WEBVTT

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Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. He
was listened to the passion with which producers

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narrate their winery and their world.
In thirty answers discover their stories, personalities,

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and passions. Hello, friends and
listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is

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Alsa Levine and today I am in
Sonoma with Alison Smith of Smith's Story Wines.

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We are in their lovely teasting room
in Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg, just

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outside of the town of Healsburg.
Ali, welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell

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us about smith Story. Yeah,
so glad to have you here today.

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It's been a long time. I
think, you know, the last time

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we saw each other in person.
It was in the Anderson Valley where Smith's

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Story was located in Filo for about
five years, and we relocated here about

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a minute outside of downtown Healdsburg about
a year ago, a little bit over

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a year ago. So it's always
kind of been a fun dream to have

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you know, our business, our
winery on West Side Road if you like

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piano Laura, of course, well
we don't have our winery here, but

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what a great place to have a
tasting room. So yeah, So what

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is the story of Smith's story.
Yeah, So honestly, I was a

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smith and I married a story.
It's it's a silly thing. But you

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know, Eric and I met when
we both were working for KNL wine Merchants.

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He kind of grew up working for
kN L and ultimately was a buyer

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for them for their German wines.
Loire Valley, Austria Asauce Greece Republic of

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Georgia goes way back. So I
was there for one year of my life

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and for a lot of good reasons. It was kind of my I don't

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know, I say it's my Ivy
League kind of business school. Time of

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wine. I learned so much,
learned how to really be confident in my

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wine palette, but also just learn
a lot about the business. And I

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think Eric and I at the time, we're just friends. Maybe we crossed

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over that friendship bridge over the years
after that. But when I moved back

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home for a long time, which
was Texas, and I lived in Dallas,

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lived in Austin. In long story
short, the San Francisco Giants when

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they are playing the Texas Rangers in
the two thousand and ten World Series,

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I think he sent me an email
he says I sent him an email,

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but he sent me an email say, hey, welcome back to California.

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I had moved back to Sonoma County, was running my sales agency. And

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he said, how about the loser
has to cook the other one dinner?

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And so we agreed. Bets on
and the Rangers lost that series, The

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Giants one. I cooked dinner.
We opened about five bottles of wine and

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that following January. We've been together
ever since. So and what year was

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that, Yeah, gosh, that
was in two thousand and eleven. And

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when did you launch her own brand? Twenty fourteen. So, but you

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know, before that, we had
spent some time in the Anderson Valley together.

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Back in two thousand and four and
five, he had bought some property

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in the Deep End Vineyard called Nashville
upon Nashville Road. He and jimbar Jeffierra,

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they'd all worked at KNL together,
bought this piece of land and really

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cultivated the vineyard, planted the vineyard. It's mostly pino noir. They also

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planted resling there. Now it's since
changed hands a couple of times, there's

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no longer resling. But you know, Eric and I used to hang up

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there with my old my old black
lab Henley and his golden retriever Lakota.

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And I mean, I think the
first time I ever had like a nineteen

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seventy Oh you're jumping like I do. That's a crazy good wines up there,

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crazy good wines. And so you
launched the brand in Smith's Story is

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what I mean? M you how
many different grapes? What grapes do you

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work with? Yeah? Well mostly, you know his story was was really

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started with nudges. A lot of
our peers and industry friends, when they

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heard that we were seriously dating and
got engaged, said you guys have got

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to start your own winery. You
have been helping so many others really across

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the world with um either buying sales, marketing wine. Eric, You've left

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and learned how to make wine at
Germany a couple of times. You've now

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built a vineyard. Do your own
thing. And we both said, no,

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we know how hard that is and
how expensive that is, but we

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did it anyway, and we just
really ran our business plans a couple of

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years before we announced we were starting
Smith's Story, and one of the reasons

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is we wanted to support family farmers, and that's really our first step and

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sustainability as a winery. We use
kickstarter dot com. We think we were

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the first winery to be crowdfunded and
that was in August of fourteen and ran

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a campaign Family Farmers First and really
got to explain our business model and how

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we were going to go about making
wine. We weren't raising money to buy

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one vineyard. We wanted to support
many, many families in Sonoma County and

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Mendocino Counties where we are starting.
And I mean, looking back, we

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should have asked for that five million
that you absolutely need, but we hit

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twenty six thousand and everywhere we are
off. Yeah. So your total case

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production today is post pandemic around three
thousand cases. And I know you do

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Cabernet front because I've had that before
and Sauvignon Blanc. What other groups do

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you work with? You know,
we work with grapes that we like to

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drink. So we've worked with Pino
gree which is a beautiful Moralsatian style that

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we get to make from the Anderson
Valley right now, or core Pinot Noirs

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or Anderson Valley. We do have
some new organic, beautiful pinot noir vineyard

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driven wines in the cellar from the
Russian River Valley. Gosh, what else

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do we make? We brought on
some bubbles since I last saw you,

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some beautiful sparkling wine from kind of
a patchwork quilt of organic vineyards in Mendocino

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County through through the Anderson Valley chardonnay
and pino. So you're mostly Anderson,

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Mendocino in Sonoma. Do you own
any vineyards or you sourcing everything? Now?

