This episode features Ehlers Estate Winemaker, Laura Diaz Munoz. Laura and I talk about her winemaking roots in Spain, her work around the globe, the singular focus of estate winemaking, organic farming, and growing the Bordelais varietals up-valley in Napa. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Ehlers Estate - Napa, CA Terrratorium Wines Send me an email if you want to join the Zoom meeting about building Terratorium on 4/16/2021 jim@insidewinemaking.com This podcast is brought to you b...
Apr 01, 2021•1 hr 1 min
This episode features Jeff Murrell and the smoke-taint removal technology that he has developed. Jeff is a chemist, who works at StaVin and also runs a wine analytical lab, VinSci. It is within VinSci that Jeff is offering the rental of his equipment, SRx, to process smoke-tainted wines. As of March 2021, this is a very new tool for winemakers. Jeff and I talk about his technical background, the way he thinks about the compounds causing the negative aftertastes of tainted wines, the development ...
Mar 18, 2021•1 hr 25 min
This episode features Philip Corallo-Titus who is the Winemaker at Chappellet a position he has held since 1990. He also serves as Director of Winemaking at his family's winery Titus Vineyards, which he now runs with his brother. We talked about old school Chappellet, Chenin blanc, managing mountain tannins, winery design, and the new Titus Winery. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Chappellet - Napa, CA Titus Vineyards - Napa, CA This podcast is brought you by Total Wine . Fling into...
Mar 02, 2021•1 hr 25 min
This episode features winemaker Erica Stancliff, who has many roles in Sonoma including making wine for Trombetta, her family's winery, consulting for a handful of client wineries, and advocacy work with the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance. This is a great conversation that ranged from highly technical enology from Erica's stint working for Enartis Vinquiry to her current winemaking roles hands-on with small wineries. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Trombetta Family Wines , Sonom...
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr 1 min
This episode is a sponsored podcast from Airocide, which is an air purification system that has uses in production, administration, storage, and tasting room areas within a winery. Paul Frommelt, who has a long history working with wineries representing oak barrels, glass, and even cave construction, is my guest as he is now the supplier for Airocide systems for wine environments. We discuss the technical actions of Airocide's technology, the different models available, and the problems it's air...
Jan 26, 2021•1 hr 6 min
This episode features Nicole Hitchcock the winemaker for J Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma's Russian River Valley. Our conversation was an opportunity to pull all the stops on my technical questions about sparkling wine and Nicole was delightfully up to the task. "Bubble velocity" is my new favorite term to casually drop into conversations. Nicole also led me through her Chardonnay and Pinot noir winemaking and the reasons the Russian River Valley is a special place to make wine. LINKS AND RESOUR...
Jan 14, 2021•1 hr 59 min
This episode features the features Garrett Buckland in a conversation about strategies to adjust farming winegrapes during a changing climate. Garrett, who has been on the podcast before, is a consulting viticulturist based in Napa, and one of the first people I call with difficult vineyard questions. This podcast was recorded in July, 2020, a month before California suffered catastrophic fires across the state and affected nearly every winegrowing region on the Pacific Coast. Hindsight allows a...
Dec 12, 2020•1 hr 59 min
This episode features a guru of American Pinot Noir. Founding winemaker at Kosta Browne, and now proprietor and winemaker at Cirq and CHEV, Michael Browne is continuing his craft of building hand-made Pinot Noir, and has written a newly published book documenting his life and wines. We sat down in the middle of a cold and windy vineyard to record our conversation the day before the book released. I enjoyed Michael's book and the opportunity to sit down and dig further into his stories. LINKS AND...
Nov 11, 2020•1 hr 59 min
This episode features the Steven Mirassou, who continues his family's long legacy of making wine in California's Livermore Valley. Our conversation traverses back and forth between Steven's winemaking experience and an exploration of viticulture and wines from Livermore Valley. Livermore is part of California's Central Coast, but at only 2K acres under vine it is a unique AVA nestled in the San Francisco Bay Area. Steven guides me through the vineyards of Livermore and describes how the differen...
Oct 19, 2020•1 hr 59 min
This episode of the Podcast is a Zoom recording with Quinn Roberts who is the Master Cooper at Tonnellerie O in Benicia, California. The Zoom platform allowed for sharing of photos to support the discussion of oak forests and coopering oak barrels for winemaking so we made the podcast into a Youtube video as well . The conversation traverses from the management of oak trees and forests, the differences in oak between France and the Midwest region of the US, timing and methods for tree selection,...
