September 30, 2025 • 19 mins
I can talk about this stuff for days. Get me on a high horse and it is off to the races.
I’ve tasted more wines than most people could ever dare dream of—but what fascinates me isn’t just what’s in the glass. It’s the stories behind the bottles, the regions, and the relentless passion it takes to survive and thrive in the wine trade.
In this episode of Wine Talks, I share how a ritual-like discipline led me to taste over 100,000 wines, and what that journey has taught me about the constantly evolving wine industry. I’ll take you inside Tuesday morning tastings, reveal why competitors sometimes secretly send each other cases of samples, and unpack how internet sales, supermarket scandals, and shifting consumer habits have redrawn the map of the wine world.
But it’s not just about business—I’ll also show you how to navigate an overwhelming wine aisle with confidence by learning to decode the meaning woven into a label. I’ll open a door to emerging wine regions like Armenia, where ancient traditions and native grapes are fighting for global recognition, much like Napa or Bordeaux once did.
Along the way, I’ll share unexpected stories—from unforgettable dining spots in Yountville, to vodka distilled from “second-chance” fruit, to boutique brands rewriting the rules of luxury. My goal is simple: to help you see wine in a whole new light. You’ll leave this episode empowered to explore, enchanted by histories you never knew, and inspired to savor not just what’s in your glass, but the human stories that bring it to life.
#WineTalks #WinePodcast #PaulKalemkiarian #WineOfTheMonthClub #WineTasting #NapaValley #Yountville #StHelena #WineEducation #WineIndustry #ArmenianWine #WineRegions #WineExperience #WineTravel #WineStories #WineCulture #WineRecommendations #Winemaking #WineShops #WineVarietals
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Yes, I am the guy that sold 17 million
bottles of wine direct to the consumer as well as along the way,
tasted 100,000 wines. Can you imagine that? I would bet there
are very few people in the country that have tasted 100,000 wines.
Why would I say that? What about those psalms? What about the master of wines
who tasted the wines and they had to go through the testing. Yes, they've tasted
(00:22):
a lot of wines. But the discipline to taste a hundred thousand wines
wasn't about tasting a hundred thousand wines. Just the mathematics
worked out that way. Because for 35 years, imagine that,
35 straight years, unless I was sick
or out of the country, I was in the tasting room on
Tuesday morning at 9 o' clock period. And I moved. The company probably
(00:46):
a half a dozen times along this path always had a tasting room.
The salespeople knew where to go, they knew how to line up, they knew how
to make appointments online. And they could bring a
bottle or a case. Some would bring two cases. And then in
between appointments, in case there was a gap and they were able to sign
up for 15 minutes, I had
(01:08):
walls of samples that were sent to me from all over the world,
as well as all over California, all over the states. And not only did I
have samples sent to me by distributors and wholesalers and
the wineries, I. I had samples sent to me by my competitors,
the guys I fought against. And guess what?
There were one time I got three cases of samples from one of my competitors.
(01:30):
Three cases. And the business was starting to go south at that point. Anyway,
this was pre Covid. The writing was on the wall. There was so much competition
on the Internet and it was just more difficult, it took more
effort to get the same dollar of sale. So they were sending out samples
on wines they were long on. Can you imagine the 36
samples? There was one. And they're all white wines.
(01:52):
There was one wine that I thought made the grade
at the club, at the Wine of the Month club at the time. 1.
Because I truly wanted to represent
something of value, A and B, something
that represented a place and a time. And that's what wine is
about. So to taste a hundred thousand wines, it takes
(02:14):
30. It tooks. It takes. It took 35
years every Tuesday. And I'm going to say then on the
average, probably 45 Tuesdays a year instead of the 52.
That's how religious I was in doing this. And that was only because
my father said in 1988, When I bought the company from
him, don't we taste on Tuesdays Now, I knew
(02:36):
that A, I worked for him for a little bit, but B, at the
Wine of the Month Club, shop at the wine shop at Palos Veres Estates, what
was called then Palace Freddy's Wines and Spirits. Every Tuesday
night, I would set up a tasting with the doctors that supported
my father's pharmacies. They were the privileged group
to taste wine with him on Tuesday night. And they had this makeshift loft that
(02:58):
we made out of plywood and a staircase, and
they would go upstairs in brown bag and use the Davis scoring system and they
would rate the wine. So that's how it started. And this isn't a commercial for
the Wine of the Month Club. It's a, it's a, it's sort of a commercial
for what it takes to learn about wine. If you want to, you don't
have to. You can just enjoy what you want to enjoy, and that's
(03:20):
perfectly fine. I would suggest learning how to read a label. And I had
this question the other day when I posted on Instagram, this long
wall, this huge wallet at the market with every
bottle literally had a yellow shelf talker. Now, in the old days, you
put a shelf talker up and that was so that, you know, there was something
drawn attention to that particular bottle of wine. Now, literally every,
(03:42):
every bottle had a shelf talker. Many of them were just prices,
but some were ratings and things. And so you really can't make a decision.
