October 29, 2025 • 49 mins
Growing up in the central valley of California, we’ve inherited a sense of pride from our Greek parents and have continued to farm vineyards and make wine, incorporating the Mediterranean lifestyle and culture into our everyday lives. We don't make wines that are made to have an instant and powerful impact like tasting room wines; our wines are wines of finesse and elegance, and are made to be enjoyed with friends, family, and food. From the proprietors: We grew up growing winegrapes along with working at our parents' mom & pop grocery store. When we got older, we fell in love with wine and began working on our viticultural practices, and then decided to start our wine project. We are known for our old vine Zinfandel field blend vineyard called "Stampede Vineyard," as well as planting & producing some of the first Assyrtiko in California. We are trialing other Mediterranean varieties going forward as well.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Wine Soundtrack. Usay listen to the passion with
which producers narrate their winery and their world team thirty
answers discover their stories, personalities and passions.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is Alison
Levine and today I'm in Lowdeye Wine Country and I'm
sitting with two brothers, Jeff and John Perlagos of peer
Legos Wine. Jeff, John, Welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell
me a little bit about per Lagos.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, it's great to meet Jealous and thank you for
having us. You know, we are two brothers that started
this winery back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh that's a good time to start a winery.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Right, Yeah, well it was because of that whole situation,
we've basically kind of force ourselves to do what we
had been planning in our heads for several years. But
just to give you, like the fifty thousand foot view,
so we really are focused on Mediterranean style varieties. So
we yes, we do have in fidel and will claim
it because it's you know DNAs that is from Croatia originally.
(01:04):
But what you'll see with our the varieties that we
choose to work with and are the blends that we
that we make. It's very inspired by the Mediterranean basin.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, speaking of that, tell me what grapes you work with.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So obviously we're from the growing side. I mean, we've
been lifelong growers and maybe we'll talk about that, but
we're known for Zinfidel. Of course we have some very
old divine vineyards. But other than that, we we grow
and make a certigo sins and nardavola when we could
carry you on, and you know a few blends that
(01:41):
are inspired by those. Wow.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So with all those grapes you mentioned that your growers.
How you're you both? Are you both your brothers? Of
course you're you're born and raised here in Lodite. Is
this the family business? Great? Growing?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Absolutely not No. When we were growing up, our parents, well,
our parents did two themes. You know, like most people,
they had their day job, and so my parents owned
and ran a mom and pop grocery store here in town,
grocery store, meat market, et cetera. And so that was
the main profession. And like many other people that have
(02:17):
their main profession, we had grapes as well. So we
kind of grew up on a vineyard on the twenty
acre vineyards, but we farmed around. It changed, but it changes,
but it was around one hundred acres of mostly Tokay
in those days, and some's Infidela as well. Wow, that's right, because.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
There is a little Tokay still planted here, a little.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Very very very very well. It definitely is the heritage
grape of Loadi, one of the heritage grapes of load I.
But yeah, there's very very little. We still do have
like one row in one vineyard that we have in
Those vines are probably you know, one hundred and twenty
years old. They're pretty old, and they're pretty big, and
they're pretty gnarly. But yeah, you know, that culture has
kind of gone away, but definitely, you know there's there's
(03:01):
some still hanging around. Of course, there's lots of old
vines infantel in the area and old vine other things too, right,
like s and so and so and probably some carrien Yon.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So you said that you grew up, you know, with
your family having about one hundred acres that you were farming,
living on the twenty acre Do you still own that
property today.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
That we grew up in.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, No, we don't, so, so how many acres do
you own today? How many vineyards do you own in
the area, John, you want to jump in there.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Sure, we have.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Four vineyards and there we farm about eighty.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Acres, about one hundred we I mean, we own about
one hundred acres and we formed about eighty of those today.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And then you sell fruit because you you're not producing
all of that for yourselves.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
No, absolutely, most of the fruit goes to other wineries.
And what is it goes to?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So what is your total case production?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
We're we're under eight hundred yea.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So let me guess. Was buying vineyards the first thing,
making wine the second thing? Or you decided to make
wine and ended up with one hundred acres and selling.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Oh no, no, no, this is just so on the
growing side. It's it's my brother, myself and my mom
and it was our father passed away many years ago.
But it's the three of us.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And when did that start?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Oh no, no, when we were born. We already continued.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Yes, So we grew up on it in vineyard early
in nineteen seventy, late sixties, early nineteen seventies before my
parents start married.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Right, But you don't still own that vineyard.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
No, we don't own that, but yeah, through the years. Yeah,
this is just vineyards that have been in the property,
in the family the entire time or acquired. Yeah. But
but we you know, we grew up growing being in
the grocery store of course, and growing grapes, and we
thought we'd you know, go to college and do other
things and kind of get away from you know, being
(04:54):
in you know, ninety degree weather every day of our lives.
And then we you know, we went to college, you know,
got you got jobs. But we we always had this
responsibility to help our mom with a farm, so we
were we never really moved too far away where we
could be be here here behind the weekends.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It came back.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
We always trying to get out, but life brought us
back to Lodi.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
And we were always here, to be honest with you,
especially on weekends, pretty much every weekend during the growing season,
just because there's a lot to uh to manage and
to help out with. So we were we were here
anyway a lot. So at some point I think we
both fell in love with wine along this journey, and
so it was it was kind of easy to to
(05:42):
make it a little bit more permanent.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
So with under a thousand cases, I'm gonna guess that
you're pretty much direct to consumer, just small little winery
or are you in any distribution or any markets outside
of the local area.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
No distribution yet, I mean mainly director consumer and some.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
It's called director tre right direct. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, So you guys grew up here. This may be
a question you've already answered, but what is your for
both of you, your first memory relevant to wine?
Speaker 5 (06:12):
It was always on the table at home, so a
lot of back in I guess in the seventies when
we grew up, our parents' uncles had always done their
own wine making, and so we always recall always having
wine around on the table and almost at every meal.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, I mean, I think so our parents are immigrants
from Greece, and so it's you know, obviously a booth
that's both parents, and so all of most of our
relatives are from Greece as well, and so there's the
cultural of course too. And they grew up in the country.
It's not like they're from Athens, right, Yeah, They're from
the country, and so it's pretty natural to have wine
(06:51):
at the table. It's pretty natural to have some vineyards
somewhere as you're growing mostly other things but pretty much
everyone back there was a farmer that grew something. And
then in the Soso lands you shared had some graves
that you made for yourself, right, you turned into wine
for yourself. And so I think our dad was no different.
So he always made like a rose and a white
(07:13):
and it was we always had like two barrels and
one was Jeff's me and one was John's. And that
my first memory is my dad like every night with
a little craff going out and grabbing either should we
get some from Jeffs today or from John's barrel today?
So or we would pick when we got sent to
the garage. Yeah, I love that. I can't vouch for
(07:33):
the quality, but I mean it was story in the garage, right,
It wasn't a k and it was always at the table,
a small coroff every night.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Okay, let's let's fast forward. You're past the craft of
questionable wine. If we were to come into each of
your homes today, what kind of wines would we find
in your home? Is it? Is it local wines? Is
it the wine you made? Is it particular varieties or
regions that you drive? You don't have wine at home,
you drink it all joh.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
In my house.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Well, obviously there's a lot of Pelagos wine laying around,
sometimes stored in places where.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
You got to hide them from.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
So that from spouses or you know, but also you
know from your spouse.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Well, my spouse, she.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Doesn't trip over it in the in the in the
living room or the family.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Room, under the bed, in the closets.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Yeah, but other than Pelagos wine, I would say, there's
I have many bottles of our the wineries that we
work with from the vineyard side, so support a lot
of them, a lot of European sorry, European varietals like
miniatur vows that that I'm used to drinking.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And yeah, no I have a wine buying problem as well,
and so trying to slow down, of course. But no,
of course, other than our own, we you know, lots
of wine primarily from like friends that we have, you know,
friends and I was gonna say family, but you know,
good friends in the industry. We have plenty of their wine,
and yeah, wines that you know. Of course, I'd love
(09:11):
to say we have all the wines in the world,
but it's just you can't afford to have all the wines,
the great wines of the world in their home, but
just you know, wines from regions that really inspire us
as well, So you know Italy, Greece, Spain, but mostly
domestic and mostly from friends.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And is there a wine that you opened recently that
drink really well at dinner event from your collection or
maybe you were out and purchased it?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Great question. I mean, we opened up a bottle of
our carrying now on which is drinking great right now?
Which vintage twenty three. We've primarily used it in blends
in the past, in our red wine blend, but we
love the twenty three, and so we bottled it on
its own. But you know, outside of that, I'd say, well,
(10:00):
what have you opened up this movie?
Speaker 5 (10:01):
I think recently I opened up the Duetto and the Sparkling,
but outside from outside, I think I opened up by Sandlands.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Who else I think I opened up? Well, I'm trying
to remember here.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Sorry, No, I know, when you drink a lot of wine,
it's hard to remember each bottle.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
No, they're all great. You know. I had a scribe
Rose recently at Montoni was actually which I thought was
really really delicious.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Antonio is the best restaurant in lod I with a
grape wine list.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Correct, So yeah, I thought that was really delicious.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So for somebody, well, let me ask you something before
I asked that question. I want to know you know,
you're working with unique grapes. I mean you have the
traditional z Infidel old vine, very classic California, but you
also have some fun grapes. With all the grapes out there,
do you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
When you said thought provoking questions, yeah, making me think
here is there a perfect variety?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I think they're perfect varieties.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I mean that's really subjective, right. I mean they say
Cabernet is king, and I mean it seems to be
a perfect variety for nap. I mean the market is
spoken right in that sense. Yeah, you know, and and
we could. But to me, you know, I don't drink
a lot of kaberne. Although you know there are a
few producers, it depends on style etcare. So no, I
(11:36):
don't think there's a perfect variety, but there may be
ones that are definitely suited for certain areas that kind
of give the best or the you know, one of
the best examples, or where the variety can can achieve
its peak. Let's put it out absolutely anything to adder John,
I agree with Jack the older brother tie.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So when it comes to you're a small producer, you know,
not in the big you know, national market. And we
were talking before we started this about you know, getting
the word out there and making your brand known. We
were just talking about perfection, you know, or the aspiration
of perfection. So I'm curious about your opinion of wine
(12:18):
critics and scores. What as a wine consumer, what kind
of a role do they play for you or importance
or not? And as a wine maker, how do you
look at them?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Another wonderful question. They're prevalent so people, I mean, I
feel like people. They taste so many wines, and people
can't taste everyone in the world, and so they are
obviously some kind of feedback that people can look at,
or a reference point that people can look at on
(12:52):
a'm almost notice or if they're on a journey to learn,
where they can try to I think gauge their palette against.
