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 Alison Levine
and today I am sitting in the beautiful Applegate Valley in the Rogue Valley in
southern Oregon at Troon Vineyard. I have known Craig camp for a while,
since back when he was in California, but he's been up here in Oregon
for a while working at Troon Vineyard as the general manager, which is organically
certified, biodynamically certified, regeneratively certified. I mean, they have got all
the right certifications and I'm so excited to have Craig here today. So Craig,
welcome to Wine Soundtrack. And aside from what I've said, give us
a little overview about Troon. Well, Allison, it's great to be here
with you today. We've known each other for a long time and takes a
lot of wine together over the years and various bloggers conferences and things like that.
So it's great to have you here at Troon. And in the springtime,
it's a wonderful time to be in the applegate. So I'm over thirty
five years in the fine wine business. I started off as an importer distributor,
so I got in Chicago, so I got the hardball version of wine
sales as a learning process, which was I think a really good place to
start. And then we built up a very successful company called Direct Import One
Company, and we sold that. My partner sold out first, and then
I stayed for a few years. And then I had enough of the big
wine company business that purchased us at the time and went to Italy and immersed
myself in sellers in barbaras Co and Barolla for three years, and then spent
time in the Wilholmette Valley and then doing Pin and No Ars. I went
from Nebbiolo and Barbara to Pin and Nor and then down to Nepple Valley Cornerstone,
where we met up in Ahall Mountain doing Cabernet Sovegno, and then finally
made it over to back to Oregon. Back to Oregon, which is something
I wanted to do. When I was in Wilhommett Valley, I was buying
Sarah and Viner from Rogue Valley, and I just thought it was just an
incredibly interesting area and it was a really a counterpoint to the NAPA experience,
where things are there's less opportunities for experimentation. So tell us a little bit
about Truon. So Trouon. The name Truon comes from Dick Troon, which
was the farmer that first planeted grapes here in nineteen seventy two. So he
was a pioneer. He's part of Oregon wine history, and so we kept
that name to honor that history. And his daughters are still come to visit
us. So it's a great experience. But you know, Dick was typical
farmer of the area. He planet grapes because he thought it would be a
better crop, a better commercial decision, not out of some you know,
you know, having gone to Burgundy or whatever, fallen in love with wine.
He just was a real farmer. And then it was sold. He
sold it to another family, and then I came here in twenty sixteen,
and then the new owners, doctor Brian and Denise White of Texas, purchased
at twenty seventeen, and we started this voyage to biodynamics and re generator organics.
Wow, and how many acres is the property, so we're one hundred
acre farm, so about half of that is devoted to grape vines twenty varieties
and fifty acres, and then the rest is as you would expect on a
biodnemic farm, dedicated to biodiversity. So we have over three hundred French cider
apple trees, so it'll be a cider out in a few years of Normandy
style bottle fermented. We have sheep and chickens and dogs and wildlife as you
heard last night. And then we have five acres of hay and about three
acres of vegetable gardens and food forest for our farm stand and to selling to
local restaurants. I love that. And of course you get your manure from
the dairy next door. Yes, yes, sir. This is the ultimate
good karma, because we need a lot of manure, far more than we
could produce ourselves with the kind of number of cattle that we could sustain here.
