A small farm one hour north of San Francisco

This photo was taken and posted online by the local newspaper The Press Democrat in 2008. I would have been happier if they dug this pic up instead of the one that they used.

I predicted he was going to show up on my doorstep before he did. As soon as I heard his voice on my message machine I knew that his was not going to be a good article.

A couple of hours later his paunchy belly and red pocked marked nose loomed into my laundry room window. Trepidation…but I had to get this over with. I went to the door to meet him. Verdict looked at me, and at everything else surrounding me.

“Can I help you?”

“Are you Naomi Brilliant?”

“Um yes…. “

I showed him my garden.  It is just dirt and it is the future. I have nothing to prove with it. Today, it is a mushy mess. My boots sink an inch with each step “shwick shiwick shikewick”. In my peaceful moments I have a vision that this is what I’ve been waiting for. To get my hands, feet and face filthy, salt on my brow and soil under my fingernails, why because what I do now, will taste sweeter at harvest.

This is food. It is touched by hands, and not so much by cold machines. My rows are not even or straight and I might have a few plagues of white flies in the coming spring. I want to share. It makes me happy. Doesn’t it always feel good to watch someone enjoy what you have created, what you have brought to life.

For the past 10 years. That has not always been so with roshambowinery. Although I will miss what it was. It was not always what I wanted it to be. As with everything alcoholic, I spent most of my time pulling my hair trying to understand the legal definitions of can and can’t.  Distribution and sales and the act of “making” friends to sell were something I struggled with.  To most I may seem an extrovert, but in my own being, I know that it was very hard for me to be “on” especially when it was with forced acting.

I may have been known for my crazy stunts, marketing and events, but I always wanted first to be known for making great wine for you. “Fighting for fun in a winey world” was NOT born as our slogan to sell to you. I wanted wine to be about you. About FUN, about what it is to be alive, not something that is savored solely at a special meal. Wine is about place, and time. Where it was grown, the sun, and the weather, winemaking is just putting that into a bottle to be shared and remembered.

I still live on the vineyard and I will see grapevines every morning. I still will be doing what I have always strived to do. Share with those around me something I nurtured. Live close to the land and care for it too.  Will it be a success? It will even if it’s only in my own mind.

• I guess I am bitter that a reporter from the local paper had the nerve to come to my house without invitation, and steal “the story” from another reporter from the same paper whom I had a respectful conversation with the day before. This reporter also misused statements I said to create a character of me that is exaggerated. He also even after asking, ignored my request to NOT use a photo of me (especially one that misrepresents the serious tone of the article he wrote) All of this I know was done with callous intention, which hurts me as a private individual not the winery. In the end. The story is the same roshambowinery is on hiatus, and that I understand is newsworthy.

So now where is there going to fun in this “winey world?”

** I also want to clarify that I never said that I was an “organic” farm. I currently am not certified; the word organic is a word that unfortunately has little meaning if we misuse it. I attain to be sustainable, and be as caring as I can be to the air and earth.  If in the future I apply for organic certification I will probably tell you here. We are very lucky here in California to have so many awesome local certified organic farms that I don’t want to steal from that.