Move that clock back to Christmas the year before last and you would have found Vince Zalutka cruising unemployed along River Road in Clarksburg on a 2001 Harley Davidson Sportster he picked up for $3,000.
Vince had been a career pre-press manager in the newspaper business, having worked for such publications as the Ancorage Daily News in Alaska and the Sacramento Bee. His days were commonly spent glued to Quark and Photoshop, and before that he had become quite proficient at old-fashioned paste-up layouts and color separations.
All of us saw that technology was going to make the spread of news easier, but that didn’t make the process of losing the real jobs any easier.
Remediating ground water and soils for northern California gas stations based out of an office in El Dorado County’s Cameron Park became the next focus for Vince, as he shifted to being an environmentalist.
MOVING ON
That position was to also be cut short, and Vince found himself with time to get a motorcycle license and that Harley with some of his savings and bonus money.
Which gets us back on the road to winemaking.
River Road led him along past Miner’s Leap Winery in Clarksburg, where he went in for a taste, got to talkin’, then was put to part-time work.
The next step toward Borra came during a routine delivery of cases of Miner’s Leap wine for cold storage to Elite Wine Shipping on Turner Road in Lodi. Seeing another opportunity for tasting and checking things out, he walked across the parking lot to m2 Wines and wound up picking up more cellar hours with owner/winemaker Layne Montgomery.
The intersection with Borra occurred when another Borra Team member, Lisa Vaccarella – who you may have met behind the counter in our tasting room – was spreading the word about an open position in our cellar to Layne. He simply pointed across the barrel room to a busily working Vince. Vince was introduced to Markus Niggli, Borra’s winemaker, and Vince had himself a new position as of May 1, 2013.
“I like Vince because he has a different level of work ethics. He really enjoys the cellar work, even being new to the wine industry. He finds answers to problems and has good ideas for how to fix things. He is careful with the barrels and very clean. Being clean and working carefully are very important in winemaking,” explains Markus.
Vince relates, “Markus started me with Manuel in the field for a few weeks, so I could get to know the vineyards. That’s been very valuable to me.”
Now pretty badly bitten by the winemaking bug, he’s working on a Winemaking Certificate through U.C. Davis to further hone his skills while he learns hands-on alongside Markus.
“Now I’m working with Vince on developing his palate,” says Markus. “He’s learning that with Syrah, for example, there are many different styles and wine faults. I’m helping him learn how to figure out how a Syrah was made, as far as oak, sweetness, etc. based on what he can taste in the wine.”
Summing up, Vince says, “I love working here. Markus knows the wine business well and openly shares his knowledge. He is also a patient man.”
This is the reason people keep coming back to Borra! They are like a family, open and welcoming to everyone they meet. Welcome Vince!