Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. He was listened 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
Alsa Levine and today I am in Sonoma with Alison Smith of Smith's Story Wines.
We are in their lovely teasting room in Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg, just
outside of the town of Healsburg. Ali, welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell
us about smith Story. Yeah, so glad to have you here today.
It's been a long time. I think, you know, the last time
we saw each other in person. It was in the Anderson Valley where Smith's
Story was located in Filo for about five years, and we relocated here about
a minute outside of downtown Healdsburg about a year ago, a little bit over
a year ago. So it's always kind of been a fun dream to have
you know, our business, our winery on West Side Road if you like
piano Laura, of course, well we don't have our winery here, but
what a great place to have a tasting room. So yeah, So what
is the story of Smith's story. Yeah, So honestly, I was a
smith and I married a story. It's it's a silly thing. But you
know, Eric and I met when we both were working for KNL wine Merchants.
He kind of grew up working for kN L and ultimately was a buyer
for them for their German wines. Loire Valley, Austria Asauce Greece Republic of
Georgia goes way back. So I was there for one year of my life
and for a lot of good reasons. It was kind of my I don't
know, I say it's my Ivy League kind of business school. Time of
wine. I learned so much, learned how to really be confident in my
wine palette, but also just learn a lot about the business. And I
think Eric and I at the time, we're just friends. Maybe we crossed
over that friendship bridge over the years after that. But when I moved back
home for a long time, which was Texas, and I lived in Dallas,
lived in Austin. In long story short, the San Francisco Giants when
they are playing the Texas Rangers in the two thousand and ten World Series,
I think he sent me an email he says I sent him an email,
but he sent me an email say, hey, welcome back to California.
I had moved back to Sonoma County, was running my sales agency. And
he said, how about the loser has to cook the other one dinner?
And so we agreed. Bets on and the Rangers lost that series, The
Giants one. I cooked dinner. We opened about five bottles of wine and
that following January. We've been together ever since. So and what year was
that, Yeah, gosh, that was in two thousand and eleven. And
when did you launch her own brand? Twenty fourteen. So, but you
know, before that, we had spent some time in the Anderson Valley together.
Back in two thousand and four and five, he had bought some property
in the Deep End Vineyard called Nashville upon Nashville Road. He and jimbar Jeffierra,
they'd all worked at KNL together, bought this piece of land and really
cultivated the vineyard, planted the vineyard. It's mostly pino noir. They also
planted resling there. Now it's since changed hands a couple of times, there's
no longer resling. But you know, Eric and I used to hang up
there with my old my old black lab Henley and his golden retriever Lakota.
And I mean, I think the first time I ever had like a nineteen
seventy Oh you're jumping like I do. That's a crazy good wines up there,
crazy good wines. And so you launched the brand in Smith's Story is
what I mean? M you how many different grapes? What grapes do you
work with? Yeah? Well mostly, you know his story was was really
started with nudges. A lot of our peers and industry friends, when they
heard that we were seriously dating and got engaged, said you guys have got
to start your own winery. You have been helping so many others really across
the world with um either buying sales, marketing wine. Eric, You've left
and learned how to make wine at Germany a couple of times. You've now
built a vineyard. Do your own thing. And we both said, no,
we know how hard that is and how expensive that is, but we
did it anyway, and we just really ran our business plans a couple of
years before we announced we were starting Smith's Story, and one of the reasons
is we wanted to support family farmers, and that's really our first step and
sustainability as a winery. We use kickstarter dot com. We think we were
the first winery to be crowdfunded and that was in August of fourteen and ran
a campaign Family Farmers First and really got to explain our business model and how
we were going to go about making wine. We weren't raising money to buy
one vineyard. We wanted to support many, many families in Sonoma County and
Mendocino Counties where we are starting. And I mean, looking back, we
should have asked for that five million that you absolutely need, but we hit
twenty six thousand and everywhere we are off. Yeah. So your total case
production today is post pandemic around three thousand cases. And I know you do
Cabernet front because I've had that before and Sauvignon Blanc. What other groups do
you work with? You know, we work with grapes that we like to
drink. So we've worked with Pino gree which is a beautiful Moralsatian style that
we get to make from the Anderson Valley right now, or core Pinot Noirs
or Anderson Valley. We do have some new organic, beautiful pinot noir vineyard
driven wines in the cellar from the Russian River Valley. Gosh, what else
do we make? We brought on some bubbles since I last saw you,
some beautiful sparkling wine from kind of a patchwork quilt of organic vineyards in Mendocino
County through through the Anderson Valley chardonnay and pino. So you're mostly Anderson,
Mendocino in Sonoma. Do you own any vineyards or you sourcing everything? Now?
