The Fizz #72: Julianny Gómez is building a wine social club, focusing on community connection
I spoke to preshift founder Julianny Gómez on their journey into the wine industry, building pop-up events, and why it's important to celebrate LGTBQ+ and POC in their events.
For the 72nd issue of The Fizz, I spoke to Julianny Gómez, co-founder of preshift, and lead sommelier at NYC’s HAGS. Julianny, a former educator, is an active builder in the NYC wine scene, focusing on creating events with preshift that center LGBTQ+ folks and people of color. The events are casual, inviting, and create an opportunity for folks to get inspired by wine, stoking their curiosity in a low pressure environment.
I recently wrote a piece on Food52 about Julianny and Onyeka, who both run wine based social clubs that focus on community building. Seeing these inspiring folks bring more love and joy into the wine industry, and open more doors to wider communities, is extremely exciting. I can’t wait to come to an event myself soon!
Margot: I would love to know about your upbringing. How and where did you grow up? Was wine a part of your upbringing?
Julianny: I was born in New York City, in East Harlem at the original Mount Sinai. I spent some time in the Bronx, but primarily grew up in, Long Island City in Astoria, Queens. I lived on the same block as my grandmother on my mom's side, my mom's sisters and my great-grandmother. My life was full of like family and being passed around. I spent time in New York up until high school, when we moved to North Jersey before I finally came back. Wine was very sporadically in my life, growing up as a person with Dominican heritage.
Whiskey was the big liquor in my life. My father usually had a half gallon of Johnny Walker and Mama Juana around—that's a very traditional Dominican spirit. It wasn't until I was in high school that I saw my mom getting a little bit more interested in wine. We would start to have wine in the places like where we would store our liquor, but it would be mostly big agriculture wines. Kendall Jackson, those kinds of wines. They weren't really wines that I enjoyed.
Margot: How did you get into the wine industry?
Julianny: It was the wildest thing. I became a teacher in my early twenties. I studied history in anthropology in undergrad. I got accepted to a five year program at Fordham University to start my master's degree. I unfortunately didn't get a scholarship to do that final year of undergrad, and I'm like, there's no way that I can pay thirty grand out of pocket or take on more loans.
For a year or two after I graduated, I floated around, did odd jobs, saw that there was a teaching fellows program where they would mostly subsidize my master’s and I would start to make a salary if I became a teacher and I’d have healthcare. At that point I was sick of living with my parents, wanting to move in with my partner and start fulfilling my adult life. That propelled me to live an adult life and go out more with my partner. We went through phases where there were certain beverages that were our favorite.
We definitely went through like a beer phase, and then a whiskey and bourbon phase. Then eventually, we started to drink a little bit more wine. It wasn't until 2018, I want to say, that I really started to get into wines. There was a natural wine restaurant that opened here in Inwood, where me and my partner Dante lived. I went there one day waiting for a friend, and I ordered a wine by the glass just based off of the name. It was called “For Heaven’s Sake Don’t Move Here” from Franchere Wine Co based in Oregon, the 2017 vintage. I remember it being a blend mostly of Pinot Gris. Just from the sight of the wine, I started to freak out because I had known Pinot Gris to be a white wine, and what was in my glass was a pink wine, and it was cloudy! I had never at that point drank an unfiltered wine.
I was like, yeah, this is really good. The flavor of it, it was earthy, it was floral, it was herbaceous and I was so taken aback. I was like, wow wine can taste this way. I went into a wine rabbit hole, figuring out how does this happen and how can Pinot Gris be pink? Why does this look like a rosé and it's a white wine grape? After that point, I was researching wine whenever I could.
While I loved teaching my middle school students, I was very unhappy. Most of the reason why I went into teaching was because I wanted to pursue a master's degree and ultimately have a grownup job. That kind of life where I was working 24/7, even when I was off the clock, it burned me out. The pandemic created this moment where a lot of us were like, okay, am I going to keep doing this? Am I going to keep grinding myself for a career that I don't necessarily enjoy, or am I going to find ways to do the things that actually spark passion and joy in my soul?
