Cru Wine Podcast | Stories From The People Behind Wine

Mike and Cory Waller are brothers raised running around the hills of Hollister, California. After years of work, travel, and discovery, they find themselves crafting wines a mile away from each other in the Cienega Valley with Mike the winemaker of Calera Wines and Cory the winemaker for Eden Rift Vineyards.

Bertus and Alli are the owners and winemakers of Belong Wine Co. based in Napa Valley making Rhône and fringe varietals from the El Dorado Foothills. With 1 ton of fruit and a whole lot of gumption, started Belong Wine Co. in 2017 to celebrate everything they hold dear: love, adventure, and a sense of exploration. They grew up on opposite ends of the globe - Bertus in Cape Town, South Africa and Alli in the Bay Area sugar hamlet of Crockett.

Esther Mobley is the wine critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. She writes primarily about California wine, though her beat also includes beer, spirits, drinking culture, cults and, occasionally, doughnuts.

Josh Phelps is the founder and winemaker of Grounded Wine Co. making delicious, all-American, and approachable wines across the west coast while based in St. Helena, California.

Valley Bar & Bottle is a neighborhood restaurant, wine bar, and wine retail establishment that simultaneously reveres and revitalizes Sonoma cuisine and hospitality. Launching as a dinnertime restaurant, Valley will gradually incorporate daytime services.

Jeff Meisel is the Vice President of Brand Development for Long Meadow Ranch based in St. Helena, California. Jeff oversees all things marketing and development across Long Meadow Ranch, Farmstead Restaurant, Hunt & Harvest, and Stony Hill. We chat how the Long Meadow Ranch umbrella brand works to engage with customers across marketing channels, platforms, and in real life, along with the specific strategies and tools that they implement do grow the brand across its many product offerings.

Wine Access has evolved into the robust direct to consumer wine retailer that it is today, with a carefully vetted selection of both ephemeral daily offers and a more permanent inventory of wines from the industry’s top regions and producers. They sell their wines by telling the stories around each of the producers and wineries they work with. They are a leader in direct to consumer wine sales; an area of tremendous growth in the wine industry.

Dan Petroski is the winemaker of Larkmead Vineyards and the founder & winemaker of Massican. Recently, Dan spoke on a panel regarding climate change and sustainability in relation to the global wine industry. Leaving me with more questions, we sat down to chat about the effects of climate change on Napa Valley specifically.

Founders, Jake Stover and Gina Schober, met in 2013 and started Sans Wine Co. in late 2015. Their preference for fresh, vibrant and approachable “wines of place” paved the way for what is now Sans Wine Co. The philosophy behind Sans Wine Co. is sourcing premium wine grapes from organically farmed vineyards and environmentally conscience growers in order to craft natural wines.

Scott Kirkpatrick & Allison Watkins are the founders and winemakers of Mountain Tides, a small producer focused on crafting organically grown Petite Sirah that shows how a change in place, time, and process can yield drastically different results.

Having been dubbed “The best of the Loire in California,” by Wine Access and “…what Beyonce sees when she closes her eyes,” by Marissa Ross of Bon Appetit, Kim & Tyler Elwell, the founders & winemakers of Halcyon Wines, are exploring Cabernet Franc that is born and bred in California and paired with a love for the Loire.

Contributing Editor Virginie Boone has been with Wine Enthusiast since 2010, and reviews the wines of Napa and Sonoma. Boone began her writing career with Lonely Planet travel guides, which eventually led to California-focused wine coverage.

Matt Naumann & Audra Chapman are the owners and winemakers of Newfound Wines based in Placerville & Napa, California. After 17 years of doing literally everything in the wine industry from farming coastal vineyards and washing barrels to running national sales and curating wine lists, Matt & Audra have ventured on to a delicious new journey called Newfound.

Jim Duane is the winemaker at Seavey Vineyards in Napa Valley and the host of the Inside Winemaking Podcast. Having found fermentation at an early age, starting with brewing beer in a fuel can under the stairs, Jim Duane has not ceased in the pursuit of learning more and more. He’s worked in New Zealand, Washington, and finally settled down in Napa Valley in 2004 having worked at Robert Mondavi and Stags Leap Cellars. Today, he grows the wines on the steep slopes that the Seavey Vineyards.

In this episode, Bob takes us through is long history in the industry working with some great folks, business dealings with John Dyson (owner of Williams-Selyem) and Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks), his passion for music like Petty & Zeppelin, his friendship with Sammy Hagar, and we taste through the wines that he’s crafting right now.