 |
| Drew
Spaulding shared his wine expertise with the
neighborhood for 11 years. |
Friends and family gathered in Santa Cruz on Oct.
29 to celebrate
the life and memory of J. Drew Spaulding, the longtime manager
of PlumpJack
Wines on 24th Street.
Spaulding died on July 12 by his own hand. He was
44. He had left
his position as manager of PlumpJack back in May, telling
colleagues that he
wanted to “try something else.” A Mill Valley resident, he had
managed the wine
shop since it first opened 11 years ago and had trained two of
his colleagues
to take over his job prior to his leaving.
“My brother lost a lifelong battle with
depression,” said his
younger sister, Shawna Spaulding of La Selva Beach, Calif.
She said her brother had a great passion for wine
and his job, but
could not overcome his depression. Never married, Spaulding
treated his work
“like a spouse,” his sister said. She characterized him as
“intellectual,
well-read, and knowledgeable.”
His coworkers at PlumpJack also praised his
intelligence,
especially when it came to wine and spirits. “He had all this
knowledge he had
gained on his own about wine and wanted to spread it around,”
said Josh
Thinnes, who worked under Spaulding at PlumpJack for three
years and now
co-manages the store with Elio Longobardi. Thinnes and another
store employee,
Noe Valley resident John Klimek, said that Spaulding mentored
them on all
aspects of the wine-selling business and was especially
conversant when it came
to the pairing of food and wine. “Thanks to [his] mentoring
and guidance,”
Klimek said, “several PlumpJack employees have gone on to
become sommeliers.”
Born in Quincy, California, Spaulding was raised
in several
Northern California towns. His father was a civil engineer
with the U.S. Forest
Service, and moved the family around frequently. His mother
was a homemaker.
Spaulding was an outstanding swimmer in elementary and high
school and at a
young age also learned to play golf, a sport he enjoyed his
entire life. He
also loved music and films, and was an avid reader.
He attended several colleges before deciding his
real calling lay
in the restaurant industry. He worked as a waiter and wine
steward at various
upscale restaurants, including one in New Orleans, before
landing his job at
PlumpJack.
Shawna Spaulding said she hoped her brother’s
death would motivate
others to seek help in dealing with depression, something, she
said, her
brother never did. “I don’t want his death to not be a benefit
for people,” she
said. “There should not be such a stigma, especially for men,
attached to the
treatment of depression.”
Besides his sister, Spaulding is survived by his
mother and
stepfather,
Susan and Bill Van Hoosen of Rapid City, S.D.,
and his father and
stepmother, Jim and Nell Spaulding of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