So we have a noble dairy which is our next door neighbor, with
several thousand head of organic cattle. We've been organic since two thousand and four,
so we are able to just pick up the phone and call Sharon Noble
and the manure starts arriving. So it's a great symbiotic relationship because, as
you know, dairy farmers are struggling and for them it's another profit stream and
for us it's an unbelievable asset. Wow. So you said that you have
twenty different varieties, can you name them? Oh? Geez off the time
I had, well, your Southern French inspired yes, So when when when
I first came here. What we did is we brought in a company called
the Vineyard Soil Technologies out of NAPA, and we dug seventy five foot deep
soil pits seventy seventy throughout the property, and we had a couple of PhDs
here for a week up to their chins and holes and did this this you
know, complete soil analysis. Where it came back it looks like the you
know, it looks like the Bible. You know, it's about that thick,
and we kind of treated it like that, I guess. So we
took that information along with our own experience and weather data and really decided that
these Southern French varieties were ideal for the Applegate Valley. So we have kind
of the complete range where we're doing almost all of the chatannu varieties, at
least all the famous ones, the really obscure ones we can't get. And
then and then from from southwest we have great and not so you know,
but a lot of Serrah, a lot of more Vedra, a lot of
grenache, and and then a lot of Marsan, Roussan and vigne. Those
will be the predominant varieties. But Vermentino is actually our our largest planted white
variety, which of course the French called roll right exactly. I hear lots
of white makers say that Vermontino is the future. Well, you know,
it's it's a one, it's a it's a it's a dream variety. It's
wonderful department. It's absolutely you know, it's a it's a plant that likes
to go grapes. It's very resilient, it maintains acidity, and it's and
if you fire it properly, it's a very complex wine, as you see
often from the winds of Sardinia and Corsica that these are. You know,
there's also many lighthearted Vermonino's out there, you know, along the coast,
for the r Frito Misto on the coast and liguria. But what we do,
well, you know what we're doing here is more in that richer uh
Sardinia and Corsican style and what's your total case production? So right now we
have well we had to go through a replant because we had red blotch virus
throughout the vineyard. And when you have weakened vines, that that leads to
every other kind of trunk disease coming in. You know, the students from
Oregon State would come down here, they'd love it because they could pull up
vine and see like a dozen different diseases. You know, it's like perfect
for them. So but you know, so obviously that the negative of that
is that it's incredibly expensive and time consuming to replant a vineyard. The positive,
of course, is that we get to plant exactly what we want,
where we want it, and how we want it. So we were able
to select the varieties we want, the rootstocks we want, and plant them
biodynamically from the beginning. So you know that that has been an exciting When
was that replanting So we just finished last year. It was it was a
six year process. So so so going back to the original question of how
much wine did it make Right now, we're making about six thousand cases,
but eventually, as all these vineyards come back into production, be about twelve
thousand cases of wine in about two thousand cases of cider. Nice. And
where are your wines available? What markets? We are available in most major
cities, in markets in the United States and three Canadian provinces. You're not
going to find us at the big grocery stores and the big box stores,
but you can find us at you know, wine shops and wine bars and
things like that people that are looking for naturally crafted wines. So what is
your first memory relevant to wine? Ah? Okay, So when I was
in college, well, I grew up in Harvard, Illinois, and you
know, dairy farmers and things like that, and wine was not a part
of my life at all. I never never saw any wine. So when
I was in college, I went and studied quote unquote for a semester in
Austria and then hitchhiked around Europe for the rest of the summer. Spend a
lot of time in France, and I think the first wine I remember was
at a wine bar in Strasbourg and Alsus and it was just an edelsecker,
you know, just a just the house blend and I just really really appealed
to me. And and and then traveling around France, we would go to
go to the store and you would buy wine based on the alcohol level,
you know, because the higher, the more expensive it was, you know,
so we weren't finding the most expensive. But these were the days of
hippies. So we would go to the park around the Eiffel Tower, and
if you had a bottle of wine, you could sit down with people and
somebody would have some meat, somebody would have some cheese and things, and
you have this kind of communal meal. So I came back from that that
time in Europe and feeling incredibly sophisticated, like, you know, I'm really
on top of the room. And I went to a wine store and realized
I didn't know anything. So I bought the like a lot of people at
the time, Alexis bes Buloff's Signal Book of Wine. I read it and
then I was just down the rabbit hole after that. So once you knew
a little bit more about wine, is there one of those memorable wines that
was one of those aha moments. I'm sure you've had a few over the
years, but is there one that stands out? Yeah, I think I
think there is is. Going back when I was first getting into wine,
a good friend of mine, Don Clemens, was in the wine business and
he was representing the company that imported Shapoutier, and he was having to cookout
and a hand a bottle of Shapootier tavel Rose, and I'm just like,
wow, this is like something else, and it just kind of really up
the fact it could be something more than just this beverage and things like that.
And then you know, like then after that, and there was just
terrible after that. You know. I was a journalist at the time,
and about two years later I was in the wine business. I mean,
I don't know, at least as a As a in the wine business,
you got to drink more good wine. So if we were to come to
your home today, what kind of wines would we find in your home?
Are you drinking mostly organ wines? Are you drinking wines from around the world.
Are you drinking only your own wines not your own wines? Well,
I have to be honest, I don't drink our own wines a lot at
home because it's it's too emotional. So I think sometimes because like I wonder
if we should have picked that a little earlier, this or that. You
know, there's always critical there's always this this, like you're you're digging,
and you know it's too digging into the nitty gritty too much all the time.
