SPEAKER_04 1:45

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today, we're thrilled to have a true wine connoisseur, Femi Oyadiren. Join us today, Femi is not only the co-owner of a successful wine shop, but also a renowned Somayer with a passion for music that's just as strong as his love for wine. His journey in the world of wine of fine wines began at the Charleston Grill, where he honed his craft and quickly climbed the ranks, passing the first three levels of the court of Master Somayes in just two years. A rare achievement. Femi's talents have earned him numerous accolades, including a spot on Wine Enthusiast magazine's prestigious 40 under 40 list and the title of Somailer of the Year by Food and Wine magazine. In today's episode, we'll dive into Femi's experiences in the wine industry, his unique take on blending music and wine, and his approach to hospitality. Whether you're a wine enthusiast, music lover, or just curious about how these two worlds intersect, you won't want to miss this conversation. So pour yourself a glass and tune in. Excellent, excellent, excellent. I want to give you some, give your flowers to you.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I appreciate that intro. I feel like I let y'all down. I feel like after hearing you talk, I should have brought a bottle of wine for us to do.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Yo! Good point. Good point. You ready? I'll rain check you on it. We'll range check on that. We'll come back and make sure that we do that. Of course, with the perfect person to do it. Golly. Well, just as a um, I'll go ahead and just put this note down. Obviously, I know this guy. Um not a stranger. We always talk about on the podcast. We love to talk with people that we actually know and have history with. It leads to a very rich conversation, um, and we're able to be pretty open and up front with things and always like to let the audience know. So they're like, wait, wait, wait. Does he already know what's going on with this person? Why is he so why is it so easy going?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Yeah, this is go back. Go back in terms of my life and career in Charleston. I would say the staggers are my day ones. Yeah. Literally day ones.

SPEAKER_04 3:49

Could you for me, because I know I know I jacked it up, could you pronounce your last name? Uh Oye Dira. Oh, yeah. There we go. I know I messed it up. There we go. I want to make something correct so they can hear it properly. Um, I do want to start today. I know we're gonna ask this question, but just for the audience, if you can give them a little bit of your background, where are you from, how did you land in Charleston? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Uh so quick story, obviously, you know, with the last name, I'm uh Nigerian. I was born in Nigeria, grew up in a Nigerian family. Uh we moved quite a bit. Um we moved to the States when I was about two years old. Um, and kind of jumped through um northern Alabama to Cleveland, Ohio, Northern Virginia, and then I ended up in Charleston because I attended the College of Charleston, that's where I met you boys. Boom. And uh yeah, I'd have been in Charleston for about 20 years now. You know.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

Man, I'll tell you, I always wanted to say that it makes you feel old.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

It does, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:46

It does. Everything is 20 years now. I'm thinking back. When was the last seat? Oh yeah, it was 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah, the 80s is no longer 20 years ago. Whatever somebody tells me, you know, Fat Joe leaned back was like 20 years ago, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:59

Yeah, I'm gonna say that. Oh no, it's I feel like when we came up, stuff that was 20 years old, like 80s music coming on, or or imagine, imagine like mid-90s, right? We're talking, we're talking disco coming on. That seemed ancient. Ancient. And they still play stuff on the regular radio station that's 20 years old.

SPEAKER_04 5:22

Yeah, yeah, yes. It's crazy. So when they play that music in the 70s and the 80s, you're looking at 40 and 50 years back.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

Right, right. And you can't even imagine them playing 40-year-old music when we were coming up. No, it's Glenn Miller and Fats Domino.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Living in a simulation. Yeah. I agree.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

I'm agreeing.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

I mean, I'm I'm I blame uh I blame piracy and stuff for just liberating all of the music and giving it to every generation.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

I'll give you that. We did come up in that generation of piracy. Piracy did change the manual.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

