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 am in the Livermore Valley with
Speaker 2: winemaker Aaron Luna, a Finestra Winery erin Welcome to Wine Soundtrack.
Speaker 2: Tell us about Finestra Winery and where we are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, happy to be here. Yeah, Finesster Winery
Speaker 3: is here in Livermore's. The winery itself was actually built
Speaker 3: in eighteen eighty nine and Lanny Replogle, the owner, started
Speaker 3: it in nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 4: He actually started.
Speaker 3: Making wine out another property called Ruby Hill, which since
Speaker 3: burnt down has been rebuilt in a different location, but
Speaker 3: came to this property in nineteen eighty nineteen eighty one
Speaker 3: and refurbished the property wow, and has been making wine
Speaker 3: here ever since.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's really cool because it's kind of built. It's a
Speaker 2: full building, but it's kind of built into the mountain.
Speaker 3: That's right, it's built into the hill. And that was
Speaker 3: very common back in the late eighteen hundreds there's a
Speaker 3: lot of other old wineries here in Livermore. Most of
Speaker 3: them are no longer really standing, but they were all
Speaker 3: built into the hill to help with temperature and you know,
Speaker 3: to keep the cellar at a cooler temperature. We don't
Speaker 3: want that wine to get too warm.
Speaker 2: Very very interesting. We're above ground right now. I'm looking
Speaker 2: out at the vineyards. I'm curious, do you own vineyards?
Speaker 2: Do you purchase fruit? Is it a combination?
Speaker 3: So it is a combination. The property here itself is
Speaker 3: about sixteen acres and there's about six acres planted under
Speaker 3: vine now we're adding another acre currently, but we're growing
Speaker 3: grenache saran moreved on the property and then we purchase.
Speaker 4: The rest of the fruit.
Speaker 3: So our estate grapes currently make up roughly twenty percent
Speaker 3: of our production and the rest we purchase here locally
Speaker 3: in Livermore.
Speaker 2: And what other grapes do you work with?
Speaker 4: We work with a lot of and greats. It's one
Speaker 4: of the things.
Speaker 3: When Lanny started the winery, it was more of a
Speaker 3: you know, who was doing it as a home wine
Speaker 3: maker and got more interested in it and started as
Speaker 3: a professional. But it was the curiosity of all these
Speaker 3: different varieties that you know, made this place kind of known.
Speaker 4: For odd ball varieties.
Speaker 3: We're not doing as many of those odd ball varieties now,
Speaker 3: but you know, we just did a graciano a lot
Speaker 3: of people in for that. We used to do a verdello,
Speaker 3: a lot of Iberian varieties. I brought Timperneo back in
Speaker 3: Teria National is something we've done in the past, but
Speaker 3: primarily now we're focusing focusing on their own varieties here
Speaker 3: on the estate. So we do a rose from our grenache,
Speaker 3: we do a grenoch soon Morvett on their own, and
Speaker 3: then we do a GSM blend that we call the Infrared.
Speaker 3: But we also do a lot of Bordeaux variety, so
Speaker 3: Sauvion blanc as a white wine, we do the five
Speaker 3: classic varietals for Bordeaux, and we do a blend with
Speaker 3: that called the Conjugation. And these names, these names tie
Speaker 3: into the owner's history as a in chemistry. He was
Speaker 3: a chemistry professor at San Jose State. So some of
Speaker 3: these blends have names that are kind of based on chemistry,
Speaker 3: Like Conjugation is the label has a conjugated bond on it,
Speaker 3: but you know, also it also kind of means bringing together.
Speaker 4: It's meaning it's a blend. So those five varieties.
Speaker 3: And then you know, recently did a peano no wire,
Speaker 3: which we haven't done in a while.
Speaker 2: Is there a peano and a war grown here in
Speaker 2: the Livermore Valley?
Speaker 3: There is, and there's becoming more of it. I probably
Speaker 3: shouldn't go off on that tangent. I got those grapes
Speaker 3: from Snol Highlands, which is a much cooler area than
Speaker 3: the Livermore.
Speaker 4: Just at the edge of the Livermore Valley. Avia.
Speaker 2: And what is your total case production?
Speaker 4: Roughly two thousand cases per year. We're pretty small production.
Speaker 2: And are you one hundred percent director consumer or are
Speaker 2: your winds out in the market.
Speaker 3: We're about I would say eighty five percent direct to
Speaker 3: consumer and then out on the local market, so within
Speaker 3: a thirty to fifty mile radius at all the local supermarkets,
Speaker 3: you know, Whole Food, Safeway, Bevmo.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you grew up you were raised in the
Speaker 2: Monterey County area a little bit south of here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so about an hour and a half south of here,
Speaker 3: big agriculture community, Salinas Valley, And.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot of a lot of history there.
Speaker 3: My family goes back many generations to the beginning of
Speaker 3: recorded history in California.
Speaker 4: Wow, so you go.
Speaker 3: Gets back into a Spaniard maid marrying a Native American
Speaker 3: woman in Carmel Valley.
Speaker 4: So my family has been in the minor Ey County
Speaker 4: for many generations. Wow. On my comment's side.
