Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Drew Bledsoe Full Interview

Transcript

Drew Bledsoe Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: heart or text I Heeart to five hundred five hundred. Hi.
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  Speaker 1: This Rashane McDonald. You're listening to money Making Conversation. He
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  Speaker 1: is on the phone. I know because we just cracked
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  Speaker 1: jokes together. My next guest had a had a fourteen
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  Speaker 1: year NFL career as a quarterback and a very good
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  Speaker 1: Pro Bowl quarterback. Bark. He was an one pick in
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  Speaker 1: the NFL draft and you know, number one. Since retirement.
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  Speaker 1: He is the founder Bledsoe Capital Group and co founder
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  Speaker 1: of Double Back Winery and Walla Wa La Vala in
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  Speaker 1: the state of Washington. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations.
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  Speaker 1: Drew bless So, good morning. How are you man? Drew?
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  Speaker 1: You got that man? You got? That's that's that cold voice.
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  Speaker 1: Drew Hey, Man, you know, you know it's uh, it's
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  Speaker 1: not early here. We got in really late last night
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  Speaker 1: from bring break trip of the family, so it feels early.
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  Speaker 1: So I got my coffee going. But I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: I kind of like the morning voice. You know, you're
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  Speaker 1: on the on the radio morning voice from you sometimes, Drew,
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  Speaker 1: Hey Jue. Before we get started, Man, I would looking
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  Speaker 1: at your bayo. I know you're the big name, but
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  Speaker 1: I gotta give some props to your wife. Uh. You
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  Speaker 1: know she she plays a major role in the winery.
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  Speaker 1: Could you tell my listeners exactly the role she plays
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  Speaker 1: in the business. Yeah, you know, it's it's really enjoyable
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  Speaker 1: for us to be able to work together on this project.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when when I was playing football, it was
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  Speaker 1: all about me and Vanfire and for us after I retire,
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  Speaker 1: we're able to do this together. She has a huge,
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  Speaker 1: huge impact on our business in multiple ways. She's she
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  Speaker 1: serves as a as a you know, a board member,
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  Speaker 1: helps us direct what we're doing, both from what we're making,
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  Speaker 1: how we're selling, you know, how we're gonna market uh,
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  Speaker 1: and then the other thing she does that that's that's
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  Speaker 1: hugely important. She's got a great palette. So when we
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  Speaker 1: do our blending trials to figure out what's ultimately going
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  Speaker 1: to go into a bottle of line, she's the final
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  Speaker 1: she gets the final vote um, and so far she's
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  Speaker 1: she's done a great job. So so that I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to slay everybody down because you know, some you
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  Speaker 1: come from that audience, a beer drinkers, that's your fan base,
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  Speaker 1: and now you're in the wine business. Is that is
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  Speaker 1: that something that's part of your your history or something
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  Speaker 1: that you got into as you were playing football looking
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  Speaker 1: at the next step of your life. Can you give
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  Speaker 1: us a little background on why you are in the
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  Speaker 1: winery business. Yeah, yeah, you know, because you're right. So,
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  Speaker 1: I mean I grew up and I grew up in
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  Speaker 1: in wheat farming country, and then I went to school
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  Speaker 1: at Washington State University. I mean, this is this's beer
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  Speaker 1: drinking country and and and it's uh, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: the same thing you know with the with the fan
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  Speaker 1: base in the NFL. But uh, the thing that that
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  Speaker 1: happened when when when I got into the league, and uh,
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  Speaker 1: is that I discovered that there were a lot of
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  Speaker 1: a lot of guys on my team, especially early on
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  Speaker 1: with the Patriots that really wanted to try something different,
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  Speaker 1: and so we started drinking wine and talking about it.
