Make The Best Possible Wines With The Least Intervention. Meet Taylor Serres.

1
00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:02,674
Carson Leno,

2
00:00:03,294 --> 00:00:06,750
Fallon. Now it's

3
00:00:06,822 --> 00:00:09,794
wine talks with Paul K.

4
00:00:10,814 --> 00:00:14,262
Hey, welcome to wine talks with Paul K. And we are in studio today in

5
00:00:14,278 --> 00:00:18,062
beautiful southern California about to have a conversation with Taylor Seres up

6
00:00:18,078 --> 00:00:21,782
in Sonoma County, 6th generation of Ceres Ranch

7
00:00:21,878 --> 00:00:25,622
winery. Introductions to just a moment. Wine talks, of course, available on

8
00:00:25,638 --> 00:00:29,480
iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify. Wherever you hang out for podcasting,

9
00:00:29,672 --> 00:00:33,192
have a listen to a show that I released with Paul Warston, the

10
00:00:33,208 --> 00:00:37,032
winemaker at Moraga vineyards. You're going to ask, well, maybe

11
00:00:37,048 --> 00:00:40,656
it's Napa, Sonoma, Central coast, maybe Temecula, but no,

12
00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,544
it's Beverly Hills, owned by Rupert Murdoch. He makes

13
00:00:44,584 --> 00:00:48,344
wine in the heart of Los Angeles, just down the street from the famed

14
00:00:48,384 --> 00:00:52,168
restaurant and district, the Rodeo drive. Rodeo Drive, etcetera. But amazing

15
00:00:52,216 --> 00:00:55,640
wines and amazing story about how this twelve acre vineyard was

16
00:00:55,672 --> 00:00:59,110
planted. Also, have a listen to Julie

17
00:00:59,142 --> 00:01:02,630
Hernandez. She walked into my office about 20 years ago and I told

18
00:01:02,662 --> 00:01:05,634
myself, this girl's never going to make it in this crazy industry.

19
00:01:06,054 --> 00:01:09,534
Sorry, Paul, you're wrong. She ended up being an executive for one of the largest

20
00:01:09,574 --> 00:01:13,198
distributors in southern California. Fabulous conversation.

21
00:01:13,326 --> 00:01:16,966
And mostly about being a woman and a mother in

22
00:01:16,990 --> 00:01:20,606
this hectic industry. Have a listen to that. But now, while we're

23
00:01:20,630 --> 00:01:23,856
here. Here to have a conversation with Taylor Cetis

24
00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:27,524
of Cetis Ranch Wines. Welcome to the show.

25
00:01:27,824 --> 00:01:31,392
Thank you for having me. So I was reading and it's sort

26
00:01:31,408 --> 00:01:35,240
of, one site said that you were the winemaker and one

27
00:01:35,272 --> 00:01:39,000
side said that you're working here, working there. So tell me the

28
00:01:39,032 --> 00:01:42,848
role at Ceres. I'm giving my friend

29
00:01:42,896 --> 00:01:46,520
my spanish accent there. Ceres winery. There you go.

30
00:01:46,712 --> 00:01:50,432
So I am first and foremost a family member. I'm fifth generation.

31
00:01:50,528 --> 00:01:54,284
My nieces and nephews and future little one are 6th generation.

32
00:01:54,824 --> 00:01:58,440
And so the role that I

33
00:01:58,472 --> 00:02:01,404
play is really anything that's needed.

34
00:02:02,384 --> 00:02:06,216
Our family is very involved in all of the winemaking practices,

35
00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:10,056
but grape growing first and foremost. We have been farming

36
00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:13,684
grapes for about 55 years now,

37
00:02:14,184 --> 00:02:17,952
farming our land for actually 100 years. 2024 is

38
00:02:17,968 --> 00:02:21,736
our hundredth anniversary and we'll be celebrating that.

39
00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:25,630
We have a big party scheduled for June 8 that we're celebrating and

40
00:02:25,742 --> 00:02:28,994
celebrating our, you know, everything that we've come through,

41
00:02:29,334 --> 00:02:32,990
gone through all of our ancestors and generations previous to us,

42
00:02:33,062 --> 00:02:35,834
and we are very excited for that. And,

43
00:02:37,174 --> 00:02:40,874
but as far as, you know, my day to day title,

44
00:02:41,374 --> 00:02:45,142
it really just kind of depends. Well, there's a lot going on. I

45
00:02:45,158 --> 00:02:48,710
can tell by your resume as I was rifling through Google, but

46
00:02:48,822 --> 00:02:51,758
you said something very interesting particularly in the wine industry for

47
00:02:51,846 --> 00:02:55,216
California. A lot of people, listeners might know

48
00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:58,616
that the wine trade really started in southern

49
00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:02,232
California and grandchildren made its way north. But when you say

50
00:03:02,288 --> 00:03:05,484
that the setters ranch is 100 years old

51
00:03:06,024 --> 00:03:09,632
and the grapes are 50 years old, that's pretty indicative of

52
00:03:09,688 --> 00:03:13,124
what happened in the path of Napa and Sonoma.

53
00:03:13,624 --> 00:03:17,320
What was your. I don't know which grandfather it is. Is it your great

54
00:03:17,352 --> 00:03:21,044
great great grandfather? So our property.

55
00:03:21,084 --> 00:03:24,556
So California being the birthplace of California winemaking, with Buena Vista

56
00:03:24,580 --> 00:03:27,144
winery having the first bond ever,

57
00:03:28,004 --> 00:03:30,904
I, as far as my family,

58
00:03:32,164 --> 00:03:35,956
it was my great grandfather and great great grandfather who moved onto

59
00:03:35,980 --> 00:03:39,784
the property in the late 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds

60
00:03:40,164 --> 00:03:43,996
slowly started acquiring parcels, with the final parcel being acquired in

61
00:03:44,020 --> 00:03:47,834
1924. The property was originally owned by General

62
00:03:47,874 --> 00:03:51,530
Feiningra Hooker, who was a military general in the Mexican American War as well as

63
00:03:51,562 --> 00:03:55,146
the civil war. And so the Sarasids acquired the

64
00:03:55,170 --> 00:03:59,002
land from the family that purchased the property from Hooker, the

65
00:03:59,018 --> 00:04:02,738
Wattress family. And before that, we

66
00:04:02,786 --> 00:04:06,418
had. My great grandfather and great great grandfather had

67
00:04:06,546 --> 00:04:10,202
hotels and liquor stores in San Francisco and

68
00:04:10,298 --> 00:04:13,756
would come up to Sonoma regularly to summer the

69
00:04:13,780 --> 00:04:17,344
bathhouses and the mineral springs or the mineral pools.

70
00:04:17,724 --> 00:04:20,924
It was very common for the San

71
00:04:20,964 --> 00:04:24,788
Francisco residents to come up to Sonoma. And

72
00:04:24,836 --> 00:04:28,620
so from that point on, it kind of evolved, got

73
00:04:28,652 --> 00:04:32,084
into the farming side of things, got into the contractor type work.

74
00:04:32,204 --> 00:04:35,852
And here we are today. That is amazing,

75
00:04:35,948 --> 00:04:39,764
actually, because post gold rush, or during even the gold rush,

76
00:04:39,804 --> 00:04:43,458
hotels and liquor stores, you sound like you had a very

77
00:04:43,506 --> 00:04:47,306
bright family there to get involved in those industries. And wine,

78
00:04:47,370 --> 00:04:51,026
it's interesting. Wine was a very important part of the

79
00:04:51,050 --> 00:04:54,786
gold rush, though. It wasn't american, it was mostly french, which

80
00:04:54,810 --> 00:04:57,930
is a really fascinating part of that history in San Francisco.

81
00:04:58,122 --> 00:05:01,634
But when you said that the San Franciscans were coming

82
00:05:01,794 --> 00:05:05,386
to the Sonoma for maybe health reasons, maybe

83
00:05:05,410 --> 00:05:09,178
it's take a break for the sunshine, for the humans. I

84
00:05:09,186 --> 00:05:12,732
think so. I mean, if you look at San Francisco today, summertime in San

85
00:05:12,748 --> 00:05:16,300
Francisco, it's pretty foggy and cold. And up here in Sonoma,

86
00:05:16,332 --> 00:05:19,868
it's, for the most part, very sunny. Warm weather,

87
00:05:19,996 --> 00:05:23,596
doesn't get too, too hot, but one of the main draws

88
00:05:23,660 --> 00:05:27,268
was the mineral springs. We actually have geothermal activity

89
00:05:27,316 --> 00:05:30,956
running underneath us, which aids in the reason why we only grow red

90
00:05:30,980 --> 00:05:34,780
grapes, because that's what grows best in our site with

91
00:05:34,812 --> 00:05:38,238
all of our different microclimates that we have on our 200 acre property.

92
00:05:38,396 --> 00:05:41,922
And so with all of that, it makes

93
00:05:41,978 --> 00:05:45,706
sense to the point of why, you know, when you

94
00:05:45,730 --> 00:05:49,322
turn on the hose in the summertime, even in the wintertime,

95
00:05:49,458 --> 00:05:52,906
it's warm water and it takes a very, very, very long

96
00:05:52,970 --> 00:05:56,634
time to get cold. Like, warm enough where you could

97
00:05:56,674 --> 00:06:00,498
shower in it. Is there a water not

98
00:06:00,546 --> 00:06:04,174
shortage? But is the water table low enough or high enough that

99
00:06:04,654 --> 00:06:08,166
this is never going to be an issue over the, let's say, 200 years,

100
00:06:08,190 --> 00:06:11,914
that there's enough water, given California's erratic

101
00:06:12,294 --> 00:06:15,878
weather and rainflow?

102
00:06:16,046 --> 00:06:19,302
We actually just tested our water

103
00:06:19,358 --> 00:06:22,998
levels earlier this year and our water level is at 2ft below

104
00:06:23,046 --> 00:06:26,526
ground level. So we are fully saturated. We are

105
00:06:26,550 --> 00:06:29,662
full. We are good to go for the season. Now, that doesn't mean that we're

106
00:06:29,678 --> 00:06:33,206
just going to use it whenever we want. We're obviously very diligent in the

107
00:06:33,230 --> 00:06:36,758
way and responsible in the way that we use our water for

108
00:06:36,846 --> 00:06:40,502
watering, you know, for our own houses, for our own personal

109
00:06:40,558 --> 00:06:44,358
use, as well as the vineyards. It's funny, I

110
00:06:44,406 --> 00:06:48,238
do check odd places for information. One of

111
00:06:48,246 --> 00:06:51,998
them, there's a. There's a site that has all the reservoir levels

112
00:06:52,166 --> 00:06:55,742
in California. And they're like. They're like, full.

