Speaker 1: Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. Listen to the passion with
Speaker 1: which producers narrate their winery and their world. In 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 in the Livermore Valley with Darcy
Speaker 2: Kent Winery and the owner and artist of the same name,
Speaker 2: Darcy Kent. Darcy, welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell us
Speaker 2: about the winery named after you.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm going to keep saying Darcy Kent from Darcy Kent.
Speaker 3: I know it's always very confusing. It's like me or
Speaker 3: the brand. Thank you.
Speaker 4: I am so delighted, really been looking forward to the interview.
Speaker 4: And it's a gorgeous day. So this is a lot
Speaker 4: of fun. We started this winery on this property eleven
Speaker 4: years ago, but we started with a single wine mayor
Speaker 4: Low in nineteen ninety six. But I am fifth generation
Speaker 4: in the United States and our seventh was just born
Speaker 4: three months ago. Congratulations than Hazel.
Speaker 3: How wonderful.
Speaker 2: So you're located here in the Livermore Valley and you've
Speaker 2: been making wine here, but you come from a long
Speaker 2: history of wine right.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 4: The wine making and wine growing has just been a
Speaker 4: part of every generation of our family. My great great
Speaker 4: grandfather came over from Switzerland, you know, not a rip
Speaker 4: rowing wine country, but big I mean, you know, they
Speaker 4: made a living from it, yea. And they came over
Speaker 4: and during the pandemic and they they in almost an
Speaker 4: entire village moved over and they were looking for a
Speaker 4: winemaker to come over. So they they enticed my great
Speaker 4: great grandfather and his son, Christian, both named Christian Rugsuger,
Speaker 4: to come to the Missouri River valley and they established
Speaker 4: a winery there called the Alpine Winery. And it was
Speaker 4: when they started the bond. They were given the sixty
Speaker 4: second bond, but they were they are far be four
Speaker 4: bottons were given. They operated all the way until nineteen
Speaker 4: sixty two prohibition. Yes, so from eighteen eighty three. They
Speaker 4: planted the vineyards in eighteen seventy five, opened the winery
Speaker 4: in eighteen eighty three, and then ran continuously as a
Speaker 4: and then during prohibition it was a speakeasy, yes, which which.
Speaker 3: He was arrested for. I had proof that we ran
Speaker 3: a speakeasy.
Speaker 2: Yes, So here we are, you know, five generations later
Speaker 2: and you're making wine here in the Livermore Valley. Tell
Speaker 2: me a little bit about Darcy Kent. How many acres
Speaker 2: do you have and what are you producing right now?
Speaker 3: We have eighty acres on vine.
Speaker 4: We are producing everything from gruner velt, Leiner, sauvignon, blanc
Speaker 4: albert Raino. So many great, right, three different clones of
Speaker 4: pino noir, chardonnay, the uh, two different kindes of cabernet, sauvignon,
Speaker 4: Cabernet franc, petit verdeaux mayor low wow, uh, primativo.
Speaker 2: Petit Sarah. That's all I can think of a thing.
Speaker 2: And are all the eighty acres sort of continuous right
Speaker 2: here around the property?
Speaker 4: They there's fifteen acres here on vine. Then straight across
Speaker 4: the right, immediately across the road are the rest.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you're growing peanut no water petits around cabernet
Speaker 2: in the same place we are.
Speaker 4: The wine region is amazing. We have incredible diurnal swings,
Speaker 4: which means the temperatures swing forty degrees every day, which
Speaker 4: is unusual most you know regions. You look on the
Speaker 4: news in the morning when the temperatures dial across the
Speaker 4: screen and it's usually a twenty degree swing if that, Yeah,
Speaker 4: and we get forty, so it's the end.
Speaker 3: Then there's the prepare vitual winds.
Speaker 4: I know that, you know, as the as the you know,
Speaker 4: climate change is happening in the central Valley is getting warmer.
Speaker 4: We're getting the fog brought in and the wind that
Speaker 4: that creates deeper, longer, harder, and so our temperatures were
Speaker 4: actually cooling. We've gone from a cool region four and
Speaker 4: now we're a cool region three.
Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, So you have eighty acres.
Speaker 2: How many do you buy any fruit? Or do you
Speaker 2: do only a state fruit?
Speaker 3: We lease fruit.
Speaker 4: We do occasionally buy and but the ninety nine percent
Speaker 4: of it is least in long term lease.
Speaker 3: Or our own.
Speaker 2: And how many cases do you make?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: God, as we're ramping up, it's over thirty thousand cases
Speaker 4: now so closer to thirty five thousand cases.
Speaker 2: So you're in full distribution. I'm assuming you're not just
Speaker 2: direct to consumer. But are your wines available across the
Speaker 2: country and are they available internationally?
Speaker 3: That's a whole another story.
Speaker 4: We used to be and then you know, COVID really
Speaker 4: killed everybody. The being a mid size winery, small mid
Speaker 4: sized winery as we are, even though we're you know,
Speaker 4: really big for this valley.
Speaker 3: Is it's a difficult position with the distributors.
Speaker 4: They really are playing with the big players, and because
Speaker 4: the margins are just better, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So so right now you're you're really relying on
Speaker 2: the DTC that people coming in here is fabulous.
Speaker 4: We are also distributed in southern California through you know,
Speaker 4: Pavilions and Vonds up here through Safeway Costco as well
Speaker 4: as Albertson's and yeah, so we're slowly growing in those
Speaker 4: markets and chains.
Speaker 3: I feel it's a really important market to hit.
Speaker 4: Not everybody wants to deal with getting on a phone
Speaker 4: or the web site and ordering wines DTC direct to consumer.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just want to walk into store and buy it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: so do I. And if you're ever in a store
Speaker 2: and you see the Darcy Kent label, you know, there's
Speaker 2: a real human named Darcy Kent. It's not made up.
Speaker 3: I'm right here.
Speaker 2: So, Darcy, you said that you are multi generation kind
Speaker 2: of connected to wine. But what's your first memory relevant
Speaker 2: to wine? As you.
Speaker 4: Wow, it probably goes back to the beginning because we're
Speaker 4: brought up with wine in our family, and we brought
Speaker 4: our daughters up that same way too. They at the
Speaker 4: dinner table, they were allowed to sniffe it, describe it,
Speaker 4: talk about it. As they got a little bit older,
Speaker 4: they could have little SIPs. As they got a little
Speaker 4: bit older, they could have a little glass. But we
Speaker 4: just really wanted them to grow up, just like I
Speaker 4: was brought up by my parents and my mother was
Speaker 4: brought up to really appreciate it as a beverage that
Speaker 4: not only is lovely on its own, but just kind
Speaker 4: of creates a you know, a celebration.
Speaker 2: So in a way, instead of having a first memory
Speaker 2: of it, it's just always been part of your.
Speaker 3: Life, always wine and art.
