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 Alison
Speaker 2: Levine and today I'm in the tasting room of Royo
Speaker 2: Sellers in the Livermore Valley with the partner and winemaker
Speaker 2: John chip Rich. John, welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell
Speaker 2: us a little bit about Arroyo Sellers.
Speaker 3: That's a pleasure having you here. Thank you. And Arroyo
Speaker 3: Sellers were a small, very small winery founded by a
Speaker 3: group of a family of friends, I think is the
Speaker 3: best way of phrasing it. So there are actually ten
Speaker 3: of us overall, their partners in the winery, and we
Speaker 3: each bring something different to the operation. But we're a
Speaker 3: group of people that met over twenty five years ago
Speaker 3: and have done a lot of things together over the years.
Speaker 3: A few years back, one of the partners decided that
Speaker 3: it might be fun to open a winery. There was
Speaker 3: a previous winery that we had been affiliated with. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: the owner of that one had passed away and so
Speaker 3: it shut down, but it left an interest for all
Speaker 3: of us. So the one gentleman Ron decided to open
Speaker 3: up a new location here at Royal Sellers. And the
Speaker 3: business started primarily as wine storage, but it was always
Speaker 3: a vision to have a winery involved with it, and
Speaker 3: we just grew from there.
Speaker 2: And I love this because you said it's ten friends
Speaker 2: or ten couple in friends, ten family and friends. So
Speaker 2: and the fact is twenty five years and you're all
Speaker 2: still friends, you're working together. Someone has really organized very
Speaker 2: well and delineated who does what, So there's no resentment
Speaker 2: that I did more. But so tell me you started
Speaker 2: Arroyo Sellers in what year.
Speaker 3: We started with the wine storage area in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3: We actually opened up the tasting room once before COVID
Speaker 3: did wonderful.
Speaker 2: But you're still here. And how many cases do you make?
Speaker 3: We vary between five to seven hundred cases a year,
Speaker 3: so relatively.
Speaker 2: Modest, modest and small. And what do you focus on
Speaker 2: grape wise?
Speaker 3: We having fun with the grapes mainly. We actually do
Speaker 3: a pretty broad range of wines. So we have several whites,
Speaker 3: which we considered to be a heritage type for the
Speaker 3: Livermore Valley. So Livermore was renowned for its southern hum Bloc.
Speaker 3: Semion is another one that is quite good and one
Speaker 3: day with the Chardonnay. So we have those, but we
Speaker 3: also have another one of the heritage wines for Livermore Valley,
Speaker 3: which is a petite row was something that was pioneered
Speaker 3: through Concanon the Bordeaux grow here as well. And Cabernet
Speaker 3: franc is another signature whine now for the Livermore Valley.
Speaker 3: So we've been corporated dat into the portfolio as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, so more white wines than reds.
Speaker 3: No, it's actually a pretty healthy mix. So this year,
Speaker 3: even though we only bottled seven in our cases, we
Speaker 3: did produce sixteen different wines there, wow, four whites and
Speaker 3: twelve rids.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: And working with a lot of Bordeaux varieties in the
Speaker 2: classics of them.
Speaker 3: That is correct.
Speaker 2: Okay? And are you do you own any vineyards or
Speaker 2: just sourcing fruit? And if you're sourcing fruit, is it
Speaker 2: just from Livermore Valley or do you expand out?
Speaker 3: We source our fruit, so we're definitely not farmers. We
Speaker 3: leave out to people who know what they're doing. We
Speaker 3: buy almost exclusively from the Livermore and the majority of
Speaker 3: the grapes actually come from within two and a half
Speaker 3: miles of the winery. We do have one exception, and
Speaker 3: that is that we've picked up some Torroldego just because
Speaker 3: we felt like, you know, that would be a lot
Speaker 3: of fun.
Speaker 2: Why not.
Speaker 3: Everyone knows charle to go absolutely and it's not grown
Speaker 3: here in Livermore. So we did source it from.
Speaker 2: Gold from where gold golt.
Speaker 3: Where's that It's by Sacramento?
Speaker 2: Okay, not far, not terribly far. And I'm going to
Speaker 2: make the assumption that with the amount of wine that
Speaker 2: you produce, that you are exclusively, exclusively available here as
Speaker 2: a direct to consumer winery. That you've got your tasting
Speaker 2: room and your website. But are you in any markets?
Speaker 2: Do you sell in any restaurants locally or in any
Speaker 2: other cities?
