Just got back from a ten day sales trip on the road.  I look at the piles of paperwork on my kitchen table: cash receipts waiting to be totalled and categorized in one pile; credit card receipts on the other and miscellaneous stuff in the third pile.  On the floor there’s a pile of shirts that need to go to the cleaners, a carry on with a torn name tag that needs repair (I always carry cable ties, just in case…), a spaghetti pile of electrical cords from all the chargers I had with me on the trip and, of course, a small hill of socks and undergarments that I wonder whether to burn or launder.
Most winemakers and proprietors hate being on the road, I am no different and must admit that I have often ranted about this necessary “evil” part of our job.  The red-eye flights in “cattle” class next to the guy who won’t shut up, the stale air in Hotels rooms with windows that will not open, the trade and consumer wine events that start at 11 AM and finish at 9:30 PM where you have to politely explain that your winery is not in Russia even though the label clearly says : “Russian River Valley”.  We all have our favorite horror stories from the road, but few of us also admit that there is a fun aspect to it too.
Like, when you ride with a distributor sales rep and meet a buyer in a new swanky wine bar and he tells you he’s got no time to taste, and besides: “Merlot does not move” and 30 minutes later, after talking baseball or whatever he just keeps raving about your Merlot and orders two cases for a by-the-glass program.  Mostly, though, being on the road is always a great opportunity to learn and regain a healthy perspective of where you stand.  Tasting your wine with tens and sometimes hundreds of people every day makes you realize that regardless of scores, accolades, imaginary or real accomplishments; we are all part of creating a wine culture in America.  There is nothing like going to a tasting in a new wine bar in Cleveland and have someone tell you: “I was in Healdsburg last summer and had a bottle of your Syrah and I am now a total Syrah geek”.  It seems that everything we try to achieve these days is described in warfare terms: the “war on drugs”, the “Fight for equal rights”, the “Battle on obesity”.  It is no wonder that I feel like a soldier coming home from a successful campaign, a wine gladiator marching back to his village, full of battle scars yet his gait is strong;  ”we conquered a few more minds and countless palates” he tells the village folk proudly.  Now give me a beer and the TV remote.

Those who are familiar with our wines know that we like to have fun with words on our back labels.  Over the years, as the brand grew from a true “garagiste” hobby brand to a nationally distributed regional brand (we only make wines from grapes we grow or source locally) – the lingo on our back label has toned down from being very edgy to just mildly self-deprecating. 

However, fun with words is one thing, required legal stuff is another… this post is meant to educate readers about the meaning of the different terms used to describe the information about where the wine was bottled, mandatory on US wine labels.  Some of our wines say “Produced and bottled by Longboard” some say “Vinted and Bottled”,  some say “Healdsburg CA” while others say “Hopland, CA” or “Sonoma CA”.  We are asked, once in a while, about the diferences; so here it goes.  (BTW, If you really want all the little details, just go to CFR 27 .4 and you can read all the Federal Regulations yourself.. this is just a generic overview).

“ESTATE BOTTLED BY” - Ideally means the winery owns the vineyards from which ALL the wine in the bottle is made from and OWNS the production facility where the wine was produced and bottled.  Originally, this meant to tell you: “Hey, this is a high quality wine from one contiguous Estate”.  In reality, if you have a vineyard contract on someone else’s grapes and you put a clause in the contract that you may have input on growing practices, you are allowed to call these grapes “Estate” grapes.  So the original meaning has been diluted..  TTB (Trade and Taxation Bureau) is currently reviewing this term.

“PRODUCED AND BOTTLED BY” – Means the winery processed at least 75% of the grapes from which this wine was made.  I have no idea how this is supposed to guarantee a certain degree of quality… what if the winemaker is a doofus and purchased 25% plonk on the bulk market to blend in?

“CELLARED, VINTED or PREPARED” BY – means the winery fermented less than 75% of the grapes in that facility.  It can also mean that the winery never fermented a grape but rather acted like a negociant and just purchased bulk wine from someone and blended or manipulated it in another ways before bottling in that facility.

