A bitter sweet farewell…

(Caitlin Ronning has been such an amazing employee! She will be missed by all here at the Ponzi Wine Bar!!)

I first started at the Ponzi Wine Bar the week I turned 21. I had grown up with parents who loved wine and had spent a few Memorial Day weekends at Eberle Estate Winery in Paso Robles, but the only thing I really knew about wine was that I was interested in learning more. Little did I know, my experience at Ponzi would help me unveil one of my life’s passions.

I can’t think of a better place to work when you’re exploring the world of wine. Between pouring new guest wines weekly, participating in private tastings at local wineries, and tasting wines with distributors, working at Ponzi is like a kid working in a candy store. I was surrounded by new and interesting wines and I wanted to try them all!

Luckily, working with Shannon, Andrew, and then eventually Ryan, (three opinions you can’t ignore) was a blessing. They helped me to distinguish between the bottles I must have and the ones that I can try again another time. What more could I ask for than to be surrounded by people who were not only my friends and confidants, but educated and experienced wine aficionados. I will be forever grateful to them for answering my relentless questions and accepting my clumsy ways.

I will admit that in the beginning I considered wine more of a hobby than anything else. I enjoyed my time at Ponzi and it was my retreat from school and the “real world,” but I never considered it something that I would pursue in the future as a career. After all, who really makes money in the wine industry? And who really has a job doing something they love? “Don’t be silly, Caitlin.” I thought.

This past summer was my third year at the Ponzi Wine Bar. By this point, Andrew had kept me on staff through two years of college, one year of graduate school, and piles of broken pinot glasses. But this summer was the first time that I delved into the world of wine and consider pursuing it as a career. My interest in wine peaked, my questions became a little more educated, and I was starting to pay attention to who I was meeting on our tastings and why they were important. I realized that I was experiencing things that the average, but serious, wine buyer would pay hundreds and thousands of dollars for, and creating memories that are priceless.

I also had the opportunity this fall to work my first Crush; partly because the winery didn’t know how clumsy I am. I obviously had heard stories about the hard work and long hours it takes to be a harvest intern, but I didn’t care, I wanted to learn more! I can honestly say that I have never been more tired and more sore than I was after some of those days (and nights) up at the winery. We pressed more than 600 tons of fruit (well over the projected amount) and I learned just as much! You can read all you want about making wine, but you’ll never fully understand it until you can work side by side with someone like Luisa Ponzi or until you’re up to your shoulders in it; literally! Harvest only fueled my desire to learn everything and anything that I can in this industry. I now can appreciate each bottle I open that much more, and understand all the hard work (and sweat!) that goes in to making a beautiful bottle of wine.

So to get to the point, the Ponzi Wine Bar has given me a gift; the gift of discovering a passion. I would have never been able to uncover and explore my love of wine, and the people involved, in it if it weren’t for the Ponzi family, and especially Andrew, Shannon, and Ryan. Although my time working at the wine bar has come to an end, it will always be a place I call home, and who knows, maybe I’ll be back in the Ponzi Vineyard family again in the future. But until then, I will continue to wander the valley tasting and working. So let me finish just by saying Thanks Ponzi!