LAURA BRADY GALLERY is excited to announce that it will be opening its doors to the public at its special Grand Opening Ceremony on September 23rd at 1pm.
The ceremony will include special guests including local government officials, local art influencers, and other community neighbors and leaders.
All the Shops at 3900 Hamilton will be joining in the celebration as their doors will be open offering special discounts and activities.
Artist and Owner Laura Brady presents a unique vision on nature and its reflection through art.
“I am delighted to join the Shops at 3900 Hamilton.This is a perfect fit for my new gallery, that will also operate as a working studio and host art-inspired workshops.It is also very meaningful to me that one of the first shops was started over 41 years ago by a brave women entrepreneur whose initial venture has help draw together this special community of high-value shops,”Fine Artist, Laura Brady.
The Western Lehigh Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a short ribbon cutting ceremony which will be followed by the first official time the doors will be opened along with the exclusive release of the “Something Blue Collection”. The celebration will continue in the evening with an official reception for the Grand Opening beginning at 6:30PM.
Laura Brady will be there to welcome guests and talk about her process and story behind each piece.
For more details on LAURA BRADY GALLERY and Grand Opening events, visit https://laurabradygallery.com
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Lehigh Valley is Looking for Quality, Canned Wine — We Tasted with Kristin Olszewski from Nomadica Wines
Sommelier Businesswoman Kristin Olszewski brings Michelin quality to Canned Wines with Nomadica Wines
Nomadica offers sparkling, rose, white, red and orange options — both canned and bag in a box.
Nomadica Wines ‘s Owner Kristin Olszewski
Nomadica Wines are sourced from vineyards with responsible farming practices and winemakers who engage in low intervention wine making.
Wine-lovers can be 100% confident you’re drinking serious sommelier-approved wine.
Nomadica Wines ‘s Owner Kristin Olszewski; Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Today’s conversation with Sommelier / Businesswoman Kristin Olszewski from Nomadica Wines has been edited for length and clarity. For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.
Joe Winger: We’re here today with Kristin Olszewski from Nomadica Wines.
What’s the most important message you want to share today with our audience?
Kristin Olszewski:
I think the biggest message that I want to get across is that everyone should be drinking more wine. That’s my mission in life to just bring consumers back to the wine category.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Outstanding. And how how are you trying to get that done?
Kristin Olszewski:
I’ll give a little context on my own history and how I came here.
My undergrad degree is in sustainable agriculture and I ended up dropping out of Harvard Medical School to become a sommelier – typical journey.
I just really fell in love with wine. I worked in restaurants to pay for school and wine was always the thing that captivated my interest.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
I feel like it’s the intersection of history, agriculture and gastronomy. And then also there’s something so fun and communal and – you’re getting a little tipsy. It’s everything.
But I spent a decade-plus in Michelin restaurants all over the country, everywhere from three Michelin stars, Saison in San Francisco, Husk in Nashville, Osteria Mozza here in LA.
When Nancy Silverton was on a Netflix show called Chef’s Table, I started noticing a different customer coming into the restaurant. Usually as a sommelier, you’re talking to a very specific demographic of people. I would say 45 plus male white wine collector. That’s my demo. And when Nancy was on Chef’s Table, young people started coming into the restaurants, a lot of women, and I noticed they didn’t want to drink wine.
They would drink tequila, beer, cocktails, like anything but wine.
That always felt like such a missed opportunity because wine, it’s the most ancient beverage. Our people have drank wine for millennia. It’s also in an age where we care about what’s natural, what’s minimally processed, what’s better for you.
Great wine is literally just grapes, yeast, water, and time, so I started digging into why aren’t you drinking wine? And I found out a few things.
One, people felt like wine wasn’t a good value. If you weren’t going to spend a lot of money on wine, you couldn’t get a great wine, which is untrue.
The other one is people feel like they needed a PhD or some level of education or knowledge in order to access wine, which, again, is not true.
I want to be people’s guide, hold their hand and walk them into the world of wine. So I started Nomadica to do that on a larger level.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
That’s beautiful.
You mentioned two things. We’re going to go into both. Your background in Michelin restaurants. I’ve heard heavenly amazing stories. I’ve heard horror stories.
Can you share an experience and what you learned from?
Kristin Olszewski:
Everyone always asks me if I watch The Bear or not. And I’m like, no, I can’t.
Some positive stories, Michelin restaurants have changed a lot from when I started working in them. I think work has changed a lot for the positive. I remember one of my first serious jobs in a scary restaurant. You have your hair pulled back because you don’t want it to get in the food.
I had one small piece of hair hanging down above my face and the chef takes a match from the stove, lights a piece of my hair and says don’t ever have a hair hanging down in your face again.
Some of the wonderful stories are having the opportunity, especially at Mozza, you taste each bottle you open there.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
When I was at Mozza, it was a $5 million dollar all-Italian cellar with 90 pages of the best Barolo, Brunello, Etna Rosso’s, just things that like collector’s dream about tasting.
And I feel so lucky to have tasted things like Conterno Monfortino, which is the type of wine that you want to smell for three hours before you drink it.
When you have a wine like that, it makes you realize why collectors obsessively chase bottles, there’s something so romantic and intangible, and having a wine like that, you realize you’ll never have A wine that tastes the same at any moment in time ever again.
It’s just such a lucky experience.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
I’m curious about how that experience inspired you to open Nomadica.
Kristin Olszewski:
My entry point into wine was always through farming. I majored in sustainable agriculture.
I was an avid farmer. I ran our community garden in college and was focused on permaculture. I lived in India and farmed for a while there.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
And I always say great wine is made by great farmers, great wines made in the vineyard, not the cellar.
So when I was looking at starting Nomadica, that sustainability ethos, it was always my starting point, but I was really shocked when I found out how bad glass bottles are for the environment.
30% of glass is recycled in the US. The rest just goes into a landfill. It’s highly energy intensive to make, to ship, because it’s so heavy.
The fact is, most wine does not need to be in a glass bottle.
Yes, that Barolo I mentioned absolutely needs to be in a glass bottle. That needs to be aged for years before it even comes into its own.
But for a $20 – 30 bottle of wine that you’re going to pop open and drink it on a weeknight or on a not special weekend does not need to be in glass.
So that’s how we started.
Cans at 70 % reduction in carbon footprint. Our newly launched bag and box wine is almost a 90% reduction in carbon footprint.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
I sampled your sparkling white, your white, your red and your rose, they were dangerously drinkable.
Can we talk about where the fruit is sourced from?
Kristin Olszewski:
Absolutely.
The name Nomadica is really a fun double entendre because you can take it wherever you want to go. Of course, cans and boxes can be found in places that bottles can’t.
