Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. Listen to the passion with which producers narrate their
winery and their worlds. In thirty answers discover their stories, personalities, and
passions. Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is Alison Levine
and today I am in Camerio, California with Dusty Neighbor of the eponymous Dusty
Nabor Wines or Nabor Wines. Dusty, Welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell us
a little bit about your winery. So, yeah, Camerio, California the
center of wine making. So not quite yeah, not quite, but you
know, I'm trying to change things. So Nabor Wines was started in twenty
fifteen, and like you said, it's my eponymous name. It's Dusty Nabor
Wines. I actually have a couple of different labels that we'll get into after
that. But yeah, I come from the consumer side, and I used
to collect wines. I had a friend who lived up in San Francisco who
introduced me to wines in the early two thousands, I would say. And
it wasn't until much later that I discovered what wine could be and decided to
look into possibly making my own wine. Found out that there was a local
custom crush that was right by me where you could make wine on the side,
And like all things I do, it just absolutely snowballed over the last
eight years. And now you know it's the three labels, three thousand cases
from two barrels eight years ago, two barrels to three thousand cases. Pretty
impressive. So tell me what kind of wines do you make? What grapes
do you work with? Sure? I pretty much I worked throughout the San
Yonez Valley, so Santa Barbara County. We do do one wine out of
Passo, but that wine is actually made in Passa, But the vast majority
of what we do is Santa Barbara County, San Yanez Valley, so spanning
all the way in the west of the Santuary to hills, all the way
to the west end of the Santuary to hills, all the way out to
Happy Canyon in the east, and we do primarily Pano, Chardonnay, and
grenoche out of the Santa Maria Hills. Moving west or east, we get
into Ballard Canyon where we do Vienna and Sara, and then out to Los
Leibo's District and Happy Canyon where we do Kaverny, frank Kaevny, Sauvignon,
die Berdo, and Malbeck. Wow. A nice range of wines. And
we should say that Camario is in Ventura County, just outside of Santa Barbara
County. So good. You know, you got about an hour drive up
into Hawainan country, but not too far into wine country here, so you're
making you know, a lot more wine. Now, where are your wines,
Availaba? Are they in different markets? Are the percent direct to consumer?
So the markets are very eclectic because I don't I never solicit my wines.
I never go out and try and sell them. So the people that
have acquired them have done so by contacting meat so that there's no rhyme or
reason to the marketing. So a lot of the Nso and Dusty Neighbor wines
are available in Texas at specs, some are available in Alberta, Canada through
an importer up there. Some are available in Costa Rica from an importer there.
But the vast majority of the wines that we sell are direct consumer through
our mailing list. Wow wow. So tell me what is your first memory
relevant to wine? WHOA going back? So I had a long period where
I was just like everybody else and knew nothing about wine. I would say
my first memory going back would be buying Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio in Alpha Beta.
You know, most people probably don't even remember that supermarket, but that
was my first memory of wine, of going and like being hey, I
think I maybe should try this or something. And I do remember maybe twenty
twenty five years ago, when the Internet was like just starting out, like
trying to figure out what the different grapes were so that I wasn't a complete
fool if I took someone on a date, I could kind of work a
wine list. And then, like I mentioned, my friend who lived in
San Francisco who I was doing business with in a different industry, introduced me
to real wine and what wine could be, the potential of wine, and
then that's when I started collecting a little bit. I was really into like
NAPA cabs and things like that. Typically yeah, typical typical wine bro like
scores and all that stuff. And then it matured from there to the point
where I started making it. And now my tastes have completely changed in the
last few years. Well, so now that you you know have well,
okay, I was gonna say, what, what do you have in your
cellar? Like, what would you say, is one of the most valuable
wines you get some of those napical cabs still hidden in there? I do.
I have a lot of hundred Acre. Uh. Yeah, I have
a lot of hundred Acre from like two thousand and nine to twenty thirteen.
I have a couple bottles of Screaming Eagle in there that are kind of fun
to look at. I don't think I'd ever opened them, though. And
then some other you know, like Strader and the people like that. Okay,
So moving aside from those you know, kind of brow wines, which
I'm sure drink really well, what was one of the most you know,
memorable wines he drink? So, yeah, it has to be a row
wine. I did think about this question. It is a two thousand and
seven hundred acre Kailey Morgan And that was It's very specific. It was very
specific event. It was a not event, but moment. Uh it was.