So, do you need to know this stuff and should you care where the wine was bottled or by whom?  I say no.  I know, I know, we all believe in the consumer’s right to know; but this regulatory system is archaic and quite meaningless.  It does not even let the consumer know if the wine is made by a real winery or by a negociant.     But enough about you, let’s get back to Longboard.  In our case, it can be a bit confusing; We are a grower, with an 02 license in our facility in Healdsburg, where we receive, ferment, age and bottle about 15% of our production, those are the wines that say “produced and bottled by Longboard, Healdsburg CA”.  We also have a 17/20 license, which allows us to recieve grapes, ferment, age and bottle in another facility (to which we extend the right to use our dba “Longboard Winery”); that is when the back label says: “Produced and bottled by Longboard Winery, Hopland (Sonoma or Geyserville) CA” depending on which facility we use.  Sometimes, as is the case with our “Point Break” red blend, we augment the wines we produced with wines we purchase in bulk from other wineries, if that quantity is over 25% of the wine blend, we have to say “Vinted and Bottled” etc.

Does any of this say anything about the quality of the wine? Not a thing.  There are some crappy Estate bottled wines out there and there are some great negociant, “Vinted”, wines in the market (Cameron Hughes is a good example).  But now you know.

New years seem to all start the same: those first awkward days when it takes a bit of mental gymnastics to write “2012″ on a check instead of 2011, wondering if you can swing a little extra cash to stash in an IRA, heavy sighs or a grunt when you look at that box full of receipts you know you are going to have to sort.  And, of course, waiting for the kids to go back to school so life can get back to “normal” and maybe you can find the time to take off those extra three pounds you put on during the  holidays…. 

The last few weeks had a lot to do with waiting.  Waiting for some snow in the Sierra, waiting for the economy to improve and, to my amazement, everyone I talk to seems to know we are all waiting for the MAVERICK’s Big Wave event to be announced  (click  here  for the site).  

In the vineyard, we are waiting for winter… mid January and yesterday we reached 70 degrees.  It is hard to stay indoors and take care of paperwork when the weather is sunny and everything screams at you: “Go outside”!  I don’t recall ever walking the vineyards in a pair of sneakers during this time of year.  Wines are all progressing nicely, except for all the Bordeaux varieties which just seem to lack a certain “Je ne sais quoi” that we are used to at this stage in a normal year.  Looks like it is just another variation on the theme.  As we sit and wait for the Green glag announcing 48 hours to the Mavericks event, we also seem to be in a waiting period to see how the reds of 2011 develop.

In the mean time, we are releasing the 2009 Merlot/Malbec from Dakine vineyard and some great tasting 2010 reds just in time for an early spring.  Waiting period on those is over.  The cycle continues.

We are exactly one month away from the Gala Opening of the 2011 Mavericks Photography exhibit at the winery.  Heidi Trilling just published this well written piece in west CoastView Magazine, Thanks Heidi for the kind words!

http://coastviewsmag.com/wine-waves-and-soul-mavericks-at-longboard-vineyards

Just a quick note as I’m taking a deep breath in between vineyard and winery hops…  I’ve heard today that some say there’s a sense of panic in wine country because of the rains that are predicted for next week.  For those of us who are long in the tooth: Panic is useless, it’s like a Rocking Horse; it keeps you busy but it get’s you nowhere.
We harvested the Carignane from Sadie’s Vineyard yesterday, about a ton and a half of this dry-farmed ZERO intervention vineyard.  I think I am going to label it UBER-ORGANIC since other than pruning and harvesting, we did nothing to those vines.  This vineyard just has this, je nai sais quoi… “X” factor that shines in the years we can actually harvest a crop.  Maybe it is just that the old Italian families that planted these sonoma vineyards knew something we are still learning about.  I’ve been saying for a while that I am a big believer in ‘Regional Blends” – this, to me is a perfect example of the kind of wine we should be making in Alexander Valley.  Most of the vines are head pruned Carignane with a bit of Alicante Bouschet vines here and there, a bit of Zin vines, a few vines of Petit Sirah, some Chasellas Doree (a white grape) and one undetermined table grape vine.  All are picked into the same bins and co-fermented.  Better put your name on the list because when released, this wine is going to ROCK and there is not going to be much of it to go around.
Today we are picking malbec and Syrah and tomorrow is the BIG “D” day, when we pick Dakine Vineyard. 

