Postcards in a Glass

Our guest this episode is Dr. Pepe Schib Graciani, the Global Brand Ambassador of Tuscany's Tenuti di Arceno. Our conversation was prompted by a student posing the question, "what is a Super Tuscan." It's a simple question that is not so simple to explain, so after a general introduction to Tuscan wine, Pepe Schib joined host Lyn Farmer to talk about the unique wines of Tenuta di Arceno.

Tenuta di Arceno is based at the southeastern end of Chianti Classico in Castelnuovo Berardenga. It is an ancient estate that produces several distinctive wines across two classification levels: a collection of four Sangiovese-based wines classified as Chianti Classico DOCG and then a limited production rosé and two red wines based on so-called international grape varieties classified as Toscana IGT. The estate, purchased by the late Jess Jackson, a visionary American winery owner, consists of 1,000 hectares – that’s 2500 acres. Not all of it is planted to grape vines – much of the land is set aside for native vegetation including olive trees, but the land that is planted to vines is 50 percent Sangiovese and 50 percent international varieties, especially Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

Our focus in this conversation is on the wines classified as IGT: Indicazione Geografica Tipico, a designation with fewer regulations that the DOC and DOCG categories. Years ago, the IGT designation was perceived as being inferior to the DOC/DOCG labels but that's no longer true. The looser regulations allowed more experimentation and ti was within this category that we saw the rise of the "Super Tuscans." In our conversation, Pepe Schib (who trained as a marine biologist before discovering his love of wine) brings both the keen analytic mind of a scientist and the passion of an artist to this exploration of this dazzling property – dazzling both in its beauty and in the quality of the wines it produces.

And if, after hearing Pepe's evocative descriptions, you are motivated to learn more about Tenuta di Arceno, you will discover they have a beautiful and comprehensive website at:

https://www.tenutadiarceno.com/en/wine

The summer of 2026 provided a fortuitous bit of serendipity, the highly regarded Champagne house of Billecart-Salmon combined two events into one grand celebration: the company's 200th harvest in 2018 with the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence in 2026. Despite these dates being eight years apart, because the Billecart Vintage 2018 needed eight years to mature before release, the wine was offered to the world as a special salute to the United States' anniversary.

During a visit to Miami to announce the release, the seventh generation director of the family owned Billecart-Salmon, Mathieu Roland-Billecart, joined me to talk about his family, his legacy and, of course, his wines.

First, some background. The Billecart-Salmon family's cellar was founded in the Grand Cru village of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ in 1818 when Nicolas François Billecart married Elisabeth Salmon, joining the vineyards and the savoir-faire of two esteemed families into a single, dynamic company, or "house," as it is called in Champagne.

Today, two centuries and seven generations later, Billecart-Salmon is one of the most important family-owned houses in the region. Many of the best known producers in Champagne – Moët-Hennessy, Veuve Clicquot, Mumm and Perrier-Jouët– carry the names of their founding families but most of these houses, the "Grande Marques" or "Great Brands," are owned by corporations.

I spoke with Mathieu about the importance of family on a warm afternoon seated. We talked about the wines Billecart-Salmon produces, especially their emblematic non-vintage rosé wine and the vintage-dated blanc de blancs, about the legacy of family and the many changes in Champagne over the years. I can tell you, there is no more personable or enthusiastic ambassador of Champagne than Mathieu Roland Billecart. Of course, we began by talking about the just-released cuvée or blend from vintage 2018 that celebrates two anniversaries in one bottle.

I invite you to join us in this conversation, and then learn more about Champagne Billecart-Salmon at their beautifully crafted website: at

www.champagne-billecart.fr/en/

My guest this episode is Philippe Rolet, a winemaker who began his career in Chablis but who for more than 30 years has been one of the most influential winemakers in South America. His is General Manager of Los Vascos in Chile and Bodegas CARO in Mendoza's Uco Valley. The story began in the mid-1980s, when French company Domaines de Baron de Rothschild Lafite (better known simply as DBR) decided to make wine in Chile. DBR partnered with a local winery called Los Vascos and in 1988 became the principal shareholder of the group that also includes minority partner Viña Santa Rita, on its own one of Chile’s largest producers. Today, the partnership produces half a million cases of wine, nearly all of which is exported.

The group is notable for pioneering green certifications and is today is more than 50-percent organic, with many of the vineyards transitioning to biodynamic agriculture.

Philippe Rolet works closely with Saskia Rothschild, the current director of the parent company DBR; he credits her with much of the company’s recent innovation. In the late 1990s, DBR crossed the Andes to create another partnership in Argentina. In Mendoza's Uco Valley, Bodegas CARO brought DBR together with the Nicolas Catena Family, and Philippe Rolet is general manager there as well.

