The Real Life in a Tasting Room
It's only our second weekend open, which means that all our friends and family trickled in the first weekend and now we're seeing a few familiar faces, a few other winery owners to "check the place out" and a decent amount of random people we've never met. It's great, but we're definitely not slam-packed just yet.
Here's how my day goes:
- get up and complain to Joe about having to get up 7 days a week for something
- feed horses, the cat, the two dogs, then me
- get pretty (generic term for presentable to the public)
- choose clothes that haven't been near a horse in the last year
- go to the tasting room
- go back to the house (because I forgot something - it's inevitable)
- go back to the tasting room, unlock the doors and start stocking up on wine glasses, putting out our signs, and opening wine and checking the bottles for corkers (none yet)
- put on eclectic music for my own enjoyment, then change to something a little less random upon opening time
- scamper about cleaning and getting ready
- CHAOS or YAWN (depending on the day). If yawn, watch Ozzie the puppy sleep and work on the laptop (go blog posts!). If chaos, call in reinforcements (the mom and pops).
- do most steps already listed in reverse and go home and try and will dinner to appear by itself
To be honest, though, it's a lot of fun to be able to pour your own wines for people and get their reactions. When I first graduated and came back from Europe, I desperately needed a job and started working in a Napa tasting room. It was a great experience that I'm grateful for but some of the wines were only drinkable with 7Up and a few ice cubes. It's WAY different presenting a wine you farmed, picked and made - and love. And it's a lot of fun to try and guess what people will like - individuality of palates is an amazing thing.
So, as I round out the last hour of my work day, I'm listening to some Bob Marley (it's Mendocino County - reggae is VERY not random), debating whether I should actually join the twitter world (yes I'm a millenial but my god I don't think I have the time) and just heard a car pull up. Off to work!
Here's how my day goes:
- get up and complain to Joe about having to get up 7 days a week for something
- feed horses, the cat, the two dogs, then me
- get pretty (generic term for presentable to the public)
- choose clothes that haven't been near a horse in the last year
- go to the tasting room
- go back to the house (because I forgot something - it's inevitable)
- go back to the tasting room, unlock the doors and start stocking up on wine glasses, putting out our signs, and opening wine and checking the bottles for corkers (none yet)
- put on eclectic music for my own enjoyment, then change to something a little less random upon opening time
- scamper about cleaning and getting ready
- CHAOS or YAWN (depending on the day). If yawn, watch Ozzie the puppy sleep and work on the laptop (go blog posts!). If chaos, call in reinforcements (the mom and pops).
- do most steps already listed in reverse and go home and try and will dinner to appear by itself
To be honest, though, it's a lot of fun to be able to pour your own wines for people and get their reactions. When I first graduated and came back from Europe, I desperately needed a job and started working in a Napa tasting room. It was a great experience that I'm grateful for but some of the wines were only drinkable with 7Up and a few ice cubes. It's WAY different presenting a wine you farmed, picked and made - and love. And it's a lot of fun to try and guess what people will like - individuality of palates is an amazing thing.
So, as I round out the last hour of my work day, I'm listening to some Bob Marley (it's Mendocino County - reggae is VERY not random), debating whether I should actually join the twitter world (yes I'm a millenial but my god I don't think I have the time) and just heard a car pull up. Off to work!
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