113
00:06:55,838 --> 00:06:59,670
Everything's full, I think, as far as I know, and don't quote me, but

114
00:06:59,702 --> 00:07:03,246
I'm pretty sure that everything is pretty well at, you

115
00:07:03,270 --> 00:07:06,734
know, peak level right now. I'm sure with this heat that we've gotten,

116
00:07:06,854 --> 00:07:10,678
some levels have gone down just because of evaporation, but

117
00:07:10,726 --> 00:07:14,438
not significant by any means. But you're in construction as well, so

118
00:07:14,446 --> 00:07:17,374
we'll talk about that in a second. But wouldn't that, you know, having a high

119
00:07:17,414 --> 00:07:20,846
water table is murder for a construction site, you know, when you

120
00:07:20,870 --> 00:07:24,206
got. Yeah, we definitely have the two different ends of the

121
00:07:24,230 --> 00:07:27,398
spectrum. You know, we want the rain in the fall.

122
00:07:27,566 --> 00:07:31,406
Construction wants it to stay dry as long as possible so we can

123
00:07:31,430 --> 00:07:35,126
still be operating. So whenever one sibling is rooting

124
00:07:35,150 --> 00:07:38,634
for something, the other is rooting for the other. That's very funny.

125
00:07:39,254 --> 00:07:42,326
So let's talk about. Let's go back a little bit, back to your grandfather again.

126
00:07:42,470 --> 00:07:45,354
A great, great grandfather. Coming 1872.

127
00:07:46,854 --> 00:07:49,914
Again, this is probably the beginning of wine

128
00:07:50,954 --> 00:07:54,274
growth, but it wasn't really grape growth at that point. It was just

129
00:07:54,314 --> 00:07:58,058
starting. It was mostly vegetables. Fruit trees. Were

130
00:07:58,066 --> 00:08:01,562
there fruit trees? Were they pistachios, were they almonds? What. What was growing on

131
00:08:01,578 --> 00:08:05,330
there? We had. So we actually had some wine grapes.

132
00:08:05,522 --> 00:08:09,214
Hooker had planted wine grapes back in

133
00:08:09,954 --> 00:08:13,690
the early mid 18 hundreds when he had lived here. And

134
00:08:13,762 --> 00:08:17,422
so we did have wine grapes. They ended up ripping those out early

135
00:08:17,478 --> 00:08:21,230
19 hundreds. And then it was more of a

136
00:08:21,262 --> 00:08:25,054
dairy farm, had row crops. It was kind of like

137
00:08:25,174 --> 00:08:28,790
you're all in one stop shop for

138
00:08:28,822 --> 00:08:32,314
everything. Definitely fruit trees, but nothing that was

139
00:08:33,014 --> 00:08:34,634
major in the

140
00:08:36,894 --> 00:08:40,606
commercial agriculture type work. A lot of

141
00:08:40,630 --> 00:08:43,882
other family farms around the area back then where prune

142
00:08:43,898 --> 00:08:47,642
farmers prune pear apples up

143
00:08:47,658 --> 00:08:51,146
in like the Sebastopol gravenstein area with those

144
00:08:51,170 --> 00:08:54,802
gravenstein apples. Excuse me, but for us with the

145
00:08:54,818 --> 00:08:58,174
sarris is it was more animal agriculture

146
00:08:58,514 --> 00:09:02,106
as well as some of those, you know,

147
00:09:02,210 --> 00:09:05,594
basic type of, you know, keeping your family fed.

148
00:09:05,634 --> 00:09:09,466
Typing. Has anybody written this down? I mean, like in a

149
00:09:09,490 --> 00:09:12,654
real granular form? Understand the lineage

150
00:09:13,594 --> 00:09:17,322
progress? Yes, we have. I think

151
00:09:17,378 --> 00:09:19,714
I would like to go through it and kind of fine tune it. We have

152
00:09:19,754 --> 00:09:23,450
stories, we have old documents from the Watchers family who own the property

153
00:09:23,482 --> 00:09:27,290
before us, as well as from Hooker's era of

154
00:09:27,322 --> 00:09:30,514
owning the property. And so we have those old

155
00:09:30,554 --> 00:09:34,054
documents. Historian has come in and written a story

156
00:09:34,514 --> 00:09:37,574
or kind of our chronological timeline,

157
00:09:38,234 --> 00:09:42,006
but nothing passed. Probably the, when

158
00:09:42,030 --> 00:09:45,398
my dad was a child, so the mid late

159
00:09:45,446 --> 00:09:49,166
1950s to early 1960s. So we need to go through and kind

160
00:09:49,190 --> 00:09:52,966
of update that. In all honesty, it's so important. There's

161
00:09:52,990 --> 00:09:56,718
a lot of organizations. In fact, the library system

162
00:09:56,766 --> 00:10:00,486
at Berkeley, University of Berkeley, has

163
00:10:00,550 --> 00:10:03,966
an amazing audio

164
00:10:04,150 --> 00:10:07,710
library and is strictly on wine and the history of wine in

165
00:10:07,742 --> 00:10:11,514
America and California in particular. They come out,

166
00:10:11,814 --> 00:10:15,646
they do the interviews, they transcribe it. I was going to use it for

167
00:10:15,670 --> 00:10:19,366
my father's story. I end up using an author from the

168
00:10:19,390 --> 00:10:23,150
LA Times in the armenian community. But it's

169
00:10:23,182 --> 00:10:26,214
a fabulous organization and it's

170
00:10:26,254 --> 00:10:29,754
strictly the history of wine in California. So

171
00:10:30,334 --> 00:10:34,114
that's very thorough. Very thorough.

172
00:10:34,894 --> 00:10:38,406
And the reason I say that is it's pretty popular now to,

173
00:10:38,590 --> 00:10:41,286
to sit down. Now we have all the devices and as you can record things

174
00:10:41,310 --> 00:10:45,046
on your phone. The other day, the other week, I visited

175
00:10:45,070 --> 00:10:47,194
my uncle Ernest in

176
00:10:48,094 --> 00:10:51,246
Massachusetts. He was the head thoracic surgeon at University of

177
00:10:51,270 --> 00:10:54,934
Harvard, head of the medical department, and no one had

178
00:10:54,974 --> 00:10:58,622
ever sat him down. So I just took my phone out and just started asking

179
00:10:58,638 --> 00:11:02,302
him questions. And so we got some of it at 98 years old, so he

180
00:11:02,318 --> 00:11:06,150
forgot some of it. But I think it's so important in our,

181
00:11:06,182 --> 00:11:09,514
in our history to capture these moments when we can

182
00:11:09,894 --> 00:11:13,662
and move them forward, because leading to

183
00:11:13,678 --> 00:11:17,422
this question, the family history, how

184
00:11:17,438 --> 00:11:20,814
does that play out in your philosophy toward what you're

185
00:11:20,854 --> 00:11:24,598
doing and knowing your stewards

186
00:11:24,646 --> 00:11:28,350
of the land? It's this long generations. I mean, in the back of your

187
00:11:28,382 --> 00:11:31,830
mind, how does this playing out as to what you're doing every day? I think

188
00:11:31,862 --> 00:11:35,480
it's um, it's part of everything that we do. You know, our family has

189
00:11:35,512 --> 00:11:38,872
worked so hard to keep this property in, in our

190
00:11:38,888 --> 00:11:42,520
family, keep it operating. We obviously, being in

191
00:11:42,552 --> 00:11:44,404
agriculture, you have to be

192
00:11:46,024 --> 00:11:49,784
open to change. You know, we are farmers first. Be

193
00:11:49,824 --> 00:11:53,352
that cattle ranchers, grape growers,

194
00:11:53,528 --> 00:11:57,224
pear farmers, whatever that may be. Just knowing that we're going to be

195
00:11:57,344 --> 00:12:01,104
staying in agriculture and that changes and that

196
00:12:01,144 --> 00:12:04,544
evolves. And I think that that's one thing that farming has really taught us

197
00:12:04,584 --> 00:12:07,960
through generations previous to us, as well as moving forward,

198
00:12:08,032 --> 00:12:11,664
that, you know, sometimes that industry

199
00:12:11,824 --> 00:12:15,600
kind of goes in the tank, and so you have to figure out what

200
00:12:15,632 --> 00:12:17,684
the next situation may come.

201
00:12:20,024 --> 00:12:23,376
Well, there are other ways that you could say that, but I'm trying to be

202
00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:26,124
easy. I would use exactly the same

203
00:12:27,024 --> 00:12:30,712
nomenclature today because we seem to be going into the tank and

204
00:12:30,768 --> 00:12:34,400
in the wine side of things, but the ebbs and flows of agriculture,

205
00:12:34,472 --> 00:12:37,804
if you're growing pears and you're growing blueberries,

206
00:12:39,344 --> 00:12:42,792
is it as volatile as wine, or is it more stable,

207
00:12:42,848 --> 00:12:46,568
or how's that function for you guys? So we, we

208
00:12:46,616 --> 00:12:50,044
grow our blueberries, and it's actually significantly more volatile.

209
00:12:50,584 --> 00:12:53,904
So where, as far as the, the growing aspect of it,

210
00:12:54,024 --> 00:12:57,384
where the grape market, you

211
00:12:57,424 --> 00:13:01,124
generally, you have a contract, you know what your price is per ton,

212
00:13:01,704 --> 00:13:05,088
you know, you know, obviously, mother nature is, has

213
00:13:05,136 --> 00:13:08,524
the end all, be all when it comes to what happens

214
00:13:09,024 --> 00:13:12,760
with her choices that she makes with

215
00:13:12,832 --> 00:13:16,448
weather patterns. But as far as blueberries

216
00:13:16,496 --> 00:13:20,282
go, we are fortunate enough, we actually ripen

217
00:13:20,378 --> 00:13:24,010
right after southern and central California and before

218
00:13:24,082 --> 00:13:27,890
the Pacific Northwest in Oregon and Washington. So we're able to call our

219
00:13:27,922 --> 00:13:31,586
price to a certain extent. But you also are

220
00:13:31,610 --> 00:13:35,294
competing with Ecuador, Peru, Mexico,

221
00:13:35,594 --> 00:13:39,178
with imported blueberries. And so for that point is,

222
00:13:39,346 --> 00:13:43,122
the market is extremely volatile. One day it could be

223
00:13:43,218 --> 00:13:47,004
dollar four a pound, and the next day it could be fifty cents a pound.

