California Wine Country

Winemaker Dan Barwick with Melissa Galliani.

Winemaker Dan Barwick is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Dan is the winemaker at Trecini Winery. He has been on CWC before, the most recent was this other episode recorded on Aug. 25, 2023. Our regular co-host Dan Berger is on vacation this week.

Right away Steve Jaxon is loving Dan Barwick’s Sauvignon Blanc. It’s made with all Sonoma County fruit, mostly Russian River. It has rich flavors of apricot and mango. “Easy to drink,” says Dan.

Trecini has been bottling wine for 25 years. Dan took several courses at UC Davis and at Santa Rosa Junior College in winemaking including courses from Rich Thomas. He was at the forefront of changing viticulture in Sonoma County in ways which improved the quality of Sonoma County wines. He taught that you had to be in the vineyard to get to understand the vines. This helps him make decisions about pruning and harvesting.

Dan says that Sauvignon Blanc is his favorite wine to make. He can make blends with fruit from different vineyards, to assemble the flavors he wants. It’s hard to believe that such a good wine sells for $15. In addition to Sauvignon Blanc, Trecini also makes Chardonnay, Russian River Pinot Noir and Merlot, too.

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Dan Barwick recently visited Croatia, staying in a town called Rovinj. The wine and food and the whole scene was incredibly beautiful. Dan suggests everyone put Croatia on the bucket list. It is on the coast so there is a lot of seafood. The local olive oil is very fine. A delicious glass of local wine will cost 2 or 3 dollars.

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Dan Barwick talks about his early experience working in the food hall at Harrod’s in London, where he was exposed to all the best of everything, including wine. The chocolates were right next to the wine department. He worked there from the age of 18 to 27.

Williams Selyem winemaker Jeff Mangahas is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Jeff has been on CWC as recently as last February on this episode, and previously here in 2021 and before that, on this episode from 2018.

Wine Country Radio GM Melissa Galliani has brought a bottle of Dry Creek Chenin Blanc. Dry Creek is a sponsor of the KRSH Backyard Concert Series and their Chenin Blanc is a popular favorite. “Really refreshing,” says Jeff.

Williams Selyem has a rich history as one of the original Russian River Valley producers. Their first commercial release was in 1981. They have been making interesting, small-production wines in Russian River Valley and other nearby regions.

Williams Selyem worked with the growers in Russian River Valley, such as the Rocchioli and Martinelli vineyards. They produce 52 different wines, in small lots. The are not easy to get so the way to buy them is through the website.

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Jeff Mangahas joined Williams Selyem in 2011 and took over winemaking and viticulture in 2014. This year is his 24th vintage.

They taste the 2022 Estate Chardonnay. They are also well-known for Pinot Noir and Zin. This Chardonnay is unique because it has 20 different Chardonnay clones all planted together in the field. It presents all the different flavors that are present in the different clones and it makes for a complex wine.

Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series.

Jeff’s history as a winemaker started with his interest in science and biology. He majored in molecular and cellular biology at University of Washington. He was interested in research science and worked in cancer research. Wine was a hobby. He moved back east to Princeton University to work in the molecular biology department there. The change to wine as a profession was a romantic idea that he made happen by going to UC Davis for a Masters in Enology.

Dan Berger would keep this wine for no more than 2 or 3 years to get it in the glass before the fruit flavors fade.

Jeff tells about how they still use foot treading to press some grapes because there is no better method to get the results that he wants.

Kevin Bersofsky from Montagne Russe Wines joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. He has been on CWC before, most recently on this episode of August 3, 2022.

On Saturday August 10, the Wind to Wine festival is at the Gambonini Family Ranch in Petaluma.

They start by tasting a sparkling wine that Kevin Bersofsky has made. Dan calls it “a very serious bubbly.” It’s a Brut Rosé and it is very dry. The flavors are fruity but not sweet.

The Petaluma Gap was designated as an AVA in 2017. Kevin was using vineyards that were there before the AVA became official, like Springhill Ranch, Roberts Road, Gap’s Crown, Terra de Promissio, Keller Estates, Sunchase, Night Wing, …

Montagne Russe is the French, Italian and Spanish word for a Roller-Coaster. It literally means “Russian Mountains” because it was russian impresarios who brought ice to Paris and used it to decorate their roller coaster attractions.