Speaker 2: Wow, so you've got a long history here. I'm curious
Speaker 2: what is your first memory relevant to wine. Was it
Speaker 2: something that you were exposed to at a young age
Speaker 2: growing up in the Selinas Valley or when do you
Speaker 2: first remember kind of a connection of identifying what wine is?
Speaker 3: You know, it wasn't really until I started working in
Speaker 3: the industry.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: When I turned twenty one, my mother bought me a
Speaker 3: beer brewing kit, and so I got into fermentation and
Speaker 3: fermentation science through that. But landing about age twenty two,
Speaker 3: I landed a job at a winery and it was
Speaker 3: very random that I got there, but instantly fell in
Speaker 3: love with it.
Speaker 2: But did you have any understanding, I mean, were you
Speaker 2: introduced to wine in any other capacity? I mean I
Speaker 2: did did hear a little bit before that? Your mom
Speaker 2: was the CFO of a previous winery here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was after I was already in the industry,
Speaker 3: so that kind of led her into retirement a little bit,
Speaker 3: but it was for a few years down in Monterey
Speaker 3: County that she was there.
Speaker 2: So you come into wine kind of by accident, and
Speaker 2: then obviously you've you know, had the opportunity to taste
Speaker 2: lots of wines. Was there a wine somewhere along the
Speaker 2: way that was an aha moment for you, maybe at
Speaker 2: the start of your career or maybe somewhere somewhere later.
Speaker 3: You know, there, there's not any of that standout. It was,
Speaker 3: you know, when I worked out bernardist Windering Carmel Valleys
Speaker 3: where it was for ten years when I first started,
Speaker 3: and the winemaking team was we did a lot of
Speaker 3: tastings together, so it was just sitting down at the
Speaker 3: table with a winemaker assistant winemaker and tasting through and
Speaker 3: just discovering and discovering the descriptions and everything of it.
Speaker 3: And you know, from there, I very much had a
Speaker 3: house palette of Carmel Valley wines. They had a large
Speaker 3: estate vineyard there and grew up there in the San
Speaker 3: Alichio Highlands. Was another thing that I craved pino noirs
Speaker 3: from there. It's like the pino noir go to for me.
Speaker 2: But why is that?
Speaker 4: It just it has It's.
Speaker 3: Very identifiable as being from there, you know, especially if
Speaker 3: you compare the Lamott Valley or even the Russian River,
Speaker 3: they're very different pinos. And then you get into certain
Speaker 3: vineyards and Sanlichi Islands and they don't even taste like
Speaker 3: pinos because much bigger wines.
Speaker 1: But so.
Speaker 2: If we come to your home, now you live in
Speaker 2: the East Bay, you live more in the city and
Speaker 2: commute in here, reverse commute into wine country. But if
Speaker 2: we came into your home, into your cellar, or maybe
Speaker 2: it's a you know, in your refrigerator or in the garage.
Speaker 2: I don't know where you keep your wines. But what
Speaker 2: would we find in your home? Is it all wines
Speaker 2: you've made, Is it winds from around the area, or
Speaker 2: or there particular varieties that you tend to collect.
Speaker 3: It's mainly wineries from Livermore. You know, there are some
Speaker 3: bottling lines, samples that come off the line that will
Speaker 3: end up at home, and then that we also bottle
Speaker 3: for many wineries and Livermore. So there's often bottles handed
Speaker 3: out at the end of bottling of other wineries.
Speaker 4: So that is the bulk of it.
Speaker 3: My brother in law is very into wines and very
Speaker 3: expensive wines, so they do some of those end up
Speaker 3: as gifts and end up in the in the cellar.
Speaker 3: But I have a wine cellar in the garage which
Speaker 3: is detached and kind of partially underground from our house
Speaker 3: we live on a hill in Oakland. And then there's
Speaker 3: the water heater closet that's in the basement, which is
Speaker 3: kind of built out.
Speaker 4: There's a it's so.
Speaker 3: There's some in there, and then there's a walking closet
Speaker 3: down there where she'll find.
Speaker 2: It's a little smattering of storage places. So is there
Speaker 2: anything you pulled out from one of those corners of
Speaker 2: your house that you had recently that drank really well?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: I have go to wines and they're typically from here
Speaker 3: at Fenestra, and they're the estate infrared. If I'm looking
Speaker 3: for a red wine, it's our GSM blend and it's
Speaker 3: I think that's my favorite red wine that we produce here.
Speaker 3: Just blends in particular are always fun and I enjoy
Speaker 3: because you really get to fine tune the wine by
Speaker 3: blending different varieties in particular. And the garage rose that's
Speaker 3: our state wine is like the every day, anytime of day,
Speaker 3: wine with any food.
Speaker 2: You're a house guy through and through. I mean that
Speaker 2: is that's pride for the brand, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I very much enjoy it.
Speaker 2: It's good that you like what you make. It is.
Speaker 2: So you just said that one of your favorite wines,
Speaker 2: your go to's, is the GSM. It's a blend, And
Speaker 2: I'm curious, do you think there's a such thing as
Speaker 2: a perfect variety?
Speaker 4: Not so much. No, No, I don't think that there is.
Speaker 4: You know, I do think Cabernet Savion gets.