We gotta throw out music to everybody.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Yeah, and you gotta do it quickly. But anyway, yeah, we can digress. We digress. We're gonna talk about why. Yes, yes. Um, I will say this, and I think this is interesting. I want them to tell the audience that because I always respected your journey uh and the way that you operated and moved as an individual, because I'll say this, you're one of the most serious, down-to-earth people I know. And what I mean by that is you understand your value and who you are, and you do not allow yourself to be compromised, even if it's people that you know, and et cetera. And I'll tell you like this. I remember one time I was bothering Femi about something. I was like, yo, Fem, can I um would you mind like if I came in and did this thing in your wine shop and played this music? And the one thing that I thought was cool, because I wanted to come and do some like Afrobeat stuff in the wine shop, and I was like, hey, would we be able to do this, etc.? What was cool is that, and I'm I'm down with this because Skip tells you, business first. So Femi told me, I would love to do that, but at the moment, this is where I'm heading. And I respected that because what it let me know is that even though friendship, etc., the business is first, and he already had a plan. And the fact that he was able to be honest and tell me that from the get-go, I was like, I respect that. Do what you need to do when the time is there. There was no disrespect because that's how we're supposed to be able to talk to each other as men, as grown folks, especially knowing each other. I always like that honesty. So when we needed somebody to come in, obviously, to sit in today, Kevin reached out and stuff. I was like, that's gonna make so much sense because if he wants to do it, that means that the business is right, the time is right, and it's gonna be excellent because you always present with it. It's time to catch up with the staggers, man. Come on. Come on. So yeah. I was very excited about this today. My um, my significant other, my wife, Janisha, she really loves food and wine. She loves Charleston. She went to college Charleston too. And so I'm gonna bother her about this today when we go back because she's gonna be like, hey, because I didn't tell her who we were speaking with today. She don't know yet. Oh wow. So obviously, I want you to talk about your transition just to start off for folks, because this is of course how we grew up, um, dibbling dabbling in music. Great performer, good stage presence, playing with live bands and et cetera. So moving from that uh to becoming an advanced somay is very fascinating. That's not a normal journey, it's not a normal travel. Uh people don't normally do that. It kind of blew my mind when you told me about you doing that at first, but then I was like, yo, if he put his mind to and that's what he wants to do, he's gonna get it. It's gonna be accomplished.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Were you always interested in this, or did you just kind of fall into it?

SPEAKER_00 8:29

No, I didn't I didn't know anything about wine. Uh I I mean, I I'd say like the first time I actually like opened a bottle of wine and drank a bottle of wine was until really I got to college. So, you know, wine was never uh, you know, uh a thing for me. I I I come from a family that doesn't drink, no one in my family has a history of alcohol. So you know, in fact, my parents really kind of just um they uh hated alcohol, you know, very religious kind of association with drinking. And uh so yeah, wine was never a thing, it was never at any front back of my mind at all. And uh so when I got into it, I went into it with this level of curiosity of like this is this taboo thing that I never did, but it was it was interesting. And uh I happened to get hired at a restaurant, I think we talked about the Charleston Grill, and uh happened to be the perfect time to work there. Um because the the Samoyer that ran the wine program there, a guy named Rick Rubol. Yeah, yeah. Uh was uh exactly Rick was uh at the time the he was the the top Don in in the Samoyer game in South Carolina, and they had this award-winning wine program, and uh there and he was just ready to kind of share knowledge and information with with his uh with his employees and and I and I took him for it. So he grabbed the bull by the horns.

SPEAKER_04 9:52

Yeah, absolutely. So seriously.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah, I think it's like if you're gonna offer this, I'm I'm gonna take every everything I can while I'm here. Absolutely. Right.

SPEAKER_04 9:59

Yeah. And I'll say uh during your time at Charleston Grill, and I think this is this is interesting to note too because um we had ran into each other again because it's the first time I actually ended up in food bev. Was that your first food and bev job? I had worked uh a a couple different spots beforehand. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Um, but uh it was my first real that was a real job, yeah. It was a fine dining job. Can you explain?

SPEAKER_04 10:22

I want you to explain that to folks because there's a difference. And in Charleston, food and wine uh food and bev is big, but explain to them that important.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

You know, Charleston Grew, I think, in terms of fine dining, you know, uh high quality service was really, in my opinion, the standard bearer in Charleston. We did everything. You had the incredible food with Chef Michelle Weaver, we had one of the top somways in the country with Rick Rubel, we had a maider-D, Mickey Baxton. You know, you can call him one of the last real maider D's in America, you know, someone who commanded the dance the dining room, who went outside of the restaurant and invited people into the restaurant, knew people's names, invited businessmen, doctors, you know, really curated a scene in the restaurant and and you know, conducted everything like an orchestra. In a market like Charleston, like I imagine, like that's yeah, this is next level dining here. It was a really, a really great time, and and can't forget, you know, they had Quinn and Baxter playing music daily. Yes. So Grammy Award-winning musician now with rank shout out to Ranky Tanky. Uh so it was really just an incredible time to work, not just in Charleston, but at this restaurant. So uh it was a really incredible opportunity to kind of spend some time there, learn from those people, um, and then you know, take off on my own.

