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Steve Anglim at Hospice du Rhone 2010
It started somewhat insidiously – with a gift of a winemaking kit one Father’s Day.
“It was god-awful disgusting stuff,” said Steve Anglim, owner and winemaker of Anglim Winery.
But it was enough to get him making wine, eventually leading to the winery, which began in 2002. Steve and his wife Steffanie Anglim run the place, taking turns pouring at events and running the tasting room in Paso Robles, California, while their younger daughter plays in the back room.
“You have to divide and conquer because there’s so much
Continue reading Anglim Winery – What a Kit Hath Wrought
It happened a few months ago, but one day, Michael gets an email in his personal box inviting him and a guest to a tasting at a local contractor’s store near us. Huh? It was from David Vergari – a winemaker who lives in Sierra Madre in Southern California, but makes a collection of red wines out of a custom crush facility in Sebastopol, California. They’re mostly cabs and pinots – varieties we don’t usually focus on here at OddBallGrape.
But what makes Vergari’s operation a little more up our alley is how he’s selling his wines – through
Continue reading Vergari Wines
The first time we went up to Calaveras County’s wine country – part of a visit to Jeff Stai and Twisted Oak Winery – we drove right past Jeff’s neighbor at Irish Family Vineyards. For some reason, we looked at the signs Irish had out and concluded it wasn’t our style of place. We so should have known better.
It was during our next visit to Twisted Oak, Jeff and one of his tasting room staffers both said Irish was really good and we should try them. They were right.
Not only does Russell Irish make some outrageously good
Continue reading Irish Family Vineyards
The Schug Winery Building, courtesy Schug Winery
It’s hard to know where to begin when talking about Walter Schug. This guy has been working in the California wine industry since 1966, when he was a grape buyer for Gallo. He is still hip-deep in making some phenomenal pinot noirs and has been continuously since he started working for Joseph Phelps in 1973. Our conversation ranged from the latest on this year’s harvest – “It went on a long time,” he noted – to the history of the California wine industry to the development of yeast in Germany.
We
Continue reading Schug Carneros Estate Winery
Missy and Greg Nelson
Talk about letting your wines speak for you! We met Greg and Missy Nelson at the Mendocino Grape Growers event in Santa Rosa last spring, which we attended on a press pass. We enjoyed chatting with Missy, but Greg kind of hung back and didn’t talk too much.
It’s apparently Greg’s style. When Anne emailed him, since that’s whose card we had, his responses were terse, at best. So is the website. That’s fine. The wines are a lot of fun and we’ve got a couple sweeter ones to feature this week.
The Nelsons
Continue reading The Nelson Family Vineyards
This being the middle of the harvest, we’re pretty busy here at OddBallGrape. Put almost 1,500 miles on the car last week and the week before in three trips to Paso Robles, California, to go pick and bring back cabernet franc, syrah, primitivo, vernacchia and merlot grapes for our own home winemaking efforts.
And, gee, since we were in the heart of the Central Coast wine country and since there just happen to be… (ahem) a few wineries up there (like almost 100) and on the way back through the Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Rita Hills. Yeah, we
Continue reading Exploration Fun
Oh, deep and profound annoyance! We had gotten turned onto Three Sticks Winery at the Family Winemakers event in Pasadena last spring. Then, after several rounds of phone tag and other missed opportunities, Anne finally got a chance to to talk to winery owner Bill Price. Then Anne spent two weeks…. Two whole weeks, mind you, trying to find the note book pages on which she’d written the interview notes, only to find them on the hard drive of her computer. She’d typed them rather than hand written them, which is better because Anne types faster
Continue reading Three Sticks Winery and a (Sigh) Mess-Up
This is one of those stumble upon finds that we discovered last spring. We were wandering around the southern edge of Sonoma and Napa counties. Can’t remember which winery we were actually looking for, if any. But as we often do, we asked some of the folks working in the tasting rooms who else is good in the area, and more than one suggested Robledo.
What a treat! The tasting room is dark and homey, with tables and lots of memorabilia celebrating the family’s Mexican heritage. The parents came as farmworkers and eventually found the money
Continue reading Checking Out Robledo Family Winery
Courtesy Halter Ranch
Every so often, it doesn’t hurt to remember that wine is, ultimately, an agricultural product and that you get grapes by farming them. Fortunately, when Mitch Wyss came in to grow grapes for Halter Ranch Winery owner Hansjorg Wyss, he came in as a farmer. However, one with not much experience growing wine grapes.
“It was a real trial by fire,” said Leslie Wyss, Mitch’s wife. But Mitch is still there and it’s not because of a family connection. He and Hansjorg are not related. Leslie explained that Mitch is of Swiss
Continue reading Halter Ranch – Growing the Good Stuff
It was just a fluke that we happened upon Elaine Villamin, of Eden Canyon Vineyards, when we stopped in at Red Carpet Wine in Glendale, California. We were trying to kill time before our dinner reservation and had no intention of doing any tasting. But Villamin was not only there with a nice selection of her winery’s offerings, she spent some significant time with us, telling us her story.
In 1996, her father, Danny Villemin, suddenly decided to grow grapes on his 10 acres near San Luis Obispo. He wasn’t even a wine drinker, but being
Continue reading Eden Canyon – Small and Interesting
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