Inside Winemaking - the art and science of growing grapes and crafting wine

This is a sponsored episode featuring Ashley DuBois Leonard Founder and CEO of Innovint a wine production software company.

Nick Gislason - Hanabi Lager This episode features Nick Gislason the founder and brewer of Hanabi Lager, which he brews with his wife and partners in the Napa Valley. Nick works as a winemaker, yet his curiosity for brewing, especially "grain-forward lagers", was never shelved and has grown into Hanabi Lager Co., a brewery that he designed and built in his spare time. You might learn more about fi...

Ep. 140: Bertus van Zyl - Belong Wine Co., Tank Garage Winery, and James Cole Winery

This episode features Megan Brodie the Manager of Global Product Development & Winemaking for BevZero, a company that specializes in alcohol removal technologies for wine and other beverages.

This episode features Steve Matthiason, who has had an outsized role in the North Coast Californian wine industry both as a viticultural consultant and as a winemaker. This episode served as a chance to catch up since we worked together twelve years ago. We talked about Steve and his wife, Jill's, building of Matthiasson including the wines, brand, and now a winery on the eastern edge of Napa. Of...

This episode features Maya Dalla Valle, who has taken over the helm of viticulture and winemaking at her family's estate in Napa and also developed a new joint venture between Dalle Valle and the Supertuscan estate, Ornellaia.

This episode was a double interview between Jim Duane from Inside Winemaking and Daniel Baron from The Winemaker's Journey Podcast.

This episode of the Podcast features Natalie MacLean, author, wine educator, and host of the Unreserved Wine Talk Podcast. Natalie, who is based in Canada's capital city, Ottawa, told us the story of her transition from tech to wine, she gave an in-depth portrayal of the Canadian winemaking regions, and we discussed the work that she does today including creating wine and food pairing classes, wri...

This episode of the Podcast features Nick Devlin, CEO of Naked Wines. Our conversation covers Nick's background in London, the stories of Naked wines evolution, insights from the relationships they've built with their customers (Angels), the different value propositions that Naked offers to winemakers and to consumers, growth during the pandemic, and my new J.M. Duane Rosé and Grenache wines. Nake...

This episode of the Podcast features Randy Heinzen in his return to the podcast. During a trip to Paso Robles in January 2019 Randy gave me a in-depth tour of vineyards in Paso Robles. Randy then let me know about a young planting on his family's ranch, Coakley Vineyard, that included new, cleaned-up clones of Grenache. His excitement for the potential of this new wine was infectious and I have sp...

This episode of the Podcast features Joe Nielsen the winemaker from Ram's Gate Winery in Sonoma, California. During our conversation, Joe and I discuss his path to becoming a winemaker, the Ram's Gate wines, and the wine MBA from Sonoma State. Ram's Gate Winery - Sonoma, California Donelan Family Wines - Sonoma, California O'Neill Vintners and Distillers - Larkspur, California Sonoma State Wine Ex...

This episode of the Podcast features Francois Margot from DIAM Bouchage, a company that designs, manufactures, and markets technological cork closures. Our conversation covers the unique qualities of natural cork and the DIAM's innovations that were developed to address cork closures' mechanical performance, sensorial neutrality, and Oxygen control. Francois describes in great technical detail the...

This episode of the Podcast features Matt Dees, winemaker for the Hilt Estate and Jonata wineries in Santa Barbara County. Matt and I talked about his background, the building of the Jonata, and the new Hilt Estate in the Santa Rita Hills AVA. I had a great time talking with Matt and came away more prepared to make my own wines from Santa Barbara for the first time this 2021 harvest. LINKS AND RES...

This episode of the Podcast features Danielle Cyrot, who is the winemaker for Cade Winery and 13th Vineyard on Howell Mountain in the Napa Valley. Our conversation ranges from mountain winemaking, the trials of the 2020 vintage, Cade's growth with the acquisition of 13th Vineyard, the Plumpjack group, and LEED Certification for wineries.

This episode of the Podcast features Miguel Garcia who is the Sustainable Agriculture Program Manager for the Napa County Resource Conservation District. Miguel has been very helpful to the Seavey Vineyard team in our efforts towards soil management and carbon sequestration. I asked him to record this podcast so people would be aware of the ways in which Miguel in his position with the RCD is avai...

This episode of the Podcast is a Zoom recording with Lance Vande Hoef who represents the grape machine harvest equipment for Pellenc in the US. We recorded this podcast with video in order to make it available as a Youtube video to show some of the Pellenc equipment in action. Pellenc makes tractors, harvesting machines, destemmers, sorters, and hand equipment, but much of our conversation centers...

This episode features Peter Yeung and Robert Vernick from the X Chateau Wine Podcast. Peter and Robert collectively offer a tremendous source of insight into the wine market, winemaking trends, sales trends, finance, and customer engagement based in a shared fascination for studying and drinking wine. In 2019 Peter co-authored the book Luxury Wine Marketing. This episode is not focused on winemaki...

This episode features WSU Food Scientist Charlie Edwards. Charlie is a teacher, researcher, and expert in wine microbes. I was finally able to have the high-level conversation about Brettanomyces that I've been longing for on the podcast. We also talked about wine bacteria, techniques to find points of contamination in a winery, the books he has authored, and the viticulture and enology degree pro...

Tony Biagi - Patria Wines This episode features Tony Biagi a winemaker who has a tremendous resume of winemaking in Napa Valley. Our conversation covered Tony's background, the role of a winemaking consultant, Tony's demand for "a pound of flesh" during harvest, his wines from Paso Robles and other regions in California. Tony was incredibly candid about the development and operations of Patria Win...

Frank Renaldi - WinemakingInstructions.com This episode features Frank Renaldi who is a winemaker and winemaking instructor. In a joint venture with Musto Wine Grape Company in Hartford, Connecticut Frank has created a comprehensive set of tutorial videos that are geared towards home winemakers, yet contain a high level of technical enology so as to be useful for commercial wineries as well. Our c...

This episode features winemaker Michael Terrien. Michael is on a roadshow to promote the new Adventures excursion opportunities from Obsidian Wine Co. Michael has his hands in many projects from California Pinot noir to Maine wild blueberry sparkling wine and the portfolio of estate wines from Obsidian Ridge in Lake County, CA. I had a great conversation with Michael ranging from the details of ma...

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 meeti...

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...

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 Cha...

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-...