Dorothy: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Dorothy Gibbons, CEO and Co-Founder of The Rose. Ryan Levy believes that when you take care of your community, it will take care of you. Here’s a story of the creation of Nice Winery. And the support it has given to The Rose and how it’s helped us serve hundreds more women every year.
Let’s Talk About Your Breast, a different kind of podcast presented to you by The Rose Breast Center of Excellence and a Texas treasure. You’re going to hear frank discussions about tough topics, and you’re going to learn why knowing about your breast could save your life. Join us as we hear another story and we answer those tough questions that you may have.
Ryan: I’m Ryan Levy and I’m the winemaker at Nice Winery.
Dorothy: So glad to have you here today.
Ryan: Glad to be here.
Dorothy: So, tell us how you got into this making wines.
Ryan: Kind of a strange story. I’m a [00:01:00] lifelong Houstonian. I was born and raised here. Went to Dulles High School down in Sugar Land and, uh, ended up, uh, going to Rice University for my undergrad.
When I was growing up, I, uh, I had a passion for cooking. I loved to cook. I’d come home from school and I’d turn on the television, I’d be watching all kinds of cooking shows, whether it was Jacques Torres or Jacques Pepin or Martin Yan, and then I’d want to go and cook everything that I had, I had watched, and, uh, you know, I was kind of, for my age, a young kid watching Julia Child and just really, raptured by it, but my parents made it very clear at an early age that that was not a career choice I could either be a doctor or I could be a lawyer.
Those were the two acceptable career choices. So I I started as a biochemistry major at Rice. Graduated the degree in economics and political science went to law school at the University of Texas, but quickly plotted a course to [00:02:00] kind of abandon all that and move to France and study at Le Cordon Bleu, the same school where Julia Child studied.
Dorothy: Wow, what a story. I had no idea.
Ryan: And, uh, and so, you know, graduated from Rice, went to law school at the University of Texas, uh, took the bar, moved to France. And, uh, and enrolled in cooking school and then after that moved back to Texas, I did practice law for a period of time. And during that time, my Le Cordon Bleu classmate, Ian Eastfeld and I, um, started a restaurant.
And, uh, then after that moved out to California, trained under Master Sommelier David Glancy. We both became certified sommeliers with the Court of Master Sommeliers. I enrolled to study at UC Davis in their winemaking program. And kind of the rest is history.
Dorothy: Oh my gosh. Wow. What a, what a way to get to be a winemaker.
That is like incredible.
Ryan: That’s a little bit of a crazy convoluted [00:03:00] trajectory.
Dorothy: Yeah, yeah. So Nice Winery, tell us about that. I’ve never had a guest who we had to schedule his program, his episode around Harvest. I mean it was like what are we talking about? You were, you had to see When Harvest came in?
Ryan: We did. Yeah. We actually harvested all four of our Texas vineyards.
Dorothy: Oh.
Ryan: Uh, and it was crazy ’cause we’re harvesting in four locations in a 24 hour period and then we have to get all of those grapes crushed and back to our winery over on the west side of Houston. And start the fermentation, exciting time to be around.
Dorothy: Absolutely. And your wines have been champion wines of, was it Rodeo or different?
Ryan: Yeah, so a lot of people don’t realize the second largest wine competition in America happens right here in Houston as part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo wine competition. So, 20 countries from around the world [00:04:00] submit almost 19, 000 bottles of wine to be judged every year.
And if you win your class, like you’re the top Sauvignon Blanc, or you’re the top Malbec, or you’re top Cabernet Sauvignon, the trophy are these really cool rodeo belt buckles. And so I tell people, this is why French winemakers and Spanish winemakers and Italian winemakers all send their wines to Houston. They all want one of these big, crazy Texas belt buckles. But if you win the whole thing, you win a saddle. The same saddle that, like, the bull riders win, if they win that competition in the rodeo. And all of this, I mean, the buckles and the saddles and all the wine, all of this serves only one purpose. And that one purpose is to raise money to send kids to college here in Texas. So, um, Rodeo has raised over 575 [00:05:00] million for youth in education since its existence. And, um, and this cause is, uh, is personal to me because 30 years ago, when I was a senior in high school at Dulles high school, I could never have afforded to attend Rice University, my dream college.