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  Speaker 1: And the and the thing that would surprise most people
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  Speaker 1: is the guys that got into it the most with
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  Speaker 1: me were linebackers, you know, Teddy Brusky and Ted Johnson
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  Speaker 1: and Mike Brable and and then a couple of my
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  Speaker 1: lineman Bruce Armstrong, big wine guy, and love those guys. Man, well,
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  Speaker 1: Bruce Armstrong should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
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  Speaker 1: but that's another subject for at at the time. Um,
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  Speaker 1: but you'd be kind of surprised that we would get
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  Speaker 1: together and I would tell those guys to bring over
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  Speaker 1: a fancy bottle of line and I would bring something
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  Speaker 1: from my little hometown out here in Walla, Walla, and
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  Speaker 1: we would put them in paper bags and we would
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  Speaker 1: blind taste them, you know, just being complete you know,
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  Speaker 1: wine dorks and and uh and we would just be
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  Speaker 1: tough football player. Absolutely you would, Yeah, you did, you did?
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  Speaker 1: You know? Lat back as they move forward, they don't
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  Speaker 1: move back. And but then all of a sudden you
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  Speaker 1: got one of these big tough guys with this little
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  Speaker 1: pinky finger out swirling wine and a wine glass it.
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  Speaker 1: But the cool thing when we did that, I would
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  Speaker 1: bring some wine from my hometown and we would put
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  Speaker 1: them in paper bags and we would win, you know.
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  Speaker 1: But I would bring these these wines that that nobody
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  Speaker 1: had ever heard of, and we would win the competition.
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  Speaker 1: So I kind of got my mind working and thinking
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  Speaker 1: maybe that would be a that would be a potential
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  Speaker 1: career after I was done. Now that's you hanging out
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  Speaker 1: with the fellas. Now when did you move your wife
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  Speaker 1: into saying okay, I think we may have something was
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  Speaker 1: was shed to you know, because I'm marriage so I
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  Speaker 1: know the role that a wife can play because there's
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the light bulb will go off faster with them
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  Speaker 1: than with me sometimes, you know. So how how does
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  Speaker 1: she come into play? Because, like you said, when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to running the business, the board, the palette, how
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  Speaker 1: does she play a role in that next step? Well, uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the biggest, the biggest thing. And she and
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  Speaker 1: I both had this the same fear because we had
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  Speaker 1: seen people as they've made that transition out of the
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  Speaker 1: professional sports and into the rest of their life. Um,
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  Speaker 1: there are a lot of guys that released good with that.
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  Speaker 1: And when I when I looked at um, at that
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  Speaker 1: it was it was scary. You know, I was in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of my career and you know, but you know,
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  Speaker 1: you're playing professional sports. I mean, it's it's the coolest
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  Speaker 1: thing you could ever possibly do. That I loved every
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  Speaker 1: I loved every second of it, and I'd go back
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  Speaker 1: and do it all over again. But one of the
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  Speaker 1: hard parts is that that that if you're really really fortunate,
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  Speaker 1: which I was, you get to play into your mid
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  Speaker 1: thirties and then they show you the door, and and
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  Speaker 1: you you've got to figure out what to do with
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  Speaker 1: the rest of your life. You know, we're both both
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  Speaker 1: afraid of that. And and she when I when I
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  Speaker 1: first of all, when I retired from football, she challenged
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  Speaker 1: me really hard as to whether I was ready to retire,
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  Speaker 1: when I was ready to not do that anymore. She
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  Speaker 1: pushed back on me really hard. But then once I did, um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I think we both knew that that I
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  Speaker 1: was going to need to be um, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: was going to need to be productive. I was gonna
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  Speaker 1: need to have something that that was engaging to me,
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  Speaker 1: you know. And uh, and so she was entirely supportive
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  Speaker 1: of of of you know, this wine business, and plus
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's it's enjoyable and something that she was
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  Speaker 1: passionate about as well. So it worked out really well.
