What are you saying? It works now? Which only
in my right ear. Are you kidding me? I thought
I fixed it the last time. This is three in a
row. You didn't. I even told Jeff. I got it figured
out. I woke up in the middle of the night, and
I was like, I figured it out. And I went to that
freaking line, and sure enough, you know what?
And you saved it. Yeah, I did save it. Ooh. But
you didn't load it, did you? I didn't load it.
Wow. You know what? Forget about it. Outstanding.
All right, well, look, guys, welcome to another
episode of the podcast. What is today's date?
15th. The 15th. It's January 15th. Oh, my God.
Mid -January. Shit, man. The time is just flying
by. Two weeks into January. We have a fun -filled
podcast set up for tonight. We've got a young
lady here. It's going to be a little different.
It's going to be quite a bit different. It's
different. We are derailed off the whiskey tracks
today, and we're diving into the grapes, and
we're going to talk about this. And I kind of
like this because we try to be diverse on a couple
things. We started doing a scotch, which was
weird for us. We've also done some... Well, not
technically tequila, but yes, tequilas and agave
spirits and scotches. So we're jumping in head
first, man, because I'll go back a little bit
for those folks that haven't listened to the
Dudes Like Us podcast before. We're all friends.
Frankly, we're best friends. And I know, Paul,
you have tier one friends. Yeah. We're in the
lower tiers. Yeah, lower. Definitely lower. Yeah.
We don't own a boat or anything, but God bless
it. We'll get there eventually. But we're three
best friends. We hang out all the time. Someone
said, hey, you should do this. And we were like,
oh, I don't think so. And then a little light
went on. I was like, hey, man, we've got our
home karaoke box right here. We could just hook
up three microphones and try it. So we did it.
And we've been doing the karaoke. I'm sorry.
The podcast thing ever since then. So we grew
up from different regions of the world, different
styles. Jeff grew up in Ohio. Paul was all over
Indonesia. Your father was a geologist. You're
in Brazil or Argentina? Argentina. Argentina.
And Chuck, our producer, thank you. Dudes Like
Us, I'm Sean. I'm Paul. And I am Jeff. And part
of the podcast is whiskey. So we were kind of
like, well, we want to talk about something.
What is our focus? And we were talking about
bourbons and whiskeys, and we started off procuring
them, which was kind of the whole thing, how
we met our guest tonight, which we'll eventually...
dive into uh but procuring them was kind of the
thing where are we going to go to do that so
we would like shop around and we were at first
we're novices frankly we're still novices we
really don't know what the hell we're talking
about but we think we do we're one of those guys
we didn't have the money at first we were like
no starting out really low and oh yeah when paul
was the worst i mean every freaking bottle he
picked was like a debbie downer i don't know
williamsburg you'll never ever outlive that one
it tasted like coconut yeah what was the other
one that was backbeat that was so bad that was
really All right, whatever. I don't know what
the deal is. And look, it's not Paul's fault.
Hell, it's a roll of the dice. It was. It just
happened to be that every one he picked was horrible.
He rolled craps a lot. Like, you guys never picked
a bad bourbon. No, we was all winners. All winners.
I'm excited about tonight, though. We are. We're
trying something very different tonight. So one
of the ways we would procure them is we'd go
to the local spirits place. Liquor King, Total
Wine. What are some of the other ones we go to?
Specs. So we basically hop that. And immaturely,
immaturely. We would sample whiskeys because
we would like, hey, which one are we going to
have for the podcast and talk about? So we'd
sample them and we got to the point where we're
like, shit, this is the third place we've been
to. I'm a little tipsy. So, you know, this kind
of became our happy hour on Friday. You know,
we didn't mean it to be, but it just happened
to be. And one of the venues we went to at Total
Wine, we met a young lady. And she does the wine.
It's really not our thing, but we're kind of
like, oh, well, you know, Jeff has taken on wine
and his wife enjoys it. Yeah, I'm very interested
in wine. I've been out to Napa Valley a couple
times with my wife, been down to the Fredericksburg,
the Texas wineries down there and stuff like
that. So very interested in the wine. So I'm
very excited about tonight. Paul is a novice,
though. Yeah. Well, you know, I know if I drink
enough, I feel good. That's kind of my focus.
And it's made of grapes. This was grapes too?
I've got a food and beverage background from
the 2000s, about seven years working at the Four
Seasons Resort, and they ground us through some
of the wine and cognacs and different alcohol
things. It was kind of fun. But it was in one
ear and out the other. But anyways, we met this
young lady. Her name's Heather Leiner, and she
worked at Total Wine. And she's always been a
gem up there, and she tried to sell us all kinds
of stuff we didn't want, and we ended up buying
it anyways. But you know what? I think I bought
something. Ho -Ho, Jo -Jo, Su -Su, something
kind of a cabinet. I think your last day we actually
bought a couple of pinots. Yeah, I bought two
bottles. Yeah. Yeah, I opened one New Year's
Eve. For Thanksgiving, I think it was. It was
one of them, and we still have one more. Of course,
that's the kind of cool thing right now is that
usually in my life, I don't know about yours,
is that I used to have like one or two bottles
laying around. Fuck. Now I have got like a dozen,
two dozen bottles of wine always there on the
shelf waiting for us to open up. So I'm at a
point. My wife, she drinks like the sweet Riesling
wines. But, you know, Julie likes what? She likes
the white wines. She can't do the reds because
she gets the headaches from them. So I drink
the reds. She drinks the whites, whether it's
Chardonnay. She's into Pinot Grigio right now,
Moscato, Riesling. She kind of rotates around
those right now. So without any further ado.
Without any further ado. Welcome to the podcast.
Heather, we're excited about you being here.
You agree to. to bless us with your presence
and kind of educate us because we really need
to be educated well introduce yourself briefly
okay well my name is heather and um i'm super
excited to be here i've never done a podcast
so there's a microphone right up in my face my
husband would have so many comments right now
he'll be here next time hopefully so um yeah
i kind of got started down this journey um i've
got seven kids and that wasn't by accident i
wanted seven and i had seven and people are like
do you know what causes that i'm like Yeah, that's
why I have seven. Wine. Why the number seven?
