My First Blog Post!

Wow. Who would have thought that I would start my first blog at my age?!? (lol) 

This whole blog thing is still a bit of a mystery to me. I'm not really even sure if anyone will read this, but I figured I would give it a try, especially since I may not get a chance to see many of you until we are big enough to warrant a tasting room experience beyond our back yard.   

Where to start?  Well, as most of you now know, I left my old gig at Seghesio in 2018. I started there in 1979. [For the record that was 4 months after Dana was born (again, lol) - so I knew it was going to be a good year.] Those early days were hard work and long hours, but I got to work alongside my Dad, Ed, and that made it worthwhile. He is one of a kind. It continued to be hard work, but the flow adapted with the changing times and my tenure lasted 39 years. It was all I knew. There were good days. There were bad days. Then there were the kind of days that you never forget. Like the day Dana arrived to interview for a position in the office. I never anticipated that one particular day would eventually change the course of my life, but one look at her and you could tell she was different than anyone else who had walked through that trailer door. I guess we should thank Kenny Rochford for bringing us together, since he was the one who convinced her that she should come work for us. Thanks Kenny, wherever you are. We have a lot of history at that place, but I will save that story for another day.      

Honestly, after I departed Seghesio, I didn't know if I would ever make wine again. It was a challenging time with many emotions to work through. That had been my identity for so long that I found myself wondering what the heck was next. Thankfully, I had a lot to keep my busy. I jumped head first into helping raise Layla while Dana split her time as a working mom. Then came Olivia and we really had our hands full. Simply put, harvest is easier. Although there is nothing like raising daughters. I have four of them and my girls mean everything to me. Even our dog, Coco, is a female. I'm surrounded.

As to the "what next?" part of our story, you can read about our Solo Nostro beginnings in other parts of our website. Ultimately, once Dana got her MBA, I knew she would be even more armed and dangerous in the business arena. With her many talents and my 40 years of experience, it was only a matter of time before we reached the point where we were ready to forge the path toward starting our own family brand. To a certain degree, I was already "been there, done that," but this feels different. For us to have something that is "ours alone" reignited my passion for making wine in many unexpected ways. I don't think I realized just how much I missed it until we finally left the past behind us and started over from scratch. Thank you for being here as we venture onward.