California Wine Country

Evan Damiano, Marchelle Wines winemaker, is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. His last time on CWC was this episode on May 31, 2024.

Evan started in January 2021 volunteering with Greg La Follette and has risen all the way to the rank of winemaker now. Greg is one of the most famous winemakers around. He has worked in all the most famous wineries in Sonoma County and he even worked with André Tchelistscheff when he was a teen.

They have some of Dan’s 2024 Riesling in their glasses, which Greg made. It’s a barrel sample of the wine that Dan will be putting in bottles this week.

In 2022 Greg asked Evan to go into the cellar and make selections for blends. He said, “Go in there and listen to what the wines want to be. Go be with the barrels. Smell, taste and put these wines together for me.” A small amount of another wine blended in can make a huge difference in a final result. Greg La Follette is known as “The Vine Whisperer” but he also has a degree in Botany.

Dan gets his Riesling fruit from a vineyard in Mendocino County. There are a few people making Riesling around there, but nobody is making it as dry as this. This is Dan Berger’s personal quest to produce the wine he wants to taste. It’s got some tropical fruit, but also citrus lemon peel and a bit of herbal flavors. They also have some other wines from Marchelle.

This is the Chardonnay that Greg brought to Evan while he was in Wisconsin taking a break. Greg tries to induce shatter into the vines, which tricks the vines into making smaller berries. The Manchester Ridge vineyard is 2200 feet above sea level, on a flat mountain top.

Evan made his first harvest in Oregon in 2010 and if 16 hours per day for 21 days straight didn’t put him off the joy of winemaking, he was hooked. He did another harvest at Balletto Vineyard, with Anthony Beckman. He took a break from it but came back to it.

Dan appreciates that these wines are always authentic to the grape variety.

Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger.

Steve Jaxon talks about wine news with Dan Berger on California Wine Country today, since our expected guest was a last-minute scratch.

Dan has brought a Tendu from Matthaisson in Napa Valley, made from Cortese grapes. It is a common wine in Piedmont, the province of north-western Italy, whose capital is Torino.

American wine consumption is down in every category , except Sauvignon Blanc was the only one up in sales.  One reason is the influx of good Sauvignon Blanc wines from New Zealand. This caused the category to expand. There is the Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé French styles, the California style and now the New Zealand style. From region to region the styles are all different. In the US, Sauvignon Blanc was up almost 4%, while everything else was down between 4 and 8 % in sales. Tasting rooms and wineries are closing. Discount pricing is rampant.

Young people are drinking all kinds of other things, even hard seltzer or non-alcoholic products.

Wine has been with us for thousands of years, so the industry has to wait for the cycle to turn, maybe a year or two. Sometimes wine news is old news. There was a downturn in 2009 and within 18 months the business was back.

Dan says that the 2024 vintage is excellent. The 2024 white wines and Rosés are starting to show up in the stores now.

Pedroncelli winery in Dry Creek Valley is a thriving winery. Montse Reese their winemaker has been on the show. Also Julie Pedroncelli was on this episode last January. They have owned their land for almost 100 years.

Dan opens a Kerner which is Riesling crossed with Trollinger, a red grape. It is a white wine from the Alto-Adige region of north-eastern Italy.

Wineries used to operate tasting rooms at a profit, but that has changed. A lot of wineries have closed that were all producing the same wines, Chardonnay and Cabernet. Julie Pedroncelli explained how a winery has to set itself apart somehow, which they have done.

Michigan is producing great wine. Look for Chateau Grand Traverse, the old reliable.

Tom Gendall, winemaker at Cline Family Cellars is our guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Cline Family Cellars has been featured on this show before, most recently when Fred Cline and his daughter Hillary Cline were on this episode on January 4, 2023.

Tom Gendall from Cline Family Cellars is our guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. The Cline family has been on this show before, most recently when Fred Cline and his daughter Hillary Cline were on this episode on January 4, 2023.

Tom was born and raised in Christchurch, New Zealand and has wine experience in both hemispheres. He also made wine in Germany. Some of the Cline family vineyards were planted as early as 1904. They survived Prohibition and Phylloxera. They started making wine under this label in 1984.

The first wine they will taste is the 2023 Chardonnay from Carneros, where you had better strap your hat on because the wind will carry it off. Tom describes the process that produced it, but he gives credit to the great fruit from that year. From year to year, they finished picking month later than before. In 2024 they finished picking on the 16th of October and in 2023 they finished on the 12th of November. It was a cooler year so the grapes could stay on the vine almost a month longer than the year before. Dan remembers the vintage of 2010 and 2011, which were both cool vintages. 2023 was like that but even better. It is great now but in 10 years will be even better.

Tom Gendall is one of the two winemakers at Cline Family Cellars. The other is Katie Hoggins. She is also from New Zealand and has also worked around the world making wine. He compares their collaboration to building, as if he were the architect and she is the engineer.