In our wide-ranging converesation, Philippe explores wine and place. We talk about Los Vascos' flagship blend Le Dix introduced in 1996; It is based on Cabernet Sauvignon with about 10 percent Carmenère, but also includes as much as eight percent Syrah each year. As you will hear the winery produces many other blends including a stunning rosé made from Rhône varieties. Philippe also talks about the property's newest project called "Cañeten," a wine produced in a cooler part of Colchagua, closer to the coast than Le Dix.

Philippe Rolet is here, glass in hand, and you can also find him at the Los Vascos website, https://www.lafite.com/domaines/los-vascos/read/

And, you can learn more about Bodegas CARO here: https://www.palmbay.com/wines/bodegas-caro/caro-3/

Bordeaux is France’s largest fine wine producing region and produces one of the most collectible categories of wine in the world. Located in Southwest France and only a short distance from the Atlantic Coast, Bordeaux has a classic maritime climate with rainfall coming anytime during the year. It is the unpredictability of the weather, and the impact of that weather on ripening grapes, that has traditionally given Bordeaux so much variation in quality from harvest to harvest. With modern viticultural techniques and improved winery technology, it is rare for a vintage these days to be an outright disaster. Some harvests are better than others, some favor one subregion over another, but Bordeaux consistently produces enjoyable wine. Whether consumers can afford it is another issue – pricing in the region can have significant ups and downs and every year producers scramble to sell what they make at a price the market can afford.

This rollercoaster of pricing and quality has led Bordeaux to fall in and out of favor with wine lovers. That said, for many consumers, Bordeaux represents one of the world’s great red wines that, because of the climate variability, has traditionally been a blend of up to five red grape varieties – mainly Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc with small amounts of two hard-to-ripen grapes, Petite Verdot and Malbec.

Several rivers in Bordeaux define the region’s geography and explain its popularity. For centuries, Bordeaux wines had a much easier time getting to market than many French wines because Bordeaux is a port city on a large river. Since the 1200s, Bordeaux wines have been famous not only for quality but also because of their availability.

Many consumers think of Bordeaux as quintessential Cabernet Sauvignon and it has a dominant presence on the Left Bank of the Gironde River, but more than half the grapes in the region are Merlot. Merlot and Cabernet Franc form the basis of most wines in the area on the Right Bank of the Dordogne River, and that is the area sending us this episode’s postcard, specifically Saint Emilion, a large region anchored by its namesake, one of France’s most beautifully preserved towns from the Medieval era. Saint Emilion where much of the soil has a significant clay content is perfect for Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

For us consumers and Bordeaux lovers, Saint Emilion has special advantages. Merlot is more approachable than Cabernet Sauvignon when it is young, the wines mature faster and most of the wines of Saint Emilion are significantly less expensive than the top wines of the Left Bank. This week's conveersation features French-born Yves de Launay, the Exectutive Vice President, US, of Saint Emilion Château l'Angelus. Yves has spent his entire career marketing luxury products and especially wine. Her's an ideal person to gives us a snapshot of Bordeaux, and Saint Emilion, in particular. In this conversation we talk about Bordeaux's pricing ups and downs, what consistutes quality in Bordeaux wine and the long and illustrious history of Château l'Angelus, one of the top properties in Saint Emilion. What makes Angelus so special? Tune in to find out!

And to find out even more about Château l'Angelus, you can check out the property's excellent website:

https://www.angelus.com

Winemaker Julien Fayard trained in the South of France and Bordeaux before relocating to Northern California in the early 2000s when he worked as an intern at Quintessa. After working with acclaimed viticulturalist and winemaker Philippe Melka, he moved to the US fulltime in 2006, working as Melka's director of winemaking for eight years before setting out on his own. He consulted for many high-end properties including Lail, Gemstone and Dalla Valle Vineyards, and today he is a highly regarded and innovative powerhouse in Napa Valley.

In his conversation with podcast host Lyn Farmer, Fayard contrasts winemaking in Napa and Bordeaux and what his training in France allowed him to bring to his winemaking in California. "The process of making wine begins in the vineyard," he says, and he talks about some of surprises climate change is bringing to wine. We also talk about Fayard's shift from being a high profile consultant to others to his latest efforts making wine for his own brands.

A frequent comment in Fayard's remarks is the importance of "tension," an elusive quality he explains as essential to great wine and that he hopes is a recognizable quality in the wines he makes. We wrap up with an exploration of what the future may bring for California wine – and Julien Fayard turns out to be a wine optimist!

This episode's postcard - a love letter from Napa penned by winemaker Julien Fayard.

