How to win at work, Naked-style
As your Wine Guy, I do occasionally have to pinch myself to remember this is somehow my job. I get to travel to some of the prettiest corners of the wine world, walk vineyards with the people who farm them, and taste bottles where they begin life. There are tougher gigs.
But one of the things I love most about Naked is that the best bits aren’t reserved for “wine guys”.
Every month at Naked, we celebrate people from across the business who’ve gone above and beyond in the service of our Angels, winemakers, staff… the entire community. Maybe they’ve had a cracking idea for a project and willed it into existence. Maybe they’ve looked after an Angel so brilliantly it makes the rest of us raise our game. Maybe they’ve helped a winemaker out of a sticky patch. Or maybe they’re one of those office heroes who keep the mood buoyant and the biscuit tin stocked up (with Crunch Creams ideally).
We call it the Noticeably Naked Awards. Or the NNAs, for short.
And yes, I know you’re going to say “it’s an employee of the month scheme, Toby, what’s so special about that?”
What’s special is that along with the plaudits from their teammates (and a special bottle to enjoy at home) every winner also goes into the mix for one of my favourite Naked traditions: the NNA trip.
A couple of times a year, we spin a wheel loaded with the previous six months of winners, pick four names, and I take them out to see our winemakers in the wild.
It happens on work time. So for me, there’s a bit of actual work involved – tasting and talking with winemakers, acting as the general “trip dad”. But I always tell the group the same thing: shut your laptops, stick your out-of-office on, and enjoy it. This is a chance to see the Naked magic as you’ve never seen it before.
And these trips do have a funny habit of turning into the kind of stories that sound frankly made up once you’re back at your desk. In fact, I thought I’d ask some recent winners for their highlights…
A few NNA stories from the archive:
Dominique – Portugal, 2024: “We visited loads of amazing winemakers in Portugal, but the standout for me was the night at Mario Negreiros’ place in the Douro. England were playing in the Euros semi-final, and we all made a pact: if England won, we’d go for a midnight swim in the Douro river. Mario’s place is super off-grid, but he took us to a tiny local bar up the road to watch the match (along with a lot of confused locals). England won, we plodded downhill, paddled in the Douro, then sat under this huge starry sky – chatting about everything and nothing. It was one of those moments that sticks with you forever.”
Will – Spain, 2025: “One of the strangest and best things about these trips is how quickly they fast-forward a relationship. Before I joined Naked, I already knew of Stefan Lismond through his BCN Gin, so when you go on the Naked Wines Tasting Tour and introduce yourself in real life, it feels a bit like meeting a celebrity. Suddenly you’re out in Spain visiting him on his own patch and it feels like you’ve known each other for years. By the end of it, I had an open invitation to come back and stay at the studio.”
Tom – Italy, 2025: “We had the most amazing day with Marica around Lake Garda – including a boat trip and making our own pasta – and seeing how much care she puts into every detail of her wines. By the time we left, she was calling us good friends. Recently, I was in the area again for a concert and I knew we had to make a stop back to see her. We also invited Gaia, her social media person, along with a spare ticket. That’s the bit these trips do so well. You go out there to meet winemakers, and you come back with something much warmer than a working relationship.”
Anyway, earlier this month, I went on the latest one of these trips – to Slovenia and Italy with Ciara in Ops, Mike from Tech, Ryan in Customer Service, and Franc Dusak, our Director of Winemaking. It started with an early morning pick-up at Naked HQ, a few bags in my car boot, and before long we were off.
The safe word is sausages
Sitting in the half-light of an airport café, we settled into the usual pre-flight routine: breakfast, a coffee, and (for some) the traditional airport beer. This is where the trip properly begins. Everyone is excited as we chat through the plan for the next few days, who we’d be visiting, and check all the important stuff: what snacks we had for the flight, on-flight entertainment (I’m currently about ten rewatches deep into the US Office), and who’d forgotten their toothbrush…
Somewhere in among all this, the subject of Ryan’s volume control came up. Now, to be clear, these trips are not free-for-alls. But when you’re spending a few days with winemakers, there is inevitably a bit of wine tasting involved, and apparently Ryan can occasionally lose touch with his indoor voice. So, in the interests of winemaker diplomacy, we agreed on a safe word in case the decibels started rising. The safe word was sausages.
Before long, we were boarding, taking off, and touching down in Venice, where Franc Dusak was waiting for us at the airport. Franc is our Director of Winemaking in the USA – and a very good one at that. He heads up Naked USA’s in-house cellar and also makes some cracking wines himself (check out his Sonoma Valley Malbec).