It's the number of completion. Come on. Yeah,
you're going to have it. So I have seven kids
ages 24 to 10. My youngest just turned 10. So
a big, nice household. Five still live at home.
Two have flown the coop. Thank God. Thank you.
I love you kids. But yeah, so I did fitness.
I was running about five gyms, managing and working
at them and teaching like 27 classes a week.
It was in my 40s, like my early 40s. And my back
started going out on me. I got to the point where
I went to go tie my shoes and couldn't get back
up. And I was like, well, I'm 41. This doesn't
feel like I should be doing this. Welcome to
middle age. Yeah, it's weird. You wake up at
40. For younger listeners, you wake up at 40
and your body just breaks. Everything just breaks
every day. Everything changes at 40. I know I
had perfect eyesight until 40 and then it went
sideways from there. I wear glasses when I drive
and watch TV now. Yeah. As soon as you turn 40,
boom. I have glasses for all that stuff, reading,
everything. And anyways, I told my husband, I
was like, hey, listen, I can go back to school,
get a degree in kinesiology. I know the human
body really well. I have over 2 ,000 hours in
yoga certifications and aerials and all this
kind of other stuff. And basically, I said that
or the only other thing that interests me is
wine. I could do wine. He's like, do that one.
That one sounds like fun. Really? Like a career
in wine? You could be a chiropractor or you can
dabble in Reiki? Yeah. Well, I really enjoyed
wine and I had been to Napa with my sister. I'd
been to Fredericksburg and I like drinking it.
I think it's really fantastic. And I have a really
good palate. So I pick up things that other people
don't pick up. And so people have always told
me that because I also enjoy beer, that I should
brew my own beer because I have a really great
flavor profile. I pick up things. And I was like,
well, that just sounds really time consuming.
It is. Yeah. And it's like staring at something
to boil. I don't want to do that. So anyways,
yeah. So I went down that path and here I am.
And you are a... Yeah, so sommelier. So I'm going
through both WCET and Court of Masters. And then
also the goal is to be a master of wine. That's
like a path for people that are really mentally
unstable, I think, because it's very hard to
do. So I've seen some of these shows where you
have these. These small liaison there. And they've
got like 10 glasses of wine in front of them.
And they're of various colors. And they just
hold up the glass. They look at it. They swish
it. They sample it. Do this. And they go like,
oh, yeah, 2003, blah, blah, blah. And they list
off these grapes that are in it. It's astonishing.
I mean, we are trying to get to that point with
our bourbons. I mean, what say you? Is that?
what you want to be that the, the end game. Yeah.
So a master of wine, um, it's the hardest program
and it has the fewest number of successes in
it. So these people, um, it's, it's, you have
to be a WCET graduate or they really prefer you
to be, then you have to apply to get in. Um,
and then once you're in, you're being quizzed
on the soil, the climate more so. To the point
where you have to have an agricultural background.
So I am in school for enology and vitification,
which is just the study of winemaking and wine
growing, basically. And that'll help me to become
a master of wine. So basically, I said I wanted
a career where I could spend all the money in
the world and not make any for at least 10 years.
And that's kind of the path I'm down right now.
So yeah, what does a master of wine, what door
does that open for you? They get to decide their
jobs. So I have a few friends that are master
of wines. I use the term loosely. We have each
other's contact information. If I called them,
I don't know that they would know who I was.
But they're pretty fantastic people. But basically...
You can decide if you want to teach or open up
a wine school, you want to travel around the
world, you want to review wines, you want to
a lot of a lot of vineyards, get them to come
in and oversee. I mean, they know everything
you've got to know about soil and you've got
to know about like bacteria. And yeah, I mean,
your whole life surrounded like you basically
give up everything else and everything is just
wine. And so is that different than the sommeliers
you'll see at these fine restaurants? Yeah. So
Court of Master, which I'm also going through.
Court of Master is all about service and WCET
is more about like the full array like you're
learning about really deep diving into sake and
bourbon and all that other stuff too once you
get past the wine but the wine is the focus of
Court of Master like it is just wine and you've
got to know the other spirits and things like
that because you've got to be able to serve at
your restaurant but you are going there because
you want to serve at a restaurant. I'm doing
it because I like to, I never won awards when
I was a kid. I was like super dyslexic, super
ADHD. And I thought I was really dumb for a long
time. And then I took an IQ test and found out
that I wasn't. And that did help. But I think
because of that lack of like awards, I want all
the awards, all of them. Yeah. So if I could
just have, you know, the degree and the court
of master and the W set and the master of wine,
and then I'll just be like, now I'm happy. So
you listed all the things that you can do, but
what do you, like where do you want to end up
or do you know? So really there's a few options.
I think when I like look at the future, I could
see myself being like a wine buyer where I'm
traveling around the world and I'm finding these
people for them, you know, and creating these
relationships with them. I could see myself owning
a vineyard in Spain or in Napa. Those are my
two favorite areas to be. And then, you know,
the other thing is maybe writing about wine and
like touring and educating people about wine.
I do love teaching. So I don't know, but I don't
know that I want to be a teacher. So I was, I
pulled up, I asked AI to produce the levels of
the levels of sommeliers and, you know, the court
of masters for exam levels. But the levels include
like introductory sommelier. certified sommelier
advanced master sommelier level one wine course
level two three and then level one wine award
i don't know where that is anywhere in the spectrum
have nothing but that's the way they're listed
i would never have imagined there's that much
intensity or i guess there is breath to this
whole thing yeah the the failure rate of level
four is fantastic it's super super stressful
but it's that way with all of them So, I mean,
whether you go W set or if you go any of these,
they're just, it's just really challenging because
you're literally, I mean, these people are devoting
their entire life. Like I don't have friends
anymore. My friends have all pretty much been
like, you don't like us anymore. And I'm like,
oh yeah, no, I just like wine more. Yeah. Well,
they don't see me either, but it's okay. I have
flashcards to keep me warm. So, so is it, so
you're going to classes, but you're having to
study a lot as well, I imagine, right? Yeah.