You can learn more about Julien Fayard's wines on his website:

https://www.fayardwines.com

Barolo is the most storied spot for wine lovers in the Northwest Italian province of Piemonte. Here, where Isidoro Vajra’s ancestors had been growing grapes since the 1880s, the family built a winery in the early 1970s rooted in tradition but also in innovation. Vajra was the first organically certified winery in the region, they have pioneered the renaissance or, as Isidoro says in Italian, the Renascimento, of wine styles from the 17th century (including a sparkling Nebbiolo!) and the resurgence of interest in the local grape Freisa, which was all but forgotten before the Vajra family brought it back to life in 1980.

Piemonte is a region that is home to many grapes – Cortese, Arneis and Moscato among white grapes and Dolcetto, Freisia and Barbera among the reds. Indisputably, the king of the red grapes in Piemonte is Nebbiolo, a thin-skinned variety that gives wines often pale in color but robust in fruit, acid and tannin. This is the source of one of Italy’s greatest and most famous wines made exclusively from the Nebbiolo grape in the small village of Barolo. You may also know of the Nebbiolo-based wine from nearby Barbaresco – these are certainly the two most famous villages for Nebbiolo but the grape is grown throughout the province.

The villages and small towns of the region – Gavi, Alba and Asti, Barolo and Barbaresco among them – are famous for wine but also for truffles and mushrooms and exceptional cuisine. Piemonte gets its name from the words pied, meaning foot, and monte, meaning mountain. It is in the foothills of the Alps with amazing vistas, a cool climate and many different exposures for vineyards. Most of all, it is a region of stunning beauty, especially in the prime Nebbiolo sub-region called the Langhe where the Vajra family lives and works.

In this conversation with host Lyn Farmer, Isidoro Vajra shares his and his family's passion for the area, their close rapport with nature, their respect for the land and their willingness to let their vines tell them what kind of wines to make. Isidoro is a not only passionate, he is compassionate and a wonderful guide to and storyteller about this magical place, the Langhe of Piemonte..

G.D. Vajra is one of Piemonte's most important wineries, and their website is very well done – I recommend it highly - you'll find it at www.gdvajra.it

The website has explanations of all the wines we discuss in our conversation including not only the classic Barolos, but the unusual Nebbiolo Claré, the Barbera Freisa blend, the stunning Riesling Petraciné and others as well.

Winemaker Weston Eidson of Westborn Wines has created wines that have received extraordinary praise from top wine writers like Jancis Robinson and Jeb Dunnock. They have been struck by the extraordinary quality of Westborn's portfolio of sparkling wines. Made using the traditional method, the same process as used in Champagne and Franciacorta, Westborn's wines are uncommonly refined and elegant. They draw on grapes not from a single vineyard but sourced from many of Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino's top vineyards. In just a few years since he gave up a tech career for wine, this young winemaker has crafted some remarkable bottles.

This time on Postcards in a Glass, Weston Eidson talks with host Lyn Farmer about how he became interested in wine and how he has gone about fulfilling his dream of making "Grand Cru sparkling wines." Most critics agree he has succeeded even with his first vintages, from 2018 and 2019. There are, he says, even more exciting wines to come, soon from the legendary 2021 vintage.

Join us for an engaging conversation about sparkling wine - how it's made, what makes it special, and how a young winemaker found success with one of the most difficult styles of wine to master. Westborn Wines is featured on this episode of Postcards in a Glass.

You can find out more about these wines (and even order them despite their limited quantities) by visiting the winery website, http://www.westbornwines.com

Nearly 500 years before sauvignon blanc was planted in Marlborough, New Zealand, Pierre-Etienne Mellot was tending his vines rooted in the stony soils of Sancerre. These vineyards tended by the Mellot family have been producing generation after generation of exceptional wine. By the end of the 17th century, César Mellot was advising King Louis XIV on wine and now, 513 years after the family began its vinous odyssey in 1513, Armand Mellot continues the journey. With his mother and his brother Adrien he manages the house of Joseph Mellot, the only family to own and manage vineyards in all eight sauvignon blanc appellations of the Centre-Loire region. (It is called the Central Loire because it is in the center of France; it's actually at the eastern-most end of the Loire Valley).

Today, Armand Mellot brings us a postcard from one of France's greatest white wine-producing region. Sitting down with host Lyn Farmer, he shares a glass of chilled Sancerre and warm stories of this historic region. "We are ambassadors of a place and its wines," he says. In fact, he is an ambassador of eight places, including not only Sancerre but also Pouilly-Fumé, Menetou-Salon, Quincy, Reuilly, and others. In this lively conversation we talk about the differences and similarities of these areas, of what the soil and the cultural terroir of these places puts in our glasses.