We source our fruit from all over.
We’re truly a nomadic winery.
Our head winemaker spent time at some of the best wineries in California, like Eric Kent Cellars, which makes award winning Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and also Kosta Brown.
Before that he spent 10 years doing vineyard management in California. So through Corey, we’ve really got a handle on some of the best fruit. A lot of our wine comes from Mendocino. A lot of our grapes come from Mendocino or Lodi. I’m such a Sonoma girly. Our winery is located in Sonoma, and so I always find myself drawn back to that region.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Are there any vineyards you’d recommend us touring when we come to Northern California?
Kristin Olszewski:
I think the Sonoma Coast is the best wine region in California. They’ve fought very hard to become designated as their own AVA, which is very important in terms of quality.
The oceanic influence, what we call a diurnal shift, the extreme temperature change between night and day, like Hirsch and Littorai.
I think if anyone ever wants to see proof in the pudding of what great farming can do, you need to go see Littorai.
Ted Lemon was one of the first Americans to ever be a winemaker in Burgundy and he brought all of his practices back, was one of the first people to practice biodynamic agriculture in California and really brought that style of farming onto a larger scale.
When you go visit his vineyards, it’s like teeming with life. You look next door at a conventionally farmed plot, which is just like dead and sad looking. And then you taste the wines and you’re just knocked on your butt because they’re so good.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Nomadica Wines has several varieties. White, Sparkling white, Rose, Red, Orange.
Can you walk us through the taste profiles of any of your favorites – what’s the aromas, what are the profiles?
Kristin Olszewski:
Something really cool about our wines is everything’s practicing organic. No pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers, all of our wines are fermented dry. Naturally zero grams of sugar per serving. They have nice fruit notes, but none of the wines are sweet.
Crushable bright flavor.
Across the gamut, our entire portfolio has a brightness and a freshness to it. All of our wines are like slightly aromatic because I love an aromatic variety, but part of the thought that we put behind the brand is that I wanted to take that sommelier curation and put it in the restaurant, on the retail shelf so that when you’re serving Nomadica at your home, at parties and the beach, 99% percent of people will love it.
I’m doing the work on the back end on blending, sourcing, creating these flavor profiles that’s really taking that wine experience, that decade plus of developing my own palette and giving it back to the consumer.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Are there any favorite wine and food pairings for you with your wines?
Kristin Olszewski:
I love an aperitif. Our sparkling rosé is definitely my favorite wine in our gamut. In a can you always have the perfect pour because sometimes you don’t want to open up an entire bottle of wine.
When we do that in my house, it usually gets drank. It doesn’t go back in the fridge.
Sometimes you just want a glass of sparkling. And I love that.
I love that with a charcuterie board and cheese. I also love Rose with green salads.
I think one of the best things about living where we live [Los Angeles] is we have the best produce on the planet.
I still run some wine programs in Los Angeles and I’m actually opening up a restaurant in Silver Lake next year, an Italian restaurant. Orange Wine is like the hottest trend.
I was doing the wine list at a restaurant in Hollywood called Gigi’s and I noticed I was selling more orange wine by the glass than all other colors combined, which was just mind blowing to me.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
We made what I think is the best orange wine coming out of California.
There’s a lot of talk about natural wine, orange wine. They’re not all created equal. My winemaker and I tasted through my favorite Italian skin contact wines and decided on a really concrete flavor profile source.
My mother in law in Orange County is drinking her orange wine with her friends. So I really feel like I’ve achieved something. That with sushi is a mind blowing pairing.
Then our red. We found Teroldego growing in Northern California, which is a grape that’s indigenous to Northern Italy from the Alto Adige.
It’s really Alpine, like dark fruit, like a Zinfandel, but really refreshing and bright acidity and a little bit more tannin than a Zin [Zinfandel] has.
There’s a perception that we had to overcome about can and boxed wine. People think that it’s low quality.
Whenever I pour our red for somebody, the response is always, “Wow, oh my god, that’s so good.”
No matter your level of wine knowledge, you can see what I’m trying to do when you taste our red wines.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
What’s next for you and Nomadica?
Kristin Olszewski:
Right now we’re in hardcore expansion mode. We were the first people to do fine wine and can, and I grew really slowly at my own pace.
I wanted to build the brand.
A lot of people just run to retail shelves and they want to be in every grocery store on the planet. I didn’t want that. I wanted to be, at the Four Seasons, at the Ritz Carlton, at music venues.
I wanted to be in places where people don’t typically expect to see wine in cans and boxes.
We are one of the highest velocity items at Whole Foods in our category.
We just launched all of our box wines at Total Wine in California, Texas, Florida, Colorado, and New York and got some really big plans for next year.
So keep your eyes peeled. People are about to see me everywhere.
That’s my goal.
Source: instagram.com/nomadica
Joe Winger:
Having a canned wine at some of these nicer hotels is a challenge.
What lesson did you learn by accomplishing that rather large challenge?
Kristin Olszewski:
That’s the best thing about how we’re positioned. Not only am I a sommelier, my VP of sales is a sommelier. My winemaker has an incredible reputation. Every person on my team comes from the wine industry and we have the best product.
When we’re sitting down and tasting with these buyers, these people that are in our industry. They recognize it. I always say taste out of a wine glass. Everything tastes better out of a wine glass. The second that they taste it, these are people who taste wine all the time and they taste a lot of bad wine.
So that has been amazing.
We’ve always had the industry behind us. It’s a huge differentiator for us. So I think it was slow build. Everything takes a lot more time than you think it will, which is I think the biggest lesson that I’ve taken away from this business over the last seven years.
But you got to build your brand first.
Joe Winger:
You seem like a deep-souled individual. Whether it’s wine or otherwise, is there an overall message that you want to share to inspire the audience?
Kristin Olszewski:
We are in a time where sustainability is more important than it ever has been. You can’t base your entire brand about it, but I think it’s an absolutely necessary component to any consumer product that’s coming out today.
One of my missions in life is to have that conversation about sustainability and have it with other brands because it needs to be convenient.
Otherwise, consumers will not buy it, care or participate or choose a sustainable option. That’s my big thing.
Joe Winger:
What are the best ways to follow your journey and to learn more about you?
Kristin Olszewski:
You can buy Nomadica online and our new rosé yuzu spritz, which is delicious at ExploreNomadica.com. And then our socials are at Nomadica on Instagram.
And if you want to follow me. I’m at Kristin__O.
Bob Dylan’s Bourbon Feud: Heaven’s Door Kentucky vs Tennessee
Bob Dylan’s Bourbon Feud: Heaven’s Door Kentucky vs Tennessee
Heaven’s Door Spirits, Bob Dylan’s highly awarded collection of super-premium American whiskeys, is turning up the heat on the age-old debate of which state, Tennessee or Kentucky, makes the best bourbon.
