Blog
By Corey, on Saturday, July 13th, 2013 in Blog.
Before long, my first wines will be in bottle and the time will have come for me to head out into The Market and do my best to sell it. The Hard(er) Part of winemaking, I am told. And I can believe it. You put your heart and soul into something which will produce excitement, apathy, or perhaps even scorn, in others. And you have to grow a skin thick enough to accept rejection when it comes. As I am sure it will from some corners. Because not everyone will love the wine I’ve made. After all, no one has the same palate, so a unanimous love or rejection of a wine can’t be expected.
But for now I can put off growing a thicker skin.
For now, I am going to accept the praise that has come my way and enjoy it. Twice in the last 2 weeks I’ve hosted wine writers in the bar. Both times, the bar has been slow and I’ve been able to spend a good amount of time with them, telling them about the SE Wine Collective, the people making wine there and their wines. As well as some wine philosophy and whatever other random subjects popped up. And both times, they’ve asked to taste my wine. They knew about me making wine at the Collective, as that is part of the story of the place; part of its purpose is to help people like me get a solid footing on which to start out. And both times, they’ve loved the wine.
My friends and colleagues have tasted my wine. The feedback has been positive. The praise I got from these writers strikes me differently, as I don’t know them. Don’t get me wrong, true praise of any kind is great. But to get it from people I’d just met and to see them get excited about the wine…..totally different. My friends are excited the wine tastes good, but they are also excited because their friend has done well. I have to believe that these folks didn’t get excited for my benefit, but because of the wine. This is what I want. I want my wine to get people excited and to make them smile.
And if we’re to talk support, this week offered an abundance of it. I launched my Indiegogo campaign a few days ago, and I’m over 1/3 of the way to my goal. I’ve a long way to go, but it’s a great start.