Episodes
This episode features Michael Accurso who is the Director of Emerging Wine Brands for the En Route, Bella Union, and Post & Beam wines within the Far Niente Family of Wineries. Our conversation ran through Michael’s background, Anderson Valley winemaking, Pinot Noir - clones and extraction practices, the remodeling of the winery in Rutherford in Napa, building of the Post & Beam Napa Cabernets. En Route Pinot Noir - Russian River Valley Post and Beam - Napa Valley Bella Union...
Published 02/16/23
Interview with winemaker Andy Robinson from Seghesio Family Vineyards. January, 2023
Published 01/21/23
This episode features an interview with winemaker Angelina Mondavi
Published 12/29/22
This episode features KK Carothers, who is the winemaker at Bryant Estate in Napa Valley. Our conversation covers KK’s path to winemaking, the wines from Bryant Estate, estate grapegrowing, building a fumé blanc wine, and a review of harvest 2022. Bryant Estate - Napa, CA This podcast is sponsored by Innovint. Has your winery turned into a complete Excel sheet show? Say hello to InnoVint, it’s winemaking software to get you off of spreadsheets and into the modern era. InnoVint was...
Published 11/29/22
This is a sponsored episode featuring Ashley DuBois Leonard Founder and CEO of Innovint a wine production software company.
Published 10/31/22
Nick Gislason - Hanabi Lager This episode features Nick Gislason the founder and brewer of Hanabi Lager, which he brews with his wife and partners in the Napa Valley. Nick works as a winemaker, yet his curiosity for brewing, especially “grain-forward lagers”, was never shelved and has grown into Hanabi Lager Co., a brewery that he designed and built in his spare time. You might learn more about fireworks than winemaking in this conversation. Our conversation covers Nick’s background, how his...
Published 09/05/22
Ep. 140: Bertus van Zyl - Belong Wine Co., Tank Garage Winery, and James Cole Winery
Published 07/31/22
This episode features Megan Brodie the Manager of Global Product Development & Winemaking for BevZero, a company that specializes in alcohol removal technologies for wine and other beverages.
Published 06/22/22
This episode features Steve Matthiason, who has had an outsized role in the North Coast Californian wine industry both as a viticultural consultant and as a winemaker. This episode served as a chance to catch up since we worked together twelve years ago. We talked about Steve and his wife, Jill’s, building of Matthiasson including the wines, brand, and now a winery on the eastern edge of Napa. Of course, no conversation with Steve would be complete without discussions of technical vineyard...
Published 05/23/22
This episode features Maya Dalla Valle, who has taken over the helm of viticulture and winemaking at her family's estate in Napa and also developed a new joint venture between Dalle Valle and the Supertuscan estate, Ornellaia.
Published 04/21/22
This episode was a double interview between Jim Duane from Inside Winemaking and Daniel Baron from The Winemaker’s Journey Podcast.
Published 03/23/22
This episode of the Podcast features Natalie MacLean, author, wine educator, and host of the Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast. Natalie, who is based in Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, told us the story of her transition from tech to wine, she gave an in-depth portrayal of the Canadian winemaking regions, and we discussed the work that she does today including creating wine and food pairing classes, writing her third book, and the Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast. Natalie is currently seeking beta...
Published 02/14/22
This episode of the Podcast features Nick Devlin, CEO of Naked Wines. Our conversation covers Nick’s background in London, the stories of Naked wines evolution, insights from the relationships they’ve built with their customers (Angels), the different value propositions that Naked offers to winemakers and to consumers, growth during the pandemic, and my new J.M. Duane Rosé and Grenache wines. NakedWines.com J.M.Duane 2020 Coakley Vineyard, Paso Robles Grenache J.M.Duane 2020 Rosé of...
Published 01/19/22
This episode of the Podcast features Randy Heinzen in his return to the podcast. During a trip to Paso Robles in January 2019 Randy gave me a tour of vineyards in Paso Robles. Randy then let me know about a young planting on his family’s ranch, Coakley Vineyard, that included new, cleaned-up clones of Grenache. His excitement for the potential of this new wine was infectious and I have spent the past two years building that very wine by leveraging the opportunity to work with Naked Wines.