For as long as corn’s been cracked and stills have bubbled, Kentucky and Tennessee have been turning pristine limestone water and grains into a coveted amber elixir.
Heaven’s Door’s Great State Bourbon Debate rekindles the friendly feud
Heaven’s Door’s Great State Bourbon Debate rekindles the friendly feud between these two bourbon powerhouses, inviting whiskey lovers everywhere to put their palates to the test and voice their opinion.
Heaven’s Door sets itself apart as the first brand to offer both a Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon, giving fans a unique chance to compare.
The brand’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Ascension, and Tennessee Straight Bourbon, Revival, are made from high rye mash bills with grains largely sourced local to the distillery, and barreled at the same proof, yet yield vastly different taste profiles. Heaven’s Door invites you to level set, savor and decide which bourbon pleases your palate and wins your heart.
A Tale of Two Bourbons
Many folks mistakenly believe that bourbon can only be made in Kentucky, but the truth is, bourbon can be crafted anywhere in the U.S.
What makes an American whiskey a true bourbon is a special set of rules: it has to be made with at least 51% corn, distilled at a certain proof, and aged in new oak barrels.
Kentucky and Tennessee both have storied histories of producing excellent bourbon, with differences in water and climate producing distinct flavors.
Kentucky’s limestone water and Tennessee’s pure spring water are both famous for helping yeast thrive during fermentation.v
Differences in flavor profile come from the type and provenance of the grains used, the type of yeast used, water quality, the proof at distillation and the particular wood used to make oak barrel.
Even the location of the barrel warehouse, the circulation of air between the barrels being stored and where the barrels are within the warehouse (high up or near the bottom) all conspire to give impart flavor differences.
Heaven’s Door Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Ascension
Heaven’s Door Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Ascension, is a unique blend of two premium Kentucky straight bourbons aged for over five years and non-chill filtered, boasts warm and slightly sweeter notes of vanilla and baking spices. The limestone-filtered water of Kentucky, renowned for its purity, plays a key role in developing these rich flavors.
Heaven’s Door Tennessee Straight Bourbon, Revival
Heaven’s Door Tennessee Straight Bourbon, Revival, also aged for over five years and non-chill filtered, offers a drier profile with complex and sharp flavors. Unlike many Tennessee bourbons, Revival skips the “Lincoln County Process” – a charcoal filtering step – allowing the natural flavors of the local non-GMO grains to shine through, resulting in a lingering finish with hints of caramel, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
“We wanted to fan the flames of this old debate
between Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon
and showcase
our outstanding expressions of both styles.
We’re excited to hear what consumers think and how they experience these two classic bourbons.”
Alex Moore
Master Blender and COO
Heaven’s Door Spirit
Heaven’s Door marries art and craft in every bottle, drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s restless spirit to continually innovate. By sourcing non-GMO grains and honoring each state’s natural elements, the distinct character of each bourbon is evident in every sip.
Lehigh Valley, are you Following your Heart and Need Media Attention? Reach to Publicity For Good, CEO Heather Holmes explains
Lehigh Valley, are you Following your Heart and Need Media Attention? Reach to Publicity For Good, CEO Heather Holmes explains
Publicity for Good is a millennial run communications firm that provides high-level disruptive, publicity and social media services for wide array of purpose driven clients in the food, beverage and beauty industry.
In 2016 by Heather Holmes former miss Ohio international celebrated publicist and Forbes 30 under 30 nominee publicity for good has built a reputation as the countries number one PR agency for CPG brands that have social causes built into their DNA.
Publicity For Food CEO Heather Holmes
Today’s conversation with Heather Homes from PublicityForGood.com has been edited for length and clarity. For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.
Joe Winger:
Heather Holmes from PublicityForGood.com. I’m a big fan because you’ve helped us facilitate a lot of previous conversations about food and drink and nutrition and all the things we like talking about.
What’s the most important thing that you want to share with the audience today?
Heather Holmes:
I really want to take away the unknown or worry about getting in the media. I want to make it more accessible to amazing brands and people.
So I definitely want to share tactical advice that if someone is reading this, they have a good story in business, they have the confidence that their story is good enough and they could absolutely make an impact and grow their business by getting in the media.
Joe Winger:
Starting with the basics, let’s pretend I have a company, I think I want public attention. I want to reach out to someone like you.
So what should I be thinking about? What do I present to you as a step one?
Heather Holmes:
Step one is really the intentionality of why you want to get in the media. What’s your goal? Are you wanting to reach more people? Are you wanting to get your story out there?
Are you wanting more sales and more people to buy your product?
You really need to know. Where you’re going first, and if you don’t know where you’re going, or you don’t have a vision, then it’s really hard to help you.
But if you have clarity there, then we can really pull back and help you identify your story, how you’re different, your why, and why your product and or company, would be really great to be in the media.
The PublicityForGood Team
FlavRReport.com on YouTube
Joe Winger:
Now, looking at the grand scheme of the campaign, what kind of a campaign should we be looking for: expectations, results?
Heather Holmes:
After we know our outcome that we’re wanting to get more sales, more backlinks, or name in the media, then what I like to do first is work with every entrepreneur, and even if you have a product, to really reflect in “why your story matters”
Why does your product matter?
If you’ve never been in the media before, I take people for an exercise where I have them draw on a piece of paper, them as a baby, to where they are now.
I have them write the key pivotal moments that have happened in their life that have made them start that company, because those little components are absolutely a part of your story.
I’ve been in the media 700 plus times: Inside Edition, Fox News, The New York Coast, incredible media, but it hasn’t always been about being a publicist, right?
Yes. I’m the founder of Publicity For Good, but a lot of that has been my story or building a seven figure company from an airstream.
Now I have almost two under two with a third on the way.
So you need to have your key pivotal moments because those are things you can talk about in the media.
Then we need to look at what’s going on in the news and how we bridge the gap between your product. Relevancy.
Joe Winger:
People may not know you are a former Miss Ohio International. Can you tell us a lesson you learned from being a former Miss Ohio International that you’re using in today’s work?
Heather Holmes:
It’s really all about your platform and reaching new audiences.
When I was building my company I decided I wanted to get into pageants. I wanted to meet a community of like minded people that wanted to make a difference in the world.
It was a way for me to have a platform because at the time I was talking about why you absolutely can build a profitable business. But also make a difference in your community and make a difference amongst your team. And really just build an incredible legacy.
So that was why I did the pageants.
I did a bunch of publicity and again, it made me relevant and timely because that was what got me in the media because I was Miss Ohio and I was only Miss Ohio International for a period of time.