We made it through arrivals, found the hire car, and I settled into my first role as trip dad (aka driver).
Everyone had a turn in the front, with mixed results. Ciara was, without question, the star co-pilot – calm, organised, excellent on directions, and great playlist management. Mike’s navigational style was a touch more… impressionist. Franc, despite being able to run a winery, lost a fierce battle with the car tech. And Ryan – bless him – fell asleep almost instantly.
So, with Ciara riding shotgun, we rolled out of Venice and pointed ourselves towards Slovenia.
Slovenia: where Franc takes the wheel
Now, I’ll admit I went into this bit fairly blind. Slovenia wasn’t a country I knew especially well. So it was a good thing we had Franc on board, and it felt fitting that he’d lead us into that first leg of the trip.
Franc’s a third-generation winemaker, the first in his family to make wine in Napa and Sonoma, but not the first Dusak to make wine full stop. His father and grandfather both made wine in Slovenia, and that heritage still runs through everything he does. The little DVK emblem on his labels is a nod to the original family cellar – Dusak Vinska Klet – and to the three-generation line of winemakers behind it. He’s had a long route through the wine world too: from tasting room work to bottling line to cellar to lab to assistant winemaker to head winemaker, before joining Naked USA back in 2013. These days he’s a huge part of what makes our US winery tick. And he still makes a few wines in his family’s old country too.
What struck me straight away is how much the culture in this part of Slovenia brushes up against Italy. The food, the grape varieties, the hospitality – it all has that familiar feel. But there’s no mistaking the fact that Slovenians are proudly Slovenian. One of the winemakers told us a brilliant old story about how, years ago, the local lads used to go out at night, pick up the big white-painted border stones and move them around for a laugh.
The winery itself was one of the bigger ones in Slovenia. Which, in Slovenian terms, still means quite small and familiar in scale. We sat down to taste a few local wines – including Rebula (a regional specialty), but the truth is, many producers are leaning into more recognisable international varieties nowadays.
Indeed, the quality of the Pinot Gris blew me away. And after about half a day there, my main takeaway was simple: Slovenia is sitting on a goldmine of quality fruit.
Then came lunch. And Slovenian hospitality does not believe in moderation as a philosophy. If your glass was empty, someone spotted it before you did. If your plate looked vaguely manageable, that problem was soon solved. Lovely for everyone. Particularly for those who were not about to drive a hire car into Italy afterwards.
I, of course, was on coffee and water – while the others embraced the welcome with gusto.
Not your typical château: this Slovenian winery was all hard lines and brutalist architecture on the outside. But beautiful wines on the inside.
Wake up, we’re in Prosecco
By the time we reached Paolo Sacchetto’s place in the Prosecco hills, a few naps had broken out. I had to gently nudge the crew awake to witness our arrival to breathtaking scenes.
Paolo’s estate sits up in the hills, and it really is one of those places where your lungs and your eyes both have a nice time. Steep vineyards, winter air. We arrived in the middle of the pruning season, which gave the whole landscape a stark, stripped-back look – just bare vines and busy hands.
There were teams out in the rows pruning away, canes piled up, everyone getting on with it. It’s one of the things I always like about visiting at this time of year: you see the less polished, but practical side of wine. The bit that doesn’t usually make it into marketing visuals.
Up in Paolo’s tasting room, we got to try some of his new vintages, including a cult-favourite Moscato that we used to stock at Naked many moons ago – and is soon to return. I’d first tasted it months before, so it was nice to see it starting to feel properly real. Consider this your little heads-up: keep an eye out for it this summer.
At dinner. Paolo absolutely spoiled us. Special bottles, beautiful food, and enough truffles to leave a pig stuffed. A flight of red wines arrived – Barbera, Barolo, and another in between that I should probably remember better than I do. And for a few very happy hours, the five of us just sat there and soaked it all up: the wine, the generosity, the company, the sheer “how-is-this-our-job?” of it all.
Dinner with Paolo Sacchetto: a brief pause for a photo before getting straight back to the feast.
This road definitely can’t lead to a winery
The next day took us into Valpolicella and Amarone country, starting with Mirko Sella. Although getting there was… something.
You know that feeling when you’re in a hire car, in a foreign country, the road narrows, the corners get sharper, and you start wondering whether the sat nav has decided to have a laugh at your expense? That.