And if you've never been to the market before, that market before,
it's very difficult to, to decide. Even
after 100,000 wines. The only reference I have
to pick a wine at the market if I've not tasted it, which is the,
(04:05):
really the linchpin of all this. And you, if you've tasted it before, obviously you
know what it tastes like and whether you would buy it again. But if you
can understand the label, if you can understand the branding name and sort of the
cycle that goes through to make a brand, if you can understand
how the region is depicted on the label and how the grapes
are depicted on the label, you can have an educated guess. And
(04:27):
that's still the best you get. In my case, because I've
tasted so many brands, you know, I've got a little better
inkling. But if I'm just looking at a shelf of all the wines I've never
tasted before, or a brand I've never tasted before, which has happened,
I can only go by what my instinct says about the region, about the
grape and about the vintage. If I know a little bit about the maker,
(04:48):
you know, Great. Now this happened before in my son in law in New York,
who is quite an enophile, loves wine, loves peculiar
districts. Took me to a wine shop on the
Hudson river in New York and I thought I'd prance in there and act
like a big shot. If there were 200 SKUs, maybe 300 SKUs, it was a
small shop. If I recognized two of the labels, that would have been a lot.
(05:11):
So at that point I have to just fall back on my, on my instincts
and look at the nuances of a particular region or a particular grape
grown in a particular area. So what do you think happens with a place like
Armenia? What do you think happens to a place like Armenia when not
only are they trying to educate the world of
the grapes grown in Armenia, actually the regions of Armenia
(05:33):
has regions just like the Napa Valley would have region sub regions or France has
regions of wine. Armenia has them as well. And so the pitch is right
now that wine was founded, developed,
invented. What's the word you want to use in Armenia? And that's
kind of based on the fact they found the
6,100-year-old winery with a pair of shoes.
(05:54):
Well, actually one of the shoes, the guy walked out limping, I guess, or hopping.
So, and that's okay because I've also heard arguments that the
caucus region, Georgia, Armenia is where it started.
We can't prove that, but it stands to reason Noah landed the
ark on Mount Ararat and planted grapes. So I mean, there
(06:14):
could be some biblical, historical and or
practical evidence that supports the idea that wine started
in Armenia or at least the Caucasus. But great, how
do you tell that story and what does that mean to you as a
consumer? If you taste it once, if you have
one Armenian wine, because of that story, you heard the story and now you want
(06:36):
to try a wine and it happens to be not a great example. You're
probably not going to try it again until somebody leads you down the
path of the correct vintage and correct grape to taste.
So Armenia has a task. It's got to educate the world on
not only the regions of Armenia and what differences they might
have, which would be the same as Rutherford versus Oakville versus Howell
(06:59):
Mountain. But they also have to educate the world on grape varietals that no
one's ever heard of. Adani Voskahat
Kangun so the intellectual part of the wine world, which you're
not necessarily participating in, in the sense of
understanding Armenian wines,
has this argument going on. And in fact, I'm working on A TV show out
(07:20):
of Armenia. And the point was made to me, hey, this information in
this. In this trailer is getting old. I'm like, no, it's not. Because the
conversation we had a year ago is the same conversation we're having
today about promoting and bringing Armenian wines to the world. And
so I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but you can imagine
developing a brand in the world of wine with all the
(07:42):
competition is very difficult. Throw
in the mix that there's a whole new region that no one's ever heard of
and a whole list of grapes that no one's ever heard of. Article came out
last week about a wine buyer at a
major, major chain of supermarkets in Los Angeles
or California that had been taking bribes
(08:03):
to put the wines on the shelf or floor stack them. Now, that in some
industries is okay. It's legal to do. Not to say bribes, but
it's legal to pay for a spot on the shelf.