So at home I tend to try it's a pretty diverse range of wines.
I have to that they're mostly Italian and French because living down here in
southern Oregon, there's not a lot of great wine shops, so I tend
to order most of my wine online. I belong to the very narrow range
of wine clubs, but the main one is Kermit Lynch, So I buy
a lot of wine from Kermit Lynch, and as a wine club member,
they give these wonderful discounts every few times a year, and I stuck up.
But I so I'm drinking a lot of profans Bourgelat and then you know,
from Italy, a lot of Chetto and Barbara and things like that,
because because you know, I think at home, especially you know during the
week, it's it's really lighter meals and things like that. So I like
lighter pressure wines and I'm a bit of an acid junkie. So you know,
like the I understand the usually usual win ge thing, you know,
where I want recently and all those things. You know, So, is
there a wine that you opened up recently that drank really well, something from
your cellar or maybe you were out to dinner. Well, I'm fortunately,
over the years to have focused on trying to keep ongoing collection of certain Burrel
and Barbarasco's that I worked at and were friends of mine. I really like
to drink the wines of people I know there's a story there, there's a
story there, and you know there's a personal connection and things like that.
So a lot of from from Burl and Barbarusco, Marcarini from Memora and then
Poderi Cola really favorites. I have wines going back to the nineties from them
and the vat pre Luca leaving and everything. I loved his wines. These
are all people that I worked with or involved in and Sotiomano and barbar Usco.
Nice. Did you open any recently? Well, you know, I
tend to open those older bottles here with the team because it's it's like this
is like, you know, open up with wine geeks. You know,
they're really into it so so usually we always finished harvest, I'll make a
risotto coci and opened up some old simes. So we opened up I happened
up in ninety eight Marcarini Lomora Brnante last year. That really stuck out in
my mind. Nice. Nice, So you work with a lot of different
grapes. Over the years, you've worked with a lot of different grapes.
You've kind of covered every every rein of France at some point. I'm curious
if you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety. Well, I
think it's a perfect variety for a place. I don't think there's a perfect
variety as an individual. Great variety. You know, obviously Pean and r
Sharen they do pretty well in Burgundy and Walmet Valley. I'm a big fan
of Wamet Valley, Pean and Noir. I belonged to those other two of
the other clubs I've belonged to our Brick House and Crystal. I'm really big
fans of their wines. And Tony Soder, you know, old friend of
mine. So I really love love those wines. But going you know,
again, it's more where it's grown and what you're eating to me that makes
the wine great. So you know you're having a pizza earlier, we were
talked about it earlier. You know, a carbonic masceration wine could be the
best wine in the world for it. But well, I'm going to jump
ahead then, since you're on that topic, how do you approach pairing wine
and food? You said, like during the week, you like you eat
lighter, so you like a lot of lighter wine. Is that the rule
you follow? Are the rules you'll follow? Are there guidelines or is it
the red wine and you know, meat and white wine and fish? Like,
how do you approach it? And how would you suggest other people do
that? I'm not very rigid, I have to admit I find very few
times it's like really really good food and really really good wine where it's a
miserable experience. You know, you know honestly, but I think you know
you want to me. I want complimentary matches, not you know, I'm
not a big fan of high alcohol, big bombastic wines because I think you
lose the nuance of the wine itself, but also it overwhelms the food you're
having them with. Now I get it. You know you're going to a
big steakhouse and having a giant sixty four ounce thing, you probably want a
bigger wine. But even then I would lean towards something with acidity because I
want that acidity to cut the fat and so forth. So I think,
you know, you know, what I look for in wine is balance,
uh, And that's what I look for in food. So I like them
to balance together. So the wine should ultimately be refreshing, yes, part
of part of the meal. So so you were you started out as a
journalist and what did you write about? Well, I was on the news
side of things. I was a photojournalist and uh primarily, but then they
also, uh, my first job out of college was at the Kanka Key
Daily Journal, and they also said, oh, you do the food section
too. So okay, so you've you've been a critic a reviewer of some
point, and you said, when you drink your own wine, you get
a little critical and questioning should we have done this? So I'm curious when
it comes to critiques and things like that. What's your opinion online critics and
scores? Well, I think the most important thing with scores is that the
critic is consumed stunt you know, you know, it was like back in
the days of Robert Parker, you know, when that was, when he
was doing the reviewing. That was a big deal. When he gave a
wine a high score. I knew exactly what that meant. Often it meant
I didn't like that wine. But I knew exactly what he what he meant,
which means that he was a good critic because he was consistent. He
was consistent, so he communicated that effectively, and and and the same to
the people that actually liked those wines. You know, that was that was
effective. So I think you have to look at, you know, each
critic separately because obviously we're humans. Learn we're imperfect. We're not machines imperfect,
you know, we're imperfect tasting devices that are our palettes changed daily depending
on mood and amidity and and the wine you just had before and what you're
eating it with. So I think that that the consistency is the most essential
aspect of a good critic. But I actually think, you know, I
always there's the critics, none there's the wine writers. And as you know
from my experience, I always lean towards the wine writers because I think the
story, you know, is as important as as any score could be,
because if the story and the reason and the way it's farmed is in alignment
with what you believe, you're also going to probably enjoy that wine more.