You know, my mom’s a school teacher. My dad was a salesman. It just wasn’t in the cards for me. And thanks to a scholarship that I was awarded by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, I was able to go to college.
Dorothy: And that got you started. And now you’ve come full circle. I mean, you’re, you’re helping.
Ryan: In so many ways I, um, I, I like to tell people that Rodeo didn’t just give me the gift of being able to go to college. It gave me the gift of gratitude, which I think so many of us, we’re not born with the idea that we should be grateful, um, and [00:06:00] the idea that we should pay it forward and make opportunity available to others in thanks for what’s been given to us.
And so Rodeo instilled in me this, this fire, this desire to wake up every morning and say, how do I give back? How do I somehow contribute to this community that’s given so much to me, in a meaningful way?
Dorothy: And you have done that. I was amazed when you were telling us earlier about all the different charities that you support.
So let’s talk about that for just a bit because you do support the Rose.
Ryan: Yeah. One of the ways that we give back is that, um, we donate to almost 300 different 501c3 organizations, community organizations, uh, in order to help them raise money. We donate private guided tasting events at the winery, um, so that we can help them raise money and, uh, and contribute back to the [00:07:00] community.
So it’s everything from school PTAs to raising money for ALS. One of our wine club members, Stacey Brown, um, recently passed away after a long battle with ALS and a family friend, um, approached the winery about us doing an ALS fundraiser and I’m really, really excited to see his wife, Kelly and their family and their friends and not just to celebrate, um, his memory, but to pay it forward so that hopefully we can find a cure for this debilitating and horrible illness.
Dorothy: So go back to Nice Winery for just a minute. You actually have vineyards in the city.
Ryan: We do. We planted the very first commercial wine growing vineyard inside the city limits of the city of Houston.
Dorothy: How’d you get away with that?
Ryan: It was, it was a crazy time. You know, we, we bought this piece of land. Um, it’s about two acres back at the end of [00:08:00] 2018. And, um, it was a junkyard when we bought it. It was littered with rusted shipping containers, broken down RVs on cinder blocks. It had, uh, a fleet of dumpsters just.
Resting on the property. And it took us, um, roughly two and a half years to clean up the property, haul off all the dirt, bring in organic leaf litter, organic manure, organic compost, and to create what would be eventually a vineyard . And not just a vineyard, a vineyard that we could grow sustainably and as organically as possible.
And so after, um, after planting a cover crop of winter rye and tilling all that back in, we dug 300 holes for what would be our vineyard and planted those vines and built our production winery right there on site where the vineyard was. And we finished all of that construction and work. [00:09:00] Oh, about March of 2020.
We were ready to fling open the doors and invite people in and have wine dinners and classes and events. And, um, of course COVID had a, another plan.
Dorothy: Right.
Ryan: So for 15 months, we, we operated by meeting people in the parking lot, putting wine into their car as they drove up and Um, Looked like some crazy clandestine drug deal or something happening in the parking lot.
You know, they’d pop open the trunk. We put wine in the back, close the trunk. Everybody had masks on. We’ve lived through a lot.
Dorothy: Yeah. That’s surreal.
Ryan: Over the past few years.
Dorothy: Yeah. Yeah. But the place is gorgeous.
Ryan: Thank you.
Dorothy: It’s, uh, besides the, tell us about the different, uh, buildings there on it. On that land now.
Ryan: Yeah, I mean this, so, kind of just quick background, you know, we don’t just make wine in Texas. Even though we’ve [00:10:00] got four different vineyards where we grow grapes in Texas, we’ve also got vineyards in California, we have vineyards in Argentina, and we have vineyards in Washington State. So I spend a lot of time traveling between our various vineyards, um, to prepare for harvest.
We make wine in all of those places. And when we built our facility at, uh, Westview Drive, where we are now, in Spring Branch, we wanted to have something we didn’t have everywhere else. And that was a place to hold wine dinners, and wine classes, and wine education. Um, we’re not a wine bar. You can’t walk in and belly up to the bar and get a glass of wine.
