California Wine Country

Steve Jaxon & Dan Berger
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California Wine Country Podcast

A weekly radio show and podcast all about the business, science and pleasure of wine. Our guests are the all-star team of the most interesting and influential winemakers in the business, who bring in their favorite wines for tasting. There are always interesting stories behind each vintage and each guest, all in a relaxed, down-to-earth atmosphere.

  1. 30 AUG

    Dan Berger Harvest Time Selections

    Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Dan Berger is back on California Wine Country after some vacation travel and today he joins Steve Jaxon with some thoughts about harvest time and some wines to taste. Dan Berger and Steve Jaxon will talk about harvest time today and taste some wines that Dan has brought.  We were going to have Deborah Del Fiorentino on to talk about her organization of wine competitions including the Sonoma County Harvest Fair. But we will have to reschedule her. In the meantime, Dan Berger has brought some wines from his extensive personal cellar. This year Spring was cool and the vines matured more slowly than usual. It took a long time for the vines to come out of hibernations. Then, after bud break, we had come brutally warm weather, then cool again. There wasn’t enough rain to do any damage. Then late summer, we had 100 degree days but much colder at night, which favors retention of acid. Growers and winemakers are facing a choice. Either pick early, save acidity and hope for flavor, or pick late and need to adjust later. With all the variables in play, Dan says, “…it will be a chicken with three legs.” https://calwinecountry.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Buddy-Hackett-3-leg-Chick.mp3 Here is a California Wine Country bonus track, it’s Buddy Hackett on Carson in the ‘70s on the subject of a 3-legged chicken. Some Chardonnay and Pinot Noir will be harvested early. But if you are a winery purchasing fruit from a grower for the first time, “…you’re on your own,” says Dan. The decision of when to pick may also be affected by a labor shortage. They taste a vineyard-designated Pinot Noir from Etude Vineyards, grown at Hallberg vineyards.

    18 min

  2. 23 AUG

    Dennis McCarter

    Dennis McCarter, owner and winemaker of McCarter Cellars, is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. This is his second time as a guest on CWC, the last time was this episode back in January of this year. Dan Berger is away again this week and Melissa Galliani joins us in the studio. Dennis tells about having taken a course at SRJC about pairing wine and food, which left him with the desire to start making wine. He started by making five gallons of Barbera in his garage. As he continued to make wine, he started winning awards, so he decided to go pro. That coincided with his transition out of the insurance business. The 2022 Sauvignon Blanc came from Rogers vineyard in Dry Creek Valley. The location is on the cooler side of the area. Dennis eventually finished enology studies at SRJC. His wines started winning awards right away. They continue to win recently. The inaugural Pinot Noir earned 98 points and took best of class at the North Coast Wine Challenge, sponsored by the Press Democrat and his Gewürztraminer took silver there. His Rosé, Pinkish, took a gold medal at Experience Rosé challenge. Click the logo to visit Davis Bynum Wines.   Dennis is involved in a group of American Vintners that meets quarterly. He is also on the board of the Sonoma Library Foundation, to do fund raising. With them, he helped organize Tasting Diversity, where they hosted events to raise exposure for African-American owned wineries. For more information about Tasting Diversity, visit this page at the Sonoma Library Foundation and scroll down to the middle of the page where it is listed among their other events. Discount Code There is a discount code WINERADIO for listeners to get 15% off. Dennis has accomplished a lot as a winemaker after only two years. His Gewurtztraminer is tasty and Dennis attributes its success to his method that includes he and his wife pressing the grapes with their own feet. His favorite wines to make are Pinot Noir and Zin, and aromatic whites like Gewurtztraminer. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series. McCarter Cellars will have a tasting room by the end of the year, in a location across from where Carol Shelton Wines is located. Wait for news by the end of harvest season. That is starting to get busy now.

