All Things Come to an End

Today was my last week at Rochioli... I am exhausted.  My hands are torn to shreds and my shoulder is a little screwed up from falling out of the grape press awkwardly.  My body is drained but also ripped, kind of like Gerald Butler in the movie 300, don't laugh, I'm serious.  I can roll tractor tires with one arm, I can also throw a baseball exactly one mile, no joke, I can bench press a Pinto (Ford Pinto).  I had a lot of fun doing this, at times it wasn't fun when I was actually working because of the sheer effort put into making a great wine.  After work I always had a sense of accomplishment and wanting to go back the next day even though my body was saying why do you want to do this, you're nuts. Even though it was hard, I am thinking I will come back next year depending on my employment situation.  I want to do it again to really focus more on the next level of wine making.  I have the basics down, the machinery down, and for next year I really want to take my understanding to the next level.

My last day at the winery consisted of me washing barrels!  Its not very exciting but none the less part of making wine.  Wine making has to be extremely clean, everything you touch and use has to be spotless.  As one can imagine the least fun part of making wine is cleaning everything after you have used it!  Not fun!

 
After the uneventful day of washing barrels my last night at Bruce's was very eventful.  Bruce' wife got a new job at Wilson Winery (Wilson Winery) as, from what I understand, the event planner there.  She was doing an event for this coming weekend where their Zinfandels will be on display for their wine club members also including a dinner.  So we tasted through their Zins (I think it was 7 of them) with Bruce, his wife, myself, and two local chefs.  We took tasting notes and ranked them best on our own feeling on the wines.  After that we all started yelling out what would go good with the different wines.  Sort of a collaborative conversation about the wines and how we feel about them.  It was so cool!  To hear professionals in the trade just fire out what they are tasting in the wine and also what will go good with it.  Food and Wine!!!  The best pairing on earth!  After the tasting we say down for dinner.  A note on the Wilson Wines, yes they were good, very good, some better than others of course but the were for sure top notch for the price point.  I enjoyed the Mollys Vineyard Zin and the Sawyer Zin, the Sawyer being more representative of a "true zin" and Molly's being a little different, with a blend of 5% Petite Sirah.  In the end it was a great night shared with friends and it give me the insight into how wine and food pairings work!

So what is next you ask?
I'm in Minneapolis, Minnesota, why?  To spend time with my girlfriend, we haven't seen each other in 2 months!!!  Secondarily, I will be writing my business plan, drinking wine (I sent a case and a half here!!!), sharing that wine with the great people of Minnesota and also freezing my bum off!  I think it was a high of 40 degrees here today!  Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas I will head to back to California refreshed, regrouped, refocused, reinvented, reinvigorated, re....etc... you get the point.  At that time I will look for a new job in the industry.  In March 2010, I will be enrolling in the CIA's Wine Immersion Program, assuming I can scrap together the money, in June I will be heading to France  for who knows how long with some great people, including future wine maker, vineyard rodent, M.G. Murawski.        

In closing, I read an article about this company, Tasting Room.  Its basically a way where instead of buying a full bottle of wine that you've never had, you can buy these tasting sample packages.  Pretty cool!  I haven't bought anything from them yet..... Tasting Room (Tasting Room).  If you order from here please let me know how it went.  I am unemployed again... so it will be awhile before I try out the website ha! 

In the words of Jay-Z.... I'm on to the next one, on to the next!

American Dream

I know this blog is supposed to be grounded in the business of wine however I wanted to spend some time thinking and writing about myself and where I am at personally.  Writing for me is a release and a way to express myself.  My hope is also that if someone reading this is in similar situation, that they know they are not alone.  While I am very fortunate about getting this harvest job and how everything has worked out, from turning down the financial job I was certain I was going to take, to being laid off, to deciding that I wanted to move to California and work a harvest to kick of this quest, it is a constant battle. 

There are times when I question exactly what I am doing.  I have made a conscious decision to go outside the norm and to pursue true passion relentlessly at the expense of comfort and safety.  I have made this decision, no one else, while I am supported by my family and friends (thank you so so so much, you mean the world to me!) I feel alone in this.  I am betting the house on myself and at times it does scare me.  Fear, the most paralyzing feeling that can ultimately lead to inaction.  I am constantly battling this fear, fear of no job, fear of no retirement savings, fear of not having a "career", in sum, fear of stepping out of what you are taught to do starting as a little dude in kindergarten.  I look at my friends who are married, settling down, putting down roots and I wonder what that must be like and sometimes I think that I want that.  I crave a place to call home, that is mine.  I wonder where I am going to get the money to put this together, to pay for education, to live, to live the way I want to live.  I am thinking that everyone that has every attempted to start a business has gone through this.  Bill Gates did not just all of a sudden become the richest man in the world.  I am sure there was tons and tons of blood, sweat, and tears.  I mean the guy dropped out of Harvard to start his own company!  Tom Rochioli didn't just all of sudden make some of the best Chardonnay and Pinot in the world, it took serious dedication and hard work.   Bruce (whose family I live with) raised two kids with his wife while operating his landscaping company in San Francisco while at the same time building Zinscape (Zinscape).  This is America.  America is full of people like this, they took a chance and pursued it with everything they had.  They bet the farm on themselves, some won and some lost.  This is America, America is NOT free handouts, entitlements, lazy, big government, bailouts on and on and on.  It takes constant reassurance in my own head that I am doing the right thing.  I have these little battles with myself on a daily basis.  Especially earlier this week, as it was very very difficult but you pick yourself off the floor, dust yourself off and charge forward because there is no other option not for me, not ever.

One thing I do know is that as much as I feel the way I do, I know that I am on the right path, I know this is right, it has to be.  I get up every day at 6am and not once have I felt like awww, dang time for work, I want to go back to bed!  I get the greatest satisfaction out of what I am doing now.  Creation, creating something with my own hands, knowing that what I am learning is invaluable, that it will help me in whatever I do next.  This is my journey.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.  Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definetely commits oneself, then providence moves too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.  A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way.  Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.  Begin it now. - Goethe