Hi Everyone:

It’s been way too long. But it’s now almost July, so my New (Half) Year’s Resolution is to jump back on Substack—regularly.

I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about giving up…specifically thinking about why any of us does (or does not) give up. Are we genetically disposed one way or another? Can you teach yourself to be a don’t-give-up person? At what point does it make sense to give up? (The no-sense-beating-a-dead-horse argument).

In my own case, I think writing taught me to not throw in the cards too early. When I started out (pre blog days), it was hard to break into journalism. I collected 324 rejection slips before my first piece (on butter!) was published in the Village Voice. I thumbtacked all those rejections to the wall of my fifth-floor walk-up apartment In New York, and stared at them every day. Some days it was deflating; but some days it was the fire that kept me going.

Right now, if you’re in the wine world as I am, it’s easy to shut down; easy to lose faith. So much negative news. So many demeaning narratives about wine drinking. But I refuse to give up.

Let me share why. It was the subject of a speech I gave a few weeks ago at a Press Conference for the launch of the 2025 consumer campaign I co-created called Come Over October.

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Why I Don’t Give Up

By Karen MacNeil

June 10, 2025

Once, I was in a plane crash.

The plane had been hit by lightning twice, knocking out its electrical system and landing gear, forcing it to a crash landing, in the dark, late at night.

I was in the middle of the coach cabin. There were 50 or so people seated ahead of me. But I was the second person off the plane, because I crawled over the tops of seats. All around me, people were motionless.

The lesson I learned that night is that faced with a grim situation, many people freeze. they become paralyzed. Dazed. They can’t move.

I think about that now because all of us know the difficulties the wine community faces. We know about the generational down shifts. We know about cannabis’ incursion, and the flattening of desire by Ozempic. We know that the wine distribution system is a mess. We know that case sales of some Ready-to-Drink cocktails already equal one fifth of the entire number of cases of wine sold in the US put together. And we know that, thanks to tariffs, the days of drinking a reasonably priced Sancerre or Chianti are probably numbered.

It's demoralizing—so much so that at times, we’re like people on the plane. We’re frozen.

And then every day, I stop contemplating the why not just give up?…. and start going to work for the Why.

The “Why” of wine is something we all know. Because it’s our story—the story of friendship, family, food, rural towns, cultural bonds, and community forged in the most basic and historic of ways-- by eating and drinking together.

Wine is based on an old value system of generosity and humility in the face of Nature. That value system is more poignant—and more needed--today than ever. It’s an old value system that at the same time, is startlingly modern. Wine is authenticity. Connection. A pure vein into the earth. A slow moment in a fast world. Wine is the silent music of nature.

The morning—a little over a year ago when, walking my dog, I thought up the idea of Come Over October-- I wasn’t paralyzed by the bad news. I was determined by the bad news.

I called Kimberly Charles and Gino Colangelo, two marketing pros who became my co-founders, and they too did not pause for a moment. The three of us—with no money and nothing more than an idea and a passion for wine—created the mission driven company Come Together—A Community for Wine. We named the company that because wine—which so compellingly brings us together—now needs us to come together.

For the last year, the three of us have donated, pro bono, thousands of hours of our time to make Come Over October and its sister campaign Share & Pair Sundays a reality. To those of you who have helped us move this mountain, we are so grateful. And to those of you who might join us: jump in.

The impact of the campaigns has been significant. Last year we reached 2 Billion UVM media impressions, 5 million social media impressions and more than 1,000 retail stores in 43 states did Come Over October and Share & Pair Sundays promotions, along with hundreds of wineries, trade groups, and wine companies.

Honestly, it’s been astounding. But even more than that, it’s been a confirmation that we can tell the story of wine’s beneficial place in everyday living. We can change a negative trajectory into a positive one. We can revitalize consumer behavior.

Lastly for my own part, I’ll share that it took me 10 years—10 unpaid years—to write the first edition of The Wine Bible.

And that taught me how to not give up.

So I’m not giving up on wine. Please don’t give up either. Please join us, and help us make Come Over October 2025 the best, biggest, and most exciting consumer campaign in the United States.

Kindly take a look at www.comeoveroctober.com

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Elsewhere, in my world, I just came back from Sicily where Mt Etna (the largest active volcano in Europe) erupted a day after I was visiting vineyards on the mountain. Why plant vineyards on a volcano? Because you’re Italian! And because the wines from vineyards planted on ancient lava flows are extraordinary. I could spend the entire summer drinking Etna Bianco which is what all of the whites are simply called. (Of course, the trip was devoted to Negronis, too, and not the Phony kind. But that’s another story.)

Lastly, I may have shared that I’m at work on another book—another two books, in fact. The next Wine Bible (for which I have started research), and a personal book that is only partly about wine. It’s more about …well, about not giving up.

Thanks for reading. Talk to you again in about a month.

In the meantime, if you want to read more of my writing, my Blogs, my wine recommendations (you can just click on them and you’ll be whisked to a place where you can buy them), and all sorts of other great stuff, please consider subscribing to WineSpeed, my weekly newsletter which will be delivered to your inbox every Friday. Subscribe HERE and use code SS30 for a special offer of 30% off in June and July.