A California Trip to Remember
By R. Steven Haught

Last year I attended a legal conference on aircraft finance at Silverado Country Club, located near Napa, Calif. Given that one of my clients imports wine into Oklahoma, I felt duty bound to forego some of the titillating discussions regarding business aviation trends, synthetic leases, operating and capital leases, like-kind exchanges and such, and drink — or more precisely “taste” — some wine. As anyone who has tasted wine at a winery knows, you are expected to swirl, taste and spit.

One of the wineries on my list to try on behalf of my client was a beautiful winery on the Silverado Trail, north/south route on the east side of Napa on which many wonderful wineries and potential business contacts are located. That winery is called Paoletti Winery, named after its founder Giamni Paoletti, a successful winemaker and restaurateur in Los Angeles, who moved to the United States from Venice, Italy in 1963. After tasting through his extensive line of wines in his warehouse, I received an offer I could not refuse — a personal tour of his wine cave.

This was no ordinary wine cave. As you entered, you were entertained with the resounding sounds of opera; there were Venetian chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and sprinkled among the wine barrels were various statues commissioned by Mr. Paoletti. There were Julius Caesar, Pope John Paul, Robert Mondavi, Ronald Reagan and others of great eminence. Actually, there were two statues of Robert Mondavi. When I inquired why there were two, I was informed that two statues are created of each person, and the subject is presented with one, leaving one for display in the cave. Mr. Mondavi had not taken the time to accept his statue.

The statues were true works of art, created from marble mined in Carrara, Italy, and I had no trouble identifying the subjects despite extensive testing of Mr. Paoletti’s product — for the benefit of my client, of course. Suddenly I saw an unidentifiable subject. It was a man. He looked quite regal. “Was this a member the family?” I inquired, hoping to solve the mystery. “Oh, no,” my guide replied. “This is Mr. Paoletti’s attorney.” Instinctively, I smiled at my wife, who is also an attorney, and was assisting me in product research at the time. We both snickered, thinking it amusing that he had commissioned, at great expense, a statue of his attorney. The guide did not see the humor in it and stated, somewhat defensively, “Mr. Paoletti holds his attorney in high regard!”

Later while I was lying in a bathtub filled with hot, black volcanic mud (a mud bath in Calistoga is de rigueur), with an attendant applying a cold cloth on my forehead and cucumber slices over my eyes, I thought about the statue of the attorney. What a remarkable thing to have a client admire you so much that he would commission a sculptor from Italy to create a statue of you to place along side historic figures such as presidents and popes. As my wife was hosing the mud off my chiseled, Romanesque frame, I asked her if she thought any of my clients would commission a statue of me. She dropped the hose and burst out laughing, immediately dashing my hopes and bringing me back to reality.

All of us want to be appreciated, even attorneys. I know we all have been the brunt of lawyer jokes and derisive comments. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone agreed with Gianni Paoletti? Perhaps my wife is right. There may not be a statue in my future, but if any of my clients do decide to create one, I won’t be like Robert Mondavi. I’ll be right over to pick it up.

Mr. Haught practices in Oklahoma City.