welcome back to FORTitude sweet folks. I’m JW and my co host Brinton Payne across table from you. We have a very special show today. Brinton I need to tell you about something. Solution guys here. There oenophiles This is our way. Yeah. Now you said we weren’t going to do this controversial stuff. Kid crime type thing. I don’t like it but they’re already here. Can we go ahead and do that? They have a map of where they live like around certain neighborhoods. Where they live on a map. Yes. Is that what a Nina file is? What is e file is a is a person who loves wine or wine kind of sewer. Say guys.

00:41
That’s our last big words. We’re saying

00:45
Richardson here like I don’t like this joke. I told this joke but this is not a joke. Today’s show Brinton. By doing that is the fortitude walk. Wine roundtable. You can find us on social media @fortitudefw if you want to check us out. Today is a special work we having some wine today on the show with three gentlemen. Weston Eidson, Richard King, and Chris Keel keel Just dropped that name and I’m sorry Chris Keel are gonna join us on the show. We’ll do some biozone real quick Western eats into my immediate left. He’s the founder of Montague wines. It’s a boutique winery showcasing wine from Napa Valley and Sonoma. He started the winery in 2012 right Western and he focuses on extremely limited production. His mentors for some guys named Jason Moore and Russell Bevin fair to say you’re a local guy. You’re an outdoorsman, a really nice guy and you’re a product here. We’re going to try it a little bit fantastic. To license legumes. Richard cane nice guy. He’s the co owner. He’s fine foods along with Chef Molly McCook. It’s a farm to table concept if you don’t know lbs and you listen to show you’re probably missing on something because he’s been around a while and he does a fantastic job. We had your waiter on to like Scott a few months. He was a good one Scott or ginger. He serves as a sommelier for the restaurant he just added a new guy Chester Cox Correct.

02:05
Cory McBride

02:06
Corbett brought Scuse me got the name wrong. Make research research team at our research team dropped the ball on that one. It’s very involved in TCU in the Ford restaurant wine scene, and you can also be found in places like Mardi Gras time to time. His restaurant is a top 10 restaurant in Texas Monthly Wine Spectator best award for excellence. One appetit 10 best restaurants, James Beard house preservation award 2020 He’s got a lot of awards. Brinton this guy knows what he’s doing the wine business and the restaurant business. So thank you for being here. Thanks. Richard was big in the third guy to Richard’s left. Hey, Chris. Why did I get that wrong? Internet on the far right in the green shirt is the founder of Put a cork in it. Chris grew up in Graham, Texas. He’s a Midwestern State guy in Wichita Falls. He worked at a company called Club corporate America big company, right Chris? And he learned he learned about waiting tables and is found his passion for wine open, put a cork in January of oh six. Is that correct? Correct. It’s over in on Park Hill. So very, very familiar place to a lot of people who drink wine. So thank you, Chris Gayle, for being here. And while the show is happening, we’re gonna have lots of things happening but we’re going to enjoy some wine. The first class that we’re all trying is one of Richard’s gifts. So what are we having first Richard

03:39
Bordeaux ducru book how you want to say that real quick. You have to pronounce this right. Yeah. Yeah, and so actually, I brought this wine. This was the actual bottle and vintage that got me into one I have so this is second time I’ve ever had it the first time was when my dad in 1998. Wow. So segment Rod was was young. So it’s pretty cool bottle for me to bring for Oh, thank

04:04
you for sharing that time. Like yeah,

04:07
did you know it was I was I was Do you remember a restaurant a wine bar called rape escape? From basketball? Yes. Yeah, I was doing that. Oh, very cool. So yeah, in the 90s. So and yeah, this kind of this what my what my aha one would be if you will.

04:23
Very nice. Well, thank you for sharing you bet. First off, we’ll start with Weston and go down the road. But Western just tell us briefly why is wine special to you?

04:32
Yeah, I mean, I kind of grew up around wine always loved it. My family always had it family celebrations and things like that my dad and granddad are big into it and collected and things and did different events and forth all the time I grew up in Weatherford. So I’ve always kind of loved wine and wanted to get involved with it in some way somehow and in 2012 took a trip to Napa with my my girlfriend now my wife and with some friends did the typical Wine Tours type of thing and met a guy named Jason He was also from Texas and sort of talking to business with him. I wanted to get in the business somehow and he said want you to come work production with me see what you think about that part of the business and went out there and loved it and started it that year with his help and kind of going ever since. What? What’s it like

05:13
that? Hey, production get high real high pay out there?

05:19
Yeah, a lot. A lot. A lot of my own sweat equity, I guess you can say Right. Yeah. Good.

05:26
Good. We’re familiar sweat equity. Yeah. Well, it’s the perks. I mean, I’m sure there were some perks.

05:33
Yes. Yeah. It’s always fun to hang out with your businesses hanging out with the competition and trying their stuff is pretty cool. Yeah. So and really, no one ever feels too competitive. They’re in the business. So everyone’s drinking good wine. Having a good time.

05:46
Richard you in western your, your winery, Montague it’s on the screen now. Is your is your label. You’re very well known for silver goes in the Montague.

05:57
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I do two basically two different labels. So we have Montague, which is all small production, mostly single vineyard wines, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet. And, like I said, it’s probably like 150 cases of each wine generally. And then we have silver ghost, which is a lot bigger production almost exclusively Cabernet Sauvignon one wine from Napa Valley. And you’ll see that one a lot more. It’s distributed a lot more widely. But two totally separate ideas. One is a single vineyard one is about using different vineyards together to kind of give tremendous value in Napa Valley Cabernet. Very nice.

06:29
Thanks. So Sharon. Yeah, Richard, you already shared your bottle, especially while you’re with us. Why is wine? When did it become meaningful to you? Maybe it’s that bottle. But why is wine special to you?

06:41
Well, I think one reason is all this right here. You know, I mean, these two guys. They’re my good friend. It’s actually through wine. And I think we have a lot of friends who have memories through this beverage. But yeah, it’s been part of my family since we traveled around food and wine was a kiddo. And then it’s just it’s wines of absolute awesome passion to have in life. Whether your way into it on the nerd side, or just you know, wanting to get into it. Everybody can relate to a glass of wine somehow with each other. So you’re gonna love it.

07:12
Chris keel, no, Put a cork in it. So you told your story on the bio. Yeah. When? Obviously you’re at the club core corporate America, right?

07:21
Yeah, during college. That’s how I got into wine at random randomly a gal left and left the bottle on the table. And my buddy was the manager at the time. And I was like, Do you dump this throw it away? And he’s like, No, let’s drink it after shift. So we sat down and I’d really only drink wine like my grandparents, like, cheap, White Zinfandel, or whatever it is. I grew up with beer and bourbon. I mean, sure. I grew up in gram, drag drop County, so you had to explore your options there. So yeah, we sat down and we started tasting. I was like, God, it’s pretty good and started naming stuff off. He’s like, Oh, you’ve had this long before. I was like, No, I’ve never had Cabernet. And so it was a silver oak. 93. So we just got into that wave bottle. Yeah. So then it just clicked that light came on and started tasting and then I got into management and after college kind of messed around, but then I got back and you sit down. I always want to know my own business. And I sat down I was like, like, I know the most about one I want to explore that. And so my wife open January Oh, six and almost 16 years now sweats.

08:34
And so things are still going well for Put a cork in it.

08:38
Yeah, we’ve definitely adapted over the years ups and downs with the market crash and all that back in. Oh, 809. And now last year, as shoe of the

08:48
world, so we made the work. Yeah, yeah. So we,

08:51
we’ve adapted. I mean, we’ve changed and still booked still here.

08:55
So any future plans for Put a cork in it? Keep it keep it going? Keep going. So a bunch of one very nice drink. laughs finished my my Bordeaux. I’m ready to move on to maybe a little silver ghost. Justin, is that okay? Yes.