Yeah. I have a friend, he's probably going to
listen. Hi, Brian. It's my husband's best friend.
I'd like to say only friend probably. Sorry,
honey. I love you. Where are we going? I told
you I had ADHD. What is it you said? I chased
the squirrel. You said something. Jeff, you don't
remember what you said either? I completely,
yeah. I lost it as well. I'm not even drinking.
talking about the levels of wine and you were
oh oh oh yes Brian okay this is so he's gonna
be so excited he was talked about until I say
these words um so I love Brian but he was like
yeah I've always wanted to become a sommelier
as well I think I'm gonna do it and I was like
oh okay I've never heard about this dream that
you've always had until I just now heard it And
he's like, yeah, no, totally always wanted to
do it. And I was like, oh, okay, well, all right.
And he's like, well, how often did you study?
And I said, well, on the weekdays while I'm in
school and with my, I also have three jobs. So,
you know, I would study two hours every single
day, which means I get less sleep because I also
work out and I work. And then on the weekends,
I spend another 10 hours studying. And he was
like, oh, yeah, I thought it would be easier.
You just can't go online and click a box? No.
These aren't like continuing education ones for
work. No, it's intense, it sounds like. There's
a lot of work you've got to put into it. It's
like becoming a doctor. You spend a lot of this
money to realize. Well, kinesiology is no joke.
Yeah, that probably would have been easier and
cheaper. And without knowing that much about
wine, and I know we're going to talk a lot about
it tonight, but, I mean, my impression. of of
you know so our journey through bourbon right
a bourbon is a bourbon is a bourbon whiskey is
a whiskey is a whiskey but we're finding out
that not really right i mean there's a story
behind every single bottle there's differences
i mean the diversity and the and the variety
um is there but i i don't think it's quite as
diverse and quite as the variety as wine i think
there's there's so many more grapes there's so
many areas of the world. There's so many different
climates and soil to focus on. And I'm sure we'll
talk about this, but I think it's massively more
diverse than the bourbon. Would you guys agree
with that? I agree 100%. 100%. So that should
be, that is an interesting difference. I feel
like, I mean, in a way, yeah. But I mean, if
you think about the grains that are put into
bourbon and the soil and the climate is affecting
it, the state is affecting it, how it's distilled
or whatever is affecting it. I mean, you look
at The distillery that we all went to very recently,
when we were there, they distilled theirs differently
than anybody I've ever seen. And I've been to
a lot of distilleries. So it's just like every
distillery I've been to is a little bit different.
You're referring to the 1845 distillery. Yeah,
that's right. Shout out to the Lowry Crossing.
Yeah, you went to the two of us. Nicest people
ever. They're so amazing. They really are. Bob
June. Yeah. We need to go visit again. Did you
see their release in a new double oak whiskey?
Double oak whiskey. I'm on the need to know list.
Well, do you read your emails? Come on. Actually,
I do. Came out today. Oh, that's why. I actually
had to work today. The Panhandle something or
other. Yeah, I think I saw that title, but I
haven't read it yet either. They've been talking
for like a couple of weeks that it was going
to come out. I'll buy that instantly. There it
is right there. There it is. Hi. Panhandle Proud.
Straight whiskey, double oaked. Yeah, I'm on
it. Very nice. All right, we'll have to jump
on that for sure. They didn't let us taste that
during our stay. Well, that was the Texian, I
think, when we were there with the Hungarian
barrels. This one's different. It's got a different
label and everything. Look at that. Yeah, it's
nice. I'm going to squirrel it real quick. So
did y 'all know that there is a beer company
out there? And, oh, God, I should have looked
at it. Eclipse. And they are making their beer
in bourbon barrels. and they have one from the
garrison brothers bourbon barrels like um it's
it's pretty cool they're they're not they're
not cheap i think they're a 50 50 brewing company
yeah we we sell one of our things is we're trying
to bring in a lot of craft beer and so that was
one of the ones that it just like I think it's
like $25 or something, but I'm like, totally
worth it. For one bottle? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it
is 12 .5 % alcohol. Oh, God, boy. There was a
time where Jeff and I would have dove headfirst
in to get that bottle. I mean, but it's like,
you know. But it's a big bottle. Yeah, it's not
this big. It's about 16 ounces. Look at that,
man. For $25 for a 16 -ounce bottle? You know,
I'd be willing to try one of those. It's not
outside my league. Are there breweries out there
in Lowry Crossing? No, no, no, no. Sorry, I said
squirrel. This is my squirrel. That's from California.
Truckee. Yeah, but I thought it was cool that
they're using Garrison Brothers, like they were
on the map. Well, Texas is on the map for that.
You know, Texas has taken quite the lead. I think
it's, well, not the lead, but it's definitely
nudging its way. It is. Neck to neck with. Jumped
on the scene, no question about it. Oh, God bless.
I mean, we're putting out some fantastic whiskeys
and bourbons. Well, and I think it's on climate.
Our climate is very advantageous because we can
age much faster than they do in Kentucky. Correct.
What's our strategy, Ty? Heather Liner, check
her out on her Instagram and FB. Look up that.
Facebook. Instagram and Facebook. ThatSom from
Texas. ThatSom, S -O -M -M, from TX. So check
Heather Liner's stuff out there, and she'll get
you lined up with some fantastic. products gotcha
all right all right so let's let's yeah let's
crack into one of these things and let's uh let's
start discussing okay uh wines and yeah pretend
we're stupid grapes and absolute novices and
we need to know just about everything okay but
we've got three right so talk about the general
strategy for tonight okay so i figured i just
kind of gave y 'all some facts about wine and
in the united states um and i thought if i'm
gonna feature wine in the united states while
we are in texas and if anybody knows texans we're
like very proud of everything we do we always
think it's the best but i wanted to focus on
the three biggest abas of the united states so
that's going to be california and washington
and oregon so we're going to start off with a
um do you want me to just introduce the one yeah
just the one right now and i'll just pass it
around? Well, actually, yeah, we can pass it
around. I'll put my cup over there. Oh, yeah,
why don't we just put the glasses over there?