We're sourcing everything and that is our business model, and we really are
happy with that, particularly in terms working with these families. Gives us flexibility
to manage that vineyard with them, to really learn the vineyard and not be
stuck making our wine from one place. We truly believe that this part of
California, really all of California where you live in the you know, this
wonderland of of climates and places to grow different things. So I'm glad that
we've chosen this path. The Capital Rays would have been a lot different buying.
Yeah, so you've worked in the wine industry for a long time.
What is your first memory relevant to wine, like before you got into wine
or your first introduction. Yeah, I think there's so many fun first introsum.
For me, wine is nostalgic. It's like music. Um, you
know, you hear something play and it takes you right back to lane in
the pool and eighth grade before you really had to work, you know,
when you were drinking wine in the pool and grade just not even worrying about
it. But wine for me, you know, my first first started getting
into wine actually working for the Dallas Stars, a National Hockey League team.
So you were you introduced to wine before that or that that's really the introduction.
No, I mean, I grew up in Texas and wine, fine
wine was not a part of my life. I went to Baylor University.
Alcohol was definitely a part of Balor University, but not wine yet. But
you know, it was really curiosity. I got the cat. I remember
having wine probably through expense accounts early on in my career and really enjoy learning
about it. And I think it took me a while. I mean,
I think in nineteen ninety eight my entire Christmas tree was decorated a homage to
silver oak. I had silver balls, burgundy bows. I think I had
bought, you know, silver oak Christmas tree from a good Texas girl.
You are in Texas girl, you know, well, so so with that,
With all the memorable wines you've had, is there one wine that stands
out as one of those aha moment wines? Maybe at some point in your
career or because of the moment. I think the biggest one that stands out
to me in terms of a California wine, I was given a bottle of
nineteen ninety seven William cell Hirsch Vineyard Peano noir buy some good friends in Dallas
who actually knew a lot about wine. They sent me a bottle for some
reason, I don't know why. When I was living in San Francisco,
I had taken that bottle to dinner with a then boyfriend and some of his
friends in town. And I'll never forget it's it's a little place called the
Slow Club. It's now called the Morris, but I'll never forget the server
opening that bottle. I'm pouring a little bit my glass and I put my
nose in that glass, and I thought, I don't want to share this
bottle. I hadn't. I really didn't know that is what a good California
peano wire could taste like. And that has really set the bar I think
for our inspiration and the thrill that we want others to find in our wines
too. And I've had that ninety seven a few times since, but man,
that was such a concrete moment in my wine life. Yeah, and
you said that was a California wine. Is there international wine that you had?
That also was one of those aha moments? Because now I'm intrigued.
I know, Well, I think, you know, the pleasure of working
at Canal kind of really end depth tasting opportunity and really end up knowledge from
the smallest regions to some of the larger regions in France. But I think
my big AHA moment was getting to know Dagonau wine and Poofoo May and well,
I really enjoyed that style of saving a blanc and crazy enough, limestone
is the word that really sticks out, and the Selix rock. I have
two in my possession and you would have thought, you know, Eric brought
back diamond rings for me when he presented those to me after some trips.
