Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. Listen to the passion with which producers narrate their
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Hello, friends and listeners of Winne's Soundtrack. This is Alison Levigne and today
I am with Eric Johnson, the director of viticulture and wine making of Tally
Vineyards in San Luis, Bispo. Eric, Welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell
us a little bit about Tally. Yeah, thank you for having me.
Tally Vineyards is a winery, a vineyard winery on the Cier Coast, California,
based out of Roal Grande Valley. We specialize in pune orange chardonnay,
but we dip into Sarra granas, Sauvio blanc, Grumer Veldlinger. Yeah,
and it's a lot of fun stuff to do. Well, any other weird
wines and Me's grooner, the weirdest grooner, would be the most obscure.
I mean, we'll do some some weird like orange wines, and you know
we've we've dabbled in the elusive pet nat but you know it's as weird as
we get, I guess. And how many cases do you produce. We
produce about twenty four thousand a year. It's pretty consistent. Yeah. And
is it all a state fruit? And how many acres do you own?
Yeah? So everything itally a state Yep, pretty rad We have right now
about one hundred and twenty five acres. Yeah, so enough to you know,
make wine and not purchasing any fruit. We do not purchase any fruit
for tali bean heres Nope. Yeah. And where can people find your wines?
Are they available in markets across the US or in specific markets or just
direct to consumer? Yeah, We're always available to direct to consumer. We
have a glorious Wine club, but we are available in many, many markets,
a lot of wine shops, restaurants, you have some cool grocery stores
and stuff like that. So yeah, we're out there. Okay, cool,
we got the basic stuff out the way. So now about you.
I'm curious what is your first memory relevant to wine? How far back do
we go? Where did you grow up? I grew up in a town
in the Central Valley called Los Banos, and which is a small farming town.
It used to be back in a day more dairy. But I grew
up on a farm apricots mostly and wine. And my first memory of wine
is cold bottles of carl Rossi Chabilee. You know that's not Chubbie obviously sister
college drinking or is this high school drinking? This is my mother and father.
They would have the jugs in the fridge and you know, now with
the knowledge I have, with my history of wine making, I think they
those wines were probably going bad for how long they left them in the fridge
and they were just continuously drinking them for weeks on end. It seems like
some stomach issues personally, But yeah, but they never reported that. No,
No, they rolled with it, rolled with it. Yeah. And
then when getting to high school, I was but there's a lot of baskets,
Like there's a lot of bass French and Spanish bass kids, and if
you know Basque, they drink a lot of red wine. And so that
that involved us stealing a lot of red wine and drinking it and you know,
doing what kids do when you drink a lot of red wine in high
school. Absolutely, so when you look back now at your career and move
past the Carla Rossi and whatever wines you could steal, what would you say
is one of those aha moment wines you had and what was it and when
was it? That's funny because this is a it doesn't represent what I what
I truly dig as wines right now, but it so it was a five
Senek went on. It was a Sirah. I can't remember if that was
one of the serial killers or or not time of his life, you know,
vintages, but it was a wine I had, and it was the
first wine that I really understood texture, like it blew my mind away?
Can I I don't know if I should. I can't cuss on this,
right, you can't. So no, it did. It blew my mind.
It just as I've never had anything with that that sort of of texture,
and it's just yeah, that that that one I always think about.
There are some chipiles, uh you know that that have blown my mind and
that really kind of got me into loving great Charnay. But it was that
goddamn Snecmonon, which obviously I can't afford it now, but you know,
yeah, yeah there, hey, but it taught you texture. So I'm
curious if we were to come to your home now, what would we find?
What do you drink? What is at home? Is it wines you
make? Is it winds your friends make winds from around the world, particular
grapes like and now that you've moved on and you love texture, Yeah,
yeah, what I what I dig? So yes, I drink a lot
of wine. I drink a lot of beer too. I drink a lot
of cocktails. I guess you're an opportunity. Absolutely. I support all been
appoine industry. So I love I do love Chris White Whites like like I
do love Chabli like I love love Love Shublee. I love Gammet. I'm
a hardcore Gammet guy, crubaujile. I obviously am Pinot. I like northern
roon. I love Northern ron uh corn oscot ROTI and champagne. My wife
and I are big champagne peeps. But then yeah, my friends, I
mean I have a lot of friends. Uh, most of my best friends
are whine makers. Lugar who's here, you know. I drink a lot
of his wines. I drink a lot of uh you know, say,
Thomas Fogerty was here too. Just a lot of buddies and pres skill.
