Kobayashi Maru
The name first appearing in Star Trek Wrath of Khan, it’s a test given to all Star Fleet officers. The so called “no win scenario”!
Addressing the choice for this name is not easy, as it addresses my persona as much as anything. I would say like the character in Star Trak, one Captain James Tiberius Kirk, I don’t believe in No win Scenarios . My preference is to filter out the noise of failures from days passed. The constant chatter of self-proclaimed experts guiding the masses to light only to get burned again.
The Mesa in the unincorporated area of Arroyo Grande is nothing more than an Ancient Ocean receded with time. It is windy, very cool, and at times cold. It has frost problems, pour sandy soils that are lacking in many basic nutrients vital to large harvests. We have been told the heavy air will rot the fruit prior to ripeness, the wind will stop any (self-pollinating) plant from “even” fruit sets. Frost will kill all younglings prior to maturity and ripeness will never be achieved. This is the wisdom of group think, and I hate group think.
In the game of bridge a player is confronted with a bidding situation, whereby participation leads a player only to defeat. Whatever action the bridge player undertakes the result is demise and tests the character, the positive attributes, and the moral strength and fiber of the individual bridge player. Sometimes referred to as the ultimate test under fire. Like Kirk, I do not believe in no wine Scenarios! However to say one always ultimately wins is a folly. For no perfect wine has ever been made, and that allows us to continue the chase, a human flaw if you will. Obsession with perfection, for another day.
The great wine makers of difficult regions like Oregon, do not have the luxury of guaranteed trouble free vintages. They sometimes laugh at a report that quotes California wine makers complaining about a little heat, or a little rain storm from a broken up hurricane out of Mexico. They live with the unpredictable and it’s one out of four vintages that are considered great. California gives us so much consistency that the wines from harvest to harvest are more alike than different. To challenge one’s self, to challenge the vine is where the passion lies for me.
It is the weather, good old Mother Nature that defines a great vintage from a pour one, and throwing obstacles in our face makes for unique wines, the embodiment of a vintage. Never perfect, never winning, but overcoming to be different. The differences are the exciting part, and the defeats are only scars adding to the story, the journey which gives us more. It hones us, and tests our will, judging us on our character in the wines we produce. Not believing, not being a follower gives us the ambition, the drive to succeed. That is measured by you, your palate.
I can live with that!
So I choose to plant where there are no plants. I choose the path less traveled and the unknown for the sake of being different, no not different, but for the opportunity of greatness. That which has not yet been made! Naturally low yields with constant care, to the most dense planting.
The coolest temperatures in the state equals long slow developing hangs, and if I’m right flavor definition and development not yet seen.
Cogito ergo Sum, Translated,: I think therefore I am. I am an individual, with individual thought and that thought is to plant where others may not venture. So be it!
Welcome to Kobayashi Maru Vineyards.
–Greg Linn