CULTclassics | Love Letter

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WE DID, WE DID, WE FINALLY DID IT!!! Just three weeks ago, Geena and I gathered our closest family and friends at the Grassini Family Vineyard (remember their delicious Sauvignon Blanc from your WINECULT shipment?!) to witness us take that leap of faith, to declare our unwavering love and commitment to one another. Even now, 3 weeks later, I want to sing. I feel weightless and the possibilities for our future are boundless.

Weddings are a funny concept. I never thought I would have a use for one before I met Geena. But once I realized I wanted to spend my whole life with her, all I wanted was a rooftop to shout from. At its core, our wedding was that moment for me to show, and to say… All of this is for you.

A wise woman once said to me “It’s important to learn how to both give and receive”. Geena and I realized what that really meant, in the same moment, as we stood in front of our tribe, making promises to each other about who we would be and how we would love.

We stumbled on to each other in 2011, at a forgettable little restaurant in a Goleta strip mall off Highway 101. As new employees, we sat together filling out paperwork and sampling appetizers. What a discovery. “It’s only in retrospect that we come to appreciate the seminal nature of these events”. We couldn’t have understood how important that chance encounter would become for both of us. If you’d asked me at the time however, I would’ve described a kind of magnetism between us; I inexorably attracted to her, and she just as powerfully repelled from me (or at least she would have me believing).

That was us as kids. Not in the literal sense, but describing those 22 and 19-year-old versions of ourselves as adults seems overly charitable. When Geena finally agreed to go on a date with me, 2 years later, my fate was sealed. By that point, I had already begun to quietly confess my obsession with this funny, fearless woman, even more stubborn than I am, who had grown to be my best friend. I told friends how, eventually, come hell or high water, I would win her affection. AND I DID.

I was reminded of one such conversation by a friend, right after Geena and I announced our engagement. He remarked, “I’m so impressed with how you called your shot”. I laughed and replied, “When you keep shooting, one is eventually bound to go in”.

Geena helped me discover something about myself that I didn’t know before: When I really want something, there is no end to my persistence. I will slog through a leech infested pond, and not even notice the leeches, if what I need is on the other side. Our whole relationship has been spent learning each other and rediscovering the world as a couple. One of us opening up a door to some new experience or a window through which the other can see the world in a new way. I am so very grateful this is so.

Like us, wine is alive, constantly growing, evolving. Everything that comes in contact with a wine changes it subtly in some way, so what was yesterday, may not be so today. There’s beauty in all things that inspire our curiosity, letting us discover them each day. This is what my wife does for me, and what I hope in some small way, WINECULT does for you. Join our WINECULT family to receive monthly shipments of the wine we drink for any occasion.