09:10
Yeah. Hey, we’re

09:11
gonna ask you this, like on the labels, you have these really cool labels, do you? Is that go? How does that go about? Like, how do you go about making a label for a wine bottle

09:21
now? Um, well, I’m in that process right now for new new new project of mine. And it can be tough. It can be really hard to get what you want on a label for sure. Yeah, these are actually done by a cousin of mine has designed for him in Los Angeles. They’ve always done movie posters and things like that. So like, did you call of duty video games, and stuff like that? And he was like, we’ve never done a label, we’ll do a label for you. And it’d be kind of cool. They haven’t their portfolio and I get a professional label done by some really great folks and great art. So that’s how this came about. If you see on the Montague, the Montague kind of the family crest is the three diamonds they call the three lozenges. So they just did a riff on that. Silver ghost. Yeah. And vintage kind of expanded on that to make little diamond situations. That’s where that came from. But yeah,

10:07
and I noticed Richard wearing the white shirt, which I find very great. Yeah, I went to notice that, hey, I drink red wine and I’m not scared. I’m scared. It never gets out of hand. There’s a better flex rigging midwives. Usually the teeth turn a little purple color. Yeah, we’ll get there. Yep. All right, good. So we wanted to talk a little about the winemaking process. I know Western, you’re obviously a winemaker. But you guys have all had some, some experience in this work in this field? Could you go down the line and tell us a little bit about what goes into making wine? So pretend, you know, Brinton, for instance, doesn’t know what’s going on with wine, per se. Or just my, you know, some of these things are just not things. I just I gravitate towards seven, you know?

10:55
Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean, well, first off, we’re having silver goes, Cabernet. And so what, like they’re just saying we’re doing to both or Cabernet Sauvignon, both the Bordeaux that we just had, and this one right now there are big differences, where they’re grown, and how old they are. So we have ones a 96, which is really nicely aged wine is the silver ghost as of 2018. And in a different style of wines. One being from Napa Valley, one being from Bordeaux. So that’s what we’re getting to try right now and try the differences ourselves. But yeah, but for for wine production, really, it’s grapes, and put in a vat and add some yeast or don’t add yeast because the yeast is around us all the time. So some people like to do native fermentation. So using the yeast that’s native on the grapes, and it turns into wine. So there’s that’s how that’s the basic premise of it. It’s just how all the things that go in between there when you press how hard you press, how humid how you kind of work the fruit while it’s fermenting the temperatures of the ferment with all those kind of things over the winemaker comes in but by and large it’s a process that happens very naturally at any any point so

12:04
well do some winemakers add other things besides that really basic process you know they add sugar or water

12:13
yeah the secrets come out Yeah, well

12:15
I mean so shine it can be a different answer for each of the things you just said you can add water if so for the in the US you can get hotter temperatures in France so kind of there are a lot of these rules are because of the climate that you’re growing okay food in so in the US because it gets warmer we don’t have a problem with with getting sugars in the grapes. And yes, they do have more problems. So they’re able to add sugar. We don’t we’re not allowed to add sugar. They’re not allowed to add acid because they don’t need it because it’s colder we’re allowed to add acid if we feel like we need a little acid or water those kind of things. But by and large know when you’re talking to higher in quality higher in winemaking it’s pretty the fruit really just want the fruit to speak is

12:57
like a governing body of like wine like it like you said they’re allowed to like is there like we’re unfortunate, you know? TTB okay.

13:06
Yeah, every country has around and governing body. Okay. And area. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Richard,

13:13
if I could pose this question a little differently. What makes a good winemaker, a good winemaker? That’s a fair question. Mean, question, we believe to be a good winemaker. But what makes somebody like Western or somebody who makes the Bordeaux or white shirt while writing

13:30
lessons good hair. So that’s a good one

13:33
starts in the vineyard too.

13:35
It does. Yeah, does. Yeah. You know, Goodwill maker knows how I feel Mako wine, to where, you know, I think the Montagues a good example, to where we can we just popped this one literally five minutes ago, is going to drink great. Also, it’s going to be be just as great or even better than 10 more years, that’s a hard thing to do in a bottle of wine to where you have consistency among finishes, because you know, with Western, he’s challenged every year by mother nature was thrown at it fires, things like that. And so goes back to what Keila saying is that, you know, he’s in the field and he’s also in you know, in the crush path. So you’re doing both sides and that’s kind of a representation of a filmmaker and being consistent and and I think I think staying true to the vine and to the bridle without having to do very much manipulation

14:28
Yeah, I always say a lot of thing is knowing what not to do knowing when you don’t need to try to do something because your tendencies is already persons trying to fix this fix that do this and does that but just kind of knowing when you don’t need to do that when understanding your why understanding your your vines and having worked with the police for a long time. You know, I would

14:45
the fires effect it. I mean, it’s crazy that you don’t taste this, like how does it fire again? Really?

14:52
Is this smoke in there? Yeah, the ash gets on the bonds and then it gets into the grapes and you do get smoke taint. Do you

14:59
as have like a buyer and a reseller look at like, Man, there was a big fire in this area around this time I’m not buying that because or do you look as it is like a rarity? Is it kind of like a

15:10
most of them, the winemakers won’t make the one. Oh, make it it’s a flaw. Okay in the one so you’re like oh seven they had fires in Mendocino when it got down and in the north part of Sonoma. And Kinos you just tasted you’re like, Oh, it’s just like campfire? No, kid. Yeah. And so 17 You didn’t have any smoke tank? Did

15:33
you know luckily, I didn’t have fires. Most of that was already brought in at 17. But 20 But 20 is problem. Like any

15:41
cab? I didn’t know. So

15:43
Chris, do you have experience in the winemaking process at all? Or do you have any thoughts on winemakers in general?

15:50
No, like I was saying it’s to me it starts in the vineyard and you just don’t want to eff up good fruit and not make something chasing scores trying to make a Pinot tastes like a cab just to get a 95 point score or whatever. So deserve respect for

16:08
what’s the most popular type of wine you also like out of these you know, cabs pinos things like that. It’s forward

16:14
this cab, cab red blends have been hot. I’ve taken on a role trying to sell more Italian one here lately. So

16:25
that’s what you sell most at the restaurant? For glass for people.

16:28
I would say the most volume would be Napa for sure. But Fort Worth you know it’s it’s been awesome in because Kill Kill had been in business relatively at the same time. We have seen some trends, it’s in different waves in Fort Worth. Yeah. And and so you know, we’ll see waves and blends are sunset, there’s our rosacea. And now it’s going to champagne.

16:52
So it’s trendy. You mean kinda?

16:56
It does. Also, I think we’re having a lot more access to information about wine. We did more than we did 10 years ago. Yeah. So and I think the consumer is a lot more savvy now than they were 10 years ago, one on buying and also a knowledge makes our job. More fun. It sometimes also make it harder. It’s sometimes too good to be frustrating. Because you know, these dishes will whine that automatically bring us bring their phone out to the picture the label, like Well, this guy said it’s only three and a half stars. We try the wind. That’s awesome. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for having you. That’s right.

17:31
Yeah, it’s like WebMD for the doctors.

17:35
Not to look at your site at all right? Right. self diagnose, right, but yeah, how do you like it’s got to be kind of like the art world that this guy deals in some. You know, there’s probably some basic laws that exists around there of what makes something good and bad. But I’ve got to think a lot has to do with just the person right, you know, and what they enjoy. So how do you

17:57
and it’s a progression like so I’ve been in business 16 years and I’ve seen people start off with actually take my wife for instance, when we opened she didn’t even drink wine. Then she got into bubbles and love, Prosecco and then kind of moved into kava now it’s, it’s not champagne. I’m in trouble.

18:14
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it’s Yeah. So it was a lot

18:19
of what white zinfandel did really I mean, people kind of gateway. Yeah, let’s

18:24
talk about that. That’s actually a question of ours because we, I have some ad remember people talking about white Zen back when it was super popular, how they’re adding color to it, making it more beautiful. And they’re adding sugar to it make it sweeter? That was the thing is white Zinn still a thing these days is it kind of died off? And is Rosae kind of replaced that is that? He?