But it's so cool. I mean, it's geology, it's geography obviously,
it's history, and it's fine winemaking and yeah, that's amazing. So if
we were to come to your home, well, I mean, look,
I mean your tasting room right now, and you have a wall of empty
bottles, so you've drunk really good wine. So I'm curious if we came
into your home, what wines would we find in your cellar? Yeah,
a whole lot right now. You know why because this girl loves to give
dinner parties and throw dinner parties. And we have not been a place in
our life from a house standpoint and just logistics and running around like crazy entrepreneurs
to have dinner parties. I don't think I've had a host at a dinner
party since maybe twenty nineteen, isn't that wild? So our home is loaded
with wine right now. But you know I would love like, right now,
I've a pretty good vertical of m Channon Blanc from Gibertoe. That might
be a really cool selection. You know we've got We've got more recently from
Germany and our cellar than anybody probably should ever need. We're gonna need a
very good dentist for the rest of our life, I think. So you
have wines from around the world in your cellar? Is there anything not a
dinner party? I know? But did you and Eric open anything recently that
tasted really good. You know, I think we did our twenty fourteen Smith's
Story Hell ofa Vineyard Peinot Noir. Our fourteen was our very first vintage,
and we recently had some big Peanut Noi collectors and they had had been buying
our seventeen eighteen nineteen. So for a treat, we opened that and that
just made us sit back and be really quiet and smile. It was that
moment. Yeah, that's awesome. So do you think there's a such thing
as a perfect variety? Now? I think there's such thing as I mean,
there's no perfection anything that we farm, right, I think we firmly
believe that you like what you like. You know, nobody's going to turn
me into loving peanotage. I just know that's not an enjoyable great for me.
A lot of people like it. I just don't same thing with Brett.
I mean, there's certain things that I know that I'm confident liking in
my wine. But I do think there's a perfection and consistency to each producer.
You know, It's something that I learned when I was running Texas Cali
Wine Company, had I had producers I supported that we're from the Anderson Valley,
gosh Napa Valley, Sonoma County, but a lot of producers from Europe,
Argentina, even Japanese sake producers, and what I could do in blind
tastings, at least I could pick out producers because of their consistency and the
mark that they left on their wines. So we think of that, We
think about that a lot in our wine making or lack there. Uh,
we're shepherds. We're not really making wine. We're hoping to hell, we're
farming appropriately. It's you know, it's really interesting that you say that,
and just about liking what you like and understanding that. So we were talking
earlier before we started this about being just a small brand and getting your name
out there and being known out there. So what do you think the role
of critics and scores? What's your opinion of them? You know, it's
interesting, it's um It's something that certainly doesn't hurt if you're making good wine.
M right, we've been. We've been very blessed with very great consistent
scores. I do think that generations, prior to Smith's story, it has
allowed a wine buyer, a certain wine buyer, to be a little lazy
in the way that they buy. I rather want, you know, I
want to learn about a wine on a shelf, not buy it because of
a score. So I think it's helpful both ways what we have found and
maybe because we were kickstarted and crowdfunded, our peer to peer is just as
impactful is our ninety plus scores. And that, really, I think is
a great mix. You know, we've we've worked hard the last you know,
nine years, proving that we know what we're doing, we can do
this, and the level of achievement now it's just people now sharing their their
delightfulness with others about smith story wine. That makes sense, It makes total
sense. So I know that you said that you you're you're an equal opportunist
when it comes to wine, and that's fair. But if you had to
give one answer, can you red white or rose white wine? Still are
sparkling? Still? Pretty easy? Yeah, unless I wish I had one
more quick answer. But this is this is this is you know, Eric
asked me when in our dating life, you know what my desert island wine?
And I said, oh, an age sauvignir, and he just flipped
out. He's like, you are mine forever, right, you know,
an age sauvignir as a shinn and blanc that's probably really interesting to smell for
a good hour before you even start drinking it. Right, So well,
okay, so now you said you like to give dinner parties, and so
obviously there's an element of pairing food and wine. It's also about the gathering
and the people and everything. But how much thought do you put into food
and wine pairing and are there certain things you look for? Are there tips
you can share with someone or do you just say we're opening up a vertical
of shennon blanc and damn it, that's what we're gonna do now. I
mean, I think I think you need to. I don't think you have
to. Um, you know, I think you know, we tell a
lot of stories in this room, and telling a story, much like singing
playing music, is going to resonate. So it's kind of a joke,
but I kind of mean it. People ask me all the time, what
would you pair with your kabane of sauvignon, And I'm like, ah,
that leather seat in the corner of the den. You know, that's my
favorite pairing, you know, But we have, like you know, we
remember a really fun dinner party Eric and I hosted, and just to prove
a point, we did um gosh, we did some crazy Japanese cud of
beef and some salmon and it was one hundred percent white wine dinner with that,
and it really opened some eyes. You don't need big reds with beef,
so I think you need to riom and as in your pairings. But
nothing is a absolute yes or no for me. I mean, I don't
like carmonare and fish that I'll give you that. That's not my favorite.
