Wine Country

Um, so I grew up with, you know, fresh strawberry stands and peach stands and all that stuff.

A- and actually, the lesser-known California wine country of Lodi was right next door to my hometown of Stockton, California.

So, um, it's all Northern California.

Um, you had to sort of drive through Stockton if you wanted to go from San Francisco into the San Joa- into the Siera- Sierra Nevada Mountains.

I had to be up at 6 o'clock this morning, take my parents to the airport.

They're going to Wine Country in Northern California.

So, yeah, I was very tired this morning.

I literally got back from the airport, and I didn't do anything until like 2 o'clock.

It's the California Wine Country Podcast.

California Wine Country with Dan Berger.

We're our special guest, Dr. Damien Wilson from the Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute is hanging over.

See how I did that?

You can make it up to 6% and it actually smells and tastes reasonably good.

But below that, it becomes obvious it's somewhat of a fiction.

It's California Wine Country with Dan Berger.

We have a special guest, Dr. Damien Lewis, with us.

And it's such a pretty course.

You're running through California wine country.

Um, it was a nice flat course.

Mm.

So here we go with Crush Hour.

so it is such an exciting time here in california wine country because it's harvest and this only happens once a year and it is kind of like the super bowl for those of us who are in the wine world especially if you make wine and this past monday michael and i had our super bowl harvest for our 2024 sangiovese we make our wine in a method called a custom crush So a custom crush is when you don't own a vineyard, but you purchase grapes from a grower and you can purchase them by the half ton, full ton.

That's typically how it's done.

And then you make your wine at someone else's winery or a crush facility where you basically pay rent to use the space and the equipment.