The Wine Makers on Radio Misfits

The 3rd Friday of September is one of the best days of the year. We raise a glass or several really nice selections to celebrate one of the best days of the year. We invited two #FOTP  “friends of the pod” to join us. Casey Graybehl The Grenachista shares some new releases and some not yet released wines and a few stories of harvest. We also get a chance to catch up with Sondra Bernstein to hear all about what she has been up to. Let’s just say Sondra has been very busy creating, and has some insight on what the future of wine tasting and marketing might look like. We hope you will open a bottle of Sonoma Valley Grenache and enjoy this week’s show.  [EP248] www.sondra-bernstein.com www.instagram.com/4everkurious www.thegrenachista.com www.instagram.com/the.grenachista

This week on the podcast we introduce you to Sal Chavez, owner/founder of La Luna Mezcal. If you’ve never had Mezcal before, get ready for an education, if you already love Mezcal, you need some La Luna. We go deep on family history and traditions, terroir, fermentation and distillation. The process is fascinating and Sal’s family story is inspiring, we strongly encourage opening up a bottle to sip while listening, and even grabbing some carne asada tacos to enhance the experience. Enjoy [EP247] lalunamezcal.com/usa instagram.com/lalunamezcal instagram.com/saviorpchavez    

This week on the show we answer your questions and you should question our answers… We talk about the upcoming Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival on October 7th & 8th. The Winemakers Podcast is challenging our fellow winemakers to the Grape Stomp Competition, and hope everyone will come to the Grand Tasting on October 8th at the under the stars in the historic Sonoma Barracks on the Plaza. Bart also tells the story of his Amphora Blues.  [EP246] Enjoy the show www.instagram.com/sonomavintagefestival www.valleyofthemoonvintagefestival.org  

James Joiner’s life in journalism has taken from a Cape Cod news room to the Republican National Convention and Willie Nelson’s tour bus but it was a chance encounter with a bottle of Coturri wine set him out on mission. In a career marked with bylines in publications like Rolling Stone, Esquire and the Daily Beast he’s now on a mission to photograph “wine people” all over the world and develop those photos in red wine! The guys sit down and swap stories with one of the wine industries great story tellers, James Joiner. [EP245]

Sam walks the gang through the Fall 2022 ‘Phil Sent Me’ releases from Winery Sixteen 600 with a special guest appearance by photographer James Joiner (Google him or just wait for next week’s show). We talk about how the wines were grown and made, how the line-up is chosen and how we talk about wine in general. Tune in and become a Phil Sent Me member today. [EP244]

This week we have Adam Lee the founder of Clarice Wine Company on the podcast. He began working with wine in 1989 at a retail store in Austin, Texas. At the time, he also dabbled in restaurant wine sales, and briefly pulled a bag as a wine distributor sales rep. A few years later, he began working as the Wine Buyer at Neiman Marcus in Dallas. In 1993, he moved to California and, while working in direct sales at various wineries, they started Siduri Wines in 1994. Siduri Wines quickly became known as one of California’s premier Pinot Noir producers and grew from 107 cases in 1994 to 25,000 cases in 2015. In 2015 Siduri Wines was sold to Jackson Family Winery. Clarice Wine Company is a new and truly unique type of winery, combining aspects of an online wine community, a wine education website, and a limited-enrollment wine club. Adam has focused on two Pinot Noir vineyards in the  Santa Lucia Highlands the Garys’ and Rosella’s Vineyards. Did we mention that the wines are delicious? [EP243] www.claricewinecompany.com

Eric Story & Alison Smith Story started their small wine brand Smith Story Wine Cellars in 2014, funded by Kickstarter. Remember when people did that?  They are still sourcing small lots from family-owned vineyards farming organically and working with their other growers to improve quality and moving towards organic farming. Their dog, Lord Sandwich, has his own brand, his own charity and is an Instagram celebrity. We welcome Alison back to hear about what’s new and about the challenges they have faced for the past couple years. [EP242] smithstorywinecellars.com www.twitter.com/smithstorywines www.instagram.com/smithstorywines www.socksforsandwich.org www.instagram.com/sandwichthedoodle (707)494-5575

This week on the show we welcome G. Love. We always talk about how wine should express itself from where it’s grown, show it’s Terroir. So the question is does music have a Terroir? If we take the definition and think about music then does the soil become the music that defines the area? For G. Love is that the Philly Sounds of the 60’s and 70’s? And the emergence of Hip Hop in the 90’s becomes the influence of the vintage as we think of it. This might all be a stretch, but G. Love is likely coming to your Terroir in the next few months and you should go check him out. [EP241] Instagram @phillyglove Twitter @glove www.philadelphonic.com

This week we welcome back Chris Cottrell to the podcast. Chris and his business partner Morgan Twain Peterson, MW met at Pet Wines, a small neighborhood store on the Upper East Side in Manhattan run by Phil Kotek, a man who cared deeply about the wines he sold. This was the start of Chris’s education to the world of wine. In 2011 Morgan called Chris and said casually, “we should make a wine together.” That conversation (and more bottles of good wine than one might care to admit) led to Under The Wire, a partnership project that focuses on single-vineyard, single-vintage sparkling wines inspired by the grower champagne movement. As the 2011 Under the Wire developed in bottle and Bedrock Wine Co. continued to find success, Morgan suggested to Chris it was perhaps time to move across the country and join Bedrock. Their simple yet unique premise is to make California sparkling wines based on an individual vineyard in an individual year. We hope you enjoy this show with Chris. He is without a doubt one of our favorite people in the wine industry. [EP240] Cheers @underthewirewine www.underthewirewines.com www.bedrockwineco.com

This episode started with Bart entering he and Sam in the 1st. Annual Stemple Creek BBQ Classic. But with careful consideration they decided that maybe instead of being one of ten contestants at the first event maybe they were best suited to be the only podcast to record at this soon to be famous event. Now you might be asking what does the Stemple Creek Ranch, a certified organic ranch raising grass fed cattle, lambs and free range Berkshire cross pigs that are raised in a large grove of Eucalyptus trees have to do with the wine industry. More than you would imagine which I think will become evident after listening to this show. Then enters the pitmaster Chuck “The Flavor Train” Matto and it seems like maybe Bart & Sam are there just to taste some good BBQ. Congratulations have to go out to the winner Dave Ross from Pueblo BBQ. We hope you enjoy this week’s show and throw something on the BBQ to enjoy with friends and family. [EP239] www.stemplecreek.com @stemplecreek www.chucksflavortrain.com @chucksflavortrain www.pueblobbq.com @pueblobbq