Marchelle Wines founder Greg La Follette

So this is a beautiful wine, Dan.

You want to tell us about the Colombard?

This is French Colombard, otherwise called simply Colombard.

And this was at one point one of the most highly planted grapes throughout the state of California, mainly because it retains its acidity so strongly in the vineyard.

No matter what kind of weather you have in a particular vintage, you're always going to have great acidity.

Greg discovered this grape many years ago, started making this wine as a dry wine.

And it's not difficult to make it dry because there's so much acidity, but Greg does such an incredible job.

This is a rare wine because very few people make it.

Tell us about that, Greg.

Yeah, it's fallen out of favor.

There are these like newfangled grapes that came in like Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

I've never heard of this, but he's talking about it.

But the former president of the Russian River Valley Wine Growers invited me to come over and take a look at these plants that were planted in 1902.

And he and his wife and my wife and I kind of resuscitated them out of decrepitude.

And then when – I was just doing it as a labor of love.

And then when Single Thread called me up and said, we want you to make our house white.

And there's two provisos.

It can't be Chardonnay and it has to come from Sonoma County.

I said, boy, have I got the wine for you.

Yeah.

So I made the wine for them.

Then the pandemic hit.

They owed me a little bit of money, and they gave me 35 cases of unlabeled Columbard.

Now, what am I going to do with 35 cases of Columbard? You're

going to start a whole new market segment.

So this is a beautiful wine, Dan.

You want to tell us about the Colombard?

This is French Colombard, otherwise called simply Colombard.

And this was at one point one of the most highly planted grapes throughout the state of California, mainly because it retains its acidity so strongly in the vineyard.

No matter what kind of weather you have in a particular vintage, you're always going to have great acidity.

Greg discovered this grape many years ago, started making this wine as a dry wine.

And it's not difficult to make it dry because there's so much acidity, but Greg does such an incredible job.

This is a rare wine because very few people make it.

Tell us about that, Greg.

Yeah, it's fallen out of favor.

There are these like newfangled grapes that came in like Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

I've never heard of this, but he's talking about it.

But the former president of the Russian River Valley Wine Growers invited me to come over and take a look at these plants that were planted in 1902.

And he and his wife and my wife and I kind of resuscitated them out of decrepitude.

And then when – I was just doing it as a labor of love.

And then when Single Thread called me up and said, we want you to make our house white.

And there's two provisos.

It can't be Chardonnay and it has to come from Sonoma County.

I said, boy, have I got the wine for you.

Yeah.

So I made the wine for them.

Then the pandemic hit.

They owed me a little bit of money, and they gave me 35 cases of unlabeled Columbard.

Now, what am I going to do with 35 cases of Columbard? You're

going to start a whole new market segment.