Too Small to Fail: Passion, Humility, and Purpose at Saarloos and Sons Winery

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It's here, it's now.

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It's winetalks with Paul K.

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Hey, welcome to Wine Talks with Paul K. And we are in studio today in

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beautiful Southern California, about to have a conversation with Keith Sarloos.

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Saarloos. Saarloos, however you want to say it. Wine Talks, of course,

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available on iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, wherever you hang out for your

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podcasting and always sponsored by the original wine of the month club, now

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sporting the sweet and series of wines. But not while we're here.

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We're here to talk to Keith about all things wine. Already had a

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stimulating conversation off camera. Welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. This

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is truly a pleasure. This is amazing. I love it. I love

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it. I walked in, saw graffiti. I, I saw, you know

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what, what does it say on the side of the Dom? Dom was a tagger

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right there. You had me and I'm like, oh, I'm home. You know, this

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is comfortable. Feels great. I have. You are the only person

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that's. That's accolades. Yeah. The only person that's

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noticed that really at the end cap there, that's the best part. I know. Like,

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so that was the one. When you walk in, the artist is going to put

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their most important piece where it punches you right in the face. And

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I saw that and I went, I took a picture of it and I'm like,

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I'm home. We don't know that. We don't know that. Dom Perignon was not a

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tagger. Well, you have to tag the bottle. I mean,

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something. That's right. I signed a lot of bottles.

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But thank you for having me. This is, this is a rare treat. Well, you

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drove down from Santa Nez a couple hour drive to come down on the show.

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I appreciate it. The most beautiful drive in the world. And you heard, you heard

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your buddy Matt Kane on the show and I did. He was. You are the

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second guest in this new studio. I, I feel very, it's

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unbelievable. I feel very welcome. Yeah, I appreciate that. This setup's amazing.

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Appreciate that. Thanks for coming. Thanks for having me. So you. But you came from

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Sandy's because you're making wine up there. Yes, we are. But you, that's not how

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you started this group. You were. You're from here. Yeah. So born and raised.

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Yeah, born and raised. Southern California. Bellflower, California, the friendly

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city. There you go. That's a plug for Dan Coops. That's true. There it is.

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And my parents grew up there. It was known as

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Derry Valley. Went to high school There, basically

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my entire world was as far as I could ride my BMX bike. Right.

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Those days was a long way, long way. You could make it to Seal beach,

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we could make it maybe to Whittier up the riverbed, which was really the

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freeway of bikes. And then, you know,

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then when I was 16, we had a, the original business supported

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the dairy supply side of it. And then as the dairies moved out and homes

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moved in, we turned into lawn and garden supply. And like I was 16,

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somebody threw me a clipboard and a list of deliveries to make and

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I was, you know, I passed my test at 8am by 9am and I was

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in a truck. And just basically I got paid to

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explore and make deliveries all over Southern California. So just even

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coming here, it's like I knew where to eat, I knew where to get off.

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The Thomas Brothers know, sitting in the back. But I, I'm a Southern

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California kid that got pulled

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to the Santa Valley, Los Levos. I'm gonna stop right there.

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Isn't that the greatest job? Because I was a delivery guy too. The greatest. And

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you learn the back roads, you learn the restaurants. I,

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I put 50, 000 miles on my car when I, my first sales job.

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And I, you know, I'll never forget what I learned and who I met and

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the places I went. The fact that you like for me,

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being, being 16 years old, being trusted with

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deliveries for a family business, enough money in my

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pocket to go eat wherever I wanted. I had, I knew

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where to get off. I learned how to judge cars. You know, I ride

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motorcycles now. And you, you like, if I see a type of car, I can

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almost tell the proclivity of what's going to happen. And

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then basically got, you know, just got to know every nook and cranny. And you

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learn, you learn how to handle yourself because you learn customer service. You

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are the backdoor salesperson. That's right. You are prideful

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in what you do. And then after you make a delivery and you go on

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to the next one, you're, you're happy again. And, and it's freedom. It was great.

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I mean it made me totally unemployable. I learned great respect for,

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for semi tractors. Oh yeah. I mean those guys,

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those that work, they do. And I worked Vernon and I worked

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South Central, I worked all the area. And you go, wow, these guys, you know,

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just have, let them have their. They'Re the, right away, give them the space. And

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if you, if you know how to drive with them. Yes, they'll take you

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anywhere. You'll never get a ticket, and you'll get about 80 miles.

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You tuck in between two and just roll. You're great. Cross country. Cross

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country. It's funny, you know, it's interesting you're talking about that because you are salesman,

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you are the face of the company, regardless of whether you sold the goods or

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not. And here you are running your own winery. Yeah.

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What's the name of the winery? Sarlos and Sons, which is really the name of

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a trucking company. It's really

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that Sarlos feast. Wow. Yeah. This

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is Santa Inez. Yeah. Specifically, Los Levos.

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You know, Sorrelson Sons was. Is really a, you know, to

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know. To know about what we do.

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My grandfather lost his father when he was young, and he was kind of on

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his own, Grapes of Wrath style, no pun intended. From Iowa to

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California. And my. My dad and my uncle work with my

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grandpa when it was a dairy supply business. As that

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transformed, they all worked together in a room pretty much like this

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that had no walls, but three desks in it. And one was sales, one was,

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you know, president, one was this. And you would come in and yell at whoever

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you needed to yell at, but everybody else in the room heard it. Yeah. Wow.

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And then, you know, I worked with my dad, my uncle, my grandpa.

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You know, me and my brother are two different people, but very similar.

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And Sorrelson Sons was kind of an homage to that. And,

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you know, really started this winery probably in the,

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you know, lowest point of my life. It sounds very weird to say,

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but it was providence. It was. This was. If I. If

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everything else didn't happen to me, I wouldn't have, number one, been there

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and then been forced into doing this. So Sorrows and Sons is kind

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of the, you know, we're very family centric. I put all

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pictures of people I love on the bottle, people who are part of it.

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My cousins are a part of it. They have their own brand, Waylon, two doors

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down. This is downtown Los Libres.

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Or that's your. That's our tasting room. That's my office and tasting. Yeah, right.

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And then we farm two vineyards and two different Avas. And

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one of them is in the Ballard Canyon Ava, which is. We have, you know,

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great neighbors with, you know, Honada's in there and Stoltman and

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Beckman and Larner and a bunch of other great people.

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And so that's. And we were part of the map signing. Like, you know, we

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established an Ava, which was really cool. And then. That's the

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establishment. That's. Yeah, that's. West Hagen wrote it all to do. Yeah. Wes

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Hagen wrote it from. Formerly from Clopepe and now at Antevero

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Sellers. Wes is he. He's the next person that should

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sit here because he's a. He's the Google of wine, where you ask him one

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little question and you get 30 pages of answers, but you only need one.

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I love Wes. But the other one's El Camino Real, which is on the corner

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of zaca Station Road. 101, 154. You know, just down the road from

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Firestone. You know, the Godfather really of the valley. Yeah.

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Fess Parker, Demetria,

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basically covering, you know. As a region has ballot. You know, ballot Canyon

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is. We're going to talk about this. It's certainly a buzzword

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of people in, In. In the trade that like. It's

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like saying Anderson Valley, these, this area that's becoming known for its

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own thing. How long is. How long was the ava? Was it years ago?

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I think, man, scary. That's probably a decade now because you have to. You have

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to tell the Fed. You got proved to the Fed there's something different about it

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that makes you have to prove. I learned so much through that process.

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And, you know,

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soil composition, history, the reasons where and why.

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What makes you different than just over the hill? Why can you draw this little

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map line using no words but only directions

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and reach this point and then go due south here for you have to. We

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physically walk the whole perimeter to really draw it on the map.

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And, you know, an ava, I think is important because you could say, where do

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you live? And you could say California. And California means a lot of different things.

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But you can say, oh, I live in LA county means a lot of different

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things when you get down to, I live in this town, this

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city, this neighborhood, this block, this house. Right. And what makes you

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special? Because really, you know, we're getting

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my, My, not my philosophy, but my thought of. You

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know, I, I love both of our properties very

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much. Ballard Canyon and El Camino are night and day different.

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And even our vineyard on. On Ballard Canyon,

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it's probably the most photographed vineyard. Really. Yeah.

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It's. We're on the COVID of the phone book when I go pay my taxes.

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There's no one ever. Yeah, but that was my. That was a big deal to

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my. And then the, you know, the, the rose book about the

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region, he put us on the COVID which was really unbelievable because it used to

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be a apple orchard.

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But telling the story of a place

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is, you know, when you read

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Books and. And. And you're. You're seeing the person go

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through trials and tribulations. If it's taken out of

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time, it doesn't really mean anything. But if you read Huck Finn and know

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what's happening when that's happening, all of a sudden, the

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region, the. What's happening around it, the

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actual person, you can see how they're shaped by all of those things. Like, we.

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We release one wine. We release our Syrah every year, which is the same

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clone grown on three different hills within, you know, from here,

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that wall separate from each other, but one's a big terrace, one's

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kind of a rolling hill, and we make farm the same way, we make them

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the same way, and they all taste differently. So explaining terroir

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to someone becomes very easy, you know, sense of place, because I would say

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so terroir is real. And they go, okay, what's that mean? I said,

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well, you have three kids, same DNA, same house, same food, same family. That's a

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really good explanation, right? And do you expect them to be the same personality? And

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the answer is no. And I said, well, then how can you expect any of

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this to be the same? We're telling one story from our

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property, you know, once a year, and I get to live in a valley that's

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full of, you know, punks and

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miscreants. Like, there's no corporatization of where we are. It's. It's pretty

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hardcore. It's kind of interesting. Sorry about a long answer. No,

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no, no, that's. You're the guest. If I talk too much. You know, my

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test is when I decide whether the show. I'm connecting the show

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properly is I'll. I'll pick random spots after I release and go,

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you're talking too much. Because it's not about me. It's about you guys. This is.

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We want to tell you. I just want to come talk to you, man. So

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I appreciate that. But. But something that's interesting you just said about this appellation, that

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there was why. Why back in the history of time.

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And you. Let's just pick Burgundy as probably the most, you know, prominent example

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where the monks were trying to find these little pieces of land and they gotta.

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You know, you said you walked the perimeter of Ballot Canyon, and here these monks

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are like, you know, three steps they got up. The soil's different over here.

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The. The thing that I feel like I

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get to be a part of and the. The timelessness of it, you

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know? You know,

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I can launch into Ballard Canyon, very

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easy. Where I can say, you know, with, with all of our neighbors. Okay,

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at 2:30 today, the wind's going to blow from here to there. There's this different

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soil composition. It starts from here, goes all the way down to here. There's. This

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is the lowest point. This is where the fog goes. This is where the sun

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rises. This is the warmest part of the vineyard. This is. And, and you only

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get that from time to. Because a lot of,

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you know, a lot of this industry is someone who, who did well at something

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else. And now they're going to impose that same level of success upon the wine

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world at all costs. And. Okay, but

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you're right, fine. But you know, I'm not really interested in that. The,

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the part that gets interesting is, you know, they have enough money, they buy a

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piece of property, they're going to plant the varietals they want on that.

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And right there it's like your kid's a, you know,

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your kid could have been a world class hockey player. And, and you're making them,

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you know, be a gymnast and, and

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all of a sudden you're like, it's not going to go well. But for us,

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you know, we came into this because we wanted to grow something from the, you

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know, my dad passed away three years ago. I'm sorry.

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Yeah, it was a big tree that fell in my forest, you know, and

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my grandfather who grew up on a farm in Iowa,

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left it to the older brothers because, you know, there was a bunch of

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like again, grapes wrath and was on his own and. But he always

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viewed farming as a noble profession and around the dairy industry

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and a lot of the families that we're, I grew up around same thing.

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And because, you know, 1.5% of this

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population is feeding the rest of us three times a day. Right.

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You know, and growing something from the ground, raising cattle was

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just a dream. My grandfather's and I always say be, be careful with what you

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fall in love with because that's the best version of you while you're doing it.

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And your kids will pick up on that real quick. And so my dad loved

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baseball and he loved working. And I as an idiot picked work and my

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brother picked baseball. Well, that's a, let's

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suspend that for a second. But you said something important, particularly the. Part about, yeah,

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stop me. Success of, you know, people, successful world. They want to buy this

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lifestyle. And we'll get into that conversation. But when you, when you said that

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this is not an easy job, farming is not easy.

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Farming is Historical farming takes experience for it to get

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better and better. And there's a story of Fowles

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Winery in Australia. And Matt Fowl is

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wonderfully masculine guy who, like, literally hunts his own

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lunch, you know, and his winery was a Coke

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executive who thought he could apply Coke

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beverage marketing, guerrilla marketing to wine business.

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And it promptly went out of business because that's not what it is. It's a

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passion for doing this job and presenting the product that you best

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represents where, where and where it's from. That's how you win. That only makes it

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worth it. Yeah, it's a good point. So that, so it

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leads to this, this whole idea. We go to Napa Valley

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with Los Olivos wherever we go, and we go, oh, what a lifestyle. Or we

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watch Sideways, oh, there's, you know, Santa's Valley and

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the Hitching Post, whatever. And we, we want that. And so

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we think we can buy that. No, no, no. The. The question is

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why? Why do we want that? Yeah. Right. Why do you want it? That's the

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question. And then you can't just buy it, though. You can buy it physically,

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but you can't. Don't you have to earn this lifestyle? The idea of the

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passion for it? I think. I think so.

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I. I come from.

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I've never went wine tasting really, before. I open a winery.

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That'S. Now, that's pretty interesting. Ever. Right. And it

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wasn't part of the thing. It wasn't. And so I've come into this in a

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very different way, I think, than. Than most people have.

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And you know, most people, when they,

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when they see someone on stage singing to a billion

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people. I was thinking about this actually two days

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ago, where what percentage of the people in the audience

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wish they were the person on stage? Probably,

255
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I don't know, 10%, maybe. Maybe it's more. I don't know.

256
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Right. But I.

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When you get into any form of, like, real art,

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the. The part of. The part that's drawn.

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Draws you to it is rarely the thing that is

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the reason that person's on stage. And, you know, if you locked

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yourself in a room when you're 13 years old with a pawn shop guitar and

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just. And beat on it like it owed you money. Right. And you just never

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stopped. Then eventually one day, maybe you'll make it to that

264
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stage, but when you do it, it'll probably be the least interesting part of your

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journey. And it's a good point.

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I understand why people like this lifestyle because it looks really neat from the outside,

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but usually the People that are doing that, you know, they're paying someone to come

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up with their labels. They're paying someone to make their wine. They're paying someone to

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farm it for them. They're paying. And it's like, well, if you didn't write the

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songs, why do you get your name on the album? And

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I come from a bit of a different area where,

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you know, my. Up until my dad passed away, he was the

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guy on the tractor. Just always. He didn't get into this

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because he wanted anybody to know who he was or, you know, my

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dad never made a bottle of wine in his life. He wanted to do the

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work. He wanted to grow something from the ground, which,

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you know, is. Is a

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trans. Is a transformative thing. Yeah. Because you have to be

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optimistic. You have to get up and earn it. You have to

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be there when things go wrong. You know, the. So God Made a Farmer I

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00:17:09,110 --> 00:17:12,550
is probably one of the greatest poems ever written because you have to be

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tough as an anvil and soft as shit

283
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all the time and humble as hell. And. Well, speaking

284
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of, if you're not humble. Yeah. If you're not

285
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humble, you sure. You sure will be soon, right? And

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what I like about that is, is taking something from, like,

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right now where we're pruning and we're making, you know, 23 different decisions

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per vine, times, you know, 2,000 vines an acre

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times 50 acres, we're making all of these farming decisions,

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and we're trying to get that fruit from a bud and

291
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get to watch it. Right. Bud to a grape. We pick

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and then take that off and not screw it up.