18:43
I don’t know. I mean, well, I think initially, it wasn’t sugar additives. It was a lot that didn’t finish fermenting. And so it just had residual sugar left in it from when it stopped. And Zinfandel is a red grape. So I think it was just a Rosae of Zinfandel. And it’s like, well, let’s just this is actually pretty good.

19:01
Exactly what’s happened kind of pioneered that put, yeah.

19:07
Put it on the map. Right, right.

19:09
So did the wine. So that kind of followed the Zema to the seltzer, the hard seltzer kind of path, like the wine.

19:18
Well, you know, it’d be joking, but you’re actually it’s right. I mean, like, we, we all make fun of people who drink wines, and well, we all drink white Xin. We all make fun to drink. Azima we all had Azima Yeah, we were drinking hard sell. So I was saying, you start out at a beverage one what you can afford? Yeah, at the time, you know, to yourself 2020 I don’t I mean, we’ve had some good days and bad years. But just you know, our palates evolve. Our wallets evolve. Yeah. And so and that that goes with it. That goes I think with art, right? Same way I mean it to buying good food to buying good wine, you know when things change,

19:58
and then people create niches and I Think I mean, if I can ask this question, how many people you got out there buying the most expensive stuff? Because it’s like, like any other market, you’ve probably got things that are very overpriced and undervalued, or, you know, and then other things that are very overvalued and underpriced. So like, is it your guy’s job to find that medium? Or, like in your guy’s businesses? It’s like, probably sell the highest margin? I don’t know, or do you try to eat or try to find the

20:27
best one for the best price? That’s what Yeah, most all my one that I taste that. I mean, pretty good. I was tasting almost 5000 ones a year. Yeah, take notes on everyone. Oh, one I’d like to try to guess the price in my head what I would sell it for. And I think it’s $25. And it would be a $10 one. There we go. Well, Chris, that’s

20:45
a great segue into my next question. Well, your mind is the difference between a $20 bottle of wine and a $200 bottle of wine.

20:54
To me, it just depends on the way it’s how long it’s been aged. Those $200 ones need five to seven years in my mind, maybe 10 to be monetarily drinkable. But in their prom, where most $20 lines or less oak ready to go now, just murder like westerns. So

21:14
our goal right now is there.

21:17
It’s out there, but it’s not heavily. Okay,

21:19
since you’ve tried all these wines that you just talked about, is there a price point where you know you’re going to get a good wine? Or is it you stick to the vineyard and this price point coming into effect with your customer base? Or you specifically?

21:33
No, I mean, I mean, I’ve got probably 500 wines in the store and 75% of them are under for sure under $50 If not under 40 Right? I mean so, but I do have the $300 bottles or

21:45
what’s your best seller Chris?

21:47
Besides overdose. Overdose is my

21:50
best selling Apple for sure. But

21:53
is it really because the label was designed by a video game designer Russell Bevin made it really good

22:14
it fluctuates from like Richard was saying, Rosie’s during the summer I can’t keep them in stock and they kind of slows down and people are moving in to kind of lightly oaked Chardonnay Pinot Noir now for especially around fall Thanksgiving coming into the holidays so yeah, there’s they’ll have a number one seller and people just

22:37
fair enough. I saw recently maybe not so recent but you just received a certification in Is it a white ambassador of Italy? Yes sir. Natali

22:48
of in Italy one school Yes.

22:50
Use me pronounce that wrong? No problem. Rich or just, you don’t even acknowledge like, he just gave you the right name. Yeah. Yeah.

23:14
Yes. Back in July. pass the test which only 15% pass up the first time taking the test. So it’s a monster of a test that covers anything from 2000 years ago in Italy history all the way up to now plus soil and it’s too much to talk about similar to

23:33
someone a test or is it? It is it’s

23:36
Yeah, masters. The master Psalm test, but only on Italy. Fantastic. Instead of those guys have to know everywhere from

23:44
Wait, what’s the master song test? Like how long does that take to?

23:47
There’s a lifetime for some people? Yeah, consider the year so better song. But how many are there of y’all? Almost 300 Now, but pretty. He’s pretty exclusive club.

23:59
Yeah. So but the master song is like all of all of this. Right?

24:04
Correct. I mean, like from all over Europe, the

24:07
what’s the like? He said somebody kind of gotten that daughter, the youngest master song.

24:14
Hmm. I don’t know. It just happened a couple years ago. Yeah.

24:17
Somebody did all three of the first try. Right? Yeah. Give us this question ahead of time.

24:36
How many master songs are there about 252 50 across the world? That’s incredible. Is it like a celebration? Like it’s like a victory like,

24:43
Master song? You know, I don’t you know, it’s, it is, I think still the hardest certification to get as far as passing rate out of any test. I mean, I’m putting down I’m not saying it’s harder than being a doctor. but it has a lower pass rate than the MCAT does no kidding? By a lot, actually, I would imagine. Yeah. And so it’s just these guys will study for forever to get this test and they’ll have a lot of fails. And it’s hard work. I mean, I mean, it’s kind of like training for a triathlon they are on they’re just training every single day with their other job they’re doing to pass this test to be ambassador, some

25:23
interesting analogy that triathlete in coming out as well. There’s one service

25:31
Yes, sir. Yeah, I’m there these guys are studs are up there.

25:35
Can you take it as many times or desert they

25:38
pass one you have a year to taste the other to go back and you can you can feel as much as you want. It’s just Yeah, it’s exhausting. Because it’s it’s a lot of work. And it’s expensive. Yeah, yeah. And you’re working a job, presumably, and it costs a lot of money to take these times.

25:52
Yeah. There’s a real good movie called psalm about about the experience. Yes. It’s a fantastic look inside the documentary or it is yeah. Yeah. And yeah. Yeah. On the show now,

26:12
Chester? Chester.

26:15
City is a real guy. Weston, let’s turn to you. Quick, your your label, Montague there’s a big story behind that. Can you tell us about your great grandfather and what happened? And what led led you here?

26:27
Yeah, sure. Yeah. So Montague is named after my great grandfather. He was an automobile pioneer in Brinton at the turn of the last century. So he was also a lord in Parliament. So kind of those kind of things. He was neat. He was like the first guy to drive a car and to Parliament and as a commuting tie car, and it gave Edward the seventh his first car ride and did a lot of automobile legislation, like help change the speed limit from 12 to 20. Back then, so we’re gonna need one rebel near any stuff. Yeah. And so kind of in honor of his cool, adventurous life, I have Montague. But being in cars, he was also pretty good friends with Charles rules and Henry Royce, and back then they would make your car but you would have your own custom hood ornament. They called the the mascot. And so his was one that Charles Rolls Royce liked so much. They hired his same sculptor in his same model, which was his assistant to be the model for their tournament, the Spirit of Ecstasy, which you see on the Rolls Royce cars still today. So kind of cool story with him. And his favorite car was a 1909 Rolls Royce silver ghost, which is where I have the silver now sand brand.

27:35
Yes. On the hood of your car. Richard saw you pulling this my Rolls Royce have it’s just a figurine of like a woman or wings on?

27:45
Yeah. Yeah, like blowing Yeah. Last night,

27:50
the model where the wings during the sculpting. I was at an after story was that they? Just like my mind’s going. Yeah. I gotta come on down

28:02
and saw this.

28:04
Yeah. What’s the shipwreck portion of that story?

28:08
Oh, well, that’s yeah. So I get so on the label it I like to talk about how she was an assistant but she was actually this kind of mistress as well. So they were on a trip during World War One in the Mediterranean. So it was even better. Yeah. And they were torpedoed by a German U boat. And my great grandfather happened to survive. And she is Eleanor Thornton has her name. And she she died in the wreck. Oh, wow. So yeah, but that’s the shipwreck story.