SPEAKER_04 11:40

Yeah. Yeah. And uh that the level that you now had set by being in that uh environment, moving in, and I want to this is interesting. So you as a performer, yeah. And I like to tell people this all the time. Can you explain to them how important it is to uh performance is to being a good somailler or server?

SPEAKER_00 12:04

I think uh the thing that relates to the two is going into a situation with a level of confidence, right? Because if you're a performer, you know uh uh you could maybe not be good, not you could have a bad day, you could have a bunch of things happening, but you still kind of at a certain point of time need to have a level of professionalism where you get up on that stage with a smile on your face and you're like, I'm gonna do this. You may not like it, but I'm gonna stand behind it.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Boom.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

And the audience can tell you know when you don't believe in what you're putting out. You know what I mean? So you kind of need to have this like unwavering confidence when you're on stage. And there needs to be a certain level of confidence. And the same thing is with hospitality. You know, when you go up to a table and you greet somebody and you have this warm welcome, but you have this command of like this experience is gonna be phenomenal, and I'm gonna be a part of it. And I want you to have complete assurance that we got this in the bag. Like that to me is you know part of a great dining experience. Like I know this guy's got me taken care of within the five minutes. And that's something you learn to do, whether you're serving a fine dining restaurant or you come in and talk to people about wine, because you know, as a cell way, right, people think you're trying to sell the most expensive bottle of wine, or they don't know a lot, they don't know what to say to you, blah, blah, blah. They've heard this and that. And so giving them, you know, assurance of like this is gonna be great, and don't worry, I got you. Is uh yeah. And then that you have the steps of service, and you know, that's kind of to me, you know, uh, you can kind of add that to the mechanics of being a Simonier, like how you do how you uh show the bottle, how you you know pull the napkin out and dust off the bottle. There's a show to it too.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

There's it's all performance. So what I mean, obviously a Simonier is is picking helping you pick your bottle of w wine, but like where do you really see that role being? Like when when I come into your shop. Yeah. What's what how do you start that? Like how do we start that? What do you feel like drinking today? Yeah, bartended, but I've never uh I've never Simoniered.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah, so you know, um we we start usually by asking people a few questions when they come to the shop. You know, like first of all, how can I help you? Yeah, yeah. Um what are you looking for? And you quickly realize that when you peep talk to people about wine, that there are there are different levels in terms of people's not just knowledge, but their comfort level of talking about wine. And I ask a few questions to try to understand what that is very quickly. To engage it. And then based on you know how they talk to me, maybe that they know absolutely nothing, maybe they know a little bit, maybe they know a lot, but based on kind of their comfort level um and knowledge level maybe, I kind of calibrate the type of conversation we're gonna have. If you say, I don't know anything about wine, then I might ask you, what are some of your goals today? You know, like you might say, I just want to get a bottle of red wine.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

And I go, and I and I'll say, like, you know, first of all, how much do you want to spend? Right? Uh what was the last great bottle of wine you had? Do you have any pictures of a wine you've enjoyed? And then my job at that point, if they show me a picture, is that I've got the experience. I know. I have an idea. Right. You know what they're looking for. I know what that is, right? It's like it's in, you know, we'll talk about music, but it's like if someone shows me some of the albums they've listened to, I'm like, okay, cool. I know what to work with. I got you. That's a great analogy, too. Yeah. Exactly. So and so, you know, from there, I can make a recommendation, just say, like, hey, sometimes people are just like, I'm like, you just want me to make you look good, like you're going to dinner. Yeah, you want to impress a girl. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you, absolutely. I'm like, you know, stepping to my office. Um and then, you know, if people know a little bit more, then we can get more specific and say, you know, do you have a style you like, do you have producers you like? Um, are you just looking for white wine with food, red wine with food? Are you looking for wine pairings? You know, that's something we can make happen. So there's so many different ways to kind of attack what people are looking to do and engage them in conversation and you know, be fun at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 16:21

Because I know it can be very intimidating, wine, and I know, and I'll just say this because it's funny. When you're young, and you're out here getting your chops made, you're up here drinking sporties. If y'all know what a sporty is, that's when you take a 40-ounce and mix it with Gatorade, and you're drinking four locos and gator piss. Yeah, yeah, drinking those, you're you're out here having uh rumpement shots and fireball. Don't yet have a palate.

unknown 16:54

Right.

SPEAKER_04 16:55

You don't actually know what you're drinking, you just know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

You're misusing it.

