Hustle Your Face Off

In the words of Gary Vaynerchuk - HUSTLE is the most important word EVER.  Ali's been a fan of Gary's for over a decade now, watching his own empire grow, spending a quick minute with him at his book signing in Austin years ago, hearing about his successes, his family life, his freaky adoration for the NY Jets...and inspired by his hustle.

HUSTLE. No other word can describe the last 12 months of our lives starting and building Smith Story Wine Cellers. We are often told, "wow what you guys are doing is amazing".  No it's not, we're just hustling our faces off. Anyone can do it - as long as you make every minute count, you gotta put in the work. That's how you get it.  As Garyvee puts it...there is no reason to do shit you hate!

Our First Label off the Printing Press! 

Where's all this coming from this morning? From the hustle, it's go time, it's all happening now. The to-do lists are long but focused, our network of wine business pros are lined up and waiting for the green-light as to when they can also join our game.  The hustle has brought thousands to our humble website in support of Our Story - Our Hustle.

Wine has been made for a gazillon years...what we are doing is nothing new, but we hope in all regards to up-the-game by continuing the HUSTLE. 

Now off to those to-do lists...

This is Our Story.

Eric and Ali

PS - HOLY S!&% we are bottling our first wines in 3 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

Lodging in the Napa Valley

Well since we don't have wine in bottle for sale yet, we are certainly recommending "all good things" when asked specific questions.  We're often asked where to book a hotel room in the wine country.  Honestly, this could get tricky as the rates fluctuate during the year due to seasonal events and harvest time of course. In the Healdsburg area, Farmhouse Inn and the H2 are among our favorites to suggest. 

Ali was recently interviewed by writer Jessica Dupuy for www.bedandbreakfast.com regarding Napa...

“I love to send folks to Milliken Creek Inn. I know it’s the best of all things luxurious with beautiful gardens and outdoor design. Being a Texan, I know it’s fun to stay where we can enjoy the fantastic California cool mornings and evenings while meeting others.”

— Alison Smith Story, Smith Story Wine Cellars

Yes - it's so hard to select one hotel in Napa, but feel we chose well and the Milliken Creek Inn is a perfect place for those wanting to get away from it all or feeling close to downtown Napa where so many great stores, wine bars, and restaurants await your company.

More on Smith Story Wine Cellars happenings coming up soon...oh our brains are bursting and hearts are melting with excitement! 

This is Our Story. 

 - Eric & Ali

A little piece of peace.

Today we awake to sounds down the hill of kids playing soccer and church bell chimes from The Mission in San Rafael.  It's crazy to think that our first Smith Story Wine Cellars harvest is coming to a close already.  Tonight we pick our last 2 tons of Pinot Noir and we're still waiting on 4 tons of Sémillon to ripen way up on top of the Sonoma Mountain AVA.

The past 2 weeks have been INCREDIBLE.  Thank you and to each and everyone of our Backers who supported us on Kickstarter.com, we reached our goal of $25,000 on Labor Day.  This is going to pay a nice chunk towards our grape-grower contracts!  We were able to update the last few weeks with numerous photos here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/837539083/smith-story-wine-cellars/posts 

We gained so much more than the Kickstarter amount, tons of new mailing list sign-ups and record breaking web traffic hits will help us to continue telling Our Story to the world. THANK YOU.  Next...we are looking forward to finalizing smart financial partnerships to help with the enormous costs of our first year.

To be very honest, as fascinating and thrilling as the past few weeks have been for us, it's also been an uber stressful time for us.  Why?  We want the success of Smith Story Wine Cellers to happen more than ever before.  It's all consuming. Thoughts of how the wines are going to taste, how we are going to sell them, who's going to write about them, how much do we want to produce next year...our thoughts are near manic. Thankfully, we have our day jobs to keep it all in check and mindfully put the brakes on the anxiety of building a business.

We have so much more to say, to update you about, to involve you with, but we are taking a few hours off this morning to enjoy a little piece of peace. Thanks for following...

This is Our Story,

Eric & Ali

*Our wine releases will be allocated, please be sure you are on our mailing list http://smithstorywinecellars.com/allocations

Stop and Smell the Dream

Greetings from my secret dock on Lake Austin today - with big lump in my throat and misty eyes. Why? I sold my house yesterday, which feels bittersweet at the moment.  The house itself was nothing that special, constructed in 2008 in one of Austin's many "gentrified" neighborhoods.  However, buying a home on my own was very special and a dream come true for me. Many years of running my own business and hard work finally paid off in 2008.  I bought my first house with 100% commissions earned from selling fine wine in Texas.  But as I sit here under the shade of this boat dock and watch families BBQ and boats zip around on the lake I can't help put ponder what is the real meaning of the word DREAM.

Dream: Something that you have wanted very much to do, be, or have for a long time says the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 

While attempting to take some over-due deep breaths in Austin this weekend, I find my head racing from all the creativity and drive this city filled both by heart and mind with over the years.  Dreams do come true, certainly not the way the fairytale books make dreams out to be, in my case, dreams have come true with my desire to live a life of happiness and work in a industry that is dreamy.

