Page 108 of Love Unforgettable
Chapter 33
Lexie
The weekend comes much faster than I want it to. And before I realize it or am ready for it, I’m waking early on Friday morning with that unsettling feeling that I am forgetting something. My main problem is that I leave for Grape Nuts this morning, which I’m still not super excited about. Cole wanted to come with me today, but I convinced him to come separately tomorrow. Mostly because there is nothing for him to do at the actual conference, and I don’t want to take him away from his own stuff and life for no reason.
I’ve got Daniel handling everything in the vineyard while I’m gone. Courtney and the staff will be running the tasting room, and the dog sitter will be here soon to hang with the huskies. Which means that everything I do today from here on out will be for my comfort and enjoyment. So, I make myself a thermos of coffee mixed with hot chocolate and a peanut butter and banana sandwich and decide to drive my Jeep with the hood and the doors off.
It only takes me two hours to get to Grape Nuts from San Soloman. They are holding it at the San Francisco Convention Center. An easy drive for me, listening to my favorite 70’s playlist the entire way, singing at the top of my lungs. Marvin Gaye’s “Inner-City Blues” is blaring as I pull up to the valet in front of the hotel. I’m sure I’ve created some sort of noise pollution nuisance, but I don’t care. I needed this, I’m feeling invigorated, refreshed, and a little bad-ass.
Bring it on,Grape Nuts!
I cruise around the venue before heading up to my room. It is still really early in the day, but I was lucky to get an early check-in. The vendor booths opened at eight o’clock this morning, but the panels don’t begin until ten o’clock, and the one I’m on isn’t until tomorrow late morning.Grape Nutsis overwhelming to say the least. Two and a half days of nothing but a bunch of winos geeking out on all things wine industry related. There have to be at least fifteen thousand people here already. This is the third time I’ve attended, but the first time I’ve been asked to speak and sit on a panel. And of course, the first time I’m getting an award. There are people here who are huge in the wine industry. People I’ve looked up to my whole life. But I’m staying the course like I promised Cole I would; I worked hard for this award, and it’s only fitting that I accept it graciously.
After looking around a bit to get my bearings, I head up to my room, drop off my bag, grab my ID badge and head out to the event. Like many of the other winery owners, I am wearing jeans and a winery logo shirt. Since the bulk of my clientele is female, especially with how I name my wines, the majority of my logo shirts are in cute feminine styles and the tees are cut to flatter the female figure instead of hang all over like the men’s styles. I have men’s shirts too, but not as many styles. The shirt I’m wearing today is black with cap sleeves and a low rounded neck. It ends mid-hip, so it looks good tucked in or left out. As I look around, I’m happy to see that most everyone in attendance seems to be dressed casually, like me, which makes me feel more at ease.
The panel today that I am most looking forward to is on the necessity of tasting rooms. Especially since Mavis and I just put so much money into ours, and since one of the leading opposing theories being that the highest profit is to be garnered from wine clubs and mailing lists as opposed to distribution or the tasting room.
However, when I get there, they ask me to join the panel instead of sitting in the audience. I have a feeling this is what happens when you start winning awards, all of a sudden you are the expert on everything and subsequently treated as such. Clearly, I’m not the only one excited about this panel since it not only filled one of the larger ball rooms, but there are people standing in the back because there are no more seats left.
The panel consists of myself and one other “boutique” winery owner, an urban winery owner, and three really big names in the industry. It’s interesting to hear what the urban winery owner has to say since that is a newer trend in wineries. And when I say new I mean in the last ten years or so. Not to say that’s when the whole urban trend first started, just when the wineries started to catch on and gain some recognition. It’s harder to pay attention to what the others are saying when I know I could be asked a question at any moment and I need to defend my decision.
When the tasting room panel ends, I check my schedule and head to the next panel presentation. Really hoping that this one will let me be and observe. There are just some days where group participation is overrated. After this next panel there is a lunch break, then a longer presentation I want to catch on wine cans, instead of bottles, then the vintner mixer. My day just started and I’m already exhausted.
* * *
I go to the vintner’s mixer, already in session, straight from my last panel. The room is huge, I’m guessing there are at least one thousand people in here. I note six different bars around the room, as well as tray passed beverages, offering a variety of selections in red and white wines, champagnes, and sparkling wines.
On either side of the room, they’ve placed two exceptionally large buffet tables that each hold appetizers and tapas, plus additional waitstaff are carrying tray passed appetizers. Each vintner (winemaker) in attendance was required to bring a case of assorted wines. So, in addition to paying to attend the conference, we also provided all the alcohol. Since they estimated about twenty-five hundred vintners registered, the organizers of the event got access to twenty-five hundred cases of wine. Not bad for a multi-day conference.
The walls of the room are covered in blown up pictures of logos, labels, and winery properties of those in attendance. I recognize the labels and logos of so many big players in the industry: Caymus, Schramsberg, Duckhorn, Mondavi, Kendall Jackson, Ferrari-Carano, Chateau Montelena, Patz & Hall, Foxen, and Rochioli to name a few. I’m so excited to meet the winemakers from some of these places so I can pick their brains. This might be my only year to do so since I’m on the radar because of the award. I still have a hard time believing that I’m living my dream. Which is not the same as when I don’t feel as though I deserve it. I am a bonafide winemaker. I make a living growing grapes and making and selling my wines. It’s amazing.
I grab a glass of sparkling wine from a passing server and continue perusing the room.
“You’re Lovestone?” I turn and see a nice-looking older man standing next to me, gesturing to the logo on my shirt.
“Yes. Lexie Harrison.” I hold my hand out to shake his.
“Sawyer Grant,” he says in response as he shakes my hand. His hands are warm and soft, the polar opposite of my own which are usually cold and always a little callused.
“You’re the winemaker for Unbound.”
He nods. “I love your wines,” I gush. “The complexity of the nose, the balance of the palate, the full finish. You are amazing. Everything you touch turns to gold.”
“I’m no ‘winemaker of the year’, but I do okay.”
I laugh at that, but I’m actually not sure if it’s a joke.
“Congratulations on that, by the way.”
“Thank you,” I say.
“Not very many women have ever won the award.”
“I know, it’s truly an honor. I don’t feel deserving.”
“Well, you are young. I mean, really, where do you go after this?”
Is he dissing me?
