Inside the Bunghole...A Journey through Wine

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Place your seatbacks up and put your trays in the upright position as we taxi the runway to one of the most unique destinations for wine tasting around, Bouschet wine bar!  In a retro strip mall in South Palm Springs, CA there is a little wine bar with big surprises inside!  Join us as we chat it up with the owners Dennis Costa and Tom Beatty, each bringing their passion and knowledge to wow their customers!

Dennis has an extensive winemaking background.  His family actually had a farm and grew wine grapes.  Early in his career Dennis worked for Mondavi wines, personally farming 200 acres from planting to harvesting, before they sold the farm to Sebastian Vineyards.

Tom was an international flight attendant for 33 years, traveling to every continent except for Antartica (which has limited capacity for growing good grapes for wines 😆).  During his travels he enjoyed many different cultures, largely through the food and wine!

These 2 together have developed such an amazing venue, you really need to see it to believe it!  The wine shop offers beautiful boutique wines from around the world, value priced, and each with a great story.  You can also find everything to make a tasty charcuterie board, or lovely, unique hostess gifts.  But just you wait til your boarding gate is announced and you walk in to the "other side" to enjoy a glass of wine and something to nibble on from their menu, or enjoy one of their famous wine tasting events...when I say this place will take you worlds away, I mean it!  You enter what is an astonishing replica of a commercial airliner fuselage complete with fun and funny iconic airplane themed scenes out each of the windows.  Whether you are sitting in first class or coach, you will surely enjoy your trip!

Find out what made these two guys take off on this amazing adventure as we go on a trip Inside the Bunghole with Bouschet's owners Dennis and Tom.  And if you are in Palm Springs, make sure to make this one of your destinations!

www.bouschet.com
[email protected]
FB: psairbar and bouschet
Insta: bouschetps and psairbar

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You can enjoy a nice bottle of wine, but once you know what REALLY goes in to making wine, you can truly appreciate all of its nuances.  Well, we couldn't call ourselves true students of wine without exploring what it takes to make our own now, could we?  Although we believed that anything we made would likely be barely drinkable, at best, we still felt the need to pursue this noble craft! 

How surprised and delighted were we to find Grape Expectations in Henderson, NV, a wine making school with genuine winemakers from Vegas Valley Winery professionally caring for your barrel! Throughout the process Patty Peters and her team make sure that all of the steps are adhered to, to make a great tasting wine!

 So the gist is you and 20 of your closest friends get together 4 times over the process and choose the grapes you want to blend.  Class 1 is crushing the grapes.  Once crushed we add the yeast and some other goodies for fermentation.  Exactly one week later, in the 2nd class, we press the grapes and barrel the wine.  Now we wait for about 3 months to meet our barrel mates again and for class 3, we rack our wine, which means we pump our wine into a stainless steel vat (all with the help of the Grape Expectations team), rinse the barrel of all the sediment and yeast, so the wine has better contact with the barrel, then pump the wine back in.  We taste the wine in each step and can tell that it is coming along nicely and starting to develop a very nice flavor!  Then sit back and wait a few more months for our last official class where we bottle and label (with labels that we design) our wine.  Each barrel produces about 20 cases of wine, so for the price of our class we take home a case of our very own wine!  What an amazing way to learn! 

Now after our wine is bottled, Grape Expectations has an amazing "release" party, called the Bacchus Awards, which is also a competition amongst our peers and fellow wine makers who made their own barrels.  We are judged on the wines and the labels at an enormous, rowdy party typically held annually at the Orleans hotel.

We give this adventure a huge thumbs up!  If you can't come up with a team of 20 (or enough people to buy all of your cases), Patty will get you on a Social barrel team, so there is fun for ALL!  So much fun and so much knowledge and appreciation gained!  To get a hold of Patty and to learn more visit the website grapeexpectationslasvegas.com or email her at [email protected].