So you know, you're you may have a palette that's
at tuned to one critic and maybe quite the opposite
of another one. Right, maybe I like ninety threes and
ninety fours from this one, or but this guy is
the same person. Guy or Gal could be at eighty
(13:14):
five for the same wine, and you know what I mean,
So maybe I like eighty fives from this person in
ninety three's from that versus you.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Kind of have to know the critic in that case.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, And the.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Spores are just so subjective too, right, I mean it's
someone's power, you know, someone's.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
What's the right word. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
But when wine's on a shelf and there's a score,
people look at that. So they are effective. So I
think there is something to be said for forming relationships
with them, and you know, hopefully you know, having a
good score. It's not it's definitely not going to hurt you,
right right, it can only help you, especially well, it
can't hurt you if your score is pretty low.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But they don't publish the low scores.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Okay, so you can establish a relationship with with with
with one. I mean that you can just send your
wines and they can be Yeah, they can be they
can be scored, but we're littally hesitant unless we know
the critic, and we you know, we always want to
be able to be I mean, ideally, you pour the
wine for the for the critic and they can understand
(14:19):
the story and kind of the reasoning behind understand the wine,
you know, So I mean always even and it's the
same for a consumer as well, when we can actually
pour the wine and taste through it. With journalists and
with other consumers, I think there's you just have to
have background. I think when you know the background, the
wine kind of maybe tastes different or absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I mean maybe is that why I like your sin
some work because you guys are funny. Now I'm kidding, well,
I'm curious speaking of the consumer, for somebody who hasn't
had the pleasure to taste your wines yet, what do
you think they're missing out on? What do you think
they're missing out on? What is to you? Par Lagos?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, so our wines, first of all, from a variety standpoint,
we make wines that are different or unconventional than most
people are used to. Right we don't make cab shard, silvini, block,
et cetera. Not saying that we never would, but right
now we're sticking to varieties that are from you know,
(15:22):
originate from the Mediterranean, and what that means to us
is that they tend to be you know, a little
bit well. And of course picking point makes a big decision,
but I mean it makes a big difference, but we
try to pick a little bit on the earlier side.
So we like varieties that can go really well with food,
that are fresh, that are not necessarily heavy, They're not
(15:45):
that you know, they're not very heavily oak. In fact,
everything that we've done to this point has been either
a stainless steel or neutral French oak. But no, I
think the varieties that we choose to work with are
traditional varieties from the Mediterranean that go really well with food,
that are you know, that are consumed with food in
those regions, and we hope to kind of, you know,
(16:07):
try to replicate that a this we can here agreed time.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
I totally agree with food and with you know, just
casual every day you know, drinking.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So if space aliens were to land on your property
and come walking up to the door, which of your
wines would you want to welcome them with? And you
you can have different answers because you make different wines.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
I'd probably go with the assertico or a sparkling assertico
because it's just I think it kind of dif the
asertico helps define our purpose in you know, a Mediterranean style,
and it's it's a grape that we fell in love
with when we were I think in our early twenties
(16:50):
backpacking through or not backpacking, like traveling through like the
Greek Islands and kind of fell in love with assertico.
So it's been something that you know, we would drink
for so long that and to plant a started to
go in California. People didn't really think about it twenty
years ago and it's been up become a variety. We
were one of the I think the first in load
(17:10):
I to have it and one of the probably the
only ones in the US who have made up sparking
I started to go. So it's unique, it's different, and
it's something that I don't know, we're proud of and
we know we were. I think it's one of our
favorite wines to drink these today.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So it's something that we beat that Jeff.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
No definitely defines us because of our heritage and background
where our parents were from.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Is that the same way and you would want to give.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Space, probably give them I'd say, I'll give him this
zinfandel just so that in the same sense kind of
just a compliment with John is saying it definitely defines
our area here and the heritage of where we where
we grew up, right and so, and especially because like
I think our zi infidel is a little bit different
for the area, and we could talk about that too,
(18:00):
but I think I'd go with our with our stampede
Dneyard zinfandel. Okay, So they get they get kind of
like our heritage where we're you know, our families from
and where we're from and where we're at today.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Lucky lucky space aliens. They get two wines.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Red and a white. So John you had mentioned I mean, sorry, Jeff,
you had started saying this about food friendly wines. How
do you guys approach food and wine pairing? Are there
rules you follow? Do you say to people you know,
red wine and fish, I'm sorry, white wine and fish,
red wine and meat. Do you look for other things
to pair? Do you not believe in rules? Like how
do you approach it when you're preparing dinner going out
(18:40):
to eat?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Well, I think what you said definitely always is always
in the back of your mind. And then but you
can always look for those wines that kind of break
those trends right, Like you can have you can have
red wine with salmon like something you know, like a
like a heavier fish.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Or like it would be perfect with salmon, it would
be perfect.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, well, Sam, and that one kind of you know,
bends the rules a little bit. But no, I don't
think there's there's hard past work because everyone such a
different palette people. I mean, I hate to say something
generic like drink what you like, but we want people
to enjoy what they're drinking and just drink it with
white goes well?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
But if if well, when you say when drink with what,
it goes well, how do you what are you looking for?
Are you looking to match? Are you looking at acidity?
Are you looking are what do you consider when you're
trying to pair?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
When I'm trying to pair, yeah, I do try to
match acidity to what I'm what I'm eating. Right, So
if it's something that's really briny and and you know,
I'm looking for for acid, I mean I'm always looking
for acid anyway in wine, you know, to be honest
with you, and yeah, just acid and tannin versus what
(19:50):
if I'm eating something salty, maybe something that's got a
little bit more tannin, if it's something that's a little
bit briny or fishy, something that can stand up to
the in, something that's got a little bit more acid
to break through that. Well.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I mean, I'm just I'm looking at our narrow davalo
the table there, and I was just thinking.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
I wouldn't open that with a salmon, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
I mean that you know, an like bowlon a sauce,
some kind of like meat sauce or you know, lamb
or lamb or lamb or veal, a perfect pairing. It
just depends on the day of and what you're what
you're eating, and you know, in the weather, in the weather,
and you.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Know, yeah, well, I mean, of course that all plays
a role. But I mean we're probably a little more
biased because the more you know about wine, the more
you know how to pick what you want with food.
Which is why I think you're both kind of saying
if you're looking to match, you know, acidity against something,
but you're saying, like a narrow davel, it's a bigger wine.
Bolognaise makes more sense not with oysters. So as wine drinkers,
(20:52):
red whiter, rose, red and white.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
You said red and white right, Well, I mean, well
she's actually red white or rose for you.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Red or white rose is for me is very occasional.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
It's an occasional one. I'm definitely traditioning more red. But
as I'm getting older, I'm appreciating more and more whites.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
To be honest with, still are sparkling, sparkling every day,
but but you.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Know, I mean, but with meals it has to be still. Yeah,
I'm more still, but I do like sparkling, yea.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
And yeah for sparkling domestic a syrtko of course doesn't.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
It doesn't everybody, of course. No, it's you know, since
we were growing the variety and we've made it a
few years and we you know, we have some background
with it. We just thought, you know, maybe it would
work as a sparkling, and to be honest with you,
we had very little to do, so we you know,
we picked some in twenty twenty three on the earlier side.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Is it traditional method or show traditional method?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
No doussage, and we just we just felt like it
would it was it wasn't a big risk, so we
took it. So we took the very small risk and
made it. We really really love the way it's turned out.
I love it. Wow.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
So you guys have eighty eighty acres of vineyards or less,
more or less. And I know that Jeff, you are
now living back in load Eye and John you're coming
in here every weekend and you spend time in the vinoon.
You grew up in the vineyards. You guys know the vineyards.
So I'm curious in the time that you know in
(22:41):
your lifetime here in load I we know every vintage
tells a different story, but do you guys see that
this is a region with more consistency or do you
see more variation from year to year.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
As far as the wines are the resulting or just
in the vineyard, just in the vineyard.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, I mean it can be in how the wine's resulted,
but even just what you see in the vinda in
each year in a in a vineyard.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I mean, I think the most years, the weather is
fairly consistent, you know, I say that, And this year
has been really really cool. But no, no, I mean
every year is different, but we do tend to be
in a warmer region. And you know, the macroclimate always,
you know, dictates most of it. So I would think,
(23:26):
you know, most of the farming is similar year in
year round, and of course you're you're you're adjusting right
to that, but I mean, there's we definitely are have
you know, like this year is pretty cool, twenty was it?
Eighteen was really cool? You know what I mean? So
there's three out of the ten. And then last year
I felt was pretty warm consistently most of the year.
(23:48):
So of course you're it's not by formula, but we
don't have a widely inconsistent year. And you know, weather
year in and year.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Out, and are there any sort of signs or predict
that you look for that are going to tell you
what a harvest will be?
