You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Family Business’ tag.
2009 turned out to be pretty transformational year for me and my family. Things got going early in the year as I left my corporate HR job the first week of the year. After 13+ years of doing HR work, it was time to try something new, but what?
After taking a few months off which included a trip down to Peru a little clarity settled in and I decided to pursue my passion for wine by starting a business focused on wine. After a substantial amount of due diligence, my brother-in-law and I started Uncorked Ventures. Our focus would be to bring exciting and great wines to individuals across the US via our wine clubs. As we stand on the verge of 20101 our long hours have been rewarded as we prepare to send out of grand opening announcement emails. While getting the business off the ground was more complicated than we fully anticipated, it has been an enjoyable and mind expanding. I have much more respect for my fellow small business owners than I had prior to beginning this adventure. I am also thankful for my business partner/brother-in-law. Having someone to rely on and share the ups and downs makes the journey bearable at times and down right pleasurable at other times.
Starting Uncorked Ventures has been transformational not just on the work front, but also on the home front. Eliminating 2 hours plus of commute time from my day has been freeing. Working from home several days a week has also allowed me the opportunity to interact with my kids much more. I feel like I know each of my kids better and that they enjoy having me around more. My kids are growing up fast and I am glad I am enjoying them now. My sons has already proclaimed that he wants to sell wine like daddy when he grows up.
As this year ends, I feel more alive and refreshed. I hope that all the hard work pays off and that customers make their way to our website. Here is to the new year and all the possibility it holds for me and my family and hopefully for you as well.
Take care.
Me punching down pinot noir - Harvest 2009
It has been a while since my last blog. A lot has been going on with Mark and I as we count down the days until we are “fully live”. Fully live meaning that Uncorked Ventures is finally signing up members for our three wine clubs and beginning shipments. We have had our website up for approximately three months and are happy with the traffic it has been receiving. Our interest list has been steadily growing over the last few months, but we are eager to move from an interest list to actually paying wine club members.
Paying customers are not just exciting because of the revenue aspect, albeit that is a good thing, but because we finally get a chance to showcase a number of the wines and wineries we have identified. Over the last several months we have taken trips to Napa, Sonoma, and Paso Robles and have met a lot of good people and have found some special wines. A lot of my friends and family members have been treated to some of our initial purchases, but I want to get these wines into more hands and here what others think about them.
These next few weeks will be especially busy as we tie up some loose ends and prepare for our initial shipments. While it may have taken us a bit longer to get to this point, I am happy with where we are and what we have to offer to our customers.
Take care.
Most people don’t look forward to Mondays. This past Monday was probably an exception for many people in the wine trade as a the wine was flowing at the 2009 California Family Winemakers Tasting held at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
This year marked the 18th year this event has been held. As evidenced in the picture, this year’s event was well attended. Beginning in 2000, the Family Winemakers of California has also held an event in the Los Angeles area that draws a sizable crowd as well.
For me and Uncorked Ventures, this event represented an opportunity to sample the wines from a number of wineries in a concentrated period of time. From the tasting, I planned on identifying some special wines we would like to include in our future wine club offerings. As expected, with around 400 wineries participating in the event, I wasn’t disappointed in what I found. All in all, I visited the booths of around 25 wineries and sampled around 70 different wines. I was glad that I had pre-identified which booths I wanted to visit as it would have been easy to become overwhelmed and miss out on some significant wines.
In reviewing my notes, I identified around 7 or 10 wineries with which Uncorked Ventures would like to create partnerships . Unfortunately, 2 or 3 of those wineries didn’t show much interest in us as they seem content with their current sales model and distribution partners. Clearly, you can’t win them all. In the next weeks or so, I will follow-up with these potential partners and likely schedule a couple visits as Mark and I will be heading back up to Napa and Sonoma to work a bit of crush in the coming weeks. The Family Winemakers of California tasting event was a good time and a good opportunity to expand our partnerships.
I continue to be excited about the wines we will be offering our customers. Mark and I have been sharing some of these wines with our good friends and the feedback has been very positive. What I like about the wines we are sourcing is that they are from diverse producers offering a variety of styles. While we have partnered with wineries that I have been a fan of for years, we are also uncovering some emerging and exciting wineries that are new to both Mark and I. This really is a journey for us and you are welcome to join us.
Take care.
Last Thursday Morning, August 13th, Mark and I visited the Copain tasting room in Healdsburg. This was my first trip to the Copain property which is quite beautiful.
