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Speaker 1: heart or text I Heeart to five hundred five hundred. Hi.
Speaker 1: This Rashane McDonald. You're listening to money Making Conversation. He
Speaker 1: is on the phone. I know because we just cracked
Speaker 1: jokes together. My next guest had a had a fourteen
Speaker 1: year NFL career as a quarterback and a very good
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl quarterback. Bark. He was an one pick in
Speaker 1: the NFL draft and you know, number one. Since retirement.
Speaker 1: He is the founder Bledsoe Capital Group and co founder
Speaker 1: of Double Back Winery and Walla Wa La Vala in
Speaker 1: the state of Washington. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations.
Speaker 1: Drew bless So, good morning. How are you man? Drew?
Speaker 1: You got that man? You got? That's that's that cold voice.
Speaker 1: Drew Hey, Man, you know, you know it's uh, it's
Speaker 1: not early here. We got in really late last night
Speaker 1: from bring break trip of the family, so it feels early.
Speaker 1: So I got my coffee going. But I don't know,
Speaker 1: I kind of like the morning voice. You know, you're
Speaker 1: on the on the radio morning voice from you sometimes, Drew,
Speaker 1: Hey Jue. Before we get started, Man, I would looking
Speaker 1: at your bayo. I know you're the big name, but
Speaker 1: I gotta give some props to your wife. Uh. You
Speaker 1: know she she plays a major role in the winery.
Speaker 1: Could you tell my listeners exactly the role she plays
Speaker 1: in the business. Yeah, you know, it's it's really enjoyable
Speaker 1: for us to be able to work together on this project.
Speaker 1: You know, when when I was playing football, it was
Speaker 1: all about me and Vanfire and for us after I retire,
Speaker 1: we're able to do this together. She has a huge,
Speaker 1: huge impact on our business in multiple ways. She's she
Speaker 1: serves as a as a you know, a board member,
Speaker 1: helps us direct what we're doing, both from what we're making,
Speaker 1: how we're selling, you know, how we're gonna market uh,
Speaker 1: and then the other thing she does that that's that's
Speaker 1: hugely important. She's got a great palette. So when we
Speaker 1: do our blending trials to figure out what's ultimately going
Speaker 1: to go into a bottle of line, she's the final
Speaker 1: she gets the final vote um, and so far she's
Speaker 1: she's done a great job. So so that I don't
Speaker 1: want to slay everybody down because you know, some you
Speaker 1: come from that audience, a beer drinkers, that's your fan base,
Speaker 1: and now you're in the wine business. Is that is
Speaker 1: that something that's part of your your history or something
Speaker 1: that you got into as you were playing football looking
Speaker 1: at the next step of your life. Can you give
Speaker 1: us a little background on why you are in the
Speaker 1: winery business. Yeah, yeah, you know, because you're right. So,
Speaker 1: I mean I grew up and I grew up in
Speaker 1: in wheat farming country, and then I went to school
Speaker 1: at Washington State University. I mean, this is this's beer
Speaker 1: drinking country and and and it's uh, you know, and
Speaker 1: the same thing you know with the with the fan
Speaker 1: base in the NFL. But uh, the thing that that
Speaker 1: happened when when when I got into the league, and uh,
Speaker 1: is that I discovered that there were a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of guys on my team, especially early on
Speaker 1: with the Patriots that really wanted to try something different,
Speaker 1: and so we started drinking wine and talking about it.
Speaker 1: And the and the thing that would surprise most people
Speaker 1: is the guys that got into it the most with
Speaker 1: me were linebackers, you know, Teddy Brusky and Ted Johnson
Speaker 1: and Mike Brable and and then a couple of my
Speaker 1: lineman Bruce Armstrong, big wine guy, and love those guys. Man, well,
Speaker 1: Bruce Armstrong should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: but that's another subject for at at the time. Um,
Speaker 1: but you'd be kind of surprised that we would get
Speaker 1: together and I would tell those guys to bring over
Speaker 1: a fancy bottle of line and I would bring something
Speaker 1: from my little hometown out here in Walla, Walla, and
Speaker 1: we would put them in paper bags and we would
Speaker 1: blind taste them, you know, just being complete you know,
Speaker 1: wine dorks and and uh and we would just be
Speaker 1: tough football player. Absolutely you would, Yeah, you did, you did?
