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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's all over...

Harvest 2014 is in the barrel & tank that is!

So - here it is folks, we envisioned, created, produced and now patiently await for our wines to properly ferment and age in preparation for bottling and release. Both Eric and I can't think of a busier time in our lives and more exciting time too.  We crushed our last few tons of fruit - Sémillon from the Sonoma Mountain AVA 2 weeks ago (pictured here in action at the winery).

Thank you all for your unsolicited support and enthusiasm for our new wines. It's been great fun to see our mailing list members grow each day, a small thing that is the most important to us!

We have so much to say and share with you all in the coming weeks, big news and interesting news we hope.   In the meantime, we're off to cheer on the San Francisco Giants in Game 2 tonight - over a few bottles of very cold wine - it's 100 degrees today in the Bay Area.  Tomorrow we're off to select bottles and capsules for our Sauvignon Blanc, everyday is full of new beginnings & big decisions. 

This is Our Story,

Ali & Eric.

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)

Kick Me Please

One of the silliest things Eric and I have in common, is our love of pranking.  We love to prank, love watching pranks and laughing hysterically once a prank is executed successfully.

One of the earliest memories of pranking as a child was when I stuck the old "Kick Me" paper on the back of an arrogant little boy.  After carefully sticking this sign on the backside of his shirt I became the hero of Mrs. Hillhouse's 3rd Grade class. We all rolled in our desks with laughter when a few swift kicks to his overly confident tookus happened a when he bolted up first to get in line for recess.  I loved making everyone laugh (wouldn't have pranked a nice guy!) and I'm sure it set the pace for a lifetime of pranks and practical jokes (oh how I love to go biscuiting!).

So what's this got to do with Smith Story Wine Cellars?  During the month of August, we are asking for a swift kick too - on Kickstarter that is! We want to pay our dear farmers (Grape Growers) first this harvest and feel it's important to highlight them, as they are the most important partner to keep happy.  Please help us spread the word and donate if you can (little amounts do add up!).

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

Kickstarter.com is a Crowdfunding site that has helped thousands of creative ideas take off with nice financial start!  We've put together some interesting and fun rewards for those who donate too.  For a minimum of $5 bucks, we'll send you a personal photo postcard with a pic we shot of one of the Smith Story vineyards... then donation levels all the way up to $3400. A $3400+ "Backer" has a chance to help us name a barrel of wine and have their name and or company listed on the back label of the bottle along with a handful of other really cool rewards for this generous donations. If we don't reach our overall goal of $25,000 - we get NADA, NOTHING, ZILCH.

29 days to go - time's a ticking, please send the link above to a few dozen wine-loving folks you know this week.  This is a SERIOUS Kick for us! Thank you always for your support, we are just getting started...harvest is only a few days away.


This is Our Story,

Ali (and Eric)

Gearing up for Harvest 2014

...we've secured our vineyards (well still could use some budget friendly Pinot Meunier), fallen in love even more with our winemakers Katy & Ross, locked down our crush needs with Vinify, now comes the hardest part -  waiting for the grapes to ripen.

It's cooled off over the past few weeks after a warm Spring, so some say the grapes will be early, some say they'll be picked right about the same time as the past two years...which is OK for those not juggling full-time jobs elsewhere - we are anxious! Both of us hope to be in California (and can take the early morning off) to help with the pick and crush at the winery.  After all this wait, Dear God we hope we don't miss a thing! 

Here's a peek at our Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon Vines on top of the Sonoma Mountain AVA - about 24 hours ago. We are very pleased with the vineyard and are so excited to make our first Smith Story Wine Cellars wine from this beautiful spot in Sonoma County!  
 
Our love for Sauvignon Blanc started with France, particularly the region of Sancerre, France in the Loire Valley.  I'm sure we've bugged our winemakers to death about crush and cellar details that come with our rather large expectations of producing world-class Sauvignon Blanc.

We can hardly sleep through the night thinking about it all! 


This is Our Story,

Ali (and Eric)

Maya Angelou loved to party!

The Maya Angelou memorial service is televised this morning, the mood is mildly somber and incredibly joyful  - "Maya Angelou loved to party", this quote made the crowd join together in laughter.  There is much to learn about Maya and learn from as well... “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style" -  the beloved Maya Angelou.

This quote from Maya Angelou is timely and timeless...especially relevant to our mission statement and reasons why we've begun Smith Story Wine Cellars...

Smith Story Wines are made with respect for the land, kindness for the grower and love from the winemaker.  The wines show restraint, balance and integrity of the grape.  Our winemaking philosophy is to utilize classic, old world techniques and let the grapes and sense of place where they are grown both speak for themselves.   Our vineyards and growers are among the precious AVA’s of Northern California.

Passion for Smith Story Wine Cellars is keeping us up in the middle of the night! No, not with worry, but excitement about doing things well and how much we love this opportunity that our hard work over the years has created.

Compassion keeps us in check! Sustainability & fairness is our #1 desire in business dealings with our vineyard families, vendors, cellar team and our future buyers and wholesale partners.  In all conversations, dealings and plans - we remind ourselves to listen with compassion and understand needs from all sides upon making final decisions.  Compassion also extends to the precious vines...we are so very proud to know that each of our vineyards are watched over with great depth and vigor.

Humor - to know us is to laugh with us!  We're that couple that could find joy and laughter together in just about any situation.  Life is serious, we certainly are about building and running Smith Story Wine Cellars, but hey, let's all have a great time along the way! There's no room on our spreadsheets for anyone lacking humor. 

Style - whether it's the way we run the business modus operandi or the appearance we bring in person, on the label and create on the website, we hope our style exudes 1) unconditional love  2) razor sharp focus  3) really nice shoes.  Eric owns more pairs of swanky shoes than Ali by the way...

Each of these elements are allowing us to survive and hopefully thrive for many many years to come. Thank you Maya for summing this up so effortlessly for the two of us and for the world. 

This is Our Story. 

 - Eric and Ali