In between my bloviating about things I think I know about, I like to throw in personal interest stories of characters and friends found through wine. Yes, wine has this great ability to lead you into rooms with extraordinary people you would otherwise not be invited. So wine, besides being the greatest of beverages, can act as a doorway to a world maybe unknown to you...To a place of higher thinking, and experiences that otherwise would be foreign, never to have entered one's life. The truth is, many great people love wine and they sometimes even accept you as a friend. Let me tell you a story of such an encounter and friendship. I found myself in Napa Valley a few years back (yes, I know people in Cabernet land) with some friends at a table in St Helena. There were six of us total as I remember it and knew most everyone. I will not mention all who were there because this article is focused on just a single encounter. The interesting part of this is, I was there to hire a new Distributor in another state, while a dear friend who was with me works for the same company I was, well...firing. It's easy to misunderstand or misread a room when you don't have all the facts but the person I am writing about did not like me very much after our first meeting, and that's somewhat putting it mildly. He thought me to be too harsh letting my distributor go and at the same time hiring the other. It was not until some time later that he realized all was well in the world and I was not that big of a jerk. The great power of wine won the day and it's influence prevailed to give me, without me knowing, a second chance. Got to love a liquid that acts at times like an ambassador. This gentleman (which I will reveal soon) loved our wines and figured the hell with me because the wine was much more important. So he accepted an invitation to our humble little winery and the rest is history. (Click Continued to Read More)