I have so much to tell you, and I am so sorry that I have been so out of touch.

I have never worked so hard in my whole life, and there have been moments that truly tested me. I don't mean the rigors of harvest-- one embraces and celebrates those, and as hard as they might be, they leave you energized and invigorated. I mean the rigors of negotiating and signing a lease, and bringing in investors.

The lease is signed, as you know; and wonderful investors are in. But the true wonder is that we made wine in Los Angeles this year, in our own space.

I am writing a longer email right now for all of the members of the mailing list. I will fill you in much more completely in that email. This one is just for you, for the Founders.

I am so indebted to you–you stepped up to make this happen when it was the most distant and filmy dream. We never would have been in the space, never would have made wine, if not for you. I will never forget this.

Beyond my undying gratitude, we owe you some interesting bottles of wine–3 magnums. We have not even bottled one of them; it will take us another couple of weeks to prepare the other ones. Everything has taken much longer than I had thought months ago, and we still have a lot of bottling ahead of us. I will get you you two bottled magnums as quickly as possible, and you keep you posted on the rest.

We are still very much in the midst of planning how the winery will run–not just as a place to make wine, but as an amazing place to host guests. You will get more details about our plans in the next email, but I wanted to let you know now what a special place you will always have there. To begin, I want to invite you to the first two events we are going to host this Fall. You will be the priority guests and will attend without cost. The first is a barrel tasting of the wines that we made this Fall, the second is the next in the series of very grand Scythian tastings that Raj and I have done. You will find links to sign up for these below.

We are working on a gala dinner for you–for some time after the holidays. In order to get a kitchen built, it might be as far off as March. As soon as we know more, will send you some prospective dates to make sure that all of can attend.

Now–on the tastings. The first will be a barrel tasting of the wines that we made this Fall, in the winery. We will hold them on a series of 3 dates in November and December.

You may bring up to 4 guests. Use the following code at checkout to ensure that the charge is $0:

Think ahead. Bring people who might take this opportunity to become members of the project

And then! Raj and I will present the next Scythian tasting, the day after the Winter Solstice. We will focus on wines for a Scythian Winter. There will be 34 seats. Tickets will go for $250. You and a guest may attend without charge. Use the same code as above.

I hope that you will be able to join us for some of these. If not, there will a parade of more opportunities. This is just the beginning.

I am so grateful for your tremendous and patient support in these last months. I can't wait to host you, and to bring you more news–good, very good news. And if you want more information about any aspect of this, please let me know. I can even speak intelligently about the investment: we anticipate one more equity round and then funding will be complete.

I am breathless, but glad to be in touch. Hope to see you soon.