Speaker 2: So with all the time, with all the wines you've
Speaker 2: been drinking for as many years, and I'm sure you
Speaker 2: know when you were a child, this isn't going to
Speaker 2: be a But is there one that stands out as
Speaker 2: an AHA moment for you? Was there a point you
Speaker 2: tasted a wine and you just said wow? For maybe
Speaker 2: you said now I want to make wine, or now
Speaker 2: I want to pursue this, or I didn't know wine
Speaker 2: could be like this.
Speaker 3: Wow. We were making.
Speaker 4: Ar mayor Low and all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 4: we started investing in things like shaker tables, and we
Speaker 4: were investing in hand sorting and or hand picking and
Speaker 4: then sorting by hand. And when that wine and we
Speaker 4: had been playing with barrels for a long time but
Speaker 4: really had settled on some favorite Cooper ridges. And when
Speaker 4: we opened this wine, Julian and I, you know, I
Speaker 4: just got weak in the knees. I had to sit
Speaker 4: down and I cried. You know, it was like, wow,
Speaker 4: that's kind.
Speaker 2: Of an AHA moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you're just like, okay, you know, we
Speaker 3: can do.
Speaker 2: This, so that one little more low and then here
Speaker 2: we are today.
Speaker 3: It was it was it was our one little baby,
Speaker 3: you know. I love that. Love that.
Speaker 2: So now if we come to your home, what would
Speaker 2: we find in there? I mean, is there a lot
Speaker 2: of more low? Is it a lot of your wines
Speaker 2: or wines from around the world, particular great varieties. What
Speaker 2: do you collect? What do you drink?
Speaker 3: Big on pinot?
Speaker 4: We really love pino noir, So that seems to be
Speaker 4: what our cellar has had been filled with. You know,
Speaker 4: as we're getting I don't want to say as we're
Speaker 4: getting older, but as we're you know, I find our
Speaker 4: cellars is going more to aromatic whites, huh, and also
Speaker 4: to cab fronc some you know, things that are lesser
Speaker 4: known and are just you know, full of aromatics and
Speaker 4: are just you know, just have a story to tell.
Speaker 4: Every time you take a sip, you know.
Speaker 2: Is there anything you opened up recently that drank really well?
Speaker 4: Oh, I should have a quick answer. I know I'm
Speaker 4: sitting here going everything is really incredible. We you know
Speaker 4: that I'm actually right now so enchanted with our twenty
Speaker 4: three Sauvignon Bloc. Every time I open that bottle, every
Speaker 4: time that those aromatics fill the room. You know, I
Speaker 4: just to me, it's it's like, you know, like summertime.
Speaker 4: It just brightens my day just to smell it, not
Speaker 4: even to taste it. But it's it's incredib do complex,
Speaker 4: but also it just fills your heart with sunshine.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of Sauvigno blanca and other great varieties, do
Speaker 2: you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety?
Speaker 4: No, much like I don't think there's a perfect genre
Speaker 4: of music. You know, people ask me that at every
Speaker 4: club event, what's your favorite wine? And it's like that's
Speaker 4: asking me to choose what's my favorite music? You know,
Speaker 4: it depends what season are we in, what time of
Speaker 4: day is it?
Speaker 3: What have I just done? How tired am I? How
Speaker 3: awake am I? You know? What am I eating? Am
Speaker 3: I not eating?
Speaker 4: You know, there's a million selections of music as well
Speaker 4: as you know, as wine, and thank.
Speaker 3: God for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and you know you're making you make a
Speaker 2: variety of wines. You talked about all the grapes that
Speaker 2: you're growing, so you're clearly working with a lot of
Speaker 2: different grape varieties. And I'm wondering for somebody who's never
Speaker 2: tasted your wine before, they've never had a Darcy Can't wine,
Speaker 2: what do you think they're missing out on?
Speaker 4: Tasting the fruit? It's authenticity the vineyard. What happened in
Speaker 4: the vineyard that year. You know, how much did the sunshine,
Speaker 4: how much did a rain? What were the flowers or
Speaker 4: grasses growing? You know, because those are all the things
Speaker 4: that you're picking up on and you're tasting. We let
Speaker 4: the wine be made in the vineyard, Julian and the team.
Speaker 4: We have a very light hand, and we want the
Speaker 4: wines to be lower in alcohol, brighter in acidity, and
Speaker 4: balance well with foods, but also, you know, just a
Speaker 4: we want you to taste what's in the vineyard.
Speaker 2: So if space aliens were to land on your property
Speaker 2: right now and walk up and knock on the door,
Speaker 2: which of your wines would you welcome them with to say,
Speaker 2: you know, this is Darcy Kent Winery.
Speaker 4: I would do our sauvign miscue, the Sauvignon Blanc. It's
Speaker 4: the misca clone, so very aromatic, very aromatic, because it's
Speaker 4: it's just something that doesn't hide. And even a novice
Speaker 4: is going to, you know, immediately their eyes will pop
Speaker 4: open and and they're going to see that, oh, this
Speaker 4: this smells good. I do want to try this. But sometimes,
Speaker 4: you know, a wine, you know, you have to coax
Speaker 4: it a little bit, or it has more nuances. This
Speaker 4: Sauvignyan blanc just leaps out of the glass.
Speaker 2: Is it liked by most people that taste it?
Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah, It's won the Sauvignon Blanc Summit this year.
Speaker 2: This one congratulations.
Speaker 4: You you know it's it's gotten a ninety plus plus
Speaker 4: score in the Wine Enthusiast Double Gold at the San
Speaker 4: Francisco Chronicle.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I think.
Speaker 4: It's everybody seems to go crazy over it. It's this
Speaker 4: the Sauvignon mousque clone is just it's exquisite and I can't.
Speaker 3: Wait for more people to discover it.
Speaker 2: So here's a wine that the first thing you said
Speaker 2: when we started, it's a wine that you love. It's
Speaker 2: a wine that's drinking so well that you love it.
Speaker 2: But you also just named all these awards that it's
Speaker 2: won and scores has gotten and I'm wondering what your
Speaker 2: opinion is online critics and scores like that segue.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's fun when you're winning them all, of.
Speaker 4: Course, and so you know, this is a great year
Speaker 4: to ask me because it's like we're winning everything. So
Speaker 4: I love it In years when you're not winning, you know,
Speaker 4: you're just kind of you're like, ah, you know. And
Speaker 4: same as with the art. Not everybody's going to love
Speaker 4: everything that you do, but there's enough. Yeah, I think
Speaker 4: you've got to make wine that you're proud of that
Speaker 4: is without fault. You don't put out a wine that
Speaker 4: has faults, and we never do. And so there's a
Speaker 4: real standard of hygiene, cleanliness and standard, you know, so
Speaker 4: we'll never have a wine go out of here that
Speaker 4: doesn't live up to that live up to those standards.
