Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. Listen to the passion with which producers narrate their
winery and their world. In thirty answers discover their stories, personalities, and
passions. Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is Alson Levine
and today I am in Sonoma County with Randy Bennett, the winemaker for Sojourn
Sellers. Randy, welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell us about Sojourn Sellers.
Thank you. I'm glad to have you here. So Sojourn Sellers is a
boutique winery. We're actually celebrating this year our twentieth vintage, so the anniversary.
Thank you. Yeah. I've been around for a little bit, but
always producing a lot of small lot wines from special vineyards and we make we
focus on Peino noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet sauvignon. And for the Cabernet sauvignon,
we make it primarily from Napa Valley, so vineyards in Oakville and Rutherford
versus the Peino noir and Chardonnay from the Snoma Coast and Russian River Valley.
Well, you beat me to my question about what grapes you make and stuff
and where you source it. But do you own any vineyards or are you
sourcing everything? And what are you looking for when you're sourcing vineyards? Yeah,
we do own a few vineyards, but really Sojourn grew up sourcing grapes
from a lot of specialty small farmers around the Stoma coasts because Peano noir just
that's how it grew up is in the in California. Is a lot of
small farmers are producing it. There's not a lot of huge vineyards for m
Peanot noir um. There are a few, but not that many. So
a lot of the real special vineyards are real small and they sell wine to
a handful of wineries or sell the grapes to a handful of wineries, um
so um. But so we primarily source. What we do is we contract
for long term contracts for specific rows or blocks within the vineyards so we can
make a consistent wine year after year that we're happy with and that our customers
enjoy. And you said you own some vineyards, so how how much are
you? How much do you own? So? Right now we have four
vineyards and they're all within Sonoma, the Snoma Valley, So kind of around
the town of Sonoma, which is where we're based, but in the vineyards
we source from range all the way up to almost Menacino County, all along
the Snoma Coast and then like I mentioned over in Napa Valley as well.
And your total case production about fourteen thousand cases. And where can people find
your wines? Are they in the market? Readily available? One hundred percent
direct consumer a mix, it's mostly direct to consumers, so it's about eighty
percent of our sales or our direct consumers. So we sell wine across the
country through an allocated milling lists, so people sign up for our milling lists.
We release the wines twice a year. A lot of the wines are
real small lot bottlings and they sell out on release. And then there's a
few wines that we make more of, such as our Sinoma Coast Pean noir
and chardonnay, and then those wines we distribute out in California and about ten
other states. But it's pretty small quantities, so for most people it's better
to get on the mailing list and by direct. So Randy, I know
you grew up in southern California, so I'm wondering what is your first memory
relevant to wine. Well, when I grew up, my parents didn't drink
a lot of wine. I remember my mom drinking the green Hungarian wine severa
that stuck to sticks in my head. I don't know why he's a kid,
but really I went to a school in San Luis Obispo at Calipally and
kind of really got introduced to find wine in California through that process, through
the wines and San Luis Obispo as well as Paso rob List in Santa Barbara
County. And then after I graduated, UM started coming up to Napa Valley
and Sonoma and really trying the wines up here. So I really kind of
got introduced to it through going to wineries and through and you know, through
domestic wines, not not drinking at international wines. And so, is there
a particular wine that you recount as being one of those aha moment wines,
one of those really memorable wines. And maybe it was at the beginning of
your career, or maybe it was last week, But what is that aha
moment wine or memorable wine? Yeah, Actually, it's a pretty interesting story.
So, I mean the wine that I kind of that is an Ahama
went for me. Was actually the first time I met the founder of Sojourn
Sellers, so Craig has Arow. I was brought along to a lunch with
him from someone who I was working for previously, Mike Smith, and Mike
said, hey, you want to come. I'm gonna have lunch with a
guy who drinks a lot of good Burgundy, and I don't know, it
could be fun. So I went along and shrew enough. Craig brought a
nice spot of Burgundy and it was a Daniel Rione. I forget exactly which
wine it was. I want to say it was a Shambo mousine. And
it really just struck me how complex and interesting the wine was and how it
evolved in glass. And it was kind of the first time I had that
kind of experience with a wine from Burgundy and that really really stuck with me.
And so I'm sure you've drunk a lot more Burgundy since that point.
Of course, I'm curious if we were to come into your home what kind
of wines we would find. Is it still a pretty strong California household or
would we be surprised with some international fines? More international these days, So
my wife and I both enjoy Sabilis as well as Champagne quite a bit.
