Dear Friends,

I am often asked what led our family to live the way that we do—together, running a business in a rather difficult industry that depends, as this year reminded us, on the whims of the weather. I have thought about this over the years, but every time I am asked, the question still takes me, at least in part, by surprise. This is because our reasons are so deeply bound to who we are, to our family history, our culture and religion, and our imagination. And to some extent, it is impossible to entirely capture all these reasons, but I will attempt to do so, at least in one small way.

Loren Eiseley, one of the most beautiful and literary scientific minds of the 20th century, once said, “Man would not be man if his dreams did not exceed his grasp.” This fundamental human condition is why Don Quixote set out through the barren fields of La Mancha to try to make a name for himself that would be worthy of the love of his imaginary Dulcinea. It is the spirit behind the “Plus Ultra,” the “further beyond,” that animated the Spanish ships to go beyond the Pillars of Hercules, to breach the boundaries of the known world and venture into the vast Atlantic wilderness. It is the force that pushed us past all frontiers, the energy that led us out of the cave and into the city, past the printing press and the steam engine, all the way to the moon and to the great virtual edifice which we now build with numbers and words. 

It is a magnificent thing, this entrepreneurial spirit. It drives and always has driven the world forth. But it is also a kite. It floats upward in incessant movement, carried to wild places by an invisible wind. And like a kite, it needs to be tethered to the ground, to the tight grip of the child who loves it, lest it loses itself somewhere in the immensity of aimless winds. Entrepreneurship, in other words, is the lifeforce of the world whose power becomes constructive or destructive depending on whether it is tethered to the meaning and the child.

This is the spirit that animates Casa Carmen. What we produce is the result of these tethered dreams. This is the root of our quixotic endeavor. We make our wines and vermouths with boundless creativity. We devise our dreams with wild optimism. Yet we are rooted by the limits of the land, by weather systems, and financial statements. Wine, vermouth, and food are the grammar of our love language, the syntax of our dreams. Within that structure, we try to articulate wild expressions of terroir and culture: from our crisp Verde that grows right here on this hillside, through the cavernous darkness of Gitano, to our black vermouth that turns the black walnuts of this land into Iberian visions of eternal summers by the sea. 

But mostly, we are rooted by the meaning of what we do and our reasons for doing it: love and friendship. Ultimately, all these dreams reach their point of fulfillment in the moments when, around a fire, we can raise a glass and toast to the mad adventures of dreamers, whose dreams always exceed their grasp. 

So here it is to you, friends, the inner circle of these dreams, to dad, el Jefe, the dreamer in chief, who taught us how to dream, and to mom, la Jefa, who tethers our dreams and reminds us daily of what they truly mean.

Salud,

Enrique