I think when you're selling toothpaste or laundry soap or things like that,
you can actually buy your way onto the shelf. It's
why when you go to the supermarket, that Newman's Own salad dressing
(08:26):
and Craft and Wishbone are eye level. But that is illegal in
the wine trade. So this person got busted for taking luxury
bags and Rolexes and trips and. And, you know,
deliberate, deliberately mislabeling
the line item in the expense report for the salesperson that got them
or got him or her these things. And it could be
(08:48):
a lot of trouble because it is against the law in. In liquor not only
to bribe, but it's also against the law to buy
shelf space. And in fact, there is. There are lots of stories
of this that's. That have occurred over the years. You know, sometimes you walk into
the store and you look at the shelf and it's right at eye level, and
you kind of go, wonder how that got there. Theoretically, it's against law for it
(09:10):
to automatically be there, but that's. That's. That's what it is. It's a
cutthroat business. It's tough out there. And if you're trying to bring new wines into
the marketplace or new of grape varietals
like Ottomy, you're going to have a. A tough time. We just got back from
Napa. Great trip. Now everybody asks, what are you doing when you go to Napa?
You got any places to go? You know, any wine? You got any wines? You
(09:30):
want to taste the wine? I don't taste. I don't usually taste Wine.
When I go to Napa, I visit friends, I visit relationships in the industry.
The relationships are very deep in this industry. People understand each other who
go through the mechanizations to make wine. And as
I brought up before, it takes nothing but passion
to do this because it's slow one time a year, and
(09:53):
it takes a lot of work and the margins are
lousy. You've discussed this before. And so there's a little bit of a
fraternity amongst buyers and sellers in the wine trade
from the wholesale and the retail side. So we. But I'll tell you where we
do go. We like to stay at the Yontville Estate, or the Estate at
Yonville. It's also called the Vintage Estate.
(10:14):
Very cute hotel. It was just purchased a few years ago by a.
An Orange county developer. And he's done some really great things. It's the
first time we've stayed there since they did the remodel, so to speak. And
the food and the. The service, the rooms were
great. It's called the Vintage Estate or the Estate at Yountville.
And you'll. You'll love it there.
(10:37):
We like to go to a handful of restaurants that we always must go to
when we go there. One of them is called RH or Restoration
Hardware. Yes, the same exact company that makes
furniture and sells it. In fact, they have a furniture showroom connected to the
restaurant in Yountville. It's just. It's just fun to be inside of it. The
food is always excellent. I, you know, I'm not crazy about the wine list because
(10:58):
it's kind of a corporate wine list, but it's interesting enough and
you can have. There's no cocktails there, but the food there is incredible. And
you must make a reservation because usually walk ins aren't.
Aren't available the time slots. The other restaurant we used to like to
go to is Bodega, which used to be Mike Chiarello's restaurant. The chef
that suddenly passed away last year. We don't go there anymore. We heard bad rumors
(11:21):
about the way it was taken over and the family was leveraged out of the
deal. And so we decided not to go there anymore.
So we went with the McPherson family, who owns the
Promise Winery, which is about four miles off the Silverado Trail.
Incredible location. And we had dinner with them at the Goose and
Gander, which has always got very solid food, very quality food. This is St
(11:43):
Helena, which is the sort of the mid city of the Valley. And we always
enjoy it there. And if you have a chance to make an appointment with the
Promise or join their club to make an appointment. It's
really worth it. They have an incredible list of wines they make there. It's an
experience. They raise Iberian hogs, they make their own
prosciutto, they have their own hen house and they make their own
(12:03):
eggs. So it's, it's really quite an experience. It's
called the Promise Winery and it's like I said, about 10 minute drive
off of the Silverado Trail headed into the hills, one of the other locations we
like. In fact, we met with Tracy Mason of
Tular Vodka and she met us at the
Villagio estate, which is the sister hotel of the
(12:26):
Hotel Yonville. And we met for a glass of wine and the Alpha Omega
was pouring that night. Alpha Omega is right on Highway 29. Excellent
wines. Fortunately there were not too many people there that night so we got a
chance to taste a lot of the wines. But we met with Tracy who's just
launched this vodka which is really cool, called Tular T U L
A R. It's vodka made from, I guess she called it
(12:48):
B grade fruit. Fruit that's normally tossed, doesn't make it to the
markets. Very good palatable fruit, but doesn't look good. And
so she's, she saves, literally saves
from the recycling bin 25 pounds of
stone fruit per bottle. Isn't that crazy?
It's triple distilled. It's incredibly smooth. I'm going to make a
(13:10):
couple of drinks with it tonight. But, but look for that she just
got the right from the government, et cetera, et cetera, to launch the brand
about a week ago. So you'll see it around called Tular T U
L A R. One of the other restaurants that we really like. We
don't get to it all the time we're there. But this is really for locals
only. It's called Cooks. It's a very narrow small
(13:33):
restaurant in St. Helena. It is the. I mean
that was one of the highlight meals of the few days we were there and
we went for lunch no less. But wow, what quality food.
