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Unfiltered: Sophia Longhi

The “certified wino, writer, teacher, taster and adventurer” talks to Douglas Blyde about finding a path into wine, her drive to bring a wider audience to it, and how she came up with a memorable, punk band-like slogan…

What is your vintage?

I was born in Stourbridge in the West Midlands to a half-Italian father and an Anglo-Indian mother in 1985. I was presented with a bottle of 1985 Saint-Émilion a decade ago at a friend’s parents’ house in the region. His dad, who had been a long-term wine consultant there, asked me what year I was born, then dutifully traipsed down to the cellar to retrieve the right bottle. It was special. I later found out he’d been done for advising someone to use oak chips, which was illegal in Bordeaux at the time!

How did you come to wine?

I feel like I’ve had many lives – though wine was always there in the background, or rather, beside me when I was a schoolteacher. I went to university to become a writer, then became a teacher, then worked in TV production, then events, and finally started working with restaurants, which was really the beginning of my professional path into wine.

I’d always had a real love for hospitality, and worked part-time in restaurants and bars since the age of sixteen. Which is why I decided to set up a social media agency with a friend for venues back in 2014. I was also writing restaurant reviews for various online publications, so I became exposed to some amazing food – and wine. After a staff tasting at Randall & Aubin, one of the restaurants I was working with, held by the mighty Joe Wadsack, my interest was piqued. I asked how I could get into it and was advised to go on a WSET course. And I’ve been speaking the language of wine ever since.

How did you come up with your slogan, “Skin+Pulp”?

There are a fair few pages in an old notebook filled with potential names for my business. I wanted something winey but not boring. Would it be too revealing to tell you I Googled “wine” to see what its literal definition was?

“Skin and pulp” is basically the definition of a grape. I liked the way it sounded – punchy, to the point. (I remember you saying, Douglas, how it sounded like the name for a punk band!) And the more I thought about it, in terms of spreading the knowledge about wine, wine can be simple – it doesn’t have to be overly complicated. If we start with the “skin and pulp” – the grapes, the varieties – I think that’s the foundation for understanding and appreciating wine. Unfortunately, more than one person has assumed I’m a skincare brand. Although, grapes ARE great for your skin. I feel a collab coming on…

What does your role encompass?

In short, I’m a wine communicator. I spread the good word about wine, mainly to a consumer audience, but a bit of trade, too, through writing articles, creating social media content and hosting wine tastings and masterclasses.

My dream was always to be a full-time writer, and while that’s a big part of what I do, including freelancing for Club Oenologique, The Buyer, Falstaff and Ocado Magazine, I also find face-to-face communication, like hosting wine tastings, rewarding. I’ve led masterclasses at events like The Ideal Home Show, and I love talking about wine to people who are curious about it and want to know more but don’t know where to start.

The other thing I do is create social media content for wine brands and wineries, which is a great creative outlet for me. The ways of communicating about wine nowadays are endless and I love that social media has brought wine to fresh audiences.

What is your mission?

To open up the world of wine to people who can’t get in. There are so many barriers to normal people enjoying good wine and I find that some people reject it because they don’t understand it or they don’t feel welcome. Social barriers, financial barriers, language barriers, people don’t know how to pronounce grape varieties, they don’t know how to talk to a sommelier, or that they can talk to a sommelier, they don’t know what to do in a wine shop. So many of my friends and family are still choosing bottles blindly based on price or label design. I want people to take ownership of their wine experience: find out what their tastes are and have the vocabulary to communicate it. There is a language of wine and it’s an alien language to a lot of people. Why? Everybody deserves good wine!

What has been a career high?

Winning the IWSC Emerging Talent in Wine Communication Award. I set my wine blog up in 2018 and since then have been developing my wine communication skills in other areas, like talking to the camera and creating content, so to be recognised for all of that was absolutely amazing. If you’re on social media professionally, people can be snobby and dismiss you as an “influencer”, so I think for the IWSC to see the value in new ways of wine communication was brilliant of them.

Also, seeing my name on an article I’ve written makes my heart leap every time!

What frustrates you about the wine world?

Ha, well, I try not to get frustrated and just roll my eyes and keep doing what I’m doing. There’s a lot of drama that goes on within wine communication and people being resistant to change. I think it’s funny that the wine articles that go viral are not about wine at all – they’re usually about the people talking about wine.

