The Wine Makers on Radio Misfits

Tim Milos is a highly respected winemaker and consultant working across Napa and Sonoma, with current winemaking roles at Immortal Estate, Hidden Ridge Vineyard, and RD Winery, and as proprietor of Vino di Milos LLC.

He is a Napa and Sonoma-based winemaker with over 20 years of experience in wine production, vineyard management, and consulting. He is known for crafting terroir-driven wines using traditional winemaking techniques and a minimalist approach to highlight the unique characteristics of each vineyard block.

Tim has had multiple 95+ point ratings from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, was included in the Top 100 Wi...

Our good friend Artie Johnson returned for his third appearance on the show with one request: let’s talk about solutions instead of spending another hour dwelling on everything that’s wrong with the wine industry. As regular listeners know, we’ve always believed one of the best solutions is taking ourselves a little less seriously. So what better episode for that conversation than our milestone 420th episode of The Wine Makers Podcast?

We sat down with Artie and fired up a doobie… er, doozie of a show. Along with an impressive lineup of Le Artishasic wines—including...

This week we invited Lee Hodo, a veteran in marketing and promotion of wine and destination brands, who is leading the charge to showcase the amazing wines from this historical yet lesser-known AVA. Lee brought winemakers from three of the top Wineries in the area; Lava Cap, Edio from Delfino Farms and Starfield Vineyards.

At between 1,200ft-3,500ft, elevation is one of the defining features of the region. As air hits the Sierra Nevada Mountains it is forced to rise through orographic uplift. As the air rises, the adiabatic process causes cooling at a rate of around 4...

Erin Kirschenmann’s day job is managing editor of *Wine Business Monthly*. After spending her days immersed in the intricacies and moving targets that make up the wine business, she spends her nights curled up with a book and a glass of wine (or two). As both a writer and a wine lover, she naturally began pairing her reading with wines—a moody Pinot with a twisty thriller, for example. A couple of years ago, it occurred to her that there were other bibliophile-oenophiles out there who would love to do the exact same thing, so she founded Novel Pair...

The whole thing started because we couldn’t remember the name of the Executive Chef at Wing & Barrel in Sonoma. One of our listeners that happened to work for Charlie Palmer reached out and suggested that we come for a visit to Appellation Healdsburg and meet the legend in person. We will never forget his name again.

Charlie Palmer is an acclaimed American chef, restaurateur, and hotelier, renowned for pioneering Progressive American cuisine and owning multiple Michelin-starred restaurants.

Charlie Palmer began his professional career at The River Café in 1983, where he became executive chef at age...

Winemaker Justin Ennis crafts Freestone wines with a deep attention to detail, capturing the distinct character of each vineyard while balancing the vibrancy of the terroir with a refined, elegant structure. Now, that deep-rooted vision comes to market, as Justin and the winery introduce these vineyard-driven wines to a broader audience for the first time.

“Everything begins in the vineyard. Through hands-on farming and careful attention, we work to bring in fruit that’s expressive and healthy. In the cellar, I practice minimal intervention winemaking so that the site, the varietal, the clone, and the vintage can spea...

Lulie Halstead is a globally recognized expert in wine business strategy, consumer insights, and marketing, with over two decades of experience shaping the wine industry’s research and advisory landscape.

We first met Lulie at the Direct-to-Consumer Wine Symposium a few years ago and frequently listen to her podcast, “A Question of Drinks” that she does with her friend Felicity Carter, available on all platforms. She was nice enough to stop by on her way back to London to discuss the top 10 challenges in the wine industry and offer some simple solutions.

Lulie is a global...

On this week’s episode of The Wine Makers, we speak to Vine Pair’s Winemaker of the year Katy Wilson. Katy is a certified bad ass in the wine industry making wine for Anaba, Reeve, Bloodroot, and her own brand LaRue Wines. Katy grew up with agriculture in her blood, farming walnuts on her family’s farm. After double majoring in Wine & Viticulture and Agricultural Business at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Katy got the winemaking bug traveling the world to make wines with some of the greats.