224
00:13:47,544 --> 00:13:50,976
And so you, you really, you can't

225
00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:54,484
say one way or the other if that makes sense. You know, it's.

226
00:13:56,744 --> 00:14:00,320
We wouldn't change it for anything. We're very happy to be involved in the blueberry

227
00:14:00,352 --> 00:14:03,600
industry. And like I said, we're, we come in kind of at a perfect niche

228
00:14:03,632 --> 00:14:07,480
time, but when we get to the end of our market,

229
00:14:07,552 --> 00:14:11,384
you definitely tell with pricing, because the Pacific Northwest comes

230
00:14:11,424 --> 00:14:15,168
in and there's just thousands of acres of blueberries, and we are not that large

231
00:14:15,216 --> 00:14:18,584
when it comes to blueberry production. And so we have to really be

232
00:14:18,704 --> 00:14:22,128
cautious, um, with, because we're so quality

233
00:14:22,176 --> 00:14:26,016
driven, uh, with our berries, we call our fruit really hard so

234
00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,832
our seconds fruit. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just a little bit smaller,

235
00:14:29,928 --> 00:14:33,712
um, than we like to put out in the market. I mean,

236
00:14:33,728 --> 00:14:36,848
after all, you can drive down the road in Oregon and just pull over.

237
00:14:37,016 --> 00:14:40,798
Exactly. Exactly. Well, that tells you a

238
00:14:40,806 --> 00:14:44,478
lot, because we, we've, like I said earlier, we're a brown thumbs. My wife and

239
00:14:44,486 --> 00:14:48,214
I are horrible at it. Our, one of our housekeepers from El Salvador, she was

240
00:14:48,254 --> 00:14:51,902
incredible at it. But we tried to grow some blueberry bushes, and I'm telling you,

241
00:14:51,918 --> 00:14:55,454
that was the most anemic looking things you'd ever seen. And so we just gave

242
00:14:55,494 --> 00:14:59,182
up on it. And so it's. But I've seen your brand in the stores, and

243
00:14:59,198 --> 00:15:02,918
it also explains a lot about the price fluctuation, you

244
00:15:02,926 --> 00:15:06,582
know, retail, because it seems to. It seems to ebb and flow

245
00:15:06,638 --> 00:15:10,344
rather radically. Like day to day, almost. Yes, it absolutely

246
00:15:10,384 --> 00:15:14,004
does. Wow. So this is an important

247
00:15:14,744 --> 00:15:18,136
part of this conversation. Wines, grapes. Wine

248
00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:20,684
grapes, blueberries doesn't matter

249
00:15:22,384 --> 00:15:25,808
because we're adding layers of bureaucracy, we're adding layers

250
00:15:25,856 --> 00:15:29,592
of philosophy. We're adding all kinds of things every day to

251
00:15:29,768 --> 00:15:33,112
the cultivation of wine grapes. And you're talking about sustainability, which I think is a

252
00:15:33,128 --> 00:15:36,744
very important part of our industry. I think of all industries

253
00:15:37,244 --> 00:15:41,092
that are out there, that wine grape growing is probably one

254
00:15:41,108 --> 00:15:43,464
of the most natural, sustainable

255
00:15:45,204 --> 00:15:48,548
crops. Is your family looking towards

256
00:15:48,596 --> 00:15:52,220
sustainability? Is it adopted sustainability? And how has that

257
00:15:52,252 --> 00:15:55,956
affected the bottom line and or the way we go

258
00:15:55,980 --> 00:15:59,380
about our daily business? Absolutely. So our

259
00:15:59,412 --> 00:16:01,664
family has implemented sustainability

260
00:16:03,064 --> 00:16:06,680
for a very long time now. We just have that third party certification,

261
00:16:06,752 --> 00:16:10,392
which does aid in the marketing aspect. All of our wine

262
00:16:10,408 --> 00:16:13,960
grapes are certified sustainable as well as climate adaptation

263
00:16:14,032 --> 00:16:17,368
certified, which means that we actually sequester more

264
00:16:17,416 --> 00:16:21,144
carbon with our farming practices than

265
00:16:21,184 --> 00:16:24,760
we do emit nitrogen when it comes to the ozone layer.

266
00:16:24,832 --> 00:16:28,484
And helping farm for the future

267
00:16:28,664 --> 00:16:32,184
and climate friendly farming, we are practicing those

268
00:16:32,684 --> 00:16:36,268
cultural practices in our vineyards. And we do have third

269
00:16:36,316 --> 00:16:40,012
party certification for both of those sustainability as well as climate

270
00:16:40,068 --> 00:16:43,852
adaptation certified. And then as

271
00:16:43,868 --> 00:16:47,276
well as our blueberries, I have actually implemented and created a

272
00:16:47,300 --> 00:16:51,148
sustainability plan that now other growers can use throughout

273
00:16:51,236 --> 00:16:54,596
California to get their farms certified

274
00:16:54,660 --> 00:16:58,310
sustainable. And the beauty of sustainability is

275
00:16:58,422 --> 00:17:01,974
it's not just farming. You obviously have to have

276
00:17:02,054 --> 00:17:05,694
a financially economical business to continue

277
00:17:05,774 --> 00:17:09,574
for generation to generation. You need to have sustainable

278
00:17:09,614 --> 00:17:13,102
farming practices as well as have that people component,

279
00:17:13,238 --> 00:17:15,874
be it your employees, your neighbors,

280
00:17:17,134 --> 00:17:20,518
the total community aspect for

281
00:17:20,566 --> 00:17:23,914
sustainability to really showcase the true

282
00:17:24,694 --> 00:17:28,078
definition of sustainability, not only in the fields, but

283
00:17:28,126 --> 00:17:31,878
also how you interact with your community

284
00:17:32,046 --> 00:17:35,710
and your employees. Are there different levels of certification? I

285
00:17:35,742 --> 00:17:38,886
had on the show. I can't remember her name now. It was sort of a

286
00:17:38,910 --> 00:17:42,646
russian slavic name. And she was at the San

287
00:17:42,670 --> 00:17:46,190
Luis Obispo group of the certification group.

288
00:17:46,262 --> 00:17:49,528
The SIP. Certified, yes. Sip. Is that the

289
00:17:49,656 --> 00:17:53,160
certification you're talking about? So our wine grapes are

290
00:17:53,192 --> 00:17:56,784
certified through fish friendly farming, as well as the California

291
00:17:56,824 --> 00:18:00,664
Wine Institute. Excuse me, the California Sustainable Wine

292
00:18:00,704 --> 00:18:04,032
Institute. And then our blueberries. The

293
00:18:04,168 --> 00:18:07,744
program that I used was fish friendly farming to create that

294
00:18:07,904 --> 00:18:11,432
certified or that certification process.

295
00:18:11,608 --> 00:18:15,280
So you sort of created understanding the grape

296
00:18:15,352 --> 00:18:18,874
certification for sustainability. And I'm push up a little

297
00:18:18,914 --> 00:18:21,986
bit. Push on that a little bit right now. But you sort of

298
00:18:22,010 --> 00:18:25,602
adopted some of those techniques and created or pioneered

299
00:18:25,658 --> 00:18:29,266
the idea for blueberry farming. Yes. Yeah. So our

300
00:18:29,290 --> 00:18:32,214
blueberries are 100% certified sustainable.

301
00:18:33,034 --> 00:18:36,794
We. And so I. I feel that sustainability is really one of the

302
00:18:36,914 --> 00:18:40,194
most important certifications that you can get, because if you're

303
00:18:40,234 --> 00:18:43,934
sustainable, then you are looking at everything

304
00:18:44,934 --> 00:18:47,754
under the umbrella as opposed to just one pillar.

305
00:18:49,014 --> 00:18:52,310
It's very interesting to me because I've read a few books on the

306
00:18:52,342 --> 00:18:55,806
subject, organic farming as well. Biodynamic, I think I have

307
00:18:55,830 --> 00:18:58,954
Steiner's book. It's right here, actually, but

308
00:18:59,934 --> 00:19:03,594
the binding is still intact, so I haven't really read much of it.

309
00:19:06,214 --> 00:19:09,542
And that is, if you look at farming in America,

310
00:19:09,678 --> 00:19:13,494
and it's purported that we've ruined so many farms and that it takes

311
00:19:13,574 --> 00:19:17,028
generations for them to come back. If you look at farming in America,

312
00:19:17,196 --> 00:19:20,264
let's talk about the industrial age, the forties and the fifties.

313
00:19:21,724 --> 00:19:25,444
If there's no holds barred, do whatever you want. Take whatever,

314
00:19:25,564 --> 00:19:28,364
add whatever you want to the soil, dust it with whatever you need to do.

315
00:19:28,444 --> 00:19:31,668
We need to increase production. We need to feed the world. So we're just going

316
00:19:31,676 --> 00:19:35,476
to have at it. And there's no boundaries, right. And now

317
00:19:35,500 --> 00:19:39,092
we're pulling those in, and we're still getting the

318
00:19:39,108 --> 00:19:42,934
volume, we're still getting that. We're still getting the amount

319
00:19:42,974 --> 00:19:45,982
of food we need. And I even read a book once where they said you

320
00:19:45,998 --> 00:19:49,574
could never feed the world organically. And I don't think that's true necessarily anymore.

321
00:19:49,694 --> 00:19:53,406
But the fact that you now have sort of harnessed some of

322
00:19:53,430 --> 00:19:57,254
this stuff and you are still producing quality products, we're still producing

323
00:19:57,374 --> 00:20:00,918
the amount that we need, isn't that fascinating to sort

324
00:20:00,926 --> 00:20:04,462
of with a little effort? And I don't think it's the

325
00:20:04,478 --> 00:20:07,994
bureaucracy it does. There's only people like you with the passion to do it.

