Heather Daenitz is the founder and photographer of Craft & Cluster, a photography and social media consulting company focusing on brands in the wine and beer industries! It was while working for a vineyard management company in Santa Barbara County that Heather rediscovered her love of photography and found a previously unknown interest in social media management. She was asked to start an Instagram account to showcase the practices of the company and decided that if she was going to do...

As you know, I generally interview amazing wine folks to learn about their stories and coax out a bit of knowledge and advice. Today’s podcast is a little bit of a different format however. Here’s what’s up. The other day I reached out to an incredible power couple of the wine world, Kathryn and Tug Coker who together are married with two tiny humans running around the house, operate all things Esters Wine Shop & Bar in Santa Monica, and have recently launched a new wine podcast called...

A Virginia native, Martin was present at the inception of what is now considered one of that state’s premier wine producers, Boxwood Estate Winery, in 2005. As Executive Vice President of Winery Operations, Martin’s job was to oversee all facets of production, sales and marketing of Boxwood’s award-winning whites, rosés and Bordeaux-style red blends. Martin’s forward thinking led directly to Middleburg having its own wine identity separate from the more generic Virginia designation, making...

Winc is a unique winery in that they make over 100 individual SKUs of wine from around the country at a range of price points. On top of that, their direct-to-consumer first model and mass utilization of Digital marketing mixed with a heavy dose of customer feedback has enabled them to continue to craft wines that their audience is looking for. With a 684% increase in new member sign ups between March 15 2020 and March 28 2020 and an 80% increase in revenue in March over February, the company...

This is a bonus episode of sorts. Recently I sat down with Carey Vanderborg @careydrewsomm on Instagram Live to turn the tables and interview me, Chappy! For those who don't know Carey he is a sommelier at Press Restaurant in St. Helena, California. In this down time he's started interviewing some of the top talent in Napa Valley Kellie White, Chris Phelps, Carlton McCoy, and many more. He's going live at 5pm each week day on Instagram.  SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HOP ON THE EMAIL LIST JOIN...

A native Californian, growing up in St. Helena, Natalie came back to the Napa Valley after graduating college and fell back in love with the beauty of the Napa Valley. Growing up with a Master Sommelier father, she knew if she wanted to change career paths to the wine industry she would need to do something different. Natalie did a harvest at Etude in 2010, embracing the long hours, manual labor, and comradery that comes with cleaning. She was hooked! Natalie spent the first part of the 2011...

Born in Tel Aviv, Guy grew up between California and Israel, building a strong bond with both lands. After a harvest internship in Napa Valley, Guy decided to pursue winemaking professionally, and he graduated from the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology in 2013. He has worked at Cliff Lede Vineyards and Whetstone Wine Cellars in Napa Valley, Domaine Francois Villard in the Northern Rhone, and Clonakilla winery in Canberra, Australia. Most recently, before moving back to Israel to...

A few days ago I had the idea to get a handful of amazing wine professionals together to discuss what’s actually going on in the wine industry right now during this COVID_19 quarantine time. I wanted to get a pulse on how everyone is feeling, what sales are looking like in various markets, how this immediate transition to everyone pushing sales online is both working and not working out for folks. I wanted to understand what people are doing to authentically connect with their audiences while...

When you discuss wine, context is everything. Whether the topic of conversation is a specific region, grape varietal, producer, the context in which that topic is discussed leads the participants and audience to understand what the story and purpose is. In order to tell a story, how do you create that context? Insert Matt Morris. For over a decade Matt has been working with some of the top wine and food producers and brands in northern California such as Abreu, Bond, Cornell, Heitz Cellars,...

Maître de Chai translates to cellar master, or the person responsible for the development and aging of wine. By extension, the humble cellar master is the person responsible for the management of the winery. Established in 2012, Maître de Chai is the personal project of Marty Winters and Alex Pitts, two friends who met in the kitchen of the famed two Michelin star Cyrus in Healdsburg, California. Their focus is on showcasing old-vine, organically farmed classic varietal vineyards. With...

Since 2012 he has travelled to McLaren Vale numerous times per year to oversee the winemaking for the Bordeaux varieties at Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard, covers a steep cut of country from the ridgetops above the village of Clarendon to the Onkaparinga River in the gorge below. Since its establishment in 1971, the Hickinbotham vineyard has become a part of Australia’s wine heritage, supplying fruit to produce many of Australia’s greatest wines. GET WEEKLY CRU MAIL HERE! Chris holds a...

