Friday, September 21, 2012

The Continuing Adventures of Sierra Reed


I apologize for this delayed post.  At my urging, Sierra wrote the following on Wednesday, Sept 12th:

A few months ago I was in Australia fresh out of harvest and a 2 month trip through south east Asia where wine was unfortunately nowhere to be found or drinkable for that matter. I started to get the bug again for making wine and I began to think of home and my father. Here I was, a year of traveling around the world from one vintage to the next and where did I want to go?  I wanted to go to the one iconic wine region of my country....Napa. Now I wouldn't say my father was the reason I decided to become a winemaker but growing up drinking some of the best Cabernets from Napa certainly did have its influences. I can recall a recent thanksgiving a few years back where my whole family was locked up in Arizona on a cold winter day having a beautiful meal and celebrating the merriment of the holidays. My grandpa was rich with humor from all the margaritas and Texas Hold Um he had been participating in all afternoon with my father. My sister however and grandmother were butting heads that day and as the last dish was placed on the table everything came to a head. Now before I tell you the punch line I must tell you my father prides himself in his rare Cabernet that he so willingly loves to share with us on holidays. So when people don't appreciate him parting with his babies due to being preoccupied with arguing you can only imagine what would come next. My father is a soft spoken great listener who feels he only really should raise his voice if he is truly passionate about a situation and this was on of those few times that the voice came out. So my sister starts up with my grandma and I even think I somehow got dragged in there as my grandpa began throwing one liners on the side line, which although very funny, did not help the situation. Then a loud voice from the end of the table bellows out and says,"If we all cant get along then you don't deserve to be drinking my good wine." He grabbed the bottles from the table and held them hostage as everyone went silent and  instantly everyone made up because we knew we were not going to miss out on those bottles. Moral of the story being..If Cabernet made my father passionate enough to speak up, I would have to be passionate about learning how to make it!
        So there I was Ipad in hand flicking off emails and resumes to Napa from Australia with the taste of Cabernet in my mouth. A taste that always brings me back to the great moments I have shared with my family as a young girl and I wanted to now discover it. So after a week of many opportunistic offers in Napa, I came across this Email from Anna Monticelli, the winemaker at Pina Cellars and her response to my resume was like nothing I had ever experienced. She wrote me two pages about her past and her journey to becoming a winemaker and her time at Pina. This obviously moved me very much and after reading about the wines at Pina, we planned a date to speak from two opposite ends of the world to see if I was a good fit. It only took about five minutes before I realized that Pina was my destiny for the upcoming summer and I packed my bags and was headed for Napa.
         I landed and the next I was off to work and met Macario Montoya, the assistant winemaker at Pina. I was brought up to speed in a few weeks walking all the vineyards with Macario and picking Anna's brain about what was to come. They both gave me the freedom to learn and think independently and do things in the industry that I never had the chance to participate in. I never could have imagined that, here we are just two weeks out till harvest and not one grape crushed. But I have already learned more here in one month about wine making, than in the year prior. I am inspired by Macario and his insistent ways of making me become a better winemaker everyday without sweating the small stuff and believing in myself. If that's not a great mentor then I don't know who is. Anna's knowledge and belief in me thus far has opened my eyes to the strong females in this industry and made me realize that as a winemaker you have to have many dimensions to fight with the best and she does.
            It's Wednesday morning and all I have done is managed to clean a few portable tanks and the inside of the press and I'm already sore. So on that note I am going to kick this butt in Harvest gear and make my team proud because this vintage I'm making Napa Cab! 



Friday, September 14, 2012

Sierra Reed - Our 2012 Winery Intern


Every year before harvest, we bring on a winery intern to help us through the crush. They tend to be young, smart & energetic. Sierra Reed is no exception. And, as I do every year, I ask our intern to provide us with a biography to share on this blog. Sierra suggested I use the cover letter she sent us as her bio. When you read it, you'll see that she is not just another pretty face.

Introducing Sierra Reed

As a sixteen year old girl I traveled the world modeling and found myself at the doorstep of beautiful New Zealand at twenty three after my stint on survivor. Soon after I was blessed with the dream job of hosting my own wine and food show called "Harvest" for two years. By the twentieth interview I was consumed with bug of wine and left it all behind with the hopes of one day being a winemaker. It really was as simple as that when I made the decision but the journey to get there was challenging and much was sacrificed. Yet the sacrifice was to me was the only one in my life that truly made sense and with all that life experience I know as I venture on my third career at twenty six the hill will be just as hard to climb and I'm ready. I wear my heart on my sleeve and my foot in my mouth and when I reach for the stars it’s not easy but I always manage to lasso one down. Working in TV and modeling was never really as glamorous as it sounds and every new open door or opportunity always had an end no matter how good your work was, it is what it is in the entertainment industry. Wine for me wasn't my escape from this disposable mentality that I had cashed every sparkling paycheck with knowing fully that a part of me was working towards a means to an end. Wine was the answer for me and not just because over fifty percent of my paychecks were spent on wine as a young Italian American but because its something that truly cant leave me. Even if I age my time in the vineyard doesn't run out as it does with vanity driven businesses. Wine becomes the product of its creator and continues to move others and live on long past all of us and that is a magical thing. That is why all the passion and life lessons that have brought me to this moment I hope will one day lead me to become a female winemaker. My time in New Zealand has helped mold the person that I have become today and if there is one thing that I took from my time there it was to be a great observer. Because you never know what magical moment will pass you by that may change the way you live forever and from my time in the winery I feel that rule applies always. I remember my first few days of "Crush" and I think I had imagined that we would be romantic about everything we did and I know now there is no time for that let alone a bathroom break. The romance for me is a mindset that lives in every winemaker or student who hopes to one day earn their strips to becoming winemaker. That romance lives in my heart and even the task of cleaning the press was treated by me as though that one task if done prefect was going to make better wine. I hope to travel the world once again yet this time learning from all the great teachers and appellations that have helped define the drops in our glass that we all know as wine.

Kind regards, Sierra Reed

Attached is a link to my show "Harvest" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30DOP1tqUIM&sns=em

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Announcing Alina Ceja Montoya

On Saturday, April 7th, Our Assistant Winemaker, Macario Montoya, had this to report: Alina Ceja Montoya was born at 9:31am today. She weighs 7 pounds 11 ounces and is 19.75 inches tall. Mommy and baby are doing amazing.
Congratulations Macario & Griselda!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Announcing the arrival of Sergio Mario Monticelli



Sergio Mario Monticelli
Born 3/1 @ 2:11 am
8 lbs 10 oz

We're doing great!

Anna