293
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I always think, like, coming here, you know, you're sharing so much information

294
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and stories and things with so many people about something they

295
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can't taste until they come and taste it. That's right. And

296
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it's. It's like saying, oh, this song is like this, but you can't hear

297
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it yet. And. And the beauty

298
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that I think is associated with that is.

299
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Is mostly it's kind of what we're. It's describing more what we're doing out

300
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in the vineyard than what we did in a winery. Right. For sure. You're always

301
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talking about the place. You're always talking about who's around it,

302
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what was happening, context rarely did. You know,

303
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sometimes you get. Is this stainless steel or, you know, and that. And then you're

304
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like, it doesn't matter, you know, but. But it. What you're

305
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really. What we're always describing is the work part of it, the beauty part. Of

306
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it. And that's the thing. I think I've. I've fallen. My dad fell in

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love with and I love doing it alongside

308
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of him. You know, we're, we're still. My wife, my mother, my daughter, my son

309
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are still at the, you know, 3:00am picks and, and we're still doing it

310
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because the hard work, the stuff everybody pays other people to do is the stuff

311
00:19:06,370 --> 00:19:09,930
we love. It's, you know, that you think about that lifestyle idea.

312
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This by the lifestyle. And I love it when

313
00:19:13,770 --> 00:19:17,610
friends go to Napa. Let's just pick Napa, because that's everybody's destination.

314
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And they see Dave Del Dado's giant monstrosity or that Persian, whatever that thing

315
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is that guy built, and I kind of go, that's. But that's not what it

316
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is. How great the stuff isn't. It's not that. And

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the humility. That's not, that's not humility. Hubris, right? Well,

318
00:19:31,750 --> 00:19:35,430
it's hubris. It's. To me, it's the over compensation

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of knowing how much you actually were involved in it to, to do it. Like,

320
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it's true. Like going back to the music analogy, if, if I go, you know,

321
00:19:43,470 --> 00:19:47,310
Jackson Pollock's one of my favorite artists and I don't

322
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see him really enjoying to go to go to a art show,

323
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right? Because what he wants to do is back in a barn, right?

324
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And I think those are the true artists, right? The people

325
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that are almost entirely impossible to love. And they're doing it for a great reason.

326
00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:06,720
I mean, you brought up Wink, right? Me and my cousin were talking about that

327
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last week and I said I outlasted him.

328
00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:14,120
You know, it's. It's true. It. Being big and being whatever

329
00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:18,200
doesn't mean it's better. It just means there's a Ponzi scheme anyway.

330
00:20:18,670 --> 00:20:22,230
Well, yeah, you listen to the rats. I know. I can't wait. Listen,

331
00:20:22,230 --> 00:20:25,630
anybody like going hard on stuff, I will listen to every line of it.

332
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But there's something about. And I learned this from the clad strips and that

333
00:20:29,230 --> 00:20:32,270
Nazi thing, and it kind of hit me in the middle of the conversation

334
00:20:33,230 --> 00:20:35,750
what you're doing and the history of what you're doing. Now, we don't have all

335
00:20:35,750 --> 00:20:38,870
the history that the French do and even other parts of the world have in

336
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wine, but we're creating that now. And it's coming from people like you

337
00:20:42,750 --> 00:20:45,790
who are farming the land, who can tell the stories of the things they've learned

338
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from the land. It's not the things you've learned from you know, the

339
00:20:49,190 --> 00:20:52,990
fermentation, you know, using stainless steel or oak, it's what you've learned from the land

340
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that makes the difference. So I thought, wow,

341
00:20:56,910 --> 00:20:59,670
the steak doesn't come from a herd, it comes from a cow. Comes from the

342
00:20:59,670 --> 00:21:03,150
cow, right? And there's a lot, you know, with anything

343
00:21:03,630 --> 00:21:07,430
I always say, you know, exalt the farmer. Because whatever restaurant is, you

344
00:21:07,430 --> 00:21:10,870
know, three stars or whatever, where they probably either are raising their own cattle or

345
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they have a relationship with someone and

346
00:21:14,830 --> 00:21:18,230
the farmer's doing 90, 90% of that work so they can sear it on two

347
00:21:18,230 --> 00:21:21,710
sides and serve. Because, you know, food is not about

348
00:21:22,030 --> 00:21:24,910
let's, let's hide it. It's about

349
00:21:25,070 --> 00:21:28,790
authenticity, right? The best meal of your life is someone who love that you love

350
00:21:28,790 --> 00:21:32,390
that cooks you something that they, they thought of you and made it that's

351
00:21:32,390 --> 00:21:35,990
real. And you know, for us, that's like, I, I don't sell the

352
00:21:35,990 --> 00:21:39,830
stores, I don't sell to restaurants. Every one of our bottles goes directly to

353
00:21:39,830 --> 00:21:43,390
someone that's either come in and tasted it or has been there before and

354
00:21:43,390 --> 00:21:46,190
has joined our family, you know, and

355
00:21:47,150 --> 00:21:50,630
because of that, I know who I work for. I work for them and them

356
00:21:50,630 --> 00:21:54,310
alone. And there's something really beautiful about that and

357
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there's something real freeing about it. And when you know the people you work for

358
00:21:58,110 --> 00:22:00,910
like that, it's like, you know, I don't mind working

359
00:22:01,550 --> 00:22:05,310
380 hour weeks this week. I know the guy from the friendly city.

360
00:22:06,670 --> 00:22:10,520
End of the, end of the philosophy. You know, how

361
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,600
do we end up in, in, in San Livos

362
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,800
farming? You said that it was almost serendipitous. You. Yeah.

363
00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:23,120
So my old man and my mom,

364
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:25,680
the saint, the real saint of the story,

365
00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:32,480
it's like, you know, every SOS man is an idiot and every

366
00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:36,560
woman he's married to is. Deserves way more, way better than him.

367
00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:40,380
We can define that around. Oh, that's easy. Our house actually just maniacs

368
00:22:40,380 --> 00:22:43,140
going to work every day and then coming home and their wife's, you know, pulling

369
00:22:43,140 --> 00:22:46,780
the, pulling us back. Had that discussion last night, actually. That's a good one. But

370
00:22:46,780 --> 00:22:49,900
you know, when you're full of passion and you're doing things like that, then,

371
00:22:51,100 --> 00:22:54,700
you know, my, My old man bought a, a piece of property on top of

372
00:22:54,700 --> 00:22:57,740
Ballard Canyon that was just a hunk of. And it had an app, had a

373
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Fuji apple orchard on it and he was pumped and ready to rock

374
00:23:01,420 --> 00:23:05,100
and, and we farmed those apples all year and had a neighbor that

375
00:23:05,100 --> 00:23:08,300
said, I'll buy them all and he was with a big huge, you know,

376
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,480
now a very big grocery store. As I tell you, my father in

377
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:18,240
law who fought in World War II, won't buy Fuji apples because he thinks

378
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:21,120
they're Japanese. That's true. They're good.

379
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:25,680
But went to deliver them, got them turned, turned away like at the

380
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:29,520
dock, you know, and yep, came back and shoved them on the

381
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:32,880
ground. Watched cattle eat them and there's, you know, a lot of crying and throwing

382
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:35,610
up and what are we going to do now? And all the terrible stuff. And

383
00:23:35,610 --> 00:23:39,410
I was still living in, down here in Southern California and kind of

384
00:23:39,410 --> 00:23:42,770
commuting back and forth. And my mom,

385
00:23:43,090 --> 00:23:46,610
again, the hero of the story says, you know, why don't you tear. I don't

386
00:23:46,610 --> 00:23:50,130
know what we're going to do. All that, you know, normal psycho. Of course,

387
00:23:50,930 --> 00:23:53,650
once you tear it out and put in grapes, seems like people want those, you

388
00:23:53,650 --> 00:23:56,370
know. And went down the street and asked Rusak,

389
00:23:57,810 --> 00:24:00,810
if we plant fruit, will you buy from us? Yeah, sure. You know, that. And

390
00:24:00,810 --> 00:24:04,570
that launched the ships. Wow. And we planted that simple. I mean,

391
00:24:04,890 --> 00:24:07,930
I don't know if you do that today in today's environment. We walked some. Hey,

392
00:24:07,930 --> 00:24:11,770
we bought. No, we were that dumb. That's the truth. You know, naive

393
00:24:12,010 --> 00:24:15,210
and planted them, you know, planted all our vines and,

394
00:24:15,690 --> 00:24:19,370
and this isn't cheap. No, it's cheaper than.

395
00:24:19,930 --> 00:24:23,570
But planted all of our vines and started

396
00:24:23,570 --> 00:24:27,330
farming them. And it's kind of like, you know, people weren't you scared and

397
00:24:27,330 --> 00:24:30,290
all that. And number one, it's, that was a burn. The ship's moment when you

398
00:24:30,290 --> 00:24:33,410
tear all the apples trees out and they're in a pile and they burn for

399
00:24:33,410 --> 00:24:37,040
a month. I mean, it's like when you land on the new

400
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,520
world, you go like this, well, which way are we going? How are we getting

401
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:42,440
home? And the ships are on fire and you're like, well, not that way. So

402
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,040
we're going to go through. Wow. And you know, no, we're,

403
00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:49,560
we're just too dumb to quit. That's another great Sarlos term.

404
00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:54,160
But we farmed them. And my

405
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:56,680
wife and I, I said as soon as, as soon as you're pregnant, we're out

406
00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,320
of here, you know, because we're in Southern California. But we knew we wanted to

407
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,100
raise kids up in a, you know, this is pre Internet. This is

408
00:25:03,100 --> 00:25:06,780
pre, you know, Amazon delivering there

409
00:25:06,780 --> 00:25:10,060
we had electricity. That was about it. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. And hard

410
00:25:10,060 --> 00:25:13,580
floors. And we did have potbelly stove in the barn we lived in

411
00:25:14,060 --> 00:25:17,900
and pregnant and had the kid

412
00:25:17,900 --> 00:25:21,500
baby grew up, you know, laying right between us in a, in a bedroom

413
00:25:21,580 --> 00:25:24,140
and I was out picking and

414
00:25:25,970 --> 00:25:29,130
you know, working side by side with my dad and Pedro and Alfonso and, and

415
00:25:29,130 --> 00:25:32,930
another little small crew and then would deliver our fruit to

416
00:25:32,930 --> 00:25:36,690
wineries who purchased it from us. And that's amazing. The one thing, it's like no

417
00:25:36,690 --> 00:25:39,810
one gave me an instruction manual and I brought a kid home and it was

418
00:25:39,810 --> 00:25:42,290
like how do you raise a kid? The answer is no one knows. No one

419
00:25:42,290 --> 00:25:45,970
knows. And, and so we do a lot of scientific wild ass guesses and

420
00:25:46,130 --> 00:25:49,970
we do things that seem right and never taken a class.

421
00:25:50,210 --> 00:25:53,840
I've read a few books but mostly it's hey, what do you

422
00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:57,640
think? And consensus of like well let's try this out and see

423
00:25:57,640 --> 00:25:58,520
what works. And.

424
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:03,800
I wonder what other careers or industries

425
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:08,600
because you know there's that there's always a competing philosophies about being let's say a

426
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:11,760
seller rat and just earning your way through and there's many. Well that's a totally

427
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:15,000
different job. You know, we're talking the farming side of it. Same with the farm

428
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,840
side. Like do you have to go to school? I mean somebody sent me an

429
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:21,110
email today with, with a video of some

430
00:26:21,590 --> 00:26:25,150
advanced bio invasion. Not

431
00:26:25,150 --> 00:26:28,230
invasion, but a product that you put in the soil. It is, I don't know

432
00:26:28,230 --> 00:26:31,750
what I did understand it myself but, but really,

433
00:26:31,910 --> 00:26:35,750
I mean it's such an organic and I hate to use the

434
00:26:35,750 --> 00:26:39,070
word like that but it's such an organic job and it's such a, it's so

435
00:26:39,070 --> 00:26:42,670
much about history and, and trial and

436
00:26:42,670 --> 00:26:46,490
error and trying to make it work. I always describe it as

437
00:26:46,490 --> 00:26:50,330
being a, like a great fisherman, right. Or a goal

438
00:26:50,330 --> 00:26:53,850
of, of a great fisherman or what makes a great fisherman. A great fisherman is

439
00:26:53,850 --> 00:26:57,650
someone who goes out and keeps doing it and then has a proclivity for

440
00:26:58,050 --> 00:27:01,089
the wind blows like this. And I've had pretty good luck doing this and you

441
00:27:01,089 --> 00:27:04,530
should probably use this about this time of day and where should I cast? You

442
00:27:04,530 --> 00:27:07,490
know, just like, you know, underneath that dock or whatever. Right.

443
00:27:08,050 --> 00:27:11,170
And it doesn't mean you're going to catch fish every cast

444
00:27:11,860 --> 00:27:14,820
but it means that you have a better chance of doing well.

445
00:27:15,700 --> 00:27:19,500
And I think with farming, you know, the crop grows

446
00:27:19,500 --> 00:27:23,220
best in the farmer shadow. It's always going to be like that, always. If you're

447
00:27:23,220 --> 00:27:26,180
going to pay someone to clean your car, they're going to pay, they're going to,

448
00:27:26,340 --> 00:27:29,380
they're not going to exceed the dollar amount you paid them to do it. They're

449
00:27:29,380 --> 00:27:33,220
going to probably do a little less than that's profit. But when it's for

450
00:27:33,220 --> 00:27:36,700
you and when it's for customers and it's. And you've already been

451
00:27:36,700 --> 00:27:40,450
humbled by, you know, being a failed apple

452
00:27:40,450 --> 00:27:43,770
farmer. Right. There's nothing you wouldn't do. That's huge. Yeah. And

453
00:27:44,570 --> 00:27:48,090
it, it happened that way because it had to. Huge lesson and.

454
00:27:48,090 --> 00:27:51,130
Yeah. So long story short was farming, selling to other people.

455
00:27:53,610 --> 00:27:57,290
I was up there, you know, we had a couple coffee shops and, and, and

456
00:27:57,290 --> 00:28:00,570
trying to make it and live there. And 2008 rolled around and,

457
00:28:01,690 --> 00:28:04,850
you know, staring at, staring at my wife in the kitchen, telling her she deserves

458
00:28:04,850 --> 00:28:08,610
better than this. And, and she's like, in the same way my mom said, why

459
00:28:08,610 --> 00:28:11,330
don't you plant grapes? You know, it seems like people want those. My wife goes

460
00:28:11,970 --> 00:28:15,330
simply, you should do the wine thing. And it's like, I don't. I mean,

461
00:28:15,970 --> 00:28:19,530
I'm like, I can't do that because to me, you know, you have the

462
00:28:19,530 --> 00:28:23,370
Clandenons and the Linquist and, you know. Yeah, right. Firestone. It's like these people.

463
00:28:23,370 --> 00:28:26,770
I don't know anything. These, these are the. Here we are.

464
00:28:27,010 --> 00:28:30,690
You know. And she goes, well, you know, like, people like it. And

465
00:28:30,690 --> 00:28:34,320
you know, we were talking about Matt Kaner and, and Silver Lake wine and

466
00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,440
meeting them at just the right time. And they're his. Hey, this is

467
00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:42,040
good. They were the inspiration. This was inspiration for you? It

468
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,480
was. I think the right answer is,

469
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:51,280
I wouldn't say. My wife says it's self deprecating, but

470
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,840
no one hates me more than me, in all honesty, anywhere in the world.

471
00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,120
And I say that with humility because I know what kind.

