Today we take a trip to the country to meet Craig Camp, the General Manager of Troon Vineyard in the Applegate Valley AVA of Southwest Oregon. Troon is a certified organic and biodynamic winery and estate vineyard that focuses on blends made from the grapes of Southern France, which seem to do extremely well in this northern area with a hot Mediterranean climate. Craig was brought in to regenerate every aspect of Troon, and we had a very enjoyable conversation about everything that is happening there that he has helped implement. From soil testing and replanting and staff education to sheep dogs to organic vegetable gardens and more, even from the outside it’s exciting to hear about what he’s doing, and you can hear the excitement in the way he talks about it. Craig has a personal story in regards to wine that I can relate to as well. He fell in love with wine far away from where it was grown, and over the course of his life and several career changes, he worked backwards toward an understanding of how the finest wine begins in a healthy, probiotic soil. http://www.troonvineyard.com/ https://winecampblog.com/ Sponsor: https://centralaswine.com/

This episode highlights one of the new winemaking teams that are part of the Southern California Wine Rennaissance. Herrmann York is the brand new winery that is a partnership of three young gents: Dustin Herrmann, Garrett York, and Taylor York. They all originate and make wine from a part of California that is often both over-looked and unfairly maligned as a wine growing region: southern, specifically inland, California. The high desert. They are using their intelligence, passion, and loyalty to their corner of the world to prove that delicate, interesting, and delicious wines can be made in the desert. Hearing them talk about how they are doing this is a colorful journey through this climate and its extremes, the grapes that thrive there, and the creativity they are using to craft wines that actually haven’t been made before. https://www.herrmannyork.wine/ @herrmannyorkwine

Matt Niess discusses his winery slash cidery, North American Press, which is a California winery dedicated to native & hybrid grapes, heirloom apples, and native ingredients. Matt forages wild grapes to blend with heirloom apples to make cider. He farms and makes wine from a small Baco Noir vineyard on the Sonoma Coast that is own-rooted in clay, below the fog line, and is not tilled NOR SPRAYED. And he’s convincing vineyard owners to let him foot the bill to plant an array of hybrid grapes in valuable vineyard land. All of this takes a fair bit of courage. Matt is risking his livelihood on grapes and ideas that California has ignored and even shunned for over a century. He’s asking difficult questions, and he’s bravely willing to face the consequences of the unknown. Even doing this podcast was an act of courage for Matt, as you’ll find out. Matt is willing to face these risks because the truth is that he isn’t just making wine, he’s on a mission to eliminate prejudice.  Matt is breaking down prejudice against non-european grapes and wine flavors, prejudice against native plants and foods, and prejudice against the ways and wisdom of native peoples whose knowledge of the natural world may hold answers to some of the most urgent issues we’re facing today. Once you’ve talked to Matt, it’s hard to talk about terroir or a sense of place in wine grown in California and North America in general without asking the questions he’s asking. And it’s become increasingly clear that asking these questions is necessary if we want to preserve biodiversity, get rid of our dependence on chemicals, survive extreme weather, and improve food security.

Laura Brennan Bissel is the owner of and winemaker for INCONNU. She built her career, INCONNU, and a new project in the Columbia Gorge, by following her curiosity, her drive to find an occupation that allowed her to express her innate creativity, all while being guided by her love of wine. As you’ll hear, Laura is beautifully articulate about some of the most important aspects of wine – its ability to inspire and encapsulate our love of life, and its sensual magic that somehow transcends the senses. But these aren’t romantic notion to her. They give wine its depth, and she’s quick to emphasize the respect and patience that great wine demands.   If you have an artists soul, If you are a free spirit, if you learn by doing, and if you are driven to create something beautiful and good… then you will enjoy getting to know Laura. She’s as much Muse as winemaker, and you’ll find yourself equal parts inspired and enchanted.