And the chef is always hanging around. Mrs. Chef is always hanging
around. I was had a chance to talk to them. I did engage them a
little bit. Probably put them on the show in the near future. And right up,
(13:55):
right off of the street, off the parallel street which is Adams street
or Oak street, is a little complex
with a coffee house and then a couple of doors, little industrial doors.
And one of them is, that is Grounded Wine Company in Chris
Phelps Wines. Grounded Wine Company. You've seen their brands many
places. Radio, what's it called? Radio
(14:18):
Silence. The other one is Grounded
Wine. The other one's called Space Age Rose. He's got quite a few brands. That's
from the son Josh Phelps and his wines are in a lot
of places. And then his father's wines are called Advivum
and they are super, super complex
quality brand of wine, very small production,
(14:40):
300 cases of vintage sort of. Sort of thing. And so we had a chance
to sit with Chris and I'm going to republish his. His podcast
soon. It's just really interesting and having made wine
in Bordeaux, France at. At
Petrus on the left on the right bank
and then came to America for Christian Moex and worked at Dominus, which is
(15:04):
incredible location here in the Napa Valley or there in the Napa Valley.
And then he's now makes his own wine. And I
it's just my favorite boutique brand. And why do I
say that? Because one, it's a departure from
opulent fruit forward, even partially residual
sugared Napa Valley style that's come of age
(15:26):
in the supermarkets. But it's got that touch of
complexity that comes from the Bordeaux
style that know how of making
wine that gives it that identification and it comes
from his techniques and it's really quite good. We
bought a couple cases actually that it's not cheap, I'll tell you that much.
(15:47):
So that's. That was the main tasting schedule and then
I had a chance to drive to. If you haven't been here,
you should go. This is in downtown Napa. Napa has
changed quite a bit, particularly since the
earthquake. A lot of foot traffic, a lot of great stores, sitting
rooms. But one I had never been to and one I just noticed
(16:09):
because we were doing a podcast is the Robert Mondavi
Tower. They call it the Tower. A pretty facility,
spacious facility, can accommodate a lot of tastings.
And I left with a bottle of Cabernet that I opened last night and it
was very good. And so this is a wonderful location. You.
It's right off of the main drag in Napa,
(16:31):
downtown Napa. If you get a chance to go there for a tasting, you should.
But I had a chance to interview Tony Biaggi
and that podcast is coming out soon. Tony Biaggi is the winemaker
at Tocalon. I always got it wrong. To Cologne. To Cologne. To
Cologne. Wines that run 500,
$800 a bottle kind of wines. But probably one of the most
(16:52):
prestigious vineyards in California,
if not the most prestigious and tony had some great insight
into what was happening there, what their. What their future looks like and how
they handle vintage varieties of vintages and
how they handle the different. The climate changes that's happening here in Napa.
But really amazing stuff. And so that podcast is coming out
(17:15):
soon. The Robin Mondavi tasting room in
downtown Napa. So that was the week, you know, we had a. We had a
really good time. We had really good food. We enjoyed ourselves. Walked to.
Oh, yeah, I didn't bring this up. If you stay at the Yonville.
Stay at Yonville and you walk to get coffee in the morning, which is our
favorite little walk, you go to the Honor Market, which is a gas station.
(17:37):
It's kind of very European that way, right? You get your coffee at the gas
station and really good. And we enjoy this
walk. And then it's also on the way there is the RH restaurant.
And I'll just give you this little anecdotal story, because I didn't know anything about
this guy. Unless you've heard of
Captain Planet. Heard of this guy? Captain Planet. I don't know, some kind of superhero.
(17:59):
Anyway, we're walking up to. To the restaurant, the RH
restaurant, and there's two minivans. Clearly they had people in them
prior. Parked right in front of the French Laundry. Yes, you walk by the
French Laundry to get to the Restoration Hardware restaurant and the Honor Market. And so
this is probably a really expensive group of.
For the restaurant. You know, inside. What I'm trying to say, the number
(18:22):
of people that this car could take, which it looks like it was about 15.
You know, when you talk about RH, I mean, the French laundry is about
700 a person or 400 a person, 450.
