30 Years Later, You're an Overnight Success?

I spent the first 20 years of my winemaking journey pushing the idea that world-class Cabernet Sauvignon can be made from the Livermore Valley and that it was worthy of the attention of consumers and restaurateurs. At the risk of sounding immodest, we did and it is.

But no one really cares (and they shouldn’t) because the grape is owned by the 8,000 pound behemoth to the north and everyone else gets crushed by the marketing success that was hard-won and jealousy-guarded (as it should be) lifting Napa above all others (at least on the high-end of the price spectrum).

The world-class quality of the Livermore Valley, which when I talked about this to anyone who would listen when I first started in the business, seemed like whistling past a graveyard, now — after decades of working with the fruit here — seems like a “well, of course it is” affirmation.

I have experienced many fitful years of trying to build a wine brand outside of my amazing group of club members and local fans. The Livermore Valley doesn’t yet attract enough wine consumers to allow my brand to be sustainable without active wholesale interest, but my efforts to attract real enthusiasm from wine distributors has been practically and completely unsuccessful to this point.

There is nothing more trite than the undiscovered genius trope. Great quality and undiminished passion get ignored all the time in favor of the meme-y and cheap.