We arrived at 10am, excited to get started, as I had been talking up Copain for sometime to Mark. I have been drinking Copain wines for a few years now and have been on their mailing list for maybe the last three years. Needless to say, I am a fan. In July, I had the opportunity to meet Wells Gunthrie, Copain’s winemaker and co-founder at a tasting in San Francisco. From my brief interaction with Wells, I gleened how passionate he is about the wines he makes and how they represent distinctive vineyards. In short, he is just the type of winemaker with whom Uncorked Ventures wants to create a partnership.
Upon arriving at the tasting room we were greeted by Juliana, Copain’s Hospitality and Wine Education Manager. Juliana made us feel welcome and let us know that she was all set to give us a bit of an extended tasting. According to my notes we tasted through ten different wines. Four Appellations Series (aka Tous Ensemble) wines were poured with the remaining six wines coming from the more expensive and allocated Vineyard Designate Series. While you might think this is the full offering from Copain, it isn’t. Several more Vineyard Designate wines are crafted by the Copain team. The wines we tasted included:
- 2008 Toues Ensemble Viogner, Mendocino County
- 2008 Touse Ensemble Rose, Anderson Valley
- 2007 Touse Ensemble Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
- 2007 Tous Ensemble Syrah, Mendocino County
- 2007 James Berry Roussanne, Paso Robles
- 2006 James Berry Les Copain, Paso Robles
- 2006 Thompson Syrah, Santa Barbara County
- 2006 Les Voisins Syrah, McDowell Valley
- 2007 Harrison Clarke Syrah, San Ynez Valley
- 2007 Monument Tree Pinot Noir
From our tasting a few things still stand out. First, the wines we tasted are well crafted, not overly manipulated. Sec0nd, the wines from the Appellation Series don’t come across as wines made as an afterthought. In particular, the Tous Ensemble Syrah is a seriously good wine at a very reasonable price. Third, the three syrahs we tasted gave us a good lesson in terrior as the flavor profile of each had something different to offer. Forth, the James Berry vineyard kicks butt. My favorite wine of the tasting was the James Berry Les Copain. I couldn’t even get one of my bottles home that day as we opened it with dinner at The Girl and The Fig in Sonoma that evening. Mark’s favorite wine of our tasting was the Monument Tree Pinot.
Our tasting lasted nearly two and a half hours. Of course we could have completed the tasting in a much shorter time period, but the team at Copain made us feel very comfortable. Not only did Julianna spend a good deal of time with us, so did John, Copain’s assistant winemaker, as well as Jennifer, Copain’s Director of Sales. Each offered us a bit more insight into the wines we were tasting, as well as their own take on Copain as a winery and what they are about.
Mark, Jennifer, Juliana, Matt
We look forward to developing what we hope will be a long relationship with Copain Wines. In the meantime, we continue to gear up for a September Wine Club shipment and encourage you to sign-up on our interest list.
Take care.
Harvest is almost upon Napa.
Today was a good day. Mark and I visited three wineries today to see about forging additional supply partnerships. We have a handshake agreement with one of the wineries we visited today which will add a stable of top end cabernet based wines to our portfolio of offerings. We are looking forward to the visits we have scheduled tomorrow.
Our first visit will be up in Healdsburg where we will be focusing on pinot’s, syrah’s, and some white rhone varietals. I am very much looking forward to this visit as I have been on this winery’s mailing list for sometime, but have yet to visit their tasting room.
Our second stop tomorrow will be in Glen Ellen where we will again be focusing on cabernets while also tasting some Bordeaux style blends in addition to some classic Napa chardonnay. I have not been exposed to any of these winery’s offerings even though they have received a good amount of praise from the wine press.
More to come on our adventures in Napa a bit later this week. Signing out from Windsor, CA.
Take care.
When considering what bottle to open, I generally have one of two things on my mind. First up, I usually consider what food the wine is going to be paired with. Second, up I consider who I will be sharing the bottle with. Frankly speaking, not everyone enjoys wine or appreciates wine in the same fashion as I do. That being said, this weekend reminded me of one thing (irregardless of friends’ wine knowledge).
Good friend + good wine = a great time.
Friday afternoon we had friends, who live in Seattle, stop by our house in the SF bay area . They were on their drive down from Seattle to Southern California. I had not seen these friends in a number of years and had not met their two boys. Although we only visited with them for about an hour as they needed to get back on the road, we shared a glass of a good syrah along with some snacks and an enjoyable conversation.
Saturday evening we found ourselves at our neighbors along with several other families. BBQ tri-tip and chicken, along with vegetables and a number of appetizers, as well as dessert (freshly baked cookies and apple pie) were all part of the spread. Another neighbor brought along 4 bottles of wine including two decent zinfandels. Unfortunately, I had to somewhat rush through me meal as I was heading to the Barcelona vs. Chivas game as Candlestick park with a friend who was also at the bbq. It would have been nice to stay a bit longer and just enjoy the wonder of friends, warm weather, and a few more glasses of zinfandel.
