Glenn Hugo, the winemaker at Girard Winery in Calistoga visits California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger today. Tom Simoneau is also here today. Before working in wine production, Glenn worked in the restaurant industry. He travelled around the country to open restaurants and one of his jobs was to write wine lists. He married and moved to Napa 20 years ago where he learned winemaking from many mentors in the business. Carneros First, they […]

Dan Berger, winemaker? Of course! Dan is back with Steve Jaxon and Harry Duke in part 2 of the story of Dan’s career as a journalist that ends up with him making Riesling. Part 1 is here. The episode begins with the story of Dan’s book about basketball. He also wrote for the NFL for one year, for their magazine called “Pro!” which was the outer portion of the stadium programs for the whole league. The […]

Carol Shelton has brought Wild Thing wines and others labeled under her own name, on California Wine Country today. She is back on the show with Steve Jaxon, Harry Duke and Dan Berger. Her last time on the show was this episode of July 22, 2020, available here. The Carol Shelton Wines website has extensive history about her and her work. She was at UC Davis and wanted to study poetry. Her mother said, “Poets don’t […]

Dan Berger, longtime co-host of California Wine Country takes center stage on the show today, with Steve Jaxon and Harry Duke. Harry Duke describes a 32-point sheet that Dan brought, full of stories from his life. Dan ends up telling about several of those stories, in this show and the next one a week later. In the 1950s his parents won a Pepsodent toothpaste contest by writing 25 words about the brand in clever rhyming couplets. […]

This podcast show is originally from August 19, 2020, featuring Lisa Amaroli, winemaker, and Chris Benziger, from Benziger Family Winery. (Due to a schedule pre-empt for an Nba game, there is no new CWC show this week.) Lisa Amaroli, winemaker at Benziger Family Winery, and Chris Benziger both join Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. Chris’ family founded the winery in the early 1970s and Lisa Amaroli has been their winemaker since 1999. […]

California Wine Country today features some 2023 SF Chronicle Wine Competition winners, with Mark Klaver who joins Harry Duke, Tom Simoneau and Barry Herbst in the studio. Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger are away this week. Mark Klaver is the Marketing and Sponsorship Director for the San Francisco Chronicle wine competition, which takes place in Cloverdale. Formerly, its name was the Cloverdale Citrus Fair Wine Competition but the Chronicle took it over as a sponsor in […]

Balletto Vineyards winemaker Anthony Beckman is our guest on California Wine Country today, with Dan Berger and Harry Duke. Steve Jaxon is away today. Anthony has been on the show before, the last time was this show in August of 2019. Balletto Vineyards today has more than 800 acres of vines and produces all of its own wine from its own grapes. They were a very successful vegetable farm before deciding to convert to growing grapes. […]

We feature low alcohol wines with Barry Herbst of Bottle Barn and Steve Jaxon, Harry Duke and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. Barry has brought some interesting wines that are not like the usual ones we discuss on this show, as these are low-alcohol and non-alcoholic wines. The first is a Tyler Chardonnay from Lompoc in Santa Barbara County. It reminds Dan Berger of a Chablis, but with interesting aromatics. Low alcohol wines can be […]

Fred Cline and his daughter Hilary Cline from Cline Family Cellars join Steve Jaxon, Harry Duke and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. Fred Cline was last on California Wine Country on this episode in 2018. He made his first commercial wine in the early ’80s in Oakley, California, then moved to the Sonoma Carneros area in 1989. But he made wine with his grandfather too. In 1982 he had graduated from UC Davis and purchased […]

Tom Simoneau, co-owner of Simoneau Vineyards is here with his annual Wines of the Year show for 2022, on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon, Harry Duke and Dan Berger. Every year, Tom Simoneau brings us his favorite wines of the year at the end of December. You can hear the episodes for 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 here on the CWC website and you can read about the years 2016 and 2015 on Tom’s website. […]

Ross Reedy, VML Wine director of winemaking, joins Steve Jaxon, Harry Duke and Dan Berger on California Wine Country today. He is director of winemaking at VML Wines. This is his first time on California Wine Country. They begin tasting their Chardonnay, called Sun. The name VML comes from the name of their founding winemaker Virginia Murray Lambrick, who retired in 2018 and who was Ross Reedy’s mentor. He started there in 2012 “dragging hoses” happily doing […]

Jason Schneider and Lauren Patz join Steve Jaxon, Harry Duke and Dan Berger today on California Wine Country. Lauren Patz runs Redwood Empire Whiskey and Jason is the GM of Bottle Barn, where he is also in charge of the Spirits section. He wants the shop to have all the kinds of spirits that people want in addition to wine. They have also expanded the website, even if they can only ship spirits within the state of California. […]

Alan Baker, co-founder of Cartograph Wines, joins Steve Jaxon, Dan Berger and Harry Duke on California Wine Country. He has been a guest on this show a few times, most recently on February 17, 2021. From Radio to Wine (and Back Again) He used to have a career in public broadcasting, 15 years at Minnesota Public Radio in Minneapolis / St. Paul, doing classical music programming. Wine got his interest during that time after one good […]

Dan Barwick, winemaker at Trecini Winery, is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon, Harry Duke and Dan Berger. He has been a guest on this show a few other times, most recently on January 12, 2022, and before that on this episode of July 21, 2021. Harrod’s of London Dan Barwik’s first job was at Harrod’s in London. At the age of 19 he worked in the food halls, starting in the meat department. […]

Mike Kobler, winemaker from Kobler Estate Winery is Tom Simoneau’s guest today on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. He tells the story about how his grandparents retired in the 1980s and purchased a 4-acre property in Dry Creek. His grandfather had to travel to South America for a final year of work, while his grandmother studied viticulture at Santa Rosa JC. She also hired Rich Thomas, who was a teacher. They began […]

Oded Shakked, owner and winemaker at Longboard Vineyards, is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. He was last on the show in 2020 on this episode during the pandemic, when all the guests were calling in on the phone. Previously he was also on the show in 2018 on this episode.  Oded is a surfer so that explains the name Longboard Vineyards.  He has lived, worked and surfed on four continents, […]