[fsn_row][fsn_column width=”12″][fsn_text]
This Harvest season, I shared a very special moment with my 5-year-old son, Lucca. All day he had been asking and pleading to help us harvest that night. I was initially apprehensive about bringing him out in the middle of the night for a grueling night of labor. When the crew is in the vineyard, there is no stopping for breaks. We harvest until the block is done, no exceptions, and the thought of having to tend to a 5-year-old’s demands weighed heavily on my decision. In the end, though, I ignored the “what ifs” and we suited and booted Lucca for his first night harvest.
As we walked into our Syrah block I experienced a “full circle” moment. The Syrah vineyard we were to harvest that night was the first vineyard that we planted in 1999. I clearly remember being 14 years old and working long days over summer break, helping to prepare the soil, picking up rocks, setting up the irrigation and trellis systems, and finally dropping the vines into the ground. The entire time my father was right there beside me.
To walk into that same vineyard two decades later side by side with my own son was a surreal experience. I am so grateful that my father had this wild idea to plant a small vineyard, not knowing that it would eventually turn into our family legacy.
Watching Lucca that night was incredibly humbling. His desire to help and work that night revealed a side of him that I’d never seen. My paternal fear of injury or accident was justified; harvest knives are sharp and nicking a finger is more common than not. However, he quickly grasped how to properly use the tool and off he went. Lucca worked by my side that night, not once complaining. I found myself staring at him constantly and feeling a sensation of pride as he plucked the clusters off the vines one by one.
Our value statement on the back of our wine bottles has never run so true for me as it did that night. This vineyard is our legacy, and I can only hope that one day my son will have the same “full circle” moment when he is harvesting our Syrah vineyard with his child.
[/fsn_text][/fsn_column][/fsn_row]