Alicia Sylvester, the winemaker at Banshee Wines, is our guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon, Dan Berger and Harry Duke. Banshee Wines got started among three friends in a bar. It was, “very whimsically put together.” They wanted to make an affordable Pinot Noir of quality from Sonoma County. The name banshee emerged almost accidentally at the last minute. The cockatrice on the bottle is their symbol but they didn’t have the name until […]
GLF Wines owner Greg La Follette (“la-FOLL-et”) is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger, to talk about his label GLF Wines, and more. The Drive co-host Harry Duke is also in the studio. Greg has been on CWC a few times before. The first was this episode on April 12, 2017. We heard about his previous label Alquimista Cellars in his next episode on November 21, 2018, then again on June 17, […]
Katey Bacigalupi Row and Nicole Bacigalupi Dericco join Tom Simoneau today on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. The Bacigalupi family owns and operates Bacigalupi Vineyards. Their parents Helen and Charles Bacigalupi, purchased 125 acres on Westside Road in 1956. 2021 was their 65th harvest. Tom Simoneau met them when he and his wife were new to the area in 1988. He mentions that the Bacigalupi reputation is second to none in the […]
Davis Estates winemaker Walter Leiva is our guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Before talking about Davis Estates wines with Walter, Dan Berger has opened another cellar dweller, this one is a 2015 Pinot Gris from the Lichen Estate in Anderson Valley and it’s delicious, everyone loves it. Dan detects flavors of dried peaches and a little spice element from the young wine. Pinot Gris is difficult because it produces tannins, […]
Dave Ready Jr., winemaker at Murphy-Goode, is our guest on California Wine Country today. Harry Duke is sitting in for Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger is also in the studio. Dave’s father was part of the team that founded Murphy-Goode in the 1980s. At the time their wines were based on vineyards managed by Tim Murphy and Dale Goode. Dave Ready Jr. is now the winemaker. The founders met at a new year’s eve party in […]
Pizzaleah owner and pizza chef Leah Scurto joins California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. She has brought samples of her pizza and will tell us about her restaurant and the delicious pizzas she will be making at the Healdsburg Wine and Food Experience, coming on May 20-22. (Tom Simoneau is also in the studio with Karissa Kruse and Steve De Veres, who are organizing the big event. Their entire conversation about that is […]
This episode of California Wine Country features two guests from Rodney Strong, Christopher O’Gorman, director of communication and Justin Seidenfeld, VP of viticulture and winemaking. They join Steve Jaxon, Dan Berger and Harry Duke in the studio. They describe the revival of the Rodney Strong Concert Series. This year it will feature three concerts over the summer, Tower of Power, Cobie Caillat and Blues Traveller. There will also be two concerts featuring local artists, whom they […]
Tom Simoneau joins California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon, Dan Berger and Harry Duke, to discuss the Healdsburg Wine and Food Experience, this May 20-22. The studio is full of guests today. Karissa Kruse from the Sonoma County Winegrowers is here with Steve De Veres. They are organizing the Healdsburg Food and Wine Experience. Award-winning pizza chef Leah Scurto from Pizzaleah is also here and she brought pizza! Christopher O’Gorman, director of communication for Rodney Strong […]
Mark Beeman, winemaker at Sebastiani, is in the studio today to talk to Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. Sebastiani wines has been in business since before 1904, but the vineyard goes all the way back to 1825 when the Franciscan padres who established a mission in Sonoma also planted a vineyard that year. That vineyard is still on the Sebastiani property. Samuele Sebastiani came from Tuscany and landed in Sonoma County around […]
Donald Patz of Secret Door Wines is our guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today. He was last on CWC on this October 16, 2019 episode. Donald Patz was a founder and winemaker for the Patz and Hall label for many years, where there were two couples, four partners, making Cardonnay and Pinot Noir from 1988 to 2016. When Ste. Michelle winery in Washington state bought them, he continued working for […]
Mike Cox, winemaker of La Prenda Wines, joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. They opened a tasting room in central Santa Rosa last year. La Prenda is owned by Ned Hill and his wife Erika. Mike grew up in the farming industry and started making his own wine fifteen years ago. Back then, the big wineries could dictate what they wanted and “the growers could be left holding the bag, in a […]
Dry Creek Vineyard founder David Stare and daughter Kim Stare Wallace join Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. Tom Simoneau is in the studio today. Dry Creek Vineyard was Tom’s Winery of the Year for 2021. This year they celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. They got the front cover of Wine Spectator magazine too. They are one of the last truly private, family owned wineries in Sonoma County. David Stare grew up in Boston, […]
Jeff Pisoni, the winemaker at Pisoni Vineyards is our guest today on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Pisoni Vineyards is located in the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation of Monterey County. Jeff describes going to Fresno State to learn enology but learned the craft and the artistic side of winemaking from his father. He was always fascinated by winemaking and the complex interaction between vines and the wine, while his brother was focussed on […]
Donum Estate winemaker Dan Fishman joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today in the studio on California Wine Country. This year Donum Estate celebrates 20 years of making Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. It was a spinoff of Buena Vista Winery. They sold, but kept their favorite ranch, called Tula Vista, that is down in Carneros. Donum is Latin for “gift” and means that wine is a gift from the land. Anne Moller-Racke came from Germany in 1981 […]
Eric Johannsen, winemaker at La Crema, is our guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today. La Crema has specialized in cool climate wines, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, for 40 years. After a couple of ownership changes, Jackson Family Wines purchased the winery in 1996 and has expanded its footprint from Sonoma County to Monterey County and into Oregon. Eric’s twenty-fifth vintage is coming up, most of them with La Crema. Before […]
Winemaker Nick Goldschmidt is our in-studio guest today on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. He came from New Zealand and has been making wine in California for 32 years. Nick is the owner of Goldschmidt Vineyards. His studies included civil engineering, organics and biodynamics in New Zealand then a degree in viticulture and a post-graduate degree in enology in Australia. After that he worked in Chile in the late ‘80s and then […]