I end up with a lot of press sciel wine. So yeah, I
just I honestly, I try not to drink our wines. It just depends
on how much money I have. But you know, sometimes you know,
when you're scrubbing, you gotta you gotta just drink your own sauce. But
I try not to drink it because I I'd rather not, uh just be
so familiar with it that I think all my wines are which it just you
know, I mean not all your wines are great. Well, I know,
but I don't want to be saying that, you know, I don't
want to put that out there and look arrogant. You know, I'm trying
to trying to just look cool fair enough. Is there a particular bottle you
opened up recently from your cellar or maybe a restaurant that just kind of blew
you away? And or maybe it's one of your own. It's funny because
there was a recent one, you know, World of pian in No War
we do is like tech seminar beforehand, which just wine makers. And this
woman brought a nineteen sixty two Grand Crew, Yeah, Saint Julian Meadog nineteen
sixty two, and it the fucking nose was like a ten year old cab.
Murlow, you know, right, Marlow, And you're like, what
this is from nineteen sixty two, and then you drink it and it translated
perfectly from nose to palette. It blew my mind. I was like,
what the hell? And this is just a couple of days ago. It
was just like, what the fuck is this? This is wild? But
there's reasons why it was in very good condition, which I don't need to
dive into that, but I would say that one. I'm still I've been
thinking about that one every day, well in nineteen sixty two, that you're
drinking in twenty twenty four, that drinks like it's ten years old, probably
gonna leave lingering memory. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah, you get
it, you get it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So you were
saying, okay, obviously you're now talking about them or low you just had.
You said that you work with a bunch of different varieties, mostly pino
and shard, but you mentioned a few others that you do. I'm curious
if you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety. No, no,
way, no, no, because it just depends on how you're feeling,
right, I mean, there's nothing I want to drink every day.
I mean, even if they're like, oh you can have gear Sea every
day. I mean, yeah, I'd probably take them up on it,
but I'd get sick of it. You know, it just it just depends
on what you want to do. I had eras in my life where I
just want to drink dura all the time, you know, are boid Like,
I mean, it's just and now it's like I still love that stuff.
But you know, you go through these phases of what you're you're digging
in kind of style of your life, and I yeah, there's there's no
perfect now now. So do you you know there are people that you'll talk
to. I don't know, as a wine maker, if you're aspiring to
some level of perfection, I don't know what that's defined as or if you
aspire to something, but a lot of people will will look at their look
at wines for what critics say to them about them. And I'm curious what
your opinion is on wine critics and scores and how they defined the level of
perfection of a wine. I told you there'd be some thought provoking questions.
Oh for sure, I think about this all the time. No, I
mean I listen. I understand why you need to have some sort of rating
system for for wines, and it's really good to consume order to see,
but you know, it's it's and there's a lot of publications obviously, but
but I don't know. I have a problem with with you know, certain
raiders that you know they say rate a classic Burgundy and whatever, right,
and like this is ninety eight points, saw someome and then it rates something
that's like eighteen percent alcohol and like this isnt it's the same part, they're
the same, And I just don't I don't know. I just think there's
there's I mean, it's just a wine history. There's so much bs in
the wine history. It has its place and it's not going away. And
some are better than others. I mean some, you know, they're not
great at all, but some I respect. And I actually because I've always
I have this idea which I need some funding for it. But but it's
just reviewing wines that people are rating really high and just seeing to be like
are these good because we've been I've been screwed so much. But it's like,
oh, this thing is like ethereal and so amazing a hundred points that
you spin some coin on it and you're like, this is not not ethereal.
It's not ethereal. This is brooding and I'm I'm blacked out now,
you know. And so it's yeah, I have positive and negatives. I
get that. Yeah. So, so getting down to you as a wine
consumer, and you were talking about how you've had phases. You love sure
and our why and then you like hoot ROTI and you like a variety of
wines. So I'm curious as a consumer red whiter rose mmm, I think
if I had to choose for you, like just to be stuck with it,
you say, like, like I'm on island sure by white wine.
Yeah I think so. I love white wine. I mean I I love
it all though you're not really making this hard, but see white wine.