Speaker 3: Close with just the mouth feel and the amount of
Speaker 3: tannins you can get from It's it's just a little
Speaker 3: bit more encompassing, where with some other wines that kind
Speaker 3: of can kind of go in different directions. But no,
Speaker 3: I love blending more than anything. But although I am
Speaker 3: very true to doing varietally label wines, I very much
Speaker 3: enjoy that to represent the varietal itself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you're a small producer. You know, maybe there's
Speaker 2: not such a thing as a perfect variety. But as
Speaker 2: a small producer, you know a lot of people will
Speaker 2: turn to wine scores to determine a level of perfection,
Speaker 2: and I'm curious what your position is on wine critics
Speaker 2: and scores. Oh boy, go ahead, have you hit her there?
Speaker 4: I hope, I hope none of them are listening to this.
Speaker 3: I mean, wine is very subjective and everyone has their
Speaker 3: own preferences and such, so you know, if you're going
Speaker 3: to send it to certain publications, it's usually just one
Speaker 3: person oftentimes that you're that's rating it, and you can
Speaker 3: almost tell by looking at what they're rating what their
Speaker 3: preference for wine is, so you might send only those
Speaker 3: types of lies to them. And then we do a
Speaker 3: lot of competitions as well, like you know, the San
Speaker 3: Francisco Chronicle competition, and they're there are so many wines
Speaker 3: and so many judges that it boggles my mind. When
Speaker 3: I was at UC Davis, we did some sensory evaluation
Speaker 3: courses where you know, after ten wines you're almost spent already,
Speaker 3: and if they're tasting like one hundred wines in a
Speaker 3: day and even expectorating or spitting that you still get
Speaker 3: the effects of alcohol. And I just and and those
Speaker 3: competitions are tough. You take the winds when you get them,
Speaker 3: and then oftentimes you can get a really good score
Speaker 3: at one of those and then you send that same
Speaker 3: way to another one, and it doesn't really score at all,
Speaker 3: and it's it's just a gamble.
Speaker 2: So you've got to kind of put it into a
Speaker 2: context of what it is like, take a win when
Speaker 2: you get it, and don't take a loss.
Speaker 4: As a loss. That's kind of how it is.
Speaker 2: So as a wine drinker, redwater, rose.
Speaker 3: It depends. It depends on the weather, what you're eating,
Speaker 3: your mood. Yeah, But like I said, the rose and
Speaker 3: the infrared or go to's for most.
Speaker 2: Things, rose and red kind of dominate.
Speaker 3: I enjoy I do enjoy a Savian blanc. I made
Speaker 3: a vigne recently, which haven't done that in a while, and.
Speaker 4: That is very nice.
Speaker 3: It's just a little bit different, some different floral and
Speaker 3: fruit notes to it. But like I said, it depends,
Speaker 3: I mean, depends on the season. Even you know springtime
Speaker 3: when it's warming up, you're like, oh, the sun's back,
Speaker 3: I can go outside and there's a time, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: So if if wine is seasonal, how do you approach
Speaker 2: it with pairing with food? Do you look at rules
Speaker 2: like white wine and fish, red wine and meat and
Speaker 2: you don't vary off of that, or is it more
Speaker 2: like it's seasonal I want rose and I don't care
Speaker 2: what I'm eating. How do you approach it? Do you
Speaker 2: pick wine first, food first or you just don't care.
Speaker 3: It's usually the food first, and then you pick the
Speaker 3: wine to go with it. And I will put some
Speaker 3: thought into it.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 3: You know, you can do like and like and that
Speaker 3: you can do also do contrasting pairings, which is always fun.
Speaker 3: But I'm not afraid to pair a red wine with
Speaker 3: a fish.
Speaker 2: Okay, So what what will make you make that decision?
Speaker 2: What are you looking for?
Speaker 3: Well, that will be what you know, what seasonings your
Speaker 3: you know how you're cooking a fish, what type of
Speaker 3: fish it is.
Speaker 4: Or you know, just you know. A lot of that
Speaker 4: has to do with that.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's the fat content or how rich the wine is.
Speaker 3: And then you look into more higher tannic wines iron
Speaker 3: tannin to balance that protein the protein.
Speaker 2: So for somebody who hasn't had the pleasure to try
Speaker 2: finestra wines, what do you think they're missing out on?
Speaker 3: They're missing out on quality wines. I do like to
Speaker 3: make food friendly wines, so they're usually a little bit
Speaker 3: have a little bit more tartness too, which I think
Speaker 3: helps you know, I think wine should be had with
Speaker 3: food for the most part. But you know, since we're
Speaker 3: so much, we're so much direct to consumer that it's
Speaker 3: coming to the property and enjoying the wine and the
Speaker 3: variety of wines we have. You know, it's a comment
Speaker 3: I hear very regularly when I'm here.
Speaker 4: During the tasting days, is we haven't had a wine
Speaker 4: we didn't like.
Speaker 2: You know, that's a great thing to hear.
Speaker 4: It is. We don't do a lot of the heavier reds.
Speaker 4: We do do some petite.
Speaker 3: Seraw, but I age it a little bit longer and barrel,
Speaker 3: so the tannins are a little bit more tamed. There's
Speaker 3: a great book I think it's Tim Hanny or Henny Henny.
