Speaker 1: Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. Listen to the passion with
Speaker 1: which producers narrate their winery and their world. Team thirty
Speaker 1: answers discover their stories, personalities, and passions.
Speaker 2: Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is alson
Speaker 2: Levine and today I'm at jmc sellers in the Livermore
Speaker 2: Valley with winemaker and owner Jessica Carroll. Jessica, welcome to
Speaker 2: Wine Soundtrack and tell us about jmc sellers.
Speaker 3: Hi, thanks for having me. Jmc sellers is currently the
Speaker 3: newest winery in Livermore Valley. I'm really excited. We opened
Speaker 3: our doors in November.
Speaker 2: November of twenty twenty three. Rex.
Speaker 3: Woweah, yeah exactly. I have been around in the valley
Speaker 3: for about a decade, though last year the winery I
Speaker 3: worked for closed sadly, and out of that came an
Speaker 3: opportunity that I just couldn't turn down.
Speaker 2: And here we are.
Speaker 3: Here, we are living a dream come true for me,
Speaker 3: which is just very surreal all the time.
Speaker 2: Oh wow. So, I mean we're in your winery or
Speaker 2: we're in a tasting room, beautiful, a beautiful white space, blue.
Speaker 2: It's really welcoming. Welcoming. What do you welcome you with
Speaker 2: what do you make here? We make a.
Speaker 3: Lot of different things. I am definitely a wine nerd
Speaker 3: and a wine geek, and I have a wide range
Speaker 3: of wins that I love to drink and that I
Speaker 3: love to make, and so we do everything from whites
Speaker 3: to light reds to dark reds. I mostly from Livermore
Speaker 3: Valley fruit, but there are a few things that I
Speaker 3: really really like that I get from outside the region.
Speaker 3: I'm from Salinas originally, and so I like to have
Speaker 3: a little bit of my hometown Monterey County, So I
Speaker 3: go down and get some pinot and reasling from there.
Speaker 3: My parents love it because they're guaranteed to see me
Speaker 3: three times a harvest, which.
Speaker 2: Is where because nobody sees anyone during harvest.
Speaker 3: No, it's mostly really late at night, and I leave
Speaker 3: really early, but they say they're okay with that, so
Speaker 3: as long as they get to you know, put eyeballs
Speaker 3: on me. Their happy campers. And then there's some lesser
Speaker 3: known varieties that I get from a grow up in Lodi,
Speaker 3: like Toldego Pellerson and a few other things that just
Speaker 3: I can't find in Livermore Valley, and I really like
Speaker 3: making them.
Speaker 2: Well, let's be fair, you can't find those in a
Speaker 2: lot of places in California.
Speaker 3: That is true. That is true. So with those ones
Speaker 3: that are really rare, you have.
Speaker 2: To go to them, right And then here in Livermore,
Speaker 2: are you doing the traditional grapes like Cabernet Samannion and
Speaker 2: Cabernet franc or what else?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a long list, capsav and cap franc, Malbec, Murlow,
Speaker 3: a couple of different Sarrahs. I'm a huge Sarah fan.
Speaker 3: That's one of my northern rhn is one of my
Speaker 3: favorite regions on the planet, and I just I love
Speaker 3: that grape. And then Petite Sarah, hopefully a Sanja Vaci.
Speaker 3: I've done, Nebiolo, Peanot, greed Punay. We're adding Roussan from
Speaker 3: Livermore this year, which I'm really excited about.
Speaker 2: So you're doing you're purchasing all your fruit or do
Speaker 2: you have any vineyards that you manage?
Speaker 3: Correct? No, I purchased all the fruit. Land is a
Speaker 3: little bit pricey, and so as a new business, we're
Speaker 3: going with the leasing model for now, but it is
Speaker 3: the ultimate goal is to own property at some point.
Speaker 2: And what is your total case production?
Speaker 3: Last year it was just under a one thousand. This
Speaker 3: year we're aiming for between fifteen hundred and two thousand.
Speaker 2: That's pretty good for a brand new liinery. So now
Speaker 2: you said you started November twenty twenty three, but your
Speaker 2: first harvest under your own label was in twenty twenty three. Okay, correct,
Speaker 2: So yeah, you just announced jmc sellers after you harvested.
Speaker 3: Well it see, we took over the lease of this
Speaker 3: property in July, but we did a couple of things
Speaker 3: like painting and you know, clearing it out and rearranging
Speaker 3: the furniture and and then you know, I'm the crazy
Speaker 3: person who did all of that while harvest was going on.
Speaker 3: So I don't know what nut job decided on that schedule.
Speaker 2: Well here we are, so you know, congratulations. And are
Speaker 2: you one hundred percent direct to consumer or yes?
Speaker 3: Right now, we're one hundred percent direct to consumer. We
Speaker 3: do have a couple small account wholesale accounts, but mostly
Speaker 3: local places in town.
Speaker 2: Okay, So tell me what is your memory your first
Speaker 2: memory relevant to wine?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, that is an excellent question.
Speaker 2: How old were you the first time you kind of
Speaker 2: even knew anything about wine?
Speaker 3: You know, teenager? But I actually really didn't like it.
Speaker 3: Let's see, after I graduated from college, I moved back
Speaker 3: to California and moved to Pleasanton, which is right next
Speaker 3: door to Livermore, and discovered that I was living fifteen
Speaker 3: minutes from wine, a wine country, and that was great.
Speaker 2: And you hadn't really realized that growing up in Salinas well.
Speaker 3: Selena's has some wine, but it's it was pretty pretty
Speaker 3: spread out, it's not. It's very different now. Carmel Valley,
Speaker 3: the village has a ton of tasting rooms, Carmel by
Speaker 3: the Sea as a ton, river Road has more more
Speaker 3: than it used to. It wasn't at least I didn't
Speaker 3: pay attention to what it was like growing up because
Speaker 3: it wasn't. I mean, I wasn't allowed to do that, right,
Speaker 3: you know, I was under twenty one, and once I
Speaker 3: partably my mid twenties is when I really started getting
Speaker 3: into it because I had such easy access and it
Speaker 3: was fun, and you know, I love pairing wine with food,
Speaker 3: and that became more of a thing and kind of
Speaker 3: a hobby to try to figure out, you know, what
Speaker 3: goes with what, and which I've really dived into now
Speaker 3: that I once I switched my careers and.