Speaker 3: We are pretty much local. We do sell to a
Speaker 3: number of restaurants. I think you're mainly here in Livermore.
Speaker 3: We just close the deal with Costco, so we're going
Speaker 3: to have some wine showing up there in the very
Speaker 3: near future. Otherwise, the majority of the cell is through
Speaker 3: the taste somewhere.
Speaker 2: Then this is where people have to find you, and
Speaker 2: that's how I found you. So I'm curious. You know,
Speaker 2: you and your friends have come to wine after other careers.
Speaker 2: Wine is something you love, But what is your first
Speaker 2: memory relevant to wine? How old were you and what
Speaker 2: was that experience where you actually either tasted or found
Speaker 2: out wine existed.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going to give you a couple ways of answering. Yet,
Speaker 3: when I grew up in the family, we grew up
Speaker 3: in western Pennsylvania, wine was not something that was an
Speaker 3: everyday part of our lives, and so those consequences. My
Speaker 3: first face the wine was BlackBerry wine.
Speaker 2: Made from blackberries, and that was the first experience Your
Speaker 2: first memory relevant to wine?
Speaker 3: Correct?
Speaker 2: So then I can fast forward and say, Okay, when
Speaker 2: you started drinking wine, do you have You may have many,
Speaker 2: because I mean it sounds like you have had experienced
Speaker 2: drinking wine. But is there one wine that stands out
Speaker 2: as one of those aha moment wines, like one of
Speaker 2: those really memorable wine experiences.
Speaker 3: Out? Yes, and against not the shortest answer in the world,
Speaker 3: but with my once I graduated from college, with my job,
Speaker 3: I had a lot of international activity associated with my job,
Speaker 3: and so I got to travel fair amount, and of
Speaker 3: course wine and dinner became a part of my life
Speaker 3: and I got to experience a lot of absolutely wonderful
Speaker 3: wines over the years. My wife and I went out
Speaker 3: a cruise and the Somalie on board the cruise ship
Speaker 3: noted that we tended to like some pretty nice wines,
Speaker 3: and he came up to us and said, Okay, tomorrow
Speaker 3: is your last day for dinner on the cruise ship.
Speaker 3: When you come to the dining room, do not get seated.
Speaker 3: Ask for me. And we said okay, and we came
Speaker 3: in and there he had a separate little table set
Speaker 3: aside with a decanter on it, and he introduced us
Speaker 3: to Sassakaia. Okay, and that was just a lovely wine.
Speaker 3: And we kind of still enjoy the glass of Sasakaia
Speaker 3: to this state.
Speaker 2: With a very lovely memory associated with it. So it's
Speaker 2: that a lot of times that aha moment with wine
Speaker 2: is centered not just about what was in the glass,
Speaker 2: but the whole experience exactly. So if we were to
Speaker 2: come to your home, what kind of wines would we
Speaker 2: find in your house? Are you a collector of wine?
Speaker 2: Are there certain grapes you have or regions your own wines,
Speaker 2: local wines? What would we find in.
Speaker 3: Your house, sadly, almost anything, well.
Speaker 2: That's not sadly, that's exciting.
Speaker 3: Well, it's all relative, but we have a pretty broad
Speaker 3: range of wines because again, for us, wine is not
Speaker 3: just something that you see. It's a mood, it's an expression,
Speaker 3: it's the time of the day, what you're doing, who
Speaker 3: you're with, what you're eating. And so we pretty much
Speaker 3: the spectrum covered.
Speaker 2: And is there anything you opened up recently that drank
Speaker 2: really well.
Speaker 3: Well, there are a few. So again we a friend
Speaker 3: of ours just had a birthday, so we bought a
Speaker 3: bottle of the Sassakaya for that. We also enjoyed a
Speaker 3: beautiful worn Alia just recently had a favely Jevre Chambertine
Speaker 3: which was just exquisite.
Speaker 2: But do you know, do you know what vintage that
Speaker 2: family was.
Speaker 3: The family that we just had was a twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: The Saskai was also in nineteen, The Ornelli was in eighteen.
Speaker 3: But the other thing is we opened up one of
Speaker 3: ours just recently with a group of friends, and which
Speaker 3: one was beautiful? It was our Dorado. It's a twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three Bordeaux blend, so it's fifty six percent. Is
Speaker 3: a field blend of petite Serah, I'm sorry I missed
Speaker 3: bo petite for dough cab franc and a mile back.
