I am a curious wine human,
exploring emotions and connections that we can have with wine, outside the liquid inside the glass.
La Nonna Giovanna, in Barolo, sharing with me her Nas-cetta. She is a remarkable Wine Human with many stories to tell.
The starting line
My name is Juan, and my relationship with wine started in Mendoza, Argentina, where I was born.
My grandfather, the original “Juan”, introduced me to the world of wine. With my brother, I played in his winery, and with him, I tasted wine for the first time.
After University, following a short stint in a winery in Mendoza, I found my way to the UK. By chance, and perhaps by destiny, I found a job in a cool wine shop in Oxford and my personal love affair with wine started. Literally and metaphorically because through the shop, I also found my wife. :-)
A younger version of me in 2003, in the Oddbins wine store, Oxford High Street. The place where the wine journey began.
Wine growing…
My professional career allowed me to finish my WSET Level 4 Diploma in 2008 and work for 15 years in international management roles in Asia, Europe and Canada, as an International Sales Manager and later as an International Business Development Director, where I experienced the world of wine from every angle: producers, distributors/ importers, markets, brand development and consumers.
But, somehow, over those years the wine business started to feel anything but about wine. The glass was empty and my relationship with wine got broken.
By 2014, with a mighty mid-life crisis kicking strongly, I found on Facebook this picture from my friend Grace. She took it in the vineyards of Valle de Uco, in Mendoza.
I saw how this brave Gorrion was fearless to jump into the unknown. Bravely taking a leap of faith. So I also did.
This picture gave me the push I needed, to take that “leap of faith” into creating a wine adventure on my own.
My tantrum for change was luckily shared by my wife and we moved with our kids from England to Alsace, in France, to start a new life, closer to vineyards again. Ready for new learnings and open to being curious again.
Finding the wine guy
I founded the Wine Guru on Wheels in 2016, with immense naivety and hope. Trying to reconnect again with my lost relationship with wine and to learn from the experience of creating something new from scratch.
Lesson one: It takes more energy than you ever thought it would and the pedalling is steady uphill most of the time.
Invariably, I soon found out it’s true what they say: “that in the end, the journey is the reward”. Although, the reward is not business success as such but discovering who you truly are.
So here I am, every day, discovering new things about myself, and more at peace with the “tantrum” prone wine guy.
The more time passes, the more I see wine outside the glass. As a clear connection tool. As a messenger.
Wine can create a path to building relationships with people. Help you discover life teachings from the grapevines (they make constant life decisions the same as we do) and represent a window that opens into the human stories of the people behind. Without these stories, we cannot relate emotionally to any wine. It gets reduced to its mere liquid value.
And true quality is not about the liquid, it’s understanding and appreciating the context of any wine. People, culture, nature, the origin and the process, the message that delivers to the drinker at a moment in time. The forest yet not the trees we need to see.
All these facets compounded elevate a wine. They are way bigger than the bottle, well beyond the wine inside.
I know there are other people like me that feel the same way. Other wine humans as I want to call them. They see wine differently and feel more connected with it not only as wine drinkers. They are open to exploring the many aspects of it, they recognize there is more to wine than just wine.
I am on a journey of discovery and exploration, hope the same as you are, so let’s cross paths soon to discover the infinite human experiences we can create together with wine.
Until that time. Cheers!
Juan Lo Bello
I created this video a few days after I wrote this story - Feb. 2023 - it is unedited, as it flows.
“The Wine Guru is a great teacher, you can feel the passion out of his events, makes them more enjoyable and definitely original. Don’t expect a standard frame, as an artist explores different types of medium to communicate, Juan is doing the same to communicate his genuine love of wine with a strong expertise. Give it a try and cheers”
