How Lockdown Led Me to Launch Substack

Exploring how a wine history book and a newsletter became my lifeline.

Welcome to a newsletter themed at the intersection of longevity and wine history. 🍷

About nine months into the pandemic lockdown, I was hitting the boiling point of frustration.

It started with relying on Zoom happy hours for re-engaging with my social circle. A Brady Bunch-like grid of friends on our computers saying, “No, you talk.” Eventually we’d bond over our latest Netflix binge, like Joe Exotic’s murder-for-hire plot gone awry (sorry if you were hoping to permanently wipe “Tiger King” from your memory). Then baseball finally resumed, a 60-game sprint in front of cardboard cutout-fans. Finally, we got to dining under outdoor heat lamps as we sanitized our hands with pocket-size Purell bottles. Hugs and handshakes turned into fist bumps.

When health officials announced in late 2020 COVID vaccines would start rolling out in phases by late January, I felt a mix of emotions. First, I thought: it’s about time. Second, holy crap! We have another 90 days or more of at least partial-lockdown?

Instead of getting further depressed, I decided to create a purpose-driven project with daily mini milestones that would yield encouraging progress of time well spent.

Throughout 2020, I was starting to research and write a book about the Gemello Winery emerging from the ashes of the Great Depression. Then, Grandma Kay’s unexpected longevity became part of the narrative, too. She was 99 at the time. She’s now 103 and a half. (After 103, we resort to how children say their ages. That was my Uncle Mark’s suggestion over Christmas dinner.)

The purpose-driven project would be to create a newsletter about the book research and writing process for two purposes: 1) start building early interest in the book with behind-the-scenes insights, and 2) holding myself accountable for completing the book.

That’s what led to the launch of my Substack in March of 2021. The previous few months were spent planning/researching other newsletter platforms, setting time-sensitive goals and identifying the first six blog topics to cover.

The newsletter’s theme would be at the intersection of healthy aging (longevity tips) and wine history.

Reader-Generated Story Leads

A third purpose of the newsletter was to inspire people who knew Grandpa Mario (as customers, friends or employees) to come out of the woodwork. He was a charismatic figure in the Mountain View community throughout the 20th century. When he helped his father launch the winery in 1934, Mountain View was still a small town (about 3,500 residents compared to 86,000 today) and remained small throughout the next few decades.

Like my former newspaper days, leads would come in via email from readers. Connie Bertrand, for example, tipped me off on how her grandfather Fred did business with my grandfather, selling him a winepress. She noted her Grandpa Fred had a colorful background, running an underground bootlegging operation during Prohibition.

Substack Connects Family Historian Community

About a year ago, I discovered through Substack the Projectkin Community, a supportive group of family historians, led by Barbara Tien. This introduced me to other interesting ancestry-type newsletters around the globe, including Robin Stewart’s Genealogy Matters; Dean Kirby of Manchester, England; Jane Hutcheon of Australia; and Alice Goldbloom of Montreal, Canada.

In addition, Projectkin has great resources. Kathy Stone writes about tips on handling family archives. Emma Cox of London shares how to research family stories in her Emma Explores series. And Hutcheon interviews experts about the extraordinary process of remembering those who’ve passed away.

Going Back To Italy

In the 1970s, Paul and Sandy (Gemello) Obester, my cousins, took my great grandfather back to his hometown in Italy to visit his sister. This is where he developed his winemaking skills before bringing them to California. He was the patriarch of the Gemello Winery. He launched the Gemello Winery in 1934, just after Prohibition ended. (He was also the inspiration behind Sandy and Paul launching the Obester Winery).

When they returned home to California, Sandy and Paul created an old-school ancestry book, linking family ties going back to my 3x great grandparents. Each page listed details of a family branch (e.g. - children and siblings). It also included a favorite family food recipe along with family photos.

As decades went by and relatives passed away, our connections to the Italy-based Gemellos unfortunately vanished.

Repairing Broken Transcontinental Family Links

That was until the spring of last year. I woke up one morning to find three new subscribers to my Substack. They were unfamiliar to me, but all had Gemello emails. They were two brothers and a father from Piedmont, the northern Italian region my great grandfather came from.

The father, Roberto, wrote that he and his sons were reconstructing their genealogical tree, which led to them “discovering the Gemello branch that moved to California in 1912.”

He noted we were connected by our 6x great grandfather, Guglielmo Gemello (1750-1812) who lived in Buttigliera d'Asti, the town of origin of the Gemello family in Piedmont. He shared the documents.

After reading about the Gemello Winery on the genealogy site, his sons googled the Gemello Winery. This led them to the stories I’ve been publishing on Substack.

We’ve been in touch via email and Zoom video for the past nine months.

Turns out, Davide, the younger son, runs a popular YouTube channel (200k subscribers), teaching Italian grammar and pronunciation to intermediate and advanced learners. It’s called Podcast Italiano.

He recently spoke at a content creators conference in Malta and shared 5 simple steps to being a terrible entrepreneur. It’s quite entertaining. And, it’s in English.

If you’re new here—hi, I’m Kevin!

I’m the author of 🍷 Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge,🍷 my forthcoming memoir about health, aging and winemaking. (Read the origin story of the book.) 🍇

The Centenarian Playbook is my newsletter, which features:

• Healthy aging/longevity tips and stories from Grandma Kay’s long life.

• Wine history & stories of the Gemello Winery

• Ancestry & family research tips

There are three buttons at the bottom of every post: “like,” “comment,” and “restack.” Restacking is sharing in digital form. It goes out to the Substack community. If you enjoy the content and click “Restack,” it helps a lot.