Speaker 3 (24:05):
You know, I have this weird thing I tell people
that I know everyone is fascinated by high temperatures, and
once that I really liked looking at the low temperatures
and the duration of those low temperatures throughout the growing season,
because that to me tells me, yeah, okay, maybe it'll
be ninety five, like today is supposed to get ninety one,
but if you look at it, it's gonna be in
(24:26):
the nineties. It's gonna be above eighty five for like
four hours. And that's because the low was like fifty
four last night, right. So you know, if you look
at long term weather patterns in load, I typical July
and August high is like ninety ninety one and typical
low is like fifty eighth. Yeah, I think that yourninal
shift and that's putting normal. And of course it can
(24:47):
be one hundred, it could be you know, or it
could be eighty five. But a lot of times the
low temperature to me tells me how hot hot weather's
going to be. So that's why I always look at
I really look at the low temperature a lot. Say, yeah,
So if it's in like the low to mid to
mid fifties, I know it's going to be a pretty
cool hot day, you know what I mean, We're gonna be,
We're gonna be We're gonna be a cooler sit in
(25:11):
a hotter environment, so to speak. Versus if it's you know,
if it's sixty or sixty two, then I know the
next day is going to be pretty warm most of
the day.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
And do you guys, as brothers or for the brand
as a whole, have any sort of good luck rituals
that you do at the start of harvest?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
No?
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Not really, No, not really just a scramble to organize
the first pick.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
But no, we don't pop a bottle of sparkling import
over the no good luck sock or no there, you know,
I will say there there is a tradition like we're
Greek and we grew a wee horsel docks and so on,
you know, the beginning of August. In August sixth, they
they do the like a blessing of the vineyards and
sometimes you used to like Rubermantan the ol days will
(26:00):
do that every years being a priest. So you know,
we kind of do that on an annual basis. We'll
meet the priests actually from the Greek Orthodox Church goes
to some of the you know the parishioners who are
from church, because yeah, their own vineyards and blessed vineyards.
So that's something that we have.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
That's a tradition. A ritual is he yea. Sometimes you
don't think about these things until you start talking and stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Like that, you know. But for harvest, no, we don't
have any other ritual than that. Let's say, so.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
As great growers, you spend a lot of time in
the vineyards walking through them. What kind of relationship do
you have with your vines. I know you're both engineers.
I mean, Jeff you're an engineer by training, and John
you said that you're an MBA your business but with
(26:50):
an engineering bent, right, and this sort.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Of kind of work engineering and yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
So so I don't know if you get all, you know,
kind of who with the vines? But do you talk
to them? Have you found yourself? Do they talk to you?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
No? I don't. Yes, it's a grave whisperer, right, No, no,
not in that sense. But do we form a relationship
with them? Like, yes, we really really care because if
one gets hit by a tractor, gets damaged, it does hurt.
You know. We have a vinyard we're most known for
is a venue we call Stampede Vineyard. It's a one
(27:26):
hundred year old vine vineyard out in the Clements Hills
subaba of Floda. So basically what that means, it's like
twenty five minutes northeast of Flodi, almost to Mador County. Right,
we're telling mass from Enmadoor County. There it starts to
get a little bit hilly, but we're in a very
intersection that's very very busy. It's you know, Highway twelve
believe it or not, goes all the way from Sebastopol
(27:48):
all the way to Emadore County, San Andrea. So Highway
twelve goes through FLORIDAI, so you know, it goes to
all the Great One regions of northern California, and it's
a pretty busy street. And you know we every once
in a while someone will have an accident and take
out a few vines, and so that really hurts to see.
I mean, there's one thing when the tractor. I mean,
(28:09):
it hurts when a tractor hits something and damages or
kills it. It's another thing when somebody has an accident.
Your babies, there are babies, and just because they've been
in the ground since you know, before my parents were born, right,
you know, our grandparents were small, were young, and so
it hurts when something like that gets taken with you irreplaceable.
(28:32):
So in that sense, yes, we have that relationship with
them that we you know, and when you care for
something every day. I mean, if it's like a plant
you haven't in your home, if you've cared for it
for years and years and years and it dies, it hurts. Oh.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
So you guys grew up in this world. You grew up,
you know, just around all this you left, you've had
your own careers, you've come back to it. But when
you were little boys, what did you want to be?
When you grew up? Did you do what you wanted
to be or was there another aspiration that you had
long ago?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
I always wanted to be a pilot when I was
a kid.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, did you ever take lessons?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
No?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Not too late, it's not too late.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
No. No, I kind of always wanted to be an
engineer for some reason. We have cousins that were in
the field and we're pretty successful in it, so I
kind of looked up to them and wanted to do that. So, yeah,
I became an engineer, and then, you know, after eight
years behind a cubic light, quickly switched to sales. It
(29:33):
was just a little bit more interactive and fun. To
be honest with you, but no, I think we I
checked that box. Take that.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
So you did what you wanted to do and I did.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
And still doing what we were playing on that what
we wanted to do is changed, but we're still doing
what we want to do.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
So when you're not working, how do you guys like
to spend your free time? What do you do old
have free time?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
I love spending time with my wife and kids.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Of course, you know, we're really big. We have kids
that are in middle school and high school, so we're
pretty busy spending as much time as we can with
them and our wives. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Any fun activities that you guys like to do, indoor
outdoor sports.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Well, we're usually going to some sports event with our kids.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
I call it driving, you know, ye daddy, you know, no, we.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Wear a lot of hats, and so we really don't
have a lot of free time, to be honest with you,
And so when we're not in the vineyards or doing
I mean, obviously we have day jobs too, which consumes
most of our lives, and if they're listening, that's what
we're mostly doing. But no, I mean it's it's day jobs, wine, grapes, family,
and there's really little time for anything else.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
One day, one day, I mean.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I love it though, you know we love it. I
mean kind of burning the candle at both ends, to
be honest with you, So it's it's hard in that sense,
but we're doing what we want, what we wanted, you know, right,
love the I was gonna say balanced, but I really
love the mix.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So so okay, so you have no free time, but
hopefully since you're both married and you love spending time
with your wife and kids, both of you, I'm curious
when you're planning a romantic evening with your wife, what
kind of wines set the mood for a romantic evening
as opposed to just like any night at dinner, Because
you know, I know you drink wine all the time,
(31:31):
but are there any particular wines or type of wines
that sparkling? Of course, you said sparkling every night. Every
night's romantic, how nights it is, just.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
It depends on the occasion where we're going, what we're doing,
and then you pick from from from there.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, but always start with bubbles.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
I think so too. Yeah. I always there's a romantic evening, of.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Course, and if it's not mantic evening, still bubbles.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Still bubbles. Maybe the price point changes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
So do you guys have are you big soccer fans
like going into the World Cup? Like do you go
Greek or do you have a favorite team out there?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Oh? Yeah, I mean we love sports, baseball, basketball and soccer,
US and Greece. Of course you can't.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
He's your favorite team.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Oh, I can't. I can't. I can't root against either
one of them. I kind of have Okay, So the
way I do it is like, whoever is the end
of dog in the sport? That's why I'll go. If
let's say recently the US were playing, I have to
go for the under dog.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
If you're underdog were to win a championship, which of
your wines would you want to present them?
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Any question? What's gonna celebrating? So you have to go
sport with the sparkling Yeah? I think Sparkling US certain
to go there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Do you have a favorite team?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I have many favorite teams?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Uh, you have a favorite? So are you Giant Giants?
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Because we're in northern California.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
Ye.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
So if the Giants win the World Series, oh.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
I definitely sent them a case of a case, a
case of the smartting maybe too, so they can open
it on a queue.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
That's sparkling as soon Ago gets around or needs to
get around. More So, when you guys look back at
your you've had careers, and you have careers in other industries,
and then you're working in wine. And throughout our careers
and our lives, we're given advice. Our parents give us advice,
our mentors, our teachers, our friends. Is there a piece
(33:38):
of advice that was given to you that you try
to carry your life, carry through life, or approach your work.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
With a special nugget Always do the right thing.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
Always do the right thing, whether it's for your company,
your customer, but you always do the right thing. Make
it work, Make every deal work, Make everything happened as
fast and as easy as possible.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Don't be difficult. Yeah, I have two kind of pieces
of advice I had, Like when I first started working
in sales and on the interviewer side, I had a
boss that told me, like, if you're trying to figure out,
you know what whether you're doing is the right thing
to do, it's you do the six o'clock news test. Now,
maybe we're dating ourselves here, Like, you know, I don't
(34:26):
know if people still watch the six o'clock news, but
if if somebody would be able to broadcast what you're
doing on the six o'clock news and you're good with it,
you know, you'd be proud of it, then you're okay.
If not, don't do it, so that I'd say that.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
That's do the right thing.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
The right thing. Yeah, to do do the right thing.
And then I think, you know, there's like a Greek thing.
I think, like when my mom has always said like
a clear sky. It doesn't translate well, but it basically
it translates to like like the clear sky is not
afraid of lightning, right, So like if you have nothing
to worry about, then you have nothing to worry about.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Say it in Greek.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Okay, So I thought, okay, sounds good and Greek. Yeah,
it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So when you guys look back at your careers, this
is not the time when we get to say my kids,
because I know that that will be your answer. But
in your careers, what would you say, is one of
your proudest achievements so far? Does it include the wine edition, anything,
anything in your career?
Speaker 5 (35:29):
I think starting the wine business, yes, yeah, I mean
it was it was such a goal for so long
for us, and we never did it.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
And that's the thing, you know, we we we fell
in love with wine. I mean we of course we
started working and and and kind of trying to get
away from Aldai and trying to get away from the vineyards,
although we never really could, right, we always had one
foot here. We fell in love with wine along along
the way as we started to mature, and then we
kind of realized what we have all along. You know,
(36:01):
it's almost like a full circle moment, but you know
it's like, wow, what what maybe what we want out
of life We've always had and just had to go
away from it to realize it. And then it was like,
you know, twenty years of working and working the fields,
like we wanted to be better grower, so we poured
ourselves into that.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
When did you start the farming part? Coming back and farming?
