15 Years and still standing!

Yesterday the calendar clicked over another year at Rochford Wines – wow 15 years, can you believe it?

 It was so crazy in the office dealing with lockdown that I completely forgot until I poured that chilled Chardonnay reflecting on the day that just happened.

 The penny dropped OMG! I have been at Rochford for 15 years. Flashback! I remembered the first weekend – Grape Grazing 2006, being a newbie, I was put in charge of riders for the artists and merchandise.

The artists line up was Dale Rider, King Cactus, Plastique, and MC Stick, their dressing rooms were 3 x 3 pop up marquees side stage, the floors were pallets with rolled out the carpet on top, which worked really well for high heels! white plastic chairs fell through the cracks, the cooling was fans and the fridges were tubs with ice.

 The day started really slow, hardly anyone around, I thought ok this isn’t going well, where are all the people? Standing on flooring made from pallets in my little 3 x 3 merchandise tent and not really selling anything – I was looking across at the lake enjoying the view, then a cloud of what I thought was smoke appeared “Oh great just what we need a grass fire”, I said to myself, then all of these people appeared! walking up for the car park in droves, just like a herd of sheep creating this dust storm, thousands of them.

They kept coming and coming, the music started and the party began, the bars and food tents were crowded the green was swarmed with party-goers dancing and having a great time, Rochford was bouncing with people having fun, “welcome to Grape Grazing at Rochford” one of my team members said! “Have you ever seen anything like it?” said another. I had been to Grape Grazing before but nothing like this, it was crazy. As soon as it was happening it was finishing and they all left, we cleaned the green and prepared for the next day – 2 days of complete madness, this was my inauguration and also my test to see if I could stand up to the challenges ahead, I think I passed the test.

 15 years on and we are still providing entertainment for everyone to enjoy, we have come a long way since February 2006.

There are so many stories to tell, the ups the downs, the changes, the people, and all the challenges I have faced over 15 years, maybe I will share some more stories in the future.

 Images of Grape Grazing 2006 event.