We had reconnected that weekend and renewed our bond.

Sugarbush and Stowe were our preferred venues for the weekend and we would stay at Stowe in a cabin like we did once before. Our time sitting by the fireplace and talking about our prospective futures was refreshing. I was going to eventually be a winemaker and Samantha a scientist. I could see her easily flourishing in her career. With her father's guidance and recommendation, she would surely find a job in "Big Pharma", probably even before graduation.

I wondered where I might end up and wanted to attend the wine school in Bordeaux. It was the most renowned wine school in the world, and a close second was University of California at Davis. The Robert Mondavi school had been started and new centers and schools had been popping up on the map for quite some time.

I would definitely have to apply to the entire gamut to be accepted somewhere. It was harder to be accepted to the University of California at Davis without a strong recommendation and even further being a California resident. Those two things in conjunction seemed to be the "Golden Ticket". I would have to find a way.

Samantha was supportive of my plans. If there was one thing that I could see from her, it was that she would be eternally supportive of my goals, dreams and aspirations. I longed for someone to be so kind, loving and respectful.

In the following fall, I would gain a harvest internship at Chateau Montelena in California. I had applied to nearly sixty wineries, and received one response. I had chosen opportunities in the "Big Five"; which were California, Washington, Virginia, Oregon and the smaller, but up-and-coming  North Carolina. Within each, I chose the top American Viticultural Areas such as Napa and Sonoma, the Russian River Valley, the Charlottesville and Northern Virginia area, the Williamette Valley, and the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina. And luckily, I had been chosen as one of a select few to Chateau Montelena.