Imagine for a minute a crazy world.  Imagine you live  just outside Atlanta, Georgia.  You own a Peach farm and produce preserved peaches.  You work hard to improve the quality of your product and your efforts pay off, you start to get inquireries from folk in Delaware about purchasing some of your Peach preserves.  Now imagine this: you can’t simply ship your product to Delaware.  Instead, you have to write a polite letter to the state of Delaware for permission to sell your product in their glorious state.  A few weeks later, you receive a packet of forms from the Delaware PPC (Peach Preserves Control),  not really a “Welcome” packet… more something designed by  Tomas de Torquemada.  In addition to your fingerprints, financial statements, SS number, personal details and (of course) demand for fees, the state also requires you post a $5,000 bond and promise to update on their website the price you charge for your product on a regular basis.  The PPC also requires you to swear you will pay any sales tax due to the state for any Peach Preserves shipped to customers in that state promptly.  You also have to make sure you do not sell any Peach Preserves to anyone over the age of 85 who has problems maintaining a healthy blood glucose level.

Welcome to the wine world.. if you think the scenario described above is a figment of my imagination then think again… this is my reality.  In times when I hear folk grumbling about China and competition from other countries I say: Let us fix our own backyard first!   So here is my bright idea:

Governor Jerry Brown (in case you read this) I vote you send a letter to the 48 or so Governors of states that restrict the ability of California winegrowers to sell product in their states and tell them that as of January 2012 we will simply mirror their regulations on everything they wish to sell to California’s 30 plus Million residents.  I was going to ask politely that other states drop their unfair wine regulations but I realize that a smaller government is not in the best interest of all.  Instead, let’s make our state lead the way!  I’m not that good in math (I was surfing when that class was taught in high school) but I am pretty sure we can wipe out most of the state’s budget deficit while creating thousands of new jobs just by the fees we charge Wall Street for selling securities to California residents.  Just imagine the revenew stream we can generate from Dow chemicals for selling breast implants in the LA zip code area alone!  I can go on and on but I think you get the picture.  Stay tuned for next week when I attempt to find the producer’s margin on a bottle of wine sold (been looking for it for 14 years).

Idiot Me – Episode 1

If you follow the harvest “preseason” activities, you must have heard how late the 2011 harvest is compared to ‘normal’ (whatever that is).  Cool temperatures and bad set on some varieties are resulting in a small (overall) crop that is going to mature late in the season, most likely just before the early rains trickle to our neck of the woods.  This is why it was doubly hard for me to realize that this morning I had just paid about $750 for the privilege of having 10 vineyard workers drop about $5000 worth of Merlot fruit to the ground.  I really felt like an idiot, why not just take $100 bills and toss them to the ground?

‘Thinning’ is practiced when the winemaker feels a grower is asking the vines to mature a bit too much crop for the ‘quality’ the winery is shooting for.  It is a fine and funny dance to watch when the winery does not own the vineyard.  Some winemakers go to such extremes that growers either don’t take them seriously or demand acreage (rather than tonnage) contracts.  I once saw a case where a vineyard manager thinned the outside rows and end-vines only, knowing that the winemaker never really walked the complete vineyard.

When you are the winemaker AND the vineyard owner it is quite easy to know or rather ‘feel’ what the right balance is.  I normally thin five to ten vines with the crew foreman while the crew is watching so they can understand what I am looking for and WHY I need to drop fruit that is either shaded or not fully developed.  I try to have them munch on some dark berries compared to green ones so they can taste the difference.  Still, even though I know this is what needs to be done, It is hard not to feel like an idiot.

Idiot Me – Episode 2

Just celebrated my 52 birthday.  Got pampered by those I love and who love me back and had myself an absolutely great day, relaxed, uncomplicated, real.  As it happens, I also completed an important business transaction on that day.  After six years of having business partners in Longboard, I am now 100% owner again.  I feel lucky and quite optimistic even though I miss part of the dynamic that comes with having partners.  The good news is that the winemaker now calls all the shots so you know quality is just going to get better.  The bad news is that there will be no one to blame when things don’t work out according to plan (after all, what are partners for?).  I read somewhere recently that close to half of the wineries in Sonoma County are either for sale or in real trouble; these are rough times for this cash-intensive business.  So while I am happy to be a sole owner again, I can’t help wondering if I am just insanely optimistic…   What kind of an idiot wants to own a winery when production costs are rising and discretionary income shrinking?

I guess the same kind of idiot who throws 3 tons of grapes to the ground so that the rest would be of great quality.  Please support your local idiot.

Tom Clare Posted:  Summer Time, And The Living Is Easy…
I LOVE the way the Neville Brothers’ Band does that song.