I believe it was either my birthday or my girlfriend Karen's birthday, and
we had that wine. And that was the first time I ever got emotional
about a wine where it really like the all the setting, the food,
the event, the moment all came together to where it was a truly transcendent
moment and where I truly felt like, oh man, I don't get what's
going on, but now I fully understand why wine has its own category,
why it's not just a beverage, why it can be so much more.
That was the moment, the A fifty moment where I'm like, yeah,
this is really cool. Yeah. I mean, context does play a huge
part in that. So is there something that you opened recently that drank really
well? Yeah? Last night I opened a Hanada twenty fifteen Decaphio that's their
Kabanet Sauvignon Dominant Valler Canyon Blend. And I opened Raimi Sellars Riccioli Chardonnay twenty
eighteen. They're both beautiful wines you drink really well at home. It wasn't
at home, oh, I was. I was out for a get together
of friends from another life, endurance sports, doing a sports Oh. We'll
have to talk about that in a second. I'm curious if we come to
your home now, aside from those sort of big NAPA wines that you have
in there, what else would we find? What regions. What grapes,
Yeah, you'd find a lot of Santa Barbara County, you find. I
love to support my friends, and I feel I know not everybody feels this,
but the best way to support is just buy the wine. Just give
them your money. That is the best way to support a winery. And
I don't ever ask most of the time, I buy him incognito and don't
ever ask for industry discounts or anything like that. But in my in my
cello, you would find a lot of sand Red Hill Shard nampino. I
love those, a lot of Sarah from Baller Canyon, I mean, yeah,
But then I also have you know, I really like being a member
of like Vitical Wine Club. He has a lot of eclectic you know,
like and Venati from the Canary Islands and things. Yeah, things like that
that just really again start to reshape how you think about wine and what wine
can be. I really like, you know, things that come out of
like Debrio Haa and things like that that just challenge your perception of wine.
Right, So, do you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety?
Uh? No, I don't. I think that there's no such thing
is perfection but I think that the ideal of perfection drives a journey to be
perfect. So uh, in wine, you know, whether it be starting
at the very beginning and planting the perfect variety for a perfect for a site,
or trying to make a variety in a certain way or the perfect way
creates in and of itself a journey, a journey to be able to do
that, and you'll never navigate to the end. So that to me is
kind of the way I approach life in general and wine making, where I'm
in it for the day to day. I'm not in it for the end
result. So that the the desire to become better and to make wines that
reflect me and the people that grow them more, it is what pushes me
every day and makes it worthwhile. You know, yeah, the finished product
is okay. Here's It's almost like we were going to talk about endurance sports.
It's very much like endurance sports. Endurance sports, like triathlon or swimming
or running or cycling, isn't necessarily super fun while you do it. It
can be very monotonous, it can be very hard, but you know,
we'll all good things come from a little bit of struggle and the end finish
or the wine product is almost like the race. Like you you spend months
and months and years and years building up to a race, and then you
do it and accomplish it. It's not over. The journey goes on.
And it's the same thing when the winery, like the journey goes on.
And even if I make a wine where I'm like, that's it, I
did it. I did exactly what I wanted to do, It's like,
okay, well exactly, you got a new vintage, you got different arrieties,
you got different vineyards, and you just move on and do something else.
And that's and that's what keeps me day to day motivated to continually get
better at what I do well, So as a small producer and someone who
is you know, constantly moving forward with that kind of mentality, but knowing
where you started where scores played a part. What's your opinion today on wine
critics and scores? It kind of depends on the context. I think that
they are super valuable in a couple of areas. So you know, the
vast majority of people that drink wine don't give a shit about wine, you
know, they it's a fruity alcohol delivery system. And that's why if you
look at numbers, the largest case productions and supermarkets are under ten dollars.