28:37
Was he on an island? Was he was he

28:41
now he just just does was fished out? Yeah, yeah. A few hours later. Yeah. Well,

28:47
turn it back to talk blew up regional regions of the wine world, Chris, because of your Italian expertise. Could you briefly tell us a little bit about the the wine world as we see Italy? Wait before we do that? Yeah. Does it make anyone like any wine to do? Yeah, just thinking about your grandpa. Yeah, so

29:05
my my great uncle, which is my great grandfather’s son, he was big into wine. A lot of people in England are of course Clarets, where they would call it Bordeaux. And he planted a vineyard in England, Southern England in the 70s and has grown white wine on there ever since. And they do a little bubbles from there now and now it’s kind of a trendy thing. English bubbles are becoming pretty popular as well. Okay. But yeah, so it’s neat. They still do it and yeah, one day I want to get over there make some wine off of that too. So sorry, Chris. I

29:34
found your answer there. Yeah, yeah. English bubbles are very popular now because it’s getting warmer and champagne. So they’re looking further north or give more acidity for so

29:45
for sure. Please tell us everything you know about Italian region 10 seconds.

29:50
Just kind of the lay of the land definitely Italy in the south part. So South the room down to the booth is definitely warmer, hot and so mostly red. down there, you’ve got some pockets where you do whites but it’s all done on the tip of the booth. You get a grip God Ali anaco on the other side and nopalea they’re known for. Great that’s similar to Ziff, Mundo Primitivo. And then going up north of Rome and Tuscany of course known for Sanjay ese you’ve got Brunello Kiante. On the other side, on the east side, you definitely have same thing Abruzzo is known for multiple Ciana when you go into low Mark K up there you got Lambrusco. And then up in the north, the off in the northwest, you’ve got a Piedmont which is known for Nebbiolo, which I brought a Barbaresco. Then when the Barbera and then on the northeast side mostly known for whites, Pinot Grigio Prosecco, which is cooler up there. So I’m the girl reds, but they don’t get that right. So they’re cooler grapes.

30:55
Fair to say your you got your certification in this Italy. Special specialization because of your love of Italian wine?

31:05
Yes, definitely the the food, the culture, I’ve just always I love really, I’ve never been there. It’s one of those things you that’s even better. I mean, I traveled through bottles of wine. I mean, I’ll try something and I read about it, find out what it is. And that Italy was just so intriguing. They make like, there’s 5000 different grapes, there’s hundreds of regions, they all have their different cuisine. And they just that was a challenge. And I saw that and was like, I’m gonna do that.

31:33
We’ll be going at some point. Yes,

31:35
we’ll definitely go next year. I was supposed to be in Sardinia, actually, yesterday, but I didn’t feel safe traveling yet. So

31:43
we had this to be already admitted. Thank

31:47
you. So Richard, he Chris brought up the aspect of the food aspect. So how important is it? Is it is it is the the food’s got to stand on its own clearly, just a wine complement the food or the two have to be like right there par with each other or one can overcompensate.

32:09
Or first thing people overthink that question. Like I just did, Bucky just did. Well done. Thank you. So, you know, I think, you know, I tell people that on food pairings, it is important, especially to us, you know, because we want to elevate the food and also elevate the wine exactly the same time. Yeah. You know, we also had the nomenclature we all kind of heard growing up is you know, red wine, red meat, white wine was seafood, that is definitely out the window. Bye bye for now. So, you know, food, I just, you know, Chris’s example was probably the best one is, you know, where it grows, you also drink. So if you’re gonna if you’re gonna, you know, have a seizure bacey or Kiante didn’t have it habit with Italian food. Yeah, you know that that’s kind of a simple way of pairing. But, you know, when you get to westerns, wine, you know, California is no different, different kind of cuisine, but his wines are a big, bold, larger tannins. And so it needs a different style of food to kind of break that wine down a little bit and also break down the food as well. So but more importantly, you know, just I tell people all the time, eat if you’re at a restaurant, you know, just ask Asante Hey, this is, you know, we like this style of wine. But we also want to make sure that it’s gonna appear over eating. And that’s when you can have fun. You know, you do it all the time. You’re like, Hey, man, help me out. We drink tonight. And our first question is, why don’t you figure what you’re going to eat first. And then we’re going to get your dinner down. Then we’ll bring three to four different options, what you like and we’ll kind of go from there.

33:44
So you can go like wildcard for the first like before dinner kind of deal.

33:49
Well, Bubbles, I mean, bubbles is the absolute best way to start off any meal and finish a meal

33:54
because it doesn’t stay in there. Like a clean it’s kind of clean.

33:58
One one it’s a good it’s a good palate cleanser refresher to get your you know, your mouth kind of going. It also pairs well with almost everything. And there’s also people that don’t like champagne or sparkling wine. So that’s we always start off with that. And then we’ll roll into something else.

34:14
Yeah. Western if you if you mind healing the Sonoma Napa. The United States is you actually spend some time there. I realize we’re going on a tour today. All right, fine. We’re having now West and this is this before Paul. Excuse me. We got to Chris’s wine. But before that we had we had some of your money. You cab Correct?

34:33
Exactly. Yep. We had the Montague cab and that one is from a vineyard. Right where that Napa Valley starts that the science is Napa Valley. It’s in a town called Rutherford. This wine is from the Beckstoffer George the Third vineyard which is historic vineyard in Rutherford. So kind of mid Mid Valley valley floor. So we had in North Coast’s here we have Napa Valley towards the east, which is the I guess the lighter green. And then you have the other two are both in Sonoma County. So Sonoma Valley is a sub region of Sonoma County. And then you have the other more like kind of Sonoma Coast properties. What that actually is looking at the weapon when it says Western Sonoma. Yeah. And yeah, so basically what you want to know is Napa Valley is known for Cabernet and Bordeaux varietals almost exclusively Cabernet, there’s some Chardonnay, that’s great, and some other ones that are great, but by and large Cabernet. And what you want to know about Sonoma is Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. That’s where they’re really their focuses. But there’s some great old vine Zinfandel, a lot of interesting things. I mean, both of them grow all sorts of things. Everything goes well out there, but those are the ones if you really want to try to learn focus it on it’s Cabernet, there Pinot Noir Chardonnay out of Sonoma Valley. And, yeah, I mean, it’s an awesome place very distinct visits as well for for touristing. Napa versus Sonoma. Sonoma, a little more kind of spaced out a little more laid back nap is really, really fun and great restaurants everywhere you can walk. So

36:01
what are all devices infant like? Why why the name old vine does come like

36:06
oh, yeah, I mean, Chris was probably really good about this, but it because it’s originally Italian varietal right? planted a lot of these old mines are over 100 years old at this point. So just

36:18
young immigrants that came from east coast all the way the west coast of

36:22
Martin all the families and and although even

36:25
Mondavi his family ended up in Lodi and then they’re made their way to Napa. But yeah, you’re looking at I don’t think there’s a in the United States. I don’t think there’s a number. But we’re not. Most people are, you’re looking at 7080 Plus, when they say oh, Vaughn

36:43
Okay, yeah, their demand for old line wines.

36:46
Yeah, it’s it was Bush trained bonds that are just like gnarly. They’re not like the picture you had a minute ago. They’re not the perfect rose. They’re like these gnarly look. Like once they got on the ground, like, what is that? Yeah.

36:57
Well, I can make a pretty decent wine, even though they’re not so good.

37:02
No, they’re intense fruit. I mean, there’s some, even in that vineyard. Right down the street toggle on, they’ve got some cab that was planted in the 50s. And it’s the same way like, yeah, most guys

37:15
are in Sonoma Mountain, which is in that lighter, darker green. I guess that’s apparently the oldest Pinot Noir planted in California now, because some other people groups and stuff up and it was planned in the 50s. But it’s like, I mean, it just struggles it has trouble getting right into some times, but it’s just some really neat stuff just gives a different intensity and character to it. So I mean, it’s just fun to play with that kind of

37:37
how history, how big is water, an issue in this? I mean, you know, in the irrigation of some of the stuff, you know, look at California has gone through a tremendous amount of drought and fires and all this stuff. And you just wonder, I mean, clearly they’ve designated the appropriate resources toward this. But do you all see certain spikes in prices of certain things based on kind of speculation like that? Like things like that, like water?

