The Inside Winemaking Podcast With Jim Duane

This episode of the Podcast features Matt Dees, winemaker for the Hilt Estate and Jonata wineries in Santa Barbara County. Matt and I talked about his background, the building of the Jonata, and the new Hilt Estate in the Santa Rita Hills AVA. I had a great time talking with Matt and came away more prepared to make my own wines from Santa Barbara for the first time this 2021 harvest. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE The Hilt Estate - Santa Rita Hills, California Jonata Winery - Santa Ynez, California

This episode of the Podcast features Danielle Cyrot, who is the winemaker for Cade Winery and 13th Vineyard on Howell Mountain in the Napa Valley. Our conversation ranges from mountain winemaking, the trials of the 2020 vintage, Cade’s growth with the acquisition of 13th Vineyard, the Plumpjack group, and LEED Certification for wineries.

This episode of the Podcast features Miguel Garcia who is the Sustainable Agriculture Program Manager for the Napa County Resource Conservation District. Miguel has been very helpful to the Seavey Vineyard team in our efforts towards soil management and carbon sequestration. I asked him to record this podcast so people would be aware of the ways in which Miguel in his position with the RCD is available to help farmers with a variety of conservation projects. We discussed Miguel’s background, his efforts to engage a Spanish-speaking audience of farmers, biochar, cultivation’s relationship with soil biology, rainfall simulators, and soil carbon sequestration.

This episode of the Podcast is a Zoom recording with Lance Vande Hoef who represents the grape machine harvest equipment for Pellenc in the US. We recorded this podcast with video in order to make it available as a Youtube video to show some of the Pellenc equipment in action. Pellenc makes tractors, harvesting machines, destemmers, sorters, and hand equipment, but much of our conversation centers around their machine harvesting capabilities and the ability to harvest and press in the field for white and rosé winemaking. We recorded this podcast in September 2020. For harvest of 2021, Lance’s son, Blake Vande Hoef, has begun offering in-field pressing services with Pellenc equipment in his new venture, Integrity Wine Company.

This episode features Peter Yeung and Robert Vernick from the X Chateau Wine Podcast. Peter and Robert collectively offer a tremendous source of insight into the wine market, winemaking trends, sales trends, finance, and customer engagement based in a shared fascination for studying and drinking wine. In 2019 Peter co-authored the book Luxury Wine Marketing. This episode is not focused on winemaking per se but presents a wealth of ideas that winemakers can consider for their own marketing strategies. Listeners can explore the topics from this episode in much more depth on the X Chateau Podcast, which is available on all podcast platforms

This episode features WSU Food Scientist Charlie Edwards. Charlie is a teacher, researcher, and expert in wine microbes. I was finally able to have the high-level conversation about Brettanomyces that I’ve been longing for on the podcast. We also talked about wine bacteria, techniques to find points of contamination in a winery, the books he has authored, and the viticulture and enology degree programs that are available at Washington State. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Charles Edwards Faculty Page - Washington State University Wine Microbiology: Practical Applications and Procedures 2nd Edition book by Kenneth Fugelsang and Charles Edwards published 2007 Illustrated Guide to Microbes and Sediments in Wine, Beer and Juice photobook by Charles Edwards published 2005 Washington State University - Fermentation Science   This podcast is brought you by Total Wine. There’s a sizzling lineup of cool sips at Total Wine & More. We’re talking summer’s greatest hits you’ll want to put on repeat like

Tony Biagi - Patria Wines This episode features Tony Biagi a winemaker who has a tremendous resume of winemaking in Napa Valley. Our conversation covered Tony’s background, the role of a winemaking consultant, Tony’s demand for “a pound of flesh” during harvest, his wines from Paso Robles and other regions in California. Tony was incredibly candid about the development and operations of Patria Wines, his personal wine project. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Patria Wines - Napa Valley Amici Cellars - Napa Valley Lasseter Family Winery - Sonoma Valley Hourglass Winery - Napa Valley The Vineyardist - Napa Valley Caliza Winery - Paso Robles Jada Vineyard - Paso Robles Alma Rosa Winery - Santa Barbara County   This podcast is brought you by Total Wine. There’s a sizzling lineup of cool sips at Total Wine & More. We’re talking summer’s greatest hits you’ll want to put on repeat like our top twelve wines under fifteen dollars. And you can raise a glass to America with a star-spangled selection of

Frank Renaldi - WinemakingInstructions.com This episode features Frank Renaldi who is a winemaker and winemaking instructor. In a joint venture with Musto Wine Grape Company in Hartford, Connecticut Frank has created a comprehensive set of tutorial videos that are geared towards home winemakers, yet contain a high level of technical enology so as to be useful for commercial wineries as well. Our conversation covered Frank’s compulsive winemaking at home, the paths that he took to learn enology, how he geared his video courses to address the early difficulties that winemakers encounter, and the in-person courses he teaches in Hartford. His catalog of videos, some of which are free, are affordable and broken down by topic. My introduction to Frank came from Christina Musto, a previous guest on the podcast. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE WinemakingInstructions.com - video catalog Musto Wine Grape Company - Hartford, CT - Source for grapes, equipment, supplies, and many winemaking resources Enology

