What do you get when you gather five young, “next-generation” Napa vintners around a table and talk shop?  Besides “buzzed on some really good juice,” I mean?

Essentially, that’s the question I was hoping to answer when I worked with the Napa Valley Vintner’s Association to set-up a round-table discussion with some of Napa’s best next-generation family winemakers, hosted at the stunning Viader Vineyards property on Howell Mountain.  I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the next-gen Napa set before (see previous one-on-one’s with Hailey Trefethen and Helen Buehler), but until last week I’d never taken a deep dive into the unique spin that the next-generation has been putting on Napa’s family-run wineries and their wines.

As it turns out, I visited only family-run Napa wine operations during my latest Napa jaunt, and the most obvious common thread tying them together were wines of high-quality and often stunning vitality.  Acid is back in fashion, and so is balance – and for the most part, Napa’s next-gen set are making wines that they themselves enjoy drinking.

Included in our roundtable were Florencia Palmaz (Palmaz Vineyards), Alan Viader (Viader Vineyards & Winery), Judd Finkelstein (Judd’s Hill), Andy Schweiger (Schweiger Vineyards) and Elizabeth Marston (Marston Family Vineyard).  We tasted through several of the recent white and red releases, and talked wine scores, winemaking styles, savvy wine consumers, music, social media, and which wine critics they’d most like kick in the crotch.

Two-parter video (1WineDude TV Episode 16 and Episode 17) recapping the roundtable is after the jump.  Enjoy!…

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Although the term terroir gets tossed around like confetti at an Italian wedding these days, there are several (mostly family-owned and –operated) wine properties in Napa and Sonoma that are taking the idea seriously.

One such property is Benziger, who biodynamically farm grapes and make wine in a beautiful section of Sonoma County.  So much so that they’ve hired self-proclaimed terroir specialist Dr. Pedro Parra to help them analyze the soils and subsoils of their vineyard locations – involving scientific analysis and the digging of deep trenches at strategic locations in the vineyards to examine the soil profiles and root growth.  You can see some of this in the video coverage below.

General Manager Mike Benziger and I sat down last week at the family winery to talk about California wine, terroir, dirt, and Dr. Parra’s unique work, but failed to discuss the strange state of my wind-blown hair.  Enjoy!

Cheers!

In which Joe conducts a brief interview with Paris Sigalas, winemaker at Santorini’s Domaine Sigalas, and with the help of their eonologist attempts to translate the term “kick-ass” into Greek.

For more Greece in images, check out the photos – non-lazy (i.e., for me, written) coverage is in the works:

• Part The First
• Part the Second
• Part the Third
• Part the Fourth

Cheers!

The latest video edition of 1WineDude.com, in which I recap. my experience at the D.C. Toast of the Town event, and wax all googly-like about one of the most awesome Ports on the planet.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Wine Enthusiast’s Toast of the Town D.C.
• Erika Strum
• The Capital Grille
• Destination Riesling
• Quinta do Vesuvio
• Arrowine

Cheers!

In the latest 1WineDude video installment, I test out a sample of wine racks from GrottoCellars.com, act like an immature goofball, impose my will onto an unsuspecting Roomba robot vacuum cleaner at high video speeds, and tweak out my back.

Just another day at the office!

Cheers!

A very brief intro. into the 2010 International Malbec Days Festival. 

As for the event – great intro. to Cahors and its wines; confusing marketing strategy / message; terrible, terrible, terrible organization of events and logistics overall.  More to come (on all three fronts)!

Cheers!