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

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