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  Speaker 1: And then the other part is that she she just
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  Speaker 1: she knew I was gonna be a have to be
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  Speaker 1: out of the house and she was gonna kill me
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  Speaker 1: I was around too If I was around too much,
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  Speaker 1: it was not gonna work very well. So uh, but no,
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  Speaker 1: it was really a thing that we that we designed
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  Speaker 1: and built and grew together and now we have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of fun with it. Okay, great, Before we go
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  Speaker 1: in the front, I want to talk. I read this
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  Speaker 1: big old article on uh it was on ESPN dot com.
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  Speaker 1: It was talking about NBA players how they have an
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  Speaker 1: affection for wine, and it was really and to hear
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  Speaker 1: you talk, so it's really I like bringing it up
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  Speaker 1: because athletes in general have this certain vision of be
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  Speaker 1: tough for being a guy that you know, you're the
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  Speaker 1: words man's man. And when you get wine. You know,
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  Speaker 1: my wife is a big wine drinker. You know, I
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  Speaker 1: got you know, she she she she looks at it
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  Speaker 1: from a certain different a different angle. And when I
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  Speaker 1: when you when I got excited about the whole prospect though,
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  Speaker 1: you know, talk about Lebron, James, Chris Paul All these
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  Speaker 1: are big time wine drinkers. When you I don't know
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  Speaker 1: if you're familiar with that story, does that when you
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  Speaker 1: hear stories like they get out that doesn't help your
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  Speaker 1: your brand, doesn't help your industry? And how do you
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  Speaker 1: use that like market? Can't you use that to market
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  Speaker 1: your your brand? And we encourage you know now you
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  Speaker 1: know one of the one of the reasons you know
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  Speaker 1: that that guys are are are going that direction because
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  Speaker 1: it's it's it's healthier, it's it's actually good for you.
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  Speaker 1: And there's some studies out there. I mean, there's a
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  Speaker 1: there's a recent study that that needs to be shared
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  Speaker 1: everywhere that if you drink more wine, you live longer.
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  Speaker 1: Um and uh so, uh so so I need I
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  Speaker 1: need to catch up with my wife absolutely. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you don't want her, you don't want her to be lonely,
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  Speaker 1: So you gotta live as long as she does. You
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  Speaker 1: gotta drink a lot of wine, housing money that she's
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  Speaker 1: gonna have some money. That's a sad point. I am
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  Speaker 1: officially gonna start sampling with her from now on. There
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  Speaker 1: you go. I love it, I love it, but no,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's extremely helpful for our business. A matter of fact,
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  Speaker 1: Braun took took great care of me. What a year
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  Speaker 1: and a half ago during the playoffs there was the NFL.
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  Speaker 1: It was NBC did a little, uh, a little blur
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  Speaker 1: about our winery, and Lebron sent sent a tweet asking
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  Speaker 1: me for some wine, and and so that that that
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  Speaker 1: that certainly certainly helps them sales. So I obviously sent
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  Speaker 1: him off a couple of bottles to to try. And
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  Speaker 1: but yeah, it's no, definitely beneficial and uh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's just it's a it's an interesting beverage. It's different,
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  Speaker 1: you know, at least to me, it's different from uh
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  Speaker 1: from beer whiskey. It's just it's it's got a complexity
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  Speaker 1: and some interesting aspects to it, and it just really
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  Speaker 1: really elevates some meal when you sit down to have
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  Speaker 1: a glass. I know, I know you in Washington, which
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  Speaker 1: is the northwest part of the country. Uh CJ. McCullen,
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  Speaker 1: Port Latreille Direct Blaze is a big wine drinker, and uh,
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  Speaker 1: Damian Leonard they was in that same article. So just
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  Speaker 1: letting you know, Lebron will in Cleveland, and there's some
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  Speaker 1: bars right there in Oregon, you might want to drop
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  Speaker 1: a couple of bottle of wine because he's a big
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  Speaker 1: wine drink. Because I know it's all about relationship. That
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  Speaker 1: social media is so powerful. You can take those screenshots
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  Speaker 1: and just share them and all that good stuff. So
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  Speaker 1: that's a that's a big move by Lebron because he
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  Speaker 1: is by far the most powerful athlete in the world,
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  Speaker 1: in the in the in the sport of football, in
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the sport of basketball, and the sport of baseball that
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  Speaker 1: America has to offer. So let's talk about your your
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  Speaker 1: your vineyards, my friend you and uh and you launched
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  Speaker 1: the double back and the state focused winder that produces
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  Speaker 1: world class uh cabinet from the Walla Walla Valley. So
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  Speaker 1: is it about the soil? Because I was doing my research,
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  Speaker 1: I was I was trying to get ready for you, Drew.
