Beyond Organic Wine

My guest for this episode is Brian McClintic. For many people in the wine world, Brian needs no introduction. He’s one of the co-stars of the Somm documentaries where we watch him go from being a young, ambitions lover of wine, to becoming a Master Sommelier, and then his further evolution as global wine expert. Then, perhaps even more significantly, Brian became disillusioned with his membership...

My guest for this episode is Drew Herman. Drew is the Vineyard Manager at JK Carriere Wines in Oregon, and, wow… listening to him makes me want to drink anything made from fruit that he helps grow. Before we recorded this, Drew gave me an outline of things that he wanted to talk about, and he titled it Microbial Democracy, and what he discusses here blows open doors of understanding about the way...

My guest for this episode is the bestselling author of Drinking & Knowing Things, he's a Certified Sommelier with the Guild of Master Sommeliers, a Certified Specialist of Wine, and a Master of Wine Candidate with the Institute of Masters of Wine. His final blind tasting test is this month. He runs the wildly popular Drinking & Knowing Things wine blog which has been adapted into now 3 books. He o...

My guest for this episode is Tim Graham of Left Bank Cider in Catskill, New York on the bank of the Hudson River. Tim’s cider project is a joint effort with his wife Anna Rosencranz and partner Dave Snyder. The three of them are making local cider from local apples, both wild and cultivated, and serving them at their local bar along with other local ciders, beers, wines and liquors of NY. It was s...

My guest for this episode is Greg La Follette. Just when you think you know something about wine, you meet someone like Greg. Talking with him about wine is like having the sun rise suddenly while you’re walking a path at night with only a flashlight. I apologize in advance to anyone who is trying to listen to this while doing something else, because you’re going to want to take notes. Even if you...

This episode is a bit unusual for this podcast. It’s about how to purchase real estate, and my guest is Rural Mortgage Banker for United Ag Lending, Brady Shepherd. I’m very grateful to Brady for the time he spent with me preparing for this episode, and I think you’ll find this episode packed with potentially life-changing ideas. Why “life changing?” Because, for better or for worse, the US econom...

Colin Blackshear and Aaron Brown of Bardos Cider are my guests for this episode. This is their first podcast, and I’m honored to be able to spread the word about what the remarkable work they are doing. They have built Bardos Cider since 2019 to a significant production, of over 150 barrels, by gleaning fruit from abandoned, forgotten, and derelict old orchards from the late 1800s and early 1900s....

Recorded on, and released in honor of, Caesar Chavez Day. My guest for this episode is Gabriela Fontanesi. Gabriela has one of the most unusual and unique paths into wine that I’ve ever encountered. Because of that, she brought questions and perspectives that have incredible power to transform the way you see and think about this industry and that led her on a journey of being a vineyard worker, a...

It’s time for an end of the imperialistic colonial culture that we’ve all had plenty of by now. It’s time to recognize that there are indigenous grapes that grow best in every location on the lands of this earth, and they don’t need chemistry to survive because they evolved in those lands. And beyond that, great wine doesn’t have to be only about grapes. There are amazing fermented beverages from...

Jack Sporer is the owner of Fres.co Wine and Magnolia Wine Services. This interview is a great episode for a beginning winemaker thinking of starting their own brand and considering how to make that dream a reality. Because Jack is the owner of a custom crush winery facility. Unless you are independently wealthy or inherited a vineyard, you are likely going to start your winery in some sort of a c...

My guest for this episode is Darek Trowbridge. Darek is the mind and body behind Old World Winery. He refers to himself as a soil farmer rather than a grape farmer, and this earth-first approach had led him to coin the term “Pastoral Winemaker” … because Darek has been making Natural Wine since before anyone called it natural wine. That’s right, Darek is a pioneer in the natural wine movement, and...

Hidalgo, Wetumka, Norton, Cloeta. If you haven’t heard these names before, they are American heritage or American native wine grape varieties. And they are just a few of the dozens of native grape varieties being grown at TerraVox or Vox Vineyards, just outside of Kansas City, Missouri. Missouri is the site of America’s first and oldest AVA, by the way, so it has a long and fascinating wine histor...

