Today we’d like to introduce you to Kris Levy.
Hi Kris, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey into wine started about ten years ago when I was stationed in Colorado Springs, CO for the Army. My father had business there and would come to visit once a month or so to check on the business and take his employees out to dinner. When we would go out to dinner, he would ask for the wine list from the server, to which the server would ask him if he needed assistance ordering wine for the table.
Then, without batting an eye, he’d look at the menu and order wine for the table without skipping a beat. Watching him order wine with such confidence planted a seed early on for me to want to learn more about wine. Then, in 2017, I got my first chance to take a solo trip to Italy where I set the sole intention of learning as much as I could about Italian wine. Sure, I did all the touristy things, but I made it my priority to seek out the best Italian wines and varietals, and immerse myself in the wine culture of each locale I found myself in. At that point wine become more than something I enjoyed, it became a life pursuit.
In 2020, I had the opportunity to move to California and was immediately engrossed with California wines. I just loved finding all these boutique and specialized wineries throughout the area, and just learning what each region was known for. Then the pandemic happened and we all immediately went into lockdown.
But I didn’t want my wine education to stop, so I started doing weekly virtual happy hours where I would contact a local winery or winery along the west coast, even some international, and would have them, often the owner themselves, come on and talk about their wines to really tell the story behind the wine. At first, it was just friends and family, but then it started to grow and morph into more of a wine community.
After doing that for six months, I loved the community I had built but I knew I wanted more, I wanted a business. So In August of 2020, I set out to create a wine club featuring all these wonderful boutique wineries and their wines that are fantastic, and so that way when someone would ask me “Hey Kris, what wines do you recommend?” I could just tell them to join the wine club and we will ship them to your door.
Since then, we still have our wine club, Kris’s Wine Club, and we’ve also moved into wine events, and wine marketing spaces.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It certainly has not been a smooth road. I remember one of the biggest challenges in launching the wine club was connecting with often the one or two-person owners of the wineries to ask them to come onto our virtual wine club member call. Even well into COVID, wineries were still hesitant to change their models, so it took a lot of convincing to get some wine owners to embrace new technology and find new ways to reach new customers.
As you know, we’re big fans of K. Levy Wine Co. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
K. Levy Wine Co. focuses on bringing people together around food and wine. Our primary offering is our monthly wine club, Kris’s Wine Club, which every month features a new winery from the U.S. with wines that you normally will not find in a grocery store or even in a wine shop. Every month, I handpick wines from the winery, then I interview the winemaker or winery owner on my podcast, Everyday Wine, which you can listen to for free on all major podcast outlets.
The interviews really help people understand the context around the wine and the intention behind each bottle. Our wine club is different from other wine clubs you might be familiar with because I personally handpick each wine that goes out after it goes through a rigorous tasting process. Also, our wines ship direct to consumer, straight from the winery itself, so by supporting the wine club you are also supporting each of these boutique wineries directly. Finally, giving back is really important, so with every purchase, a portion of the profits and proceeds go directly to veteran and military non-profits that our members and I care about.
For other businesses, we also do corporate events, both virtual and in-person. In the past, we’ve offered wine pairing classes, wine and charcuterie classes, and blind wine tasting competitions. We’ve been used by big brands such as Tinder, Dropbox, and Blue Shield of CA. Our events are favorites of our corporate partners because they help them create new business with potential clients, or help them show appreciation for their employees with team building and off-site events.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I’ve learned so far is to just keep going, keep swinging. As long as you don’t give up, and keep taking the punches, you are still standing and will continue to develop and hone your business skills.
Pricing:
- Wine Club Blue Tier ( 1x White and 1x Red Wine every month) – $50-100 monthly
- Wine Club Red Tier ( 2x Red Wines every month) – $70-120 monthly
Contact Info:
- Email: kris@krislevy.co
- Website: klevywineco.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/therealkrislevy
- Facebook: facebook.com/therealkrislevy
- Other: vinoshares.com/clubs
Image Credits
Esperanza Dunning Image and Erica Manfre
