Indie Wine podcast

IWP Ep111 Jake Des Voignes - Heleje Wine Co. w/ Andrew Sullivan. Andrew Sullivan and I recently traveled to Lodi to meet up with Jake Devoiges of Heleje wine company.  Jake runs Heleje with his wife Shauna where together they make some great low intervention wines. They moved here after succeeding as Chefs in San Francisco at the highest levels. Jake also farms the 2 family vineyards, The Fernow R...

IWP Ep110 Carlos Caruncho - Arquiles Wines. I recently sat down with Carlos Caruncho of Arquiles wines outside his home in Nevada City.  As some of you may know Carlos is closing Arquiles down to move to England as a consultant and potentially make some wine.  He’s lived there before, as well as Cuba where he grew up and the Soviet Union.  Carlos along with a group of like minded producers have be...

I recently connected with Chris McGilvray director of the Documentary “Eden”. Eden follows Mt Eden Winemaker Jeffrey Patterson and his family for over a period of 7 years.   We dive into how Chris found himself shooting a film a couple thousand feet above Silicon Valley, growing up in the heart of the valley, his production and post production process and we fall into a discussion about creativity...

IWP Ep108 Gideon Beinstock - Clos Saron An Unfiltered Wine Festival Conversation with Gideon, Chris Renfro and Matt Wood at Friend of a Friend.   A few weeks ago Chris Renfro of the 280 project and I sat down and talked with Gideon Beinstock of Clos Saron as part of an Unfiltered Wine Festival talk.  Andrew Sullivan from Unfiltered coordinated everything and organized a great evening of allowing G...

IWP Ep107 Noel Diaz - Purity Wine - Catching up Before By The Way  Noel Diaz of Purity wine and I grabbed a little time before the recent By The Way Festival to get some of his thoughts about the current natural wine industry, selling wine, the bright spots and the challenges.  Some of the themes discussed are similar to what we talked about in the recent Andrew Sullivan episode, but from a small...

IWP Ep106 Book Report: Idwal Jones - "Vines in the Sun" and "The Vineyard". And Still The Vine, Her Ancient Ruby Yields. Today we’re discussing the author Idwal Jones, one of my favorite wine writers and one of the more unique ones that California has produced. But, he isn’t really a wine writer, his only wine related books are 1 non fiction-ish book and 1 novel on wine but the...

I recently sat down with Andrew Sullivan of the Unfiltered Wine Festival. We originally connected over the planning of the first Unfiltered Festival last year that he organized.  What really brought us together is the love of California and California wine.  Rooting for the home team, basically.  Today we talk about his history of cooking and wine and food culture appreciation, trying to work with...

IWP Ep104 Bart Hansen - Dane Cellars and The Winemakers Podcast. I recently sat down with Bart Hansen of Dane Cellars and the winemakers podcast.  He gave me a great tour of some of the historical winemaking artifacts near his tasting room in Glen Ellen.  And we had a great conversation in the tank.  Bart has always been so nice and interested in the podcast and The Winemakers Podcast is one of my...

IWP103 - Woodside Special - Today we're discussing Woodside and the Portola Valley of the Santa Cruz Mountains.  I’m joined Nathan Kandler of Thomas Fogarty Winery, Bud and Anne Marie Hoffacker of Portola Hills Vineyard and Redmond Winery and Kat Dykeman and Ron Karpovich of Dome Vineyards both of those vineyards sit just below the Fogarty Winery.  Both projects work closely with Nathan to pro...

IWP Ep102 Amanda McKenna - Yarrow Wine Co and Matt Crutchfield - Matt Crutchfield Wines. I recently sat down with Amanda McKenna of Yarrow Wine Co and Matt Crutchfield of Matt Crutchfield wines.  They are both making incredibly well regarded wines for newer projects.   We discuss a lot of the nuances and challenges faced by self funded winemakers who are starting their own projects.  Like many of...

IWP Ep101 Jack Sporer - Fres.co Wine and Magnolia Wine Services. I recently sat down at Dos Bar in Sonoma to talk with Jack Sporer of Fresh Wine Company aka Fresco and Magnolia Wine Services.  Jack grew up in San Francisco but has longtime family ties to some of the most well known vineyards and farms of the Sonoma Valley.  With Magnolia he’s at the center of the valley's small production wine...

IWP Ep100 A Hidden History of the Chinese in Sonoma Valley Wine - Coral Wang of Maison des Plaisances and Emma Lipp - Valley Bar and Bottle. Coral of Maison De Plaisances and I have been hard at work on this special episode about the Chinese in early California viticulture.  We’re going to be focussed in the Sonoma Valley and focussed around Viniculture but Napa, Fresno, LA and orchard and row cro...

