Grape Encounters Wine Radio

Grape Encounters Radio 500th Episode! Wow, we can hardly believe it!

Keith Saarloos of Saarloos & Sons Winery

David has on Keith Saarloos of Saarloos & Sons Winery in Los Olivos, CA. Keith was on the very first episode, and many more in between, and as Grape Encounters Radio has eveolved, so has Saarloos & Sons. Next, the man who inspired David to start the show, Dave Van Dyke, a radio business icon and President at Bridge Ratings Media Research. Hear how some tequila on a New Years Eve was the start of it all.

Dave Van Dyke, President of Bridge Ratings Media Research

Thank you to all our guests and listeners over the past ten years that helped Grape Encounters make it to 500 episodes!

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David talks with Brittany Hahn of San Diego, about wine cellars, wine collecting and all sorts of things. Her Pacific Sotheby's International Realty real estate company, along with her partner Anna Houssels, Houssels Hahn, is located in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. Brittany has extensive experience in the wine industry, her last position in the industry was Wine Buyer for Pompelmousse Grill in Solana Beach, CA, and she has a ton of experience in the wine and luxury auction categories.

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David talks with Sarahanne Driggs, Event Coordinator & Marketing Director of The Oregon Wine Experience, a multi-day event featuring the full breadth and depth Oregon wines, amazing culinary creations and everything that makes Oregon unique. The 2019 event is August 19-25, 2019, in lovely Jacksonville, Oregon.

Last year they had record breaking representation from across the state with more than 100 Oregon wineries participating, providing the perfect opportunity for guests to take in the vastness of our state’s excellent wine. In 2018, Oregon Wine Experience® raised more than $1.3 Million and 100% of those proceeds went to Children’s Miracle Network and other Asante healthcare programs. Find out more here.

David with Hilda Jones of Abacela Winery

Abacela Winery

Next, from a visit on our Oregon Grape Encounters Mighway WineChaser Tour, David talks with Hilda Jones of Abacela Vineyards and Winery in Roseburg, Oregon. Abacela is a world-class, multi-award winning winery and viticulture success story. But in 1995 when founders Earl and Hilda Jones planted its first vines they had no way of knowing what the outcome would be. They were scientists with zero winemaking experience who left secure careers and trekked 2700 miles west, kids in tow, to test a hypothesis.

Abacela was an experiment they hoped would answer a question that had puzzled them for years: Why doesn't America produce any fine varietal Tempranillo wine? Earl and Hilda probably weren't the first enophiles to wonder why the great grape of Spain's famous Rioja wines was mysteriously absent from American fine wine. However they were the first to approach the question with scientific rigor, form a hypothesis, then devote their lives to testing it. This is the story of how one ordinary family's curiosity and determination transformed their lives, built one of Oregon's best-loved wineries and influenced winegrowing not only in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest but across America. Learn more about Abacela's award-winning wines here, and plan a visit to beautiful Southern Orgeon wine country!

Dancin Vineyards

Finally, a stop at Dancin Vineyard (2017 Oregon Winery of the Year) and an interview with Dan Marca, proprietor along with with his wife Cindy, of a meticulous and lovely tasting room experience in Medford, Oregon. During our visit we were treated to many culinary creations, their tasting room boasts a full kitchen and pizza oven that perfectly complements their award-winning wines. It's a lovely spot, and a must-visit stop on your Southern Orgeon travels! Find out more about Dancin Vineyard here.

 

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Winemaker Adam LaZarre

David talks with Winemaker Adam LaZarre, who has a long and storied career in the wine industry. His accomplishments are too many to mention, but in addition to the wines he has made for many large brands (Rex Goliath, Cycles Gladiator, Hahn Estates, he and his wife Angie have been making their own wines for many years under the name LaZarre Wines.

The brand was started in 2003 primarily as a high-end, single-vineyard Pinot Noir project and has grown to include such varietals as Merlot, Albariño, Sauvignon Blanc, Vin Gris, and Chardonnay.