Sunday evening we headed to my cousin’s house for some more bbq and chill out time in their backyard. They ended up supplying the appetizers and meat for the grill, while we brought the wine and dessert. I must say my wife’s chocolate chip cookies were quite delicious and chewy. I guess melting the butter does make a difference. I selected a well known zinfandel for the night as I think they do very well with bbq.
While the quality level varied among the bottles of wine shared this weekend, the camaraderie and general good times did not suffer in one bit. Besides this being a good weekend, it was also a good reminder that wine is social and for most people it is the sum of the complete experience of who you are with, what you are pairing it with, and your overall state of being.
I am looking forward to my trip to Napa this coming week . Uncorked Ventureshas multiple winery visits scheduled and undoubtedly some partnerships will be solidified. The best part of this Napa Valley visit is that I will have my business partner and brother-in-law, Mark, at my side. We have been working feverishly for sometime to get our business started but don’t have a lot of face time with each other given that he lives 500 or so miles away. So this coming week represents a nice opportunity for us both to get a lot of work done but also for us to hang out and enjoy each others company and the excitement we share in getting our business rolling.
I hope you have a good week as we plan to.
Take care.
What did you do last night? Well, if you were me, you headed up to San Francisco to taste some Pison, Lucia, and ROAR wines at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant. Kudos to the FPWM for setting up this tasting along with the opportunity to meet Gary Franscioni of ROAR Wines and Gary Pisoni of Pisoni Vineyards and Winery along with Lucia Vineyards.
The line-up of wines tasted include:
- 2007 ROAR Chardonnay, Rosella’s Vineyard
- 2007 Lucia Pinot Noir, Garys’ Vineyard
- 2007 ROAR Pinot Noir, Rosella’s Vineyard
- 2006 Pisoni Estate Pinot Noir
- 2007 ROAR Syrah, Rosella’s Vineyard
I have bought and consumed wines from ROAR and Pisoni/Lucia before and do consider them to be something special. ROAR produces around 2,500 cases annually across its chardonnays (which is new this year), pinots and syrahs. A considerable amount of fruit farmed by Gary Franscioni and his team, including from the famed Rosella vineyard, is sold to other wineries. From this sold fruit, I have particularly enjoyed Lorca Wine’s Rosella Vineyard pinot.
While sipping on our flight of wines last evening, Gary Franscioni of ROAR stopped by our table and chatted for a bit. He spoke about his family’s farming history and his desire to grow grapes of distinction, which he has done. Gary F. also talked about ROAR’s wine making facility being one of only six wineries to be located in San Francisco. I plan on returning to the city to visit his wine making facilities, but this may take some fanagling as they are not currently open to the public. Of the ROAR wines tasted, it was a toss up between the pinot and syrah for me. I ended up picking up two bottles of the syrah as it was the wine my wife preferred. Gary F. said she made a smart selection. I said, I was smart because I bought what my wife liked.
Gary Franscioni and me
Both Pisoni made wines were delicious. I have two bottles of the 2006 Estate Pinot Noir in my cellar which I am looking forward to cracking open on some future special occasion. I don’t typically spend $70 or so on my weekly pinot fix so I have ended up drinking many more Lucia’s than Pisoni’s these last few years. There was a period of time last year when I think we opened up a bottle of Lucia Santa Lucia Highlands pinot five or six weeks in a row. I just couldn’t get enough. Well last night was no different as we became big fans of the 07 Lucia Gary’s vineyard. I restricted myself to only buying two bottles. Again, I need to focus on growing Uncorked Ventures versus the home cellar.
I spoke with Gary Pisoni very briefly on our way out and just shared my enthusiasm for his wines. In that brief moment is was easy to detect that Gary P. is full of life and loves what he is doing. Pisoni Vineyards and Winery is considered world class. Many top producers such as Capiaux Cellars, Patz and Hall, Peter Michael, etc. source grapes from the Pisoni family. All this stemmed from land purchased in 1979 orginally designated for a horse and cattle ranch. What a great family story.