So those wines are what's mostly stocked in in the lenise immediately accessible spaces.
And then I do drink a lot of Burgundy, but for California, I
really enjoy Pedantu war, so make a lot of it, but I actually
really enjoy drinking it as well because I find it to be one of the
most versatile wines. You can just pop a bottle and enjoy it, or
you can go with a lot of different foods. So those are the those
are the primary wines. The other wine I kind of the other wines I
drink a lot of are ones of where I want to study a region,
right so kind of Brollo and Barbaresco or two areas that I'm trying to explore
as much as possible. So those are you'll spine those in my cellar as
well. Is there anything you drink recently that drink really well? Something from
your cellar? Hmm, let's see. Um, well, I just opened
up twenty ten Barbaresco from um. Uh the producer is escaping me right now.
Oh it actually it's the it's the uh. I forget it now I
can't remember, but anyway, I just we just opened it up because I
just had a fun vacation with some my my wife's cousin and he really enjoys
wines, so we we had a fun time drinking a lot of good wines.
But that was when I opened up. I'll remember the producer in a
little bit, but uh um, And that was just it was really just
kind of opened up nicely as we decandidate and I was really interesting, gave
a lot over time. So that was a fun one. The other fun
one I opened was in nineteen seventies, saw turn from Chateau sudarat Um and
that that's my birth year, so that was a fun, a fun thing
to just enjoy. It's actually my or my wife's cousin's birth year as well,
so we had fun with that. And wow, that probably was rich
and beautiful. Oh yeah, So you work a lot with pino noir,
but not exclusively. And I'm wondering, when you look at making wine or
even drinking wine, do you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety.
I don't think. I don't know if I refer to anything as a
perfect variety, but I would say, one thing that's interesting about pinot noir
is one it grows well in a variety of different areas of the world.
Obviously it needs a cooler climate. But um, you know, people make
champagne with it. People I still make actually white wines from a peino noir
that's not as common. And then you know, you can make a variety
of different interesting wines, like you know, the wines from Burgundy are different
than the wines from California and the wines from Organ and so forth. So
it's I think it has a lot of variety on versatility and is you know,
I think the reason that it's one of the you know, top selling
varieties. Yeah, so it may not achieve perfection, but versatility can equal
perfection in its own way. Um. So for you red white or rose.
For me, well, I drink a lot of white wine, so
I would say, like I mentioned, and mostly white champagne. Um.
But um, yeah, I mean I don't, I don't. I don't
discriminate anything. It's all good. I drink at all. So rose,
you know, Espessing the summer, we drink a lot of that. Um,
and then lots of red wine too. If you had to choose still
or sparkling. I'd probably go still. Yeah, a little little, little,
little more versatile, I think for me. So I'm curious, Um,
you know, obviously you you know, you have a big following with
your consumers. You know, people are buying your wine, you have an
allocated list. How much do wine critics and scores play a part in your
wine sales or just in general? For you, what do you think of
the role of wine critics and scores? Well, I think, uh,
for I think when consumers are looking at wines they've never tried, right,
then often they'll look to a critic to just gets an independent, unbiased opinion
on the wine. So I think it plays a role for consumers they're you
know, looking for, you know, kind of a validation of something.
Also, I think some people you know, will find critics they enjoy their
their style, and they'll look to them. If they see something new from
that critic there where it's rated highly, they may be willing to try something
like that. And then I ultimately, I think it really makes the most
difference at the retail level end shops, right because it's just it's a way
to kind of just see something and say Okay, I'm willing to try that
that has an interesting score, So I think that's the role. I mean,
I don't think. I think the wine ratings are not perfect. You
know, someone Thuckness rated high. You may not particularly like. Something that's
rated low you may really like, So I don't think it's perfect. There's
a lot of variety and paleque, so it's all very subjective. So while
I think it plays an important role, and I still look for scores when
I'm looking at wines, I've never tried before look at that as a kind
of an input, but it's also not perfect so well, So it is
subjective and wine is subjective. But I'm curious how you feel about pairing wine
and food. Do you take a subjective approach to it? Do you find
there are any rules that you follow or any tips that you look for that
you can suggest. I don't know if I totally look or have rules that
I definitely follow. I think, like, for example, I think Peanu
and No War can go well with a lot of seafood, where people generally
think I want a white wine with seafood. So I think some of the
rules that are out there can be broken. So you know, I think
and also some people think, oh peanut, no war, it's a lighter
wine, it won't go with red meat. But that's not entirely true either.