Speaker 4: So we're very proud of everything that goes out. And
Speaker 4: not everyone loves everything. I mean, we have, you know,
Speaker 4: the thousand club members that will be coming here two
Speaker 4: weeks to talk to us. I have so many who
Speaker 4: come up to me and say, I don't drink rutter,
Speaker 4: I don't drink wine, or I don't drink this, or
Speaker 4: I don't like.
Speaker 3: That, and it's like, great, we have something else. You
Speaker 3: know what it's going to show you.
Speaker 2: And so when it comes to kind of wine critics,
Speaker 2: you know, of course, when you're getting great scores, you know,
Speaker 2: you take them and you sit up a little straighter,
Speaker 2: but you're not changing. You don't change things to adapt
Speaker 2: to scores. That doesn't drive your wine.
Speaker 4: No, it helps with the distributors and with the stores,
Speaker 4: so it is very important for that.
Speaker 2: But then when people come here, they just taste and
Speaker 2: they enjoy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, the customers actually, you know, I mean yeah,
Speaker 4: when you're trying to choose what flight you're going to
Speaker 4: taste or what winds you want to taste, if there's
Speaker 4: a score next to it that you respect, then it
Speaker 4: becomes easy.
Speaker 2: Well, what about what you drink red whiter rose, I
Speaker 2: drink them all still are sparkling both. I really love
Speaker 2: bubbles and I'm getting into bubbles more and more. And
Speaker 2: we are also getting into bubbles more and more. We
Speaker 2: have a cook card press now and we're we'll be
Speaker 2: introducing our Blanc de Noir this fall, made with the
Speaker 2: Pino Noir, Pino Noir, the three Clones de Jon, the
Speaker 2: Swiss Clone and oh my gosh, I'm.
Speaker 3: Having a senior moment. Pomar Okay, okay, well that is
Speaker 3: the yeah, Pamar de Jon and.
Speaker 4: The Swiss Clone. So it's it's beautiful and I'm very
Speaker 4: excited about it. But this year we're also going to
Speaker 4: do a Soovin and blanc an al Barino, a Rose
Speaker 4: of Malbeck.
Speaker 2: All sparkling, and you have the greener Velt Leader that
Speaker 2: I'm sipping on now.
Speaker 4: Yes, I just think that bubbles, Oh my gosh, you know,
Speaker 4: there's so much fun and they just get the party
Speaker 4: started right, and you know it's it's why aren't we
Speaker 4: drinking more of these beautiful varietals in this way with bubbles?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: So we're still we make all the base wines and
Speaker 4: we have a partner winery who fit does the dressage.
Speaker 4: But then but we're we're hopefully within the next year
Speaker 4: or two, we will be able to do all of
Speaker 4: that on side. So with all the sparkling wines and
Speaker 4: all the different wines you make in the different styles,
Speaker 4: and you talk about them as being speaking about the grape,
Speaker 4: letting the grape shine through, and not being you know,
Speaker 4: overly big or anything, how do you then approach pairing
Speaker 4: these wines with food? Do you look at rules to
Speaker 4: follow or do you just pair sparkling wine with everything? Well,
Speaker 4: spark Sparkling's easy to pay was just about everything you know,
Speaker 4: it really is, but there are nuances to it, and
Speaker 4: you just there's so many foods that can just wipe
Speaker 4: it out and make it go quiet. So I just
Speaker 4: came from a tasting that we do with our with
Speaker 4: our restaurant partner before the club event, and we tasted
Speaker 4: three different pairings for each wine, and you know, some
Speaker 4: of them like this time we did from Chef Hiszeus
Speaker 4: of Zephyr's his vicous Suah with the with our unoaked
Speaker 4: chardonna was.
Speaker 3: Made the wine sing.
Speaker 2: What do you think it was? Was it that they
Speaker 2: matched that they contrasted. Was it the wine elevating one
Speaker 2: or the food the other, or.
Speaker 4: Was it elevated the wine and made the fruit notes
Speaker 4: of the wine just just come out and jump for joy,
Speaker 4: you know. And and an unlikely pairing he did, like
Speaker 4: a roasted be salad that made the rose of malbec
Speaker 4: just go leaping.
Speaker 3: Out with strawberries, you know.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: So the idea is obviously to make the wine and
Speaker 2: the food both jump. Do you look for certain things
Speaker 2: if you were to pick a pairing or do you
Speaker 2: trust the chef to do it?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: No, we and that's why we you know, he prepared
Speaker 4: almost twenty different dishes for us to taste through and
Speaker 4: select in and we're you know, like he thought, for sure,
Speaker 4: these federals with this onion jam would be incredible with
Speaker 4: the pino noir, and I you know, it's like it
Speaker 4: just the wine went flat to me, and you know,
Speaker 4: it was like it's not working for me.
Speaker 2: Did you find another pairing for those?
Speaker 5: We did?
Speaker 4: It's a toastata with short ribs and a molet sauce
Speaker 4: like a cheat because I have them, but heavy, heavy,
Speaker 4: heavy on the blackberries. I mean it was just loaded
Speaker 4: as a BlackBerry malay Wo and it really did pair
Speaker 4: beautifully with it.
Speaker 2: Wow, making me hungry. And I can keep talking about food,
Speaker 2: but I mean it all comes from the vineyard. It
Speaker 2: all starts in the vineyard. And we are looking out
Speaker 2: at your vineyards. We walked past your vineyards as we
Speaker 2: came in here. And you know how much time do
Speaker 2: you spend walking through your vineyards?
Speaker 3: Oh, every day, every day, every day.
Speaker 4: You have two German shepherds, and we walk through them
Speaker 4: every day every day of the year.
Speaker 3: You know that we're here so so awake occasionally, but you.
Speaker 4: Know there and then in the fall, like last fall,
Speaker 4: you know, we were all we were the ones out
Speaker 4: there dropping all the fruit.
Speaker 3: David and I my husband and I and are two
Speaker 3: German shepherds.
Speaker 4: They don't do much work, but.
Speaker 2: They're more also.
Speaker 4: You know, it's but it's glorious to be in the
Speaker 4: vineyards that much and really get to know them. You know,
Speaker 4: you understand your different locations in the vineyard, where your
Speaker 4: trouble spots, where your really glorious spots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, as a as a dog lover, I'm
Speaker 2: sure you talk to your dogs all the time, because
Speaker 2: I know that as a dog lover, I talk to
Speaker 2: to the dogs in my life, and we talk to
Speaker 2: our dogs, and we feel that they respond to us.
Speaker 2: I'm curious, do you talk to your vines and feel
Speaker 2: that they respond to you.
Speaker 4: I think the vines respond to care and I feel,
Speaker 4: you know, you know, on our d N DNA, we're
Speaker 4: not that far removed from vines there.
Speaker 3: You'd be surprised how close we are.
Speaker 4: And it's there's got to be more than we to share, than.
Speaker 3: Than than we know or observe, you know.
Speaker 4: I think we we benefit from a healthy plant, and
Speaker 4: they benefit and get energy from a healthy person, you know.