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Oh, we never was. Always even in college, like.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Even when you escaped it, you were part of it.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. But when we started
working professionally, not you know, away from the area like
in the Bay Area, that's when we realized what kind
of had And so it was like, you know, twenty
years of figuring out how we can start this project.
But it was probably good that we didn't because we
learned so much viticulture side, We developed our palates, We
(36:50):
started treking a lot of wines and started to learn
because if we had started it twenty five years ago,
it may look different than what it looked today. Yeah
for sure, right, and we were more cav and chart
of adrinkers in those days. And then now we're like,
I'm not going to say anything, but because there's great,
wonderful examples of those.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah, but yes, so yeah, but so bringing your dream
to life, that's a that's a lofty achievement.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
And a lot of people, you know, look at twenty
twenty as all bad, right, But for us, I mean,
we had a lot of time on our hands, or
we had free time on our hands compared to our
busy schedules, and so we were able to start the
process of filing the paperwork and start.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
Making wine and you know, going through that.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
So for us, you know, the journey of a thousand
miles starts was the first step, and that was kind
of like we're able to take those first steps, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
When you had a moment of clarity.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
Yeah, at that time, we were kind of keeping apart,
and you know, we had that phone conversation it's like, okay, yeah,
let's do it.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Why not we don't do it now? Well, so that
that's it's we're proud of ourselves. We finally, you know,
we finally had the guts to move forward with it
and take the chance because you know, because of course
people that love us and know us, they're gonna buy
a case. They're gonna buy it, right. But when you
sell wine, you really have to learn how to sell
(38:13):
wine to people that don't know you and don't give
it right. So and then it's in our names on
the label. And so it's like, hey, if it sucks,
our names on the label. If it's great, our names
on the label. So it's uh, you know, just having
the guts to say, Okay, you know what, I'm gonna
do it, and no matter what the result is, at
least I've done it, and so you know I can.
(38:35):
I'm not gonna, you know, be an old man, you know,
on my deathbed wishing that I wish I had, wish
I had the DUTs to do it. Took us a
long time, but we finally did it. Well.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I think that I like that you share your achievement
together and it is something to be very proud of
because you know, five years later, here you are and
you know, you still have your day jobs.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
We've always been very close, So even though we're very
opposite in a lot of ways, we've always been best friends.
We're very close in age, shared a room growing up,
so we kind of had had no choice. But we
still talk to each other thousand times a day.
Speaker 5 (39:10):
So we're when he calls my kids, stay boyfriend's on
the phone.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Complete this sentence. For me, A table without wine is like.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
The day without sunshine.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
John John took the easy one.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Let's take He gave you time to think about yours.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
A day without wine, and a table without wine without
wine is like, oh man, he took a good one,
didn't he And he took the best one.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
We didn't admit at that A day without sunshine.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Good job.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
So we're sitting at a table right now. We've got
your wines on the table, and there's empty seats next
to both of you, and I'm curious who, from any
walk of life, living or deceased, famous, infamous, not famous,
do you wish you could share a bottle of Peleghost
wines with.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Okay, look, the easy answer to be our dad, because
he passed away when we were in high school. We
were teenagers, so we'd love to have him here and
you know him, you know, having the ability to try.
So that's that's gonna be the first.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Okay, that's one scene. But you gotta, you got, you gotta,
you got, you get each one more. There you go,
you get the one shared one and.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Then yeah, I wish I wish you had sent these
questions you like on the spot answers. No, that's great,
that's the fun. I don't know. I'm just gonna say
Albert einstein'd be just just because he's not known for,
you know, for for wine, and just wondering to be
(40:59):
curious what kind of a palette he had. And I'm
a science guy, so I'll go with Einstein. I'll give
you a second one. I'd love to have Aristotle because
they are soolo of my favorite philosopher, So I would
love to see, you know, I would love to know
(41:19):
what he thought intellectually, philosophically of the ones.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Hurry, John, he's filling up the table.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
I think that's good.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Let's leave it at that.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
If you come up with John one, John, you can
just throw it at me, okay, okay, because we're coming
to the end. So you know, we're almost to the end,
because now the question is you're getting sent to a
deserted island. What three wines? Any three wines? And you
can go by brands. You can go by variety, you
can whatever. What three wines would you want to take
with you? If you can only take three wines with you,
(41:58):
three winds, the bars or the world is your oyster?
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Wow? Okay, who do you want?
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Definitely a sparkling, it can be our It's gonna be
some you know, something else.
Speaker 5 (42:16):
Because we're from what i'd say, uh, an easy drinking zinfandel.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
And then the million dollar question, the third.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
Maybe it's still a Certico. Okay, Well, I definitely take champagne, right,
we want to have some champagne, maybe something a little
aged that had a little bit of least contact, and
we'll go with that. Definitely zinfandel because it's it's it's
(42:50):
our life and I think it's I think it's one
of the most underrated noble grapes of the world. So
definitely Zinfandel's on the table or with me on the island.
If I can make a table. And then a third wine,
I think i'd want something, you know, like a lighter red,
like a Sinso or something of that nature. So I'll
(43:14):
go with that. Sparkling's and Fidela and Senso.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Okay, So I didn't really warn you guys about the
last part of this chat. It's called wine soundtrack, wine music.
You know. So wine conjures up emotions in us when
we drink it. There is a difference between having the
sparkling a cirtico and having this and so and having
the old vines in and music makes us feel different ways.
(43:39):
So pick a few of the wines we've talked about today,
and I want you to tell me a genre, a musician,
a particular song. You can be as generic or as
specific as you want that makes you think of the wine.
So we're going to start with the ever famous sparkling Assyrtiko.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Well, it's kind of a celebratory wine or a party wine.
I don't know, maybe some house music or dance music. Okay,
I'll go with that. Let's go with that. You don't
have a different.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Okay, what about your still a sertico.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
M I don't know. Maybe maybe we'd be listening to
some Greek music there, some something with uzuki or you know,
some kind of popular artists that you like. Well, the
listener is not going to know it. Maybe they'll look
look them up. But did this, yeah, you know, I
(44:47):
just one thing that came to mind. For if you
were to tell me the narrow Davilo, Oh you wanted.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
To jump to narrow, double, let's go to narrow, because.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
I was just when you said it. This was the
first thing that popped into my mind. I want like
this with Pavaraeti, you know, like some kind of opera.
I think pap Varieti would be just fine.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
So opera with the narradopla.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
It sings, it's Italian, it's a Silian. It's a weak.
Maybe we could say it's Italian, but no, it's just
it's just I just feel it's the first one I felt.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
To be honest with you, what about this? And so
I've been sipping on this and so this whole chat.
So I want to see if I can envision this.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
Okay, so maybe something like huh By by Miss American
Pie or you know, something in that kind of seventies
singer songwriter era. I would think, you know, it's a
little bit before my time, but definitely we grew up
listening to the songs.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
There's no writer or wrong because everything conjures emotions. In
your emotion, you know how what you feel is what
you feel. So and I'll do one more because I
know you're trepidacious about this one. But you talked about
old vines es in it has a heritage here for you.
What about the old vines in your your old vines in?
Speaker 3 (45:55):
Great? Great question? Should we say country music with that, John,
since it's so or some maybe or some something very
Americana country music or something very Americana? Okay, Leonard Skinner.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Great, there you go.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
We'll move to second lune.
Speaker 5 (46:13):
Right.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
I have to mention that every Monday, everyone else is
done to be thinking of.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
So I would have said the Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
See John, jump in here. Don't be great Olympic brother
dominate that part of them.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
It's part of the profile of the wine. So it's
a great answer, Johnny.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
That is Strawberry Fields Forever. Now I'm going to be
singing that all day. I love it. Well, it's a
delicious wine, so I mean, you know, and it's got
those kind of wild strawberry No, it's a perfect song
for so many reasons. The chill factor, the lyrics. Yeah,
got it all. Okay, Jeff and John. You survived. We
are at the very end, and I have one last
(46:54):
question for you. It's a two parter, and the first
is what wine region in the world is the top
of your bucket lists that you would love to go explore?
Speaker 3 (47:05):
Sicily? Hm, that's that's a great one, Johnny, I mean,
or or go ahead? I loved. I mean, I've been
to France, I've been to Champagne, but I've never been
to any other wine region outside of Champagne. I'd say
probably like the Rhone Valley and the southern southern France
(47:27):
for sure. I mean there's there's so many, right, Yeah,
there's so many. You know, Italy, Sicily, you know, is
a great one.
Speaker 5 (47:36):
And I think I think the for me to maybe
a little bit of maybe a little Lebanon, go.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
To Chateau Musar.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
I mean, is there anywhere that you wouldn't go? Really?
I mean any wine region is welcome, but Sicily and Rowan,
southern southern France perfect. So now if somebody wants to
come here, where can they find your ones? How can
find you guys here? In load? I can't do you
have a tasting room, You're here at the Lodie Winster, Like,
(48:06):
how can people find you?
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Well, they get we're perlagosline dot com open twenty four
hours a day.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
So that's an order right online.
Speaker 5 (48:17):
Right online, and it ships right to your house so
you don't even have to leave. But other than that,
there's the load I Wine Visitor Center here and then
we do tastings by appointment. Go to our website, contact
us and we'll set up a time and we have
a place here in Woodbridge that we meet clients and
(48:38):
we're able to host tastings by appointment.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
And do you take people out to the vineyard vineyards
or we have.
Speaker 3 (48:48):
We have, yeah, we do.
Speaker 5 (48:49):
We'll do a vineyard tasting, tailgate, a tailgate tasting.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
Yeah, yeah, we've done that. Sure.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
You know what's great about a small producers. They'll do
anything you want, so you just have to call them
and you get some unique experiences. So appointment only because
it's not a public tasting room, but check out Parle
Parlegos dot com and Wine par Legos wine dot com.