Speaker 2: So once you started getting to know wine, and I
Speaker 2: know you were just saying that it's about it was
Speaker 2: about playing with food and wine. But was there an
Speaker 2: aha moment for you a wine that you had that
Speaker 2: was just kind of eye opening? What here's filing? So
Speaker 2: what was the occasion and what was the aha moment?
Speaker 3: There are that's actually a very long list, but some
Speaker 3: of the three that really hooked me. And this is
Speaker 3: a champagne taste on a beer budget situation, uh coat
Speaker 3: rote which I love and do a co fermentation of
Speaker 3: sura and Bionier because I just really enjoy that combination.
Speaker 3: Burrella and barbar esco so nebuolo, and then you know, champagne.
Speaker 3: So between those three the trifecta for me, it was
Speaker 3: those were three that really every time I tried it
Speaker 3: for the first one of those for the first time,
Speaker 3: it just hooked me deeper and deeper and deeper.
Speaker 2: So no particular occasion, just a general sort of attraction
Speaker 2: to these.
Speaker 3: There was one. This is after I was well into
Speaker 3: wine though. I did a huge thirtieth birthday trip with
Speaker 3: my mom and the whole way we were tasting everywhere.
Speaker 3: I picked our locations by wine region, which should shock
Speaker 3: no one. And we were in Piedmont and everywhere we went,
Speaker 3: well through France and then into Italy, and everywhere we
Speaker 3: tasted that I knew was old enough. I was asking
Speaker 3: about my birth year, you know, nineteen eighty five, So
Speaker 3: do you have a nineteen eighty five? I went with
Speaker 3: like a huge budget for one bottle of my birth year,
Speaker 3: just to do have it. Yeah, And everywhere we were
Speaker 3: all that was a really good vintage. No, we don't
Speaker 3: have any, And it became a joke. My mom and
Speaker 3: I joked about it. And so by the time we
Speaker 3: got to Italy, we were on a wine tour with
Speaker 3: a married couple and we're kind of joked about it,
Speaker 3: and they ended up directing us to a wine shop
Speaker 3: that had one. And so I brought the nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: five barber Esco back and I drank it with a
Speaker 3: friend who's also the same birth year as me.
Speaker 2: To remember the producer.
Speaker 3: Oh god, the one with the soldier starts with an
Speaker 3: R and not to ron, thank you, thank you. My
Speaker 3: brain is not functioning today. Yes, And it was absolutely
Speaker 3: delightfully wonderful, like it was so good.
Speaker 2: It aged as well as you did. I did.
Speaker 3: I haven't tried it, RecA. It's been another, you know,
Speaker 3: not quite decades, so I haven't tried it recently. I
Speaker 3: don't know if it's as good anymore. But nine years
Speaker 3: ago it was great.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 2: So if we were to come to your home now,
Speaker 2: what would we find in? What do you collect at home?
Speaker 2: What do you what are you a mass? Is it
Speaker 2: a lot of your own wine? Well, you've only been
Speaker 2: making wine for two years under your own label. Is
Speaker 2: it a lot of local wines? Or do you collect
Speaker 2: a lot of wines from around the world, in particular grapes.
Speaker 3: There's some of my own wine, but I am absolutely
Speaker 3: terrified of getting a house palate, to be honest, So
Speaker 3: I drink of mostly other people's wine at my house,
Speaker 3: not exclusively, but but pretty heavily. I have everything from
Speaker 3: local around the area. I don't get out that much,
Speaker 3: but when I do, I try to get stuff because
Speaker 3: then I have supply, and then I also have I
Speaker 3: love Piedmonts. I've got a ton of that bunch of
Speaker 3: French stuff. I love sparkling wine from all over the world.
Speaker 3: So whenever I find something that's fun or from a
Speaker 3: country I've never tried. You know, I'm grabbing a bottle
Speaker 3: when I can, uh from The wine runs the gambit
Speaker 3: from everything from like a peanut grease or you know, uh,
Speaker 3: pin blocks, to heavier whites, to light reds to dark
Speaker 3: reds to dessert wines. Like I really everyone, they're always
Speaker 3: which one's your which one's your favorite? I'm like, well, today,
Speaker 3: in this moment, this is what I want.
Speaker 2: Is there anything that you opened up recently that drank
Speaker 2: really well?
Speaker 3: We have a reserve reasling that's coming out at the
Speaker 3: end of next month. That's a bone dry reasling Santa
Speaker 3: Lucia Highlands fruit. And I am very in love with
Speaker 3: this wine that I've made, and I can't believe I've
Speaker 3: made it. Sometimes this is this is really Usually I'm
Speaker 3: very critical, you know, you're you're your worst critic, right,
Speaker 3: and but I very much enjoy that's for whatever reason,
Speaker 3: that wine, I'm able to disconnect myself from my own
Speaker 3: product a little bit to to.
Speaker 2: Be able to sit with it brings you joy.
Speaker 3: It brings me a lot of drink. They all do,
Speaker 3: but some of them, I you know, you remember how
Speaker 3: much work you put into it.
Speaker 2: Sometimes and you know so, And I love how you
Speaker 2: know a recent wine that you drink isn't another wine,
Speaker 2: it's one of your own that stands out and that No,
Speaker 2: I want to try the reasoning.
Speaker 3: If we've got one scrolled away back there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I'm curious. Do you think that there's a
Speaker 2: such thing as a perfect variety as someone who's drinking
Speaker 2: all these different wines and now, you know, working with
Speaker 2: different varieties. Do you think there's a such thing as
Speaker 2: perfection with any of them?
