Dear Craigers,
I kicked off my odyssey in the fine wine business in 1989 when I was hired by the LaCrosse family at National Wine and Spirits (now RNDC) to run a territory in Southern Indiana, based out of my Alma Mater’s tree-laden, limestone-building-riddled, bucolic oasis of Bloomington, Indiana. It didn’t take long to be rhetorically “asked” by my boss’s boss to hit the big leagues in the Circle City after a couple of successful years growing my market share down south. I was living in a townhouse overlooking Lake Monroe and waterskiing almost daily with a fellow sales rep out of Indianapolis who had a boat docked there. We were accompanied by a seemingly endless supply of Grgich Fumé Blanc, Absolut with frozen lemonade, and various servers in my accounts who needed some lake time and portfolio education. Jon was the top sales writer for the entire company, and I had tripled the revenue in my territory, so I didn’t feel guilty about some extracurricular weekday good times in the slow summer months. I was in no hurry to move, but truly you can’t fight City Hall.
Fresh out of my graduation ceremony there at Indiana University I discovered the world of fine wine and food in a happy confluence of circumstance. John Mellencamp, though not much of a sipperhimself, regularly hosted a who’s who of musicians near to his house at Dintaman’s Bistro whereI bartended and served to help pay my way through school. John’s guests’ desire for fine wines coupled with our distributor sales rep’s guidance (thank you Joe Spurlock) opened the door for me to a universe that I did not know existed. I was able to taste the remnants of, among many other greats, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg and La Tâche bottlings when they were readily available at $240 per bottle to us at the restaurant rather than the insane $5,000 – $8,000 per bottle wholesale today. After serving him there, I never hear Peter Frampton’s iconic song “Do you feel like I do” without some inside track to the lyrics; “Who’s wine? What wine? Where the hell did I dine?”
Even then, new to the game, I knew I was experiencing something extraordinary when having a glass from their table at the bar after my shift. I was able to travel to Italy, Germany, France etc. to broaden my education in service of my profession in the coming months and years with National Wine and Spirits. No doubt I had a job, with real work to do, selling wine every month to meet the quotas of the massive supplier overlords (that certainly hasn’t changed in distribution) but it felt like a heavenly
career choice at the time. The more I learned, the more I realized how much I didn’t know when it came to the cultivation and vinification of Vitis Vinifera, and that mystery remains the attraction today for me with wine.
Robert Mondavi Winery offered me a job in 1995 which was followed shortly after with a move to San Francisco, California, to manage sales for Gundlach Bundschu Winery. The opportunity to work with Bob and Lynn Craig arrived through a connection at Robert Mondavi Winery in February 2004, and as I type this I have a hard time grasping that I’ve been tasting, selling, growing and scheming about Vinifera grapes for thirty-seven years now, and the majority of the years (twenty two!) have
been here in the owners’ circle at Robert Craig Winery. In all of that time, aside from a little afternoon water skiing, I’ve never coasted. To quote the greatest football coach who ever lived, Curt Cignetti, of the Indiana Hoosiers on his philosophy of relentless, daily improvement, “You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse; you never stay the same.” I feel that to be true on so many different levels in this lifetime, and particularly with wine production.
As we release these 2023 wines to our customers this year, it strikes me that these releases are a statement about how we have gotten better every year incrementally as a winery and as a crew here at Robert Craig Winery. This growth doesn’t come from nowhere; it’s from people who have put in the work. I didn’t suddenly land at Craig from a position as CEO growing vape pen sales (google that) or hawking handbags. Jason, Yordanos, Mack, KC, Kiersten, Pam, Destiney, Chuck and Carlos have spent their careers in wine and it shows.
We continue to progress with attention to superior farming (organic certified), sustainable practices in packaging (lighter bottles, no tin capsules), DIAM cork closures (0% oxygen infected or bacterially compromised wines), and a winemaking crew versed in the vineyard, the lab and the cellar. 2023 is a tremendous vintage in the Napa Valley without doubt. The year was defined by cool temperatures and lengthy hang time with tanks being pressed off at Thanksgiving. Of course, Jason always says that the press-off “coincidentally” occurred the day prior to Thanksgiving.
We kick off your offering with our now all-mountain sourced 2023 Affinity Cabernet, and it’s a bruiser. Joan Crowley and her family have made huge strides over the last five years in their Spring Mountain vineyard, and our 2023 release is going to blow you away with its presence, power and structure. Throw in our Howell Mountain Merlot 2023 and Gap’s Crown Chardonnay 2024 as possible add-ins, and I know that our Cabernet Clubbers will be sending me love letters again soon.
Shop the 2026 Spring Release Wines →
From the fires and hailstorm that completely deleted our 2025 crop and $300K in revenue from fruit sales last August, to our ex-sales and marketing company who sold without informing me until a week before the transaction occurred —making it impossible to ship wine in wholesale in October/ November (the two highest volume months of the year) of 2025 due to a lack of state distribution licensing during a government shutdown (from a usual $650K in sales to the national market to $110K), to the well publicized closure of our California distributor, RNDC, in September 2025 after months of not ordering wine to clean inventories; I’d say we’ve had quite a twelve months here at RCW. The nimrods at our former sales and marketing agent, Old Bridge Cellars, have yet to even pay us our receivable after their sale took place in October. If you see me featured on “Dateline” you’ll know why. Yet somehow, we grew last year, and we continue to thrive at the start of 2026, and that’s because our customers honor the commitment we have here at Robert Craig Winery to making spectacular wines from singular vineyard sites.
I’ll conclude this lengthy tome with gratitude in my heart for my favorite beverage, wine, and for my favorite people in the world with whom to share it —you our loyal and thoughtful customers. I’m grateful for all of the estate and family producers who continue to inspire me to seek out new wines, new vineyards and new ways of approaching farming and winemaking. Despite the New York Times’ commitment to feeding their algorithm by publishing a story virtually every day indicating that any alcohol consumption is akin to smoking cigarettes while mainlining heroin, we know that the Blue Zones of the world feature a common denominator, wine consumption (along with sleep, nuts, olive oil, walking and socializing). I don’t know if I was ever more happy than when zig zagging along the coves of Lake Monroe after a day spent opening wine for customers in Bloomington, but I still feel hungry for more, and I still feel gratitude that I’ve arrived here with you on my journey in wine.
I continue pressing forward to get better. We as a company are pressing forward to get better; the 2023 wines to soon arrive at your doorstep are incontrovertible evidence of that.
I’m wishing you and your circle a quick return to warm spring days and a healthy and prosperous 2026 ahead. I think you are going to be absolutely thrilled with our 2023 wines comprising your shipments this year, and as always, I look forward to your comments, suggestions and especially any photos taken with our wines and your fur babies. Toonces (our cat) likes those the most.
Love and Peace from our entire gang here on the mountain,
