For over five years, I have been writing about Orlando’s wine community and the people and businesses that make it so special. You may have noticed, however, that my posts here on Orlando Wine Blog have been much less frequent lately. I can finally explain why. Wine has been a passion for many years, and wine writing has been a wonderful avocation, but it’s never been my livelihood. My career has been primarily in public media journalism — first as a reporter, then as a newsroom leader, and for the past eight years as a journalism and content consultant. I’m a passionate advocate for the impor ..read more

In early 2020, Heather LaVine left the thriving wine and hospitality empire she and her partner had built from scratch in Upstate New York, moved to Florida, and opened a tiny natural wine boutique. The owner of Golden Hour Wine in Orlando’s Baldwin Park neighborhood talks about her journey from school teacher to minor league baseball employee to local hospitality leader … and explains why she decided to seek a new life as part of Central Florida’s wine community. Orlando composer Julian Bond provided original music for UnWineding. 90.7 WMFE provides distribution and promotional assistance.&nb ..read more

Golden Hour Wine sits on a quiet side street a couple of blocks from New Broad Street, Baldwin Park’s main drag. Clocking in at only 650 square feet, it’s tiny a tiny space, but beautifully appointed, and it somehow manages not to feel the least bit cramped, despite having over 600 different wines on display. Golden Hour has been open since April of this year, and to say its selection is eclectic would be an understatement. Owner Heather LaVine’s laser focus on natural wines from the Old World means you’re more likely to find a pinot noir from Germany or Switzerland than from California. All b ..read more

What do you do after a successful career in the corporate world and a decade spent running your own business consulting company? If you’re Cherié Rivett, you launch a wine distribution business! Cherié is the owner and CEO of Orlando-based Harvest Moon Distributors, a company created to meet a very specific need that soon expanded far beyond its founders’ expectations. Cherié talks about how she built her ship while sailing it, learning the wine industry from the ground up and discovering some hard realities along the way. She also talks about how she managed to shepherd the company through th ..read more

Four years after opening Luisa’s Cellar, a wine bar and cafe in downtown Sanford, Florida, Yellymary (Mary) Montalvo recently announced she and her husband are closing the bar at the end of July and moving to North Carolina to start a wine academy. The decision, she says, was not about money — the pandemic reopening has been lucrative — but about her need to prioritize her health and her relationships. In this special episode, Mary returns to UnWineding for an exit interview. She shares lessons she’s learned about the hard realities of the wine and hospitality business, the newfound passion fo ..read more

“I have learned, the older I get, that dreams are one thing and realities are the other,” Yellymary Montalvo told me last November during an interview for the UnWineding podcast. “It was a very nice dream, but it’s a very challenging business — a wine bar.”  Yesterday, the energetic and outspoken owner of Lusia’s Cellar in downtown Sanford announced on social media that she and her husband and co-owner Sascha Weyer are getting out of that challenging business at the end of July. Prioritizing health “The last year was extremely challenging financially and emotionally due to the COVID 19 pa ..read more

If you felt a little confused by the recent change in mask guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you aren’t the only one. Restaurants and bars were thrown for a loop too.  The CDC said last week that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely stop wearing masks in most outdoor and indoor environments. The announcement came as a surprise to many in the public health community and sent businesses scrambling to respond.  Swirlery Wine Bar in Orlando’s SoDo District dropped its mandatory mask requirement for customers and staff immediately after t ..read more

Exactly one year ago, UnWineding launched amid the chaos of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions that sent the hospitality industry into a tailspin. Season One of the podcast followed three Florida wine industry professionals through six tumultuous months of the pandemic, as they watched their businesses suffer and their bank accounts dwindle. In this episode, we check in with them again, as vaccinations are on the rise and things are finally looking brighter. Listen as they tell us about their ups and downs, milestones, accolades, and even some big plans on the horizon. Orlando composer Julian ..read more

After more than five years in Orlando’s SoDo District, Swirlery Wine Bar is looking to expand eastward. “If you know me, you might know that I’m a water baby,” says co-owner and Advanced Sommelier Melissa McAvoy, who says she’s been thinking about a coastal presence for some time. She says she’s actively looking for locations in New Smyrna Beach and Daytona Beach that could host a wine shop / wine bar hybrid similar to Swirlery’s SoDo setup. McAvoy broke the news today in an interview for the one-year anniversary episode of the UnWineding podcast, which debuts later this week. “Magnetic pull ..read more

Growing up in a Vietnamese-American family, Nga Ly-Henschen was never exposed to wine. She moved to Orlando to study microbiology at the University of Central Florida, with an eye on a future medical career. But a glass of riesling on a blind date at one of the city’s early wine hubs changed everything. Fast forward a decade and a half, and Nga is now the General Manager of Capa Restaurant and Lounge on the top floor of the Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World. She talks about her journey into the wine world, her transition to a corporate life of working with high-end wines, Capa’s COVID-1 ..read more