Speaker 3: I don't think so, to be honest, because everyone may
Speaker 3: differ with that, because but with my own palate, because
Speaker 3: I like different things at different moments. In this moment,
Speaker 3: there might be something that's perfect for me, but next day,
Speaker 3: when it's thirty degrees cooler, I'm gonna want something else,
Speaker 3: or or I have a different meal in front of me,
Speaker 3: or I'm in a different mood, or you know it really,
Speaker 3: as I said, people ask me what my favorite, I
Speaker 3: was like, I don't have a favorite, and they're like,
Speaker 3: that's a cop out answer. I'm like, no, it's really
Speaker 3: like it changes constantly.
Speaker 2: You guys, Well, if somebody's never had your wines, I've
Speaker 2: never had JMC cellar wines. What do you think they're
Speaker 2: missing out on?
Speaker 3: Awesomeness?
Speaker 2: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3: I being able to try maybe something you've never had before.
Speaker 3: I again, I'm a wine nerd and a wine geek.
Speaker 2: And I.
Speaker 3: Love this industry and I love that I get to
Speaker 3: do my life's passion and I think it's reflected in
Speaker 3: my product and hopefully other people think that as well.
Speaker 2: That's awesomeness. That's what it is. Awesomeness. So I know
Speaker 2: you don't like to pick a favorite child, but if
Speaker 2: space aliens were to land on your property, come up
Speaker 2: to the door and knock on it, and you wanted
Speaker 2: to welcome them with one wine that said, this is
Speaker 2: gmc sellers, which of your wines would you welcome them with?
Speaker 3: Actually, probably the Floor Savage in this moment today, that
Speaker 3: is my favorite, so we're going to go with that.
Speaker 3: It is a co fermentation of mostly Surrah with three
Speaker 3: percent boner. Okay, So co fermentation, for those of you
Speaker 3: who don't know, is the process of blending the fruit
Speaker 3: together before fermentation, so it's together from the get go.
Speaker 3: To do an analogy for it, traditional blending is a
Speaker 3: lot like digital photography. You've done everything separately. You pull samples,
Speaker 3: you do blending trials. If you're not happy with the product,
Speaker 3: you can change it in real time and try again,
Speaker 3: or start over and try again, and keep going till
Speaker 3: you get a product you want and that you think
Speaker 3: is perfect. Co fermentation is a little bit more like film,
Speaker 3: where you have an idea of how you're framing it up,
Speaker 3: but you don't know for sure until it's fully developed.
Speaker 2: I do love the film and photo analogies, which there
Speaker 2: is a tie into that, which I want to bring
Speaker 2: up in a second. But before I do that, I
Speaker 2: do want to ask you red white or rose white
Speaker 2: still are sparkling?
Speaker 3: Sparkling?
Speaker 2: I do want to get to the art part. But
Speaker 2: you've talked a lot about food and wine pairing, and
Speaker 2: I'm curious how you approach that. Do you follow strict
Speaker 2: rules such as white wine and fish, red wine and meat,
Speaker 2: or do you have other guidelines that you could recommend.
Speaker 3: I do not follow the strict guidelines at all. There's
Speaker 3: different levels of wine pairing too, depending on what you're
Speaker 3: trying to do. So if you're just trying to you
Speaker 3: want this is the wine you want to drink, and
Speaker 3: that's the food you want absolutely fine, doesn't matter. The
Speaker 3: other end of the spectrum and there's a couple in
Speaker 3: between is like the synergistic pairing, right, And there's like
Speaker 3: a dozen rules that came out of the Food and
Speaker 3: Wine textbook that I learned from, and there are rules
Speaker 3: of thumbs, but there's always exceptions, so it's kind of
Speaker 3: you really have to play around with it. And it's
Speaker 3: taken me many, many years of just doing it very
Speaker 3: casually to get to the point where I can get
Speaker 3: pretty close without without really needing all of it ahead
Speaker 3: of time to try it. However, Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 3: sometimes that doesn't work either.
Speaker 2: But we did.
Speaker 3: We do a series called geek Out with GMC and
Speaker 3: it's once a month guided tasting that we do between
Speaker 3: February and August every year, and last month was actually
Speaker 3: the Food and Wine Pairing class. So when my seller
Speaker 3: Master Shannon and I got together because we did because
Speaker 3: we did want to get a synergistic parent to present,
Speaker 3: and we kind of made a dinner off the cuff
Speaker 3: and we had the wines open, and it did not
Speaker 3: go with the wine we thought it would at all.
Speaker 3: The wine we thought it would go with actually did
Speaker 3: not go together. In any way, shape or form. It
Speaker 3: made both of it just not like I don't want
Speaker 3: to eat or drink this, but just kind of like
Speaker 3: not as good.
Speaker 2: Neither shown.
Speaker 3: Neither shown what went with it? And it was a
Speaker 3: steak like flank steak with snap peas and udon noodles
Speaker 3: and and kind of olive oil with a little bit
Speaker 3: of red pepper flakes kind of a thing.
Speaker 2: And what did you think it would pair with one of.
Speaker 3: The reds, kind of a lighter red. We had one
Speaker 3: called peller Sen that we thought it would go with
Speaker 3: and it did not. It actually went with a peanut.
Speaker 2: Green and I'm gonna guess that's because of the red
Speaker 2: chili flakes and the.
Speaker 3: And the snap peas. We thought the Pellersin would have
Speaker 3: enough acid to kind of and then enough tannin to
Speaker 3: go with the beef, but really the dish ended up
Speaker 3: being way more on the side where it needed like
Speaker 3: a crisp white wine with beef.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and there you go, because sometimes you need
Speaker 2: the acid to balance the dish and sometimes you need
Speaker 2: the roundness of the wine to balance the dish. So
Speaker 2: it's all about harmony, right exactly, synergy harmony. It is
Speaker 2: a fun.
Speaker 3: It's a fun hobby for anyone who wants to do it,
Speaker 3: to be honest and just trying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it required to get to eat and drink a lot.
Speaker 2: What's not to like about that. So I'm curious. You're
Speaker 2: a small brand, You're not like a lot of other
Speaker 2: wineries that have a lot of awards hanging on the walls.
