Tom Simoneau is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today and he has brought a guest, Adam Lee, the winemaker at Clarice Wine Company. He was the founding winemaker at Siduri and Clarice is his own project that he launched after that experience. Adam Lee begins by describing his experience in the wine business, beginning with jobs in retail and wholesale of wine, starting after college. He majored in History and […]

Don Chigazola is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. He has brought five white wines from Italy. His company, Chigazola Merchants, imports small lots of fine Italian wine from small family producers located all over Italy, which he sells mainly through the Chigazola Merchants website, to his subscribers. Some wines are also in a few top local restaurants, by the glass. Don describes how he made the transition from a career […]

Theresa Heredia is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today. She is the winemaker at Gary Farrell Winery and she has been on CWC twice in the last few years, first in April of 2017 and again in December of 2018. Theresa Heredia from Gary Farrell Winery is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Steve Jaxon reads from the winery’s website: “’Explore the legacy of our Pinot […]

Tom Simoneau has brought two guests on to California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today from Rodney Strong Vineyards. They are Head of Winemaking Justin Seidenfeld and Director of Communication Chris O’Gorman. Their story begins 55 years ago when a celebrated American dancer, Rodney Strong, retired to wine country after a career dancing on Broadway and in Paris. He was a famous dance prodigy from Washington state. He was asked to bring American […]

Cameron Hughes joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. He is a wine merchant, following more or less the business model of a négociant in France. He buys bulk wine for a low price and sells it to retail customers through De Négoce, his label and sales company. (The company name is French for “of the trade.”) California produces so much good wine that not all of it finds a buyer. Dan […]

Tom Simoneau is in today with two guests from J Lohr Vineyards & Wines, Steve Peck, director of winemaking, and Kristen Barnhisel, director of white wines. Dan Berger has brought a 2010 Morgan Sauvignon Blanc from Monterey. Dan Morgan Lee makes this wine, he likes the distinctive flavors of valley floor, green pepper, cilantro, parsley, all the green flavors. Dan finds it fascinating and reminisent of 70s and 80s style wines. In ‘95 or ‘97 we […]

Ross Halleck of Halleck Vineyard joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today.  They begin tasting a 2019 Gewurtz from Halleck Vineyard which just won best of class in the North Coast wine competition. It won a gold medal and Dan Berger was on the judging panel. Ross Halleck likes Alsatian white wines, which he got to know while living in Kenya as a young man. The merchant class at that time was primarily […]

Alan Baker of Cartograph Wines returns to California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. He has been on this show before, the last time was here, on January 8, 2020. First, they taste a bottle from Dan Berger’s cellar, a 2017 Chardonnay from New Zealand, which was fermented in a concrete egg. It’s the first one made in New Zealand ever, made by a master concrete expert. With the shape of the egg, the […]

Mitch Cosentino from pureCru Wines is our guest on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. The first pureCru vintage was in 2006, but he started Cosentino winery in 1980. They went public, which he says he didn’t enjoy, and he left it in 2010. They don’t have a tasting room at the moment. He considers pureCru “a winemaker’s wine project.” Before we go on with Mitch, Dan Berger has brought a “cellar dweller” […]

Megan Cline of Gust Wines and Cline Family Cellars is in the studio today for California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger.  Cody Rasmussen from Desire Lines Wine Company is also in the studio today. They are here to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the Petaluma Gap AVA on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Barry Herbst from Bottle Barn is also in the studio today. Here is the website of the […]

Pete Foppiano is sitting in for Steve Jaxon today on California Wine Country, but Dan Berger is in the studio as usual and his guest is Haley Jackson Hartford Murray from Hartford Family Winery. Barry Herbst from Bottle Barn is also in today. The Hartford was established as a winery by Jess Jackson in 1994. It is in Forestville in a remote area of Russian River Valley. Dan calls it the most ideal winery on the […]

Greg Graziano, winemaker for the Graziano Family of Wines, joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. His grandfather, Vincenzo Graziano, landed on Ellis Island in 1907 and worked his way across the country to Mendocino where he bought 100 acres with his future brother-in-law and began planting grapes, two years before Prohibition. During Prohibition they did whatever they could to survive, selling what wine was legal to sell. Then they sold grapes […]

California Wine Country today has Tom Simoneau in the studio with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger, to present his favorite wines of 2020. At the end of this episode they speak with Joy Sterling, from Iron Horse Winery, which is Tom Simoneau’s 2020 Winery of the Year. Here are the wines presented by Tom and Steve. Today’s page was written by Tom Simoneau. He can be reached at [email protected]. Best Whites Sparkling Wine: Iron Horse Vineyards 2016 […]

Our guest today on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger is Martha Barra from Barra Winery of Mendocino. Charlie Barra started the home ranch in 1955. At the time they were growing “grapes that nobody cared about” as Dan Berger says, grapes that went into jug wine. But Charlie had friends in Napa Valley and asked them how to change the quality of his ranch’s output. They began with 150 and have grown […]

Stu Smith, co-founder of Smith-Madrone Winery, joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today. He will be on Zoom from his home on the vineyard in upper Napa Valley. The last time he was on California Wine Country was May 3, 2017, here is a link to that podcast episode. Before they begin talking to Stu Smith, Dan Berger has brought another “cellar dweller” to the show, an old bottle from Dan Berger’s massive personal wine cellar, to […]

Alex Holman, the winemaker at Notre Vue Winery joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. This is Alex’s first time on the show. Notre Vue means “Our View” in French. The property was once called the Balverne Estate. Notre Vue is their top tier brand that can only be acquired through the estate. Balverne is their 3-tiered brand, more of new world varietals, with wider distribution. Notre Vue is more based on old-world […]