Speaker 4: He does Why you like the Wines you like?
Speaker 3: And it's a great It's like my favorite wine book
Speaker 3: because it talks about the phenotypes and how everyone has
Speaker 3: a different taste or you know, what they like, right,
Speaker 3: and so there's a lot of that here.
Speaker 2: So first, if space aliens were to land on your
Speaker 2: property right now, you've got this nice open parking lot
Speaker 2: where they can land their spaceship and they come knocking
Speaker 2: on the door, which of your wines would you want
Speaker 2: to welcome them with to say, you know, this is Fenestra.
Speaker 3: The infrared, I think because an alien would understand infrared.
Speaker 2: What you're going on the name just as well as
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: And it's a blend of the three grapes you grow here,
Speaker 3: which really represents you know, our spot.
Speaker 2: That's great. So you know, every vintage tells a different story.
Speaker 2: You came from the Carmel Valley, you said, where you
Speaker 2: sort of developed a house palette, you know, really liking
Speaker 2: the wines. You like the San Lucia Highlands. And now
Speaker 2: we're here in the Livermore Valley and in your career
Speaker 2: being in different areas, do you see the Livermore Valley
Speaker 2: as being more consistent year to year? Do you see variation?
Speaker 2: What do you think vintage means in a place like this.
Speaker 3: Compared to Carmel Valley, It's different. It's much more consistent here.
Speaker 3: You do have there are seasonal variations from year to year.
Speaker 3: It's you know, harvest can be two or three weeks
Speaker 3: before or after the previous ones, so it kind of
Speaker 3: a moving target. It's a you know, the growing region
Speaker 3: itself is great for many varieties. And you might hear
Speaker 3: this from other winemakers as well. That you know, our
Speaker 3: growing season is fairly extended, but we get the cooling
Speaker 3: of the coastal influence with the fog coming in.
Speaker 4: We have the ultimate pass here where they have the big.
Speaker 3: Wind turn by. The wind really rips through here in
Speaker 3: the afternoon and cools it off, but get you get
Speaker 3: some really good consistency. It's perhaps a little bit warm
Speaker 3: certain varieties, but perfect for most varieties. I would say
Speaker 3: some years it's are more bad. Is usually the last
Speaker 3: thing we pick, and that's usually determined on how much
Speaker 3: rain is actually coming. It's November quick and some years
Speaker 3: Kieberney Semon doesn't ripen as much as you would like
Speaker 3: it too. So you know a lot of people think
Speaker 3: of Livermore as a very warm spot. They relate to
Speaker 3: the Central Valley. We're still another little mountain range over
Speaker 3: from the Central Valley, so you know, we don't always
Speaker 3: ripen caps off.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Yeah, I'd always kind of thought of it as
Speaker 2: a warmer area. But there is this lovely breeze that
Speaker 2: you can feel when you're outside. You can feel it
Speaker 2: coming through. It's not a heavy wind right now, but
Speaker 2: you feel a consistent breeze.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in the afternoons, the winds pick up.
Speaker 4: You'll have like a fifty degree.
Speaker 3: Diurnal shift from the temperature some nighttime to daytime. Especially
Speaker 3: during this time of year.
Speaker 2: It aligns with acidity.
Speaker 3: Yes, you can maintain some nice nowidity.
Speaker 2: That's great. So are there any kind of signs or
Speaker 2: predictors you look for that are going to tell you
Speaker 2: what a harvest is going to bring?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you start. I'll start with the calendar
Speaker 3: when bud break is, and I can compare that to
Speaker 3: previous year's. A good idea was that, you know, looking
Speaker 3: over the you know the past. I've been here for
Speaker 3: ten years, so getting a better record on where we
Speaker 3: are on the swing of things. And then you have
Speaker 3: flowering when's that happening? And you look at fruits set
Speaker 3: so you know these things that those are happening in
Speaker 3: May or so. And then vasion and then it's like, okay,
Speaker 3: I bet I better get ready. I've only got you know,
Speaker 3: maybe five weeks until it's skill go go wow.
Speaker 2: So you sort of have these markers that tell you
Speaker 2: what's coming in. As long as everything stays on track,
Speaker 2: you're good. Then mother and nature can throw something at you,
Speaker 2: and that throws everything off.
Speaker 4: Huh.
Speaker 3: Yes, And you know I thought, you know, going back
Speaker 3: to where Livermore is very consistent.
Speaker 4: It's like, you know, you know, all the.
Speaker 3: Unfortunate fires up in the North Bay and nappened. Sonoma's like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, we're just more grassy hills here and not
Speaker 3: a problem. And then twenty twenty happened, and multiple things
Speaker 3: happened that year, but we had some fires back here
Speaker 3: and it was like hardly any sun smoke ash and
Speaker 3: you know, we had a hard time ripening grapes that
Speaker 3: year because of the lack of sun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of like an inversion layer.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just really sat down in here. In fact,
Speaker 3: I had some ash on some of the grapes that
Speaker 3: came in and we actually ended up not following those wines.