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We're sourcing everything and that is our
business model, and we really are

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happy with that, particularly in terms
working with these families. Gives us flexibility

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to manage that vineyard with them,
to really learn the vineyard and not be

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stuck making our wine from one place. We truly believe that this part of

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California, really all of California where
you live in the you know, this

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wonderland of of climates and places to
grow different things. So I'm glad that

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we've chosen this path. The Capital
Rays would have been a lot different buying.

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Yeah, so you've worked in the
wine industry for a long time.

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What is your first memory relevant to
wine, like before you got into wine

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or your first introduction. Yeah,
I think there's so many fun first introsum.

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For me, wine is nostalgic.
It's like music. Um, you

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know, you hear something play and
it takes you right back to lane in

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the pool and eighth grade before you
really had to work, you know,

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when you were drinking wine in the
pool and grade just not even worrying about

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it. But wine for me,
you know, my first first started getting

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into wine actually working for the Dallas
Stars, a National Hockey League team.

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So you were you introduced to wine
before that or that that's really the introduction.

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No, I mean, I grew
up in Texas and wine, fine

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wine was not a part of my
life. I went to Baylor University.

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Alcohol was definitely a part of Balor
University, but not wine yet. But

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you know, it was really curiosity. I got the cat. I remember

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having wine probably through expense accounts early
on in my career and really enjoy learning

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about it. And I think it
took me a while. I mean,

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I think in nineteen ninety eight my
entire Christmas tree was decorated a homage to

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silver oak. I had silver balls, burgundy bows. I think I had

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bought, you know, silver oak
Christmas tree from a good Texas girl.

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You are in Texas girl, you
know, well, so so with that,

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With all the memorable wines you've had, is there one wine that stands

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out as one of those aha moment
wines? Maybe at some point in your

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career or because of the moment.
I think the biggest one that stands out

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to me in terms of a California
wine, I was given a bottle of

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nineteen ninety seven William cell Hirsch Vineyard
Peano noir buy some good friends in Dallas

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who actually knew a lot about wine. They sent me a bottle for some

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reason, I don't know why.
When I was living in San Francisco,

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I had taken that bottle to dinner
with a then boyfriend and some of his

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friends in town. And I'll never
forget it's it's a little place called the

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Slow Club. It's now called the
Morris, but I'll never forget the server

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opening that bottle. I'm pouring a
little bit my glass and I put my

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nose in that glass, and I
thought, I don't want to share this

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bottle. I hadn't. I really
didn't know that is what a good California

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peano wire could taste like. And
that has really set the bar I think

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for our inspiration and the thrill that
we want others to find in our wines

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too. And I've had that ninety
seven a few times since, but man,

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that was such a concrete moment in
my wine life. Yeah, and

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you said that was a California wine. Is there international wine that you had?

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That also was one of those aha
moments? Because now I'm intrigued.

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I know, Well, I think, you know, the pleasure of working

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at Canal kind of really end depth
tasting opportunity and really end up knowledge from

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the smallest regions to some of the
larger regions in France. But I think

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my big AHA moment was getting to
know Dagonau wine and Poofoo May and well,

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I really enjoyed that style of saving
a blanc and crazy enough, limestone

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is the word that really sticks out, and the Selix rock. I have

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two in my possession and you would
have thought, you know, Eric brought

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back diamond rings for me when he
presented those to me after some trips.

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But it's so cool. I mean, it's geology, it's geography obviously,

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it's history, and it's fine winemaking
and yeah, that's amazing. So if

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we were to come to your home, well, I mean, look,

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I mean your tasting room right now, and you have a wall of empty

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bottles, so you've drunk really good
wine. So I'm curious if we came

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into your home, what wines would
we find in your cellar? Yeah,

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a whole lot right now. You
know why because this girl loves to give

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dinner parties and throw dinner parties.
And we have not been a place in

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our life from a house standpoint and
just logistics and running around like crazy entrepreneurs

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to have dinner parties. I don't
think I've had a host at a dinner

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party since maybe twenty nineteen, isn't
that wild? So our home is loaded

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with wine right now. But you
know I would love like, right now,

