12/04/2022
Hello Everyone. This is Kent letting you know that we finally have My Buddy Jim back in stock!
I thought this would be a good opportunity to share a little background behind the name of this wine.
Many of you knew Jim Brandeberry who started Brandeberrry Winey. Jim was a wonderful, caring and giving man who was a mentor to a number of winemakers, as well as so many students and staff when he was a professor at Wright State.
I first met Jim when I was still making wine at home in our basement. I had stopped in his winery on a whim as I was passing through the area. He was so easy to talk with and he generously handed me a sample of an additive that is commonly used in winemaking to help solve a winemaking problem I had mentioned to him. That led to a number of phone conversations that I joke about even today, that would start with a simple question I had, and then he would proceed to answer a bunch of questions I didn’t even know I had. I recall one time, after talking with Jim over an hour on the phone, I told him I just needed to hang up because my brain was going to explode. I needed to write all this information down quickly.
Eventually, I started taking winemaking classes and he offered to supervise a practicum for me. While this practicum was not intended to be a very complex part of the coursework, I remember the first time I showed up for this experience, he had already laid out some books and research articles that he said had been instrumental for him learning the art of winemaking.
Jim was just overflowing with information and he had such a desire to help others in the best way he could. Those who had attended his funeral heard example after example of his giving. He was a wealth of knowledge and was a teacher at heart. Jim was so good at making the world a better place.
So, for the name “My Buddy Jim”…one evening when Connie and I were visiting Brandeberry Winery (back when there was time for us to visit wineries!), Jim had sat down with us, and Connie was telling Jim how much I enjoyed and appreciated my relationship with him. And, out of the blue, she said, “You know Jim, someday if we open a winery, we are going to make a wine and call it “My Buddy Jim”. In Jim’s way, he had a humble smirk and didn’t really say much, but quickly took the topic away from himself.
It was an incredibly sad time for everyone when Jim passed, but his legacy certainly lives on both in the memories and hearts of all those he touched and in his family’s not missing a beat in continuing the success of the winery he started.
No one is an island. No one has done it all on their own. We all need the My Buddy Jim’s that Jim Brandeberry was for me.