My dad should have owned a winery. I remember when I was about 6 years old, my family took a drive to the Napa Valley and stopped at a small family-run winery called Nichelini. The owners invited us all in, made us a wonderful lunch, told us about the winery, winemaking, and generally made us feel like a part of their family. My parents talked about that experience for years afterwards. I think that visit gave my dad the winery bug. He helps us during harvest, bottling, and has devised a labeler that to this day I don't think any other winery has (okay, no copying, promise?). Because our labels are quite long, the automatic labelers that bottling trucks have are not able to glue down the label. We have to hand label each bottle (front and back). The label positions are "eye-balled" and laid down - that is until my dad came up with his invention. Without giving away his secrets, he used a wooden paint stir stick, some old corks. a few nuts, screws, and bolts, and a used wooden wine bottle crate and devised the most ingenious method of laying down the bottle in the contraption so that the label is laid in exactly the same position on each bottle. If I had the time, I would actually patent it, it's that great! But then, my dad is great. Chantico!
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