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I've a pretty good vertical of m
Channon Blanc from Gibertoe. That might

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be a really cool selection. You
know we've got We've got more recently from

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Germany and our cellar than anybody probably
should ever need. We're gonna need a

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very good dentist for the rest of
our life, I think. So you

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have wines from around the world in
your cellar? Is there anything not a

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dinner party? I know? But
did you and Eric open anything recently that

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tasted really good. You know,
I think we did our twenty fourteen Smith's

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Story Hell ofa Vineyard Peinot Noir.
Our fourteen was our very first vintage,

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and we recently had some big Peanut
Noi collectors and they had had been buying

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our seventeen eighteen nineteen. So for
a treat, we opened that and that

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just made us sit back and be
really quiet and smile. It was that

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moment. Yeah, that's awesome.
So do you think there's a such thing

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as a perfect variety? Now?
I think there's such thing as I mean,

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there's no perfection anything that we farm, right, I think we firmly

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believe that you like what you like. You know, nobody's going to turn

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me into loving peanotage. I just
know that's not an enjoyable great for me.

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A lot of people like it.
I just don't same thing with Brett.

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I mean, there's certain things that
I know that I'm confident liking in

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my wine. But I do think
there's a perfection and consistency to each producer.

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You know, It's something that I
learned when I was running Texas Cali

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Wine Company, had I had producers
I supported that we're from the Anderson Valley,

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gosh Napa Valley, Sonoma County,
but a lot of producers from Europe,

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Argentina, even Japanese sake producers,
and what I could do in blind

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tastings, at least I could pick
out producers because of their consistency and the

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mark that they left on their wines. So we think of that, We

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think about that a lot in our
wine making or lack there. Uh,

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we're shepherds. We're not really making
wine. We're hoping to hell, we're

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farming appropriately. It's you know,
it's really interesting that you say that,

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and just about liking what you like
and understanding that. So we were talking

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earlier before we started this about being
just a small brand and getting your name

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out there and being known out there. So what do you think the role

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of critics and scores? What's your
opinion of them? You know, it's

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interesting, it's um It's something that
certainly doesn't hurt if you're making good wine.

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M right, we've been. We've
been very blessed with very great consistent

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scores. I do think that generations, prior to Smith's story, it has

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allowed a wine buyer, a certain
wine buyer, to be a little lazy

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in the way that they buy.
I rather want, you know, I

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want to learn about a wine on
a shelf, not buy it because of

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a score. So I think it's
helpful both ways what we have found and

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maybe because we were kickstarted and crowdfunded, our peer to peer is just as

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impactful is our ninety plus scores.
And that, really, I think is

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a great mix. You know,
we've we've worked hard the last you know,

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nine years, proving that we know
what we're doing, we can do

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this, and the level of achievement
now it's just people now sharing their their

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delightfulness with others about smith story wine. That makes sense, It makes total

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sense. So I know that you
said that you you're you're an equal opportunist

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when it comes to wine, and
that's fair. But if you had to

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give one answer, can you red
white or rose white wine? Still are

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sparkling? Still? Pretty easy?
Yeah, unless I wish I had one

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more quick answer. But this is
this is this is you know, Eric

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asked me when in our dating life, you know what my desert island wine?

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And I said, oh, an
age sauvignir, and he just flipped

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out. He's like, you are
mine forever, right, you know,

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an age sauvignir as a shinn and
blanc that's probably really interesting to smell for

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a good hour before you even start
drinking it. Right, So well,

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okay, so now you said you
like to give dinner parties, and so

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obviously there's an element of pairing food
and wine. It's also about the gathering

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and the people and everything. But
how much thought do you put into food

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and wine pairing and are there certain
things you look for? Are there tips

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you can share with someone or do
you just say we're opening up a vertical

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of shennon blanc and damn it,
that's what we're gonna do now. I

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mean, I think I think you
need to. I don't think you have

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to. Um, you know,
I think you know, we tell a

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lot of stories in this room,
and telling a story, much like singing

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playing music, is going to resonate. So it's kind of a joke,

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but I kind of mean it.
People ask me all the time, what

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would you pair with your kabane of
sauvignon, And I'm like, ah,

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that leather seat in the corner of
the den. You know, that's my

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favorite pairing, you know, But
we have, like you know, we

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remember a really fun dinner party Eric
and I hosted, and just to prove

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a point, we did um gosh, we did some crazy Japanese cud of

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beef and some salmon and it was
one hundred percent white wine dinner with that,

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and it really opened some eyes.
You don't need big reds with beef,

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so I think you need to riom
and as in your pairings. But

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nothing is a absolute yes or no
for me. I mean, I don't

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like carmonare and fish that I'll give
you that. That's not my favorite.

