Seeing the Glass as Much More Than Half Full

Thanksgiving is arriving this year with a delayed reaction and needing a little extra wine, don't you think? It is almost like everyone is just waking up from the fog of 2020, looking around and rubbing their eyes. Have we been dreaming for the last 2 years? Like an episode of The Twilight Zone, we try to get back to "normal" only to be haunted by little oddities. Oddities like standing in a pharmacy line for over 2 hours and simply accepting that these are the way things are... "half the staff is out with Covid". Or that the stores no longer carry the products you want, maybe it is toilet paper, maybe it is peanut butter, or most probable it is Frito's corn chips, a staple in Northern New Mexico diets. Most of us have settled into ordering things to be delivered directly to our homes or carried out to our cars. No longer do you need to do your own grocery shopping, as long as you don't mind that substitutions are a reality that doesn't quite make sense; no I do not want a gallon of lactose free milk, but will take 2 half gallons of regular milk you have in stock that equal the 1 gallon I ordered that you are out of. I've never tried to order wine from the grocery store, but I bet those substitutions would be entertaining. Masks are less routine than they were, but still a common sight and during a recent hormonal acne outbreak, a God send for me. One of the funniest oddities I recently encountered was the discussion at my house over seeing a highly anticipated movie. It went something like this...

"OMG (insert movie title here) is finally released!"

"No way! That is 100% what we are doing tonight." (keep in mind we rarely leave the house, especially at night)

"No, it is only in theaters."

"Theaters???"

"I know, weird."

"You are telling me I have to GO to a theater to see this thing? Why isn't it streaming?"

"I don't know. I don't know."

*you should know that we did not see the movie in the theater, but waited until we could stream it.

We used to love going to the movies. Now, it seems like a thing of the past and an unbelievable pain in the a$$. Drive-ins are coming back, something I love! It reminds me of being a kid. And as someone with an autoimmune disease, I love the idea of being in my own space. Not to mention, have you tried to watch a movie around other people? There are significantly different movie watchers... those that actually want to watch (hear) the movie and those that use the movie as a get together to catch up with friends. My point is, go for coffee people, SHUT UP if you are watching a movie! I digress, what was my point? 

Ahh yes, things have shifted, but they are close enough to "normal" now that it makes the last 2 years feel like a blur. They did take place though, they did have an impact, and I want to take this opportunity, on Thanksgiving, to be thankful for everything that has happened since the early months of 2020.

The pandemic caused shutdowns for our winery, like everyone, but also ran a course of fear through our quiet little community. In the early days no one knew what to believe so it wasn't that odd, but was deeply offensive, that friends, neighbors in fact, screamed across social media that we were inviting bus loads of out of state people to our business. Meanwhile we were diligently washing bags of chips and sanitizing outdoor tables, had pick-up only sales and turned everything into a virtual reality. What was amazing, was all the other people that saw the lengths we went to to support our staff and protect our customers. The number of people that made sure to order wine for themselves and friends, it kept us going while many other businesses closed permanently. It was incredible to see the sense of support and love for our families and the winery. It was truly heartwarming to feel so much love come our way.The strange pandemic time also forced us to find ways to engage with people in brand new ways! Thinking outside the box was maybe one of the best gifts we can be thankful for.

Turning to virtual ways of communicating was a challenge. Zoom became an integral part of every day, but also allowed for us to do tastings all across the country and even around the world! How had we never had the idea of connecting with people in this way? It seemed so barbaric that pre-pandemic, someone had to physically come see us or attend an event in order to learn about us. Now I was giving wine lectures to the UK Circle of Writers with members in Hong Kong and throughout Europe. Mini videos assisted people on our website and East Coast American Wine Society Chapters held virtual tastings with members nestled privately in their homes, samples sent to their doors, to learn about a little winery in the desert of the Southwest. Now I can't imagine not having this vital business tool of virtual meetings! I am so grateful for the reach we have gained by this forceful hand. It is a new normal making a big difference.

We have also won so many incredible awards for our wines over the last 2 years! Gold medals in Germany, Italy, coast to coast across the USA and reviews that make my winemakers blush. Yes, I hand carried these wines to competitions around the world, and yes I did do this during a global pandemic while having an autoimmune disease, but I have to say, it was maybe the very best way to see these places, especially in the beginning. The high alert made everything cleaner, have less people and become more beautiful. My family and I traveled to the deep south of Mexico in 2020 with such great success that I returned to competitions across Europe at the beginning of 2021. I found the beauty of exploring cities, with negative PCR tests in hand in order to enter museums, restaurants and shops even with vaccine proof and wearing a mask, an asset. Having a seat between myself and my neighbor at the Opera was lovely! Having the time to linger longer in front of your favorite painting without being edged out has its perks and having everyone wash their hands religiously was fantastic, I went years without a cold! I also loved how patios expanded and heaters were put up, something we did at our own Tasting Room as well and absolutely love. Not sure why we didn't make those changes sooner.