So it gave me that relevancy. So you have to be relevant.
You have to bridge the gap between what’s happening in the news, or we often use Awareness Days, National Nutrition Month, National Social Media Day, and you have to position your product or yourself as the solution.
[For example], we were talking about an incredible juice brand, but most pitches I see are very promotional, right? It needs to be how you or your product simplifies people’s lives. How are you adding value? Or you don’t have a product you need to inspire people.
Joe Winger:
You’re growing a 7- figure business. What’s it like growing a huge business while you’re taking care of your kids and for a while you were living out of your Airstream
Heather Holmes:
We lived out of a 23 foot airstream for 3 1/2 years. I went from dating to engaged, to married to [my first child] Rose, who’s almost two, who lived in our airstream with us.
The year the pandemic [hit] was our first million dollar year.
I think a lot of the reason why it was that year is because when March hit, everyone was so scared that we lost about 40% of our business, number one.
Number two, we had to hustle and grit to make it. There was no choice of failing. All the distractions were gone.
When you’re in an Airstream, all you have is your laptop, but we had no external distractions, and then everything else was closed.
So the only focus we could do was our business and we had to scale out of necessity because we didn’t want to lose what we had put so much time in.
Fast forward, we now have 22 acres where we live and we have two under two, we have one on the way, we’re a full time team of 40, and it’s not easy.
I say transparently, it’s a hot mess. There are so many miracles that happen every day, but life is one, right? I can’t turn off my founder hat and publicist hat and then “Oh, I’m a mom”. It’s all one.
So yes, I might have Rose [my daughter] on a call with me from time to time, but I’ve learned that the more you step in and embrace your life, who you are and the realness, sometimes people opt out and that’s okay.
And this is my legacy.
I like these missions that we’re doing good work to us is way more than a business. We want to grow your brand and mission and we take it so seriously.
So it’s not perfect. It’s not perfectly scheduled. I’m a full time mom, all the time on the weekends when the kids are sleeping, we’re working.
We know where we want to go, and these clients and ambitions that we’re aligned with and supporting are helping people with their health.
Joe Winger:
What an incredible story to share.
Heather Holmes: I have so much to share. Like I was adopted when I was a week old to having two under two and another one on the way and building a business and building a homestead.
It’s so crazy. Austin, who’s my husband, the first week we were dating, we’re all about intentionality. I have the journal and we mapped everything out.
This year, we were going to get engaged then married. Austin and I,l we will have been together almost five years.
We’ve had a kid every year. Rose will be two in June.
We want to build a business. We want to impact our clients, brands, and scale their business. We want our team to get better and flourish in their personal lives too.
This is our mission and I’ve seen so many miracles happen from getting in the media on a personal level.
I was talking to [a business owner client] and her business grew by 40% from getting in the media.
One of my favorite cookie brands, a mom had an incredible heart story. She went on our local news and she brought in $12,000 worth of sales, just the local people wanting to support her.
On the flip side, when people Google my name, it’s like my social currency, there’s all these articles. So I have so much peace in that. Our kids will see the good work we’re doing.
Joe Winger:
You’re talking to an audience of foodies. What is your favorite meal?
Heather Holmes:
We just had Indian food last night that my husband made and it was so good.
We used to live in San Diego and I think San Diego has the best food. It’s all fresh. We’ve traveled a lot. We’ve been to Bali, their food is pretty incredible too. Where we live [now] we’re right outside of Asheville and Charlotte. So they have some good restaurants, but like I’m not in the phase right now where I’m the foodie like I used to be.
[At our house] we have chickens and we have fresh eggs. So I’m obsessed with fresh eggs every morning. You’re living a good life when you can go get your eggs and have them at home with some goat cheese.
And honestly, I love Livermuth. Crazy. So I’d say some Livermuth fried in a cast iron with some eggs and goat cheese. It’s the simple things that I really do love.
Joe Winger:
Heather Holmes with Publicity for Good. As we wrap up, whether it’s a potential client, a potential vendor, someone wanting your help with publicity, what are the best ways to find, follow you, websites, social media, etc?
Heather Holmes:
You can go to PublicityForGood.com You can find me on social media as well.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherdesantis
https://www.instagram.com/heatherdesantis
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Buckcherry plays Penn’s Peak Sunday, September 17, 2023 at 8pm
Buckcherry plays Penn’s Peak Sunday, September 17, 2023 at 8pm.
Buckcherry is unique, complex, simple, passionate, explosive, original and always a good time.
From Buckcherry:
BC has been my love, my pain, my passion and I’m so proud of what we have accomplished. I never knew when I started this that dedicating myself to music would be taking on so much responsibility.
For a guy who never thought he was going to live past 30 this has been an incredible journey.
Buckcherry plays Penn’s Peak Sunday, September 17, 2023 at 8pm.
For more information on Penn’s Peak, go to www.pennspeak.com or call 866-605-7325.
Our ninth record HELLBOUND marks 22 years since our debut self-titled release and what an amazing roller coaster we have been on. From hit songs to platinum and gold records and millions of fans worldwide – all during a time period when traditional sounding hard rock bands didn’t exist – except for Buckcherry. We beat the odds and built our reputation on the live shows, and our “one of a kind” approach to every opportunity.
When the pandemic hit, we had to shift gears like everyone else and it was anything but comfortable. The good news is when the band is backed up against the wall, we produce our best music. HELLBOUND reflects just that. Teaming up with Marti Fredrickson again was so inspiring. He really brings out the best of us and becomes the sixth band member when we are together. There is this mutual respect and passion going on that makes it effortless and fun.
There was so much going on in the world that it was easy to find subject matter for song writing. Songs like BARRICADE and JUNK reflect that, but I also was reminiscing about the moment when I “sold my soul to rock n’ roll”.
I will never forget it.
It was the very first performance at a house party in Orange County, CA. I knew in that moment that there was no looking back, and no “plan B”. It was only victory or death. The title track HELLBOUND reflects that very moment and is one of my favorite tracks. Part of what I loved about rock records growing up was the dynamics from song to song, you had mid-tempo songs, ballads, and rockers and HELLBOUND is a great reflection of that.
Songs like NO MORE LIES, AIN’T WASTING NO MORE TIME, and THE WAY really capture the depth and emotion of not only the world situation but also the personal struggle. Then you must have those quintessential Buckcherry tracks like SO HOT, 5-4-3-2-1, HERE I COME and GUN that I can see our long time fans really appreciating.
Through adversity Buckcherry has had its greatest moments and we are having on right now with HELLBOUND. I hope you enjoy it, and we will see you at the rock show!!
Tickets on sale Friday, May 26th at 10AM at all Ticketmaster outlets, the Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant and Bar. Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant ticket sales are walk-up only, no phone orders.
