The Taste with Doug Shafer – a Podcast About Wine, Food, and Friends

Russ Weis grew up in California's Central Valley surrounded by his family's 200 acres of grapes, a background that would eventually lead him to a career in wine. His story runs through early adventures in France and Japan and then to Christian Brothers – where he started as a tour guide – Robert Mondavi Winery, Opus One, Silverado Vineyards, and today with Walsh Vineyard Management.

He's seen every part of the wine business since his arrival in Napa Valley in the early 1980s. Russ and Doug became friends during Russ's long tenure as president of Silverado Vineyards, with the winery located across the road from Shafer Vineyards.

We had a great time catching up with Russ and hearing his behind-the-scenes stories of a long and innovative career among some of the most fascinating people and properties in Napa.

For more on where Russ is today, visit Walsh Vineyard Management: https://wvmgmt.com/

Kim Stare Wallace tells the audacious story of her father, Dave Stare, a wine-loving MIT graduate, who moved to California in a station wagon. He built a winery and carved out brand new vineyards near Healdsburg, California, in Dry Creek Valley in 1972. Dry Creek Vineyard made a name pioneering both Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc in an era that favored red varieties.

Kim grew up helping out on the bottling line, answering the phone, and myriad other glamor-less winery jobs. Initially she couldn't wait to go to college, escape wine country, and pursue a degree in fashion design. Ultimately she didn't fall in love with the garment business. Instead in late 1980s her father talked her into coming back to work at the winery, which is when she feel in love again. This time with the wine business.

Kim is a dynamic storyteller and our hour with her felt like 10 minutes, hearing her story and doing a deep dive into the winery, both where it was in the past and where it is today. For more visit: https://www.drycreekvineyard.com/

Robert Fiore's path to winemaking took a remarkable trek through archeology and geophysics. Long before he was tasting grapes in the lead-up to harvest he was poring over data from ground-penetrating radar in the search for petroleum. But it turns out that knowing rocks and soil is a solid foundation for a deep understanding of great vineyards.

Today Robert is winemaker at the long-celebrated Peter Michael Winery, producing wines of elegance and grace from diverse vineyards in both Napa and Sonoma.

We had a great time hearing Robert's story from passionate wine-lover to world-class winemaker. He even brought rock samples to discuss wine country geology. For more visit: https://petermichaelwinery.com/

In this classic episode, we revisit a memorable 2019 podcast with Tim Mondavi, whose family played such a legendary role in launching and defining Napa Valley's current era. Tim spent more than 30 years working with his father at Robert Mondavi Winery until the family lost control of winery in 2004. Undaunted, he started over with a new winery aptly named Continuum. Today Tim and his extended family are celebrating more than 100 years in the wine industry and he is more passionate than ever about producing world-class wine. Enjoy!

For more visit: ContinuumEstate.com

This week's episode is a medley, a grab bag, a breakfast scramble of your questions for Doug -- covering everything from "when should I drink my 2018" to when your wine needs to make some noise to his picks for Napa Valley's unsung heroes. (Also, one of us may have admitted to once using a blender to decant a wine.) We invited our long-time friend, John Skupny, of Lang & Reed to join us for this great, wide-ranging conversation.

If this episode inspires you, please send your questions and wine stories to [email protected]. We will definitely record another episode like this one in the future.

And, if hearing from John Skupny reminds you that Cabernet Franc is something you need more of in your life, learn more about Land & Reed here: https://langandreed.com/

Heidi Barrett has produced extraordinary wines for clients including Screaming Eagle, Paradigm, Dalle Valle, and many more. One of her Cabernets holds the record as the most ever paid for a single bottle of wine -- $500,000 at Auction Napa Valley. Today she has her own wine brand, La Sirena, and another with her husband, Bo Barrett of Chateau Montelena, called Barrett & Barrett.

On this classic episode of the podcast first posted in 2018, Heidi takes Doug through one of the most fascinating careers and life stories in the Valley. Enjoy! For more visit: lasirenawine.com or barrettwines.com.

It's harvest here on the West Coast and this week we're letting our winemaking friends focus on picking their grapes.

We thought this would be the perfect moment to rerelease a classic 'Taste' episode that we recorded with our friend, the great actor and vintner, Kyle MacLachlan.

Since we recorded this episode in October, 2018, Kyle has continued to produce outstanding wines with his Pursued by Bear label -- a winery name he took from an inspired moment in a play by Shakespeare. His acting career has absolutely flourished, he's become a phenomenon on social media, and most recently he launched a podcast of his own, What Are We Even Doing?

We loved hearing Kyle's story of falling in love with wine and acting and how the two have intersected over the years. Learn more about Kyle's wines by visiting: www.pursuedbybearwine.com

In the early 1980s, Lee Hudson, still in his 20s, was one of the first to recognize the promise of Los Carneros, Napa Valley's gorgeous southernmost growing region. He came to Napa Valley by way of Texas, where he grew up and fell in love with agriculture. After earning a degree in horticulture he learned the intricacies of grape growing during a stint in Burgundy before studying in the enology Masters program at U.C. Davis. Putting his Texas spirit to work in Carneros, he began growing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and soon developed lifelong relationships with era-defining winemakers including John Konsgaard, Dave Ramey, David Graves and Dick Ward from Saintsbury, and more. In 2004 he went from grapegrower to vintner, when he launched Hudson Ranch, making wines that quickly earned a reputation as being among Napa Valley's best.

We loved Lee's great storytelling, his commitment to always learning more, and finding ways to perfect his craft. For more, visit: https://hudsonranch.com/

James Hall proved that you actually can go home again when, in 2024, he bought back the winery he'd sold nearly 10 years earlier. We had a great time talking with James, getting the background on a fascinating career and learning more about Patz & Hall winery in Sonoma.

He grew up in Santa Cruz, California, where his father was an English professor. On family travels in Europe, James was first introduced to the joys of wine. It was an unforgettable glass of Meursault Charmes that really turned him on to wine, later leading him to study fermentation science at UC Davis in the late 1970s.

One of his first winemaking jobs was at Flora Springs, where he struck up a friendship with Donald Patz. They and their wives, Anne Moses and Heather Patz, created a partnership in 1988 that started the Patz & Hall wine brand, focused on exceptional Chardonnays and later Pinot Noirs.

In 2016 they sold the winery to Chateau St. Michelle. Then, In 2024, when the winery was positioned to be sold again, James bought back.

Learn more about the Patz & Hall story and their fabulous wines at: https://www.patzhall.com/

Jeb Dunnuck's journey to becoming a globally recognized wine critic took an unexpected path, starting in Indiana farmland, where he grew up, then through an early career as an engineer for NASA, working on high-profile projects such as the Kepler Space Telescope.

Along the way though, he fell in love with the wines of the Rhône Valley and putting his engineering skills to work built a website and newsletter called The Rhône Report, focused on wines produced from Rhône grape varieties around the world. Within a few years Jeb earned a lot of attention for his work, including the notice of legendary critic Robert Parker, who invited Jeb to come work with him at The Wine Advocate.

Today, Jeb heads one of the most successful online sources for wine criticism and reporting at JebDunnuck.com. We had a great time getting to know more about Jeb's story and learn his approach to evaluating hundreds of wine each year.

Be sure to check out Jeb's site at JebDunnuck.com and get a glimpse of his work with NASA with the celebrated Kepler's First Light: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/keplers-first-light/