Speaker 3: Thirty percent is Caverny Sevignon, and then the remaining fourteen
Speaker 3: percent is Marlowe.
Speaker 2: Wow, you drink a lot. I like that. I like that.
Speaker 2: So as someone who drinks a lot a broad diverse
Speaker 2: selection of wines from all over the world, as well
Speaker 2: as making what sixteen different wines here, do you think
Speaker 2: there's a such thing as a perfect variety?
Speaker 3: I don't. Again, to me, it really ties into the
Speaker 3: moment man, who you're with, the foods, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And so as a wine drinker, I mean, you know
Speaker 2: you did talk Sasa Kay and Ornelia, But as a
Speaker 2: wine drinker, red whiteter Rose.
Speaker 3: Slight bias towards the reds, but again equal opportunity. There
Speaker 3: are certain days where a Rose said, no, this is
Speaker 3: what you're going to drink today. Yeah, the white said no,
Speaker 3: this is this will be perfect. And what we're sipping
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: Is a white because it's middle of the day, it's
Speaker 2: warm out. What more do you want? Absolutely, you're right,
Speaker 2: it's about place and time and space still are.
Speaker 3: Sparkling, sparkling goes with everything, and it's always a great,
Speaker 3: great thing to have. But I more steel than sparkling.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking about going with everything and about moods and times,
Speaker 2: a lot has to do with what you're eating. So
Speaker 2: how do you approach food and wine pairing? Do you
Speaker 2: follow rules? Do you think the old adage of white
Speaker 2: wine and fish, red wine and meat, or is there
Speaker 2: something else you look for in making the choices.
Speaker 3: I look more at the flavors and the flavor profiles.
Speaker 3: I look at the acid levels and the way I
Speaker 3: look at Christmas, take a look at the fattiness in
Speaker 3: the foods, what spices go with the foods, and then
Speaker 3: I go from there.
Speaker 2: So do you pick your food and then choose the
Speaker 2: wine or do you pick your wine and then decide
Speaker 2: the dish?
Speaker 3: Normally I picked the food first and then I'll choose
Speaker 3: a wine that I think goes best with it. There
Speaker 3: are exceptions where I said this is the one I read,
Speaker 3: But as a role, it's the food.
Speaker 2: First, okay. And can you offer an example. Let's say
Speaker 2: that you have, as you said, some spice in your dish.
Speaker 2: What would you be looking for in a wine as
Speaker 2: a compliment to that?
Speaker 3: Well, if it was a very spicy as in hot
Speaker 3: spice dish. There, I would look for something that's a
Speaker 3: little cool er, a little crisper, so slightly higher acid
Speaker 3: just to help work with the spices. If it's a
Speaker 3: rounder spice there, I would look for a wine it
Speaker 3: would be able to stand up to the spice so
Speaker 3: that it wouldn't be overpowered by the dish. So, for instance,
Speaker 3: we make a zinfandel here that I call a Lasagna
Speaker 3: wine because lasagna is an old, rich food and this
Speaker 3: wine is not a whimpy wine. It'll stand up and
Speaker 3: hold its own with the wine, and the two work together.
Speaker 2: In more of a compliment to each other as opposed
Speaker 2: to a contrast to each other.
Speaker 3: That is correct. Yeah, for me, the perfect pairing is
Speaker 3: when both the food and the wine are enhanced by
Speaker 3: the other's presence.
Speaker 2: We all try to achieve that. That's what we work for.
Speaker 2: That's what we work for. So for somebody who hasn't
Speaker 2: had the pleasure to taste of royal sellers yet, what
Speaker 2: do you think they're missing out on?
Speaker 3: What they're missing out on is the beauty of the
Speaker 3: little more fruit the first. First off, The second thing
Speaker 3: is that we don't overwork. The wine. Fruit tells us
Speaker 3: what to do, and we want fruit to be the showcase,
Speaker 3: the centerpiece of the wine. So what you're getting here
Speaker 3: is you're getting a nice, clean wine, not overly oaked,
Speaker 3: not overly worked, but something that is just a real
Speaker 3: beautiful representation of what that grape wants to be.
Speaker 2: So when we talk about what a grape wants to be,
Speaker 2: and you were mentioning that you don't think there's a
Speaker 2: such thing as a perfect variety. But as a wine maker,
Speaker 2: are you aspiring to achieve some level of perfection or scores?
Speaker 2: I mean, do wine critics and scores play a big
Speaker 2: role in what you do? Do you find them to
Speaker 2: be useful or what's your opinion?