Aug 16, 2020•1 hr 59 min
This episode features the father and son team crafting Cabernet franc and Chenin blanc wines led by long-time Napa Valley baller, John Skupny, who first crushed grapes for their brand, Lang and Reed, in 1993. Reed Skupny joined his father after working for several wineries in France and Napa Valley, and was the driving force to bring Chenin blanc into their small portfolio. I used to work with Reed when he was at Antica Napa Valley and I was working for Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, but had recently...
Jul 07, 2020•1 hr 38 min
This episode features Ron Alvarado, who is one of the founders of Ficks Hard Seltzer. Our conversation covers Fick's start up based in San Francisco, the early days of low-sugar mixers, the path to learning fermentation with orange juice, flavor stability in cans, the warfare of store shelf placements, and the quest to find and produce real fruit flavors in their seltzers. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Ficks Real Fruit Hard Seltzer Drizly Online Beer, Wine, and Liquor delivery If...
May 28, 2020•1 hr 2 min
This episode's guest is Dusty Nabor, who is based out of Ventura County in Southern California. Using fruit from Paso Robles, Santa Ynez, and the Santa Rita Hills Dusty has built a set of brands and is often a resource I call when I have questions about making Grenache. In our conversation we cover Dusty's efforts to learn winemaking, how he has used both grapes and bulk wines to build his brands, and his approach to judging ripeness on the vine. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Dus...
May 23, 2020•1 hr 19 min
This episode features Dr. Anita Oberholster, Associate Specialist Cooperative Extension in Enology from UCDavis. Anita did her PhD at the Australian Wine Research Institute and earned her degree from Adelaide University. As extension enologist at UCDavis, Anita brings research and developments from the Dept. of Viticulture and Enology to the wine industry and continually interacts with its stakeholders. Our conversation covers Red Blotch Associated Virus, winery sanitation, and smoke taint. In o...
May 13, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what are the most essential operations in a winery during this COVID19 pandemic, which has limited all of our ability to staff the cellar. Given that I work alone in the cellar at Seavey, I asked Tyler Thomas, from Dierberg and Star Lane Vineyards, to synthesize his thinking on this topic from the viewpoint of a medium-sized winemaking operation. In the end I put in my two cents regarding the need to think about how we need to think and plan for similar red...
Apr 30, 2020•15 min
This episode is my opportunity to answer questions that have been submitted by listeners. As is my style the answers are a practical approach addressing how I would think about these situations in my own cellar. Thank you to all the people who have emailed their questions and also sent them in from my Instagram page. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Winemakers that have quarantine wine for you Principles and Practices of Winemaking book Amazon Associates link "The Bay Area is drinki...
Apr 09, 2020•41 min
This episode features Julien Fayard, who is a consulting winemaker based in Napa. Julien was raised in Provence, trained in Bordeaux, and since moving to California in 2003 has built his own brand, Azur Wines, and is now consulting for an impressive list of clients. We recorded this podcast at Covert Estate, a beautiful winery built under a hillside that Julien constructed with his business partners. Our conversation ranges from Julien's background, native fermentations, rosé winemaking, and the...
Mar 22, 2020•1 hr 23 min
This episode features Patrick Rue, founder of Erosion Wine Co, who I first met when he was part of the Deep Winemaking course in August, 2019. Prior to Patrick's winemaking venture he was the founder and brewer at The Bruery in Orange County. Our conversation covers Patrick's founding and growth of The Bruery, their numerous products, blurring the lines between beer and wine, flavor additive management, his winemaking vision for flavor targets, aluminum crowlers, key kegs, and the two taprooms t...
Mar 06, 2020•1 hr 8 min
This episode features Jasper Riddle, proprietor and winemaker for Noisy Water Winery in Ruidoso, New Mexico. I was able to meet Jasper when he was in town for the Unified Symposium trade show in February 2020. After being founded in 2009 Noisy Water is a winery that Jasper took from his parents' early venture and built into a medium-sized winery that now has five tasting rooms in New Mexico. During our conversation, Jasper mentions some of the challenges in growing grapes in New Mexico but spend...
Feb 17, 2020•1 hr 40 min
This episode features Tim Colla, Winemaker for Saintsbury, in Carneros, Napa. Tim and I had the chance to talk about Chardonnay and Pinot Noir production as told through the history of Saintsbury's presence and experimentation in the Carneros in south Napa Valley. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Saintsbury , Napa Valley Chappellet , Napa Valley Seavey Vineyard , Napa Valley This podcast is brought you by Fruition Sciences . At the start of 2020 we know what is on your mind. As wine...
