California Wine Country

Steve Sangiacomo from Sangiacomo Family Wines joins Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell on California Wine Country. This is his first time on the show. The Sangiacomo family has been growing grapes in the Petaluma Gap area before it was identified as an AVA. They purchased their first property in 1927. The Roberts Road was planted in 1999 with about 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. They have about 20 wineries that make single vineyard wines from it. In 2016 they launched their own label, and Roberts Road was at the top of the list for sourcing. The Wind to Wine Festival is back this year, after a one-year hiatus, on Saturday, October 17 from 1 to 4 pm, at the Gambonini Ranch. There will be Petaluma Gap wines and lots of food options. There will be an auction of wines and wine-related experiences. Tickets are $75 for general admission and $95 for VIP. Click here for all the info, Petaluma Gap dot com. They get plenty of fog and it is a low-yielding site. This year is probably their lightest crop ever. This wine they are tasting is a 2022 Sangiacomo Chardonnay. Daedalus describes an understated elegance from flavors of pears. Dan says it is already tasty and shows its potential for aging too. It is a clone of old Wente, Dijon 95 and clone 17. The blend of these three produces an elegance beyond just old Wente alone. Vines are drought-tolerant plants. Steve points out that vines are drought-tolerant plants that don’t need a lot of water. But you have to give them enough so that when you get heat spikes, the vines can withstand it. Next, they taste the Roberts Road Pinot Noir. They have 5 clones there, which allows them to play with more options. They ferment all 5 clones separately so they can blend any way they want. Dan detects a unique forest floor component that you don’t get from anywhere else, except maybe Santa Cruz. When the Sangiacomo family started their own label, after supplying high-quality grapes to other winemakers for many years, they had to be sure the quality was first rate and the price could not undercut their customers’ retail prices. Steve says he and his brother and sister learned how to work together from their father. Now the fourth generation is starting to get involved in the wine business. The Wind to Wine Festival The Wind to Wine Festival is back this year, after a one-year hiatus, on Saturday, October 17 from 1 to 4 pm, at the Gambonini Ranch. There will be Petaluma Gap wines and lots of food options. There will be an auction of wines and wine-related experiences. Tickets are $75 for general admission and $95 for VIP. Click here for all the info, Petaluma Gap dot com. 

Jeff Mangahas, Williams Selyem VP of Winemaking, is back on California Wine Country with Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell. The last time he was on the show was this episode in November 22, 2024. Dr. Damien Wilson is staying with us to, from the previous segment. He is the head of the Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute. The first wine tasted is a 2024 Williams Selyem Chardonnay that says “Estate” on the label. Jeff explains that it comes from one of the four estate properties they own. This is the Drake Estate. They own the land and manage the farming. Then, they make the wine and label it as coming from that place. Dan considers it a fine-tuning exercise. They can do anything they want to without any other influences. Eleven Vintages Jeff Mangahas has been at Williams Selyem since 2016 so this is his eleventh vintage there. They harvested their last grapes today, September 18th. The founders of Williams Selyem winery set down a tradition that Jeff feels strongly about continuing. Dan tells the story of how Burt Williams ran the presses for the San Francisco Chronicle by day and ran winery in his spare time. He and Ed Selyem started the project with a sense of style of Russian River Valley wines, before most other wineries were there. The next tasting is the Louis MacGregor Estate Pinot Noir. It is outside Windsor on East Side Road. It gets the Russian River Valley coastal fog that slows down the ripening process and preserves the acidity. Dan says it has a more earthy and powerful character since it has more herbal notes and a little more power and richness. It is quite young, and Jeff says they need seven to ten years. Jeff explains that their wines are made for that kind of aging. This wine is delicious right now, at two years. But Dan has wines like this that are 40 years old and still coming on. After eleven years Jeff still feels that he is under the influence of Burt Williams who was a genius. You have to be very gentle with Pinot Noir, timing has to be perfect and it has to be handled with care. His approach was simple and he feels that he is continuing that style. He even practices ancient techniques of foot treading. Dan notes that Williams Selyem wines never suffer from tannins because of their gentle methods. They use stainless steel repurposed dairy tanks, which are wider and have open tops. “The philosophy was correct from the beginning,” says Jeff. Jeff makes 25 different Pinot Noirs. Some are blends, but 19 are single site origins. It is a study in soils and in terroir. All of the gentle house methods were used on them, so the differences are due to the vineyards and the soil and terroir of the place. 