General Admission
Advance: $25.00
Day of Show: $30.00
About Penn’s Peak
Penn’s Peak, a beautiful mountaintop entertainment venue located in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, can comfortably host 1,800 concertgoers. Enjoy a spacious dance floor, lofty ceilings, concert bar/concession area and a full service restaurant and bar aptly named Roadie’s. Complete with a broad open-air deck for summertime revelry, Penn’s Peak patrons enjoy a breathtaking overlook of nearby Beltzville Lake, plus a commanding, picturesque 50-mile panoramic view of northeastern Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains. Choose Penn’s Peak for your next wedding, banquet or special event and treat your guests to an event truly “Above the Rest”.
Geographically convenient to residents of major population zones in Hazleton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Stroudsburg, the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia and New York City, Penn’s Peak is an ideal location for any event. It is located only four miles from Exit 74 of the northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
For more information on Penn’s Peak, go to www.pennspeak.com or call 866-605-7325.
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Woke Boomers Fritz Coleman, Louise Palanker Take a Deep Dive into Pop Culture with Media Path Podcast
Take a Deep Dive into Pop Culture with Woke Boomers Fritz Coleman, Louise Palanker on Media Path Podcast
Fritz Coleman and Louise Palanker are hosting a virtual dinner party. It’s a fun time, a good time, with lots of laughs, smiles, and a deep dive into pop culture past and present.
Have you ever become obsessed with a topic and taken a deep dive into consuming all you could uncover about it?
Media Path Podcast is here to indulge your creative obsessions. Co-hosted by Los Angeles weatherman/humorist Fritz Coleman and filmmaker/columnist and co-founder of Premiere Radio Louise Palanker.
Today we had a conversation (via zoom) with Fritz Coleman and Louise Palanker. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
For the full conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.
What’s the best way to introduce this fun, flavorful conversation?
Louise: We tell folks, this is what you would be talking about if you got together with a group of friends anyway. What have you been watching? What should I stream? What’s good? So this is where every conversation eventually devolves. We just get there very rapidly
Fritz: Wheezy and I grew this podcast out of a friendship we’ve had for about 35 years, where we found out surprisingly and wonderfully, that we see eye to eye on lots of entertainment, movies, books, TV shows, and we thought, why not make this a podcast? It is a continuation of our common interests in our conversation.
So that’s what we do. We start each show with some suggestions on what people can watch, listen to, read, and that takes eight minutes. And then we always have a guest on; guests from all walks of life. We found that one of our sweet spots is television personalities from the Los Angeles area particularly ones from our growing up period, the 1960’s and 1970s boomer material and older.
But we do everything. We do politicians, we do singing stars. We’ve had very interesting books and topics that aren’t generally known to the public. I’ll give you an example. Two weeks ago. We had a show about a man who wrote a book about a woman by the name of Connie Converse, who I suppose you could describe as one of the great undiscovered musical talents in America.
She was a great songwriter and a great singer. She was never discovered, which was sad and then she just magically and mysteriously disappeared. So the book this guy wrote was about somebody that not everybody was familiar with, but it was fascinating because it was like a, ‘whodonnit’ and also the heartache of an undiscovered musical talent, that lady that started in Greens Village and all those things.
All that to say it’s Weezy and I discussing stuff we find fascinating and we hope you come along.
From the episodes I’ve watched, it feels like the most interesting dinner party you’ve been to in a long time.
Fritz: We appreciate that.
We’re gonna use that as a sales tool from now on. The most interesting dinner party you’ve ever been to. Yeah,
Louise: the food is awful.
Fritz: My dinner with Weezy.
Louise: Yeah, there’s some hard candies and it’s bring whatever you can in your purse because we, I’ve got some granola bars on the coffee table, but that’s it.
Fritz: We want the intimacy of a conversation among friends and so you, you analyzed it well. Beautiful.
Because everyone watching and listening loves food. Do you have a favorite food you’d recommend either you per personally and enjoy or something that we should be eating or cooking while we listen and watch your show?
Louise: I’m gonna recommend some water. This comes out of a filtration system near my sink. It’s just lovely.
Fritz: I happen to be a fan of Northern Italian cuisine. I won’t name specific dishes, but in general, I love risotto with a great protein like shrimp or chicken.
I love penne with a bolognese sauce. I love capellini alla checca, which is a great when you add shrimp to it and then you add a checca sauce, which is the red sauce with garlic. And so I like Northern Italian Cuisine. I don’t cook, but I can buy the best food in America. Just walking out my front door here.
Louise: Have you ever put salmon on a pizza?
Fritz: I’ve had that actually. That’s actually very good.
Louise: Very good. Goat cheese. Wonderful. I love let’s see, chicken parmesan, I think that’s what I would order.Maybe that sounds very pedestrian. But comfort foods are delicious.
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, chicken parm. That’s the kind of stuff – any potato really, you can’t do anything to a potato that would offend me.
Fritz: I’ll tell you, LA is wonderful for that lately cuz there’s all sorts of interesting fusions going on. You have Vietnamese food and Italian food and a fusion menu.
And if you like to experiment with different palettes, this is a great city to do it in. It really is, thanks to Wolfgang Puck and some of the gourmet chefs in the town. Completely
I think what we’re all, what we’re all noticing immediately is the two of you have phenomenal chemistry. What’s the origin story?
Louise: Yes, absolutely. We know each other quite well. It’s very natural, and I’ve been podcasting since you could, you go back to 2005 whenever you got that new iPhone that said, would you like to listen to a podcast? And then you said, what’s a podcast? And then the adventure begins.
So I’ve been doing it from jump and Fritz was contractually obligated to not speak outside of his news job about anything that did not concern a weather pattern. Your newsman cannot have an opinion. That’s very distracting, especially now in our divided sensibility.
Fritz: You just can’t say anything smart, that would embarrass the station. That’s all.
Louise: So you couldn’t do commercials. It makes sense if you’re talking about the weather, you don’t wanna be thinking, oh, this guy sells batteries. You just, you wanna just get your weather cast.
So as soon as he retired we jumped on board together because I had done four podcasts before this one, and I was prepared in terms of what a podcast requires, how difficult it is. And so for Fritz, I just need his mind, his preparation, his wit and his fascination with all things interesting.
And he’s more than ready to take on the podcasting world. He’s the best.
Fritz: And this is not a brag but it’s true. You cannot manufacture chemistry. You can see two people on television. You hear them on the radio or hear them in a conversation, and you know that these two people should not be in the same room together, let alone host their own presentation.
