Pandemic Struggles to Wine Success: Namratha's Tips on Wine, Art, and Life Pt. 2

6 min

•Feb 5, 20262 months ago

Summary

Namratha Stanley, author of Vineyard Melody and creator of Sala Cantus Wine, discusses her wine brand's philosophy, label design inspired by Salvador Dalí, and her journey writing a book about overcoming adversity. She emphasizes the importance of storytelling for women and shares insights on perseverance through multiple drafts and industry learning.

Insights

Persistence through creative rejection is essential—Stanley rewrote her book 10 times before achieving a polished final product
Brand storytelling through visual design (label art) creates emotional connections and encourages customer engagement
Women entrepreneurs benefit from sharing authentic narratives of struggle and success rather than conforming to conservative expectations
Cross-industry learning (wine and publishing) accelerates personal growth and business innovation
Customer feedback loops (customers sharing photos) build community and validate product quality

Trends

Artisanal wine branding leveraging visual art and design as key differentiatorsFemale entrepreneurs using memoir and storytelling as marketing and empowerment toolsWine industry emphasis on balance, acidity, and sensory experience in product positioningAuthor-entrepreneur model combining multiple creative ventures (wine + publishing)Social proof and customer-generated content driving wine brand loyalty

Topics

Wine product development and tasting profilesBook writing and publishing processWine label design and brandingFemale entrepreneurship and overcoming adversityStorytelling as business strategyWine acidity and balancePandemic impact on creative projectsCustomer engagement and community buildingMulti-industry business expansionWomen's empowerment through narrative

Companies

Sala Cantus Wine

Wine brand created by Namratha Stanley featuring one white and two red wines with Salvador Dalí-inspired labels

People

Namratha Stanley

Author of Vineyard Melody and creator of Sala Cantus Wine; discussed her entrepreneurial journey and philosophy

Forrest Kelly

Host of The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast; conducted the interview with Namratha Stanley

Salvador Dalí

Surrealist artist whose paintings inspired the design of Sala Cantus Wine labels

Quotes

"Solicantis is a wine that is fruity, that has the adequate amount of acidity. It's well balanced. It's got intensity. It's got everything you need in a good wine."

Namratha Stanley

"I wrote three chapters of the book and it was so terrible I said I'm never going to be an author I just can't do this and I kept the book away but something within me kept telling me that you know I need to go back to it"

Namratha Stanley

"You can go on being scared as a woman. You need to live a life equally as men. And I feel that telling stories is very important because even if it inspires one or two people, I think the whole point of writing the book will be very satisfying for me."

Namratha Stanley

"Every time a person opens a bottle, they send me a picture and they say, we enjoyed your wine so much. Thank you for making this wine and selling this."

Namratha Stanley

Full Transcript

Welcome, welcome to the Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast with Forrest Kelly. We conclude our conversation with an Amratha Stanley, author of the book Vineyard Melody and creator of Sala Cantus Wine. She joined two Latin words together, sala meaning soil and cantus means melody. In other words, song of the soil. Tell me more about Sala Cantus. You will love Solicantis. Solicantis is a wine that is fruity, that has the adequate amount of acidity. It's well balanced. It's got intensity. It's got everything you need in a good wine. And I have a white and two reds. The white is almost like, you know, it's so aromatic. You're walking into a garden full of fruits and flowers. The red, of course, is very fruity, very fresh, something that everybody, everybody across the world has loved. And I'll give you one more reason why you need to get it out, you know, from the shelf, because it has a beautiful label. The label has been inspired by Salvadori Dali's paintings, and it has beautiful colors, and it's very arty, the label. You see a swirl and it tells you the journey of the wine from being a must to becoming a clear wine So it tells you how wine is made but in art form So I very excited about the label I love my label I love my wine. And I'm so happy to sell it to people because every time a person opens a bottle, they send me a picture and they say, we enjoyed your wine so much. Thank you for making this wine and selling this. So I'm excited for people who are also going to win the second prize because they will get six bottles of my wine. What are you most proud of in your book? I love to be honest. I've been a critic of my own work unless and until I feel it's not ready and it's not done well. I'll never put it out there. when I started writing the book I remember this was just I had started just before the pandemic you know the thought had come in I'd said okay let me start working on it and I wrote during the pandemic I wrote three chapters of the book and it was so terrible I said I'm never going to be an author I just can't do this and I kept the book away but something within me kept telling me that you know I need to go back to it I need to keep writing and that feeling just didn't leave me So at some point I went back to the book and I, you know, kept writing. It was almost like vomiting everything into you know all the story onto into words And then I started redoing the draft and redo I think it went to about 10 different drafts And when the last draft was finished, I was so excited because the story was, was from A to Z and a lot of people helped me with it. But when I reread the story from A to Z and passed it through other professionals, they all loved it. In fact, a few of them called it a page turner. So that's when I realized that, okay, I've done something that's really interesting and now I can put it out into the world. So it has been a journey of a lot of learning. I was never an author before. You know, it has been a lot of learning and I'm so grateful for that learning. So now I've learned two different industries, one wine and one book, and I don't know what's more to come and I'm excited but at the same time I'm excited for the world to read the book and the world to know the story I think women like us a lot of times I was told oh my god you've you've you've been abused and you know it's going to be difficult divorce and this and that you have to act dead and shy away from anything you have to you should be conservative when you talk to And it not the case I didn do that because I wanted to change I wanted things to change You know you can go on being scared as a woman You can You need to live a life equally as men And I feel that telling stories is very important because even if it inspires one or two people, I think the whole point of, you know, writing the book and getting it out in this world will be very satisfying for me. So you can reach me on my website, www.namratastanley.com. That is spelled N-A-M-R-A-T-H-A-S-T-A-N-L-E-Y.com. or you can reach me on social media. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn. Just hit me a message. On Instagram, I'm available as Namrita Stanley author. It's a public profile, so you can connect with me there. Just leave me a message and I will reach out to you. It was a pleasure being on your podcast. Don't forget my favorite part.