Paul Gingrich
It was Paul’s first day of high school. The morning bell rang, and his no-nonsense teacher picked up his roll-call. “Quiet down everyone.” he exclaimed. The students acquiesced. Paul’s teacher proceeded to go through attendance.
Name after name, the students responded with a, “Here” or the occasional “Present”. Then the teacher paused for second. He looked up from his notepad, pulled down his reading glasses, and glanced over the room.
“Gingrich?!”
“Here?”, Paul says reluctantly.
There was a pause.
“Oh, I’ve got my eye on you Gingrich!”
You see, Paul was the baby of the family. He grew up in Chicago with his four brothers and was raised by his 5ft tall Irish mother. His brothers had caused so much trouble before him, that the name “Gingrich” was synonymous with troublemaker.
“My schooling was tougher than normal. As soon as my teachers (on two separate occasions) heard my last name, they immediately said they had their eye on me. I couldn’t get away with anything! Everything had already been tried three times before me!”
This event shaped Paul in a very profound way. From that point forward, “I always felt I had to do the right thing, like the whole world was watching me.”
Paul Gingrich is currently enjoying retirement in Scottsdale, AZ., yet he still is deeply passionate about wine, and consciously motivated to live a happy life.
Great tragedy can strike at any time. It can break us, wound our spirit, OR it can open us to a beautiful new outlook on life.
When Paul was 14yrs old, he was chosen to go to the morgue and identify his older brother. This was his first realization with death.
“That was a stark reality. It hit me hard. My brother was in Vietnam but did not die in battle. When overseas, he got into drugs and it was drowning that ultimately killed him. That was really tough on my family.”
About 9 years ago, he lost 6 family members in 18 months. “I went from being the baby to the oldest branch on the family tree in 18 months. Out of the 6 who passed, I lost my mom to dementia, my oldest brother to diabetes, and my youngest brother to a sudden heart attack that was brought on by his weight. His death really hit the hardest, because after the others passed, we had planned on growing old together.”
“I realized a very important lesson from this. Nothing is promised.”
After the wave of deaths had passed, Paul looked at his wife and said, “From now on, when you ask me if you want to go out somewhere tonight, you are not going to get a NO anymore. It’s all going to be about YES. From that day on, I made a conscious decision to be happy. Once you realize that’s a choice, your life gets a whole lot better.”
Paul has had the good fortune of being happily married for 44 years. He first met his lovely wife, Debbie, while they were in 3rd grade. Both of them ran in different circles, so the romance didn’t fire up until much later. As a happily married man myself, I had to ask, “What’s the secret to a happy marriage, Paul?”
He shared some sound practical advice.
1. Be friends first.
2. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
“Honestly, almost ALL of it is the small stuff. If it’s not going to matter in a month, or 3 months, or 6 months from now, don’t worry about it. It’s the little things that tear people apart. You just keep getting annoyed, and more annoyed, and eventually these annoyances carry with you all the time.”
“We also take a separate 3-day vacation once a year,” he says with great pride.
I was very intrigued by this. “Why would you do that?” I asked.
“Somewhere during your trip, something will inevitably happen that will cause you to go WOW. At that split second, my instincts are to stop and turn, only to recognize that Debbie is not there.”
After a reflective pause, I completely understood where Paul was going with this.
He smiled, “That’s when you know it’s still good.”
“Once I get interested in something, I’m like a dog with a bone, I just won’t let go.”
Paul’s journey into wine did not follow a straight trajectory. He credits his brother for sparking his interest when he was 25, but it wasn’t until he turned 40 that wine revealed itself to be so much more than a workhorse nightcap.
It was a normal Monday night. In Austin, TX, Mondays were usually slow for restaurants and bars. To bump up their foot traffic, one of Paul’s watering holes began hosting wine tastings on Monday nights. Every Monday, Paul would gather with friends who also shared his appreciation for wine, and they would taste, discuss, and educate themselves with a variety of cool and unique varietals. They explored Syrah, Petite Sirah, and a whole host of Italian varietals.
One night he met a ballet dancer who used to work part-time hosting tastings at a local winery, Becker Vineyards in Fredericksburg, TX. They had a grape stomp coming up and were looking for volunteers to help out hosting tastings over two weekends. “I said, why not, I’ll be in that area anyway!”
Something magical happened during Paul’s time there…
“At the end of my last shift, I went over to the tasting room manager and said, where do I sign up?”
He looked at Paul in a peculiar way and awkwardly said, “Paul, you’re just a volunteer.”
Without missing a beat, Paul said, “I’m going to be here every weekend. You have to hire me, ‘cause I’m not going to work for free.”
The tasting room manager was taken aback by Paul’s confidence, but was impressed with his work, and decided to discuss this with the owner. After a short discussion, they came over to him. “Paul, if you’re looking for weekend work, we could use you.”
And so, Paul’s path into the world of wine began to unfold right before his eyes…
Inspired by a desire to follow his son out west, he asked his wife Debbie if she was up for a move to Napa. With a dose of truth and a pinch of good humor, she said, “Let’s do it, cause I’m getting too old for this moving shit.”
Paul worked as a wine educator for St. Supery for 4 years and then continued his passion at Clif Lede for a year and a half.
One’s of Paul’s deepest passions is food and wine paring.
“I’m an amateur cook and a professional eater. I understand how food and wine go together and it is my passion to share this education with everyone who is interested. I want to be remembered as the guy who got somebody excited about wine! I love that moment when somebody says, ‘WOW’…and it starts to make sense. If a guest walks in and asks for me, that is the greatest compliment.
That’s what I want to be remembered for.”
