Simon & Hazel

On a three-month road trip from Tucson, Arizona to the Artic Circle, Alaska, Bryan and Joe stopped in Napa, California for a few days. The then-new couple were both members of several wine clubs and avid wine collectors. After suffering personal tragic losses in the pandemic, coupled with "lockdown fever" the two had no idea the first trip along that soul-searching journey would inspire and affect their lives so dramatically. Simon Hazel Cellars, much like their epic road trip to Alaska, is about quality over quantity, perseverance, overcoming adversity, and following what makes you happy.

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Spending three months in a car with someone, driving halfway across the world, and back, can be a true test of a relationship, requires you to be vulnerable yet authentic, and patient, and shows you a new perspective in life. While Bryan was in the middle of one of the best years thus far in his career, Joe was wrapping up a brief time at home while the pandemic was in full force, preparing to head back to his career in healthcare consulting, which required him to be on the road 100% of the time.

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Though they wouldn't realize that very day on Pritchard Hill while eating a gourmet picnic and drinking their favorite, Chappellet, they were exactly what each other was lacking - and needed - in life and in business. When Joe exclaimed "When we get home, I'm not going back to work, I'm going to open a wine store", he didn't realize how r daunting, exhausting, and stressful that little idea would turn out to be, often creating arguments which almost split the two. And Bryan didn't realize how determined Joe was.

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One year to the day of the Chappellet picnic that inspired the store, Simon Hazel Cellars opened its doors in the space that formerly belonged to Hourly Cleaners - transforming the two into vintners and proprietors, leading the example of how to follow your dreams. Opening the store was such an exhilarating and rewarding moment and accomplishment for the two, though life never stops. The first stage of the business being open brought its fair share of mountains to climb: learning how to renovate a commercial building from YouTube, being diagnosed with COVID on what was to have been opening day, what a slow summer in Tucson retail really means, and processing the loss of Simon - the dog that inspired the name and grounded their home.