VinePair

Helping consumers better understand the humanity of winemaking

By Nicolette Barker

For husband-wife duo Rose Previte and David Greene, wine isn’t just defined by regional barriers — it’s a global, interconnected network. With their newly launched brand, Go There Wines, they strive to achieve the lofty goal of helping consumers better understand the humanity of winemaking. Alongside friend Chandler Arnold and documentary art director Mark Pallman, they hope to build up the winemakers in the Republic of Georgia, Lebanon, South Africa, and California already creating an impact in their own communities.

VinePair spoke with Rose and David about their worldwide travel experiences, the partner winemakers that inspire them, and the purpose behind every bottle of Go There Wines.

1. David, you have a very long and defining career in journalism; how did you pivot to the wine industry?

David: It’s been a really interesting journey. I left NPR – it’s been a year and a half – and I still love storytelling. I’m still working in that space, and I’ve been working on some podcast projects. But I was just in this moment where I wanted my storytelling to have more impact. I was in this space when Covid started, and I watched both of Rose’s restaurants having to pivot. While still hosting Morning Edition, I was helping to deliver meals with her to hospitals, and I was just seeing the impact that her industry could have on people’s lives. I watched her develop new wine programs over the years, and I could just see how stories are so at the heart of when she is selling wine at the restaurants. I knew it was something she wanted to build out more than what she could do at her restaurants. I’m a storyteller and I’ve been inspired from when I’ve traveled with her by just the power of food, wine, and the stories behind it.

2. Rose, both you and David have an extensive history with traveling — even visiting over 30 countries while living in Russia. I’ve read that your travels informed many of the decisions for your restaurant, Compass Rose. How has travel influenced your goals and vision for Go There Wines?

Rose: That informs everything, from the design of the restaurants to the menus. Truly, this all started because of us living in Russia and discovering Georgian wine. In Moscow, Georgian wine was embargoed and the Russians did it to punish the Georgians, and I quickly realized that wine was a geopolitical issue. I was blown away. I have a master’s in public policy, and I was like, “Wait, that’s a policy decision, that you can punish a country by not importing their wine anymore?” Which I never would have known about if we hadn’t lived in Russia and hadn’t traveled to Georgia. I got it real in my head, when we got back and opened Compass Rose, that I would sell as much Georgian wine as possible because I thought that was really mean of the Russians. So, that was my little protest. It’s been a journey and the travel is so eye-opening. If I never would’ve traveled, I never would have understood how powerful wine can be.

3. Are you hoping consumers have the same type of experience when they choose your wines?

R: Yes. And truly having David on the project has been so unique, as opposed to other wine companies, because David is a journalist coming onboard to tell stories. It’s about the wine, and it’s super high quality and all our winemakers will tell you, “Just because we come from tough circumstances don’t buy our wine because you feel bad for us. You should buy our wine because it’s really good.” So that’s an important thing to remember. The beauty of what we’re doing with Go There is telling their stories. When you scan the QR code on the back of the bottle, you’re taken to a one-minute video to meet the winemaker.

4. The videos that David has already created for YouTube look amazing. What’s your creative process in telling these winemakers’ stories? What do you want to get to the heart of?

D: I really didn’t want this content to feel promotional or like marketing — I wanted it to feel like a documentary film you’d want to immerse yourself in a theater. That was really important to me, especially as a journalist. This was not asking the winemakers we work with to sit down and say these eight bullet points about a company. This was literally going and immersing myself like I would if I was on assignment as a journalist or host. It’s helped me understand, asking about their life stories, why they make wine, and how they want to change their communities. It’s what I would’ve asked if I was doing a story for NPR.

5. I’m so curious about the profit-sharing program. How is that structured, and how does it work for partners?

It’s really straightforward: 25 percent of any profits we make are shared by our winemaking partners. While we talk to them about various ideas — Nondumiso [Pikashe] wants to hopefully own her production facility at one point; she also wants to help children dream about accessing the wine industry. Tara [Gomez] and Maria [Taribó], as they said in the film, dreamed about owning their own mountain and vineyard. Eddie talked about how important their town is, and building community around their business in Lebanon. Abdullah has been sending money back whenever he can to his family in Syria. So they all have different ideas for how selling their wines can help their communities. We basically want to say, like, “You’re our partners, here’s the profit sharing, tell us what you want to do so we can support you in any way, but you’re free to use it in any way in terms of helping your community and your business and your mission.”

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