Today we talk about all things carbonic maceration. Katy h...

This week we sat down with Letizia Gini from Azienda Agricola Gini, one of Italy’s most historic family wineries. Founded in 1570, the Gini family has been making wine for 15 generations from the volcanic hills of Soave to the sun-drenched valleys of Valpolicella; their wines capture the rich diversity of the Veneto. The wines are distributed by Skurnik here in the U.S., we were joined by Omar Caruso and Joan Stagnaro, two of the reps for the wines in America.

The Gini family has roots in the Soave Classico region dating from the seventh century and ow...

With Pride Month just around the corner, we invited two leaders from Sonoma’s LGBTQ+ community to give us the rundown on the events, celebrations, and activities happening throughout the summer.

Gary Saperstein, owner and co-founder of Out In The Vineyard, joins us to talk about creating LGBTQ+ travel and wine country experiences, including winery tours, special events, and the nationally recognized Gay Wine Weekend. The three-day festival brings together visitors from across North America for wine, food, entertainment, and community in Sonoma Valley.

We’re also joined by Lisa Storment, president of Wake UP Sono...

BXT kept coming up in conversations over the last month. Casual conversations about bubbles always led back to one name, Tom Sherwood. Even friends who don’t live in California were talking about BXT and drinking the wines in their Instagram feeds. Who was this guy ? We reached out through Insta on direct message; he was willing to come. Even Todd Jolly, our friend from Sonma’s Best Wine Shop, wanted in on the action. The show was set, and finally we will meet this mysterious figure who is opening everyone’s eyes to grower sparkling wine in California.

...

Brazilian-born and now based in the Bay Area, Ana Carolina Quintela joins us to talk about her path from journalism to wine. She earned her degree in journalism and began her career as a daily business reporter for Diário do Nordeste, the largest newspaper in Northeastern Brazil. After moving to San Francisco, she continued her work as a journalist with the bilingual paper El Tecolote.

Today, Ana is a wine journalist and critic covering Sonoma County for Decanter’s global audience, producing bi-weekly reports that focus on vineyard practices, regional trends, and the people behind the win...

On this week’s episode of The Wine Makers, we sit down with Japanese winemaker Sonoe Hirabayashi of Six Cloves Wines. She talks about her roots in Nagano, her family’s long history of fermenting miso and sake, and how she found her way into wine, along with her connection to the art of Taiko drumming.

Sonoe originally moved to New York to work as a corporate accountant, but after getting hooked on wine, she realized that path was not for her. She headed to UC Davis to study winemaking, later returned to Japan to help her fami...

Christopher McGilvray is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in Santa Cruz, California. Through his company, Nomadic Bear Productions, he has created content for a wide range of clients, including Oracle, EMI Records, and Ridge Vineyards.

We sat down with Christopher to talk about his current documentary, Eden, which follows the Patterson family, caretakers of one of California’s most historic vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mount Eden. The property’s history dates back to the 1800s and includes names like Almaden, Paul Masson, Louis Latour, and Martin Ray.

The film tells a story of tran...

Jennifer Rue has been the winemaker for Oakville Ranch Vineyards for more than a decade. Her connection to the site runs much deeper. Her career has effectively orbited Oakville Ranch from the start. Her first winery job sourced fruit from the vineyard. She later worked for an early iteration of Oakville Ranch, then spent years at Miner Family Winery working with relatives of the ranch’s ownership.

Different roles, same vineyard. Again and again.

Along the way, she has worked along side Phil Coturri and Enterprise Vineyards to help this important, historical site realize its po...

This week we welcome Robyn Sebastiani from the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance. Robyn serves as Executive Director of both the alliance and its charitable foundation, and she joins us to talk about what the SVVGA actually does and how it all got started.

We also get into a couple of upcoming events, including Sonoma Valley Western Reserve at the private Wing and Barrel Club this May, along with the 129th Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival, which takes place every year during the last weekend of September. Now’s a good time to start planning fo...

