Spotlight: Liz Swagerty

This weblog is all about LaVelle Vineyards. More importantly though, it's about my experiences with the company and the people that are invovolved with it. LaVelle Vineyards wouldn't be where it is today without the people that work here. So, talking about the people that work here and letting everyone know how important they are to not only LaVelle Vineyards, but me as a manager, is something I don't take lightly. This may be a little longer than normal post, but it's an important one about my friend and coworker, Liz Swagerty.

Let me start with a recent experience and how it relates to a simply wonderful person. In the last week of March every year there's a tradition that happens in every college town across the United States...everyone leaves. Also known as Spring Break, most college students leave their college towns and go blow off their previous-term-steam from school. Liz, being a college student, had the chance to go to Maui with a family that she'd been nannying with for a number of years previously. Of course, she took the opportunity and we adjusted the schedule so she could go.

She had an excellent time, as most would in a tropical paradise. When she came back, her skin was several shades darker and she brought stories of snorkeling, dancing and basking in the sun upon her return. Oh, and that's not all she came back with. She took most of the money she left with and bought a ton of caramel and milk chocolate covered macadamia nut clusters and Kona coffee for everyone. I got a package of each and just today I'm getting around to having a couple of couple of Hualalai Estate Kona Coffee. This has to be some of the best coffee I've ever had. Thanks Liz! This is just an example of the kindness of one of my coworkers, and of course friends. Not to take away from the gift of a great cup of Kona Coffee and a box full of Chocolate Caramel covered Macadamia Nuts, but this just scratches the surface in describing everything that Liz has done for me and my family business.

When I first started working full time in August of last year I was excited but overwhelmed. I came into a situation where I needed to learn a lot of about running a business as I went and I looked for help from my new coworkers. Within the first few months I had lost my Special Events manager, my chef, and my Bistro Manager. My Dad was (and still is) a huge help during this transition but what I was knee deep in was trying to run the day-to-day operations of a small company and learning how to hire the right people for the right positions and I had little history and experiences to help me make decisions.

I promoted Liz to my Assistant Manager of the Bistro and she kept everything on track during these transitions, some of which are still going on today. Liz was then and is now like a rock to the Bistro and therefore is a major part of what we're trying to do at LaVelle Vineyards. She does the scheduling, supplies inventory, planning and execution of private parties, and works the toughest server shifts we have down at the bistro. Last night a club member, making a baseball analogy, said that Liz and Dawn (another excellent server of ours) were like Mantle and Maris to LaVelle Vineyards.

I wanted to take this time to spotlight Liz Swagerty for everything that she is to LaVelle Vineyards and more importantly to me and my transition from a geek building websites in Roseburg to a manager working for my family business. I would not be able to do this without people like Liz Swagerty. Thank you my friend.

More Winery Construction Photos

Rod and Drew are two of the main guys working on the framing project which is the second phase of the construction project ongoing here at the winery. Click on the photo to check out a slideshow of photos that I took this morning. The first phase of the project was to dig a ditch around the outside of the winery. Pat and Richard worked on this project for the most part. After we dug the hole, Rod came in with some steel rebar and poured a concrete footing all the way around. The footing will serve as the foundation for the new cedar siding as it goes up.

At the same time today on another area of the property we received our Western Red Cedar for the project. Rather than buying wood product from a lumber company we decided to buy this cedar locally from a provider in the nearby Crow Valley. We're going to then have the logs milled here at LaVelle Vineyards by a local millwright named Pony Gilbert. He owns the Long Tom Custom Saw Mill and has worked on several projects in the Fern Ridge area. So, if you click on the photo to the left you'll get a slideshow of photos with this big crane thing lifting the logs off the log truck and setting them on the ground near our house.

April 2007 Bottling

We had a bottling last Thursday and Friday here at the winery. We don't own a bottling line so we use a mobile bottler. Signature Mobile Bottlers owns a semi trailer that's been hollowed out and turned into a bottling line. They then drive around, literally, and bottle wine for smaller wineries in the region. We will bottle approximately 7,500 cases of wine this year in three separate bottlings. This time around we're bottling our 06 VS Pinot Gris, 06 VS Riesling, and our new 06 Columbia Valley Chardonnay. A bottling, for any winery, is one of the most expensive times of year. We have to buy labels, glass bottles, corks, foils, and other supplies and then have it all ready for one day. Then, just when you think you're done paying for stuff, along comes the bill for the mobile bottler!

Click on the photo to view a slideshow of the whole set.