I personally was also afforded amazing opportunities to work on great projects like being a contributor and part of the Editorial Board for The New Normal in the Wine Business e-book. We exceeded the TEN THOUSAND VISITORS LIMIT on the site! 45% of readers were from the USA, 17% from the Czech Republic followed by France ( 7,0%), China and India (5,5% each), Great Britain and Germany (4,8% each), followed by Macedonia, Canada, Russia, and Brazil. I published pieces in Sommelier Magazine, Edible and wrote as a guest on several blogs as well as my own. I added prestigious International Wine Competitions such as Berliner Wein Trophy, Mondial des Vins Blanc, and Mondial des Vins Extremes to my resume. I hosted a New Mexico tasting experience for dignitaries at the American Consul-General's home in Strasbourg, France and had extraordinary reviews of my Master Wine Classes I've taught (in the company of Kevin Zraly and Robert Mondavi Jr). Of course all of these personal wins are wins for Vivac Winery and NM Wine in general. I am always honored to represent my family and our friends in the industry.

There have been so many ups and downs, with family, with friends and of course with Covid, but wouldn't you agree that this Thanksgiving we can look back over the last 2 years and see a truly transformative trajectory that has brought us to today? It feels good expecting less yet feeling happier, needing less to feel fulfilled, and rejoicing in the little things. Once again we focus on the simple joy of sharing great food and fabulous wine with those you love. Or if you are on your own for the holidays, enjoying great food ordered to go with a movie you can stream from your warm, comfy sofa, and a bottle of wine from your favorite winery (hint hint) that you get to have all to yourself. Let's all raise a glass, no matter where you find yourself this holiday, waking up from a pandemic blur to find our glasses brimming with goodness.

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family! 

Written by Michele Padberg, co-owner of Vivac Winery. If you enjoy this blog, check out her personal blog at Wine First Adventures

Thanksgiving Like a Master!

Instead of our usual "A Fern Between Us: Emotional Sanitizer Wine Show" episode for Thanksgiving pairings, we will settle in for a quick read and a fast mastery to your holiday meal pairing!

Lets face it, most of us are exhausted, maybe even recovering from Covid, so lets not reinvent the wheel. Thanksgiving is notorious for being difficult to pair wines to because of all the combating foods on the table. Here are a few tricks to instantly make your foods more wine friendly and make you look like a Master Wine Pairing Badass...

*Caramelized onions. Add them to asparagus, mashed potatoes, yams... gives a savory component that makes even the most unfriendly wine pairings work.

*Cauliflower. add one head to 6 potatoes, pureed to make jaw dropping mashed potatoes that love wine.

*Mushrooms add an earthiness wines love. Add to gravy, serve sauteed and added to veggies or stuffed with breadcrumbs and cheese as a fun side dish.

*Nuts! Nuts are amazing with all kinds of wines. They either bring out an earthy aspect, minerality or utilize the salt to highlight the fruit in the wine. Add them to stuffing, chop up and sprinkle on side dishes, or serve warm on their own as an appetizer.

Now lets talk wine. An easy go to is rose wine. It is one of the easiest to pair to a multitude of foods and is a crowd pleaser. For red, choose a lighter bodied style such as Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo or Sangiovese. I'm going to try to avoid falling down a rabbit hole of confusion with the grapes I just mentioned also being known for making some of the biggest, boldest wines there are (Barolo and Brunello respectively). What I encourage you to do is explore the lighter styles that offer complexity and interest with a depth of flavor rather than a bold body that can fight with more delicate food flavors. Finally, don't forget the Port! Port not only is a classic with dessert, or as dessert, but is also wonderful as an aperitif prior to the meal! It goes amazingly well with hard cheeses, nuts and pate.

Wanting to change things up? Try offering the same grape, but different wineries and/ or regions. This is not only something that will be fun for guests who may have never done a wine tasting or food pairing to experience. It is also a great conversation starter especially if you have guest that don't know each other. For example, try a Vivac Sangiovese, a Russian River Valley Sangiovese, and a Vino Nobile de Montepulciano (trust me that is Sangiovese). Place all 3 on the table and let people try the different wines with different foods, compare and contrast how they are alike or different and vote for a favorite! Of course there are no wrong answers, but we expect it to be the Vivac. Just kidding! Or are we?

