You can learn a lot walking with winemakers.
Walking with Jean Francois Pellet, Pepper Bridge Vineyard & Winery, Walla Walla, Washington.
After spending over 600 hours walking with winemakers -- strolling their vineyards, tasting from barrels, talking about how they got started, and learning about the thought process behind their wines — I developed a pretty solid framework for enjoying and understanding wine.
The result was a series of VineStories mini-documentaries profiling scores of smaller production winemakers and growers across California, Oregon, and Washington.
While the original VineStories mini-documentaries are still housed here in their original form, it was time to take those experiences and conversations to create something that might help people enjoy and appreciate wine on a deeper level.
Walking with Rick Longoria through Fe Ciega Vineyard, Santa Barbara County, California.
By no means is this meant to be comprehensive guide to wine. That's best left to wine educators who possess a more encyclopedic knowledge of the topic.
But what I am able to offer is my first-hand experience walking the vineyards and having in-depth conversations with winemakers who grow and make wine professionally.
Now that I can step back and see it, the series of interviews was an experience that provided me with a framework for talking about and enjoying wine.
Walking with Vic Roberts, Victor Hugo Vineyard & Winery, Paso Robles, California.
As one Willamette Valley winemaker told me — referencing the unpredictability and innumerable variables that influence each growing season and the process making wine — “here was a topic that was absolutely going to elude me, and I like those kinds of topics.”
I hope it does the same for you. I encourage you to help me make this a vibrant forum for discussing and learning about wine.
Enjoy.