Freaking Out Together

What what??? Only 2 more days left of January 2015? So much has been and is going on for Smith Story Wine Cellars this first month of the New Year!  A little insight to running your own winery for the first time...IT DOES NOT SLOW DOWN AFTER HARVEST ENDS! The first of the year has been crazy wearing so many hats, shoes and gloves...all while Eric broke his ankle (saving a baby seal), Ali lost her car-keys (all of them) for over a week (she found them in a pocket of course!) and Lord Sandwich came down with a case of the fleas (thank you Russian River Banks!).  Freaking out - ohh yeah, but every day our to-do list grows, we are able to check major items off.  We'll see our families soon  - we hope...oh and start calling all our friends to let them know we are ready to mingle again!

We hardly know where to begin with this post - other than to

say - GET READY FOR OUR FIRST RELEASE NEXT MONTH EVERYONE!!

Yes yes, ALL-CAPS is extreme, but's it's been extremely non-stop since New Years Day.  First time to make decisions on packaging for each wine - glass, label design, label paper, colors of the capsule, type of corks to use, screw-cap colors, boxes, where to warehouse, who to sell our wines to...it's ALL HAPPENING. The ecommerce area of the website is in beta-testing right now - we're going live soon!  All this while our Harvest 2015 vineyard partners are lining up, man we are so excited to tell you all about this soon.

How can you HELP us?  Please take a moment to sign-up for our mailing list  - we are sending out our first official winery email offering within days. Yikes - days away from showing off our new Harvest 2014 Babies to the world.  Oh and we've been meeting folks for barrel tastings at the winery...don't hesitate to contact us for a special "garagiste winery" tasting in the Russian River Valley with us!

A nerve racking, hard as hell, insanely awesome time of our lives going on...thank you for following and being a part of Our Story too.

Most of all, we are so glad to have each other through this beginning chapter of our new winery!

This is Our Story,

Eric & Ali

2014 is not over yet!

Tonight we give toast to 2014 and ring in the New Year. But, we still have plenty planned for what 2014 brought us. Our 2014 bottling schedule is set, 2014 vintage release dates are set, sales forecasts and marketing plans are all in motion and being posted to the new calendar as we steadily move forward into 2015.  

We cannot thank you enough for your encouragement, support and inspiring enthusiasm for Smith Story Wine Cellars in 2014 - we did it!

Humbled, proud, exhausted, happy, thrilled, scared, content...so many emotions can describe our first year and the "Birth of a Winery".  Reading back through all the blog posts makes us both a bit teary-eyed with joy.

All that's left is for you to taste our wines and start all over again in 2015...Harvest is already on the horizon (plenty of vineyard walks and spreadsheets in the not so distant future!). 

With love and kindness, we wish you all a very Happy New Year!

This is Our Story.

Eric & Ali

Remaining Faithful

We did it. We started a winery. We made wine. We made really good wine. We think, we hope, no -  we believe! We're emotional as hell! We want to tell everyone!

And we are so very thankful to our Smith Story Wine Cellars Inner Circle...

Our winemakers Katy and Ross - so grateful for their support, expertise, their endless hours of insight and advice and most of all for their devotion to making fine wine for us.

Our "garagiste" custom crush partner, Vinify Wine Services. Wow, we never encountered anything during crush but "hustle" at Vinify and loads of cooperation. It was like an anthill of super focused wine artisans waltzing around 24/7 for weeks straight.

Our vineyard managers, grape growers and families that kept watch over our precious grapes, from the Southern Sonoma Coast, the highest peaks of Sonoma Mountain, the far West of the West Sonoma Coast, the heart of the Russian River, the depths of Knights Valley and all the way up to our beloved Anderson Valley.  We are so thankful for each person, each vine, each row, each picking crew who helped bring in the highest quality grapes we could afford this year.

Our biggest thanks goes to all of our family, friends, Kickstarter Backers and folks working "behind the scenes" to keep us going. Your encouragement, connections, support and enthusiasm on a daily basis was (and is) so awesome...which also brought us to meeting our new investor, who's been our most wonderful unexpected happening this year.  We are honored, grateful and thrilled to have our first year of business come together so effortlessly.