We don’t do that. Um, we’re not an event space. Can’t have your wedding there. Um, we’re a place for wine and culinary education. So even though Ian and I both trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and we’re both chefs, we hired a team of chefs that creates some of the most outstanding culinary pairings with our wines so that, you know, [00:11:00] today, if you come to the winery and you book a tasting, it’s not a tasting, it’s an experience.
We’re going to sit down for two hours. We’re going to go through six wines, each paired with the perfect culinary bite to accentuate the flavors and aromas in the wine. We’re going to talk about it.
Dorothy: And that’s one of the ways that you do help others as you’re raising money. It’s a way that can work for that.
Ryan: It is. It is. And, and also I want to help by teaching too. We, we have. seven organic vegetable gardens at the winery, these raised bed vegetable gardens. Our goal is to be as sustainable. In the fourth largest city in the United States to be as sustainable as possible. What can we grow right here in the middle of the city?
So we’re growing vegetables and produce and herbs and fruit. And we’re putting those things on your plate. Every Friday night at the winery, we’ve got 100,000 [00:12:00] honeybees on property. We’ve got eight different beehives, we’ve got about 20 chickens. So we have our own eggs and the chickens have a dual purpose.
They eat all of the pests in the vineyard. So they keep the vineyard, um, pesticide free.
Dorothy: Oh, that is so great. Yeah. I’ve been there when they were walking around and going on and on. Yeah. It’s just a beautiful place. So now, bring us back to how we met, and how you got involved with The Rose, and of course, Emma, our wonderful, wonderful friend.
Ryan: Emma’s been a long time friend. In fact, she’s been a family friend for a very long time. And, you know, Emma in a lot of ways is a role model because she’s someone who went through this, this adversity, right? Battling breast cancer. And she turns it into something wonderful by creating a foundation to help other women.
Um, not just to raise money, but also to provide this chain of [00:13:00] support to put them in touch with other survivors, to put them in touch with doctors and, um, this is just the type of person that Emma is. She, she sees a problem and then she, she thinks about 15 ways to solve it and then executes 12 of them.
Dorothy: Yes.
Ryan: Um, it’s just who she is. Um, she wakes up every morning going zero to 60, you know, within 10 minutes of waking up and, you know, we started the winery. We were making wine and Emma says to me, you know, have you ever thought about making a wine specifically? To end deaths from breast cancer, and I was caught a little flat footed And I’m not someone who is generally at a loss for words. But I I’m sitting across from Emma and I was like no Emma that hadn’t really thought about that and she said well you don’t make a rosé and you should. And all the [00:14:00] proceeds should go to end deaths from breast cancer.
Dorothy: Oh, beautiful, beautiful. And we are talking about Emma Jacobs and her Breast Cancer Foundation, yes.
Ryan: And what do you, what do you say to that?
Dorothy: What do you say to her? Yes.
Ryan: Okay. And at the time, she was very involved in the research of Dr. Anthony Lucci.
Dorothy: Yes.
Ryan: Um, and, uh, and so she said, you know what? You need to hear about the cutting edge research that Dr. Lucci’s doing. and how close we are to finding a cure. And, and so after I heard Dr. Lucci’s presentation, I was really motivated. Because he talked about how, um, first off, finding the answer to why people who were in remission come out of remission could be the linchpin, could be the key to all these other cancers and figuring out how To stop the growth of these cancers.
I was [00:15:00] absolutely blown away Of course, it was like a hundred feet over my head all of this data But um, but I said we’ve got to be involved in this in some way. And so for the first, um Years, we were raising money to help fund that research And you know at at some point during this process a few years ago We said, you know, we’ve we’ve done a lot of work for research.
We’ve we’ve raised a lot of money for research But if we really want to end deaths from breast cancer We need to get on the detection and prevention side of this Um, and especially the most vulnerable people in our population that, that don’t have access to healthcare or to basic screening. And I think, I will tell you that for me, a life changing moment was when I heard you say that 98 [00:16:00] percent of breast cancer cases are curable if, if they are detected early, 98 percent that blew my mind.
