The Rochester, MN home wine-makers--"The Purple Foot Club"--apparently have a strong enough community that the Von Klopp Brew Shop can broker the sale of hundreds of pounds of California wine grapes. These are trucked to his store where folks pick them up and have the option of running them through Wally's de-stemming machine that also does the initial crushing. (Trust me, the very nominal fee will cost you less than the pants and shirt you'll replace after crushing them the retro way.)
But the experience does tend to quash any romantic images of sun-,drenched French villagers at the grape harvest, chateaux in the background, bottles of previous vintages waiting by the rustic lunches on tables under the trees, etc. Particularly when you're trying to keep the umbrella over your husband as well as yourself (wondering how close that lightening actually is) while waiting your turn at the roaring machine that will start your grapes (which really look more like blueberries) on their way to being wine.
But then someone opens the back of his truck, tunes the radio to the football game, fires up the grill, and starts a tailgate party of sorts. Then the rain slacks off, and someone else wanders through the line, offering samples of the Petite Syrah he made with last year's grapes. And a new story, far better grounded in reality, takes the place of the old. It's not the story that will move wine off the liquor store shelves. But Midwesterners into this hobby--and unaccustomed to the landscapes of Sideways and Bottle Shock--will certainly recognize it as authentic. Which is probably why Wally seemed rather miffed with himself for forgetting to replace the batteries in his camera--thus missing the chance to remind people next year of this year's purple-spattered festivities.
Marketers--even the ones I respect--seem to use the term "story-telling" monolithically. It seems to me, though, that sometimes two sets of "stories" are needed. One, of course, has to start from the "Once upon a time..." point and run all the way through the "And they lived happily ever after." That's for those currently on the outside. The story told to insiders doesn't need that structure. It has to do, I think, with pointing out the details and surprises that the first telling had to skip in the interest of time. Sometimes it must even find more story after the Princess and her Prince have settled into their castle and made more little royalty.
In a way, I think that telling the second kind of story is healthier for the story-teller, namely because s/he isn't merely reciting organizational legend...which, of course, always reads better than it was lived anyway. And it keeps the focus on the existing clients (and their part in the story) rather than forever chasing new ones with the same schtick. Because, as the saying goes, "we all know the end of that story..."