They're massively, massively produced. And that's fine because if you look at us,
I don't care about some consumer products as well. Like when I go
buy a toaster, I just want someone to tell me who the best toaster
is. I don't care about toasters, but there's some dude that makes toaster
magazine that it's all his life, is right, and wine is the same
thing. So with scores, it allows It gives you a terminology, a
barometer, and a way to quickly communicate to the consumer a score of quality.
And I think that's what a lot of people misunderstand about scores is that
a score doesn't tell you anything about how a wine tastes. It tells you
the quality of the wine. And it also doesn't have anything to do with
wine preference. Those are two completely different things. That's why you hear people
say, oh, drink what you want. Yeah, you can prefer a
low quality wine that's one hundred percent valid, but that doesn't automatically make it
a high quality wine. It just makes it a wine you prefer. So
scores give us a way to talk about wine quality in a quick fashion,
like, so, how was that wine? I don't know, Jeff done
it, gave it a ninety five. Immediately we are both on the same
page that this is a high quality wine. It's a very good wine.
You know, they are, I think in my opinion, I know this
is a very unpopular opinion, that critics are very consistent. If you look
at the breadth of the amount of wines that they taste and you look at
the scores that they give, they're incredibly consistent with what they do, and
I think that they're a good representation, especially to people that are new to
wine don't really understand the nuances of wine. But on the you know,
opposite side of the same coin there there, they can be problematic when you
start to learn a lot more about wine. So when you when you get
a really intelligent consumer, scores just kind of become it is what it is.
It's what that critic thought on that day, and it has less of
an impact on somebody that's actually educated right well, loses the context of also
understanding your own palette and the environment, the food, the atmosphere, all
the reasons why that wine might sing to someone today is not necessarily about a
score exactly. Yeah, it doesn't convey any of that. And I think
that people put a lot of emphasis on the score as if it did convey
all of the attributes of that wine, which it absolutely does not. I
mean, it's it's just, you know, it's just one moment in time
where they look at the wine and they build their score through whatever parameters they
have devised as being the benchmarks for that variety in region, and it gets
built up, and I mean that's fine. Like I said, it's great.
So for you as a wine drinker or a consumer, red white or
rose most of the time, white still are sparkling. Still, my stomach
doesn't really agree with bubbles all that much, like champagne, Like, I
love the taste of it, but I'd rather spit it out. Yeah,
that's the one thing I don't like spitting as well. For me, it's
just, yeah, it makes my stomach unsettle. So we talked a little
bit about context and obviously when we drink wines in that moment you had that
one hundred acre wine and how it was just everything about it. So you
were at dinner last night, you had two great wines. Tell me how
do you approach food and wine pairing? Are you looking for the wines you
want to drink and you know it is what it is? Or are you
pairing with food? And if you're pairing with food, do you follow rules
or what are you doing? No? I don't really follow rules. I
will say that most of the time, I'll just use it. Yesterday is
a great example. I walk into my cellar and I look around what I
want to drink. I'm not even thinking about the dinner because I know that.
I mean, it'll work, It'll work with what we're doing. Having
said that, I will say that when a wine pairing hits, it can
be unbelievable. Yes, absolutely unbelievable. I think that there is a lot
of science and intuition behind food and wine pairings. Sometimes they work, sometimes
they don't. It's one of those things, you know, it is subjective
in the end. In the end, it's subjective whether or not it has
worked. You could have all the science you want and pairing flavors with different
types of wines and different types of structures in wine. But when it does
work, it can be very magical. But I don't I don't personally,
I don't really think about it. I more think about what I want to
drink that night. But then when like for dinner last night, obviously you
had a white and red, so you had some selection. But then do
you look at the menu and think what's going to work with the wines I
have? Sometimes? Yeah, I mean it just kind of works out that
way. Like the lighter fair usually comes at the beginning, so we do
a white. I will say that though when I do my tastings, I
do put the whites at the end, So I'm a little bit backwards in
that from an American standpoint. From a French standpoint, it's fairly normal to
do that, But I do like to put whites at the end when we're
just tasting wine. But for a dinner, I'm usually pretty pretty standard white
piano maybe a saw or cab at the end. Yeah, that's it.
That's as much thought as I put into it. A very nice progression example.
Yeah, just a progression of the weight of the wine really is all
I'm doing. Well, So for somebody who hasn't had the pleasure to taste
dusty nabor war wines yet, what do you think they're missing out on?
