“Actually sitting in my office and thinking about spending the next 30-40 years of my life at that desk was terrifying.”
Wine? Check. Travel? Check. Why do we need to complicate our lives with much more than that? Today’s guest Brent realized that he sure as hell didn’t. He left his prestigious job as an Engineer to travel the world and make (and drink) wine, and he’ll tell you how you can do the same.
“When I started doing it, I naively thought that people would think it was cool that I quit my job to do this…Apparently it’s pretty common to have people having mid-life crises want to go out and do wine work.”
“I told him that I was so happy now and that I didn’t even really think of this as work. And he’s like, “No Brent, this is definitely work, but you just have had the wrong idea of what work is”.”
Interview Contents
3:00 - Brent’s background.
6:00 - Learning about wine.
9:00 - Getting interested in the possibility of wine making.
11:40 - How Brent got his first wine job with no prior experience.
15:00 - The role of a harvest intern / cellar rat?
16:00 - Working at 4am.
19:00 - Sorting and cleaning.
20:00 - The living situation.
22:00 - Other jobs that a harvest intern helps with.
24:30 - More than one way to make wine.
25:00 - Brent’s thoughts one week into landing in California and working his first harvest.
26:00 - The lifestyle of a harvest intern.
28:00 - Getting a job in New Zealand and deepening wine knowledge.
37:00 - Negatives with being a harvest intern.
39:00 - Philosophical shifts from this experience.
42:45 - The amount Brent has learned since he started.
44:15 - Changing views on work.
45:30 - Advice
Links
THIS EPISODE WAS MADE WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Roxanna
Michelle & Jim Wortner
Janelle Swanson
Jimmy Seymour