So for someone who hasn't had the pleasure to taste smith Story wines yet,
what do you think they're missing out on? I mean, I know you
spoke about being about the farmer, so I know that's a big point.
Boat. What would you say is sort of they're missing and they need to
come try it. Well, I really think it's just the prettiness of our
wine, the vibrantcy and the refreshing I mean a lot of we've gotten a
lot of guests say oh, there's such a joy in your wine, and
that is such a great fulfilling thing to hear. You know, I didn't
drink for a good year I was going through breast cancer treatment and one of
the things I could not get out of my head was pouring myself a glass
of our hell of a Vinear Peanut Wire from the Anderson Valley, because the
aromatics from that wine are so fresh and just inviting, and I feel like
that's really a big stamp of who we are and what people are missing seeing
if they're not trying our style, which is a little bit more on the
vibrant side. I love that. So if Space Aliens were to knock on
the door right now and want to come into your tasting room, which of
your wines would you want to welcome them with as a way to say,
this is my story, Oh my gosh, Space Aliens, what would they
like to journey? I would probably calm them down, you know, a
sort of light them up, right, And so maybe our Cabernet franc it's
a thinker's wine. I have to say. The first time I ever met
you, that was the first wine I tried, and I loved it from
the moment I tried it. I love it. Well. It's you know,
we say, you know, our best guests and customers are curious wine
drinkers, right wine often makes us stop and think about it. Oh my
gosh, this just took me somewhere. What am I smelling? How did
you do this? So? I think our cap franc is a tribute to
how those vineyards are farmed. And you know, if the cap fronc doesn't
get ripe all the way to the center, or that's when it's giving off
allowed the pier zines and that green kind of bell pepper. So we really
work hard with the vineyard crew and watch the weather. Of course, it's
all about the weather, and if we think we're getting close to a pick
date, we start removing the canopy at least on one side of the rose,
just to allow that cluster to get one more punch of full sun and
ripen. Well, speaking of watching the weather and being in the vineyard,
are there any signs or predictors you look for that are going to tell you
what a vintage is going to be? Yeah? You know, it's been
interesting because we've taken a few of our vineyards. We partner with our vineyards
from a sustainable loosely organic practicing all the way through full organic practices. And
so what gardening one O one? When you change the soil. When you
change a pot, you know, that plant breaks down a little bit or
stops. So we've had to really be careful about forecasting because the vineyard that
maybe was giving us ten tons, you know the first couple of years were
full blown organic, you know, not touching, just really watching that vineyard,
we're maybe going to get six tons. So those are some things.
When we look at a new vineyard, we look at neighbors as much as
we look at the vineyard itself, because we don't want neighbors that may be
a cannabis producer that's not practicing organically. I have a theory. I don't
know if it's right or not, but I don't really like to be in
vineyards close to cattle ranches in dairy farms. There's just different smells and different
things in the soil. That's not my taste. It's not a bad thing,
it's just not my taste. So yeah, there's lots of things to
consider. I mean, it's it's it's gardening and farming, right, and
so with that, you know, every vintage tells a different story. And
do you have you noticed in the ten years almost ten years that you've been
making wine that there's more variation from vintage to vintage or more commonality. How
do you look at that and how it reflects in your wine. Well,
I think, for sure more variation vintage to vintage based on the heat.
