Steve Jaxon welcomes Clark Smith of WineSmith to the show today. Also in studio are co-host Dan Berger, Barry Herbst of Bottle Barn and Steve Ausburne from Thumbprint Cellars. (This is a repeat podcast of a show recorded live on March 15, 2017, because California Wine Country was pre-empted this week due to NBA programming on the home radio station KSRO.) Clark Smith: http://whoisclarksmith.com/ and http://www.winesmithwines.com/ Steve Ausburne and Thumbprint Cellars: http://www.steveausburne.com/about.html and https://thumbprintcellars.com/. Clark Smith is a winemaker who has […]

Rebecca Robinson is today’s featured guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Rebecca is the Executive Director of ZAP, Zinfandel Advocates and Producers. ZAP will be holding ZIN EX, the Zinfandel Experience, in San Francisco, January 18-20 dedicated to Zinfandel. Robert Larsen is also back in the studio today. He spent many years at Robert Strong and now runs The Larsen Projekt. (He was last on California Wine Country in September of […]

Dan Berger and Barry Herbst join Steve Jaxon to talk about some of their personal favorite wines, on California Wine Country this week. (This show is slightly abbreviated due to time constraints from a Golden State Warriors’ NBA basketball game being broadcast live on KSRO this afternoon.) Recap of this week’s wines tasted: 2015 Chardonnay, Black Kite Cellars Moët & Chandon Impérial Brut Champagne Davis Family Vineyards 2015 Throne, Russian River Valley red blend J. Keverson […]

Tom Simoneau is a back for his traditional end-of-the-year show with his Wines of the Year and a phone interview with his winemaker of the year, Susan Lueker of Simi Winery. Tom Simoneau’s website Wine Country Live will have the listing of these wines, with information about each wine and winery, and about where they can be purchased. The shows gets an appropriate opening with the popping of a cork out of a bottle of sparkling […]

Carol Shelton joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. For more information visit her website  https://www.carolshelton.com/ Dan Berger met Carol Shelton when she was making wines for Windsor Vineyards. They were winning gold medals in a lot of competitions but they were not widely known because they were not readily available at retail. So Dan wrote about how she was taking good fruit and making great wine. She explains how she spent 20 […]

Ana Diogo-Draper of Artesa Winery joins Steve Jaxon, Dan Berger and Barry Herbst today. (There was no California Wine Country recorded on Dec. 7 due to a Golden State Warriors NBA game pre-empting programming on KSRO.) Ana Diogo-Draper started at Artesa in 2013, became head winemaker in 2015, and we have some 2015 wines to try today. The winery has been around for quite a while, Dan says the winery, which is located in the Carneros […]

Adam Lee from Siduri Wines and Sam Lando from Lando Wines join Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today, Barry Herbst is also in the studio. Adam begins by telling how he and his wife started Siduri Wines in 1994 with $24,000 and produced 107 cases in their first year. They took a sample to a wine writer who liked the wine and got them some press. They grew the winery from there up to about 25,000 cases […]

Black Kite Cellars and Cartograph Wines share the spotlight, as Alan Baker of Cartograph Wines and Jeff Gaffner from Black Kite Cellars join Steve Jaxon, Dan Berger and Barry Herbst on today’s show (which was recorded in March of 2017). Dan introduces his guests as masters of winemaking skill and balance and in particular, their acid levels are always in the range of food compatibility. This, for Dan, is the key to a good wine. He […]

Thanksgiving wines are today’s subject, with Barry Herbst and Kate Noble, the events director at Martin Ray Winery.  Julie Combs from the Santa Rosa City Council, also stayed for California Wine Country after discussing local affairs in the previous segment. The first question was about possible fire damage to Bottle Barn and Barry says that they were threatened by the fires but in the end did not suffer any damage. Martin Ray winery suffered a little, […]

Jeffery Mayo of Mayo Family Wines is our guest today. Tom Simoneau is in today while regular co-host Dan Berger is away. Asked to sketch the history of Mayo Family winery, Jeffery tells how his father planted the vineyard with the intention of selling Chardonnay grapes. He attended a party with a local winemaker who told him that rather than sell his grapes to end up in someone else’s blend, he could make his own wine in […]

Cool climate wines are the theme of today’s show, as Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger welcome Tim McDonald and Rusty Eddy of Wine Spoken Here PR, a public relations firm located in Napa, California specialized in the wine business. Today we will taste wines from two cool climate wineries that are represented by Rusty and Tim. The first is Qupé Winery, located in the Central Coast of California near Santa Barbara. Bob Lindquist of QUPÉ Winery was […]

Rick Sayre, Vice President of Winemaking at Rodney Strong Vineyards, joins Steve Jaxon, Dan Berger and Barry Herbst on this week’s show. Rick has been at Rodney Strong Vineyards 38 years ago, which is when Dan Berger started writing his wine column. Steve asks Dan to tell about Rodney Strong Vineyards and he tells how the Klein family owns the property now and that Rick has been making high quality wine there for a long time. […]

The first show since the fires opens with Steve Jaxon saying, “We are bold, we are brave, we are committed, we are resilient, we are Sonoma County Strong.” Steve welcomes Barry Herbst from Bottle Barn who says they have reopened, after being closed for a week. Dan Berger came out unscathed and Steve was evacuated two days but he is back home now. Today’s special guest is Rene Byck from Paradise Ridge Winery, which was burned […]

We have no new show this week due to the wildfires here. For this week’s podcast, here is the debut of Dan Berger on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon, also joined by Tom Simoneau, from August, 2016. Dan Berger joins California Wine Country for the first time today. Steve introduces Dan who has been a wine columnist since 1976 and has lived in Sonoma County since 1986. He is the author of four books about […]

Sbragia Family Vineyards and Mark Tchelistcheff join Steve Jaxon, co-host Dan Berger, Tom Simoneau and Barry Herbst today. Ed Sbragia of Sbragia Family Vineyards is introduced, with his son Adam. Ed was the winemaker at Beringer Winery for a long time but now he has started his own family winery. Mark Tchelistcheff is the grand nephew of the great André Tchelistcheff, widely known as the godfather of wine in California. He has produced a documentary film […]

Keith Adams of Wm. Cofield Cheese, Joy Sterling of Iron Horse Vineyards and Dan Towers of Ehret Family Winery join Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today. California Wine Country today is live at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa where there is a celebration of the 80th anniversary of the show’s home station KSRO and also the 60th anniversary of the hotel, a Sonoma County landmark. Dan tells how cheesemaking has made a return to greatness in Sonoma […]