California Wine Country

Martha Barra of Girasole Vineyards and Barra of Mendocino is back on California Wine Country with Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell. This is Martha’s third time on the show, the first time was this episode in November of 2020 and the second time was this show on January 5, 2024. The first wine in their glasses is a Pinot Blanc, not to be mistaken for a Sauvignon Blanc, some of the best that Dan has ever tasted. It has flavors of tropical fruit, a trace of orange peel and fresh fruit all the way. It is about $16 under the Girasole label. Barra vineyards started in the mid-1950s and expanded by acquiring some adjacent properties. They are certified organic and were one of the early adopters of organic practices. The Red Blotch Problem There is a problem with red blotch virus on the vines and growers have to protect their vines. The vector is the alfalfa bug which moves on the wind. It can kill the vines in 10 years and also decreases the quality of the fruit. Red blotch started as a result of a virus that was discovered in 2008 at UC Davis and in 2009 on the east coast. They did not understand the vector at first. The wind can carry the alfalfa bug. There is a law that requires unused vineyards to be removed because they can harbor diseases of the vines. The next tasting is a 2024 Chardonnay, aged on the lees for nine months, with 30% new French oak. It is not overly buttery, but lean and elegant. Martha describes the goal in their profile is “…good mouth feel, round in the mouth, true to the varietal and balanced.” This year was the earliest harvest ever for them, because of weather, with a heat peak in March. Then they taste a Barra Reserve Estate Pinot Noir. The block is in its prime at about eight years old. It sells for about $28 which may be the best deal anywhere. Dan suggests pairing it with some salmon, cooked simply. “This is the way Pinot should be,” says Dan. Going Organic in 1988 Martha explains their early embrace of organic practices, in 1988. They are concerned with with what goes into the watershed and the soil, and with the health of their workers too. “We continuously build soils to enrich the soils and make them healthy. Healthy soils make healthy wines.” They also make biochar. To do this, they burn old vines at high heat and low oxygen, then cool it with water. This produces little chunks of carbon that are good for water retention and hosting micro-organisims. They mix this with the pomace from the vineyard and use it to regenerate the soil. 

Clark Smith, winemaker, author and frequent California Wine Country guest, is back with Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell. His last time on the show was this episode on April 3 of this year. Professor Damien Wilson from Sonoma State University is also with us, from the previous on-air segment. He runs the Wine Business Institute at SSU. Clark Smith has a new book coming out, called The Myth of Science: A Winemaker Recommends Repairs. He has a Substack called Confessions of a Renegade Winemaker where he posts occasional excerpts from the book. Clark loves the Santa Cruz mountains which he considers the best winegrowing region in California. Down the hill from Ridge there is a vineyard called Bates Ranch that grows some Grenache. Sometimes, the wine doesn’t “color up” so they made some sparkling wine from it. Clark has brought a bottle of that. Later he will open the red from the same vintage. Clark says his favorite Dan Berger quote is, “I would agree with everything you said except then I would have no story.” Clark thinks that Champagne grapes make crummy wine, thin and sour. 300 years ago, they made it sweet, like soda pop. The term “brut” means brute or beast, and was originally a term of disapproval, meaning only an animal would drink wine so dry. But today it’s all they make. “I am notorious” – Clark Smith Clark Smith, winemaker, author and notoriously opinionated enologist, declares that the general American tendency to focus on varietals over the land has been a mistake. He explains that part of the problem is that judges have to taste 40 or more wines. It used to be a judge would throw out the junk, then good better and best got bronze, silver and gold. The problem lies in the fact that the place of origin, or terroir, is such an important factor in the quality of the wine, but that information is often not on the label. This keeps valuable information from the judges and curious ordinary wine drinkers. Dan got Clark involved in Appellation America about 20 years ago. They tasted a varietal from several different regions. Dan had a friend, the late Tom Rinaldi, a winemaker for Duckhorn, who could tell a Merlot from Carneros apart from any other. Clark explains that in Europe, they don’t taste for varieties. He compares two wines that have different goals that you would never put together, such as a St. Emillion and a Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley. Dan explains that they have different strategies, different planting, growing and watering regimes and different climate. 

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.