Dear Friends,
I hope you all had a restful and safe holiday season. While the year on the calendar has changed, we continue to fight the spread of the virus, our front line workers are working harder than ever and so many more people are being diagnosed with COVID. And now, the new strain of the virus is upon us. Let’s settle in to 2021 with hope for the vaccine and getting the virus behind us.
A little to my surprise, this changing of the calendar year still brings the energy of new hope to me. Really, every new day could bring the outlook of a new 365 days in front of us, but it isn’t the same as a new calendar year. This time last year, I had travel plans for work of around 20-25 trips. As we know, most of that did not happen. Today, I have no travel planned for 2021 except for my trips to the winery. As we know, 2020 took its own path. But 2020 also brought it’s own silver linings. One of my favorites is this new ritual of sitting down on the weekend and writing this email. Prior to COVID, our emails were not my voice. They were the voice of a marketing consultant. Their goal was to be informative about winery happenings and to sell wine. They were a lot like most of the emails I get from wineries and other companies. They were transactional, not personal. By writing these myself, I now feel this great connection to all of you. You are so much more to me and our team than guests and customers. You are friends, supporters, our cheer squad. We feel it and appreciate it. You motivate us and your love for our wines and all things Brooks is inspiring. This inspiration feeds our courage and excitement to move into 2021 with you. Thank you.
Happy New Year!
FOR THE LOVE OF TEA
I am very fortunate to sit in a CEO Roundtable group of other wine industry leaders. On a quarterly basis, we meet and listen to guest speakers. The speakers are leaders in their own industries. They share their journies, transferable strategies, tips for success and advice. One of the first meetings I attended had Matt Thomas, Founder of Brew Dr. Kombucha, as our presenter.
I didn’t know much about kombucha. I was entertained to hear Matt’s story that his passion started in tea and his first business, a tea house, developed as a result of the business plan he wrote while attending the University of Oregon. I learned that much like wine, the kombucha industry has a lot of huge players who use additives, sugars, and other mass production strategies to get their product to market. Not Matt. His first kombucha was a fun experiment in the back room of one of his tea houses. He has grown Brew Dr. Kombucha to become an international player but by approaching his craft authentically like we do at Brooks. Did you know that Brew Dr. Kombucha extracts the alcohol from their product? And look at these certifications!
Join Matt and I on January 16th at 1 pm for Beyond Brooks as Master of Wine Bree Stock takes us on a journey from tea to wine. The LAST day to sign up is January 7th. This is sure to be an event you won’t want to miss!
GET THE BEYOND BROOKS BREW DR. BUNDLE NOW
January is National Tea Month…what better time to explore tea in it’s regular and fermented form. Read more about Brew Dr. Kombucha here.
Our team couldn’t be more grateful for your love and support! I will let them tell you themselves!
Let’s start 2021 off safe and healthy!
Please feel free to reach out! [email protected] or cell 831-238-4828.
Cheers!
Janie