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So for someone who hasn't had the
pleasure to taste smith Story wines yet,

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what do you think they're missing out
on? I mean, I know you

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spoke about being about the farmer,
so I know that's a big point.

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Boat. What would you say is
sort of they're missing and they need to

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come try it. Well, I
really think it's just the prettiness of our

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wine, the vibrantcy and the refreshing
I mean a lot of we've gotten a

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lot of guests say oh, there's
such a joy in your wine, and

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that is such a great fulfilling thing
to hear. You know, I didn't

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drink for a good year I was
going through breast cancer treatment and one of

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the things I could not get out
of my head was pouring myself a glass

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of our hell of a Vinear Peanut
Wire from the Anderson Valley, because the

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aromatics from that wine are so fresh
and just inviting, and I feel like

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that's really a big stamp of who
we are and what people are missing seeing

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if they're not trying our style,
which is a little bit more on the

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vibrant side. I love that.
So if Space Aliens were to knock on

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the door right now and want to
come into your tasting room, which of

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your wines would you want to welcome
them with as a way to say,

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this is my story, Oh my
gosh, Space Aliens, what would they

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like to journey? I would probably
calm them down, you know, a

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sort of light them up, right, And so maybe our Cabernet franc it's

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a thinker's wine. I have to
say. The first time I ever met

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you, that was the first wine
I tried, and I loved it from

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the moment I tried it. I
love it. Well. It's you know,

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we say, you know, our
best guests and customers are curious wine

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drinkers, right wine often makes us
stop and think about it. Oh my

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gosh, this just took me somewhere. What am I smelling? How did

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you do this? So? I
think our cap franc is a tribute to

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how those vineyards are farmed. And
you know, if the cap fronc doesn't

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get ripe all the way to the
center, or that's when it's giving off

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allowed the pier zines and that green
kind of bell pepper. So we really

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work hard with the vineyard crew and
watch the weather. Of course, it's

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all about the weather, and if
we think we're getting close to a pick

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date, we start removing the canopy
at least on one side of the rose,

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just to allow that cluster to get
one more punch of full sun and

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ripen. Well, speaking of watching
the weather and being in the vineyard,

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are there any signs or predictors you
look for that are going to tell you

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what a vintage is going to be? Yeah? You know, it's been

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interesting because we've taken a few of
our vineyards. We partner with our vineyards

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from a sustainable loosely organic practicing all
the way through full organic practices. And

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so what gardening one O one?
When you change the soil. When you

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change a pot, you know,
that plant breaks down a little bit or

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stops. So we've had to really
be careful about forecasting because the vineyard that

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maybe was giving us ten tons,
you know the first couple of years were

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full blown organic, you know,
not touching, just really watching that vineyard,

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we're maybe going to get six tons. So those are some things.

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When we look at a new vineyard, we look at neighbors as much as

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we look at the vineyard itself,
because we don't want neighbors that may be

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a cannabis producer that's not practicing organically. I have a theory. I don't

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know if it's right or not,
but I don't really like to be in

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vineyards close to cattle ranches in dairy
farms. There's just different smells and different

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things in the soil. That's not
my taste. It's not a bad thing,

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it's just not my taste. So
yeah, there's lots of things to

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consider. I mean, it's it's
it's gardening and farming, right, and

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so with that, you know,
every vintage tells a different story. And

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do you have you noticed in the
ten years almost ten years that you've been

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making wine that there's more variation from
vintage to vintage or more commonality. How

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do you look at that and how
it reflects in your wine. Well,

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I think, for sure more variation
vintage to vintage based on the heat.

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You know, we talk about we're
almost sold out of all of our seventeen,

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so there's a little bit of our
reds in our library. But you

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know, we had a heat spike
during labor Day and everybody scrambled a pick

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before the heat spike, but primarily
a lot of our Peno Mai was up

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in the Anderson Valley and it's just
a little bit cooler up there, so

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we held off. And we're so
glad we dig because it really shows a

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level of elegance in those seventeen wines
that I think we would not have received

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if we picked a week earlier.
They just weren't ready yet. So I

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think that has a lot to do
with the vintage water. It's going to

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be interesting this share with all this
rain. I know there's some vines that

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are starting to come alive or and
I've been seeing bud break reports, and

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you know, there's another gushing storm
on the way next week, so we're

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ready to draw out a little bit, you know. So have you and

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00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:56.200
Eric established any sort of good luck
rituals that you do at the start of

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00:20:56.279 --> 00:21:00.200
harvest? Yeah, so our good
luck ritual usually is obviously a great bottle

297
00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:04.000
of sparkling wine. And I think
over the years, my favorite bottle we've

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opened to kind of Chris and Harvest
was a sparkling wine from the Jura.

