We Only Have A Moment

You are not in the wine business if you work at a winery pouring wine. We think we are, but we aren’t. Some of us believe we are in sales and hospitality, but that’s only half true. What we are in is the Moments Business. Everything else flows out from that.

My friend Sonny once told me that “everyone is here for a reason.” Our guests are marking a Moment in their lives by visiting the Wine Country. A retirement, one’s life achievements, some personal validation, an anniversary, new lives together, a kid leaving for college, an empty nest, the annual gathering of old school friends, a job well done, a family unified, a person to be remembered. All are relationship Moments to be cemented and celebrated. Our wine is at the center of all this. Our wine is a liquid thread that stitches these Moments together.

Knowing this presents us with an obligation to listen for what their Moment is and to empathize with it. We apply our wine as a salve to their Moment. If we let our egos get in the way and make it all about us, we commit the cardinal sin of our industry - we become numb to care. What a gift to know we have this elevated role to play in people’s lives! What a crying shame to see it abused and wasted by so many lackluster and self-centered presentations.

Yesterday, the Watsell family sat in the corner under the redwoods in the late afternoon light. Mom, Dad, and two adult daughters united as a family after Mom had been through the recent hurricane in Florida. “I have an SUV sitting outside our house that is not ours. It floated in from who knows where.” They shared photos of the devastation, and we commiserated together. But then we talked about daughters and the strengths of women winemakers. You could see the pride on their faces as they described what Lucy and Alice were doing as independent women in Chicago. Our wine got to memorialize that Moment for them. A Moment that will be re-lived when they next open our bottles together.

Also yesterday, I phoned Ken to say that the wine he ordered in July will soon be arriving. He said he was looking forward to getting it. As I said, “and give my best to Julie,” at the end of the call, he told me that Julie had died a month ago. They had known the writing was on the wall when they took their trip together to the Wine Country earlier in the year. I looked up my notes from their appointment and could remember with him how “attentive and thoughtful” they were with “very practical questions.” He sent me Julie’s obituary, which revealed what a positive pillar of influence she was on her community. He also mentioned that she had enjoyed our tasting conversations; her visit had been the “highlight of our trip.”

Sometimes we are so clueless about the Moment. We trip over ourselves to talk about harvest dates, malolactic fermentation, blending percentages, etc., and miss the blindingly obvious. Why are they here? Search for the Moment. If you do, I believe with all my heart that pouring wine can be a higher calling in your life if you choose it to be.

Don’t cheapen your craft by underestimating the value of what you do. You and your bottle of wine can indelibly mark precious time for your guests. As you walk out to pour them their next wine, take your own Moment; there is noble work to be done.