Jeff John, thank you so much for joining us, joining
(49:16):
me today on Wine Soundtrack and I'll raise a glass
to you and say cheers yours.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine Soundtrack USA.
For details and updates, visit our website. Winesoundtracks dot com,
Welcome to Wine Soundtrack. Usay listen to the passion with
which producers narrate their winery and their world team thirty
answers discover their stories, personalities and passions.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is Alison
Levine and today I'm in Lowdeye Wine Country and I'm
sitting with two brothers, Jeff and John Perlagos of peer
Legos Wine. Jeff, John, Welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell
me a little bit about per Lagos.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, it's great to meet Jealous and thank you for
having us. You know, we are two brothers that started
this winery back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh that's a good time to start a winery.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Right, Yeah, well it was because of that whole situation,
we've basically kind of force ourselves to do what we
had been planning in our heads for several years. But
just to give you, like the fifty thousand foot view,
so we really are focused on Mediterranean style varieties. So
we yes, we do have in fidel and will claim
it because it's you know DNAs that is from Croatia originally.
(01:04):
But what you'll see with our the varieties that we
choose to work with and are the blends that we
that we make. It's very inspired by the Mediterranean basin.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, speaking of that, tell me what grapes you work with.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So obviously we're from the growing side. I mean, we've
been lifelong growers and maybe we'll talk about that, but
we're known for Zinfidel. Of course we have some very
old divine vineyards. But other than that, we we grow
and make a certigo sins and nardavola when we could
carry you on, and you know a few blends that
(01:41):
are inspired by those. Wow.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So with all those grapes you mentioned that your growers.
How you're you both? Are you both your brothers? Of
course you're you're born and raised here in Lodite. Is
this the family business? Great? Growing?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Absolutely not No. When we were growing up, our parents, well,
our parents did two themes. You know, like most people,
they had their day job, and so my parents owned
and ran a mom and pop grocery store here in town,
grocery store, meat market, et cetera. And so that was
the main profession. And like many other people that have
(02:17):
their main profession, we had grapes as well. So we
kind of grew up on a vineyard on the twenty
acre vineyards, but we farmed around. It changed, but it changes,
but it was around one hundred acres of mostly Tokay
in those days, and some's Infidela as well. Wow, that's right, because.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
There is a little Tokay still planted here, a little.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Very very very very well. It definitely is the heritage
grape of Loadi, one of the heritage grapes of load I.
But yeah, there's very very little. We still do have
like one row in one vineyard that we have in
Those vines are probably you know, one hundred and twenty
years old. They're pretty old, and they're pretty big, and
they're pretty gnarly. But yeah, you know, that culture has
kind of gone away, but definitely, you know there's there's
(03:01):
some still hanging around. Of course, there's lots of old
vines infantel in the area and old vine other things too, right,
like s and so and so and probably some carrien Yon.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So you said that you grew up, you know, with
your family having about one hundred acres that you were farming,
living on the twenty acre Do you still own that
property today.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
That we grew up in.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, No, we don't, so, so how many acres do
you own today? How many vineyards do you own in
the area, John, you want to jump in there.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Sure, we have.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Four vineyards and there we farm about eighty.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Acres, about one hundred we I mean, we own about
one hundred acres and we formed about eighty of those today.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And then you sell fruit because you you're not producing
all of that for yourselves.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
No, absolutely, most of the fruit goes to other wineries.
And what is it goes to?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So what is your total case production?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
We're we're under eight hundred yea.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So let me guess. Was buying vineyards the first thing,
making wine the second thing? Or you decided to make
wine and ended up with one hundred acres and selling.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Oh no, no, no, this is just so on the
growing side. It's it's my brother, myself and my mom
and it was our father passed away many years ago.
But it's the three of us.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And when did that start?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Oh no, no, when we were born. We already continued.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Yes, So we grew up on it in vineyard early
in nineteen seventy, late sixties, early nineteen seventies before my
parents start married.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Right, But you don't still own that vineyard.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
No, we don't own that, but yeah, through the years. Yeah,
this is just vineyards that have been in the property,
in the family the entire time or acquired. Yeah. But
but we you know, we grew up growing being in
the grocery store of course, and growing grapes, and we
thought we'd you know, go to college and do other
things and kind of get away from you know, being
(04:54):
in you know, ninety degree weather every day of our lives.
And then we you know, we went to college, you know,
got you got jobs. But we we always had this
responsibility to help our mom with a farm, so we
were we never really moved too far away where we
could be be here here behind the weekends.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It came back.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
We always trying to get out, but life brought us
back to Lodi.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
And we were always here, to be honest with you,
especially on weekends, pretty much every weekend during the growing season,
just because there's a lot to uh to manage and
to help out with. So we were we were here
anyway a lot. So at some point I think we
both fell in love with wine along this journey, and
so it was it was kind of easy to to
(05:42):
make it a little bit more permanent.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
So with under a thousand cases, I'm gonna guess that
you're pretty much direct to consumer, just small little winery
or are you in any distribution or any markets outside
of the local area.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
No distribution yet, I mean mainly director consumer and some.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
It's called director tre right direct. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, So you guys grew up here. This may be
a question you've already answered, but what is your for
both of you, your first memory relevant to wine?
Speaker 5 (06:12):
It was always on the table at home, so a
lot of back in I guess in the seventies when
we grew up, our parents' uncles had always done their
own wine making, and so we always recall always having
wine around on the table and almost at every meal.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, I mean, I think so our parents are immigrants
from Greece, and so it's you know, obviously a booth
that's both parents, and so all of most of our
relatives are from Greece as well, and so there's the
cultural of course too. And they grew up in the country.
It's not like they're from Athens, right, Yeah, They're from
the country, and so it's pretty natural to have wine
(06:51):
at the table. It's pretty natural to have some vineyards
somewhere as you're growing mostly other things but pretty much
everyone back there was a farmer that grew something. And
then in the Soso lands you shared had some graves
that you made for yourself, right, you turned into wine
for yourself. And so I think our dad was no different.
So he always made like a rose and a white
(07:13):
and it was we always had like two barrels and
one was Jeff's me and one was John's. And that
my first memory is my dad like every night with
a little craff going out and grabbing either should we
get some from Jeffs today or from John's barrel today?
So or we would pick when we got sent to
the garage. Yeah, I love that. I can't vouch for
(07:33):
the quality, but I mean it was story in the garage, right,
It wasn't a k and it was always at the table,
a small coroff every night.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Okay, let's let's fast forward. You're past the craft of
questionable wine. If we were to come into each of
your homes today, what kind of wines would we find
in your home? Is it? Is it local wines? Is
it the wine you made? Is it particular varieties or
regions that you drive? You don't have wine at home,
you drink it all joh.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
In my house.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Well, obviously there's a lot of Pelagos wine laying around,
sometimes stored in places where.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
You got to hide them from.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
So that from spouses or you know, but also you
know from your spouse.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Well, my spouse, she.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Doesn't trip over it in the in the in the
living room or the family.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Room, under the bed, in the closets.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Yeah, but other than Pelagos wine, I would say, there's
I have many bottles of our the wineries that we
work with from the vineyard side, so support a lot
of them, a lot of European sorry, European varietals like
miniatur vows that that I'm used to drinking.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And yeah, no I have a wine buying problem as well,
and so trying to slow down, of course. But no,
of course, other than our own, we you know, lots
of wine primarily from like friends that we have, you know,
friends and I was gonna say family, but you know,
good friends in the industry. We have plenty of their wine,
and yeah, wines that you know. Of course, I'd love
(09:11):
to say we have all the wines in the world,
but it's just you can't afford to have all the wines,
the great wines of the world in their home, but
just you know, wines from regions that really inspire us
as well, So you know Italy, Greece, Spain, but mostly
domestic and mostly from friends.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And is there a wine that you opened recently that
drink really well at dinner event from your collection or
maybe you were out and purchased it?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Great question. I mean, we opened up a bottle of
our carrying now on which is drinking great right now?
Which vintage twenty three. We've primarily used it in blends
in the past, in our red wine blend, but we
love the twenty three, and so we bottled it on
its own. But you know, outside of that, I'd say, well,
(10:00):
what have you opened up this movie?
Speaker 5 (10:01):
I think recently I opened up the Duetto and the Sparkling,
but outside from outside, I think I opened up by Sandlands.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Who else I think I opened up? Well, I'm trying
to remember here.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Sorry, No, I know, when you drink a lot of wine,
it's hard to remember each bottle.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
No, they're all great. You know. I had a scribe
Rose recently at Montoni was actually which I thought was
really really delicious.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Antonio is the best restaurant in lod I with a
grape wine list.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Correct, So yeah, I thought that was really delicious.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So for somebody, well, let me ask you something before
I asked that question. I want to know you know,
you're working with unique grapes. I mean you have the
traditional z Infidel old vine, very classic California, but you
also have some fun grapes. With all the grapes out there,
do you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
When you said thought provoking questions, yeah, making me think
here is there a perfect variety?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I think they're perfect varieties.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I mean that's really subjective, right. I mean they say
Cabernet is king, and I mean it seems to be
a perfect variety for nap. I mean the market is
spoken right in that sense. Yeah, you know, and and
we could. But to me, you know, I don't drink
a lot of kaberne. Although you know there are a
few producers, it depends on style etcare. So no, I
(11:36):
don't think there's a perfect variety, but there may be
ones that are definitely suited for certain areas that kind
of give the best or the you know, one of
the best examples, or where the variety can can achieve
its peak. Let's put it out absolutely anything to adder John,
I agree with Jack the older brother tie.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So when it comes to you're a small producer, you know,
not in the big you know, national market. And we
were talking before we started this about you know, getting
the word out there and making your brand known. We
were just talking about perfection, you know, or the aspiration
of perfection. So I'm curious about your opinion of wine
(12:18):
critics and scores. What as a wine consumer, what kind
of a role do they play for you or importance
or not? And as a wine maker, how do you
look at them?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Another wonderful question. They're prevalent so people, I mean, I
feel like people. They taste so many wines, and people
can't taste everyone in the world, and so they are
obviously some kind of feedback that people can look at,
or a reference point that people can look at on
(12:52):
a'm almost notice or if they're on a journey to learn,
where they can try to I think gauge their palette against.