Wouldn't that be easier? That would be easier.
Then I'd just pass y 'all the glasses. Because
that way we don't have inequity and fighting.
Chuck, I put your glass over here. Chuck's like,
hey, man. Because I could see Sean overpouring
himself on purpose. Oh, yeah, I'd stick a straw
in it. Okay, so this is Crossport Creek. It is
a Merlot. I don't drink a lot of Merlots. I'm
going to start us off small like I would if I
was doing a really very nice pour of a tasting
in a tasting room. That's perfect. Oh, no. I
can't do it from here. There's a microphone in
my face. I'm going to need a napkin. I'll tell
you what, I can fill up some of the fill if you
need to step away from the microphone. I'm like,
oh my God, I can't do this. They don't test you
this. When you're going through your testing,
you don't learn how to talk with the microphone
in your face. Yeah, no, so this is going to be
from Yakima. This is going to be from the Washington
wine. So a lot of people are familiar with Oregon.
Just take one down, pass it around. Let me not
tell anything else. Okay. So is there a particular
area of Washington? Like, are we talking northeast?
Does it matter? So with Washington, just in general,
like... So it's an interesting area because they
don't grow the grapes everywhere. So like in,
and I suppose that's pretty normal for most places
minus like California that's like, hey, a grape
will grow here. Let's grow it, you know. But
they've got like the predominant area is going
to be like in the very southern area. And then
they've got some over to the western side. And
like, so it's just like a lot of land that they
don't grow anything. And then they have the places
that they do, the places that they're going to
thrive the most. Grapes like cold and they like
dry. They don't really like wet climates. Okay.
I always like throwing this word in because it
bothers people. Moist. No, we love that word.
We try to work it in at least three times. We
say it a lot on this podcast. Ding! Music is
a Sean. Every time it's the word, the angel gets
its wings. Right, yeah. Well, what I found interesting
about this is, you know, I try to pick a low
-cost wine, a mid -priced wine, and then a higher
-end wine. So this is a lower -priced wine, but
it drinks really well. Yeah, there you go. There
it is. You've got a map pulled up of what looks
like the moor. And you'll see how moist it's
not. It looks pretty arid. I've got a question
regarding the grape. So I know there are all
kinds of grapes out there. How many grapes are
in this one? You know, OK, so there's not a lot
of tasting notes on this guy. We're going to
say for all intents and purposes, it's going
to be at least 75 percent Merlot because it has
to be to have that on the title. But we don't
know. Honestly, I'm going to go with mostly Merlot.
I mean, I don't know. Like Bordeaux has seven
grapes in it. Yeah. Yeah. Depending on where,
depending on where you are is like how many grapes
you can have and what grapes you can use. And
they're one of the more definitely harder places.
The other hardest one is pre -rot. which is my
favorite region. That's in Spain. This is terrific,
by the way. Yeah, right? It's like 20 -something
dollars. You're supposed to wait. No, no, no.
Y 'all tell me what you think. I want y 'all
to tell me what y 'all taste. I want to hear
it from bourbon drinkers. What do you taste?
Are we doing the nose and the palate and the
finish? Do whatever comes naturally to you. Whatever
comes naturally to you. I'm going to dip my mustache
in it. No, I'm not going to do that. $27. That's
how much it cost. Tell me what you're smelling,
what you're thinking, what you're tasting. I
taste red wine. It smells like red wine. Is this
a black currant, maybe? Currant? Like ocean currant?
Yeah, ocean currant. Just like that. No different.
Very salty. It's aged with ocean water. What
do y 'all think? It's okay if you don't like
wine. Try one and you don't like it. That's the
beauty of wine is that some people will like
it and some people won't. What I like about this
Merlot is it's very easy to drink. It's super
easy. I think it's sweet and dry. It's one of
those that's right in the middle, I think. I
mean, I've had really sweet ones and then really
dry ones. I think this one's leaning on the dry
side, towards the middle on the dry side. I don't
pick that up. I think there is some dryness,
but I think it's more... I think it's right in
the middle. For me, anyway. The finish is very
short on it for me. I don't know about you guys.
It goes away pretty quick. It does not smell
or taste dry to me. It does taste... Are you
smelling it through your semblance screen? No.
He's smelling it through the one ear that's not
working. That's right. And by the way, your sentence
are heightened when one ear is bad and the other
is good. Just so you know. So I'm actually superior
in my analysis. Like a superhero trait. Right.
So it's strange. I would have expected it to
be a very, very powerful taste. And it tastes
almost like a diluted. Almost diluted somewhat.
I don't know how to describe that. So that's
going to be the Merlot grape that you're tasting.
So Merlots are not, they're considered silky,
smooth, velvety. Silky is a good word. Yeah,
nobody is like, oh my God, did you try that Merlot?
I mean, it was just a banger. Nobody says that.
Yeah, exactly. I was expecting kind of a, harsh
is not the right word, but a powerful finish.
Right, yeah. And it never happened. Yeah, she's
just trying to be silky smooth. She's like, just,
hey. Cuddle up with me, you know? If you want
something easy to drink, you'd recommend Merlot,
right? Yeah, Merlot's the easy girl. Interesting.
I've never thought of my drink as an intimate
experience. I'm tasting like blueberries, blackberries,
something like the dark berry variety. I definitely
picked it up on the nose. Lots of berries on
the nose. I feel stupid saying this, because
I don't drink wine. This is probably the second
time in my life I've tried a Merlot, but I tasted
green. I smelled grape juice. Yeah. So, I mean,
that's kind of a stupid thing to say. I got a
little. But, I mean, literally, if I was at the
store. This is very Welch's. Right. If I were
to smell that, I got some of that. Right. So,
I mean, that's kind of a no -brainer, of course.
Yeah. Yeah. But. I think one thing that I like
about this is that you get, one of the things
that I really enjoy about wines is when they
start getting those, like, floral compounds.
And this is almost like dried floral, dried violet.
