When you Need a Pairing, Who Do You Call? An Interview with Wine Club Assistant Janelle Bartholomew

Janelle Bartholomew is one of the first voices our club members hear when they call into our wine club office with questions about their membership, orders, or just for an opinion on the best pairing for that night's dinner. She’ll celebrate her 10-year anniversary at Tablas Creek next year, and it’s high time we introduced her to you here on the Tablas Creek Blog.

Janelle moved to the Central Coast shortly after graduating high school and never looked back. It was by chance that she found herself applying to Tablas Creek and, after an initial bump in the road, ended up working in our tasting room. From there, she graduated to the wine club team and has been answering our wine club members’ calls ever since.

She brings enthusiasm to the team, characterized by her heart-warming laugh that can be heard throughout the office. She coordinates regular themed tastings with members of the Tablas Creek team diving into the wines of specific regions around the world. She is a wine and food enthusiast and a great fit with the ethos of Tablas Creek. I can't wait for you to meet her.

 Who are you?

Janelle Bartholomew. I am the Wine Club Assistant here at Tablas Creek.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Livermore and am fourth generation from that area. My great, great, great uncle immigrated there from Germany and had a 160-acre farm partially planted to Zinfandel in Livermore in the late 1800s. I think it's cool that it's part of my heritage. I moved to SLO in 1997 and never left.

Can you tell us a bit about your family?

I have a wonderful, very funny husband, David, and three kids. My oldest is Liam, he's 20, Aubrey is 13, and Autumn is 11. They're all very wonderful, happy, loving people.

What do you do in your spare time?

In my spare time, I coach softball for my daughter's softball league and like to read. I really like my alone time. I love hiking. I love laughing with my husband, and I like drinking wine.

How did you end up working at Tablas Creek?

I moved to Templeton from SLO and was looking for work on the weekends after being a stay-at-home mom for a few years. I asked my friend Chris Smith at Mitchella if they needed any help in the tasting room on weekends. He said no, but that Tablas Creek does. I had just tasted there for the first time and loved their wine, so I applied. I interviewed with John [Morris] and didn't get the job!

Luckily, a few weeks later, I got an email from John saying they ended up needing another person, so I took the job. I like to think he realized he had made the biggest mistake of his life [laughs].

After about a year, I became friends with Dani on the wine team. She recommended me to Nikki [Getty] for part-time work in the wine club office, and I moved there in 2016. I thought it would be a wonderful environment for me with two fellow moms, and I've loved every minute of my job. I love my coworkers, and I feel very fortunate.

What do you enjoy most about working at Tablas Creek?

The thing that I love most is definitely the people. I love my coworkers. I love everybody who works here. I feel like Tablas Creek brings people in who really appreciate what Tablas Creek stands for. I love the wine. I love that things are constantly changing and evolving. I love the scenery. Just looking out the window, it's hard to have a bad day.

Working here also made me appreciate nature more because you're so in tune with it. I think about how we need rain and sunshine and all these things to make our business work. I'm more in tune now with what's happening in my environment and its importance for everyday life. I appreciate waking up every day, knowing that the agriculture business is important in California, and being a part of it, which makes me feel like my job is valued.

If a genie said you could work at a winery anywhere in the world [that wasn't Tablas Creek], where would it be?

I really like cold weather, so I would like to be somewhere like the Willamette Valley. My in-laws lived up near Vancouver, Washington, for over 10 years, and I spent a lot of time up there. I've had wines from that region. They're beautiful, and I prefer that type of weather. I thought about that question for a while. So many different wine regions. You could go to Italy, Spain, Hungary, pretty much anywhere, but that's where I would go.

What's the best bottle of wine you ever had?

I had to think about that for a while. It's so hard because you drink wine for different reasons. The one that stands out was when I brought a Domaine Weinbach Grand Cru, Riesling, to my in-law's house when my Father-in-Law was diagnosed with cancer. He was the only person in the family who drank wine with me, and I remember drinking that bottle with him for Thanksgiving dinner. That was very special.

What three things would you bring if you were stuck on an island?

I would bring a fishing pole, a piece of flint and an ax. I would be a survivalist.

Is there anything else you want to share with the Tablas Creek audience?

One of the things that I really like about my job is when people call and say, "I'm having such and such for dinner. What wine should I have with it?" I wish people would call and ask that more because I am interested in what people are making for dinner and sharing with their friends, even on a random Wednesday. Give us a call and say, "Hey, what can I pair with my wine?" Because it's one of my favorite questions to answer at Tablas Creek.

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