So you know, you're you may have a palette that's
at tuned to one critic and maybe quite the opposite
of another one. Right, maybe I like ninety threes and
ninety fours from this one, or but this guy is
the same person. Guy or Gal could be at eighty
(13:14):
five for the same wine, and you know what I mean,
So maybe I like eighty fives from this person in
ninety three's from that versus you.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Kind of have to know the critic in that case.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, And the.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Spores are just so subjective too, right, I mean it's
someone's power, you know, someone's.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
What's the right word. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
But when wine's on a shelf and there's a score,
people look at that. So they are effective. So I
think there is something to be said for forming relationships
with them, and you know, hopefully you know, having a
good score. It's not it's definitely not going to hurt you,
right right, it can only help you, especially well, it
can't hurt you if your score is pretty low.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But they don't publish the low scores.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Okay, so you can establish a relationship with with with
with one. I mean that you can just send your
wines and they can be Yeah, they can be they
can be scored, but we're littally hesitant unless we know
the critic, and we you know, we always want to
be able to be I mean, ideally, you pour the
wine for the for the critic and they can understand
(14:19):
the story and kind of the reasoning behind understand the wine,
you know, So I mean always even and it's the
same for a consumer as well, when we can actually
pour the wine and taste through it. With journalists and
with other consumers, I think there's you just have to
have background. I think when you know the background, the
wine kind of maybe tastes different or absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I mean maybe is that why I like your sin
some work because you guys are funny. Now I'm kidding, well,
I'm curious speaking of the consumer, for somebody who hasn't
had the pleasure to taste your wines yet, what do
you think they're missing out on? What do you think
they're missing out on? What is to you? Par Lagos?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, so our wines, first of all, from a variety standpoint,
we make wines that are different or unconventional than most
people are used to. Right we don't make cab shard, silvini, block,
et cetera. Not saying that we never would, but right
now we're sticking to varieties that are from you know,
(15:22):
originate from the Mediterranean, and what that means to us
is that they tend to be you know, a little
bit well. And of course picking point makes a big decision,
but I mean it makes a big difference, but we
try to pick a little bit on the earlier side.
So we like varieties that can go really well with food,
that are fresh, that are not necessarily heavy, They're not
(15:45):
that you know, they're not very heavily oak. In fact,
everything that we've done to this point has been either
a stainless steel or neutral French oak. But no, I
think the varieties that we choose to work with are
traditional varieties from the Mediterranean that go really well with food,
that are you know, that are consumed with food in
those regions, and we hope to kind of, you know,
(16:07):
try to replicate that a this we can here agreed time.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
I totally agree with food and with you know, just
casual every day you know, drinking.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So if space aliens were to land on your property
and come walking up to the door, which of your
wines would you want to welcome them with? And you
you can have different answers because you make different wines.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
I'd probably go with the assertico or a sparkling assertico
because it's just I think it kind of dif the
asertico helps define our purpose in you know, a Mediterranean style,
and it's it's a grape that we fell in love
with when we were I think in our early twenties
(16:50):
backpacking through or not backpacking, like traveling through like the
Greek Islands and kind of fell in love with assertico.
So it's been something that you know, we would drink
for so long that and to plant a started to
go in California. People didn't really think about it twenty
years ago and it's been up become a variety. We
were one of the I think the first in load
(17:10):
I to have it and one of the probably the
only ones in the US who have made up sparking
I started to go. So it's unique, it's different, and
it's something that I don't know, we're proud of and
we know we were. I think it's one of our
favorite wines to drink these today.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So it's something that we beat that Jeff.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
No definitely defines us because of our heritage and background
where our parents were from.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Is that the same way and you would want to give.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Space, probably give them I'd say, I'll give him this
zinfandel just so that in the same sense kind of
just a compliment with John is saying it definitely defines
our area here and the heritage of where we where
we grew up, right and so, and especially because like
I think our zi infidel is a little bit different
for the area, and we could talk about that too,
(18:00):
but I think I'd go with our with our stampede
Dneyard zinfandel. Okay, So they get they get kind of
like our heritage where we're you know, our families from
and where we're from and where we're at today.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Lucky lucky space aliens. They get two wines.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Red and a white. So John you had mentioned I mean, sorry, Jeff,
you had started saying this about food friendly wines. How
do you guys approach food and wine pairing? Are there
rules you follow? Do you say to people you know,
red wine and fish, I'm sorry, white wine and fish,
red wine and meat. Do you look for other things
to pair? Do you not believe in rules? Like how
do you approach it when you're preparing dinner going out
(18:40):
to eat?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Well, I think what you said definitely always is always
in the back of your mind. And then but you
can always look for those wines that kind of break
those trends right, Like you can have you can have
red wine with salmon like something you know, like a
like a heavier fish.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Or like it would be perfect with salmon, it would
be perfect.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, well, Sam, and that one kind of you know,
bends the rules a little bit. But no, I don't
think there's there's hard past work because everyone such a
different palette people. I mean, I hate to say something
generic like drink what you like, but we want people
to enjoy what they're drinking and just drink it with
white goes well?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
But if if well, when you say when drink with what,
it goes well, how do you what are you looking for?
Are you looking to match? Are you looking at acidity?
Are you looking are what do you consider when you're
trying to pair?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
When I'm trying to pair, yeah, I do try to
match acidity to what I'm what I'm eating. Right, So
if it's something that's really briny and and you know,
I'm looking for for acid, I mean I'm always looking
for acid anyway in wine, you know, to be honest
with you, and yeah, just acid and tannin versus what
(19:50):
if I'm eating something salty, maybe something that's got a
little bit more tannin, if it's something that's a little
bit briny or fishy, something that can stand up to
the in, something that's got a little bit more acid
to break through that. Well.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I mean, I'm just I'm looking at our narrow davalo
the table there, and I was just thinking.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
I wouldn't open that with a salmon, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
I mean that you know, an like bowlon a sauce,
some kind of like meat sauce or you know, lamb
or lamb or lamb or veal, a perfect pairing. It
just depends on the day of and what you're what
you're eating, and you know, in the weather, in the weather,
and you.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Know, yeah, well, I mean, of course that all plays
a role. But I mean we're probably a little more
biased because the more you know about wine, the more
you know how to pick what you want with food.
Which is why I think you're both kind of saying
if you're looking to match, you know, acidity against something,
but you're saying, like a narrow davel, it's a bigger wine.
Bolognaise makes more sense not with oysters. So as wine drinkers,
(20:52):
red whiter, rose, red and white.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
You said red and white right, Well, I mean, well
she's actually red white or rose for you.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Red or white rose is for me is very occasional.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
It's an occasional one. I'm definitely traditioning more red. But
as I'm getting older, I'm appreciating more and more whites.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
To be honest with, still are sparkling, sparkling every day,
but but you.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Know, I mean, but with meals it has to be still. Yeah,
I'm more still, but I do like sparkling, yea.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
And yeah for sparkling domestic a syrtko of course doesn't.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
It doesn't everybody, of course. No, it's you know, since
we were growing the variety and we've made it a
few years and we you know, we have some background
with it. We just thought, you know, maybe it would
work as a sparkling, and to be honest with you,
we had very little to do, so we you know,
we picked some in twenty twenty three on the earlier side.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Is it traditional method or show traditional method?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
No doussage, and we just we just felt like it
would it was it wasn't a big risk, so we
took it. So we took the very small risk and
made it. We really really love the way it's turned out.
I love it. Wow.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
So you guys have eighty eighty acres of vineyards or less,
more or less. And I know that Jeff, you are
now living back in load Eye and John you're coming
in here every weekend and you spend time in the vinoon.
You grew up in the vineyards. You guys know the vineyards.
So I'm curious in the time that you know in
(22:41):
your lifetime here in load I we know every vintage
tells a different story, but do you guys see that
this is a region with more consistency or do you
see more variation from year to year.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
As far as the wines are the resulting or just
in the vineyard, just in the vineyard.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, I mean it can be in how the wine's resulted,
but even just what you see in the vinda in
each year in a in a vineyard.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I mean, I think the most years, the weather is
fairly consistent, you know, I say that, And this year
has been really really cool. But no, no, I mean
every year is different, but we do tend to be
in a warmer region. And you know, the macroclimate always,
you know, dictates most of it. So I would think,
(23:26):
you know, most of the farming is similar year in
year round, and of course you're you're you're adjusting right
to that, but I mean, there's we definitely are have
you know, like this year is pretty cool, twenty was it?
Eighteen was really cool? You know what I mean? So
there's three out of the ten. And then last year
I felt was pretty warm consistently most of the year.
(23:48):
So of course you're it's not by formula, but we
don't have a widely inconsistent year. And you know, weather
year in and year.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Out, and are there any sort of signs or predict
that you look for that are going to tell you
what a harvest will be?