And I said, it is. incumbent upon us to do everything we can. Because if this is this preventable, if we can prevent death, why wouldn’t we?
Dorothy: I love that story. I hadn’t heard that. And of course for me, when we’re talking about the most vulnerable, we’re talking about the uninsured, we’re talking about women who, uh, are health illiterate.
And I mean that in the, you know, nicest way. They don’t know where to go. They don’t know who can help them. They don’t even understand what’s happening in their body. So, uh, having that kind of support that we can go out and we can say to any community, look, you can come to The Rose. You know, we, we can help you with this.
We can’t do that without funds. And that’s exactly what Emma Jacobs and your [00:17:00] program and, you know, Claudia, uh, everything that has come together from this has been an, uh, just an incredible journey. Plus, Ryan, you probably don’t realize this, but when I get to come and talk to your folks, you know, that’s the other side of the world.
That’s the other side of town. And I can’t tell you how many people have followed up and gave me their card or whatever, but then they followed up and said, I want to know more. And they’ve become donors. I mean, it’s just, uh, it keeps giving and it’s, it’s just beautiful. And you know, our pride with Nice Winery is that we have a bathroom there.
Ryan: That’s true. It’s true.
Dorothy: It’s not really ours, but it is. And you have a bathroom dedicated for several different charities. So tell us about that.
Ryan: We do. Um, so we make three different wines that all of the proceeds from those wines go back to local charities. And our very first charity wine was our [00:18:00] rosé for breast cancer.
And so when we were designing the new winery, We thought it was important that each one of the bathrooms there’s six of them tell a story about our wines and so three of them are about those charity wines. So there’s there’s one that is pink, of course And it has The Rose’s mission in a framed plaque on the wall it has pictures of us at events where we’ve released the new wines to raise money for The work that happens here at The Rose and then across the hall, there is a bathroom devoted to Periwinkle Foundation and Camp Periwinkle that of course is for Kids who are battling life threatening illnesses like cancer at Texas Children’s Hospital to go away and be kids for a week at Camp for All in Burton, Texas.
Dorothy: Yes.
Ryan: And then across the hallway from that is a bathroom dedicated to our work for an organization called Op Heart. [00:19:00] And the Op Heart Foundation was created by one of my Rice University classmates, Annie Garcia, whose daughter was born with transposition of the great arteries. She was born with a congenital heart defect that, um, that almost took her life.
And, like Emma, when Annie went through this life changing event, Instead of bemoaning how difficult it was and that she almost lost her baby, she said, how do I make it so that no other mother has to go through what I went through? And started this foundation to print 3D models of infants hearts that are born with congenital heart defects and to put them in touch with doctors and the best possible care. All at no cost to them.
Dorothy: I am always touched when I go to your place. It’s, it’s like, uh, stepping into, I don’t want to call it. Wonderland, but it is, you know, [00:20:00] because everything is just so thoughtfully put together and has a purpose. And, and of course it’s kind of like you’re walking into a family because your whole family is there.
Ryan: Very much so. Mom and dad are there and you know, every, we’re one big family. I, I, I’ve got a. I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that I had a mission when I came here today, because Donna Flynn, who is our director of operations at the winery, um, I guess it was last year or the year before that she came to do the check presentation here.
And she told me about a chart that used to be on the door to your office. And she said, Ryan, if that chart is there, you’ve got to take a picture of it. You’ve got to see this chart. And she described it as a chart. That shows how unbelievably difficult it is for a woman who does not have insurance to obtain basic health care.
Um, and, and I haven’t [00:21:00] seen the chart because I don’t think it’s on your door today.
Dorothy: No, and in fact, I was just thinking we, we took it down to do some cleaning, some deep cleaning. I’ll have to put that back up because I never realized that she actually paid attention to it. And what, and as he’s describing it, it is like from that first call that that woman makes.
