Gwendolyn Elliott

>>>>> Featured image: Recent holiday wines lined up for Perdita’s approval. From left to right: ’23 Migration Edna Valley Gruner Veltliner (Carneros/Napa); ’24 Echolands Semi-Carbonic Cinsault; ’20 Girl and Pop Blanc de Noir; ’24 “Fretboard’ Time and Direction Viognier. <<<<<

It’s December 5th, the Friday before the last busy wine weekend of the year—Holiday Barrel Weekend. Perhaps I’ll see some of you at Dillon Cellars for the Southside Cork Exchange?

No one would tell you, except perhaps me in a completely roundabout way, that working part-time in a tasting room is glamorous. I recognize objectively that it is not. Between the dust, and the gruntwork; intermittent WiFi (always going out when you need to process payments); insufferable wine know-it-alls talking at you about everything they know, the low pay, etc.

Glamour on this end of the industry simply does not exist. But sometimes you get an impression of something more—a comment from a guest about how much they appreciated your service, or how you made their day, or how well they think you did your job. Customers talking about how much they would like to work in the wine business, but never would, while silently wondering if they actually could (*dramatic interpretation*).

For me, I am grateful for every opportunity I’ve had on the public-facing end of wine—it’s often an education, a workout, a social channel, and a networking opportunity all at once. I could (and sometimes do) spend all day in my pajamas in front of my computer, sending pitches, interviewing sources, and writing, keeping up the never-ending general admin of my freelance career.

But a few days at the tasting room adds invigorating variety to my schedule, and I get a lot out of this shift in perspective. I’ve made genuine friends and met fascinating, wonderfully decent, down-to-earth people; I’ve traded business cards with all manner of industry pros; I’ve learned about wine books to read and classes to take; bookmarked tons of travel and food tips; been tipped to low-profile projects happening in the community and other word of mouth news, and so much more. It’s all fodder fueling my personal well being, wine education, and story ideas.

I’ve also learned all this from actual people—not an algorithm serving me questionable content based on my online shopping habits or time on page, or AI-generated slop surely generated to sell me something. Working at a tasting room, interacting with real human people, brings wine to life for me in a way that life behind a screen just can’t, and sharing stories with guests and finding common ground with strangers is energizing and keeps things interesting, in spite of the desperate attempts of my homebound cats to dominate every square inch of my worldview.

>>>>> Above caption: Locally, there are some wineries making fun wines in the “nouveau” style—Ita, Hoquetus, and Echolands each have one, and surely others as well. Last year, I tried bottles from Ita and Hoquetus; most recently I tried Echolands’ semi-carbonic ’24 Cinsault and really enjoyed it—a medium alcohol, medium bodied, fresh and juicy red that was very versatile as an aperitif making dinner, with dinner (squash gratin), and as “work juice”—what Toby calls whatever is in my glass when I’m typing away. <<<<<

This is especially important to me, as I have no physical office, newsroom, or bullpen to lob ideas around with colleagues, overhear chatter at the water cooler, or insert my opinion into the conversation coming from the desk nearby. I’ve tried the library here, but with all the kid craft-a-thons and ad hoc D&D games popping up (with the requisite excited banter—and associated odors), the library has become a tough place to concentrate.

As a freelancer, you have to hustle hard to juice the information pipeline, and it can be exhausting. Thanks to the social nature of wine, I’ve found that a few days in a tasting room can grease the wheels for me, and it’s rewarding to be part of the scene.

Glamorous? No. Practical, purposeful, constructive, meaningful, and multi-functional? Yes.

With this, a few more topical tidbits before my December column issues next week.

For those who celebrate, Happy Beaujolais Nouveau season, aka “the fastest wine on Earth,” and drinking it with all your holiday meals. Recently, I learned that the annual French festival marking the debut of the new vintage of Beaujolais Nouveau, taking place at the stroke of midnight every year on the third Thursday of November in France, is all just one decades-long-marketing-stunt (flagrant Francophile that I am, I wrongly assumed it was an ancient Gallic celebration steeped in French wine history).

Anyway, this was discussed over dinner, and then deliberated: One side argued that the gimmick takes the shine away from the wine tradition of seriously good, proper Beaujolais wine (the “nouveau” style is made quickly, under different conditions, than the traditional cru wines—and the article I link above does a good job explaining how it works). I lobbied for the festive pageantry, the reason it provides to gather and celebrate, and the wonderfully alternate take on “Thanksgiving,” only in France, and with wine instead of turkey. Gathering together, drinking wine, not eating turkey—all very fine things to me.

Any other hot takes out there? I would love to hear ’em.

In other news, back in October, I connected with former Spring Valley winemaker Serge LaVille and owners Kristin and Ken Reali of just-opened Reali winery out on the northwest end, who have partnered on the venture. In a story, I look at some of the similar pathways between LaVille’s move from France, and Ken’s great-grandfather’s move from Italy, that inform part of the Realis’ connection to wine. I had a great time touring the winery and adjacent estate vineyard, and it’s always great getting together with Serge, who has been a wonderful supporter of my writing and with his family and wife, Madeleine, lovely neighbors and Walla Walla ambassadors, to boot. (Toby knew them long before I did, decades ago, from his time at the Hotel Vintage Park. How surprised were we to learn they live just mere blocks from us when we moved to town!)

Here’s a link to the story and a PDF, too.

Finally, if you like these updates:

• 1. Have you made sure I’m on your email “safe” list? Some glitch in the WordPress time continuum on my last dispatch sent some of my communiqués to dreaded spam land.
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