This episode features Brett Weis, who is the Associate Winemaker for ElevenEleven Wines in Napa. Beyond making the full portfolio of wine for ElevenEleven Brett is managing the custom crush clients that have their wines produced at ElevenEleven. Our conversation covers his background, the ElevenEleven vineyards and wines, the ar throughout the winery, tips for working in as a custom crush client, and the aromatherapy room at ElevenEleven. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Eleven Elev...
Apr 10, 2019•1 hr 8 min
The guest for this episode is one of the most industrious and deep-thinking winemakers for whom I've had the opportunity to sit down and explore their winemaking brain. Tim Milos is a winemaking consultant and through his various projects is all over California, Oregon, and has experience with more varietals than anyone on the podcast to date. Our conversation gets into the weeds on technical aspects of extended maceration, ideal varietals for natural winemaking, the merits of racking, Tim's org...
Mar 15, 2019•1 hr 25 min
The guest for this episode is Jenny Heinzen, who runs a real estate business in Paso Robles, California, focused on vineyard and winery sales. Jenny's real estate services span both residential and commercial properties. I wanted to talk with Jenny about issues buyers and sellers should be prepared for when buying or selling vineyards and/or wineries. Jenny works with her husband, Randy Heinzen from Ep. 86 , to help clients maneuver through the technical aspects of vineyard due diligence. Randy ...
Mar 10, 2019•1 hr 19 min
This episode features Matt Iaconis of the husband and wife team that is Brick and Mortar Wines. Our conversation covers the development of Brick and Mortar, the winemaking decisions that accompany its stylistics goals, and then focuses on the process and equipment involved in packaging wine into aluminum cans. Matt is also a winemaker with Naked Wines. His description of working with Naked Wines is a great accompaniment to my earlier podcast with the folks from Naked ( Ep. 65 ). Matt and his wif...
Feb 23, 2019•1 hr 47 min
This podcast is the third installment where I answer winemaking and vineyard questions that have been submitted by email. If you would like to submit a question, please send them to jim@insidewinemaking.com. Sign-ups for Deep Winemaking are now open. If you are interested in coming to Napa to learn technical winemaking for three days in August, please check out further details here . These events are a lot of fun for beginners and competent winemakers alike. This podcast is brought you by TheOak...
Feb 12, 2019•52 min
This episode features Randy Heinzen, who is the owner and president of Vineyard Professional Services (VPS), which is a vineyard farming and consulting company based in Paso Robles, California. VPS currently manages over 2,400 acres in Monterey, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties and has designed and developed over fifty properties in the last twenty years. I met Randy years ago when we working working with a shared vineyard in Napa. Our conversation covers Randy's full professional back...
Jan 29, 2019•1 hr 40 min
Every day I drive by Shafer Vineyards (twice) and never fail to slow down in order peer into that special sloping set of vineyards within the Stags Leap District where the hillsides graduate from difficult-to-grow-grapes to upright cliffs. In 2018 Doug and his team at Shafer began producing "The Taste with Doug Shafer" podcast and that presented the opportunity for me to connect with him and explore this small part of Napa Valley. In preparing for this podcast I found and read Doug's book, A Vin...
Jan 11, 2019•1 hr 14 min
Molly is a good friend and has a tremendous wealth of viticultural knowledge from her years in commercial grape-growing both in California and Oregon. Now as the Vineyard Coordinator and Instructor, Molly is teaching the viticulture courses at Napa Valley College. This podcast covers the two topics I most wanted to discuss the with Molly. First: how to farm grapes in cooler, wetter climate that is Willamette Valley, and second: the V&E courses and degree programs that are available from Napa...
Nov 14, 2018•1 hr 11 min
Near the end of the 2018 harvest I recorded this episode with Ben and Cameron after they had a chance to work with me at Seavey. I have known both of these guys since they came on the Deep Winemaking trip in 2017. Making the leap from a comfortable career to starting from the beginning as a winery intern requires significant sacrifice. Working a harvest is what I recommend to anyone who finds themselves pondering the first steps in winemaking. Ben and Cameron share their individual paths into wi...
Nov 12, 2018•2 hr 3 min
This episode features Dr. Dave Block from UCDavis. Dave is the Chair of the Dept. of Enology and Viticulture, teaches both enology and chemical engineering courses, and directs a research lab. I did my graduate research in Dave's lab and got to know him during our conversations about tinkering with Cabernet fermentor shapes and sizes. I went back to Davis in July, 2018 to record this podcast and find out what Dave is currently working on, what the Dept of V&E has going on, and to discuss the...