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It was more of a Cremont style, And it also allows us to really

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obviously think the seller crew, but
tell them a little bit about the wine

301
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too. Typically, when we're bringing
in saving a blanc if if we can,

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you know, we'd like to bring
in some saving o blancs that represent

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the style wine that we love and
we're making. And there's a little education

304
00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:33.079
piece to that too, So that's
a little good luck. So you obviously

305
00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:37.759
drink really good wine, and you
and Eric have similar taste. So I'm

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00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:42.519
curious for a romantic evening, what
sort of wines are being opened for a

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00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:45.920
romantic evening as opposed to any other
night that you're drinking really good wine.

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00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:56.359
Romantic evening, Well, let's see. Listen. One thing that we definitely

309
00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:03.000
a new role after twenty twenty is
no more drinking on the couch. Think

310
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about that. We all drank a
lot of wine, watching a lot of

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shows and listen, I still do
last night, I still had some pretty

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good wine sitting on the couch.
But it's a new rule that we try

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to remind each other of and to
sit at least at home, sit at

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the table with some candles. When
we first started living together, that was

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the rule. We never had dinner
anywhere else but our dinner table in our

316
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house. And I think, you
know, we've all gotten a little lax

317
00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:32.200
on that over the year. So
you know, I think if we're going

318
00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:37.000
to open something, you know,
honestly, a handful of our New Year's

319
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Eves have been spent sitting in his
truck backed on the coast, you know,

320
00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:47.480
Bodega Bay, or up in timber
Cove with a great bottle of champagne

321
00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:51.880
and its potato chips and watching the
sunset. Like that's pretty simple, delicious

322
00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:56.000
memory. And you know it doesn't
take much. So yeah, so when

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you're not working in wine, how
do you spend your free time? Yeah?

324
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Dogs, Well, you know,
there's this very beautiful dog that's lying

325
00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:11.279
very quietly here. He's very famous
and if anyone's ever been to the Smith

326
00:23:11.319 --> 00:23:17.079
story Um website, you will know
Lord Sandwich tell us a little bit about

327
00:23:17.160 --> 00:23:19.519
mister Lord Sandwich and his new pal. His new pal. Yeah, so,

328
00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:25.160
Lord Sandwich he is he'll be eleven
years old and may he is our

329
00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:27.680
golden doodle. Um. Eric and
I have both had big dogs in our

330
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life and a good friend of ours, Lucas Meeker, that owns he and

331
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his family run Meeker Vineyards here in
Healdsburg. Long long time ago twenty ten,

332
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I was visiting with them and this
beautiful, wonderful dog in their office

333
00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:45.480
and I'm like, what kind of
dog is that? And like it's a

334
00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:48.279
golden doodle. I'm like, a
what you know, I've never even heard

335
00:23:48.279 --> 00:23:51.400
of it. So long story shore, Lucas sends me an email like,

336
00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:53.440
hey, this is a sweet family
where Innus came from. If you ever

337
00:23:53.559 --> 00:23:57.599
wanted to get another dog, I
just lost my black lab and boom.

338
00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:03.359
Lord Sandwich is born and on my
twelfth and he has since been our number

339
00:24:03.400 --> 00:24:07.319
one employee every year. He helped
me start a nonprofit called Socks for Sandwich,

340
00:24:07.559 --> 00:24:11.000
which we have a wine label Lord
Sandwich that helps us raise awareness for

341
00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:17.359
that. And I write in his
voice daily under Sandwich the Doodle, and

342
00:24:17.880 --> 00:24:22.039
it has connected us with some of
the best people on the planet. I

343
00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:25.400
often say that if you're a wine
person and a dog person, you're our

344
00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:29.839
people. Socks for Sandwich just simply
gives new socks to families. Indeed,

345
00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:33.559
and we've been able to give at
least sixty thousand pair of socks away through

346
00:24:33.799 --> 00:24:38.119
just him being a good dog and
talking about it and teaching compassion. So

347
00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:44.039
yeah, we did bring home,
Sir Sir Royal Soup his new little brother

348
00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:48.319
last week. So he's been wanting
a brother for a long time. So

349
00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:52.119
now he's a he's got it and
it's a full house. So love it.

350
00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:56.079
I love it. Yeah. So
you said that you and Eric sort

351
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of your relationship went to another level
after you know, your Rangers lost.

352
00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:04.200
Yeah, and you had to cook
dinner. So I'm curious if your Rangers

353
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:07.279
were to win, which of your
wines would you want to give to them?