SPEAKER_04 16:58

Yeah, you're killing a palate. You don't know any better. It's interesting to see the evolution from drinking and for the experience of being drunk and drinking for the experience of actually enjoying the product. And I think that's where the saumaillet comes in. It's like a a um an aficionado in cigars. When I go to that cigar shop and I'm asking that person that cigar, I could go out there and smoke a newport pack. Yeah. I could get me a swish or sweet. But I'm going into that cigar shop because I'm looking for an experience, right? I want a certain quality, I want certain craft, craftsmanship behind what it is that I'm about to engage in. And of course, the analogy between that and performing is very relevant. If you could explain to our audience your, because I like how you start off, you didn't start that way. If you could explain your journey of becoming a Somailier and how you learned to hone that understanding, because obviously you didn't grow up, you didn't start off drinking great bottles of wine. No. So could you explain how you first of all tempered your palate and learned? Um, because like I said, two years, man. You did it in two years. That shit was crazy. My fault. I'm not gonna lie, because I remember watching you go through this. I was like, how's he about to do this that quickly? Because like I know the people he's talking about, I'm like, yo, this is like these people did this over years. And I remember them talking about how much of an accomplishment it was. I was like, yo, Femi's that dude. That is very, that is crazy. Could you explain that transition from nothing, yeah, bottom barrel to the top?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Again, you know, I mean, I really had a great support team, I had a great mentor. Uh Rick was incredible. Um, you know, I had an aha moment with a bottle of wine. I ordered a I had uh dinner at Charleston Grill with Adam Williams for his graduation. Oh, Adam, shouts out to Adam, man. You know, and his girlfriend at the time were there and a few other friends, and and I wanted to, we were gonna do dinner at the grill, and it was the first time I was having dinner with friends at the grill.

SPEAKER_04 19:03

Oh, yeah, with your real friends, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

So I worked with a couple people to pick out a bottle of wine. And it was a uh a bottle of 2004 Elderton Command Shiraz from Australia, and full-bodied wine. I mean, this is like Australian Shiraz as it gets black pepper, savory, like teriyaki, you know, just like blackberry and black cherry. It's a a party of aromatics, and it was incredible. And I had never had any at the time it was maybe the most expensive bottle of wine I'd ever had. Um it had been aged just a little bit, and it was beautiful. And I never knew wine could kind of meet this like hedonistic, you know, yeah potential in terms of flavor and like experience. Right. And I began to ask a lot, I got to a point where I started asking questions. I was like, hey, what about and you know we do a thing called uh premial before service. You you you know, you go over some steps of service, who's coming in, and then the some way sometimes would do a presentation on a wine or a region education, right? And Rick would do the most just the the best explanations and stories of wine. He would really walk you through it to a point where you're so curious. He had such a way of telling stories. Yeah, stuck in your head. And I would go home every night, I would read more about whatever he talked about. Yeah, because you taste the wines, you're like, wow, that was crazy. And then I would uh ask him questions all the time. And eventually I just started buying books because I wanted to learn. And I was, you know, I was a busboy at the time. So I wanted to learn more and I wanted to step up. And um I have a very addictive personality. And so, you know, when I started reading, I couldn't stop. And before you knew it, I was you know getting to the restaurant a few hours before everybody else reading up until I had to clock in because I knew that if I was reading at home, I'd be late because I wouldn't book the book. I was like the only way to not be late is just to read at work, and when people start showing up, I'd be like, okay, time to get up. That explains it.

SPEAKER_04 21:11

I used to be there early. Oh, wow, that's what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

So you're studying about wines and uh flavors and aromas of stuff that you might not have tasted yet, and you end up with like what a hit list at that point? Not really.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

So we you know we did regular tastings at the restaurant. Oh, I think you had access which was really great. And then eventually we started a tasting group that actually got started because I was asking so many questions. Ray was just like, you know, how about we set a time? Oh, you're explaining so much. We can do a lot of that. Okay. And uh he goes, I'll open up some line for you, you can like blind taste, and then he was like, Why don't you invite a few of your coworkers to join to like make it worth my while and everything? So I got a few others to join. And we started this regular tasting group on Saturdays at 1 p.m. And we did that for like five years every Saturday. Probably blind taste five to ten to thirteen wines. Yeah. And once you've got to do that over and over and over again, you know, blind tasting is such a unique exercise. I always tell people we don't do it if it's like a parlor trick, right?