"It begins with the soil," he says, pulling three rocks out of his satchel. These rocks are rather like lumpy postcards themselves - a sparkling white chunk of Silex or flint; a greyish piece of "terres blanches," the same Kimmeridgian limestone and clay that give Chablis its character; and "caillotes," with its limestone from the austere hills that give bracing minerality and acidity to these wines.

The wines of Sancerre and its surrounding appellations are unique, with the fresh fruit and grassy character that are hallmarks of the sauvignon blanc grape and yet unlike the wine produced by this grape anywhere else in the world. Join us as we talk about the countryside, the people of the Loire, ther wines they make and the foods they pair with them. With his soil samples surrounding our wine glasses, I kid Armand about being a literal "rock star." It is a term the French use as well and it is a unique fit for this engaging young man who with his family makes sublime music from carefully tended vines.

I loved my time with Armand Mellot and his wines and I hope you will as well.

Portugal's Douro Valley is the oldest geographically designated wine region in the world - it's boundaries were formally set in the mid-1700s and for more than two centuries the international image of the region was based on sweet, fortified wine. Classic tawny and ruby ports still play an important part in the Douro's wine production but since the early 1990s dry red and white wines have also played a major part in the region's fame.

These dry wines weren't new - they had always made them but mainly for local consumption. A shift came when the Champagne firm Louis Roederer purchased the century-old Port producer Ramos Pinot in 1990 and decided the company dry wines were so good they needed to be shared. In the intervening 35 years, Ramos Pinto has continued to produce outstanding fortified wines but has gain new fame for a series of dry wines mostly marketed under the Duas Quintas label.

This time on Postcards in a Glass, host Lyn Farmer is joined by Ramos Pinto's export and marketing director Ana Rato, who tells the story of how these dry wines became famous. She also shares how these two family-owned companies became partners, and how some of Ramos Pinto's oldest styles, like aged white port, have become new hit in the market.

White port as an aperitif? Dry reds and whites pioneering plantings in the Douro Valley's most remote reaches (called the Douro Superior)? Modern twists on classic fortified wines? We've got the story here in a Postcard from the Douro and from Ramos Pinto!

If you want to see just how vibrant the Port region of the Douro Valley is, I've posted some of my photographs from the region on my website, www.loynfarmer.com. Just click on the Postcards in a Glass tab and there is a link to the photgraphs at the bottom of the page.

For more information about the wines of Ramos Pinto, connect with them at www.ramospinto.pt

Chile is an amazing country for wine lovers. It has a vine growing area nearly 1000 kilometers in length with three distinct zones from West to East - a cool Coastal Region on the Pacific, a warm Central Valley and in the east of the country, the foothills of the Andes Mountains. Altitude can give respite from the Central Valley's heat, so there is nearly every climate possible somewhere in this fertile country.

Chile has for decades been a major wine exporter and has developed a wine industry aimed at international demand. It is often said that in Chile, wineries are either very small or very large without much of a middle ground. Viña Carmen in the Maipo Valley, an hour's drive from Santiago, embodies a bit of both approaches. It is a relatively large winery but it wants a boutique feel. For that reason, two years ago they named a new winemaker, Ana Maria Cumsillé, who had considerable experience at small artisanal wineries. She was invited to bring that boutique experience to the resources at Viña Carmen and now that we are beginning to see the first wines crafted entirely by her, it's possible to see just how well the partnership is working.

Talking with Postcards in a Glass host Lyn Farmer, Ana Cumsillé explained her approach to wines and especially her love of the terroirs with which she is able to work. Viña Carmen not only owns vineyards that have considerable age, Ana is also purchasing grapes from some of the small growers she worked with in her boutique days and this is giving her a wonderfully diverse portfolio.

The Carmenère grape is often considered Chile's signature variety and it was at one of Carmen's vineyards that the grape was "discovered." It had for years been mistaken for Merlot even though it ripens two or three weeks later than Merlot. Chilean growers would talk about Merlot and "Late Merlot," until the identification error was cleared up 30 years ago. You would think having been the site where the identification was made would prompt Carmen to make Carmenère the focus of their program, but in fact Ana Cumsillé says Cabernet Sauvignon is where her focus really lies (though she does make wonderful Carmenère, Cabernet Franc and several other varieties as well).

In this conversation, she talks about her approach to winemaking, the challenges of moving from boutique wineries to one of the bigger players, her joy in working with terroirs in Alta Jahuel, Apalta and the old vineyards of Itata and Maulé. It's a wide ranging discussion, and if it makes you thirsty, by all means take a look at Carmen's well designed website at www.carmen.com