Speaker 2: Yet maybe maybe not. I'm curious what your take is
Speaker 2: on wine critics and scores, like, is it something that
Speaker 2: you think will help build your brand? Is it something
Speaker 2: that you're not interested at all? Where do you find
Speaker 2: that it has a place, especially with a young brand
Speaker 2: starting out that hasn't quite maybe utilized it yet.
Speaker 3: I'm kind of following in between. So it is something
Speaker 3: we did. We did enter into the chronicle. We realized
Speaker 3: you have to pay for the plaque now, which we
Speaker 3: forgot about, so we are ordering that. But we entered
Speaker 3: five wines and they all meddled, which was kind of
Speaker 3: I I enter. I've been entering stuff in the Chronicle
Speaker 3: every year. It's local, like it's you know, it's a
Speaker 3: good one and I love my wine. But I was
Speaker 3: I was just very very flattered that they get so
Speaker 3: many thousands of entries like that. It was just as
Speaker 3: really excited. It also helped that they had to at
Speaker 3: least new to me. I hadn't entered them before. But
Speaker 3: Toroaldego and Montepucian had their own categories, which was really cool.
Speaker 3: And then not this pinot, but there is a pino noir,
Speaker 3: and then there was a white wine blend and mine
Speaker 3: forgetting one grenache because that was the other one.
Speaker 2: And and of course that makes you feel good and
Speaker 2: it says something to you. I mean, it makes you
Speaker 2: feel it gives you a pet on the back. But
Speaker 2: I mean, where do you think wine critics kind of
Speaker 2: fall into that? Is that something that you're going to
Speaker 2: be seeking out. Is it going to determine how you
Speaker 2: make wine or don't make wine? Or does it not
Speaker 2: play a part in how you're working.
Speaker 3: It probably won't affect how I make wine. However, it's
Speaker 3: funny you're bringing this epsis this week was talking about
Speaker 3: figure you know, I've never submitted wine to get points
Speaker 3: like rated before, and so figuring out that process and
Speaker 3: who we want to send to and and doing that
Speaker 3: to have a have things scored, because it is I
Speaker 3: mean for a small place. The reality is that is
Speaker 3: one avenue to get your name and brand out there.
Speaker 3: So I think that that's part of the marketing side
Speaker 3: of wine making, is that for someone who's not well known,
Speaker 3: it is a way to get recognition so that you
Speaker 3: get your name out there.
Speaker 2: So getting away from all the marketing stuff that you
Speaker 2: have to do, let's get back to the ground. Like
Speaker 2: you're buying fruit from a number of vineyards, do you
Speaker 2: spend a lot of time in the vineyard.
Speaker 3: We were in the minyard this morning, a couple of
Speaker 3: them this morning, actually as much as I can, especially
Speaker 3: obviously during as we get closer to harvest, and it's
Speaker 3: looking like the ones we looked at today were just
Speaker 3: starting variasion, which means.
Speaker 2: A clock starts gets started. So are there any signs
Speaker 2: or predictors that you look for that's going to tell
Speaker 2: you what kind of a harvest you're going to get?
Speaker 3: Mother nature is probably the biggest predictor. It's I think
Speaker 3: it's gonna be a really hot summer, which we've all
Speaker 3: been saying for a couple months. I think, And I
Speaker 3: my guess, you know, it's all.
Speaker 2: You just never know what she's gonna throw it.
Speaker 3: But my guess is it's gonna be a slightly earlier
Speaker 3: harvest than normal and uh, probably fast and furious. But again,
Speaker 3: it all depends on the next couple months and what
Speaker 3: mother nature decides to throw away.
Speaker 2: So the signs and predictors you have right now is
Speaker 2: the heat and everything that says early. But again that
Speaker 2: nothing she could change, things change, She's fickle. In the
Speaker 2: time that you have been working in this area, and
Speaker 2: you grew up generally in this area, so you're you're
Speaker 2: this is a this is a part of California. You
Speaker 2: know pretty well. We know every vintage tells a different story.
Speaker 2: Have you noticed in your experience and just spending time
Speaker 2: in this area. Is there a lot of variation from
Speaker 2: vintage to vintage, extreme variation or is it really more
Speaker 2: you can really see a through line that it's pretty consistent.
Speaker 3: I would say it's more consistent than not. You're always
Speaker 3: going to have those years that are a little very
Speaker 3: different from the previous ones. But I'd say in the
Speaker 3: US in general, those are a little more rare for
Speaker 3: us because we get to irrigate and we get to
Speaker 3: do a lot of vineyard management techniques that other regions
Speaker 3: who drive farm are not.
Speaker 2: Allowed to do.
Speaker 3: So I feel like the mother nature can have a
Speaker 3: worse impact if it's bad on those regions than in
Speaker 3: the US.
Speaker 2: And have you established any sort of good luck rituals
Speaker 2: to start harvest? I mean you are a new winery,
Speaker 2: so any good luck or are you going.
Speaker 3: To ask us that's a really good idea. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: have to think of something.
Speaker 2: I know nothing in your first harvo.
Speaker 3: Some silly dance. I don't know. Well, I was going
Speaker 3: insane last year again some nut job decided that not
Speaker 3: opening a tasting room, getting a tasting room ready during
Speaker 3: harvest was a great idea.
Speaker 2: And twenty twenty three was your first vintage under your
Speaker 2: own label under JAMC.
Speaker 3: But I've been co wine making with my previous employer
Speaker 3: for almost a decade, so when they closed and we
Speaker 3: were opening, I was in the unique position to actually
Speaker 3: buy my own wine. So the stuff that's being bottled,
Speaker 3: what's in front of you. I technically bought a bulk,
Speaker 3: but I can also tell you all the details of
Speaker 3: all of those grapes because I have been with them
Speaker 3: from the moment they touched this property.
Speaker 2: You didn't actually by bulg I mean you bought finished wine,
Speaker 2: but you had made the wine.
Speaker 3: Just it wasn't it wasn't legally mine, but now it
Speaker 3: is right and.