Speaker 3: That's another good question. What I tell people about wine
Speaker 3: critics is if you can find one that aligns with
Speaker 3: your taste, that's great because then you can use them
Speaker 3: to go out there and source a lot of different things.
Speaker 3: But you need to trial things. For me, the most
Speaker 3: important person and their opinion of the wine is the
Speaker 3: person sitting across from me as I'm pouring the glass
Speaker 3: for them. That that's probably the shortest answer I can
Speaker 3: But yeah, as far as again, not having a specific
Speaker 3: variety in mind, is we're doing things. The short answer
Speaker 3: there is yes, I'm trying to achieve perfection for every
Speaker 3: wine that we make. What we do when we work
Speaker 3: on the blending, so we do a lot of blends.
Speaker 3: There's the occasion where you'll taste something by itself and
Speaker 3: you'll say, Okay, I'm not gonna mess with this. It's
Speaker 3: just exactly what it needs to be. But the majority
Speaker 3: of what we do are blends, and well, we're tasting
Speaker 3: the wine. We're we're not tasting the wine as a
Speaker 3: regular taste. We're looking for the holes, the gaps. Okay,
Speaker 3: I like it, but it would be even better. And
Speaker 3: that's why we have a range of wines that we
Speaker 3: play with, because then we'll say, Okay, maybe a little
Speaker 3: bit of this will help to plug that hole. And
Speaker 3: to me, that's the best part of being a wine
Speaker 3: maker is having that opportunity and seeing how the grapes
Speaker 3: want to play together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's the beauty of what a blend is.
Speaker 2: You know, varieties are beautiful on their own, and like
Speaker 2: you said, when one is great, they're great, but there
Speaker 2: is something really beautiful about finding how they can work
Speaker 2: with each other. So, if space aliens were to land
Speaker 2: in your parking lot out there and come knock on
Speaker 2: your door, which of your wines, of all your sixteen wines,
Speaker 2: would you say, Welcome to royal sellers.
Speaker 3: I would start them with the white blend, the liver More.
Speaker 2: It's aptly named too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's well, it's a wine helped to put Livermore
Speaker 3: on the map. I was back and the eighteen eighties,
Speaker 3: a blend of Savinium bulk and semon was actually entered
Speaker 3: into the Paras Exhibition and it did quite well. It
Speaker 3: won best of class, okay, and.
Speaker 2: Against a classic four Jeau white, which is a blend
Speaker 2: of Samnil blanc and semione. Right, okay, So yeah, we've
Speaker 2: got that here. So I guess I'm a space alien.
Speaker 2: I got welcomed with and you call it the Livermore White.
Speaker 2: I call it Livermore Livermore. So welcome to Livermore with
Speaker 2: a glass of Livermore. It's perfect. I love it. I
Speaker 2: love it. So you're sourcing fruit from lots of different vineyards,
Speaker 2: do you spend a lot of time in the vineyards.
Speaker 3: We have developed relationships with the growers over the years. Yes,
Speaker 3: we've had the opportunity to walk the vineyards discuss them.
Speaker 3: There's a level of trust also that that's been established.
Speaker 3: So when the growers say, you know, it would be
Speaker 3: a good time to pick around now, we tend to
Speaker 3: believe them. That doesn't mean that we won't go and
Speaker 3: walk them in your your sample and taste. But it's
Speaker 3: really more of, let's say, a cooperation of partnership with
Speaker 3: the growers than one telling the other one to do and.
Speaker 2: With your you said you started this. You started making
Speaker 2: a royal seller's wines in twenty eighteen, or you had
Speaker 2: the storage and then the wine came a little later.
Speaker 3: Twenty eighteen was about right, twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: But you were a partner in another winery you using
Speaker 2: livermore fruit, and were you the wine maker for that
Speaker 2: winery as well.
Speaker 3: The other wine maker. There's two of us as part
Speaker 3: the wine maker team here. So Tim Sauer was the
Speaker 3: primary wine maker at the other place, and I helped
Speaker 3: him out. That's actually how I got involved in the
Speaker 3: wine industry in the first place, was through a friendship
Speaker 3: with Tim. So I've been playing with making wines now
Speaker 3: for twenty five some odd years. Kim's got over thirty
Speaker 3: some odd years.