    36 min

  3. 16 AUG

    Winesong! 2024

    Dan, Janice and Jamie. Janis McDonald and Jamie Peters are here to talk about Winesong! 2024 on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Winesong! takes place Sept. 6-7, 2024 at the Little River Inn. It is the annual fund raiser for the Mendocino Coast Healthcare Foundation. First, Dan Berger has brought a cellar wine, as he usually does. This is a 2007 St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc. He normally doesn't age this wine so long, but at 17 years it is "yummy" with a little green apple flavor. Usually a SV will age 6 or 7 years.The event this year is at the Little River Inn. It is two days of wine tasting, auctions and music, over the weekend of September 6 and 7. Winesong! Began in 1985 as a small wine tasting in a parking lot and grew year after year. It has always been a benefit for health care on the north coast. Winesong! is a Spectacular Scene Dan Berger has been going to this event for a long time. The wineries that participate are specialized in making very high quality wine. The scenery is also spectacular on the site and all around in the area. Click the logo to visit Davis Bynum Wines. For several years Winesong has been in the botanical garden. That location is being reorganized and they hope to return there as early as next year. There is a strong sense of community at this event. Friends see each other there every year. Everyone enjoys supporting the Mendocino hospital and health care facilities. There are two musical groups. Tenor Madness, a jazz band, plays Friday. On Saturday a rock cover band called the Casper Kings will play hits from the 80s and later. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series. Dan Berger notes that over the last 5 years, Anderson Valley wines have improved tremendously. So have Mendocino wines, generally, in the last decade. The tasting and the music, the food, all on Saturday. But Friday afternoon is the Pinot Noir celebration. It used to be just Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs but since 2015 they have opened it to other regions that make Pinot Noir, like Willamette, the Sonoma Coast and Central Coast. One thing that Dan appreciates about Winesong is that you get a chance to taste excellent wines from producers that you have never heard of before.

    36 min

  4. 9 AUG

    The Return of Winemaker Carol Shelton

    Winemaker Carol Shelton is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. CWC co-host Dan Berger is away this week. Carol is one of our most distinguished winemakers and a regular on this show. Her last time here was last January, in this episode with Dan Berger and with Harry Duke sitting in for Steve Jaxon. Carol Shelton graduated from UC Davis in 1978. This year will be her 48th harvest, and her 25th harvest for her own brand. There were a few years where she worked on two harvests in a year, in the northern and southern hemisphere. Carol Shelton worked for Mondavi, in Australia, in the Central Valley, for Rodney Strong for 20 years, for the Windsor Wines label. Zinfandel is her favorite varietal. It makes up about 70% of her production now. She wanted to show the world that Zin could be as noble a grape as Pinot and Cab. Old vines of Zin have a unique concentration of flavor. Wild Thing Carol Shelton Wines is located in a business park on Coffey Lane. This weekend she will be bottling a port that has been in the barrels since 2015. She calls it Tawny Sonoma. You can’t use the name Port anymore. That is the same as other geographical names that are protected like Sherry and Burgundy. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series. The name Wild Thing for her Zinfandel made with naturally occurring yeast, happened almost accidentally. There was one barrel that was not inoculated with yeast, and they put the words “wild thing” on the barrel. When they put it on a bottle, it sold like hotcakes. So that is how the brand was born. It was in the Top 100 Wines in the Wine Spectator, along with two other of her wines. There is also a 2023 Wild Thing Chardonnay which they are tasting. There is a little Viogner blended in, to give it some tropical notes. It is unusual, in that it is neither the steely type nor the buttery type. There are actually about 8 yeasts, each one brings some different flavors and she blends them all together before bottling. They even source some fruit from Southern California, from Cucamonga. Their vines are over 100 years old. They are old vines that are knee high with roots running 50 feet down. Coquille Blanc They also taste a Coquille Blanc, which is named for shellfish, and reflects her family coat of arms which has shells on it, for the name Shelton. The fruit all comes from Paso Robles. Click the logo to visit Davis Bynum Wines. Carol describes a game that her mother played with her. She set up blind tastings of different herbs and she had to describe the flavors and identify them. She liked the combination of art and science in winemaking. Then they taste the Rendez-Vous 2023 Rosé. "My Rosé is not one of those wimpy pale ones." All the flavor is in the skin and this one spends 2 days on the skins. It is a rather dark red, for a Rosé and goes well with any kind of food.  Modeled after a French Tavel Rosé, it is made of Carignane grapes.