Speaker 1: You know? Lat back as they move forward, they don't
Speaker 1: move back. And but then all of a sudden you
Speaker 1: got one of these big tough guys with this little
Speaker 1: pinky finger out swirling wine and a wine glass it.
Speaker 1: But the cool thing when we did that, I would
Speaker 1: bring some wine from my hometown and we would put
Speaker 1: them in paper bags and we would win, you know.
Speaker 1: But I would bring these these wines that that nobody
Speaker 1: had ever heard of, and we would win the competition.
Speaker 1: So I kind of got my mind working and thinking
Speaker 1: maybe that would be a that would be a potential
Speaker 1: career after I was done. Now that's you hanging out
Speaker 1: with the fellas. Now when did you move your wife
Speaker 1: into saying okay, I think we may have something was
Speaker 1: was shed to you know, because I'm marriage so I
Speaker 1: know the role that a wife can play because there's
Speaker 1: sometimes the light bulb will go off faster with them
Speaker 1: than with me sometimes, you know. So how how does
Speaker 1: she come into play? Because, like you said, when it
Speaker 1: comes to running the business, the board, the palette, how
Speaker 1: does she play a role in that next step? Well, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the biggest, the biggest thing. And she and
Speaker 1: I both had this the same fear because we had
Speaker 1: seen people as they've made that transition out of the
Speaker 1: professional sports and into the rest of their life. Um,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of guys that released good with that.
Speaker 1: And when I when I looked at um, at that
Speaker 1: it was it was scary. You know, I was in
Speaker 1: the middle of my career and you know, but you know,
Speaker 1: you're playing professional sports. I mean, it's it's the coolest
Speaker 1: thing you could ever possibly do. That I loved every
Speaker 1: I loved every second of it, and I'd go back
Speaker 1: and do it all over again. But one of the
Speaker 1: hard parts is that that that if you're really really fortunate,
Speaker 1: which I was, you get to play into your mid
Speaker 1: thirties and then they show you the door, and and
Speaker 1: you you've got to figure out what to do with
Speaker 1: the rest of your life. You know, we're both both
Speaker 1: afraid of that. And and she when I when I
Speaker 1: first of all, when I retired from football, she challenged
Speaker 1: me really hard as to whether I was ready to retire,
Speaker 1: when I was ready to not do that anymore. She
Speaker 1: pushed back on me really hard. But then once I did, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think we both knew that that I
Speaker 1: was going to need to be um, you know, I
Speaker 1: was going to need to be productive. I was gonna
Speaker 1: need to have something that that was engaging to me,
Speaker 1: you know. And uh, and so she was entirely supportive
Speaker 1: of of of you know, this wine business, and plus
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's enjoyable and something that she was
Speaker 1: passionate about as well. So it worked out really well.
Speaker 1: And then the other part is that she she just
Speaker 1: she knew I was gonna be a have to be
Speaker 1: out of the house and she was gonna kill me
Speaker 1: I was around too If I was around too much,
Speaker 1: it was not gonna work very well. So uh, but no,
Speaker 1: it was really a thing that we that we designed
Speaker 1: and built and grew together and now we have a
Speaker 1: lot of fun with it. Okay, great, Before we go
Speaker 1: in the front, I want to talk. I read this
Speaker 1: big old article on uh it was on ESPN dot com.
Speaker 1: It was talking about NBA players how they have an
Speaker 1: affection for wine, and it was really and to hear
Speaker 1: you talk, so it's really I like bringing it up
Speaker 1: because athletes in general have this certain vision of be
Speaker 1: tough for being a guy that you know, you're the
Speaker 1: words man's man. And when you get wine. You know,
Speaker 1: my wife is a big wine drinker. You know, I
Speaker 1: got you know, she she she she looks at it
Speaker 1: from a certain different a different angle. And when I
Speaker 1: when you when I got excited about the whole prospect though,
Speaker 1: you know, talk about Lebron, James, Chris Paul All these
Speaker 1: are big time wine drinkers. When you I don't know
Speaker 1: if you're familiar with that story, does that when you
Speaker 1: hear stories like they get out that doesn't help your
Speaker 1: your brand, doesn't help your industry? And how do you
Speaker 1: use that like market? Can't you use that to market
Speaker 1: your your brand? And we encourage you know now you
Speaker 1: know one of the one of the reasons you know
Speaker 1: that that guys are are are going that direction because
Speaker 1: it's it's it's healthier, it's it's actually good for you.