Through many of their contacts developed over the decades working for various wine companies, Adam and Angie have created relationships with a number of great growers on the Central Coast of California from which they source their fruit. These vineyards range from Pine Canyon deep in the hills of western Monterey County down to the Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County. In between are Paso Robles and Edna Valley, two other sources of grapes for the portfolio.These wines are limited in their production and are really the best offerings the LaZarres can deliver in any particular vintage. They are completely committed to providing the very best possible wines at any price and will continue to do so until they depart the earth. After all, wine is a gift from God and should be enjoyed responsibly or at least naked…

 

 

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Dr. Laura Catena, Managing Director and Catena Institute of Wine Founder

David talks about Dr. Laura Catena, Managing Director and Catena Institute of Wine Founder and Board, about Catena Wines and her family's play...

It all began with the label. "For most wineries, labels are just marketing tools designed to quickly catch the eye from a store shelf," says Dr. Laura Catena, Managing Director of Argentina's Catena Zapata. "But we had a different idea: Why not create a label that delves deeper and dramatizes the incredible cultural story behind Malbec's migration from Europe to the Americas?"

The result was so compelling that on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018, the Drinks Business Awards presented first place to the new label in their Best Design & Packaging for Wine category. The international panel of judges assembled by the U.K.-based wine and spirits publication recognized the label's combination of innovation, depth, and visual impact at a ceremony held at the London Wine Fair.

It took more than a year to create that original artwork for the Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino 2015, a collectible release that makes its U.S. debut in May and tells the story of the grape through four allegorical female figures. The label artwork also inspired Dr. Catena to create a four-act play with her brother-in-law, playwright Gustavo Ballejo. In the performance, Dr. Catena herself brings the four figures from the label to life. The theatrical piece debuted May 7 to an audience of trade and media at Balvanera, an Argentine restaurant in New York's Lower East Side. A second performance occurred during the Nantucket Wine & Food Festival on May 18 with others scheduled throughout the year at events around the world. Then, four days later on May 22, the label won the Drinks Business Award.

Dr. Catena said of the honor: "The Malbec Argentino label tells the story of humanity, of women, of migration, and of natural disasters; this award is an acknowledgment of wine as a historical beverage."

For her performance, Dr. Catena fleshed out the roles of all four of the characters depicted on the label: Eleanor of Aquitaine, the 12th century monarch and Malbec's first champion; the character "Madame Phylloxera," representing the voracious female aphid that was the scourge of Bordeaux in the 1850s; the Italian immigrant Ana Mosceta, who is Catena's own great-grandmother and represents those who brought the first Malbec cuttings to the Americas; and finally Adrianna Catena, who was at the side of her father, Nicolás Catena, as he established the grape variety as a treasure of the New World.

The original label drawing is by the Connecticut-based artist Rick Shaefer, who is known for large-scale works rendered in charcoal that combine the sublime with the macabre. Working with the Catena sisters and with Stranger & Stranger, a wine-focused packaging and design firm, Shaefer created finely detailed drawings that bring to mind Rembrandt's late-Gothic etchings. The label design of the Malbec Argentino 2015—a premium, 100-percent Malbec release crafted from two of the family's high altitude vineyards in Mendoza—is dense and layered, and is a radical departure from images used by Catena Zapata in the past. It is also the first time that the historical arc of a grape variety has been so graphically integrated into a wine label.

The grapes in the wine come from two hand-harvested, high altitude vineyards in the Valle del Uco: Angelica at 3,018 feet and Nicasia at 3,593 feet. Low yields and 24 months of aging in French barriques result in a full-bodied, intense and deeply hued wine that drinks well upon release but will also reward cellaring for another 10 to 20 years.

The SRP for the Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino 2015 is $140 and the wine is now available nationally thro...

David talks barrels with Lucas Brewer and Michael McGloughlin of Quality Wine Barrels in Arroyo Grande, CA.

While working at one of California’s largest wineries in the late ‘90s, Quality Wine Barrels founder Roger Burson saw a need for obtaining reasonably priced high quality used wine barrels from trustworthy sources. With few options available apart from calling local wineries to check for culled barrels, Roger decided to create something new in the wine industry: a used wine barrel exchange. Over the years they expanded on this concept to offer good quality re-fillable barrels as well as racks to wineries, breweries and distilleries across the United States as well as other countries.

Their barrel recycling program has grown in recent years to include barrels that are no longer suitable for re-fill. These retired barrels are given new life in the hands of furniture makers, Pinterest hobbyists, and to weekend gardeners as well as nurseries for use as planters. Find out more at their website!

