Yeah, You Can Copy My Notes.

Attending RISE shouldn't be a privilege. It should be required reading. But who has time for *that*?!

I have felt absolutely giddy and dreamy and so hella privileged to get to attend every single day of the brilliantly inspiring Napa RISE Climate & Wine Symposium.

I’ve also felt a little embarrassed.

“Are you attending RISE at all this year?” friends ask.

“Yes!” I reply.

“Which day?” comes their follow-up query.

“Oh! Well… um… every day,” I blush. “It’s part of my mini sabbatical,” I quickly clarify, overly eager to qualify such ostentatious behavior.

I’ve been justifying this period of my life as a “mini sabbatical.” It’s an idiotic framing, I realize, for a few reasons: First, sabbaticals are supposed to be paid time off, and granted by your employer. Second, you’re supposed to do something unrelated to your normal job—outside of your typical routine. Third, sabbaticals should happen every seven years; the idea of a sabbatical is rooted in the Hebrew practice of shmita, from Leviticus 25, wherein the Lord tells Moses that, every seven years, people shall observe a sabbath from working in the fields (and the vineyards!).

But absolutely none of these things are true about this transitional “reset” I’m gifting myself after selling my wine shops. I’m still working (but it’s on projects I truly love and deeply care about). Most of my current work is unpaid (though, heyyy, you can snag a paid subscription and help!). It’s closely related to my previous/normal job. And I am taking it a whopping 21 years after starting out professionally. Nevertheless, calling it a “mini sabbatical” makes me feel worthy, if you feel me? It makes me feel Allowed. Like I’m justified in partaking in behavior that I have been groomed to believe is “privileged” or “self-indulgent.” Things like only working six hours a day instead of 10-12+. Or breaking at lunch time to actually eat lunch, exercise or run errands. Or attending industry conferences and inspiring symposiums, or saying yes to invaluable networking lunches or co-conspiring happy hours.

And wow. Look at me! I just reallywantedtobesuretotellyousuperquickly here so that you could ALSO DEEM ME WORTHY, so that you wouldn’t wonder and judge at how and why I was going to the RISE symposium Every. Single. Day.

I realize today that I earned this privilege (most of you reading probably have, too), working my ass off hustling and striving for our wine industry community for two full decades—and, umm, furthermore, I’m not sure attendance should be thought of as a privilege??? This kind of content should be required reading.

Problem is, if you’re anything like I was six months ago, you don’t have any fucking time for anymore required reading. If you’re anything like I was six months ago, you are probably thrashing about in a suffocating pile of must-dos and dismay, and so maybe you don’t get to attend (or don’t get to attend all six days). You probably can’t even afford it! You also definitely don’t have the time to lie on the couch in the dark silence for an hour or three post-event every day because you just took in so much challenging information and insightful wisdom that now you need to process.

Well.

Since I am on my mini-sabbatical, and I am graciously giving myself tiny doses of daily dark quiet couch time, I will do you this solid and pay it forward for the sake of restoring our industry. I will tell you here just a tiny bit about what I learned each day at RISE. Even though these posts won’t be perfectly researched articles or fleshed out full thoughts with follow-up interviews, I have always been a good student (and also eager to be liked), so I will let you copy my notes. You can peek at what I wrote down about resiliency and what I learned about combatting the climate crisis and what I absorbed that fully blew my mind. Let these posts be a starting place and a jumping off point for you. If you read something you’re more curious about or totally enthralled by, I’d be happy to connect you to resources. (And I’m positive the entire RISE team would be overjoyed to assist as well.) Remember, I’m here to conspire!

There, then. I’m coming at you next with a series of posts containing musings and takeaways from my whopping six days at Napa RISE. So far, I mostly want to cry with joy and honor and inspiration as I sit in the audience listening to such incredible, brilliant, paradigm-shifting and downright heroic ways that people are building resiliency into their wine brands.

My biggest takeaway is a compounding conviction that WINE NEEDS MORE OF THIS RESILIENCY AND MORE OF THIS KIND OF STORYTELLING.

So, let’s make it so…

If you don’t yet subscribe, please do! This way you’ll receive my notes, stories, musings and key takeaways from RISE. I’ll be publishing the first tomorrow and the remainder over the next two weeks. And if you know someone who would benefit from this type of content, do spread the word and share this post or a subscription with them! It sure does take a village, y’all. Bless.