People often say to all of us here: “You have my dream job!” They explain they would love to taste wines and walk the vineyard on a daily basis. Working close to the land in a beautiful agricultural setting strikes a chord with them. Being part of a small team that makes fine wine and gets it directly to patrons is a desirable occupation. The most pleasurable part of the job for many of us, however, is our interaction with you, our patrons. And a great example of this are the delightful photos patrons send us and post online. 

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Late July and early August days are filled with my least favorite job – bottling. It’s both stressful and monotonous. We bottle our Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Next Red (all from our Alexander Valley vineyard) in three extremely long weeks. Using our GoPro, we videoed the Chardonnay bottling. After watching one minute of it, we realized that it would be more interesting (and fun!) to see the process sped up (100x!).

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Ludovic David, our intern in 1990 and now the General Manager at Chateau Marquis de Terme, came back to visit us and brought his son, Guillaume. Guillaume will go to the same university, Purpan, where his dad went and our interns are enrolled. While they were here, our 31st intern, Aymeric Laturelle, arrived. They are our interns past, present and future! 

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I started taking photos with a “big girl” camera when my children were in high school. I was pretty sure I could do a better job capturing the personality of my kids than the folks hired to come to the school or a local professional photographer. It is really just a hobby, but I am lucky that it has become part of my work at Hafner Vineyard. Taking photos here has been fun and interesting. I have been perched up very high on a pallet of the forklift and have gotten down in the dirt (frozen blades of grass).

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