My Wine

My winemaking journey completed a major milestone.  15 years ago I dreamed of making my own wine.  We had taken a number of wine destination vacations and the thought of looking out our window at a vineyard, making critically acclaimed wine, and living the life of a winemaker in a known wine region sounded romantic.   As I later realized, romantic is often trumped by practical.

In late 2005 I entered the Viticulture and Enology program at the University of California Davis.  This is the school that has educated many of the best winemakers from around the world.  Good wine is difficult to make, even when you start with premium grapes and use sound winemaking techniques.  There is a great deal of bad wine produced, often by people that don’t fully know what they are doing.  Having the education before I began making wine was an absolute for me.  In my U.C. Davis class, I was the only student out of more than 30 that was not a current winemaker at that time.  This reinforced my belief that education was necessary and seeing existing winemakers obtain the same education that I was seeking proved that.  In December 2008 I completed the program.

2009 was my first vintage of Napa Valley Rutherford AVA Cabernet Sauvignon.  To learn more about why I chose this varietal and AVA, please visit my website.  If you don’t know the name of my winery, just Google my full name followed by winemaker and you should see it.

Today my 2009 vintage is delivered and safely in storage.  A friend of mine used her logistics expertise to help arrange the transportation from the bottling plant and saved some shipping costs; I will make sure she receives a bottle of my first vintage in gratitude. It will take at least 5 more years of aging in the bottle, before the wine begins to achieve its potential.  That doesn’t mean I won’t drink some now.

Australia’s most famous wine, and one of my favorites, is Penfolds Grange.  This wine was first made by Max Schubert in 1951 and six years later, after a number of negative reviews, Penfolds told Max to stop making Grange.  Max continued making it, hiding the barrels in the vast winery.  Several years later, an original 1951 was tasted again, and with additional maturation, was now a spectacular wine.  Penfolds told Max to restart production of Grange and he answered that he had never stopped.  The story illustrates that good wine takes time.  I was fortunate to visit the Penfolds Grange winery earlier this year.

My dream of 15 years was reshaped by the knowledge I gained and the practical side of my investment focus.  The only asset that is important to own is the wine.  Vineyards take 4 to 5 years after planting, fertilizing, pruning and constant care, before the first grapes are harvested.  There are great growers of grapes in Napa Valley; I don’t need to grow my own.  I also don’t need to own a processing facility that is used for 3 weeks each year.  There is capacity that already exists.  I don’t need to own barrel aging caves or bottling equipment.  All I really want to own is the wine.

Today I can hold a bottle of my wine and remind myself of the journey taken.