It can be in the 90s in the Petaluma Gap area, but by evening the wind comes in and it can be 20 degrees cooler. It blows in from Bodega Bay, off the sea. There are only two places that have east-west valleys that produce great wine, Santa Barbara County and Petaluma Gap.

Dan says that the Petaluma Gap wines all have good structure because the acidity is strong. The grapes don’t ripen as fast, so by staying on the vine they build up acidity. The average wind speed is 8 MPH faster in the gap than anywhere else in Sonoma County. The grapes like to cool down.

The Gambonini Family Ranch will be the host of the Wind to Wine festival, with food music, wine talks and 30 or more Petaluma Gap wineries pouring wines.

Dan’s favorite Syrahs come from northern Victoria in Australia. They don’t even import them to the US, but Dan Berger has some in his estensive personal cellar.

The next wine they taste is the Montagne Russe 2021 Pinot Noir from the Roberts Road vineyard. Kevin knows that this is a vineyard that always makes good wine. Dan gets traces of cherry and also pomegranate. Steve likes the neologism Nutmeggy.

Dan explains how the Sonoma Coast appellation was too varied and needed better definition. So the Petaluma Gap AVA was truly unique and deserved to be created.

Melissa Galliani, Dan Berger & Justin Seidenfeld.

Justin Seidenfeld, Rodney Strong head winemaker, joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. Justin Seidenfeld has been on CWC a few times, most recently on this episode of April 27, 2022.

They begin tasting a brand new wine that they just launched on June 1st. It is a single vineyard 2023 Sauvignon Blanc from one of their estate vineyards called Bud’s Ranch. Justin modelled this wine after a Bordeaux style, it is richer than the usual SV. 55% made in large oak barrels, then the rest is done in stainless steel. Dan says it is aimed at being ready to drink now and also to be held in the cellar.

2023 was an interesting vintage, it was cooler than average, which gives the wines structure without being tart. There is just enough acidity to have balance. They also use a rotating egg-shaped vessel for mixing during fermentation, which gives it lees contact.

Justin started in 2005 at Iron Horse Vineyards while still going to school at UC Davis. Then he worked at Robert Mondavi before coming to Rodney Strong.

Rodney Strong had the thirteenth bonded winery in California. He did a lot of firsts, like planting Chardonnay in Chalk Hill and makin the first Alexander Valley single vineyard Cabernet. He was also a founder of the Russian River Valley and Chalk Hill AVAs. Justin Seidenfeld helped drive the approval of the Petaluma Gap AVA.

Click the logo to visit Davis Bynum Wines.

Dan Berger started writing about wine in 1976, working for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. He had a very informative 2-hour lunch interview with Rodney Strong that year.

Rodney Strong winery is now owned by the Klein family and now owns 12 vineyard sites with 1158 acres total. It is critical to their success to have control over the vineyards as well as production. Dan Berger notices the flavor of fresh-cut new-mown hay in this Sauvignon Blanc which makes it unique.

Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series.

Rodney Strong is famous for its Cabernets and for its Chalk Hill Chardonnay. They also make a very good Pinot Noir, all from Russian River Valley. Their Alexander Valley Estate Cabernet retails for about $20. Justin says it punches above its weight, at that price. They literally buy their barrels as trees in France. That and the fact that they own their vineyards means their retail price is modest, they can focus on quality and evolve. They have just finished rennovating their vineyards and are ready for generations in the future.

August 24 is the Single Vineyard Dinner, when they release their top wines. They taste one that is a 2019 100% single vineyard Cabernet, which is a demonstration of terroir. The 3 wines to be revealed on August 24 are similar except for their vineyard location so they taste differently.

As Justin describes, Rodney Strong’s intention is to surprise and delight.

Dan and Darryl.

Darryl Miller, Dehlinger Winery rep, is back in the studio on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today. He has been a guest on CWC twice before, on this episode on August 26, 2020 and again on July 20, 2022.

Dan Berger describes Darryl Miller as, “…one of the good guys.” Darry has been in the wine business for more than 50 years. The Dehlinger winery has been around since the 1970s. It was one of the first vineyards to be planted in western Sonoma County in 1975 in an area that was mostly apple orchards. Tom Dehlinger is still involved in the winery but his daughters are running it. Darryl was hired to represent Dehlinger in the marketplace. It is rare to find wines that have such character, says Dan Berger.