Speaker 1: And there's some studies out there. I mean, there's a
Speaker 1: there's a recent study that that needs to be shared
Speaker 1: everywhere that if you drink more wine, you live longer.
Speaker 1: Um and uh so, uh so so I need I
Speaker 1: need to catch up with my wife absolutely. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't want her, you don't want her to be lonely,
Speaker 1: So you gotta live as long as she does. You
Speaker 1: gotta drink a lot of wine, housing money that she's
Speaker 1: gonna have some money. That's a sad point. I am
Speaker 1: officially gonna start sampling with her from now on. There
Speaker 1: you go. I love it, I love it, but no,
Speaker 1: it's it's extremely helpful for our business. A matter of fact,
Speaker 1: Braun took took great care of me. What a year
Speaker 1: and a half ago during the playoffs there was the NFL.
Speaker 1: It was NBC did a little, uh, a little blur
Speaker 1: about our winery, and Lebron sent sent a tweet asking
Speaker 1: me for some wine, and and so that that that
Speaker 1: that certainly certainly helps them sales. So I obviously sent
Speaker 1: him off a couple of bottles to to try. And
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's no, definitely beneficial and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just it's a it's an interesting beverage. It's different,
Speaker 1: you know, at least to me, it's different from uh
Speaker 1: from beer whiskey. It's just it's it's got a complexity
Speaker 1: and some interesting aspects to it, and it just really
Speaker 1: really elevates some meal when you sit down to have
Speaker 1: a glass. I know, I know you in Washington, which
Speaker 1: is the northwest part of the country. Uh CJ. McCullen,
Speaker 1: Port Latreille Direct Blaze is a big wine drinker, and uh,
Speaker 1: Damian Leonard they was in that same article. So just
Speaker 1: letting you know, Lebron will in Cleveland, and there's some
Speaker 1: bars right there in Oregon, you might want to drop
Speaker 1: a couple of bottle of wine because he's a big
Speaker 1: wine drink. Because I know it's all about relationship. That
Speaker 1: social media is so powerful. You can take those screenshots
Speaker 1: and just share them and all that good stuff. So
Speaker 1: that's a that's a big move by Lebron because he
Speaker 1: is by far the most powerful athlete in the world,
Speaker 1: in the in the in the sport of football, in
Speaker 1: the sport of basketball, and the sport of baseball that
Speaker 1: America has to offer. So let's talk about your your
Speaker 1: your vineyards, my friend you and uh and you launched
Speaker 1: the double back and the state focused winder that produces
Speaker 1: world class uh cabinet from the Walla Walla Valley. So
Speaker 1: is it about the soil? Because I was doing my research,
Speaker 1: I was I was trying to get ready for you, Drew.
Speaker 1: I would try to get ready for you man. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's about two things. It's about your soil
Speaker 1: and about your weatherum and our our little valley has it.
Speaker 1: It's it's too long for this segment, but our little
Speaker 1: valley has a really interesting uh uh geological history. There
Speaker 1: was some huge flood got two breaks that we got
Speaker 1: two breaks drew, So you can talk about we've got
Speaker 1: two breaks there. We had there were there were some
Speaker 1: these these there were some floods that happened during the
Speaker 1: last ice Age. There was a massive lake that backed
Speaker 1: up behind an ice dam, and and every forty years
Speaker 1: or so that ice dam would break, and we had
Speaker 1: floods that came across the Pacific Northwest that were cataclysmic,
Speaker 1: cataclysmic in nature, I mean to do these massive, massive floods.