Dan describes the Cline Family Cellars history as having been through everything imaginable in more than a century of growing grapes.

They survived Phylloxera because their vines grow in sand which does not bear phylloxera. The secret to their balance is the lees contact that they give to the wine, which imparts flavor. Tom describes how the root systems feed flavor into the vines and the grapes.

Later in the show Melissa Galliani joins the group and Tom opens a Mourvèdre which is ra

Dan and Dennis

Dennis Hill, co-founder of Langhart & Hill Wines joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. The last time he was on California Wine Country was this episode in September of 2023.

The first tasting is a 2023 Chardonnay. While a lot of California Chards are the heavy oaky buttery ML style, this is different. It is more in the European style, higher acidity and better for pairing with food. They use high quality grapes from Sonoma County so there are a lot of fruit flavors in it.

Dennis Hill and his wife were both raised in Healdsburg. There was a Renaissance in the wine industry in the 1970s when he was starting in the business – right place, right time. Healdsburg is located at the confluence of the Dry Creek River and the Russian River. That puts it at the intersection of three main viticultural areas, Dry Creek, Anderson Valley and Russian River Valley. In the northern part of this region the afternoons are hotter and in the southern part, it is cooler and foggier.

Langhart & Hill wines are available in restaurants and some retail locations. They do not have a tasting room. Their production is still rather small for that.

After working for some very large wineries with complicated operations and relationships, Dennis enjoys being able to work by himself. Their vineyards are located in the different climate zones described, so there is a four-week window for them to harvest everything.

Dennis describes their two brands. Landhart & Hill are classic Sonoma County varieties, a Chard, two Pinot Noirs, a Rosé and a Merlot. They also have another label, Rumplestiltskin, which is for the less common varieties. For instance, today there is a Dobricic, a Croation variety, and an Orange wine, made of Trouseau Gris grapes originally from the Jura region in France. Trousseau is a Gris variety, not purely a white grape. Wine grapes come in three colors, black, aka red, white and gris, meaning gray. There is also Trousseau Noir. It’s a tricky grape to use. You have to harvest not too soon or too late. Then, if you want Orange wine, you have to leave it on the skins just long enough.

Dan Berger and Garry Brooks.

Garry Brooks, owner of Brooks Note Wines, is our guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today. This is his first time on CWC.

Garry grew up in Annapolis, Maryland. As he grew up the family had wine on the table. He served in the US Navy and got sent to France and Spain where he had a chance to learn about wine all over the world. After the Navy he ended up in northern California and planted some vines in his sister-in-law’s garden. He was working in middle management in the tech world and his wife convinced him to take the great leap and make a career change. He attended UC Davis then worked at Ravenswood, Acacia, Kosta Brown and Dutton Goldfield. Then he and his wife started Brooks Note in 2012.

The first tasting is a Chardonnay. Garry likes Chardonnay to be “a little bit restrained.” It is made with grapes from three different vineyards. Dan finds that it has rich mid-palette and good acidity and subtle character. Dan would decant it for about two hours.

Dan explains how Petaluma Gap wines get their special character. The wind makes the big difference. The acidity is going to be higher because of that. There is consistent wind every day in Petaluma Gap. The vines slow their sugar production down and it lets the grapes develop more flavor. The skins become thicker and the plants get a longer growing season. Garry has a lot of ways of describing it (about 9 minutes in). They can pick grapes as much as a month later than in other regions.

They are also tasting a 2023 Pinot Noir. Of course it is very young. It comes from four different vineyards in Petaluma Gap. Taylor’s Crown, with high elevation and volcanic soil, then Panther Ridge vineyard, rocky basalt and pumice, some from Paradise Vineyard which gets blasted by the wind and the last from Zyer Ranch.

Steven Kent

Steven Kent, owner of The Steven Kent Winery in Livermore Valley, joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country.

Dan Berger recently visited Livermore with his friend, winemaker Clark Smith, to investigate Cabernet Franc. Steven given Cabernet Franc a privileged position in his portfolio. For centuries, Cabernet Franc has been used as a blending grape, but Steven says it can do a whole lot more. He has brought four Cabernet Francs for tasting today,

Steven Kent’s son is the seventh generation of Kent family winemakers. In 1854 they started making wine in San José. The Livermore Valley was a wine producing region forty years before Sonoma County. Steven says that Cabernet Franc and the Livermore Valley both deserve more recognition. Dan attended a Cabernet Franc festival there recently and there were a lot of people there who are very enthusiastic about Cab Franc.

Cabernet Franc gets harvested about 2 weeks earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon. It has less tannin and more aromatics with some dried herb character. In some ways it is a finer variety. Dan calls Cab Franc the father and Cab Sauvignon, “the wild and wooly teenage son.”