Speaker 2: So that's how you're able to pour twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, twenty twenty Yes, because you made it.
Speaker 2: But ahh, yeah, it's very tricky. She's a new winery
Speaker 2: yet she has old vintages. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 3: Well, no, And that was part of the opportunity that
Speaker 3: was in front of me. You know, you start from
Speaker 3: the ground floor and you're you're talking two to three
Speaker 3: years before you're going to see the reds in the
Speaker 3: tasting room. Right for me, it could be immediately technically
Speaker 3: again legally not jmc's but mine. Nonetheless, So it was
Speaker 3: a very unique position to be in, and it was
Speaker 3: one that I that I flattered and flabbergasted and amazed
Speaker 3: and delighted by the fact that I get to do this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's almost like you're starting on the third floor
Speaker 2: instead of the ground floor.
Speaker 3: Yep. Yes, in that, Yes, there are other things where
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm I'm very much on the ground.
Speaker 2: Floor for but it helps to have that, you know,
Speaker 2: a little bit of lyft in the vineyards. Are you
Speaker 2: buying from certain blocks, do you have a consistency with that.
Speaker 2: Is that something new or is this part of your
Speaker 2: older connection with these vineyards?
Speaker 3: A lot of the older connections actually, So I was
Speaker 3: able to come to them and say, hey, I would
Speaker 3: like to still continue to get fruit from you, and
Speaker 3: everyone was really excited.
Speaker 2: So you know these blocks, you've been working them with
Speaker 2: them for a while. Do they know you? Do you
Speaker 2: talk to them? Do you have a relationship with your vines? Yes.
Speaker 3: I don't think I'd talk out loud all the time,
Speaker 3: at least I hope not. I'll have to ask Shannon.
Speaker 3: She's never said anything, and I feel like she would.
Speaker 2: What about when you're in the cellar? Do you talk
Speaker 2: to your wine, coax it along, encourage it, reprimand it.
Speaker 3: Of course, especially reprimand if it's being difficult. Yes, no,
Speaker 3: it is there. I don't have any human children, but
Speaker 3: I do have barrels. And those are your babies.
Speaker 2: They are my babies. And you never pick favorites.
Speaker 3: Not to their face.
Speaker 2: So you were saying that you've been making way for
Speaker 2: about ten years. But I know you mentioned a little
Speaker 2: bit about photography. You made a nice analogy there, So
Speaker 2: I'm curious when you were little what did you want
Speaker 2: to be when you grew up?
Speaker 3: I went through the gambit when I was really little.
Speaker 3: One of my earliest memories was wanting me a veterinarian actually,
Speaker 3: which the thought I fainted at the sight of blood,
Speaker 3: so that really didn't, you know, pan out for me.
Speaker 3: Then I went into God, what did I go into?
Speaker 3: After that? I end up architecture for a little while,
Speaker 3: and then after talking to some people in high school,
Speaker 3: I excelled much more in math and science than in art.
Speaker 3: So this suggestion was made to go into engineering.
Speaker 2: And that's what you pursued. Correct, And so you are
Speaker 2: a civil engineer by training?
Speaker 3: Correct?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: I went to University of Portland and graduated and worked
Speaker 3: at a transportation engineering firm in Pleasanton. I got licensed,
Speaker 3: and I knew very early on that I was not
Speaker 3: the career path for me. But I'm also I am
Speaker 3: an engineer, so I'm very pragmatic. So I wasn't about
Speaker 3: to quit a job that was paying me really well
Speaker 3: just because I didn't like it. You know, there was
Speaker 3: nothing wrong, you.
Speaker 2: Know, So what was the push out of the nest?
Speaker 3: I stumbled into wine kind of accidentally. She's one of
Speaker 3: my best friends now. But she was working behind the
Speaker 3: bar at my previous employer, and she's about my age,
Speaker 3: and it looked like fun. I know a lot of
Speaker 3: wineries around here still it's kind of a thing people
Speaker 3: do on the weekends as a social activity, just to have,
Speaker 3: like it's a part time job, but you know, a
Speaker 3: couple ships a month, and.
Speaker 2: It looked like fun.
Speaker 3: In the complete opposite of my job. Right at work,
Speaker 3: I would sit and stare at a computer for nine
Speaker 3: hours a day and not talk to anyone really, and
Speaker 3: this this was chit chatting and talking and it was just,
Speaker 3: you know, I like wine and human.
Speaker 2: It was human.
Speaker 3: It was human interaction. And so I ended up giving
Speaker 3: them my email on the way out and worked my
Speaker 3: first shift and my second and tenth. And the more
Speaker 3: the more I was around wine, the more I wanted
Speaker 3: to learn about it because it's really interesting. And then
Speaker 3: I kind of got into well, how is wine made?
Speaker 3: And it's chemistry and biology with some hefty engineering thrown
Speaker 3: in there, because you know, you use machines. And as
Speaker 3: it turns out, my view on wine is wine is
Speaker 3: art meets science, and my brain is happiest when it
Speaker 3: has science and art. So in hindsight, this was work.
Speaker 3: It was kind of a no brainer industry for me
Speaker 3: because it because it does both and you.
Speaker 2: Ended up exactly where you're supposed to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: So when you're not working, how do you spend your
Speaker 2: free time? Or I should say, I was like, how
Speaker 2: would you like to spend free time should you ever
Speaker 2: find it again?
Speaker 3: Oh, traveling? I love to travel. Gosh, I don't. So
Speaker 3: it's a funny thing of when you work in your passion,
Speaker 3: you're also working in your hobby. You get paint into
Speaker 3: your hobby professionally, so you.
Speaker 2: Don't really know what free time is because it all
Speaker 2: becomes part of your life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it does. It's just it's it's a lifestyle that
Speaker 3: I've very much embraced and I would like to go
Speaker 3: see my family more. They're not. They're an hour and
Speaker 3: a half away. And and with this venture, it was
Speaker 3: very much everyone. It was on the same page of
Speaker 3: just isn't going to come home.
Speaker 2: Very often for a while, but they could come wine
Speaker 2: tasting on weekends. They do.