472
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,000
I know who I am. And every day I try to get up and bury

473
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,710
that person. And if I can do it, I'm not really

474
00:29:06,710 --> 00:29:10,470
impressed by it in general. I don't

475
00:29:10,470 --> 00:29:13,590
say, oh, look, interesting introspection. Yeah. I mean,

476
00:29:14,230 --> 00:29:17,910
I can go into a whole other layer of that. But the beauty

477
00:29:17,910 --> 00:29:21,590
of it is when you come in humble and not knowing what you're

478
00:29:21,590 --> 00:29:25,430
doing and thinking, everybody else, this is how I viewed

479
00:29:25,430 --> 00:29:29,110
it anyway. Everybody else knows 10 times more than me, but

480
00:29:29,500 --> 00:29:32,460
what they can't do is outwork me. And so if I work,

481
00:29:34,300 --> 00:29:38,020
you know, 10, 8 to 12 hour, you know, if my day is half day,

482
00:29:38,020 --> 00:29:41,860
12 hours, or. And I did that for years. I

483
00:29:41,860 --> 00:29:45,660
said, I'm gaining, I'm gaining four hours every day on everybody.

484
00:29:45,980 --> 00:29:49,780
And I, for four years did

485
00:29:49,780 --> 00:29:53,580
everything I needed to do before 11am Then I would pour till 5 and then

486
00:29:53,580 --> 00:29:56,800
start up again. And keep going because this is how I was going to feed

487
00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:59,920
my daughter and feed my son. And

488
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,200
somebody says, why did you do this?

489
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,640
The answer is to feed two people.

490
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:11,960
To give my wife the life I promised

491
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:15,800
her and everything else doesn't really matter. Does

492
00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:19,480
she like the farmer's wife life? Yeah, but my

493
00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:23,130
wife is her own absolute force of

494
00:30:23,130 --> 00:30:26,810
nature. Same as my mom. Yeah. And, and my sister in law because

495
00:30:26,810 --> 00:30:30,410
we're, we're not easy people to be married to. You know, my brother played

496
00:30:30,410 --> 00:30:34,090
baseball. My wife, she'll tell you the same. Well, yeah, you know, and, and usually

497
00:30:34,090 --> 00:30:37,850
passionate people aren't. They're very difficult to love. And

498
00:30:39,530 --> 00:30:43,250
I, my wife is, is not. My

499
00:30:43,250 --> 00:30:46,410
wife never, never told me I'm right when she thought I was wrong.

500
00:30:47,300 --> 00:30:50,980
And she will be the first person that if I have a

501
00:30:50,980 --> 00:30:54,620
question, I'll go talk to. And even now, even more

502
00:30:54,620 --> 00:30:58,020
so now, you know, she had. Because here's the truth. She has always has my

503
00:30:58,020 --> 00:31:01,780
best interests in mind because I'll. If you appreciate what I'm doing, I'll

504
00:31:01,780 --> 00:31:05,460
keep giving non stop. So growing, you know, when we were

505
00:31:05,460 --> 00:31:08,900
farming and making that transition to

506
00:31:10,180 --> 00:31:12,580
I don't want to sell fruit to other people because I was in charge of

507
00:31:12,580 --> 00:31:16,230
selling all the fruit as well. And I said, well, if I just keep this,

508
00:31:17,350 --> 00:31:20,910
well then okay, I can make this much wine. And kind of started figuring that

509
00:31:20,910 --> 00:31:24,270
out. And then now I'm really pleased to say between, you know,

510
00:31:24,270 --> 00:31:27,750
Windmill Ranch. I promised my dad, I didn't know he was going to pass away,

511
00:31:27,750 --> 00:31:31,350
but I promised him one day, you know, I won't sell one

512
00:31:31,350 --> 00:31:34,870
piece of fruit out of this vineyard somewhere. And I have the photo

513
00:31:35,030 --> 00:31:38,590
when I took it. And he goes, wouldn't that be, wouldn't that be amazing? And

514
00:31:38,590 --> 00:31:42,390
going from zero to I, I don't sell fruit out

515
00:31:42,390 --> 00:31:45,590
of that vineyard. It all goes into Sorrelson Sons bottle. Wow. And then our other

516
00:31:45,590 --> 00:31:49,430
vineyard, between Art, myself and Brad and Greg,

517
00:31:50,790 --> 00:31:54,430
we, you know, I think we sold 7 tons and all the rest goes

518
00:31:54,430 --> 00:31:58,070
into, you know, primarily Sorrelson Sons. But our, our wine.

519
00:31:58,630 --> 00:32:02,350
And so now I'm, I'm from, I

520
00:32:02,350 --> 00:32:05,350
took the hard road, took the pro route that I didn't know we needed to

521
00:32:05,350 --> 00:32:09,120
take. So we're still out there farming it, we're still growing it, we're still

522
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:12,760
making it. The only place you can buy is our tasting room

523
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:16,480
and online. Wow. And, and that's a tough model.

524
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,920
But it, but it's the only. I'm talking business now. It's a tough

525
00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:24,400
model. It was tough Because I came from a distribution background. Yeah.

526
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:26,800
And I saw little. I saw little guys

527
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,520
get eaten and I never want. And one of the famous

528
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:35,280
stories around our family is my dad, My dad thought he was going to get

529
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,960
an award from a customer being like distributor of the year or something to

530
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:42,800
him. And, and they, and he lost. They lost half their business in

531
00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:46,600
one day. I mean of. If they were doing a hundred thousand

532
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:50,240
dollars. They just. My, My family's company became a fifty thousand dollar

533
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,920
business one day. And those were always stories that

534
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:57,640
were told, you know, around the table. Just like what happened at work today. Well,

535
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:01,080
probably not going to get new shirts kicked yesterday. Yeah, hey, we're probably not going

536
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,100
to get new shirts around here for a while, stuff like that. And

537
00:33:04,820 --> 00:33:08,620
because of that, it was like I wanted to

538
00:33:08,620 --> 00:33:12,420
be like. We were talking about

539
00:33:12,500 --> 00:33:16,140
growing up in Southern California. One of the things I truly miss

540
00:33:16,140 --> 00:33:19,860
is you earned your spot. I love to skateboard, surf,

541
00:33:24,180 --> 00:33:27,940
Snowboard, ride motorcycle, whatever. But you

542
00:33:27,940 --> 00:33:30,980
earned your place and you looked up to people

543
00:33:31,850 --> 00:33:34,410
and they kind of decided if you made it to the next level or not.

544
00:33:34,410 --> 00:33:38,050
You know, it's, it's almost, it's like. It's like street jiu jitsu, right

545
00:33:38,050 --> 00:33:41,850
at that point. That's true. And, and I still skateboard,

546
00:33:41,850 --> 00:33:44,170
by the way. Do you really? That's amazing. We gotta talk about that.

547
00:33:45,770 --> 00:33:48,650
But the, the part of it like I respect my elders.

548
00:33:49,610 --> 00:33:53,410
I, I want. Huh. You miss your dad

549
00:33:53,410 --> 00:33:57,050
Every day. I can't talk. That understood this, you know,

550
00:33:57,450 --> 00:34:01,240
the. No, like my dad passed in June and every

551
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,720
day does go by that I don't want to call and say, you won't believe

552
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:07,520
who I spoke with today or who, you know, what I learned today from the

553
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:11,280
wine side, you. Know, you just lost

554
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:15,040
him. Yeah. June, I can give you the best. Here's the only advice

555
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:18,360
I can give you is if you were close to your father.

556
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:23,800
My dad was. My dad was

557
00:34:25,580 --> 00:34:28,540
pretty tough on us being a good dad.

558
00:34:29,260 --> 00:34:32,460
But my brother and I were, you know, we're vicious

559
00:34:32,460 --> 00:34:36,220
competitors to each other really. Right. Oh, we'd punch in the face. You know, we

560
00:34:36,220 --> 00:34:39,620
were, we're. We'd throw each other through walls, break TVs. And then you go, just

561
00:34:39,620 --> 00:34:43,060
fix it. And then walk out back, you know, go outside. That was it. My

562
00:34:43,060 --> 00:34:46,020
mom, my mom's the youngest of six kids, so she was kind of used to

563
00:34:46,020 --> 00:34:49,820
it. But as my dad became the person

564
00:34:49,820 --> 00:34:53,660
he was supposed to be, my dad was a, you

565
00:34:53,660 --> 00:34:57,460
know, president of our business. But then when my

566
00:34:57,460 --> 00:34:59,740
dad found the valley

567
00:35:00,940 --> 00:35:04,220
and lived out, his father's dream.

568
00:35:04,700 --> 00:35:08,420
By doing it, I saw my dad become the person he was

569
00:35:08,420 --> 00:35:11,580
always meant to be. Changed him.

570
00:35:11,980 --> 00:35:15,580
Not changed him, but he became generous. Yeah.

571
00:35:16,060 --> 00:35:19,690
Not with altruistic.

572
00:35:20,410 --> 00:35:24,170
He was the guy that would stop flat tire.

573
00:35:25,130 --> 00:35:28,570
Didn't know the person. How's it going? Invite people. But giving wine out of the

574
00:35:28,570 --> 00:35:31,290
tasting room. Here, just take this. You know, that became

575
00:35:31,930 --> 00:35:34,730
everybody's dad in the valley kind of a thing. And

576
00:35:35,690 --> 00:35:37,450
what I miss is having

577
00:35:39,610 --> 00:35:43,210
someone I trust implicitly, someone that maybe

578
00:35:43,210 --> 00:35:46,910
my relationship with him. It was just like talking to myself that

579
00:35:46,910 --> 00:35:50,430
was 22 years older than me. Same guy, same personality,

580
00:35:50,590 --> 00:35:54,350
same everything. And there it was. There I get. I got to talk to.

581
00:35:54,350 --> 00:35:58,070
I got to pick up a magic phone and talk to myself and

582
00:35:58,070 --> 00:36:01,749
get the best possible advice from 22 years. Not. Not how I'm feeling today. Right.

583
00:36:01,749 --> 00:36:04,670
Not what I need to do tomorrow, but the long. That long.

584
00:36:05,390 --> 00:36:09,030
I know exactly what you're talking about. And one day, the phone, you

585
00:36:09,030 --> 00:36:12,290
know, didn't pick up and.

586
00:36:13,490 --> 00:36:16,610
But. I would all.

587
00:36:17,650 --> 00:36:20,730
You know, we have a family creed. We put it on a wine which is

588
00:36:20,730 --> 00:36:23,730
honor and prepare, which is we live to honor those that have come before us,

589
00:36:23,730 --> 00:36:26,490
and we prepare the way for those yet to come. That is. That is what

590
00:36:26,490 --> 00:36:30,290
our business is. So I have people I love on there. Great outlook. Thank you.

591
00:36:30,530 --> 00:36:33,930
And I have my kids on it. And. And kids I'm. And my brother's kids.

592
00:36:33,930 --> 00:36:37,700
Kids I'm preparing for. It's not about me. Right. Where most

593
00:36:37,700 --> 00:36:41,300
people want to come in. Hey, this is my name on this bottle. Right. Sarlos

594
00:36:41,300 --> 00:36:45,020
is not me. I'm a sons. And it's about everybody else.

595
00:36:45,740 --> 00:36:49,460
And. And that's how we feed people. That's how we take care of people, blah,

596
00:36:49,460 --> 00:36:52,300
blah, blah. But the advice part of it is

597
00:36:54,300 --> 00:36:57,340
the person I want to become is the person that my dad

598
00:36:57,900 --> 00:37:00,540
always thought I could be. The highest level of myself,

599
00:37:01,500 --> 00:37:04,900
the highest level. The person who takes my.

600
00:37:05,060 --> 00:37:08,900
I am. I like to fight. I'm. I. I do.

601
00:37:08,900 --> 00:37:12,340
I love it. You know, I. If. If there's a controversial

602
00:37:12,340 --> 00:37:16,140
subject, I'm ready to pull the pin, roll the hand grenade down

603
00:37:16,140 --> 00:37:18,860
the middle of a party, and then see who wants to get into it. You

604
00:37:18,860 --> 00:37:21,940
know, I love it. And. But

605
00:37:22,420 --> 00:37:26,180
that. Take the high road. Hey, man. View's better,

606
00:37:26,580 --> 00:37:29,900
right? Dunk it down there. Take the high road. Let it go. This will pay

607
00:37:29,900 --> 00:37:32,810
off. Somewhere down the road. That was your dad. Yeah. And. And he

608
00:37:33,210 --> 00:37:36,410
instilled that into me. Yeah. And my kids know him.

609
00:37:36,730 --> 00:37:40,450
And. And since losing him, my

610
00:37:40,450 --> 00:37:44,210
brother and I, you know, we're taking care of mom, though. Mom doesn't

611
00:37:44,210 --> 00:37:48,010
need it. Our conversation

612
00:37:48,010 --> 00:37:51,850
was post traumatic ascension. We're going to do.

613
00:37:51,850 --> 00:37:55,610
Let's go now. No one's. No one's out there holding the shield for us anymore.

614
00:37:56,890 --> 00:38:00,650
That's true. I. I could tell you it's a true thing. I don't know

615
00:38:00,650 --> 00:38:03,360
if I wanted on this. You know, even if. Even if.

616
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:08,200
Even if you didn't feel like that was the case. They were alive. You

617
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:11,440
realize it later. Oh, right. This was, you know, that. That

618
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:15,640
they were the shield. That now you don't have a shield. I lead blocker. Yeah.

619
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:19,320
You know what I mean. And now it's up to me. Yep.

620
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:23,040
And up to us. And he

621
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:26,600
prepared you for that though. So, you know, it

622
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:30,330
sounds. You don't really become a man till the day you lose your

623
00:38:30,330 --> 00:38:33,850
dad. Weird. It's a great way to hear it. And when you said that,

624
00:38:34,250 --> 00:38:38,090
was I prepared? Was I ready? No. But I

625
00:38:38,090 --> 00:38:41,850
was prepared. And all of a sudden with him being gone, you know,

626
00:38:41,850 --> 00:38:44,170
I knew I had to be in the tractor seat. I knew I had to

627
00:38:44,170 --> 00:38:47,890
be out. So my. My life shifted from just selling wine, making wine,

628
00:38:47,890 --> 00:38:51,290
doing this, doing this, to now I need to sit in the king's chair

629
00:38:51,690 --> 00:38:55,220
and be out there getting this ready, preparing, making sure this

630
00:38:55,220 --> 00:38:59,020
happens. Took on all that farming aspect of it. And it was

631
00:38:59,020 --> 00:39:01,580
hard, real hard because now it was,

632
00:39:03,980 --> 00:39:07,420
you know, being out there

633
00:39:07,420 --> 00:39:11,260
thinking, you know, 10 steps ahead, have learning that I need to be

634
00:39:11,260 --> 00:39:15,100
able to depend on people, giving people an opportunity for them

635
00:39:15,100 --> 00:39:18,900
to be depended. Upon and missing that. That maybe

636
00:39:18,900 --> 00:39:22,340
at the end, like with my father. Yeah. He was still tell stories. I have

637
00:39:22,340 --> 00:39:25,780
all his stories on. On my phone. Every time start up his mouth. That's like

638
00:39:25,780 --> 00:39:29,540
gold. And I had. I had the huge honor to be. Put him on

639
00:39:29,540 --> 00:39:33,180
the podcast once just in his house and telling stories. Business stories

640
00:39:33,180 --> 00:39:35,460
mostly, but. Yeah, but you don't realize

641
00:39:36,820 --> 00:39:40,620
that when this. That the shield is gone completely. Yeah. Maybe he was

642
00:39:40,620 --> 00:39:44,380
only 5 or 10% effectual because he was older. He was

643
00:39:44,380 --> 00:39:47,740
93 when he passed away, so he couldn't articulate all the thoughts he wanted to,

644
00:39:47,740 --> 00:39:51,530
but he was good health and everything. But when like

645
00:39:51,530 --> 00:39:55,250
the other day they were. My parents were huge antique collectors. They

646
00:39:55,250 --> 00:39:58,610
were. They. They taught me to go to the auctions. They. They went to Europe.