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  Speaker 1: I would try to get ready for you man. Yeah, No,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's it's about two things. It's about your soil
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  Speaker 1: and about your weatherum and our our little valley has it.
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  Speaker 1: It's it's too long for this segment, but our little
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  Speaker 1: valley has a really interesting uh uh geological history. There
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  Speaker 1: was some huge flood got two breaks that we got
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: two breaks drew, So you can talk about we've got
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: two breaks there. We had there were there were some
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  Speaker 1: these these there were some floods that happened during the
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  Speaker 1: last ice Age. There was a massive lake that backed
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  Speaker 1: up behind an ice dam, and and every forty years
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: or so that ice dam would break, and we had
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  Speaker 1: floods that came across the Pacific Northwest that were cataclysmic,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: cataclysmic in nature, I mean to do these massive, massive floods.
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  Speaker 1: When that happened, there was a cliff band that just
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  Speaker 1: outside of the valley and it pushed all this sedimentary,
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  Speaker 1: all this water up into our valley, and all this
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  Speaker 1: sediment dropped out. So we've got this really deep, very
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  Speaker 1: mineral rich soil. And then, because you know, most of
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the people that have not spent time in the Northwest,
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  Speaker 1: all you think about is all the rain in Seattle
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: in Portland. But what happens is you do You've got
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  Speaker 1: the Cascade Mountains and that traps all that rain on
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  Speaker 1: the coast, and our climate we're in we're in a
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  Speaker 1: high desert climate, um and so what we get to
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: these long hot summer days, we get really cool nights,
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  Speaker 1: and we've got this deep, porous soil with you know,
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  Speaker 1: with you know, rainfall, it only happens in the winter
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  Speaker 1: and the summertime we can control it. And so you
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  Speaker 1: just have this confluence of events that allows us to
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  Speaker 1: grow some of the best wine grapes in the entire world.
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  Speaker 1: That's so sol and the and in the background of
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  Speaker 1: where you came from is really what makes his work.
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  Speaker 1: Now you have so you have to two different winery.
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  Speaker 1: You have the Blitzel Family Winery and you have a
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  Speaker 1: sister project called a double back winery. Yeah, and so
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  Speaker 1: what we did when we started the business, you know,
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  Speaker 1: everything that we do is designed to go into double
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  Speaker 1: back cabinet. We're trying to make this wine compete on
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  Speaker 1: a national stage, and we've we've established that we can
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  Speaker 1: do that. Uh and even on an international stage, you know,
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  Speaker 1: are the wine will hold up against against any wine
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  Speaker 1: in the world. So every grape that comes in the
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  Speaker 1: building is where we're intending to go into double back.