You know, we talk about we're almost sold out of all of our seventeen,
so there's a little bit of our reds in our library. But you
know, we had a heat spike during labor Day and everybody scrambled a pick
before the heat spike, but primarily a lot of our Peno Mai was up
in the Anderson Valley and it's just a little bit cooler up there, so
we held off. And we're so glad we dig because it really shows a
level of elegance in those seventeen wines that I think we would not have received
if we picked a week earlier. They just weren't ready yet. So I
think that has a lot to do with the vintage water. It's going to
be interesting this share with all this rain. I know there's some vines that
are starting to come alive or and I've been seeing bud break reports, and
you know, there's another gushing storm on the way next week, so we're
ready to draw out a little bit, you know. So have you and
Eric established any sort of good luck rituals that you do at the start of
harvest? Yeah, so our good luck ritual usually is obviously a great bottle
of sparkling wine. And I think over the years, my favorite bottle we've
opened to kind of Chris and Harvest was a sparkling wine from the Jura.
It was more of a Cremont style, And it also allows us to really
obviously think the seller crew, but tell them a little bit about the wine
too. Typically, when we're bringing in saving a blanc if if we can,
you know, we'd like to bring in some saving o blancs that represent
the style wine that we love and we're making. And there's a little education
piece to that too, So that's a little good luck. So you obviously
drink really good wine, and you and Eric have similar taste. So I'm
curious for a romantic evening, what sort of wines are being opened for a
romantic evening as opposed to any other night that you're drinking really good wine.
Romantic evening, Well, let's see. Listen. One thing that we definitely
a new role after twenty twenty is no more drinking on the couch. Think
about that. We all drank a lot of wine, watching a lot of
shows and listen, I still do last night, I still had some pretty
good wine sitting on the couch. But it's a new rule that we try
to remind each other of and to sit at least at home, sit at
the table with some candles. When we first started living together, that was
the rule. We never had dinner anywhere else but our dinner table in our
house. And I think, you know, we've all gotten a little lax
on that over the year. So you know, I think if we're going
to open something, you know, honestly, a handful of our New Year's
Eves have been spent sitting in his truck backed on the coast, you know,
Bodega Bay, or up in timber Cove with a great bottle of champagne
and its potato chips and watching the sunset. Like that's pretty simple, delicious
memory. And you know it doesn't take much. So yeah, so when
you're not working in wine, how do you spend your free time? Yeah?
Dogs, Well, you know, there's this very beautiful dog that's lying
very quietly here. He's very famous and if anyone's ever been to the Smith
story Um website, you will know Lord Sandwich tell us a little bit about
mister Lord Sandwich and his new pal. His new pal. Yeah, so,
Lord Sandwich he is he'll be eleven years old and may he is our
golden doodle. Um. Eric and I have both had big dogs in our
life and a good friend of ours, Lucas Meeker, that owns he and
his family run Meeker Vineyards here in Healdsburg. Long long time ago twenty ten,
I was visiting with them and this beautiful, wonderful dog in their office
and I'm like, what kind of dog is that? And like it's a
golden doodle. I'm like, a what you know, I've never even heard
of it. So long story shore, Lucas sends me an email like,
hey, this is a sweet family where Innus came from. If you ever
wanted to get another dog, I just lost my black lab and boom.
Lord Sandwich is born and on my twelfth and he has since been our number
one employee every year. He helped me start a nonprofit called Socks for Sandwich,
which we have a wine label Lord Sandwich that helps us raise awareness for
that. And I write in his voice daily under Sandwich the Doodle, and
it has connected us with some of the best people on the planet. I
often say that if you're a wine person and a dog person, you're our
people. Socks for Sandwich just simply gives new socks to families. Indeed,
and we've been able to give at least sixty thousand pair of socks away through
just him being a good dog and talking about it and teaching compassion. So
yeah, we did bring home, Sir Sir Royal Soup his new little brother
last week. So he's been wanting a brother for a long time. So
now he's a he's got it and it's a full house. So love it.
I love it. Yeah. So you said that you and Eric sort
of your relationship went to another level after you know, your Rangers lost.
Yeah, and you had to cook dinner. So I'm curious if your Rangers
were to win, which of your wines would you want to give to them?