647
00:39:58,610 --> 00:40:01,810
They bought half a container of stuff. They auctioned off. They made so little money,

648
00:40:01,810 --> 00:40:05,450
whatever. But they're just the chase. Yeah. They're hustlers and the. The chase. I

649
00:40:05,450 --> 00:40:09,050
love base to know. And I brought home this piece of silver, which, on

650
00:40:09,050 --> 00:40:12,530
the three kids, I'm the only one that really appreciated those things because I was

651
00:40:12,530 --> 00:40:15,850
the kid. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe like you said, you're the most like your

652
00:40:15,850 --> 00:40:18,800
father. You know, there's the picture of him handing me a bottle of Claude de

653
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:22,640
Val, actually, which is what that is. I mean, if you just full stop. If

654
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:26,480
you look what that picture is. Yeah, it's huge. It's your father

655
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:30,320
handing you a bottle of wine. What are you doing today? Yeah, exactly.

656
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:33,800
I know. It's all those wines there too, the ones that he chose.

657
00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:37,480
So. So the other day, I was. Paul,

658
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:41,520
my. My wife's like, what are you doing? I go, I'm polishing the

659
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:45,310
silver. Says no one ever. Right. When's the last time my mom

660
00:40:45,310 --> 00:40:49,110
would have freaked if she saw me, like, break out of silver polish? And

661
00:40:49,110 --> 00:40:52,710
the thing that disappointed me the most is this one piece I was polishing. I

662
00:40:52,710 --> 00:40:56,430
never got the story. It's a crazy piece of silver. It looks like it's

663
00:40:56,430 --> 00:41:00,190
from Thailand or somewhere else. Is beautiful piece, but I never

664
00:41:00,190 --> 00:41:03,190
asked him the story of this one. I got most of the stories, but not

665
00:41:03,190 --> 00:41:06,590
this story. And I feel like I got cheated out of this story amongst others.

666
00:41:07,150 --> 00:41:10,880
So it's a. It's a huge loss, and you have to. But you're right.

667
00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:15,160
You become the king's chair. It's a great way to put it. Speaking of the

668
00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:18,920
king's chair, we were talking about this off camera a little

669
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:22,720
bit. Yeah. And he had a great definition for what

670
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:27,000
is in the glass. Oh, yeah. Because what you and I are

671
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,800
trying to tell and the math canners of the world and many other people have

672
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:34,560
been on the show lately that are anti Callie Redd,

673
00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:38,340
Snoop Dogg, and Martha Stewart Chardonnay. Well, hold on. I would.

674
00:41:38,340 --> 00:41:41,780
Here's the thing, though. Those are great gateways. They are. I. I agree with that.

675
00:41:41,780 --> 00:41:45,180
And you know what? I agree with that. If. If, If. If Snoop brought. If

676
00:41:45,180 --> 00:41:49,020
Snoop Dogg brought you to wine. Because

677
00:41:49,020 --> 00:41:51,380
I've seen it myself. I mean, I want you to roll the pin and let's

678
00:41:51,380 --> 00:41:55,020
see if it goes off. Well, I mean, it sounds funny,

679
00:41:55,020 --> 00:41:58,820
but I've been pouring wine for so long that the kids who were

680
00:42:00,180 --> 00:42:03,790
eating cupcakes at our tasting room are now in our wine club. Yeah,

681
00:42:04,020 --> 00:42:07,700
right. And. And I've saw a couple who

682
00:42:08,100 --> 00:42:11,900
grew up where I grew up. I saw their first date, and now they have

683
00:42:11,900 --> 00:42:14,500
kids. Right. But now they went from,

684
00:42:16,580 --> 00:42:20,260
well, what's this about? To their hunting. They're hunters.

685
00:42:20,260 --> 00:42:23,980
They love this thing. And it has made their life better. We had

686
00:42:23,980 --> 00:42:27,620
someone that came in that just needed to use the. The bathroom stayed,

687
00:42:27,620 --> 00:42:30,820
got locked into wine, and all of a sudden we got to give them what

688
00:42:30,820 --> 00:42:34,600
you've done probably a million times that hopefully what this podcast does

689
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:38,160
is you hand somebody light bulb and they go, oh, my gosh. And they just

690
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:41,120
put it above their head and they're like, holy cow, what are we talking about

691
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:44,880
here? There's all of this holy cow. It's like turning

692
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:48,560
someone onto a genre of music they've never heard. And if Cali Redd does

693
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:52,160
that, fine. Well, we've always had. Well, I can't believe how fast is

694
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:55,920
going. We've all. I don't have anywhere to go. We entry level ones. I

695
00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:59,520
mean, sure, my father stopped in 1974 in Napa Valley. Sadly, the

696
00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:02,590
Cali Red is probably better than a night the early 70s.

697
00:43:03,150 --> 00:43:06,470
Well, he stopped at Trinchero and set her home and had had a glass of

698
00:43:06,470 --> 00:43:09,710
pink wine with Bob Trincaro. He's like, Bob's like, what I. What should I do

699
00:43:09,710 --> 00:43:13,270
with this stuff? And that was the entry level wine in the 70s, right. To

700
00:43:13,270 --> 00:43:16,670
the extent that, you know, it. Caused Rose was pizza wine. Yeah. So.

701
00:43:16,830 --> 00:43:20,630
So I agree. There's maybe my just not disdain. I

702
00:43:20,630 --> 00:43:24,030
hate the fact that it's called wine, though. That's the hard part. That's maybe that's

703
00:43:24,030 --> 00:43:27,230
the best definition, like why they call it wine. Just called beverage. So bringing up

704
00:43:27,230 --> 00:43:29,910
Matt Kaner, I don't know if he came up with this or I did, but

705
00:43:29,910 --> 00:43:33,260
it's if. If you're drinking wine as a beverage, you've missed 90% of the point.

706
00:43:33,260 --> 00:43:37,020
Right. That's a good point. That's a good point. Sorry you were

707
00:43:37,020 --> 00:43:40,700
on. But there is this. So let's just fast forward that.

708
00:43:40,700 --> 00:43:44,260
We've got these people. You've. You've educated somebody. You've. The people that are eating cupcakes

709
00:43:44,260 --> 00:43:47,300
and Twinkies in your taste room are now like going, whoa, there's something about this.

710
00:43:47,300 --> 00:43:50,580
And I. That's all we tried to do. Right? We want people to experience what

711
00:43:50,580 --> 00:43:54,380
we think we experience. They knock, we open the door. And so

712
00:43:54,380 --> 00:43:58,160
defining that is what I thought. You did a great job. When

713
00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:00,880
we're sitting in a conference room, because I asked that question all the time. What

714
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:04,680
is it? Why don't we get so excited about Maui Blanc,

715
00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:08,440
the pineapple wine? Why don't we get so excited about fermented, you know,

716
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:12,200
apple cider? Why don't we get so excited about other fruits

717
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:15,640
there's something about the grape that you said it would.

718
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:20,400
It's no longer a grape. Yeah. So, you

719
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:24,130
know, I'm. I would definitely say,

720
00:44:24,130 --> 00:44:27,930
you know, I'm. I. I'm an introspective. I want

721
00:44:27,930 --> 00:44:30,050
to learn as much as I possibly can,

722
00:44:31,650 --> 00:44:34,930
but I'm also farming, and I'm

723
00:44:35,410 --> 00:44:39,130
also a pretty spiritual person. There's a lot of wars going on

724
00:44:39,130 --> 00:44:42,850
inside me, but I always think that there's a. There's an

725
00:44:42,850 --> 00:44:46,650
interesting correlation between growing something from

726
00:44:46,650 --> 00:44:50,240
the ground and seeing something come forth. You know, right now, we're pruning,

727
00:44:50,240 --> 00:44:54,000
we're making all those decisions, but we're leaving, you know, a bud right

728
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,840
here. And I know that everything that my

729
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:02,720
every light house payment, every tank of gas,

730
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:06,240
tuition, food, everything in my mind

731
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:10,840
is right inside that bud. So when we have frost, when

732
00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:14,600
we have bud break, I'm sleeping in a car out there, because that's what's standing

733
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:18,340
between me and total failure. I got to get

734
00:45:18,340 --> 00:45:21,700
the frost protection I got. Right? Time everything. Talk about humility.

735
00:45:22,180 --> 00:45:26,020
Well, it's. Go ahead. Yeah, it's true. But it

736
00:45:26,020 --> 00:45:29,340
made it worth it, right? And so when you finally get to that point of

737
00:45:29,340 --> 00:45:32,260
harvest where you took something from nothing,

738
00:45:33,940 --> 00:45:37,500
helped bring it forth, gave order to chaos, because I. I think that's

739
00:45:37,500 --> 00:45:41,020
probably. I'm only good at two things. One is creative problem solving, and

740
00:45:41,020 --> 00:45:44,820
two, trying having chaos go like this. And when it comes through

741
00:45:44,820 --> 00:45:47,340
me, comes out like. Like

742
00:45:48,220 --> 00:45:52,020
chaos being the infinite variables in a farm. The vineyard hates

743
00:45:52,020 --> 00:45:55,660
you. The thing that you. Everything have to do to do everything. Vines

744
00:45:55,660 --> 00:45:59,500
don't grow like this. Yeah, they grow like this every which way.

745
00:45:59,660 --> 00:46:03,380
That's the point of it. And you're training, training, training. How

746
00:46:03,380 --> 00:46:07,220
about beneath the soil? We're going on in there everywhere, and you're just

747
00:46:07,220 --> 00:46:10,570
kind of in the middle of it, and you're. You're. You're trying to tack based

748
00:46:10,570 --> 00:46:14,370
upon wind waves and weather and everything helping and all your moving sails,

749
00:46:14,370 --> 00:46:17,930
you're trying to push this way, trying new things. Let's try this over here.

750
00:46:17,930 --> 00:46:21,770
Let's. And it's just chaos at all times. But when you get to

751
00:46:21,770 --> 00:46:25,530
that point of. Of harvest, it's kind of like missing

752
00:46:25,530 --> 00:46:28,970
out on, you know, being pregnant. And then all of a sudden, boom. It's there.

753
00:46:29,210 --> 00:46:32,890
It's. There's a. There's such a beauty to the process from

754
00:46:32,890 --> 00:46:36,730
here to there. And then when you go through the winemaking

755
00:46:36,730 --> 00:46:40,210
process, you know, you pick it, you deliver it. You're. You're.

756
00:46:40,370 --> 00:46:44,210
I think, respectful, because you spend all year Doing something, you don't

757
00:46:44,210 --> 00:46:47,930
want to cloud it up, but you want to give his

758
00:46:47,930 --> 00:46:51,450
best chance of success. You know, all of that thing I. Just said, I've never

759
00:46:51,450 --> 00:46:54,530
heard of that way. But it's like if you're not doing what you're doing

760
00:46:55,010 --> 00:46:58,850
not to discredit anybody that buys grapes. Not just crazy. No. Pay attention. But no,

761
00:46:59,250 --> 00:47:02,890
it's like being, it's like birthing a child but never having the

762
00:47:02,890 --> 00:47:06,660
pregnancy. It's. It's like having a two year old show

763
00:47:06,660 --> 00:47:10,420
up at your door like this. Yeah. Because really,

764
00:47:10,420 --> 00:47:14,100
maybe your first intimacy with that wine is with the, when you pop it and

765
00:47:14,100 --> 00:47:17,700
you're, you put a label on it, maybe. I think

766
00:47:17,700 --> 00:47:21,500
there's a lot of that, especially if your name's on the sign. And

767
00:47:21,500 --> 00:47:24,420
that's one of the things I'm very proud about with like Santa Barbara county in

768
00:47:24,420 --> 00:47:27,460
general. If the name's on the sign, the person is probably in the building

769
00:47:28,100 --> 00:47:31,860
and, and that doesn't exist really anywhere else in the world. Yeah.

770
00:47:32,910 --> 00:47:36,350
So, you know, that's my huge pump for our, you know,

771
00:47:36,750 --> 00:47:40,390
band of psychos that is up in Santa Barbara County. It's great. But when

772
00:47:40,390 --> 00:47:43,390
you, when you get to that point, you know, there's a point in the winemaking

773
00:47:43,390 --> 00:47:47,110
process when you're pressing, you know, you've gone through with

774
00:47:47,110 --> 00:47:50,830
it when it's a red and you've gone through all the, the maceration punch

775
00:47:50,830 --> 00:47:54,510
downs and everything else and pumpovers and da, da, da. But then, you know, the,

776
00:47:54,510 --> 00:47:58,230
the voodoo of, of yeast has worked its magic and turned sugar

777
00:47:58,230 --> 00:48:01,390
into alcohol and acids are in line and this and that and the other.

778
00:48:02,060 --> 00:48:04,460
And you go to the press and then all of a sudden it's just wine

779
00:48:05,260 --> 00:48:08,980
and it's as different as a physical form. And

780
00:48:08,980 --> 00:48:11,780
then now we're going to release the soul, right? We're going to put that soul

781
00:48:11,780 --> 00:48:15,620
in a bottle. And you know, it sounds weird to

782
00:48:15,620 --> 00:48:18,620
say this, but like whiskey is always, how long did it sit in the barrel?

783
00:48:19,660 --> 00:48:22,220
And wine is always, how long has it been in the bottle?

784
00:48:23,260 --> 00:48:25,900
And to me, that metamorphosis,

785
00:48:26,780 --> 00:48:30,540
it's, it's beautiful because the whole point of it is you can drink it today.

786
00:48:30,860 --> 00:48:34,180
You know, we don't sell a wine that you can't drink today. Rip, rip the

787
00:48:34,180 --> 00:48:36,980
cork. You know, it's a bad day to be a cork. Zach Santa Cruz said

788
00:48:36,980 --> 00:48:40,620
it. I love it. Because we're ripping corks today. We're pouring

789
00:48:40,620 --> 00:48:43,539
glasses, we're drinking it. I'm like, do you like it? And yes. It's like well,

790
00:48:43,539 --> 00:48:46,780
you drink it today then. But if you wanted to, if you want to see

791
00:48:46,940 --> 00:48:50,300
all of those tannic acids form those beautiful long chains and you want,

792
00:48:50,860 --> 00:48:54,300
you want the thread count to go from burlap to silk.

793
00:48:54,540 --> 00:48:58,380
That'll take time. And you can jump and jump the line, but

794
00:48:58,380 --> 00:49:00,780
it's going to cost you money because what you're doing is taking care of that

795
00:49:00,780 --> 00:49:04,460
bottle, making sure it's preserved, putting in the best possible light so that when

796
00:49:04,460 --> 00:49:08,020
you, they open it, they're going to get that. That's why, you know,

797
00:49:08,020 --> 00:49:11,860
older wines are expensive. You raise it from a pub, you're. Taking care, you're like,

798
00:49:11,860 --> 00:49:15,620
I will take this into my charge and I'll keep it here. But to me,

799
00:49:15,620 --> 00:49:18,300
always that, that day when you're pressing and you go,

800
00:49:19,190 --> 00:49:22,830
there's the soul has been released and what are we going to do with it?

801
00:49:22,830 --> 00:49:26,150
Now that's interesting because I always talk about this,

802
00:49:27,510 --> 00:49:30,990
by the way. I'm excited. I'm saying stuff to you. Who's been in wine for

803
00:49:30,990 --> 00:49:34,790
much longer than I have. New ways or a

804
00:49:34,790 --> 00:49:38,590
new perspective. It's a perspective pretty exciting. That's. Not

805
00:49:38,590 --> 00:49:41,270
everybody can articulate like you're articulating. It's an important thing.