Speaker 2: So there is a level of communication that goes on
Speaker 2: between it. As you walk through the vines and you've
Speaker 2: been here, you said, eleven years you've had these vines.
Speaker 4: Oh no, we planted We produced our first wine in
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety six from these vines here, from this.
Speaker 3: Vineyard across the street. Oh yeah, the Mari Low.
Speaker 2: So ninety six. So we're talking about.
Speaker 3: Planted in ninety two.
Speaker 2: So we're talking about over thirty years. In that time,
Speaker 2: As you've seen the vineyard mature, and as you spend
Speaker 2: vintage after vintage, do you see more variation from year
Speaker 2: to year. Do you see a nice common thread that
Speaker 2: goes throughout? What have you noticed, because we know every
Speaker 2: vintage tells a different story, and you talked about how
Speaker 2: you want your wines to express that. But how much
Speaker 2: variation do you see?
Speaker 4: There's a lot, you know, because our vns go from
Speaker 4: six hundred to you know, just over eight hundred feet
Speaker 4: in elevation. Some are south and west facing, some are
Speaker 4: north and east facing. The ones behind us on this
Speaker 4: toasted slope getting full facing the south, you know, that's
Speaker 4: you pick the Cabernet Sauvignon for that, and the ones
Speaker 4: that are facing north and east that goes toward the Pino.
Speaker 3: So you're very it's very site specific.
Speaker 4: So we're very careful about looking at the vineyard and
Speaker 4: deciding what goes where. Then you also have to be,
Speaker 4: you know, very proactive. I mean, the methods of farming
Speaker 4: have changed dramatically in those thirty years, and so you know,
Speaker 4: where they used to put water on for like full
Speaker 4: twenty four forty eight hour sets and then leave it
Speaker 4: off for a week or ten days. That's definitely not.
Speaker 3: The way we do it now. You know, it's much
Speaker 3: shorter sets, more frequently.
Speaker 4: You know, so you're so as farming improves, and you know,
Speaker 4: we're close partners with UC Davis and also with Fresno.
Speaker 4: We pay a lot of attention to to what people
Speaker 4: and companies are finding out and studying. So I think
Speaker 4: we're all just learning how to be the better stewards
Speaker 4: of the land and better better vineyard owners.
Speaker 2: And as a result, do you feel that the variation
Speaker 2: every vintage gives you, is you know, less of a
Speaker 2: shock or or it's not as extreme or does mother
Speaker 2: nature take over and you have no say in that?
Speaker 4: Well, some I mean, like they're like Sauvignon Blanc and
Speaker 4: Cabernet Franc. Those guys are so happy here. They are
Speaker 4: They just grow themselves. They put out the perfect canopy,
Speaker 4: they put out the perfect amount of fear after year,
Speaker 4: and they just practically grow themselves. We hardly do anything
Speaker 4: to them. But like peteeper it, Oh, it is really
Speaker 4: difficult grape to grow here. And as we're getting cooler,
Speaker 4: we're all having to switch it up because the late
Speaker 4: ripening for niece Sauvignon's just aren't getting right. And so
Speaker 4: you know, it's we're having to adjust as our climate
Speaker 4: is changing and we're we're having a hard time getting
Speaker 4: you know, all the grapes and even before Thanksgiving. Holy cow,
Speaker 4: you know you can't do that. That's really that's tough
Speaker 4: to you know. And then you've got to go through
Speaker 4: the fermentations and get your you know, tanks warm enough.
Speaker 2: And by the time you finish, it's time to bottle.
Speaker 2: It is it is we are.
Speaker 4: I mean, then we're bottling like two weeks later the
Speaker 4: Sauvignon Bloc and you're like, holy.
Speaker 2: Cow, are there any sort of signs or predictors that
Speaker 2: you look for that are going to tell you what
Speaker 2: a harvest is going to be?
Speaker 3: Like, oh, it's you know.
Speaker 4: It. There's always something that throws you for a loop,
Speaker 4: and you just you know, mother mother nature is a
Speaker 4: bitch of a business partner. Sometimes she's amazing and very cooperative,
Speaker 4: but it keeps you super humble, and you just have
Speaker 4: to pivot and watch and pivot and learn and have
Speaker 4: good partners with your with your vineyard managers. Because you know,
Speaker 4: like we got hit with you know, really high temperatures
Speaker 4: very early on this year, and and so you know,
Speaker 4: we put up the shade cloths on the pin and
Speaker 4: water much earlier than normal we were, you know, just
Speaker 4: watering a little bit more holding back on the you know,
Speaker 4: on on lifting you know what I mean, on stripping
Speaker 4: the leaves around the great bunches. So just you know,
Speaker 4: you just try to adjust to what Mother Nature's bringing at,
Speaker 4: you know, giving you.
Speaker 2: So you have to you have to be on your
Speaker 2: toes and you can't really plan and predict. But I'm
Speaker 2: curious if there's one thing you plan. Do you have
Speaker 2: any sort of good luck rituals that you do at
Speaker 2: the start of harvest for yourself personally or maybe with
Speaker 2: the team.
Speaker 4: Most of our rituals are at harvest, and so David
Speaker 4: and I and our family a lot of them fly
Speaker 4: in for this and spend some part of the red
Speaker 4: wine harvest with us.
Speaker 3: But it's a big.
Speaker 4: You know, the sorting in the vineyards, the sorting and
Speaker 4: the bins, and then the sorting on the shaker table.
Speaker 4: It's very critical for us for most of our wines
Speaker 4: and all the reds, and we always, you know, we
Speaker 4: start very early in the morning, so it's getting coffee
Speaker 4: and doughnuts or usually sometimes it's healthier.
Speaker 3: But the donuts is key when you're key for me.
Speaker 4: And then you know, Julia and I and sometimes our
Speaker 4: you know, our hospitality manager Mark McMillan or one of
Speaker 4: our daughters will bring in a lunch and it's typically
Speaker 4: Julian will always do Hungarian dishes, and so it's chicken,
Speaker 4: poppri cash or Hungarian stew. Yeah, and I always will
Speaker 4: do white chili, red chili. You know. We'll bring in oysters,
Speaker 4: believe it or not and barbecue them.
Speaker 3: You know, it's just it's a food fest.
Speaker 4: So we really enjoy the coming together at the vineyard
Speaker 4: table at lunch. And then then we typically on a
Speaker 4: good day with them, we're cleaning up on a hard
Speaker 4: day than we're still.
Speaker 3: Going for a few more hours. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I like that tradition, eating every day, big meals, big
Speaker 2: communal meals together.
Speaker 4: And then you're drinking a lot of the unfinished wines
Speaker 4: like the Sovinyum blanc or the you know, the rose
Speaker 4: that are in the tank getting ready to be bottled
Speaker 4: in December. And it's a lot of fun, you know,
Speaker 4: to taste that wine that's it's developing and you know
Speaker 4: and see what's going on with it.