We kept climbing. The road got windier and narrower and more ridiculous. Franc, used to rather more expansive winery approaches in California, was looking increasingly unconvinced that there could be a functioning business at the top of this.
And then, of course, there was.
Mirko’s place sits right up on the hill, with vineyards all around and views out across rolling slopes and snow-capped mountains. And Franc was fascinated by the smaller bottling set-up, the presses, the de-stemmers, the way everything worked on a more intimate scale.
For Franc, it was a really interesting contrast to the world he’s used to in Napa and Sonoma: “It was so cool to meet the Italian winemakers in their settings, and see how passionate and dedicated they are to crafting beautiful wines. What was very cool was seeing the varied size and scope of each operation – but the quality of wines they produced was the same, incredible.”
We also got to see a bit of the Amarone side of life – the drying rooms, the techniques, the bits of this region that are so distinct from anywhere else in the world. Then, headed on to see Antonio Fattori.
Franc (L) and Mirko (R): deep in winemaker chat, while the rest of us admired the view.
If Mirko’s winery felt intimate and hands-on, Antonio’s was immaculate.
Properly immaculate. It gleamed. Everything was lined up, spotless and in place. You get the sense that if you left a hose out of line by so much as an inch, Antonio would know before you did. He has a very clear philosophy that if the winery is clean, structured and in order, the wine will be too.
We tasted through a selection of Pinot Grigios, including back vintages and different stylistic takes. And then, because this is Amarone country after all, there was Amarone. Flights of it, in fact.
One of my favourite moments of the whole trip happened around that table too – and it showed why these NNA trips can be so valuable.
By the end of the tasting, the winery office upstairs had more or less emptied out, and suddenly the table turned into a series of little conversations. You realise that it’s not just us getting the rare chance to meet winemakers on their patch – it works both ways. This is also a chance for them to meet Naked properly, and ask the sorts of questions that don’t always come up over email.
And by sheer luck, every question seemed to land with exactly the right person sitting there to answer it. There were questions about tech, logistics, and customer service. Questions about how things work behind the scenes at Naked day to day. And that’s where having Ciara, Mike and Ryan on the trip really came into its own.
Because I can talk about the wines until the cows come home, but I’m not exactly your man for the finer points of Naked’s back end. Mike, on the other hand, absolutely is. And watching him chat face-to-face with a winemaker about how things work on the tech side of things was one of the warmest moments of the whole trip for me.
The end of our trip was starting to come into view, but before we left, there was one more little glass for the road: a sparkling Durello. It’s a niche wine and slightly overshadowed by Prosecco, but I’ve always had a soft spot for it. And it felt like a very fitting final reminder that Italy is full of brilliant wines that don’t always get the attention they deserve. The sheer number of grape varieties in this country is mind-boggling.
With Antonio Fattori: a group shot after a proper Amarone masterclass, including a tasting across multiple vintages. Tough day at the office.
From workmates to mates
Mercifully, we had most of the next day before flying home, which meant a little time to just enjoy Padua properly.
Those last bits are often the ones I remember most on these NNA trips. You’ve done the driving, the tasting, the winery visits, and what’s left is just a few people sitting in a square with a beer in hand, bowls of pasta on the way, and reminiscing about the memories and bonds we’d made.
Mike put that side of the trip beautifully afterwards: “What I loved was it was just a great opportunity to spend a lot of time with ‘new’ people. We spent hours travelling together, with good playlists and great conversations about best gigs, favourite olive oil and my poor navigation skills – and it was all easy flowing, totally natural and fun. New friendships made with people I barely knew before.”
And that, really, is the point of these trips. On one hand, you come back with better stories, stronger friendships, and the sort of memories that still make you smile back at your desk.
On the other, you come back understanding Naked a bit more deeply. The bit Ciara captured well, was getting to see the real people behind Naked up close, “All the winemakers we visited made wine very differently in very different facilities, but they all had this great pride and passion in what they do. I loved how we were looking at something very natural and organic but that it involved both creative and scientific knowledge and talent.”
Before we made it home, I took everyone for ice cream – completing my transformation into full trip dad – while Venice airport found some excuse to inconvenience me specifically, as it always seems to. But by then, even that felt like part of the fun.
And that’s the thing about these NNA trips. They may begin as a work reward, but they rarely end there. They turn into the kind of stories that sound just silly enough to tell again and again.
Preferably over a glass of something good.
Drinks in Padua: the gang enjoying one last moment together before the trip came to an end.