Speaker 2: Wow. So in the ten years that you've been here,
Speaker 2: have you established any sort of good luck rituals that
Speaker 2: you do at the start of harvest for yourself or
Speaker 2: for your team.
Speaker 3: No, it's it's reminding my wife that she's going to
Speaker 3: be a widow, a harvest widow for a couple of months,
Speaker 3: and I'll need all the help. Last year, you know,
Speaker 3: we did a cheers with my assistant, you know, with
Speaker 3: some sparkling whine, not into the last day of crush.
Speaker 2: But nothing that's sort of like a I if I
Speaker 2: don't do this, it's gonna jinx me.
Speaker 4: No, I don't know. I'm not super superstitious like that.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 2: So you said you buy about eighty percent of your fruit,
Speaker 2: but obviously you have your own vineyards here, and I'm
Speaker 2: curious you spend a lot of time in the vines
Speaker 2: in the vineyards here. I'm assuming they're right outside the door.
Speaker 2: It's hard not to walk through them.
Speaker 4: I was just in there about an hour ago. I
Speaker 4: was walking the vineyard, and I'm.
Speaker 2: Curious if you tend to talk to your vines, and
Speaker 2: if so, what do you say to them?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't think I talk out loud to them,
Speaker 3: but you know, I do encourage them sometimes, like you know,
Speaker 3: are more bed We're actually currently replanting on a different
Speaker 3: acre here because it is over twenty five years old
Speaker 3: and it's in a little bit of decline. So encouragement
Speaker 3: to them and also hooting and hollering to get the
Speaker 3: deer out of there.
Speaker 2: Yelling at the animals and softly gently telling your grapes
Speaker 2: to grow.
Speaker 3: But I mean walking the vineyards is always it's almost
Speaker 3: like a zen moment.
Speaker 4: Right you get to your outside, You're in nature.
Speaker 3: In our particular vineyard, you have lovely views of the
Speaker 3: surrounding area. Mount Diablo's just standing out there, just looking
Speaker 3: right at you. And you know, it's just nice to
Speaker 3: be outside and experienced nature that way. And it's one
Speaker 3: of the you know, one of the many things that
Speaker 3: it's awesome about wine making is being inside outside and
Speaker 3: there's always something different to conquer. There's always something breaking
Speaker 3: that you have to fix it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you clearly found your passion and you found
Speaker 2: something that makes you very happy. And you know, just
Speaker 2: when you were saying that, I could see it in
Speaker 2: your eyes, like you love the indoor, outdoor and everything
Speaker 2: about that. But you said that wine. You came to
Speaker 2: wine as an accident. So I'm curious when you were little,
Speaker 2: what did you want to be when you grew up?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: Okay, so when I was little must have been I'm
Speaker 3: not sure when Top Gun came.
Speaker 4: Out, but as a little boy, that was my favorite movie.
Speaker 2: And a fighter pilot.
Speaker 3: I was gonna be a I was, but I'm too
Speaker 3: tall to be a pilot, and I do.
Speaker 4: My eyesight is fairly poor.
Speaker 3: I'm wearing contact lenses right now. But out of high school,
Speaker 3: I actually started working at airport, refueling airplanes and started
Speaker 3: working on my pilot's license.
Speaker 2: And did you ever get your pilot's license?
Speaker 4: No? I came very close.
Speaker 3: I was doing solo cross country flights and all that,
Speaker 3: and then I decided to move out of my parents'
Speaker 3: house and experienced all the bills I had to pay.
Speaker 3: And then it just so happened that my best friend
Speaker 3: from growing up had moved back from Santa Fe, New
Speaker 3: Mexico and got a job at Bernardo's Winery, and.
Speaker 2: And the rest is history pretty much.
Speaker 3: She ended up living on one of the estate houses
Speaker 3: up on a twenty acre parcel with a peteepert openyard
Speaker 3: with that borders Los Padres National Forest in beautiful country.
Speaker 3: So I've ended up moving up there with him and
Speaker 3: about a commuting to the airport to work. And about
Speaker 3: a year later a cellar position came open. And I
Speaker 3: mean I was already kind of involved with the being
Speaker 3: at the winery from them, because we would go there
Speaker 3: at night and have fun and drink from the barrels.
Speaker 3: It was, you know, twenty two year olds, would you.
Speaker 2: Well, isn't that what they call the angels fight? When
Speaker 2: the barrels? Angels share when there's a little missing from
Speaker 2: the barrel. Now we know what it is. It's it's
Speaker 2: the young guys getting into the barrels.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot of fun, but yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: I think my first stay there, we were working with
Speaker 3: some new barrels that had arrived and we were drinking
Speaker 3: beer doing it.
Speaker 4: It's like, this is an amazing job. And I worked
Speaker 4: my way up to assistant winemaker after five years. Of
Speaker 4: the last five years I was as assistant winemaker there.
Speaker 3: And then got a degree in fit a culture analogy.
Speaker 3: After I left there for Margaret River and washed Western Australia,
Speaker 3: worked a harvest there and then ended up at UC
Speaker 3: Davis when I came back and zipped through that program
Speaker 3: because I already knew the wine making, I learned the
Speaker 3: theoretical parts and took a little.
