A Trib­ute to My Father — by Kathy Joseph, Con­duc­tor of Chaos
My dad encour­aged me to explore, to expe­ri­ence the world, to be good to other peo­ple, to be tol­er­ant of dif­fer­ences, to respect oth­ers, to chal­lenge myself, to have con­fi­dence and to be hum­ble. He taught me to stand up straight, not to be waste­ful, not to play with my food and not to crack my gum. He taught me the value of my dol­lars, what was proper Eng­lish and proper punc­tu­a­tion, to have love for the arts and the impor­tance of the First Amend­ment. He taught me right from wrong, the value of good food and good friends. My dad encour­aged and sup­ported my inde­pen­dence, my indi­vid­u­al­ity and my ambi­tions. He is my friend, my men­tor, my sound­ing board and I sim­ply love him to pieces. Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

A Trib­ute to My Father — by Ter­ence Liv­ingston, Sales Guru
I owe every­thing to being in the wine indus­try to my father. I was one of the for­tu­nate chil­dren, grow­ing up with fresh food and wine on the table. Mon­terey Penin­sula Cel­lars Hearty Bur­gundy (3L) got us through the 70’s. I was 6 for my first glass of wine (the glass was almost big­ger than me!) My 21st birth­day was spent with my par­ents in the Russ­ian River tour­ing great winer­ies. My father thought this was a great idea…and I agreed! Fam­ily gath­er­ings revolved around the kitchen bar, watch­ing my par­ents pre­pare the meal, while shar­ing great wines and sto­ries with each other. I can’t remem­ber once when the tele­vi­sion was on dur­ing din­ner (unless it was the Stan­ford / Cal Game). Food and Wine, great sto­ries, laugh­ter. My father and I have been able to have some incred­i­ble wine tast­ing expe­ri­ences. Once, we man­aged to visit 13 winer­ies, taste 58 wines, then make it for din­ner AND an after drink! He brings out the “A” game in me!
Happy Father’s Day, Pops. Look­ing for­ward to many more enjoy­able din­ners to come, and many more wines to be opened and shared.
Love, Sonny Boy

A Trib­ute to My Father – by Maria Jensen, Tast­ing Room Enter­tain­ment Com­mit­tee
My Dad,
If it weren’t for my dad, I would not be here today.
If it weren’t for my dad, I wouldn’t be the per­son that I am today.
If it weren’t for my dad, I wouldn’t be the hap­pi­est per­son alive!
Thanks Dad for you and all that you’ve given me, your warmth, your lov­ing, your car­ing and most of all your heart!
I almost lost my dad 3 years ago and that’s when I came to real­ize how much he really meant to me. I love him more each day and trea­sure every­thing he says, especially.….…..I Love You!

A Trib­ute to My Father – by Karen Ward, Com­pli­ance Whiz
My dad is the most prac­ti­cal per­son I have ever known. He always has a Swiss Army knife in his pocket and hemo­stats clamped to his belt loop. (A retired sur­geon) I spent a lot of time with him put­ter­ing around the house when I was young. So, now I’m the one who does all the minor home repairs and gar­den­ing. Thanks Dad, (I think) for all that prac­ti­cal knowl­edge. Karen Ward

A Trib­ute to My Father – by Stacey Black, Account­ing Mas­ter­mind
My dad is a huge foot­ball fan. He rarely misses a tele­vised pro game. Super bowl Sun­day was a sacred day when I was grow­ing up. Many an after­noon my brother, my dad and I ran plays in the street. I didn’t appre­ci­ate then that my dad was unusual in includ­ing a daugh­ter in the game, but I do now. Thanks to my dad, I can still throw a mean spi­ral.

A Trib­ute to My Father – by Lora Ric­co­mini, Wine Club Styl­ist
I don’t think of my dad so much as a reg­u­lar dad, instead I think of him as kind of a super­hero. By day, a mild-mannered gov­ern­ment worker; by night and by week­end, he’s more like a super dad! He’s able to paint entire rooms in a sin­gle hour, con­verse intel­li­gently on almost any sub­ject (he has a mind like a steel trap), simul­ta­ne­ously make a mean mush­room risotto while tweez­ing the small­est sliv­ers from the tini­est fin­gers. And when the world is in dire need…his mus­tache stretches, he cracks a joke and the sur­prised world laughs. At the end of the day, at the end of the week­end, super­hero per­sona fully set aside, he’s my dad.

A Trib­ute to My Father – by John Faulkner, Cham­pagne Mae­stro
“Dad and I back­packed up to the head­wa­ters of the San Joaquin’s north fork in the sum­mer of ’06, and camped in the loom­ing morn­ing shadow of Ban­ner Peak and Mount Rit­ter. We were the only two there—or at least, it felt that way—and that’s what mat­tered. We talked about all sorts of things, but bonded most from our shared expe­ri­ence of feel­ing small and iso­lated and awestruck by our sur­round­ings, which were silent glacial lakes and moun­tains. I don’t know that I’d ever shared such tran­quil­ity and quiet with Dad: (I grew up with two younger broth­ers and a dog.) My broth­ers are out of the house these days, and we’ve lost our dog, and it’s in spite of the quiet that we’ve now found tran­quil­ity. I think back often to the Sierra trip, and remark an expe­ri­ence that Dad and I had not known before, and have known dif­fer­ently since. I think back on quiet, unspo­ken bonds.”

A Trib­ute to My Father — by Natalie Leschuk, Slave Dri­ver and Party Plan­ner
Ten things I love about my dad…
1. That he’s always ready on the other end of the phone with an answer to a com­pli­cated
com­puter ques­tion.
2. How he insists on mak­ing cheesy eggs for me when­ever I spend the week­end with him.
3. That, from his exam­ple, I’ve learned the impor­tance of a strong work ethic.
4. That he calls to check-up on me when I’m feel­ing under the weather.
5. His deli­cious BBQ din­ners.
6. That he takes time out of his busy day to send me news arti­cles that I might take an
inter­est in.
7. The joy I get from watch­ing a hockey game with him.
8. That he’s my per­sonal auto mechanic, always check­ing under the hood of my car to
make sure I’m safe on the road.
9. That he’s a true fam­ily man.
10. That he would do any­thing for me
Thank you, Dad, for being such an inspi­ra­tion!

Tags: dad, Father's Day, fathers, Fiddlehead Cellars, John Faulkner, Karen Ward, Kathy Joseph, Lora Riccomini, Maria Jensen, Natalie Leschuk, Stacey Black, Staff, Terence Livingston

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