New Digs (or We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!)

I started working at 4.0 Cellars in August 2014. Earlier this week, as I enjoyed a glass of McPherson Marsanne at one of our new tables outside our new event space, I found myself reflecting on how much has changed at 4.0 in the time that I’ve been here.

“Way back when,” we might have had a dozen tasting room associates pouring wine on a typical Saturday, and even though we had so little staff, we often drew names from a hat to determine who would have to go home early on the slowest of those days. We battled one another for access to one of the three enormous computers that sat on the bars in “the pit.” We had only one bar outside, and our Events Manager worked part time and was also our hostess on Saturdays. And we had one Club Sunday party during our shipment months.

We could not have imagined then that in just a few years we’d need 25 servers on busy Saturdays and that we’d each have our own iPad (yeehaw!) and that we’d need four bars outside and that we’d have a full-time Events Manager and two hostesses for busy days and that we’d move to three Club Sunday parties during our shipment months. And we REALLY couldn’t have imagined our new event space.

All of us at 4.0 have watched in wonder as our new event space has taken shape over the past many months. We first toured it as a group at our staff meeting in January, and in the almost-two-months since then, we’ve been growing more excited about getting to use it. Our “8000-square-foot baby” includes additional tasting room space, a “ballroom” that accommodates 200 people, a covered patio that accommodates an additional 60 people, men’s and women’s restrooms, a bride’s room, a prep kitchen, and four offices. Whew!

I’m proud of how far we've come and of my very small part in that. Our staff has grown, our wine club has grown, and our physical “footprint” has grown. Along with all of that, our reputation as one of the “must-visit” wineries in the Texas Hill Country has grown. And now we’re getting ready to host more weddings, rehearsal dinners, large-group tastings, and other events that will surely help us grow our “4.0 family” even more.

Given how far we’ve come in the past five years, I’m wondering where the next five years will take us!