Right. There's a context to it all. Yeah, there's a context,
especially you know in a smaller farm like ours. You know, this is
a this is a it's a real statement what we're doing. These are Everything
is intentional, you know, we're not just kind of the wines change every
year based on what mother nature decides they're going to be. You know,
like in this replant we we we may say, okay, we've planted this
block with grenache and we think this is going to be read. Well,
it could very well decide that it's going to be rose, and we have
to be open to that. So it's it's being you know. So I
think that that's that's the story. I think there's a certainly a place for
critics. Yeah, and as because there's just so much wine out there.
But you know, I always go back. We can go back to Robert
Parker because he was so famous so years ago. If you read his notes,
they are often not they different from the score. You know, if
you actually read the note, you say, oh, well, at this
one, I would like it may have been an eighty seven point wine,
but it sounds that's Oh that's what I want, you know, So I
think I think it's it's the ability to communicate that's important. So if you
can communicate effectively with points, I think that's reasonable. But as long as
you're consistent. So your ninety seven point wine tell actually tastes like that a
certain style all the time, right, absolutely, So for somebody who hasn't
had true vineyard wines yet, what do you think they're missing out on?
I mean, I know you've hit on this a little bit about you know,
place, but what do you think someone is missing out on? Well,
it's a unique place we are, and that's why I wanted to come
here. And what attracted me is we're in this transitional zone between you know,
we're are cooler and wetter than northern California, but drier and warmer the
Lama Valley. So it's a very distinct growing region where we're very close to
the ocean, we're in the mountains, we're at about fourteen hundred feet right
here, and we're in the valley. So it gives you an idea you
know, most most like I think the Hull Mountain ABA starts at fourteen hundred
and you're up in the mountain at this point. But here we're actually in
the valley and we're at fourteen hundred. So so you know, this combination
of unique weather patterns along with the fact that we're in the Siski Mountains,
not the you know, not in the Volcanic Ranges, is that these are
ancient, ancient soils. These mountains were probably formed in about volcanoes over by
Japan and then jammed up against the coast over billions of years ago. That's
amazing, And so you get a this decomposed grantite, this unique weather pattern
that creates a distinctive style. And also because as where we are on the
map, you know, combined with the altitude, so we get it's a
compacted growing season because of the altitude and because as far north as we are,
so the days, you know, the season is shorter, but during
the growing season, our days are much longer and we don't get any fog
like they do, say in Sonoma. So the vines basically go into photosynthesis
immediately in the morning and then go really really long through the day. That's
why we can ripen these varieties successfully here. But then in hivest this season
in October, for these reds, the days get extremely short and the night's
extremely cold. I've been out there in the twenties, you know, in
the morning. So what that allows us to do is is, you know,
the days get short, so photosynthesis comes to a crawl, so sugar
accumulation almost stops, but the phenolic ripening continues, so we can let the
grape hang on the vine, let those tannins and everything round out ripen up
without alcohol going up too high or without loose, and without losing acidity.
So the applegate style is wines with moderate alcohol and higher acidity. So space
aliens were to land on your property today, which of your wines would you
want to say, welcome to Troon? Which one is out of this world?