Next, David talks orange wine with Mike Kirkpatrick, co-winemaker along with his son David, of Ruby Cellars wines, based in Atascadero, CA. Orange wine is growing in availability, and is made by leaving white grape juice with its skins to extract flavor, color and tannins. Ruby Cellars’ Orange Viognier is an award-winning wine, very different from their regular Viognier. Find out more about this unique wine and terrific winemaker family here.

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Josh Phelps of the Grounded Wine Company

David talks with Josh Phelps of the Grounded Wine Company in Paso Robles, makes of the new wine "Public Radio." Grounded Wine Co. is the personal brand of Napa native Josh Phelps, built to reflect his experience growing up in wine country, and his relationships in the wine community. A grassroots, all-American, wine label, the wines feature grapes from trusted, sustainable vineyards in California and Washington and showcase what it means to be a winemaker today.

Josh's roots run deep, raised in a winemaking family, he was exposed to the industry from a young age. He continued to build his knowledge of the business through college, selling wine, working harvests, and creating wine for friends with his father, Chris Phelps. With GWCo., Josh hopes to build on this legacy and make his own splash in the wine world while exposing wine drinkers of his own generation to his hometown in wine country. Working with trusted farmers and childhood friends, his company reflects his deep understanding of wine, one that can only be developed growing up around the vines. Find out more about GWCo here: https://www.groundedwineco.com/

David closes with a story about a young woman he met, fallen on hard times, with an appreciation of art & culture, who fell in love with the Artevino wine bottle label. Her story makes us appreciate our good fortune in living a life filled with good health, family and friends and good wine and food. Wishing you all a very grateful and Happy New Year!

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Kevin Lund, Author

David talks with Kevin Lund, author of the book Conversation Marketing, How to Be Relevant and Engage Your Customer by Talking Human, about the language of wine marketing and selling directly to consumers.

Each of us sees more than 5,000 marketing messages every day. In such a crowded marketplace, brands are scrambling to find new ways to cut through the clutter to reach consumers. With such intense competition, it's critical to stand apart beyond service and price. With the complexities of wine, customers may be more confused than ever, and it's so important to give real information, not a hard sell of fancy tasting note references and hyperbole.

Conversation Marketing will help you connect your brands, not just to the minds of your consumers, but to their hearts. Slick slogans and catchy ads may still work in some instances, but today's discerning consumers demand more. They want information and a reason to connect with a brand before they act. They want a conversation.

Find out more about Kevin's work here.

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In our second installment of our 4-part Northern CA and Southern Oregon Mighway RV adventure, we stop in Eureka, CA at the Carter House Inns, where their Restaurant 301 has one of the best wine lists in the world, with over 3,800 selections and has been a proud recipient of the Wine Spectator's most prestigious honor, the Grand Award, every year since 1988. Note, proprietor Mark Carter has won over seven perfect 100 pt scores from Robert Parker. We spent the night in a lovely and luxurious room, complete with hot tub and views of Eureka's victorian skyline. David speaks with General Manager Daniel Dagorret and gets to explore their "cellar" and hold a bottle of a $20,000 bottle of wine.

Next, David talks with Brendon Butler and Sue DeVitt of DeVitt Winery near Jacksonville, OR. They were our Harvest Hosts for the night, and they have a charming small wine-making operation with an interesting story.

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We begin our Northern CA/Oregon RV adventure... picking up our Mighway RV in Oakland, CA, heading up north to Cloverdale in Sonoma and the Thousand Trails Russian River RV Resort! David talks with Mitch Craighead, Regional Manager, about the Thousand Trails camping concept that lets people subscribe to different regions (including many wine countries), a truly great way to experience wine country and America in general! We LOVED our stay here in the Grape Encounters Mighway WineChaser RV, right next to the Russian River!

Next, David interviews Birgitt ("Biggi") M. Vaughan, Public Relations Manager of Sonoma County Tourism, about the many fabulous travel experiences available in Sonoma. From wineries to outdoor recreation to culinary experiences like the CA Cheese Trail & other artisanal farms, to the stunning coastline, there is truly something for everyone. Find out more about Sonoma County here.

See our photo album on Facebook at Grape Encounters Radio!

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