Speaker 1: When that happened, there was a cliff band that just
Speaker 1: outside of the valley and it pushed all this sedimentary,
Speaker 1: all this water up into our valley, and all this
Speaker 1: sediment dropped out. So we've got this really deep, very
Speaker 1: mineral rich soil. And then, because you know, most of
Speaker 1: the people that have not spent time in the Northwest,
Speaker 1: all you think about is all the rain in Seattle
Speaker 1: in Portland. But what happens is you do You've got
Speaker 1: the Cascade Mountains and that traps all that rain on
Speaker 1: the coast, and our climate we're in we're in a
Speaker 1: high desert climate, um and so what we get to
Speaker 1: these long hot summer days, we get really cool nights,
Speaker 1: and we've got this deep, porous soil with you know,
Speaker 1: with you know, rainfall, it only happens in the winter
Speaker 1: and the summertime we can control it. And so you
Speaker 1: just have this confluence of events that allows us to
Speaker 1: grow some of the best wine grapes in the entire world.
Speaker 1: That's so sol and the and in the background of
Speaker 1: where you came from is really what makes his work.
Speaker 1: Now you have so you have to two different winery.
Speaker 1: You have the Blitzel Family Winery and you have a
Speaker 1: sister project called a double back winery. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: what we did when we started the business, you know,
Speaker 1: everything that we do is designed to go into double
Speaker 1: back cabinet. We're trying to make this wine compete on
Speaker 1: a national stage, and we've we've established that we can
Speaker 1: do that. Uh and even on an international stage, you know,
Speaker 1: are the wine will hold up against against any wine
Speaker 1: in the world. So every grape that comes in the
Speaker 1: building is where we're intending to go into double back.
Speaker 1: But when you bring you know, when you go to
Speaker 1: your blending trials, and when my wife and I sit
Speaker 1: down and do blending trials with our winemaker, there's a
Speaker 1: certain amount of wine that doesn't make the cut, that
Speaker 1: doesn't you know, it's just not stylistically you know, uh
Speaker 1: fit doesn't quite fit with Double Back. Well, we initially
Speaker 1: we just we needed a place for that wine to
Speaker 1: go rather than just dumping it down the drain or
Speaker 1: you know, selling to somebody that it in in a
Speaker 1: cheap and some other cheap label. And so we started
Speaker 1: the Family Winery so that now we have we can
Speaker 1: we can bring in even more fruit and be more
Speaker 1: selective with what goes into Double Back without having to
Speaker 1: just you know, eat the financial loss of the of
Speaker 1: the other wines. And it's also it's also allowed us
Speaker 1: to to experiment with some other varietals. You know, we're
Speaker 1: doing a little bit of shardoned, we do a little straw.
Speaker 1: We started doing some rosea this last year. Uh, those
Speaker 1: all going to the Family Wine. Don't go into the wine.
Speaker 1: That's my next break because I want to go down
Speaker 1: with I want to go down each wine so you
Speaker 1: can tell us about each wine. But also I want
Speaker 1: to educate my audience on what wine goes with what
Speaker 1: food because the fact that I'll just be looking at
Speaker 1: our wife she should be or that sea food. I
Speaker 1: gotta have this, or that steak, I gotta have this.
Speaker 1: I go okay, I just have some water, sir, Just
Speaker 1: give me some water. But but the thing that I
Speaker 1: really was admired about the whole process of just just
Speaker 1: seeing you making this transition because it's so important. Like
Speaker 1: you said that, so many athletes, you hear the sad stories,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to get you on my show because
Speaker 1: you're not a sad story. Your family, guy, I love
Speaker 1: the fact that your wife has engaged in the business,
Speaker 1: and I call your power couple. You know. I love
Speaker 1: to get home on the show one day, just interview
Speaker 1: her because she's important to the process, because he's a force.
Speaker 1: Like you said, you used to be the big name.
Speaker 1: Now you guys are shared the big name. And so
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit more about the
Speaker 1: the wines uh at the Bled. So I want to
Speaker 1: talk about the wines at the double back. We'll be
Speaker 1: back more with Drew Bledso thank you. Hi. This ra
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. I'm back and with money making conversations on
Speaker 1: the phone. I have a fourteen year NFL quarterback. Uh.
Speaker 1: He was the number one pick in the NFL draft.
Speaker 1: He retired and became founder of the Bled. So but
Speaker 1: that's so Capital Group and co founder the Double Back
Speaker 1: Winter and Walla Walla Valle in the state of Washington.