That's a question. Yeah, I don't know, Yeah, you know
it's I would I would say sat because because I think that the Sri is
like the ideal variety for this this area, because it buds a little later,
which is good for frost, and ripens early, which is also good
for frosts. And then they, you know, they say that you know,
Surras and optimist and Granash is a pessimist. So the Graza is going,
yeah, everything's going to be great. I'll keep growing and you know,
so it's but you know, here we get I think connections with French
wine are always a bit tenuous, but I'll connect it to Northern Ruin like
a coat of tease style, where you get a Surrah with with higher acidity,
lower alcohols like thirteen five for us is probably great maximum velocity and you
get this. So when you when you have that moderate alcohol in the higher
a cidity, you get these the characteristics of true sirah. So you get
the white pepper, the black pepper, the leather, the you know,
the the umami type aromatics instead of when you get the higher alcohol and these
fifteen fifteen five sarajs, you get this kind of jammy sweet, which I'm
yeah, you know that. Maybe a lot of people love that, but
that's not what we want to make. And that's why I would making Surah
here. So I would say our Surahs out of this world. Yeah,
I like that. I like that. So you as a wine drinker,
redwood rose orange, well, you know that's that's the again, you know,
it's always what you're doing. I think orange is like the ultimate of
paratife. To me, I would use it like a I do with you
know, people with pinochet, I would use in the same situation, you
know, tapus and things like that. But I think, like most wine
people, I'm on the red wine side of things, just the but I
would sorely hate a world without white and rose still are sparkling probably still,
I mean, I love sparkling wine. We all love champagne, you know,
And I mean, but I mean, just you know, as far
as as as what what I consume wine, I do with a meal,
and that's my major connection. So I think of of of red still wine.
So you know, we're we're on a property here that is very in
tune with nature. It has I mean, to look out in the vineyard
and see the flowers that are growing, to see the you know, everything
after, to hear the animals. I mean, you clearly are one with
nature and with all your certifications. So I'm curious in all your experience and
working different places. We know every vintage tells a different story. You make
wines that express these years, but do you see more commonality from your year
do you see big variation? What does a vintage here in the Rogue Valley
tell you? And maybe because of your experience in other places in comparison to
other places you've worked, well, there's always vintage variation. I mean people
in my time and nap out of ten years there there was dramatic vintage variations.
It depends if you try to overwhelm those with your winemaking technique. It's
pretty easy to overwhelm a vintage character with technology. And also in a climate
like California where you basically can pick as late as you want. You've got
this gigantic rightning window at least, and lots of parts of it obviously on
the coastal areas you don't other places. But uh uh, you know that
that gives you the opportunity to to just keep it going and then get it.
Gives you this consistent style. But you know, I mean, if
you watch how they make wines, that the bigger operations, that's it's a
that's an industrial concept. You know, you're you take in this product from
the vineyard and you analyze it and then you start adding stuff. So you
the first thing, the last thing they want is vintage variation, and with
modern technology it's pretty easy to overwhelm that and to smooth it all loud.
So what we're trying to do is to express that we actually want that difference.
Also, obviously, as a biodenamic winery, we don't really have any
options. You know, there isn't really anything you can do to it.
Uh So it's it's a mindset. There's a I think there's two parts of
the wine business. There's the beverage alcohol side, where they're trying to make
a consistent product and you see the executive as they bounce back and forth between
Coca Cola and the giant wine corporations because they're selling this beverage. And then
there's there's there's artists and wine makers that are trying to express a place and
a variety, and it's they're really different products. So it's really hard to
compare them because they're different. Are there any signs or predictors that you look
for that will tell you what a vintage is going to give you? Yeah,
so certainly, you know, as you go through the year, there's
lots of indicators and as people think about the ynamics, we actually do include
science and the process. So really you're not just running through the vineyards naked.
Yeah, So we actually go out and take measurements and so you we
have an idea where everything is going, and you know that changes your decision
through the through the season where a line those grapes may be destined for.
So you may have thought you were going to make a big red out of
this block, but then you change it to I'm going to make a carbonic
wine out of it, or a rose or something like that based on what
that season is doing. So it's you have you have, you have to
let it tell you what it's going to be and then actually listen. Speaking
of listening, walking through the vineyards, you talk to your vines. Do
you listen to them or do you talk to them or talk at them?
Uh? I don't talk out loud to them, Are you sure? Yes?