Anyway, it hasn’t been totally “easy” but it has been a great summer time for the east coast and our LONGBOARD VINEYARDS Ohana out here.

First off, we’re crankin’ out some good biz with our new customers on The Outer Banks in North Carolina: Big City Wine, Point Harbor (at the Wright Memorial Bridge); Island Spice & Wine, Avon; TRIO Wine Bar, Kitty Hawk; The Sanderling Inn, Duck; Oceanfront Grille, Corolla Light.  I’m hoping to get us into Ocean Boulevard, Kitty Hawk and The Paper Canoe, Duck so keep your eye out for Longboard when you’re up on The OBX.

 Johnny Gnomes (a.k.a. the Cincinnati Surfer) has been working overtime out there on the Ohio River.  Carmen Parks reported in last Friday that Longboard Redgrav Cab was well-represented at the Western Hills CC  BYOB dinner.  The deal was, each couple attending was to bring a Cabernet from their home stash.  Chef Greg Skibinski and his crew prepared the ultimate in Cabernet pairings for the evening.  Carmen called me right in the middle of the event to let us know that 2 different couples had brought Longboard.  No other wine had multiple representations.  Much Mahalo to Johnny for his relentless dedication to the tribal cause!!

 Big congratulations and best wishes to Devon Ward, one of our original Ohio Ohana.  Devon has left her position at Tramonte & Sons in pursuit of a career on the production side of wine, attending Fresno State in the fall.  We look forward to seeing Devon in the vineyard and letting her get busy (that means dirty) in our winery some time soon.

 Longboard wines will soon be available in great supply and state-wide coverage in MARYLAND with Prestige Beverage Group!!!  And we are stoked.  Joey Smith and his crew are taking us into their portfolio.  You can contact them at: Office: 410-439-1602; 6611-A Cabot Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21226  www.prestigebeverage.com   Be sure to let Joey know that you heard about his on our Blog.

 Keep your fingers crossed… we are so close to being available in MISSOURI now too.  All the paperwork is in and we should have a green flag shortly.  Our distributor is going to be Ionia-Atlantic out of St. Louis.  If you speak with Kallie Smith or Nathan Woodhouse let them know that your anxious to get at our wines.

Peace,

When asked why I decided to become a winemaker, I answer that to me winemaking is the most perfect union of art, science and agriculture — three things that separate us from the platypus and politicians. 

As a winemaker who has lived and worked in California during a time that can only be described as the “Big Bang” of modern winemaking, I find myself emotionally charged and confused with some of the current trends in the winemaking world.  Having led winemaking teams through periods of transition, I am well aware that with any change (and we all know that change is inevitable) comes a certain degree of discomfort.  I can live with that.  Heck, I’ve learned to welcome and love that little gray space that accompanies change.  Like the spring fog in the Russian River Valley – this gray space can be a place where good things develop.  So I always wait with anticipation for the change that may come our way.  Will it be a welcome scientific development or a ridiculous bust?  Maybe someone will finally isolate a yeast that can take a sugar-rich must and consume part of the sugar in a non-alcohol producing pathway?  Or maybe something that has nothing to do with hard science is lurking in the mist?  Could it be that after years of conspicuous wine consumption and the inherent chase of meaningless numerical scores, the wine drinking population will mature and start seeking a truly refined bottle of wine rather than a trophy to impress their peers?

Right now, we’re in that gray area of change in the wine industry, still waiting to see where we will come out.  Just like with changes in nature, things could go either way.  We all know how our Russian River Valley fog cools the grapes and lets them build flavors after a hot summer day, but that other times, nature can be a harsh bitch.  Sometimes, that fog we so welcome in normal years ends up laying low, refusing to lift and becomes the enabler of a wicked fungus that will turn your prized Chardonnay to a mushy, bitter mess.  I have a nagging feeling we are headed that way in the wine business.

The new movement gaining popularity and attention in the wine media is the “Natural Wine” movement.  Like many of the “green” movements, this seems to have begun with the noble (though not particularly original) thought: “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a very pure wine?  One with no artificial intervention whatsoever?  And, wouldn’t such a wine be better than others?” Who could say no to that?