Feb 12, 2020•1 hr 14 min
This episode's guest is Adam Casto from Gandona Winery in Napa. We had a great conversation ranging on topics from winemaking philosophy, the Antipodes (I had to google it too), and the new ways Adam would like to gather and organize both vineyard and winemaking observational data with analytical tracking. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Gandona Winery , Napa Valley Dana Estates , Napa Valley Laing Limit, work by Australian psychologist David Laing reporting that people can only pi...
Dec 15, 2019•1 hr 8 min
This episode features Frederick Ammons, Winegrower for Rudd Estate in the Napa Valley. Our conversation covers Frederick's education in Bordeaux, his early jobs in California, his stint at Seavey Vineyard, the building of The Napa Valley Reserve where he made wine for nine years, and his current position at Rudd Wines. We spend the majority of our time discussing philosophical and practical viticulture touching upon organic and biodynamic practices. The central role of robust ecology and biologi...
Dec 10, 2019•1 hr 38 min
This episode features Chris Tynan, who is the winemaker at Cliff Lede Vineyards in Napa. Chris also has his own small brand, Christopher Tynan Wines. Our conversation covers Chris' background, high-end Cabernet production, and a couple of varietals that haven't had much attention to date on the podcast, Sauvignon vert, and Semillon LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Cliff Lede Vineyards - Napa Valley Christopher Tynan Wines - Napa Valley Colgin Cellars - Napa Valley Blankiet Estate - ...
Sep 23, 2019•1 hr 3 min
This episode's guest is Chris Carpenter, who is making wines in Napa for Jackson Family Wines and is overseeing Cabernet and Bordelais varietals grown on several of Napa's mountain AVA's such that he has become known as a mountain winemaker. Our conversation covers the mountain wines being produced from Mount Veeder, Spring Mountain, Howell Mountain, and Diamond Mountain AVA's, but also Cardinale, the flagship Cabernet that is a blend from throughout Napa including the valley floor. Chris descri...
Aug 20, 2019•1 hr 13 min
If it were possible to have a riveting conversation about filtering wine, there are very few people I'd consider. Scott labs has such an enigmatic guru. Maria Peterson is a filtration specialist, one who has the uncommon ability to translate technical expertise into practical winery practice. This is a sponsored episode—something I arranged with Scott Labs in order to support the podcast and extend that as a technical resource for filtration, one of the most difficult aspects of commercial winem...
Aug 15, 2019•1 hr 48 min
Straying from the usual focus on grapes, this episode dips into cider and the opportunities to be explored from fermenting apples. Andrew Byers is the Head Cidermaker at Finnriver Farm in Chimacum, Washington (on the Olympic Penninsula, west of Seattle). I met Andrew while moderating the Creativity in Fermentation panel during the Scott Lab's Ferment event. Even for those who might not have a specific interest in cider making, the parallels with winemaking, especially marketing, present a new pe...
Jun 29, 2019•1 hr 26 min
This episode features the first Oregon winemaker on the podcast. Anthony King is currently making wine for a number of small brands under as part of King Wine Consulting, he is the general manager at Carlton Winemakers Studio in Carlton, Oregon where he also produces his own brand, Ratio Wines. Anthony and I spent most of our time talking about Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, as he has spent his winemaking career with those varietals starting at Acacia Vineyard in Napa and Lemelson Vineyards in the W...
Jun 21, 2019•1 hr 11 min
This episode features Amanda McCrossin who is a sommelier, wine director, and the creator of @sommvivant. As the Wine Director for Press Restaurant in St Helena, Amanda oversees a tremendous list of Napa Valley wines and serves as an ambassador for the wines on offer and the stories of their producers. On top of Amanda's work at Press she has leveraged her access to the valley's wineries in order to create one of contemporary wine's most prominent Youtube channels covering wine basics, in-depth ...
Jun 06, 2019•1 hr 18 min
This episode features Leigh Meyering the proprietor of MyEnologist, a small commercial enological laboratory that she runs as a family business in Napa. Our conversation covers Leigh's winemaking background, the harvest experience in France that seeded the idea for a small, independent enology lab, and the development of the business, which also provides consulting services and a winery supply shop. I was attracted to MyEnologists service packages because all samples receive a full panel of anal...
May 06, 2019•1 hr 14 min
This episode features Dr. David R Montgomery, professor from the University of Washington and author of three books that shine a light on the often-overlooked role of biology underground and the connections and influence these microbia have with plants. David is a professor of geomorphology at the UW and together with his wife, Anne Bicklé, has ventured beyond the inorganic confines of soil science in authoring books and speaking to a wide range of agricultural industries regarding the value of ...
Apr 25, 2019•1 hr 2 min
