Santa Ynez Valley, California
By: Sarah O'Brien - Senior Editor - floatingcork.com
Susan*, our pourer, was completely cracked-out. A really, really nice lady, but on something; like my ninth grade humanities teacher would say; “perhaps she is smoking those funny cigarettes”. I understand that calling someone cracked-out isn't the nicest thing to say, but my proof lies in her forgetting which wine we were on (it was just four of us tasting), which wine she was pouring (as she was pouring it) and her awe towards my brothers spider whispering abilities. Let me further explain. My brother (along on this trip to wine country), saw a spider weaving its way down from the ceiling towards us. Instead of crushing it between his fingers, my brother a.k.a. “spider whisperer” guided the spider to the floor and away from our heads. Now, to the normal eye it looked like my brother found the thread spewing out of the spiders' rear-end and was able to maneuver the spider against its will to the floor, but to a cracked-out eye, maybe it looked like my brother was able to hocus-pocus the spider, coaxing it safely to the ground.
Perhaps I am exaggerating Susan's state of being a bit; if this is the case, who can blame me? Gainey is otherwise perfect – a huge 12,000 square foot establishment not-so-tucked into the Santa Ynez Valley. The marketing director should get a raise for thinking of every detail necessary to run a well-oiled-machine of a winery. Recipe cards for food to pair with Gainey wines, complementary bottle of Snapple for the driver, fridge stocked with tapenades, cheese and other such shenanigans. I did wonder if these marketing ploys were necessary if the wines could speak for themselves, but, they were serving tastings at a reasonable price (i.e., free) so the brainwashing was forgiven.
I was looking forward to this visit for quite some time; the Gaineys themselves are originally from my native Minnesota, from a small town called Owatonna, so I had this small town idea of the Gaineys that turned out to be an embarrassing misconception. It isn't ma and pa in a tiny shack doling out sips of wine from their small 200 case production winery. The Gaineys think big. More than 18,000 cases produced each year, many of which are consistently selling out, it is no wonder Susan seemed to be cracked-out; it is Susan pouring all of that wine, most likely rarely getting a break from all the action. I looked over at her as I sipped a delightful Syrah, she was, with great animation and excitement, relaying the spider whisperer story to a couple that just walked in – poor Susan, Gainey should let her out more often.
* name changed to protect identity
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