Sep 28, 2018•1 hr 54 min
The folks who put on the City of Riesling invited me to their events this past June in Traverse City, Michigan. I was able to record this podcast featuring Hunter Smith from Frankland Estate, situated in the Frankland River Region of Western Australia, and is known for their Rielsings. Hunter does a great job of describing this remote site, 70 km from the coast, where they are farming and certified organic. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Frankland Estate , Western Australia City o...
Sep 04, 2018•50 min•Ep. 81
The folks who put on the City of Riesling invited me to their events this past June in Traverse City, Michigan. I was able to record this podcast featuring Fred Merwarth, who is the owner and winemaker at Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyards in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Our conversation covers Fred's introduction to winemaking, the challenges of growing grapes in the Finger Lakes, the grapevine nursery, which is part of their business, and of course, their many bottlings of Riesling. LINKS AND...
Aug 22, 2018•50 min
The folks who put on the City of Riesling invited me to their events this past June in Traverse City, Michigan. I was able to record this podcast featuring August Deimel, the winemaker for Keuka Spring Vineyards in the Finger Lakes. August has a talent for storytelling and I was incredibly fortunate to connect with him on a whim. Having attended Cornell's enology program, August provided a peek into east coast wine education and winemaking that was a novel perspective for this podcast. His enthu...
Aug 02, 2018•1 hr 25 min
The folks who put on the City of Riesling invited me to their events this past June in Traverse City, Michigan. I was able to record this podcast featuring the team behind Washington state's Eroica Riesling, produced by Ste Michelle Wine Estates. Bob Bertheau is the head winemaker for Chateau Ste Michelle and Ernst Loosen is the proprietor of the Dr Loosen wines in Germany's Mosel Valley. Since 1999 they have had a partnership focused on an iconic Riesling from Washington called Eroica. More tha...
Jul 18, 2018•1 hr 8 min
3 Michigan Winemakers - Sean O'Keefe, Bryan Ulbrich, and JayBriggss The folks who put on the City of Riesling invited me to their events this past June in Traverse City, Michigan. I had a great time, was introduced to the many of the people who are at the helm of Michigan's viticulture, got to taste a lot more than just Riesling, and recorded six podcasts with winemakers from around the world. This episode features Sean O'Keefe, Bryan Ulbrich, and Jay Briggs, three winemakers based in Traverse C...
Jul 03, 2018•1 hr 41 min
This episode features Josh Jacobsen, who I met when he signed up for the forthcoming Deep Winemaking immersion trip in Napa this coming August. Formerly of Facebook, Josh agreed to help walk me through all the important aspects of creating ads in a manner that would be specific for wineries. Josh provides an incredible insight into creating, tracking, and evaluating the messages and costs that a winery could use on Facebook and Instagram ads. This ended up being a very technical podcast, not in ...
Jun 20, 2018•2 hr 1 min
This episode features Michael Evans, who is the co-founder of the Vines of Mendoza in Argentina's Uco Valley. After falling in love during a trip to Mendoza in 2004 Michael found a local partner and created a place for individual owners to build a wine starting right from vineyard plantings. Under the guidance of full vineyard staff and consulting winemaker, Santiago Achaval, owners can choose the varietals and winemaking style in order to build their own personal wine. Vines of Mendoza has grow...
May 23, 2018•44 min
This episode features Frederic Panaiotis, Chef de Cave for the Champagne house, Ruinart, which was founded in 1729 and lays claim to being the oldest maison in Champagne. Frederic was on a press tour in the US and I had a chance to record this podcast with him in San Francisco. Chef de Cave translates to Chief Winemaker, which is the post that Frederic serves at Ruinart. As both a holder of tradition, and innovator Frederic is leading the technical team at Ruinart. What i learned from our conver...
May 08, 2018•59 min•Ep. 74
This episode features Gabrielle Shaffer, who is the viticulturist and winery relations manager for Stagecoach Vineyard. AT 600 planted acres across 175 distinct parcels, Stagecoach is one of the largest and most important vineyards in the Napa Valley. Gabrielle works with 90 different winemakers, who are purchasing grapes from Stagecoach. Gabrielle also has her own brand, Gamling and McDuck, which she founded with her partner, Adam McClary. Gamling and McDuck, which features Chenin blanc and Cab...
Apr 20, 2018•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 73
This episode features Thibaut Scholasch, founder and VP of Research and Development for Fruition Sciences. Our conversation gets deep into the weeds of technical viticulture. Fruition Sciences provides four technical vineyard services that track novel parameters within grapevines. Thibaut discusses those services chronologically as they are pertinent during the growing season and describes how viticulturists and winemakers can utilize the data to optimize inputs such as irrigation and Nitrogen f...
