I first fell in love with wine at a little known place called the Olive Garden in 2004 - situated in a sleepy town known as Waco, Texas. Wine for me then was just a tool used to up check averages + Waco was a far cry from anything Magnolia.
Quickly, I fell in love.
Not with the higher checks (which were cool), but with the history that each bottle of wine contained. As I studied the wine we served I learned new stories, made new friends, and realized that there is not a magic “wine tree” dropping off bottles around the world. There was a tangible history of the blood, sweat, tears, hard work, and part of so many people that had the audacity (& courage) to bottle up 750 milliliters of fermented grape juice for the world to judge.
Wine was a gateway too many stories + many histories I had not contemplated before. So, it became a part of my learning journey that intersected with so many other questions that I had of this world and beyond. Wine, I think, is much more than an indulgence. It is an ethereal experience that connects time + space intimately. How COOL would it be if wine was the key to the space-time curvature that we cannot seem to grasp? Beam. Me. All. The. Way. Wine. Up. Scotty! Lol. Music + wine are the two things in this world that are closest to time travel, I firmly believe that. It connects people across imaginary + BS geopolitical borders, across age gaps, across the inherent biases we all have, and across time.
If one spends a little time with me, you will quickly realize I am OBSESSED with Quantum Physics, that I LOVE my people, travel is a MUST, COMMUNITY is worth fighting for, wine is ALWAYS an option, and holistic HISTORY must be unearthed + shared. Wine in my life has provided access and opportunity to so many things, places, and people. Especially as a Black man in America. It has allowed me to raise a family, to travel, to meet brilliant souls, to be influential, and to have the perfect buzz with beautiful people along the fragile + perilous dash that reflects our time on this rock.
For me, the journey is as important as the destination. There is learning, joy, sorrow, reflection, and experience that are invaluable to life + to GROWTH in life. There is imperfection and learning that one encounters which allows a lens to develop, revealing beauty in places we are conditioned to see blight.
We are all valuable, capable, and extraordinary if we are allowed to blossom. Wabi-Sabi* + Kintsugi* all day, errrrday.
Below you will find 5 labels that are near + dear to my heart + soul that I will be launching over the next 2 years. But first, you will find moments in time that have shaped who I am and what I strive to leave for others. The wines are ones that I believe in, that I know nothing about, that I use to push what could be. They are wines that give back to folk who hopefully see a path that was not illuminated before. They are weird, restrained, wild, electric, honest, and most of all - fun.
Pop. Love. Share. Crush. Enjoy.
Power + love.
Leo Gordon Devon Braddock
Kintsugi
An ancient form of art stems from wabi-sabi, whereby you mend broken objects with gold fillings, giving them “golden scars.” It’s known as Kintsugi - example;
A stoneware bowl breaks. Then what? Many would sigh (or cuss), pick up the pieces and toss them aside. But why - Kintsugi asks?, (so take that entropy). Instead of giving up on a broken things - you care for it. Mend it. Heal it. And in the process, create something new and wondrous - imperfect, permanently and inevitably “flawed”, but somehow, more beautiful?
Kintsugi reminds us that there is great beauty in broken things because scars tell a story. They demonstrate fortitude, wisdom, and resilience, earned through the passage of time. Why hide these imperfections or golden scars when we are meant to celebrate them?