354
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:14.039
Which wines do I want? I
would actually, I think the Rangers

355
00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:18.759
one. I think I give them
our sparkling wine. It's so beautiful and

356
00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:22.480
it's fresh, it's not sweet,
it's just celebratory. But it's also a

357
00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:26.799
bottle you can just open the middle
of the afternoon on a Sunday, kicking

358
00:25:26.880 --> 00:25:32.200
it. So. Yeah, So
when you look back at at sort of

359
00:25:32.279 --> 00:25:34.599
your career and how you look at
life, how you look at the world,

360
00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:37.200
is there a piece of advice that
someone gave you along the way that

361
00:25:37.720 --> 00:25:42.839
you like to kind of remind yourself
of or or utilize. Yeah, I

362
00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:47.079
just you know, you didn't get
this far to just get this far.

363
00:25:48.759 --> 00:25:51.920
And you know, and I think
I'm a big fan of Sarah Blakeley,

364
00:25:52.039 --> 00:25:56.119
the founder and owner of Spanks.
I had that idea, Actually didn't have

365
00:25:56.200 --> 00:26:00.160
the idea. I actually did that
in the nineties when I was already thin

366
00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:03.599
as a fin and cut off my
Donna kar and panty hose and we put

367
00:26:03.640 --> 00:26:08.359
those on underneath my slacks for work. I didn't have the idea to make

368
00:26:08.440 --> 00:26:12.799
that a business. And she's a
billionaire because she had that idea she turned

369
00:26:12.799 --> 00:26:17.279
into a business. But you know, so I follow her a lot,

370
00:26:17.319 --> 00:26:19.880
and her husband is a really great
sales coach that I've taken some classes for.

371
00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:25.799
So just keep going. You know, entrepreneurship is not for the week.

372
00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:29.119
We all hear this, and it's
very cliche, but it's true.

373
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It sucks most of the time.
But you have to make sure the pleasure

374
00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:38.000
of being an entrepreneur, particularly running
a whinery, that you keep that sustability

375
00:26:38.839 --> 00:26:44.759
mission of supporting others in front of
your face at all times, because if

376
00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:47.920
we're not doing our job, our
families aren't able to do their job,

377
00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:51.799
and that's really important for us.
It's beautiful. So when you look back

378
00:26:51.839 --> 00:26:53.680
at your career, what would you
say is one of your proudest achievements to

379
00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:56.839
date? I mean, you've mentioned
so many like kind of mile markers of

380
00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:00.839
you know, during COVID or you
know what you're just saying in terms of

381
00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:03.759
getting back, But what would you
say is one of your proudest achievements?

382
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:07.559
Gosh, that's so hard. I
mean, I think just staying alive right

383
00:27:07.640 --> 00:27:11.359
now, you know, these last
three years have been a booger. I

384
00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:15.160
think, you know, I don't
know. I know when I'm not achieving,

385
00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:18.880
and that really drains me. I
love home runs, and we talk

386
00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:22.240
in baseball genre and words a lot
here. If I love home runs,

387
00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:27.200
I think, I think the achievement
that we are here, still very small

388
00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:32.720
funded, moved to a main place
in Hialdsburg, California, are able to

389
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:37.799
have a full time wonderful hospitality director
consulting hymaker all systems go. It's a

390
00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:41.400
pretty big deal, you know,
And I really, I really hope that

391
00:27:41.799 --> 00:27:47.880
this year twenty twenty three, the
world remains healthy, it becomes healthier.

392
00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:52.559
This banking crisis, you know,
corrects itself, dodged a bullet on that

393
00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:59.119
one, mad But we're ready,
you know, we are ready. And

394
00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:03.279
I think my biggest achievement is definitely
yet to come, but it's close.

395
00:28:03.400 --> 00:28:08.240
Well, as you approach your ten
years of making wine, I'm almost there.

396
00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:12.039
We get another year ago or so. But twenties weird not to make

397
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:15.279
wine for vintage. How do you
count that? I know? So wild?

398
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:18.200
Yeah, you didn't make any one
in twenty twenty ro wine. I

399
00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:22.880
mean just those fires happen everywhere at
the very worst time. And it was

400
00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:26.359
a hard decision. There was a
hard, hard talks with all of our

401
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:29.599
families. But I know that we
made the right decision. Yeah. Yeah,

402
00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:33.359
So, speaking of um sharing wine, We're sitting at a table and

403
00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:36.920
we've got your bottles on the table
and an empty seat next to you.