Almost like you're picking up, not like a potpourri
and eating it, but just getting that hint of
that dried violet. And girls probably know that
more. Let me be a little sexist here. But we
used to press our flowers. Somebody got us a
flower. We pressed it in a book. And then when
it dried up, we'd smell it. We'd be like, I remember
this forever. You should see his journal. I know.
Every time Paul or Jeff travel, because I don't
travel as much because my wife has agoraphobia.
So when they bring back flowers, I always press
it. He presses them. We don't bring back flowers.
You bring back flowers. and you frame them and
hang them on your wall. When he talks about going
on a trip, he's like, oh, that's a hibiscus trip.
I'm actually, I'm tasting like, you said currant.
Right. I taste like a little licorice kind of
in there too. Yeah, and you're getting a little
bit of chocolate as well. There's chocolate.
It's not real strong. Vanilla even, just kind
of piping in there. Yeah, when I say the currant,
it's not real strong, but I think there's a hint
of it in there. I'm sure when we get to some
of these others, it's going to be stronger. I
get a lot of caramel and vanilla and leather.
There's none of that. Oh, wait, wait. Butterscotch.
Sorry, I'm on cruise control. I will say like
real quick, just because some of your listeners
might not be wine drinkers. I know that'd be
shocking. But so people will ask me, how do they
get the fruit in there? How do they get the flour
in there? How do they get the tobacco in there?
And that's all soil and climate. You know, and
in the environment, like the fires really added
a really terrible taste to the wines that were
made that year that weren't harvested beforehand.
But they were not added to the wine. Like it's
that's just its natural flavor that it gets.
So, I mean, like bourbon, they char the barrels.
I mean, what do they is wine put in like these
metal casks or are they in barrels as well? 1845,
they have these large vats. Would it be painful
to go through a quick overview of the whole process
of wine making? Without going into major detail.
Give us a highlight. Give us the cliff notes.
Okay, let's say red or white wine. I mean, if
we just dumb it down and we just leave out sparkling
entirely. The best way I could say that you do
it is you're taking these grapes from the vineyard.
Sure. You are bringing them and immediately that
day sorting. Can we hit pause? Yeah. You're taking
them from the vineyard. At what point? Do we
get to frolic and step and smash the grapes with
our bare feet? I was going to talk about your
feet here in a second. I was getting there. Oh,
just the feet. Not a full naked experience? Okay,
wow. It could be, I guess. I think it's in Austria
where they all gather arms and they have this
giant vat and they all walk across it and it's
a whole day thing. They walk on it all day. There's
a band that plays. There's food. It's a celebration,
a massive celebration. It is, yes. Okay, so you
get the grapes. They're in these ginormous, you
know, ginormous, like, what is the word? Like
the size of the trucks. What are they called?
The semi. Like that size. Or you can get smaller
ones. Okay. The higher end ones usually use smaller
ones. And the reason is you don't want your grapes
crushed. So. Okay. Now you got to get it to the
sorting table. Plops down on the sorting table
and you've got like four people up there and
they're just grabbing crap, right? They're grabbing.
hopefully, just leaves and branches, but sometimes
lizards, snakes, birds, bats, bracelets, whatever.
The bracelet was the funny one. Anyways, it's
a whole other story. I've pulled out a lizard
and I've pulled out a bracelet. Well, they do
have filters. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. I mean, they
got the whole grape filter out. Have you lost
a grape there? Is that what you get? Or I'm sorry,
a bracelet or one of your friends? No, it was
probably one of the workers out in the field.
It's like going to a restaurant and ordering
a salad and toss the Caesar salad and it shows
up with a ring and they're like, how'd that get
in there? Or a bandaid. I think it's a little
bit easier to understand. And Nancy Pelosi comes
out of the kitchen. She's like, hey, where's
my ring? I think, okay. So if you imagine like
if you're a field worker, you're getting paid
by how much you can produce, right? Oh, yeah.
So you've got like these like crazy shears that
could like cut a kid's bones open. I don't know
why I had to be a kid, but they look better than
them. I don't know. Anyways, they're out there
cutting the grapes and just think like it snaps
the bracelet, you know, just barely. Yeah, just
barely. And they're going a million miles a second.
Yeah, they don't even notice they lost their
bracelet by the time they figure out. A little
friendship bracelet. They just completely lost
it. Yeah, lost the friend too. You never know.
Anyways, haven't pulled a person out yet. But
anyway, so, okay, so they sort the grapes. Then
the grapes go into a distimmer. The distimmer.
Now we're assuming this is not being done by
hand because that's a whole other process. So
the distimmer is going and that's taking all
the stems out. You're hoping the grapes are staying
pretty much intact. And now they're going to
dump them with these giant hoses and pumps into
either stainless. Stainless steel is generally
what's going to be used. Sometimes there's other
things when they start the fermentation process.
And that's when... All the magical numbers when
they test it are all perfect. They're like, okay,
it's ready. So if they're going to start doing
the fermentation in something else, this is where
they're going to move it. Maybe it's going to
be a smaller stainless steel device, or it's
going to be a ceramic egg, or it's going to be
a barrel or whatever. But it's going to depend
on what flavor they want. Perfect. Yeah. All
right, so where you were, you were talking about
it gets put into a smaller one or a barrel. Right,
right. So we can pause, and then you can pick
it up. Yeah, so it's getting, this is where the
winemaker, part of the winemaker right now is,
I mean, all of this is going to depend on the
winemaker, but he's trying to taste his wine
from this point, be like, how do I want to make
this taste? And that's where it becomes a science,
and he's got to start, if he's going to blend
it, this is where it's done. here or it could
be done at the very end after all the wines are
made with their own grapes and then blended which
is actually more common um in smaller production
okay um and that's pretty much it then they ferment
it and you know that's going to just depend on
like the length of time for the fermentation
is going to depend on the grape it's going to
depend on the temperature and all this other
stuff but i mean that's basically it you're you're
doing a fermentation But you have to first start
the process in these giant tanks. Don't you also
ferment it to determine how sweet it is as well?
The longer you ferment, the more of the sugars
you take out? Yes and no. I mean, some grapes
are going to just have more sugar anyways. But
you can ferment without losing a ton of the sugar.