Speaker 2: Okay, so for twenty five years, even though you're not
Speaker 2: in the vineyard every single day, you know, you've been
Speaker 2: making wine twenty five vintages. And I'm curious, in a
Speaker 2: place like Livermore Value, do you see a lot of
Speaker 2: consistency from year to year? Do you see a lot
Speaker 2: of vintage variation? I mean, we know every vintage sells
Speaker 2: a different story, but are the differences from one year
Speaker 2: to another more similar or more different?
Speaker 3: It's recently consistent. I mean, there are obviously big differences
Speaker 3: in the weather every once in a while, so some
Speaker 3: vintages will just absolutely stand out, and then others they
Speaker 3: get impacted by other environmental aspects. We had a lot
Speaker 3: of wildfires in a twenty twenty time frame, and so
Speaker 3: there were concerns over what was going on in that
Speaker 3: time frame, and you know, passion follow on that year.
Speaker 3: We were a little more selecting what we bought, and
Speaker 3: we had to modify the winemaking process to try to
Speaker 3: minimize the influence of smoke tank on the lines. But
Speaker 3: you take those anomalies out of the situation and the
Speaker 3: living more fruits are reasonably consistent. At least that's our experience.
Speaker 2: And as a team because you are a group of
Speaker 2: ten friends. Do you guys have any sort of traditions
Speaker 2: that you do each year at the start of harvest
Speaker 2: or during harvest, that's you know, any sort of annual
Speaker 2: toasts or random funny things we do.
Speaker 3: Actually, we do a lot during the course of the
Speaker 3: year as grips. For instance, we do a lot of
Speaker 3: holidays together and one family will pretty much do the Easter.
Speaker 3: Some of you will get Fourth of July someone, or
Speaker 3: do Christmas someone, or do Thanksgiving, and we rotate around
Speaker 3: for that. Bottling is another opportunity where we all just
Speaker 3: get together and enjoy the day. It's a very active day.
Speaker 2: But any good luck rituals not really. No no toes, noah,
Speaker 2: lucky socks, noo.
Speaker 3: There's always toast. But there's more humor than anything else.
Speaker 2: You got to keep laughing. It's a lot of work,
Speaker 2: so you got to laugh through it, absolutely. And I
Speaker 2: like to hear that because with ten personalities, you know
Speaker 2: that could be a challenge and it's better to laugh
Speaker 2: than to yell.
Speaker 3: That is correct.
Speaker 2: So once the wines come into your cellar, that's when
Speaker 2: they're in your domain. Now these are your babies. You
Speaker 2: may not be as intimately familiar with the vines on
Speaker 2: a personal basis, but you are intimately familiar with every
Speaker 2: single barrel intaate. What is that kind of relationship with
Speaker 2: Do you talk to them? Do you yell at the gwind?
Speaker 2: You coax it along? Does it talk to you?
Speaker 3: I never yell at goin, That would be bad. But yes,
Speaker 3: we will chat, we'll talk, will happen. Music playing often
Speaker 3: in the background, and yes, the wine does talk to
Speaker 3: us on a constant basis. We tend not to disturb
Speaker 3: the wine a lot, but we will of course be
Speaker 3: checking it on a rinking basis, and it lets us
Speaker 3: know what it wants to do.
Speaker 2: And you don't yell it because you don't want it
Speaker 2: to be temperamental and misbehave. But do you find that
Speaker 2: playing music alters the wine at all? Does it affect
Speaker 2: the wine or is that more for your own moods?
Speaker 3: I think it affects us more than it does the wine.
Speaker 3: But as I said earlier in the discussion, when I
Speaker 3: taste the wine, it's more the mood the day, the
Speaker 3: time was going on around, And as a consequence, I
Speaker 3: think that it actually helps us in our approach in
Speaker 3: working with the wine.
Speaker 2: So when you were a little boy, what did you
Speaker 2: want to be when you grew up? Was winemaker always
Speaker 2: a dream in the back of your mind or did
Speaker 2: you have other fantasies?
Speaker 3: Wine making was nowhere at all in the thought process
Speaker 3: for well easily the first thirty plus years of my life.
Speaker 3: Wine drinking, yes, that was definitely involved, but no, my
Speaker 3: career choice. I'm an engineer, and that was what I
Speaker 3: really wanted to be.
Speaker 2: The scientific mind, yeah, sadly, well, there's some there's a
Speaker 2: lot of science and wine. So that's probably what draws
Speaker 2: you even more into it.
Speaker 3: And that will could be although I would say that
Speaker 3: what I bring to the party here with my partner Tim,
Speaker 3: is more of the art side, the blending part of it.
