Angels came marching in and gave me the freedom to make my own Sonoma rules.
Scott Peterson
Dear Angels,
It’s time I thanked you for letting me make BIG Sonoma wines MY way.
If you know me, well… you know I’m not a classic Wine Country prototype. Me and my wines are defiant. I call ‘em “retro, obsessive and extractive.” But they almost didn’t happen…
30 years ago, I moved here with a couple bills in my pocket from Williamsburg on a hope and a dream. I came to start my own wine brand. It wasn’t easy to come by.
For 20 of those years I worked for big guys like Kendall-Jackson (they were fun gigs!). After all that time, I was more than ready to bust out of corporate life — I grew tired of making famous wines for somebody else.
It took all my bank savings to open a tasting room in 2012 — smack dab center in Sonoma’s town square. I entrusted my dad to be my local hype man… and we cleared out the first vintage of my own wine, S.P. Drummer Chardonnay, in 5 days. BOOM — we were off!
But then came the second boom…
The sound of doors closing in my face. I quickly realized — for the small indie guy, no matter how great (dynamite, even) the wine…
Finding wine distribution was damn near impossible.
Making it on your own, competing with the biggest brands…
…their budgets…
…and their marketing engines…
It’s a rough road.
I couldn’t compete on a dream alone. No matter how big mine was.
Especially right then – when the recession hit. I had to close my shop, and the fate of S.P. Drummer was in the balance.
That’s when Angels came marching in and gave me the freedom to make my own Sonoma rules.
I’ll never forget it – October 4th, 2015. You bought all my remaining stock and then some. Everybody got paid. I just sat there and wrote checks to grape growers, barrel coopers… planning for wines two, three years out.
Boom, boom.
The sound of resounding success.
Your community gave me immediate hope — and access to all my buyers (you!) upfront. Your funding meant I didn’t have to worry about the bottom line. Just the grapevines.
You’ve allowed me to become a creative winemaker again. Now I make more wines than I could have imagined possible – in the place I love making wine most on Earth. There’s no other group of people who could help me the way Naked has — to make the wines I do. To honor Sonoma in the way I love.
I’m a diehard indie winemaker for a cause — yours.
Let me give you my earnest thanks for these years of support.
Your grateful winemaker,
Scott Peterson
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