806
00:49:42,230 --> 00:49:46,070
But I've always said this about the wine industry. Not always, because when I

807
00:49:46,070 --> 00:49:49,510
got into it, it was business for me. I was a businessman. I sold copiers

808
00:49:49,510 --> 00:49:53,330
for a big company and I sol software to bigger companies. And then all

809
00:49:53,330 --> 00:49:56,210
of a sudden I'm selling $20 worth of wine. Not even that, it's $5 worth

810
00:49:56,210 --> 00:49:59,930
of wine. Yeah. Different product. Learn to appreciate it. But

811
00:49:59,930 --> 00:50:03,690
you learn to appreciate a customer differently. Totally. Well, I've always been a customer

812
00:50:03,690 --> 00:50:06,530
service kind of guy, but the, the, the point I'm making is

813
00:50:07,330 --> 00:50:10,890
all the things we do today, you're talking about whether stainless steel or

814
00:50:10,890 --> 00:50:14,610
oak is just periphery to its.

815
00:50:14,690 --> 00:50:18,340
The process of it changing from one form to

816
00:50:18,340 --> 00:50:22,180
another. Does it matter, the soul of it? Does it matter what type

817
00:50:22,180 --> 00:50:25,780
of guitar and what type of amp this song is being played on? No.

818
00:50:25,780 --> 00:50:29,580
See? No. So that's the value of this. And we're

819
00:50:29,580 --> 00:50:33,420
talking about this off camera a little bit. The soul of what

820
00:50:33,420 --> 00:50:37,140
wine is. I believe that the definition I always come up with is

821
00:50:37,140 --> 00:50:40,620
like it's, it's an ethereal product that connects you to the soil.

822
00:50:40,700 --> 00:50:43,660
If it's a sense of time and place, it should be anyway.

823
00:50:44,900 --> 00:50:48,660
And you should taste that place. You should take you

824
00:50:48,660 --> 00:50:52,420
somewhere else when you taste it. Yep. And now that's where

825
00:50:52,420 --> 00:50:56,140
the Cali reds and the, the, those Things can't do that by their

826
00:50:56,140 --> 00:50:59,859
nature, but the winks of the world can't do that by their nature.

827
00:50:59,859 --> 00:51:03,460
But you can. And we're gonna go back biblical a little bit because

828
00:51:04,020 --> 00:51:07,780
that. But that's also. Before you go in the biblical part,

829
00:51:07,860 --> 00:51:11,710
which I'm excited to talk about, that also makes us too small

830
00:51:11,710 --> 00:51:15,470
to fail because when you have

831
00:51:15,470 --> 00:51:19,190
invested all of that into it, when I sit

832
00:51:19,190 --> 00:51:22,710
here and we're talking about our dads and my voice quivers every time I bring

833
00:51:22,710 --> 00:51:25,230
them up, right Then

834
00:51:26,510 --> 00:51:30,190
pleasure is a form of payment. My buddy Heath Penner said it.

835
00:51:30,270 --> 00:51:34,110
I'll never forget it. Because you know what, Working alongside your old man for as

836
00:51:34,110 --> 00:51:37,060
long as you did, or as long as I did, or being out there and.

837
00:51:37,060 --> 00:51:40,140
And having great stories. When we're picking grapes at three in the morning and our

838
00:51:40,140 --> 00:51:43,340
hands are frozen, or when we go to the winery and we're eating a great

839
00:51:43,340 --> 00:51:46,540
lunch, or we're doing that, that has to be.

840
00:51:48,140 --> 00:51:51,979
That has to be a massive form of payment and doing it.

841
00:51:52,300 --> 00:51:55,980
And when. So when, if you come in with money and say, I want that

842
00:51:55,980 --> 00:51:59,780
life, that's tough, you don't know what

843
00:51:59,780 --> 00:52:02,220
the. Payment'S going to be because you don't really like it. There you go. You

844
00:52:02,220 --> 00:52:05,200
didn't earn it. So that was a little bit of a circle around. But

845
00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:09,400
it's a good point, though. I mean, it's a very valid point. Yeah, it's. The

846
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:13,120
hardest parts of this are the parts that's work that are the parts

847
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:16,880
that are worth doing. But because they're hard, people

848
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:20,240
tend to pay people to do them for them. And

849
00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:24,600
I have found so much pleasure and love and I've learned so

850
00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:28,320
much by being in a tractor, mowing

851
00:52:28,320 --> 00:52:31,890
or seeding or driving and knowing that

852
00:52:31,890 --> 00:52:35,610
everybody behind me is in danger. And if my foot comes off this

853
00:52:35,610 --> 00:52:38,610
thing, we've got two tons of grapes and it's a. It's raining and the hills

854
00:52:38,610 --> 00:52:41,130
going down. All of that stuff where all of a sudden,

855
00:52:42,330 --> 00:52:45,410
if I was still in bed, I would never know anything about that. That's right.

856
00:52:45,410 --> 00:52:47,930
And I think the wine now

857
00:52:48,970 --> 00:52:50,970
embodies that. There. There is

858
00:52:52,810 --> 00:52:56,090
like. This place has a great vibe, but it's a building. Right?

859
00:52:56,330 --> 00:52:59,930
Sticks. Sticks. But the vibe of here and the people who,

860
00:53:00,410 --> 00:53:04,170
who are a part of it fill the room. Fill

861
00:53:04,170 --> 00:53:06,970
the room the rest of the way. You know what I mean? And I think

862
00:53:06,970 --> 00:53:10,690
with wine you get so much of that. Where it was this, we

863
00:53:10,690 --> 00:53:14,330
turned it into that. But along that line, all of that's just getting soaked into

864
00:53:14,330 --> 00:53:18,010
it. And, you know, for me, it's why I'll. I'll put my dad's face on

865
00:53:18,010 --> 00:53:21,250
a label. My mom, my brother's, my. And it's like, this is the story of

866
00:53:21,250 --> 00:53:24,990
our family right here. And you get to bring it home, and hopefully you

867
00:53:24,990 --> 00:53:28,670
share it with someone you love around your table. And then that. That. That is

868
00:53:28,670 --> 00:53:32,390
complete. That handoff is complete. So I go to the biblical. I tell people

869
00:53:33,350 --> 00:53:36,470
all the time, like, wow, my dad. Like, we sold my dad's house

870
00:53:37,030 --> 00:53:40,350
away. We got a list, really left a list of people came clamoring to buy

871
00:53:40,350 --> 00:53:43,990
it. But, you know, all the memories. It's like the memories are the

872
00:53:43,990 --> 00:53:46,950
memories. Yeah. The house is a stick. If somebody's gonna tear it down one day,

873
00:53:46,950 --> 00:53:50,260
does it really matter? Yep. It's irrelevant. It's the history and the

874
00:53:50,420 --> 00:53:54,140
value you got living there or you or your parents living there that

875
00:53:54,140 --> 00:53:57,940
matters. And those. You'll never be able to change that. Even with the

876
00:53:57,940 --> 00:54:01,540
clag strips, it hit me after they're telling these stories

877
00:54:01,940 --> 00:54:05,620
and they're talking about Attila the Hun, you know, shedding blood in the vineyards

878
00:54:05,620 --> 00:54:09,300
of. Of Champagne. Even In World War I, some of the phosphorus

879
00:54:10,260 --> 00:54:13,780
tank shells still contaminated the ground. You can't blow. And I thought,

880
00:54:14,340 --> 00:54:17,940
wow, that. That has to have an influence, whether it's

881
00:54:17,940 --> 00:54:21,660
the family that suffered through the wars or whether it's. The family has

882
00:54:21,660 --> 00:54:25,300
to have an influence of what they're making. We. We went 75th anniversary.

883
00:54:25,540 --> 00:54:28,620
We have a wine called Courage, named for my great uncle John, who died D

884
00:54:28,620 --> 00:54:32,420
day plus 16 in town. Wow. So a couple years ago, we went

885
00:54:32,420 --> 00:54:36,100
to France as a whole family. It was a great trip. We went to Normandy,

886
00:54:36,100 --> 00:54:39,700
looked around. Wow. That's incredible, though, isn't it? But the thing that blows me away

887
00:54:40,220 --> 00:54:43,980
was there people still making wine that year. Think of that. Yeah. No,

888
00:54:43,980 --> 00:54:47,660
it's amazing that. Yeah. The fact that Allied invasion,

889
00:54:48,700 --> 00:54:51,420
the Nazis coming over the hill, you know, France

890
00:54:52,300 --> 00:54:55,900
giving up in 24 hours. This was other

891
00:54:55,900 --> 00:54:59,620
than, you know, Churchill. You get the Russians on the other

892
00:54:59,620 --> 00:55:03,460
side. You get us actually getting into this thing without those things

893
00:55:03,460 --> 00:55:07,260
happening. You know, man in the High Castle is an

894
00:55:07,260 --> 00:55:10,210
amazing book and show, but. But people were still

895
00:55:11,570 --> 00:55:14,290
farming grapes, making wine,

896
00:55:15,090 --> 00:55:17,890
hiding their wine because they were.

897
00:55:18,770 --> 00:55:22,530
The fact that people built caves and then hid those caves because

898
00:55:22,530 --> 00:55:25,650
that was. That was who they are as a family

899
00:55:25,970 --> 00:55:29,330
trapped inside that bottle. That is our work. That is our

900
00:55:29,330 --> 00:55:33,010
ethos. That is where our family is located differently than anywhere else.

901
00:55:33,010 --> 00:55:36,330
This is our combination of grapes in which we planted them. We are going to

902
00:55:36,330 --> 00:55:39,650
harvest them. We make one wine, even if you're our neighbor. And on all four

903
00:55:39,650 --> 00:55:43,260
sides, what we do is unique and special and different. Doesn't exist

904
00:55:43,260 --> 00:55:46,420
anywhere else in the world. And this is something we need to keep, is something

905
00:55:46,420 --> 00:55:49,780
we need to protect and we need to hide from these horrible people.

906
00:55:50,580 --> 00:55:54,260
And it's hard in this day and age to

907
00:55:54,260 --> 00:55:57,220
explain that to anybody. Where

908
00:55:59,060 --> 00:56:02,860
you and I are sitting here, you know, are we going to protect.

909
00:56:02,860 --> 00:56:05,860
A Walkman in the future? Are we going to protect a DVD player?

910
00:56:06,500 --> 00:56:10,310
What is worth protecting? There's nothing to worth protecting. There's art, you know, even,

911
00:56:10,310 --> 00:56:13,870
even music. The fact that most music is digital. If that

912
00:56:13,870 --> 00:56:17,670
goes, we're losing all of this. Right. That's a scary

913
00:56:17,990 --> 00:56:21,670
like next level scenario to this. But it remains

914
00:56:21,670 --> 00:56:24,630
so tactile, it remains so ancient,

915
00:56:26,070 --> 00:56:29,910
it remains so familial because great wines

916
00:56:30,470 --> 00:56:33,710
and I don't know any of this. And you could probably speak with ours, but

917
00:56:33,710 --> 00:56:37,510
the, the generational lineage of what they have learned over time in

918
00:56:37,510 --> 00:56:41,290
specific places that said, okay, whoa, whoa, whoa. Something special

919
00:56:41,290 --> 00:56:45,130
is happening here. Something special is happening actually up there and over there.

920
00:56:45,130 --> 00:56:48,890
Not so much here, but there and there. And then how they have handed down

921
00:56:48,890 --> 00:56:52,570
that information, what to do, what to grow, where to

922
00:56:52,570 --> 00:56:56,130
grow it. If this happens, do this when you should pick

923
00:56:56,450 --> 00:57:00,170
what you should look like. You know, the Farmer's Almanac that they have. I'm

924
00:57:00,170 --> 00:57:03,930
only 25 years into this and the fact that

925
00:57:03,930 --> 00:57:07,770
I've learned all that in 25, I can make different decisions today than

926
00:57:07,770 --> 00:57:11,210
over there. And if the, you know, a next generation is coming up and if

927
00:57:11,210 --> 00:57:14,690
they're interested in that, I have a whole bunch of information to give them. That

928
00:57:14,690 --> 00:57:18,250
we've been doing three generations. That's your look, that's your motto. Yeah, that's. You put

929
00:57:18,250 --> 00:57:21,850
in the bottles and you're. I mean, let's face it, the new world is

930
00:57:21,930 --> 00:57:25,690
the early cycle of all this. But you are doing the exact same thing. Yeah.

931
00:57:25,690 --> 00:57:29,530
That these farmers did in the, who knows, at the turn of the century. But

932
00:57:29,530 --> 00:57:33,210
they, they weren't wrong. No, they were wrong. And we, you know, we

933
00:57:33,210 --> 00:57:36,850
keep. Things keep happening faster and like Cali Red comes out or whatever,

934
00:57:36,850 --> 00:57:39,970
you know. But I think the beauty of what we get to do is.

935
00:57:40,610 --> 00:57:44,050
Well, that's the question I asked is the heart kind of. He took a minute.

936
00:57:44,130 --> 00:57:47,490
Well, it's here I asked this question. Oh, if you're stumping, Matt, I'm in. Well,

937
00:57:47,490 --> 00:57:50,970
it takes a minute because it sort of

938
00:57:50,970 --> 00:57:54,810
divides the, the, the Cali Reds and the Martha Stewart Chardonnay from the

939
00:57:54,810 --> 00:57:58,050
thing you're doing. Well, what you're talking about is soulless commerce,

940
00:57:58,870 --> 00:58:02,550
Right? So now what if the, what if profit had

941
00:58:02,550 --> 00:58:05,790
nothing to do with wine? Profit has to be in wine. Well, no, it does

942
00:58:05,790 --> 00:58:09,430
now, but let's just say take a theoretical approach. If. Would, would

943
00:58:09,430 --> 00:58:13,070
wine be different? Would the approach be different? Would, in fact, I said this to.

944
00:58:13,070 --> 00:58:16,910
Matt, I believe wine would be worse if there was

945
00:58:16,910 --> 00:58:20,590
no profit involved. So you, you think, you think that the capitalism of

946
00:58:20,590 --> 00:58:23,950
wine or the profitability of wine would. I guess the

947
00:58:23,950 --> 00:58:27,760
competition, the pressure, we don't care. Pressure. Because there's a

948
00:58:27,760 --> 00:58:31,440
comment from the Burgundian just after World War I, when they were

949
00:58:31,440 --> 00:58:35,160
creating some of the appellations, and he said in the meeting, in the Appalachian meeting,

950
00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:38,440
saying, look, we shouldn't even advertise, you know, people should bang a door to her.

951
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:41,680
We should make the best wine we can and people will come. Yeah.

952
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:45,840
So that would suggest to me that. Way I don't advertise. We're still going to

953
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:49,600
make good wine then. Well, I back to

954
00:58:49,600 --> 00:58:53,270
why did, why did I get into this, feed kids

955
00:58:53,830 --> 00:58:57,230
and take care of my wife? She gotta be able to sell something. Buy all

956
00:58:57,230 --> 00:59:00,870
of our fruit from our own property, make sure everybody's taken care of.

957
00:59:01,270 --> 00:59:04,990
So that when I sell a bottle out the front door, I know the

958
00:59:04,990 --> 00:59:08,550
chain of people that, that is taken care of from plow

959
00:59:08,630 --> 00:59:11,830
to porch. That's it. So when you say,

960
00:59:12,870 --> 00:59:16,030
like, why am I here today? Right. I love talking to you. It was an

961
00:59:16,030 --> 00:59:19,790
awesome thing. But I'm Also, I want 10 more people minimum,

962
00:59:19,790 --> 00:59:23,550
you know, to, to know, find out about us and get in their

963
00:59:23,550 --> 00:59:27,310
car and drive 150 miles. Sure. So when you say if we took out

964
00:59:27,310 --> 00:59:30,670
profit, I

965
00:59:31,870 --> 00:59:35,230
hunger and a need to succeed.