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  Speaker 1: But when you bring you know, when you go to
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  Speaker 1: your blending trials, and when my wife and I sit
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  Speaker 1: down and do blending trials with our winemaker, there's a
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  Speaker 1: certain amount of wine that doesn't make the cut, that
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  Speaker 1: doesn't you know, it's just not stylistically you know, uh
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  Speaker 1: fit doesn't quite fit with Double Back. Well, we initially
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: we just we needed a place for that wine to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: go rather than just dumping it down the drain or
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: you know, selling to somebody that it in in a
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  Speaker 1: cheap and some other cheap label. And so we started
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  Speaker 1: the Family Winery so that now we have we can
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: we can bring in even more fruit and be more
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: selective with what goes into Double Back without having to
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: just you know, eat the financial loss of the of
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the other wines. And it's also it's also allowed us
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: to to experiment with some other varietals. You know, we're
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: doing a little bit of shardoned, we do a little straw.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: We started doing some rosea this last year. Uh, those
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: all going to the Family Wine. Don't go into the wine.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: That's my next break because I want to go down
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: with I want to go down each wine so you
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: can tell us about each wine. But also I want
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: to educate my audience on what wine goes with what
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: food because the fact that I'll just be looking at
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: our wife she should be or that sea food. I
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: gotta have this, or that steak, I gotta have this.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I go okay, I just have some water, sir, Just
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: give me some water. But but the thing that I
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: really was admired about the whole process of just just
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: seeing you making this transition because it's so important. Like
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: you said that, so many athletes, you hear the sad stories,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: and I wanted to get you on my show because
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: you're not a sad story. Your family, guy, I love
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the fact that your wife has engaged in the business,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and I call your power couple. You know. I love
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: to get home on the show one day, just interview
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: her because she's important to the process, because he's a force.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Like you said, you used to be the big name.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Now you guys are shared the big name. And so
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit more about the
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the wines uh at the Bled. So I want to
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: talk about the wines at the double back. We'll be
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: back more with Drew Bledso thank you. Hi. This ra
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. I'm back and with money making conversations on
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the phone. I have a fourteen year NFL quarterback. Uh.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: He was the number one pick in the NFL draft.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: He retired and became founder of the Bled. So but
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: that's so Capital Group and co founder the Double Back
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Winter and Walla Walla Valle in the state of Washington.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Please welcome back to money making conversation. Drew Bledso and Drew,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: how you doing? Oh man, so good, hey Drew. Before
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: let's start making some money. Now let's talk about money.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: You have a wine club. Tell everybody about this wine
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: club because it was something that you guys started and it's, uh,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: it's it's a lot of ways revolutionary because people can
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: get wine on a monthly basis. Please explain. Yeah, yeah,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I know what we wanted to do. We wanted to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: make it easier for people. If you know, if you
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: just want to if you know that you that you
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: like what we do and and you don't want us
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to bug you all the time with with emails and
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: decide what to order, you can sign up on our
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: our wine club on at the Bledsoew Family Winery and uh,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: twice a year we'll just we'll ship we'll ship wine
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: to you so and with that you get you get
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: a variety. You'll get our rose chardonnay, uh, some surraw
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: and and also some some cabernet. Don't have to think
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: about it, just will arrive at your door. Um, twice
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: a year. Okay, now, how do they sign up for
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the wine club? Because if you have blood, yeah, thank
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: you know, you go to Bledsoew Family Winery dot com.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Uh if you just if you just search search my
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: name Drew Bledsoe and wine, it'll it'll pop up search
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: just naming wine, it just pop up. I just love it.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: This is a man who knows you know that, who's
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: all talking about how proud, uh we we are are
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: what you're doing, because that's the big negative spirit about athletes,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: you know, when you know you have more negative story
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: than positive story, and you're a positive story. And and
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: that's that's when I created money Making Conversation. One of
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the goal was to show the next step of athletes
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: who prepare what time? And we talked about a little
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: bit earlier. You know the lightbulb, you know looking at
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: other players, was that the key to saying, I better
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: have my act together when I when they kicked me
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: out of this league. You know, it was um, you know,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I mean it was I mean, there's there's a definite
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: fear component to that. You know, you you know you
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: have a successful life and a successful career and uh