To getting her a doctor, to getting her into a screening, to, it, it just takes a lot. And, of course, in our world, we call it navigation. But the, the whole thing is, we’re there to help her get through that. You know, she didn’t have to figure it out. That’s, that’s, that’s what’s so hard when you don’t have resources, you don’t have insurance or you don’t have anyone to turn to.
And it is, it takes a lot of people working together to make it all, all happen.
Ryan: And, and what Donna said to me was, you know, so many of us take for granted having [00:22:00] insurance, having a primary care provider, having a place to go. And, and looking at this, this document reminded her how important the work that The Rose does is to so many people.
Dorothy: Oh, thank her for that. Yeah, that is, that is a wonderful story. And it’s going to make me go put that chart back up. Oh my goodness. I keep thinking about how Emma brought us together and how, uh, Emma and Claudia. And both have been my podcast guest and we’re trying to figure out how to put you all together at, at some point, but it really is about different folks taking an interest in being willing to do something.
I mean, I think your, your whole philosophy has been, you see it in everything you do at Nice Winery, you, you feel it there. [00:23:00] So it’s, um. We are so appreciative, believe me, and the women that we’re able to take care of just, this, this means so much, this funding. So we thank you very, very much and And besides, it’s fun. It really is.
Ryan: One of my greatest honors and pleasures is that every day when we do our guided tasting experiences at the winery, we do a six wine lineup. And the second wine in that tasting has been and for this foreseeable future will be our rosé. And it gives us an opportunity to talk to every single person that visits the winery.
About the work of The Rose and I’m amazed by the number of people that don’t know About The Rose I’m amazed by the number of women that once they learn that if they get their mammogram through The Rose that they can help other Women and are [00:24:00] excited to have that knowledge and power to be able to do something for someone else with very little effort but I think Um, the most enjoyable times are when there’s someone in the group whose life has been touched by The Rose. And that is really special.
Dorothy: Years ago, but when I’d say I worked at The Rose, people would go, I don’t know what that is. You know, now when I say that, they say, yeah, you helped my mother or I’ve had a few say I came to you when. And it just, uh, it’s what makes it all worthwhile knowing that they’re still around and they’re gonna, they’re gonna make a difference in their world and with their families for sure.
Well, I want you to tell us what is the one thing you would tell anyone who’s, I mean, I’ve got to go back to, you’ve got all these degrees, you’ve got, you had this plan that you were on, but you took a leap and said, I want to do something different. How would you encourage someone to, to do [00:25:00] that? What, what in your soul said it’s okay to do that?
Ryan: Nothing. It’s the complete opposite. Everything said, don’t do this.
Dorothy: Ah.
Ryan: Right? Everything said, gosh, you’ve got this great job as an attorney. You know, this great, steady, solid, reliable income. Um, you’ve gone to school and trained for this. Why would you leave that life and that security? And I think for me, um, there was a day when I said, this isn’t what I want to be for the rest of my life.
And this isn’t how I want to spend the rest of my life. And there are things that I enjoy so much more. And I want to go and do those things that I really enjoy wine making, food creation, and it’s not about the money, right? Life is, life is rich because of [00:26:00] experiences and people and community. Um, and, uh, and I, I, you know, when I was an attorney, I, I worked all the time, made a lot of money, never had time to spend it, never had time to spend with family or friends.
And now I do something where. It just doesn’t feel like work. It is work. It’s not glamorous waking up at 2:30 in the morning to drive out to our vineyards in Texas and set up so we can harvest. And that day didn’t end until midnight when we were adding the yeast to start the fermentation. That was a very, very long day.
Dorothy: Wow.
Ryan: And it’s a dirty job, right? It’s not as glamorous as people think it is. But it’s rewarding and in so many ways, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Dorothy: Oh, I know you wouldn’t, but you didn’t have an aha moment. You didn’t just say. This is it. I’m going to go do what I want.
Ryan: Yeah, there is an aha moment and some people have heard this story before.
I was, when I was a young attorney, I [00:27:00] was on a trial in Philadelphia in the middle of winter. And they sent me to what was called the war room, which is back, you know, 20 years ago, if you were in, in, on a trial, um, the, uh, it was a lot of documents, a lot of papers and the war room was literally a room as big as this conference room we’re in now full from floor to ceiling with paper.
