We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Devin Reed. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Devin below.

Devin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

Being a sommelier isn’t always glamorous. Doing a wine inventory can be a nightmare. Breaking an expensive bottle can cost you your paycheck. And spilling wine on a guest might get you cursed out. There’s a ton of things that people don’t see.

The educational part of wine is daunting. Learning wine at it’s highest levels takes a lot of work and a lot of dedication. You’re always doing things like learning words and regions in languages that you don’t even speak. There’s years of studying, and then you have to be able to translate all the knowledge into terms that a normal person can understand.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I created Wine & Culture LA as a way to showcase the wine world to an audience that hasn’t traditionally been spoken to. I grew up in the inner city of St Louis, MO in one of the poorest neighborhoods and wine wasn’t a thing. Later in life we drank 151, beer, “light” (Vodka, usually Grey Goose) or “dark” (Cognac, usually Hennessy). Years and years later, as I climbed the ladder in my wine career, it was rare to find someone of my race and demographic that spoke like me, or interpreted wine like I did. Throughout my career, I got to meet some of the most amazing people in the world, and I got to see how they enjoyed wine. I’ve been in rooms with Lebron, Drake, Jay-Z and many others while they’ve enjoyed wine. And I realized that there’s an entire culture of wine that people don’t even know about. And those are things I wanted to bring to Wine & Culture LA. We drink the best wines in the world with some of the best people in the world.

When people watch my show, I really want them to be able to learn about wine & the culture of wine. There’s so many cool things about wine, for instance, every bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild every single year contains label artwork from a different artist. Artists like Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Jeff Koons. So don’t throw your Picasso in the trash after you drink it!!!

We don’t wear white gloves and suits when we drink wine. We don’t hold our pinky fingers up when we drink, unless you feeling fancy. We drink wine in Jordans and logo tees. We’ve created the coolest wine show on the planet. Every episode, a different guest joins the show. Last time, Cedric the Entertainer came by, and we talked about some of his favorite wines, did a wine tasting, and talked about how wine has changed his life. Then at the end of every episode, we test the guest’s wine knowledge for them to win a bottle of Opus One.

I’m most proud when people say that they learn things that they never knew when they watch the show and it doesn’t feel stuffy. Wine is for everybody, and no longer does the industry need to feel like an exclusive profession.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Covid made us all pivot. We were all stuck at home and weren’t able to see each other’s faces as much. So I pivoted to digital content and began working with Lebron James’ media company UNINTERRUPTED doing Wine Wednesday IG live sessions. So we began doing much more work in the wine concierge space, leaning on our wine expertise and relationships to facilitate contact-less wine & spirits deliveries all over the world. The point is, we never stopped, we never gave up, and that’s a valuable lesson that I’ve learned as a creative.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The best thing we can do as a society to support creatives we like is share their story! Share it on your IG stories. Share their YouTube. Tell your friends. Tell your homegirl, tell your friend, tell your cousin. Viewers and audiences hold the power and we ultimately dictate what’s seen in media. So make sure that you help create the world you want to see and support those that you like.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wineandculturela.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/wineandculturela
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wineandculture