Speaker 3: Actually, a whole bunch of them are coming up for
Speaker 3: the geek out on Saturday, and.
Speaker 2: So they'll be up here and then I guess you
Speaker 2: also do your passion. You know it's work, but you
Speaker 2: could say it's your free time because you created all
Speaker 2: your labels. And your labels are beautiful, they're they're blue,
Speaker 2: and they've got prints of flowers. I don't know, maybe
Speaker 2: describe them a little bit and how they came to be.
Speaker 3: Oh sure. So all of my labels are based off
Speaker 3: cyanotypes that I have done. So a cyanotype is one
Speaker 3: of the original photographic prints that was discovered in the
Speaker 3: mid eighteen hundreds. And you mix two chemicals together, they
Speaker 3: become photosensitive and you put it on a product. I
Speaker 3: put it on watercolor paper and let it dry, and
Speaker 3: then you put on top whatever you're trying to capture
Speaker 3: the image of and then you put it out in
Speaker 3: the sun underglass to keep it pressed together, and then
Speaker 3: you rinse it and then that's it. And as it dries,
Speaker 3: it turns into this lovely like deep rich blue that
Speaker 3: is called Prussian blue. And it's kind of what the
Speaker 3: entire esthetic is based on in the tasting room and
Speaker 3: you know, in my clothes, and.
Speaker 2: It's the original, like an original photograph before we had photographs.
Speaker 2: It was an original way of doing a photograph and
Speaker 2: it's these imprints of wildflowers. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So essentially the concept behind the label is each variety
Speaker 3: will have a different botanical that is kind of assigned
Speaker 3: to it or is it designated, and so like the
Speaker 3: Pino gree is a daisy and the pino noir is
Speaker 3: actually oxalis. That is that weed that if you get
Speaker 3: it in your yard, you it is there Forever it is,
Speaker 3: it is never leaving. My dad has been battling the
Speaker 3: stuff in the backyard for almost forty years.
Speaker 2: But it makes a pretty label.
Speaker 3: Oh, it makes a beautiful label. I tricked him actually,
Speaker 3: like I could say it had bloomed, and I picked
Speaker 3: some and I made him. I was like, this is
Speaker 3: probably the prettiest one I've done yet. And I handed
Speaker 3: it to him. I was like, isn't this pretty?
Speaker 2: He's like, it's so beautiful? What is it?
Speaker 3: I was like, what sox sus? And he literally dropped
Speaker 3: it and he goes, what are you to do it
Speaker 3: to me? Daughter of mine? How could you hand me
Speaker 3: my nemesis? My dad's retired, he had he has fun
Speaker 3: making up fake nemesis and and uh no, it's it's
Speaker 3: probably one of my favorites that I've done. Actually, I
Speaker 3: really like that one. And Sarah is the lavender, and
Speaker 3: Bonier is hydrangea, and there's a white wine blend and
Speaker 3: a red wine blend that have poppies on them, which
Speaker 3: is really pretty.
Speaker 2: I like that one too, It's very cool. So when
Speaker 2: you look back, if you think about it, is there
Speaker 2: a piece I'll take that up. So when you look
Speaker 2: at your life to date, is there a piece of
Speaker 2: advice that someone gave you along the way? Maybe it
Speaker 2: was your dad with a nemesis or something else, but
Speaker 2: is there some Is there a piece of advice that
Speaker 2: somewhere along the way someone gave you that you try
Speaker 2: to live or work by.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I don't. I probably cannot remember how it
Speaker 3: stuck in my head at all. But one of the
Speaker 3: how I got here is really by asking myself questions
Speaker 3: at different points, important moments, and the question is will
Speaker 3: you regret not trying? So people tend to regret the
Speaker 3: things that they didn't do, not the things that they
Speaker 3: did as a general orlder again our exceptions, but for
Speaker 3: me switching from engineering to wine, it was very much
Speaker 3: will I will forty years from now, will I regret
Speaker 3: not having tried this? At this moment when the opportunity
Speaker 3: is here. The answer was yes, So I've switched to
Speaker 3: wine and I've never looked back. So when this came
Speaker 3: up to open gmc sellers, I asked myself the same question.
Speaker 3: It came down to it, will I regret not trying?
Speaker 3: And the answer was yes, I would regret not trying.
Speaker 2: So when you look back at your career to date
Speaker 2: so far, what would you say, is one of your
Speaker 2: proudest achievements.
Speaker 3: That outpouring of support that came from opening jmc sellers. Actually,
Speaker 3: I I am still very touched and floored by the
Speaker 3: amount of just absolute love and community that came out
Speaker 3: to help wherever they.
Speaker 2: Could possibly help.
Speaker 3: It was absolutely incredible, and I was very very stunned,
Speaker 3: not that no one's nice, but like it was just
Speaker 3: like it was to a point that you didn't expect it.
Speaker 3: I didn't expect it at all, and it was very
Speaker 3: very touched by it.
Speaker 2: And that says a lot about the community that you're in.
Speaker 3: Livermore is a very tight knit community. We are very
Speaker 3: supportive of each other, which is why maybe shouldn't have
Speaker 3: been shocked by it, because I would do the same
Speaker 3: thing and and try to help where I can. You know,
Speaker 3: if my forklift breaks down or someone else is like,
Speaker 3: I'll drive my forklift up, or they'll drive theirs down,
Speaker 3: and especially in the middle of harvest where you like
Speaker 3: really need a forklift. And but that's just kind of
Speaker 3: the the neighbors helping neighbors attitude that we have and
Speaker 3: and I really enjoy it.
Speaker 2: I was not.
Speaker 3: I was not ready to leave Livermore. And and when
Speaker 3: JMC came up again, that was another factor, was like,
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not done.
Speaker 2: I don't think you'll be leaving here at any point soon.
Speaker 2: I think you're here for a while.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think for just you know, a few years,
Speaker 3: give or take.
Speaker 2: So complete the sentence. For me, a table without wine.
Speaker 3: Is like being naked either.
