On The Wine Road Podcast

In this episode I celebrate this year’s Sonoma County Barrel Auction. The theme for the weekend is Never Before, Never Again wines. On May 2nd I was invited to the Tasting Preview event attended by trade, media guests, partners, and participating vintners. This year’s auction was the 10th anniversary of the Barrel Auction. Over $400,000 was raised during the auction at MacMu

For today's episode, I'm reaching back to August of 2020. Clément Pierlot is the chef de cave (winemaker) of historic Champagne Pommery in France. I found it interesting that the Champagne house known for creating the Brut style of bubbly is now making a sparkling wine from California grapes. It turns out, Louis Pommery California Sparkling is harvested and made just up the freewa

Patrick Davis is returning to Northern California for SIP - Songwriters in Paradise 2024. You may have caught him on my podcast last year, and it’s a real pleasure to catch up with him again to chat about Songwriters in Paradise 2024 in Napa, very soon April 18th-21st, then Healdsburg, Sonoma County July 23rd – 28 at special wineries in each region. Patrick Davis is a talented

This month we celebrated Women’s History, International Women’s Day was March 8th, and this past Monday, the 25th, it was National Women in Wine Day in the U.S. So, appropriately, my guest for this episode is an accomplished woman in wine, who also happens to be an international woman. Marimar Torres is a member of Familia Torres, a historic winemaking family in Spain’s Cat

In my 11 years in and around the wine industry, people have often asked me about barrels, yet related to the surface details, like whether a winery uses French oak, or 100% new oak, how many months does the wine age in oak, etcetera. Well, there are so many other details involved with barrel selection and how they can be used, it will make your head spin! So, if your head hasn’t

This brand is what you get when you combine the 4th generation of a historic wine brand (Charles Krug Winery, first established in 1862), with an off-shoot winery that is predominantly owned by women who exhibit the courage and grace of the family’s immigrant matriarch (C Mondavi & Family), and a passion to support nonprofit causes (Equality Now), and blend it all into a wine

As we find ourselves in the period of holiday parties you may be considering how much alcohol you’re consuming. We’re also approaching a month that can be referred to as Dry January, which is supported by an international campaign that promotes a self-imposed break from alcohol. Does that mean wine lovers have to put aside their beloved nectar of the Gods? Not necessarily. A go

This Classic episode was recorded in September of 2021 for my radio show, then uploaded as a podcast a year later. If you missed it the first time around, I know you'll enjoy it this time. The Kingdom of Bhutan has been referred to as "magical" for quite some time. So I suppose it should come as no surprise that the introduction of vineyards, while in the shadow of the Himalayas, o

In this episode you’ll meet Jennifer Brown of Napa Valley’s Hall Family. They are more or less based in three counties, they source from a good number of appellations across California, and they have three brands that I’ll touch upon, but we’ll focus on BACA Wines. BACA only produces Zinfandel, which I found interesting knowing that Jennifer’s family has gained notoriety

On this episode, you’ll hear about wine that has been nurtured by Mother Nature for over 100 years. Winemaker and ampelographer Greg La Follette has been crafting wine from old vines for so long that he knows of their place in history and other names they’ve had throughout the centuries. His latest wine project is Marchelle Wines. I’ll chat with Greg about the gnarly old vi