But we just have a natural thing that was born out of our friendship really, and our common interest in stuff. One of our sweet spots is baby boomer and older music, old rhythm and blues. Weezy’s interest in music goes back to the old harmony groups like the Mills Brothers, cuz she was personal friends.
So all those things we find fun and so when we get in there we I think that the fun we’re having resonates to the audience. I hope it does.
Louise: We geek out together. It’s like watching Jimmy Fallon. You’re just so giddy that he’s that giddy. So hopefully we bring that kind of enthusiasm and just to get to meet the people that we grew up watching.
And also the excitement of when you have an author reading the book and then getting to talk to the author and, rather than having to scour YouTube for interviews that the author did, because now you’re fascinated. We actually get to talk to the person. And so we find that exciting. It’s like going to grad school for free.
Fritz: One of the great joys is having a topic that you don’t know anything about. For instance, this Connie Converse topic and the one we’re having this week we’re preparing for now, this is a guy that wrote a book about the friendship between Henry Ford, John Burrows, and Thomas Edison.
These three geniuses in a different venue, each one, but they all had this spectacular friendship and they all took a road trip in a model T Ford. I knew a little bit about Henry Ford, you know it from the Industrial Revolution and extreme antisemitism. But I didn’t realize that he had interests outside there. Louise and I are just gonna be blank slates and come into this interview with just being inquisitive, and that’s always fun. You discover something you had no idea about.
Let’s talk about both of your backgrounds.
We’re gonna go to Fritz second. Louise, bring everyone up to speed about what you’ve accomplished and those other podcasts you’ve worked on so people know the background that you bring to this show.
Louise: Yes, I began my career as a studio page, and it was one of those things where you get your foot in the door and one thing leads to the other thing.
So I became a studio page at a place called Metro Media Tape. We were doing all of the Norman Lear sitcoms. We had the John Davidson talk show. Which was where a person like me gets to meet Van Johnson. It was just crazy. Look, I’m from suburban Buffalo and here I am with Van Johnson.
It was crazy. So I’ve always just been so grateful to work in entertainment. I just consider it to be an honor. But that led to a job at a show called PM Magazine, which led to me meeting Rick Dees who was a local radio personality. I went to write his syndicated countdown show, which is called the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, which led to me meeting other personalities at KISS FM and forming a company with them called Premier Radio Networks.
And that was a 15 year rocket ship that led to that company being sold to Clear Channel, which is now iHeart Media. At one point I went to one of my partners and I said, Hey, Craig, what are what’s the chance of me having my own show? And he said, none. And I said, I have two words for you, podcast.
Because he didn’t know that they were just the one word at that time. And I, that’s how new it was. I was doing standup comedy at the time, so I went to do standup comedy that night and I said to my friend, Laura Swisher, have you heard of a podcast? And she said, I just heard about it today.
It was just like, it was hot off the press, right? So we were like, let’s make one. That led to 100 episodes of Weezy In The Swish, which was my first podcast. And then I did one with K with teenagers where I was like giving teenagers advice cuz like I love to mentor young people.
And that one was called Journals Out Loud. And then I did one with some of my comedy friends called things I Found Online, which was people our age discovering the interne. Then Fritz retired and now I’m working with Fritz.
I never was a radio personality at Premier. I was a creator. I was in charge of all of the creative output, but Premier had shows that did not involve or include me other than behind the scenes.
And now Fritz obviously. My words, you’re an LA icon. For more than 40 years…
Fritz: Contactually, you have to say that about me. Every time you introduce me. I’m an LA icon.
Not only do you own LA TV, but you own LA stages because for those who don’t know, seeing you live is a phenomenally fun, entertaining evening. Was it a very conscious segue to get into podcasting?
Fritz: My involvement with her podcast is totally her both blame and her gift that she gave to me after I retired.
People find this hard to believe. Real meteorologists hate this story, but I’ll tell it to you anyway. I was working at the Comedy Store in 1982 and because I talked on stage about having done the weather earlier in my broadcasting career, the news director from Channel Four and his wife were in the audience that night and he came up to me after the show and he said, I really enjoyed your show, particularly the thing about doing the weather in the Navy, but not knowing anything about it.
He said, would you have any desire to come to Channel Four and do some vacation relief, weather forecasting? I was making $25 a night at the Comedy Store, and so I almost passed out. I said, of course, when do you want me to start? He said you have to audition. So I auditioned and got the job, and I did two years as a vacation relief guy on the weekends.
Filling in on the weekends and filling in for people on vacation. And then two years later, I was bumped up to the weekday weather cast position and I retired two weeks shy of my 40th anniversary. And it’s just unbelievable. I didn’t set out to have a career in weather. This opportunity presented itself.
I could continue to do standup. I came out here from Buffalo, New York where we Weezy’s from to do standup. Even as the weather job I was able to continue to do standup. And so I had two careers. One paid for my children’s education. The other exercised my ego, and as they, it both worked out.
How do you two decide on the topics and when you bring up your guests, how do you decide on your guests?
Louise: We get a lot of offers coming our way now. There’s definitely people that we go after. But we have so many folks that are pitching, when someone has something new that comes out, they make the rounds. And so we just know what our sweet spots are and we email each other with our producer Dina, and we say, does this sound good?
So for example we did not know anything about that Elvis story that you’re talking about. And when it was pitched to us, we just said Absolutely. Exactly. This is what we wanna delve into. So that is what you’re referring to, is a book about a woman who researched Elvis’s health history and discovered that he wasn’t a drug addict because he enjoyed drugs. He was a drug addict because he was trying to feel normal. He was born with disease in 9 out of the 11 systems of the body, and this is why everyone on his mother’s side dies in their forties, including Elvis.
Fritz: That was a great example of what I was talking about.
Weezy and I were just flabbergasted. I mean we’ve all known a lot about Elvis, especially Weezy and I, because we’re students of music, but there was so much in there that we didn’t realize. And that’s a great example of discovering things that you weren’t aware of that made the podcast so much fun.
Louise: And the book is by Sally Hodel and it’s called Elvis: Destined to Die Young.
I think so many people are looking for that level of knowledge and a deeper dive. I think both YouTube and podcasts allows for those deeper dives.
What do the two of you look for when it comes to interviews? Is there different angles you’re both looking to achieve or how does that happen?
Louise: If we find it interesting, we just believe that other folks will find it interesting. So we just gauge it on what fascinates us.
We’re a pretty good barometer.
Louise: We’re always looking for politics. We both call ourselves “woke boomers”.
We’ll take it. And we love history. We love biographies, we love documentaries. We’re both news junkies. We love TV, especially the TV that is close to people because they grew up with it. We believe firmly that what you loved at 10 you love forever. We talked to Marty Croft and we talked to former child stars and we talk to folks like that.
