All,
This has little to do with winemaking needs or requestions. I see and often contribute to these types of threads here. This has nothing to do with that.
I must say, the thing that I love most about winemaking, is the pride and passion of those like yourselves, that that take the art of winemaking seriously. From the home winemaker to the small winery, I adore the deep-rooted passion.
I am currently traveling on business to Indianapolis Indiana. Umfortunately my real-life job has little to do with wine makeing. At any rate, there is a local winery there that produces high quality wine from California stock grapes. The name of the winery is Chateau Thomas.
Having nothing better to do in the evenings, of course I made my way to the winery. I struck up a converstaion with the winery's operational manager and she voluntarily gave me almost an hour of her time to show me their operation.
I showed up on random Wednesday evening, after my workday and began discussing gassing operations with the (barmaid?) she was in charge of tasting, noting her disinterest, I quickly determined who her boss was and transferred the converstation to her.
Sheila Kav.... was her name, and she was in charge of Winery Operations.
She and i stuck up a technical converstation and she voluntarilly gave me an unofficial tour of the winery.
She graciously gave me 45 min to an hour of her time to show me the operation and to just plain talk to me.
I love the fact that she was proud of her work. I love the fact that she was able to get down and dirty with my newbie questions. I just love the pride in workmanship, the hospitality and the genuine desire to further the art.
Today was a great day.
Props to Chateau Thomas