What's Your Zodiac Sign? We'll Tell you What Wine to Drink
/Carlie Steiner and Casey Rath make serious wine buying fun
By Matt Yan | Photography by Jennifer Chase | Edible DC
In Carlie Steiner’s newest venture, Seco Wine, she adds a whimsical twist to wine-buying: a personalized and fully curated wine purchasing experience that can also be playful. Some of her recent wine packs have themes, such as the “Baby Makin’ Moods” or her “FML The Kids Aren’t Going Back To School This Academic Year Survival Moods.”
Steiner, co-owner of Pom Pom restaurant in Petworth, shared with us the inner workings of her newest business, Seco Wine, born during COVID and we talked about that, her partnership with her in-house somm, Casey Rath, and the process of how she picks wines for her packs both seriously or serious fun, like her newest venture with pairing wine with Zodiac signs.
Edible DC: So, can you tell us a little more about Seco Wine, your newest venture, and what you’re doing with it?
Carlie Steiner: The word “pivot” is kind of going around a lot. Seco was my answer to creatively surviving. I really wanted to try to quickly reshape and rethink what I was able to do, not just for a temporary period of time but to think further than that. Pom Pom wasn’t going to return anytime soon, that was pretty clear when we knew we weren’t going to reopen for another month or two. Seco is the answer to that and also an opportunity, which is tapping into the experimental wine buying that really only happens in restaurants. It was a chance to use my industry experience in hospitality and to create a business that is all about the really fun part of wine-buying—where you’re getting to talk to the restaurant somm and have them lead you new directions that are exciting.
It’s always been really important to me to step away from grape varietals, points of origin or designated origins because I think there is so much more to a wine. Those are very important qualities of a wine, obviously–there's a reason that we harp so much on them. But there’s also so much more to do with the wine buying experience. So that’s what Seco is—it’s creating a more whimsical and playful experience with wine buying and cocktail buying as well.
“Seco was my answer to creatively surviving. I really wanted to try to quickly reshape and rethink what I was able to do, not just for a temporary period of time but to think further than that.”
EDC: How have your customers reacted to this new concept of buying wine?
CS: The other person involved in Seco is Casey Rath. Even though I have a wine background, she’s the somm of Seco Wine, and what I really value about our business partnership in this is that she is much more technical and much more educated about wine. She’s more interested in the product and I'm more interested in the “why?”.
Collectively we are able to put out these really interesting and fun packs, such as the Baby Makin’ pack, it's like, “Where else can you go and buy wine that comes with chocolate and lube? Um––nowhere!” We are working with wines that have names that fit the bill and are also very delicious. One of the wines is called “Casual Encounters” and the other one is called “Send Nudes.” It’s not just that you’re buying wine––you’re buying the whole evening. Or alternatively, for people who are incredibly serious about their producers or are very particular with their origin of wine, a particular style or grape varietal, that’s really Casey’s work, which are curated consultations, something that has also been gaining a lot of attention. The price online starts at zero dollars because it’s just completely a conversation. It’s really all about your taste, your style and what you're looking for. Having a balance between the whimsy and very serious wine-buying has been what has given us the validity of maintaining this space.
Carlie Steiner, wine muse and co-owner of Seco Wine and Pom Pom.
EDC: There has been a lot of buzz about your astrology packs. How do you curate and personalize a wine pack based off of someone’s astrological sign?
CS: It's a three-bottle pack and it's much like the Baby-Makin’ pack. It’s funny, and it fits the bill of each of the signs. For example, I'm a Virgo, and one of the things that's very important to me is attention to detail, so we have this incredible white blend that has won multiple awards because of their attention to detail to winemaking, so it's silly little branches like that. The horoscope packs take the most time for Casey and I to sit down and think: What does this person like? And what are they going to enjoy? Once we pick out what wines we think these signs will enjoy based on their astrological point, we have to make the bridge make sense with words.
EDC: Is there an exact science? Is there kind of an exact flavor profile you’re seeking?
CS: There’s definitely not an exact flavor profile, and that's where we have to rest on our knowledge of wine and then our newer knowledge of astrology. But of course, there's not an exact science to it at all. A lot of times, we will get people that buy a Gemini pack and say, “I want all red,” so we've just created what we think is the perfect Gemini pack, and now, we have to come up with a new Gemini pack that fits the bill of this person’s preferences. So, clearly it is not about an exact science––it's about evoking an emotion. It’s about receiving the packs and then thinking, “That’s really funny, I love how they made that connection.” The work really is so personal, and it just has a lot of creativity in it.
A DC resident, Matt Yan is a summer intern with Edible DC this summer and will be starting his second year at Northeastern University, pursuing a combined degree in Journalism and English, with a minor in French. He is an aspiring food journalist, and loves to travel and explore new places through food. His instagram is @yan.matt