Well, I don't think I have to. I think that you know
that it's all It's all that we I mean, our whole point a by
dynamics is that it's this natural system. We're trying to build up a natural
system. So you got the natural system of the soil. You have a
natural system in the soil, you have a natural system in the vine,
and you have a natural interaction with it as the humans, and then then
you're all that's how you communicate with each other. So we're communicating to the
vines through the help that we give them in the soil. So I don't
know, I don't talk to them person. They're not named. You don't
have to reprimand them because they're so happy because they're they're living in their perfect
world, their own biomes of exactly flies and birds and bees and flowers and
everything they need to thrive. You were saying that at the end of a
harvest, you always open up one of your burrellas and Buberisco's and you make
dinner. Do you have any rituals that you do at the start of the
harvest for either yourself or for your team? Lastly, maybe more than one.
Well, we do. Well. One of the fun parts of harvest
every year is the intern's coming in. And you know, we have two
or three interns a year that come from all over the world, you know,
and uh uh, so I would say that our our opening intern dinner
is kind of the the kickoff because they arrived just a little you know,
time before harvest starts. And so that's our our celebratory event. Uh.
And we will open some nice wines also for that and it's a fun place
to hang out, just opening a lot of good wines and uh and and
and of course you know we like to open a bottle of Bubbly Uh.
I like to open uh. Last few years we've opened Iron Horse, which
is joy Sterling is a close spread of mind for many many years. And
so I like to include her and her wine gets served at State Department dinners
and it gets served at true Yeah. Yeah, So so we'll do that
and and I mean that's but there's you know, we open a bottle or
two for twenty something people, so you know, but that I really think
that the experience of harvest is our harvest meals. You know that we'll put
together at the end of the day for the team, and you know,
everybody will chip in, you know, bring interesting bottles and things like that
and talk through and then it's it's so we're see we're different here. So
if you're like in Napa, or we'll have a value where it's basically a
couple of varieties and they're all ripening at once. We have twenty varieties and
so our harvest is long. It's because they all ripen at different times,
so maybe six weeks long. And so so it's it's it's it's it's a
different experience. You know, when I was in well, I'm at Valley,
you know, Pino, It's like, okay, here you go,
and it's all coming, you know, the next two weeks. So it's
that's a very different experience than how we do it. So it's you don't
necessarily have that kind of intense two week period where you're working eighteen hours a
day. It's more spread out, which I think creates a different social interaction
between the team. Absolutely. So with such long harvests and such like that,
when do you get any free time? And if you get free time,
what do you like to do in your free time? Yes, we
do get free time to a harvest, I say, because we get those
breaks. I think everybody tries to stay a little quiet in those days,
to tell you the truth, and you know, it's a good day.
I'll remind my wife that I'm around, you know, during and come home
for a few days. But you know, it's you know, we don't
have it's not a big staff here, so It's not like there aren't other
things to do, right, But when you're not at work, what do
you like to do? Or do you just work all the time? Oh
yeah, it's a it's a small team and you work all the time.
We work all the time. I love to cook. I mean this to
me is that that would be one of my pleasures is to spend the day
cooking something. Probably a time hungry. So if you were planning a romantic
evening for you and your wife, what sort of wines get opened to set
the mood different from just an average night. A really good bottle of champagne.
She looks bubbles. So in the end, it's always champagne. Yes,
right, right, So going back to that other question you had,
it still comes to me, can't you can't avoid the champagne? You know?
That's right. It may not. You may want still over sparkling,
but you cannot eliminate the sparkling. That's that's correct, that's correct. So
so so when you look back at your career or in life, you know,
we're given advice from by a lot of people, from our parents,
teachers, mentors, friends. Is there a piece of advice that you got
somewhere along the way that is something you try to live or work by.
I think it's not a single piece of advice, but but a philosophy and
I think, you know, so for me, I would say my main
mentors in the wine business were Becky Wasserman, Neil Mson, Neilan, Marie
Aamson, and Christopher Cannon. Those are the people I started working with as
an importer, and they their love of authentic uh terrowa driven relines really uh
gave me the base of my education at philosophy traveling with them in Europe.
One of my favorite memories when I was just getting into the wine business was
spending three weeks with Neil Empson on the road in Italy, going from the
state to a state and then coming back year after year to those states.
So so would I would say those people like that. Then then in the
United States, Uh, you know Tony Soder I met him when he was
at Spotswood and we would meet in a very sleepy uh young Philip those days
and uh open mines and talk about wines and Kathy corson the same thing.