Speaker 2: Bit of the theory to go with the experience. So
Speaker 2: when you're not working, I don't know if you stop working,
Speaker 2: but when you're not working, how do you like to
Speaker 2: spend your free time?
Speaker 3: We were just camping up in the sierras. I've got
Speaker 3: a five month old girl and a three year old
Speaker 3: boy at home, so they, yes, they consume most of
Speaker 3: my time. But we live on a hill in Oakland
Speaker 3: with great views, so usually sunsets at the top of
Speaker 3: the hill with a glass of wine, but you know,
Speaker 3: outdoor things, camping. My wife and I were doing sailing
Speaker 3: lessons in the bay a while, and then she was
Speaker 3: pregnant with our first child and we went out once
Speaker 3: on our own. We were able to rent up to
Speaker 3: thirty five foot sell boats. We went out on our own,
Speaker 3: she was pregnant. We kind of scared ourselves and then
Speaker 3: the kids happened. So I would love to get back
Speaker 3: into sailing. I would love to get back into flying
Speaker 3: as well, but the time is short, especially.
Speaker 2: With IDs, it's going to be a little while before
Speaker 2: you have a lot of free time. But when you
Speaker 2: can carve out a little free time to make a
Speaker 2: romantic evening for you and your wife, what kind of
Speaker 2: wines do you open to set them mood for a
Speaker 2: romantic evening versus just an average night.
Speaker 3: Well, at home, it's going to be something from the cellar,
Speaker 3: But really it's the more romantic evenings are when we
Speaker 3: get to go out to dinner, and that's where I
Speaker 3: get to That's where I go nuts on the wine menu,
Speaker 3: and we end up spending a lot of money because
Speaker 3: I get to explore different wines, which I don't usually
Speaker 3: do outside outside of anything else.
Speaker 2: And when you're exploring different wines, what where do you
Speaker 2: tend to go on a menu? Do you go to
Speaker 2: a particular region or a particular variety or is it
Speaker 2: the odd balls? Like you said you brought some in here,
Speaker 2: like what what do you drawn to?
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of it will be based off what
Speaker 3: my wife and I are ordering, and I'll try and
Speaker 3: find something that meets us in between.
Speaker 4: Oftentimes, and this.
Speaker 3: Is a little trick that I figured out, as I'll
Speaker 3: look at what's available by the glass and buy the bottle,
Speaker 3: and I'll ask the waiter for samples. I have those
Speaker 3: to help me decide where I want, so I get
Speaker 3: to try a little war variety. But oftentimes it's all
Speaker 3: pick varieties that we make here just to compare and
Speaker 3: take notes, just because I don't get out and buy
Speaker 3: and consume a lot of other wines these days. It's
Speaker 3: it's more of an educational experience, but it's always going
Speaker 3: out is always a little more romantic than getting out
Speaker 3: of the house in a way from responsibilities.
Speaker 2: So when you look back at your life and how
Speaker 2: you work today, I mean, we have so many teachers, mentors,
Speaker 2: parents along the way to give us advice. Is there
Speaker 2: a piece of advice that was given to you at
Speaker 2: some point that really stuck with you.
Speaker 3: I can't think of any particular advice. When I was
Speaker 3: at Bernardist Winery, I was under two different winemakers during
Speaker 3: that stint there. The previous winemaker, who was actually a legend,
Speaker 3: had left just prior to me starting, but I got
Speaker 3: to interact with him on certain occasions.
Speaker 4: But it was the first winemaker, Mark Cheesborough.
Speaker 3: He has his own winery in Carmel Valley and he
Speaker 3: the one that brought me into the assistant winemaker position
Speaker 3: and gave me the encouragement that you have what it takes.
Speaker 3: And you know, I was a little bit nervous, like
Speaker 3: I don't have an education. It's like you can do it,
Speaker 3: you know, And he was very confident in that, in
Speaker 3: me and doing that and just his willingness to share
Speaker 3: his knowledge about wine also just about fixing things, and
Speaker 3: I think that's one of the big things that I appreciate,
Speaker 3: especially the small winery is I'm also the plumber, the electrician,
Speaker 3: the HVAC guy. And another favorite show growing up was mcguiver,
Speaker 3: So I kind of have that nia name MC everything.
Speaker 3: I have that nickname from childhood, which is very important.
Speaker 3: The windustry, you're in the middle of harvest, the pump
Speaker 3: breaks or something breaks. You know, you get in there
Speaker 3: and you troubleshoot it and figure it out, and that's
Speaker 3: very rewarding for me.
Speaker 2: So, speaking of rewarding, when you look back at your career,
Speaker 2: what is one of your proudest achievements to date?
Speaker 3: You know, being promoted to assistant winemaker was the big
Speaker 3: push that kept.
Speaker 4: Me going in this direction.
Speaker 3: When I discovered Livermore Valley, I mean just the achievement
Speaker 3: of being able to work here was great. I came
Speaker 3: here not knowing Livermore Valley at all. I came with
Speaker 3: a list of wineries I just wanted to check out
Speaker 3: after researching online, had a resume in hand, started here.
Speaker 4: First met Lanny.