    37 min

  5. 2 AUG

    Winemaker Dan Barwick

    Winemaker Dan Barwick with Melissa Galliani. Winemaker Dan Barwick is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Dan is the winemaker at Trecini Winery. He has been on CWC before, the most recent was this other episode recorded on Aug. 25, 2023. Our regular co-host Dan Berger is on vacation this week. Right away Steve Jaxon is loving Dan Barwick's Sauvignon Blanc. It's made with all Sonoma County fruit, mostly Russian River. It has rich flavors of apricot and mango. "Easy to drink," says Dan. Trecini has been bottling wine for 25 years. Dan took several courses at UC Davis and at Santa Rosa Junior College in winemaking including courses from Rich Thomas. He was at the forefront of changing viticulture in Sonoma County in ways which improved the quality of Sonoma County wines. He taught that you had to be in the vineyard to get to understand the vines. This helps him make decisions about pruning and harvesting. Sauvignon Blanc Dan says that Sauvignon Blanc is his favorite wine to make. He can make blends with fruit from different vineyards, to assemble the flavors he wants. It's hard to believe that such a good wine sells for $15. In addition to Sauvignon Blanc, Trecini also makes Chardonnay, Russian River Pinot Noir and Merlot, too. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series. Dan Barwick recently visited Croatia, staying in a town called Rovinj. The wine and food and the whole scene was incredibly beautiful. Dan suggests everyone put Croatia on the bucket list. It is on the coast so there is a lot of seafood. The local olive oil is very fine. A delicious glass of local wine will cost 2 or 3 dollars. Click the logo to visit Davis Bynum Wines. Dan Barwick talks about his early experience working in the food hall at Harrod's in London, where he was exposed to all the best of everything, including wine. The chocolates were right next to the wine department. He worked there from the age of 18 to 27.

    22 min

  6. 26 JUL

    Williams Selyem winemaker Jeff Mangahas

    Williams Selyem winemaker Jeff Mangahas is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Jeff has been on CWC as recently as last February on this episode, and previously here in 2021 and before that, on this episode from 2018. Wine Country Radio GM Melissa Galliani has brought a bottle of Dry Creek Chenin Blanc. Dry Creek is a sponsor of the KRSH Backyard Concert Series and their Chenin Blanc is a popular favorite. “Really refreshing,” says Jeff. Williams Selyem has a rich history as one of the original Russian River Valley producers. Their first commercial release was in 1981. They have been making interesting, small-production wines in Russian River Valley and other nearby regions. Williams Selyem: Russian River Valley Pioneers Williams Selyem worked with the growers in Russian River Valley, such as the Rocchioli and Martinelli vineyards. They produce 52 different wines, in small lots. The are not easy to get so the way to buy them is through the website. Click the logo to visit Davis Bynum Wines. Jeff Mangahas joined Williams Selyem in 2011 and took over winemaking and viticulture in 2014. This year is his 24th vintage. They taste the 2022 Estate Chardonnay. They are also well-known for Pinot Noir and Zin. This Chardonnay is unique because it has 20 different Chardonnay clones all planted together in the field. It presents all the different flavors that are present in the different clones and it makes for a complex wine. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series. Jeff’s history as a winemaker started with his interest in science and biology. He majored in molecular and cellular biology at University of Washington. He was interested in research science and worked in cancer research. Wine was a hobby. He moved back east to Princeton University to work in the molecular biology department there. The change to wine as a profession was a romantic idea that he made happen by going to UC Davis for a Masters in Enology. Dan Berger would keep this wine for no more than 2 or 3 years to get it in the glass before the fruit flavors fade. Jeff tells about how they still use foot treading to press some grapes because there is no better method to get the results that he wants.

