The Long Road - part 1
The Long Road.
Taylor here, and for the me, The Long Road is the one you take when you need to clear your head. Or because you have more time than you thought you did so you take the scenic route. Or the one you take unintentionally because you made a left instead of a right.
The long road is best travelled with patience, an open mind and an acceptance of what is and what may be to come. An end goal in mind sure, but a heart open to the un-expected.
At least, that’s what we tell ourselves, Ryan and I, as we figure out this new venture, “This brand is just like taking the back route up the mountain, yea I know… it’s longer and there’s an extra pass to climb and descend, but(!) there’s a great view at the top of the next canyon over and a really good fishing hole along the way at the bottom.”
We’ve each taken our own lengthy journeys to get here, at the founding of the Polemonium Wines brand. Ryan chose his trails based on the signs granted him by an agricultural background in the Central Valley and from his walnut-growing and well-drilling grandparents, Betty & Ray. Add to that route, his schooling in winemaking at Fresno State, his interest in bow hunting, a love of cooking, and the ‘Do’ and ‘Do-Not’s of working in a corporate winemaking environment. When asked about how exactly winemaking even came up as a serious choice to begin with, instead of his taking over ‘ye olden familie farm’ or a lucrative role in Big Ag, Ryan says,
“My route to the wine industry always felt somewhat natural to me. Don’t confuse that statement as me meaning I was destined to make wine or it that it was somehow in my blood because I have family in the industry, no, it was quite the opposite. I guess I should back up, and start at the beginning…”
Ryan begins to choose the Right fork instead of what’s Left...
“I grew up in the tiny agriculture community of Kingsburg, CA. (N)Ever heard of it? It’s far from the ‘Napa’s’ and ‘Sonoma’s’ of the wine world that’s for sure. However, Kingsburg IS known for grapes! Unfortunately for me though, they were… the dehydrated kind! It’s the raisin capital of the world. My maternal family was deep in this community but by the time I was old enough to enter the picture as Field Hand #3, all of the raisins were long gone and we primarily farmed walnuts. While I didn’t grow up learning what it takes to grow truly great wine grapes I did develop a profound love for the food industry. Growing something… success based on your hard work… sharing that with people… that was definitely in my blood, and my experiences at that impressionable age cemented that.’
“I started working with my grandparents at their now-walnut ranch at a very young age and part of my daily duties was that at 11:00a I had to help my grandmother, Betty, to make Supper for the crew. One of my favorite parts of the day working on the ranch was the making of these Suppers. In hindsight, these were just the kind of Farm-to-Table meals restaurants attempt to recreate. Not due to the grand preparations or the detailed development of flavors in each dish but rather, the more genuine side. A big farm table, a multi-course lunch, ingredients ALL sourced from friends or neighbors who farmed as well. During the springtime, we held the meals under a 100+ year old walnut tree as big ‘round as a Cadillac.’
“Betty was a pretty straightforward cook. Nothing short of what you would expect out of typical country kitchen but when I helped, she’d let me try things. The Food Network was in its infancy but together we used to watch Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, all in their early days, and I got inspired! I think my first dish, a garlic and bread soup by Lagasse himself will go down as one of my most unforgettable culinary mistakes. But hey, I was learning flavor, how things worked (or didn’t work) together, how to develop complexity! All things I use daily in my life now’
Detours
I’ll admit- when I go into the backcountry, I bring extra food and always double check that I’ve got enough clothes for the cold because honestly, I’m not the best route-finder. I could be if I tried harder but I sort of like getting lost and ending up on totally different ridge lines than the mountain top I was aiming to climb. I like to set goals but I prefer to set them with an openness to the pull of other opportunities or more approachable lines. I’m curious, I like to see what happens when I just let things happen
For myself, just after high school, I had a daydream where I wanted to be the kind of chef that has access to their own gardens, gets locally sourced animal products and has the perfect wine list and aesthetic décor to compliment all the tiny, crafted bites. My two aunties used to have all sorts of beautiful magazines, you know the kind- glossy, scented pages full of perfect people in perfect places that I thought were the epitome of what a luxury life was supposed to look like. Reading them in my aunties’ sunlit, welcoming homes, I wanted to be the kind of person that crafted that look and feel for others.
My parents shut that down quickly because being a chef wasn’t, in their opinion, ‘a real job that would earn money’. I didn’t like that answer at all, but nonetheless, re-considered. All the while I kept thinking about how much I enjoyed those elegant details and the stories of those who built their environments using the natural world around them... Eventually, I started community college and saw that some universities offered… winemaking majors! WHAT!! Who knew such a thing existed!
Well, I did some research and got so… overwhelmed, with how competitive the wine industry looked. Not even a remote chance at a job if you didn’t know someone, if you weren’t related to someone, if you weren’t rich… I gave up the idea and instead focused on another blooming passion, that of sustainability, specifically in relation to food. I ended up following this new ‘ridge line’ all the way to U.C. Davis to study Plant Sciences. There, I gained a whole new perspective on farming from conventional mid-western mono-cropping to small-scale integrated aquaculture operations. Plant propagation, genetic modifications, ethnobotany, it was a broad program. But I felt in my soul after graduating that Plant Science was ultimately just.. a ridgeline detour and while an enlightening detour, it wasn’t the mountain top and I was going to need to continue climbing.
Ryan on the other hand, had long ago already sighted his mountain peak. But en-route even then, he found he was experiencing some of the same threats and obstacles to finding a way into this industry that had later deterred me at my own very beginning,
R: “Fast forward a few years to when I was a bright-eyed sophomore in college trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I knew it had to be agriculture-related somehow but I didn’t only want to farm. After all, I already had the kind of hands-on experience doing the work that most people were there at the college to gain. On a whim, I took an Intro-to-Enology course. If nothing else, at least I could go back home and teach Betty how to pair wines with those meals we were cooking. She would have thought that was something neat
Turns out, I instantly fell in love with the subject. It was everything I was looking for! The courses, the people, everything felt right to me. It was a natural fit. So when I left and graduated from school with a proper winemaking degree I thought my entry into the industry would be just as easy…’
“I remember applying for “harvest gigs” that first fall. After all, I had worked many harvests, mostly walnuts sure, but they were harvest seasons nonetheless. At first, I didn’t even get responses to my applications. My young self- I had felt sure wineries would be lining up for a hard working student such as I was! After months of being ignored, I sent a follow-up email to a place I thought I might have fit in particularly well, but the response was brief and to the point. They noted based on my resume, that I hadn’t spent my college years in winery cellars and my previous experience (though while in agriculture) would never fit with in a winery, and certainly not one as *prestigious* as theirs. They wanted someone with a lot more experience than I had at the time. They didn’t say it but the message was there between the lines, they wanted someone who grew up in the cellar.
As a young student full of hopes and dreams, I was devastated. It was getting late in the preseason and I was still jobless. I remember a moment where I could have taken a local job, managing crews, doing what I knew how to do, for good money. But I knew what I needed to do, and I needed to take a risk and to make a bet on myself. So I started searching for jobs at wineries outside of winemaking. The first job I got was in the QC department. While that sounds like I was doing the double-checks and making sure the wine was up to snuff, in fact I wasn’t anywhere near the wine at all. Instead, I was a jack of all trades. I managed chemical shipments, corks, labels, even the odd sample pulling. I knew if I could just start somewhere and if those winemakers would be willing to work with me, good things would happen.”
Until next time…
Well, eventually good things DID happen, for both of us. But not without many more challenges on the way...
Read again at the next posting of The Long Road on how we achieved our foot-in-the-door to this challenging yet, rewarding industry.