Published 12/17/21
This episode of the Podcast features Joe Nielsen the winemaker from Ram’s Gate Winery in Sonoma, California. During our conversation, Joe and I discuss his path to becoming a winemaker, the Ram’s Gate wines, and the wine MBA from Sonoma State.
Published 11/19/21
This episode of the Podcast features Francois Margot from DIAM Bouchage, a company that designs, manufactures, and markets technological cork closures. Our conversation covers the unique qualities of natural cork and the DIAM’s innovations that were developed to address cork closures’ mechanical performance, sensorial neutrality, and Oxygen control. Francois describes in great technical detail the production and performance of DIAM’s range of cork closures.
Published 10/28/21
This episode of the Podcast features Matt Dees, winemaker for the Hilt Estate and Jonata wineries in Santa Barbara County. Matt and I talked about his background, the building of the Jonata, and the new Hilt Estate in the Santa Rita Hills AVA. I had a great time talking with Matt and came away more prepared to make my own wines from Santa Barbara for the first time this 2021 harvest.
Published 09/29/21
This episode of the Podcast features Danielle Cyrot, who is the winemaker for Cade Winery and 13th Vineyard on Howell Mountain in the Napa Valley. Our conversation ranges from mountain winemaking, the trials of the 2020 vintage, Cade’s growth with the acquisition of 13th Vineyard, the Plumpjack group, and LEED Certification for wineries.
Published 09/21/21
This episode of the Podcast features Miguel Garcia who is the Sustainable Agriculture Program Manager for the Napa County Resource Conservation District. We discussed Miguel’s background, his efforts to engage a Spanish-speaking audience of farmers, biochar, cultivation’s relationship with soil biology, rainfall simulators, and soil carbon sequestration.
Published 08/24/21
This episode of the Podcast is a Zoom recording with Lance Vande Hoef who represents the grape machine harvest equipment for Pellenc in the US. We recorded this podcast with video in order to make it available as a Youtube video to show some of the Pellenc equipment in action. Pellenc makes tractors, harvesting machines, destemmers, sorters, and hand equipment, but much of our conversation centers around their machine harvesting capabilities and the ability to harvest and press in the field...
Published 07/26/21
This episode features Peter Yeung and Robert Vernick from the X Chateau Wine Podcast. Peter and Robert collectively offer a tremendous source of insight into the wine market, winemaking trends, sales trends, finance, and customer engagement based in a shared fascination for studying and drinking wine.
Published 07/07/21
This episode features WSU Food Scientist Charlie Edwards. Charlie is a teacher, researcher, and expert in wine microbes.
Published 06/04/21
This episode features Tony Biagi a winemaker who has a tremendous resume of winemaking in Napa Valley. Our conversation covered Tony’s background, the role of a winemaking consultant, Tony’s demand for “a pound of flesh” during harvest, his wines from Paso Robles and other regions in California. Tony was incredibly candid about the development and operations of Patria Wines, his personal wine project.
Published 05/14/21
This episode features Frank Renaldi who is a winemaker and winemaking instructor. In a joint venture with Musto Wine Grape Company in Hartford, Connecticut Frank has created a comprehensive set of tutorial videos that are geared towards home winemakers, yet contain a high level of technical enology so as to be useful for commercial wineries as well.
Published 04/30/21
This episode features winemaker Michael Terrien. Michael is on a roadshow to promote the new Adventures excursion opportunities from Obsidian Wine Co. Michael has his hands in many projects from California Pinot noir to Maine wild blueberry sparkling wine and the portfolio of estate wines from Obsidian Ridge in Lake County, CA. I had a great conversation with Michael ranging from the details of making blueberry wine, the partnership that is Obsidian, dynamic pricing for his brand, Becheur,...
Published 04/21/21