Anomaly Vineyards

It's interesting how we meet people and what we've found is that is true more so in this business than certainly in our previous lives (as a "recovering attorney and paralegal/writer"). We were having breakfast over the weekend at the local coffee shop. Next to us sat a couple going over a map of the Napa Valley on which they had used a yellow highlighter to map out their wine-tasting destinations (I assumed). Being a bit nosy, and overhearing them talk about their plans, I put in my two cents about other places they should visit (not mentioning us - don't want to appear self-serving!). We got to talking and Steve wrote down a few places he thought they should go. This led to that and they asked what we did. So we confessed. Thirty minutes later, they were following us to our house so we could show them the winery. It turns out they had driven down from Vancouver, Canada. They tasted our barrel samples of the 04 and 05 vintages, then we opened an 03 for them to try. They were delightful - not only did they purchase a case of wine from us, they left us with a wonderful gift of Eiswein from Canada (one of my favorite types of wine). They said they had brought the wine down with them in the hopes if being able to give it to some one who they connected with. How lucky were we?

Then there are those with whom we have had a connection for several years but have never met. One such person is a customer who has been with us since our first release. We shared a common love of flying and although he lives on the other side of the country. we felt there was some sort of connection. After our release a couple of weeks ago, we received an email from this fellow asking that we please keep him on the mailing list and apologizing for not being able to purchase from us this year as he was battling cancer. Of course, we wouldn't have removed him from our list - no matter what the situation, as such customers are few and far between. Today we received a wonderful hand-written note from him in the mail which enclosed two bracelets (you know the kind, similar to Lance Armstrong's "Livstrong" yellow bracelets). Steve and I are wearing them, thinking about this "friend" across so many miles, and feeling fortunate to have made these, and many other, strong, silent connections as a result of this "business" we find ourselves in. Chantico.