326
00:20:08,374 --> 00:20:12,046
Have you seen a big change? I definitely have seen a

327
00:20:12,070 --> 00:20:15,206
change. I think one of the main things is that even

328
00:20:15,310 --> 00:20:18,998
with our implementation of

329
00:20:19,046 --> 00:20:22,774
new practices and bringing in new technology and mechanization, which is

330
00:20:22,814 --> 00:20:26,150
kind of just the wave of the future, in all honesty, with labor being so

331
00:20:26,182 --> 00:20:29,994
difficult, it is something that

332
00:20:30,294 --> 00:20:33,982
generations before us have done. Now, there's always a

333
00:20:33,998 --> 00:20:37,314
bad egg, there's always a bad apple. But I would say for the most part,

334
00:20:38,074 --> 00:20:41,770
farmers in general, they, at least

335
00:20:41,802 --> 00:20:45,594
for us, I can speak 100% to that, is we live on the property

336
00:20:45,634 --> 00:20:48,922
that we farm. And so we're never going to put anything out there

337
00:20:49,058 --> 00:20:52,802
or in the ground or anything like that that's harmful to us.

338
00:20:52,978 --> 00:20:56,654
Call us selfish if you want, because why would I want to

339
00:20:59,834 --> 00:21:03,636
add anything that's toxic to our groundwater that we're drinking? Because

340
00:21:03,660 --> 00:21:07,356
we all drink well water. So I think it's really important to look

341
00:21:07,380 --> 00:21:10,964
at the bigger picture. And even with larger

342
00:21:11,084 --> 00:21:14,556
corporate farms, I don't know the exact

343
00:21:14,660 --> 00:21:18,484
percentage, but I believe it's like 90

344
00:21:18,644 --> 00:21:22,348
or 95% are family run farms

345
00:21:22,396 --> 00:21:26,132
in California. And that's a huge number. Now, some of

346
00:21:26,148 --> 00:21:29,774
these family operations could be larger

347
00:21:29,814 --> 00:21:33,598
operations, but they're still run by a family. And I think that we need.

348
00:21:33,726 --> 00:21:37,446
There's been so much separation from taking, like, the human

349
00:21:37,550 --> 00:21:41,334
out of farming. And they, and the average

350
00:21:41,374 --> 00:21:44,870
consumer just thinks it's some big corporate conglomerate. And I think that

351
00:21:44,902 --> 00:21:48,718
that's one thing that with the work that our

352
00:21:48,766 --> 00:21:52,126
industry has done as well as the Sonoma county weing commission, is really

353
00:21:52,190 --> 00:21:55,864
putting a person back into the picture.

354
00:21:56,054 --> 00:21:59,796
And it's not just a machine or a robot out there. It's actually

355
00:21:59,860 --> 00:22:03,708
people out there doing the work, making sure that we're implementing the best

356
00:22:03,756 --> 00:22:07,540
possible way that we can. And by all means. Is that hard work? Absolutely.

357
00:22:07,652 --> 00:22:09,944
But it's something that we wouldn't change for the world.

358
00:22:11,604 --> 00:22:14,596
You just gave me a funny thought. Not that this is a funny subject, but

359
00:22:14,620 --> 00:22:18,348
you gave me a funny thought. And that is, I wish in

360
00:22:18,356 --> 00:22:22,052
the bureaucracies of not only the local, but state

361
00:22:22,108 --> 00:22:25,932
and then federal bureaucracies, that there'd be a requirement, at

362
00:22:25,948 --> 00:22:29,700
least from my standpoint, that everybody owned a business and tried

363
00:22:29,732 --> 00:22:32,144
to make a profit so they would understand

364
00:22:33,284 --> 00:22:36,876
the headwinds to this. And I'm thinking, gee, I wonder if that wouldn't be same

365
00:22:37,020 --> 00:22:40,316
in rural farming communities. And that we wish the

366
00:22:40,340 --> 00:22:43,980
bureaucrats that are up there had an inkling of what we go

367
00:22:44,012 --> 00:22:47,556
through every day and how we try to protect the soil and how we do

368
00:22:47,580 --> 00:22:50,590
have our kids playing in the vineyard. We don't want toxic

369
00:22:50,622 --> 00:22:54,394
chemicals on their fingers when they come home or play with the dog.

370
00:22:55,894 --> 00:22:59,494
Is that a thought process? Is that something you. I think that's a great

371
00:22:59,534 --> 00:23:03,206
idea. I mean, I have always said, and something that I've talked to my dad

372
00:23:03,230 --> 00:23:06,670
a lot about is the importance of, if you're going

373
00:23:06,742 --> 00:23:10,374
to run a government, run a country, whatever it may be,

374
00:23:10,494 --> 00:23:13,966
that you should know how to run a business and make a

375
00:23:13,990 --> 00:23:17,790
payroll, because you actually have people's lives dependent

376
00:23:17,822 --> 00:23:21,546
on you. And I would say the same thing when we have people voting for

377
00:23:21,650 --> 00:23:25,370
different regulations that come down onto these farmers, that there's a

378
00:23:25,402 --> 00:23:28,978
disconnect and having that

379
00:23:29,026 --> 00:23:32,242
personal connection, that personal interaction is so

380
00:23:32,298 --> 00:23:36,014
important because that really, it really does matter

381
00:23:37,634 --> 00:23:41,482
how you vote, how you interact with your community, all

382
00:23:41,498 --> 00:23:44,658
of these different things. I think it's a really, really important

383
00:23:44,826 --> 00:23:48,258
subject that can be extremely detrimental

384
00:23:48,306 --> 00:23:51,774
to a livelihood of a generational family farm.

385
00:23:52,434 --> 00:23:55,890
I mean, just going back to a few years when they diverted the water away

386
00:23:55,922 --> 00:23:59,722
from the Kern Valley, I mean, that's one major thing. So

387
00:23:59,778 --> 00:24:03,530
let's shift gears a little bit. This is an important part

388
00:24:03,562 --> 00:24:07,014
of California agriculture. What you're doing

389
00:24:07,554 --> 00:24:10,774
in your way, the 200 acres, you've got grapes, you've got blueberries.

390
00:24:13,864 --> 00:24:17,352
It's so often that I have a conversation with a european

391
00:24:17,448 --> 00:24:21,232
farmer who started, who was going

392
00:24:21,248 --> 00:24:25,084
to be in the industry. I mean, they're born of these amazing chateaux

393
00:24:25,824 --> 00:24:29,192
and grape growing. And six generations in

394
00:24:29,208 --> 00:24:32,984
California is long. I mean, it's maybe average

395
00:24:33,024 --> 00:24:36,652
in Europe when it comes to these properties, but for California, that's very long.

396
00:24:36,848 --> 00:24:40,588
Commendable. But did you have, were you compelled to go off and do

397
00:24:40,636 --> 00:24:44,100
something else first to understand a little bit

398
00:24:44,132 --> 00:24:47,732
more of the world to, before we started on the farm?

399
00:24:47,788 --> 00:24:51,612
Like, you're part of these commissions, you're part of these organizations. You said you're

400
00:24:51,628 --> 00:24:55,300
on a lot of boards to get a rounded viewpoint of what's

401
00:24:55,332 --> 00:24:59,084
going on out there. So we actually have a little unspoken

402
00:24:59,124 --> 00:25:02,820
role with our family that you have to go work for somebody else

403
00:25:02,852 --> 00:25:06,436
for five years before you come back to the family business. Oh, wow. And

404
00:25:06,540 --> 00:25:10,220
for me, it was extremely important because at the end of the day,

405
00:25:10,332 --> 00:25:13,980
you know, your parents are your boss, but they're still your parents. So

406
00:25:14,012 --> 00:25:17,300
there's that, there's that little leeway that that happens,

407
00:25:17,492 --> 00:25:21,084
especially when you're fresh out of college. I won't act like I was

408
00:25:21,204 --> 00:25:24,700
some godsend or anything like that. You know, there needs to be a little

409
00:25:24,732 --> 00:25:28,396
humbling that takes place, and I think it's always best when humbling takes place.

410
00:25:28,460 --> 00:25:31,756
With somebody that's not your

411
00:25:31,780 --> 00:25:35,560
parents. And at least for me, that's what worked best. So I actually

412
00:25:35,632 --> 00:25:39,392
worked for an organization that represented the

413
00:25:39,488 --> 00:25:42,968
Sonoma Valley Vintners and growers. So it was a membership based

414
00:25:43,016 --> 00:25:46,768
organization, so I was still involved, but on a different level.

415
00:25:46,896 --> 00:25:50,616
And through that, made a lot of connections. Put on

416
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,304
the Sonoma harvest wine auction. At that time, it was the number three charitable

417
00:25:54,344 --> 00:25:56,364
wine auction in the nation. Wow.

418
00:25:57,884 --> 00:26:01,716
So kind of got into the philanthropic side of things, represented

419
00:26:01,740 --> 00:26:05,492
the industry, made connections outside of my

420
00:26:05,548 --> 00:26:09,236
family business and my family connections, and then went and worked for a

421
00:26:09,260 --> 00:26:12,820
private hunting club in Sonoma and decided at that

422
00:26:12,852 --> 00:26:16,196
point, around 2016, it was time to come back and work for the family

423
00:26:16,260 --> 00:26:19,820
business. And so through that time,

424
00:26:20,012 --> 00:26:23,676
during busy times of year, be it grape harvest, blueberry harvest, I

425
00:26:23,700 --> 00:26:27,344
would help as best I could, but I did have my

426
00:26:27,384 --> 00:26:31,040
normal, you know, my regular nine to five and then some

427
00:26:31,112 --> 00:26:34,616
job, so it wasn't my main focus. And

428
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:38,464
so to your question of, you know, did you have to go do something else?

429
00:26:38,544 --> 00:26:42,224
Yes. Were we required to come back to work for the family business? Absolutely

430
00:26:42,264 --> 00:26:45,880
not. It was our choice whether we wanted to or

431
00:26:45,912 --> 00:26:49,640
not. And it's something that I have always been called for.