Speaker 3 (24:05):
You know, I have this weird thing I tell people
that I know everyone is fascinated by high temperatures, and
once that I really liked looking at the low temperatures
and the duration of those low temperatures throughout the growing season,
because that to me tells me, yeah, okay, maybe it'll
be ninety five, like today is supposed to get ninety one,
but if you look at it, it's gonna be in
(24:26):
the nineties. It's gonna be above eighty five for like
four hours. And that's because the low was like fifty
four last night, right. So you know, if you look
at long term weather patterns in load, I typical July
and August high is like ninety ninety one and typical
low is like fifty eighth. Yeah, I think that yourninal
shift and that's putting normal. And of course it can
(24:47):
be one hundred, it could be you know, or it
could be eighty five. But a lot of times the
low temperature to me tells me how hot hot weather's
going to be. So that's why I always look at
I really look at the low temperature a lot. Say, yeah,
So if it's in like the low to mid to
mid fifties, I know it's going to be a pretty
cool hot day, you know what I mean, We're gonna be,
We're gonna be We're gonna be a cooler sit in
(25:11):
a hotter environment, so to speak. Versus if it's you know,
if it's sixty or sixty two, then I know the
next day is going to be pretty warm most of
the day.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
And do you guys, as brothers or for the brand
as a whole, have any sort of good luck rituals
that you do at the start of harvest?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
No?
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Not really, No, not really just a scramble to organize
the first pick.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
But no, we don't pop a bottle of sparkling import
over the no good luck sock or no there, you know,
I will say there there is a tradition like we're
Greek and we grew a wee horsel docks and so on,
you know, the beginning of August. In August sixth, they
they do the like a blessing of the vineyards and
sometimes you used to like Rubermantan the ol days will
(26:00):
do that every years being a priest. So you know,
we kind of do that on an annual basis. We'll
meet the priests actually from the Greek Orthodox Church goes
to some of the you know the parishioners who are
from church, because yeah, their own vineyards and blessed vineyards.
So that's something that we have.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
That's a tradition. A ritual is he yea. Sometimes you
don't think about these things until you start talking and stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Like that, you know. But for harvest, no, we don't
have any other ritual than that. Let's say, so.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
As great growers, you spend a lot of time in
the vineyards walking through them. What kind of relationship do
you have with your vines. I know you're both engineers.
I mean, Jeff you're an engineer by training, and John
you said that you're an MBA your business but with
(26:50):
an engineering bent, right, and this sort.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Of kind of work engineering and yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
So so I don't know if you get all, you know,
kind of who with the vines? But do you talk
to them? Have you found yourself? Do they talk to you?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
No? I don't. Yes, it's a grave whisperer, right, No, no,
not in that sense. But do we form a relationship
with them? Like, yes, we really really care because if
one gets hit by a tractor, gets damaged, it does hurt.
You know. We have a vinyard we're most known for
is a venue we call Stampede Vineyard. It's a one
(27:26):
hundred year old vine vineyard out in the Clements Hills
subaba of Floda. So basically what that means, it's like
twenty five minutes northeast of Flodi, almost to Mador County. Right,
we're telling mass from Enmadoor County. There it starts to
get a little bit hilly, but we're in a very
intersection that's very very busy. It's you know, Highway twelve
believe it or not, goes all the way from Sebastopol
(27:48):
all the way to Emadore County, San Andrea. So Highway
twelve goes through FLORIDAI, so you know, it goes to
all the Great One regions of northern California, and it's
a pretty busy street. And you know we every once
in a while someone will have an accident and take
out a few vines, and so that really hurts to see.
I mean, there's one thing when the tractor. I mean,
(28:09):
it hurts when a tractor hits something and damages or
kills it. It's another thing when somebody has an accident.
Your babies, there are babies, and just because they've been
in the ground since you know, before my parents were born, right,
you know, our grandparents were small, were young, and so
it hurts when something like that gets taken with you irreplaceable.
(28:32):
So in that sense, yes, we have that relationship with
them that we you know, and when you care for
something every day. I mean, if it's like a plant
you haven't in your home, if you've cared for it
for years and years and years and it dies, it hurts. Oh.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
So you guys grew up in this world. You grew up,
you know, just around all this you left, you've had
your own careers, you've come back to it. But when
you were little boys, what did you want to be?
When you grew up? Did you do what you wanted
to be or was there another aspiration that you had
long ago?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
I always wanted to be a pilot when I was
a kid.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, did you ever take lessons?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
No?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Not too late, it's not too late.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
No. No, I kind of always wanted to be an
engineer for some reason. We have cousins that were in
the field and we're pretty successful in it, so I
kind of looked up to them and wanted to do that. So, yeah,
I became an engineer, and then, you know, after eight
years behind a cubic light, quickly switched to sales. It
(29:33):
was just a little bit more interactive and fun. To
be honest with you, but no, I think we I
checked that box. Take that.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
So you did what you wanted to do and I did.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
And still doing what we were playing on that what
we wanted to do is changed, but we're still doing
what we want to do.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
So when you're not working, how do you guys like
to spend your free time? What do you do old
have free time?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
I love spending time with my wife and kids.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Of course, you know, we're really big. We have kids
that are in middle school and high school, so we're
pretty busy spending as much time as we can with
them and our wives. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Any fun activities that you guys like to do, indoor
outdoor sports.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Well, we're usually going to some sports event with our kids.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
I call it driving, you know, ye daddy, you know, no, we.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Wear a lot of hats, and so we really don't
have a lot of free time, to be honest with you,
And so when we're not in the vineyards or doing
I mean, obviously we have day jobs too, which consumes
most of our lives, and if they're listening, that's what
we're mostly doing. But no, I mean it's it's day jobs, wine, grapes, family,
and there's really little time for anything else.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
One day, one day, I mean.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I love it though, you know we love it. I
mean kind of burning the candle at both ends, to
be honest with you, So it's it's hard in that sense,
but we're doing what we want, what we wanted, you know, right,
love the I was gonna say balanced, but I really
love the mix.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So so okay, so you have no free time, but
hopefully since you're both married and you love spending time
with your wife and kids, both of you, I'm curious
when you're planning a romantic evening with your wife, what
kind of wines set the mood for a romantic evening
as opposed to just like any night at dinner, Because
you know, I know you drink wine all the time,
(31:31):
but are there any particular wines or type of wines
that sparkling? Of course, you said sparkling every night. Every
night's romantic, how nights it is, just.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
It depends on the occasion where we're going, what we're doing,
and then you pick from from from there.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, but always start with bubbles.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
I think so too. Yeah. I always there's a romantic evening, of.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Course, and if it's not mantic evening, still bubbles.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Still bubbles. Maybe the price point changes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
So do you guys have are you big soccer fans
like going into the World Cup? Like do you go
Greek or do you have a favorite team out there?
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Oh? Yeah, I mean we love sports, baseball, basketball and soccer,
US and Greece. Of course you can't.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
He's your favorite team.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Oh, I can't. I can't. I can't root against either
one of them. I kind of have Okay, So the
way I do it is like, whoever is the end
of dog in the sport? That's why I'll go. If
let's say recently the US were playing, I have to
go for the under dog.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
If you're underdog were to win a championship, which of
your wines would you want to present them?
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Any question? What's gonna celebrating? So you have to go
sport with the sparkling Yeah? I think Sparkling US certain
to go there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Do you have a favorite team?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I have many favorite teams?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Uh, you have a favorite? So are you Giant Giants?
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Because we're in northern California.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
Ye.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
So if the Giants win the World Series, oh.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
I definitely sent them a case of a case, a
case of the smartting maybe too, so they can open
it on a queue.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
That's sparkling as soon Ago gets around or needs to
get around. More So, when you guys look back at
your you've had careers, and you have careers in other industries,
and then you're working in wine. And throughout our careers
and our lives, we're given advice. Our parents give us advice,
our mentors, our teachers, our friends. Is there a piece
(33:38):
of advice that was given to you that you try
to carry your life, carry through life, or approach your work.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
With a special nugget Always do the right thing.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
Always do the right thing, whether it's for your company,
your customer, but you always do the right thing. Make
it work, Make every deal work, Make everything happened as
fast and as easy as possible.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Don't be difficult. Yeah, I have two kind of pieces
of advice I had, Like when I first started working
in sales and on the interviewer side, I had a
boss that told me, like, if you're trying to figure out,
you know what whether you're doing is the right thing
to do, it's you do the six o'clock news test. Now,
maybe we're dating ourselves here, Like, you know, I don't
(34:26):
know if people still watch the six o'clock news, but
if if somebody would be able to broadcast what you're
doing on the six o'clock news and you're good with it,
you know, you'd be proud of it, then you're okay.
If not, don't do it, so that I'd say that.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
That's do the right thing.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
The right thing. Yeah, to do do the right thing.
And then I think, you know, there's like a Greek thing.
I think, like when my mom has always said like
a clear sky. It doesn't translate well, but it basically
it translates to like like the clear sky is not
afraid of lightning, right, So like if you have nothing
to worry about, then you have nothing to worry about.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Say it in Greek.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Okay, So I thought, okay, sounds good and Greek. Yeah,
it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So when you guys look back at your careers, this
is not the time when we get to say my kids,
because I know that that will be your answer. But
in your careers, what would you say, is one of
your proudest achievements so far? Does it include the wine edition, anything,
anything in your career?
Speaker 5 (35:29):
I think starting the wine business, yes, yeah, I mean
it was it was such a goal for so long
for us, and we never did it.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
And that's the thing, you know, we we we fell
in love with wine. I mean we of course we
started working and and and kind of trying to get
away from Aldai and trying to get away from the vineyards,
although we never really could, right, we always had one
foot here. We fell in love with wine along along
the way as we started to mature, and then we
kind of realized what we have all along. You know,
(36:01):
it's almost like a full circle moment, but you know
it's like, wow, what what maybe what we want out
of life We've always had and just had to go
away from it to realize it. And then it was like,
you know, twenty years of working and working the fields,
like we wanted to be better grower, so we poured
ourselves into that.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
When did you start the farming part? Coming back and farming?
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Oh, we never was. Always even in college, like.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Even when you escaped it, you were part of it.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. But when we started
working professionally, not you know, away from the area like
in the Bay Area, that's when we realized what kind
of had And so it was like, you know, twenty
years of figuring out how we can start this project.