My guest for this episode is Alice Anderson. Alice is the vigneron for Amevive winery, based in Santa Barbara County. Alice leases the Ibarra-Young vineyard in the Los Olivos district and farms it with regenerative organic and biodynamic viticulture in partnership with animals and the native flora and fauna. In this interview we really dig into the winegrowing and winemaking specifics of how to craft beautiful, natural wines, even in hot, crazy years like 2020. It’s clear that Alice’s brilliance is in her holistic perspective on both caring for vines and making wine, and her generosity of spirit and thoughtfulness come through in the way she approaches every aspect of her passion. Amevive is only on its second vintage, and its already clear we can expect great things to come from Alice. https://www.amevivewine.com/ Sponsor: https://centralaswine.com/

There is a lot of confusion about the term "organic." These misunderstandings lead a lot of people to be incorrectly dismissive or critical of “organic” foods and practices.  This is a short episode to clear up these misunderstandings about "organic." Adam Huss, host and creator of the Organic Wine Podcast, discusses exactly what Organic does NOT mean, and what it actually does mean. 

Nadine Brown’s story is in many ways a classic American tale. Nadine is an immigrant. She came to the US to study and work, and when plans didn’t work out, she found herself applying for a job as a restaurant host in Washington DC. She had no previous restaurant experience and had every intention for it to be a temporary position. However, she fell in love with the hospitality industry. In restaurants she discovered her love of the energy and adrenaline of working the floor, and she discovered wine. It fascinated her and sparked her curiosity. Born in Jamaica, she grew up with coffee and rum and no exposure to wine, but once she found it she couldn’t let it go. Through hard work, smarts, and determination – that good old American cliché - she learned, and trained, and worked her way up to become an award winning sommelier and wine director for Charlie Palmer Steakhouse – one of the premier restaurants for DC’s political and social elite. At Charlie Palmer she built a renowned cellar focused on American wines and served wine to people at the highest levels of politics, even a future president, all while meeting her husband in the kitchen and becoming the mother of two children.  Now she is a proud board member of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan D.C. and the extremely well-named nonprofit the Veraison Project, which is dedicated to bringing more color to the wine industry through greater access to wine education, wine certifications, mentoring, and networking for people of color. She continues to be a mentor to many young professionals in the business, and she strives to encourage more women to join and stay in the industry. @nadinewinebrown https://www.theveraisonproject.com/   Sponsor: https://centralaswine.com/      

Dr. Andrew Smith is the COO and Chief Scientist for the Rodale Institute. The Rodale Institute the non-profit that was the birthplace of the organic movement. It has been the global leader at the forefront of the science behind organic agriculture. The Institute has conducted decades-long comparative studies on the results between organic farming versus conventional farming. The Rodale Institute has amassed, and continues to accumulate, the science-based data that can answer some of the biggest questions facing our world today. Questions like: What kind of agriculture is the most productive during droughts? What kind of agriculture sequesters more carbon? What kind of agriculture produces the most nutritious food? And, can we feed earths billions of inhabitants without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides? Bonus question: Can we use marijuana as a vineyard cover crop? In this interview with Dr. Drew Smith you’ll come to realize that the work he is doing at the Rodale Institute is about more than just improving agriculture around the planet… it’s about human survival. And there is hope! https://rodaleinstitute.org/ https://regenorganic.org/ Sponsor: https://centralaswine.com/

As a young US diplomat working in Switzerland, Sandra Taylor fell in love with wine while visiting the nearby Burgundy region of France. Sandra is now CEO of Sustainable Business International, a consulting business that assists clients at various stages of environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice, primarily in the food and beverage sector. Sandra has studied wine extensively for many years – she completed the French Wine Scholars course in 2010 and is a graduate of the Wine MBA program at The Bordeaux School of Management/Kedge Business School in France.  She is a public speaker on wine internationally, a columnist with Wine Review Online and a member of the Magnum Club, a global organization of women wine producers, sommeliers, writers and critics. Sandra has been a senior executive with Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle, where she led global corporate responsibility and sustainability in coffee supply chain, and with Eastman Kodak Company where she oversaw global public affairs and corporate citizenship. She continues to speak and teach globally about sustainability in wine, and has literally written the book about sustainability in the wine business… it’s called: The Business of Sustainable Wine (2017) – and, like Sandra, it is a wealth of vital information about sustainability. We talk about many of the issues around sustainability, including how to define it as more than just a marketing buzzword, why wine is uniquely positioned to capture consumer attention and move all industry toward sustainability, how important it is for the wine industry to set an example of sustainability, how businesses can better communicate the importance of these values to consumers, and why sustainable practices ultimately result in more delicious wine. Sandra is clearly a brilliant mind who loves wine and we barely scratch the surface of her extensive knowledge about sustainability in wine.  Enjoy! https://discoversustainablewine.com/ http://www.sustainablebizintl.com/meet-our-founder/ Thanks for listening! https://centralaswine.com/

