January 11, 2016

🎗️Our Dear Ol’ Dad, Jay Corley passed away nine years ago today on January 11, 2016. Time has passed as well, but the memories are still cherished, and he is missed more than ever.

⚾️ He was a terrific dad, with a great smile, laughter and always with positive lessons to share all through our childhoods. He loved sports, especially baseball and football. While he never wavered in his diehard support of his beloved hometown Chicago Cubs, we enjoyed going to Candlestick to see countless San Francisco Giants and 49er games as kids.

⛺️ He loved family camping trips, and we explored the state parks of Northern California in the old American Clipper motorhome … Van Damme, Hendy Woods, MacKerricher and others. Nothing better than driving the backroads and sitting by a crackling campfire!

🧑‍🌾 He and our mom took a gnarly old prune orchard in a quiet part of Napa Valley and founded a world class vineyard and winery. As a kid, I would go to the winery with him all the time, his enthusiasm was contagious, and I committed myself to a lifetime of working for the family wine business at a very young age, a forty year run that was ended just months ago.

🍷 Although he had a number of successful business pursuits throughout his life, the vineyard and winery at Monticello was his primary legacy. Before he passed, he was at peace knowing that it had been left in stable, guiding hands with generational-minded family stewards that cared deeply for the land and wines, and for the people behind them.

💧Sadly, if Dear Ol’ Dad could see the unnecessary deterioration and tearing apart of his family and business over the last year, he would be profoundly disappointed, in particular that the vineyard and winery he founded from scratch is currently being run by a son that had openly disowned him while he was still alive. He would hit him over the head with a spoon.

🔥 When Dear Ol’ Dad and I lived together in ‘The Shack’ on the family vineyard, I dragged some big rocks up from the reservoir and built out a nice big firepit in the back for us. We spent many long nights out back, burning old oak barrel staves, grilling steaks and drinking Manhattans, ‘Manflattens’ as he liked to call them! I asked him to be my best man in my wedding one of those nights around the firepit, and was honored and humbled that he accepted.

❤️ Dear Ol’ Dad was about my age when he built the winery at Monticello, and coincidentally I’m charting a new path much like he did at this age. I’ve come to realize over this last year that legacy doesn’t live in the land, the vines or even the wines … legacy lives in authentic hearts and souls, and I will proudly carry our generational winemaking heritage forward in mine. 🍷