It could easily creep to 700 with wine. So it was a rather
voluminous bill there from this one
(18:42):
car. And so anyway, the driver was this
young woman, and she's. She looks at me and I gave her some
sarcastic comment, like I usually do something about the price of the
value of the. Of the food ticket of this car. And she goes. She
goes, aren't you all Captain Planet? And I said, man, I'll take that as a
compliment. She was, yeah, you better. My wife's like, oh, my
(19:04):
gosh, are you kidding me? So I was going around telling the story about
Captain Planet, and if you want to look him up, go ahead. It's
a superhero, of course. And the guy's cut, he's got short hair and he's
cut, and that's what I'm trying to tell you. You know what I'm saying? Anyway,
that's today's story. And look for Tony
Biaggi coming up soon. And some notables that we're going to be releasing soon. Had
(19:25):
some great guests coming up and we did that
trip in Annapolis and more of those coming. So stay safe out
there in the wine world. And check me out at
paulomclub.com or our
Instagram at Paul Callum Carrion or YouTube
@Winetalkspodcast. Cheers.
Yes, I am the guy that sold 17 million
bottles of wine direct to the consumer as well as along the way,
tasted 100,000 wines. Can you imagine that? I would bet there
are very few people in the country that have tasted 100,000 wines.
Why would I say that? What about those psalms? What about the master of wines
who tasted the wines and they had to go through the testing. Yes, they've tasted
(00:22):
a lot of wines. But the discipline to taste a hundred thousand wines
wasn't about tasting a hundred thousand wines. Just the mathematics
worked out that way. Because for 35 years, imagine that,
35 straight years, unless I was sick
or out of the country, I was in the tasting room on
Tuesday morning at 9 o' clock period. And I moved. The company probably
(00:46):
a half a dozen times along this path always had a tasting room.
The salespeople knew where to go, they knew how to line up, they knew how
to make appointments online. And they could bring a
bottle or a case. Some would bring two cases. And then in
between appointments, in case there was a gap and they were able to sign
up for 15 minutes, I had
(01:08):
walls of samples that were sent to me from all over the world,
as well as all over California, all over the states. And not only did I
have samples sent to me by distributors and wholesalers and
the wineries, I. I had samples sent to me by my competitors,
the guys I fought against. And guess what?
There were one time I got three cases of samples from one of my competitors.
(01:30):
Three cases. And the business was starting to go south at that point. Anyway,
this was pre Covid. The writing was on the wall. There was so much competition
on the Internet and it was just more difficult, it took more
effort to get the same dollar of sale. So they were sending out samples
on wines they were long on. Can you imagine the 36
samples? There was one. And they're all white wines.
(01:52):
There was one wine that I thought made the grade
at the club, at the Wine of the Month club at the time. 1.
Because I truly wanted to represent
something of value, A and B, something
that represented a place and a time. And that's what wine is
about. So to taste a hundred thousand wines, it takes
(02:14):
30. It tooks. It takes. It took 35
years every Tuesday. And I'm going to say then on the
average, probably 45 Tuesdays a year instead of the 52.
That's how religious I was in doing this. And that was only because
my father said in 1988, When I bought the company from
him, don't we taste on Tuesdays Now, I knew
(02:36):
that A, I worked for him for a little bit, but B, at the
Wine of the Month Club, shop at the wine shop at Palos Veres Estates, what
was called then Palace Freddy's Wines and Spirits. Every Tuesday
night, I would set up a tasting with the doctors that supported
my father's pharmacies. They were the privileged group
to taste wine with him on Tuesday night. And they had this makeshift loft that
(02:58):
we made out of plywood and a staircase, and
they would go upstairs in brown bag and use the Davis scoring system and they
would rate the wine. So that's how it started. And this isn't a commercial for
the Wine of the Month Club. It's a, it's a, it's sort of a commercial
for what it takes to learn about wine. If you want to, you don't
have to. You can just enjoy what you want to enjoy, and that's
(03:20):
perfectly fine. I would suggest learning how to read a label. And I had
this question the other day when I posted on Instagram, this long
wall, this huge wallet at the market with every
bottle literally had a yellow shelf talker. Now, in the old days, you
put a shelf talker up and that was so that, you know, there was something
drawn attention to that particular bottle of wine. Now, literally every,
(03:42):
every bottle had a shelf talker. Many of them were just prices,
but some were ratings and things. And so you really can't make a decision.