Speaker 3: Tim is much more knowledgeable on the science of winemaking,
Speaker 3: and so I think as a consequence, I think we
Speaker 3: can actually compliment each other very well. Our tastes are
Speaker 3: very similar.
Speaker 2: I love that. That's wonderful. So when you're not working,
Speaker 2: you have your friends that you do dinner parties with,
Speaker 2: and you sounds like you socialize with them a lot.
Speaker 2: But what else do you like to do in your
Speaker 2: free time?
Speaker 3: We we love to travel, and my wife and I
Speaker 3: have been pretty much all around the world and we
Speaker 3: do it on a routine basis. The other thing that
Speaker 3: we spend a lot of time at is Disneyland. I
Speaker 3: really love to do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you and your wife or do you have kids
Speaker 2: with you? Grandkids or it's just you and your wife.
Speaker 3: Mainly it's my wife and I. Yes, the grandchildren on
Speaker 3: occasion if they're lucky, but no, it's just a great,
Speaker 3: great thing to do, how fun.
Speaker 2: I love that it is the happiest place on earth. So, indeed,
Speaker 2: who's your favorite Disney character?
Speaker 3: I really don't have a favorite. I'll just enjoy the moment.
Speaker 2: If you can meet Mickey Mouse, the real Mickey Mouse. No,
Speaker 2: but if you could beat Maxims, which of your wines
Speaker 2: would you want to give to him?
Speaker 3: I would probably give him a Merlow. At the moment,
Speaker 3: we have a we have an absolutely beautiful Merlou that
Speaker 3: surprises you, just as Mickey would surprise you with a
Speaker 3: lot of the the uh, the layers of his of
Speaker 3: his personality. This Burleau has a richness and layers and
Speaker 3: depth to it that I think would be kind of
Speaker 3: kind of cool.
Speaker 2: A little Mickey and Merlou, I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2: So when you're planning a romantic evening for you and
Speaker 2: your wife, I mean it sounds like if you're drinking
Speaker 2: Sasa kay.
Speaker 3: And are in Alaya.
Speaker 2: Life is good and you know you travel around the world.
Speaker 2: But are there certain wines or wine styles that will
Speaker 2: say that it's not just a normal dinner but a
Speaker 2: romantic evening. Are there certain wines that you know that
Speaker 2: make her especially happy to have?
Speaker 3: Well two of them are they weren't allying. There are
Speaker 3: also a couple of peanut and Mars that we really
Speaker 3: really like and they tend to bump it up a bit.
Speaker 3: And for a romantic evening, we will always start with
Speaker 3: the glass of champagne guarantee.
Speaker 2: In fact, it may not have intended to be a
Speaker 2: romantic but the bubbles come out and it changes everything.
Speaker 2: I say, that's what bubbles do. So you've had a
Speaker 2: career in other areas. Now you're in wine for twenty
Speaker 2: five years. But you know along the years, you know,
Speaker 2: we have teachers, and we have parents, we have mentors,
Speaker 2: we have bosses. Is there a piece of advice someone
Speaker 2: gave you at any point in your life that is
Speaker 2: something you try to live or.
Speaker 3: Work by One of my bosses early in my career
Speaker 3: told me that in life, there's not a lot that
Speaker 3: you're really in control of. The One thing that you
Speaker 3: can control is how you react to situations. So don't
Speaker 3: let other people dictate how you react, because then you
Speaker 3: control nothing and you become a victim. Don't ever allow
Speaker 3: yourself to become a victim.
Speaker 2: I like that. That is really sound advice. And if
Speaker 2: you could give our listeners a piece of advice, what
Speaker 2: would you want to share beyond control your life? Don't
Speaker 2: become a victim. Is there anything else maybe about wine?
Speaker 3: Yes, be open to trying. There is no such thing
Speaker 3: as a mistake. It's more what your choice is and
Speaker 3: what your individual preferences are. So try experiment. You don't
Speaker 3: have to follow a rule. Find something that you like,
Speaker 3: remember it so that you can order it again. And
Speaker 3: in my book, you're now a connoisseur perfect.
Speaker 2: Perfect. So when you look back at your career, your
Speaker 2: entire career, all your different careers, is there, you know,
Speaker 2: what would you say is one of your proudest achievements
Speaker 2: so far?
Speaker 3: My proudest achievement is actually convincing this young lady that
Speaker 3: I was someone that she would be willing to go
Speaker 3: out with.