38:06
I don’t know about access to but it’s, I mean, the droughts definitely affected and it sometimes concentrates and grapes, but over a long time, it will hurt the industry. But I mean, I think Western can speak on that pretty strong. You know, I mean, obviously, it lowers yield a lot of times, okay, and so lower, lowering the yield of the production. They sell to make money every single year. So they make 1000 bottles one year for perfect, perfect weather, and then the next year, not great weather make 200 The cost is still the same. Yeah, run everything. And so they got to figure that out. So I mean, so it can, you know, affect the economy a little bit in the wine market? Yeah. But they kind of some kind of blend those economics over again. Yeah, so the customers not hitting it every single year different price points.

38:49
Is the Farmers Almanac, the best source that you will use for

38:53
no, there’s an app right now actually, yeah. This is a free day. If you

39:00
would indulge us scratch on that one. Yeah. If you wouldn’t feel just Richard with you don’t have to turn around. But behind you is the Bordeaux region of your tell me what it is.

39:09
Okay. All from north.

39:13
Give us your overview of the Bordeaux region in France.

39:18
You know, I think a lot of us in the wine industry kind of put Bordeaux as one of the absolute world class styles of wine, you know, that they’re kind of the foundation for a lot of countries of winemaking and also wine growing based a lot on weather, right? Weight and water. Okay. Yeah. And then weather you know, so, you know, bring good question. So, for instance, kind of termed a coined a term called terroir. And so there was a huge play for them. And basically, that is what’s weather comes into play for this. Yeah, it’s whether it’s what’s in the soil and then also what goes in with the West as in the winemaking sciences is it He kind of ways with terroir. So, with this ducru we had earlier you can taste their terroir you can taste kind of the year, the vintage, you can taste the style of the ducru and then you can definitely taste that is a cab based in that soil and you know, in those kinds of Bradley’s kind of soil so Bordeaux you know, I love them, you know they’re they has this prestigious level, I think because of this classification system that happened in the mid 1800s. But board has all sorts of awesome values. You can get great great Bordelais style wines for 20 bucks up to 4040 bucks, you’ll be able to spend a ton of money on this wine’s I can’t see the map behind me. I’m still there, but it’s kind of for the most part divided and super simple. Right Bank left bank got river run right down the middle. Yeah, bank is the northern portion. Left Bank. Yeah, right. mirlo. That’s how I remember our mer. So right, right below more low based and then left bank is all Cabernet based wines

40:58
were CL and Cabernet. How do you

41:02
know? It’s a French pronunciation? Yeah,

41:08
I think most of us know, Bordeaux as more cab wines, but even though they produce a lot more mellow than a cab, and Bordeaux, so you know, but you get you definitely get a different style. I mean, all three wines driving today, we’re gonna get totally different, unique profiles out of them. But this mean, you know, you do you taste that, that little that grit, that dirt, that Mother Nature part of it, which I love that kind of style, you know, out of it. You know, in in France, for me, they are they’re very vintage focused, you know, that, if they have orphanages, you know, sometimes those are can be the better buys. You know, for consumers. They might not be these wines that will, you know, you want to sock away forever, you know, drinking right now, but they’re there you can get some great ones. Because, you know, Bordeaux is really focused on vintages so when they have these great vintages, you know, like the 82. You know, it just is because epic vintage also, everybody the whole world knows about this one vintage in this one area. Yeah, and not a whole lot of countries can say that about vintage. You know, everybody knows certain vintages of Bordeaux. So they’re jealous

42:19
Why 82? That’s a great point. Why is 82 Such a synonymous year with great wine in this region?

42:26
Well, there’s a lot of answers to that. I honestly think one of the biggest answer I mean, the one of the main answers for that is Parker. Parker, that was one of his first big reviews was, it was it was a France was the Bordeaux’s and the 80 twos and it really put Bordeaux massively on the map for United States to purchase those wines. It was a great vintage. So you know, on the winemaking and farming side it was it was just like this perfect vintage. But you’re still drinking Great. Yeah, they’re they’re, they’re, you know,

43:00
was an average bottle like caught about cost.

43:03
It all depends on who it is. I’ll just take this guy right here. So an 82 ducru. Probably about 350 or 400. If you can find, you know if you can find them.

43:12
You have any you don’t have anything could not be sold. Like you can’t find them. That was way before on time. Okay.

43:18
Yeah. So you know, I mean, for instance, you know, y’all have a bottle of 1975, Lynch Bosch, right. So different region, then this new crew comes from different vintage different year. Totally for one night day difference. Yeah, both Bordeaux with different parts. Right. Right. Yeah. And so that that’s what that’s what I kind of really love about Bordeaux is you can really go one mile over and have a totally different experience in the bottle than Italy the same way Italy now. You can get into now, we’re getting there. I mean, that’s the thing about, you know, we drink a lot of Napa and Fort Worth, but I mean, you know, Napa is relatively young, considering 2000 years for Italy. 2000 years for France and 6070 for Napa, you know, so I mean, we’re Napa is doing great. And as to how young they are.

44:07
Since you brought up Robert Parker having a slide James suckling over Parker, I was curious of the three years thoughts why these guys become such pioneers in the wine rank rating industry and what makes them so special in this regard? Why are they why is what they say? Obviously, Chris, you sell wine, you sell wine, you sell wine? Their their opinions matter. And they mean something. Why?

44:34
Yeah, well, yeah. So people ask about the critic type thing a lot. Is it matter? What do you think about it? I think I think critics are gonna exist and everything all the time for it. So there’s no real point of trying to some people really try to really don’t like it. And I it’s simple. I mean, you got movie critics, your art critic. You got every critic. You’re always gonna have critics. Some people just criticize other people. Like, well, that’s what I mean, I think what’s going on so for a while there was really Robert Parker was kind of the guy for Napa. And he’s the he’s the one on the right. Yeah. And right now we’re in a situation more with a handful, probably like five to six different publications slash people who were doing good wine credit, I guess. Yeah, most of Parker at some point, Tonio? Yeah. And I think it’s kind of a good place to be because you can’t try every wine on the shelf. Now, you do want to always go under scores. No, you don’t. But you also can find somebody who has a palette that’s like yours and start to understand what they like, and you can, hell no, try to find some things that make sense for you from reading them. So I think they play a role. They just shouldn’t play the only role in a buyers. I don’t know decision, I guess, really.

45:48
And most of the time, they’re way different. Right? I mean, yeah, name names, one publication, I’ll give this 195 points, and it’ll come out and say specter of you. But 88. Yeah. And

46:01
that just goes to show like, Okay, well, I seem to align with Parker’s palette. I will go with his scores under Napa. But I really like Galloni scores and Sonoma or this or this or that. And so that matters there when it comes to like, like, Chris Chris’s store is cool, because he tastes every wine in his store. So you go to Chris and like, well, I typically agree with what Chris does. He only buys stuff he tastes so he can tell me all about scores.

46:23
I’m like, I don’t know. What are the

46:27
shoppers? Yeah.

46:29
What’s your What’s the biggest range like have something you’ve bought, and that you don’t buy it off of scores, but that you’ve, you’ve bought and carried that maybe like really low on a range or really high on the range that you just didn’t?

46:43
Do that carry the longest? Or get one

46:47
or one that that you really liked that maybe didn’t score that high? Or one that you really liked that that scored really high? And that you’ve maybe not do not know about? Do you kind of do a blind thing when you do it? Yeah, sometimes or later on? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what’s the Trader Joe’s to buck Chuck typically come in at on a score level in which region? Is it produced in? Next question?

47:11
The answer, Central Valley and others. And then what’s that one?

47:18
sangria. Guys take when you know where it’s grown

47:24
to keto, or more of a burger. Okay, thank you, Richard. What Why do you think these two gentlemen suckling and Parker, why did why do they become such powerhouses in this industry? What makes them so great?

