Summary: This week we take a departure from our normal format and MC Ice gets a break! I was so excited to have the chance to host the folks from Chateau Montelena, one of the wineries that helped put Napa on the world wine map as serious winemaking region, capable of rivaling Burgundy and Bordeaux.This podcast isn't about free marketing for Chateau Montelena. It's about the historical significance of the place, and about how they do things so differently from a lot of other Napa wineries. We were lucky to have head winemaker Cameron Parry, assistant winemaker Matt Crafton, and marketing diva (and one of the coolest ladies in Napa) Jamie Rothberg around to break it all down for us.If you want some more background on the winery (since we don't go into detail on some things) please read these two posts (2010, 2011) to learn more!Full of funny, surprising (there is a HUGE wine celebrity cameo in the middle) and dorky moments, here's a quick rundown of what we talk about: The Judgement of Paris and why it put Chateau Montelena on the map How Montelena is able to make wines that taste different from everyone else The importance of terroir, a dork treatise on malo-lactic fermentation, and a little airing of dirty laundry about the big hulking wineries out there Why I hated Bottleshock, the movie A cameo for which I had to pull it together...you've got to listen to find out who it was! And a round up of some truly strange moments in the Chateau Montelena tasting room Enjoy it and please let me know if you like this format and whether you think it would be fun to do others like it from time to time! Thanks to Chateau Montelena! If you haven't had their wines, go and get them! If you like the podcast, please review it on iTunes, drop a comment below, or join the awesome conversation on Facebook (Wine For Normal People page) and Twitter @normalwine! If you've got a question you want us to answer, post it on any of those places and we'll include it on the show! Thanks for listening! We can't wait to hear from you! Podcast music: "Café connection" by morgantj / CC BY 3.0, ©2009 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) Map: Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic licens