Speaker 3: That day and it's just it was just it was just,
Speaker 3: you know, magic. And it's been ten years now I've
Speaker 3: been here and it is zipped right by.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: That's I mean, that's that's pretty that's pretty amazing to
Speaker 2: think of how just one promotion in a way kind
Speaker 2: of set you on a path, you know, and if
Speaker 2: it weren't for that, who knows where you'd be exactly?
Speaker 4: Who knows where I would have ended up. But I'm
Speaker 4: very happy I've ended up here.
Speaker 3: It's such a rewarding job of just there's that's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I want you to complete this sentence for me.
Speaker 2: A table without wine is like.
Speaker 4: It's like a piece of bread with nothing on it.
Speaker 2: And you said you're not spontaneous. That was good.
Speaker 4: There's some bread, but nothing on it is delicious.
Speaker 2: So now we're at that table with your wine on it,
Speaker 2: and there's an empty seat next to you. The wine
Speaker 2: you've made is sitting on the table. Who, from any
Speaker 2: walk of life, living or deceased, do you wish you
Speaker 2: could share a bottle of finestra with.
Speaker 4: Oh that's a tough one. You have to make. You
Speaker 4: have to come back to that one. Oh boy, it could.
Speaker 2: Be someone personal, it could be someone famous, it could
Speaker 2: be someone historical.
Speaker 4: You know, that's a really tough question.
Speaker 3: I think just sitting here and in the moment, I
Speaker 3: never got the chance to meet the owner's life friend,
Speaker 3: Lannie's life friend, and I hear wonderful stories about her,
Speaker 3: so it would be great. She was so passionate about
Speaker 3: wine and wine making that it would be great to
Speaker 3: meet her and have to line with her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 4: I like that.
Speaker 2: So I'm curious. You love to drink your own wine.
Speaker 2: You don't get out that much, as you were saying,
Speaker 2: and you have two young kids, so that's a little harder.
Speaker 2: But if you were going off to a deserted island
Speaker 2: and could only take three wines with you, what would
Speaker 2: they be? Would they be your own wine? Something else?
Speaker 2: Any three wines?
Speaker 4: Oh that's tough. Do I have refrigeration on the deserted island?
Speaker 2: You have all the conditions you need for whatever wines
Speaker 2: you want.
Speaker 4: Okay, did you give how many wines?
Speaker 2: Gonna three?
Speaker 3: The rose for sure, the infrared, the GSM, blend, the
Speaker 3: all around her, and probably a soft blank because I'm
Speaker 3: going to be catching a lot of seafood. You know
Speaker 3: that's gonna be a great pairing.
Speaker 2: Selvi flot perfect three wines. Well, let's take those three
Speaker 2: wines and let's play our little game of wine and music. Pairing.
Speaker 2: So okay, so let's start with the rose. Since tis
Speaker 2: the season. It's warm out, si, it is rose season.
Speaker 2: You can feel it in the air. Tell me about
Speaker 2: that rose. What's it a rose of?
Speaker 3: It's a rose and I do I pick those grapes
Speaker 3: earlier than I picked the grapes for the red.
Speaker 4: That we do.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that is springtime, nice weather, jovial, and it's
Speaker 3: a it's a happy it's a happy wine.
Speaker 2: So what's kind of music is happy to you?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: You know what comes to mind is sugar Magnolia from
Speaker 3: Grateful Dead. It's you know, it kind of represents that,
Speaker 3: I think, you know, with just the just the prettiness
Speaker 3: of the song itself, the wine, you know, and.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a pretty rose.
Speaker 4: It's it's fresh, it's it's fresh.
Speaker 3: There's no residual sugar, but it almost seems like it
Speaker 3: does because it has so much fruitiness to it and
Speaker 3: it's just so refreshing and everything.
Speaker 4: And yeah, it's like a okay.
Speaker 2: What about the sauvignon blanc savion blanc.
Speaker 3: That's you know, that's got a little more zip to it,
Speaker 3: a little more acidity, a little more freshness and greenness
Speaker 3: to it, with some tropical stuff, but it's got a
Speaker 3: little zip in its step. I might go with like
Speaker 3: a vampire weekend and like a punk or something like that,
Speaker 3: so it's.
Speaker 4: Kind of a little more energy to it. I like that.
Speaker 2: I like that's very cool. Let's see we've got you know,
Speaker 2: we have your estate grenache. We didn't talk about that,
Speaker 2: and I do love a good grenache, So tell me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the grenache.
Speaker 3: You know, when people come here looking for a peanut,
Speaker 3: a wire like this is your closest thing to it.
Speaker 3: It's not a very heavy red, but it's a very
Speaker 3: pretty That's another go to wine I do. My palette
Speaker 3: tends towards more medium body.
Speaker 4: Reds versus heavy reds. It's just my own preference. Everyone
Speaker 4: has their own.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that one is just kind of come and
Speaker 3: and nice and chill, and it's just like relaxing almost,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 4: It is something I would like to sit on its
Speaker 4: own without food. There were a song to go with that, Oh,
Speaker 4: it almost gonna be. These are my personal.
Speaker 2: Preference, of course, because that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be another like chill song like Bob Marley
Speaker 3: Three Little Birds or otis.
Speaker 4: Redding or you know it's gonna be some war just
Speaker 4: you know, can be.
