Oded Shakked, Longboard Vineyards

Oded Shakked from Longboard Vineyards is back on California Wine Country with Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell. He has been on CWC several times before, the last two times were this episode on September 20, 2024. and a year before that, this episode on November 17, 2023.

Oded Shakked’s episodes on California Wine Country have the distinction of holding the N.1 and N.2 positions for the most traffic (streams plus downloads) among all CWC episodes in the last eight years of the podcast. Congratulations to Oded and Longboard Vineyards!

Daedalus Howell begins by remembering that his last film premiered at Longboard Vineyards, as part of what is now the True West Film Fest. Oded Shakked remembers that he liked the  has brought several Longboard Vineyards wines.

40 Harvests!

This morning, Oded Shakked finished his 40th harvest, 28 for Longboard and the rest, for others. He still get energized during harvest, when you work 12-18 hour days and feel jazzed after that.

Oded wants to find a balance, for Sauvignon Blanc, using grapes from different regions and 40% in neutral barrels, the rest in stainless steel, so partial ML, but still good natural acidity. They are tasting the 2024 SV from Russian River Valley. A lot of SV has been converted to Pinot Noir, but not this vineyard. “It has a nice snap to it, … green pea… melon… meyer lemon…” says Dan. It has a character that he likes to call sun-dried linen.

Dan says that unfortunately, California Chardonnay is produced for people who like something rich. Dan considers those Chardonnays to be cocktail wines. SV is more fascinating because it has more nuances of flavor. In this Chard from Longboard, the ML is subtle. And unlike some New Zealand SVs, it is not too sweet. It is not served too cool, so the flavors are more evident.

Water Girl Rosé

Oded always wanted to make Rosé, and initially he made it from Syrah. However it did not sell. At the time, Rosé had not yet become fashionable. Most people in Russian River Valley make Rosé from Pinot Noir. Oded makes his Rosé mostly from Grenache, with some Syrah and Carngnane. He is looking for that southern France style. The name Water Girl Rosé comes from the wine’s previous name, which was Wahine. That means a surfer girl in Hawaiian, and nobody knew the word or could pronounce it. Oded is a lifelong surfer. He noticed that whenever there were women in the water, they had to work twice as hard to compete for space to drop in. He has a lot of respect for them because of that and so the wine is named for them. This Water Girl Rosé has juicy berry notes and watermelon at first, then the finish gets a little bit of the red wine component.

Later in the show Oded tells the story of how he grew up 100 yards from the beach in Israel. He started surfing as a kid and he still surfs. After his military service he made surfboards for a living, for a while. He would close shop in September and go to surf the west facing beaches in Portugal, Spain and France for months at a time. His interest in wine started in Spain on surf trips, drinking Albariño. It took some time for him to get so interested in wine. A friend of the family told him about a winemaking school in the US, and he took the suggestion. Later, he started Longboard because he wanted to write off his surf trips and admits that at first, he never thought the winery would last, let alone be so successful.