So as not to
prolong the suspense - the Sonoma County Board of Zoning Adjustments granted
8500 Dry Creek Road, by unanimous 5-0 vote, a use permit to build and operate a
10,000 case winery, tasting room and marketing accommodations. This entitlement
runs with the land and now makes our property just that much more valuable and prepared to accommodate our business plan. It
was a really good night for all of us! If “interesting” experiences make for a
rich life, that hearing makes me feel like Warren Buffet this morning!
But more on that in a minute…
The week
started out with news that the Federal Government has issued Cast Estate
Vineyards and Cellars its license to be in the alcoholic beverage business.
Apparently the fingerprints and FBI background checks on your dubious managers
(and their spouses!) failed to find the really bad stuff in our past and we
succeeded in getting one step closer to selling wine. California had notified
us a bit earlier that our state license was approved. Apparently their standards
are lower… Anyhow, we are now legit from a regulatory standpoint and can
commence a monthly reporting activity that looks to be – thorough!
On Tuesday
morning I joined Mike at the winery and we had an absolutely flawless bottling
of our first wine – 230 cases of delicious 2012 Sauvignon Blanc. Mike is
totally obsessed about the cleanliness of the wine and the whole premises and
process during bottling. An interesting show to observe and I can’t wait for
you to taste this Premier Vintage. Some pictures of the impressive
mobile bottling equipment are attached. Mike’s official nickname is now the
“Wizard” as the wines just keep getting better and everyone who is sneaking
tastes is really impressed. Release date is May 11th and many of you
have already confirmed that you will join in our on-site celebration – it’s
going to be great!
So about that
hearing last night… Three interesting items were on the county agenda with Cast
sandwiched in the middle. The first item was a medical marijuana dispensary in the
bohemian enclave of Occidental. If you haven’t been, suffice it to say that if
you can’t sell marijuana in Occidental you should not ever try to sell anything
to anyone. But these guys failed by unanimous vote of the five member board –
despite the board praising the availability of the product. One of the
applicants’ arguments was that the board was prejudiced against long hair. (I
later accused them of being prejudiced against short hair!!) That was
just the first hour!
We were up
next with the chairman introducing us as “another very contentious and
difficult case”. Thanks! Staff made their very detailed report – including a
recommendation for approval that we’ve fought hard for over the last 8 ½
months. In the past weeks we sure had a lot thrown at us to overcome and I’ve
been listening a lot to that Jason Mraz song “I won’t give up” for inspiration
(thanks to Jane and Sarah – by the way if you haven’t heard it, you need to) So
yours truly took the microphone for a while. I had to make sure they got the
idea that we were actually serious about making wine because the opposition had
contrived a story that I was actually a dishonest timeshare developer masked as
a wine enthusiast. Amazing the (mostly true) stuff they dug up on me and
re-positioned for their argument. I even thought I was a timeshare guy for a
minute! Forty five minutes later I had put everyone to sleep and then the
battle really started. Criticisms and attacks from numerous neighborhood groups
that had been recruited from all over the county to try to stop the timeshare
ruse and generally put an end to new wineries who want to actually sell their
wine. Luke Wade, our talented architect next made some great points about our
project and we were also well supported by several neighbors who came to lend
support and/or write letters. We eventually weathered the storm. We achieved
95% of what we wanted and 100% of what we needed and I’m pretty confident we
left nothing on the table. But at one point we had about 100 people in the room
listening to the debate, 20 of whom had signed up as opposition speakers. Thank
god someone realized that most were really there for case #3, a contentious
commercial dog kennel permit complete with full press coverage and rabid
community interest (it also passed). We didn’t stay but we sure got to see a
lot of interesting people (and everyone left with coupons for weed, wine and
dog sitting!). Only in Sonoma County!
So today, on
George Washington’s birthday, I just have to say Wow! What a night! What a
week! What a country George left us! What a great and interesting life I have
thanks to all of your support and confidence in us. I’m landing in Telluride to
catch up with my buddies on the slopes for the weekend. Monday the work
continues…
All the Best!
Jack Seifrick
214-536-9000
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