966
00:59:36,830 --> 00:59:40,590
I needed to succeed in this business. Like I was

967
00:59:40,590 --> 00:59:44,330
being held underwater. Like I needed to breathe. Like that's,

968
00:59:44,330 --> 00:59:47,050
that's the level of commitment

969
00:59:48,010 --> 00:59:51,210
I had to. This has to work. I told my wife flat out in the

970
00:59:51,210 --> 00:59:54,010
kitchen, I mean, we're. I'm either going to be a success at this or I'm

971
00:59:54,010 --> 00:59:56,170
going to die trying. And

972
00:59:58,730 --> 01:00:02,490
when you have profit, when you, when you have the ability, when, when the

973
01:00:02,490 --> 01:00:06,290
carrot is there that you go, if I get up and I outwork, if I

974
01:00:06,290 --> 01:00:10,060
work 12 hours and everybody else is working eight or four, I'm

975
01:00:10,060 --> 01:00:13,140
going to gain on them and I'm going to get. My goal is not to

976
01:00:13,140 --> 01:00:16,820
be the biggest. I never said that. But my goal is to be as

977
01:00:16,820 --> 01:00:20,420
efficient as possible, to be able to put as many wines in people's

978
01:00:20,420 --> 01:00:23,620
hands as possible that they buy from us for, like,

979
01:00:24,500 --> 01:00:27,860
13 years. I mean, our tasting room's been open 13, 14 years.

980
01:00:28,180 --> 01:00:31,660
We have a. I won't give you the percentage, but a massive percentage of people

981
01:00:31,660 --> 01:00:35,500
who signed up year one are still in. And is that because I

982
01:00:35,500 --> 01:00:39,040
make the best wine in the world? No, I'm not the best. Far from

983
01:00:39,040 --> 01:00:42,840
it. But I want

984
01:00:42,840 --> 01:00:46,640
to be the people's champ, right? I want them to know,

985
01:00:46,640 --> 01:00:50,080
like, when I post pictures of us picking and my daughter's there and

986
01:00:50,080 --> 01:00:53,320
family's there, people say, why do you post pictures of all that? I said, because

987
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:56,640
no other winery can. Because I'm out here doing it. That's right.

988
01:00:56,960 --> 01:01:00,760
And I think that that is worth something. I think being out

989
01:01:00,760 --> 01:01:04,400
there, it's the reason you do it.

990
01:01:04,480 --> 01:01:06,920
You know, if you want to. If you want to hit a home run in

991
01:01:06,920 --> 01:01:10,440
the ninth inning or whatever, you have to be the person that is

992
01:01:10,440 --> 01:01:13,120
addicted to the cage.

993
01:01:14,080 --> 01:01:17,880
You want to go in there and hit and hit and hit and hit and

994
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:21,520
hit so that when you go and step into a box,

995
01:01:21,680 --> 01:01:25,120
you look at someone and you go, I am. I'm about to devour your lunch.

996
01:01:25,520 --> 01:01:28,240
And you'll tell them, this is what I'm going to do, and this is how

997
01:01:28,240 --> 01:01:31,960
I'm going to do it. And because at that point, you have to

998
01:01:31,960 --> 01:01:35,250
succeed. You want. Not only do you want to succeed, you have to. So the

999
01:01:35,250 --> 01:01:38,890
profit in wine, our wines aren't exorbitant.

1000
01:01:38,890 --> 01:01:41,650
All of my wine, and I probably shouldn't say, don't sell in the straw, but

1001
01:01:41,650 --> 01:01:44,570
it's all supply and demand driven. The less I have, if I'm selling out too

1002
01:01:44,570 --> 01:01:47,770
quickly, the price is too low. If I'm selling out too slowly, I should lower

1003
01:01:47,770 --> 01:01:50,770
the price. That's it. That's how I. That's how I price every single one of

1004
01:01:50,770 --> 01:01:54,490
our wines. That's it. I know what's coming down the pipe, and then the numbers

1005
01:01:54,490 --> 01:01:58,130
slide up and down. So I suppose then, by the way. I want to go

1006
01:01:58,130 --> 01:01:59,410
back to your biblical thing, because I.

1007
01:02:02,620 --> 01:02:06,340
Well, sorry, I'm getting long answers to short questions. No, no, not at all.

1008
01:02:06,340 --> 01:02:10,060
Good. I think it's the we. We need. First of all, it's

1009
01:02:10,060 --> 01:02:12,380
harder to run a podcast when I only get one word answer. So I can

1010
01:02:12,380 --> 01:02:16,140
just tell you that right now. Keep it rolling, man.

1011
01:02:16,140 --> 01:02:19,900
I have. I literally have nothing to do today. I'm here to do this. We'll

1012
01:02:19,900 --> 01:02:22,860
go another 15 minutes or so. We can break this into two. Actually.

1013
01:02:24,700 --> 01:02:28,189
I'm here to answer every question. They found a winery in Armenia. 8,

1014
01:02:28,280 --> 01:02:31,610
8,000 years old, 7, 6,000 years old shoes,

1015
01:02:31,610 --> 01:02:35,290
amphora, the whole thing. And so there's a whole bunch of places you could take

1016
01:02:35,290 --> 01:02:39,010
that direction of that convers of that finding. Because wine

1017
01:02:39,010 --> 01:02:42,730
was important part of life. Then you could probably predict what the best vintages

1018
01:02:42,730 --> 01:02:46,410
were like. I think they've determined King Tut's tomb. You know, he had

1019
01:02:46,650 --> 01:02:50,490
certain vintages, you know, 5 BC or something. And you know, that was a good

1020
01:02:50,490 --> 01:02:54,010
vintage. Obviously the king's going to drink the good stuff. Right. So. But

1021
01:02:54,470 --> 01:02:57,910
you know, the, the Bible said that Noah landed the ark on Mount Arad and

1022
01:02:57,910 --> 01:03:01,030
that's the first thing he did. You know, of course he became drunk and we

1023
01:03:01,030 --> 01:03:04,710
don't know about that part. We should talk about that. We don't want if it's

1024
01:03:04,710 --> 01:03:07,750
vinnis, vinifera and all the classifications all before that.

1025
01:03:08,630 --> 01:03:12,390
And so it's been part of our life forever. Yeah. And, and,

1026
01:03:12,870 --> 01:03:16,670
and is in, in the Bible in many, many cases. But we

1027
01:03:16,670 --> 01:03:20,350
were laughing a little bit off camera when a

1028
01:03:20,350 --> 01:03:24,030
sermon. My, my son in law is an Anglican priest and his father was

1029
01:03:24,030 --> 01:03:27,830
our pastor and he was talking about when Jesus turned water

1030
01:03:27,830 --> 01:03:31,670
into wine. And I quickly, my wife's like, what

1031
01:03:31,670 --> 01:03:35,230
are you doing? I'm in the pew with the calculator. What's the size of this

1032
01:03:35,230 --> 01:03:38,710
thing? I googled like this. I forgot the vessel that they had back then. How

1033
01:03:38,710 --> 01:03:42,310
many cubits? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I determined that there were 3,500 people at the

1034
01:03:42,310 --> 01:03:45,750
wedding based at. For seven days. For seven days. Yeah.

1035
01:03:46,230 --> 01:03:49,630
And based on today's consumption. Now I don't know if they drank more or less

1036
01:03:49,630 --> 01:03:53,350
back then, but my. Guess is more probably okay. Oh yeah. And so.

1037
01:03:53,920 --> 01:03:57,200
But then it goes. Okay. But that means the whole village came, right. Isn't that

1038
01:03:57,200 --> 01:04:00,880
what they did? It was a. Yeah. It was a party. When you were cracking

1039
01:04:00,880 --> 01:04:04,600
out the wine, you were saving this for years and years. And when

1040
01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:07,680
you're gonna throw this thing, you don't throw a party for one night now. It

1041
01:04:07,680 --> 01:04:11,280
was, it was a festival, basically. Yep. So that

1042
01:04:11,280 --> 01:04:14,840
actually we've had two weddings at my home. Both my younger

1043
01:04:14,840 --> 01:04:18,640
daughters and you know, the wine guys having

1044
01:04:18,640 --> 01:04:22,220
the wedding. And they were, these were big affairs. Oh yeah.

1045
01:04:23,500 --> 01:04:27,260
You. I made sure. Yes. That this was not wedding wine, so to

1046
01:04:27,260 --> 01:04:31,020
speak. This was going to be. Yes. Like people have to go, wow, I'm

1047
01:04:31,020 --> 01:04:33,820
going to Paul's house for the wine. I'm trying to show off, but I, it

1048
01:04:33,820 --> 01:04:37,620
wasn't because I'm I'm. I'm well aware of that pressure. Okay, so here,

1049
01:04:37,620 --> 01:04:40,740
the head of comment, we're going to get into what you said earlier about, about

1050
01:04:40,740 --> 01:04:44,500
Mary. Oh, yeah. But on that dovetail that, that

1051
01:04:44,500 --> 01:04:47,740
conversation. I tell people that are putting on weddings. Why.

1052
01:04:48,490 --> 01:04:52,290
Why in the, in any remote sense would you skimp on the wine, take

1053
01:04:52,290 --> 01:04:55,850
it away from the valet guy or take it away from the band? Yeah,

1054
01:04:56,090 --> 01:04:59,450
but why would you want people to come away from your wedding, your celebration of

1055
01:04:59,450 --> 01:05:03,250
your daughter or son's wedding and go, man, the wine sucked. Why would

1056
01:05:03,250 --> 01:05:07,090
you do that? And so we went to a wedding in Temecula and they were

1057
01:05:07,090 --> 01:05:10,890
pouring Aldi's blind owl. It was absolutely unpalatable.

1058
01:05:11,610 --> 01:05:14,810
Just get rid of the valet person, let them park themselves, and they'll come back

1059
01:05:14,810 --> 01:05:17,740
and say, wow, this is a great wedding. It's a great wedding. Yeah. So we

1060
01:05:17,740 --> 01:05:21,580
were talking about the wedding when Jesus returned water to wine. And you had a,

1061
01:05:21,580 --> 01:05:25,420
you had a story about that. So it was interesting. Well,

1062
01:05:25,420 --> 01:05:28,300
my whole theory behind this one is, number one, that,

1063
01:05:30,140 --> 01:05:33,900
you know, Mary, I should probably preface

1064
01:05:33,900 --> 01:05:37,620
by saying, you know, I'm trying to look at the

1065
01:05:37,620 --> 01:05:41,300
Bible through 20, 23 eyes. And I. When

1066
01:05:41,300 --> 01:05:44,940
people usually picture God, they picture a Renaissance painting, you know, floating and

1067
01:05:44,940 --> 01:05:47,920
long beard. And that's. And that's.

1068
01:05:48,640 --> 01:05:52,360
I've radically changed that notion in my mind. And just like you and I

1069
01:05:52,360 --> 01:05:56,120
are having this great conversation here, if we go back years and years and

1070
01:05:56,120 --> 01:05:59,520
years, people were having conversations similarly. Right.

1071
01:06:00,400 --> 01:06:03,280
Connection is never going to go out of style.

1072
01:06:04,240 --> 01:06:08,080
So my theory behind this one is, number one, this party's been

1073
01:06:08,080 --> 01:06:11,440
going on for seven days. Number one, Mary's been there for seven days. So the,

1074
01:06:11,440 --> 01:06:15,000
you know, I'm not trying, doing everything I can to not offend

1075
01:06:15,000 --> 01:06:18,750
Catholics. But, you know, Mary was having

1076
01:06:18,750 --> 01:06:22,510
a good time at a wedding. And the things she comes to her

1077
01:06:22,510 --> 01:06:26,230
son about someone that, that she was told by an angel is the

1078
01:06:26,230 --> 01:06:29,950
son of God, virgin birth, the whole deal says, you

1079
01:06:29,950 --> 01:06:33,750
have to do something. We're out of wine. So that is. Perspective is

1080
01:06:33,750 --> 01:06:37,430
amazing. Really. Perspective, Right. So that means Mary goes like this, this party's

1081
01:06:37,430 --> 01:06:40,350
awesome. I want to keep it going. We're out of wine.

1082
01:06:41,230 --> 01:06:44,870
I bet my son can do something about this. Right? So runs over and. And

1083
01:06:44,870 --> 01:06:48,090
they even have a little debate about it, you know, where it' not my time,

1084
01:06:48,090 --> 01:06:50,370
what are you doing? Kind of a thing. And she's like, come on, do the

1085
01:06:50,370 --> 01:06:54,050
thing. Do the thing. Which tells me that at

1086
01:06:54,050 --> 01:06:57,690
some point, that was not. That was the first public miracle.

1087
01:06:57,690 --> 01:07:01,410
Yeah. But Jesus was turning water into wine for his mother. You know,

1088
01:07:01,410 --> 01:07:05,130
probably right. Which is great. I mean, it's just great story. Who else? Who else?

1089
01:07:05,210 --> 01:07:08,930
But really, seriously, when you think about it, your interpretation of that story would

1090
01:07:08,930 --> 01:07:12,530
be, who else would have convinced him to do it?

1091
01:07:12,530 --> 01:07:16,230
Nobody. His mom. Like, I always think about that situation. My. Like

1092
01:07:16,620 --> 01:07:20,300
we had a wedding. My brother's wedding was. Or a reception was up there

1093
01:07:20,540 --> 01:07:24,260
and the booze was gone within literally an hour of this

1094
01:07:24,260 --> 01:07:28,100
party. And my mom comes running down, she goes, you need

1095
01:07:28,100 --> 01:07:31,900
to go to the store here. Here's a. With a. She handed a roll

1096
01:07:31,900 --> 01:07:35,580
of money and she goes, just buy everything again. And we literally

1097
01:07:35,580 --> 01:07:38,300
did. We drove down there. There's a great story because

1098
01:07:39,340 --> 01:07:42,860
Adam Firestone was there and we were just throwing wine into

1099
01:07:44,250 --> 01:07:48,050
a cardinal rancho. My two buddies, Matt, Matt, Peg, Cliff, Jason, throwing it in

1100
01:07:48,050 --> 01:07:51,250
there. And he goes, what are you buying? Boys like that. And this is a

1101
01:07:51,250 --> 01:07:54,530
great sales story because he goes, oh, we're just grabbing this. And they ran out

1102
01:07:54,530 --> 01:07:57,490
of wine that. He goes, hey, put that back. He put it all back and

1103
01:07:57,490 --> 01:08:01,170
started grabbing Firestone wine and throwing it into the thing and goes by

1104
01:08:01,170 --> 01:08:05,010
that. That's better. You know, what a salesman. So was Brooks still around at that

1105
01:08:05,010 --> 01:08:08,850
point? Brooks is still around. Yeah. If. If you want me to

1106
01:08:08,850 --> 01:08:12,670
go into like a two minute diatribe about the. The guy. I mean, Brooks is

1107
01:08:12,670 --> 01:08:16,110
a friend. The entire Firestone family is

1108
01:08:16,110 --> 01:08:19,230
amazing. But, you know, Brooks Firestone

1109
01:08:19,230 --> 01:08:22,790
1973, leaves Firestone

1110
01:08:22,790 --> 01:08:26,510
tires because he was in your. You know, this. I'm going to brutalize

1111
01:08:26,510 --> 01:08:29,870
the story. But was in. In Europe selling tires for

1112
01:08:29,870 --> 01:08:33,590
Firestone. This is, you know, grandpa's company. Yeah. Kind of thing. And

1113
01:08:33,590 --> 01:08:37,190
he saw steel Vulture radials coming in and he comes back

1114
01:08:37,190 --> 01:08:40,790
to Ohio and says, hey, we need to do this or

1115
01:08:40,950 --> 01:08:44,590
we're gonna get our lunch eaten by. By these other

1116
01:08:44,590 --> 01:08:48,430
tire companies. And there. And that was hubris of we're Firestone, we

1117
01:08:48,430 --> 01:08:52,230
know what we're doing. Right. As well. And he left. Left the company.

1118
01:08:52,790 --> 01:08:56,390
My grandma worked here on Firestone Boulevard during World War II. That's now the

1119
01:08:56,390 --> 01:09:00,230
Citadel. Yeah, right. Making Firestone beautiful. And

1120
01:09:00,950 --> 01:09:04,639
you know, Brooks left there, came up to the Santa Nez Valley and early

1121
01:09:04,639 --> 01:09:08,279
70s and planned the first vineyards, established the Santa

1122
01:09:08,279 --> 01:09:11,919
Barbara County Ava, basically, you

1123
01:09:11,919 --> 01:09:14,599
know, between there and Zaca Zaka Mesa.