Speaker 2: I said, in your career, you're not allowed to say
Speaker 2: I love that, I love it. It's your wife, but
Speaker 2: it's not supposed to be your wife for children, because
Speaker 2: of course those are your proudest achievements. Well not, of course,
Speaker 2: I should hope. But in your career, is there something
Speaker 2: that stands out aside from your wife accepting a date.
Speaker 3: There were a lot of things that I succeeded in
Speaker 3: doing through my career. I worked in the petrochemical industry.
Speaker 3: I worked on development of rotating equipment and gas turbines,
Speaker 3: and then I worked in the defense industry, and there
Speaker 3: were a number of projects that I got to work
Speaker 3: on with a really great group of people that I'm
Speaker 3: really proud of. No one item it jumps out at
Speaker 3: the moment someone like, I'm just not gonna talk about it.
Speaker 2: You can't tell me secret government stuff. We'll move on, okay,
Speaker 2: So complete this sentence through me. A table without wine
Speaker 2: is like.
Speaker 3: A day without sunshine. I mean, there's lots of cliches
Speaker 3: that come to mind, but you can.
Speaker 2: Throw some others out. Come on a day without sunshine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, peanut, But without jelly A good one.
Speaker 2: I haven't heard that one before you go see asked
Speaker 2: that enough times and you get a different answer almost
Speaker 2: every time, almost every time. So we're sitting at a
Speaker 2: table right now. There's an empty chair or two at
Speaker 2: the table we're at, and we've got bottles of your
Speaker 2: wine on the table that you've made. Who from any
Speaker 2: walk of life, living or deceased, do you wish you
Speaker 2: could have filling one of those chairs to drink wine
Speaker 2: your wine with you.
Speaker 3: I would love for my dad to be here. He
Speaker 3: passed away years ago, and I would just really really
Speaker 3: like the sharing glass.
Speaker 2: Was he a wine drinker?
Speaker 3: He was not, but I think he would really enjoy this.
Speaker 2: I might become a wine drinker after that. So you're
Speaker 2: a drinker and a collector of wine. If you were
Speaker 2: off to a deserted island and can only take three
Speaker 2: wines with you, what three wines would those be?
Speaker 3: I would definitely do a Champagne and it would most
Speaker 3: likely be a Laurent Perier Rose.
Speaker 2: I like where you're going.
Speaker 3: I would do our Livermore because I really like our livermore.
Speaker 3: And the third would be to Sassa.
Speaker 2: That was easy.
Speaker 3: Fifteen or twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: Vantage you still have any of those.
Speaker 3: Ninymore drink a ball, They're all gone.
Speaker 2: Well, we have come to that time where we play
Speaker 2: our little game. The one thing you're warned about about
Speaker 2: pairing way with music. You know, we spoke a few
Speaker 2: minutes ago about you know, kind of maybe the science
Speaker 2: and art of wine being melded. But I think there's
Speaker 2: also a connection between wine and music because both make
Speaker 2: us feel a certain way. They boost our energy or
Speaker 2: they calm us down. And I want you to pair
Speaker 2: some of your wines with music, a genre, a singer
Speaker 2: specific song, whatever you want that sort of expresses how
Speaker 2: that wine expresses to you. So, since I've been sipping
Speaker 2: on the Livermore Savino von Seo, let's start.
Speaker 3: With that wine. Absolutely so again, this is one of
Speaker 3: our blends, and this wine as well as a couple
Speaker 3: of our red blends, like the Dorado for instance, to me,
Speaker 3: they are a perfect example of harmony, how things blend together.
Speaker 3: So for me, this is something more along the lines
Speaker 3: of like a Crosby Stills, a Nash song, or maybe
Speaker 3: something by Pentatonics, where all the voices all blend together
Speaker 3: and create something that is just even better than all
Speaker 3: of the individual elements going into it.
Speaker 2: M Okay, so let's see we have the liver more,
Speaker 2: where are you sourcing your pan and are from.
Speaker 3: The piano and a war actually comes from a small
Speaker 3: vineyard just outside of Snow. It's again part of the
Speaker 3: living rapilation. The vineyard is called Nellita and they are
Speaker 3: for people who are familiar with the Bay area. They
Speaker 3: are on the it's east side of six point eighty,
Speaker 3: so it's about maybe seven miles from the.
Speaker 2: Winery and cool enough for peano and noir.
Speaker 3: It's actually down in in a nice little valley, and
Speaker 3: so it is one of the few places in this
Speaker 3: area that is good for a peanut and noir.