And, you know, you had to catalog it and document and get ready for trial. And I went downstairs to get a cup of coffee, uh, and at this little coffee shop, all the mugs had sayings printed on them. And the one that I grabbed that day said, Um, if you need coffee to go to your job, maybe it’s not the coffee.
Dorothy: Oh my gosh.
Ryan: And I felt it was a little prophetic, right?
Dorothy: Yes, yes. You’ve been told.
Ryan: And at that point Um, I, I said, you know, I, um, it’s not the coffee and [00:28:00] really one of, one of my missions has been to shake up what people think about when they buy wine, because when drink wine, we’re, we’re organic and sustainable. We’re made by a family. Most of the wine that’s out there is mass produced at a factory. You go to the grocery store. Most of the wine there is produced by just two huge corporations. And we as consumers, especially in the face of our health. And, um, and, and, you know, drinking and eating things with additives and preservatives in them. We should be asking those hard questions like who made this wine? What is in it? How much of this did they make and where is my money going? Because I guarantee you those huge corporations that make the wine at your grocery store or at your big box liquor store. They do not need your money, but small family farmers and small family winemakers like us who are trying to be as sustainable and organic as as possible and make [00:29:00] wine with low intervention, meaning not adding sugars, dyes, um, fillers to wine. We do need your support.
Dorothy: I don’t think I’ll ever buy wine in the store anymore, and I’ll tell you, and, and your wines are excellent, just really excellent.
Ryan: Thank you.
Dorothy: So many things that you’ve changed and so many lives you’ve touched. That has to be rewarding.
Ryan: It is.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Ryan: It is very rewarding.
Dorothy: And to get up and do what you want to do every day.
Ryan: And, and I love the opportunity to talk to people about it as well, because I hope that when people hear my story, that they too are empowered, motivated to get that same gift of gratitude. Right? That’s that internal drive, that feeling when they wake up to say, how do I pay this forward?
How do, how do I add to our community? Because at the end of the day, that’s, that’s what matters, [00:30:00] right? It’s how we treat each other, how we interact with each other, how we take care of each other. That’s what’s important.
Dorothy: That is so important. Having a community, being part of it and supporting it, and it’ll support you.
I think we have moved so far away from corporate thinking. And into what’s, what’s good for the community. Thank you so much for being with us. This has been a delightful time. I didn’t know all these things about you. And we want to, again, tell you how much we appreciate Nice Winery and all of the funds.
And, and for our listeners, these funds are what makes the difference in how many women we can see. It’s just that simple. Yes, we get grants and we, you know, we apply for things like that, but they always come with so many stipulations. And so when we have a gift that says it’s unrestricted, go use it how you need to, then we can go into any community, we can serve any age, it doesn’t matter.
And that’s, that’s what the other [00:31:00] magical, wonderful, important thing about your gifts. Don’t know that you realize that, but It really makes a difference. Every event you have is wonderful. You could just, you could spend every week out there doing something if you, if you wanted to, but look it up. Nice Winery.
What else do they need to know?
Ryan: Nicewines.com. And then, uh, then they can actually, it’s live now. You can buy tickets to the release event, the fundraiser for The Rose that we’re hosting at the winery and all the information’s available on the website under our upcoming events.
Dorothy: And all the information about buying the wines, being a member.
Ryan: All there.
Dorothy: It’s all there. You can’t go wrong with nice wines, that’s for sure. Thank you again for being with us. Thank you for all your support.
Ryan: Thank you for having me.
Post-Credits: Thank you for joining us today on Let’s Talk About Your Breasts. This podcast is brought to you by The Rose. Visit [00:32:00] therose.org to learn more about our organization.
Subscribe to our podcast. Share episodes with friends. friends and join the conversation on social media using #Let’sTalkAboutYourBreasts. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Consider supporting The Rose. Your gift can make the difference to a person in need. And remember, self care is not selfish. It’s essential.