Uh, they're missing out on me. That's that if you haven't heard,
this is what you would get exactly. Uh that there I For me,
wine is a reflection of the people, place in time that it was made.
It's one of those beverages that can it can be transcendent, it can
be ethereal, and if you don't have context, I don't think that wine
is it creates that magic. So realistically, I make fair to good wines.
I don't think I've made anything great to this point. So when someone
comes and taste my wines, they're they're really making the connection, the human
connection between me and what I have created. So they're missing out on that
reflection that they may want to see. They may be interested in how we
do things here, how the farmers that we work with grow their grapes,
that kind of stuff, and then I'm handing them a representation of that that
they can actually consume, and then it gives you this kind of transcendent touch
into my life and the way that we do things here. And I think
that's the same with any winery. Like you want to go and figure out
what they're doing and then try this product that is the culmination of their efforts
and so yeah, so when when its specifically, I wouldn't say like,
oh, they're missing out on the greatest piano in the world. I wouldn't.
I just wouldn't say that. I'd just be like, yeah, you're
missing out on what I'm trying to do here and the reflection I'm trying to
give you. So, if space aliens were to knock on your door here,
we're in an industrial park here where you have your windery. But if
they were to show up at your door right now, which of your wines
would you want to welcome them with to say welcome to Napor Wines. Oh,
that's a tough one. It would have to be probably our Kimsey Sara.
I think of all of the wines that I've made, the Kimsey Sara
has has developed the way I envisioned it. So it really is a reflection
of what I wanted to do. Because you know, we don't really make
wine. The microes make the wine. We just give it an environment and
they kind of do their thing. And I'm really a hands off wine maker
and really lazy, so I don't do anything. And so when a wine
turns out the way I envisioned it from the beginning. It's it's really satisfying.
So I think that that would have to be the wine I would give
them. But I may enquire what kind of wine they have on their home
planet and just get yeah, I just kind of get a contact. I
wouldn't want to give them a really weird Sara when they all they drink is
like supermarket cab, so I would tailor it to them. So you said
you're kind of a lazy wine maker, or maybe more of a minimal interventionist,
we could say. But I'm curious if you have established any sort of
good luck rituals that you do at the start of harvest. I am the
most unreal ritualistic person ever. I do not do anything out of superstition.
I'm very habitual, but I don't I don't do anything weird. No,
I don't, nope, not even not weird. Just like you stop shaving?
Are you open that champagne on the first day? Or I don't know,
no traditions at all, Yeah, no traditions at all. I don't
know. I don't ever think. Yeah, I don't ever think about it.
It's just when it happens, it happens, and off we go and
I may be a little bit different because I am the sole employee, Like
I don't have anybody out there. So like at the beginning of harvest,
when I pull up with my grapes, there's nobody to share the moment with.
I just I get out of my truck and I understrapped the grapes.
So I guess I could stand in the parking lot by myself and like spray
a bottle of chepagne, but it would be a little weird, a little
pan on the back. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So you don't own
any vineyards, and you're purchasing fruit from a number of different vineyards. But
in the years that you've been working and you're specific in an area. We
know that every vintage tells a story. But have you found in your experience
that you see more commonality vintage to vintage or do you see greater variation.
I see a lot more commonality. I think if you're not seeing commonality,
then you kind of lose tterwar. You know, in wine we talk about
like the nuance, it's the last one or two percent that is all we
talk about in wine. Wine is eighty five percent water and fifteen percent alcohol.
And it's the last little tiny bit that we all talk about. It
makes the big difference. And I think that, like, yeah, I
love vintage variation, but the wines need to have a core of commonality coming
from the same place, same variety, where we're talking about the same block,
all that stuff. They it needs to be more common than different.
And then in the nuance lies the vintage differences. And that's the you know,
that's why I don't change a lot with what I do in the winery
because I liked that those through lines that say this wine comes from this place,
and the majority of what you're getting is that. And then the vintage.
