Dear Friends,
We hope that you have been well during this past year. Like so many of you, we have spent precious time with family and friends making up for the previous year’s isolation. Perhaps we made up for more than our fair share, but it sure was fun.
2021 has been a year of milestones and epiphanies. We write this newsletter with excitement, elation and a splash of trepidation. After a set of epiphanies in early January, we decided to make a life transition as we celebrated 30 years together and 22 years of operating WesMar Winery. We decided to put our beloved home and vineyard up for sale. It was a strange decision for us to make since we had always envisioned working the vineyard and property post retirement. What had been our original plan to work part time making a small amount of wine has become a plan to move away from wine making all together and move full speed ahead towards our goal of chasing a different kind of adventure. As a result, we have decided that the last vintage from WesMar Winery will be the 2019 vintage, which coincidentally marks our 20th vintage.
As we moved forward with this new plan a strange coincidence occurred. Before our home was even listed on the market a friend that we had met 14 years prior came to taste and asked, “what’s new” and Kirk told him that we were going to sell our property. He enthusiastically declared that he and his family wanted to purchase the property. We could not have foreseen anyone better to take over the stewardship of this heritage land. They have plans to continue developing and improving the property and we look forward to seeing the changes as they make it their own.
When I met Kirk 30 years ago, he had a dream of crossing an ocean on a sailboat. We have owned three sailboats over the course of time and have a deep connection to the sea. I was reminded of an intuitive thought that my uncle shared with me many years ago in which he said that he found it interesting that we had roots in the land in tandem with roots in the sea. Then he added that these are things that cannot be done in unison. We agreed. Now that we are pulling up our land roots, we intend to grow our sea roots in the form of sailing.
These last 22 years have been an amazing journey. We have savored being self-employed and crafting Pinot Noir has been extremely rewarding. Knowing that people across the country have enjoyed the fruits of our labor has been a true joy. Thank you for coming to visit us in our humble little winery and for visiting over the phone. We have enjoyed meeting so many of you in person and sharing stories. Thank you for all the times you shared our wine with your family and friends during holiday dinners, weddings, vacations and gatherings.
The sum of our emotions is gratitude, pride and happiness. It is because of you that we have met with success, you have been our loyal partners. They say it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village for a business to succeed, and we thank you for your part in making our dreams come true.