SPEAKER_04 22:16

Yeah, explain for them. Break it down for them.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

So blind tasting, uh, for those of you that don't know, is when you're given a wine or maybe a set of wines, and you know, the idea is to use uh your theory and also your ability to describe a wine and kind of combine those two to ascertain what the great variety is, maybe how old the wine ends and where it comes from. Right. And uh so you the best way to get good at blind tasting is to do repetition, right? And blind tasting is good because it keeps you honest about the way you describe a wine, right? So it forces you to extract the the verbiage, right, uh that you need to use to describe a wine, which ultimately makes you a better somehow. And uh so we would blind taste every Saturday, and that really served as the the the structure to to you know getting me really into it. Um building my confidence. That was like you in the gym in some way, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:18

You're working it out.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah, for sure. I got really, really good at blind tasting. I think like it was interesting because blind tasting was always the thing that I really felt like I sucked at. Really? I mean, yeah, for sure. It's really hard. It's really hard to get into the rhythm of especially if you never even really grow up on around wine or a lot of like, you know, using these descriptors for flavors for food and stuff. Because it's it's weird. We're not used to karaoke and corinthine. Yeah, yeah. And uh so But I was forcing myself to show up every time, to fall and get back up. Because when you blind taste, you're blind taste it in front of other people. You can make it a lot.

SPEAKER_04 23:53

Oh, your ego.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

I don't taste that. You are throwing it out there in front of people. And this kind of goes back to the conversation about confidence. Yeah. Is that you eventually just need to sit down and be like, I'm okay with messing up because if I mess up, I'm gonna learn from that mistake and I trust myself. So, you know, it really was an exercise in all of those things. Yeah. And um but yeah, blind tasting was was was really powerful for me, and you know, I'm very good at it now.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

And so that eventually led to you deciding to actually go forth with seeking your credentials.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah, I at a point I felt good, and then one of my coworkers uh went and took like a test, and I was like, well, if he's gonna take a test, I need to start taking these tests too.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

And you know, him and I were both at a point where we were both very competitive and we didn't want to do any so-so-opy doke. We wanted to like if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it for real. You know, we don't want to be average on the list. He was like, I want to be the best, I know you want to be the best, let's do it. And so we made a pact. And we were like, we're gonna study, we're gonna do what it takes. And uh him and I put I spent you know, I think like the next three years, like on it, on it, on it. And so I signed up for the introductory exam, I took that, I signed up for the certified exam, took that a month later. Um, and then I was like, Pricing? Was the price? The price? Yeah, I think back then it's a little different now. Okay. Back then, uh I think the introductory exam was five something, around 550 or then uh the certified exam, I think, was around $400.

SPEAKER_04 25:26

I wanted you to say that so that people would understand, because I know this guy, a serious guy. Like if he's like you said, if he's trying to do something, he's gonna do it. You do have to invest in yourself. You're gonna have to spend some money.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

And these are not easy for whatever. Yeah, and and and you know, you gotta buy the books, and you gotta the the core of Nassau Sony is a lot of wine because you have to tease yourself. So, you know, you you have to buy the books, you have to find what books are actually good books on your own. You talk to people, you gotta buy the wine that you're tasting. So all those blind tastings I did every Saturday. I bought a bottle and brought it. You know, everybody brings a bottle, and I would spend between thirty and fifty dollars every Saturday. Yeah, you know, which you know back then just to taste. Yeah, college money is a bit money. Yeah, that's a lot of money. Yeah, young people out here trying to make it. But I was committed. I was committed. So I really was willing to do the work and then I knew an idea. I had an idea of where I wanted to go with it. I really wanted to pass the um the advance exam and jump up from that. So yeah, passed certified and I immediately applied for advance, which is like crazy. You can give any you can give yourself any time. I remember everybody was talking about it.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

I was like, he'll be fine. He'll be fine if you wanted to do it, there's a reason why.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Yeah, and uh I I got waitlisted the first time, then didn't let me in. And I've I mean, I knew they were gonna deny me because they're like, yeah, you just passed a certified exam. You're expected to wait two years before you even apply for the advanced exam. And I applied within like months of my certified exam. F that. Um but like the first opportunity to apply for the next year came around, and so I sat it. Um and then I passed. And uh from there I was just like, oh, I got this. Yeah, I mean it was it was uh it was great. Uh at the time it was uh I think you know, the world has certainly changed in the last you know ten or so years. But at the time it was it was a big deal um for anyone to pass that exam. Yeah. Um let alone uh Say it.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Uh uh a novice, you know, I mean a brand new wine drinker, yeah. No alcohol in the family. That's what that's what blew my mind, is because I knew you didn't have that history. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

And there was, you know, I think there was certainly something to prove from multiple angles in my life. Yeah, yeah. You know, I think whenever I showed up at exams or even competitions, people were like, Can I hear him? Nah, I can believe it. I love being an underdog. Yeah, you know, I can believe it. They probably looked at him like, he's not serious. This guy's not serious, it's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

