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

As a kid David Graves loved science and he earned a degree in evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz. Soon though, in a grad program, he realized he wasn’t enjoying life and what sounded like a lot more fun? Wine. He and a friend, Dick Ward, founded Saintsbury Winery in 1981. Today Saintsbury is known for beautifully crafted Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays, based in the Carneros District. Enjoy!

For more visit: https://www.saintsbury.com/

Gerald Casale is best known as co-founder and bass player of the ‘80s band Devo – a group with a style all their own with hits like “Whip It.” As the band became successful and toured the world, Gerald fell in love with great food and wine. Recently this composer and performer became a Napa Valley vintner. His Fifty By Fifty is one of Napa’s newest wineries. Enjoy!

For more visit: TheFiftyByFifty.com

This episode with Robin Lail covers nearly all of Napa Valley’s winemaking history – from her great-grand-uncle, Gustave Niebaum establishing Inglenook in 1879, through the rebuilding years after Prohibition, to the birth and boom of Napa’s modern era. Her story is one of success and heartbreak and of finding the strength to start over – more than once. Today Robin’s winery Lail Vineyards produces wines of outstanding distinction and deliciousness.

For more visit: https://www.lailvineyards.com/

Spencer Christian is recognized as Good Morning America’s former weatherman but is less known as a wine pioneer. He created the first national wine show in the 1990s on HGTV – and he’s still sharing his love of wine on a show called Sips with Spencer. In this episode he talks about growing up in the segregated South, his television career, gambling addiction, and tips to surviving a hurricane while on live TV. Enjoy!

For more watch the episode of “Sips With Spencer,” which featured Shafer Vineyards last year: https://abc7news.com/food/discover-napa-valleys-shafer-vineyards/5266564/

Brother and sister, Lorenzo and Hailey Trefethen, are the third generation of their family involved in the wine business in Napa Valley. They look back at more than a century of their historic winery and vineyard property, reflecting on the challenges of the past and present, while looking forward to carrying the winery into a successful future with heart, energy, and style!

For more visit: http://www.trefethen.com/

Ray Isle grew up in Houston, Texas, thinking he’d be in a band or write novels. Along the way he fell in love with the world of wine and found a way to turn that enthusiasm and excitement into a career working in wine magazines, such as Wine & Spirits, and on television in countless appearances on NBC’s The Today Show.Today Ray is executive wine editor of Food and Wine magazine. In this episode he talks about the challenges of making a living writing about wine, the joy of discovering new wines, the pursuit of wine on television, and the elation and weirdness of sharing a bottle with William Shatner, the Captain James T. Kirk of Ray’s boyhood.

For more visit: https://www.foodandwine.com/

The enterprising mother/daughter team at the heart of Staglin Family Vineyard talks about Napa in the ‘60s, the challenges and joys of establishing a winery in the 1980s, Hollywood showing up in the 1990s, and how when son and brother, Brandon, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, the family responded by creating an annual music festival that has raised $400 million for brain health research. Enjoy!

For more visit: http://www.staglinfamily.com/

Zelma Long is known for her pioneering work at Robert Mondavi Winery in the early 1970s, at Simi Winery for 20 years, and for mentoring young winemakers including Paul Hobbs, Dave Ramey, Geneviève Janssens, and others. She entered the U.C. Davis winemaking program in the late 1960s, established Long Vineyards, and has done groundbreaking work in South African wine. Enjoy!

For more visit: vilafonte.com and cape-ardor.com

Randy Lewis grew up in Atlanta, Georgia with such a love for fast cars that the local police got to know him on a first name basis. After college he turned his need for speed into a career, first racing Formula 3 in Europe and later tearing up the oval at the Indianapolis 500. In the late-1980s when he helped a friend start a Napa Valley winery, Randy discovered a new passion – growing grapes and making wine. By the early 1990s he and his wife Debbie had launched Lewis Cellars, one of Napa’s most beloved wineries. Enjoy!

For more visit: lewiscellars.com

In 1972 Bo Barrett was a surfer in Southern California when his father bought an old winery in Napa Valley called Chateau Montelena. After finishing college Bo started working at the winery and in this episode he talks what he learned about winemaking, vineyards, economic cycles, parenthood, and how movies, such as Bottle Shock, are made. Today Bo oversees one of the most venerated wineries in the U.S. Enjoy!

For more visit: montelena.com