Speaker 1: Please welcome back to money making conversation. Drew Bledso and Drew,
Speaker 1: how you doing? Oh man, so good, hey Drew. Before
Speaker 1: let's start making some money. Now let's talk about money.
Speaker 1: You have a wine club. Tell everybody about this wine
Speaker 1: club because it was something that you guys started and it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's a lot of ways revolutionary because people can
Speaker 1: get wine on a monthly basis. Please explain. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know what we wanted to do. We wanted to
Speaker 1: make it easier for people. If you know, if you
Speaker 1: just want to if you know that you that you
Speaker 1: like what we do and and you don't want us
Speaker 1: to bug you all the time with with emails and
Speaker 1: decide what to order, you can sign up on our
Speaker 1: our wine club on at the Bledsoew Family Winery and uh,
Speaker 1: twice a year we'll just we'll ship we'll ship wine
Speaker 1: to you so and with that you get you get
Speaker 1: a variety. You'll get our rose chardonnay, uh, some surraw
Speaker 1: and and also some some cabernet. Don't have to think
Speaker 1: about it, just will arrive at your door. Um, twice
Speaker 1: a year. Okay, now, how do they sign up for
Speaker 1: the wine club? Because if you have blood, yeah, thank
Speaker 1: you know, you go to Bledsoew Family Winery dot com.
Speaker 1: Uh if you just if you just search search my
Speaker 1: name Drew Bledsoe and wine, it'll it'll pop up search
Speaker 1: just naming wine, it just pop up. I just love it.
Speaker 1: This is a man who knows you know that, who's
Speaker 1: all talking about how proud, uh we we are are
Speaker 1: what you're doing, because that's the big negative spirit about athletes,
Speaker 1: you know, when you know you have more negative story
Speaker 1: than positive story, and you're a positive story. And and
Speaker 1: that's that's when I created money Making Conversation. One of
Speaker 1: the goal was to show the next step of athletes
Speaker 1: who prepare what time? And we talked about a little
Speaker 1: bit earlier. You know the lightbulb, you know looking at
Speaker 1: other players, was that the key to saying, I better
Speaker 1: have my act together when I when they kicked me
Speaker 1: out of this league. You know, it was um, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean it was I mean, there's there's a definite
Speaker 1: fear component to that. You know, you you know you
Speaker 1: have a successful life and a successful career and uh
Speaker 1: and a significant head start in life and you know,
Speaker 1: you don't want to screw it up, you know, and
Speaker 1: and so there's a fear component to it. But then
Speaker 1: I also, you know, I mean for me, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I really wanted to find something that I could learn about,
Speaker 1: something that could be engaging to me, that that they
Speaker 1: got me excited about getting out of bed in the morning.
Speaker 1: And I've been retired from the league for for you know,
Speaker 1: over a decade now, and um, I haven't I can't
Speaker 1: recall the morning where I got up in the morning
Speaker 1: and tried to figure out, Man, what am I gonna
Speaker 1: do today? I'm before and it's been it's been engaging. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's uh you know, so it's been, but
Speaker 1: there's there's a there. It was probably it was probably
Speaker 1: about halfway through my career I started in football. I
Speaker 1: started to think about what was next, uh, and started
Speaker 1: to plan for that and started to try to figure
Speaker 1: out what that looked like. And so when I did,
Speaker 1: I decided to retire after the two thousand and sixth season.
Speaker 1: It wasn't I wasn't leaving football because I didn't want
Speaker 1: to play football anymore. I still love football to this day.
Speaker 1: But I was ready to execute on the plans in
Speaker 1: the next phase and and go uh and go try
Speaker 1: something new and and uh and it's been it's been
Speaker 1: everything that I wanted it to be in a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of things. I had no idea it was going
Speaker 1: to be. It's been stressful and hard and hiring people
Speaker 1: and you know, trans listening away from from certain employees
Speaker 1: and then you know, shaping the business and Double Back Winery.
Speaker 1: It's four state venues out there on the Double McQueen,
Speaker 1: Bob Haley, Lafour, and the Flying b in Walla Walla Valley. Uh,
Speaker 1: these different wine uh grapes come from each state. Yes, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: what Yeah, it's really amazing if you get out there
Speaker 1: and uh, we did this, we did, we did, we did.