See, because I'm smart, I could have champagne, my little Blanc to
blanc, and I could have like whatever, some Quurton or something, you
know, so stiller sparkling. Man, I think I love champagne. Yeah
all right, I'll just do champagne and champagne versus just sparkling wine. Yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel like I can just get some Grand
Crew yeah yeah, uh huh yeah. Yes. So you said you and
your wife like to drink champagne. We know that champagne is versatile. You
were being very thoughtful about on an island, how you can get still in
sparkling out of a white wine. We're gonna go back to that question later,
but I'm curious, how do you approach pairing wine and food. Sparkling
wine can go with pretty much anything, so you can take that through an
entire meal. But do you think there are rules to follow? Are there
guidelines you follow or do you just do it? Come what may? And
this is what I'm in the mood for. I think kind of all that,
but it's more I always I do have a rule with fat and acid.
I think whether it's it's the food that has the fat or the you
know, wine, is that vice versa? Like they need to they need
to help each other out right, they need to meld together. Uh.
Back in the day where I when I had enough money where I could actually
go to Michelin Star restaurants, I remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I went to a restaurant. I don't need to go into it,
but but it was the most perfect pairings I've ever had. Uh Ever,
like they were just seamless at all times. Yeah, So I really really
really like good pairings. Yeah, so finding harmony. But but there aren't
any particular rules other than fat and acid. Yeah, yes, so yeah
harmony. So for you know, for somebody who hasn't tasted your wines,
what do you think they're missing out on a unique spot? Honestly, where
where vineyards are located, there's there's not that many vineyards there, there's there's
really actually three, and so it's going to have a unique flavor profile,
that's for sure. And just to taste something that's different, honestly. Yeah.
And so space aliens were to land on your property right now, which
of your wines would you want to welcome them and say welcome to Tali Vineyards.
Probably Rosemary shartin name. Yeah, I think it's fun, some good
acid, you know, depending on their taste buds, they dig it.
Yeah. So you've been making wine for how many harvests? Now, I've
done eighteen at Tally and wow, eighteen itally and you are the vineyard or
head of viticulture. Spend a lot of time in the vineyards, I'm assuming
I'm curious in the years that you've been making wine and all the time you
spend in the vineyard you know, we know that every vintage tells a different
story, but how much variation do you see from here to your Do you
see more commonality? What have you seen over the last eighteen years or even
within the last five years. Yeah, I mean every vintage is very different
and been more kind of crazy to a certain extent, but not similar crazy,
whether it's a giant crop, a small crop, hot as hell,
raining, I mean, it's just all over the place. There's people used
to say like California is so consistent with their harvests, like, oh,
it's so easy, you know, especially by the Oregon Brethren. But it's
not. It's it's so different. It's a roller coaster at all times.
Do you find that more now or that's always how it's been? More now?
There's more extremes and water, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah,
definitely more now. So are there any sort of signs or predictors you look
for at some point that will determine what kind of harvest you're going to get?
You think you know, but that you don't, because a lot like
of twenty twenty was actually a perfect year setup great obviously, you know,
than COVID and shit, But then you got all these heat waves, you
got fires, I mean shit, you can't predict. So now it's it's
all over the place. And so you've been doing this now for eighteen years.
Do you have any good luck rituals that you do at the start of
harvest for yourself or for you and your team? No? No, very
simple. No, jump onto something else. You said you grew up in
a farming community. You've been making wine for a long time. But when
you were a little boy, what did you want to be when you grew
up? Did you always know this is what you wanted to do? Oh?
No, I didn't know anything whatsoever about wine or anything. No.
I thought I wanted to be a doctor. Oh yeah, like a pediatrician.
But I'm not that smart, so it's not going to work out.
How long did that dream last? Probably the high school something like that.
Yeah, And at what point did you know that wine was your future?
Oh man college, freshman year of college. Yeah, it was a class.
Yeah, I just kind of met some people and then yeah, it
was a class, and I was like, oh, this is cool.
This seems like a cool lifestyle. Look quite lavish, and it's not as
lavish as well. I mean, today is but but yeah, no,
that's when yeah, for sure, beginning of college. Yeah, and when
you're not working, how do you like to spend your free time? Oh
geez, I'm usually just with my family. Honestly. I have a little
three year old daughter and my wife. We kind of just cruise around and
I don't know, just live life. I guess, no free time for
any other personal hobbies. Zero hobbies besides wine, which is my life.
Yeah, a little sad. I won't judge, I promise. So,
Okay, you have a three year old, which means that you probably don't
have a lot of time for a romantic evening with your wife. But if
you were planning a romantic evening, something to set it apart from any other
night with her, what sort of wines get opened? Oh? Yeah,
yeah, a little date night with my wife. I mean it's probably starting
with some champagne, my wife will and myself of little Pier Peters. We'll
start with that, and then yeah, transition to some sort of white burgundy
weather. Yeah, like it's Shabille or or I mean a Marceaut, a
nice Marcel Marceaut from La Fawn or something, and then transition to red and
that could be anywhere from Yeah, like a red Burgundy or Northern Rome.
