films International
Brian O’Shea, The Exchange

November 9

AFM Pitch Conference: Mastering the Art of Pitching & Live Pitches – Main Stage

Cassian Elwes, Elevated
Lee Jessup, leejessup.com
Lorelle Lynch, AGC Studios

Killing It at the Box Office: How Cineverse’s Horror Sensation Won Opening Weekend – Main Stage

Chris McGurk, Cineverse
Lauren McCarthy, Cineverse
Thomas K Arnold, Media Play News

Maximizing Impact: Crafting Powerful Films with Limited Budgets – Main Stage

Paul Bales, The Asylum
Jeff Deverett, Producer
Efuru Flowers, Flourishing Films
Chris Gore, Film Threat
Max Woertendyke, Noble Gas Media

For More Information on AFM and to Register, visit: americanfilmmarket.com.

About the American Film Market® (AFM®)

The AFM is where the global film and television business comes to life every November. The only independently produced international sales market, hundreds of finance, production, sales and distribution companies and thousands of professionals from every segment of the industry, convene at AFM for six days of discovery, development, deal making, networking, marketplace discussions and world-class conferences. The AFM is produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance® (IFTA®) and serves as the annual fundraiser for the association.

About the Independent Film & Television Alliance® (IFTA®)
IFTA is the global trade association for independent film and television production, finance, distribution, and sales companies. The organization represents the independent sector before governments and international bodies and provides significant entertainment industry services to independent companies around the world.

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Joe Winger

About the Author

Joe Wehinger (nicknamed Joe Winger) has written for over 20 years about the business of lifestyle and entertainment. Joe is an entertainment producer, media entrepreneur, public speaker, and C-level consultant who owns businesses in entertainment, lifestyle, tourism and publishing. He is an award-winning filmmaker, published author, member of the Directors Guild of America, International Food Travel Wine Authors Association, WSET Level 2 Wine student, WSET Level 2 Cocktail student, member of the LA Wine Writers. Email to: Joe@FlavRReport.com