You know, if you go to Burgundy, they have fantastic red meat
and they drink red Burgundy. So so I don't think there's a lot of
real rules that you need to follow to do it. I think, you
know, you got to look at what your preference is. As far as
you know the wine you want to drink, I think that's most important versus
the pairing. But um, you know, I think there's definitely rules around.
If it's a bigger wine has more acid, it's going to hold up
to you know, batty your foods better than a lighter, kind of higher
pH wine. So drink what you want, but use a little common sense.
Like you know, if you have oysters, you might not want cabernet,
Yes exactly. I've never tried it, though, I mean maybe barbecue
oysters that might work out, that's true, but you might one's infidel.
So for somebody who's never had the pleasure to taste a sojour in wine,
what do you think they're missing out on? Well, I mean, I
think My goal and our goals as a team is really to build in layers
of complexity into the wine, and which every kind of decision we make is
geared around that. And so I think when people try our wines, a
lot of the feedback I get and the feedback I'm enjoys when people say,
oh, wow, this is a very layered wine. It's it's interesting,
and as I continue to smell it, I get additional aromas and as it
opens up over time, the flavors evolve. So I think that's that really
is about kind of what we're trying to achieve and also what we are achieving
and based on the feedback from our customers. So I think what you know,
that's what people are looking for is or that's what people can expect out
of it is interesting layers in the wines, and about how many skews or
different wines do you have in your portfolio right now? So we make about
twenty four different wines and half of those are peino noir. So we make
nine single vineyard peano noirs and three appellation blends, so it all peint peon
noir, but blends a different vineyard so than the Snoma coast Russian River Valley.
And then a new one we've introduced in the last couple of years is
a Pedaluma Gap Appelation wine. Okay, so you have twenty four different wines.
Space aliens were to land on your property right now, and you had
to give them one wine to welcome them to sojourn sellers, what would it
be, Well, we'd have to give them the Gaps Crowd in your Peto
the War, right, because you know that is um The Gaps Crown Vineyard
has become a kind of a a star on its own. Really, the
vineyard is is phenomenal. It's kind of creates a boulder, more structured Peano
noir and tends to appeal to a broader set of people. So u people
that enjoy bigger wines, you know, Cabernet lovers will enjoy that Peeno noir
as well. In addition to people that are Peanot fans and Peo fanatics will
still enjoy it as well. So it's kind of one of those wines that
that hits a lot of different palets. And so since you don't know their
palette, you're just hedging your bets on a hedge and hedge in the bet.
And also it's generally, you know, highly regarded by our customers and
people tend to really fall in love with it, So I think it's a
safe bet. So you work with many different vineyards, and I know you've
spent some time in the Central Coast, but you've been up here for a
while and you're working in all these different vineyards. Do you tend to see
when it comes to vintages a lot of variation from year to year? Do
you see a lot of similarities and what have you kind of witnessed in your
years here? Well, going back to my winemaking style, I mean really
our goal is to represent the vineyard and the vintage and what's in the bottle.
So we expect vinyage variation because every vinage is different. The weather can
vary dramatically. The overall heat when certain weather conditions come in, like rains
and so forth, can really affect in how cold it is in the summer
and in the in the springtime can affect what the vinage is going to offer.
So there's definitely variety. We do not try to make the same wine
each vinage. We don't even compare the two vinadias. When we're doing blending
trials and I'm looking at what is the wine that I'm going to make out
of the twenty two vinage, I'm not comparing that to the twenty one version
of that and seeing, well, I want to make sure it's the same.
It's a different experience than you know. Probably some larger wineries that kind
of have are focused mainly on people buying the wine off the shelf. They
may try to have that consistency, and we don't really focus on that.
Well, knowing that no vintage is alike and that you want to showcase that,
how much variation do you see? Do you see a lot of commonality
from your year? Do you see big jumps from one year to the next
in one particular vineyard or one particular style. There's definitely commonalities. So one
thing that's fun about these vineyards is they have personalities and those personalities will shine
through each vinage. So the Gaps Ground pino or the San Jacomo vineer pino
or the Ruling Vineyard Pino noir, all of them have like signature characteristics that
come through each vinage. So that's kind of the fun part. I mean,
as we taste the wines with our customers. Each vineage they'll say,
oh, yeah, that's my favorite, that's Roger's Creek Vineyard, That's sen
Jacoma Vineyard, because it has a common characteristics that come through each year.