I started thinking about how I can pursue a career in wine. Initially I didn't want to go into service, but I saw a lot of people, particularly through my favorite restaurant, Winona's, having popups, and I thought about how it might look if I can transition out of my teaching career by doing periodic popups. How can this be a pathway into a new career? I was able to get that chance to start experimenting, from a really good friend of mine, Jonathan Johnson. He called me up and said hey, I work at this tech company. I'm trying to hire people that I know were teachers to do instructional design. The possibility of having unlimited paid time off, which to me was a foreign concept.
Because of that, I was able to go to industry events instead of having to worry about lesson planning. At five o'clock I clocked out. I was able to go to more restaurants, to events, take time off to travel up the Hudson Valley, meet people and network, build community. Wine has been the first industry where I've met people that have been so open about sharing their knowledge and their resources with people that they see have that interest in the industry. I was able to meet people like Lee Campbell, Jahdé Marley, Kathline Chery from Kalchē Wine Co. People that were really instrumental in mentoring me and pushing me into moving into the wine industry.
Things came to a head when Dante and I were casually having dinner at Winona's. We became really good friends with the owners, Cressida and Ehmir. They came up to us and said hey y'all have been discussing having a popup. Let's do it. We have slots open. We're just like, wait, what? This had been kind of a dream. We've been discussing it, but actually doing it? Very scary.
They had done pop-ups before and said they’d show us the ropes. Preshift was born in March 2022, almost a year ago today.
Margot: That’s amazing. It sounds like your community really came together for you. Can you talk about where the idea for Preshift came about? Who is the guest and why is it important?
Julianny: Dante and I—we enjoy wine, we enjoy really good wine, but in networking and going into a lot of industry spaces, like wine can be a very white industry. The people that we tend to interact with the most that enjoy the beverage were white people. When you watch wine videos or wine documentaries, like I'm thinking of the documentary Somm that most people remember when they think about wine and wine professionals. It's very old school and it's very stuffy.
The folks that we interact with on a daily basis, Black folk, people of color, queer folk, are all really interested in trying different beverages. How can we foster and create an environment in which people are having fun? Where people are not scared of asking questions, because that's another thing about wine. I think that people are afraid to be wrong. There's a lot of mystery behind how to read labels the “proper” way or the “proper” way of tasting wine. We wanted to break down those walls and foster a loving environment where folks can ask questions, where we have digital materials available for folks. All of our wine menus are on little postcards that have QR codes that lead to more information about the producer, about the fermentation, the viticulture, the location, of these wines.
If folks at the event want to have a good time and ponder about the taste of what's in their glass later on the next day, they can easily look up this information. We’re doing it our style. That was the whole premise behind preshift.
Margot: I love that. What does the event actually look like? If someone were to come to the event, what can they expect?
Julianny: That's a great question. Number one, you're going to expect a killer playlist. Dante and I always curate our playlist. In our last event, though, we hired our friend DJ OOOCHILD, to curate the vibes. You're going to hear a lot of hip hop, a lot of new age R&B. You’ll expect two badass sommeliers and me and Dante who are trained in fine dining, but we're stripping away all the pretentiousness that comes with wine service. You’re going to expect low intervention wine made by producers that really care about the land and care about the product that they're creating.
You're going to expect to be in a space that might be a little bit unconventional. We've done restaurant popups, but the restaurants that we partner with are definitely comfortable spaces that don't have servers that are all buttoned up and in uniform. Everyone's going to be really comfortable. You're also going to expect a lot of Black, brown, and queer folk to be at this event. I think that makes the community that we want to attract a lot more comfortable when it comes to trying out wine.
Margot: How are you attracting that community?
Julianny: That's a very good question. A lot of it is through word of mouth, a lot of it is through our friends. Those are our earliest supporters, our actual close-knit community. We've also networked intentionally with a lot of Black and brown and queer folks that are in wine. Folks like Jahdé Marley, the folks at Industry Sessions, the folks at Kalchē and their networks here in New York. Also through Onyeka and the folks at Palm Wine. Because we've had those strong networks, they're also able to tap into their audiences as well because they want other Black and brown folk to be able to experience that same safe environment to try out new wines.
Margot: That makes sense. Do you feel like preshift is helping build community around wine? Is it fostering some sort of change?
Julianny: I think that preshift is building its way to being a part of the conversation when it comes to the people that are shaking up the wine world. I always say that I came into the wine world at the best time where a lot of folks were trying to bring the wine world into accountability regarding its toxic practices, particularly in the service world. The lack of mobility for Black, brown, and queer folk to be able to have pathways into higher earning careers. Even abandoning certain populations of folk in terms of marketing the wine.
