It’s been a crazy holiday season here at Clos LaChance winery. Now that the shipping deadlines have officially passed (i.e. any new orders will not get to the recepient before Christmas), lets take some time to reflect and review the craziness that is December at Clos LaChance Winery: 

• Our holiday party was last Friday night. Almost 80 people—how we’ve grown from the 8 people sitting around the table at my mom’s house while she cooked for us. We went to a fun Mexican restaurant this year—margaritas, tequila shots and Salsa dancing. The food quality was just okay compared to Brenda’s culinary creations…however a good time was had by all.  

• We had one customer order over $40,000 worth of wine gift packs to give to their customers. All high end wines too. I want to be one of their customers!  Not that we don’t love the See’s Candy and popcorn we get from our vendors (the office is full of delicious goodies this time of year). But a gift pack with two bottles of $40 wine—where do I sign up?

• It’s great to get $40,000 orders. But the logistics are a little nuts. We had to put together about 600 gift packs by hand. We had a couple of weeks to do it…but for a couple of days, Melanie coordinated an assembly line of any warm body she could find.

• Speaking of warm bodies, as the weather gets cold, our office and Tasting Room in San Martin gets pretty chilly. Hence, we put on the heat. No matter how high we turn up the heat, the office is always freezing. All the office girls wear sweaters, vests and scarves during the day to stay warm. However, being a small enclosed space—the bathroom always fluctuates in extremes. Long story short—there are no secrets here amongst the office crew at Clos LaChance. When someone from the office gets up and starts to strip off coats, scarves and sweaters….everyone knows they are heading to the “potty.”

• We had a great holiday dinner here the other night with Le Papillon restaurant from San Jose. Mike, who runs the joint, is seriously the nicest guy ever. And Scott, the chef, is the most unassuming, gracious and talented man. We are lucky to have such a great partnership with their organization. The truffled celery soup with a shaved truffle and truffle oil (did I mention truffles?) was to die for!

Vacation—the winery is closed from Christmas Eve through New Years. I think we all need the break. Or at least a temperate toilet.

Happy Holidays!