I am a firm believer that if you treat people right and expect the best in people the world rewards you two fold. This is one of those stories. A story about reconnection, place, and about the forming of my trip to France.
I made my first trip back to Healdsburg to reconnect with the winery, Bruce (whom I stayed with during harvest), and to check out the Culinary Institute of America where I will spending an entire month immersed in wine, haha, ok well its called wine immersion which is a 30 day course in wine, wine 8 - 5! And get this, for breakfast, lunch, and later when the desert class starts, we will be guinea pigs for the training chefs! The campus is amazing., it's the old Christian Brothers winery built maybe sometime in the 1930s. Its made from all grey stone, which is probably why it is called CIA Greystone! A very cool place and I can't wait to start my classes.
Upon arriving in Healdsburg a sense of nostalgia washed over me, thinking of the farmers market in summer, the great people, the winery, harvest, and everything I encountered while I was living up there. There have not been many places where I have ever felt like, wow, I could live here for the long term. I have lived/visited in some great cities and have had fun in them (Washington, D.C., Manhattan, Milwaukee, and Denver). However, none of them (except Denver) have left me with the sense of HOME. Even though I spent nearly 4 years in Washington, D.C. it never felt like home. Again, I had a lot of fun there and miss my friends dearly. California on the other hand fells like home to me, specifically, San Francisco and Healdsburg. Finally, after searching my entire adult life searching for place (and profession), I think I have found it!
Anyways..... I returned home after visiting with the aforementioned places and people. About a week later, the tasting room manager at the winery called me and asked if I would want to work in the tasting room. We began talking about my trip to France and making sure that they knew I would be gone for that month. She mentioned that she knew someone in Southern Rhone who wrote a French blog, I said "French Word of the Day?" She, "Yes!" I couldn't believe it, I have been an avid reader of the blog for the last year, such a small world. She said, "they are a wonderful family and just email her." Also, the family owns a winery, Domaine Rouge-Bleu!! To make a long story short, I emailed Kristin, author of the blog, and she replied the next day with, "we'd love to have you by the winery!!" I was so excited, still am, she also threw in there, "too bad you won't be here in September to help with harvest".....hmmmmmm! Woooooooooo! France, only 3 months away. The 3 of us on the trip, keep going back and forth..... are we going to come back? To put this trip into perspective I did a little calculation, if we average 8 wineries a day and assuming they pour 4 different wines, we will have tasted over 900 unique wines during the trip. Holy guacamole batman that's a lot.
I'm in the process of moving back to Healdsburg for class so I haven't been able to post a new tasting note. I start class on Tuesday!
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