The difference in the vintage, whether it be weather or whatever, is
the nuance is the tiny bit. Okay. And so do you find that
there are any sort of signs or predictors that you look for that are going
to tell you what the vintage is going to give you? No, because
I don't look for them. I don't care. I don't honestly, they
don't care because I again, my idea with this is to reflect what happens,
and whatever happens is going to happen, whether is it's we can't control
it. Obviously, I'm not saying we don't care and that we just walk
away from the vineyard. We're obviously making moves and doing what it requires.
We're reactive than yeah, we're reactive too well. Yeah, depending on whether
it's forecasted or something that happens that we don't haven't anticipated, will react.
If it's forecasted, we'll be proactive and do things maybe a little bit differently
based on the weather. But I don't look like it doesn't matter to me.
Whatever happens happens, and I hope it's good and I hope the consumers
like it, and but I will never hide it like I want to show
it. I want to show what happened that year in the lines. So
you know, we sometimes hear about producers that walk in the vineyards and talk
to their vines, and sometimes they do. Here you're all alone, here
have you in if you know? They say, if a tree falls in
a forest, who knows what happened? Exactly what happens. But do you
ever talk to your barrels in your wine? Yeah? I have. So
the worst thing that I ever did is put in security cameras, and it
is it has been a constant source of humiliation when Carn gets on and watches
security cameras, because I do. I do verbalize a lot. Now I'm
not I'm not like trying to coax the wines to do whatever I want or
to change them or whatever. I don't try to do that. Or you
know, some people play music and say that the resonance of the music goes
through the wine. I think they do that in Argentina or whatever. But
I don't do that. But I do, like when something pisses me off,
I'll yell at at like a little kid and think things like that,
like what the hell walking through vineyards? I because it's mostly just me.
Carn goes with me sometimes, but yeah, I will walk through vineyards and
it'll be more like conversational like oh what's this? What are you doing?
And expecting a reaction from the buying like but yeah, So the rhetorical question
rhetorical questions exactly exactly, So when you were little, what did you want
to be when you grew up? I mean, obviously you were talking about
doing in dirt sports. Wine was not your first career, but you know,
what did you want to be when you were a kid? Oh gosh,
when I was a little kid, I wanted to be a fireman.
But then I figured out that I just like starting fires as a little kid,
not I didn't really want to be a fireman, and now like and
then you learn what being a fireman actually is and I could never ever do
that. But uh yeah, I've My life has gone through so many phases
because I get we alluded to this earlier about how things in my life just
snowball, and they do. I mean, I just take things really seriously,
and I've done that all my life, so you know, at the
at the you know, in high school, it was all about like extreme
sports like skateboard, surfing, snowboarding, things like that, and took surfing
to a quite a high level, and then got into motocross and took off
road racing and motocross to a very high level, and then got sick of
getting hurt on a motocross bike because I realized I had to go to work.
So then I got into auto racing for a while and did that and
took that to a pretty high level, and golf for a long time,
and then about fifteen years ago I got into triathlon and endurance sports and that's
been my life. That's actually how carn and I met. We were on
a national amateur team and so we were social media buddies for a while.
And then I had to travel through the Midwest, and she's a Chicago native,
so we hooked up there. She came out here, realized that the
weather is much better out here. It doesn't take long, and moved out
here. So I, yeah, I've done I've done a lot of things
in my life so far. And why this is I may have hid a
few of those hobbies under the guise of a business, but this is actually
a business. This actually works. You know, when you put car racing
under a business and all it is eveling money into a fireplace, it doesn't
work. You know, after a while you're like, what am I doing?
But this actually has done quite well from a business standpoint, So well,
it's a business. And also to what you were saying about how it's
always changing and every vintage is different. It seems that, you know,
because you're constantly moving forward and not you know, making wine one year is
not the pinnacle, because as you were saying, you may never tire of
doing this. Yeah, that is true. Maybe if I get some help
too. I probably would probably add some longevity to it as well. So
when you're not working, how do you spend your free time? Or you
just training for triathlons all the time. So no, we have semi retired
from triathlon. So the cool thing about triathlon is when you get sick of
doing triathlons because they're logistically very difficult, you can kind of splinter off and
do the three sports individually. So right now we're mostly run training. Car
and just ran Boston Marathon and I did all the training with her, but
I'm not I have no plan to do a marathon, and so I'll just
roll this run fitness into something. But yeah, it's mostly like fitness oriented
or you know, I have a day job, so to speak. I
basically have two full time jobs, but so I spend a lot of my
time running and cycling and swimming. What industry is your day job in?
