IWP Ep38 Thomas DeBiase - Jupiter Wine Co. Today I’m speaking with Thomas DeBiase of Jupiter Wine Company.  We sat down on rainy day at the beautiful Idlewild tasting room in Healdsburg.  Thomas and his business partner Michael Richardson started Jupiter in 2020 to not only produce low intervention wines but to give back to the community.  They work with a fun variety of Italian varieties including Vermentino, Sangiovese, Montepulciano and Tocai Fruilano, give the wines a try. We discuss the start of the winery, drink through and learn more about their vineyard sources, farming ..read more

I recently spoke with Chris Brockway of Broc Cellars in Berkeley.   Chris has been making Natural Wine for over 20 years, starting Broc with a single Barrel in 2002 and continuing to grow since then, working with a large variety of grapes and regions.  In 2023 they purchased Fox Hill vineyard after 10 years of working together and have now taken over the farming.  We discuss how Chris got started, The natural wine scene at the time, some of his more iconic Broc wines, collaborations, and purchasing a farm, not just a vineyard. Broc is making a real delicious and diverse array of ..read more

IWP Ep36 Steven Kent Mirassou - Steven Kent Winery. I recently spoke with Steven Kent Mirassou of Steven Kent winery at his tasting room in Livermore.   Steven is the 6th generation in his family to make wine.  They trace their California wine roots all the back to the Pellier Brothers in the 1850’s.  We discuss his family, how he made his way back into wine, living and making wine in Livermore, its vineyards and of course Cabernet Franc.  You can find the Steven Kent wines at Stevenkent.com and follow them on instagram.com/skwinery.  The tasting room on Vasco road is ..read more

IWP Ep35 The Alhambra Valley 1850-1915 - Experimentation, Education, Conservation - Strentzel, Swett and Muir. This episode is about family and Friends in a small valley in the golden age of Pomology.  They all are named John somewhat confusingly and all are referred to as the “Father” of something, John Swett’s son Frank is also a large part of the episode.  Although Strentzel and Muir aren’t best known as winemakers, Strentzel was trained in it and did make wine and his agricultural work was ahead of its time and still informs what is happening today.  Muir is our connecting p ..read more

 IWP Ep34 Jared Brandt and Connor Bockman - Donkey and Goat I recently spoke with Jared Brandt and Connor Bockman of Donkey and Goat.  Jared is of course one of the founders of the winery and Conor is the Director of Winemaking.  Located in Berkeley California the winery celebrates it’s 20th anniversary this year.  The natural wine landscape in California has changed a lot since Donkey and Goat started.  We discuss some of things that have changed, how the winery started, the growers they work with and how they keep the winery fresh after 20 years.  You’ll hear my ..read more

 IWP Ep33 Short Stories on California Wine 1. Usually we have an interview or one subject running throughout an episode.  This episode will be a little different.  Doing research for episodes I often come across stories and people who can’t fill a full episode but the stories of both are fun and unusual and deserve to be heard. Sometimes these older publications just have weird and random columns, sections or sometimes it's just a sentence, nearly all of these I’m collecting will be Pre-Prohibition.  Some of these I’ll read the article just how it’s written- and others will ..read more

IWP Ep32 Ryan Stirm - Stirm Wine Co. I recently spoke with Ryan Stirm of Stirm Wine Company in Watsonville. Since his first vintage about 10 years ago, Ryan has become really well known for his multiple Rieslings from the central coast and working with great vineyards like Kick On Ranch and Wirz.  He’s also perhaps the foremost producer of Cab Pfeffer, working with the Siletto family vineyards as well as Gimelli vineyard, originally a part of the historic El Gavilan vineyard.  He makes wonderful Zins from Wirz also.  We discuss how he got started and some of his most exciting mo ..read more

IWP Ep30 Tyler Stacy - Commune Regional Wines.  Tyler runs commune with his wife Emily and together they are making wines from places they love.  These are well made, bright and textured wines from California that go great with food and family.  We talked at the Haarmeyer/ Harbor winery in West Sacramento where Commune is based. These are amazingly food friendly wines made from unique sources in small quantities, you should try them.  You can find the wines at communeregionalwines.com and follow what they are up to at instagram.com/communeregionalwines on instagram. F ..read more

New Episode Next Week! 2nd trailer for the Indie Wine Podcast. In this trailer you’ll hear short excerpts from some of the first 29 episodes.  Many of our episodes are interviews with smaller independent winemakers, people who I think are making great wine from carefully farmed fruit.  I’ve also spoken with some of the farmers growing those grapes.  Authors, Sommeliers, Merchants and some episodes on California Wine History round out the current crop of episodes.  These are all folks worth supporting either directly or through your local wine shop.  I hope you enjoy th ..read more

IWP Ep28 The Life and Writings of Angelo Pellegrini. Today we are talking about Angelo Pellegrini, the great Italian American author.  If you aren’t familiar with the name, his books to me are classics of food and wine based literature.  If you enjoy the writings of MFK Fisher, Jacques Pépin, Julia Child, James Beard etc. then his books are right up your alley and have more of a wine tilt to them also.    He captures the immigrant experience and a changing world and the books are wonderful to read. Scroll to the bottom for links to most of his books. Follow the podcast  ..read more