This podcast takes us back a few months during the Simply Italian Tour Tasting in Chicago.  Tony Apostolakos of Masi Wines was not only pouring Amarone but also a few other tasty Italian delights. If you’ve listened to some of the many Italian wine podcasts we recorded during the second half of last year, you may only now be realizing just how much you’ve learned about their wines. Complicated? Maybe, but this education comes with great taste!

Learn more at www.masi.it

For the past several years we have had a tradition of rebroadcasting the previous year’s Premiere Napa Valley, and this year is no exception. PNV is a great event where we get to catch up with old friends, lots of winemakers and make new friends. Once again we will be producing a podcast from this years Premiere which will go online the week after the event. For now, relive the sounds and fun of Premiere Napa Valley 2017.

Learn more by visiting www.napavintners.com

Just after high school, Ian McClellan was an intern at 5^th Floor Recording Company in his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 5^th Floor is the home studio of Life Between the Vines. Needless to say it was thrilling to see Ian head West to join the wine industry and made a solid career for himself. Today, he is the Cellarmaster for Anaba Winery in Sonoma and we visited him and his wife back in November. After surviving harvest and the fires, there was a lot to talk about.

Learn more by visiting www.anabawines.com

Its no secret that labor within the agriculture industry is becoming scarce. The wine business is all about farming and the labor problem is not going away. For this program we talk to five wine professionals who are impacted directly by this concern. We start off with Vineyard Manager Jesus Gonzalez of Number One Vineyard Management in Napa Valley. Next we spoke with Pam Starr, Winemaker and Co-Owner of Crocker & Starr Winery in Napa Valley. Winemaker Elias Fernandez of Shafer Vineyards continues and is followed by Winemaker for Sonoma’s Buena Vista Winery, Brian Maloney. For the final interview we talked with Cellarmaster Ian McClellan of Anaba Winery in Sonoma.

Check out our website to find contact information on all of our guests.

After surviving the wildfires of 2017 winemakers in Sonoma and Napa are looking at an excellent vintage. Now its time to see the return of the tourist trade to wine country. The wine industry is counting on you listeners. Our wine journey is that of constant discovery.  On the last trip of the year in November we visited with Tom Birdsall of Black Kite Cellars in Sonoma.  Black Kite is created at a brand new custom crush facility which is where we caught up with Tom. The fires were thankfully long gone and now it was the beginning of the rainy season.  In wine country, it’s always something…

Please note, during the digital transfer of this recording there was some disc corruption to the original files. We’ve done our best to save the audio but some of the edits suffer from the damage. We apologize for any discomfort in your listening experience. Thank you for your patience.

Learn more by visiting www.blackkitecellars.com