January 2012 Archives

With all of the pomp and circumstance of the weekend, my time commitment has now turned into four days of build up to the Sunday night culmination.   One of the great opportunities for us to share our story with the media is actually on the Thursday before the show at the behind-the-scenes media day at the Shrine Auditorium.  This is quite a scene all to itself.

As I am part of the "talent" for the day, it is a long and rather grueling day full of flurries of activity and sometimes hours of boredom.  By the way, I am told this is typical of any Hollywood production - lots of waiting and waiting and waiting....  Anyway, media day can be a great opportunity for me to share my family story and wines with media who otherwise would not cover a winery.  Outlets such as Entertainment Tonight, news crews  and others are on hand to shoot b-roll and gather sound bites for their evening shows.  The whole thing is kind of surreal and really puts me out of my element in a lot of ways.  For one, I have to be really aggressive.  If you are a wall flower at these kinds of things, the press will march right by you and not give you a second look.   You have to confidently walk up to them and say who you are and why they should care.  This is not easy, trust me.  I've never been an overt self promoter so I really have to muster up some intestinal fortitude.  Another challenging aspect of the day is trying to involve myself in as many still photo shoots as possible.  Stills are an important way that the media conveys a story.  Once again, I have to elbow my way in to make sure that Dry Creek Vineyard wines are being well represented.  Ultimately, the entire media day is exhausting but well worth the time and a major perk for being the official wines of the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

As for the show, it airs this Sunday, January 29, 2012 and is televised live on TNT and TBS at 8 ET/5 PT.  I hope you all will be able to tune in to see Dry Creek Vineyard wines on national TV!

Can I still say that even though we're already 18 days into 2012?

I hope everyone reading this had a joyous and restful holiday season. For many of you, I know the holidays are probably anything but that. If you host family and friends, the pressure is on to show them that picture perfect Xmas that they probably never had in the first place. If you're running around from one house to the next, trying to make both sides of the family happy, oh boy-do I feel your pain. Or, if you are simply by yourself and find the holidays a subtle reminder of being alone, then I sympathize--although many of my friends would say, enjoy it!

For me, the holidays are always capped off by my wedding anniversary which occurs shortly after the New Year. Normally, we don't do a whole lot to mark the occasion. Who's up for it? By then, we're usually out of energy and out of money. However, this year was different as we are celebrating our 30^th anniversary. Yep, you heard that right, thirty. Not too many people can brag about such a milestone, especially when they've been working with their spouse for a good 2/3 of that time. So, we decided rather spontaneously to kick up our heels and do something unexpected and memorable.

Thanks to a promotional email I got from Windstar cruises, (yes, a marketer got suckered by marketing!) we booked a cruise through the Grenadine Islands on their small ship the Wind Spirit. Oh, what a glorious 7 days we had. Snorkeling, sightseeing, snoozing and just sailing along. Now, it's back to reality, and back to work.

2012 is a biggee for me. I'll be playing an important new role--one I've been gearing up for my whole life, judging by this picture. I am taking my husband's place as President of Dry Creek Vineyard while he takes a temporary sabbatical to fulfill some personal goals. Now don't go getting all alarmed, it's nothing like that. He's not sick and there's no mid-life crisis. On the contrary; the timing couldn't be better. After a decade of rebuilding our business from the ground up, he deserves time off and some much needed R and R. Besides, he's got a "honey do" list a mile long!

So, a very belated Happy New Year to all. Thank you for your readership, comments and support over the years. May 2012 bring an abundance of prosperity, peace, and promise- and plenty of delicious moments with Dry Creek Vineyard wines!