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: and a significant head start in life and you know,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: you don't want to screw it up, you know, and
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and so there's a fear component to it. But then
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I also, you know, I mean for me, um, you know,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to find something that I could learn about,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: something that could be engaging to me, that that they
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: got me excited about getting out of bed in the morning.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: And I've been retired from the league for for you know,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: over a decade now, and um, I haven't I can't
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: recall the morning where I got up in the morning
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: and tried to figure out, Man, what am I gonna
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: do today? I'm before and it's been it's been engaging. Yeah,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: I mean it's uh you know, so it's been, but
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: there's there's a there. It was probably it was probably
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: about halfway through my career I started in football. I
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: started to think about what was next, uh, and started
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: to plan for that and started to try to figure
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: out what that looked like. And so when I did,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I decided to retire after the two thousand and sixth season.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: It wasn't I wasn't leaving football because I didn't want
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: to play football anymore. I still love football to this day.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: But I was ready to execute on the plans in
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the next phase and and go uh and go try
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: something new and and uh and it's been it's been
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: everything that I wanted it to be in a whole
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: bunch of things. I had no idea it was going
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: to be. It's been stressful and hard and hiring people
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: and you know, trans listening away from from certain employees
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: and then you know, shaping the business and Double Back Winery.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: It's four state venues out there on the Double McQueen,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Bob Haley, Lafour, and the Flying b in Walla Walla Valley. Uh,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: these different wine uh grapes come from each state. Yes, yes, yeah,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: what Yeah, it's really amazing if you get out there
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and uh, we did this, we did, we did, we did.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: The valley is spectacularly beautiful. If if you really like
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: wine and you want to I tell people, if you
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: want to go to the Walla Walla Valley, it's like
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: getting in a time machine and going back in time
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: about forty or fifty years. Man, it's still just farmers
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: and pickup trucks and you know all of that, and
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the wines are fantastic. But but the thing that's really
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: striking to to if you go out into the vineyard
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and we just did this recently with a group. You
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: go to the wineries there, excuse me. The vineyards are
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: not very far apart. You know, from McQueen to Peally
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: is less than a mile and and down to the
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: four is less than a mile. But there are different elevations,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: different soil types, and the wines are really really unique
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: off of each property. Um. And so that allows us
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: to have some some versatility when we do our blending
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: trials to to to try and balance the wines and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: make it more interesting. Uh. It also gives us also
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: gives us some flexibility depending on how hot the weather
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: is in the summer, if it's a if it's a
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: warmer vintage, McQueen generally ripens a little bit later. It's
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit cooler side if it's a cooler vintage,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: and some of the lower vineyards ripen more quickly. You have,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: you have three wines. I want to bring up the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: estate reserve, the cabinet Sauvignon and yeah, okay, all three's
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: are different, correct, Yes, absolutely, Okay, let's talk. Let's talk
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: with the estate reserve. So the estate reserve that we
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: don't make very much of that and that would be
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: if you want to put it in football terms, that
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: those that would be the NBA All Star Game, it
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: would be the Pro A Bowl. You know, I mean
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: anybody that's you know, if you if you're you know,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: if you're an NBA player, you're you're the best in
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the world. But then amongst the best in the world,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: there are certain players that stand out that take it
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: to another level. And that's what we did with the
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: estate reserve. We essentially identified three barrels of wine uh
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: that we thought were performing better than the rest um
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: and uh and set those aside, uh and then get
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the you know, their own special bottle, own special treatment
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: and then uh and then everything else goes into double
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: back and double back. Double back is the wine that
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: that we we just you know, it's she's we've been
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: we've been going. We've been at it for a long
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: time now and and uh, um we're really really proud
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: of what goes into the double back cabinet. Uh. You know,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: we feel like the grapes that were growing and then
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: our our state vineyards um are among the best in
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the world. And then we've got them just an amazing
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: wine making staff led by Josh McDaniels that that, Uh,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: they just do an amazing job with that wine, and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: we really feel like it will it does stand up
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: on an national stage. You know. In our in our
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: first four vintages, we were top hundred wines in the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: world twice, and I feel like we can have continue