Hard work and remaining faithful to the process and keeping the faith that a higher power is watching over us feels unbelievable. Now we wait patiently for our Harvest 2014 babies to do their thing in the cellar.  The 2014 Sauvignon Blanc will be our first release next spring.

With Much Love and Tears of Joy - Happy Holidays Everyone!

This is Our Story.

 - Ali & Eric

We Bet the Farm

Oh yes we did, well, we bet our life-savings & on our ability to create world-class wine.  We'd like to have a farm of sorts in a few years though!  Since announcing Smith Story Wine Cellars to the world on May 14, 2014 we've already moved mountains it seems. Just under 1500 cases of wine was crushed this harvest season while managing full responsibilities of our day jobs.

Letter sent to Ali from the Buyer of the Austin House!

It's been a whirlwind this past year with Ali's travel schedule to visit markets for her TexaCali Wine Co. clients,  Eric's responsibility at K&L - including his European travel all while launching a new winery simultaneously.  We also managed to sell our home in Austin, Texas, raise $26,001 in 30 days on a  Kickstarter Campaign and finalize a partnership with a dynamic and supportive Angel Investor for Smith Story Wine Cellars. It's all coming together!

But back to "we bet the farm"... many of our friends in the business have used this phrase when talking to us about our first harvest and the winery.  Betting our lives away seriously drives our desire to achieve success as a couple producing wine.  We get this, we got this, are heads are down crossing every T and dotting every i along the way, if there is such a thing in this business of wine.

So what's next?  

As the wines are aging and resting in tank and barrels in Santa Rosa now, we are busy behind the scenes.  Accounting systems, banker meetings, compliance needs...a ton of items that sound like a bore but are super important to the foundation of the winery. Many folks are awaiting our wines to release already, so we are first and foremost working on our eCommerce engine and Wholesale permits in a handful of states.  Another priority is bottle selection and label approvals...our bottling date is set already for the 3rd week of January for our Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Oh these wines are tasting delicious.  WE CAN NOT HARDLY WAIT!

Also, exciting news to share with you soon about our wine club offering and allocations.  A few fun surprise bottlings we hope you are going to LOVE.

So thank you for signing up on our mailing list, our go-to supporters from the very beginning, we hear and feel your support and enthusiasm each and every day. A fun place to follow us online besides our website, twitter and Facebook is http://instagram.com/smithstorywines where we enjoy getting to know our fans on a daily basis.  Please don't hesitate to reach out if traveling through the RRV wine country, we would love to meet you and taste some of our wines with you too.

This is Our Story.

 - Eric & Ali

Better Together

Our dreams are made out of real things...

14 days of travel through Austria, Alsace (well for 15 minutes to taste the worlds best croissant) and now Germany -  at least a thousand songs have blasted in the rental car as we've rolled along.  Jack Johnson's "Better Together" is the theme song of this amazing trip!

We've always known we could get along just about anywhere, but now that we've been challenged with very little sleep, foreign languages and being on the move near 18 hours each day, we are thankful to have each others company.  Today is the first day I've taken off to catch up on a little work and write while Eric is visiting a few wine producers from the Mosel in Germany.

Eric's wine career began over 15 years ago when he began working part-time for K&L Wine Merchants to earn some cash for a backpacking trip to Europe. Towards the end of his trip, he sent an email to K&L and asked for a full-time job with them in Redwood City upon his return, the wine bug had bitten.  I have to brag a bit here, he's been such a Rockstar over here among wine producers and importers. I'm so proud of the way he's conducted himself with a great mix of integrity for the business and passion for the winemakers, his work ethic and enthusiasm has made a difference to so many producers over the years.  We haven't met a single one who hasn't greeted us with a big smile and warm-hearted welcome. 

A gazillion highlights to record and chat about, but the one thing that has happened at nearly each stop is seeing husband and wife teams working hard together.  Whether they've sat with us in their living room and tasted with us over a home-cooked meal, or met us in the vineyards with their kids & dogs playing around our feet, their presence has been so inspiring to us.  Their dreams are also real things they've made come true.  We hope to so the same with Smith Story Wine Cellars one day soon too!

Our dreams, and they are made out of real things
Like a, shoebox of photographs
With sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer,
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together
Mmm, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at the stars when we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

  - Jack Johnsons "Better Together," from the album In Between Dreams (2005).

 It's always better when we're together.

This is Our Story.  - Ali

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