Speaker 2: Well with all the joy that you have in your
Speaker 2: in your tone and in your eyes when you talk
Speaker 2: about that when you were little. What did you want
Speaker 2: to be when you grew up? Was this something was wine,
Speaker 2: something you always knew was kind of in your blood?
Speaker 2: Or did you have other visions? And you are also
Speaker 2: an artist, right, so what kind of what is your medium?
Speaker 4: My medium for the most part is acrylic on canvas.
Speaker 4: I work with metallics as well. Leaf metallic leaf I do.
Speaker 4: I'm starting to get back into water colors. I love
Speaker 4: water colors. Water colors are just take a whole lot
Speaker 4: of investment. They take a lot more time, and you know,
Speaker 4: so they're they're they're a little less forgiving.
Speaker 2: Have you ever thought about painting with wine. I that's
Speaker 2: a very good idea.
Speaker 4: I paint things that I'm inspired by by wine. There's
Speaker 4: a piece behind you that is a modern piece. It's
Speaker 4: a circle and it's all kind of bubbly and has
Speaker 4: purple dark purple blue fuchias in it. And that is
Speaker 4: when you're looking down inside the fermentation tank and you're
Speaker 4: doing the you know, when when we put the pile, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the pipe down that you know, starts blowing bubbles gently
Speaker 4: and then it slowly just starts coming up like a volcano.
Speaker 4: And so it sends up all these iridescent you know,
Speaker 4: fusion pink and bright blue foam, you know, and bubbles up,
Speaker 4: and so I try to capture that with that piece.
Speaker 4: But I haven't tried painting with wine yet it but
Speaker 4: I should with watercolor.
Speaker 2: Yes, So back to what I asked, did you want
Speaker 2: to be an what would what did you want to
Speaker 2: be when you were little?
Speaker 3: Was it art or happy?
Speaker 2: Happy? That's good?
Speaker 4: I you know, I'm not. I always thought I would
Speaker 4: be an architect, and that was my dream. My family
Speaker 4: was also architects that came from Switzerland.
Speaker 3: But it just kind of life took a different turn, and.
Speaker 4: You know, I went into business and you know, met
Speaker 4: my husband, and I don't know, you know, then started
Speaker 4: having the family, and at that point I could really
Speaker 4: start to take some time to paint and and we
Speaker 4: found ourselves going and we were both with Procter and
Speaker 4: Gamble in Cincinnati, and we just kept playing the We
Speaker 4: always thought if we won the lottery, we would, you know,
Speaker 4: move back west where our families, most of them were settled,
Speaker 4: and start up a winery. Because we met on our
Speaker 4: first day really talking wine and enjoying wine together, and
Speaker 4: we always just thought that's what we would do, you know,
Speaker 4: if we ever won the lottery. But we never played
Speaker 4: the lottery, so there is a real problem there.
Speaker 2: And yet you still ended up owning wineries.
Speaker 4: We did. We did gallu offered by a husband a
Speaker 4: job when we were just about ready to be moved
Speaker 4: out with our two young daughters to Europe, and we
Speaker 4: decided to take this leap and do the wine the
Speaker 4: wine thing instead, and it just from there, you know,
Speaker 4: to here. It's been a marvelous journey. It's I wouldn't
Speaker 4: trade it for the world. I really love working in agriculture.
Speaker 4: I really love trying to make this product that brings
Speaker 4: so much joy.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 2: So I hate to ask, like, when you're not working,
Speaker 2: how do you spend your free time? Because clearly your
Speaker 2: work is your passion.
Speaker 3: There's no free time.
Speaker 4: But you know, every day I get to do something
Speaker 4: I love, which is either paint, walk in the vineyards,
Speaker 4: or be involved with the wines.
Speaker 3: You know. So yeah, it's all it's all great. It's
Speaker 3: just a little it's just very crazy right now, you.
Speaker 4: Know, And we do we we really love music and
Speaker 4: we have. During COVID, quite a few wineries went out
Speaker 4: of business and we had to pivot, and so we
Speaker 4: closed down our tasting room.
Speaker 3: Which is you turret it over there.
Speaker 2: It's now a dispensary, but we literally a dispensary.
Speaker 3: We opened a dispensary over there.
Speaker 2: But that okay.
Speaker 4: So COVID hits and we lose ninety five percent of
Speaker 4: our business overnight, and you know, I looked at my husband.
Speaker 4: I said, we have got to move our tasting room outside.
Speaker 4: So and Dave said, well, we've we've got to have
Speaker 4: an indoor option when it's too rainy or hot. And
Speaker 4: so at that point, this was storing cases of wine.
Speaker 4: This barn, it's over one hundred years old. It was
Speaker 4: owned by Bing Crosby. Wow, and it's the only thing
Speaker 4: on the property that's still standing from when Being was
Speaker 4: here and owned the property. But I always wanted to
Speaker 4: open up Being's barn, right, so we we did this room,
Speaker 4: and then you know, opened up the terrace and green
Speaker 4: which is a beautiful lawn and arbors with you know,
Speaker 4: so you can taste in the shade and be outside
Speaker 4: surrounded by the binger. And then I saw a stage
Speaker 4: over there. There is a stage. That stage is part
Speaker 4: of Shakespeare. So Shakespeare Associate. Spark Theater performs for about
Speaker 4: a month every summer here.
Speaker 3: Wow. So they're doing the Twelfth Night. It's quite wonderful.
Speaker 4: And Thursday night, well that will be starting and they
Speaker 4: perform usually Thursday through Sunday.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 4: They're doing the Twelfth Night right now and there. It's
Speaker 4: a marvelous theater. But so when we were back to
Speaker 4: Covid and remodeling, we needed a place to store our cases,
Speaker 4: so we took over at lease from a winery that
Speaker 4: had to go out of business unfortunately, and it was
Speaker 4: just a big warehouse about a mile and a half
Speaker 4: from here, and we just kept looking at it thinking artists,
Speaker 4: you know, the music artists are struggling too. Wouldn't it
Speaker 4: be this place be a great music venue. You know,
Speaker 4: we could open that up and support you know, musicians,
Speaker 4: and we have a lot of brands. And that was
Speaker 4: our opportunity to open up the almost famous wine company,
Speaker 4: which allowed us to invite in almost famous artists or
Speaker 4: artists that maybe I don't know, but you know, we
Speaker 4: wanted all original singer songwriters amazing and to support them
Speaker 4: in their industry.
Speaker 3: So we had.
Speaker 4: You know, professional lighting, stage sound companies come in and
Speaker 4: design the set, you know, the room with us, and
Speaker 4: you'll see it tonight.
Speaker 3: The sound is beautiful tonight.
Speaker 4: We have Carolyn Wonderland who's an amazing blues artist and legendary.
Speaker 3: And so we're we're in.
Speaker 4: For a good show tonight. But you know, we have
Speaker 4: you know, a big brother in the holding company comes
Speaker 4: a couple of times a year.
Speaker 3: You know, we're.