Gary Pisoni and me
So why title this blog Santa Claus or Santa Lucia? Well the wines I tasted last night are truly gifts from the land and their winemakers. Much like the arrival of Santa Claus brought me much joy in my youth, the opportunity to taste these wines and meet Gary and Gary brought me equal but different joy. ROAR, Pisoni, and Lucia wines are gifts to the wine world and they come from a special place, the Santa Lucia Highlands. The Santa Lucia Highlands were designated an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in the early 90’s. They are part of the western mountain range buffering the Salinas Valley from the Pacific Ocean. Vineyards are typically planted on the southeast facing terraces of the Santa Lucia mountain range, which overlook the Salinas River Valley. Vineyards receive the warmth of the sun in the morning and cooling pacific breeze in the afternoon which helps create ideal growing conditions.
I look forward to visiting the Santa Lucia Highlands in the coming months as well as the Monterey wine growing region in general. I feel fortunate to have so many great wine regions all within driving distance. Next week I am heading north to Napa with my business partner to meet with a few more wineries as we get set for the September wine club shipment. It should be a great trip.
Take care.
A former co-worker of mine used to say, “Sometimes you need to slow down in order to speed up.” This past week I definitely slowed down and feel like I got myself in better position to accelerate some of opportunities that are unfolding for Uncorked Ventures.
It’s Sunday morning and I am sipping on my cup of Peets coffee. It’ is French roast which means it’s dark and fortunately for me it is still nice and hot. I am beginning to wake-up.
Sunset in Cayucos
Yesterday, I downloaded the pictures from my vacation in Cayucos which also included a few excursions into the Paso Robles wine country. The picture to left was taken Wednesday evening from the pier in Cayucos and is one of my favorites from the trip. The central coast and its wine country are truly beautiful and I feel fortunate to have just spent a week there with my extended family.
Prior to taking the trip, I was a bit hesitant though. Having just pushed the go button on starting Uncorked Ventures , I thought taking time away from all the activities that need to get done wouldn’t be fair to my business partner who is also my brother-in-law. Well as it turns out, I was completely wrong as the vacation turned out to be very fruitful for our emerging company. Yes, there were the trips to Paso Robles wineries which were very fruitful, but more than that was the opportunity to just unwind and clear my mind. Additionally, this trip reminded me that it is important to focus on living life not just existing which is also why Mark and I have gone into business together.
I do want to thank the various wineries I visited while on vacation for their hospitality. In particular I enjoyed my visits to Linne Calado, Ecluse, Atla Colina, and Caliza. Caliza was my last stop as we headed out of town and back to the bay area Friday morning. Caliza Winery is located off Anderson Road in the Templeton Gap area of West Paso Robles. They are located near L’Aventure Winery as well Booker Vineyards and Torrin Vineyards. We were greeted by Pam just as the tasting room opened at 11am. I also met her husband and co-owner Carl, who is the winemaker. Both Pam and Carl were very delightful as they shared some of their thoughts about their winery and the Paso Robles wine community. In turns out that just a few years ago they lived not more than 3 or 4 miles from my house. Although Caliza has just come onto the Paso Robles scene, it produces some top flight wine with production currently around 1,000 cases. Of particular interest to me where their three reds:
-
2006 Azimuth (51% Syrah, 19% Grenache, 14% Mourvedre, 8% Tannat, 8% Alicante Bouschet)
-
2006 Companion (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre, 10% Tannat)
-
2006 Syrah (100% Syrah)
Each wine is worthy of purchasing multiple bottles. After some internal debate, I opted to purchase a few bottles of the 2006 Syrah as it seemed just a bit more special. This wine also bucked the trend of a lot of Paso Robles wines in that it isn’t a blend. I am glad I visited Pam and Carl at Caliza and hopefully look forward to creating a partnership with them and Uncorked Ventures. Working with these small family wineries, helping them get their wines out in the marketplace to wine drinkers who will truly appreciate them really is really motivating for me.As we loaded up our last wine purchase for this trip and said good-bye to the central coast and Paso Robles I felt content. The week with family had gone very well. The new relationships I am building in Paso Robles will help fuel Uncorked Ventures success going forward. As we cruised north on 101 heading back to the bay area, my thoughts began to focus on the next couple weeks of activities for our business. Fortunately, our interactions with the wineries have been wildly successful and I feel that we will have a pipeline of great wine to offer to our customers. We will look to bolster that pipeline further as we meet with several wineries in Napa in a couple weeks. In the meantime, we will continue to focus our attention on growing our own customer base for the wine clubs and getting things place to begin exporting wines to Central and South America in the first half of 2009.
If you haven’t checked out our website, please do and provide us with some feedback. More content will be loaded in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
Take care.
The last couple days on the central coast and visiting Paso Robles have been both relaxing and invigorating. The relaxation spawns from several things including; listening to the waves break just 100 yds or so from where I am staying, eating good food, drinking good wine, and just hanging out with the family. Today we headed north of Cayucos and played tourist by visiting Hearst Castle and then we headed up to one of the beaches where the elephant seals congregate.