This is one we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. We finally sit down with Mick Unti from Unti Vineyards and get into what makes his wines and his approach so different.

Unti sits right in the middle of what most people think of as Zinfandel country, but that’s not what you’ll find in the glass. Mick has built the winery around Italian varieties like Vermentino and Sangiovese, and he talks about why those grapes work so well where he is and how they’re farmed and made. You can tell pretty quickly...

Spring has arrived in Sonoma, the sun is out, and the new releases are finally coming out of the cellar. This week we sit down and taste through the latest wines from Dane Cellars, Jambe des Bois, and Winery Sixteen 600.

Along the way we talk about where the fruit comes from, the vineyards behind the wines, and how each bottle was made. The lineup gets a lot of attention, including the JDB Gamay, Bart’s Silver Cloud Sauvignon Blanc, and Sixteen 600’s Steel Plow Grenache. After about the tenth wine the conversation loosens up a bit. We trie...

For a long time, it was easy for some to dismiss the wine world that Tyler Balliet and Morgan First have spent the last 20 years carving out for themselves as frivolous or unserious.

Second Glass, the zine Tyler started while working one of her first wine jobs, was a far cry from the glossy or stodgy wine publications that ruled the day. Their blockbuster tasting events, Wine Riot, sold out cities across the country but were often overlooked by the wine establishment in favor of posh Food & Wine festivals or a leading critic’s “master class.” Their Rosé M...

We wrap up our time at the Direct to Consumer Symposium with a relaxed final recording, catching up with friends and talking about what’s been happening lately in Monterey and back home.

We sit down with Jason Haas to catch up on everything happening at Tablas Creek Vineyard, then check in with Grant Wood about what’s new in his world at Patz & Hall. Kelly Cornett joins us alongside Jessah Diaz to talk about The Ultimate Hospitality Challenge game show, which Jessah won. It turns into a fun look at what actually makes someone great at hosp...

Marketing Strategy & Brand Storytelling from Outside the Wine Industry

One thing that sets the DTC Wine Symposium apart from most wine conferences is how many speakers come from outside the wine industry. Our friend Barbara Gorder taps into her Chicago ad-world network and brings in people who’ve spent their careers on the front lines of marketing, brand building, and cultural storytelling. The result is a perspective small wineries rarely get access to. Basically, we got a day at Leo Burnett University courtesy of Dean Barbara Gorder. As you might expect, the stories are as good as th...

Four hundred episodes. In classic Wine Makers Pod style, this one sorta snuck up on us. Technically, we breezed past our 400th episode somewhere in the Monterey fog while recording at the DTC Wine Symposium. So we decided to package two of our favorite DTC interviews with two of our favorite people on the planet, Elaine Chukan Brown and Duskie Estes.

Both delivered keynote addresses, bringing the outside perspective we love so much about this conference. Elaine took us on a deep dive into California wine history, showing how past challenges mirror today’s conditions and reminding us...

Brian, Bart, Danielle and Sam sit down with the rest of the SORBET (Sonoma Organic Regenerative Biodynamic Educational Tasting) crew, Morgan Twain Peterson, Katie Bundschu and Alli Badar, along with special guest Ryan Woodhouse of K&L Wines, to discuss two new SORBET developments.

If you missed last year’s event at Fort Mason, don’t worry. SORBET will be back. But first we are turning our focus to friends in the industry who want to learn how to begin incorporating organic, regenerative and biodynamic practices into their viticulture. Morgan and Katie break down what to expect from...

Steve Gross, Honore Comfort & Mark Barden
Wine Institute

Monterey, Calif. — Sitting down with Steve Gross has become one of our favorite DTC Wine Symposium traditions. Not only does he have one of the best radio voices in the wine business, but he’s spent nearly four decades on the front lines of wine shipping battles nationwide. Largely thanks to his efforts, residents of 49 states can now receive direct-to-consumer wine shipments.