404
00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:41.519
So who from any walk of life, living or deceased would you want to

405
00:28:41.559 --> 00:28:45.279
be sharing a bottle of Smith Story
Wines with RBG. For sure. She

406
00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:52.039
is. She is just a hero
and in so many ways. You'll see

407
00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:56.599
our book collection over behind my left
shoulder as a lot of books written about

408
00:28:56.599 --> 00:29:00.359
her, conversations with her. Even
our mural out in our wine garden,

409
00:29:00.519 --> 00:29:04.759
the very top of it has a
trace of her bid but her lace and

410
00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:08.960
really because of the things she stood
for, but just her strength. And

411
00:29:10.200 --> 00:29:14.160
when I was going through my breast
cancer and treatment, I channeled her a

412
00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:18.079
lot during when I was in those
in the hospital, during those appointments,

413
00:29:18.079 --> 00:29:22.759
because I thought this woman small and
mighty, and she you know, she

414
00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:26.400
dealt with cancer about three times in
her late life. It still did what

415
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:30.680
she did for us, for us
girls, you know. And so I

416
00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:34.440
would absolutely love to have her sitting
next to me. I know she's up

417
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:37.680
there cheering me on. I know
she's a spunky one, that one.

418
00:29:37.799 --> 00:29:41.839
That's right, So I complete the
sentence. For me, A table without

419
00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:48.319
wine is like sadness. And see
it's at the table, not a couch,

420
00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:57.279
exactly exactly sadness boring. So you
mentioned a little earlier that if you

421
00:29:57.400 --> 00:30:03.759
had one wine you could take to
an island. It was sinne blanc from

422
00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:07.599
Sauvigne. But if I allowed you
to take three wines to an island,

423
00:30:07.720 --> 00:30:11.519
what would the other two be?
Probably a cool piano blanc from somewhere.

424
00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:15.680
Notice the theme, Chris, Why
Why? And then I love our savino

425
00:30:15.720 --> 00:30:19.759
blanc so much, this twenty two, particularly that we just bottled just a

426
00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:23.480
few weeks ago. I just smelly
it sitting here, and I just it's

427
00:30:23.559 --> 00:30:27.960
the perfect beach wine, warm weather
beach wine for sure. Yeah. Well,

428
00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:32.359
so we are now, we're almost
finishing, and this has been so

429
00:30:32.440 --> 00:30:33.279
much fun chatting with you, and
I could go on and on, but

430
00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:37.200
we do play a little game at
the end. I'm not sure if I

431
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:40.119
didn't warn you about this, but
I'm not sure if you've listened to other

432
00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:42.240
podcasts, but we always play a
game pairing wine with music. It's called

433
00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:47.200
Wine soundtrack. So this is,
you know, the soundtrack the ideas.

434
00:30:47.359 --> 00:30:51.160
You know, wine conjures emotions,
as you've spoken about, and music does

435
00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:52.160
too. So you can give me
a genre, you can give me a

436
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:56.759
specific song artist, whatever comes to
mind. But I want to start with

437
00:30:56.039 --> 00:31:00.759
your twenty twenty two savigna blanc that
we are sipping, So maybe describe it

438
00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:04.480
a little bit and then yeah,
wow, you know, I mean,

439
00:31:04.880 --> 00:31:10.400
honestly, music that comes to my
first and foremost is a good time,

440
00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:15.000
and I think about I don't know. I love Olivia Newton John right,

441
00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:21.519
bless bless her. Yeah, we
love her. Our our Harvest t shirts

442
00:31:21.559 --> 00:31:26.960
this last year. We're hopelessly devoted
Harvest two thousand twenty two. But how

443
00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:33.039
fun her song for Zanna do?
As I sip this sup in your blog,

444
00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:37.240
I can totally get that. Is
that not the best random answer you've

445
00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:41.519
ever had? No, it's because
it's kind of got this like fresh zippiness.

446
00:31:41.559 --> 00:31:44.559
I'm gonna stripe your wine here,
like this nice zippiness. It's got

447
00:31:44.599 --> 00:31:47.720
all these fruit characters, but it's
got some texture. But it's like it's

448
00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:49.640
cheerful. It's cheerful. I mean, it's a thing. And you know,

449
00:31:49.799 --> 00:31:53.880
and listen, we were making serious
wine, but we hate it when

450
00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:57.480
wine is taken too seriously. That's
that's a real miss I think for the

451
00:31:57.559 --> 00:32:02.359
industry. Well, okay, so
let's move on to your Well, you're

452
00:32:02.759 --> 00:32:06.440
you're sparkling wine, you mate.
Yeah, yeah, oh gosh, sparkling

453
00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:09.599
wine. You know, I just
heard the first for the first time.

