: For me, for the first weeks of this, we were like—there was so much to do to just try and contain and control what’s going on right now. We were skipping meals. We were trying to constantly pivot as things changed. The economic environment, combined with the worries about health—all of it is so mentally taxing. We realized we just needed to slow down a little, and carve out time for things that make us feel human.
The reason that this is such a tragedy right now—it’s affecting health and claiming lives, and I don’t ever want to sound tone deaf or insensitive—but, amidst the anxiety and panic. Even though wine isn’t essential to many people’s lives, as other things are, I don’t want to overlook what it can do for mental health. I’m trying to employ my newly-minted-motherhood tactic: Distraction is the best medicine.
It’s been hugely important to me and my business that I set long-term contracts with farmers—establishing a fair price that will be consistent despite rises and falls in the market. All the people I work with come at every conversation with the underlying attitude that this is a long-term relationship worth preserving. That trust and hope has been very helpful to everybody—hope can go a long way in getting people to reopen.
I sell over 85 percent of my wines to restaurants, a system that’s now faltering. So, I realized I would have to cut back on grape production I had originally committed to if I was to remain open. I communicated that immediately to a farmer, and luckily, he was able to graft a new type of grape for another client. Transparency is so important at this time.My friend, Camilla Marcus, of Westbourne, was telling me that restaurants make up over four percent of the GDP in the America.
GoFundMe campaigns can be tricky—it’s unclear where funds are going, and even when those funds might become available; a relief fund is inherently more transparent. Everyone in the country is looking at their bank account and tightening their belt, and so we’re trying to provide a service that is in tandem with relief—half of the proceeds of