FB: GrapeExpectationsLasVegas

Insta: grapeexnv

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Welcome to 2023!  Inside the Bunghole's Pam, Don and James visit their favorite local wine bar in the Coachella Valley, La Fe on the World famous El Paseo!  We interview one of the owners, German to find out how and why Richard and he decided to go into unchartered territory and open a wine bar!  We'll talk about the pitfalls and challenges of a pandemic and growing a business in a trying economy, to new and exciting partnerships with winemaker Brandon Alvarez of Camden Wines.

Find out more about these guys on their social media:

Instagram and Facebook for La Fe: @lafewinebar
Instagram for Camden Wines:  @camdencellars_

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Imagine drinking wine for a grape cause...your cause!  We are joined by winemaker, Mari Wells Coyle from One Hope Wines, which has a totally unique and fun way to learn about wines, while making money for your favorite charity!

Think Tupperware party, but MUCH, MUCH more fun!  One Hope has set up a business model where you throw a wine tasting party, sampling the amazing wines of One Hope, and proceeds go to your favorite charity...talk about a win/win (or should we say wine/wine).  One Hope has donated over $8,000,000 to local and global causes.  The mission of One Hope is to share wine and give hope.  Their wine is fantastic and their business model makes you feel great about drinking it!

They are excited to announce their new tasting room in the heart of Napa Valley.  You can purchase their wines on line and join the wine club, you can support your favorite non-profit, and you can even earn money becoming a cause entrepreneur.  Sometimes  thinking "outside the bunghole", while listening to Inside the Bunghole can make this world a better place.  CHEERS!

Find out more about them at 
www.onehopewine.com
On the YouTube Channel - OneHopeWine
Instagram @onehope
Twitter @onehopewine
FB OneHope Wine

Cheers!  Please like, follow, subscribe and rate us!  We LOVE to hear your comments!  Reach out to us on our social media: 
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We had a fantastic adventure in Valle de Guadalupe in Baja Norte, less than an hour east of Ensenada.  We had the absolute pleasure of staying at the beautiful airbnb Nativo, which, unbeknownst to us, had such a wonderful winery, and winemaker Benjamin Peña Guerrero,  with a unique story of how he changed careers mid-life from being a successful architect, who designed many of the wine cellars in Valle and caught the winemaking bug...and boy did he make a good decision.  Honestly, some of the most unique, beautiful wines we have ever tasted.  

Valle de Guadalupe has outstanding wines that take on the taste of the terrior with some salinity and a climate perfectly suited for growing amazing grapes, some of which we were unfamiliar with, and WOW are they delicious.  The food scene in Valle is impressive and at Nativo there is an outdoor restaurant serving delicious steaks and fresh seafood that pairs beautifully with their boutique wines.

Do yourself a favor and plan a trip down Mexico way to visit our friends at Nativo and enjoy some beautiful wines and great food!

https://www.facebook.com/Nativo-Vinicola-103944153020545/
@nativo.vinicola on Instagram
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16616981 for airbnb

Cheers!  Please like, follow, subscribe and rate us!  We LOVE to hear your comments!  Reach out to us on our social media: 
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We are so excited to sit down with Dave Fraschetti, who puts on several wine events in California including Vin Diego in San Diego, Rancho Mirage Food and Wine Festival, and the Palm Springs Pinot Noir Fest.  He gives us some insight on what it takes to put on such an event and why his events have been so successful!

Dave's philosophy is really about educating.  He is very selective about which wineries are invited to participate in his upcoming Passion 4 Pinot (Palm Springs Pinot Noir Fest), to be held on January 8, 2022 at the JW Marriott's Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert, CA.  At this event you will find 60 top-tier, world-renowned wine makers from Sonoma, Santa Barbara, Napa, Lodi, Willamette Valley...all who are known for their amazing Pinot Noirs, and the perfect growing conditions for this fickle grape.

A true food wine, Pinot Noir is a very special grape that is enhanced by a great meal, and a great meal makes this delicious, soft bodied wine even more magical!  

Palm Springs Pinot Noir Fest is taking place in Palm Desert, CA at the beautiful JW Marriott's Desert Springs resort on January 8, 2022.  This event was a sell out in its 1st year and is sure to be a sell out in January!