And if you've never been to the market before, that market before,
it's very difficult to, to decide. Even
after 100,000 wines. The only reference I have
to pick a wine at the market if I've not tasted it, which is the,
(04:05):
really the linchpin of all this. And you, if you've tasted it before, obviously you
know what it tastes like and whether you would buy it again. But if you
can understand the label, if you can understand the branding name and sort of the
cycle that goes through to make a brand, if you can understand
how the region is depicted on the label and how the grapes
are depicted on the label, you can have an educated guess. And
(04:27):
that's still the best you get. In my case, because I've
tasted so many brands, you know, I've got a little better
inkling. But if I'm just looking at a shelf of all the wines I've never
tasted before, or a brand I've never tasted before, which has happened,
I can only go by what my instinct says about the region, about the
grape and about the vintage. If I know a little bit about the maker,
(04:48):
you know, Great. Now this happened before in my son in law in New York,
who is quite an enophile, loves wine, loves peculiar
districts. Took me to a wine shop on the
Hudson river in New York and I thought I'd prance in there and act
like a big shot. If there were 200 SKUs, maybe 300 SKUs, it was a
small shop. If I recognized two of the labels, that would have been a lot.
(05:11):
So at that point I have to just fall back on my, on my instincts
and look at the nuances of a particular region or a particular grape
grown in a particular area. So what do you think happens with a place like
Armenia? What do you think happens to a place like Armenia when not
only are they trying to educate the world of
the grapes grown in Armenia, actually the regions of Armenia
(05:33):
has regions just like the Napa Valley would have region sub regions or France has
regions of wine. Armenia has them as well. And so the pitch is right
now that wine was founded, developed,
invented. What's the word you want to use in Armenia? And that's
kind of based on the fact they found the
6,100-year-old winery with a pair of shoes.
(05:54):
Well, actually one of the shoes, the guy walked out limping, I guess, or hopping.
So, and that's okay because I've also heard arguments that the
caucus region, Georgia, Armenia is where it started.
We can't prove that, but it stands to reason Noah landed the
ark on Mount Ararat and planted grapes. So I mean, there
(06:14):
could be some biblical, historical and or
practical evidence that supports the idea that wine started
in Armenia or at least the Caucasus. But great, how
do you tell that story and what does that mean to you as a
consumer? If you taste it once, if you have
one Armenian wine, because of that story, you heard the story and now you want
(06:36):
to try a wine and it happens to be not a great example. You're
probably not going to try it again until somebody leads you down the
path of the correct vintage and correct grape to taste.
So Armenia has a task. It's got to educate the world on
not only the regions of Armenia and what differences they might
have, which would be the same as Rutherford versus Oakville versus Howell
(06:59):
Mountain. But they also have to educate the world on grape varietals that no
one's ever heard of. Adani Voskahat
Kangun so the intellectual part of the wine world, which you're
not necessarily participating in, in the sense of
understanding Armenian wines,
has this argument going on. And in fact, I'm working on A TV show out
(07:20):
of Armenia. And the point was made to me, hey, this information in
this. In this trailer is getting old. I'm like, no, it's not. Because the
conversation we had a year ago is the same conversation we're having
today about promoting and bringing Armenian wines to the world. And
so I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but you can imagine
developing a brand in the world of wine with all the
(07:42):
competition is very difficult. Throw
in the mix that there's a whole new region that no one's ever heard of
and a whole list of grapes that no one's ever heard of. Article came out
last week about a wine buyer at a
major, major chain of supermarkets in Los Angeles
or California that had been taking bribes
(08:03):
to put the wines on the shelf or floor stack them. Now, that in some
industries is okay. It's legal to do. Not to say bribes, but
it's legal to pay for a spot on the shelf.
I think when you're selling toothpaste or laundry soap or things like that,
you can actually buy your way onto the shelf. It's
why when you go to the supermarket, that Newman's Own salad dressing
(08:26):
and Craft and Wishbone are eye level. But that is illegal in
the wine trade. So this person got busted for taking luxury
bags and Rolexes and trips and. And, you know,
deliberate, deliberately mislabeling
the line item in the expense report for the salesperson that got them
or got him or her these things. And it could be
(08:48):
a lot of trouble because it is against the law in. In liquor not only
to bribe, but it's also against the law to buy
shelf space. And in fact, there is. There are lots of stories
of this that's. That have occurred over the years. You know, sometimes you walk into
the store and you look at the shelf and it's right at eye level, and
you kind of go, wonder how that got there. Theoretically, it's against law for it
(09:10):
to automatically be there, but that's. That's. That's what it is. It's a
cutthroat business. It's tough out there. And if you're trying to bring new wines into
the marketplace or new of grape varietals
like Ottomy, you're going to have a. A tough time. We just got back from
Napa. Great trip. Now everybody asks, what are you doing when you go to Napa?