1124
01:09:15,559 --> 01:09:18,759
And. And he buckshot it, you know, pinot next to cab.

1125
01:09:19,479 --> 01:09:23,279
And really was the. The moon landing of wine

1126
01:09:23,279 --> 01:09:25,959
in Santa Barbara County. And because of that passion.

1127
01:09:26,599 --> 01:09:30,439
Crazy. You know, Brooks is an amazing guy. Passionate. Now

1128
01:09:30,439 --> 01:09:33,999
he sings in choirs around the world. He probably was in France. Saw the

1129
01:09:33,999 --> 01:09:37,740
Michelin people. Who's. Who's out now promoting food. You know, they're with

1130
01:09:37,740 --> 01:09:41,460
their Michelin Guide in 1929. Whenever he started that, he's going, wait a

1131
01:09:41,460 --> 01:09:45,260
minute. Oh, this. But, you know, it's funny, because this is

1132
01:09:45,260 --> 01:09:49,020
the honest part of this business that we don't have anymore. We

1133
01:09:49,020 --> 01:09:52,860
don't see it. And my early days of doing this, when I went to a

1134
01:09:52,860 --> 01:09:55,940
big trade tasting, Brooks was pouring. Yeah.

1135
01:09:56,580 --> 01:10:00,220
And why was he there? Why was he there? Why? You didn't

1136
01:10:00,220 --> 01:10:03,850
answer the question. No, I want to know why. Because. Because he was

1137
01:10:03,850 --> 01:10:07,010
passionate about the thing he was doing. Of course. Yeah. Right. I mean. I mean,

1138
01:10:07,010 --> 01:10:10,730
they're. He. He. Dick, look. That tasting, I think,

1139
01:10:10,730 --> 01:10:14,370
was Wine Warehouse at the time. Let's go. That was Dick Sanford. Pork. Okay.

1140
01:10:14,370 --> 01:10:18,010
Yeah. Fast

1141
01:10:18,010 --> 01:10:21,290
Parker. Was it Eli or Fest Fess? Okay. He poured. He would hand out pictures

1142
01:10:21,290 --> 01:10:25,090
of him as Daniel Boone. I still have it somewhere in here. Chris Parker,

1143
01:10:25,170 --> 01:10:28,930
by the way, nice plug. Has Third Window Brewing and the best burger in

1144
01:10:28,930 --> 01:10:32,640
the world. Festus Grandson. Okay. Grandson.

1145
01:10:32,640 --> 01:10:35,240
Okay. Unbelievable. Dick Smothers. Yeah.

1146
01:10:37,720 --> 01:10:41,000
Which is Foxen. Huh? Dick spots. Yes.

1147
01:10:41,480 --> 01:10:45,200
The Smothers brothers. Oh, okay. Sorry. But I. I would

1148
01:10:45,200 --> 01:10:48,480
think Foxman would probably be there around that. I don't remember. But as you know,

1149
01:10:48,480 --> 01:10:51,080
Dick and Dick and Tommy Smiles. Yeah. You know, celebrities.

1150
01:10:52,760 --> 01:10:56,360
And Pat Paulson. Okay. Who ran for President, 1968. He.

1151
01:10:56,610 --> 01:11:00,330
He was pouring, and I walked up to him, I said, hey, Adrian Listinger. Because

1152
01:11:00,330 --> 01:11:03,530
he was on Get Smart as this character. Because, yeah, I was a really good

1153
01:11:03,530 --> 01:11:07,330
murderer then. And I'm like, you know, and they were. So here's the difference.

1154
01:11:07,330 --> 01:11:11,170
And it goes back to what. What you asked me, which is they

1155
01:11:11,170 --> 01:11:14,930
weren't celebrities behind the tasting table. Yeah. They were

1156
01:11:14,930 --> 01:11:18,610
farmers and winemakers. Yeah. And they were so approachable. Yep.

1157
01:11:18,930 --> 01:11:22,690
They didn't care. You know, Pat Paulson had a wine called Refrigerator

1158
01:11:22,690 --> 01:11:26,290
White. And when I brought up with Monty Montgomery, his son, you know, we

1159
01:11:26,290 --> 01:11:29,810
laughed and laughed because no one who remembers this stuff. Right. But there was an

1160
01:11:29,810 --> 01:11:33,370
honesty about it. But you're the one thing that While you were telling

1161
01:11:33,370 --> 01:11:37,010
that, that. That unbelievable capture in

1162
01:11:37,010 --> 01:11:40,250
time. There's also something that's very similar about all those people.

1163
01:11:40,570 --> 01:11:42,010
Like Fess Parker,

1164
01:11:44,650 --> 01:11:48,410
beautiful singer, you know. Really. Oh. He would have.

1165
01:11:48,410 --> 01:11:52,110
At. When the Fess Parker Inn was in Los Olivos on a Wednesday night when

1166
01:11:52,110 --> 01:11:55,150
Fest was around and his wife was around, they would have. They would play around

1167
01:11:55,150 --> 01:11:58,990
a piano, and all their friends would go in and do that. It

1168
01:11:58,990 --> 01:12:02,150
was never. No. I went with my dad a few times. He goes, hey, let's

1169
01:12:02,150 --> 01:12:05,910
go here. Let's go hear the. The golden era of movies, okay? And then

1170
01:12:05,910 --> 01:12:09,630
you go in there and the, the guy playing

1171
01:12:09,630 --> 01:12:12,950
piano, I'm totally Powers Powell,

1172
01:12:14,550 --> 01:12:18,400
he was a superintendent at the Rancho Sisqu School, which is in

1173
01:12:18,400 --> 01:12:22,000
middle of nowhere up Fox and Canyon. He was a

1174
01:12:22,000 --> 01:12:25,120
superintendent, but he would play the piano for Fess

1175
01:12:26,000 --> 01:12:29,640
and for their thing and all that. All Fess's buddies, that golden

1176
01:12:29,640 --> 01:12:33,200
era would come in and sing around the piano. Wow. And they're

1177
01:12:33,200 --> 01:12:36,880
okay, like chilling, right? The only person I ever saw my father in law get

1178
01:12:36,880 --> 01:12:39,880
tongue tied around was Fess Parker. Right. But then you take that, you take the

1179
01:12:39,880 --> 01:12:41,120
Smothers Brothers, you take

1180
01:12:44,330 --> 01:12:47,850
now I'll throw Brooks in there. Because those are all

1181
01:12:47,930 --> 01:12:51,650
artists. Those are artist souls. Those are people that want to

1182
01:12:51,650 --> 01:12:55,210
conjure something into existence that did not exist

1183
01:12:55,210 --> 01:12:59,050
before. Good point.

1184
01:12:59,050 --> 01:13:02,810
That is that to me. Now if you want to

1185
01:13:02,810 --> 01:13:06,490
find the heart and soul of wine, the thing that's not a

1186
01:13:06,490 --> 01:13:10,210
beverage, the thing that isn't, you know, Cali

1187
01:13:10,210 --> 01:13:11,930
red or what a cash grab.

1188
01:13:13,690 --> 01:13:16,890
It's. It's people like that, that,

1189
01:13:19,850 --> 01:13:23,570
that find something worth doing that they,

1190
01:13:23,570 --> 01:13:26,650
they love that they love it all the way through. And I think,

1191
01:13:28,330 --> 01:13:31,210
you know, in a world of curation, not creation,

1192
01:13:31,930 --> 01:13:35,700
right, right now it's easy to be an Instagram influencer and then give your

1193
01:13:35,700 --> 01:13:39,140
opinion on everything else Yelp has done that. You know, all the stuff, all the

1194
01:13:39,140 --> 01:13:42,500
things where it's like, what? You're not the one in the arena, but you are

1195
01:13:42,500 --> 01:13:45,980
going to comment, you're going to comment on it, right?

1196
01:13:46,940 --> 01:13:50,540
Something has to break. Well, I get these freaking

1197
01:13:50,620 --> 01:13:54,340
Instagram and TikTok, right? And I'm there. I mean our company's

1198
01:13:54,340 --> 01:13:58,140
there. Anyway, something has to break. But I think the break

1199
01:13:58,140 --> 01:14:01,500
point is, is authenticity.

1200
01:14:02,440 --> 01:14:06,080
It's harder to find. It truly is. But like

1201
01:14:06,080 --> 01:14:09,520
today I'm here because I want to tell people what we do. And I'm like,

1202
01:14:09,520 --> 01:14:12,600
I've told you, I just threw out like 80 other names of other people that

1203
01:14:12,600 --> 01:14:15,680
are in our wine region that are awesome and you should probably go see them

1204
01:14:15,680 --> 01:14:19,160
too. But it's still the great part about it is

1205
01:14:19,960 --> 01:14:23,680
this within. It took me less than two hours

1206
01:14:23,680 --> 01:14:27,240
to get here in Monday morning traffic. And there's 13 million

1207
01:14:27,240 --> 01:14:30,720
people. I know there's 13 however many people in Southern

1208
01:14:30,720 --> 01:14:34,520
California. And what they don't know is the probably the best and most.

1209
01:14:34,680 --> 01:14:37,160
We were at 20, 21 wide range of the year.

1210
01:14:39,160 --> 01:14:42,440
You within two hours you have the most hardcore

1211
01:14:43,400 --> 01:14:47,000
street level people that are just like me,

1212
01:14:47,000 --> 01:14:50,800
passionate out of their minds about what they're doing. And the

1213
01:14:50,800 --> 01:14:54,520
greatest punk rock wine region in the world is less than two hours away

1214
01:14:54,520 --> 01:14:58,100
from your doorstep. And Los Olivas is really quaint,

1215
01:14:58,100 --> 01:15:01,940
fun place. Go to Bob's Bakery. Totally. Really? Really. We were there not

1216
01:15:01,940 --> 01:15:05,260
too long ago and I hadn't been for years and years and years. Best food

1217
01:15:05,260 --> 01:15:08,780
in California is in our valley. It's unbelievable, you know, but that, that's. Something

1218
01:15:09,500 --> 01:15:12,740
which just says very important to the extent of what this is. I was thinking

1219
01:15:12,740 --> 01:15:16,420
about these people that we were just talking about. The fest parkers of the world.

1220
01:15:16,420 --> 01:15:19,940
Yep. All right. We're bouncing all over the place. Well, it's a different time for

1221
01:15:19,940 --> 01:15:23,660
wine and you're, you've. I'm going to tie this together. But it was a different

1222
01:15:23,660 --> 01:15:27,460
time for wine. It was a more honest time. It was certainly the isotasties, the

1223
01:15:27,460 --> 01:15:31,000
giant tastings, they're all market their wine. Sure. But there was a certain

1224
01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:34,440
authenticity and humility about it that, that without

1225
01:15:34,600 --> 01:15:35,560
the sars.

1226
01:15:38,040 --> 01:15:41,640
Carlos with an S Sarlos makes it easier. Sarlis's son's wines.

1227
01:15:41,640 --> 01:15:45,480
Yeah. And others like that from Los Olivos will lose that

1228
01:15:45,480 --> 01:15:48,440
humility because the post, you know, pre

1229
01:15:48,920 --> 01:15:52,360
judgment of Paris wine was very honest.

1230
01:15:52,600 --> 01:15:56,320
There was nothing else for it to be. Yep. Post judgment Paris, it still

1231
01:15:56,320 --> 01:16:00,120
took 10 years. I mean Jim Barrett didn't retire from his legal practice

1232
01:16:00,120 --> 01:16:02,960
to like 1986. Yep. Like 10 years later. So.

1233
01:16:04,080 --> 01:16:07,920
And here then we entered the realm of commercialism. If I was to put a,

1234
01:16:07,920 --> 01:16:10,240
you know, a moniker on what the timeline.

1235
01:16:11,680 --> 01:16:15,440
Sutter Homes White's Infidel. And then the idea of formula wines and then, you

1236
01:16:15,440 --> 01:16:17,360
know, apothic reds are now and all those things.

1237
01:16:19,040 --> 01:16:22,740
Sarlos and Sons and people like you in Los Olivos

1238
01:16:22,740 --> 01:16:26,420
and other parts of the country, we're going to lose that humility. We're going to

1239
01:16:26,420 --> 01:16:30,260
lose that honesty about the wine if it, if it falls in the hands of

1240
01:16:30,260 --> 01:16:33,980
the winks, the naked wines. You know, we're destined for it. Maybe.

1241
01:16:33,980 --> 01:16:36,980
I have this theory. Let me finish. Okay. That's one thing, I have this theory

1242
01:16:38,340 --> 01:16:42,020
and this is the, this is the irony between the

1243
01:16:42,020 --> 01:16:45,820
millennials who drink White Claw. But it's at the same time say they want

1244
01:16:45,820 --> 01:16:48,820
sustainable organic things in their life. It makes no sense.

1245
01:16:50,580 --> 01:16:53,460
Sometime at some point in someone's life

1246
01:16:54,500 --> 01:16:57,940
because of what you're doing and hopefully what I'm doing, that

1247
01:16:58,420 --> 01:17:01,980
that aha moment happens with a glass of Wine. And

1248
01:17:01,980 --> 01:17:05,620
it'll never go away. I think. I think it's so embedded in the human soul,

1249
01:17:05,940 --> 01:17:08,700
based on what we talked about, that it can't go away. It will never go

1250
01:17:08,700 --> 01:17:12,460
away. The. I

1251
01:17:12,460 --> 01:17:16,150
think that whenever there are people that are

1252
01:17:16,150 --> 01:17:19,990
doing it the right way for the right reasons

1253
01:17:21,110 --> 01:17:24,790
that will always be envious to

1254
01:17:25,270 --> 01:17:28,950
people with that see an opportunity and

1255
01:17:29,110 --> 01:17:31,910
with money, with whatever, you know, without a.

1256
01:17:34,150 --> 01:17:37,870
A true, honest thing, there

1257
01:17:37,870 --> 01:17:41,670
would be nothing to replicate. Like, anybody who copies me

1258
01:17:42,030 --> 01:17:45,830
is. Is at least a year behind, right? So I'm going to keep plowing ahead,

1259
01:17:45,830 --> 01:17:49,310
doing what I do. Like, I see people rip my. Rip off my labels,

1260
01:17:49,710 --> 01:17:53,470
you know, try to do what I do, but I go,

1261
01:17:53,550 --> 01:17:56,190
you're a year behind. Because I'm already working on two years from now.

1262
01:17:57,230 --> 01:18:01,070
And that opportunity of commercialism,

1263
01:18:01,790 --> 01:18:05,510
of soulless capitalism, of, well, if we jump on this

1264
01:18:05,510 --> 01:18:09,230
right now and it's happening in a boardroom and there's the people in the boardroom

1265
01:18:09,230 --> 01:18:12,790
making the decisions and finding the money, they're finding money from other people, they're giving

1266
01:18:12,790 --> 01:18:16,230
it to other people. They're, okay, we're going to make 10% on this.

1267
01:18:16,470 --> 01:18:17,990
And if it fails, no one cares.

1268
01:18:20,710 --> 01:18:24,150
Without. Without that authenticity, right?

1269
01:18:24,470 --> 01:18:28,230
Without the, The. The great things like the old mate,

1270
01:18:28,230 --> 01:18:31,870
like the main street, like old towns. Right now they build malls that look like

1271
01:18:31,870 --> 01:18:35,200
old towns. That's right. You know,

1272
01:18:35,840 --> 01:18:39,600
it's a great. It's true. But the, the

1273
01:18:39,600 --> 01:18:43,280
part that I will always love and, you

1274
01:18:43,280 --> 01:18:46,960
know, going back to it is, you know, when you step into the. Like an

1275
01:18:46,960 --> 01:18:50,800
old bar, it has a good vibe and people are nice.