IWP Ep99 Ben Diaz - Volta Wines.  I sat down with Ben Diaz from Volta wines the other day.  We had a great casual conversation about making wines from Spanish varieties in Sonoma Valley.  We talk about how he got started, making lots of Pinot, hunting down the varieties he’s looking for like Palomino and Godello and making 3 year barrel aged Rose. Volta is an exciting new project from Ben, the win...

IWP Ep98 Kevin Ferguson and Mark Golodetz - Gemello Winery and the Judgement of Paris Anniversaries. My guests today are Kevin Ferguson, a writer who grew up in the hills of Mountain View, near where his grandfather Mario ran the Gemello Winery for nearly 50 years.  Today we’re discussing the Judgement of Paris and especially the 25th and the 50th anniversary tastings.  A 1970 Gemello nearly swept...

 IWP Ep97 Tony Coturri - Coturri Winery. I recently sat down and talked with Tony Coturri of Coturri winery.  Tony of course has been making natural wines, and by that he means wines with nothing added, longer than anyone else.  Since 1979 professionally and for 15 years prior on a large scale home level.  We had a wide ranging discussion, about the changes he’s seen in natural wine and the larger...

IWP Ep96 Darek Trowbridge - Old World Winery. I sat down with Darek Trowbridge of Old World Winery recently for a great discussion around family, farming and caring for the soil, making natural wine before the term existed, Physical and mental health and much more.  We sat down at his kitchen table in Fulton and talked for a couple hours with persimmons being turned into Hoshigaki hanging near the...

 IWP Ep95 The Viticultural Pavilion at the 1894 Midwinter Fair. Historical Episode Today we’re going to talk about the Viticultural Palace at the 1894 Midwinter Fair held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.   Last year I did a series of episodes on the California Wine Association, and this episode could be the prequel to that series. My thesis here is that the fair was the last time in Pre Prohib...

IWP Ep94 Joe Davis - Arcadian Winery. I recently sat down with Joe Davis of Arcadian Winery.  Joe made amazing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for around 40 vintages, mostly in the Central Coast, first with Morgan and then his own Arcadian winery.  We discuss his aha bottle, meeting the largest influence in his winemaking, the state of California Wine, moving to France, the status of Arcadian and just a...

IWP Ep93 The Coloma Vineyard - The Vineyard House, Allhoff, Chalmers, Longworth, Adlum, Catawba and a haunted house - Historical Episode.  This is a far ranging episode.  Originally it was going to be a short and sweet story but it’s grown. Today we’ll hear about a winery and its grounds said to be haunted, way high up in the Sierra foothills near where gold was first discovered in California. The...

Today I’m talking with Emily Fernwood of Osa Major Wines.  Emily started her project during the craziness of 2020 after traveling the world working harvests.  The wines are always bright and refined and she works with some really cool varietals that we don’t see often like Tocai Fruilano, Semillon and Mission.  You can check out Emilys wines at https://www.osamajorwines.com/ or oasmajorwines on in...

IWP Ep91 Short Stories on California Wine 3. Today will be our 3rd short story episode.  These episodes are fun in that they gather od's and ends and pieces that don’t fit other places.  Sometimes it’s a winery, topic or person that can’t support a full episode but is still worth knowing about.  Other times it’s short articles that I find interesting.  This episode will be a collection of magazine...

IWP Ep90 Louie Seamus - The Vinguard. The Vinguard’s mission since 2018 is to promote a culture in the wine industry centered around ecological farming, belonging, empowerment, and equity, and to amplify the voices and work of historically excluded groups who work with wine.  Most of the focus is in the natural wine sector. They also throw WINeFare and Wine Flair and collaborating with https://lid...

IWP Ep89 Cole Thomas- Madson Wines Today I’m talking with Cole Thomas of Madson wines.  Madson was started in 2018 and Cole along with viticulturists Ken Swegles and Abbey Chrystal have been making some amazing wines primarily from Santa Cruz Mountains fruit.  We talk about how the project started, his approach to winemaking, challenges they deal with in the Santa Cruz Mountains and more. You can...

IWP Ep88 Unfiltered - Conversations About Wine - Panel 3 Does Natural Wine Romanticize Flaws? Today is the 3rd and final Panel from the Unfiltered,  - Conversations about wine panel. Does Natural Wine Romanticize Flaws? Questions like - has natural wine reshaped what a good wine can be, Personality vs Perfection, What so called flaws are ok and what aren’t? In what quantities?  How big of a roll d...

IWP Ep87 Unfiltered - Conversations About Wine - Panel 2 Terroir. Today is the 2nd in our series of Panels from the Unfiltered,  - Conversations about wine panel.  Terroir is the theme of the day. Pick dates, handling, pressing, fermenting, aging—there are just so many decisions and variables, and each one can nudge the flavor just a little bit further from its original profile.  So is terroir rea...