I’ll be honest…the thought of having the ability to make my own wine, brand it, market it, and hopefully provide the experience to people of ENJOYING that wine has been keeping me awake at night. So much so, that we took a trip up to Napa Valley this weekend to check out how the vines are progressing (above).
Making my own wine and sharing it with others is something that I’ve aspired to for years – as anyone who knows me can attest. Whether it was our honeymoon in Napa 8 (gulp!) years ago, the regular trips to visit, teaching a wine tasting class at work, starting a wine blog, and even buying Crushpad’s “Fuse Box” wine blending kit to try my hand at it – I’ve been consumed by this for years.
Onefortywines.com has been a great outlet for this. Combined with Twitter and Facebook, I’ve met a lot of great people, been able to interact directly with wineries, and had the chance to share my love of all-things-wine with anyone interested in listening.
One thing that I heard repeatedly from everyone throughout the contest was that they were happy to support me because they shared the same dream. They knew that if I won, that they would have the chance to see firsthand what this entire process is like, thanks to my social media and blog outlets. Well, have no fear, as this is exactly what I told the judges when interviewing, and I believe that it was well received.
Wineries, like many “offline” businesses are having a tough time leveraging social media as a distribution channel. This is partially due to the fact that they don’t quite realize that it needs to be a dialogue and not a sales pitch. This isone of the key reasons that OneFortyWines has worked – I only review or discuss things that I think that people will enjoy…and I don’t sell ANYTHING.
My hopes are to apply this same model to this contest and my wine brand. I want to be engaging, educational, and help people see what it’s really like to be a winemaker first hand (from their living room couch). I am going to need help in making decisions – from final blends, to bottle and logo design, and more – and I want this community to help with that.
If after all this you want to try the wines WE made on this journey, that can be easily arranged. If not, at least you hopefully learned something and are still a fan.
More to come, and fingers crossed that the judges agree!
I will NOT let you all down!
Cheers,
-z
Go Dave!!! We’re all rooting for you 🙂
Go Dave!!! We’re all rooting for you 🙂
Totally rooting for you! Can’t wait to buy your wine! 🙂
Totally rooting for you! Can’t wait to buy your wine! 🙂
I think you would be a fantastic vintner – I’ve never seen someone with an ability like yours to separate out all the distinct attributes of wine composition – and then be able to articulately communicate them. You would be the perfect winner for Crushpad’s contest.
I think you would be a fantastic vintner – I’ve never seen someone with an ability like yours to separate out all the distinct attributes of wine composition – and then be able to articulately communicate them. You would be the perfect winner for Crushpad’s contest.
This is what you were destined to do! Keep up the hard work, Dave, it will pay off!
This is what you were destined to do! Keep up the hard work, Dave, it will pay off!
We have our fingers crossed for ya!!!
We have our fingers crossed for ya!!!
May some heavenly powers help your dream come true….mainly dad….he and I were always proud of you….
May some heavenly powers help your dream come true….mainly dad….he and I were always proud of you….
Captain Crushpad,
Couldn’t think of a more deserving winner than yourself and glad to have been a part of the first crushpad experiment night, porch torch and all. Was it 5% petit verdot or 9??. Regardless, your passion for wine will carry you great places (remember Kathleen and I have dibs on your first winery guest house), Say hello to Amy and the girls for us and good luck!
Phil
Captain Crushpad,
Couldn’t think of a more deserving winner than yourself and glad to have been a part of the first crushpad experiment night, porch torch and all. Was it 5% petit verdot or 9??. Regardless, your passion for wine will carry you great places (remember Kathleen and I have dibs on your first winery guest house), Say hello to Amy and the girls for us and good luck!
Phil