This week we talked to Nellie Oleson, Alison Arngrim from Little House on the Prairie as well. We love talking to those folks and learning what life was like as a child growing up making the television that other kids were so in intrigued by, and of course the music of our era, sixties, seventies, eighties,
Fritz: We had two documentary filmmakers on a couple of about a month or so ago. They made a documentary about Blood, Sweat and Tears, which was one of the iconic groups of the late sixties and early seventies. They and Chicago were the first bands to use horns in mainstream rock and roll. But there’s a great backstory about how Blood, Sweat and Tears were bamboozled into making a tour behind the Iron Curtain. They were the first American rock band that had ever been allowed to tour behind the Iron Curtain.
And there’s hundreds of hours of video of these guys experiencing Romania and all these less than welcoming countries. And that was fantastic because, again, we’d always been fans of Blood, Sweat and Tears. But this was an aspect of their career we didn’t know anything about. That was fantastic.
And we had Bobby Columby, who was the drummer for Blood, Sweat and Tears in the studio with us. It was really fun.
You both brought up in your own ways, “happy accidents” with guests. Can either of you suggest guests we should go back through your archives and find?
Louise: My favorite episode features Joyce Bouffant. She wrote a book called My Four Hollywood Husbands. It’s absolutely a tremendously entertaining read. She was married to James MacArthur, The son of Helen Hayes. So this kid who has a impoverished childhood and suddenly she’s hanging out with Helen Hayes. Launches a career of taking care of alcoholic husbands and finally winding up with the man of her dreams.
And it’s just, it’s quite a ride and remarkably entertaining.
Fritz: And we have guests that will always be our favorites. One of our only repeat guests, Henry Winkler, who happens to be a close friend to Weezy’s. We had him on, but not because he’s a close friend. Because when you just have a very casual conversation with him, you realize his appeal to the world.
He’s one of the most down to earth, non-condescending, brilliant guys who never talks down to you. He’s just the loveliest man in the world and who has had an astonishing career. And we’ve had him on, and we’re gonna try to get him on again because he has an autobiography coming out soon. So we hope we can coerce him into coming back on.
But yeah, we love those too. We haven’t had anybody else on twice? I don’t think so. Adam Schiff. The politician. Now his life has changed because he’s running for senator from California.
Louise: He’s Fritz’s Congressman, so he’s congressionally obligated to attend our podcast.
He’s wonderful and very funny guy as well. We’re always just really honored to speak to him. Another favorite show of mine is: The Steve’s. Steve Young and Steve O’Donnell, both wrote for David Letterman. Steve Young has created this documentary called Bathtubs Over Broadway, where Steve Young becomes obsessed with industrial musicals.
It’s on Amazon Prime right now and it still gets a lot of views.
It’s fun to talk to Pat Boone and Vicky Lawrence and Johnny Whitaker and Christopher Knight. All of our comedian friends, but those are the stories that you love. Uncovering is things that you didn’t know were there and that delight you.
Let’s tell the audience where to find your show – Where do we find you?
Louise: Anywhere you type Media Path Podcast it’s gonna come up. Website, podcast, youtube, iphone.
Fritz: I have a new comedy special, which is streaming on Tubi. It’s called Unassisted Living. It’s just describing life for people of our demographic: that is old people and their parents.
That’s gonna be fun. Can we find you live on stage soon?
Fritz: I think I’m gonna be having a residency at the El Porto Theater in North Hollywood, California. It’s a fairly legendary theater, called the Maryland Monroe Forum.
And I’m gonna be doing a show there once a month for a while as I work out new material. And I’ll be advertising that on social media and elsewhere.
Find the Media Path Podcast: https://www.mediapathpodcast.com/
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Looking for Big, Bold Flavor? 1000 Stories Wines delivers with Bourbon Barrel Aged Zinfandel
Looking for Big, Bold Flavor? 1000 Stories Wines delivers with Bourbon Barrel Aged Zinfandel
At 1000 Stories Wines, they share that same bold roaming spirit, which is why each of their wines tell incredible stories of exploration and discovery.
In every bottle thy hope you’ll find journeys, encounters, people and places—stories that stoke the roaming spirit in all of us so that once your grass of wine is finished, you set out once again to create the next chapter in our stories.
Margaret Leonardi from 1000 Stories Wines
Today we’re talking with Margaret Leonardi from 1000 Stories Wines. The below conversation has been editing for length and clarity. For the full, unedited version, check out our FlavRReport YouTube channel.
Just to get to know you a little bit better, can you tell us more about what inspired you to get into the wine business?
Margaret Leonardi: I’m originally from an organic dairy farm in Northern California, so just the county north of here. We’re in Mendocino County. I’m from Humboldt County, so just the closest wine growing region from home. The wine industry is so much more glamorous and romantic than the dairy industry. I’ve been making wine since 2009. Now my whole life is the wine industry.
My husband is a winemaker too. We live in a vineyard. We’re in the middle of harvest right now. We’ve been harvesting for over a month now. We’ll harvest hopefully through Halloween.
How’s it going this year? Are the grapes looking good?
Margaret Leonardi: Pretty average yields. It’s a little later as a whole than normal harvest. Not noteworthy, but maybe a couple of weeks depending on the region, the variety. It’s tasting good. The chemistries are nice. Good acids. So far we’re happy but we’re only halfway done.
The brand is called 1,000 Stories. On your website it mentions each of your wines tell incredible stories of exploration, discovery. Where does the idea of stories come from?
Margaret Leonardi: There’s a lot of stories around how we came up with the name and how we got from point A to point B, but everyone has their own rendition, which is just ironic that it’s 1000 stories. Our consumer is adventurous, and likes to roam and wander and connect with people. So all those people, each adventure you go on, and each new connection you make, you have new stories, and you have new stories to share, and you can share our wines together.
You mentioned the word “explore”. Up in your area is Yellowstone National Park, and a thousand stories that you guys partnered with Yellowstone Forever.
Margaret Leonardi: That’s a new partnership for this year. The official non profit partner with Yellowstone, and their main focus is bison conservation. With our label, our mascot is a bison. The partnership promotes bison conservation, make sure their population is safe and healthy.
It’s a beautiful design. Tell me about how the bottle itself was created and how you decided what should be on that bottle?
Margaret Leonardi: We have three SKUs that are bourbon barrel aged. Our first is the Zinfandel, the OG of the portfolio, this came out first and then in the Bourbon Barrel Age side, we also have a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Red Blend.
Then we have an American Barrel Aged section that’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, so not Bourbon Barrel Aged, just American Oak. That would be used for normal winemaking, and then we have our newest corn sku, it’s a Sauvignon Blanc, and this is just stainless steel and some concrete aging.