For people who are looking for a slightly different approach to red wine, Cab Franc is a good choice. It is graceful and doesn’t have the same power as Cab Sauvignon.

They have a 2022 Cab Franc from the Ghielmetti vineyard. Livermore is hot by day but gets cold at night. The nearby Altamont pass is a windy place, which extends the growing season. They would normally harvest this in early November. It gets no new oak.

Dan Berger says, “This is red wine of a very serious nature but without any of the heavy tannins or the over-ripe components that sometimes creep into bigger, richer, oilier wines that are aged in barrels.” He also calls it “the Pinot Noir of Cabernet.” Dan would give it two to three more years, but it doesn’t need much smoothing because it’s already more than half way there.

They are located on Vasco Road in Livermore. Their tasting room is in a light industrial area, with seven other wineries nearby, known call the place “Vasco Row.” They buy 95% of their fruit from their local friends, and the remaining portion from the Santa Cruz area.

They have a club lounge at the winery for their members. Dan calls it “uncontaminated by tourists.” The Kents are the oldest continuous winemaking family in the country. Lineage is another label that they produce. When he and his father Steven Kent Senior opened Steven Kent Winery, they wanted to produce high quality Bordeaux style wines. After working with a lot of Rhone varietals, he wanted to return to Bordeaux styles. In 2007 he started Lineage as a Bordeaux blend and so they could produce elegant age-worthy wines that would go well with food. The one they are tasting is the 2017. Dan says it is well-balanced. It’s called Lineage because it represents the family history in winemaking.

Barbara Barrielle

Barbara Barrielle, publicist, writer, actress and producer, joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. She writes about travel, wine, food and entertainment and she also works for Anderson Valley Winegrowers, promoting the International White Wine Festival. Her documentary film about Anderson Valley wines features Dan Berger.

The Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association is putting on the International White Wine Festival. The festival used to be called the Alsatian Wine Festival because it focused on Alsatian aromatic whites that grow in Anderson Valley. The valley is also known for Pinot Noir now. The new name of the festival opens the door to other whites that are also growing in Anderson Valley. Dan Berger will be in charge of the Rieslings. There will also be Pinot Gris, Gewürtztraminer and lots of others.

As an example, Dan has brought a dry Riesling from Ra Ra Wines. Ra Ra wines is run by winemaker Kara Groom who was on this episode of CWC last year on Feb. 16. 2024.

The fruit comes from Cole Ranch, which grows the best Riesling in Mendocino County. They have a total of 81 acres and only four and a half of Riesling. Riesling and Cabernet Franc are selling well, but all the other California varieties are down. This is in the context of a huge downturn in overall wine sales.

Anderson Valley also produces fine sparkling wines. The best known brands are Sharffenberger and Roderer. In about 1980 the Roderer company in Champagne, France, decided to look for property in the US. Their agent hired the Foppiano family to take him around to different properties. They found a ridge where the influence of marine air flow was arriving. They decided to plant a couple of acres of vines as a test, which went well. To this day, Roderer is making the best sparkling wines in the US. They compare well to Iron Horse, the best American maker. Lichen Estate also makes excellent product. There are small producers like Pennyroyal Farms and Navarro that also have sparkling wine production.

Henry Belmonte and Madisyn Goerlitz

Henry Belmonte and Madisyn Goerlitz are here from VJB Cellars and Wellington Cellars, on a special podcast-only edition of California Wine Country, recorded last week on Jan. 20 on The Drive with Steve Jaxon, on Wine Country Radio.

Henry Belmonte and Steve Jaxon go way back together. Steve used to say he lived at Portofino on 4th Street. VJB Cellars in Kenwood is a place with a family story behind it. They made a migration from the restaurant industry to the wine industry, as a family business. After his brother’s passing, he named his winery after him by the initials VJB. They make wine but they are also still focused on hospitality and providing a great experience, environment and atmosphere. They apply the same philosophy to making wine.

Henry’s mother ran the kitchen at Portofino and also still directs the elaborate traditional Italian offerings at VJB Cellars.

VJB Cellars makes 95% Italian varietals. Wellington Cellars, their other winery down the road, focusses on French varietals. VJB has about 20 different Italian varietals, all of the ones that are popular in Italy. Some of them are very small runs, 200-300 cases. You have to be in the wine club to access these wines.

Belmonte’s Deli was their first venture into restaurants, in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. It was a springboard to open Portofino’s in Santa Rosa on Columbus Day in 1987.

VJB Cellars is like walking into a small town in Italy, with an expansive piazza with tables and chairs. There are storefronts, for the deli, tasting room, a Tommy Bahama boutique store and a chocolate and gelato shop. May 26, 2003 they opened their doors as a stand-alone tasting room. He knew he had to bring something they were really good at, into the shop to make it more attractive. It took about 7 or 8 years to build out the full operation, with all the feeling for hospitality, experience and entertainment along with the finest flavors.