You got any places to go? You know, any wine? You got any wines? You
(09:30):
want to taste the wine? I don't taste. I don't usually taste Wine.
When I go to Napa, I visit friends, I visit relationships in the industry.
The relationships are very deep in this industry. People understand each other who
go through the mechanizations to make wine. And as
I brought up before, it takes nothing but passion
to do this because it's slow one time a year, and
(09:53):
it takes a lot of work and the margins are
lousy. You've discussed this before. And so there's a little bit of a
fraternity amongst buyers and sellers in the wine trade
from the wholesale and the retail side. So we. But I'll tell you where we
do go. We like to stay at the Yontville Estate, or the Estate at
Yonville. It's also called the Vintage Estate.
(10:14):
Very cute hotel. It was just purchased a few years ago by a.
An Orange county developer. And he's done some really great things. It's the
first time we've stayed there since they did the remodel, so to speak. And
the food and the. The service, the rooms were
great. It's called the Vintage Estate or the Estate at Yountville.
And you'll. You'll love it there.
(10:37):
We like to go to a handful of restaurants that we always must go to
when we go there. One of them is called RH or Restoration
Hardware. Yes, the same exact company that makes
furniture and sells it. In fact, they have a furniture showroom connected to the
restaurant in Yountville. It's just. It's just fun to be inside of it. The
food is always excellent. I, you know, I'm not crazy about the wine list because
(10:58):
it's kind of a corporate wine list, but it's interesting enough and
you can have. There's no cocktails there, but the food there is incredible. And
you must make a reservation because usually walk ins aren't.
Aren't available the time slots. The other restaurant we used to like to
go to is Bodega, which used to be Mike Chiarello's restaurant. The chef
that suddenly passed away last year. We don't go there anymore. We heard bad rumors
(11:21):
about the way it was taken over and the family was leveraged out of the
deal. And so we decided not to go there anymore.
So we went with the McPherson family, who owns the
Promise Winery, which is about four miles off the Silverado Trail.
Incredible location. And we had dinner with them at the Goose and
Gander, which has always got very solid food, very quality food. This is St
(11:43):
Helena, which is the sort of the mid city of the Valley. And we always
enjoy it there. And if you have a chance to make an appointment with the
Promise or join their club to make an appointment. It's
really worth it. They have an incredible list of wines they make there. It's an
experience. They raise Iberian hogs, they make their own
prosciutto, they have their own hen house and they make their own
(12:03):
eggs. So it's, it's really quite an experience. It's
called the Promise Winery and it's like I said, about 10 minute drive
off of the Silverado Trail headed into the hills, one of the other locations we
like. In fact, we met with Tracy Mason of
Tular Vodka and she met us at the
Villagio estate, which is the sister hotel of the
(12:26):
Hotel Yonville. And we met for a glass of wine and the Alpha Omega
was pouring that night. Alpha Omega is right on Highway 29. Excellent
wines. Fortunately there were not too many people there that night so we got a
chance to taste a lot of the wines. But we met with Tracy who's just
launched this vodka which is really cool, called Tular T U L
A R. It's vodka made from, I guess she called it
(12:48):
B grade fruit. Fruit that's normally tossed, doesn't make it to the
markets. Very good palatable fruit, but doesn't look good. And
so she's, she saves, literally saves
from the recycling bin 25 pounds of
stone fruit per bottle. Isn't that crazy?
It's triple distilled. It's incredibly smooth. I'm going to make a
(13:10):
couple of drinks with it tonight. But, but look for that she just
got the right from the government, et cetera, et cetera, to launch the brand
about a week ago. So you'll see it around called Tular T U
L A R. One of the other restaurants that we really like. We
don't get to it all the time we're there. But this is really for locals
only. It's called Cooks. It's a very narrow small
(13:33):
restaurant in St. Helena. It is the. I mean
that was one of the highlight meals of the few days we were there and
we went for lunch no less. But wow, what quality food.
And the chef is always hanging around. Mrs. Chef is always hanging
around. I was had a chance to talk to them. I did engage them a
little bit. Probably put them on the show in the near future. And right up,
(13:55):
right off of the street, off the parallel street which is Adams street
or Oak street, is a little complex
with a coffee house and then a couple of doors, little industrial doors.
