Each person that arrives has the same expression.  Trying to wake up, but also excited to be a “local celebrity” for a day.  We have a great line-up:  Winemakers from Garden Vineyards, Apolloni and Sake One, the Executive Director of North Willamette Vintners, a rep from a company that makes wine bottles and ME!  

Joe V arrives and we prepare for the first news segment.  It’s in the barrel room.  6:45 am:  I’m over-caffeinated but ready for this.  I must say, I have done presentations to hundreds of people but being on camera is completely different.  Joe starts his interview with me.  I am supposed to give him a sample of our wine from the barrel.  As I’m talking about Ardiri and the upcoming Wine Trail weekend, I draw the wine into the thief, and attempt to pour into Joe’s glass.  CLANK.   Why oh why did I try to use a wine thief that I’m not used to using?!!  It’s 2x as long as the one I regularly use I’m sure the 10 cups of coffee I had didn’t help me here…..  Internal thoughts “can we rewind?”  Oops, it’s live TV.  Joe didn’t miss a beat; continued on with our discussion like nothing had happened.  The camera turned off and Mike, the camera man says, “No one saw it”.  Bless his heart. 

The second segment was done in our tasting room.  By this time I was suggesting someone do a caffeine intervention on me.  Thankfully, it  went very smoothly.  I was in my groove.  I demonstrated a basic “wine tasting 101” with Joe.  “See, sniff, swirl, and sip.”  Even threw a few jokes in there.  After I was finished, we had a small break before the next person’s turn.   We continued filming on and off until 10:00 am. 

Since being on the news, I have been in the grocery store and random strangers have come up and said, “Hey, I saw you on the news!”  We also have had quite a few new clients up to the winery because of the news coverage.  All in all, the experience was fabulous and I hope to do this again in the near future.   

Cheers!