47:35
Well, you know, I think one of the main, I mean, the score and critic conversation has always been very controversial. You know, and I think they’ve already touched on both that side of it. On the layman side, for wine, which is majority of all Americans who drink wine, they needed something to know, a guide. And that’s what Parker really invented was 100 point system. Right? And so whether you like it or not, it did boost up the confidence for a customer to just to walk in and to go buy a wine on a score. Now, whether we like that model or not, but it did get some ice, like, I want to come in and that that was 91 points. It must be somewhat good. Because some I thought it was 91 points. Yeah. Now whether you agree with it, you know, that’s a different that’s that’s the controversy that we always talk about. So you have to give them a lot of credit. You know, he’s one who kind of started 100 point scale, which everybody now has kind of follows all these other publications and critics and separate I guess there’s a slight Janice does not do one does 2020 points, right. So, but you know, he started in, it makes it easy to put that consumer who doesn’t know about wine to like, Okay, well, I’m just gonna go I’m gonna go to Christmas shopping. Can you give me some wines, or at least it points or above and Christmas? Like? I can help you out that. So one thing? That’s right, yes. So

48:58
yes, jesters photo set next. I thought I saw it, but I didn’t. Luckily, Chris got me started. Sorry, Richard. So

49:07
I think it’s it was it’s a good guide. Yeah. You know, it’s a basis. It’s a good basis, you know, but it’s also great. We talk about scores and argues arguments all the time. It’s really, yeah, it’s fun to talk about. Sure. I mean, I tried very time a minute ago, before I came on. Like in

49:26
the car with this happened, a rep came out of

49:30
the habit, my trunk. just tasted like, it’s good. But like, how do you give that one? 100 points. So I was like,

49:39
yeah, so you just you probably disagreed with his ranking, based on your reaction right now.

49:44
I mean, they taste more one than I do. And they are right. They’ve got what they’re that one and they’re projecting that one to be 100 points in five years. They’re not just telling you right now that one is better than then that’s a meeting saying or there’s Saying that wine is a perfect one. Right? Yeah, there’s no fault. That’s hard. That’s hard to say anything is perfect.

50:07
Right? Well, I think that’s why I think he’s only given one perfect wine ever. Sorry. Right. I think he did do at one time. It was like a 10 year old shutting off or something like that. I can’t remember but it was there’s something about he just does not. Is he gets high scores, but he didn’t get 100 Right. Right. Well, is it for that reason? Like what what can be 100? Yeah, then

50:25
there’s like how many guys like go with you?

50:28
tanzer? Was it? No, I think that’s something I’m sorry. Yeah, he only gave 100 pointer. I’m sorry. Yeah, yeah,

50:37
sorry. spectator here do it. Sorry about that guy who likes wine doesn’t like it. This here fixed. The picture proves that. But I think your your point is valid, like 100 Point wine, if you if you’re just an average drinker, and you see 100.1 And you can afford it. It’s almost a marketing ploy. Like you’re gonna want to buy that it’s it draws you to it. To your point, Chris, not necessarily going to be the best one you’ve ever had. In theory, it should be. But it’s not. It’s just it’s almost,

51:05
you have to give kudos to the winery that got that undefeated Roberto, we just had, I mean, awesome to them. You know, whether we thought 100 point or not, I mean, yeah, good for them that that wine is going to sell Great. Yeah, it’s going to sell out, it’s going to demand a high price. Because somebody thought is a perfect one. Right? But

51:19
there’s, there’s influence come in that all of a sudden, like they’re taking this guy to the like, you know, the best dinner to try the wine or, you know, that kind of thing where it’s kind of like a usually it’s

51:31
usually done at the at the office. Yeah, with our office art sometimes. Like, go to Napa, and he’ll rent an office and there’ll be 1000s of wines and then they’ll both room. Yeah, but then people come to the store asking me for maybe a big score one or my favorite one. I don’t want to sell that to them necessarily. They may want a Pinot Grigio and I’m gonna sell him a chef and have to pop in there and I think I’m an idiot because that’s they don’t like that one. So that’s my first question is what do you drink? I mean, what are you wanting? That’s not just because I like it doesn’t mean well under

52:07
any kind of like somebody is coming to you to have just kind of drinks want somebody to come in Richard to kind of drinks want to eat somebody baby come into western is like, I’m interested in the manufacturing aspect of it. You know, like what goes into it? You know, I mean, you have like, just between the three of you guys, kind of a different checkpoint for everybody. And someone’s going to gravitate maybe more towards one over the other just as far as the use case goes, you know, right. So Weston, what what role does smell play in in wine drinking? Obviously, we all here know that it does. But for the Layperson. What is it? What a smell? Why is it such a big deal?

52:45
Yeah, well, I don’t know. Why is it such a big I’m not sure. But I mean, it is the biggest thing for wine drinking. I don’t know why. But it’s just it’s basically wine is all about the smell, which then you then basically retro and easily smell when you’re tasting the wine saved. You’re basically confirming what you just smelled in a way such an oenophile Oh, maybe that’s just start to become more of a really into wine is when you are when the smell becomes so important to you. And then you just kind of drink it to confirm that and enjoy both parts certainly. Like to see love decree, which to me is always has probably one of the best noses in Bordeaux all the time.

53:28
Like, What’s it smell like? What’s it? I mean? Like, what is it? What kind of, you know, I was always drinking with glass? No, no, I just like I just wanted like this. I just wonder what that like, what is it that like, what are you looking for in a smell, I guess is kind of over the nose. Yeah,

53:44
complexity, I think for one thing, so a bunch of different things going on different layers and depth. Yeah, balls. Yeah, yes. Yeah.

53:53
flaw. Yeah, that’s the first thing from a fire.

53:56
Yeah, I mean, the main thing is with TCA Awami and cork, that’s the first thing. I mean, I just make sure the ones clean. Yeah. And then go from there. If this is a cab, yeah, it should smell like these check marks on my head. And then it tastes like that. And then go from there instead of yeah, good thing, like last night, you know, cool experience is we opened up a 2014 bowl day from Burgundy. And it smelled just like, awesome. It was fantastic. But the palette hadn’t just nothing on it. Really. It’s right to the bouquet on it was just it was there it was it was really perfuming a lot of violets on this great stuff going on. Then we tasted the wine. Oh, it was just kind of flat. Yeah. And so what that told us, you know, let’s throw it into canner. Let’s let it open up. This feels like going to say go away but the wine was developed with more as as Austin hits it. And then after two hours later, the bouquet matched to the palate. You know who and that’s what the nose was saying. It’s kind of the most important thing and wine but The profile the palette caught up to it, but it took some time to

55:03
Yeah, yeah. What’s what’s the best way you guys mind for someone who doesn’t drink wine? Who wants to be involved with wine? I know I know the answer. But in your mind, what’s the best way for somebody to get into wine? By drinking?

55:17
By silver ghosts? You? Yeah, I

55:24
mean, we really taste this way you learn what you like and go from there. And then you. I mean, like we’re talking a wide sentiment and people start in whites in moscato, and then that starts getting a little too much sugary to then like, let’s try pinot grigio or when they get into Chardonnay, then they go into Pinot Noir and keep going until you find you’re gonna get stuck in there. What they like and then go from there. I mean, that’s what Pino falls

55:55
into the Bering Sea, because I’ll have people say, Oh, I don’t like sweet wine. You need to try so I’ll turn with like Stilton. I mean, that’ll, that’ll say, Well, look, you can’t say you don’t like sweet wine until you’ve tried those kinds of things. But there are there are all sorts of fun things you can do and really get into it that way. You know, there’s

56:13
magical parents. That’s right. Yeah. Well, and also, you know, like, pop out of your comfort zone. You know, as you know, people go like, I don’t drink white wine and drink Cabernet. Well, that’s not necessarily true. You haven’t had anything else besides Cabernet? Really? Are you even had a white wine yet that you love you had some white wines you don’t like you know, and so you know, I send people to put a cork in all the time because what lessons are mentioned that Chris tries every wine that he that is in his rack. And so you have to go to a buyer that starts knowing you and so you don’t to get through all those questions. Yeah. Like, what do you like how much you want to spend? Everybody hates answering those first time questions, but he’s legitimately trying to figure out I can steer you in 1000 different ways guide me like I want to spend no more than 25 bucks perfect. I like I like lacryma great I don’t have that but I have three other ones that are similar crema in this price range that you’re gonna like and so just start find that no more buyer that you like that trust you and you trust them and then that’s how you start more and more about one real quickly. I’m not sure for sure. Thank

57:15
you guys. What what for the holidays what’s you know got holidays coming up? What do you guys suggest? You think like go big you know like special or? Italian Bordeaux

57:29
next question. Yeah, man, I still I’m a I’m a champagne just champagne holidays is what such a great drink one to give as guests to for parties. You gotta have champagne party. Next, I mean, you know, waking up Christmas morning it’s, it’s just a lot going on champion makes that a little bit easier and families. Yeah, you know,

57:53
rosacea paint is so great with Turkey. No. That’s great. Sounds great. Yeah,

58:00
I saw a story we all we’ve all seen this I think because of the pandemic but one of the stories I read this was the alcohol online alcohol sales rose 243% during the pandemic. Did you guys all wine sellers. Did you guys notice a spike during the pandemic? In front of individual for your wine sales?