Because here's the thing, Femi, he he's serious about what he does, but he's a jovial guy, man. He he laughs and everything. And it's not he's not a stone man. But um, when you when you did pass that exam, and I remember some of the um conversations that were had and talking to people in the grill about it and talking to you about it, but how did how did it make you feel? And did you decide at that moment that you were going, and this is moving into the next level, that you were going to leave that establishment to create something for yourself? Like, how soon after that did you realize, you know what, I gotta, I gotta grow from here, I gotta move and leave. Um because where you were at was a good place.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Absolutely. You know, wine, wine in many ways for me saved my life, you know what I mean? And I don't mean that from like a life or death situation, I just mean that from at a point where I was in my life and from a point where I thought I was going to be at that point in my life, there were two different ideas. And I think I had lost a lot of the confidence that I had in myself. And um I allowed myself to inundate my inundate my you know my my spirit and everything with this idea of wine. And uh it was great, and I studied and I put the time in, and so passing that exam, it was just like validation. I gained trust in myself again.

SPEAKER_04 29:23

Again. Yeah. Now I know what he's talking about because I know the story. I set a goal.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Yes, I did the work, I achieved it. You know, and so it was like I knew from then on I'm gonna set goals and believe myself. I see, you learned a process. Thank you. Thank you for saying that.

SPEAKER_04 29:42

Audience, they need to hear that.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

And I needed, yeah, and I needed to be able to have a relationship with myself where I say, if I say I'm going to do something, if I commit it to words, it's going to happen. And sometimes you do need a win to really get that under your belt.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

You need a bigger plaque to hang on the wall.

SPEAKER_04 29:57

I'm not gonna lie, like man, we we had some L's um being especially during the time when we were coming at coming of age, and this is the reason why this podcast exists. Yeah, no guidebooks. There is no line of, oh, this is what you need to do, this is the pathway. We were the analog to digital divide people. And so we wanted to make sure that I mean, with this podcast, the reason why we do this is because of these types of stories. I want people to hear this and understand because now people know you as Femi, some IA, owner of shop, etc. And they just think, oh, it just happened, it was just here. I'm like, no, it didn't. There's lots of ups and downs before we got to that point. Um, if you could for us, two things I want to hit on, and then I want to make sure we we let you uh talk about business and et cetera. But if you could tell us a bit about how you started the wine shop, how that became an idea, partnership, and then the importance of black representation in the wine industry. Because those two things go hand in hand. If you could elaborate on that for us.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Yeah, the uh the the the the wine shop, you know, graft was inevitable. And uh accepting that is is really important for me. Graft was inevitable because I had learned a lot about the industry. This is why I'm yeah um after I passed my exam, right? And I don't think I give this answer to everybody, so I'm happy we're talking, right? Yep, it's different. Yeah. When I passed the advance exam, and I have a whole different and we're talking a lot about exams now, but I have a very different perspective on exams today. So the context of talking about this is based on where I was in the world was at the time. Sure. Right. And so I had passed the advanced exam, and I think I was like one of the youngest people to have done it. Um uh one of the few people that looked like me that had done it. Yes. Um and and certainly one of the only people in South Carolina that had done it. Yeah, that's what got me because yeah, they didn't have this in South Carolina, yeah. Really? So this is a big thing. There were a few people there were a few people who had done it, but it was I think I was the sixth or seventh person. And at the age of in the commitment to do it, it's it was a little bit outlier. Yeah. And I and I did it on my first try. Most people try three, four. Okay. So this was a first time. I did it on my first try, and I did it within two years. To put it in context today, if you once you pass the certified exam, they change the rules. They don't even allow you to apply for two years after you pass the certified exam. I did intro certified and advanced.

SPEAKER_04 32:38

This motherfucker is Dwight Howard. He's like the last one to come out of high school.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yeah, they changed the rule. No, I'm not even saying they change the rule because too many people would try and fail. They're like, you need to wait two years, you know what I mean? So they weren't ready. So I I say that because, you know, on paper, you know, I can I also felt like I was a pro you know a guy about town.

unknown 32:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

On paper, you know, to me, just like the number one candidate to be assembly a hired wine director or whatever you want in the city of Charleston. You know what I mean? Like, why would you not take a chance on this guy? Yeah. And I saw restaurant after restaurant open in Charleston Femi. And no phone calls. Oh, God. And and I began and I began to think, like, wait, what?

