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

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

Our first Garagiste tasting happened!

Whew, it's been an intense few weeks! We've conquered new business planning and have powered through big-time meetings and financial spreadsheets with all our might - oh and along with huge OND (October November December) K&L and TexaCali Wine priorities.  So a chance to meet our #16 Kickstarter Backer this week was a very welcomed interruption.

Rodd Shedd, the owner of Vine to Wine Concierge in Vermont arrived last Tuesday morning with a huge smile on his face and a delicious gift of Vermont Maple Syrup for us.  How sweet!  It was a quicker meeting than we normally would have scheduled since we were both buried with our day-jobs, however, Ali jumped on the opportunity to meet with Ron and personally thank him for his support.

Rodd was the first person we've taken through our "Garagiste" winery in Santa Rosa.  It's a tough time to taste right now since all the wines are still developing in barrel and tank ( I mean they still have half their life ahead!), but at the very minimum the nose and flavor profiles come through - if they are this good now, we can't wait to taste the finished wines in bottle next year.

Our Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc was our first of 2 tastings of the morning.  Our Co-winemaker Katy so kindly helped pour a little out of our large 2100 gallon tank...we are scared of opening the nozzle/tap thingy. ha.  Right away the aroma pulled me into this pretty white wine.

So far we find our Sauvignon Blanc to be beautiful mix of minerality backed up by bright citrus notes of clementines and tangy lemons, with a little hint of stone fruit characters like ripe apricots and white peaches. Ohhhhh this is going to be our first release, one we are so very proud of, now we patiently wait for bottling time to arrive.

After walking Rodd through the cavernous barrel rooms and crush pad, we pulled a barrel sample of the Helluva Vineyard Pinot Noir to taste. Oh this wine is already tugging at our heartstrings.  We can't even begin to create tasting notes on it right now, it screams Anderson Valley Pinot Noir already, but wow the sensory layers are abundant!  The Helluva Pinot Noir will be our first red wine release next fall...not soon enough.

We are so grateful for Rodd's enthusiasm and for his early support, we are so very glad he stopped by to see us during his visit to California Wine Country.   Please don't hesitate to ever reach out to us at directly to taste with us and meet in person too. 

Oh - we've had French Toast for breakfast all week Rodd!  Thank you again for the delicious Maple Syrup for your home state Vermont...

This is Our Story -

Eric & Ali

PS: Please sign up on our mailing list to receive allocations for Smith Story Wine Cellars.

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