1276
01:18:50,800 --> 01:18:54,480
Bartender kind of remembers you, and you're like, I want to come back here. You

1277
01:18:54,480 --> 01:18:58,240
know, there could be a. There's a Chili's right next door still. So that

1278
01:18:58,240 --> 01:19:01,770
same bar, same. All this corporate and everything else. The

1279
01:19:01,770 --> 01:19:04,890
beauty part about wine is it is unemployable.

1280
01:19:05,370 --> 01:19:09,170
The people who work in wine that truly love it are absolutely

1281
01:19:09,170 --> 01:19:13,010
unemployable people. They will show up late and they will leave this. They will give

1282
01:19:13,010 --> 01:19:16,570
you their heart and soul. But it is. They're. They're not the most reliable.

1283
01:19:16,650 --> 01:19:19,290
It's like surfers, right? If the waves are good, they're gone.

1284
01:19:20,810 --> 01:19:23,370
The. The part that I love is

1285
01:19:25,930 --> 01:19:29,740
it's impossible to be. You have to

1286
01:19:29,740 --> 01:19:33,540
be a pirate to do what we do. You can't be in the

1287
01:19:33,540 --> 01:19:37,020
Navy, because why does this place. Why is it

1288
01:19:37,020 --> 01:19:40,540
awesome? Because you. This is its own pirate ship, right?

1289
01:19:40,620 --> 01:19:43,659
You're selling the wines you want to sell. You're putting the things on the wall

1290
01:19:43,659 --> 01:19:46,340
that you want to do. Why are you here talking to me in the morning?

1291
01:19:46,340 --> 01:19:50,180
Because you have something to say. You wanted to create something that didn't exist yesterday,

1292
01:19:50,180 --> 01:19:53,650
and here it is. Here it is right in front of us today. The

1293
01:19:53,650 --> 01:19:57,290
graffiti on the wall says so much about. Because it means like it

1294
01:19:57,290 --> 01:20:01,050
is. It is anti everybody else. It's pro. You. You.

1295
01:20:01,050 --> 01:20:04,130
You've made it say what you wanted to say, but you didn't do it by

1296
01:20:04,130 --> 01:20:07,610
printing something off at Kenko's. You had an artist come in, throw it up on

1297
01:20:07,610 --> 01:20:10,010
the wall, create it. But it said the thing you want to say when you

1298
01:20:10,010 --> 01:20:12,450
walk in, you go, isn't that awesome? It's great.

1299
01:20:13,890 --> 01:20:17,690
That could be ripped off instantly tomorrow. But the place, it's like saying, I

1300
01:20:17,690 --> 01:20:20,420
want to buy your house because I want your life.

1301
01:20:21,300 --> 01:20:24,900
That. That way. It doesn't work that way. And I think with wine especially,

1302
01:20:25,540 --> 01:20:29,220
you know, too small to fail. It reminds me he said that.

1303
01:20:29,860 --> 01:20:33,580
And I appreciate your observation of what this place is.

1304
01:20:33,580 --> 01:20:36,860
Yeah. Well, I hope I got it right. Because, you know, when I thought through

1305
01:20:36,860 --> 01:20:40,100
it, my wife's like. When she walks. When she. What I'm trying to do in

1306
01:20:40,100 --> 01:20:43,420
the lobby, when you walk down the red and the gold, I'm sort of trying

1307
01:20:43,420 --> 01:20:46,260
to rip off John Charles Boisse and what he's done. Because I love

1308
01:20:46,660 --> 01:20:50,510
Francophile and I love this opulent French stuff. She's like, what are you

1309
01:20:50,510 --> 01:20:54,150
talking about? Like, what are you. Like, it doesn't fit. But she did shut me

1310
01:20:54,150 --> 01:20:57,710
down on part of it. Because you're talking about how wise our wives are and

1311
01:20:57,870 --> 01:21:01,630
we use them. But. But I. I thought to myself, you know, am I going

1312
01:21:01,630 --> 01:21:05,070
to put the wood panels and the racks? And I'm like, no, I'm not doing.

1313
01:21:05,070 --> 01:21:08,510
No. So forget it. But as a fellow. One pirate to another, I

1314
01:21:08,590 --> 01:21:12,430
recognized it right away. It was amazing. But it's kind of like Applebee's

1315
01:21:12,430 --> 01:21:15,910
where they. Yeah, yeah. You know, they. They take some cracker bar

1316
01:21:15,910 --> 01:21:19,230
pictures and they put them on the. This is really what they did. I know,

1317
01:21:19,630 --> 01:21:23,430
but when you walk into the restaurant, if. If it's in Monroe, there's some old

1318
01:21:23,430 --> 01:21:27,070
pictures of Monroe. But once you. Once you get past that. Sloppy. It's

1319
01:21:27,070 --> 01:21:30,430
corporate America, I guess. Totally. It. It's like 12 microwaves. We're gonna have to wrap

1320
01:21:30,430 --> 01:21:32,510
this up. We're gonna have to do it again for sure. But I'm gonna ask

1321
01:21:32,510 --> 01:21:35,670
this. Funny. This is. Please. This is a fun book. This is called Wine is

1322
01:21:35,670 --> 01:21:39,230
the Best Medicine. It's a book by A French doctor. The white. The answers are

1323
01:21:39,230 --> 01:21:42,430
French. The answers to the questions we're going to give you are French wines. Okay,

1324
01:21:42,590 --> 01:21:45,920
so I don't do this for everybody because. Particularly Italian

1325
01:21:45,920 --> 01:21:49,720
winemakers, but this is a. This is. He was a homeopathic doctor

1326
01:21:49,720 --> 01:21:53,160
as well as an MD and he's come up with a whole bunch of maladies,

1327
01:21:53,160 --> 01:21:56,440
human maladies, like allergies, anemia, bronchitis, etc,

1328
01:21:57,160 --> 01:22:00,720
and the proper French wine cure.

1329
01:22:00,720 --> 01:22:04,400
Sure. Now, this is kind of like the master of wine test or the master

1330
01:22:04,400 --> 01:22:07,840
Psalm test, which is the answer, yes or no? I mean, you know the

1331
01:22:07,840 --> 01:22:11,560
answer. How many of the. How many of the answers are port number one?

1332
01:22:12,040 --> 01:22:15,800
None. Because None. It's not French. Oh, sorry. So you. The key

1333
01:22:15,800 --> 01:22:19,480
is justifying the answer. Okay, I can do

1334
01:22:19,480 --> 01:22:23,120
that. Okay. It's not about. Remember, it's not lying if you believe it. Nobody

1335
01:22:23,120 --> 01:22:26,920
gets it. Right. The number of people get this question right is

1336
01:22:26,920 --> 01:22:30,200
exactly the. The percentage chance, which is 33.

1337
01:22:30,440 --> 01:22:32,040
Okay. Okay. So let's just say.

1338
01:22:35,000 --> 01:22:38,600
Let's say you have hypertension. Oh, I do have hypertension.

1339
01:22:39,700 --> 01:22:43,460
So you can have a young Beaujolais. And there's also a

1340
01:22:43,460 --> 01:22:47,140
dosage to this. A young Beaujolais, a

1341
01:22:47,380 --> 01:22:51,060
Sancerre. Is Grenache in there or Santa Mill? Oh,

1342
01:22:51,300 --> 01:22:55,139
so no Grenache. What? Those are my three choices.

1343
01:22:55,139 --> 01:22:58,740
Beaujolais. A Beaujolais, a Sancerre or a Sant

1344
01:22:58,740 --> 01:23:02,380
Emilion would help your hypertension. Yep. Which

1345
01:23:02,380 --> 01:23:04,260
one? Beaujolais. Why?

1346
01:23:06,740 --> 01:23:10,260
What is that? Beaujolais. You think that's. Well, when I think about a

1347
01:23:10,260 --> 01:23:12,100
Beaujolais, what I usually think of is.

1348
01:23:13,860 --> 01:23:17,060
A. Spring afternoon, relaxing,

1349
01:23:18,260 --> 01:23:22,020
soft, beautiful. Okay, so you're talking about emotional

1350
01:23:22,020 --> 01:23:25,500
relationships. Oh, yeah. I think I would say as a

1351
01:23:25,500 --> 01:23:28,980
medicinal. Like when I asked. Grenache. Right. It's like

1352
01:23:29,540 --> 01:23:32,360
Grenache to me is always that. That

1353
01:23:35,720 --> 01:23:39,320
when you are really stressed out, the only thing you want to be is feel

1354
01:23:39,320 --> 01:23:43,080
that freedom of being 18 and not have any pressure. Right. And I always think

1355
01:23:43,080 --> 01:23:46,680
of Grenache as being that beautiful. Catch all. It's a farmer's grape, it's a

1356
01:23:46,680 --> 01:23:50,480
winemaker's grape, it's a drinker's grape. It's in pretty much everything. And when

1357
01:23:50,480 --> 01:23:54,320
you drink it, it's youthful and soft and it's not

1358
01:23:54,320 --> 01:23:56,360
dragging. It's not a cat getting.

1359
01:23:57,880 --> 01:24:00,760
I'm using the cheat sheet because the book's got a lot more. But none of

1360
01:24:00,760 --> 01:24:04,460
the answers are Rhone varietals, any of these things. I did. I just realized

1361
01:24:04,460 --> 01:24:07,340
that after you brought that up. Well, now I'm gonna That's my insert. My insert

1362
01:24:07,340 --> 01:24:10,580
with hypertension. This

1363
01:24:10,980 --> 01:24:14,460
is a medical doctor. How did I do? So now I would have said

1364
01:24:14,460 --> 01:24:18,260
Beaujolais. Okay. Because I would have said maybe Cote to P.

1365
01:24:18,500 --> 01:24:22,020
Volcanic soil, whatever minerals. I'm gonna. I'm gonna tell you right now,

1366
01:24:22,020 --> 01:24:25,180
totally out of my depth on that. Okay. I know Ballard Cane pretty well, but

1367
01:24:25,180 --> 01:24:28,580
right here, so. Same. Same difference. Yeah. The answer was

1368
01:24:30,440 --> 01:24:33,800
Sancerre. Okay. And the reason was there.

1369
01:24:34,200 --> 01:24:37,400
These wines are diuretic and they cause release of urethra chlorides.

1370
01:24:39,880 --> 01:24:43,080
Okay. So more importantly, what do you think the dosage is?

1371
01:24:44,280 --> 01:24:47,720
Like, how much, how many? Well, here's the real question. Are we talking about

1372
01:24:48,920 --> 01:24:52,600
glasses of wine? Are we talking French? I mean, something substantial. So

1373
01:24:53,160 --> 01:24:56,680
I probably say bottle. Yeah, it's a bottle a day.

1374
01:24:57,170 --> 01:25:00,410
Perfect. Hey, as we like to say to every one of our customers, a bottle

1375
01:25:00,410 --> 01:25:03,730
a day is all we ask. Yeah, that's the way. The old almond commercial. That's

1376
01:25:03,730 --> 01:25:07,570
right. Keith has been fabulous. I've had you here, by the way. Thank

1377
01:25:07,570 --> 01:25:09,730
you for having me. We can do it again anytime.

1378
01:25:11,410 --> 01:25:15,170
I have this. I took this whole setup, I bring it to this winery. We'd

1379
01:25:15,170 --> 01:25:18,570
love to set you up. How many people on a weekend do you get up

1380
01:25:18,570 --> 01:25:21,970
there? Oh, you know, I. Well, we just had the worst

1381
01:25:21,970 --> 01:25:25,810
rain regular weekend. Like, how many people are coming through,

1382
01:25:25,970 --> 01:25:29,800
like, our tasting room? I don't know. On

1383
01:25:29,800 --> 01:25:33,520
a spring. Good spring Saturday? A lot. But not too many. Yeah.

1384
01:25:33,520 --> 01:25:36,880
I mean, it sounds like a weird way to put it where we, you know,

1385
01:25:36,960 --> 01:25:40,240
the thing that we have overcome. Now, I know this is off top, but

1386
01:25:40,880 --> 01:25:44,560
we offered a lot of reservations, and reservations were. Are mostly.

1387
01:25:44,640 --> 01:25:48,280
Hey, we'll make sure we have a seat for you. And like, through going through

1388
01:25:48,280 --> 01:25:52,120
the pandemic and everything else, I, you know, trash my backyard. Rebuilt

1389
01:25:52,120 --> 01:25:55,970
it, Put, you know, places so people can sit. I

1390
01:25:55,970 --> 01:25:59,770
won't say the thought because I just got the phone with Rex Pickett.

1391
01:25:59,770 --> 01:26:02,850
The guy that wrote Sideways. Yeah. A great guy. He's an old friend. He was

1392
01:26:02,850 --> 01:26:06,490
on my show way back when and told some great stories. But what

1393
01:26:06,490 --> 01:26:09,610
he's been doing. This will lead to what I'm trying to tell you. Yeah.

1394
01:26:10,970 --> 01:26:14,810
Because Napa is so expensive to taste wine. It's now 8, 500. How can

1395
01:26:14,810 --> 01:26:18,570
you afford to do it? Yep. That now they're offering experiences with

1396
01:26:18,570 --> 01:26:21,410
these tastings. And John Charles. I haven't brought him up. He's a good friend, and

1397
01:26:21,410 --> 01:26:25,000
I. I respect the guy's business. Human. Intensely in his

1398
01:26:25,000 --> 01:26:28,760
wine. His father was responsible for some of the best burgundies

1399
01:26:28,760 --> 01:26:32,520
in the world has had it. Added

1400
01:26:32,520 --> 01:26:36,360
him as. As part of the experience. So you can go to the Buena Vista.

1401
01:26:36,360 --> 01:26:40,200
Yeah. And hang out with Rex Pickett. The guy wrote Sideways, and

1402
01:26:40,200 --> 01:26:44,040
hear all the stories. And so they've. They've added an experience to

1403
01:26:44,040 --> 01:26:47,720
this tasting. Yeah. So here's the experience. They come up one

1404
01:26:47,720 --> 01:26:51,120
weekend on a Ballard Cannon. They walk into your tasting room, and there's.

1405
01:26:51,350 --> 01:26:53,910
There's Keith and Paul with the microphones. Oh, yeah.

1406
01:26:54,790 --> 01:26:58,230
Totally recording from. And my wife has always said, why don't you put little

1407
01:26:58,630 --> 01:27:02,430
seats here and let your customers come? I have. I have a perfect backyard.

1408
01:27:02,430 --> 01:27:05,670
I'd be happy to promote it to our. Our wine club and everybody else and

1409
01:27:05,670 --> 01:27:08,390
have a little get together and say, hey, this is a lot of fun. Oh,

1410
01:27:08,390 --> 01:27:11,750
I love it. It'd be great. Okay. And quite honestly, if you line up a

1411
01:27:11,750 --> 01:27:15,270
couple more people from the area, they probably love it too. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

1412
01:27:15,430 --> 01:27:19,070
Thank you. Thank you for the honor. That's. That is the longest podcast. I could

1413
01:27:19,070 --> 01:27:22,230
have talked to you for five hours. We could. We'll do it again anytime.

1414
01:27:22,670 --> 01:27:26,310
Cheers. Cheers. Thank you for listening to Wine Talks with

1415
01:27:26,310 --> 01:27:30,070
Paul Calum. Karen, don't forget to subscribe because there's more great interviews

1416
01:27:30,070 --> 01:27:33,910
on their way. And of course, all these podcasts are sponsored by

1417
01:27:33,910 --> 01:27:37,390
the original Wine of the Month Club, 48 years in business. Don't forget to visit

1418
01:27:37,390 --> 01:27:40,910
our website, wineofthemonthclub.com Folks,

1419
01:27:40,990 --> 01:27:44,110
have a great time out there in the wine world. Cheers.