This episode features winemaker Michael Terrien. Michael is on a roadshow to promote the new Adventures excursion opportunities from Obsidian Wine Co. Michael has his hands in many projects from California Pinot noir to Maine wild blueberry sparkling wine and the portfolio of estate wines from Obsidian Ridge in Lake County, CA. I had a great conversation with Michael ranging from the details of making blueberry wine, the partnership that is Obsidian, dynamic pricing for his brand, Becheur, and his uncanny faith in a wine’s capacity to take care of itself. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Obsidian Wine Co Rosé for the Bay Terrien Wines Kadar Cooperage Bluet - Maine wild blueberry sparkling wine Becheur - Wines with Dynamic Pricing US Grant - Santa Cruz Pinot noir Hanzell Vineyards This podcast is brought you by Wine Compliance Alliance. Winery compliance. Bring it up to winery owners or their staff and you get either a completely blank look or a grimace of some sort. In other wor

This episode features Ehlers Estate Winemaker, Laura Diaz Munoz. Laura and I talk about her winemaking roots in Spain, her work around the globe, the singular focus of estate winemaking, organic farming, and growing the Bordelais varietals up-valley in Napa. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Ehlers Estate - Napa, CA Terrratorium Wines Send me an email if you want to join the Zoom meeting about building Terratorium on 4/16/2021 jim@insidewinemaking.com This podcast is brought to you by Bucher Vaslin North America. At Bucher Vaslin North America, we offer the highest quality equipment and winemaking supplies to assist you throughout your entire process.  Bucher Vaslin North America is the exclusive supplier of Bucher Vaslin and Sutter Presses, Delta Reception Equipment, Cazaux Pumps, Costral Bottling Lines, Lamothe-Abiet Winemaking Products and ALIEN Robotic Optical Sorter.  Our service team and technicians are professionally trained and certified to provide you parts, maintenance, and field

This episode features Jeff Murrell and the smoke-taint removal technology that he has developed. Jeff is a chemist, who works at StaVin and also runs a wine analytical lab, VinSci. It is within VinSci that Jeff is offering the rental of his equipment, SRx, to process smoke-tainted wines. As of March 2021, this is a very new tool for winemakers. Jeff and I talk about his technical background, the way he thinks about the compounds causing the negative aftertastes of tainted wines, the development of the SRx column, and his thoughts on the abilities and limits of the current technology. At this point in time, Jeff is having interested winemakers bring their wines in for an on-the-spot trial and tasting. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE VinSci Analytical Laboratory StaVin    Questions?  Comments?  Let me know what you think: jim@insidewinemaking.com if you learn something from the collection of podcasts at Inside Winemaking, please considering donating to support the show.  Paypal links at the

This episode features Philip Corallo-Titus who is the Winemaker at Chappellet a position he has held since 1990. He also serves as Director of Winemaking at his family’s winery Titus Vineyards, which he now runs with his brother. We talked about old school Chappellet, Chenin blanc, managing mountain tannins, winery design, and the new Titus Winery. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Chappellet - Napa, CA Titus Vineyards - Napa, CA This podcast is brought you by Total Wine. Fling into spring at Total Wine & More, where fresh flavors are in full bloom. We’re talking Rieslings and rainboots, bubbly and brunch, or Pinot on the porch, anyone? No matter what’s on your table, we have the wine—and the savings—to go with your menu. Sauvignon Blanc plays nicely with smoked salmon. Bacon practically begs for Chardonnay. And which Rosé are you feeling today? We surely have a shade to match. Brighten up your glass with fresh cocktails. Rosé Prosecco makes for a beautiful twist on a Mojito, or mix up y

This episode features winemaker Erica Stancliff, who has many roles in Sonoma including making wine for Trombetta, her family’s winery, consulting for a handful of client wineries, and advocacy work with the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance. This is a great conversation that ranged from highly technical enology from Erica’s stint working for Enartis Vinquiry to her current winemaking roles hands-on with small wineries. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Trombetta Family Wines, Sonoma California Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance   This podcast is brought you by Black Dog Consulting. Wine has been made since Antiquity; Kings, Queens, and common folk alike have all Revered and Coveted it. Over the centuries, Vintners have carefully documented the eccentricities. This activity persists today. Joining forces with the Cadre of Consultants and Vendor Partners in the Black Dog Consulting Network gives the Vintner unparalleled access to Tribal knowledge, the best Support, and Products on the Market;

This episode is a sponsored podcast from Airocide, which is an air purification system that has uses in production, administration, storage, and tasting room areas within a winery. Paul Frommelt, who has a long history working with wineries representing oak barrels, glass, and even cave construction, is my guest as he is now the supplier for Airocide systems for wine environments. We discuss the technical actions of Airocide’s technology, the different models available, and the problems it’s air purification can solve, but not before I squeeze all the knowledge of oak barrels, tanks, ovals, and square wood tanks from Paul’s years of experience helping equip wineries.