So I think that that trumps the vintage variation for sure, the personalities of
the vineyards, and that's based on how we make the wines and what we
try to do. We really want to represent the vineyard and kind of not
show our fingerprints and have each wine, you know, taste like that vineyard.
So you said before that depending on you know, how much water you
get sort of in spring or some are the cool breezes and stuff that come
in will help you determine what you're going to have. Are there any other
signs or predictors you look for that will at the beginning of I don't know,
bud break or at any point during the season that help you predict what
a vintage will be or is it not quite as easy? Well, certainly
the weather the last thirty days are what really can have the most impact on
how the how the wine's going to end up. Um, but the last
thirty days before picking or yeah, the last thirty days before picking. Um,
so though that could have the most impact on it. But you know,
yeah along the way, you know, weather during the flowering period can
um impact how big of a crop it is and how much shatter there is
and um um how big the berries are, which can affect the concentration of
the wine. So that that that kind of weather has a has a factor,
but you really don't know. And tell you're getting closer to um the
time of picking and how um the weather is in late summer and then you
know, and then if there's going to be a lot of rain or not
can affect um what you do from a picking decision perspective, because you know,
we're in California, it doesn't rain that much until the year of twenty
twenty. Tell this you tell this winter, yes, but in generally hopefully
it doesn't rain that much during the growing season. Um. And uh so
you know we I always say we're afraid of rain here even though you know
rains all the time and Brandon Bordeaux and Burgundy, but in California doesn't.
So um you know, so it can have a big factor. You know,
get a big storm coming in, it might affect you know, when
we decide to pick or if we decide to do something different in the vineyard
to to mitigate him. So, UM, because you know you can't really
control mother nature. How much do you spend time in the vineyards talking to
your vines trying to coax them along or reprimand them for what they're doing?
Do you talk to your vines? I know I can't disclose that, what
would I say. What I say in the vineyards stays in the vineyard.
UM. I mean, I definitely spend a lot of time in the vineyard.
I mean, starting in about June July, and that's where I'm spending
more of my time UM is out there monitoring the progress, seeing what's happening.
And also because we work with a lot of different grower partners, working
with each grower on like what are the viticulture viticulture operations that we want to
have UM conducted in the vineyard and in the timing of those so when do
we want certain things done? UM. So I definitely spend a lot of
time in the vineyards monitor and what's happening and talking to the vinds as well
as to the people that are tending the vines about what we want to do.
And when the wine comes in and it's in the barrel, have you
had to talk to it then? Or do play music to it? Do
you feel communicating is something that happens and needs to happen or you just don't
believe in that sort of sillyness. I don't think I talk to the wines
in the in the barrel. I don't think. I don't really do that,
maybe more to implementation, like come on, let's go, um,
But now I don't I don't do that. But I think that the wines
definitely have personalities and um, you know, are living living things and do
evolve in barrel and in bottle over time, so they are living organisms,
um, and so they're probably worthy of being spoken to. But I kind
of I don't do that very you mark my words. You're going to be
walking through the vineyard in a couple of months and you're gonna start talking to
your mind and go. I never realized I did it, but Alison reminded
me. Um. So are there any sort of good luck rituals that you
have established as a winemaker or for your team here at Sojourn that you guys
do at the start of harvest? Yeah, during harvest. Well, we
like to start the harvest usually the first our first harvest for for sojourn with
sabering a bottle of champagne and enjoying the champagne and just kind of celebrating the
beginning of harvest. And often we'll celebrate the end of harvest with some champagne
as well. So that's how we do it. And then a little champagne
in between. Yeah, no, stick with beer, but sometimes a champagne
of beers, you know, a little Miller highlights. Oh yeah, no,
toy. It is true what they say that it takes a lot of
good beer to make wine. Yes, absolutely, absolutely, So I'm curious.