Speaker 1: The valley is spectacularly beautiful. If if you really like
Speaker 1: wine and you want to I tell people, if you
Speaker 1: want to go to the Walla Walla Valley, it's like
Speaker 1: getting in a time machine and going back in time
Speaker 1: about forty or fifty years. Man, it's still just farmers
Speaker 1: and pickup trucks and you know all of that, and
Speaker 1: the wines are fantastic. But but the thing that's really
Speaker 1: striking to to if you go out into the vineyard
Speaker 1: and we just did this recently with a group. You
Speaker 1: go to the wineries there, excuse me. The vineyards are
Speaker 1: not very far apart. You know, from McQueen to Peally
Speaker 1: is less than a mile and and down to the
Speaker 1: four is less than a mile. But there are different elevations,
Speaker 1: different soil types, and the wines are really really unique
Speaker 1: off of each property. Um. And so that allows us
Speaker 1: to have some some versatility when we do our blending
Speaker 1: trials to to to try and balance the wines and
Speaker 1: make it more interesting. Uh. It also gives us also
Speaker 1: gives us some flexibility depending on how hot the weather
Speaker 1: is in the summer, if it's a if it's a
Speaker 1: warmer vintage, McQueen generally ripens a little bit later. It's
Speaker 1: a little bit cooler side if it's a cooler vintage,
Speaker 1: and some of the lower vineyards ripen more quickly. You have,
Speaker 1: you have three wines. I want to bring up the
Speaker 1: estate reserve, the cabinet Sauvignon and yeah, okay, all three's
Speaker 1: are different, correct, Yes, absolutely, Okay, let's talk. Let's talk
Speaker 1: with the estate reserve. So the estate reserve that we
Speaker 1: don't make very much of that and that would be
Speaker 1: if you want to put it in football terms, that
Speaker 1: those that would be the NBA All Star Game, it
Speaker 1: would be the Pro A Bowl. You know, I mean
Speaker 1: anybody that's you know, if you if you're you know,
Speaker 1: if you're an NBA player, you're you're the best in
Speaker 1: the world. But then amongst the best in the world,
Speaker 1: there are certain players that stand out that take it
Speaker 1: to another level. And that's what we did with the
Speaker 1: estate reserve. We essentially identified three barrels of wine uh
Speaker 1: that we thought were performing better than the rest um
Speaker 1: and uh and set those aside, uh and then get
Speaker 1: the you know, their own special bottle, own special treatment
Speaker 1: and then uh and then everything else goes into double
Speaker 1: back and double back. Double back is the wine that
Speaker 1: that we we just you know, it's she's we've been
Speaker 1: we've been going. We've been at it for a long
Speaker 1: time now and and uh, um we're really really proud
Speaker 1: of what goes into the double back cabinet. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: we feel like the grapes that were growing and then
Speaker 1: our our state vineyards um are among the best in
Speaker 1: the world. And then we've got them just an amazing
Speaker 1: wine making staff led by Josh McDaniels that that, Uh,
Speaker 1: they just do an amazing job with that wine, and
Speaker 1: we really feel like it will it does stand up
Speaker 1: on an national stage. You know. In our in our
Speaker 1: first four vintages, we were top hundred wines in the
Speaker 1: world twice, and I feel like we can have continue
Speaker 1: to get better and better with that. Okay, we'll just
Speaker 1: slow everything down exactly. Okay, I hear you grow the wine.
Speaker 1: You grow the grapes, and now what's the step which
Speaker 1: what you guys or doesn't go to someplaces? Are you
Speaker 1: guys y'all produce it? Are you just grow the wine? No,
Speaker 1: we were we Uh, we grow the grapes, Uh, bring
Speaker 1: them in and then we and then we make the wine.
Speaker 1: We're we've been we're just now moving into a brand
Speaker 1: new winery that that we've built over the past couple
Speaker 1: of years. Um. But yeah, no, we take it every
Speaker 1: we handle every step of that. We're fully, very vertically
Speaker 1: integrated and bring bring it from from the ground to
Speaker 1: the bottle on your table. Uh. Which that to me,
Speaker 1: that's the really intriguing part of the of the businesses.