Roni Selects is a preeminent importer and distributor of natural wines, based in los angeles. And Roni Ginach is its founder. She was the former wine direct for the renowned restaurant Michael’s of Santa Monica until she was given the opportunity to help distribute wine for California’s Grandfather of Natural Wine – Tony Coturri. From there a new career was born. Now Roni represents winemakers from France, Germany, Italy, The US and Georgia and more and – as you’ll hear – she balances her time between navigating the bureaucratic labyrinth required to move wine from one side of the world to the other, and visiting and relishing the beauty of the people and places where the wines are produced. Along the way she is helping to shape industry awareness about the importance of natural, regenerative, organic wine growing and making practices to the quality and deliciousness of wine, as well as the need to eliminate some of the dogma around natural wine righteousness, and how natural wine can be a more inclusive segment of the industry. Roni’s story highlights her love and appreciation for the amazing wines that are a result of a deep passion for farming grapes holistically, with care and respect for the earth – a kind of agriculture that is, unfortunately, still somewhat radical and even subversive. Enjoy! https://www.roniselects.com/ https://www.lacruzdecomalwines.com/ https://centralaswine.com/

Pamela Marrone is the Founder of Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. and multiple other companies dedicated to finding, developing and distributing Biological Pesticides. Her companies have been responsible for several of the most widely used organic pesticides in the wine industry today, including: Serenade, Sonata, Regalia, Grandevo, and Venerate. Pam is on the boards of several institutions, companies, and foundations and is called on to participate in agricultural think tanks to help solve some of the biggest problems in viticulture and agriculture as well because she has dedicated her life to developing and promoting alternatives to synthetic chemical pesticides. And she advises others who have started companies in this field. Biologicals are naturally derived from the microbial life in the soil or from plant extracts. Most are allowed in organic viticulture and agriculture, yet they integrate so well into conventional programs that they are beginning to help transition conventional farmers to organic farming. Many of the chemicals Pam has helped develop over the years are now the standards for organic pesticides used across the wine industry. This fascinating field of study is far behind where it could be, and that means there are exciting opportunities for discoveries and investment still to come. Pam is a fantastic spokesperson for biologicals, and makes a convincing case for their importance in an industry dominated by synthetic petro-chemicals. I’m thrilled to be able to share Pam with you through this interview. She has been doing great work for a long time and has been helping to steer viticulture – and all agriculture – in the right direction. We barely scratch the surface of her knowledge and experience, so I hope this will inspire you to learn more. Enjoy! Contact Pam: [email protected] Learn more: www.marronebio.com

Ricky Taylor worked in an office in Houston Texas and one day decided to plant a regeneratively farmed vineyard 600 miles away on a mountainside in the middle of nowhere in far west Texas at over a mile high in elevation. What Ricky and his partner, Katie, are doing with Alta Marfa – their vineyard and soon to be winery outside of Marfa, Texas - is something that essentially hasn’t been done before in Texas. So to make it happen they have relied on the knowledge and assistance of a network of people that spans the continent, as well as a lot of hard work, hours on the road, and the belief that leaving the natural world intact is essential to making the highest quality wine. The story of Alta Marfa is just beginning, but already it’s one that – like the Texas sky at night- shines with beauty and the sense that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. http://www.altamarfa.com/  