And one of them is, that is Grounded Wine Company in Chris
Phelps Wines. Grounded Wine Company. You've seen their brands many
places. Radio, what's it called? Radio
(14:18):
Silence. The other one is Grounded
Wine. The other one's called Space Age Rose. He's got quite a few brands. That's
from the son Josh Phelps and his wines are in a lot
of places. And then his father's wines are called Advivum
and they are super, super complex
quality brand of wine, very small production,
(14:40):
300 cases of vintage sort of. Sort of thing. And so we had a chance
to sit with Chris and I'm going to republish his. His podcast
soon. It's just really interesting and having made wine
in Bordeaux, France at. At
Petrus on the left on the right bank
and then came to America for Christian Moex and worked at Dominus, which is
(15:04):
incredible location here in the Napa Valley or there in the Napa Valley.
And then he's now makes his own wine. And I
it's just my favorite boutique brand. And why do I
say that? Because one, it's a departure from
opulent fruit forward, even partially residual
sugared Napa Valley style that's come of age
(15:26):
in the supermarkets. But it's got that touch of
complexity that comes from the Bordeaux
style that know how of making
wine that gives it that identification and it comes
from his techniques and it's really quite good. We
bought a couple cases actually that it's not cheap, I'll tell you that much.
(15:47):
So that's. That was the main tasting schedule and then
I had a chance to drive to. If you haven't been here,
you should go. This is in downtown Napa. Napa has
changed quite a bit, particularly since the
earthquake. A lot of foot traffic, a lot of great stores, sitting
rooms. But one I had never been to and one I just noticed
(16:09):
because we were doing a podcast is the Robert Mondavi
Tower. They call it the Tower. A pretty facility,
spacious facility, can accommodate a lot of tastings.
And I left with a bottle of Cabernet that I opened last night and it
was very good. And so this is a wonderful location. You.
It's right off of the main drag in Napa,
(16:31):
downtown Napa. If you get a chance to go there for a tasting, you should.
But I had a chance to interview Tony Biaggi
and that podcast is coming out soon. Tony Biaggi is the winemaker
at Tocalon. I always got it wrong. To Cologne. To Cologne. To
Cologne. Wines that run 500,
$800 a bottle kind of wines. But probably one of the most
(16:52):
prestigious vineyards in California,
if not the most prestigious and tony had some great insight
into what was happening there, what their. What their future looks like and how
they handle vintage varieties of vintages and
how they handle the different. The climate changes that's happening here in Napa.
But really amazing stuff. And so that podcast is coming out
(17:15):
soon. The Robin Mondavi tasting room in
downtown Napa. So that was the week, you know, we had a. We had a
really good time. We had really good food. We enjoyed ourselves. Walked to.
Oh, yeah, I didn't bring this up. If you stay at the Yonville.
Stay at Yonville and you walk to get coffee in the morning, which is our
favorite little walk, you go to the Honor Market, which is a gas station.
(17:37):
It's kind of very European that way, right? You get your coffee at the gas
station and really good. And we enjoy this
walk. And then it's also on the way there is the RH restaurant.
And I'll just give you this little anecdotal story, because I didn't know anything about
this guy. Unless you've heard of
Captain Planet. Heard of this guy? Captain Planet. I don't know, some kind of superhero.
(17:59):
Anyway, we're walking up to. To the restaurant, the RH
restaurant, and there's two minivans. Clearly they had people in them
prior. Parked right in front of the French Laundry. Yes, you walk by the
French Laundry to get to the Restoration Hardware restaurant and the Honor Market. And so
this is probably a really expensive group of.
For the restaurant. You know, inside. What I'm trying to say, the number
(18:22):
of people that this car could take, which it looks like it was about 15.
You know, when you talk about RH, I mean, the French laundry is about
700 a person or 400 a person, 450.
It could easily creep to 700 with wine. So it was a rather
voluminous bill there from this one
(18:42):
car. And so anyway, the driver was this
young woman, and she's. She looks at me and I gave her some
sarcastic comment, like I usually do something about the price of the
value of the. Of the food ticket of this car. And she goes. She
goes, aren't you all Captain Planet? And I said, man, I'll take that as a
compliment. She was, yeah, you better. My wife's like, oh, my
(19:04):
gosh, are you kidding me? So I was going around telling the story about
Captain Planet, and if you want to look him up, go ahead. It's
a superhero, of course. And the guy's cut, he's got short hair and he's
cut, and that's what I'm trying to tell you. You know what I'm saying? Anyway,
that's today's story. And look for Tony
Biaggi coming up soon. And some notables that we're going to be releasing soon. Had
(19:25):
some great guests coming up and we did that
trip in Annapolis and more of those coming. So stay safe out
there in the wine world. And check me out at
paulomclub.com or our
Instagram at Paul Callum Carrion or YouTube
@Winetalkspodcast. Cheers.
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