You know, you said you were introduced to wine when you were living,
going to school and stuff like that. But before you decided to be
a winemaker, what did you want to be? What when you were a
little boy would you want to be when you grow up? Or maybe a
young boy well post superhero phase. Randomly, for some reason, growing up,
I wanted to be a dentist. And I don't know what, but
I think I must have, you know, known a dentist. They had
a good life, right, played a lot of golf, you know,
I don't know, but I actually pursued a completely different career before getting into
wine. So I studied business and information systems and spent thirteen years working in
management consulting for I initially worked for Anderson Consulting, which became Accenture, So
I spent a lot of time doing that, helping large organizations, mostly in
the capital markets area, banks and insurance companies around the country. And then
my last project, I was actually in London on England helping out an insurer
there kind of changing and improving their business. UM so a lot of project
management. So that was kind of my first love. Was like I once
I saw what consultants did, I said, that's what I want to do.
While I was in college and spent a lot of time traveling and helping
businesses and um But then I decided I didn't want to do that for like
the next phase of my life. And I figured that out while I was
in England and decided I always enjoyed wine. I really liked the idea of
making a product that was growing in the ground and it's something that people love.
And I wanted to have a more rural lifestyle, so I said to
myself I'm going to go back to California and figure out if I can find
a place in the wine business. Um, so I made a big change
and from suits to flannels exactly exactly the best, right, So I M
yeah, So it was a big change for me, and I was fortunate
when I when I got here, I decided I'm going to do a harvest
internship just to kind of learn from the ground up, do all the manual
labor and understand how that process worked. And was fortunate to work for great
wine maker named Thomas Rivers Brown and I mentioned Mike Smith. Mike Smith was
assistant wine maker at the time for Thomas, and we just had a really
good team, had a great experience. Those guys were very generous with their
time and to teach me, you know, coming in a little older without
a lot of wine education background, and taught me, you know, how
to make really good wine in the cellar and what's important. So it was
a great, great transition. I didn't know if I'd still figured out after
that, but eventually I just stayed with it. And like I mentioned,
Mike introduced me to a founder of Sojourn, So I met with Craig and
Eric and they were just kind of starting sojourn. It was just growing growing
up, and they needed some help making the wine, and so I was
fortunate to be able to work with them. Wow. So when you're not
working, how do you like to spend your free time? Well, I
have two young children, so I spend most of my time shuttling them around
to soccer and volleyball. I'm actually going to coach my daughter volleyball team,
which is just starting actually tomorrow is the first practice. Um. And you
know, my son's in Boy Scouts, my daughters in Girl Scouts, so
we spend a lot of time doing scouting activities. Selling Girl Scout cookies right
now, so let me let me know what you need after the after this
mint, I mean cookies everybody's favorite. Um, and then but personally,
I really enjoy playing golf and skiing, So I actually just got back from
a nice ski trip. So those are kind of my what I like to
do for recreation. Nice. And if you're planning a romantic evening for you
and your wife, you know the kids are asleeper you got rid of them
for the night somewhere friends houses or something. What sort of wines make for
a romantic evening for the two of you. We always start with the Battle
of Champaigne. Um, So yeah, that's that's definitely the start. And
then like I mentioned, like we like Shebli a lot um and my wife
prefers white wines typically, so we kind of stick with those usually as the
go tos. So you know you were talking about, um, you know,
your time in what you've done, and yes, you're we cannot include
your children in this talk because I know you're a proud dad. But when
you look back at your career, and it could be a previous career as
well, what would you say is one of your proudest achievements to date?
Oh? Boy, tough one proudest? Well, I mean, I mean,
I think one thing I'm proud of is just having you know, kind
of making the transition. Um. And that's something I didn't really think of
as like a huge risk in my life at the time because I'd saved a
little money. I was able to kind of go through and learn and not
make a lot of money for a period of time. Um, I didn't
have children at the time. I think now i'd be a harder transition.
I'm not sure i'd make the decision to do it. But you know,
it was a it was an interesting risk whereas I gave up a career that
was lucrative and I was successful at it to go try something new. Um,
And so you know, I'm proud that I was willing to take that
risk and then also sticking with it. And I'm just kind of learning as
much as I can, as fast as I can. And you know,
so far, you know, they've been pretty successful at it. Yeah,
how many years now? So sixteen years? Yeah, Yeah, I think
you're well entrenched in it. I think you've succeeded. So when you look
back at your career or previous career or in your life, is there a
piece of advice that someone gave you along the way that you find that you
use in your daily life or your how you approach work or living or wine
making or something, And who was it and what was that advice? Well,
one thing that's always stuck with me. It was actually something that Thomas
and Mike always said as I was kind of looking at the wine business and
starting my own label and that type of thing was go make the best wine
you can, and that means go get the best grapes that you can get
access to, because the the quality of the grapes will really define like what
is the upper limit of what the quality of the wine can be UM.