I mean, you're going to lose the primary thing.
The yeast goes in there and eats it, and that's
what causes the alcohol to be created. But the
process, like when it's done, you can, the sweetness
level is going to depend on the winemaker. So
does a drier wine have less sugar in it? Generally
speaking, yes. Yeah. And I hear these people
that are wanting like low sugar wines. And I'm
like, well, I mean, most of your wines are low
sugar. They're not really high in sugar unless
you're drinking the ones that taste sweet. And
if they taste sweet, then they've got sugar,
you know, and some people think that they're.
dry wine is sweet or that they're that their
sweet wine is dry and it's it's just not but
they don't they can't taste that right but for
the most part you know if you're looking at like
a glass of red wine you've got about a gram to
three grams of sugar so all right so it's ultimately
put into barrels yeah and aged well how the metal
the metal cask right the big ones it ferments
and then they put it into the the barrels because
that were yeah and i've got I've got like live
pictures of all of this, but obviously it'd be
really hard. Are they like the big 55 -gallon,
100 -gallon, or they're like bourbon and all
styles? Yeah. Again, you're going in with all
these things. There's the bariques. There's just
all these different styles. Yeah. It really does.
And that's what crafts the different flavors.
Right. Everyone has their own little niche. Mm
-hmm. Yeah. All right. Depending on, yeah. You
went further than I was expecting, which is perfect.
So we're going to embrace the hell out of that.
So you chose this one. Yeah. What about this
one? So why? Why this one? What's special about
this? So I think a lot of people don't drink
Merlot anymore. I think it was very popular in
the 80s. I think it was really popular even in
the 90s. I think that people kind of got away
from it and Cab became king in Texas and we live
in Texas. Cab became king in the US and people,
you know, they wanted that. Merlot was my favorite,
personally. Is it? Okay. My parents drank Merlot
in the 80s. I remember that. Yeah, yeah. That
was the first one I ever had was, I mean, well,
Chianti's, but the first one I had that was not
an Italian was going to be, it was a Merlot.
low so um i was raised on on wine my family's
italian so you basically drink wine or you weren't
italian or you or you dehydrate yeah i mean there's
only hey you know like back in the day they drink
the wine they did that back in the day when the
the plague was going around because it was clean
so they drink a lot of wine yeah that's what
it was a lot of the waters you couldn't drink
i mean they could go you go down the river you
have to pass Clean it up. Why do you think I
drank a shitload of bourbon during COVID? It's
the same philosophy. Just drown it out. No, I
mean, the water was tainted, wasn't it? Anywho.
All right, never mind. So this, are we going
to rate this? We don't have a wine. Gosh, I don't
know how to rate this. On a scale of one to dinosaur,
what do you think? Let's just go pterodactyl.
How about excellent, good? For the podcast, what
we normally do, which we're not going to do for
this one, but what we normally do is we rate
the whiskeys that we sample, and then we write
it down in a little book somewhere. And then
when we cross that path again, we kind of figure
out what's the variance between our two ratings.
But for this one right here. Why don't we go
with very good, good, mediocre, or not for me?
Yeah. Oh, there you go. I'll start it off. I'll
say it's very good. I enjoyed it very much. Yeah.
This was good. I'm going to go with good. I'm
just going to go with good. Well, awesome. I'm
glad that that could please y 'all. And Heather,
what for you? 2022. Yeah. Heather, what for you?
Would you say for you this was a very good or
just a good? I think it was good. She was being
nice. Chuck, you want to weigh in? Sure. I thought
it was good. There you go. There we go. So we
got three goods, a very good, and four goods.
Sean said the Merlot was one of his favorites.
I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. The drier
the wine for me, the better. And the Merlot's
got it. It's right in the sweet spot for me.
What's drier than the Merlot? Is the Cabernet
actually drier? It's going to depend on where
it was made. So that's another. Matrix equation.
It's never a simple question. So every winemaker
uses a brixometer or some type of device. And
in Europe, they use something else. And it measures
the sugar and the sugar level of the grape when
they harvest. And every winemaker has a different
sugar level that they want to harvest at. And
so long story short. Oh, so timing of harvest.
Time is so important. How much sugar is in the
grape? Yeah, because the hotter it gets, then
the more the sun sets in, the sugar goes. Because
think about like a raisin. If you eat a raisin
versus a grape, the grape is juicy. It's nice
and it's easy to eat. You eat a raisin, you're
like, oh, that is some sweet shit right there.
So the harvest season can fluctuate. Yes. That's
interesting. Like dramatically. Yeah, and you've
also got to avoid rain and frost. Like by how
much can it, like if it's generally in October.
Can it be as early as July and as late as December?
Now it can. It used to not vary a ton, but in
the past few years, there's been a lot of people
in the industry that are super worried because
the climate's changing so much that it's like
you can't. It's, you know, like both when I was
in Napa and when I was in Priorat, both times,
oh, and in Corponaut. there was a rain that came
right before a harvest and it, it, that's not
good. I mean, you think moist grapes, not good
when they're moist on the outside, they start
to rot. Is that where Keanu Reeves comes out
of the woodwork and little butterfly things that
starts cooling? Yes. Walk in the clouds. I haven't
seen it. I have not seen it. No. Oh, it's a fantastic
movie. Okay. Well, I mean, my, my, um, my fourth
born, um, son, he said that, uh, Keanu Reeves
is his dad. And I'm like, I, I think I would
have remembered that. There you go. Up on the
thing. There you go. Wow, he looks like a baby.
He does. Shortly after Bill and Ted's Excellent
Adventure. Far out, dude. Let me go get so crates.
Being so into wine, you definitely should see
this because it's got a huge wine element to
it. Oh, does it? It's about vineyards. It's a
romantic drama. Essentially, he meets this woman.
And her family has a vineyard and they've got
this morsel. The whole thing's dying off and
they don't know what's going on. They figure
it out and they were like, oh, we only have one
more field or one more. Yeah, one more field.