58:19
Well, did you get the other side of Texas was one of leading states? I did not learn. We were the leading states. Okay, good job Texans. All right. So they helped me they helped me on that. Yes. Chris, that’s probably your your sales were up. They weren’t good God. They weren’t up that much.

58:40
Despite because of the pandemic,

58:41
definitely. I mean, I guess I don’t know we had to evolve where before we were open a little longer. We started doing tastings, curbside service. I mean, stopped doing tastings, curbside service. And deliveries, I’m still doing deliveries. And so we just adapted and it was crazy. The when the world went down. Actually I was in the hospital with COVID and my employer Kate, we text and people were one on one and thought it was all coming in. So a lot of stuff that firstly those first two weeks and then kind of adapted and so yeah, it was but definitely not 200%

59:23
Right. I remember seeing you know, our driveway or our street skews me during the first lockdown weeks, couple of weeks and maybe months. Every every recycled ban was just stopped piled up empty wine bottles. It was humorous. I mean you could see you’ve seen commercials I think or videos but wine bottles, wine bottles just stacked to the brim like people are just doing some serious drinking when they are stuck at home so good for them. So one of the last things we got is a want to do a little blind wine taste with you guys. In in the button the brown paper sack in the middle. I have poured its contents In this decanter, I would look very much for you guys to take your time, sample this wine and then show us all what maybe a blind wine tasting looks like. And while you do that Brinton I have some little quiz quiz factoids things to throw at you keep the guys talking about wine. Yeah, you know, it’s gotten quite quiet in here. Just let you know the energy is well, I don’t know if it’s a Friday afternoon, or if it’s the wine but we’re just slowly or maybe flicking it. Jay taking a nap at the camera there. Yes. Not sure what it is. But you guys so you guys got to go back to work tonight. Right?

1:00:41
Okay, it was a question.

1:00:46
Tracy noon, right right. So all your all your comments for a second while we go through a couple things on the screen behind you don’t need to look but it’s got to the size of wine bottles, the largest being a Nebuchadnezzar. Have you heard that name for Brinton? I have Nebuchadnezzar Horus Well, a different concept text maybe never measures the largest wine bottle you could buy. And then they’re very hard to find. I would assume that they hold 20 bottles 20 bottles of wine. Have you guys seen these? Have you guys been across these in your in your in your tenure?

1:01:17
Go? Yeah, we do whenever you have a crawfish boil every year my house and so I do have Rosae Okay. Fritz put the last like how you pulled the last Canyon? That’s a buddy of mine bought that. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, graphics. Fine. I saw that earlier. That’s funny. Good. Sorry.

1:01:36
Next question. No question. You never want to use your

1:01:40
IE. There’s a lot that goes into those.

1:01:44
Yeah, that’s a magnate we could I could sell the hell out of some magnums. Yeah.

1:01:49
I have to work on that, too. I know I. There’s Nebuchadnezzar is probably something more that you take an order for. And you fill it. The order? Yeah.

1:01:57
He said, like a novelty thing, or is it like jet?

1:02:01
I mean, no, it’s not. No, it’s legit. Yeah.

1:02:03
I mean, there’s like real and all but I mean, is it something where it’s just as a wine, you know, manufacture like, like, this is too much. Like, let me just keep to my craft and just keep well that’s kind of thing. The hard

1:02:15
thing for me. Yeah, it’s a bit of that. But they are cool. They age totally differently. They do a lot of different things.

1:02:20
Yeah. You know, worse than you won’t want. I bet he’ll make you one. Yeah. Yeah. I have three liters in the store regularly all the time. We sold, sold a bunch of those. Mostly during the holidays. People throw them on the table and it looks cool.

1:02:34
Which was a three liter turbo Jeroboam, excuse me.

1:02:38
magnums are popular too, just for that. fact that big bottle.

1:02:43
Yeah, so it’s so with the the never can ever be considered kind of the monster truck and the split the Prius and then somewhere in there, you’ve got to lift it vehicle. And then up to maybe just a level vehicle that thing Geez. Rob another cool car to put in there. You go. Yeah. He Pinto Warren’s Land Cruiser? Oh, that’s good one. Yeah. That’s your shirt. So there are there 10,000 varieties of grapes in the world or

1:03:17
better questions about

1:03:20
the car thing? Well, the question, the question is this. There’s 10,000 varieties. Great. But do you guys know the top three wine producers in the world? There’s three countries.

1:03:30
Like the countries Yeah, that’s right.

1:03:34
Yeah. France and

1:03:36
you look at my notes. No, no, no, that’s correct. Good. China though, is what I wanted to discuss with you guys. China is making a surge in wine purchasing the what is going on in China that’s leading to all their their huge surge in buying wine suddenly was popular in China. Last couple years. Yeah. They want to keep it from the Americans.

1:04:02
They think they were the largest. Well, there’s a great documentary on that called Read obsession. Okay. It’s awesome. It talks about the the politics and economics behind all of this and how it kind of got going. They actually really fluctuated the the future market for Bordeaux. Because they were they’re buying these features of Bordeaux and just really jacked up the prices that we actually didn’t see a whole lot of 1314 15 coming out as dates because the China market was already put the prices so up and we were like, we can’t afford them. Wow. And they didn’t care. They’re so they’re so buying all of it. Yeah. It’s slowly I think correcting itself back down again. But shatta I mean, they are they’re they’re an impact. Napa coat ones through the roof too. Yeah.

1:04:54
Oh, really. So they do the research like they’re getting the good ones

1:04:58
or just saying Do some research. It’s also a big status for them. Yeah. For why haven’t having a table?

1:05:07
Okay, okay. Do you guys know what the most wildly plenty grape is in the world? Chardonnay? No, it’d be too white shark. Yeah. Oh really? 700,000. Worldwide.

1:05:25
I wouldn’t finished it. This

1:05:26
is this is actually on the internet. So we might need to go. Yeah, sir. The big wine manufacturers they come in and what they say to us, like, hey, we want to use some of your buying some of your grapes. Is that how it works, where you actually

1:05:41
buy my grapes from other growers while actually owning the land or farm it myself, but I buy from various growers out there.

1:05:49
Is there just like a big exchange for that like a large market that exists? Like, either online or you have to go out there? Yeah. Mostly

1:05:56
just knowing people and meeting people and handshakes. Yeah, by and large. Yeah. Yeah. And they have extra to sell,

1:06:02
I guess. Right. Well,

1:06:03
I mean, yeah, most, most everyone kind of thinks about initially is like the estate model, which the real estate owns the land and they make they own the winery and all these kinds of but there are a lot of different ways of doing it. There’s some people are just growers. Yeah. We’re all they do is folks like Andy Beckstoffer, who owns the vineyard where the Montague comes from? is probably the most sought after has some of the best vineyards in Napa Valley. And he just, he just grows Yeah. And so he’s sells his his fruit to other great wineries that do different amazing wines out of it. But he focused on the growing and so it kind of has their own little niche. Yeah, really. Okay. Okay. And even if you own a lot of times, it was expected.

