“I Wanted to Sell Oak Full Time”: Gina Shay and Her Oak Industry Perspectives
Release Date: March 28, 2025
Photo by: Gina Shay
Wow! We have such an amazing guest to share with you today. If you have been following along with our oaky wine series, you know we have dived into some oak history, uses of oak in wine production, and explored the sensory perceptions associated with oaked wines. Today, we’re speaking with Gina Shay, Sales Representative for the Greater USA and Canada through Trust Cooperage. Trust Cooperage is a Hungarian cooperage house, established in 1992. Today, Trust Cooperage offers a variety of products to winemakers all around the world. We’re lucky enough to get some time to chat with Gina as she explains the nuance of the oak industry, various career opportunities in the oak industry, and what it’s like to have a career in the oak sales. From silviculture to discussing the first female to enter a French Master Cooper program… this is a fun packed episode of oak information! Plus, we get a small glimpse into Gina’s experience with how younger generations just want to enjoy wine.
Links for things mentioned in this episode:
- Trust Cooperage
- Instagram (@trustcooperage)
- LinkedIn (Trust Cooperage)
- Facebook (Trust Cooperage)
- Gina’s Blog Site, which shares stories about being an industry supplier, a photo guide on how barrels are made, and up-to-date information on barrels and products.
- Instagram (@ginashay1)
- LinkedIn (Gina Certa Shay)
- silviculture – the growing and cultivation of trees
- Career Opportunities in the Oak Industry:
- Sales (i.e., determining winemakers’ oak needs and tasting wines with them),
- Marketing (i.e., graphic design, marketing materials, website design and maintenance),
- Accounting,
- Master Coopers, and
- Scientists
- First Female Coopers
- Appealing to the different generations of wine drinkers has been an ongoing marketing effort by the [national] wine industry for years. Here are some observations we discussed regarding appeal to younger generations of wine lovers:
- Don’t make assumptions that younger drinkers cannot afford wine.
- Many younger generations of wine consumers are looking for experiences with wine, wine brands, or wineries.
- The wine industry often creates a gateway for wine consumers to enjoy wine. This is done through trickery, requiring consumers to have accurate information before a pour, or wine industry members showcasing their vast knowledge to someone that may not have that much detail about wine stored in their mind. We hope that our stories in today’s episode will illustrate how persuasive these actions can be at causing enthusiastic wine consumers to disengage from drinking wine all together. While the industry is currently focused on appealing to new markets, new generations, and those that don’t yet know they love wine, sometimes the tactics that make the greatest strides are small, societal changes that are difficult to change universally.
- Winebusiness.com –> searching for wine industry jobs!
Thank you for listening to another delicious episode of Voices of the Vine. You can find show notes for our episodes by subscribing to the DGW Sip & Swirl, or by visiting the Sip & Swirl Archive, both available at dgwinemaking.com/winelovers. That’s dgwinemaking.com/winelovers with an “s” at the end.
We love to talk about tasting wine on this podcast. Please remember that our podcast is about wine appreciation and education, but that we both support and encourage responsible alcohol consumption. Additionally, both of us are winemaking professionals, so we do not get paid for tasting wine. All opinions expressed here on our podcast are those of ours alone.
Today’s episode is produced, researched, and hosted by both Denise Gardner and myself, Virginia Mitchell. If you enjoyed today’s episode, we’d love for you to subscribe to Voices of the Vine on your favorite podcast platform. Plus, listener reviews go a long way for podcasters. If you could leave us a review on your platform of choice, we’d truly appreciate it.
Thanks for listening.