454
00:32:09.640 --> 00:32:15.160
I can't believe I haven't heard this, but the version of nine to five

455
00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:21.519
with Kelly Clarkson and Dolly Parton,
there's a new version. They've done a

456
00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:25.920
duet they've done together that is so
cool and that's sparkling wine. Let's put

457
00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:31.079
that right in there. Absolutely your
cab, Frank, I think Law love

458
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:35.359
it. Look, I'm going to
Little Texas right now, lal love it.

459
00:32:35.480 --> 00:32:40.519
A little folksy um storytelling, you
know, thought provoking lyrics. I

460
00:32:40.599 --> 00:32:45.079
think Law would be a good perfect
match with that wine. And then,

461
00:32:45.279 --> 00:32:50.200
last, but not least, your
hell of a pino m give me a

462
00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:57.839
little tea swift. I mean,
you know, talk about a young woman

463
00:32:57.960 --> 00:33:01.480
that has really stuck to who she
is. One of my favorite documentaries is

464
00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:07.559
her documentary a Miss America or Miss
Americana. Yeah, yeah, Wow.

465
00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:10.279
Just really opened my eyes to a
little bit more than just being a pop

466
00:33:10.359 --> 00:33:14.759
star. And I think she's on
my brain since all these tickets have been

467
00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:19.599
sold. Now she's in the media
every day and people my age and younger

468
00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:22.960
are not going to see her live
in a concert and have to perform for

469
00:33:22.119 --> 00:33:27.200
three hours, like forty four songs
and three hours songs. I hope they're

470
00:33:27.240 --> 00:33:30.279
serving good wine at their concerts.
It's a lot of cold beer. I've

471
00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:36.799
not absolutely well. Ali, you
have been amazing to talk to you,

472
00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:39.240
and we'll keep talking. I am
sure. But last question, it's a

473
00:33:39.319 --> 00:33:44.200
two parter. First is I know
you have traveled the world and the wine.

474
00:33:44.880 --> 00:33:47.000
You are not one who hasn't explored
the wine world. But is there

475
00:33:47.079 --> 00:33:50.960
one wine region in the world that
is at the top of your bucket list?

476
00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:55.039
Yes, believe it or not,
I have not been well. I

477
00:33:55.039 --> 00:34:00.759
haven't been a few places. Gosh, I think Lore because they talk about

478
00:34:00.799 --> 00:34:05.319
it so much and it's such a
big region. I know, it's not

479
00:34:05.400 --> 00:34:08.239
like a day or two trip.
Love to go to Loire Valley. This

480
00:34:08.360 --> 00:34:12.639
September I'll be in Greece for the
first time. We're taking a small group

481
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:16.719
to visit three different regions in Greece
on a big wine and food intensive So

482
00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:22.880
yeah. And the second part of
that is if somebody wants to come visit

483
00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:28.440
you here, where can they find
you, what can they experience? And

484
00:34:28.719 --> 00:34:31.360
also online? So sure, yeah. The best place to kind of keep

485
00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:37.000
up with us is daily antics on
Instagram. Still using Instagram, but it's

486
00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:40.440
still really fun. So Smith story
Wines our website, Smith Story Wine Sellers

487
00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:47.159
dot Com the visit page. Reservations
are definitely preferred Friday through Sunday. It's

488
00:34:47.239 --> 00:34:51.599
usually about an hour sit down.
If you really want to geek out with

489
00:34:51.679 --> 00:34:55.000
us, let us know, we'll
put something special together. Reservations are through

490
00:34:55.119 --> 00:35:00.119
talk right now, but welcomes are
also welcome. We have a pretty our

491
00:35:00.239 --> 00:35:02.679
space, but we're a small team, so the more planning we can do,

492
00:35:02.840 --> 00:35:07.639
the better experience we have for our
guests. Great. Well, Um,

493
00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:10.599
if you're listening, you've liked this, You've got to try these wines.

494
00:35:10.599 --> 00:35:16.079
They're delicious. Come checkout Smith Story
Wines at Bacchus Landing in just outside

495
00:35:16.119 --> 00:35:21.800
of the town of Healdsburg, like
one mile, very close, beautiful open

496
00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:25.000
tasting room, outdoor area when it's
beautiful outside and you get to meet Ali

497
00:35:25.079 --> 00:35:29.199
and her team and meet mister Sam, mister Lord Sandwich, because that's the

498
00:35:29.679 --> 00:35:37.000
really the highlight is him greeting you. Now it's walking over so well,

499
00:35:37.039 --> 00:35:38.559
Ali, thank you for joining us
on Wine Soundtrack. I hope you had

500
00:35:38.639 --> 00:35:45.239
fun and cheers years Thanks for listening
to a new episode of Wine Soundtrack USA.

501
00:35:45.559 --> 00:35:49.519
For details and updates, visit our
website, wine soundtrack dot com,