My wife loves North or Gamet honestly, Prue Bogelt. But yeah, we're
all. We we my wife and I love one. She's she's been in
the wine tree past life, and she's sawmed before and stuff. So yeah,
we're Wine plays a significant role in your relationship. Yes, we actually
met at the world of Peano and arm did you. Yes, Yeah,
I love that. Yeah we did. Yeah. We met in the world
of Pinot in twenty twelve. Yeah, and been together ever since. Was
she summing? Uh no, no she was No, she was a it's
consumer, just tasting away. Wow yeah, wow, Yeah, Well look
at that she gave to your table, you port a little wine and asked
her around on her digits and there you go. Yeah, exactly. So
I'm curious on a on another subject, you wanted to be a doctor,
you end up getting into wine, you know, a totally different path.
Was there Was there a piece of advice someone gave you along the way that
helped kind of guide you and what you want to do or how you want
to live your life or work by Is there something that that kind of guided
you that way or some person. Yeah, I mean I guess, I
guess a person like my grandfather was a farmer, hard worker, so I
kind of always, uh, you know, think about him, and you
know, you just got to do the work. You know, people need
to see you do the work and and gain that respect for you. So
it's a him and wine industry. You know. I had a lot of
uh, you know people that will say mentored me throughout anything in particular standout
person, person or something that they taught you by example or by words.
Well yeah, yeah, I mean most of the most of these guys,
which I don't want to mention them because they have big heads already. They
it was about tasting great wine. You got to taste great wine to make
great wine kind of a thing. And so just always kind of testing your
palate and drinking new things and kind of staying active in that sort with your
palate, you know, because how do you know what great wine is if
you never tastes it. I mean, you could get lucky obviously, you
know, you could just get grace from a great spot and be a really
good wine maker. But it helps to drink great wine and kind of figure
out, Okay, how did they do this, and like, why is
this a great wine? And if you could offer advice to our listeners,
to to wine drinkers or people who want to explore wine, what kind of
advice would you give? Drink great wine. Just drink wine all the time.
Taste tastes, always taste wine, and honestly think about what you're tasting
at all times. It's great to verbalize that because it's good for your memory.
But yes, just constantly, just taste different wines. Don't get interrupt
where you're just tasting the same wines. It's you never want to get that
kind of palette. So you've had an eighteen year career with this winery,
you still have a lung career ahead of you. You look much younger than
than having eighteen years. But my patches, yeah, micro needles. But
I'm curious when you look back at your career, what would you say is
one of your proudest achievements to date? Oh, I don't know I have
proudest achievements. That's a good question. I don't know. I'm not proud
of anything. Yeah, I don't know. I mean because again, like
scores are nice, like I've got We've gotten some really good scores, but
I don't know. I guess it's just if somebody. No, there was
a blanking on the guy right now. I was in New York, like
this is probably eight years ago, and this Burgundian guy, oh my god,
want blank on his name right now. He's burg producer, famous guy.
And he tastes some of the wine and he really liked it and came
and talked to me about it, and that was rad. Yeah, Alan,
gross, that's what it is. So an achievement doesn't have to be
something grandiose, like we built the winery. It can be something being recognized.
Yeah, yeah, being recognized by by a legend is pretty rad.
Yeah. Ban of White tastes wine. That was cool. Well, Ban
of White tasted your wine. Well, let me ask you if you well,
let me ask you this question. We're sitting at a table, empty
seat next to you. Your wine's on the table. Who, from any
walk of life, living or deceased, would you want to share with your
wine? And considering that Van of White has already tasted your wine, she
cannot be the person you want to share it with. Oh geezh man,
oh man. When I get sentimental, maybe just my grandpa, I guess,
yeah, because famous people I'm not, you know, I don't know.
I don't know if I want to be the famous person. Maybe,
I don't know. Yeah, Grandpa, Yeah, do Grandpa Charlie Chavian be
wild? But now I think, yeah, I think Grandma. Yeah,
did he ever get to taste wines you made? Yeah? He did,
he did totally. That's awesome. Yeah so that was rad. Yeah for
sure. Yeah, well complete this sentence. For me, A table without
wine is like, uh geez, a table without love, I guess.
Yeah. Yeah, but what's either we have beers and cocktails too, or
just no wine or just no wine? Yeah, yeah, wins love.