432
00:26:49,832 --> 00:26:53,606
I've just had that. That internal calling. I knew that

433
00:26:53,630 --> 00:26:57,422
I would always be in agriculture in one form or another, and so it

434
00:26:57,438 --> 00:27:01,262
was just a matter of how that would happen.

435
00:27:01,438 --> 00:27:05,102
So when I came back, I'm the youngest. I have two older brothers.

436
00:27:05,238 --> 00:27:08,526
And so when I came back, I was the final child to come back and

437
00:27:08,550 --> 00:27:12,086
work for the family business. And that's when we started our wine

438
00:27:12,110 --> 00:27:15,942
label. 2018 was our first vintage, and so

439
00:27:16,038 --> 00:27:19,486
we were able to kind of take everything to the next level with all. All

440
00:27:19,510 --> 00:27:22,958
hands on deck. I want to talk about that first vintage right now, but

441
00:27:23,006 --> 00:27:25,594
however, there's something very funny. You said

442
00:27:26,854 --> 00:27:30,582
that there's a humbling experience. Well, humbling from college

443
00:27:30,638 --> 00:27:33,874
to your careers is called real life, right?

444
00:27:34,294 --> 00:27:37,782
100%. My architect is

445
00:27:37,798 --> 00:27:41,510
a close friend and a relative by marriage. His son just went

446
00:27:41,542 --> 00:27:45,246
off to Cornell to be an architect, architecture. And he keeps calling him

447
00:27:45,270 --> 00:27:48,766
saying, dad, you're not doing it right. Yeah, you finish the

448
00:27:48,790 --> 00:27:52,550
classroom. Exactly. Come out and sit in my seat and earn a living

449
00:27:52,582 --> 00:27:56,038
at this, and then we'll decide what. My dad says that

450
00:27:56,126 --> 00:27:59,750
all the time. And it's true. There's

451
00:27:59,902 --> 00:28:03,438
a true component to real life as opposed to what's taught in a

452
00:28:03,446 --> 00:28:07,270
classroom. Correct. And I think that that's really important. And

453
00:28:07,382 --> 00:28:10,834
you always have. You work with family. There's always going to be

454
00:28:11,734 --> 00:28:15,242
a rub, but at the end of the day, you're with your family, so you

455
00:28:15,258 --> 00:28:18,946
wouldn't want for anything else. You know, it's interesting, too. I. My career,

456
00:28:19,010 --> 00:28:22,174
it took me about ten years to come back to this, but,

457
00:28:22,554 --> 00:28:26,354
you know, I left. I remember in college saying, I do not want to work

458
00:28:26,394 --> 00:28:29,042
for. I'm not going to be a little guy. I'm not going to. So I

459
00:28:29,058 --> 00:28:32,298
went to corporate America, and I thought, well, that that was very unrewarding and

460
00:28:32,306 --> 00:28:36,098
unsatisfying. And then started a company with some other guys and software. And I

461
00:28:36,106 --> 00:28:39,538
was one of five people. We had nothing. We had a Commodore

462
00:28:39,586 --> 00:28:43,232
64 computer and. And a fishbowl of business cards from a show.

463
00:28:43,408 --> 00:28:46,484
I wasn't even sure what the software did, but

464
00:28:46,864 --> 00:28:50,576
those experiences were invaluable on both sides

465
00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:53,936
of that offense to do what I came to do with my

466
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,736
father. And when he said, I've got an

467
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:01,084
offer from the south african wine of the month club, and

468
00:29:01,504 --> 00:29:05,240
if you're interested in pursuing this, we should come and

469
00:29:05,272 --> 00:29:08,950
check it out. So I did that in three months. Packed the wine, I

470
00:29:09,062 --> 00:29:12,902
built the credit cards, did all the work, and thought, yeah, you know, I

471
00:29:12,918 --> 00:29:16,714
could do that, but I couldn't have done it, having not understood

472
00:29:17,094 --> 00:29:20,714
both the entrepreneurial side of business and the corporate America side

473
00:29:21,614 --> 00:29:25,222
to make it work, which I just sold last year after 35

474
00:29:25,278 --> 00:29:29,126
years. So 2018, I

475
00:29:29,150 --> 00:29:32,838
didn't realize this is a rather new venture when it comes to commercial

476
00:29:32,886 --> 00:29:36,622
wine. 2018 was probably a pretty good year to get started. It was

477
00:29:36,718 --> 00:29:40,438
pre COVID Internet wine sales were good.

478
00:29:40,606 --> 00:29:44,366
Do you have a tasting room there? Well, 2018 was

479
00:29:44,390 --> 00:29:47,478
our first vintage, but like I said, we only grow red grapes, so we have

480
00:29:47,526 --> 00:29:51,262
red wine. And so we didn't release it until 2022.

481
00:29:51,398 --> 00:29:55,190
So timing was really new.

482
00:29:55,262 --> 00:29:58,834
Was a little difficult, in all honesty. But

483
00:29:59,254 --> 00:30:02,902
we. To your question of a tasting room,

484
00:30:02,998 --> 00:30:06,630
we don't have an actual tasting room. We do ranch tours, so

485
00:30:06,662 --> 00:30:10,510
it's private by appointment only. We encourage

486
00:30:10,542 --> 00:30:14,206
you to come to our website, reach out to us, book a tour, and we

487
00:30:14,230 --> 00:30:17,934
take you around the vineyard. We taste through five to six different

488
00:30:17,974 --> 00:30:21,782
wines. We have multiple stops throughout the vineyard, talk about the

489
00:30:21,798 --> 00:30:25,286
farming practices, talk about our family

490
00:30:25,350 --> 00:30:29,166
heritage, our history, as well as we have a resident

491
00:30:29,230 --> 00:30:32,898
herd of, uh, Texas longhorns on our place, and they're always

492
00:30:32,946 --> 00:30:36,754
a wonderful showpiece. Very cool. So

493
00:30:36,834 --> 00:30:40,298
interesting then. All right, so your first vintage, uh, your first picked

494
00:30:40,386 --> 00:30:44,226
vintage was 2018. Um, you know, you process it,

495
00:30:44,250 --> 00:30:47,226
you put it in the barrel, and you release it in 2022. And you've made

496
00:30:47,250 --> 00:30:51,002
a vintage ever since. So you've got the 20 2019 in barrel or

497
00:30:51,018 --> 00:30:54,650
it's in tank, et cetera, et cetera, right? Yes. So every year

498
00:30:54,682 --> 00:30:58,190
other than 2020, uh, the fires up in this

499
00:30:58,222 --> 00:31:01,934
area were a little too difficult, and so we had

500
00:31:01,974 --> 00:31:05,686
a little too much smoke exposure early on in the growing season. So we

501
00:31:05,710 --> 00:31:08,494
have a 20, 18, 20, 19, 20,

502
00:31:08,614 --> 00:31:12,446
21 22 is still in barrel and will be

503
00:31:12,470 --> 00:31:15,038
bottled, actually, January of

504
00:31:15,086 --> 00:31:18,594
2025. Well, thank goodness that you have another.

505
00:31:19,494 --> 00:31:22,822
You have other foundation businesses. Absolutely. Since

506
00:31:22,838 --> 00:31:26,496
2020, with so many people were devastated by those fires, and a lot of

507
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:29,880
businesses are struggling still because of

508
00:31:29,912 --> 00:31:33,664
that. So what was the impetus to say,

509
00:31:33,704 --> 00:31:37,376
look, we've got these vineyards, we're making wine? I don't know if you maybe were

510
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:41,168
making wine for yourself up until that point, but decided to get commercial

511
00:31:41,216 --> 00:31:44,992
about that. Was it because you wanted to augment this sort of

512
00:31:45,088 --> 00:31:48,904
tourist facility or that you were really going back to your roots

513
00:31:48,944 --> 00:31:52,740
and wanted to create wine with the family name to represent what. Who

514
00:31:52,772 --> 00:31:56,172
you are? What was the sort of discussion around the family around here? I think

515
00:31:56,188 --> 00:31:58,664
our main thing was going back to our roots.

516
00:31:59,324 --> 00:32:02,764
Create and establish that world class

517
00:32:02,804 --> 00:32:06,652
wine is grown all over the nation, all over

518
00:32:06,668 --> 00:32:10,332
the world, and we're very proud of the wine and the

519
00:32:10,348 --> 00:32:13,804
grapes that we grow here in Sonoma Valley. And so

520
00:32:13,924 --> 00:32:17,618
trying to multiple levels, in the sense of

521
00:32:17,716 --> 00:32:21,454
putting that stake in the ground to really showcase that we are able

522
00:32:21,494 --> 00:32:25,230
to grow grapes that compete with some of the best

523
00:32:25,262 --> 00:32:29,006
areas of the world, putting our name on it, obviously ensuring

524
00:32:29,070 --> 00:32:32,590
that we are focusing on quality first. And so that's

525
00:32:32,622 --> 00:32:36,302
why, to that point, there are some wineries that chose to move forward

526
00:32:36,358 --> 00:32:39,914
with a 2020 vintage. But we just decided that

527
00:32:40,454 --> 00:32:44,246
the quality wasn't there that year with that smoke exposure. So we decided not

528
00:32:44,270 --> 00:32:47,682
to. With our family mission statement.

529
00:32:47,858 --> 00:32:51,466
In our winery, what we really focus on is the importance of

530
00:32:51,490 --> 00:32:55,338
quality. The wine doesn't get released because a sales

531
00:32:55,386 --> 00:32:59,098
team, which is a very small team, it's basically myself

532
00:32:59,146 --> 00:33:02,842
and one other person. But the people don't dictate the

533
00:33:02,858 --> 00:33:06,586
wine. The wine is what dictates the wine. So everything revolves around the

534
00:33:06,610 --> 00:33:09,774
wine and when it's ready, and then we evolve from there.

535
00:33:10,254 --> 00:33:13,966
So you must have been carried over from the

536
00:33:14,110 --> 00:33:17,670
farming practices, let's say, blueberries, to the

537
00:33:17,702 --> 00:33:21,542
wine philosophies. And the philosophy of your wine is we're going to

538
00:33:21,558 --> 00:33:25,390
produce the best product that we can. Given the. What the mother

539
00:33:25,422 --> 00:33:29,030
nature has given us, I'm sure you probably

540
00:33:29,102 --> 00:33:32,710
have given your sustainability movement, minimal

541
00:33:32,822 --> 00:33:34,834
intervention. What does that mean to you?