Josh Jensen, Clara Richard Sandford. Yeah, but these were you know,
when I met them. They weren't big names, normal people they were they
were just starting out and getting going. But I mean I was. It
was a fabulous time to to get connected to wine. So I would say
to say, you know, I'm leaving out all sorts of people burying Audrey
Sterling pioneers and things like that, and on Fred Fisher Fisher pen years there's
a long list of them. Wow. So with all these amazing people were
sitting at a table, your wines around the table, and you have a
seat next to you. If there was anyone from any walk of life living
or deceased that you could share a bottle of tron Line with, who would
it be? Ah? Well, that's easy and a sad answer. My
father died very young, and now that I'm much older than he was when
he died, I realized how young he was. So he was just sixty
four of his died and I was in his thirties. So he never saw
any of this aspects of my life, just the beginning of it. So
I would definitely want to share with him. I love that when you look
back at your career, what would you say is one of your proudest achievements
to date? The biodynamic certification here at Truon. I think that was to
take a property that had been farmed conventionally and has so much potential and within
three years getting a biodynamic certification. I think that was I'm very proud of
that accomplishment. I love that. And of course you're regenerative now, and
you're the only winery in organ that's regenerative, and you were the second winery
in the US to be regenerative. Is that correct? Okay, so we
are the we were the first in organ and we are still the only one
in organ that's both domative Demeter bonamic and reginative organic certified. But we are
we were the second winery in the world to be reginative organic certific world,
and we are one of four farms of any kind in the world to be
reginative Organic gold certified, which means that you're you've been certified in all three
pillars, which include the farming, agriculture, the human the social aspects,
and the animal welfare. So when you're drinking wine, this is what you
want to drink. You want to drink a wine that understands everything, Earth,
the people, everything. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, if you
look at that, like the wines I was mentioning before, you know,
here in Oregon crystal and brickhouse and soda, and then in Europe, you
know, you know, I think of like Macarini is always one of my
favorites, and Lemura and they have this just beautiful you know, they were
farming organically. They didn't even know it, you know, they just kept
going that way and they just make wines that are so authentic and a place
Sotimano and Barbarisco has a wonderful story. They were able to purchase in one
of the equiple Grand Crew. They were added to their property and the vines
were fifteen years old, so they were eligible to be Barbresco already, but
they didn't think they were. You know, they spent a fortune for this,
you know, this is to buy this property. They but they wanted
to wait until they were in their twenties before they put it into Barbarisco.
So they just sold it as Nebuolo Dalva, which is so non American,
a new world, you know, but that kind of thing, you know,
that kind of connection and everything is really amazing, so complete. This
sentence for me, a table without wine is like breakfast, but you don't
have one at breakfast. I'm a coffee person with as someone who is so
in tune with the environment as part of your farming practices and how this winery
runs. We know climate change is an issue. We we hear it,
we know it, we live it. You think we'll still be making wine
in three hundred years, five hundred years, Well that may be above my
pay grade. But yeah, I mean, you know, assuming the best.
Yeah, and maybe in different places, and it may be with different
varieties. You know, the whole propagation plonal propagation is really cut down with
the genetic diverse city. Uh uh in wine grapes is uh. I know
you're involved in a project that goes beyond the kind of the basic seven.
Whatever they do is so uh Uh. I think we're going to have to
look at different varieties in different places. Uh you know, one hundred years
from now is maybe? You know, while I'm a value to be great
Cabernet territory, it's hard to say. And you know in the Saskatchewan growing
ginere so but I mean, I you know who knows the thing is it's
our responsibility. I mean, this is part of our our our project and
and and the reason we get the certifications is that we want other people to
farm this way. So we're trying to communicate that you can run a business,
uh it's environmentally responsible, still make incredibly high quality product and and and
be financially viable. So that's what you have to do. You know,
we have to change the way people are are are living other No, we
won't be Yeah. Well, remember those aliens that first came to your property,
that you shared a wine with, They're going to take you home with
them. And if you could, if you were going with them, what
three bottles of wine or what three wines would you want to take with you
to enjoy? Any three wines? It can be your own or not your
own. Well, I'll go back to the wines I have said in my
claw right now, I really don't want to leave for that. So I
a ninety eight Macarini Bernante, a two thousand biondi Sante Bernola, the month
Chino, and by the third one, I don't think I will say a
ninety four Bodera Cola Barola. I love it. You you have it down
to the vintage. Yeah, well, I don't have a lot of those
bottles left, so it's it's not hard to remember them. Most people are
like, well, i'd have a grower champagne. This that you're like,
no, I wanted twenty twenty two, nineteen eighty four. I know,
I know those bottles are there, and I know I wanted to consume.
