Living the Dream

I guess it is the natural beauty of vineyards and the sensual aspects of wine that make people so enamored with the wine business. I had to laugh when Jay Somers pulled up to my house to deliver his beautiful Croft Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc. As he started pulling the wine out of the van I asked him how things were going. "Just living the dream," he said, "just living the dream." Having run wine around town I had to laugh, his words said it all. Delivering wine, it's a glamorous damn business.

Thankfully he was delivering the last of the best American Sauvignon Blanc I have ever had. I noticed Matt Kramer just wrote up his Eola Hills Sauvignon Blanc which is very good. The Sauvignon Blanc from Croft vineyard is even better. Being solely a Pinot Noir producer at this point, I like to feature other wines in our tasting room from producers whose wines I love. And I love this wine. I joke with people that I have drunk as much as I have sold over the last two months....not far from the truth.

Knowing and enjoying other small producers wines is one of the rewards of what can be a very stressful business. But there are other rewards as well. Some of you may have read my previous blog about the party for our wine club that could have been a disaster. You don't expect rain in August, but that night it was looming. When the last guest were leaving a little after nine, the rain came down in earnest. It was a small blessing that it held off for the event as we had no where else to put 50 people but outside.

After being on my feet since early that morning and too busy to eat during the event, I finally fixed a plate of food at ten. The tasting room was quiet and I opened the doors to the patio and listed the the rain. I pulled up a stool to the tasting bar and poured some J. Christopher Sauvignon Blanc with the chicken. I poured the 05 LeNez Pinot for the pork, a great food and wine match. I also had to taste a little of the Owen Roe Sangiovese because it was there.

After the meal, I put up an umbrella on the deck and poured a small glass of the Cottonwood Raja Jade Syrah. This is the brand of Aaron Lieberman who is the assistant winemaker at Owen Roe. His Syrah is a very special bottle of wine, powerful, rich and in my mind made for after dinner almost more than with dinner. It is nearly 18% alcohol, fermented with a alcohol tolerant yeast strain. I have gotten a number of people hooked on this wine(you know who you are) and I guess I am hooked myself.

So there I sat, softly falling rain, a glass of great Syrah and I lit up a nice cigar. There was something about sitting there, enjoying that unusual rain in August, the stillness, taking in this place we have worked so hard to create, something about it all that made me feel, that yes, I am living the dream.