1:06:42
Yeah, I’m trying to figure this one.

1:06:45
Alright. This one’s for you. How many grapes on average is it take to make a standard bottle of wine?

1:06:51
Oh, man, richer clusters. Grapes. Grapes. She’s less tough because we have like depends on the bridle. Yeah, like Zinfandel has big Surahs big grapes. caps off is tiny. Like,

1:07:03
is that your final answer? Yeah.

1:07:07
No, yeah. 100. I’ll go to

1:07:12
let’s get to the taste test. Are you guys forming an opinion yet?

1:07:15
When you told him Kendrick? I’m going in. Okay. Get a quick going.

1:07:19
Westerns looking at the color. He said they couldn’t drink it. They have to only know all the other stuffs gone to form an

1:07:26
opinion. I believe it’s read. Yeah, definitely. Right.

1:07:29
They’ve all formed my cheat cheat sheet. Yes, it’s definitely red. dark color. It’s definitely Yo look great. All right, Western you want to you want to begin the big reveal. Why do you like Chris Gulick first? Let’s begin with the start with Western the whole time. Richard middle middle esteem Would you please leave this set? Chris yet? You’re now Oh, yeah, we could we could mute his so as a group.

1:07:57
I mean, it’s Yeah, sure. Yeah. dark color. mean, to me. You get blue fruits, black foods. Junk. Definitely young at Vintage is showing a lot of oak. This is what y’all do. Every time we’ll drink glass of wine.

1:08:12
I don’t drink wine. But I’m watching this because

1:08:17
this is last week. Part seltzers. Me I’m leaning more towards sir Ah

1:08:23
yeah. Just because a blue black fruit like Passover is Australia’s

1:08:27
where I am. I don’t get the eucalyptus and green. Yeah.

1:08:32
We are amazed this what lunch with you guys looks like your dinner. Like this is what it is. Yeah. Do you ever do this? Crazy? Yeah, it’s like a surprise thing. We do this every day. Yeah. Every bottle opener. Yes.

1:08:45
Tell him to come to the store to do all 5000

1:08:48
year. Bottle work. Yeah, we’re good friends. We have some good stuff together. But yeah. Do you guys

1:08:55
remember a gentleman by the name of Winston Churchill. He drank a champagne called Paul Rogers. Hello, Jay. Forgive me, apparently. This is a little factoid. Paul Roget, that’s embarrassing. We’re getting the desert. It’s like, hey, sideways, this thing in television now so we’re gonna, we’re gonna space it out and make a whole show out of this. According to the internet, he drank Winston Churchill drank Paul Roget 42,000 bottles in his lifetime, which equates to about a bottle and a half every day his entire adult life vows were to go Richard first, our five so

1:09:43
that’s probably one of they have a Paul rochet has a Winston Churchill label. That’s the Tet

1:09:49
which are Churchill drank that much. About half a day his adult life. Pretty good gin

1:09:54
and vodka you drink. That’s That’s fake news.

1:09:58
It could be get a mic to you can ask the same question. Well, they were coming. They were going with Australian or what

1:10:08
were known toward Serato. But I think it’s uh, yeah, like there was,

1:10:12
oh, yeah, we’re talking about Australia but it doesn’t have the eucalyptus that you typically get into. I was going with Paso Robles, California, Surat,

1:10:19
and going back. This goes back to your question earlier about the Roma. So first we did we look at the color of the wine we’re doing, we’re doing the ducting tastings. And so color will tell us a lot of you know, it give us a range of what it could be and what it can’t be. That also tell us an idea of the age of the wine. How just the thick? Well, you know, like, the new crew right now we do crew this one. I mean, this is definitely a young wine within, you know, four years of vintage.

1:10:48
That’s the legs thing is that legs know,

1:10:52
the depth and how rich it is. And the colleagues just say that it has alcohol stealing or doesn’t have alcohol. That means it’s a little bit more brown in the end. Yeah, yeah. So just let me take a simple concept of like a strawberry, right? You have a fresh strawberry. And the older it gets more oxygen it gets to it. It starts to give them more brown. Yeah, yeah. Why does the same thing? Yeah, you know, that’s a quick analogy. Yeah. Then we will smell the wine. So we smell the wine. That’s what Christina you’ll smell those blue fruits on there.

1:11:20
Eucalyptus, so what I don’t know what you can look like, Midland asleep. Oh, man. Okay. Yeah, that’s, that’s what quality

1:11:27
could be up to bring it back home. Yeah. It was dark. It is isn’t getting that kind of. Yeah.

1:11:36
But it’s there and Western conclusion.

1:11:42
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I just you’re Sarah Weston’s ever made was a Sohrab, but it was 2715

1:11:52
and you hold back to somebody hold back some of that then like like a case or like this? Yeah. Oh, really? Well, you want to know

1:11:59
let’s get back some of that stuff. Yes,

1:12:03
yeah. collectors, collectors ones. Just got everybody’s like, his first vintage was 2012 I’ve got 12 through 18 He just

1:12:11
in case like how many cases is a no no battles? Oh, bottles. Okay. I

1:12:16
mean, I may only have one bottle. Some people hold back cases. Yeah, sure. Okay.

1:12:20
I hold back a little bit but yeah, some some whiners. All back library wines that release some 10 years later and that kind of thing. Yeah, sure. Okay. People

1:12:28
buy a case of wine and drink a bottle every six months to see how it evolved. Yeah, just for fun. What’s in the fortitude bag, gentlemen? Whether we all get some California sweet

1:12:39
don’t tell him yet. Let me get a guess. I thought I’ve been hunting for the answer for a minute. So what do you think Weston?

1:12:47
Yeah, let’s go with my serraj from Paso Robles, California.

1:12:51
Okay, Paso. Rashard

1:12:55
are very heavily extracted shores.

1:13:00
French week it wasn’t for short now. Yes, ma’am. Mercy. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Donna. We’re gonna do this again. This week. This one again? Well, also you know, you’re a little more subjective to what you hear on the outside so you know, you hear stropping what has to be syrup right? Yeah, don’t do that. Don’t go that way. Yeah, I’m gonna go Naomi Pino. Very same thing. I wouldn’t serve you. I’m gonna go off limb and do petite just because it’s got a little berm laid back there, but it’s probably Sahra but particular country petite, usually only and grown in California can see lota I can get geeky but we didn’t see the Lodi is that a valley? Are you guys closer to Yeah, Lodi is closer to its central valley. Okay, it’s closer to Sacramento. Okay, that’s some of the oldest grapes are planted in Lodi just don’t really like Mondavi family started there and okay, it’s an up and coming region.

1:14:07
Do you have any yes Brinton. I’m going to go across the pond on this one. Just from not tasting smelling just only looking at it. I’m gonna go with the region I liked hearing about most some which was Italy. Oh, nice. Thank you. Gentlemen. It’s excellent sound effects for our eyes for opening a paper bag. Molly That is the blue. Team blue eyed boy do crusheraw So you guys were on the right track. Great guys earlier Yeah. California, California. Yes. Australia.

1:14:51
Big Australia.

1:14:52
Western was closest then. Well, Richard never really disclosed.

1:14:57
To set off over here. By All right, I said Madhukar Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, we’ll go back and edit this. Yeah, we’ll go back

1:15:09
when Richard started saying that he actually guessed it, I went back and listen wasn’t the case. So I hope you guys had fun today. We’ve enjoyed your time being here. Weston Eaton from Montague wines, Richard King, from El Arby’s. Please go visit el Arby’s. Chris keel from Put a cork in it. Gives it Chris let him say, yep, give a website or something or anything like

1:15:36
one. I don’t do any e commerce anything but you can call me Richard. We know. Go ahead. We’re co creative. Ellerby Fine Foods calm. Excellent. Yeah.

1:15:46
What’s your Montague wines and silver ghost? sellers.com He has got a fan page. Yes, yeah.

1:15:53
If you like one, you can’t go wrong here. If you like food, you can’t go wrong there. But wine in general. These guys are top of the pyramid. So thank you guys.