542
00:33:35,874 --> 00:33:39,654
It's really important. It's something that

543
00:33:40,194 --> 00:33:43,762
with everything that we do, be it our construction company, be it our blueberries, be

544
00:33:43,778 --> 00:33:47,458
it our wine grapes, our wines that we make,

545
00:33:47,546 --> 00:33:50,954
if our name is on it, we are really focused on

546
00:33:51,114 --> 00:33:54,698
quality. We want to make sure that

547
00:33:54,826 --> 00:33:58,314
we're proud of the product that goes out there. I would say

548
00:33:58,354 --> 00:34:01,294
that with the sustainability efforts that we have,

549
00:34:01,814 --> 00:34:05,582
ensuring that that quality is wholesome and sustainable, first and

550
00:34:05,598 --> 00:34:09,438
foremost, and then that that quality level is, you know,

551
00:34:09,486 --> 00:34:13,038
above par and then some, to really encourage

552
00:34:13,126 --> 00:34:16,926
knowing that from a consumer level, if you see saris on the label, be

553
00:34:16,950 --> 00:34:20,710
it on the side of a truck, on, you know, a wine

554
00:34:20,742 --> 00:34:24,334
bottle, on a blueberry carton, that you don't have to

555
00:34:24,374 --> 00:34:26,434
question that level of integrity.

556
00:34:27,993 --> 00:34:31,625
So from a boutique, it's fascinating conversation,

557
00:34:31,769 --> 00:34:35,601
because I dealt with a

558
00:34:35,617 --> 00:34:39,305
lot of huge volume makers. I dealt with a lot of bulk juice. I

559
00:34:39,329 --> 00:34:42,673
dealt with, I tasted all the wines you see at the supermarket that

560
00:34:42,713 --> 00:34:46,497
represent more formula related wines than actual

561
00:34:46,545 --> 00:34:49,529
boutique vineyard driven wines.

562
00:34:49,721 --> 00:34:52,933
And we know this is a very difficult

563
00:34:53,394 --> 00:34:56,574
part of our industry. I mean, just selling wine is hard.

564
00:34:57,114 --> 00:35:00,930
Making money is even harder. So we have two different worlds

565
00:35:00,962 --> 00:35:03,614
of wine here. We have this commercial

566
00:35:04,474 --> 00:35:07,506
volume driven, got to get in the hands of the

567
00:35:07,530 --> 00:35:11,314
consumer to your philosophy, which is create

568
00:35:11,354 --> 00:35:14,666
the best you can create, represent the value of the moon best you

569
00:35:14,690 --> 00:35:18,402
can. Try not to influence the

570
00:35:18,418 --> 00:35:21,772
wine, just get out of the way of what, what we've been given,

571
00:35:21,908 --> 00:35:24,224
that delivering to the consumer

572
00:35:26,604 --> 00:35:30,132
as little intervention as possible, but creating a product

573
00:35:30,188 --> 00:35:33,860
that people want to drink. And here's the reason I brought that up so many

574
00:35:33,892 --> 00:35:37,716
times. The industry, at least in the last few

575
00:35:37,740 --> 00:35:40,868
years, have used the excuse organic farming, bar

576
00:35:40,916 --> 00:35:44,756
dynamic, less intervention to represent wines that

577
00:35:44,780 --> 00:35:48,492
actually aren't that good to drink. They're not that flavorful. And they say, well, it's

578
00:35:48,508 --> 00:35:51,460
a biodynamic, you know, but there's no excuse to make a wine that you can't

579
00:35:51,492 --> 00:35:55,188
drink. I mean, wines were organic long before pesticides

580
00:35:55,236 --> 00:35:58,996
were introduced into the world. So your position

581
00:35:59,060 --> 00:36:02,644
on this is represent the Sarah's family and

582
00:36:02,764 --> 00:36:06,204
valley of the moon in its unadulterated

583
00:36:06,244 --> 00:36:09,424
way. Absolutely. We really let

584
00:36:09,924 --> 00:36:13,140
so much so that in our bottles of wine, when we do our

585
00:36:13,172 --> 00:36:16,436
tastings, we have our

586
00:36:16,620 --> 00:36:20,428
2018 vintage, our Bordeaux style blend, which we named Wattress

587
00:36:20,516 --> 00:36:23,396
after the family that owned the property before us. And our

588
00:36:23,420 --> 00:36:26,924
2019, we pour those two wines side by

589
00:36:26,964 --> 00:36:30,676
side. And the reason for that is because they are both the

590
00:36:30,700 --> 00:36:34,244
same skew. They are both a Bordeaux style

591
00:36:34,284 --> 00:36:37,980
blend, but they're completely different. And

592
00:36:38,012 --> 00:36:41,566
that's because the growing season of 2018 and 2019 were

593
00:36:41,590 --> 00:36:45,294
completely different. And so we really like to showcase what's

594
00:36:45,334 --> 00:36:48,766
happening in the vineyard every year. And we like to take

595
00:36:48,910 --> 00:36:52,278
a minimalistic

596
00:36:52,326 --> 00:36:55,846
approach to a certain extent for our

597
00:36:55,870 --> 00:36:59,566
cultural practices in the vineyard because we really like to showcase

598
00:36:59,590 --> 00:37:03,074
the sense of place. As we take you around the vineyard,

599
00:37:04,134 --> 00:37:07,854
we show you our different blocks that we have, especially that

600
00:37:07,894 --> 00:37:11,366
one block that we source all of our grapes from for our own wine production,

601
00:37:11,510 --> 00:37:15,286
and talk about the regenerative approach

602
00:37:15,390 --> 00:37:18,822
to farming. And then in other different

603
00:37:18,918 --> 00:37:22,726
blocks, we talk about every other disc or disc, the row

604
00:37:22,790 --> 00:37:26,142
every other year. So every other row every other

605
00:37:26,198 --> 00:37:29,654
year, and the impacts of that, as well as

606
00:37:29,814 --> 00:37:33,350
just kind of everything in a holistic approach. And that's

607
00:37:33,382 --> 00:37:37,006
really how we like to live our lives, not

608
00:37:37,070 --> 00:37:40,610
intervene until it's necessary. And

609
00:37:40,642 --> 00:37:44,194
also be aware of what you're doing. So

610
00:37:44,354 --> 00:37:48,090
not be proactive as opposed to reactive

611
00:37:48,282 --> 00:37:51,094
and everything, but not just putting

612
00:37:52,394 --> 00:37:55,442
chemicals or anything out there as

613
00:37:55,618 --> 00:37:59,394
needed. We don't put it out there unless it is needed. Right?

614
00:37:59,434 --> 00:38:03,074
Yeah. So you got into this knowing

615
00:38:03,234 --> 00:38:06,980
what the headwinds of marketing

616
00:38:07,012 --> 00:38:10,756
wine is. What, what currently is your marketing strategy? In the

617
00:38:10,780 --> 00:38:14,628
sense of we're just going to keep experiential, come to the, come to

618
00:38:14,636 --> 00:38:17,124
the ranch, we're going to take out a tour, we're going to taste some wine,

619
00:38:17,284 --> 00:38:21,068
we have a wine club or we have an online presence. What's the current

620
00:38:21,196 --> 00:38:24,784
methodologies of getting the word out? And then

621
00:38:25,564 --> 00:38:29,244
what's your anticipated strategy? Our main

622
00:38:29,284 --> 00:38:32,870
focus right now is we do have a wine club. Direct to

623
00:38:32,902 --> 00:38:36,606
consumer, obviously is the greatest return on investment

624
00:38:36,710 --> 00:38:40,274
for us. So that's where we try to focus most of our efforts

625
00:38:40,694 --> 00:38:44,134
on premise experiences, really staying private by

626
00:38:44,174 --> 00:38:47,314
appointment only, because we really like to showcase

627
00:38:48,374 --> 00:38:52,086
the entirety of our property with our wines and everything that

628
00:38:52,110 --> 00:38:55,758
we have to offer in one. And as far

629
00:38:55,806 --> 00:38:59,106
as realizing that we do need to get our name out there, we do need

630
00:38:59,130 --> 00:39:02,874
to brand and market. So really kind of starting

631
00:39:02,914 --> 00:39:06,426
to dabble a little bit in the wholesale markets and

632
00:39:06,450 --> 00:39:10,226
distribution throughout California and then a couple of key markets throughout the

633
00:39:10,250 --> 00:39:13,698
United States. But with that main emphasis

634
00:39:13,746 --> 00:39:16,854
focusing on direct to consumer wine club

635
00:39:17,354 --> 00:39:21,098
and then thinking outside the box, we have family members

636
00:39:21,186 --> 00:39:25,016
who are very, some

637
00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:28,672
of their major strengths are in marketing. So kind of using

638
00:39:28,728 --> 00:39:32,008
those to our advantage to try to really see

639
00:39:32,056 --> 00:39:35,764
something that may be used in a different industry,

640
00:39:36,384 --> 00:39:39,964
but trying to implement it into the wine world.

641
00:39:40,424 --> 00:39:44,272
That's an interesting strategy. I've seen it work a lot of times and

642
00:39:44,288 --> 00:39:47,844
I've seen it really fall in his face. So it's an interesting

643
00:39:48,944 --> 00:39:52,304
to do that. Well, there's a whole movement and maybe, you know, I don't know

644
00:39:52,304 --> 00:39:56,144
if you follow the social side of wine and Instagram, LinkedIn,

645
00:39:56,184 --> 00:40:00,008
all that stuff. And I

646
00:40:00,056 --> 00:40:03,044
decided I'm not going to bash millennials, even though I have three,

647
00:40:03,984 --> 00:40:07,816
so. But, you know, wine

648
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:11,608
is such a traditional old beverage. I mean, we know it's at least

649
00:40:11,656 --> 00:40:15,224
6000 years old from the armenian winery we found, but

650
00:40:15,264 --> 00:40:18,946
probably older than that. And so it's really, and it's really, it's the same as

651
00:40:18,970 --> 00:40:22,546
it was then. It's fermented grape juice. Hopefully it's more

652
00:40:22,570 --> 00:40:26,306
palatable today than it is back then. But when it comes down to it, it's

653
00:40:26,330 --> 00:40:29,954
the same product and it evokes the

654
00:40:29,994 --> 00:40:33,786
same soul. You know, movement

655
00:40:33,810 --> 00:40:37,106
of the soul is a reason why King Tut was buried with

656
00:40:37,130 --> 00:40:40,938
amphora is because that beverage probably had the same

657
00:40:40,986 --> 00:40:44,054
impact on the human soul as it does today.