But the curious antagonist in me decided to investigate and see if there is support for a “Natural” label on wine.  I started with the dictionary definition for the word “Natural” as used in this context. “Unadulterated” and “Uncultivated” and “in its original state”.  Ooooh, that sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

Certainly the artist in me liked the notion — the romance of something raw, unrefined.  I pictured a hunk of granite worked on by wind and rain, not a chisel and fine files.  My inner artist-winemaker could easily meditate on his Tatami mat and grok the notion of wine in a natural state. 

But the farmer in me?  Not so much.  “Are you kidding me”? my inner farmer winemaker said.  “Are we talking about farming two rose bushes in the back yard or eleven acres of vines?.  No intervention?  Who decides what is an intervention and what isn’t?  Really”?, my farmer side said.

Is our current state of viticulture natural anymore?  Not if I stick to the original meaning of the word.  Vines in nature do not arrange themselves in rows and train their shoots so that humans have an easy time picking them (neither does lettuce or asparagus).  If you wanted to make wine as nature would have it, you’d have to forage for grapes as some do for mushrooms.  Good luck with that, and better learn how to climb trees.  I reflected on the admission of an organic grape grower that he uses Weed Whackers (now there’s a green practice) to control brush.  I remembered feeling slightly duped when I learned that biodynamic farmers rent young and short sheep and bring them for a limited time into their vineyard (otherwise they’d eat the green matter of the vines), to satisfy the requirement for being an “integrated” farm. I reflected on folk who made millions of dollars by placing oil drilling rigs over pristine coral reefs only to come to the wine country, buy a winery and suddenly become greener than spinach.  Words have lost their true meaning and we do nothing about it. Why should the world of wine be any different? I ask myself.  It’s like my friend Jimbo says:  “You can raise free range chickens but unless I put a fence around them, the free range foxes are going to get really fat and happy.”  This farming business, not as easy as art, you know.

The scientist in me prepared a double espresso, sat in front of the computer and said “Come back in a day or two, I need to do some preliminary research” as he Goggled his way to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations and read section 205.601 (synthetic substances allowed in the production of organic crop production).  Jotting down some compound names like “Copper Sulfate” and “Peracetic Acid” he mumbled here and there and once exclaimed “Tetracycline?!” out loud (allowed until 2012).  I heard him chuckle when he browsed biodynamic practices, I think he accidentally snapped a pencil while trying to follow up on the bibliography quoted on the  “more than organic” website. He also spent a few hours reading the requirements for “Low Input Viticulture”  (LIVE) and reading through the code of sustainable practices developed by the California Wine Institute.  I gave him a small budget, so he set out on the next day to buy some organic, biodynamic, natural and conventional wines and conducted a small consumer tasting panel.  His report was very dry.  There is no scientific or statistically significant data to support any of the claims that “Sustainable”, “Organic”, “Biodynamic” or “Natural” wine is better in any way from wine not certified with one of these labels. The smallest carbon footprint is produced when the wine you buy is from your local winery. That is a scientific fact.

Dave McIntyre recently published a piece in the Washington Post titled “Wine: Green With Confusion” just in time for Earth Day 2011. McIntyre’s piece paints a great portrait of the utter chaos and confusion that prevails in how wine bottles are labeled and marketed in the US.  He reminds us that not long ago, “Organic Lettuce” was a bug-full head of lettuce you bought from a dingy hippie in your local Farmer’s Market.  McIntyre makes a great point in saying that nowadays “Green” is as mainstream as that hippie’s tattoos and that the green movement is at danger of being co-opted by the marketing department.  I think he is spot-on but I believe it has gone further than just that.  It seems to me we let the marketing department co-opt truth.

The artist, farmer and scientist then melt into me, the winemaker.  I put on my trusty pair of Blundstones and took a my Australian Shepherd for a walk in the vineyards.  All this stuff stirred my mind and emotions to ponder language and how it reflects on the human journey.  George Carlin (who I greatly miss) once did a great piece about how with time, we have sanitized the English language and got further away from the true meaning of descriptions.  His example, showed how along the years we went from “Shell Shock” to “Battle Fatigue” to “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” and now a new one: “Combat Stress Reaction”.  This made me think about wine.