Steel? Steel pipe family, steel business? Wow? Yeah, wow,
I've been doing that for thirty years. You are just more fascinating, more
fascinating as we talk. So when you're planning a romantic evening for you and
Karn, what sort of wines get open to set the mood karn is along
for the ride, so she as far as as far as wine is concerned,
she really lets me do what I want, and I don't. I
kind of do it the same way I did it last night. I just
go into my cellar and I look at what's interesting and what's maybe rolling around
to a window where it might be even more interesting. I'm not a huge
purple hone in of like drink windows or weight. You know, we're we're
not getting any younger, We're not gonna be around. And there's a lot
of bottles in that cellar. So I look at stuff and be like,
yeah, it's got a little bit age on it should be showing well.
And I try to get through wines because I don't actually drink a lot,
like for I spit on a ton, yeah, but I don't actually consume
a lot of wine. So when I get into my celler, I'm like,
kind of gotta get through this. I kind of start, I kind
of gotta get going here. So yeah, I mean, I know the
feeling exactly. I think a lot of people do, I think, but
they don't like they don't. It's never identified as a problem like you have
a big seller. I yeah, I got a big seller. It's great.
I can do what I want. But at a certain point, I'm
like, yeah, I'm gonna get through this. I need to start.
I need to start hustling here in a little bit. And the problem is
when you have other friends that also have that same problem. Every time you
go to dinner, it's a fight of who's gonna bring wine exactly, And
I'm always like itching for more people to come because then I can bring more
wine. So in durance sports, are you also into team sports of any
kind? Uh? No? I think the last team sport I did was
football. In high school, I played Pop Warner football, and then in
high school I played football. Are you a supporter of any team sports?
Not really. I'm a I'm like a Fairweather fan because I like domination.
I love it when. I love it when a team dominates to the point
where there's no question that they're the best, and sure anybody can lose on
any given day, but when they lose, you're like, yeah, that
was a flute, they're the best. So I was like a real so
when I was really in the golf, I really love Tiger Woods, like
I love that he was far and away clearly the best golfer on the planet,
and everybody knew it, and that was that, And I'm a super
fan of that. I love it when and I love it when they proved
the point to everybody that they're the best. So, if Tiger Woods were
to win another championship, which of your wines would you want to congratulate him
with? Oh, I don't know. He's kind of a wine grow I
think I'd have to open up like a cabernet. I'd have to. I'd
have to give him a twenty. I'd give him a twenty twenty los Olivo's
district cabinet. So obviously, you have worked in a number of industries and
had a number of activities and jobs and everything. Is there a piece of
advice that someone gave you at some point, family, a teacher, a
mentor, that is something you try to apply to everything you do or maybe
more specific No, not a single piece of advice. I just think that
whatever you do, tenacity is a good trait to have. But I also
I also am pretty easy going on myself, and I have a good perspective
on things. I'm only I'm only going to use wine making because there's a
lot of different things that this could apply to, But why making is kind
of a roller coaster. It's like an emotional roller coaster, and you always
think that you messed up because wine's always evolving, and every time you go
tasted, you're either related or you're totally depressed. And I think that having
perspective on why you do things. And endurance sports is another good analogy because
endurance sports can be very hard and if you think of it as like motivation,
motivation like doesn't get you through endurance sports training, Like you can't have
this like goal of this single singular motivation like watch a Rocky movie and get
all amped up, like an hour into a bike ride, that Rocky movie
is gonna fade and you're gonna be done. And I think it's better to
have a perspective on why you're doing it and the long goal of the journey,
Like I enjoy doing this day in and day out, and you get
so much benefit from doing something day in and day out with enjoyment, like
and it's same thing in the wy like coming here and constantly thinking about what
you could do, what you could do better, and honestly, that may
be nothing and a lot of times in wine making, it's nothing. Stop
stop doing stuff, stop opening barrels, stop trying to change things. Be
confident in the decisions that you've made before. So I mean, yeah,
I just I've never really gotten a piece of advice that I would go back
to. But I do have, you know, mentors that have shaped the
way that I look at things, and I think that that's more powerful because
it lasts longer. Absolutely So, when you look back at your career and
it's a it's a varied and storied career, what would you say is one
of your proudest achievements to date? Because I know you're not finished and you're
still moving forward. But what would you look back on it and say with
regards to wine, No, maybe it's something else. I would say just
being here and having this winery is one of my greatest accomplishments. It's probably
the biggest, you know, business that I've I've started by myself. It's
completely by myself, and and it's seems to be working. And I think
that's the best you can hope, you know, for a young winery to
be able to function and continue on is is a gift and I think it's
a it's a decent accomplishment. I think it's a very valid accomplishment, so
complete this sentence. For me, A table without wine is like a table
without wine is like, Man, that's a tough one. I don't know,
it's I don't know. It's kind of sterile, you know, it's
just it's kind of boring. A table with wine without wine is just boring.