Speaker 2: Sitting on the dog of the bay and uh, let's
Speaker 2: end with your well, no, you know what before we
Speaker 2: do the infrared, I like conjecture because I just liked
Speaker 2: or can conjunk. Oh, conjugation, conjugation, conjugation, Yes, the conjugation.
Speaker 4: Oh boy, the conjugation. That one.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a blend. It's a blend of Cabernet, Sauvillon, Cabernet,
Speaker 3: franc burlou petifer do.
Speaker 2: All back, a perfect bordo blend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're getting some Carmonier this year, which will be
Speaker 3: fun to play with. It will be my first time
Speaker 3: getting to play with those grapes. But yeah, that's you
Speaker 3: know that one has It's just a it's very elegant wine,
Speaker 3: similar to the infrared, the blends that you know, I
Speaker 3: look for elegance and.
Speaker 4: A little bit of beauty. So something like that.
Speaker 3: Gets into you know, chef's table. It's kind of repopularize
Speaker 3: the Valdi winter from the four seasons and you know,
Speaker 3: the blends like conjugation, Infrared kind of take you through
Speaker 3: a lot of emotion and it's just beautiful and okay.
Speaker 2: So if we have Vivaldi Winter for that one, can
Speaker 2: does infrared get its own song? Because now we're at infrared.
Speaker 2: This is what the aliens get when they come here.
Speaker 2: This is your go to wine. What is infrared? What
Speaker 2: would you listen to?
Speaker 4: Valdi works for that one. Well, that's tough, it's gonna be. Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, I keep getting back my father and my
Speaker 3: late father, and he passed away a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3: It was very into Sam Cook. So you can pick
Speaker 3: some things from there.
Speaker 2: There you go, Yeah, there you go, a little Sam
Speaker 2: Cook with infrared.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, Aaron, you survived. You did it. We made it
Speaker 2: through the conversation. You're doing okay. So I have one
Speaker 2: more question for you. It's a two parter, just to
Speaker 2: finish it up. When your kids are a little bit
Speaker 2: older and you can either leave them with the grandparents
Speaker 2: or with a babysitter or maybe take them. What wine
Speaker 2: region in the world is the top of your bucket
Speaker 2: list to explore?
Speaker 3: Boy, I don't think I can name one. You know,
Speaker 3: I've got to on my honeymoon, I got to explore
Speaker 3: Spain and so we did some regions there and you know,
Speaker 3: the pre rat was a really fun one to go to.
Speaker 3: It was very different than the other ones. And itching
Speaker 3: to get to Italy. I really like Italian varietals. I
Speaker 3: think they do well here in Livermore. We make Cassandiovesi
Speaker 3: that is one of my favorites as well, lots of
Speaker 3: natural acidity. So it ended up in Italy exploring I
Speaker 3: mean many regions, many.
Speaker 2: Regions, too many to mention, but Italy. We'll put Italy
Speaker 2: on there. And if somebody wants to come here and
Speaker 2: visit you, how can they find you? Where can they
Speaker 2: find you? And what can they experience here at Finestra Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well you can find us on web search finestrawinery dot com.
Speaker 3: We're in Livermore. When you get here, it's a very
Speaker 3: bucolic setting. It's a little bit tucked away. A lot
Speaker 3: of people don't even know it's here, and they get here,
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, my little private oasis.
Speaker 4: There's a little creek.
Speaker 3: Flowing through here, a nice little breeze, very mature trees.
Speaker 3: We have an oak tree here that I'm guessing is
Speaker 3: at least three hundred years old. And then very friendly
Speaker 3: staff and a variety of wines to explore and there's
Speaker 3: definitely something for everyone here, if not, everything's for everything everyone.
Speaker 2: And then the tasting room is in the cellar. You
Speaker 2: split time between making wine and tasting room, but it's
Speaker 2: in the building built into the ground, so you get
Speaker 2: to kind of feel like you've you enter off the ground,
Speaker 2: but you feel like you've gone underground.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and back in time a little bit too. We
Speaker 3: you know, we have some relic equipment out here from
Speaker 3: going back. There's some equipment out here from around the
Speaker 3: World War two era that's still out front. So an
Speaker 3: old pressure to stimmer. But yeah, you feel like you've
Speaker 3: stepped back in time a little bit.
Speaker 2: You were putting out some brick walls that are original.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the winery is built in eighteen eighty nine and
Speaker 3: those walls are still standing. The wooden structures were refurbished
Speaker 3: and rebuilt in the late nineties, I believe.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And so yeah, it's a very laid back atmosphere.
Speaker 4: People love coming just to hang out.
Speaker 3: You know, we'll do live music on Friday nights and
Speaker 3: other fun events and it's just a nice place to
Speaker 3: hang out.
Speaker 2: That sounds great.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: Finestra is Latin for window and it is a window
Speaker 2: onto the Livermore Valley. So, Aaron, thank you for joining
Speaker 2: us on Wine Soundtrack. I hope you had a good time.
Speaker 2: And let's go taste a little infrared.
Speaker 4: All right, that sounds good. Yeah, happy to be here.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine Soundtrack USA.
Speaker 1: For details and updates, visit our website winesoundtrack dot com.