New video series: Intoxicating Conversation With W. Blake Gray

Conversation brings us together. The further we feel apart, the more we need a connection.

Today I launch a new video series: Intoxicating Conversation With W. Blake Gray

People need entertainment. Many crave information about wine, or whisky, or cannabis, and of course not just those. But you can get information in print. For conversation, just two people talking, wherever it goes, you need video.

And I believe that now more than ever, we need conversation. We need connection.

I'm speaking pretty ambitiously for a novice video journalist. I've been a print and online journalist since university, specializing in wine, spirits and cannabis for the last 16 years. I might have a face for radio and a voice for newspaper. Plus, I realized recently I probably won't be able to get a haircut for months.

Whatever. It's time for this.

Wine draws interesting people. Winemakers, the good ones, are a cross of scientist and artist. Farming wine grapes isn't like producing any other fruit. I've had so many intoxicating conversations regarding it, many with the guests you'll see in this series.

I was sheepish about asking my inaugural guest, Laura Catena, to do this. She's busy running harvest at her family's winery in Argentina, Catena Zapata, from her home in San Francisco, where she is stuck for the time being because Argentina has closed its borders.

But Laura was my dream first guest, so I asked anyway. And my dream came true: she agreed right away.

Laura is very impressive. For 30 years, she was an emergency room physician in San Francisco, specializing in emergency care for children. At the same time, she was helping her father run the family winery. Catena Zapata makes a lot of excellent wines. But I think its strength in the US was having Laura living here. Amazingly, she sometimes found free time from her medical duties AND raising children to jet off and do tastings for sommeliers, journalists and wine lovers. She's scientifically minded, and she's also a positive person who enjoys life.

At the end of last year she quit her ER job to focus on the winery; she talks about it in the video. You or I might think, wow, great timing. I'll let her tell you what she thinks.

As for the rest of the series, I'll do my best. 頑張ります. (To see more, subscribe to my Youtube channel.)

Here goes: Intoxicating Conversation With W. Blake Gray: Laura Catena, ER doctor and winery managing director

Follow me on Twitter: @wblakegray and Instagram @wblakegray and like The Gray Report on Facebook.
And subscribe to my Youtube channel!