Steve is always ready to update us on the latest state-level shenanigans aimed at limiting consumer access to their favorite wines. But his role has...

While Evan Roscoe is a Napa native, he grew up far from Napa’s wine culture. So far, in fact, that his family’s mountainside cabin was technically on the Solano side of the county line. There wasn’t wine on the table growing up, and his family had no connections to the wine business.

Evan left Napa for college in Chicago and eventually found his way into hospitality and bar management. He returned home after the 2017 fires to find a wine industry already reeling, at the beginning of what would become a long stretch of calamities, correc...

We sit down with Tom and Chrissy from Grand Scheme Wines and dig into a story that has more layers than it first appears. It begins in Carneros, where they bought a piece of land and started planting Barn House Vineyard in 2018 with a clear vision from day one. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were non-negotiable, and organic farming was always part of the plan.

What follows is a conversation about commitment, patience, and the reality of building something from the ground up. As they walk us through the decisions, challenges, and moments that shaped the vineyard, the...

We get together with Isabel Gassier and Jasmine Egan for a relaxed year-end catch-up, looking back at the guests, conversations, wines, and trends that stood out in 2025. It’s part reflection, part shop talk, and very much the kind of conversation that happens once the microphones are already on.

Listener questions guide a lot of where we go, including the critical ones, and we appreciate all of it. We wrap things up by raising a glass to the year behind us and talking about what’s ahead, with plans to keep pouring and talking into 2026. [Ep 395]

Jenny Murphy went to UC Davis to study forensics. While attending a job fair, she was lured into the wine business with visions of a laboratory filled with expensive, new equipment. She took a temporary position at Korbel Champagne and was bitten by the wine bug.

After accepting a job at Paul Hobbs, she moved up the ranks, finally settling into the Director of Winemaking, where she was responsible for numerous 100pt wines.
Jenny recently left Paul Hobbs and started her own label, Oxlee Graham, making precise Pinot Noir, Petit Verdot, and some very interesting whites...

The conversation this week features Keith Beavers, Tasting Director at VinePair and host of the Wine 101 podcast. He’s a self-taught wine geek who once ran the New York wine bar In Vino and co-owned Alphabet City Wine Co., and he brings that mix of curiosity and real-world experience to everything he does.

Wine 101 is his way of breaking down grape varieties, regions, and technical concepts so they feel clear and approachable. He focuses on helping people understand how wines are made, why they taste the way they do, and how to navigate the world of wine wi...

Born and raised in Napa Valley, Derek Flegal studied biology before moving to Spain and living abroad for much of his 20’s. After moving to Mendoza, Argentina, his passion for wine became apparent and he returned to the US to study Enology at Fresno State. Upon completion in 2014, he took a cellar worker position at Outpost wines, where he developed a working relationship with Thomas Rivers Brown. In the following years, he worked alongside renowned winemakers Michel Rolland, Aaron Pott, and Heidi Barrett, and began crafting wines for himself under the Blaine label.

Originally planted in 2003, Lewis Pl...

This week, the crew welcomes back Todd Jolly from Sonoma’s Best — better known to many as @sonomawinemerchant. A certified sommelier and proudly dubbed “The Champagne King,” Todd serves as Wine Director for Sonoma’s Best and The Sonoma Cheese Factory, where he’s built an exceptional program that blends local standouts with global gems.

Todd shares his perspective on the current wine market, shifting consumer trends, and the importance of personal connection in wine retail. The group also talks about his deep love for the Oregon Ducks, his approach to curating unique lists, and what’s exciting him m...

This week, the crew finally sits down with Jamie Kutch of Kutch Wines—a long-awaited guest whose Pinot Noir reputation precedes him. Jamie has shared a production facility with host Bart Hansen for years, so the team already knew his wines were special. What began as a career on NASDAQ trading floors turned into a lifelong pursuit of crafting world-class Pinot Noir, thanks to a pivotal invitation to work harvest at Kosta Browne—and he never looked back.