Apr 06, 2018•1 hr 38 min
This episode features Rudy Zuidema, who is the winemaker at Shadybrook Estate in Napa, where we met to record this episode. Rudy also makes wine for other clients and is known for his experience with organic and biodynamic farming. Under his own brand, Zuidema Wine Co., Rudy produces a single vineyard Grenache from the McGah Vineyard in Rutherford. The second half of this podcast is focused on the winemaking technology known as flash detente process. Rudy founded and operates Flash Wine Technolo...
Mar 29, 2018•1 hr 23 min
This episode features Becky George, who is the winemaker for Kelly Fleming Wines in Napa. Becky also produces her own wine under the Mojave Wines brand, which is a tribute to her childhood growing up in the Mojave Dessert. Becky and I studied winemaking at UCDavis together 15 years ago, and used this podcast to catch up on all of Becky's work throughout the globe leading up to her current projects in Napa and Anderson Valley. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE K elly Fleming Wines , N...
Mar 02, 2018•1 hr 24 min
Pam Starr has been making the wines and building the Crocker and Starr brands since she first met with Charlie Crocker of the Crocker Estate in 1997. This podcast covers the long story of how Pam built Crocker and Starr beginning from the handwritten business plan. Associate Winemaker, Evyn Cameron discusses Crocker and Starr's portfolio, they ways how her and Pam evaluate Cabernet Franc fermentations, and some of the winery's cool new equipment. Our conversation gets out into the weeds of Caber...
Feb 21, 2018•1 hr 38 min
Dave is a long time friend and agreed to help create the recent Winemaking Chemistry Series - pH and TA episode. I asked Dave to be a part of that project because of his background in organic chemistry and his ability to describe where in winemaking those principles are most critical. We ended up going deep on several aspects beyond wine acidity and I made the decision to make this a stand-alone episode. Dave is currently the winemaker at Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma. HIs experience...
Feb 15, 2018•2 hr 27 min
This episode is the second in the chemistry series and focuses on the acidity elements of pH and TA ( Ep. 56 was on sugar and alcohol ). Dave Nakaji, winemaker for Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery, came on the podcast to discuss how he integrates pH and TA as parameters to guide his decision-making all the way through from grapes to finished wine. Beyond his experience with wine, Dave has a PhD in organic chemistry, and the rare ability to simplify the complex understanding of acid chemistry as i...
Feb 08, 2018•1 hr 6 min
This is the first episode of Inside Winemaking to leave the West Coast and learn about winemaking in Virginia. Tyler Henley is the winemaker for Boxwood Estate and has been making wine in Virginia for four years, after an extensive background working at wineries in California and Chile. Tyler and I worked together at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars ten years ago. Thankfully we've kept in touch and were able to connect over Skype to record this episode. Beyond Tyler's background we cover what makes viti...
Jan 25, 2018•1 hr 31 min
See the link below for the $100 gift card to sign up and shop Shortly after the fires in northern California during the harvest of 2017, Naked Wines put together one of the coolest fire recovery fundraisers that I came across. They have raised $832K as of January, 2018, and drawn support from their members worldwide. That was the final impetus I needed to contact Naked and ask for an interview. This episode features Alex Farber, who is a Wine Production Manager and also has her own wines brand w...
Jan 08, 2018•1 hr 24 min
This episode covers my recent journey through the creation of a new wine. A pink wine. From grapes to finished wine that is almost bottle-ready three months later, this foray into rose has been an exciting new winemaking challenge. As an experiment I recorded this solo episode while driving home from work. Because I'm a captive in the car during the recording, it's part harvest chronology and a bit stream of consciousness. I hope that the winemaking decisions that I grappled with presents though...
Dec 14, 2017•43 min
As VP of Operations for White Labs in San Diego Neva Parker has extensive experience with the full spectrum of yeast that are cultured and available for the brewing industry. While most known for their brewing yeast, White Labs also provides yeast and bacterial strains for producers of wine, sake, kombucha, and craft spirits. Our conversation covers Neva's entry into yeast production, the array of available strains, pitching rates, and the various ways yeast influences flavor, fermentation kinet...
Dec 07, 2017•55 min
As a wine lover and fan of podcasts I took the opportunity to record an episode with Chappy Cottrell, who is the man in charge of Cru Podcast. Chappy recently moved to Healdsburg to work the 2017 harvest and is beginning a new position as a sommelier and wine buyer at the esteemed restaurant and resort that is Cavallo Point (at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge). Our conversation ranges from Chappy's background, his goals in building a wine podcast, and what he has learned from the wine profess...
Nov 28, 2017•1 hr 19 min