Among several other things, Jeff Lowenfels is the author of a trilogy of books that should be required reading for everyone on the planet, but especially those of us who work in wine. His books are titled: Teaming with Microbes, Teaming with Nutrients, and Teaming with Fungi Be warned – your mind is about to be blown. If you haven’t been exposed to the soil food web, it’s likely that everything you think you know about soil, and fertilizer, and growing plants is wrong. This is the new Soil 101, and the science, as Jeff lays it out, is so compelling and fascinating that you will never again walk through a field, or forest, or vineyard without a sense of wonder and awe. And that glass of wine in your hand will become something even more precious, and perhaps metaphysical. If you have ANY interest in producing, understanding, or drinking amazing wine, what you’re about to learn is the foundation for it all. I don’t think I’m overstating it by saying that what Jeff has to teach us is revolutionary. https://www.jefflowenfels.com/  

Brook Williams used to be an accountant, and yet he still made the seemingly crazy decision to get into the wine business as a biodyanmic grape farmer/ vineyard owner. How did he justify such a potentially economically risky decision to the accounting part of his brain? His answer to this will give anyone with a dream of owning a vineyard some practical financial ideas about how to make vineyard ownership make sense.  Brook and his family own three vineyards in the Santa Barabara and San Luis Obispo Counties of California, and make wine under the brand "J. Dirt," a nickname his daughter gave him. Before jumping into owning three family-run biodynamic vineyards, Brook's experience with wine had been as an account and general manager for several very large, very conventional wineries. We talk about how and why he made the transition, and the knowledge he has learned along the way to convince him of the benefits of biodynamic viticulture. https://jdirtwines.com/  

Doug Swim is the California Sales Manager for Amy Atwood Selections, one of the premier distributors of natural wine in California. The portfolio that Doug supervises includes the most well-known names in the New California wine movement, and we discuss what it's like to work with and be part of this new, crazy thing that's happening here in California and in Los Angeles specifically. This is an insider's look at the LA wine industry, as well as a discussion about the heart and soul that inspires it.  Doug uses the term "agricultural artists" at one point to describe the passionate producers of natural wine. This term points to the creative vision, as well as the connection to the earth, that may be key reasons so many people have fallen in love with natural wine.  This ain't your daddy's juice! http://www.amyatwood.com/ https://historicvineyardsociety.org/  

Abe Schoener has been a disrupter and part of the avant garde of the new school of California wine for so long he’s old school new school. Since 2000 he has been the mind behind The Scholium Project – his winery/philosophical pursuit of a natural, vineyard-specific wine experience. Recently he has moved his base of operations to downtown Los Angeles, and is beginning to make wines from unique old vineyards in Southern California under the auspices of the Los Angeles River Wine Company. Some of the vineyards Abe is working with predate prohibition, and have been untouched by human hands since the 1950’s or 60’s. In our conversation, Abe digs into how he has begun to carefully care for these special vineyards and make wine from them, and what these wines taste like now and promise to taste like in the future. We also talk about Abe’s non-dogmatic perspective on being in the Natural Wine category, and his desire to make wine a unique experience rather than a something defined by grape variety. Abe’s temporary winery location is outdoors in downtown LA industrial zone, and we had the great fortune of recording this podcast while someone was jackhammering nearby throughout the entire interview. So, please bear with the authentic audio background texture. Other than that, it’s a fantastic interview that I hope you’ll get as much out of as I did.

Chloe Miranda is the sommelier at Birdie Gs Restaurant in Santa Monica, California. Birdie G’s is one of our favorite restaurants, not just because the food and wine is amazing, but also because they use a significant percentage of organically grown ingredients and feature many wines grown organically (or better). Chloe is my favorite sommelier. She’s a consummate and egoless professional, asks good questions before trying to suggest a wine, offered us tastes of multiple wines so that we could sample before committing, and generally put us at ease with the entire wine selection process. When Chloe is our host, We always end up drinking more wine than we thought we would, which I think would make Chole’s bosses happy too. The other thing I like about Chloe is that she’s self-taught and has not gone through the traditional certification process to get to become a sommelier. In this interview she discusses some of the pros and cons of taking this path, and how she continues to educate herself about wine. We also talk about some of the market trends with regard to organic wine, and some of Chloe’s perspectives that help make her successful as a sommelier.