But, to keep it about wine, the gatekeeping in the industry is an issue. It’s harder for women to get into wine and stay in wine: there are fewer opportunities for people from diverse communities to get into wine and for people from less privileged backgrounds. Do kids even know in Dudley, for example, that you can go on a course to become a winemaker? I want wine to be made by people with different histories, with different palates and with different ideas.

Who has been a mentor?

I haven’t had a specific mentor in wine, but I’ve learned from lots of wonderful people along the way. Rozza from R&R Teamwork was the first person to recognise my blog four years ago and was kind enough to invite me to some special tastings and introduce me to some special people. A restauranteur I met at the London Wine Fair years ago let me do my first wine tasting in his restaurant and took me under his wing. Mike McKibbin, a professional gourmand, always gave me the time of day and has always championed me. I’ve met some fantastic people through him. I also learn all the time from my online wine community and I’d say, specifically, my Wine Collective pals have been as much mentors to me as colleagues.

What is the Wine Collective?

It is a new collaborative venture between three other wine communicators, being Hannah Milnes, Charlotte Kristensen and Libby Brodie and myself. We saw an opportunity to bring our individual skills in communication and content production together to work collectively with wineries and wine brands on their marketing campaigns. It’s so exciting and empowering to work with these three amazing women, all of whom have their own successful things going on individually, to raise wine communication to a new level. I think people like seeing us together, working, having fun and helping to make wine more accessible.

How do you decide what events to attend, and which producers to work with?

I choose which events to attend and which producers to work with based on the wines and the brands. I suppose that Skin+Pulp is a sort of brand for me, so things have to be in alignment with that, in terms of values and style. Also, as a writer I might be commissioned to write about certain wines or regions, so that would depend on what the publication is after. Many wine events are in London and I now live in Brighton, so I do have to be more selective nowadays as travel can be a bit of a pain in the a***.

What grape could you live without?

Sauvignon Blanc. I appreciate a well-made example, and a chilled glass of it can be very nice, but it never really lights my soul on fire. I’m happy to tell the stories of the winemakers and the wineries though, so please still let me in, Marlborough, when I visit!

Do you prefer a pét-nat, traditional method English or Franciacorta?

While I love them all, Franciacorta speaks to me the most. Must be those northern Italian ancestors of mine giving me a little prod.

What bottle would you reach for if the nuclear button was pressed?

Eeep. I don’t mean to be predictable, but a Montrachet Grand Cru would put me in the best frame of mind to leave this earth. If I had time to make a lasagne, I’d go for a Brunello.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

To stop time. I’m constantly racing against the clock and I wouldn’t mind pressing pause and having a sit down once in a while…

Tell us something surprising about yourself?

I love music and I’m quite a festival hippie every summer. I’ve been going to a few festivals each year since I was a teenager, so I’ve probably clocked up close to a hundred now. I love watching re-runs of Top of the Pops – at the moment I’m working my way through the 1990s. Actually, get me talking about the ‘90s and we’ll be here all night. I was five at the beginning of the decade and 15 at the end of it, so lots of my cultural references are from that decade. I can probably name most of the WWF wrestlers circa 1992.

What do you do in your downtime?

I walk my dog on the beach with my husband, Rob. We might have a swim in the sea if it’s warm. I usually try and coax some friends down to Brighton and we’ll spend the day restaurant and pub hopping. There’s usually oysters, Bloody Marys, Manhattan cocktails and, of course, wine involved!

Which restaurant is on your bucket list to dine at?

I’ve never done The Fat Duck, so I suppose I should eat there before I die and see what all the fuss is about. There’s a restaurant in Polignano a Mare in Puglia called Grotto Palazzese, which is in a cave overlooking the sea, that I really want to go to next time I’m there. I’m also absolutely enchanted by the grand dining rooms of Paris, so I should do a few of those. The Moulin Rouge would be really fun, too.
Finally, would you prefer to share a treasured bottle with Beth Nickel of Far Niente, Jane Fonda or Tina Anselmi, Italy’s first female minister?
I’m sorry but it would have to be Jane Fonda. The stories she would have! I’m a bit obsessed with old Hollywood…

Read more from Sophia at skinandpulp.com and follow her on Instagram instagram.com/skinandpulp

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