Oct 6, 2026 · 40 min · 12 segments
Ray Isle's first real memory of wine is lying on a floor incollege while someone squeezed it into his mouth from a bag. The bottle that actually changed things was a Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill…
Ray IsleGuest
Jon FrutkinHost
So to back our way up, because I do think that this is important and talked about this before, but it's not like you're an English teacher.
You wrote great stories and you're a short story writer and really on a career path, which is interesting just because We've obviously had a lot of people on here who either came from the music business or more artistic endeavors.
And there is something about wine, right, that captured you maybe a little bit differently.
So what was that? What was the thing, if you could describe it, that connected you, the storytelling, this ability to express yourself that then connected you into wine?
yeah so i think that that probably came about you know really when i started working harvest um and i i got much deeper into both the process of making wine just the transformation of grapes from literally grapes into you know being in a bin to fermenting to all the aromas and smells that then gradually transform into this drink
But also because I was hanging out with wine people and I was talking to them and I was thinking like a writer, there are all these crazy stories.
I mean, one that I remember and haven't used yet, but I still hope to use is like I was talking with this older guy who was a you know, a vineyard manager, sort of old school vineyard manager of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
And he's like, yeah, you know, at one point we're having this problem with deer, you know, eating all the grapes.
And so I shot one and I skinned it and I wore its skin through the vineyard to kind of convince the deer that it was a bad idea to be there.
And as a result, all my vineyard workers like decided I was a witch, you know, like a warlock.
They just quit en masse because they thought I was like an evil magician or something.
And, you know, stuff like that, you're like, I mean, I love writing fiction, but I can't make that up.
And the more stories I heard like that, the more I wanted to write something about wine.
So to back our way up, because I do think that this is important and talked about this before, but it's not like you're an English teacher.
You wrote great stories and you're a short story writer and really on a career path, which is interesting just because We've obviously had a lot of people on here who either came from the music business or more artistic endeavors.
And there is something about wine, right, that captured you maybe a little bit differently.
So what was that? What was the thing, if you could describe it, that connected you, the storytelling, this ability to express yourself that then connected you into wine?
yeah so i think that that probably came about you know really when i started working harvest um and i i got much deeper into both the process of making wine just the transformation of grapes from literally grapes into you know being in a bin to fermenting to all the aromas and smells that then gradually transform into this drink
But also because I was hanging out with wine people and I was talking to them and I was thinking like a writer, there are all these crazy stories.
I mean, one that I remember and haven't used yet, but I still hope to use is like I was talking with this older guy who was a you know, a vineyard manager, sort of old school vineyard manager of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
And he's like, yeah, you know, at one point we're having this problem with deer, you know, eating all the grapes.
And so I shot one and I skinned it and I wore its skin through the vineyard to kind of convince the deer that it was a bad idea to be there.
And as a result, all my vineyard workers like decided I was a witch, you know, like a warlock.
They just quit en masse because they thought I was like an evil magician or something.
And, you know, stuff like that, you're like, I mean, I love writing fiction, but I can't make that up.
And the more stories I heard like that, the more I wanted to write something about wine.
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