The area was cooler in the 1970s than today. Tom Dehlinger worked carefully in the vineyard in order to keep high acidity in the wines, so they are consistent. Almost all the Chardonnay planted on the Dehlinger vineyard is the Wente clone. They begin tasting the 2021 estate Chardonnay.

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The Chardonnay is deep and rich, with acidity in the aftertaste and has a long finish. A lot of other Chards are sweeter. Dehlinger Winery has control over all aspects of the farming and production.

Darryl Miller started in Seattle in the restaurant business 50 years ago where he was working as a waiter. Their wine steward suggested that he knew enough about wine to be successful in wine sales. He started working nights in the restaurant and days “on the street.” Then in 1981 he started his own company as a broker and he worked with some of the greatest brands at the time.

Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series.

Dan Berger knows that property and describes it as being on a slight hill. The soils do change from place to place. In one area, there is gray Goldridge soil. In another area, there is brown Altamont soil. They are one of the few areas that has some Altamont soil. Every block ripens at a different pace.  Every vine has a number and they harvest individual areas to make sure each vine is harvested at the right time.

Dehlinger was also one of the first wineries to plant Cabernet Sauvignon in Sonoma County.

The Dehlinger vineyard house.

Dan, Joey and Mark.

Mark Mathewson and Joey Stockton from Kendall-Jackson, join Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. Joey Stockton is the winemaker in charge of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay and Mark Methewson is VP of Hospitality. CWC has featured KJ before, on this episode recorded on October 19, 2016, when KJ winemaster Randy Ullom was our guest.

KJ is the official NBA wine partner. This began during the pandemic when NBA players were confined to hotels and some of them complained about the poor wine selection available to them. When the folks at KJ heard about that, they sent 50 cases of their wine, which really got people’s attention and led to the official sponsorship deal.

However this is not KJ’s first foray into sports sponsorships. Dan Berger did a speaking engagement at the opening of Jacobs Field in Cleveland. He was in Ohio for another reason, and Randy Ullom invited Dan to Cleveland to talk about KJ wines, which were going to be the exclusive wine supplier to the luxury boxes at Jacobs Field.

KJ is hosting a fund raising event called The Climate Ride on August 17. Julia Jackson is a climate philanthropist who has funded an organization called Grounded, which funds high-impact climate solutions. She wanted to do a fund raiser, so they started a collaboration with Climate Ride. The ride starts and finishes at KJ. There are 4 routes to choose from, from short to long, for riders of every level of endurance. The most ambitious one is 81 miles with 4700 feet of elevation. We will have more about Climate Ride in the weeks before the event, on this show. There will be wines from KJ, beers from Seismic Brewing and cider from Golden State, along with music and food from the KJ culinary team.

Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series.

Speaking of events, tomorrow is the Sonoma County Vintners’ annual Taste of Sonoma event, also at KJ. Dan Berger will be wearing his Argentine straw hat.

Joey Stockton started his career in wine in Washington state, then worked in Napa Valley and started at KJ when they started in 2011. Now he is the Chardonnay winemaker.

The first wine they taste is a 2022 dry Riesling. They saw a quote from Dan Berger that there is not enough dry Riesling out there. Back in 2018 they had the same idea and started making it. They made it in a concrete egg, a ceramic egg and stainless steel. When the ceramic egg broke, they had to work with the concrete egg and steel. Dan says it has just a trace of sugar and it is perfectly balanced and has perfect varietal aroma.

Next they taste the KJ Chardonnay. Dan has written about how complicated it is to make this high quality wine consistently year after year, with a high production volume. The grapes all come from Mendocino, Monterey and Santa Barbara, all coastal regions, and cool surf towns. As time goes by, the KJ approach to Chardonnay has evolved and today shows better acidity than before. This wine has tastes of White Burgundy. It is not sweet. They do “surly aging” meaning they age the wine on the lees and they stir the barrels monthly.

Mark Matthewson is VP of Hospitality (not Operations, as originally stated). KJ has a property in Tuscany that Dan says is amazing.