SPEAKER_03 33:20

So is that how it works? Is like you're in Austin now and and they call you.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Well, I mean, someone just passed the advanced sumway exam. It was in the everywhere. Right, that's what I'm saying. Like there's a list. It was in the paper. It was known in the community that I did it because I was also, don't think about it, don't forget that I'm a six foot four black dude. You don't have to be a big thing. In town. Newly one. And yeah. And I just passed this exam and I did it very quickly. It was, you know, it was a big deal. Yeah. And and I was hungry at the time, and I was at the the top of my of my game. I was at the top of my game. Um, and uh so I became very frustrated. I became very frustrated on multiple levels. I became very frustrated with that experience. I became very frustrated with where wine was in Charleston.

SPEAKER_04 34:05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

I would go to other cities, the wine shops would be better, the wines would be better at restaurants, and I felt like I had something to say. I was like, hey, there's a whole lot of things happening outside of the city that people are not aware of with wine. And I would love to make those things become a reality. Put me in the game. And what I realized, what I learned from that, is that um I was gonna have to put myself in the game. And and and so Graft quickly became an essay on a few things. One, I can do this shit. And coming for everybody. Yep. Yep. And also, uh, it was an essay on like how to talk about wine, share wine, and just be around people, man. If you if you would go to wine places 15, 20 years ago, everybody was, you know, wine maps on the wall, you know, everybody wants to prove to you how much they know about wine, and they want to, you know, talk to you about it in a certain way. There was all these gatekeepers in the industry, and you know, it wasn't, it wasn't there it there's it's no surprise that a lot of black people didn't want to get into wine. You know what I mean? It wasn't a vibey, it wasn't a vibey culture, it wasn't really you know very pretentious. Not even about it being pretentious, it just wasn't attractive. The thing that I found interested in wine is that I had a great mentor. He was a cool dude to be around, you know. I mean, he like if I and I realized that it was an anomaly. Rick was such a unique cat. Oh, yeah. Everybody loves Ricky. Everybody loves Rick, you know, so I thought to Rick and Rick. He could have been talking about anything. He just had a way about doing it that made it fun, it made you want to follow up. And it just happened to be wine for me. And and I got into it and I realized that people like Rick are rare. That's true. And and I would uh when I was studying, I would have friends over at my house and we would open up bottles of wine, like my buddy Joseph, my friend, all these guys.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

And I realized all everybody kind of really loves wine. Everyone loves wine. And what they hate are usually the places where we serve it. Go ahead. They're winy. I don't know how to explain it. This is not it. And uh they they tend to just the way they communicate with people and just everything. And and I realize, like, you know, it doesn't really have to be like that. Wine is just a beverage. That's it. Like if you create a room, you create a space, you put the right people in there, it's just a beverage. That's it, right? Um, the quality is there. Like, you don't need to prove to anybody you know about wine. Like, you know, we get it, bro. You open up a wine shop, you open up a wine bar.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

You gotta know what you're doing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

Clearly, I hope the passion's there and that you can imbue that in people by the way you talk to them and stuff. And so, like, you know, with us with Graph, we were like, we're gonna do it our way, we're gonna make it friendly and cool. Wine shops are boring because they're not social. You know, so we're gonna have a hybrid wine shop in a wine bar where it's social.

SPEAKER_04 36:55

That's what I love about it.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

You can dab me up, you can sit down, we can walk around the shelf, the shelves, we can find something for you. You can look at it, good music, stuff being barred, records all around. There's a lot of like uh what we kind of call like um you know icebreakers. You know, you see like Usher on the wall, you know. It just kind of makes you feel comfortable, you know. And then my staff, we don't try to like be like, yo, what do you know about wine? You know, we just try to be like, hell, we're so happy you're here. What can we do for you? Yeah, mad inviting.

SPEAKER_04 37:22

Mad inviting. Yeah. Um, and I was I was looking at this just because I just want you to see what you're talking about. One thing that I was thought was so cool when I first visited the spot is I walked in there, and I'm big on this with anybody in business, but especially with folks um with African Americans in business, black folk in business, people of color minorities, Latinos, anybody. I like to be able to go into a business and not know who owns it. But enjoy the vibe. And there's a reason behind that. I think, and this comes from Claude Anderson talking about this, if you run your business well and you have great customer service, your product is good, you're knowledgeable about it, there's no reason why I need to tell you what my race or ethnicity is. I should be able to come in there, enjoy the vibe, and and and have a good time there. Every time I went in there, I'm telling you, even though I know who the person was and the people behind it didn't matter. That's not why I was there. I was there because the product was good. The environment was cool. Um, everybody that I talked to that went there, a lot of people that maybe may not even know who owned the place. They're just like, I like that place called Graft. I like going there to get my wine. I'm buying from there, I'm not going to such and such anymore. And these are some names of these, some of these places, older wine bars and wine shops here in Charleston.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Which I, by the way, I love all of those places, and I'm happy they exist. But there were, and there was a crowd, or not even a crowd. Yeah. There was a group of people. Yeah. And I mean, it's not just black people, it's just young folks. That's what I was about to say. It's the age. The wine industry had left out and ignored. And I was like, I got them.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

