Wine Situation Final Five! With Caroline Liem

The final five are questions posed to guests at the end of Ellen Clifford’s “The Wine Situation” podcast. This week she is joined by casting director, notable vegan, and (surprise!) winemaker Caroline Liem. Liem recently opened The Village, an acting school Ellen counts herself lucky to be studying at. Hear the full episode here and learn more about Caroline’s situation…with wine. THE FINAL FIVE (edited for length): Ellen: What is the best pairing—any kind of beverage and any kind of food—you can ever remember having? Caroline: Champagne and everything. Ellen: Okay! Actually you’re 100% right on! If there is anything hard to pair you just say Champagne. Good one. Best vegan wine? Caroline: For me it's Albero . That’s my go-to. It’s the one that I have with meals; it’s the one when friends come over and drop in; it’s just really easy. I’m really open, by the way, for your listeners to chime in with some other ones I should try. (Albero was a delightful wine Caroline shared earlier in the episode.) Ellen: How do you feel about wine as an industry gift? Caroline: Know the person; do a little research. If you are going to give a gift, it’s personal; it’s not a pat thing, so sometimes I’ll get wine and Champagne, and sometimes I’ll get a gift card to the most random place, but it’s the right place for me, if that makes sense. Ellen: Do you have an example of that? Caroline: Yeah, I got a gift certificate for a spa, but it very specifically said a cranial massage with facial. And I’m like ‘who would have thought of a cranial massage’ but—it’s because that person knows me. So, just sayin’. Ellen: I guess I’ll take my Chateauneuf du Pape and walk out the door. Another standard question: If you made a wine, what would you make and what would you name it? Caroline: I have made a wine, I have made a wine! Ellen: Oh my god. Caroline: I have. Omigosh—do I have it here? (recording took place in Liem’s home) It’s in this house somewhere. Ellen: What did you make and what did you call it? Caroline: Caroline’s Wine, and I designed the label. The label was a mannequin but just the form of the mannequin, you couldn’t really see it was a woman, and instead of a head we had a bouquet of flowers. And it was a mix—I want to say it was like—I think it was a Cab/Merlot. I made it in Oxnard. A friend and I decided that year we wanted to make it as gifts for people who we adore. It was a two-month process, and I said let’s do it. Let’s get in. We mixed it. We bottled it. We waited on it and we labeled that thing and delivered it. Ellen: That’s incredible. Well this brings us to our last question that everyone has gotten since the beginning of time or at least this podcast: What is currently bringing you joy? Caroline: Oh, wow, that’s going to make me cry! What is currently this moment bringing me joy is knowing that the people around me are all doing good things and they’re moving forward. They may not know they’re moving forward, but even today—because I do a Village idiot thing monthly with my business students—today they are like “oh I didn’t hit any of my goals” and we talk about, well what did you do this month actually, and they actually surpassed their goals. So I think today, where I’m at today, it’s all about authenticity—everyone talks about authenticity; everyone talks about that realness, but, you know we wouldn’t be sitting here talking if I weren’t being real and you weren’t being real. So, we are doing the best we can and we just keep moving forward. Wise words from a wise woman. Cheers! Check out the previous Wine Situation podcast with Adam Roberts here .