André

Mark Tchelistcheff is also here today with Bob Cabral on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. He is the grand-nephew of André Tchelistcheff, the great winemaker. He is the author of a film “André, The Voice of Wine,” a documentary about André’s influential career and his love of wine. André’s enduring legacy is primarily in the many other great winemakers that he trained. There was great wine coming from California even in the late 1800s. After Prohibition, André was perhaps the one most influential winemaker in California after his arrival in late 1938.

Dan Berger mentions that André made Riesling, just as Dan does now. The first dry Riesling that Dan really liked was one that André had made at Beaulieu Vineyards. The Bob Cabral Riesling they are tasting is a 2018 called Meadowfoam. This one is completely dry with no residual sugar. It is made in a concrete egg-shaped vessel. Concrete is neutral, especially when treated with tartaric acid. Dan says it is a longer and more difficult process but is worth it. The proof is that at 5 years old, this wine has not reached its peak yet.

Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series.

You can see Mark’s documentary at the film’s website, called André The Voice of Wine dot com. 

Mark talks about how Georges de Latour (a French winemaker who had settled in California) hired André after Prohibition.

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The rest of the show is a combination of stories about André and tasting some more of Bob Cabral’s wines.

Winemaker Bob Cabral.

Winemaker Bob Cabral is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger, after a long time. His last appearance on the show was this episode on October 20, 2021.

This 2024 harvest will be Bob Cabral’s 45th harvest in the wine business. Bob Cabral Wines is his label now. He grew up in Central California where his parents were growers of red wine grapes and almonds.

Bob pronounces almonds “amands” with the short A, which is a pronunciation unique to the California central valley where they grow. (This pronunciation is close to the form and pronunciation of the French word for almonds, “amands”.) He studied winemaking at Fresno State and got a Master’s in Biochemistry, moving to Sonoma County in 1986. Bob has travelled the world for his business.

He worked for DeLoach vineyards under Randy Ullom, who is now at Kendall-Jackson. He just celebrated thirty years there. Then he went to Kente, worked for some consulting winemakers, then Alderbrook, now owned by the Orsi family.

Back in 2011 Wine Enthusiast magazine named Bob Cabral its Winemaker of the Year. Now they are tasting Bob’s 2019 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. Bob tells about how he is getting ready to move to Paradise Ridge. He will lease half of their winery and he will make his wines while Paradise Ridge will also continue to make wine. It should be open in July. Paradise Ridge will also be open for visitors.

Click the logo to visit Davis Bynum Wines.

Next they taste a 2021 Rosé called American Girl, a Rosé of Pinot Noir. He first made it this way in 2016, but he stopped making it until 2021 again. “It may be a pain to make but it’s not a pain to taste!”

Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series.

Dan Berger says it has a little of the richness of a white wine but also some of the structure of a red. Steve Jaxon declares that it is one of the best Rosés he has ever tasted. Dan suggests it would go perfectly with Steak Tartare. “An explosion of flavor in your mouth,” in Bob Cabral’s words.

Quady Winery co-founder Andy Quady is our guest today on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. The Quady Winery is located in Madera in the San Joaquin Valley. Their website shows an exotic version of a Margarita and also an idea for Sangria made with Moscato. Most of what they make is Muscat grapes, or Moscato. Orange Muscat is also called Moscato Fior d’arancio (Italian for Orange Flower Muscat). They also use Muscat Hamburg, also called Black Muscat. Muscat Canelli (so-called in California) is Moscato Bianco, used in all the Italian Moscato wines.

The first Quady Winery vintage was 1975. They made their first Vermouth in 1999. He graduated from UC Davis and spent a lot of time in southern France. He saw that in Marseille they have a habit of drinking a vermouth as an aperitif. Its combination of bitterness and sweetness works well at that moment of the day, before a meal.

Dan Berger explains how quality vermouth should be treated, which is not the way it is treated here in the US. People open a vermouth and use some, then put it away. The wine oxidizes and loses flavor. In Europe people don’t have that problem because they drink more of it and it doesn’t hang around. Quady makes three vermouths, dry, extra dry and sweet. Vya is the name of their line of Vermouth and Andy has a good story of its origin.

Click the logo to visit Davis Bynum Wines.