Did he turn into a butterfly? No, no. What it
is is that there's some sort of a frost or something
that's happening. So they've got these big heaters
out there and they all have these. wings that
they put on their arms and they're feigning the
vineyards to keep them warm. Distributing the
heat. So that was the thing. It was a great movie.
I enjoyed it. Kind of like what is the Whitney
Houston in The Bodyguard. I haven't seen that
movie either. Who are you? I don't know. I don't
remember a vineyard in The Bodyguard either.
I'm mad enough to be into chick flicks. It's
a great movie. The Bodyguard. Yeah, The Bodyguard's
good. Kevin Costner? Kevin Costner, yeah. Okay.
I haven't seen it. Do you see how we deviate?
All right. All right, so you - Seven kids. Yeah.
She's just like, really? I got time for a movie?
I study a lot. So I had asked you, why did you
choose this one? Okay, so Crossport Creek, the
cool thing about this Merlot is it's affordably
priced. I mean, not everybody's going to pay
$30 for a table wine, but for me, that's an inexpensive
table wine. What are we laughing at? I'm thinking
about you and your reaction. we're doing our
thing and you're just like, you're like, can
you get this uncomfortable laugh? Can you guys
stop talking now? Now I'm just thinking about
how many of my friends are going to judge me
for not seeing these movies. Like, I love Whitney
Houston. I'll sing her songs. Well, not well,
but I'll sing them. That's challenge accepted.
No, I have a deep voice. I sing deep songs. No,
but okay. So anyways, but yeah. I like... Hey,
Murray. Not quite that deep. I like it because
it's got a little spice to it. It's got a little
violet to it and it's affordable. That's why
I like it. We got to jump on the next one because
we're going to TikTok it. Nicholas J right here.
This is a Pinot Noir 2022. This is from Willamette.
Damn it. And I'm just going to pass the bottle
because clearly with the microphone in my face,
I can't pour wine. You can briefly step away
from the microphone. You got to watch out for
Sean. So this one's called negligee. See, there's
my hearing. It's not my fault. It's not my fault.
I do have some information. So this one, this
one's a really cool one because it, so as the
price point goes up, people that I won't, that
matter to the wine industry, drink these wines,
rate them, talk about them. It's harder to get
those kind of notes, those same kind of things
from the less expensive wines because, you know,
Jeb Dunick and, and all these people, they don't
want to go out there and be like, Hey, I rated
this $20 wine. I rated this $10 wine. And no,
they want to rate the really high end wines,
you know? So, I mean, that's what I would do.
I mean, I'm not, I'm not crazy. So yeah, when
I have friends that drink wine and I want to
get like, a nice wine for them, and I've only
done this like, you know, a handful, maybe a
half dozen times, I'm usually getting the $20,
$25 bottle. Yeah. So I've never even purchased
a bottle that's in this range, so I certainly
wouldn't know what the, you know, the pleasure
of it. So we'll see. I'm excited. That smells
good. Okay, what is this? Describe the bottle
again. Okay, so this is the 2022 Pinot Noir.
Called Nicholas J. Okay. And is from Willamette,
which is how you pronounce that for anybody listening.
Willamette. I was thinking Willamette. No, don't
call it Willamette. I tell you what, every time
I saw this, I thought it was Williamette. Yeah,
it's common. Willamette. Like pasta Robles is
not Robles. Yeah. It's Willamette -y. Let's just
make it difficult. All right, this is Oregon.
It is, yeah. All right, so we have a picture.
We have a picture up in here. Yeah, I would go
as far as to say that in Oregon, you're going
to find more natural wines than you will anywhere
else in the U .S. They are really proud of their
natural wines. Especially Pinot. Those are big
up in this region. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, it's
like the perfect grape -growing region for Pinot.
Pinot is very thin -skinned, and I always heard
that, and I never really took it into account
until... I was doing harvest this last year.
And yeah, it was this last year because now it's
been a year. We're getting older so fast. Anyways,
sorry, bird, squirrel, what? Okay. Yeah. So the
Cabernet grapes, they're very thick skinned.
When you hear that, it really is. And then you
get a Pinot Noir grape and you just barely touch
it. It's like... You know, you're like, oh, wow,
that's really different. I mean, even I felt
like even the Chardonnay grapes, like some of
them were tougher than the Pinot Noir. So it's
just a finicky grape. It's a really hard one
to grow. And I would say that the people that
grow Pinot Noir have to really love it because
it's the most challenging grape to grow. So I've
never I've never heard of the thickness of the
skin. OK, so I could definitely see how it impacts
the fragility of it. Yeah. But does it affect?
What else does it affect? The thickness of the
skin. It's got to affect how much moisture gets
into it and how much heat gets into it. Have
you not seen the movie Sideways? No. I'm going
to spread out a wine movie that's super weird.
It can get sunburned really easily. Thin skin.
Very thin. You think the sun starts to come down
on it. Also, like thin skin, weather is going
to get to it. Birds can get to it. Like anything,
like you can look at it wrong and it just bursts
open, you know. Very challenging to grow. It
is. And then think about. In very limited areas.
Right. And if you're sorting through these grapes
and they're very thin skinned, you're having
to be extremely delicate with them because they're
like wanting to just burst open on the sorting
table. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. So people have
soft fingers working with this. Yeah. Yeah. It
is true. After doing a harvest, your hands and
clothes are definitely a different color. They're
not the same. Well, I really enjoy this one.
More so than the Merlot. There's some funk in
the nose, some earthiness, dirt kind of a thing
is what I'm picking up. Yeah, this one's really
good. So the reason I picked this one is because
this is... Oh, that's good. Yeah, I've got a
couple of Pinot Noirs I really like. Cranberries.
I was... I don't like Pinot Noir, but I love
a good Pinot Noir. And there's a huge difference
because there's a lot of good cabs. There is
not a lot of good Pinot Noirs. And so I chose
one from Willamette and some of mine are actually
from Sonoma that I love as well. But yeah, I
think it's good. What's the sticker price on
this ish? Yeah. So this one, it is, I believe
this one was the one that was $55. I think it's
55. This is excellent. So let me ask a question.
So other wines in this category, are they all
generally the same price or dramatic differences
in price like we would find in bourbon? Well,
I'll tell you the number one selling Pinot Noir
at every store I've worked at, which is all of
two, has been Mayomi, which has... You know,
you always try to be very kind. It's very sweet.
