Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #11: Leslie Frelow The Wine Concierge & Aamira Garba of LoveLee Wine!

Show Notes

Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #11: Leslie Frelow The Wine Concierge & Aamira Garba of LoveLee Wine! 00:00

Hi everyone! We are so excited for you to talk with two amazing women - Leslie Frelow who is the owner and engine behind The Wine Concierge who specializes in selling hand-crafted produced by women and culturally diverse winemakers and producers from boutique vineyards and Aamira Garba who is the winemaker and CEO of LoveLee Wine. So, stay tuned to hear their stories and find out more about them both!

Introduction to the Interview with Leslie Frelow The Wine Concierge & Aamira Garba of LoveLee Wine! 00:30

Hello, and welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and for this special episode, I am on my own as my wine pairing partner in crime is busy making cakes for her Baby Cakes micro-bakery, which by the way you can learn more about if you head over to her website lovebabycakes.com.

Now, as a quick orientation to our podcast, what we usually do in each episode is learn about, taste, and review two to three wines that are reasonably priced, which means under $20, and should be easy to find. However, for this special set of episodes, we interview people who are involved in actually making wine. Because part of what we want to do with our podcast is to educate ourselves and you on different aspects of wine knowledge in a fun, entertaining, and unstuffy way, even fun and entertaining as Decanter magazine has called our podcast, and that is what we are doing today!

A small plug before we get to the interview with Leslie and Aamira - if you like what you are hearing or are interested in hearing our other “regular” episodes, please subscribe to or follow our podcast so you can hear more - especially since you are only getting one half of The Wine Pair Podcast in this episode! You can also go to our website thewinepairpodcast.com to send us a note or subscribe to our newsletter, you can follow us on Instagram at The Wine Pair Podcast, and, if you like what you are hearing, you can even leave us a nice rating and review, we won’t mind!

Ok, let’s get to the interview with Leslie and Aamira

Interview with Leslie Frelow and The Wine Concierge & Aamira Garba and LoveLee Wine 02:05

Hi Leslie and Aamira - and welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. 

We are so happy and honored to have you with us, and Leslie, this is actually our second time having the privilege of talking with you - a couple of years ago we did an interview with the Swirl Suite so it is great to talk to you again - and we are really looking forward to hearing more about the both of you, the stories about how you got where you are today, how you met, and what the future looks like for both of your businesses. 

Well, without further ado, let’s jump in - we are going to start by getting a little background on each of you, so let’s start with Leslie, and then we will have you share, Aamira

Interview Questions:

• Tell us a little about each of you - your backgrounds, how you got into wine, and how you came to where you are today.
• How did the two of you meet, and how/why did you decide to start working together?
• For Leslie: Tell us a little bit about The Wine Concierge - why you started it, who your audience is, what your goals are, and what you have learned along the way
• For Leslie: What is important to you when you are considering who you work with and whose wines you choose to sell on your website?
• For Leslie: How did you start working with Aamira? 
• For Both: What do people need to know about the experiences, challenges and opportunities of being an African American in the wine business?
• For Aamira: was winemaking and starting your own brand something you had planned for and pursued, or did it "find" you?
• For Aamira:Did you have a mentor, or someone who taught you the ropes?
• For Aamira: What do you think defines you as a winemaker and makes you and your wines special? Are there any wines you would like to share with our listeners that you are particularly excited about? Do you lean more towards the art or the science of wine (or both)?
• For Aamira: If we were to invite you to Sunday Night Dinner (a tradition in our Italian American family), what of your wines would you bring and why?
• For Both: How can people find you wines and follow you (your website, social, etc.)? 

Outro and How to Find Leslie Frelow and The Wine Concierge & Aamira Garba and LoveLee Wine 39:19

Thank you very much for listening to our interview with Leslie and Aamira, and we hope you will take the time to learn more about them and their businesses.

Just in case you are worried about memorizing all the website or email to get in touch with them, don’t worry, you can find out all of this information on our website thewinepairpodcast.com in our show notes for this episode. But so you have it, here again is the information about how to find out more about them

For Leslie and The Wine Concierge

• Website: https://thewineconcierge.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewineconciergeclub
• Email: hello@thewineconcierge.co

For Aamira and LoveLee Wine

• Website: https://www.loveleewine.com/ where you can also reach out to contact Aamira
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveleewine

And, we hope you will subscribe to our podcast The Wine Pair Podcast and follow us on Instagram, and visit our website at thewinepairpodcast.com where you can reach out to us and sign up for our newsletter, and you can also reach out to me at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com if you want more information, and we look forward to hearing from you!

But for now it’s time to go, and as we like to say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.

Support The Wine Pair Podcast by clicking on this affiliate link to wine.com and find great wines under $20! You can also support us by clicking on this affiliate link to join the Wall Street Journal wine club and get a special welcome offer!