Speaker 5: Lots of you know, from the Black Crows.
Speaker 4: He comes and plays, you know, so lots of different
Speaker 4: genres and music and it's it's a blast.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: And then you serve them. You're almost famous. Sparkling Green
Speaker 2: or veil Leaner.
Speaker 4: And we do, we do, and whatever else they want
Speaker 4: to drink. Usually they love the saviny and blanc and
Speaker 4: a red.
Speaker 2: So when you look back at your life, you know,
Speaker 2: along the way, we have mentors, we have guides, we
Speaker 2: have teachers. Is there someone that gave you a piece
Speaker 2: of advice along the way that you carry with you
Speaker 2: that you try to live or work by.
Speaker 3: Joe Gallo and did teach you?
Speaker 4: Joe Gallo taught me to that the steps of the
Speaker 4: owner are the most important fertilizer in the vineyard, and
Speaker 4: so to you know, to always keep in touch with
Speaker 4: you know, never lose touch with your with your vineyard,
Speaker 4: and you know, and walk it every day and know
Speaker 4: it and be be a good steward of the land.
Speaker 4: And I hated my name being used for a long
Speaker 4: time because it's awkward lot sometimes, you know, a lot
Speaker 4: of the time. And Eleanor Coppola, Ellie who just passed away,
Speaker 4: and I miss her dearly.
Speaker 3: She said to me.
Speaker 4: Finally, she grabbed me one day and she says, just
Speaker 4: get over it. Your name's on the product, just get
Speaker 4: over it.
Speaker 2: Well. And when people love wine, you know, it's a
Speaker 2: direct reflection.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah. I don't love the family of this. You know,
Speaker 4: it's a big family. I mean our family is quite small,
Speaker 4: but the team, Julian and his family, and you know,
Speaker 4: the managers and all the.
Speaker 3: Supervisors and associates. You know, we all just become family.
Speaker 2: So when you look back at your career, what would
Speaker 2: you say is one of your proudest accomplishments to date?
Speaker 4: Living with integrity is always.
Speaker 3: The thing I'm most proud of. That we.
Speaker 4: Behave and function in a way that we hope is
Speaker 4: fair for everybody and brings everybody good. And that is
Speaker 4: what means the most. The greatest honor that was bestowed
Speaker 4: on me was being port of the White House for
Speaker 4: the one hundredth anniversary of the First Lady's Luncheon.
Speaker 2: Oh how amazing it was.
Speaker 4: It was with Michelle Obama and I took my girls
Speaker 4: out of college and flew them in and we entered
Speaker 4: this room and every waiter was holding our chardonnay, and
Speaker 4: you got to meet Michelle.
Speaker 3: And it was exciting.
Speaker 4: And the really amazing thing that happened during that is
Speaker 4: I lost my mom when she was fifty. She was
Speaker 4: very young, and so she never got to see me
Speaker 4: in this world, you know. And she had a very
Speaker 4: favorite song called the Wave and it's never played.
Speaker 3: You never hear it. It's very rare. It's a Basinova song.
Speaker 4: And when the first Lady's table came in was being seated,
Speaker 4: the Marine Corps band struck up the wall.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. And you know, I just felt like
Speaker 3: she was with me, you know, like it was a sign.
Speaker 2: And they didn't know that that was just when and.
Speaker 3: I looked over my my youngest daughter, Amanda.
Speaker 4: He like got in my face and she said, don't cry,
Speaker 4: don't cry, don't cry.
Speaker 3: And of course I burst into tears.
Speaker 2: What an amazing wow, wow, Wow. I ask another question.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna ask you another question that might make you cry,
Speaker 2: but this one.
Speaker 5: Yeah you did it, Okay.
Speaker 2: So complete this sentence for me. I'm going to give
Speaker 2: you a little reprieve before I ask you the question
Speaker 2: that'll make you cry, because I pretty much know your answer,
Speaker 2: I think, but we'll see if we can lighten it up.
Speaker 2: But complete the sentence for me. A table without wine
Speaker 2: is like.
Speaker 3: A bath without water.
Speaker 2: Beautiful, it's a very I can I can. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's miseral. I can see that.
Speaker 3: You know, wine is is just such a It's a beautiful.
Speaker 4: Beverage and it can and it does enhance your meal
Speaker 4: it and I don't care if you're just eating you know,
Speaker 4: an iceberg. Let us with salid dressing, poard over it,
Speaker 4: over the sink. Or you're at the celebration of a wedding.
Speaker 4: The minute you open the bottle of wine, it signals
Speaker 4: a just a celebration of wow, I made it through
Speaker 4: the day. Or I'm here with all the people I
Speaker 4: love the most in the world and we're celebrating this
Speaker 4: great union. You know, both of them are are so
Speaker 4: worthy and ninety nine percent of our opening the bottles
Speaker 4: are I just made it through the day.
Speaker 2: So when you're planning a romantic evening for you and
Speaker 2: your husband, and it's not just a I made it
Speaker 2: through the day, but it's a it's an intentional like plan.
Speaker 2: What sort of wines do you open that's set a
Speaker 2: more romantic mood as opposed to just an average day.
Speaker 3: Well usually starts with bubbles and if you know, if.
Speaker 4: There's several people involved in, you're able to open more
Speaker 4: than a bottle, you.
Speaker 3: Know, I lately because it's summer too. I mean the again,
Speaker 3: the Sauvignon blanc, but.
Speaker 5: We've talked a lot about that.
Speaker 3: So the Cabernet franc is such a special wine.
Speaker 4: It is a varietal that's not very well known, and
Speaker 4: it's a varietal we're all investing in heavily in Livermore
Speaker 4: because it grows well here.
Speaker 3: Nobody's claimed it yet.
Speaker 2: So for a romantic evening, Cabernet Cabernet frock after.
Speaker 3: The bubbles, after the bubbles, after the bubbles, it is.
Speaker 3: It is such a gorgeous wine.
Speaker 4: It's got a little bit more going on. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's like something like if you're on the spectrum and
Speaker 4: pinos at the lighter end of reds, and you know,
Speaker 4: we put Cabernet sauvignon. It's not the heaviest, but let's
Speaker 4: just go between that. You know, Cabernet franc is going
Speaker 4: in the middle, and it's well, you talk about those
Speaker 4: three wines. So the mother vine, or the two parents
Speaker 4: of Cabernet sauvignon are Sauvignon blanc and Cabernet franc. And
Speaker 4: I just find that spectacularly interesting because you would think
Speaker 4: that these two wines wouldn't make such a huge wine,
Speaker 4: you know, but you know, it's got all the aromatics
Speaker 4: of the sauvignon blanc, and it's got the structure and
Speaker 4: spice and and the you know, the texture and the layers.
Speaker 3: From from the Cabernet franc.
Speaker 4: And so Cabernet savignon has a lot to owe to
Speaker 4: these two parents, and the Cabernet franc is also well.
