We were speaking with Napa friends Jeff and Kari about the 2021 wine harvest. Kari is the Winemaker at Cornerstone Cellars. Jeff is a Wine Educator. Right now, grape varietals are ready to be harvested, requiring many hands for picking. Jeff supported Kari and did the sorting, which means removing MOG after the grapes come off the vine. MOG (material other than grapes) can be bugs, sticks, rocks, leaves, under-ripe or inferior grapes.

As an award-winning winemaker, Kari wants only the best grapes to end up in her wine-- nothing that would change the taste or quality of the finished product. She told us that if one is careless with this task, the wine suffers.

The job of sorting is precisely why speakers cannot bypass the phase of editing and rehearsing their presentations. When you structure your next talk-- and create an open, three buckets and a close, you should have more material than you can use.

However, listen carefully as you rehearse. Begin to notice the sticks, rocks and leaves that affect the quality of your product. They could be useless details, trite analogies, or generic phrases. Adhere to Kari and Jeff’s commitment to quality. Then your audience can savor a fine, lingering aftertaste, without the MOG.