Sep 10, 2021
The radio in my office squawks just loud enough to wake my then 8-year old Golden Retriever Dallas from his deep slumber in the middle of the hallway in front of my office. It was a question from the cellar foreman regarding the blend we were putting together that day. It’s May, the Wisteria outside my window is in full bloom and the sun is shining over the pond. I hear our wine tracker mumble something unintelligible at his computer – probably a work order not up to his standards.
I loved my job. It was fast paced, varied and full of learning. I worked 4 days a week and my commute was not only beautiful but short enough to be pleasant and long enough to decompress on either side of the day. Above all, I loved, loved, LOVED the team at the winery and the extraordinary growers and their fruit I got to work with. I learned so much about winemaking then, it was something nobody could ever learn in school or on the job in that short period of time. To this day, I look back at this as THE perfect job. I was fortunate and grateful.
That May, I was approached to consider a promotion to winemaker for what is now the leading brand within the company. The new job would have not only required an hour commute or even a move, but I could no longer bring my dog to work with me. In my mind, those alone were deal breakers. In hindsight, I might have seemed resistant to change and there certainly was an element of that. However, the most significant deterrent was the product itself. I didn’t believe in it like I did in the product I was currently making. I was not done learning or experiencing, and I wasn’t ready to leave something good. If it wasn’t broke, why fix it, right?
The wines we made ranged from 200-500 cases for Tasting Room only, all the way to 250,000 cases of commercially available brands. The small tasting room lots were exciting because, as single vineyard designates, it was our job as winemakers not to screw up what these beautiful vineyards gave us to work with. It’s the closest thing to what I would consider “flow state” in winemaking (not to be confused with spilling wine). What I found interesting about making larger case volume wines, was the blending of lots to make one big one. Blending was usually just the first step, one to create the volume needed. Some of those wines required, what I will call “engineering” to make it quaffable, even “delicious”, as in “popular”. As I said, I learned a lot during that time.
This new job opportunity seemed like my future in winemaking would consist of 90% engineering and 10% flow state, and I just couldn’t do it. Turning down even the opportunity to interview for the job, set off this whole new way of thinking about wine authenticity, creative license and, ultimately, health. As a winemaker in a commercial setting, you are often required to make wines that the company’s R&D shows are what consumers want and that will be the most profitable. They are typically so-called formula wines. Not only does making formula wines limit my creative license – which, of course, I had none of when I first started – but there is usually some level of engineering involved to make the often inexpensive base wine taste better. It goes beyond just blending (my preferred method) because blending alone is not always possible in a large commercial setting, especially for wines that end up in the 100k+ case range and sold at a certain price point. Some of the additives used in engineering, are simply additives that I would not want to put in my wine, let alone my body. I am not claiming that the additives used are toxic (there are 76 additives approved by the TTB), all I am saying is that they are like the MSG or high fructose corn syrup of wine. The difference between wine and food, however, is that you might not know that this stuff is in your wine. Currently, the wine industry has no requirement for any nutritional information or ingredient labeling. I have no opinion one way or another about labeling, but until anything changes, it is on the wine consumer to educate themselves about the wines they are drinking.
Over the years, I have become increasingly mindful of my wellbeing and am realizing that taking my health for granted for the rest of my life, is likely a losing proposition. It began with my quest to quit smoking before I turned 30. While this was WAY before I became a winemaker, it was the impetus to pursue wine as a hobby at first and eventually a career – all thanks to newly awakened olfactory senses. Now, at 45, I live a very active lifestyle and no longer work in commercial winemaking. A few years ago, I started my own business with the goal to return to craft winemaking and help startup wineries turn their vision into reality. My clients include DiStasio Vineyards and La Mesa Vineyards in Amador County with whom I not only have creative license but where I’m in flow state always and engineering is pretty much a foreign language.
While winemaking is my passion, so is educating wine consumers on the process of making wine. There are many avenues one can take to learn about wine – attending tastings, travel, taking classes. But the opportunity to get ones’ hands dirty and to actually take part in the winemaking process, is a bit more difficult to come by. It’s a chance to learn about what goes into that bottle of wine, the ability to ask the right questions and to make educated decisions on the wines we are putting in our bodies. I have seen it all… or at least enough to shed some light on the often obscure world of wine – especially when it comes to health and wellbeing. Had I taken that big job, I might be in a different spot.