I was first introduced to the powerhouse that is Helena Price Hambrecht a few years back when I was living in England and listening to the podcast Design Details on which she was a guest. Intrigued by her eloquence, her candor, and the sheer number of projects that she was working on at the time, I needed to learn more. From there, I started following her work as a photographer and creative in Silicon Valley. Fast forward several years, I’m living here in Healdbsurg, California and am...

This is a brief discussion that occurred between Steve Matthiasson and myself before we started recording for the podcast episode published previous to this publishing. In this conversation, Steve and I discuss the human element in wine in regards to terroir. This subject came up after myself speaking to comparative tastings of white Burgundy and California Chardonnay, the differences between the two in terms of minerality and richness, followed by the stylistic differences. Steve argues...

Steve dreamt of farming his entire life. He became an obsessed gardener and cook while studying philosophy in college. In 1994, while back in grad school for horticulture after three years as a bike messenger/wannabe farmer, he found a job in vineyards and orchards working for a small sustainable agriculture consulting firm. In 1999 he co-authored the California manual on sustainable vineyard practices. In 2002 he started consulting on vineyard practices in Napa. He still loves the challenge...

William Whelan is the Vice President of Wine for Winestyr, an online and physical retail space operating on a direct-to-consumer and wine club model. Winestyr gives you unprecedented access to a curated collection of wines from the over 7,000 wineries in the United States. Most of these producers are actually too small to warrant the attention of retailers so they are genuinely hard to find. Until now. They’ve combed the country for the best producers, met with hundreds of winemakers, and...

Mike and Cory Waller are brothers raised running around the hills of Hollister, California. After years of work, travel, and discovery, they find themselves crafting wines a mile away from each other in the Cienega Valley with Mike the winemaker of Calera Wines and Cory the winemaker for Eden Rift Vineyards. Cory grew up exploring the forests, canyons and river beds of the Cienega Valley. To this day, he knows the back roads of this remote appellation like few others. He counts local...

Bertus and Alli are the owners and winemakers of Belong Wine Co. based in Napa Valley making Rhône and fringe varietals from the El Dorado Foothills. With 1 ton of fruit and a whole lot of gumption, started Belong Wine Co. in 2017 to celebrate everything they hold dear: love, adventure, and a sense of exploration. They grew up on opposite ends of the globe - Bertus in Cape Town, South Africa and Alli in the Bay Area sugar hamlet of Crockett. Bertus knew he wanted to be a winemaker at the...

She writes primarily about California wine, though her beat also includes beer, spirits, drinking culture, cults and, occasionally, doughnuts. In her regular Drink Up column, she reviews Bay Area bars. She leads the editorial team for The Press, the Chronicle’s digital guide to visiting wine country. Her weekly email newsletter, Drinking with Esther, includes a reading digest, product reviews and a behind-the-scenes look into the world of wine. In 2018, the California Newspaper Publishers...

Josh Phelps is the founder and winemaker of Grounded Wine Co. making delicious, all-American, and approachable wines across the west coast while based in St. Helena, California. Josh’s roots run deep in Napa, raised in a winemaking family, he was exposed to the industry from a young age, starting his very first endeavor in the wine world, “Napa Valet”, at age 15. He continued to build his knowledge of the business through college, selling wine, working the harvest and creating wine for...

Valley Bar & Bottle is a neighborhood restaurant, wine bar, and wine retail establishment that simultaneously reveres and revitalizes Sonoma cuisine and hospitality. Launching as a dinnertime restaurant, Valley will gradually incorporate daytime services. Valley aims for a sustainable approach to all aspects of its business, from waste-reducing and eliminating practices to radical intentionality behind the economy and environment they will create for their employees. As Sonoma locals,...

Jeff Meisel is the Vice President of Brand Development for Long Meadow Ranch based in St. Helena, California. Jeff oversees all things marketing and development across Long Meadow Ranch, Farmstead Restaurant, Hunt & Harvest, and Stony Hill. We chat about Jeff’s story and career in the wine industry thus far, his learnings, and dig into how the Long Meadow Ranch umbrella brand works to engage with customers across marketing channels, platforms, and in real life, along with the specific...

As online wine sales continue to increase in the U.S., the wine purchasing experience inevitably changes. How do you convey the texture, length, intensity, aromas, and balance of a wine through the internet? How do you sell a visceral product like wine with words and pictures? If the consumer cannot taste the wine themselves before purchase, they need to trust that a team of experts has. Wine Access, one of the original online retailers in wine, began as a web hosting service for wine shops...