We make 14 wines for our labels, and work on another 30 or so for other companies. I try to check in on current and soon-to-be releases at least every six months, to see where they are at, how they are developing and what we can learn for subsequent vintages. I also try to taste them against comparable wines on the regular, and delve into wines that we aspire toward whenever I can. Anytime I get a wine in my glass, I am trying to break it down, understand it’s components, the decisions behind it, the ‘why’ of the wine, whether it’s our own or another. I can’t remember the last time drinking wine wasn’t an intellectual excercise – or at a minimum collecting information – which, for me, is fun.
“Fun” would not be the word I’d choose 
. At home, we rarely drink our own wines
Financial- What we are drinking, we could sell.
Small Library- With only 8 vintages so far, if we are going to open something we have very little of to drink, we want the bottles to be closer to the peak.
It mentally hurts- It is tough for me to turn off the analytic side. Even if you nailed it, in hindsight, you could have always done something differently.
Inspiration / Pleasure- We probably open 5 bottles a week to drink (plenty of others opened to taste). I want each of those experiences to be at the table, hopefully inspiring, and filled with the greatest potential for pleasure.
With all that being said, since it is a rare occurrence, when something we produced is open, firing on all cylinders, and the vineyard and vintage are showing far greater than any input that we had in its process, that is a positive emotional experience…
It’s been quite some time ago I made wine, not for sale, just to make better and cheaper than I could buy. Most of my career was building cabinetry for well off to rich folks. So there is some similarity in crafting, always endeavoring to improve the product and pay the bills. I still have a few stickies that I am very proud would hold up against some of the best. I made some Pinot Noir years ago that I was not satisfied with because it was thin and insipid AFWE. It took me another 30 years to appreciate PN was not Cab. I wish I had some of that PN now, as that is what I love to drink. I just let the pros make it for me now. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I agree with Hardy in regards to the over analysis of my wines. I often find myself dissecting my wines, putting them in pieces in my mind. Honestly a lot depends on my mood. If I’m in a good mood the wine, of course, always tastes better and I can just enjoy it for what it is. Other times I find myself rerunning every aspect of it’s production over in my mind trying to figure out how certain parts of the wines came about. Although I’ve been making wine commercially for 16 years I’m still trying new things every year, working with new vineyards, and constantly experimenting. There’s always new and changing variables to consider. There is also that wonderful feeling of drinking a wine that you’ve put in bottle and tasting it for the first time, and you just love it. It’s so exciting. Thats definitely one of the best parts of being a winemaker.
Since some of this topic has turned to whether it is enjoyable or “fun” for a winemaker to drink their own wines…I would say yes, many times it is. It is fun to see what a wine you worked on some time ago has become…where it is in its evolution. It is fun to share it. I would not think of going to a social event where wine was being served and not bring and open my own. What can be sort of be not so much fun is when I attend a party - say, a Superbowl party - and I want to mingle with new people, check out the game, eat some food! And people are, naturally, interested in winegrowing and producing. Particularly the further away from Napa you get (like Boston). It can sometimes feel a bit like work when you don’t want to work. But I have decided it comes with the territory, and most times, the territory is pretty darned good. I find that asking people about themselves and how they spend their time helps to turn it more social than work.
With the 1st and 2nd bottles of my own wine the simple answer is: I’m not capable of drinking just for fun. There will always be a part of me analyzing and dissecting the wine. Place, time, occasion don’t matter… I will not be able to ‘just enjoy’.
From the 3rd bottle on I usually can’t remember, so can’t say.
Luckily, with other folks’ wines I can turn that switch off.
I will do some analysis with the first few sips, and then sporadically for the remainder of the time that the wine remains in my glass. But by and large I can just kick back and enjoy.
Since this applies directly to my work I can add something as a musician (composer):
When I listen to a composition of mine there are two aspects -
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how is it played? Is the tempo correct (to slow, too fast), is my indicated articulation respected, the dynamics, the character … and is the overall balance ok …? Do the musician(s) add enough emotion and expression (or do they just play the notes)?
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If it is a new piece (let´s say the rehearsal for the premiere):when it doesn´t sound as it should in my imagination: did I indicate all details correctly? In a piece for larger ensemble: is the instrumentation ok, all voices well balanced etc.
Finally: does the work develope like I want it to … are the sections in the right proportions (to each other), is anything too long or too short? Are the bridge sections really arriving where they should … and many more details …
Usually I make small revisions during the 1st rehearsals (also correcting errors, wrong notes, missing accidentals, missing slurs, dynamics etc. … we are all humans and errors can (and do) occur …
Rarely do I make more serious revisions (like deleting a passage … or adding instuments), but I did more decades ago during and after my studies …
When I know the piece well from many performances I can stick to 1) …
and if it´s the recording of a past performance - or if the musicians played the work well already several times … then I can simply enjoy the moment …
(but I do not often spend a lot of time to listen to my own music … rather study works that are new to me … or which I admire due to their high quality … Bach, Mozart, Schubert - and a lot of contemporary music, not only classical style …)
QUESTION for wine-makers:
Do you (almost) always recognize your own wine(s)?
Even if it´s an older vintage?
I can imagine that it´s quite similar to a wine-maker … wouldn´t it be boring to drink the own wine(s) too often?
But if it´s an older vintage you haven´t watched for a longer period … THEN it might be very interesting how it is now …
I rarely drink the Pinots. I end up tasting them so many times for tastings, dinners, etc. that just drinking them casually away from a work context is nearly impossible. I do enjoy coming back to things with 10-15 years bottle age and seeing how they are doing and while, again, that is usually in some sort of work context it is usually fun and easy to do. The only thing I would say I am willing to drink regularly is the Muscat. We never (hardly) pour it and it’s perfect wine for just drinking and only slightly paying attention to.
As to follow up above: I would say I do pretty well at picking a PGC Pinot out of blind tastings.
We open our wines regularly - good to take a progress check on where the wines are going with drinking windows, etc. and always educational to see how they develop with additional bottle aging. We keep a personal library of alll of our wines (starting with the 04 vintage up til last bottled) - we now make 8 different wines so there is always something different to open. I do think about decisions we made for that particular vintage and wine - usually around blend and cooperage(s).
I agree!
We taste more our wine than we drink as we have a tasting room we staff. I do enjoy drinking them with different meals though usually there not the only wine on the table. Especially with the tasting room left overs where its usually just one small glass over 5-7 bottles. I do have to know my wines better than anyone so we keep a library of them we keep up to date on progress and to do educational tastings with.
At least 5 nights a week we open something not ours, but usually still PN.