And I remember Craig saying, you know, you can't make a great steak
without a great piece of meat. And that's that's true with with UM,
with UM with wines is that, you know, just having really interesting being
able to access really interesting vineyards and getting those best scrapes UM. And you
know, and part of that is the farming process too. So you can
have a great piece of dirt, but if you don't farm it right UM,
or if the right varieties are not planted there, then you can't achieve
what, you know, what the potential is so UM. So I think
you know, that advice of like going out and just trying to get to
the best quality UM, you know, the best quality grapes to be able
to produce the best quality wine was really something that I'm I'm glad they gave
me that advice because I you know, in my mind, I was going
around, well how do I make the best ten dollar bottle of wine?
And that would have been a different experience for me, and I really enjoyed
the experience of going out and and working with exceptional vineyards, trying to make
the best wine that we can. So we're sitting here at a table and
you've got some bottles of your wine on the table, but there's an empty
seat next to you. And if there was anyone from any walk of life
that you could share one of living or deceased, a share a bottle of
sojourn sellers with, who would you want that to be? Well, it's
pretty interesting. I'm actually listening to a book that's from the Dali Lama,
and so it's kind of I was, So, what comes to my mind
right now is I love to have the Dali Lama here and share wine.
I'm not sure if he drinks wine or not. To be honest, I
don't know, but I think that would be really interesting to hear a perspective
on it from him, and and just to have a kind of interesting conversation,
contemplate discussion life over wine, right exactly. So, you know,
the last thing I remember reading in the book was you know that life purpose
is in a pursuit of happiness, and so I think for me, wine
is is a pursuit of happiness. As well. That well, so then
I want you to complete the sentence for me. A table without wine is
like table without wine is like bread without butter. Oh I like that.
Well, I mean you know, we're I got you in some of the
serious, thoughtful questions. Now we get a little of the silly questions.
But I'm curious, Um, this is a little more on a personal level.
If you were sent off to a deserted island, what three wines would
you want to take with you? Well, we used play the game where
what what single variety would you take with you? About single variety? With
that I've always so, I mean I always say it's peanut a wire,
right because I can have champagne, I can have Burgundy, and I can
have a California peanot so and you can have a white peanut wires. Well,
so I don't want to say yeah and a rose. So to me,
I get a lot of aliety and I'm happy, Okay, But I'm
asking you three wines you would take them? Not getting off the hook that
easy. Um, So if I three wines I would take, well,
I think, um, I would take of course, I have to have
my champagne and my shibli and then a California peanut and any particular ones are
just the generic champagne Shibbli. Well, um, let's see. I I
the current champagne I I'm really enjoying is um Is Jackson, So I probably
pick one of theirs um and um as far as Shabbli goes, I mean
um, if I can get anything from the Leclo Vineyard, I would probably
take that um. And then for peanut no Wi, i'd have to bring
I don't know. I don't drink a lot of the wines that I make,
but I would probably enjoy bringing one of our peanut no Wars, particularly
from Ruling Vineyard for sojourn and why Ruling Vinuard it's an interesting maybe you have
to pick nine out of nine pinos, yet you just picked your favorite child.
Well, it's pretty funny actually every year because I get this question all
the time, like which one do you like? And actually for me,
I do kind of think about it each Finich, like which wine do I
think it's really standing out, you know, as we evaluate the wines and
what happened during that harvest, and it's interesting. But for me, Ruling
has this interesting complexities and it does evolve quite a bit in glass and bottle,
and it has some he has nice fruit which you get out of California
pino, right, a really nice fruit character, but also just like a
save savory components and different layers of like spice and savoriness that kind of make
it something interesting. So if you're stuck on on desert island for a while,
you want something that's going to evolve and give you something different each time
you try it, and so I think the Ruling Pino tends to do that.
Oh, you're giving me a perfect segue into the final final part,
which is our game of pairing wine and food. So um, you know,
let's start with that Ruling Pino noir. I mean, you've described the
wines, so what kind of music would would best exemplify that or would you
want to listen to while you were drinking it? The Ruling Pino. I
don't let me think about it again. Let me smell a little bit,
get some inspiration here. I don't know why, but you know, and
this is a band I don't listen to very much, but for some reason,
the who comes in my mind when I'm smelling this right now, I'm
not sure which which song I don't know, but for some reason, like
a little little little like kind of fun classical rock and roll kind of fits
with that one. And and if you want to describe what you're getting off
of it right now, because yeah, it in front of you, I
give kind of like a a little bit of like kind of a stewed kind
of note in a good way, like you kind of get um and um,
you know, I get definitely some like candy cherry characters and then a
little bit of like savoriness. Um, some i'd call like a kind of
Asian or baking spices um that are coming out um starr annas and that type
of thing. So it's pretty a lot going on. So you um,
then okay, so you make nine Pinot Noirs. We picked one of them.
