The Death of a Dream

A sinking economy, job losses and income loss are wreaking havoc around the United States and in many parts of the world, though according to a lot of sources, the U.S. is being hit harder.

The wine industry is not immune from this crisis and this is the story of one crisis that is in a crisis. Midlife Crisis, a Paso Robles winery begun by Kevin and Jill Mittan in 2004, is closing their doors forever on July 26.

I first met Kevin and Jill at the 2005 Paso Robles Wine Festival where I, along with thousands of my closest friends, gathered in the downtown park to taste the locals’ creations. Kevin and Jill had begun their winery hardly a year before. The Hollywood television writers leveraged a bit of property income and some good wages and bought some land in Paso Robles as well as a couple tons of grapes. It was here they were going to turn their “Midlife Crisis” into a dream—the dream of a winery that the two of them would work together, along with their friends and their dogs—and slowly make the transition from downtown Hollywood to the rolling hills of Paso Robles.

Weekends were long slogs of 3 hour drives as the couple left their L.A. County home and made it up to their new venture, dogs in tow, and a heart for serving customers.

They did these things well and their wines were quite good. I still remember their Sangiovese with great satisfaction and I still have the fun little trinket rubber car (a Porsche, I think) that they gave us as part of their opening celebration. My daughter played with the car as a toddler and it’s still in our playroom along with a lot of other forgotten and broken things.

“For those of you looking for a quick fix of wine or a great time, leave the website now,” the couple wrote on their web page. “We began on a dream and a shoestring budget and will end the dream because of nightmares not of our creation.”

Therein lies the real sadness. As a country, many of us are fighting battles that we are not choosing and we are giving up because of overwhelming odds. But that just doesn’t feel American, does it? And yet, it’s happening. Who am I to say whether Midlife Crisis should have survived as a winery? I understand business and I know that if MLC had been selling buckets of wine out the door, they wouldn’t be closing and while, that’s really the bottom line, it may not be the real point.

The real point is that Kevin and Jill have lived the dream and now are watching the dream die. “Tis better to have loved and lost…” and all that. But, in the end, the death of a dream is a hard thing to watch. And when hard times claim good businesses for bad reasons, it is good to pause and to reflect.

Kevin and Jill, I hope that Phoenix-like, your dream can rise one day, if it’s really what you want. Your wines deserve a wider audience and the memory of Midlife Crisis Winery is one I know I will carry with me.