But anyway, you, Jen, & Caritas came & looked at a little apartment of mine in Cole Valley, around the back on Beulah Street, before settling into your current digs in the Lower Haight. I remember you told me you went to Vassar and Columbia (my nephew is now a freshman at Vassar, btw, & I went to Columbia graduate school), that you came from the Ravenswood family, & that you wanted to start your own wine called Bedrock. I also remember Caritas, Latin for “Charity”, the beautiful doggie. Ok, I have a fantastic memory, I know that.

I’m so glad your wines are doing well, & I can’t wait to try some. I actually ate at Blue Hill on my birthday a couple years ago, & loved it. But we drank Harmonique — maybe they didn’t carry your wines there yet.

Anyway, from now on I’ll keep an eye out for them. I always thought Bedrock was a kick-ass name for a wine.

Love the picture of you as a tot; good luck to you, Jen, & the doggie.

–Katherine

p.s. I’ve planted vegetables, herbs, & Bay natives in the backyard garden; it is 1,000,000 times better now.

As for Hot Lips. MASH is one of my favorite shows of all time. I own the first 9 seasons and inserted hot lipped in there as an hommage to the woman who had to put up with alan alda’s smug sense of comedic preachiness….seriously. Also, a “sex-symbol” who by todays standards is certainly not sexy– all shoulders and no bosom– but, really is.

Also, I handled myself with great aplomb as a baby and never shit myself in public. I only drank Taittinger Comtes de Champagne and corrected people on their misusage of basic baby-talk verbage.

I tried to sign up for the webcast. and other bits, but the other part of the site would not let me do so.

Just spoke with your father today and he said that YOU would be able to lead me to a few of the particularly interesting wineries/winemakes in the Cote d’Or, the northern Rhone, and the southern Rhone. (I’ll be in Burdundy for three days, n. R. for a day, and s. R. for two weeks.)

I work in the tasting room at Ravenswood, and you’d probably know me by sight but not by name. I was excited by your jubilation at having found some great syrah grapes in Lakeville. I’m the bald, (relatively) old guy, retired, wine geek, great wine cellar, no money, sweat wine, and love every minute of it. Oh, yeah, I also spend most of the year travelling.

I hope you have some suggestions for me and maybe even a possiblity of a personal introduction. (Matt Wood has set me up to go to Dujac. So he is a really corporate type, but he’s a good guy.)

I must warn you that I decided to do this by email since your dad gave me your cell phone number.

I’m excited about the wines you should be able to produce. You certainly have the drive and resources to make great wine.

Phil Hicks