But you did speak also about the Gaps Crown soon about that one Gaps
Crown, So that's um, you know, I like rock and roll,
so I'm gonna have to you know, for me, it's that's a rock
and roll night. You know specific song. You know it's um um because
it's um, it's it has a nice boldness to it kind of hits you
over the head a little bit for for a pinot noir um and um has
great structure and length and um so I think if it's with a rock and
roll night, okay. Um and then of course you do shardonnays. And
so let's talk about your ruling vineyard chart. Nay. Since I've got in
the glass and I can, I can share along with you and see if
I agree. Um. So we're sticking with this the song pairing. See,
this is a little more elegant, you know. I think the ruling
panot to me is um, I'm sorry, chardonnay has nice you know,
richness to it. Um. But um again, it also has an interesting
kind of savoringness, but in a different way. It's more of like,
you know, kind of dried herbs and um and some floral notes. Um.
So, I think this would be probably more around the classical music kind
of a genre. I'm not a specific song coming in my mind right now,
but I'd say this is a this is something different, we got it,
okay, and then um one more um sojourn sellers. In addition,
I know makes a sparkling wine a classic method sparkling wine. Um so what
about your brute m hmm. Let's see um, why is uh, let's
see what what's this song? I don't I don't know. I think that
I think of brute. I think is something of a celebration. Right,
So for some reason, that crazy song what's it called? You can sing
it if you want. I definitely can't do that. You don't want any
part of that. Um um gosh, I can't remember the day of this
song, but it's like, what are the Oh, well, it's called
champagne showers. For some reason, that video just came to mind brain of
celebrating. That's pretty funny. I'm not sure that's what people want to do
with our you know, it's not exactly an inexpensive battle of sparkling so um,
but yeah, we make we make a brute. Um. That's about
half and half pen warrant and chardonnay. So it's a lot of fun.
Well, Randy, you've been a good sports so I won't put you on
the spot for any more music. I'm pairings. I'm going to ask you
a final question and two parter, and that the first part is where in
the world is on the top of your bucket list to go explore wine region
or perhaps other Well, one thing that's on my mind right now is to
actually go to Antarctica because my wife, when I first met her, she
said she wanted to go to six to the seven continents, and I said,
why not all seven? So we've been actually talking about making making a
plan to kind of go down there. So I think you pretty much have
to go to you know, the south of South America and then catch a
little cruise over when it's the right time of year. So that that's kind
of a place that is kind of on the bucket list as far as to
go really see what's going on down there, um, but more more immediately,
I'm planning to go to Europe this summer and really, like I mentioned,
explore the regions of Piedmonte and in Italy and visit Barolo and Barbaresco and
all the little villages in between, which is enjoy those wines. I've been
like trying to like learn as much as i can about I'm looking forward to
seeing the regions in person well as you plan your trip to go explore all
the different regions of Pimente. If someone wanted to come here and explore all
the little nuances of Sonoma, of course they can taste sojer and wines and
get a real taste of different vineyards. So how can they find you?
Where can they taste your wines? How can they purchase them? Well,
we have a little by appointment, sit down style tasting salon in the town
of Sonoma, so right off the plaza. We call it a tasting salon
versus a tasting room because it's kind of a sitdown style tasting, like coming
into our living room. So you sit down on table, you taste the
wine side by side, so you can taste three different peno no wars and
see how each vineyard. You know what the distinctive characteristics are of each vineyard.
So that's the best way to come in and get to know us.
Also, like I mentioned people, a lot of the people get to know
us by joining our mailing list and buying some wines and trying them and getting
getting on the mailing list that way. So you can just go online to
Sojournsellers dot com and do that as well. If you can't make it out
the cinema, well great, well, Randy, thank you so much for
joining us on wine soundtrack And it gets time to go drink a little wine.
What do you think its Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine
Soundtrack USA. For details and updates, listen to our website, wine soundtrack
dot com.