To that effort I had fun this week.  I had a chance to be a part of a cook team that prepared both a dinner on Saturday night as well as a lunch on Sunday for a retreat of 80 plus people cloistered trying to figure new solutions to life.  As all kitchen times are, we had a blast.  I touched base with the Community part of the pie chart and as my wife was running this 3 night 4 day retreat, I tagged Family in too.

The Global got tagged this week also.  For the last ten years of my life I have been working with the Wheel Chair Foundation out of Danville, California (www.wheelchairfoundation.org).  My part has been small.  When I went to Nepal on one of three trecks into the Himalayas,  I met the President of the Rotary Club in Katmandu.  We ended up doing a project together where we hooked him up with the Wheel Chair Foundation and started shipping containers to him through India of wheel chairs.  I think now he has distributed through his club some 5000 wheel chair.  That’s cool.

Someone asked me a few years ago why I only ship to Nepal and not make any local distributions to Napa Valley where I live?  I did not have an answer.  I called Jeff Behring, Ken Behring (the founders) son and asked him if I could do this.  He said OK.  So for the past years I have been giving out wheel chairs in Napa Valley.  I pick up three at a time and probably give out three a month.  Most of the fund-raising has been through Jeff and his Wine for Wheels Event but I make speeches to the local service clubs and churches and my mountaineering friends and we get donations.  I did that last week.  Two homeless folk and an amputee got a wheel chair in our local community one chair at a time ,one person at a time.  Feels good.

Now the good news, as things though out in the North Bay of San Francisco, this is a good time to be in sales as all the new managers are hired up for the season and getting settled in.  I spent some time in retail this past week  Ken Manly over at Dragers in Danville. I am working on a private label for him on the vinegar side and have just switched his 5 stores over to the 200mls for Sparrow Lane.  We are working out a demo schedule and some ad space for the second quarter.  He is a really good guy as a buyer and the stores are good for local and small brands.  I felt bad in that there were more staff members on the floor in Danville then people buying but again the weather has been on and off rain so as I said Spring is in the air. 

Next week I am in Los Angeles with Chef’s Warehouse Spring Show at 16633 East Gale Ave in the City of Industry.  We are going bi costal with Chef’s Warehouse Distributing this month joining some of my products with Baltimore and the New York City area.  Chef’s Warehouse is Daryland in the East coast.  Chef John George Vongerichten gave us the nod to bring in Sparrow Lane Vinegars to his kitchen  for the new opening of ABC Kitchen.  Love to hear comments about how the soft opening is going.  I will probably be out there in mid April.  End of April I will be in Tuscany and Milan learning how to cook pasta.

Tea Spree is an organic tea the with a North American palate.  The teas are grown all around the world and blended in Lucerne, Switzerland.  The teas are all  a perfect fit for the Artisan book.  Between SF, Marin, Mendocino,Napa and Sonoma counties, we must have over 100 spas and Grand Hotels.  I work directly with most of them in one form or another and enjoy my time on the road. 

Tea Spree has a collection of the classic teas and 5 flavors of herbal teas.    The packaging is fantastic as is the flavor.  I am going out next week to talk with some of our buyers and I am looking forward to the experience of sitting on the deck at the Sonoma Mission Inn and letting my infuser settle into a nice cup of classic flavor.  I will let you know how it goes.

My back ground has been in sales and production.  If any one of you bought Straus Merlot or Sparrow Lane Howell Mountain Zinfandel that was me.  A virtual world with real brand action.  I never owned a winery. Bricks and mortar are for the over leveraged.  I have always been in  sales and production.  I do it the old fashion way.  I call on accounts and make friends doing it.   I love the brands I work with and we work as a partnership.  The word is ”fungible”  I am fluid and take advantage of opportunity.  I rarely turn down a sales unless it involves my taking my cloth off…please.

If you have authentic food and are looking for representation in California Artisan Food Brokers works with most the major food distributors and does a lot of direct business.  I network with other brokers and can build a MAP (Marketing Action Plan).  I built Sparrow Lane Vinegar into a national brand and love the process.  We take our work seriously and have a lot of fun doing it.

If you’re going to upgrade, you’ll have to spend more. It will be worth it. If you’re not convinced, try that red Heinz (12 oz./$2.89) alongside the artisanal Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar (17.5 oz./$10) made by Sparrow Lane Vineyards in Napa Valley. The Heinz tastes mostly of acid and smells of red Jell-O. But the Sparrow Lane has a winy, herbal nose and a warm, fruity base that supports its high acidity. It’s still plenty puckery, but it’s full-flavored and balanced. A world of difference, in other words, for just 33 cents more per ounce.

The article has terrific commentary about fine vinegars  (they were fine wines after all) you can read the full article here.