Want to join us?  Buy tickets at palmspringspinotfest.com and as a listener of Inside the Bunghole you will receive $10 off the ticket price!  Just add promo code BUNG when you check out!  We'd LOVE to see you there and share a glass of Pinot with you!

https://palmspringspinotfest.com

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Cheers!  Please like, follow, subscribe and rate us!  We LOVE to hear your comments!  Reach out to us on our social media: 
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WOW is all I can say about Valle de Guadalupe, the wine region that we recently visited just east of Ensenada in Baja Mexico!  Quite possibly THE BEST WINES we have ever tasted...and believe me, we have tasted ALOT of wine!  

This episode we were so lucky to meet Kristen at Lechuza Wines, and taste what truly is a passion project for her and her family, and you can taste the love in every drop!  The winery, which was named for the little owls that occupy the land, was started by Ray and Patty Magnussen in 2005, and released its first vintage in 2007.  Kristen, Ray's daughter, has carried on his vision of creating a unique selection of wines.  We tasted an amazing Sav. Blanc/Chardonnay blend, Vuelo.  Usually If you are a fan of either one of these grapes, you are pretty loyal, but this wine will make a believer out of you!

Kristen's story of what it is like to start and run a family business, a winery, in a small town south of the border, raising a family and being an entrepreneur is fascinating and WE hope will make you want to visit one of the most untapped wine regions IN THE WORLD!  Easy to get to, beautiful, safe, some of the most amazing people you'll find anywhere, and the wines (over 300 wineries)are PHENOMENAL...put this one on your bucket list!


www.vinoslechuza.com
#elvalledeguadalupe
#larutadelvino
#vinoslechuza

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We had the amazing opportunity to sit down in the backyard of renowned winemaker Paul Warson to discuss his newest venture...his own label, Warson Wine.  With the support of his many contacts in the wine community, and a (strong) nudge from his wife, he was able to launch his own brand.  

We talk about his background, being the winemaker and general manager of Firestone, in the Santa Ynez Valley for Bill Foley.  We ask him about some of the challenges he's faced launching his own brand.  We hear about his education at UC Davis, where at the 11th hour he switched his major to Fermentation Science, and how his parents took that news!  And how he is becoming involved with the #lawinemovement, sourcing more and more of his grapes from the LA County wine region.  We know you'll be hearing more about Warson Wine.  They are some of the best wines we've had!

www.warsonwine.com
FB/Instagram @warsonwine

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Kingman, AZ...one thinks of the wild west, cowboys and indians, historic Route 66, certainly not lush vineyards, a beautiful event venue AND great wines.  Well let us introduce you to Stetson Winery!  A beautiful vineyard nestled in the high desert valley surrounded by mountains.  Magnificent views, stunning sunsets and a great Italian style wines...the things dreams, AND dream weddings are made of!

Don and Jo Stetson are gracious hosts and wildly creative entrepreneurs, with the trailblazing spirit to catapult a new wine region in an area that very few knew had great soil for viticulture...in 2012 there were literally a couple of wineries in Kingman.  Now in 2021, the area is getting noticed more and more by serious oenophiles.  With the soil composition and climate very similar to their neighbor to the west, the world renowned California wine regions, we think this area is an up and coming and a wine region to watch!  And Stetson Winery are some damn good wines to taste!

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Love the movie Sideways?  Who could forget the misadventures in the Santa Barbara wine country of Miles and Jack?  Well, interestingly enough, much of the movie was shot on location at the now famous Hitching Post 2 steakhouse in Buellton, CA.  We sit down with the owner and chef  AND winemaker, Mr. Frank Ostini about how all of that Hollywood hi jinx came to be.  It is a pretty cool story.

We also talk about how Frank came from a restaurant family background.   To enhance the experience of your visit to wine country and his restaurant, he makes wines specifically for his steakhouse menu.  We find out how he and his partner, Gray Hartly, decided to become wine makers (another great story) and how he fell in love with making delicious  food friendly wines.

So join us as we learn some tips of the trade of making a great steak better and how great wine enhances that experience...without going completely sideways.

Cheers!  Please like, follow, subscribe and rate us!  We LOVE to hear your comments!  Reach out to us on our social media: 
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