Speaker 4: I just I'm so excited for people to discover it
Speaker 4: more and more because it is a worthy varietal and
Speaker 4: should be on your dinner table because it is designed
Speaker 4: to go with food. It has more acidity, it has
Speaker 4: more layers, some spice. It's not going to overwhelm your
Speaker 4: meal with alcohol, with tannins.
Speaker 3: With too much sugar, anything, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: It's just kind of the structural player in the background
Speaker 4: that kind of makes everything go.
Speaker 3: Oh nice.
Speaker 2: So we have a bottle of Cabernet frank sitting on
Speaker 2: the table, and there's an extra seat at the table
Speaker 2: next to you. Who from any walk of life, living
Speaker 2: or deceased. I mean, I'm gonna guess that you're gonna
Speaker 2: say your mom, which is a very fair answer, but
Speaker 2: I want to keep you from tearing up again. Who
Speaker 2: from any walk of life would you love to share
Speaker 2: a bottle of Darcy Kent, Cabernet franc or anyone the
Speaker 2: sauvenu Blancer, the sparkling juicy. So your mom gets one
Speaker 2: of them?
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I need three. There's three people. My
Speaker 4: mom for one, because you know, she came from the
Speaker 4: wine making family and really shared.
Speaker 3: The love of this, you know, with me.
Speaker 4: But her grandparents, Christian and Rosa Rogue Suger from Switzerland.
Speaker 3: They.
Speaker 4: They of all the so much research I've done about
Speaker 4: them and been so fortunate to have been able to
Speaker 4: get a lot of research on them. And Rosa was
Speaker 4: just like this firecracker of a gal and just so
Speaker 4: much spirit. And all of our photos have so much
Speaker 4: life and mischievousness and just you know, gumption. And you know,
Speaker 4: you read all the reports my great grandfather wrote, and
Speaker 4: my great great grandfather wrote it was so funny. Not
Speaker 4: too long ago he had written back to Switzerland, I
Speaker 4: mean in the eighteenth like eighteen eighties or eighteen seventy nine,
Speaker 4: he wrote back to Switzerland about phyloxa. And so he's
Speaker 4: talking to them and all the you know, the viticulture
Speaker 4: and what he's learning in America and everything like that,
Speaker 4: and so he's going on. It's very technical paper, and
Speaker 4: we finally got it translated from Gothic German into a
Speaker 4: Maria into English. And our tagline is the Art of
Speaker 4: the Vine, right, so it's on all of our boxes
Speaker 4: and everything. And as we're reading, as we're reading the translation.
Speaker 3: He at the end of it, he says, you know.
Speaker 4: Despite all the troubles with phloxa and everything we're dealing with,
Speaker 4: and you're dealing with, the art of the vine is
Speaker 4: such a noble profession.
Speaker 3: Wow, And you know, It's just.
Speaker 4: Things like that, little surprises all the time where you know,
Speaker 4: your ancestors kind of come calling.
Speaker 2: So we just need a table full of your ancestors
Speaker 2: to drink the wine with you.
Speaker 3: Oh I love that, you know. I got the chance.
Speaker 4: Fox News many about ten years ago called me up
Speaker 4: from Kansas City and said, we're doing these little blurbs,
Speaker 4: you know, like thirty second blurb. We need to find
Speaker 4: out about your family winery. And so I gave them
Speaker 4: all the information and they did the spot and.
Speaker 3: It came up.
Speaker 4: And you know, I haven't been on the property since
Speaker 4: I was a child, and so I said, can you
Speaker 4: put me in touch with the you know, the guy
Speaker 4: of the property.
Speaker 3: And he's like, yeah, he wants to talk to you too.
Speaker 4: So I got on the phone with him and we're
Speaker 4: chatting away. And one of the stories my mom always
Speaker 4: shared with me was, I wish you could have seen
Speaker 4: the seller. You know, my you know, your great great
Speaker 4: grandfather did all the murals on the wall to make
Speaker 4: it feel like you're, you know, you're in a ca
Speaker 4: a room in the cellar, but it was he died
Speaker 4: falling down the steps into the cellar, and so did
Speaker 4: one of his daughters. So they sealed it up and
Speaker 4: nobody ever went in it again, and so was closed
Speaker 4: closed up. And so I'm talking to this guy on
Speaker 4: the phone who owns the property now house is still standing,
Speaker 4: and he said, yeah, well tell me about these murals.
Speaker 4: And I said where and he said, oh, in the cellar.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, you opened the cellar and he.
Speaker 5: Said yeah, it's my man cake. And I burst out.
Speaker 4: Crying and I'm like, can I come, can I come
Speaker 4: see it? So, you know, of course, then Fox News
Speaker 4: had to get involved and it became part two and
Speaker 4: part three as we but the murals are still the
Speaker 4: murals are still still there, and he opened it all
Speaker 4: up and it's just gorgeous and it was incredible to
Speaker 4: be able to go spend time there again.
Speaker 2: He found wine in there was there wine.
Speaker 4: Well, the guy who sold the property to him was
Speaker 4: the gentleman who bought it from my grandparents, and he
Speaker 4: still had wine bottles. They were emptied, but he brought
Speaker 4: bottles and gave them to me.
Speaker 3: So he came.
Speaker 5: So that was like part three.
Speaker 3: Wow. But you know, and then I.
Speaker 4: Found so many you know, friends of those of my
Speaker 4: parents who have pictures and I mean.
Speaker 3: Of my great great grandparents. So it's been a blessing.
Speaker 2: Wow, so many stories and so much history. You don't
Speaker 2: get that a lot necessarily here in California. It's different
Speaker 2: when you talk to winemakers in Europe who have seven
Speaker 2: eight generations. But I'm curious. We're going to play our
Speaker 2: little game at the end, which you've been warned about
Speaker 2: about pairing wine with music, and we're gonna pair with
Speaker 2: the wines you've been talking about, because I mean, they
Speaker 2: sound delicious and now I'm excited about that. But I
Speaker 2: do have a question, just honestily thought, if you were
Speaker 2: going to a deserted island, could take any three wines
Speaker 2: with you, any three wines, what three wines would they be?
Speaker 4: Pazzoni, Pino Noir, Darcy Kensilvanian Blanc, and my Cabernet Frank probably,
Speaker 4: but maybe bubbles. I might have to go with that
Speaker 4: blancdon Noir that we're releasing. But that baby, you know,
Speaker 4: it's it's like the baby hasn't been born yet, and
Speaker 4: I want to see what that baby's going to develop into.
Speaker 3: But I'm very excited about it.
Speaker 2: Okay, so let's come back to the bubbles that have
Speaker 2: been born you're gruner velt Leiner almost famous method Champannois.
Speaker 2: Tell me, tell me the music that it makes you
Speaker 2: think of.
Speaker 4: It makes me think of going to California by led Zeppelin.