Speaker 2: Okay, so what about your peano noir?
Speaker 3: So our pianoalire tends to be a surprise for people
Speaker 3: because I tell people, if you're a huge fan of
Speaker 3: that old, bright, fruity California or Oregon style peana noir,
Speaker 3: this isn't it. This is much more of an old
Speaker 3: world style. It has a little more of a body,
Speaker 3: a little more minerality to it, a little more of
Speaker 3: an earthiness. I compare it to force floor. Okay, if
Speaker 3: you've ever walked through the woods after a rain and
Speaker 3: you can smell that that sweet smell coming up from
Speaker 3: the ground. Not that the wine is sweet, but that
Speaker 3: smell that that to me is a hint of what's
Speaker 3: going on with the piano.
Speaker 2: Okay, and a song or an artist or a genre.
Speaker 3: So for something like that, and I wasn't expecting that one, yeah,
Speaker 3: already coming from but I would do something like a
Speaker 3: James Taylor Okay, see see coming through like that.
Speaker 2: See it's not that hard to do this. You know.
Speaker 2: You mentioned with the Royo Dorado that it would be
Speaker 2: sort of the blend and the harmony. So I'm going
Speaker 2: to assume that's a little more. Still in the pen
Speaker 2: attacks and Crosby sells Nash, what about your petite serad?
Speaker 2: That is the great that was born here in Livermore.
Speaker 2: So tell me about the petizzaa.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the petitza ra it's it's a bolder one.
Speaker 3: It's not overlitanic. It doesn't absolutely demand that you have
Speaker 3: to have food with it. But it's got some body,
Speaker 3: it's got some substance, and it comes across with a
Speaker 3: nice BlackBerry excuse me, in blueberry flavor that comes through.
Speaker 3: It'll stand up to almost anything. So for that one,
Speaker 3: I would do something like Black Magic Woman from Santana.
Speaker 2: Okay, And I want to do one morning. I want
Speaker 2: to stump you here, and I'm trying to think about
Speaker 2: what you talked about. You said, Okay, the Merleau that
Speaker 2: you would give Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that Merleau Fantasia comes to mind immediately. And
Speaker 3: I mean, there are a number of great songs, but
Speaker 3: I'm desperate the name of the oneslaw right now and
Speaker 3: I can't. But it's it's a symphony.
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go. See I picked wines you weren't
Speaker 2: prepared for. Well, John, it's been great talking with you.
Speaker 2: You are almost finished. We've gotten through many of my questions.
Speaker 2: But I do have one last question, and that is
Speaker 2: you've traveled around the world. You've had the privilege to
Speaker 2: travel around the world and see many places. Is there
Speaker 2: one wine region that's at the top of your bucket
Speaker 2: list that you'd like to explore deeper or have never
Speaker 2: been to that you'd really want to get to.
Speaker 3: We've been to, as you said, a lot, but what
Speaker 3: I've never gone to are any of the regions in
Speaker 3: South America. And I'm intrigued. So I would just like
Speaker 3: to explore that. Yeah, and the other silly part of
Speaker 3: the answers they like Livermore. In my mind, we actually
Speaker 3: live in a vacation resort and this is just a
Speaker 3: very welcoming valley and when I taste the wines here,
Speaker 3: to me, it's wine as it's supposed to be.
Speaker 2: So do you go around and taste a lot of wines?
Speaker 2: Do you get out and explore the Livermore?
Speaker 3: Absolutely every chance we can.
Speaker 2: And if people wanted to come here and explore Livermore
Speaker 2: and come to Royal Sellers, where will they find you?
Speaker 2: When you open? What will they find?
Speaker 3: So we are open right now on Saturdays and Sundays
Speaker 3: from noon to five. The partners all rotate in working
Speaker 3: in the tasting room. So when you come to our place,
Speaker 3: you're going to meet an owner, You're going to meet
Speaker 3: a wine maker, You're going to meet someone who is
Speaker 3: intimately involved in the entire process, and you will be
Speaker 3: welcomed as a friend.
Speaker 2: That's great, that's true. Ten when you're ten friends, there's
Speaker 2: you got a good team of employees.
Speaker 3: Absolutely works out well.
Speaker 2: Well, John, thank you so much for joining us today
Speaker 2: on Wine Soundtrack. I hope you had fun and didn't
Speaker 2: feel too much pressure.
Speaker 3: No, this was great. Thank you appreciate.
Speaker 2: It well do you do.
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.