We’ve had some big developments in the past few weeks; The Uncorked Life is moving.

If you’re a friend of the blog, I’m sure you’ve gathered that the team spends some time in Lodi and some time in Napa. Two great wine regions to live in, but the back and forth between the two has been a drain of time, money and our patience.

Christine’s employer is in Napa, and mine was in Lodi. For the past three years, she’s worked and lived in Napa for most of the week and we spent the weekends in either Napa or Lodi. The arrangement worked for a while, but we both grew tired of the commuting and the scant free time we had together.

Recently,  my professional life came to a crossroads and I made the decision to pursue a new path. I’m leaving newspapers and will be joining a winery in Napa. It’s going to be a big change, this harvest I’ll be working as a winemaking and cellar intern. I’m ditching Docker kahkis for Carhart work pants. Instead of newspaper ink, my hands will be stained with grape juice. This will be the second harvest I have worked and I’m looking forward to the rush and excitement of grinding through the fall season.

It was not an easy decision to leave the life of a newspaperman. I’ve been working in daily journalism since I was 18 and it became my professional identity. But it’s no secret that the industry is making the painful transition into a new world in which far fewer people read the print edition of newspapers. I like to say that 40 years ago six out of every 10 cars on the road were made by General Motors and everyone read newspapers. These days, GM ain’t doing too great and neither are newspapers, but people still need to drive and they still need the news. GM and newspapers just need to figure out how to be competitive.

Wine has always been one of my other passions and as the newspaper industry undergoes its transition I took an opportunity to learn more about winemaking. I may pursue that as my next profession or maybe take up wine writing full time. I’m not sure, but I do know I’m going to keep living the uncorked life.
So keep reading, it’s going to be interesting.