This episode features Nicole Hitchcock the winemaker for J Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley. Our conversation was an opportunity to pull all the stops on my technical questions about sparkling wine and Nicole was delightfully up to the task. “Bubble velocity” is my new favorite term to casually drop into conversations. Nicole also led me through her Chardonnay and Pinot noir winemaking and the reasons the Russian River Valley is a special place to make wine. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE J Vineyards and Winery- Healdsburg, CA Russian River Winegrowers This podcast is brought you by Black Dog Consulting. Wine has been made since Antiquity; Kings, Queens, and common folk alike have all Revered and Coveted it. Over the centuries, Vintners have carefully documented the eccentricities. This activity persists today. Joining forces with the Cadre of Consultants and Vendor Partners in the Black Dog Consulting Network gives the Vintner unparalleled access to Tribal knowledge,

This episode features the features Garrett Buckland in a conversation about strategies to adjust farming winegrapes during a changing climate. Garrett, who has been on the podcast before, is a consulting viticulturist based in Napa, and one of the first people I call with difficult vineyard questions. This podcast was recorded in July, 2020, a month before California suffered catastrophic fires across the state and affected nearly every winegrowing region on the Pacific Coast. Hindsight allows a perspective that reveals a glaring blind spot in our discussion of climate change. We never once mentioned fires nor smoke and yet that would become the defining element of the 2020 vintage. It was a part of climate change that we had under-appreciated in magnitude. I do believe there is a great deal of valuable discussion of technical viticulture in this episode with Garrett. He came through on my request to outline strategies to adjust vineyard practices to maximize vine health, farm high quality grapes, and think a

This episode features a guru of American Pinot Noir. Founding winemaker at Kosta Browne, and now proprietor and winemaker at Cirq and CHEV, Michael Browne is continuing his craft of building hand-made Pinot Noir, and has written a newly published book documenting his life and wines. We sat down in the middle of a cold and windy vineyard to record our conversation the day before the book released. I enjoyed Michael’s book and the opportunity to sit down and dig further into his stories. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Pinot Rocks: A Winding Journey through Intense Elegance book by Michael Browne Cirq - Russian River Valley, CA CHEV - Russian River Valley, CA Kosta Browne - Sonoma CA This podcast is brought you by Total Wine. Total Wine is a holiday Wonderland with over 8,000 wines, 3,000 spirits and 2,500 beers all in one place.  Awe-inspiring. But not intimidating. they over deliver on choice, expert help and low prices There’s no better way to get into the holiday spirit than to walk

This episode features the Steven Mirassou, who continues his family’s long legacy of making wine in California’s Livermore Valley. Our conversation traverses back and forth between Steven’s winemaking experience and an exploration of viticulture and wines from Livermore Valley. Livermore is part of California’s Central Coast, but at only 2K acres under vine it is a unique AVA nestled in the San Francisco Bay Area. Steven guides me through the vineyards of Livermore and describes how the different sites are suited to his three brands: Steven Kent, Mia Nipote, and Lineage. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE The Lineage Collection Steven Kent Winery, Livermore Valley Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association   This podcast is brought you by Wine Compliance Alliance. Ann Reynolds, who runs Wine Compliance Alliance has been on the podcast twice before. In Ep. 45 we discuss common compliance issues that wineries deal with and in Ep. 61 she has a solo episode where she covers the compliance items f

This episode of the Podcast is a Zoom recording with Quinn Roberts who is the Master Cooper at Tonnellerie O in Benicia, California. The Zoom platform allowed for sharing of photos to support the discussion of oak forests and coopering oak barrels for winemaking so we made the podcast into a Youtube video as well. The conversation traverses from the management of oak trees and forests, the differences in oak between France and the Midwest region of the US, timing and methods for tree selection, the processing of stave wood, seasoning, coopering, toasting and finishing barrels that are then ready to be filled in a winery. Quinn is a tremendous source of knowledge when it comes to crafting barrels to fit a full range of wine styles, especially given his deep understanding of European wines. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Tonnellerie O - Benicia, California CreativeOak.com - Oak alternative division of Tonnellerie O This episode one Youtube This podcast is brought you by  the hope that you

This episode features the father and son team crafting Cabernet franc and Chenin blanc wines led by long-time Napa Valley baller, John Skupny, who first crushed grapes for their brand, Lang and Reed, in 1993. Reed Skupny joined his father after working for several wineries in France and Napa Valley, and was the driving force to bring Chenin blanc into their small portfolio. I used to work with Reed when he was at Antica Napa Valley and I was working for Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, but had recently had the chance to get to know John. We recorded this podcast with social-distancing in mind and it leaves the audio quality a bit rough at moments, but John and Reeds’ stories are more than worth it. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Lang and Reed Napa Valley Youtube’s Lang and Reed Channel John Skupny on The Taste with Doug Shafer podcast Pahlmeyer Napa Valley Antica Napa Valley Bevan Cellars Napa Valley This podcast is brought you by Fruition Sciences. At the start of 2020 we know what is o