Grape Encounters Wine Radio

If there’s one thing that is true about many or most great winemakers, it’s the fact that they generally always have more than one iron in the fire. On today’s edition of Grape Encounters Radio, wine marketing Guru Dave Trubilcock, co-founder of GrapeSeed Wine and Matt Smith, former head of Bordeaux Winemaking for Kendall Jackson, talk about the world-renowned winemakers they’ve assembled to create ultra-exclusive wines that you can’t beg, borrow or steal (but you can have the at your beg and call if you give a listen to this week’s show. Dave and Matt are the driving force behind one of the most unique concepts ever introduced in the wine business. Listen in as David picks their brain and enlightens listeners about little-known brands that are both affordable and incredibly delicious. The show concludes with a little blind tasting prepared for Sunset Magazine Wine Editor Sara Schneider by David intended to educate you about a little-known winemaking process in Italy that is responsible for some truly spectacular wines. But can you afford them? Knowledge is BUYING POWER on this edition of Grape Encounters Radio!

This week, we are treated with a visit from Wes Hagen to the Grape Encounters Studio and Emporium Wine Bar & Shop in the Central Coast. Wes has just experienced the Vinthesis™ blending experience, and gives his stamp of approval to David’s methods and madness. And then lets loose with what we consider to be brilliant observations about the meaning and value of wine in our lives… What is the WHY of wine? Wes explains, “We use wine to engage in the last meaningful analog ritual that’s left in this country, and that is, to open a bottle of wine at the table, to spend a little time away from our stupid phones and our iPads and our computers, to make eye contact, to drink a glass of wine, drink a bottle of wine, and spend an extra hour discussing everything except that bottle of wine. Great wine should lead to a conversation about everything except itself. Wine is an investment in spending time with people we love.” And why are we so determined to try to identify flavors in wine? Wes discusses how Robert Parker established a lexicon of identifying aromas and flavors in wine, and why it’s basically irrelevant. The more profound questions are “What are you passionate about? What do you love in life?” Next, David talks with Joel Paglione, Owner of Oak Bottle LLC, which is revolutionizing the beverage and bar industry by allowing consumers to take their cheap/average tasting wine, whiskey or any other desired spirit and transform it into an expensive, vintage tasting beverage within hours. Interested in learning how it works? Listen on…

Grape Encounters definitely gets around… and in this episode, you’ll meet folks from the wine industry that hail from California all the way to China. This week’s episode begins with a recap of what’s happening this harvest season with Sara Schneider from Sunset Magazine for an insightful discussion of one of the earliest grape harvests on record. Next up meet a charming wine importer from China named Angelina Winn who stopped by the Grape Encounters studio while touring the wine regions of California. Now while any wine tasting room would likely ask to see Angelina’s ID because of her youthful exterior, rest assured, this savvy lady is always on the go, all over the planet, in search of wines that will perfectly suit the Chinese palate. While there may be a bit of a language barrier to contend with, you’ll have no trouble understanding what this delightful wine expert from the Far East has to say. In Segment 4, meet David Phillips who, along with his brother, runs then Michael David Winery in Lodi California. The winery, which produces the largest grossing Zinfandel in America, is know for it’s campy labels that are just as much fun as the wine in the bottles!

The Trouble with Smart Phone Apps is that they tend to be awfully gimmicky… Not really delivering on their promises. However, when you hear what the brain trust over at Next Glass has come up with for wine lovers, your jaw will drop so low you’d best not have a mouth full of wine! The Next Glass Application is nothing short of pure genius; helping you predict whether or not you’ll like any given wine using complex algorithms, user input and unparalleled research and technology. This is the real deal and we have Trace Smith, the company’s COO on who will tell you how this miraculous App does it’s thing! The show concludes with a profile of some hot varietals on Sippin’ with Sara featuring Sara Schneider of Sunset Magazine. Are there wines you’re missing out on? Find out on this installment!

We humans are creatures of habit… and when it comes to wine, that is especially true. Most of the wine consumed in America consists of under 10 varietals. And when you consider the fact that there are literally thousands of wine varietals made in the world, a good argument can be made that we are very much in a rut; even if it’s a delicious rut. On this edition of Grape Encounters Radio, David visits with three exceptional California winemakers to discuss some of the mouth-watering options they are making for wine lovers like you. We begin the episode with Michael Blaylock, head of winemaking at Quady Winery in Madera. Next up is Chrystal Clifton of Palmina Wines… and finally Christian Ahlmann of Six Sigma Winery and Ranch in Lake County California. Listen carefully, there’s a good chance you may be changing up your routine shortly after the show is over! Cheers!