Dan Berger speaks with Daedalus Howell about the state of harvest and the wine industry right now on California Wine Country. He is occasionally the featured guest, the last time was this show from last May with his personal picks from Bottle Barn. Dan reports that the crop is very light this year. Especially Cabernet Sauvignon is looking “ratty” and there is virtually no fruit. The growers are facing a dilemma. Some grapes look sound and others don’t. They have to pick something, but when? On the eastern side of Sonoma County the Cabernet Sauvignon looks horrible. We had a lot of rain in the spring that caused some shatter. That is when the buds that are being formed are damaged by heat or rain or hail. There was a lot of uneven bloom. But the weather wasn’t warm enough to help the vines recover. Champagne grapes were being picked in June. Some Sonoma County Cabernet growers finished harvesting in late August, which is very early. Oversupply and Alternatives have lowered wine consumption. The slowdown in sales right now has many origins. Covid trained people to order wine for home delivery. People ordered more wine than they needed. Now people have more wine at home. Then trends moved toward reducing consumption of alcohol. Some people quit drinking and others looked for low alcohol or zero alcohol or alcohol removed wines. There are also pre-mixed cocktails with moderate alcohol and low sugar levels. So, overstock plus more options has made wine consumption drop. Dan thinks the next category of buyer has yet to discover wine. The Sonoma County Wine Library in Healdsburg has a presentation scheduled for February about next generation families in the wine business. They will hear from young people in winemaking families and why they stayed with it. High-quality wine is expensive to produce, and it can’t be sold for less than $60. They just opened a bottle of 2021 Black Kite Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. Jeff Gaffner is the winemaker and he has been on CWC before on this episode. It still has “that youthful pizzaz” but is also starting to show some creaminess and richness. The oak flavors are not over the top. Dan Berger’s International Wine Competition This coming December, Dan Berger will hold the 45th consecutive annual edition of his international wine competition. His judges are mostly winemakers and some wine columnists. He is adding canned wines and ciders to the competition this year. Dan is also interested in judging quality wines in half bottles. He thinks that half bottles will be important for the future of the wine industry. It comes to about two glasses and that is convenient for a lot of diners. It also allows the buyer to get a high-quality wine because the purchase price can be about half. Trader Joes has a line of half bottles. They are often a source of new ideas for low-priced options. Dan says that California brands don’t want to discount too much because they don’t want to depress prices in the future. Red wine blends are also a very popular trend. The key to a consistent big selling brand is good blending. One of Dan’s favorite blends is Old Patch Red from Trentadue. Miro Tcholakov makes it. Dan says Miro is a great blender. There isn’t a lot of it and it’s not widely distributed. One that is widely distributed is Gallo’s brand Barefoot. To Dan, they are “incredibly reliable.” The most important thing is they are consistent. 

Dr. Damien Wilson from the Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute joins Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell on California Wine Country. This is his first time on the show. The pr0moter of the International Canned Wine Competition was our guest on this episode, in 2021. Dan Berger will mention this during the show.   Before the show, they were talking about what’s new in the wine business and they landed on new packaging and marketing ideas. The subject of wine in cans keeps coming back. Dan has heard of a French Beaujolais that came in cans, on the east coast of the US, in the early 1950s. It wasn’t very good because the liners in the cans were no good. Dr. Wilson explains that the new liners today are superb.   There has been a canned wine competition in Mendocino for about the last 10 years. It’s the one on this CWC episode from 5 years ago. Dan Berger will be running it this year, on December 9, in Santa Rosa. Look for California Wine Country to be on the site. Even From A Can, into a Glass The most amazing thing about this is that canned wine and pre-mixed cocktails are hot as a pistol. They are selling very well. Up to about 2 years ago, the process of canning wine properly wasn’t well known. Wine is a very special product. The best selling canned wine is called Maker. Meg Maker, the owner, hired a special person only to handle the product for the canning process. Special practices have resulted in best product results. Dan suggests that a canned wine should be poured into a glass, otherwise you can’t smell it very much in the can. Dan has even seen wine in an aluminum pouch, in Australia. Non-Alcoholic wines are also a new market. Oceano Wines produces wines with the alcohol removed.   They are tasting a Sauvignon Blanc in a can, that snaps open, from Foursight, where Joe Webb is the winemaker. Dan says it has the exact bouquet that you want from a Sauvignon Blanc.   There are two glasses of wine in each can. Dr. Wilson suggests this is a way to get people back into drinking wine. It is so convenient. It is also easy to chill. They would sell very well in any convenience store near the beach.  

Marchelle Wines founder Greg La Follette is back on California Wine Country with Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell. Greg has been on the show before, the last time was this episode of Oct. 25, 2024, but this is his first time with Daedalus hosting. They begin by tasting a Vermentino that Greg La Follette has produced. His label, Marchelle Wines, has just opened a new tasting room in Healdsburg. It is a big step for a small winery. They only produce 1100 cases per year and Greg things that direct-to-consumers sales are best for small wineries like his. Dan remembers touring a vineyard to inspect some Riesling and they stumbled upon a beautiful Vermentino vineyard. So Greg and Dan had to get some to make. Daedalus describes it having a light effervescence, a kiss or honeydew melon, but bone dry. Dan tastes Golden Delicious apples on the nose but with a note of lemon at the end and a bit of spice. This is a Bahl Fratty Vermentino. Dan has some space for his wines in Greg’s new tasting room. This is Greg’s 70th harvest. He could get three harvests in a calendar year on all continents. An Indirect Path to Winemaking Greg La Follette decided he wanted to be a winemaker by the time he ws 17 years old. He liked the people in the vineyards as well as the science. Then he lived in the San Fernando Valley in LA, for a while. He worked as the ship’s piper on the Queen Mary, playing bagpipes. After degrees in biology and chemistry he worked in early Aids research, then transfered into the UC Davis Enology department. He taught labs there, as a staffer and a grad student. His thesis was on how Burgundian winemaking techniques affect mouth feel. Greg is grateful for the coverage that Dan has given him over the years, a wine writer. He remembers working with André Tchelistcheff, the legendary winemaker. He says the stories that people tell do not begin to convey what a force he was. They taste a Colombard that Greg has made, in a dry style. His friend brought him to see some Colombard vines that had been planted in 1902. The vines needed a lot of work. At first he used it for Single Thread for their house wine. Then when Covid hit the demand dropped and he got control of the stock. That became the first wine under the Marchelle label, which is a fusion of the names of his wife and his friend’s wife. They opened the tasting room a couple of weeks ago. Dan’s Riesling and Vermentino are there, along with Greg’s wines for Marchelle Wines. Dan says that these wines are as good as anything he has ever done.