The Bourbon barrel aged [popularity] has grown. We have customers who want more diversity, more variety. So we’ve expanded the set.
On the Zinfandel [label], we have our mascot the bison. Another noteworthy thing with this is on the Zin, because it was our first.
Each time we get bourbon barrels, we go through a 3rd party broker. So we’re not working directly with any distillers. We have a mix of the distilleries these bourbon barrels are shipping to us from, so they’re all different.
We’re filling finished Zinfandel in these barrels and then we taste each one.
Some can be really bourbon-y, really potent. A lot of fresh dill. Some can have less bourbon influence and it’s more smoky, toasty.
So we have to really craft each one. We’re tasting a bunch of lots and crafting the blend for the finished product.
That’s when we decided to put the batch number [on the bottle]. Because as a whole, the backbone of the wine tastes very similar, but there are some little minute differences. We wanted to convey that to the consumer with the batch number because you can tell [each bottle] tastes a little different.
Bourbon barrel has become very popular. How was that method chosen at your winery?
Margaret Leonardi: It was a practice from the original winemaker, the founding winemaker, Bob Blue, who just retired a couple of years ago.
We were innovating, thinking of new wine ideas, and this is a practice that he used 20 plus years ago. [Back then] French oak wine barrels were pretty pricey, like a luxury commodity to use. So he was looking at different alternatives to age his wines here at Fetzer.
He had this idea. Bourbon and whiskey barrels were cheaper.
We bought some bourbon barrels and tried it. We were like, we should bottle this, not blend this into a bigger portion. This should be its own bottle. That was in 2014, our first vintage.
I started with the company in 2015. I was here at the beginning, so I saw some of the evolution and then Bob has retired and he’s passed the torch to Sebastian and I.
Let’s talk a little bit about the different varietals. The process, the styles aromas, flavor notes.
Margaret Leonardi: The first original Zinfandel is our classic. I say classic because Zinfandel’s kind of an American grape variety, it’s very Americana. It goes with our whole spirit of the brand, and It’s what Mendocino County and Mendocino is known for.
We grow really great Zinfandel’s up here, it’s a nice and warm climate. We’ve also expanded, now we’re sourcing some of the fruit from Lodi as well, which is also a really great growing region for Zinfandel. They’re also known for their Zin.
It’s blended with some Petite Syrah. Just to give the color a little more enhancement. Some more tannin structure. We want the whole backbone of the blend to be bold. You’re supposed to match the bison. Big style, bold characteristics. We pick them when the fruit is really ripe. It’s pretty hot. Then we finish it in bourbon barrels and we can use a little bit of American oak, French oak in there too, just to give it some oak enhancement. Usually around 15 percent alcohol in the finished product.
The unique part of the Zinfandel itself is the blackberries. It’s really juicy, some cranberry and then the bourbon barrel aging process is just where you get some like dried herbs, oregano, thyme. Toffee characteristics from the toastiness of the bourbon barrel itself.
The point is to have a really strong wine. We want to have a really strong wine. We don’t want it to waft bourbon and we don’t want the bourbon to sit on top of the wine. We want them to be really integrated and just like a finish, not overwhelming or overpowering.
It’s very well balanced. Were there any challenges in finding the balance or was it pretty straightforward?
Margaret Leonardi: It’s not pretty straightforward. We wish. The barrels coming from the distillers can vary. They can be emptied the week before [and be very fresh]. They can be emptied a month [and be less fresh]. So how much has evaporated, how much has been absorbed into the wood. Those are unknown factors. So it’s a bunch of trial and error. So it’s fun, but it’s a lot of work. We want some consistency, but we want a little bit of difference.
You’ve mentioned Sebastian Donoso. Tell us about him. How the two of you balance roles.
Margaret Leonardi: He’s the winemaker for the Bourbon Barrel Aged Wines. Before we were both collaborating with Bob, it was more like a team effort. When Bob stepped down, we also had the new American Barrel Aged Pinot and Chard and the Sauvignon Blanc’s brand new.
Sebastian took the Bourbon Barrel Aged because he was working on those more, and then I took the other half. We work together.
Before we move on, I don’t want to forget the Sauvignon Blanc. Process, styles, aromas, the taste?
Margaret Leonardi: This just came out in April of this year so I’m really excited. I think it’s still working its way across the nation, but I’m really happy with this wine. I really like the way it came out and I got to make it from scratch. I made exactly what I wanted. It’s nice when you make something that you really like to drink too. The fruit that we source for this comes from the majority from the Arroyo Seco region, so down Monterey, central coast of California, which is just a really nice growing region, Bay Area influence. Warm days and then cool evenings. A little bit comes from just up here in Mendocino County. Then the rest is from Lodi.
A unique thing is it’s blended with 10% Viognier. The Viognier is an ironic blender for Sauvignon Blanc, but it’s like in the spirit of things bold, I have this Viognier that I really like. It’s really concentrated, ripened flavors. A lot of peach and nectarine flavors, so I thought it could be really interesting in a Sauvignon Blanc.
I fermented them separate and then blended this percentage in there and It’s really interesting because the Sauvignon Blanc has a little bit of grassy, grapefruit, citrus aromas,
The Viognier twist makes it almost a little floral, but you get those white peach, stone fruit flavors pop a little more because of that Viognier.
It’s all stainless steel, fermented and aged, so it has no oak contact. I do some concrete eggs. I think it enhances the texture and makes it a little more mineral-y.
Are you a foodie? Can you please suggest some really delicious dishes that pair with these bottles?
Margaret Leonardi: That is a nice thing about our portfolio expanding, because before we had the three reds. So it’s similar food pairings. Now that we’ve expanded, we can have almost a wine for any dish. The Zinfandel and all of the bourbon barrel aged wines go really great with barbecue or smoked meat, ribs, red meats. It’s a good “occasion wine”, right? If you’re going to a friend’s house for a barbecue or somewhere where you want to grab a bottle of wine, but you aren’t sure what – it’s a crowd pleaser, it’s a perfect conversation starter. Sporting events soccer games, Super Bowl, that kind of thing.
Then the Sauvignon Blanc pairs well with oysters, light sauce pastas, cream based pastas. It’s also great just appetizer wine. I think the Viognier is different. It is fun to start with it. So if you’re coming over and not sure what to open or if you’re having a dinner party, it’s like a great wine to kick off the night with.
You can explore it and then it transitions well with food, especially as it warms up a little.
Where we can find you follow and find that all this stuff both to buy as well as on social media
Margaret Leonardi: The brand as a whole is available through our website. They’re also available at any grocery stores around the whole country.
For our social media, our Instagram is 1000 Stories Wines. We have a Facebook, a YouTube, and TikTok.
