California Wine Country

Dan Berger has brought his Bahl Fratty Riesling in today, along with other wines to taste with Daedalus Howell on California Wine Country. It was back in February of 2024 that Dan Berger introduced Bahl Fratty on this episode of CWC. Both Dan and Daedalus attended the Harvest Fair was last weekend and they both noticed that the room was dark. That made it hard to read the labels. Dan reports that there were several interesting wines. Everything was a gold medal or a double gold. Across the board, the food was excellent. The atmosphere was casual and enjoyable. Earlier today Dan visited DaVero winery in Healdsburg, where they have just launched the brand Avivo. There are three wines, a white, a rosé and a red. They sell for about $20 a bottle and Dan says they are excellent. The wines are regenerative and organic. The white wine is a 100% Vermentino. The rosé is made from Sangiovese, which is also the red. Very little oak, very low alcohol and a good example of fine wine making. In Italy a pink wine made from Sangiovese would be called a “rosato” in Italian, where that S is pronounced with a Z sound. The grapes come from the cooler region around Lodi. Montagne Russe Daedalus was at Montagne Russe last night, which has an extensive vinyl record store attached to the tasting room. Kevin Bersofsky was on CWC recently, on this episode. Melissa Galliani joins us in the studio for a taste of a Riesling from the Saar River Valley in Germany, the label is Willems and the name is Fineherb. (“Fines herbes” means chives, in French.) That is the name of the winemaker’s choice. This one is sweet going in and dry in the aftertaste. It’s 9% alcohol, which is rather low. Dan notices the iron ore character from that region. 

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. 

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. 

Prema Kerollis, co-founder and general manager of Three Sticks Wines, joins Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell on California Wine Country. This is her first time on California Wine Country, although others from Three Sticks have been on before, including this episode on Oct. 13, 2021. Prema has worked alongside Three Sticks founder Bill Price, since they founded the winery in 2002. They produce Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the Gap’s Crown vineyard in the Petaluma Gap. Dan calls the vineyard site “spectacular” and “really gorgeous.” They start with the 2024 Gap’s Crown Chardonnay. The place is famous for Pinot Noir. When they got the vineyard, there was a block of Dijon clone Chardonnay that thrives in the Petaluma Gap. It produced this wine which is only slightly sparkling. The Wind in the Petaluma Gap Dan explains that grapes don’t want to be producing lots of leaves, which happens in fertile soil. In less fertile soil, you get a better balance of fruit and concentration, not too much of either. Gap’s Crown delivers this because if its position and climate “This vineyard is easy to farm… as long as you are there every day of the year.” The Dijon clone, aka the Wente clone, is lighter, which they carry through in the winemaking. It is aged on the lees slowly. There is a balance of steel and oak. Dan suggests this wine is made well enough that it will age very well. If you leave it for 4 years it will take on characteristics that you would not imagine possible from Chardonnay. These wines could support 10 years or more. Next there are two Pinot Noirs from 2023, Gap’s Crown Vineyard and Gap’s Pinnacle. Dan explains how the wind shuts down the stomates on the underside of the leaves. When the wind comes, the stomates close to protect the vine from losing moisture. That shuts down photosynthesis as the vines are protecting themselves. This way, the grapes develop later, which allows more fruit flavors to develop. 2023 was an easy year, without great heat. 2010, 2011, 2023 and 2025 are the classic cool vintages here. Dan has a lot of old Pinot Noir. Some of it is 20 years old and can last still longer. Magnum bottles are best for long aging, provided that the cork is good. 

Garry Brooks, from Brooks Note Winery in the Petaluma Gap, joins Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell on California Wine Country. This is Garry’s third time on the show, after being on twice in 2025, first in February and then in December. In his two previous appearances, Garry and Dan discuss the characteristics of the Petaluma Gap in great detail. They also tell the story of how it became an official AVA. Brooks Note Winery is in the Petaluma Gap, where the Wine to Wine Festival is coming soon. It is a great public tasting to help raise awareness of this sub-region of the Sonoma Coast. The united winemakers of the Petaluma Gap have i it an official AVA. Brooks Note makes cold climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but also Riesling and Albariño. The Brooks Note vineyard is near the Sonoma Raceway. Garry has brought an Albariño. The varietal grows in Portugal and Spain. It has has a lemon peel, honey and spice components, and a trace of muscat. It also has good acidity. The vines get blasted from the wind coming off the Pacific Ocean. As the air inland heats up, it pulls wind in that crosses Hwy 1 and blows toward Petaluma. The wind slows down photosynthesis so the vines take longer to ripen. Azaya Ranch Garry has also brought a Pinot Noir from Azaya Ranch. It is just across the Marin – Sonoma border, on the Marin side. It gets cold fog. Another vineyard is southwest of Sebastopol, which also gets a little bit of fog. Brooks Note also makes a GSM – Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre – from the Sebastopol Hills. Then they taste some Pinot Noir. First is a 2024 Petaluma Gap Pinot Noir. It comes from three vineyards. Taylor’s Crown, in the northeast corner of the Petaluma Gap, has compressed volcanic ash. Panther Ridge is a biodynamic vineyard at about 1000 feet of elevation. It has big red chunks of pumice and basalt throughout the vineyard. The third is Sweet Family Vineyard, at about 750 feet elevation. It also has volcanic soil. The vines struggle and the soil is well drained. Garry used about 20% new oak, and about 15% whole cluster. Dan and Garry agree that this is what Petaluma Gap is supposed to taste like.