Today, Jamie makes just 3,000 cases a year, with his wines featured in top restaurants around the world. Recently, he purc...

This week the crew sits down with Brian London, Sommelier and wine buyer for one of Sonoma County’s most beloved spots, Table Culture Provisions. Known for its eclectic and adventurous wine list, TCP has become a favorite among locals and winemakers alike — and Brian is the man behind its carefully curated selections.

After falling in love with France during a trip with his fiancée, Brian began importing small-production wines to the States, eventually launching 4Play Wines, a boutique distributorship focused on producers with meticulous farming practices and distinct personalities. He shares stories from his travels, insig...

Will Gondak has been chasing the dream. Experiences making wine in Napa, Sonoma, Australia, New Zealand, France, Santa Cruz, and South Africa have broadened his view into what is possible. The wide array of hands-on experience accompanied by the study of winemaking and viticulture at both Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and Napa Valley College has yielded one curious wine nerd. Will has been calling Sonoma County home since 2015 and is looking forward to his 18th harvest in 2025.

A full-time side hustle, Gondak Cellars was established in 2015. Will spends the majority of his work time helping make...

This week the guys sit down with Matt McDermaid, owner and winemaker at Staysail Wines, a small-lot Sonoma County winery inspired by his background in sailing. The name “Staysail” refers to a sail used to adjust for shifting conditions—much like how Matt adapts to each unique vintage.

With deep family roots in the wine world (his aunt and uncle run GlenLyon Vineyards & Winery in Glen Ellen), Matt built his own path, earning an MBA in Wine Business from Sonoma State and studying winemaking at UC Davis. After hands-on experience at Meeker Vineyard, he launched Staysail with a focu...

This week, the crew sits down with Brandon Conley, head distiller at Brucato Amaro in San Francisco, for what could be called an Amaro 101—or maybe an Amaro Study.

Amaros have a long, fascinating history, evolving from regional tonics and medicinal tinctures into spirits that connect cultures. Before large-scale production, these bitter liqueurs were hyper-local, crafted from whatever produce and native plants grew nearby. Brucato carries on that tradition today with small-batch amaros that showcase the bounty of California. From sun-ripened citrus to wild foraged herbs, each ingredient is thoughtfully sourced to create a distinctive taste of pl...

The crew is back together again, and this week they’re catching up after International Grenache Day. They share memories from the celebration, dig into the challenges of this year’s harvest, and get Brian’s perspective on the London wine scene. Bart also offers a heartfelt and important PSA about his recent health scare. It’s a mix of stories, insights, and reflections that remind us why wine is about more than just what’s in the glass. [Ep 385]

Justin Harmon didn’t set out to be a winemaker, but the journey found him anyway. After studying in Philadelphia and working as a chemical engineer, he returned to Chicago in his mid-20s to pursue software engineering. Somewhere in between coding and commuting, his love for wine began to take over. What started as the occasional bottle at dinner soon filled his apartment closets, and weekends were spent roaming Chicago wine shops, devouring books, tastings, and seminars, with every trip planned around a vineyard visit.

Curiosity eventually pulled him out of the tasting room and into th...

We love stories like this. Two neighbors bond over their shared love of wine, make some in their garage, then decide to put in a vineyard. With no formal training but a passion for Rhone varietals, they pushed ahead. While walking their dogs, they “spied” on their neighbors’ vineyards and gleaned information from friends and local wineries.

The wines have purity and clarity to them, no over extraction or excessive oak treatment. “Our vineyards, located in the Middle Reach neighborhood of the Russian River Valley, just south of Healdsburg, are ideal for growing Rhone varietals. Benefitting from the effe...

The team looks back at the recent S.O.R.B.E.T. tasting at Fort Mason, sharing highlights and feedback from the event. They also tackle listener questions ranging from winemaking to cellar tips, and reveal their favorite wines tasted so far this year. A lively mix of reflection, advice, and personal picks straight from the vineyard to your glass. [Ep 382]