It's just such a special thing and constantly evolves. No bottle that's the same,
It's every year is different. There's nothing like it. Yeah yeah,
Well, speaking of that, do you think I mean, you were talking
about earlier about how there's been some big vintage variation and there you've been.
We've all been thrown curveballs in nature in the last you know, handful of
years. We know that climate change exists. You think we'll be drinking wine
in three hundred years, five hundred years time? Yeah, from different regions
for sure. Absolutely, yeah, because wine is love. Wine is love.
Will we will always figure out how to ferment things, don't worry.
Yeah, yeah, well you've been great. This has been really easy,
I hope. But now comes the fun hard part where we have a little
fun pairing myn with music. This is a chance to talk about some of
the wines you make, and what kind of music you can give me a
genre. You can give me a specific song, you can give me a
specific artist. You can be as generic as you want. It's up to
you. But you know, tell us a little bit about your wine and
why it conjures up this this particular music. And so I want to start
with your Rosemary Vineyard pino nowir, because I had the pleasure of drinking a
little of that earlier. Yep, yep, Rosemary's Okay. This is yeah,
this is the hardest one because I'm really bad at remembering songs and stuff.
But oh let's see do do do ID? Just look at my phone
so I can get better, right, Honestly, I'd say that that because
it's so it's it's more serious wine. It's probably needs maybe some cool classic
jazz. Yeah, yeah, I would do classic jazz actually, Okay,
yeah, and then I know you also do chardonay, so do you do
a Rosemary vinyard Chardinay? We do? Okay, Yeah, it's so high
tone. I mean maybe we need some some bump in music. I don't
know, some good house music. Yeah, I don't know. I don't
think. I don't think that is quite our brand. But I just think
it's it's it's actual uh flavor profile is so zingy. I think it actually
fits that more than anything of some cool maybe some trance music cool? Yeah,
what about a state pino no art? So it's gonna not be a
vineyard designate per se. The first thing that bolved my head is so dumb.
Come on, well, it's like it's a collaboration of all the vineyards.
So I thinking I was thinking about all the celebrities that we are.
What is the world? We are the world? Yeah? Even though I
don't want to listen to that song, but it literally popped my head because
I think there's been a lot of articles about it recently. They didn't invite
Madonna. I think it's Billy Joel's fall on honestly. And what about your
grooner? Oh grooner? Yeah? Um man, these were good. I
was like yes though no, h oh jeez. We can tell there's no
pre preparation on this question because I put you right on the spot. No
zero. Yeah, yeah, maybe some funk. Actually, yeah, maybe
some fun a little earth wine and fire actually something like that, a little
subdued funk. Okay, I won't put any more pressure on you with this
one unless there's another one that's just actually has a pairing in your mind.
But I'm going to ease off on that. Yeah. Yeah, So I
have one more question, a little two parter. The first part of the
question is what is one wine region in the world that's at the top of
your bucket list to explore? Uh? Nor, I have not been there.
Actually, Champagne, I haven't Beenishably. I've been a Burgundy a bunch
of times. I've been to Bordeaux, but I've never been Ashably. I've
never never been to Beaujolais and Northern Rhone, like I just really want to
go. I've been to other places Argentina and Chile and New Zealand and stuff
like that, but I've never been to like the things I love the most.
Yeah, I'm like, you told me all the grapes that you seem
to love. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why. It
makes zero sense. You're right, got to start planning your trip. And
the second part of that question is for people who want to come visit Tally
Vineyards, how can they visit you? How can they find you? What
can they experience with a visit? Yeah? Absolutely, a website Tallyvineyards dot
com. We're located outside of Royal Grande, which is really about twelve miles
outside of San Luis Obispo. It's very easy, it's a very beautiful drive.
We have a great wine club. You can buyer bottles online as well.
Experience wise, it's it's just really good service. It's all seed to
tastings, and I just think you have a great time. It's beautiful out
there. You get to look over the Tally farms, you look over the
vineyards, feel the sea breeze. You could feel you would definitely feel some
breeze, that's for sure. It's a little windy out there, but you
know that's all good. Yeah, wonderful. Well, Eric, I think
I hope you had fun. I hope it wasn't too painful. But it's
been fun chatting with you, and I think it's time to go taste a
little tally wine. So thank you so much for joining us. Yeah,
hey, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it was fun,
you know, a little pressure, but I'm good. Yeah, thank you
you. Yeah, thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine Sells Track
USA. For details and updates, visit our website windstoundtrack dot com.