Generation for the rest of my life. Or there's a time and place where you graduate from going to uh just being at a dive bar all the time. Yes. Yeah. Like love PBR just as much as the next person. Like PR. That's what I'm saying. But PBR.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

Yeah. But also just to mix it up. Yeah. Mix it up, man. Wine should be fun. And wine should not be like a, you know, the great thing about graft is because we can sell people bottles of wine, and then if you drink at Graft, I can just charge you $15 on top of retail. So like let's say you spend $50 on a bottle of Graft, that that's a wine that at a restaurant would probably be maybe like $120, $130. Right. You know, because of the restaurant markup. But because we're a retail store first, we don't really care so much about the restaurant markup because you know, if you want to drink there, we'll just charge you $15. I don't really care.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Boom.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

And uh so for us, it's like you get to go drink the wines that you're excited about, and you don't feel like you're putting a hole in your pocket.

SPEAKER_04 39:55

Yep. Yeah. And I agree on that.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

And that's important to getting people in the seats and drinking wine and being like, it's my day off, I'm gonna go drink some champagne at Graf. Right. And it feels better, my fine. It feels better than drinking other stuff.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

You can have that conversation too, because I'm sure like you're gonna let me know about that bottle.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

And I what's funny is I tell people that, you know, you remember like back in the day you go to Blockbuster, you like run into people where you're like looking for a movie and like all that, you know. That doesn't happen anymore. Nah, it doesn't exist. But you get that blockbuster feeling when you go to graft, you know. Hanging out, yeah. You might see a Quran, and then they're like, oh, you know, I was just buying a bottle. What y'all love to tonight? We should crack this. You know, and I see it happen all the time when people run into each other at the shop and and they make moves, you know, and and it's great. I love I love have creating that atmosphere.

SPEAKER_04 40:46

Femi, I can speak to you all day. Gosh, we're gonna have to link back up and we'll do it over a bottle of wine. Yes, sir. But we're gonna wrap up for today. But before we do, one thing I do want you to uh do for our audience is drop some socials for them, give them that location of Graft, let them know where they can find you and if you have anything upcoming that they need to be paying attention to.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

Okay, cool. Um, yeah, you can find us on Instagram at uh graft. Yep. At Graft Chs. Uh you can find me, I'm Femington Steele. And then um uh Graft is the 700 King Street on uh uh 700 King Street, downtown Charleston. Can't miss it. Oh, it is great. Come visit us on a Sunday. We do a thing called Good Neighbor Sunday. It's a parking lot party, 3 to 6 p.m. Uh, it's one of my favorite things that we do. We have a food truck outside, just really good wine, good people. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:39

You know you have to start sending your stuff to us on the daily so we can post. Come on, and in that way we can make sure we pop down too. Um it's been a wonderful interview. Man, I'm gonna get you we're gonna get you longer because I have some other questions. We'll get to them.

SPEAKER_03 41:53

But yeah, there's lots I want to talk about. But uh celebrated, yeah. Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Tell me about the name graft. Yeah, yeah, it grew up quick. Yeah, graft is a viticultural term. Uh whenever you are planting a vineyard, in most cases, in most cases, you're actually grafting or joining two plants, essentially. So the the graft is essentially the procedure, but more or less it's a verb for for many cases for planting or establishing a vineyard or changing grape varieties or a bunch of things. But uh a lot of the life of a plant, right, often begins with the graft. And so such and such.

SPEAKER_04 42:27

I see, I see. Awesome, right? Awesome, awesome, man. I was pleased with the conversation today. Um, I know Skip was saying, man, we could talk all day. He had to hit me, he had about to hit me outside the head. But um this is DJ and what? Mike. Tamaya, Skip, and our esteemed guest.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

Hey, Femi.

SPEAKER_04 42:48

Man, it's been a pleasure. Thank you, bro. Anytime, we are gonna link back up on that. But until the next time, tell somebody next to him that you love, that you appreciate them, and you care about them. And for the Hilltop Glove Podcast signing out, peace. Peace.