In the afternoon, I went for a walk in Cayucos and found myself at The Brown Butter Cookie Company. What a gem. Within a minute of walking in the door we were offered samples of the various cookies by Christa, one of the two sisters whom co-own this great establishment. Christa was very charming, answering all of our questions and sharing her enthusiasm for her new business which just sprung to life this past January. So far things are going well for The Brown Butter Cookie Company as they have been mentioned in Gourmet magazine and orders continue to climb. It was great to spend time with another small, family business owner who is focused on delivering a high quality product to her customers and generally loves what she is doing. Her passion and excitement and the taste of those cookies is quite addictive.
Rewind back to Monday and I was off to Paso Robles for some more wine tastings. First up was Ecluse which is located on Killer Canyon Road a bit off the beaten path. Steve Lock, the owner, greeted us along with two of his rescue dogs. While the Ecluse tasting room may not make it into Architectural Digest, the wines where worth the visit. Of the several wines poured, I most enjoyed the 2005 Syrah, Lock Vineyard as well as the 2006 Rendition which s is a blend of Syrah (59%) , Grenache (22%) , and Mouvedre (19%). Both of these wines would make for good offerings within our Special Elections wine club.
From Ecluse, I headed into downtown Paso Robles for a lunch at Artisan. Everything at lunch was good. I shared the poached shrimp club with my sister and sampled my wife’s fettuccine with prawns, arugula, lemon, and chile de arbol. The atmosphere and staff at Artisan compliment the fine food quite well.
From lunch I continued on to Alta Colina Winery where Maggie greeted us. Alta Colina is an up and coming winery who has released its first wines this year. Production is tiny this year, as they are selling a good portion of their grapes to other local wineries. I suspect that as their wines begin to take hold in the marketplace production will increase which is a good thing based on what I tasted. Two of Alta Colina’s wines appealed to me. The 2007 Old 900 Syrah and the 2007 Ann’s Petite Sirah were quite delicious. Both wines will likely get better in the coming years as their vines mature. Ultimately, I choose to bring a couple bottles of Petite Sirah home with me, but would have been just as happy to have the Old 900. Congratulations to Alta Colina on their first offerings.
Having spent time at these two wineries and a special cookie company these last two days, I am invigorated. These small operations are turning out very good offerings and their customers are truly enjoying the fruits of their owners’ labor. As Uncorked Ventures prepares for our fall wine club shipments, we will continue to focus on identifying and delivering top notch wines to our customers.
Take care.
Pier at Cayucos
Day three of the family vacation and everyone is still alive. We have all vacationed together before, but the previous times have all included international travel and a lot more sightseeing. This vacation is a lot more “chill”, which translates to us spending a heck of a lot more time together than on our previous vacations. With less to see, we are just hanging out at the house or beach with an occasional adventure taken to another local seaside town. All the cousins are enjoying the extended time together and the parents and grandparents are holding up just fine.
Yesterday, we celebrated my mom’s birthday. Nothing too extravagant, but we did manage to have a good dinner. In total, we ended up bbq’ing 6 racks of ribs. I prepared 3 racks my usual way, which includes about one and half hours to two hours of smoking, with bbq sauce only being applied during the last 20 minutes or so. My brother opted to bake his ribs for a couple hours and then finish them on the grill. Both styles had something going for them. Of course, I preferred my ribs as they had significantly more smoke flavor. In my book, smoke flavor = delicious. We also served cornbread and a green salad. It was not a white table cloth type of dinner, but it was one of the best meals I have had in a long time given with whom I was breaking bread.
While my family isn’t big on wine, I still managed to open up a 2006 Juvenile Zinfandel from Turley Wine Cellars. I really enjoyed the zinfandel with the ribs and their slight char. The wine also worked well with the birthday cake, chocolate on chocolate.
Tomorrow, I will head back up to Paso Robles and/or Templeton for some more tasting. I have scheduled one appointment in the afternoon and will probably drop in on one or two other wineries. As mentioned in a previous blog, I enjoy tasting wines at wineries and getting to know the staff. These tasting aren’t too clinical, but they do give me a good sense of the quality of what is being offered. I look forward to what I will uncover tomorrow. More to come …
In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying your weekend as I am. I have squeezed in a bit of work this weekend as my business partner in Uncorked Ventures and I are beginning to discuss our next trip to Napa in few weeks. Our plan is to have three or four meetings set up with wineries we would like to partner with regarding our wine clubs and export services. If you have any particular wineries you would like to see us partner with, just drop us a note.
Take care.
Wine with Matt 