    43 min

  7. 19 JUL

    Kevin Bersofsky, Montagne Russe, Petaluma Gap

    Kevin Bersofsky from Montagne Russe Wines joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. He has been on CWC before, most recently on this episode of August 3, 2022. On Saturday August 10, the Wind to Wine festival is at the Gambonini Family Ranch in Petaluma. They start by tasting a sparkling wine that Kevin Bersofsky has made. Dan calls it "a very serious bubbly." It's a Brut Rosé and it is very dry. The flavors are fruity but not sweet. The Petaluma Gap was designated as an AVA in 2017. Kevin was using vineyards that were there before the AVA became official, like Springhill Ranch, Roberts Road, Gap's Crown, Terra de Promissio, Keller Estates, Sunchase, Night Wing, ... Montagne Russe Montagne Russe is the French, Italian and Spanish word for a Roller-Coaster. It literally means "Russian Mountains" because it was russian impresarios who brought ice to Paris and used it to decorate their roller coaster attractions. It can be in the 90s in the Petaluma Gap area, but by evening the wind comes in and it can be 20 degrees cooler. It blows in from Bodega Bay, off the sea. There are only two places that have east-west valleys that produce great wine, Santa Barbara County and Petaluma Gap. Dan says that the Petaluma Gap wines all have good structure because the acidity is strong. The grapes don't ripen as fast, so by staying on the vine they build up acidity. The average wind speed is 8 MPH faster in the gap than anywhere else in Sonoma County. The grapes like to cool down. The Gambonini Family Ranch will be the host of the Wind to Wine festival, with food music, wine talks and 30 or more Petaluma Gap wineries pouring wines. Dan's favorite Syrahs come from northern Victoria in Australia. They don't even import them to the US, but Dan Berger has some in his estensive personal cellar. The next wine they taste is the Montagne Russe 2021 Pinot Noir from the Roberts Road vineyard. Kevin knows that this is a vineyard that always makes good wine. Dan gets traces of cherry and also pomegranate. Steve likes the neologism Nutmeggy. Dan explains how the Sonoma Coast appellation was too varied and needed better definition. So the Petaluma Gap AVA was truly unique and deserved to be created.

    24 min

  8. 12 JUL

    Justin Seidenfeld, Rodney Strong winemaker

    Melissa Galliani, Dan Berger & Justin Seidenfeld. Justin Seidenfeld, Rodney Strong head winemaker, joins Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger on California Wine Country. Justin Seidenfeld has been on CWC a few times, most recently on this episode of April 27, 2022. They begin tasting a brand new wine that they just launched on June 1st. It is a single vineyard 2023 Sauvignon Blanc from one of their estate vineyards called Bud’s Ranch. Justin modelled this wine after a Bordeaux style, it is richer than the usual SV. 55% made in large oak barrels, then the rest is done in stainless steel. Dan says it is aimed at being ready to drink now and also to be held in the cellar. 2023 was an interesting vintage, it was cooler than average, which gives the wines structure without being tart. There is just enough acidity to have balance. They also use a rotating egg-shaped vessel for mixing during fermentation, which gives it lees contact. Justin started in 2005 at Iron Horse Vineyards while still going to school at UC Davis. Then he worked at Robert Mondavi before coming to Rodney Strong. Rodney Strong had the thirteenth bonded winery in California. He did a lot of firsts, like planting Chardonnay in Chalk Hill and makin the first Alexander Valley single vineyard Cabernet. He was also a founder of the Russian River Valley and Chalk Hill AVAs. Justin Seidenfeld helped drive the approval of the Petaluma Gap AVA. Click the logo to visit Davis Bynum Wines. Dan Berger started writing about wine in 1976, working for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. He had a very informative 2-hour lunch interview with Rodney Strong that year. 1158 Acres of Vineyards Rodney Strong winery is now owned by the Klein family and now owns 12 vineyard sites with 1158 acres total. It is critical to their success to have control over the vineyards as well as production. Dan Berger notices the flavor of fresh-cut new-mown hay in this Sauvignon Blanc which makes it unique. Click the logo to visit our sponsor Rodney Strong for info on the 2024 Summer Concert series. Rodney Strong is famous for its Cabernets and for its Chalk Hill Chardonnay. They also make a very good Pinot Noir, all from Russian River Valley. Their Alexander Valley Estate Cabernet retails for about $20. Justin says it punches above its weight, at that price. They literally buy their barrels as trees in France. That and the fact that they own their vineyards means their retail price is modest, they can focus on quality and evolve. They have just finished rennovating their vineyards and are ready for generations in the future. August 24 is the Single Vineyard Dinner, when they release their top wines. They taste one that is a 2019 100% single vineyard Cabernet, which is a demonstration of terroir. The 3 wines to be revealed on August 24 are similar except for their vineyard location so they taste differently. As Justin describes, Rodney Strong’s intention is to surprise and delight.

    47 min
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About

A weekly radio show and podcast all about the business, science and pleasure of wine. Our guests are the all-star team of the most interesting and influential winemakers in the business, who bring in their favorite wines for tasting. There are always interesting stories behind each vintage and each guest, all in a relaxed, down-to-earth atmosphere.

Information

  • Creator
    Steve Jaxon & Dan Berger
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2024
  • Episodes
    88
  • Rating
    Clean

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