Selling my Austin home is allowing Smith Story Wine Cellars to enter our first harvest with a few more levels of financial security. All those hundreds of cases of Japanese Sake, California, Burgundy, Spanish and Argentine fine wines I sold are now fueling the ultimate dream!  We are the new proud owners of 30 wine barrels, bungs, racks and soon to be grapes from our favorite AVA's of Northern California. Within the next 30 days, we'll have our first fermenting babies!  I'll never forget a conversation that happened years ago while sitting on the foggy back porch of the Handley Cellars ranch house with Eric..."wouldn't it be cool to live up here with our dogs one day...", it was that very moment that our dream began, and we began to follow it.

There's an interesting (and inspirational) article this week by Virginie Boone in the Press Democrat about the American Wine Story film featuring a few wineries and couples in the business. Giving it All Up to Make Wine Dream Come True, “Don’t listen to other people,” says Mike Officer of Carlisle Winery in Santa Rosa during the film, about becoming a winemaker. “Follow your heart and do it and just keep at it. I’m fortunate to do what I love every day.”

Honestly, nobody has told us not to do this, everyone has said "you guys got this - go for it, Smith Story Wine Cellars is going to be a adored by many". Awesome. Eric and I are both so fortunate that we have been living the dream, and we are doing what we love everyday - this is a dream come true indeed. 

This is Our Story.

Ali (& Eric)

Let's Play Ball!!!!!!!!

"Never let the odds keep you from pursuing what you know in your heart you were meant to do" from the baseball great Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige.  This quote's been hanging on the top of Ali's TexaCali Wine Trail blog for over 900 posts and I'm taking it today for our blog subject.

In the spirit of Satchel and the great game of baseball, this sport holds a lot of meaning and memories between the two of us.  We both played the game, I grew up going to the San Francisco Giants games with my Dad and my buddies and Ali did the same, even working for the Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics broadcasting departments pre-wine career.  And it was that electric 2010 World Series between the Texas Rangers and the SF Giants that sealed the friendship and love between us for life.  And now we route for both teams!

Ali and I are consumed by nervous energy as we are days away from picking our first vineyard for our first harvest.  Much like it feels before a game starts, just after the National Anthem is over and as you start taking a few swings in the batters box. Starting a winery is weirdly similar to being a part of a great baseball game.  You've earned your spot on the team and now everyone is out there watching you do your thing!

Picture this - an imaginary game where both teams win: We've got our outfield (the vineyard farmers) all set,  Mother Nature's on the pitching mound, just waiting to throw our entire lineup Home Runs! Katy, Ross, Ali, the Cellar Crew, our grape pickers and I are all in the batter's box...nervously waiting for Mother Nature's signal to PLAY BALL!

Here we are, days before Smith Story Wine Cellars becomes very very real.  So as we patiently wait for the biggest game of our life to begin...

Thank you for being our fan, your Kickstarter (see blog post below) support is awesome. We've seen a major increase in our mailing list sign-ups via our website and have raised a few thousand dollars so far to use towards our vineyard contracts with our family farmers.  But we are far from our goal of $25,000 by September 1, 2014.

This is crucial and important: Please continue to spread the link and donate if you can - we have less than 18 days left and every donation counts.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/837539083/smith-story-wine-cellars

This is Our Story.

Eric (& Ali)

The Wine Business is Dangerous

Adventures with winemakers Katy & Ross...

Picture 4 of us in a brand new Subaru 4WD wagon with about an half of inch of vineyard dirt on the back window, speeding down a cliff-side gravel road after accidentally driving down a dead-end road - right into a marijuana grove.

So just about the time we thought about slowing down to take-in the breathtaking views and pop a bottle of Eric Bordelet Pear Cider, a large angry looking man draped in a scarf and mirrored sunglasses on a large ATV appeared right on our tail. I turned around to look and quickly yelled out S%#!  I'm talking straight outta 60 Minutes folks. Now I know why Ross travels around with TP in his car.  The weed-farm scary guy must have had a good head-shake and chuckle watching us sip on our iced-Americanos inside the Subaru as he peeled away & turned back.  Wine people!

Lesson learned kiddies: Stop and turn around the minute you notice a sawed-off tree with a bow & arrow attached when you are in the middle of thick forest land! 

Anyhoo...beyond this slight-heart attack, the day was full of beauty in the Anderson Valley.  We made a stop by Handley Cellars to say hello to the dear Milla Handley and taste her current releases then spent the rest of the day visiting with vineyard managers and kicking rocks.  We also drove past Nash Mill Vineyard and gave it a big high-five too, Nash Mill Vineyard was original the vineyard that Eric and I spent some time in while he and his pal Jeff planted riesling about 10 years ago. Those were the days...

Thrilled to have a small footprint from the Anderson Valley AVA in our 2014 inaugural offering of Smith Story Wine Cellars! 

This is Our Story.

 - 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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