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Acknowledgments

The Vineyard Years retells my story from the perspective of age, adding a culinary theme and updating the thirteen years that have passed since At Home in the Vineyard ended. While The Vineyard Years includes selected parts from both At Home in the Vineyard, the story of the early days of Sokol Blosser Winery, and Letting Go, the story of my transition of control of the winery to my children, there is also much that wasn’t included in either.

Emphasizing the culinary side of my winery experience gave me the chance to address an aspect of my life that has been so basic that I took it for granted. In previous books, I wrote about farming, family, and business challenges, ignoring the sensuality that wine and food provide. No more. Food and wine have taken their rightful place, front and center, in The Vineyard Years. The recipes included represent food memories and experiences I savor in many ways.

Credit for the new emphasis on food and wine goes to my editor, Jennifer Newens, for making helpful suggestions and giving me critical guidance. Special thanks to Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society, for encouraging me to continue my story and introducing me to Jen.

My husband, Russ Rosner, is the best copyeditor I know and made sure the final draft was grammatically correct before it was submitted. During the many months I spent writing in our home office, he gave me the gift of space and time so I could work, uninterrupted by dogs, cats, or chickens.

Ultimately, of course, I alone am responsible for what I have chosen to include and what I have left out, for the writing, and the interpretation of events, but my whole family played a part. Russ, my former husband Bill Blosser, and our children Nik, Alex, and Alison read drafts, gave helpful suggestions, and wrote sidebars giving their perspective. Kudos to Alison, my amazing daughter who, between running the winery, traveling for business, having a baby, and raising a family, took time to write the foreword.

The winery staff was uniformly supportive, especially Caitlin Sessa and Michael Kelly Brown, who helped source the best photos to include. Michael also wrote a sidebar for me and helped with recipes. Rachael Woody, head of Linfield College’s Oregon Wine History Archive, and her students found material I needed from the Sokol Blosser papers whenever I asked.

I am grateful to friends Brad Cloepfil, Eugenia Keegan, Michaela Rodeno, Marie Simmons, and Heidi Yorkshire, who took the time to write sidebars for me, giving their perspective on events.

Thanks to the chefs who worked with me to provide recipes to recapture those memories, crafting them to be reproduced at home. In addition to my former and current husbands, Bill and Russ, both accomplished cooks, I am grateful to chef friends Jack Czarnecki, Nick Peirano and Joan Drabkin, Henry Kibit, Jody Kropf, and Marie Simmons. It was a special pleasure to include a recipe from Sokol Blosser’s chef, Henry Kibit, who has become a critical part of the winery team. Marie Simmons, whose cookbooks I have used for years, not only provided me with recipes, but tested others. Anne Nisbet also performed valuable help as a recipe tester.

I hope The Vineyard Years gives readers insight into the sense of place and closeness to nature that having a vineyard entails; the joy as well as the angst of a family developing a vineyard, a winery, and an industry; and the flavor of a profession so dedicated to the enjoyment of drinking and eating well.

L’Chaim and Bon Appétit!

SUSAN SOKOL BLOSSER

Dayton, Oregon

December 2016