658
00:40:44,974 --> 00:40:48,766
But then they're all talking about innovation in the industry, innovation,

659
00:40:48,830 --> 00:40:52,646
innovation. And I'm having trouble understanding what that means. Have

660
00:40:52,670 --> 00:40:56,406
you guys, have you sensed any of this yet or. We're

661
00:40:56,430 --> 00:41:00,070
still sort of beginning to do our marketing. We're going to find out soon what

662
00:41:00,102 --> 00:41:03,758
these headwinds are. But have you seen

663
00:41:03,806 --> 00:41:07,234
this by chance? I would say that.

664
00:41:07,774 --> 00:41:11,536
Definitely have seen it. I would. You know, the canned

665
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,964
wine world, you could say, is somewhat innovative.

666
00:41:15,784 --> 00:41:19,552
We actually have a co fermented blueberry sparkling

667
00:41:19,608 --> 00:41:23,456
rose that's a co ferment of blueberries and allianca

668
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:27,016
wine grapes, both grown, estate grown. And

669
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:30,912
so one way that you can say that we're kind of tapping into that

670
00:41:31,008 --> 00:41:34,752
millennial and younger market, obviously over

671
00:41:34,808 --> 00:41:38,516
21, because it is a wine, but is with

672
00:41:38,580 --> 00:41:42,276
this introductory wine, and I think where everyone ends up

673
00:41:42,420 --> 00:41:45,780
is buying that nice bottle of wine at the end of the

674
00:41:45,812 --> 00:41:48,624
day for that dinner party,

675
00:41:49,324 --> 00:41:51,984
wherever that may be. But I think

676
00:41:53,484 --> 00:41:57,076
with these millennials and younger, I mean, I am a millennial

677
00:41:57,180 --> 00:42:00,868
and so kind of tapping into something that's

678
00:42:00,956 --> 00:42:02,304
a little bit more

679
00:42:04,674 --> 00:42:07,642
user friendly when you have a

680
00:42:07,738 --> 00:42:11,314
65 $8500 bottle of red wine,

681
00:42:11,434 --> 00:42:14,794
that's sometimes intimidating. And I think that's the biggest thing is

682
00:42:14,954 --> 00:42:18,714
there's an intimidating factor that takes place with red wine.

683
00:42:18,874 --> 00:42:22,034
So whenever I have tours, I've hosted people of all

684
00:42:22,074 --> 00:42:25,494
ages, again, over 21, of course, but

685
00:42:26,354 --> 00:42:30,026
everyone will ask what's your favorite or what's the best? Or

686
00:42:30,050 --> 00:42:33,452
whatever that may be? And I said, well, it really depends because your taste buds

687
00:42:33,468 --> 00:42:36,932
are completely different than my taste buds. And, you know, the mood that I'm in

688
00:42:36,948 --> 00:42:40,652
today or what I'm eating for dinner is going to be different for you

689
00:42:40,708 --> 00:42:44,492
than it is for me. And it's, it's not one way

690
00:42:44,548 --> 00:42:48,252
or the other. There's no wrong answer with wine. Um, and so

691
00:42:48,308 --> 00:42:52,132
that's what I try to portray, is that it's not a one size fits

692
00:42:52,188 --> 00:42:55,516
all. And there are so many different styles of Cabernet and

693
00:42:55,540 --> 00:42:59,220
Merlot and Cabernet franc and blends out

694
00:42:59,252 --> 00:43:03,036
there that a blanket statement of, I don't

695
00:43:03,060 --> 00:43:05,704
like Cabernet, or I don't like Merlot.

696
00:43:06,244 --> 00:43:10,092
That's our common one is, oh, Merlot's not for me. And I was

697
00:43:10,108 --> 00:43:13,076
like, well, just take a sip. If you don't like it, spit it out. No

698
00:43:13,100 --> 00:43:16,700
problem. And most people geared towards, wow, I really like

699
00:43:16,732 --> 00:43:20,284
that. And so, you know, as

700
00:43:20,324 --> 00:43:23,652
my sister in law says to my nieces and nephews, the no, thank you

701
00:43:23,668 --> 00:43:27,376
bite. And so it's kind of that, that no, thank

702
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:31,120
you sip, because you never know, you may really end up enjoying

703
00:43:31,152 --> 00:43:34,880
it. Well, so, first of all, that no Merlot thing has to be rollover

704
00:43:34,912 --> 00:43:37,884
from sideways. It is just around.

705
00:43:38,784 --> 00:43:42,392
And, you know, I was taught by my father when we were tasting together,

706
00:43:42,568 --> 00:43:46,256
you must taste everything. I don't care if you smell something that makes

707
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:49,604
no sense to you or it smells bad. You must taste it to understand

708
00:43:51,424 --> 00:43:55,004
what your palate is willing to put up with and what you can detect.

709
00:43:56,154 --> 00:43:59,530
And I meant when I said the millennial thing tongue in cheek, is

710
00:43:59,562 --> 00:44:03,402
because the stuff I've seen

711
00:44:03,418 --> 00:44:07,202
on the Internet with no experience, like,

712
00:44:07,338 --> 00:44:10,890
none. I think innovation is an

713
00:44:10,922 --> 00:44:14,266
interesting word. The idea that you're making a

714
00:44:14,290 --> 00:44:18,042
blueberry sparkler with aglionico and blueberries, but

715
00:44:18,058 --> 00:44:21,492
you're making fresh blueberry sparkle with real ingredients from real stuff,

716
00:44:21,618 --> 00:44:25,416
not white cloth that's flavored with a bunch of crap and that we think is

717
00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:29,408
fun to drink. I don't call it innovation. I

718
00:44:29,416 --> 00:44:32,736
think what they're talking about is something using

719
00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:36,512
AI and addressing consumers differently and trying to

720
00:44:36,528 --> 00:44:40,088
find the consumer. One of the articles I read was,

721
00:44:40,256 --> 00:44:43,800
we need to dig into the demographic of our customer and find out who's drinking

722
00:44:43,832 --> 00:44:47,564
our wine. I thought to myself at the end of this article,

723
00:44:47,914 --> 00:44:51,610
maybe 1% of the wineries can afford to

724
00:44:51,642 --> 00:44:55,426
spend the money to research that this quote, unquote, innovation was going to provide

725
00:44:55,490 --> 00:44:58,858
us. And even then, once you know that data, it's very difficult to react to.

726
00:44:58,906 --> 00:45:02,746
It's very difficult to find these people either socially or in the

727
00:45:02,770 --> 00:45:06,594
mail or however you're going to find them. And so that, and I

728
00:45:06,634 --> 00:45:10,058
don't believe personally, innovation

729
00:45:10,226 --> 00:45:14,042
is packaging. Yes. I can see the value of a

730
00:45:14,058 --> 00:45:16,882
canned wine or a tetra pack or the things they're trying to do in the

731
00:45:16,898 --> 00:45:20,464
world of wine, reduce the carbon footprint, thinner glass.

732
00:45:21,284 --> 00:45:24,732
Where they got those now, those, those squished pet bottles that, you

733
00:45:24,748 --> 00:45:28,344
know, you put them in a bookcase kind of thing.

734
00:45:28,684 --> 00:45:32,252
I get that, but I don't. It's called innovation. That's

735
00:45:32,268 --> 00:45:35,940
just packaging blips. Because eventually, like you

736
00:45:35,972 --> 00:45:39,660
said, that glass of wine that somebody drinks, no matter

737
00:45:39,692 --> 00:45:43,104
what generation and where they're from and how they got there,

738
00:45:44,504 --> 00:45:47,804
the value of that glass, an honest glass, which is what you're making,

739
00:45:48,504 --> 00:45:51,192
has an impact on you, innovation

740
00:45:51,248 --> 00:45:54,644
notwithstanding. I mean, I agree with that.

741
00:45:55,344 --> 00:45:58,784
In fact, I tasted at the association of African American

742
00:45:58,824 --> 00:46:02,264
Vendors tasting the other week in Napa at

743
00:46:02,424 --> 00:46:05,444
CIA, a woman had

744
00:46:06,024 --> 00:46:08,724
created method champaign

745
00:46:09,684 --> 00:46:13,388
cans. Now that's going

746
00:46:13,396 --> 00:46:17,064
to stimulate your brain for a second. Wow. Because

747
00:46:17,404 --> 00:46:20,956
how do you discourage a can? Yeah. She goes, I

748
00:46:20,980 --> 00:46:24,684
don't. I'm like, wow, what,

749
00:46:24,764 --> 00:46:28,492
what marketing innovation or whatever you want to call it. What

750
00:46:28,548 --> 00:46:32,380
hole were you plugging? How is that even possible

751
00:46:32,452 --> 00:46:36,116
then? Yeah, well, you just have yeast cells and, you

752
00:46:36,140 --> 00:46:39,384
know, whatever's the spent yeast cells are in the, in the can.

753
00:46:40,324 --> 00:46:44,132
So I was thinking, okay, you know, you do those when you're in college

754
00:46:44,188 --> 00:46:47,796
marketing, you get the graph and you think, okay, we have a beer that's heavy

755
00:46:47,820 --> 00:46:50,292
and we have a beer that's low in alcohol, and we've, you know, oh, we

756
00:46:50,308 --> 00:46:53,836
don't have any light beer. Let's, let's make a light beer. What, what part of

757
00:46:53,860 --> 00:46:57,380
that thing were you feeling when you said, how about an undiscorched

758
00:46:57,412 --> 00:47:01,012
canned method champagne sparkler? I don't know. Yeah.

759
00:47:01,108 --> 00:47:04,504
Well, hopefully she's successful with it. Actually.