I've also seen throughout our preshift events that we've been building a small fan base that frequently comes out to our events. These are folks that are not in the wine world and were not our friends, but heard through word of mouth. These are the people that we wanted to come to our events. We're definitely not a big popup. We're definitely very much still underground.
We’re seeing more of those regulars and having them bring friends and we've considered them our VIPs. That's why we created preshift. We'll see if we're part of the bigger conversation in the future. I think we're just having a lot of fun right now.
Margot: How do you feel about the current state of the wine industry in general?
Julianny: I think the wine industry right now is very interesting. There are people that still prescribe to the old school way of thinking in terms of how wine service should be. What does a space look like that serves fine wine? What kind of wine are folks looking for when it comes to a wine list? Then there is what's happening in the spaces that we are in, thinking of Jahdé with her festival ABV, which we were a part of in Miami in January, where there are folks that are highlighting people that are making wines with hybrid grapes, with other fruit, rice, and with small producers and domestic producers.
I also see folks intentionally look for smaller producers, places that people consider alternative, Eastern European wines are having a really big moment, even though they've been making wine forever, but people are now focusing on them, right? There are people that are constantly wanting to experiment, people that are constantly wanting to learn and look at other places, and there are folks who just look for the big wines, you know? You can be in a space where you're around constant change, but then you can also be in a space where you're stagnant.
Can you tell me why is it important to create a space in the wine community, specifically for people of color and queer people? Why is that important?
It's important for me because people of color, queer folk, we occupy all spaces in society. I don’t understand how this one space is different. While I don't think that wine itself is going to change the world, I think it is a space that can allow for broader conversations than just the beverage. It can be an avenue to speak about land access, land practices, how people are being compensated, who the people harvesting our grapes are. It's a space where, if you do it right, we can allow people to be themselves and we can have joyful moments and Lord knows that BIPOC folk and queer folk need moments in which we can shrug the world off for a couple of hours and find some joy. It’s an opportunity to foster more community.
Margot: Do you find yourself having those conversations at your events?
Julianny: Definitely, and it depends on the event. Last summer, we collaborated on a coursed out dinner where the chefs would drop the food, we’d drop the beverage, and then we spiel a little bit. We were able to talk to everybody about the producers and why we intentionally chose them, how they’re managing the land. At our last event, a lot of folks that were there wanted to ask more questions about Chenoa and Will at Ashanta, Kathleen at Kalchē Wine Co.
In addition to the QR code that leads you to digital materials, I had some printed out materials at the event. When folks are waiting for their wine, they can peruse at their liking. Folks noticed that we had a wine from Lebanon and were asking pointed questions about the producer, Eddie Chami. We had questions about American Wine Project because many people hadn’t heard of Wisconsin winemaking or hybrid grapes.
We definitely do see curiosity spark at our events, and that's always great for me because that's how my foray into wine started—just being really curious about what was in front of me.
Margot: What is your hope for preshift as you look into the future?
Julianny: My hope for preshift is that it grows into something that becomes my full-time job, Dante's full-time job, if that's what he desires. I want to have more constant events. I never get tired working the floor, doing service at preshift because it's such an exciting space. There is so much joy.
Dante and I can be fully ourselves when we're working service in that capacity, to our community. I'm also hoping some day down the line, it manifests itself into a physical space. Right now I'm thinking a potential retail space where we can finally have a liquor license and easily source our own wines for future events, but also having a space either in the back or downstairs where we can host other people to have their own popups, maybe have a little kitchen where folks can collaborate with chefs. We’ve started to mentor folks who want to run their own events as well.
Margot: It sounds like you’re really opening the door to wine for a lot of folks who may be new to it, and there’s a lot of opportunity to do more. That’s really amazing. Thanks so much for your time, and I hope I can come to an event soon!
You can support Julianny by coming to their preshift events. Follow them on Instagram to stay in touch with what’s coming up. If you’re interested in having preshift host an event, or curate a wine list for you, DM them on Instagram.
Is there a wine industry person you know that I should interview? Are you curious about a winemaker’s story? Is there anything else you’d like to see from The Fizz? Let me know by replying to this email.