But it was probably good that we didn't because we
learned so much viticulture side, We developed our palates, We
(36:50):
started treking a lot of wines and started to learn
because if we had started it twenty five years ago,
it may look different than what it looked today. Yeah
for sure, right, and we were more cav and chart
of adrinkers in those days. And then now we're like,
I'm not going to say anything, but because there's great,
wonderful examples of those.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah, but yes, so yeah, but so bringing your dream
to life, that's a that's a lofty achievement.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
And a lot of people, you know, look at twenty
twenty as all bad, right, But for us, I mean,
we had a lot of time on our hands, or
we had free time on our hands compared to our
busy schedules, and so we were able to start the
process of filing the paperwork and start.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
Making wine and you know, going through that.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
So for us, you know, the journey of a thousand
miles starts was the first step, and that was kind
of like we're able to take those first steps, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
When you had a moment of clarity.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
Yeah, at that time, we were kind of keeping apart,
and you know, we had that phone conversation it's like, okay, yeah,
let's do it.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Why not we don't do it now? Well, so that
that's it's we're proud of ourselves. We finally, you know,
we finally had the guts to move forward with it
and take the chance because you know, because of course
people that love us and know us, they're gonna buy
a case. They're gonna buy it, right. But when you
sell wine, you really have to learn how to sell
(38:13):
wine to people that don't know you and don't give
it right. So and then it's in our names on
the label. And so it's like, hey, if it sucks,
our names on the label. If it's great, our names
on the label. So it's uh, you know, just having
the guts to say, Okay, you know what, I'm gonna
do it, and no matter what the result is, at
least I've done it, and so you know I can.
(38:35):
I'm not gonna, you know, be an old man, you know,
on my deathbed wishing that I wish I had, wish
I had the DUTs to do it. Took us a
long time, but we finally did it. Well.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I think that I like that you share your achievement
together and it is something to be very proud of
because you know, five years later, here you are and
you know, you still have your day jobs.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
We've always been very close, So even though we're very
opposite in a lot of ways, we've always been best friends.
We're very close in age, shared a room growing up,
so we kind of had had no choice. But we
still talk to each other thousand times a day.
Speaker 5 (39:10):
So we're when he calls my kids, stay boyfriend's on
the phone.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Complete this sentence. For me, A table without wine is like.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
The day without sunshine.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
John John took the easy one.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Let's take He gave you time to think about yours.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
A day without wine, and a table without wine without
wine is like, oh man, he took a good one,
didn't he And he took the best one.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
We didn't admit at that A day without sunshine.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Good job.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
So we're sitting at a table right now. We've got
your wines on the table, and there's empty seats next
to both of you, and I'm curious who, from any
walk of life, living or deceased, famous, infamous, not famous,
do you wish you could share a bottle of Peleghost
wines with.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Okay, look, the easy answer to be our dad, because
he passed away when we were in high school. We
were teenagers, so we'd love to have him here and
you know him, you know, having the ability to try.
So that's that's gonna be the first.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Okay, that's one scene. But you gotta, you got, you gotta,
you got, you get each one more. There you go,
you get the one shared one and.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Then yeah, I wish I wish you had sent these
questions you like on the spot answers. No, that's great,
that's the fun. I don't know. I'm just gonna say
Albert einstein'd be just just because he's not known for,
you know, for for wine, and just wondering to be
(40:59):
curious what kind of a palette he had. And I'm
a science guy, so I'll go with Einstein. I'll give
you a second one. I'd love to have Aristotle because
they are soolo of my favorite philosopher, So I would
love to see, you know, I would love to know
(41:19):
what he thought intellectually, philosophically of the ones.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Hurry, John, he's filling up the table.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
I think that's good.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Let's leave it at that.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
If you come up with John one, John, you can
just throw it at me, okay, okay, because we're coming
to the end. So you know, we're almost to the end,
because now the question is you're getting sent to a
deserted island. What three wines? Any three wines? And you
can go by brands. You can go by variety, you
can whatever. What three wines would you want to take
with you? If you can only take three wines with you,
(41:58):
three winds, the bars or the world is your oyster?
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Wow? Okay, who do you want?
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Definitely a sparkling, it can be our It's gonna be
some you know, something else.
Speaker 5 (42:16):
Because we're from what i'd say, uh, an easy drinking zinfandel.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
And then the million dollar question, the third.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
Maybe it's still a Certico. Okay, Well, I definitely take champagne, right,
we want to have some champagne, maybe something a little
aged that had a little bit of least contact, and
we'll go with that. Definitely zinfandel because it's it's it's
(42:50):
our life and I think it's I think it's one
of the most underrated noble grapes of the world. So
definitely Zinfandel's on the table or with me on the island.
If I can make a table. And then a third wine,
I think i'd want something, you know, like a lighter red,
like a Sinso or something of that nature. So I'll
(43:14):
go with that. Sparkling's and Fidela and Senso.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Okay, So I didn't really warn you guys about the
last part of this chat. It's called wine soundtrack, wine music.
You know. So wine conjures up emotions in us when
we drink it. There is a difference between having the
sparkling a cirtico and having this and so and having
the old vines in and music makes us feel different ways.
(43:39):
So pick a few of the wines we've talked about today,
and I want you to tell me a genre, a musician,
a particular song. You can be as generic or as
specific as you want that makes you think of the wine.
So we're going to start with the ever famous sparkling Assyrtiko.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Well, it's kind of a celebratory wine or a party wine.
I don't know, maybe some house music or dance music. Okay,
I'll go with that. Let's go with that. You don't
have a different.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Okay, what about your still a sertico.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
M I don't know. Maybe maybe we'd be listening to
some Greek music there, some something with uzuki or you know,
some kind of popular artists that you like. Well, the
listener is not going to know it. Maybe they'll look
look them up. But did this, yeah, you know, I
(44:47):
just one thing that came to mind. For if you
were to tell me the narrow Davilo, Oh you wanted.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
To jump to narrow, double, let's go to narrow, because.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
I was just when you said it. This was the
first thing that popped into my mind. I want like
this with Pavaraeti, you know, like some kind of opera.
I think pap Varieti would be just fine.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
So opera with the narradopla.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
It sings, it's Italian, it's a Silian. It's a weak.
Maybe we could say it's Italian, but no, it's just
it's just I just feel it's the first one I felt.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
To be honest with you, what about this? And so
I've been sipping on this and so this whole chat.
So I want to see if I can envision this.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
Okay, so maybe something like huh By by Miss American
Pie or you know, something in that kind of seventies
singer songwriter era. I would think, you know, it's a
little bit before my time, but definitely we grew up
listening to the songs.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
There's no writer or wrong because everything conjures emotions. In
your emotion, you know how what you feel is what
you feel. So and I'll do one more because I
know you're trepidacious about this one. But you talked about
old vines es in it has a heritage here for you.
What about the old vines in your your old vines in?
Speaker 3 (45:55):
Great? Great question? Should we say country music with that, John,
since it's so or some maybe or some something very
Americana country music or something very Americana? Okay, Leonard Skinner.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Great, there you go.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
We'll move to second lune.
Speaker 5 (46:13):
Right.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
I have to mention that every Monday, everyone else is
done to be thinking of.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
So I would have said the Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
See John, jump in here. Don't be great Olympic brother
dominate that part of them.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
It's part of the profile of the wine. So it's
a great answer, Johnny.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
That is Strawberry Fields Forever. Now I'm going to be
singing that all day. I love it. Well, it's a
delicious wine, so I mean, you know, and it's got
those kind of wild strawberry No, it's a perfect song
for so many reasons. The chill factor, the lyrics. Yeah,
got it all. Okay, Jeff and John. You survived. We
are at the very end, and I have one last
(46:54):
question for you. It's a two parter, and the first
is what wine region in the world is the top
of your bucket lists that you would love to go explore?
Speaker 3 (47:05):
Sicily? Hm, that's that's a great one, Johnny, I mean,
or or go ahead? I loved. I mean, I've been
to France, I've been to Champagne, but I've never been
to any other wine region outside of Champagne. I'd say
probably like the Rhone Valley and the southern southern France
(47:27):
for sure. I mean there's there's so many, right, Yeah,
there's so many. You know, Italy, Sicily, you know, is
a great one.
Speaker 5 (47:36):
And I think I think the for me to maybe
a little bit of maybe a little Lebanon, go.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
To Chateau Musar.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
I mean, is there anywhere that you wouldn't go? Really?
I mean any wine region is welcome, but Sicily and Rowan,
southern southern France perfect. So now if somebody wants to
come here, where can they find your ones? How can
find you guys here? In load? I can't do you
have a tasting room, You're here at the Lodie Winster, Like,
(48:06):
how can people find you?
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Well, they get we're perlagosline dot com open twenty four
hours a day.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
So that's an order right online.
Speaker 5 (48:17):
Right online, and it ships right to your house so
you don't even have to leave. But other than that,
there's the load I Wine Visitor Center here and then
we do tastings by appointment. Go to our website, contact
us and we'll set up a time and we have
a place here in Woodbridge that we meet clients and
(48:38):
we're able to host tastings by appointment.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
And do you take people out to the vineyard vineyards
or we have.
Speaker 3 (48:48):
We have, yeah, we do.
Speaker 5 (48:49):
We'll do a vineyard tasting, tailgate, a tailgate tasting.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
Yeah, yeah, we've done that. Sure.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
You know what's great about a small producers. They'll do
anything you want, so you just have to call them
and you get some unique experiences. So appointment only because
it's not a public tasting room, but check out Parle
Parlegos dot com and Wine par Legos wine dot com.
Jeff John, thank you so much for joining us, joining
(49:16):
me today on Wine Soundtrack and I'll raise a glass
to you and say cheers yours.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine Soundtrack USA.
For details and updates, visit our website. Winesoundtracks dot com,
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