Which wines do I want? I would actually, I think the Rangers
one. I think I give them our sparkling wine. It's so beautiful and
it's fresh, it's not sweet, it's just celebratory. But it's also a
bottle you can just open the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday, kicking
it. So. Yeah, So when you look back at at sort of
your career and how you look at life, how you look at the world,
is there a piece of advice that someone gave you along the way that
you like to kind of remind yourself of or or utilize. Yeah, I
just you know, you didn't get this far to just get this far.
And you know, and I think I'm a big fan of Sarah Blakeley,
the founder and owner of Spanks. I had that idea, Actually didn't have
the idea. I actually did that in the nineties when I was already thin
as a fin and cut off my Donna kar and panty hose and we put
those on underneath my slacks for work. I didn't have the idea to make
that a business. And she's a billionaire because she had that idea she turned
into a business. But you know, so I follow her a lot,
and her husband is a really great sales coach that I've taken some classes for.
So just keep going. You know, entrepreneurship is not for the week.
We all hear this, and it's very cliche, but it's true.
It sucks most of the time. But you have to make sure the pleasure
of being an entrepreneur, particularly running a whinery, that you keep that sustability
mission of supporting others in front of your face at all times, because if
we're not doing our job, our families aren't able to do their job,
and that's really important for us. It's beautiful. So when you look back
at your career, what would you say is one of your proudest achievements to
date? I mean, you've mentioned so many like kind of mile markers of
you know, during COVID or you know what you're just saying in terms of
getting back, But what would you say is one of your proudest achievements?
Gosh, that's so hard. I mean, I think just staying alive right
now, you know, these last three years have been a booger. I
think, you know, I don't know. I know when I'm not achieving,
and that really drains me. I love home runs, and we talk
in baseball genre and words a lot here. If I love home runs,
I think, I think the achievement that we are here, still very small
funded, moved to a main place in Hialdsburg, California, are able to
have a full time wonderful hospitality director consulting hymaker all systems go. It's a
pretty big deal, you know, And I really, I really hope that
this year twenty twenty three, the world remains healthy, it becomes healthier.
This banking crisis, you know, corrects itself, dodged a bullet on that
one, mad But we're ready, you know, we are ready. And
I think my biggest achievement is definitely yet to come, but it's close.
Well, as you approach your ten years of making wine, I'm almost there.
We get another year ago or so. But twenties weird not to make
wine for vintage. How do you count that? I know? So wild?
Yeah, you didn't make any one in twenty twenty ro wine. I
mean just those fires happen everywhere at the very worst time. And it was
a hard decision. There was a hard, hard talks with all of our
families. But I know that we made the right decision. Yeah. Yeah,
So, speaking of um sharing wine, We're sitting at a table and
we've got your bottles on the table and an empty seat next to you.
So who from any walk of life, living or deceased would you want to
be sharing a bottle of Smith Story Wines with RBG. For sure. She
is. She is just a hero and in so many ways. You'll see
our book collection over behind my left shoulder as a lot of books written about
her, conversations with her. Even our mural out in our wine garden,
the very top of it has a trace of her bid but her lace and
really because of the things she stood for, but just her strength. And
when I was going through my breast cancer and treatment, I channeled her a
lot during when I was in those in the hospital, during those appointments,
because I thought this woman small and mighty, and she you know, she
dealt with cancer about three times in her late life. It still did what
she did for us, for us girls, you know. And so I
would absolutely love to have her sitting next to me. I know she's up
there cheering me on. I know she's a spunky one, that one.
That's right, So I complete the sentence. For me, A table without
wine is like sadness. And see it's at the table, not a couch,
exactly exactly sadness boring. So you mentioned a little earlier that if you
had one wine you could take to an island. It was sinne blanc from
Sauvigne. But if I allowed you to take three wines to an island,
what would the other two be? Probably a cool piano blanc from somewhere.
Notice the theme, Chris, Why Why? And then I love our savino
blanc so much, this twenty two, particularly that we just bottled just a
few weeks ago. I just smelly it sitting here, and I just it's
the perfect beach wine, warm weather beach wine for sure. Yeah. Well,
so we are now, we're almost finishing, and this has been so
much fun chatting with you, and I could go on and on, but
we do play a little game at the end. I'm not sure if I
didn't warn you about this, but I'm not sure if you've listened to other
podcasts, but we always play a game pairing wine with music. It's called
Wine soundtrack. So this is, you know, the soundtrack the ideas.