760
00:47:05,804 --> 00:47:09,652
Maybe it's because she told me that upfront, because if I just tasted it,

761
00:47:09,828 --> 00:47:13,356
it was actually very, very nice wine. Wonderful. I was wondering if

762
00:47:13,380 --> 00:47:17,036
there's room for. Canned sparklers are probably the most popular

763
00:47:17,100 --> 00:47:20,716
of all the canned wines. And, you know, they're mostly

764
00:47:20,740 --> 00:47:24,420
prosecco's and cavas and things like that, or just offhanded

765
00:47:24,452 --> 00:47:28,294
California juice. But, you know, here's a, you know, a traditionally

766
00:47:28,334 --> 00:47:31,674
made canned sparkler. So that was really fascinating.

767
00:47:32,734 --> 00:47:36,566
So my point of, as a podcaster and the host of this is trying

768
00:47:36,590 --> 00:47:40,006
to peel back people's thought processes on this idea of what

769
00:47:40,110 --> 00:47:43,454
innovation means. Because so far, all I've read

770
00:47:43,494 --> 00:47:45,834
is we have to do things different.

771
00:47:47,654 --> 00:47:50,990
Yeah. But nobody necessarily. And I think it's

772
00:47:51,022 --> 00:47:54,586
because there is such a. I wouldn't say.

773
00:47:54,770 --> 00:47:57,854
I mean, it's pretty drastic, in all honesty,

774
00:47:58,194 --> 00:48:01,562
reduction of wine consumption. I think that

775
00:48:01,698 --> 00:48:05,434
people are afraid. And so the easiest way

776
00:48:05,474 --> 00:48:09,234
to combat that fear is, well, we need to do something different.

777
00:48:09,274 --> 00:48:12,574
But nobody has the answer. Just the fear of

778
00:48:14,514 --> 00:48:17,618
the lack of wine consumption that's out there with the

779
00:48:17,746 --> 00:48:21,574
different. Whatever it may be. If a doctor is telling you that

780
00:48:21,714 --> 00:48:24,074
alcohol consumption is bad for you, or

781
00:48:25,614 --> 00:48:28,382
wine is not good, or just the competitive markets with the

782
00:48:28,398 --> 00:48:31,942
microbreweries, cocktail spirits, I think

783
00:48:31,998 --> 00:48:35,774
that the overall consensus is

784
00:48:35,934 --> 00:48:38,474
there's fear, but nobody knows how

785
00:48:39,494 --> 00:48:42,782
to combat that. And so they say that we need to change, but nobody has

786
00:48:42,798 --> 00:48:45,302
an answer for that. And by no means am I saying that I have the

787
00:48:45,318 --> 00:48:49,070
answer for it. But what I had mentioned

788
00:48:49,142 --> 00:48:52,830
is that. That my dad, who is an old farmer,

789
00:48:52,862 --> 00:48:56,342
he's worn the same style of clothing his entire 70

790
00:48:56,438 --> 00:49:00,286
plus years of life, and he has gone

791
00:49:00,390 --> 00:49:02,634
in and out of fashion multiple times

792
00:49:04,374 --> 00:49:08,150
with his style. So kind of staying true to who you are and

793
00:49:08,182 --> 00:49:10,674
really ensuring that you are making

794
00:49:12,214 --> 00:49:15,736
something that you're proud of, hopefully, at the end of the day,

795
00:49:15,910 --> 00:49:19,492
well, you know, that's not enough by itself, but

796
00:49:19,548 --> 00:49:23,380
use that as the foreground and as the foundation of ensuring that

797
00:49:23,412 --> 00:49:27,212
you will be here for generations to come. I think that's

798
00:49:27,228 --> 00:49:30,944
a solid strategy. I think it's where people are headed.

799
00:49:31,564 --> 00:49:35,116
The reason I brought up the experiential part of this, I think I've

800
00:49:35,140 --> 00:49:38,908
had incredible conversations with, particularly two women who are in

801
00:49:38,916 --> 00:49:42,068
the digital marketing side of things and has spent a lot of time in the

802
00:49:42,076 --> 00:49:45,754
wine industry. And we were discussing about the implosion of

803
00:49:45,794 --> 00:49:49,594
what social networking is and marketing on the Internet's gonna

804
00:49:49,634 --> 00:49:53,450
be. And I came from, we were heavy, heavy

805
00:49:53,482 --> 00:49:57,170
into Google's SEO. I mean, I sent 33 million emails

806
00:49:57,202 --> 00:50:00,962
my last year, full year in business. You know, we did it. We did

807
00:50:00,978 --> 00:50:04,770
it all. And it's getting to the point where the cost of doing those

808
00:50:04,802 --> 00:50:08,626
things, you cannot get your return, or the roas, they call

809
00:50:08,650 --> 00:50:12,406
it return on ad spend, because the conversion

810
00:50:12,430 --> 00:50:16,006
rates are dying. There's less drinkers, as you just mentioned, and all of a sudden

811
00:50:16,030 --> 00:50:19,594
now it's just too expensive to even try and find a customer.

812
00:50:20,374 --> 00:50:24,166
So we think that it's going back to this experiential

813
00:50:24,230 --> 00:50:27,702
part of wine, which has always been what we were about, right?

814
00:50:27,838 --> 00:50:31,126
Like going to Europe and having a glass of

815
00:50:31,230 --> 00:50:35,022
house sangiovese in front of the coliseum

816
00:50:35,078 --> 00:50:38,704
is an incredible experience. The wine will always taste

817
00:50:38,744 --> 00:50:42,136
great because the rest of your world is in a good place.

818
00:50:42,280 --> 00:50:44,896
Yep. And then you come back and you taste that wine again. You go, see?

819
00:50:44,920 --> 00:50:48,608
I went, that just happened to me. I mean, 35 years in the

820
00:50:48,616 --> 00:50:51,952
business, a hundred thousand wines, huh? That's 100%

821
00:50:52,008 --> 00:50:55,816
accurate. Yeah. We were in Cortona,

822
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:59,248
which is the, you know, the birthplace for under the tuscan

823
00:50:59,296 --> 00:51:02,632
suns. We went to this winery, and I'm a wine guy. I was on a

824
00:51:02,648 --> 00:51:05,968
bus, and we stopped at the winery, and I tasted this merlot, and I. I

825
00:51:05,976 --> 00:51:08,192
go, you know what? I'm going to bring this home. It cost me a lot

826
00:51:08,208 --> 00:51:11,896
of money to get this stuff into my cellar at home. I couldn't drink

827
00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:15,568
it. Oh, it's sitting. I couldn't drink it. And I thought to

828
00:51:15,576 --> 00:51:19,376
myself, what did I taste while I was on this trip? Walking

829
00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:22,704
through the vineyard with the winemaker that I thought

830
00:51:22,784 --> 00:51:26,360
was representative of what I wanted to drink at home, and

831
00:51:26,512 --> 00:51:30,336
it wasn't. So I think you're doing the right thing and keeping

832
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:34,196
the course of producing wine. So we're going to wrap this

833
00:51:34,220 --> 00:51:36,784
up. What are you making now and

834
00:51:37,724 --> 00:51:41,124
what quantities and how can we get it? So we are

835
00:51:41,244 --> 00:51:44,264
total case production is under 500 cases

836
00:51:44,884 --> 00:51:48,676
across the board with all of our skus. We have a Bordeaux

837
00:51:48,700 --> 00:51:52,024
blend, a Merlot cabernet, and

838
00:51:52,404 --> 00:51:55,796
we just actually released our Aliatico rose, which is

839
00:51:55,820 --> 00:51:59,430
100% still wine. And then we have our blueberry sparkling rose as

840
00:51:59,462 --> 00:52:03,054
well this June at our hundred year anniversary

841
00:52:03,094 --> 00:52:06,302
party. It's actually June 8 is the date of the party,

842
00:52:06,398 --> 00:52:09,870
and that's my grandmother's birthday. She's no longer with

843
00:52:09,902 --> 00:52:13,742
us, but all of our wines have a familial connection, and so we

844
00:52:13,758 --> 00:52:17,246
will be pre releasing our 2021

845
00:52:17,270 --> 00:52:21,110
Malbec, named Catherine after our dad's

846
00:52:21,182 --> 00:52:24,510
mom. And so that will be the

847
00:52:24,542 --> 00:52:28,366
next, next style. But all bigger reds, other than

848
00:52:28,390 --> 00:52:32,038
the rose, of course. But everything based off of

849
00:52:32,126 --> 00:52:35,678
red grapes. Are they online? Yeah, they are.

850
00:52:35,806 --> 00:52:39,542
Our website, saraswanchwine.com, you

851
00:52:39,558 --> 00:52:42,914
can purchase everything online. We do ship, and

852
00:52:43,574 --> 00:52:47,150
we'd also. We have them for sale at our location as

853
00:52:47,182 --> 00:52:50,194
well at the conclusion of our ranch tours.

854
00:52:51,314 --> 00:52:55,054
Well, sounds very fun. I can't wait to get there. Yes,

855
00:52:56,074 --> 00:52:59,874
we're up all the time, obviously. I bring my portable studio, and we do a

856
00:52:59,874 --> 00:53:03,682
lot of podcasting and just hanging around. We almost actually bought a house during COVID

857
00:53:03,738 --> 00:53:07,298
in Yonville. Very nice. But thank goodness it

858
00:53:07,386 --> 00:53:10,174
didn't go through because prices have plummeted since then.

859
00:53:11,874 --> 00:53:15,282
They'll come back. So appreciate the time today. Taylor, really

860
00:53:15,338 --> 00:53:19,114
interesting conversation. So happy we got ahold of Nicole online,

861
00:53:19,194 --> 00:53:23,026
and she was able to arrange this. And good luck

862
00:53:23,050 --> 00:53:25,682
out there. We're going to. We're going to come see you. Perfect. Well, thank you

863
00:53:25,698 --> 00:53:29,426
so much for having me. It was a wonderful time. And, yeah, let

864
00:53:29,450 --> 00:53:31,934
us know when you're in Sonoma next. We'd love to host you.

865
00:53:32,674 --> 00:53:34,494
Cheers. Thank you.

866
00:53:43,234 --> 00:53:47,054
Thank you for listening to wine talks with Paul Callum. Karen, don't forget to subscribe

867
00:53:47,094 --> 00:53:50,846
because there's more great interviews on their way. Folks, have

868
00:53:50,870 --> 00:53:53,254
a great time out there in the wine world. Cheers.