Whether you file the following story under fate or destiny, chance or luck, it is an interesting true tale nonetheless…

Many years ago Naomi took her family and friends out to dinner at (now-defunct) Popina restaurant in Santa Rosa. When it came time to order wine for the table, she asked the wine buyer for a recommendation. Without hesitating or knowing who he was speaking with, the man (Adam Savin) enthusiastically gushed about “a hip new Sonoma County winery called Roshambo” that makes “incredible wines.” He told them they absolutely had to try Roshambo’s Zinfandel. At this point, everyone at the table looked at each other as if to say, Is this guy for real? Naomi asked for a different recommendation, but Adam stuck to his guns and said “No, you asked for my recommendation and there it is.” He reiterated how great Roshambo’s Zinfandel was.

At this point, Naomi smiled and thanked him and told him that she was in fact the owner of Roshambo. Adam flashed a smile so bright it could have powered the Vegas Strip. He’s an extremely excitable guy in general (think zippity-do-da excitable) and a round of high fives were in order. What were the odds? A few days later, Adam recounted his chance encounter to a man sitting at the restaurant’s bar. That man happened to be a writer for the Press Democrat and a few days later the story of Adam Savin unwittingly pitching Roshambo’s wine to Roshambo’s owner appeared in Chris Smith’s column.

So why is this relevant, you might wonder? Well because these days Adam Savin is Roshambo Winery’s national sales rep and official “Road Warrior.” He and Naomi stayed in contact after that dinner and when Adam sold his Spanish wine import business he approached our Wine Hero for a job. Luck or Destiny or whatever you wanna call it shined upon him once again and a position opened up almost immediately. Adam has been kicking ass for us ever since. As one distributor recently said, “Adam Savin is The Glue that holds Roshambo together.” You could say Luck or Destiny shined upon us too.

Here’s a photo of Adam spreading the Gospel of Roshambo to a birthday crew at Rock ‘n Fish in Manhattan Beach.

Dear Readers,

I’m here to warn you that the Roshamblog is on the verge of mutiny. Some people here at Roshambo have been grumbling about my totalitarian tight grip of the blog content. They feel like I should cough up the password and “give others a voice.” These people cite my lack of posts over the past month as proof that I need to relinquish some control. Take for instance the fact that our road warriors, Adam Savin and Dan Ricciato, took the Roshambus to the Superbowl. Interesting blog opp, right? You’d probably want to hear from them about their adventures on the road. Or take the fact that The Wine Enthusiast’s March Buying Guide just rated three of our red wines at 90 points or higher. (FJV Syrah - 93 points; Reverend Zinfandel - 92 points; Rock - 90 points). I probably should have posted about that and maybe even mused about the rating system and our philosophy on wine scores. But alas, once again I failed you, dear reader.

In my defense - and it’s a paltry one at that - I have been sick. And busy. And sick again. And now, well, now I’m on tour with the rock band OURS, opening up for Marilyn Manson.  (Special thanks to our favorite Space Cowboy DJ, H8Ball, for the following photoshop job.  In the real world they don’t normally put the didgeridoo player’s name in lights).

Yes, I play the didgeridoo, or as Naomi calls it, the didgeriDON’T. In fact, I’m writing this post from the tour bus enroute to San Francisco for Wednesday’s show at the Warfield. In other words, I haven’t been able to give the blog its proper attention and perhaps I should consider letting others post. I’ll let you know how this all pans out. In the meantime, I will start to introduce some of the colorful characters who may help populate the blog. Starting with Adam Savin. Just give me a day or two.  Thanks for your patience.

Your faithful, though sometimes forgetful, Roshamblogger,

Scott Keneally