I obviously suggest you start with Vivac wines for all your holiday meal needs. They are European in style, meaning higher in natural acidity and lower in alcohol making them much more food friendly. They are 100% NM True, and are winning Gold Medals at prestigious competitions around the world. Click on the grape name above for a link that takes you directly to our website (or click here for the full list) with tons of information about the wine and has ordering made easy! You can also visit our tasting room daily 10:00am- 6:00pm or call 505-579-4441 for personalized shopping service.

Happy Thanksgiving/ Friendsgiving/ Reason-to-celebrate from all of us at Vivac Winery!

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family! 

 Written by Michele Padberg, co-owner of Vivac Winery. If you enjoy this blog, check out her personal blog at Wine First Adventures

The Fern Between Us... Solving 2020

Whoa, where did we go?!? Well, lets start by clearing the air on what happened to this blog. 

It started as a "Fueled by Vivac" blog about training for marathons. The winemakers were running a lot of them and I was painfully being drug along. As readership built up, and we stopped running so much, I started to include other things we did. Our Annual Gourmet Raft Trip with New Mexico River Adventures, our staff float trip, our owner trip to Napa, or simply drinking wine on our porch. I must admit, with all of us so busy, it became harder to find "Fueled" material and I turned to my personal life to keep a voice. It is hard to separate the business from my personal life, after all they are forever intertwined. The blog had always been from my personal experience and viewpoint so it didn't feel strange to lean into other aspects...even if it meant following my health issues or travels. I mean isn't EVERYTHING I do "Fueled by Vivac"? Well, not everyone on our team thought it was what the winery should be blogging, it was more appropriate for a personal blog. I got it, made sense. But as I tried to shift the blog to be more in keeping with an appropriate business feel, I also lost my inspiration to write. I became the editor in my head, always asking if it was "too personal" and suddenly I had zero to say. Ya, I know that is wild, the lady who won't shut-up suddenly has nothing to say! I asked others to write for us, but the tone was completely different (as it would be) and the natural, honest, openness that took the blog from 0 to 800+ readership was lost. It seemed more natural to step away, let it organically bubble up as I had things to share and to explore other ways to connect with all of you.

Then 2020 happened. I think it is safe to say that everyone had a meltdown of one kind or another that year. Mine was a creative one. 2019 had been one of the most successful years of events for the winery and myself and then suddenly... nothing. Our Tasting Room has its own draw and people seek us out on their own by simply driving by, but events and PR are a huge component to encourage people to get up off the couch and come see us... in the middle of nowhere. Now there was nothing happening. People weren't leaving the house! We had crazy state mandates to close and then some amount of open and then close again... it was incredibly stressful and all I could think of was "how can I get people to stay connected with us???". I was also going stir crazy so I do admit that it was as much for you as it was to give me a project. And that is how The Fern Between Us; Emotional Sanitizer Wine Show was born.

The Fern became a way for you all to taste wine with us virtually, something that most of the time isn't a possibility since we are rarely at the tasting room ourselves. It also became a way to stay relevant. I booked guests via zoom that had interesting stories or input on our insane situation surviving the pandemic. It made sense to connect on many levels, let's learn about Merlot... and talk to a Doctor about how to stay safe. Let's taste Tempranillo and talk to a teacher about how to help our kids learn remotely. Let's Rose all day and learn about great facial products to help us deal with the stress breakouts. It was instantly successful on our FB live platform and as the lock-down stretched on...and on...and on, it became a coveted moment of connection for many. Then slowly the world started to open back up, we started to leave our houses and go back to work, what a bummer for our show! 

I also started to return to work. I had been working for the winery of course from home, in fact conducting tastings and classes via zoom and pre-shipped wine, but I returned to wine judging in person. Being flown around the world felt dangerous especially with an autoimmune disease and medication whipping out all immunity, but that world is focused on your sense of smell and protecting that meant mandatory masks, PCR test before, during and after competitions. Vaccines were mandatory and we all carried hand sanitizer around like it was a wine glass about to be poured into... as in the most valuable possession we could hold. But this travel and additional work was exhausting and while I tried to motivate the show into a new world, filming while on the go, it started to feel "old". People got busy with their lives again. I couldn't think of inspired content. It was feeling like the blog. 

Now, as I sit in the Seattle airport returning from teaching Master Classes at the American Wine Society National Conference, having cancelled several weeks of the show (I also flew to Italy for an Extreme Wine Competition recently), I wonder if the blog is once again the way to connect. 

It won't be the end of the show, the show is simply too fun! People are less likely to tune in live, but it is clear they are watching after the fact as they find time. But I write this blog today as a HOWDY and reconnect! So, what would you like to hear about? I'm an open book, ask away!

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family! Written by Michele Padberg, co-owner of Vivac Winery. If you enjoy this blog, check out her personal blog at Wine First Adventures