Speaker 4: It is Julian Halas, our winemaker and I. Both of
Speaker 4: our families started on grunervelt Leaner vineyards, and when we
Speaker 4: started working together, we looked for grunervelt Leiner and found
Speaker 4: it and the Rava family in Monterey was planting it
Speaker 4: and making wine from it. So we produced it under
Speaker 4: the Darcy label, and it's it just it. We always thought.
Speaker 4: It was actually my daughter Caitlin, who was like, we
Speaker 4: got to do bubbles with this, you know, how do
Speaker 4: we do bubbles? She kept saying it to us every
Speaker 4: single year at harvest she comes down and works with us,
Speaker 4: and it's it's like, we're not really a bubble house.
Speaker 3: We're not set up to be a bubble house.
Speaker 4: And she's like, yes, but she would say it every
Speaker 4: single year. So finally we gave in about like six seven, I.
Speaker 3: Don't know, COVID took all the years away.
Speaker 4: Before COVID we got into the bubbles with making griner.
Speaker 2: Velt Lee and like you said, you're soon going to
Speaker 2: have the facility, so you will be a bubble house.
Speaker 2: Before you know it, they are.
Speaker 5: Going to be a bubble house. And we're really excited.
Speaker 3: About being a bubble house, having bubbles.
Speaker 5: As part of our repertoire. But this song is leaving.
Speaker 4: We're leaving and coming to California and you know, looking
Speaker 4: for that girl with flowers in her hair and playing
Speaker 4: the guitar by the you know, and for us it
Speaker 4: was the girl with flowers in her hair was that
Speaker 4: perfect varietal. And the champagne is just taking it to
Speaker 4: the next level, you know, doing it with bubbles. It's
Speaker 4: doing something with an old mine we're both very familiar
Speaker 4: with and doing something fresh and bubbly with it.
Speaker 2: I love it. So your sauvignon blanc that you've been
Speaker 2: talking about, what song does that make me think of?
Speaker 4: That song makes me think of the Beatles. Here comes
Speaker 4: the sun and we bottle it, you know, in the
Speaker 4: winter and when we're tired of winter and the rain
Speaker 4: and the gray skies and we're.
Speaker 3: When you know, we.
Speaker 4: Almost look forward to a bottle breaking, you know, while
Speaker 4: we're bottling, because it will perfume you know, the the
Speaker 4: entire room and just make it feel like sunshine is
Speaker 4: just poured in, you know.
Speaker 5: It is it is sunshine in a glass.
Speaker 3: And you know when you when.
Speaker 4: You hear that song, here comes the sun do do do?
Speaker 3: Do? You know?
Speaker 4: And it's all right, you know, that's that's you know,
Speaker 4: you just feel that when we're bottling it, it just
Speaker 4: promises that the winner.
Speaker 5: Will will end and we'll be back to summer.
Speaker 2: I love it. And of course your Cabernet Frank.
Speaker 4: Cabernet Frank to me is Christy McVie, and it's everywhere,
Speaker 4: and she is such a was. I'm sorry, I'm so
Speaker 4: sad she's gone because I just love her music and
Speaker 4: I think they're just having this enormous renaissance right now.
Speaker 3: But she she was, She's.
Speaker 4: Such a backbone to Fleetwood Mac and you just kind
Speaker 4: of never really notice it, you know, until she finally
Speaker 4: does sing on her own, and when she does, everybody's
Speaker 4: so blown away. And and this song to me just
Speaker 4: represents the best of her and and that she you know,
Speaker 4: and that's it's everywhere, and that's what I feel about
Speaker 4: Cat Pronk. It's everywhere, but nobody really knows that it's there,
Speaker 4: you know. And but I'm hoping they'll discover it and
Speaker 4: just fall in love with it, you know, the way
Speaker 4: you have.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just loved I grew up on that band.
Speaker 3: I love that band.
Speaker 2: Well, Darcy, It's been such a pleasure talking with you,
Speaker 2: and I have one more question, because we've been talking forever,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you have so many more stories, and
Speaker 2: we could go on and on because it's so I mean,
Speaker 2: I love I love your family stories.
Speaker 3: They're great.
Speaker 2: But I'm curious what wine making region in the world
Speaker 2: is the top of your bucket list to explore.
Speaker 4: I've had the chance to explore so many, you know.
Speaker 4: I love the alt age. I love I'll sauce, you know.
Speaker 4: I love Portugal. Tend to like really hilly regions. I
Speaker 4: haven't done Champagne, and I would like to do that.
Speaker 4: I've been all over Italy and I'd go back to
Speaker 4: Italy in a heartbeat. I just love the way they
Speaker 4: live life and celebrate with wine. I love the ceremony
Speaker 4: of cleaning the glass, you know, and seasoning it. The
Speaker 4: way they really look at you at each other when
Speaker 4: you toast, you know. I just I learned to live
Speaker 4: life better after I experienced Italy. I agree, I agree,
Speaker 4: But I really do want to go to Champagne.
Speaker 3: I think you should.
Speaker 2: Well, I think you should plan a trip to Champagne.
Speaker 2: I think you should go and touch those chalk soils
Speaker 2: and drink the champagne. But for somebody listening who might
Speaker 2: want to come to Darcy Kent and experience Darcy Kent,
Speaker 2: how can they find you? Where can they find you?
Speaker 2: And what can they experience when they come here? You
Speaker 2: talked a little bit about it, about the Shakespeare, about
Speaker 2: the music, the indoor or the outdoor your art. Is
Speaker 2: there anything else to add to that?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: My? You know the club events are so much fun.
Speaker 3: They're all about music and.
Speaker 4: You know, experiencing the food with the wine, it's a
Speaker 4: it's a great celebration the the wines. We ship almost
Speaker 4: everywhere that you can ship, and we're we're starting to
Speaker 4: to get out there a little bit as far as
Speaker 4: you know, retailers.
Speaker 2: But in terms of coming here, for coming here, Livermore
Speaker 2: Valley is.
Speaker 4: Just so accessible to the San Francisco Bay area as
Speaker 4: well as Oakland and San Jose and Sacramento. We get
Speaker 4: a lot of travelers who are are spending time going
Speaker 4: to the other wine regions. We're a lot more accessible.
Speaker 4: We're you know, forty five minutes from from the furthest airport,
Speaker 4: and we're it's always sunny and the weather is usually
Speaker 4: just so beautiful and with the temperature drops, make sure
Speaker 4: you bring a sweater for every night. In the tasting rooms,
Speaker 4: you're going to meet the owners and the wine makers.
Speaker 3: You're going to have gorgeous views.
Speaker 4: You're gonna find people who are of the soil and
Speaker 4: you know, and really belong here. You're going to get
Speaker 4: such a sense of this great wine country.
Speaker 2: Well, I think you should come. Come and check out
Speaker 2: Darcy Kent. Beautiful views, enjoy indoor outdoor music, everything, And Darcy,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3: Appreciate that.
Speaker 2: And I'm excited to taste some more of your wines.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I'm really excited to share them with you. Cheers, cheers.
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.