I love it. Well, Okreig, It's time for us to play our
little game. Now. It's about pairing wine with music. You know,
we know that wine and music go hand in hand. Wine makes us feel
something music does. So looking at your wines, I want you to tell
me either a genre or a specific song that best expresses the wine that we
have. So I'm most fascinated by your Glauglau, your glue glu glub club
for music. Since we're on the West Coast and I make wine on the
West Coast, let's go to West Coast Jazz and say Dave Brubeck, Uh,
you know his hit the background rhythms based on classical music that he used
made for really complex music. But then the light lifted. Uh. You
know Paul Desmond on Sacks. You know he called Paul Desmond. It was
always the sound of a dry Martinez. It's the sound sound of an applegate
valley and the glove glub is is the glue glub is what exactly is that
glulue is? It's this French slang for gulpable glug glug wine and it's a
carbonic masceration. Why don't we make so it's like nuva bogelo we make every
year in one tank and it's like, uh, chill it down, gulp
it down in the summertime, have fun and uh that's it. So it's
very very lighthearted and fun, which I like a lot. So what about
your negrete, Well, i'll tell you when we actually you know that we
put a little bit into Uh, we just harved this a little bit,
so we haven't really gotten it out yet, so i'll let you know we
we have, it has not told us where it's going moved. Well,
I think that's one of our more exciting wies right now that I would put
it is the forum d the uh it's so that's uh aged for ten months
in clay form, and I really like the texturization you get from the clay
and concrete. It changes the textures on the palate and the aromatics and I
really like it a lot. So it's I think it's a really exciting one.
And there's more of it sitting in Bora aging right now. And the
and the music, the music for that, Let's go uh uh something more
like chopin Nocturns or something like that, you know, very uplifted, bright
and little dreamy. What about your Vermintino or role Ah, okay, uh,
let's uh, let's make that a little more. Uh that that's definitely
crisper and fresher. So let's go to uh Coltrane and uh uh, you
know, something that is more fun, upbeat. And then of course the
wine you would give to the aliens that wonderful surrah. Yes, well that
that you know, that's boy, that's that's you know again again, I
guess I would lean towards, uh, that's a little more operatic, So
I would lean towards something from most Figaro or something like that. I think,
something just a little because it's it's fun but serious at the same time.
Good job, you did it. We're done, so Craig, I
have one last question. It's a two parter. The first part is what
wine region in this world is at the top of your bucket list to explore?
Where do you want to where do you want to go? I'd never
been to New Zealand. I'd really like to go to New Zealand. I
mean it looks just I love the wines, I like the attitude, and
the photos look great. I've been to Australia, I've been to Europe many
many times. Every wine region in Europe, and that one that appeals to
New Zealand appeals to me. Well, you should head to New Zealand.
But if somebody wants to come here to Troon and visit, how can they
find you? What can they do? Where do they find you? Tell
us? How do they get here? Well, the easiest way to find
us, of course is our website Truan Vineyard dot com, where we break
down. We have our tasting room here and at in the Applegate Valley at
the winery, and we're open every day. But we also have a tasting
room in mcmndille in the heart of Peano Country up there, because we are
very you know, we're very remote down here in southern Oregon in the mountains,
so we're you know, six hours from San Francisco and five hours from
Portland, and so we wanted to reach out a little more to people in
the area. So we have our home Bidamic Winebar in mcmanville, so I
love that. Well, if you want to come to the Upgate Valley,
you can fly into Medford. That's the closest airport. How far is that?
Medford International A flat at Canada is just forty five minutes from the winery.
Yeah, and we're just outside the town of Grant's Pass. A great
outdoor area. So if you like river rafting and fly fishing and hiking,
this is the area to come to and definitely make troon a stop on the
way. Craig, thank you so much for joining us today on Wine Soundtrack.
Thank you so much's been my pleasure. It's been fun. Alis.
I'm so happy to have you here. I'm so excited. Let's go explore
and go see the animals. Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine
Soundtrack USA. For details and updates, visit our website windsoundtrack dot com.