Pablo Antonio Suarez
Winemaker / Owner
Identity Wine Co.
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It was a rainy Florida morning in late July of 2018 when I packed my whole life into my Honda Civic, hugged and kissed my family goodbye and headed west in pursuit of adventure and a dream.
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In early 2018 I decided to leave my sales job and pursue a winemaking harvest internship in Napa. With the help of my sommelier friend Heath Porter, I contacted with Tony and JoAnn Truchard, flew out to meet them, their son Anthony and their wine maker Sal Delanni. After touring the estate and the facilities for myself I knew I was ready to say yes.
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Being a harvest intern at this small family estate in Napa has been the most rewarding experience I have undertaken thus far. It was also, physically speaking, the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life. By November 1st, when my parents came to visit, I had lost 16 pounds
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Harvest 2018 was bountiful, there was a surplus of fruit across the valley. Through a friend I came across a private block of Cabernet Sauvignon and an opportunity arose to pick half a ton of some beautiful Merlot from the Truchard Vineyard as well. My parents were in town to see me and celebrate my birthday as well as my cousin Tommy and his wife Sashley. Together with my newly made friend Udit, with borrowed bins and blades and a rented white pickup truck we picked the grapes while my mom captured the action on her iphone. The juice from these grapes are what went on to become my innaugeral "First Pick" Series Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot under my own Identity Wine Co. label and are both currently available!
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I have this blind faith in my purpose and my dream: To come to Napa and to become a winemaker at all costs, no matter what. To risk it all, throw it all on the table and be the outlier. I am the grandson of a refugee from the Cuban countryside; Pablo Antonio Suarez, a man who also risked it all in pursuit of freedom and The American Dream, I am the city boy who shouldn’t be here, but who is going to make it because he is an unbranded horse who roams free and can’t be tamed.