Speaker 2: Some people like that, that's a fair point.
Speaker 3: Table with that wine is like, yeah, I mean feeling naked,
Speaker 3: like not having your phone on you feels naked.
Speaker 2: I'm not supposed to come up with the with with answers.
Speaker 2: I mean, there are no right answers, so make it
Speaker 2: is totally fine. I'm not supposed to come up with answers.
Speaker 2: But it's funny because I'm like coming up with things
Speaker 2: that tie in with you. So I'm like, a photograph
Speaker 2: without a frame or a frame without a photograph.
Speaker 3: Can we change it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: One a frame without a photograph, that's what it is.
Speaker 3: Well done, Well done, thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm not supposed to help to get your wall. I
Speaker 2: know you're into art. I know you have these beautiful labels,
Speaker 2: so you know, there you go. Thank you. I drew completely,
Speaker 2: no worries, no worries. I'm here to help. That's you know,
Speaker 2: okay efforts. So I'm not going to help you on
Speaker 2: this one.
Speaker 3: This one you're go to do on your own. Okay.
Speaker 2: We're sitting at a table. There are chairs empty next
Speaker 2: to you. Your wines are on the table. Who from
Speaker 2: any walk of life, living or deceased, known or unknown,
Speaker 2: would you want to share a bottle of JAMC Sellers
Speaker 2: wines with?
Speaker 4: Glad?
Speaker 2: He's a hard.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: It could be someone you admire, someone you.
Speaker 3: Such a laundry list of people. You know. My great
Speaker 3: grandmother she went by Mimi, and she sounds like she
Speaker 3: was a spitfire. And I never got to meet her.
Speaker 3: If I could, I could bring her back to life.
Speaker 3: I think she'd enjoy this.
Speaker 2: I'd be proud. Yeah, so I'm curious.
Speaker 3: She ran a business for a while too, so I
Speaker 3: really like I have. I also have so many questions,
Speaker 3: so that would give me an opportunity to pick her brain.
Speaker 2: Wow, that would be great though, you know, like two
Speaker 2: women the family running businesses. Yes. Yeah, So if you
Speaker 2: were being sent off to a deserted island, what three
Speaker 2: wines would you take with you? And they could be
Speaker 2: any wines. They could be aspirational, even they could be memorable. Okay,
Speaker 2: well cot ROTI any any co rotin.
Speaker 3: Ah. My favorite producer is is Christoph Bune. I would
Speaker 3: definitely bring his stuff. Oh three wines.
Speaker 2: Easier when there's one, right, I know, Champagne to Champagne
Speaker 2: any particular or.
Speaker 3: I'm totally blanking on the producer name. My friend Shannon
Speaker 3: Semester and friend it but.
Speaker 2: A grower Champagne.
Speaker 3: Yes, she got it from this tiny little producer. She
Speaker 3: married a Frenchman and so they got married in France,
Speaker 3: and so this was their their wedding wine. And she
Speaker 3: brought back some a couple of years ago and I
Speaker 3: had her bring me back some bottles and uh I
Speaker 3: was so good, Oh my gosh, it was so good.
Speaker 2: So Champagne coat route, I feel.
Speaker 3: Like I need a white wine.
Speaker 2: Round it out when Champagne has some white in it, condreunri.
Speaker 3: That's the other.
Speaker 2: There's your white one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there we go, go run fantastic.
Speaker 2: What we got all French? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Oh yes, maybe I should get that.
Speaker 2: Look at that. We can slide a fourth in there?
Speaker 2: Why not? I mean, it's not really a strict rule.
Speaker 2: So well, I want to talk about your wines just
Speaker 2: a little bit. Now. I know that art is your medium.
Speaker 2: You like to you like the art and the science
Speaker 2: of it, and your medium is photography. But let's talk
Speaker 2: about the medium of music, because music conjures up emotions
Speaker 2: in us, as does you know drinking wine. And I
Speaker 2: want you to pair your wines with music in the
Speaker 2: sense of what what kind of genre, song, artist, whatever
Speaker 2: you're comfortable with? Mate? Do you think of when you
Speaker 2: think of the wine? So I want to start with
Speaker 2: your peno.
Speaker 3: Gree come back to that one.
Speaker 2: Well, describe the peanut green.
Speaker 3: It is crisp and a little zippy and lemonye and lime,
Speaker 3: zesty and great chilled on a hot summer day.
Speaker 2: Actually, so what do you like to listen to on
Speaker 2: a hot summer day. It's crisp and zippy and chilled.
Speaker 3: Okay, go, Actually the band I have, they've I've been
Speaker 3: fans of theirs for let's not talk about how many
Speaker 3: years now, but I I love them. They have some
Speaker 3: real peppy, peppier songs that would would.
Speaker 4: Go with that.
Speaker 2: See you did it. We're just gonna have to break
Speaker 2: it down by describing the wine, and that's how you
Speaker 2: know it.
Speaker 3: I was like, I already have the one for Florida.
Speaker 2: Next, I want to do your toll to go subscribe
Speaker 2: the wine and take me through it, and I bet
Speaker 2: you'll come up with the song.
Speaker 3: So the wine personality of the wine, and this is
Speaker 3: not anything to do with the tasting notes, but Toroaldego
Speaker 3: is the aunt of Sarah, so I've always kind of
Speaker 3: done and it's from Italy, so kind of that, like
Speaker 3: I am a crazy aunt, so I feel a lot
Speaker 3: of kinship with like the crazy ant kind of thing.
Speaker 3: So maybe oh, Megan, Megan Trainer, Okay, let's do that one.
Speaker 2: Okay, Megan Trainer. And then you're hmm, Ale Conde Bouchet,
Speaker 2: come on, like you do some fun grapes. We gotta
Speaker 2: find some fun wine gosh. So this particular vintage.
Speaker 3: Though, is a little on the lighter side. It looks dark,
Speaker 3: but it came in with really low brick and higher acid.
Speaker 2: So that's why it's at the top.