Yeah. So now we're at a table, your wine's on the table,
and there's an empty seat next to you. Who, from any walk
of life, living or deceased, would you want to share a bottle of
your wine with Abraham Lincoln. I know what I thought my head that he
is. I mean, I know it's cliche. It's like Abraham Lincoln,
it's if you if you really look at it, he is such an amazing
human being, order and writer, and I mean just absolutely fascinating human being
that I would love to, you know, actually hear him talk, actually
sit down with him and share a glass of wine with I think he would
be amazing. Ammy. I was over in Scotland, and in Scotland in
a cemetery there's a statue of Abraham Lincoln. So you talked to him?
Yeah, I just I just think it would be it would be so cool
to be able to actually talk to Abraham Lincoln. So we're getting towards the
end of our talk, which has been really fun. I could keep going
forever. But just a couple of other questions. Another another thought provoking one.
You know, we know that climate change is something we talk about.
It is affecting me everything. And in the wine industry, you think we're
going to be drinking wine and three hundred years, five hundred years, I
believe so. I think vines our survivors and they really know what to do
when the weather gets weird, and that's why they're around for a hundred years,
I mean, and longer, yeah, exactly, yeah, longer than
that, you know. And you know, I always it's kind of funny,
like anytime you see like a house and it's run down and nobody's lived
there for one hundred years, there's vines all over it, like they're just
such so great at surviving. That will adjust and we'll figure out what we
need to do. I don't think it's gonna change as much of what we
do. I think the human impact will be worse than the wine impact.
Well, and if it were all to end today and you had to,
you were sent off to a deserted island, what three wines would you want
to take with you? Any three wine? It'd have to be shop saw
that's going why, I don't know, DRC mantre Chet. Yeah, because
why not? Why not? I'm totally And then I'd have to do probably
like a west end uh Peanot no wir west end of the Santa Maria Hills,
like towards the ocean, out by the ocean. Maybe maybe a hilt
peanut a ar or something like that, a radiant peanut. Let's do that
radiant and you sourced from there too, I do. Yeah. Well,
now we're gonna have a little fun, you know, end of the game.
I warned you about this. It's called Wine soundtrack. So just to
finish it off, we're gonna talk about a few of your wines and I
want you to pair them with music. So let's start with your radiant Peanot
noir. Oh god, that's a brooding peanot noir. It all. Everyone
always accuses me of mixing it with saraw just because just because that's like the
the cliche thing to do, like MEO, whatever, uh no, you
know, but it's it's a pure Pinot noir, pure of pan noar,
but wind swept and super inhospitable environment. I mean it's racial sauce pudes,
which I'm told, because I don't speak Spanish, means get out if you
can, or something to that effect. But it's a very inhospitable vineard.
You gotta have four wheel drive to get up there. So I'm going up.
It looks like Mars. Yeah, exactly, call it the Pinot Bowl.
Let's pure that with something hardcore, like like Metallica. We'll do Metallica.
I really like Sanitarium. Okay, let's do that. I like that.
Oh I just threw you right out there. Then you said you're also
doing Chardonnay from Santory to Hills. Yeah, Chardonay Hilliard, Bruce Vineyard.
