A little bit about me

• 14+ years of experience in the Wine Industry 

• Sonoma State- Wine business management 

• Level 3 WSET

• GM

• Winery owner 

I was not looking into the wine industry as a career, it truly found me. I have been working in the food industry and still love to cook. When I was approached by one of my dining regulars about working for them. They own a wine education tour company. I was interested in a change from working in a pub and felt like it was a classier side of selling and drinking booze. Let me be the first one to tell you I hate the food industry's hours, I am not the one up until 2 am, I am the one who's in bed and asleep by 10. 

 Needless to say, I started for them and they gave me little to no training, it was more of a script to which I added my own personality. I worked on these tours off and on for many many years. At the same time, I had no clue that I was building a foundation that would help me for many years to come.  In my off-and-on love-hate relationship with being a tour guide, I learned a lot about people, myself, and wine.  To be a better guild I had to know a lot more than the script, I started reading prep courses to be a somm and the world of wines.  From there I found what made me have passion and that was the understanding of wine history.  History is what binds us all together, I've never seen an industry that had so many layers of moving parts.  Something that is so steeped in traditions and the old ways, to new modern technologies, all rolled into one.  Besides water, wine is the oldest beverage on the planet and many of us like myself have made our lives about a drink, but there is so much more than at.  

After a few years, I outgrew doing tours and started working in a tasting room where I quickly became a manager what a great education on running a tasting room, and to me just one more skill I could add to the ever-growing resume.  

About 2008 both of my grandparents passed away and my family took over the rest of the property that we have had in our family since 1967, and my brother and Dad started to prep for planting a hobby vineyard.  After the post was put in and the rows were all lined, one very cool day in March we hand planted our vineyard, row by row, stick by stick. All clippings that had been in hibernation from the previous winter pruning season.  Clone A syrah that comes from Ojai, and Sauv Blanc that came from malibu as an experiment.  I only wished that my grandparents were still alive to see the transformation. Just not the growth of the vines and the transformation of the property but the growth of me. 

For a short time, I did leave the industry, at the time where I lived and still do now, did not have a lot of wine jobs and I had recently gotten married and felt that I needed to be able to make more money to have a livelihood closer to home. Doing tours for the money was either feast or famine, and overall hard to make a real living.  Which I had to go back to after I was fired from my Management job at a local tasting room. I had found some drug paraphernalia in the owner's brother's in-laws' desk, the owner had asked me to pack up his desk while he was out of town since we were moved and rearranging the back office to fit the accountant's desk as well.  I brought this up to the owner and two weeks later I was let go from the job there that I really loved so much. It was a crushing blow. Living in a small community I kept that private.  Knowing there was little to no wine work I regrettably went back to tours and started looking for other opportunities that would help pay the bills. 

This was truly a hard time for me, I had outgrown the tours, hated going to work, struggling to pay bills, was newly married, our living arrangements in a duplet became uncomfortable with the other tenants, and definitely going through a depression. It was just a keep swimming moment it could get worse and I just needed to keep moving.  I started doing in-home wine sales, which helped but never really took off, but at that time I was very active on Instagram which a lot of people were new to and I used it mostly for wine, wine tours, etc.  I had received a message from a winemaker who we met and he hired me on the spot for a tasting room position, which helped re-lighting my passion for wine. It was nice to be with other employees that felt the same way and built some lifelong relationships with some of these individuals.  

By this time we had been able to move to a small home on the small family vineyard. The move helped with many things and not giving up when I was down to help the situation but never will all problems be solved. Meanwhile, the home winery continues to shape and grow. Have a few vintages under the belt, and won some local wine awards. Encouragement like that even though small sometimes just shows the glimmer of a path. 

By 2013 my husband had taken over the winemaking for the home winery but still with my dad and brother involved. 

I do joke from time to time about being a bootlegger from the time span from 2014-to 2016

I did work at a winey at this time, I also took a part-time job back in the food industry again only because I knew that it was only for a short amount of time. Also taking that experience as a huge learning opportunity, about business and an insider of having employees again didn't know I was doing but took so much from that experience. 

To fund our winery project we would throw parties at the vineyard and have bands play, and take donations to help fund this winery project. Everything was grassroots sweat equity, no one died and left us money to start this adventure, I am sure there never was a discussion on how it was going to happen it was just working on top of our normal jobs to keep the project moving and realized we would need a tasting room soon for the wine we had been making. So the hunt for a location for a tasting room started.   

Earlier I talked about unknowingly making a foundation from doing wine tours when the business side of starting a winery and a tasting room. I had so many contacts, that when questions came up I had people that I called friends to help me, and answer my questions some gave advice, some advice we took some we didn’t. But having those resources made a huge difference to me. It was so welcoming and all of them were so willing to help where they could. This was my 2nd love of the wine industry. The sense of community.  I can only speak for myself on this is what I have experienced and this is one thing I have kept true being on the other side.  Help and listen to others when they ask, and keep that heart true. I do not see competitors, I only see growth and love for the wine industry and I want others to feel the same way about a beverage. 

Even with all that backlog of experiences that I have continued to add to my quiver nothing will ever prepare you for living and working in the wine industry daily. 

Fast Forward quite a bit, there is more that happens in the mix of everything but for another story. Owning and managing a tasting room for about 6 years is about where things are now. I have grown and learned so much about myself and what I am capable of doing. Sounds so cliche but it's because I wanted to, as a leader you have to be willing to do the same things you are asking your staff to do.  I also could not become stagnant, more education was a must.  

 when I decided to go back to school, something I do talk proudly about. When I graduated high school like a lot of young people first starting out, it was confusing and not having a lot of help or support and lack of direction and having a pretty tough time in school, college just didn’t sound like something I was going to experience. I never even tried or took the SAT.   Part of me wishes I could go back and change that but all of our choices are still 50% chance. So don’t be so hard on yourself.  As someone who grew up being dyslexic when I made a choice it was normally the easier-looking path a lot of fear led me back to even trying. I hated to look dumb, in a way a took a harder path because I took so many easy detours it just more or less become a cycle that I repeated in different ways. Thinking about it there is a lot to be added to this subject and may need to add it here at a different time. 

After I finished up my online classes at Sonoma State, I was kind of hooked on education. It mostly came down to the subject, I was enjoying it because it was already something I liked being a part of and getting to share my real-life experiences with others that wanted to learn about what I have already gone through and being exposed to so much more than I thought I was already doing in my business and overall became a better boss, paid more attention to my tasting room.  Well knowing that it would not be too long before I start my next chapter.   

Covid-19 Also will be its own subject altogether, that really taught me how to, really move fast, pivot quickly, and how not to give it. (link article) But with some downtime, I sign up for the WSET (Wine spirits education trust) level two. I opted to skip level one.  In the thick of this class, I was able to reopen my business and the class took a backseat to have my business open again, and the fear and adrenaline of being back open, losing employees. As the one driving the ship and some people bail you have to take over those jobs as well,  working for days sometimes weeks straight, after a long day I didn't care to go home to learn about wines, regions, or deductive tasting. So this was a bumpy road, started late, finished the class on my end date at 11:59, and class closed at midnight.  But I finished!  A few months later I take the formal test and 10 weeks later got my passing with Merit which is like a B missed it by one question to pass With Distinction. 

As things have changed so much this past year, and as I continue life's journey and will be staying in the beverage business.  

I have had That wine lady.com for many years now and I am here to now offer my services the best way I can, to help others achieve their goals with wine. Thanks for reading and I look forward to meeting you. 

- Tara