My first thought was that the same dynamic has affected wine terms.  In simpler and  more honest times, wineries had everyday wines and one or two “Reserve” wines that were truly unique for a reason (great vintages, pedigreed vineyards or additional ageing).  Here we are in the early twenty-first century and “Special Reserve Select” on a label of wine means “This wine is so bland our only hope to sell any is to designate it with a fancy  descriptor”.  Somewhere in the constipated board rooms of corporate America we all tacitly agreed not to rock the boat.  Winery owners agreed  to play along and buy ads in newspapers and invite writers to all-expense paid trips and stays in their guest houses.  Winemakers agreed to let ratings change their personal tastes and allow marketing wizards to write their bios and wine philosophies in a language they would never use.  Lawmakers happily submitted legislation pushed on them by this or that lobbyist as long as they could fatten their next election campaign coffers.  And wine writers, those who should care most about language, agreed to not ask really difficult questions as long as we send them free samples.

My next thought was that wine is not natural; if you leave it to nature – wine becomes vinegar.  There is no wine without human intervention. 

There’s no wonder I feel a little lost and confused.  The idealist in me understands the potential of a noble cause but the pragmatist can spot a fake advertisement from a mile away.  Claiming that one’s wine is “Natural” and unadultared just because you accept your adulterations and reject your neighbor’s is bogus. 

One may claim that language is just words and that words evolve to mean different things as time change.  I say that language is THE thing that makes humans unique  on this planet.  Language is what we use to describe concepts and without concepts we are nothing more than Baboons.  During this “Big Bang” of winemaking, we have opened the floodgates of knowledge and become drunk with self importance.  We are too busy playing with our new toys to notice we have no humility left.

I hope this offends someone, maybe an old-guard writer who can prove me wrong.  Maybe a young blogger who is not averse to hard work and is not afraid to point out that the Green Emperor is not wearing any clothes while keeping their self-importance in check.  I have to get back to making unnatural wine that tastes great and is good for you in moderation.

 Mahatma Gandhi said: “Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature”. How appropriate in these times of caricature wines and arrogant wine producers.

Last month I had fun talking on KSRO 1350 on “The Drive” with Steven Jaxon and Larry Levine.  I can always count on some “Woodie” jokes to loosen the participants and get to a comfortable place for chatting.  At some point the question about the connection between surfing and winemaking always comes up and since time is often limited, I keep it short and sweet (and true) and talk about how in both activities mother nature is in charge and how the minute we forget or disregard her, she’ll smack us smartly upside the head.

There are many other parallels, some I’ve touched on in past newsletters, some I bring up in conversations in the tasting room.  On Tuesday, I took a few hours in the morning to go surf with a buddy.  We both dropped our kids at school, loaded my car with all the gear (surfboards, wetsuits, towels, water for rinsing ourselves apre-surf, wax, leashes, tubs to stuff the wet gear into, ear plugs, booties, hoods and, of course, coffee mugs), and headed to Salmon Creek with the radio blaring some tunes and our souls giddy with anticipation.  As we rounded the corner by the park rangers office, we could already see a horizon filled with whitecaps, not a good sign.  Standing on the bluff, with a 20 knots NW wind howling, looking at a mishmash of windblown crap breaking on a low tide, it was clear to us we are not getting wet today.  There was nothing left to do other than grabbing a Latte and head to browse the used board section at the Northern Lights surf Shop in Bodega.
On the ride home, I could not avoid feeling like a poser.  The Urban dictionary defines a poser as a “wannabe”.  I knew where the feeling comes from, from the days when I was a 12 year old grom who would go in no matter how cold or windy or crappy the Ocean was.  As a surfer grows older, we all face, at some point or another, the fact that not every wave is worth riding (in our mind).  Naturally, I was wondering if there is a parallel to the wine world here.

When I was a winemaking student at UC Davis in the mid 80′s, I had a wine notebook.  In it, I pasted the label of (almost) every wine bottle I opened (mind you, this is before pressure-sensitive labels were invented and labels soaked off the bottles pretty easily).  Next to the label, I would write my impressions of the wine, my rating of it and (if any) some publication’s rating of the wine, where I enjoyed it and with whom.  Somehwere in the late 90′s, I came across that notebook while doing some spring cleaning at home, laughed my head off reading some of the bullshit I have written there and tossed it away to the garbage pile.

I hope you see the parallel here.  I now think that maybe, just maybe, we all have to be a little bit of a POSER when we fall in love with something that ends up becoming an inegral part of our life.  Whether it is letting waves become a focus of your daily life or spending every spare moment documenting a wine’s impression.  I now think I may have been once a poser, but no more.  Now I just enjoy the freedom of having to prove nothing to anybody and enjoy surfing when I think the conditions are good enough and a wine with no rating attached.