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: to get better and better with that. Okay, we'll just
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: slow everything down exactly. Okay, I hear you grow the wine.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: You grow the grapes, and now what's the step which
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: what you guys or doesn't go to someplaces? Are you
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: guys y'all produce it? Are you just grow the wine? No,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: we were we Uh, we grow the grapes, Uh, bring
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: them in and then we and then we make the wine.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: We're we've been we're just now moving into a brand
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: new winery that that we've built over the past couple
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: of years. Um. But yeah, no, we take it every
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: we handle every step of that. We're fully, very vertically
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: integrated and bring bring it from from the ground to
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the bottle on your table. Uh. Which that to me,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: that's the really intriguing part of the of the businesses.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: You know, you start out you're a farmer first, and
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: we you know, We've got our kids out there in
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, and they got their hands already
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: implanted vines that now go into the these uh, these
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: world class wines. UM and uh you know, to me,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the fact that you're a farmer first and you've got
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: to understand all that goes into that, and then you're
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: into the wine making process, and then you're into marketing
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and distribution and fulfillment. You know, I've had to learn
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I had to learn a lot more about accounting than
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I ever thought I would and and uh, you know,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out how you how you how you
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: manage your business so that you're making smart financial decisions
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: on top of UM. So you guys, so you guys
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: grow it, pick it, grow it. We uh we uh,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: we only have seven employees. So we have when we
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: when we go to harvest, we have a contract airbine
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: airbine the wood seven seven picking all these grapes. We've
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: got we we've got we've got contract crews that come through.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: They work for most of the vineyards in the valley
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: and they come through and and they're absolute you know,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: pros at what they do. We we went out to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: help harvest the one time, and they just told us
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: to get out of the way. We're just we're just
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: ticking right right. So they so they come through and
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: help us harvest the fruit and then uh and they
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: work for uh, you know, for a number of different
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: vineyards in the they stay really busy and then uh
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and then when it comes the other time, we need help.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: When we when we go to to bottle and pack
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and shift, you know, then you know, we can't do
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: that with seven people, so we gotta bring into because
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: everything is seasonal, right, okay, and that's why that's why
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: you have a seven full time and then you have
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: seasonal hires that you bring in growing picky eat and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: then producing. Let me ask you can one get your
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: your wine? We heard about the wine club. What about
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: getting your in a store or restaurants. I know you're
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: in the northwest part of the country. How can one
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: get your wine? They if they're shopping. Yeah, you know,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: we were distributed. Um, we're distributed a little bit. Uh.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Most of the double back, um, you know goes directly
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: to people off of our list, but we go out
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: to distribution. We we sell about nine of our wine
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: directly the consumers online. But then we're distributed. If people
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: want to find a bottle on their store and try
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: it before they commit to, you know, three bottles or
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: six bottles who looked at our list, you can generally
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: call your local wine shop and they can They can
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: usually track down a bottle. That might take him a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: couple of days, but they can usually track down a
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: bottle or two. I'm gonna tell you this, Uh, a
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: McDonald name is gonna pop up on your wine club.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say her first name, but it's gonna
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: pop up. You're gonna have McDonald that will be my wife, sir.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: And so so when you see that McDonald, you said,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: this is Sean's wife some wine because she loves it.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I like, I said, uh this. I know she's gonna
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: tease me about this interview because of the fact that
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I just try to bring attention to people who are
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: doing successful things. You're You're a great family man. I
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: followed your career, been a big fan you. You know, Uh,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: just just just seeing you make this transition and and
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: and and building the business, building the brand and a
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: legacy for your kids is not tied to athletics. That's amazing.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: My friend, Well, I appreciate it. You know, I had
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: had great role models, none of us. You know, there's
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: nobody out there that's successful that gets thrown there. And
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I had great role models and my parents and some
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: great coaches and and uh and then since I and
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: one of the things that I've encouraged other athletes to
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: do that's been so amazingly helpful to me is that
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I've got a group of business mentors now and everything
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that I do in our business, I have, um, you know,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: eight or nine guys that I can go to. You
• 25:32
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