Big news! I recently resigned from my job at Microsoft (heard of them?) After just about a year, I am taking a major leap to go pursue something pretty different. Last weekend, I drove down to California, where I’ll be working at a winery just north of Santa Barbara.
I’m super looking forward to this new adventure! These next 3 months are going to be very different from the last 3, but that’s kind of what I’m looking for. I’m excited to be trying something new.
Why, after two degrees, multiple internships, and a year of working full time (all based on mechanical engineering) am I going to work at a winery? And not using my engineering background directly, but actually just doing winery work, cleaning equipment, taking samples of wine, and overall helping out in the cellar as an intern during this year’s harvest.
That’s a very good question. A hard one to answer with a couple sentences, as I’ve been trying to do these past couple of weeks when I started telling people about my plans. On this platform I will hopefully be able to expand on everything that led to my decision.
Although I have dived deeper into the world of wine once we began quarantining, my fascination with wine goes much further back. I loved going wine tasting with friends, especially having gone to UC Davis and being close to a lot of great wineries (I really regret not to doing more wine related learning while I was there!) Everyone loves wine tasting though, so that does not set me apart. If I just really liked wine, I could buy/taste/drink more wine. I was also fascinated with the culture, and with these people called sommeliers who spent so much time and energy literally becoming masters of wine. They could taste a wine and tell so much about it: the region where the grapes were grown, the vintage, the variety of the grape, where it was a warm or cold, wet or dry season, and so many other details. The fact that so much goes into a glass of wine in itself is fascinating.
Some time passed, and I begin working at Microsoft in Seattle, close to another great wine region. Some amazing wines are coming out of Washington, and I wanted to start learning about them. I got one of those passes that lets you do free wine tastings at certain wineries, so one weekend I planned to visit some in Woodinville. Plans fell through with a friend and I was debating whether or not to go. My roommate, who otherwise would have gone, was busy, but she reassured me that it was not weird to go wine tasting alone. That really helped, and I was glad to still go because I had this grand plan to start a wine tasting Instagram and I wanted to get some content up. I definitely felt a little weird going wine tasting alone at first, but after a couple tastes, it was no problem. I also realized one perk of going alone was that I was not talking to a friend, so I talked to the people pouring. Those people are great, and because I had actual conversations with them, ended up with a couple extra tastes of wine.
After that weekend, I really started wanting to actually learn more. After talking with a friend about doing some kind of online course together, I investigated the options that were out there. At this time, places were starting to shut down because of covid, so something that would be all online was appealing. I ended up choosing the Intermediate Wine Certificate from the International Sommelier Guild. There were courses, a digital textbook, and a wine list to choose wines from for tasting notes. I also had someone to email my tasting notes to for feedback. Very exciting. As I started going through the course, there were some sections with some basic winemaking fundamentals, going through the high level steps. This was amazing! I love making things, and here I was learning about this process that has been developed and perfected over centuries. I started thinking about how people make beer in their garage, why couldn’t I make wine? A little more involved to be sure, but nothing was stopping me. You can make it a pretty straightforward process by buying a kit with just the juice that you add yeast to and ferment. I didn’t want to just blindly follow the instructions though, so I also borrowed a library book (which I enjoyed so much I ended up buying). It is called The Way to Make Wine by Sheridan Warrick.
I started researching winemaking kits and found one to order. Funnily enough, they accidentally sent me the beer equipment the first time around and told me to keep it, so I guess I make beer too. As I was waiting for my wine kit, I realized that this is something people do for a living too… Someone has to make this wine that we’re drinking right? I had a friend at UC Davis who actually did the viticulture and enology (grape growing and winemaking) major there, so I reached out to her and asked about her experience. As we sent messages back and forth, I was also learning about how most wineries hire interns during the busy harvest season, when they’re actually picking grapes and processing the fruit. Some will hire interns to do the actual harvesting, and some hire interns to work in the cellar to help with the winemaking (and cleaning. Lots and lots of cleaning). I found a Facebook group called “Travelling Winemakers: Living the Dream) for people who want to travel around the world and work at wineries. If you are extremely dedicated, you can work the fall harvest from around August – November in the northern hemisphere (US and Europe mostly) and then travel to the southern hemisphere and work in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, etc., starting in January. That is shaken up a little bit now, with lots of countries limiting the number of travelers entering and work visas becoming harder to get. However, there are plenty of wineries in the US to work for!
I started scrolling through this group every couple of days, and on a whim messaged a woman who posted that she was looking for a couple interns to work at the winery where she was the winemaker. I reached out, saying I don’t have any experience making wine but I’m learning a lot on my own and I’m super interested. She asked for my resume and then scheduled a video call. I went through this whole process not really thinking that I was actually applying and literally interviewing, but just taking it as a learning process. I had spoken with another woman at another winery where I applied and never heard back, but this seemed so much less formal. I did the video call with the winemaker, where we talked about the winery itself, and my background, including the fact that I had worked in a machine shop and was no stranger to lifting heavy buckets of sand in the foundry and cleaning greasy machines. I knew enough to emphasize those experiences, knowing that working in a winery involves a lot of cleaning and lifting some heavy things. That, plus my excitement and curiosity, seemed to stand out to her, and a couple days later she messaged me saying that they wanted me to come work for them! I almost couldn’t believe it; why would they want me, with no experience and very little knowledge? Probably because it’s a lot of grunt work, but I’m ok with that. I have been craving more hands-on work, along with work with other people.
However, there was one big thing standing in the way. She wanted me to start in mid-August. Unfortunatley, in my contact for Microsoft, it says that I have to stay at Microsoft for at least 12 months, or I would sacrifice my starting bonus. Because Microsoft is so generous, that would a lot of money that I would have to pay back. With no way around that, I messaged her back and said I was really sorry, but I couldn’t actually leave before August 26 (my first day at Microsoft in 2019) so I wouldn’t be able to accept. Amazingly, she said that was ok! If I started on Monday, August 31, it would be fine, I would just have to learn quickly. At that point, I felt like this was fate telling me that I had to do it. With that start date, and the fact that it was right at the end of my lease, what else was standing in my way?? (Oh, this great job that I have in Seattle, you say? But what about pursuing my passion!)
So, some more time goes by and I’m keeping it on the down low that I’m thinking about moving to try something so new and different. This was fairly easy since I wasn’t seeing a lot of people anyway. But, I started thinking about the logistics of moving out of Seattle, actually leaving my job, and all the different factors that go into it. Ultimately, I decided that if I didn’t try doing this now, it would continuously get harder, and I didn’t like imagining myself 20 years down the road, regretting never trying this out. Although I had a great job, with coworkers I liked, and was lucky to be able to work from home, I didn’t love the culture of traveling such a large percentage of the year (during non-covid times obviously) and of working super hard just to gain more responsibility and work harder in consumer electronics, something I’m honestly not super passionate about. I also feel conflicted about the travel and process of producing so much from a sustainability and climate change standpoint. As much as Microsoft is trying to do to become carbon negative by 2030, there’s no denying the fact that we (now they) are still producing a lot of waste. (I have to add that the wine industry can also improve in the sustainability area. So muchwater goes into making wine!)
Overall, I would say this is more of a decision to move towards something, rather than away from something else. I am so excited to be taking this huge jump (and a little nervous too). I am going to learn a lot about wine and a lot about myself. And after… honestly who knows? Maybe I will go back to Microsoft, or to an engineering role at another company. Maybe I will continue working in wine. Maybe I’ll go back to school. Maybe I’ll try to start my own business! The possibilities are somewhat endless, and that is an encouraging thing.