Speaker 3: Of the list. Actually, and every time we report it
Speaker 3: them like it looks like it should be for they're down,
Speaker 3: but trust me, it's not so. And that's another one.
Speaker 3: It's light enough and low enough alcohol and enough acid
Speaker 3: that I would even throw that in the fridge for
Speaker 3: like half hour, forty five minutes. So another hot like
Speaker 3: good on a summer's day, chill a bowl. Oh, I
Speaker 3: listen to music all the time. You think that this
Speaker 3: would be easier for me, I'm gonna I'm gonna phone
Speaker 3: a phone a friend, and by that I mean bring
Speaker 3: up Spotify.
Speaker 2: Cheating, cheating, cheating, cheating thing. I know it's cheating. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: Oh God, eliant bouchet, I know, Oh.
Speaker 3: God, country for that. Okay, I think that like peppy country,
Speaker 3: peppi country pop.
Speaker 2: There you go, Okay, I'm gonna make it easy for
Speaker 2: you because you already have an answer for this. The
Speaker 2: flour Savage, which is your Surrah cofermento with Vignier.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pink Martini.
Speaker 2: Okay, and why is that.
Speaker 3: It just kind of has this, uh, that kind of
Speaker 3: standard jazzy kind of vibe to it, where it's it's
Speaker 3: maybe a song you're familiar with the lyrics, but you've
Speaker 3: never heard it arranged like they did it, you know,
Speaker 3: a little a little different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like your floor savage fantastic. Well, Justicus, you've almost
Speaker 2: made it. There's one more question. I know you said
Speaker 2: that if you had free time, you'd want to travel,
Speaker 2: and if there's one place at the top of your
Speaker 2: bucket list, one place on the top, because I know
Speaker 2: you said you want to travel everywhere. What's at the
Speaker 2: top of your bucket list? Wine region wise?
Speaker 3: Wine region wise?
Speaker 2: I mean I shouldn't have to say that, because you
Speaker 2: only travel where there's wine.
Speaker 3: Not only but but but mostly Oh gosh, you know,
Speaker 3: there's a couple of places I'd really love to do
Speaker 3: Eastern Europe more. I've heard some of the wines coming
Speaker 3: out of there, especially the whites, are just phenomenal, and
Speaker 3: that is not something I have that much education in
Speaker 3: or knowledge of, And so that would be really fun
Speaker 3: to go and just get to experience, especially hungry and
Speaker 3: get to do that. I've been to Budapest once many
Speaker 3: years ago, pre wine, pre wine, very pre wine, and
Speaker 3: so getting to go back and see it again quite
Speaker 3: twenty years later would be fun. Croatia's been on my
Speaker 3: life for quite some time. Actually, I know they have
Speaker 3: some wine as well, but mostly the beaches there. I
Speaker 3: see photos and that's where I would like to be.
Speaker 2: They have great wine there.
Speaker 3: Oh that's awesome, good, great, the English countryside. I want
Speaker 3: to go try all their sparklings because some of the
Speaker 3: ones I've had are really good, and I know exporting
Speaker 3: isn't always the easiest thing to get into the US with,
Speaker 3: so there's a lot of places I want to go
Speaker 3: to to be able to taste the thing that I
Speaker 3: need to taste. The other one is South America. I
Speaker 3: haven't done any of those, definitely more on the wine
Speaker 3: region side.
Speaker 2: I love how I ask you about like no, no,
Speaker 2: I love how I ask you about the songs and
Speaker 2: you have to pull up your Spotify and yet I
Speaker 2: ask you one place.
Speaker 3: And I spent a lot of time planning trips I
Speaker 3: don't go on. I am going next year though. I
Speaker 3: have some friends who are currently stationed, so I'm going
Speaker 3: to go visit them in Morocco, and there is a
Speaker 3: wine region in Morocco as well, which I'm really excited
Speaker 3: to experience. And then since I'm there, I'm stop Frances So.
Speaker 2: There you go. So you have a big you have,
Speaker 2: You have a lot of things on your travel agenda.
Speaker 2: And for our listeners, should they want to come and
Speaker 2: find you and experience gmc sellers, where can they find
Speaker 2: you and what can they experience when they get here.
Speaker 3: You can find us at sixty eight hundred Greenville Road
Speaker 3: in Livermore, California. Our website is jmcsellers dot Wine and
Speaker 3: we're open Friday through Sunday eleven to five pm. Please
Speaker 3: come out. No reservations needed unless you're a really large group,
Speaker 3: meaning like over six, come on in. We make it
Speaker 3: a point to have exceptional hospitality and make it a
Speaker 3: really fun experience. Whether you want to sit and talk
Speaker 3: to each other or you want to sit and talk
Speaker 3: to us, it is one hundred percent up to you
Speaker 3: and how you would like to do that. We were
Speaker 3: happy to talk and nerd and geek out with you,
Speaker 3: but I also understand that if you're here and you
Speaker 3: want to you know, talk to your friends and just
Speaker 3: want us to pour we're good with that too, and.
Speaker 2: We can find you here in the tasting room on weekends.
Speaker 3: Huh occasionally. Yes, I'm trying to be better about you know,
Speaker 3: that work life balance.
Speaker 4: And how's that going?
Speaker 3: Super awesome?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I'm glad you're finding some free time,
Speaker 2: but you're gonna have to learn how to fill it.
Speaker 2: So it's true, I am.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have to get some new hobbies.
Speaker 2: I know. Wow, Jessica, it's been a real joy chatting
Speaker 2: with you today and learning about jmc sellers. And here's
Speaker 2: to an illustrious future. And I'm really excited for all
Speaker 2: the grapes that you're doing. I think that's really exciting.
Speaker 2: So I think that it's time it's hot out some
Speaker 2: chilled Alex Conte Bouchet. I can't believe I've ever put
Speaker 2: those two words together. You're gonna love it too, well, fantastic. Well,
Speaker 2: I hope others will come and enjoy it too. But
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us on Wine Soundtrack.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me alis and this has been great.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine Soundtrack USA.
Speaker 1: For details and updates, visit our website windsoundtrack dot com.