I'm a Winemaker

This morning, Lindsay and I woke up early to get caught up on a few things since our internship is wrapping up. :( I finally finished the book Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore last night, so this morning I began reading Raving Fans, which is by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. It is such an easy read and explains how businesses can provide the best customer service. I am only partially through, but I recommend it!

Later this morning, Lindsay and I got to partake in an experience Jessup calls Barrel to Bottle Blending. Bay, who is one of the tasting associates, runs this experience. We observed him set up the process like he would for real customers. Then we actually got to blend our own bottle of wine. It was so much fun! We got to taste four different wines and then mix them together to form a wine we each enjoyed. After three trials, Lindsay and I had each found our unique blend.

During this experience, we got to use beakers and it felt like a science experiment. After we got our blend of wine into our bottles, we had to put a cork in it. There is this special machine that allows for us to put the corks into our bottles. Then we had to put the foil on the top to cover the cork. Finally, we each got to name our blend. I named mine “Chrysalis Cabernet” for two reasons. One, because the house I live in at Augie with my three best friends is called the Chrysalis House and two, because the blend is mostly cabernet. I am really happy with my blend and cannot wait to share it with my roommates when I get back!

This afternoon, Lindsay and I spent another day in the office filing, but only for a few hours. Then, Bay took us to an outside tasting at a hotel in Napa. It was fun to see how he conducts his outside sales and how different this one was compared to one we did with a different tasting associate two weeks ago. Bay shared some of his sales wisdom with us and the one thing he stressed was that you must always ask for the sale. This is because if you do not then you do not even have a chance of making a sale. I learned this in the personal selling class I took last spring, so it is interesting to see book material come into play.

It poored rain all day today, but I guess I cannot complain because I have seen pictures of the snow in South Dakota. Not going to lie, I would rather have rain than snow! Stay warm friends in the midwest! 

Cheers!