Anyone remotely involved with wine and spirits in California and the western states recognizes the deep red delivery trucks of Young’s Market plying their trade around town. Our guest today is Matthew Lapides. Matt combines his interests in business and wine sales in his job as Import Specialist with The Estates Group, the fine wine division of Young’s. The exceptionally large Young’s portfolio of premium and luxury-level wines allows Matt to operate on the dictum that he has the right wine for the given customer in his book, it’s just a matter of knowing what it is. In this interview, Matt takes us through his college experience at Sonoma State where he became deeply involved with wine through his studies and his involvement with the college wine club, then through his recruitment by a start-up luxury wine brand to work as their operations manager. He then moved on to the Estates Group. Now, creeping up on seven years with the company, he holds forth on how wine helps deepens the connection with loved ones and what he sees as the familial partnership of the distributor and the client. We discuss the workings of the Estates Group. We talk about trends in the Los Angeles wine market (does Young’s create them or follow them?) ...and millenial purchasing habits which Matt, himself, relates to.