Matt Clark is an assistant professor of horticulture and enology at the University of Minnesota. He heads up the U of M participation in VitisGen2, a multi-institutional grape breeding collaboration that has a goal to breed new resistant grape varieties that taste delicious and can be grown with far less pesticide use than standard European grapes. Matt is at the cutting edge of the academic efforts that may result in the next great truly American wine from actual American grapes. The relevance of the ideas that Matt addresses cannot be overstated. The current wine industry around the world is built on a handful of varieties of the same species of grape. These varieties have not changed for hundreds of years while the viruses, fungi, and insects that prey upon those grapevines have continued to evolve and adapt. Some day – and that day is rapidly approaching – there will be a reckoning. New virus and fungal pressures will eventually overcome our ability to successfully grow these out-dated varieties without massive amounts of crutches – chemical or otherwise. The main hurdle to allowing grapes – and therefore wine – to adapt, is consumer perception created by pervasively marketed ideas of the supremacy of European varieties. In this conversation we talk about what Matt and other scientists are doing to create the future of wine, and I hope that it will help open your eyes to the immense potential and many options that are becoming available for grape growers and wine lovers if we expand our pallets and begin to embrace the change that is necessary to advance wine.  Enjoy!

Andy Brennan is the owner of Aaron Burr Cidery in New York, and he's the author of Uncultivated - a book about making cider and a cider business from wild, foraged apples.  Real apple cider is one of America's finest wines, and Andy is one of the finest cider makers in America. In this interview we explore his philosophies and strategies for navigating the modern world with an perspective that is inspired by the timeless cycles of the apple tree. 

Rudy Marchesi is the chairman of the board of directors for Demeter USA, the national Biodynamic certifying organization for all biodynamic agriculture. Rudy is also a managing partner for Montinore Estate. Montinore is based in the Willamette valley in Oregon, and is one of the largest biodynamic wineries in the nation, growing classic Oregon Pinot Noir, as well as some Italian varieties that are not common at all in Oregon. In this interview, Rudy gives us a great overview of the history and benefits of practicing biodynamic vinticulture. Those benefits extend to the biology and economics of growing wine, but also to the taste of the resulting wine. He talks about practicing biodynamics at both a micro-vineyard, as well as at a large estate like Montinore. We also touch on what it means to have your vineyards vs your winery certified, how biodynamic certification compares to organic certification, and how Demeter incorporates new scientific knowledge into its regulations. If you have heard about biodynamics or drank a biodynamic wine, and wondered what it entails, or if you think you know about it and have your doubts, this interview may be just the thing for you. A big thanks to Rudy for taking the time to layout an articulate and well-argued case for biodynamics. And thank you for listening… enjoy!

Mimi Casteel is Imbibe Magazine’s 2020 Wine Person of the Year. She’s the vigneron for Hope Well, a certified organic vineyard and a winery in Oregon that she farms regeneratively with animals and birds and all kinds of flora and fauna with no tilling and no fences. Please do yourself a favor and find Mimi’s YouTube video about glyphosate. It’s a master class on soil and vine microbiology, and the devastating effect RoundUp has had on our food and wine. You can find it in a blog post I did. Also, check out any article or interview you can find online about Mimi. She’s one of the truly brilliant scientific minds working at the cutting edge of regenerative viticulture and agriculture in general. She thinks deeply about so many of the issues facing the wine industry, agriculture, and society at large, and Everything she talks about is full of big, important ideas that could shape the future of our world for the better. This interview is no different. We skip the backstory and dive right into the big ideas that are occupying Mimi’s mind these days involving experimenting with a sulf-sustaining community. We talk about the need for there to be more integration between rural and urban worlds, the ways that she farms and solves problems at Hope Well, the need to integrate and involve vineyard workers in all aspects of winemaking and the wine world, and so much more. As with anyone on the cutting edge, many of Mimi’s ideas are controversial and even incendiary. I hope you are incensed, intriqued, and inspired by this interview with one of the great minds of our time.