You know, wine conjures emotions, as you've spoken about, and music does
too. So you can give me a genre, you can give me a
specific song artist, whatever comes to mind. But I want to start with
your twenty twenty two savigna blanc that we are sipping, So maybe describe it
a little bit and then yeah, wow, you know, I mean,
honestly, music that comes to my first and foremost is a good time,
and I think about I don't know. I love Olivia Newton John right,
bless bless her. Yeah, we love her. Our our Harvest t shirts
this last year. We're hopelessly devoted Harvest two thousand twenty two. But how
fun her song for Zanna do? As I sip this sup in your blog,
I can totally get that. Is that not the best random answer you've
ever had? No, it's because it's kind of got this like fresh zippiness.
I'm gonna stripe your wine here, like this nice zippiness. It's got
all these fruit characters, but it's got some texture. But it's like it's
cheerful. It's cheerful. I mean, it's a thing. And you know,
and listen, we were making serious wine, but we hate it when
wine is taken too seriously. That's that's a real miss I think for the
industry. Well, okay, so let's move on to your Well, you're
you're sparkling wine, you mate. Yeah, yeah, oh gosh, sparkling
wine. You know, I just heard the first for the first time.
I can't believe I haven't heard this, but the version of nine to five
with Kelly Clarkson and Dolly Parton, there's a new version. They've done a
duet they've done together that is so cool and that's sparkling wine. Let's put
that right in there. Absolutely your cab, Frank, I think Law love
it. Look, I'm going to Little Texas right now, lal love it.
A little folksy um storytelling, you know, thought provoking lyrics. I
think Law would be a good perfect match with that wine. And then,
last, but not least, your hell of a pino m give me a
little tea swift. I mean, you know, talk about a young woman
that has really stuck to who she is. One of my favorite documentaries is
her documentary a Miss America or Miss Americana. Yeah, yeah, Wow.
Just really opened my eyes to a little bit more than just being a pop
star. And I think she's on my brain since all these tickets have been
sold. Now she's in the media every day and people my age and younger
are not going to see her live in a concert and have to perform for
three hours, like forty four songs and three hours songs. I hope they're
serving good wine at their concerts. It's a lot of cold beer. I've
not absolutely well. Ali, you have been amazing to talk to you,
and we'll keep talking. I am sure. But last question, it's a
two parter. First is I know you have traveled the world and the wine.
You are not one who hasn't explored the wine world. But is there
one wine region in the world that is at the top of your bucket list?
Yes, believe it or not, I have not been well. I
haven't been a few places. Gosh, I think Lore because they talk about
it so much and it's such a big region. I know, it's not
like a day or two trip. Love to go to Loire Valley. This
September I'll be in Greece for the first time. We're taking a small group
to visit three different regions in Greece on a big wine and food intensive So
yeah. And the second part of that is if somebody wants to come visit
you here, where can they find you, what can they experience? And
also online? So sure, yeah. The best place to kind of keep
up with us is daily antics on Instagram. Still using Instagram, but it's
still really fun. So Smith story Wines our website, Smith Story Wine Sellers
dot Com the visit page. Reservations are definitely preferred Friday through Sunday. It's
usually about an hour sit down. If you really want to geek out with
us, let us know, we'll put something special together. Reservations are through
talk right now, but welcomes are also welcome. We have a pretty our
space, but we're a small team, so the more planning we can do,
the better experience we have for our guests. Great. Well, Um,
if you're listening, you've liked this, You've got to try these wines.
They're delicious. Come checkout Smith Story Wines at Bacchus Landing in just outside
of the town of Healdsburg, like one mile, very close, beautiful open
tasting room, outdoor area when it's beautiful outside and you get to meet Ali
and her team and meet mister Sam, mister Lord Sandwich, because that's the
really the highlight is him greeting you. Now it's walking over so well,
Ali, thank you for joining us on Wine Soundtrack. I hope you had
fun and cheers years Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine Soundtrack USA.
For details and updates, visit our website, wine soundtrack dot com,