April 2013 Archives

I can honestly think of no better place on earth right at the moment than being here in the Dry Creek Valley.  The vineyards have begun their seasonal growing cycle and new green buds have leaped toward Mother Nature's warmth.  The hillsides are aglow with emerald green from winter rains and warm temperatures have greeted us early this year bringing out an abundance of wild flowers.  Sometimes it takes getting away to truly appreciate where you live.  

This past week, I was traveling back East for business. The weather was still a tad cold and gray. My family in the northeast has experienced an especially difficult winter with record snowfalls. I'm glad to have missed all that excitement, but heading "home" always reminds me of what a crazy, busy bustle other parts of our country are. I think sometimes I take for granted living where we live. It's really a cornucopia of life's best things - wine, food, agriculture, art and people. Of course, my roots are from the East Coast, but let me tell you, getting on that plane to come home to California never felt so good! 

This is our year.  Our year to shine.  I'm totally convinced of it.  Why?  There are lots of reasons, not the least of which is that our wines taste better than they ever have, but that's not what's on my mind this evening.   My thoughts are about wine and sailing.   Dry Creek Vineyard is the Wine for Sailors and this year is one of the most exciting in recent memory for sailing in the Bay Area.

You see, this year, the America's Cup is coming to the City by the Bay.  Needless to say, we sailors are pretty enthused.  After all, this is sailing's equivalent of the World Cup - it's our Olympics.   The America's Cup only happens once every four years and the fact that, this summer, they are racing on the San Francisco Bay is really exciting.   As many of you know, our wines have carried the brand mark of sailing since we released the 1982 David S. Stare Reserve Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend.   I remember how the idea came to us like it was yesterday.  The Husband and I were sailing around on the Bay with my father and it was what sailors refer to as being in the "doldrums". It was gloriously sunny so we decided to anchor off of Angel Island and soak up the sun.  As the story goes, we were bobbing around and about the second or third bottle of Fume Blanc in, the brainstorming session began.  How could we spruce up the packaging?  Should we try something new?  None of us want to take credit for the actual idea but somehow we decided that our passion for wine and passion for sailing needed to merge - and what better place than on a wine label for a brand called Dry Creek?  There was something ironic and humorous that struck us that day--so off I went to try to marry the two.

I raced back up to Sonoma County and we started going through old sailing books looking for images that struck us. We commissioned a local artist named Michael Surles to paint an original sail boat painting that would eventually grace one of our labels.  Needless to say, the idea has worked and Dry Creek Vineyard has been known as the Wine for Sailors ever since. Dozens of labels later and we still work with Michel Surles for all of our original artwork.

I can't think of a more special time for our winery than in 2013 with the premier event in our sport coming right to our doorstep.   We have a ton planned - some of which I can't divulge at the moment. We'll be doing some sailing for sure including several outings on a beautiful 80 foot yacht called the Gas Light.  And our Wine for Sailors campaign will include some cool displays at local retailers and restaurants.  

Sailing and Dry Creek have been linked for more than 30 years. This is our year and I'm so excited for the festivities to begin!