Rancho Azul y Oro ~ Surviving the Dream

The figurative dust is settling from what has been just an incredible awards season for Azul y Oro -- 13 awards for the olive oil and three awards for the wine.  One should be pleased with results such as those.  We are.  We are also grateful for the bountiful harvest, our crews, the mill, and our family and friends who not only helped on harvest day, but help by being our biggest fans and spreading the word about our product.   We have been asked by numerous other producers how we accomplished this.   An awards season such as we have had also causes introspection and a look at the eight-page goal list that was compiled in January.   What was learned from that review?   First, that half of those goals have been accomplished, so what then?  Stop and enjoy the summer?  No, we added more goals.  W e looked at what did and didn't work and assessed how we can do things better.  Aren't we satisfied with this year's results?  Yes ...

 It seems as if we've already had a momentous year, getting the EVOO certification, two silver medals, our Processed Food Registration Permit, bottling and labeling all the oil, pruning the vines, racking the 2011 and 2012 wines and keeping those adjusted, updating the rancho website and beginning to get the e-commerce functions up and running.  We are additionally working on promotional materials, and of course, fine-tuning our products so that they are the best we have to offer.  One would expect that one could rest on one's laurels a bit.  However, we've come to the conclusion that there is no laurel resting.   We had a reminder as to how very fast the year is flying by, the cattle left the property today -- literally, for greener pastures.  2013 has been one of the fourth driest years on record in California since the 1880s, and consequently, it was not a bumper year for grass, which feeds many cattle.  Since the entire property, as well ...