XV
Brielle Saarloos

Time in a Bottle. : when my daughter was 5 we started making wine together. She would walk with me and eat grapes from the vines. Every time we would walk the grapes would get a little sweeter and the tart acid would drop just a bit. I would ask her, is it ready to be picked? She would smile and say “maybe” then, one day it was and I said should we pick it? And she said yes.... every year we add a little more responsibility to her plate. Now, she makes the picking call, says the blessing, runs the crew, tells me what to do, pushes the button on the press, designs the labels, and it’s part of the bottling. We committed to making this wine together until her 21st birthday. That would make a round 12 bottles or a mixed case of wine that we would always have as proof of our work, our family, and our love for each other. 

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This particular wine will forever hold a golden place in my heart. 

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This is the last wine that she, me, and my father participated in. 

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(Lump in throat grows - eyes begin to fill)

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3 generations - side by side - with one common goal. 

My father always wanted a girl, Brielle was that to him, he loved her completely- and she loved him. 

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I am proud to say that this bottle marks the 10th anniversary of our endeavor together. Last year she won gold from the @millennialcompetition with 14 ... this one is 2x as good. 

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I thought that this year, 

The 10th anniversary of a father and daughter’s little walks that has turned into a testimony to each other and our family and our work...

It should be written in Gold. 

XV 

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Brielle Hunter Saarloos

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I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you. You broke down every wall I’ve ever put up. If I could have made this bottle out of gold, I would have. 

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A decade slipped through my fingers. 

I am so glad we captured a small part of each year in glass. 

This one. 

Is golden.

How did this all happen so fast? Brielle is the reason we moved here.
The deal with my wife was that when she was pregnant we were moving. The photo you see on the bottle on 14 was during harvest at Windmill Ranch. She is wearing my Harvest Hat and standing on a flatbed trailer. She was eating grapes straight off the vine as we picked. She has a little lisp at the time and would say - “oh that’s Sweet” and spit out the seeds. When the second vineyard was coming on line to harvest, she and I would spend a lot of time tasting grapes. The sauvignon blanc was the first to ripen and almost every day we would go and taste them and walk the vines. I would point out the way the acid in the grape burned a little like a sweet-tart and the sugar made it sweet. How we were looking for a balance between them. Not to Tart not too sweet… We walked and talked and picked grapes that summer. We watched the seeds turn from green to brown, we tasted the acids drop and the sugars rise. We saw and felt how the skins were maturing from hard to soft and soon they slid off of the grape with just a little push. I asked here, do you think they are ready to be picked? Do they taste good? Do you think this will make good wine?
And My little 5-Year-Old Daughter said Yes, I think they are ready.
We learned about Savignon Blanc together that summer, and I let a little girl make the picking decision on the grape that will forever remind me of her.
We named that wine after her.
Every year Brielle makes the call shot on when to pick the Sauvignon Blanc.
Every year we add more to her plate. Now she chooses the pick date, runs the harvest crew, cleans bins, pushes the button on the press, designs the labels and sells every bottle she can while she is in the tasting room.
This wine has and will pay for her education.
Foolishly I told her if you get all A’s in elementary school you can go to any JR high you want to. She chose a good one. So when the tuition bill came we went to the warehouse and counted just how many cases of wine it takes for her to go to school, then we talked about overhead and cost of goods sold and counted how many more bottles, then we talked taxes and counted event more.. She stood there and saw what it took just to go to school…
Then we went to the vineyard, and walked those vines and met with my father…. We walked the vines counting how many it took to make the wines that we earmarked just to pay for school… Then I said how hard do we work in the vineyard. She replied “VERY HARD”
How hard do we work in the Winery?
She replied “VERY HARD”
How hard to we work in the tasting room?
She replied “VERY HARD”

I told her, I will never ask you to do your homework, or how you did on a test, I just expect that you now understand what it took for you to go to this school and I expect the same work ethic out of you, at the end of the year we will see if it was all worth it”
AND IT WAS…

The only thing I have ever wanted my daughter to have is:
a Farmer’s Work Ethic.

Fast forward a bit. And we were told last night that Brielle is the #1 Student in her freshman class. She has the highest grade point average of anyone in her class of 261 people. She is the lead in her companies play. She is in Youth In Government as a freshman. Was MVP on her tennis team and is the best human I know.

Walking those grapes with my daughter has lead to this.
This wine is her legacy.
Sauvignon Blanc is who my daughter is in a glass.
Top of the Class.