I Sacrificed Everything For This Wine, Says Man Who Inherited It

Nobody sees the cost.

They see the label. They see the score. They see the estate at golden hour on the cover of a magazine and they think it came easy. What they don’t see is what it takes out of a man to pursue something this uncompromising, and what he has to give up along the way.

I gave up a life in finance. I gave up the certainty of a career I was, frankly, quite good at, to come back here and take on something enormous. Do you know what it’s like to walk away from a corner office after you retire with an eight figure retirement package and step into your father’s shoes? Into a functioning 200-acre estate with a 40-year distribution relationship and a cellar team that had been in place since before I was born?

It’s terrifying.

There were nights I did not sleep. There were decisions only I could make, like whether to move to a heavier bottle, which I did, and which cost us, and which I stand by.

People say I was handed this. I say: I was handed a responsibility. And a vineyard. And the winery, and the brand, and the mailing list, and the trust that owns it.

But mostly a responsibility.