August 2011

"Hearing His Whistle" by Teena Hildebrand

"When I whistle to them, they come running…" Zechariah 10:8 NLT
 
In the past two decades more people than ever before jumped ship and morphed into winery owners as the number of bonded wine facilities in California doubled since 1991 reaching nearly 3,400 today and representing at least 50% of the total US bonded wine facilities. Turns out these risk taking entrepreneurs, wanting to be "re-invented" and pursue a passion for the wine business and the wine country lifestyle, are as diverse as the wines themselves. We are no exception - our story of leaving a completely different life in Southern California to pursue a new one in the wine country is not unique however the journey to get where we are today is.
 
Recently I asked my farmer/winemaker/husband, Frank, to sum up what's currently happening in the vineyard and winemaking and he responded profoundly, "In this space called, 'a season' which exists between asking and receiving is learning. And in that learning is opportunity to be shown what we've done wrong." For us this season has lasted 10 years. Translation: "I was heading in one direction and I asked for a better way. After 10 years of learning what is not right for me or my vineyard I am choosing a different direction." 
 
It was just 14 years ago that we heard that "whistle" offering a choice between staying where we were or stepping into a completely new life - that inevitable fork in the road that's symbolic of our era: choosing God's plan for one's life or the world's. Ten years ago we planted the majority of our vineyard. We rely as heavily now as we did then on asking God for wisdom and guidance (and outright miracles) in every step of our Narrow Gate adventure especially in the areas of winemaking and farming. This ten year season has been filled with both wonder at the miracle of fermentation and a deep appreciation for the connection between stewarding the land and quality, natural wine making, as well as complete frustration with unpredictable and undesirable weather that prevails more often than not as the seasonal clock ticks down annually to harvest. And then there's that "season" Frank mentioned, a terminal scratching of the forehead when we so fervently trust in divine intervention but often when we ask for something like a good fruit set in the vineyard or a long growing season we receive instead the equivalent to assembly instructions for an erector set - so seemingly unrelated! However, in hindsight, it is the seemingly unrelated instructions that train us today to follow precise patterns and directions and to not deviate or be tempted to take a short cut or go a cheaper route in hopes to achieve the desired outcome we are looking for. This is that whistle we run to between asking and receiving and this is where we learned to make a break from traditional business plans and modern farming.
 
A "snag in my flow" is how Frank describes the two major hats he wears: literally a Giants baseball cap when making wine and a UVA protection, wide brim hat with sweat stains when farming. Balancing the two is somewhat like maneuvering a big rig across a frozen lake the first day of summer hoping you make it to the other side before the ice melts! After 10 long years we are just now beginning to understand and see a glimpse of our choices. Even after the longest winter in our vineyard's history, with record rain, a May 15th snow storm and pounding late June hail and rain, we now see healthy fruit on the vine that we've wanted and expected to see since planting in 2001. Here at Narrow Gate classic, traditional French, natural winemaking techniques and Biodynamic® farming, a restoring of what we know is right for us and for the land, have supplanted modern winemaking and farming. Its taken years of snags and overcoming our nature of compromise, and learning to stay in the Narrow Gate, that has resulted in (as recent lab tests have confirmed) the best balanced soil and vine health we've seen yet despite the weather.
 
As we trek into our second decade of both farming and winemaking we are eager to release to you the Estate grown wines coming from this new farming direction. Beginning with the 2008 vintages, our first year of full transition to organic, Biodynamic® farming, you can taste and experience the results of our first season of being reinvented. We hope that when you pour these wines and swirl them in your glass you will close your eyes and remember that both "re-inventing" and hearing that whistle are not just for us but for all.