Birth of a Wine Shop

ANYONE interested in wine, or how a small business gets off the ground, should check out this series of youtube videos about the birth of colorado wine company -- conceived as the dream of a restless young couple in brooklyn who left everything they had in new york to drive to eagle rock, LA, to build it from the ground up.

HERE is the first of the four little segments of the show "radical sabbatical." you can also cut to the chase with segment two. (maybe because it was recently passover, i read it too fast as "rabbinical sabbatical," which doesnt sound like quite as much fun.)

in the show, john nugent and his lovely wife jen talk about their ambitions, the hoops they're jumping through, upgrading an old space, their push to get open by christmas. there's more drama than you'd think. "here we are, the future location of colorado wine company," john says, without much confidence, standing in front of a papered-up storefront. you cant help shouting, good luck -- you'll need it!

what's interesting now, in 2009, is how many of their goals they've met. the place i know matches the original dream for it -- an accessible but still sophisticated shop that serves as a meeting spot for the neighborhood -- oddly well.

it's also hard not to feel a little sadly nostalgic watching this: the shop opened in 2005, in a very different economy. how many johns and jens out there have dreams they are not able to pursue, neighborhoods they are not able to enrich, because the economy was allowed to get so bad?

Photo credit: Colorado Wine Co.