In the US we use vermouth as a cocktail ingredient but in Europe people drink it straight, mostly on the rocks, as an aperitif. In Italy, people drink white or red vermouth over ice, before dinner.  Andy started making vermouth because he had a customer who ran a restaurant where the customers didn’t want old stale crummy vermouth in their drinks. The extra dry vermouth would go with a gin martini, and the Whisper would go with vodka.

Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series.

The label includes the plants (or “botanicals” if you prefer) that go into flavoring the vermouth. People drink vodka martinis because they don’t like gin, so the vermouth shouldn’t suggest a gin martini either, which is a result that Andy can achieve with his highly perfumed and delicately flavored vermouth. Other vermouth brands treat their recipe like a family secret or a state secret. Dan pronounces the aromatics, “captivating but delicate.” Beefeater gin is made only with juniper flavor. This makes a classic martini when mixed with a vermouth that matches and compliments the juniper flavor.

Evan Damiano (center) with (l-r) Dan, Melissa and Chris.

Evan Damiano, winemaker at Marchelle Wines, joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. Marchelle Wines is Greg La Follette’s label and he was on CWC earlier this year on February 9, on this epiode. Also in the studio today are Melissa Galliani, GM of Wine Country Radio and Chris DiMatteo, producer of this podcast, who has brought and uncorked a 1985 Barolo he has been holding for thirty years.

Evan Damiano started working with wine in 2010 when he worked a harvest in Oregon, then in Australia, at Balletto and then he took a “sojourn” to Milwaukee to try brewing, but that didn’t work out. While living in Milwaukee, he sold high end Cabernets to restaurants, including some prestigious Napa Valley names. The pandemic wrecked his business when everything closed. He wanted to get back into wine and got an offer from Pride Mountain Vineyards. But in 2020, the fires affected them so much that there was no wine to be made. Evan emailed his friend Greg La Follette.

Evan had met Greg when he worked selling wine, Greg’s wines were in his portfolio. He got a job in another winery and in the evening he was helping out at Greg’s winery. Evan got to do more and more under Greg’s supervision and eventually became assistant winemaker then fully titled winemaker.

Evan is making some wines now where he is making the picking decisions as well as doing the winemaking. They did a whole-cluster press into new barrels. J & H Estates is owned by two African-American women partners. Evan has brought a bottle of Chardonnay that he made for their label. Greg La Follette’s label is Marchelle Wines, where Evan is the winemaker now. Greg was the last apprentice of André Tchelitscheff and Evan is the last apprentice of Greg La Follette. Evan is proud of this lineage.

Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series.

Dan Berger has brought a bottle of his now award-winning Bahl Fratty Riesling. This 2022 has just won a Gold Medal at the Sunset International Wine Competition. They ask Chris to describe it in Italian, which he does. “Proprio secco!” means “really dry!” Quanto costa? (How much does it cost?) Dan Berger answers, $38, having understood the Italian question. Bravo Dan!

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Chris has brought a bottle of Barolo from 1985, so at 39 years, one of the oldest wines, if not the oldest wine we have ever tasted on this show. Dan Berger waxes eloquent to describe it. Barolo is known for being able to last this long and this one has survived its 39 years with deep complex flavors.

Chris does a jazz radio show called This is Jazz broadcast on Radio Morcote International and this week’s show is a Steve Jaxon tribute show. Steve Jaxon did a show called Swingin’ with Sinatra and Chris’ show this week uses some of Steve Jaxon’s voice work and music programming. You can listen to the weekly one-hour This is Jazz show here at the Radio Morcote International site’s “podcast” page, scroll down to the third item. Find the dropdown menu for several weeks of older shows.

Evan will be pouring Marchelle Wines at Big West Vine Fest at Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville this weekend. It is a new wine festival that is attracting a young crowd. And Dan will be there too pouring his Riesling.

Taste of Sonoma is happening Saturday June 22, 2024. Here is a link to the radio report on CWC from the 2023 Taste of Sonoma.

Evan pours a barrel sample of a Cab that he is about to bottle. Then Dan opens a California Barbera. It’s different than the Italian Barberas. It is good, but in a different way. Piedmont is cooler so the local Barbera isn’t as strong as this California one. It’s warmer here so the Barbera is stronger than the usual common everyday Italian Barbera.