Speaker 1: You know, you start out you're a farmer first, and
Speaker 1: we you know, We've got our kids out there in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, and they got their hands already
Speaker 1: implanted vines that now go into the these uh, these
Speaker 1: world class wines. UM and uh you know, to me,
Speaker 1: the fact that you're a farmer first and you've got
Speaker 1: to understand all that goes into that, and then you're
Speaker 1: into the wine making process, and then you're into marketing
Speaker 1: and distribution and fulfillment. You know, I've had to learn
Speaker 1: I had to learn a lot more about accounting than
Speaker 1: I ever thought I would and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how you how you how you
Speaker 1: manage your business so that you're making smart financial decisions
Speaker 1: on top of UM. So you guys, so you guys
Speaker 1: grow it, pick it, grow it. We uh we uh,
Speaker 1: we only have seven employees. So we have when we
Speaker 1: when we go to harvest, we have a contract airbine
Speaker 1: airbine the wood seven seven picking all these grapes. We've
Speaker 1: got we we've got we've got contract crews that come through.
Speaker 1: They work for most of the vineyards in the valley
Speaker 1: and they come through and and they're absolute you know,
Speaker 1: pros at what they do. We we went out to
Speaker 1: help harvest the one time, and they just told us
Speaker 1: to get out of the way. We're just we're just
Speaker 1: ticking right right. So they so they come through and
Speaker 1: help us harvest the fruit and then uh and they
Speaker 1: work for uh, you know, for a number of different
Speaker 1: vineyards in the they stay really busy and then uh
Speaker 1: and then when it comes the other time, we need help.
Speaker 1: When we when we go to to bottle and pack
Speaker 1: and shift, you know, then you know, we can't do
Speaker 1: that with seven people, so we gotta bring into because
Speaker 1: everything is seasonal, right, okay, and that's why that's why
Speaker 1: you have a seven full time and then you have
Speaker 1: seasonal hires that you bring in growing picky eat and
Speaker 1: then producing. Let me ask you can one get your
Speaker 1: your wine? We heard about the wine club. What about
Speaker 1: getting your in a store or restaurants. I know you're
Speaker 1: in the northwest part of the country. How can one
Speaker 1: get your wine? They if they're shopping. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: we were distributed. Um, we're distributed a little bit. Uh.
Speaker 1: Most of the double back, um, you know goes directly
Speaker 1: to people off of our list, but we go out
Speaker 1: to distribution. We we sell about nine of our wine
Speaker 1: directly the consumers online. But then we're distributed. If people
Speaker 1: want to find a bottle on their store and try
Speaker 1: it before they commit to, you know, three bottles or
Speaker 1: six bottles who looked at our list, you can generally
Speaker 1: call your local wine shop and they can They can
Speaker 1: usually track down a bottle. That might take him a
Speaker 1: couple of days, but they can usually track down a
Speaker 1: bottle or two. I'm gonna tell you this, Uh, a
Speaker 1: McDonald name is gonna pop up on your wine club.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say her first name, but it's gonna
Speaker 1: pop up. You're gonna have McDonald that will be my wife, sir.
Speaker 1: And so so when you see that McDonald, you said,
Speaker 1: this is Sean's wife some wine because she loves it.
Speaker 1: I like, I said, uh this. I know she's gonna
Speaker 1: tease me about this interview because of the fact that
Speaker 1: I just try to bring attention to people who are
Speaker 1: doing successful things. You're You're a great family man. I
Speaker 1: followed your career, been a big fan you. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: just just just seeing you make this transition and and
Speaker 1: and and building the business, building the brand and a
Speaker 1: legacy for your kids is not tied to athletics. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: My friend, Well, I appreciate it. You know, I had
Speaker 1: had great role models, none of us. You know, there's
Speaker 1: nobody out there that's successful that gets thrown there. And
Speaker 1: I had great role models and my parents and some
Speaker 1: great coaches and and uh and then since I and
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've encouraged other athletes to
Speaker 1: do that's been so amazingly helpful to me is that
Speaker 1: I've got a group of business mentors now and everything
Speaker 1: that I do in our business, I have, um, you know,
Speaker 1: eight or nine guys that I can go to. You
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