Wellington Cellars came about when they outgrew their production facilities for VJB. He and his father found the Wellington property down the road which came up for sale. They were really just looking for production, but it turned out to be a bonus that the whole operation was already there.

Maria Gabriella Belmonte is Henry’s mother was the guiding force at Portofino and has the same role now at La Cucina and the Red Rooster Kitchen in Petaluma. She has passed her knowledge and insight over to Henry.

You can see all of that knowledge at work in the pizza that Henry has brought for Steve to taste, and in the pride that Henry takes in making it. It is an Italian Sausage pizza from Red Rooster Kitchen. They make their own dough from scratch. They also make their own pork sausage and their own sauce from fresh tomatoes. Everything is as fresh as it can be. The accolades for this pizza have come from far and wide.

Madisyn Goerlitz also tells about her role as Social Media manager for VJB Cellars and Wellington Cellars. She was a student at Sonoma State University and had to finish her last terms online during Covid. So her goal, which she has achieved, was to make it back to Sonoma County after all that. She is developing her role in hospitality and marketing and is “…happy to be part of the story.”

Courtney DeGraff, Executive Director of Anderson Valley Winegrowers, is our guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. They are putting on the International White Wine Festival, for the fifteenth year, on February 15 and 16 at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds.

It used to be called the Alsatian White Wine Festival. The name change opens the festival to feature a wider variety of wines, such as Grüner Veltliner and Chardonnay. Dan Berger will be in charge of the Rieslings. The in-person Grand Tasting is at the Fairgrounds in Booneville, on Saturday. Early access from 11 to 12 and general access from 12 to 3. Go to this page at the AV Wines website for more info about the International White Wine Festival and for links to purchase tickets. Use the discount code RADIO for 20% off.

Anderson Valley is growing in Chardonnay production. Most of the fruit used to go to sparkling wines but they are also producing some very nice still Chardonnays now.

Barry Herbst has brought a Scharffenberger sparkling wine, which he considers to be a great value. They make six or seven different kinds of sparkling wine. It is also a beautiful property to visit, in Philo.

Dan calls it more persistent in its flavor profile, with more structure. It’s $21.99 at Bottle Barn. The winemaker Jeffery Jindra came over from Husch Vineyards.

Dan Berger reports that there are several Napa valley growers who are also buying property in Anderson Valley. It is a more relaxed setting. It’s definitely worth a visit. There are also other attractions like beer and cheese making.

Bottle Barn is in the process of putting out the San Francisco Chronicle Competition winners. They will have about a hundred different awarded wines. After that, the Press Democrat limited competition (north of the Golden Gate) takes place. Barry’s other wines today are the Maggy Hawk Chardonnay, a Gewurtztraminer from Husch and a Goldeneye Brut Rosé. They are all pictured in the top illustration and are also all available at Bottle Barn.

Cobb Wines tasted today.

Ross Cobb from Cobb Wines and Ziggy the Wine Gal from The Krush join Steve Jaxon on California Wine Country. Dan Berger is away this week.  Ross Cobb first met Ziggy when he was at Williams Selyem in 1998 or 99, while he was working with Bob Cabral there. Cobb Wines is a winery inspired by creative freedom. A quote from Patti Smith provides context. Robb was always motivated by music and he lets “…Patti Smith explain the rest.” Ross has also been working with Les Claypool’s Pachyderm Wines

They start by tasting the Cobb Wines Riesling, from a 14-15 acre vineyard at a high elevation. It is officially the smallest appellation in America. The soil is limestone, at 1200 feet. It is the last of the Sonoma Coast vineyards that he picks every year. The fermentation is long and slow. He just tasted his 2024 vintage, which began last Fall, so even that step comes late with this wine. It is balanced between fruit and alcohol. How about some sushi? Fresh oysters? Fresh Dungeness crab? Ziggy says it is a dry Riesling that should go with “dry January” whatever that is.

Ross grew up in Valley Ford and his dad worked at Bodega Marine Lab. They were friends with other families that made wine in the area. The family moved away and later he went to UC Santa Cruz to study Soil Science and Environmental Engineering. They have lived at Coastlands Vineyard since 1989. He worked for a lot of different wineries in northern California. In 2001 He started Cobb Wines and this year will be his 25th vintage.

He only started making the dry Riesling in 2016. He also makes Chardonnay in the traditional way, not the big buttery style that Ziggy calls “Chateau Two by Four” with too much oak.

Cobb Wines dot com is the website with all of the wines they have today, available for sale. They are also at Bottle Barn and many local restaurants. They aren’t a tasting room but they can receive guests.