That is what we get out of the Santa Rita Hills, which is briny,
salty, acidic shard. Uh. I don't know. Let's do something
yacht rocky, let's do maybe let's do sail away. Sail away. Yeah,
let's do that. And what about your San Rada Hills Grenache a cool
climate Grenache, Well we do we do the grenash. One hundred percent Whole
Cluster. It's very herbaceous. Uh. It is an ethereal expression of grenache.
So if you're used to say passo or shouting at the pop or something
like that, it's much more. I don't I'm not comparing the two,
but it's much more on the pino side of things, a little transparent through
the glass. Pairing that with music, uh, would have to be I
kind of always I kind of always walk the line with that wine. It's
because grenosh can be finicky and it can be a tough wine to actually make.
It's really prone to oxidation. So let's do Johnny Cash, I walk
the line the light. Yeah, because you walk the line with it.
Love it? Howp out? Because this is kind of fun because I'm getting
descriptors. You rewinds with it. You're Kimsey Straw, Kimsey Sara. Oh
God, that one's gotta be a weird song. It's gotta be because Kimsey
Sara. That was the one that turned out like magical again. One hundred
percent Haul Cluster. It smells like the aromas are like walking into a flower
shop, like like a florist is just cutting up stems. And you have
that beautiful. Like some people when they talk about green notes, they talk
about belt pepper and purisines. This is not that. This is more like
fresh green and flowers, very earthy, but but it it pisss off about
twenty percent of people that try it so and I love that. I love
that about it, that about twenty percent of people just don't get it.
And that's so I call it a behind the table wine. Like all the
wine makers are like, oh my god, this is so awesome. But
on the other side, people are like, oh, this is really weird,
and I love that. So I don't know, maybe like some daft
punk song or something like that, good job, I'm licking my lips.
I want to try that. Why so I'd probably want to be behind the
table. Well, Dusty, you have been fantastic. It's been really fun
chatting with you. I have a two part ender question for you. The
first is what wine region in the world is the top of your bucket list
to explore? To explore I would say my top Yeah, my top wine
region by far is the Hill at Armatage, Like standing on that hill is
to me and the pinnacle of wine. And I have stood in front of
like DRC and that, and that's pretty cool too, don't get me wrong.
But like the hill at Hermitage is and the little town of tom Rmttage
is just so perfect, Like I love it. It's just with the river
going through it, it's just so Is there somewhere you haven't been that you
want to go? Yeah? I would really love This came up a little
bit earlier, but I would really love to go to the Ay Islands and
see the volcanic vineyards that they out there. That would be very cool.
Cool. Now for someone who wants to come and taste your wines, you
are not open to the public. This is just an industrial wine making facility.
How can people find Dusty Neighbor Wines? Like? Can they? Did?
They just go online? Where do they find you? Yeah? Sure?
So? The website is Dusty Neighborwines dot com. We release our wines
three to four times a year through our mailing list, and our mailing list
operates in that there's no weight list or anything like that. But the wines
mostly sell out on release, not all of them, but most of them
sell out within the two week release period. The mailing list is free to
join and Basically, it's like your ticket to be able to buy the wine
before they sell out. You decide how much you want to buy. There's
no allocations, there's no it's just me letting you know, hey, these
wines are available. They're only available to people that log into the mailing list,
so you can purchase the wines at that time if you want to try
the wines. We do do some events. We're at the Garageese Festival pretty
regularly. I do some local events. That's kind of the best way to
try the wines because, like you say, we aren't open to the public,
but you can always hit me up. I'm very accessible, you know,
through the website or whatnot. And then we also have another brand called
NSO Wines that stands for No Special Occasion and those are more value driven wines.
And I'm very sorry to say that right now there's nothing available, but
I'm working on getting more wines under that label up and on the website.
Those come out just they don't go to the mailing list. Is when they're
ready, they go up on the website and they're available to purchase on the
website. Well, you just have to stay, you know, up on
your game. And well, Dusty, thank you so much for joining us
today. I hope you've had a little fun and thanks for coming by.
Appreciate it absolutely. We'll have to go get some wine to cheers. Awesome,
sounds good. Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wind Soundtrack USA.
For details and updates, visit our website wind soundtrack dot com.