Around the world and in this country, growing grapes and making wine are, for the most part, things that we associate with hot summers and mild winters… but why should places like California, Italy and Spain have all the fun? After all, for many states now, stomping grapes and making wine is a multi-billion dollar industry as well as an irresistible passion for many. Dr. Paul Reed of the University of Nebraska and a team of professors and scientists are making progress in the production of mainstream wines in places like Nebraska where brutally cold winters and a short growing season used to preclude the production of vinifera, the most popular wine varietals. Next, if you think it’s tough making wine in places like Nebraska, you’ll be even more surprised when David revisits a winemaker that he met a while back from the Northernmost winery in America. Finally, in Sippin’ with Sara, David and Sara Schneider discuss the wisdom (or lack of wisdom) when it comes to trying to get drinkers of cheap wine to take a few steps up.

An update on the ongoing threat to the people, environment and wines of the Fingerlakes. We’ve been covering the very tense state of affairs in the Finger Lakes wine region of New York, where a company from outside the state is poised to store an unprecedented amount of liquid natural gas in abandon salt caves beneath the incredibly beautiful Seneca Lake. This kind of gas storage has an exceedingly bad track record when it comes to safety and the threat to both the wine industry and residents of the area is very real to those who are determined to keep the region safe. On this week’s show you’ll get an update from John Engle of Heron Hill Winery; one of the biggest names in the Finger Lakes region. John is a dear friend of Grape Encounters Radio and he gives us the scoop on the effort to stop the storage of fracked gas, this year’s harvest and much more. Then, David introduces listeners to Gavin Chanin who, at just 29 years old, brings a depth of experience to his winemaking that even veterans would envy. Gavin was named one of Forbes’ “30 under 30” in 2011, a “winemaker to watch” by San Francisco Chronicle in 2012, one of Food & Wine’s “winemakers of the year” in 2012, and was featured in Wine Enthusiast magazine’s “40 under 40” tastemakers in the wine industry for 2013. A recent article in Wine & Spirits called Gavin a leader in “the shape of Chardonnays to come.” And this week, joins David on Grape Encounters Radio. Don’t miss it!

What happens when a top movie exec takes a recommendation from Grape Encounters to heart? Former Disney Films Executive Gil Gagnon figures he spent 6 years of his life driving to and from the epicenter of California filmmaking. Then one day, an episode of Grape Encounters Radio gave him an idea that eventually led to his departure from the movie business and entre into winemaking. How did his lengthy career in show biz prepare him to make the extraordinary wines that are now getting rave reviews from people like Grape Encounters Host David Wilson? Learn that answer and hear how Gil got into winemaking without planting a vineyard or building a winery. If he can do it, so can you. But it will take patience and a true passion for wine to be successful. Then, join David and Wine Editor Sara Schneider as they talk about Sara’s ambitious list of wine events and stories coming up in the next few days and weeks. It’s an episode that will likely inspire you like no prior episode of Grape Encounters!

If you were asked to choose your 101 favorite wineries, there’s no doubt it would be a daunting task. Well, the renowned food and wine themed website, the Daily Meal, asked sommeliers, restaurateurs, wine writers, chefs and wine savvy editors to tackle that very daunting challenge… and the list they came up with is full of pleasant and unexpected surprises, food for thought and lots of fuel for conversation. And since talking wine is what Grape Encounters is all about, David is pleased to welcome the Editorial Director of The Daily Mail, Coleman Andrews, to the show. Coleman is a six-time James Beard Journalism Award winner with numerous renowned food, wine and lifestyle books to his credit. His byline has appeared in the Los Angeles times, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine Magazine, Travel and Leisure Magazine and many more benchmark publications including Saveur Magazine, which he cofounded in 1994. David and Coleman discuss the top 101 list and then, later in the show, Sara Schneider and David take a closer look at the results together. The show ends with a series of entertaining and predictably humorous news stories that David can’t resist sharing with you. It’s all fun and games until someone drinks the last drop of the good stuff on this week’s episode of Grape Encounters Radio!

In the final days of our journey across the wine countries of Northern Greece, we have the rare opportunity to spend some quality time talking about the extraordinary growth of the Greek wine business as well as the historic economic crisis that is coming to a head as we bask in the sunshine on a beach in Porto Carras. Join David and his distinguished hosts at one of Europe’s largest resort and vineyard properties. There is laughter as well as an underlying sense of uncertainty as the discussion of ancient Greek wine varietal provides a welcome diversion on the eave of a historic vote that has all eyes on Greece. Then, a special bonus segment that takes place in a remote vineyard where a most inventive picnic provided by family vintners in Naoussa, Greece demonstrates that grapes aren’t the only thing in a vineyard you can enjoy with dinner. Be sure to check out the trip photos on GrapeEncounters.com!