Ian Thorsen-McCarthy is my guest for this episode, and he has made wine on both coasts… first in California and now in New York. His project is Artemis Botanical, and you can probably tell from the name that he doesn’t just make wine. Vermouth and now cider are part of his repertoire, and he is equally thoughtful about them all. Ian is deeply rooted in natural winemaking. So much so that if you te...

“The blood of the land” is how Jason Kesselring refers to wine. Jason grows grapes and makes wine in a place that sounds like it’s from Game of Thrones, where winter temperatures drop below 30 degrees … below zero, and summer temps can get over 100, where wind blows viciously year round, and tornados are common in the summer, and where last year at the end of May the temperature dropped to minus 2...

It was such a pleasure to geek out with Martha Stoumen about making wine for this epidsode. This conversation gets highly technical, and even more highly helpful for anyone, at any level, who is making wine or thinking about it. If you want to take your wine making to the next level, listen closely. I have learned multiple new things from Martha every time I’ve re-listened. The ostensible subject...

Stephen Hagen and Andrew Smith are my guests on this episode, and we’re talking about Antiquum Farm in Oregon. Antiquum is Stephen’s family farm where Andrew runs the cellar, and where they practice Grazing-Based Viticulture, or what Stephen calls Joy Based Agriculture, and I believe he’s doing for grape farming what Joel Salatin has done for regular farming. Antiquum is a vineyard ecosystem speci...

My guest for this episode is Christopher Renfro of The Two Eighty Project. If you haven’t had the pleasure to learn about what he’s doing with wine in San Francisco, you’re in for a treat. Christopher spent much of his childhood in Germany, which allows him a bit of an outsider’s perspective on the culture of the United States that is refreshing and extremely relevant. He has a big vision for the...

In this special episode I’m going to clear up a far to common misunderstanding about how much it costs to get certified organic or biodynamic (Spoiler alert: it doesn't cost a lot to get certified.) But I’ll also raise some of the complicated but important questions about whether it’s worth getting certified. I give an in-depth look at the actual fees and costs of the three year transition period...

My guest for this episode is Martin Bernal-Hafner. Martin is doing some beautiful and hard work in Mendocino County for Alta-Orsa on a vineyard that is as difficult to farm as it is magical. Martin may be the perfect guy for such a difficult job. He’s humble and unassuming, thorough and careful, with kindness and patience to boot. And maybe that’s why you haven’t heard of him or Alta Orsa, but tha...

By looking at wine from a different perspective, I think we can gain a greater appreciation and understanding of it, and also get some inspiration about how we could think completely differently about it, and how that might make it something less exclusive, more sustainable, and more fun. My guest for this episode is Sandor Katz. Sandor is the author of the books Wild Fermentation as well as The A...

Olivia Maki and Mike Reis are my guests on this episode, and they are the owners of Redfield Cider Bar in Oakland, California! Redfield is one of just a handful of bars anywhere dedicated to Cider, as well as natural wine, and Olivia and Mike give us an in-depth exploration of what it takes to open and run such a bar… during a pandemic, no less. If you’ve ever dreamed of opening your own bar, this...

Ellen Cavalli is the co-apple grower, gleaner, forager, cidermaker and owner of Tilted Shed Cider Works, in Sonoma, California. She has a past career in publishing and continues to have a hand in the zine called Malus. I just discovered Malus thanks to Ellen, and I love it and highly recommend checking it out. At only 10 years in business, Tilted Shed has achieved serious notoriety in the west coa...

Mimi Casteel started her journey by going to the forest. She found she could not save the forest from within, so she went to the farm. But she found she could not save the farm from within either, so she has recently taken the next step in her journey, and that was why I wanted to have this conversation with her… to ask her what that next step is, and why she’s taking it. But more than offering ju...

Todd Cavallo is the vingneron, with his partner Crystal Cornish, of Wild Arc Farm in the Hudson Valley of New York. This is a dense, practical and at times technical interview about being a thoughtful ecological producer of natural wine in the Northeast US. I I was taking notes. Among so many other helpful nuggets in this interview, you’re going to get some amazing tips about how to produce a natu...

Gary Paul Nabhan is an Agricultural Ecologist,  Ethnobotanist , Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author of over 30 books. His work has focused primarily on the interaction of biodiversity and cultural diversity of the arid binational  Southwest . He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement. A first-generation  Lebanese American , Nabhan was raised...