GLOVE

These are my Gloves.
I bought them after my father passed.
I bought them because I took over my father’s work.
I bought them because, I touched my wife, and my hands felt like sandpaper, and i could tell she didn’t like it.
They look much worse now.
When they were new, they were stiff.
But as I worked in them, they softened.
They protected me,
They gave me a grip,
They spared me pain,
They took the brunt of it.
I learned to love them.
They stick to me like glue.

When I put them on, my mindset changes.
Things get serious.

They remind me of 3 things.
1. Always be prepared to self-rescue.
2. No one is coming to help us, it’s up to us.
3. It gets worse before it gets worse.

This is no easy life.
Growing something from the ground is not for the faint of heart.
Things will break, things will go wrong.
It is up to us to give order to the chaos.

That is what these gloves do.
They give order to chaos.

I picked 3 things this year that represented my Brother My Father and I
My Brothers Mitt
My Father’s Buckle
and These Gloves

The Syrah that these wines are made from is genetically identical.
Clones of each other.
But their location in the vineyard creates something entirely different from each other.
Totally different personalities, but at their core, the same.

Think of your children, The DNA is the same, so should you expect them to be the same person?
Of course not.
Same with these wines.

My Father, brother, and I share a lot of the same foundational building blocks, but our lives took us all in different directions. We became the person we were supposed to be. We were allowed to do so.
Mostly, by each other.

My brother has his Mitt.
My Father a Buckle.
I just have these,
Well-worn Work Gloves.
They have never let me down.
Not flashy, not prestigious, Just Gloves.

But these Work Gloves allow me to give Order to this Chaos.
They are the reason that wine has made it into this bottle.

Not Flashy, But Necessary.
I have learned the most important lessons of my life in these gloves.

I love these gloves.
They remind me of me.

We Live in order to : Honor those that have come before us. + Prepare the way for those yet to come.
The wines we release this year are the last my father farmed from plow to harvest.
Some could say the last remnants of his work.
I disagree.
The work continues.
I was prepared.
But I was not ready.
Nor do I think I ever would be.

But I was prepared.
His boys have grown in his absence.
Not because he was holding us back,
But because we needed to.
We were prepared.

But if you think I was going to miss an opportunity to honor my father with this year’s releases you are mistaken.
Each bottle has a subtle nod to my father.
Each bottle is an opportunity to say his name and keep his legend alive.
I say legend and not legacy because that rests in his sons and in his grandchildren.

In a simple statement.

We live in order to Honor those that have come before us and to prepare the way for those yet to come.

That is who we are.
That is what we do.

Most are already Sold Out.
But Family will always be taken care of.

This wine is one of 3 Syrah’s we have released this year. It all comes from the same vineyard and was all picked on the same day. Furthermore, these vines are genetically identical. The vines are Clones of each other. Cuttings taken and replicated over and over. Genetically they are all one vine just planted in slightly different locations. These 3 wines are from 3 different hillsides.

MITT is from the Little Boy Terrace the furthest and steepest of the hillsides comprising only 16 rows.
BUCKLE is taken from the FatMan terrace located lightly north comprising 24 rows cascading along the hillside.
And Finally, GLOVES is coming from the High Hill the furthest most hillside at the entrance of Windmill Ranch and Vineyard.

We take it upon ourselves in our family to follow our family creed :

We live in order to: Honor those that have come before us + to prepare the way for those yet to come.