It's like very sweet. Like if you're looking
for a low sugar wine, it is not that. But I do
feel like a really good Pinot Noir is going to
be a drier wine. It's going to come off as more
Burgundian in style, which, you know, when we
talk about Burgundy France, that's it's they
just produce drier wines. Americans are really
into sugar, which makes sense if like we went
down the rabbit hole of the history of wine.
But this one is just I mean. Pinot Noir will
pick up some funk. It will. And it's just because,
you know, it's so susceptible to picking up so
much more. If you have a good Pinot Noir, it
means that you have worked with a great winemaker
because they're not all great. And so I would
say the price point for any Pinot Noir that I
will drink starts at $50. I won't even drink
one that's less. So I'm trying to understand
the reason for the price difference, right? A
lot of times it's just how proud they are of
their wine. Right. It is what it is. I mean,
if it's, you know, if they go through an extra
process or they, if the grape is superior, I
mean, it has to be all of those factor in, right?
Yeah. I mean, you're losing so much of your harvest
because it's so, you know, soft and it can dry
up so easily. Like you'll go through and you'll
have to throw away giant branches of them just
because. They're just, they're dried out. So
they're generally going to be more expensive
just because of that. Yeah, yeah. Because when
you get an expensive Cabernet, it's because they're
proud of making it. But a Pinot Noir, it's expensive
because they've put so much more time into it.
So this has a very interesting, slight sour taste
to me. Now, I mean, sour is not - Tart, it's
a tart. Tart, that's the better word. And it's
interesting because it like completely dries
out my tongue. Yeah, I love it. Despite not being
dry, when I'm done drinking it, it's like my
tongue is completely... It's like an argument
between cherries and plums. It's like going back
and forth. Yeah, I'm picking up some cherries.
Both cherries and plums on this. Yeah, I prefer
this much, much more than the Merlot. Yeah, interesting.
Love them both. This one, I love more. Yeah,
I'm a big Pinot Noir fan. So this one is actually...
Did you say Pinot? Pinot Noir. This one is actually
unfiltered, and a lot of people don't like unfiltered
wine, so I'm happy to hear that y 'all like it
because I think they're fun. Oh, I love the chewiness.
If it's unfiltered, we're probably going to like
it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, y 'all are bourbon drinkers,
so, you know, there's that. We have the Garris
Brothers Cowboys. There's actually sticks and
chunks. Oh, yeah. We pulled a tumbleweed out.
Actually chew on it. And part of a bracelet.
I was drinking the Balmoray last night. The Balmoray
and I had a little run -in together so that I
could take a hot bath and go to bed really quickly,
and that does it for me. I got to tell you, for
the record, I'm disappointed your husband couldn't
make it. I was super excited about him joining
on the second half. Yeah, we met him at the tour.
Call him up. He's got 20 minutes to get here.
He can't leave work. He's at work. That's why
he can't leave. Ah, there you go. Look, here's
a picture of him. It's like he's here. There
he is. That's us in Napa. Okay, another question.
Okay, yeah. The alcohol content. On this one,
it is... I was not prepared for that question.
Let me see if it's on. You can tell us anything.
I can look on the bottle. No, really, my question
is... Really, my question is, is there consistency
in this category of wine? No. Not even that?
Nothing. There's nothing consistent in Pinot
Noir. 13 .5 % on this, which can be high for
a Pinot. Okay. Yeah. No, this is what I would
call a good Pinot. If I was working in a restaurant
and you were asking for a great Pinot Noir, I
wouldn't mind recommending this bottle. Sure.
100%. I would drink this every day. This is a
fantastic bottle to the point where I am super
excited to dive into the third one. I haven't
finished this one, but I'm like, this is excellent.
We may finish this bottle today. I think we're
going to finish all three, actually. Going back
to proof, we're obsessed with proof in the bourbon
world. We don't want to drink things less than...
You don't really look at that at wine. Exactly.
Why is that? You could have over... alcohol wine
in my opinion where that's all you taste and
you don't want to taste that in the wine interesting
there's there's people that look for higher percentages
of alcohol and wine and there's people that They
don't care. They're just looking for a good wine.
The majority of people that are looking for a
higher percentage of alcohol, they're not like
connoisseurs of wine. They're like, hey, I want
to get messed up and I want a bottle of wine.
What are you going to hand me? Like Mad Dog 2020.
Well, but in the bourbon world, we're finding
that the much higher proof bourbons are actually
tastier. That's what I'm getting. And we're enjoying
them, but that's not the case in wine. Yeah,
and I don't like the higher proof. My husband
does like the higher proof bourbon. Some of the
wines, it depends. With the bourbon, for those
wine drinkers out there that don't know, you
don't drink it at the same rate. For the higher
proof bourbons, you don't drink it at the same
rate you drink the lower proof ones. You take
smaller sips and you enjoy it longer. You don't
do shots of it. You burn a hole in your, that's
not enjoyable. Not even for people that like
bourbons. It's not enjoyable to do a shot of
140. cowboy or something not at all i mean jeff
does it i will say that because my husband is
gonna listen to this i drink my bourbon rather
fast i don't shoot it i don't shoot it but i
just sip it he'll look over and he's like damn
where's your glass go and i'm like well i mean
it's such a small glass it was it's gone well
there's another thing you drink san pellegrino
as we noted before the podcast i mean that typically
what we do is we'll have a beer and a bourbon,
or you have a side drink. Right. And I really
enjoy, at the house I have San Pellegrino, so
I enjoy pouring a nice, big, tall glass of bourbon.
Oh, tall. In a pint. A pint of bourbon, well,
yeah. Oh, my God. No, I've, of course not. Why
were you like a leprechaun? Yeah, it was a little
pint. It was a little pint. And there's some
San Pellegrino on the side. Yeah, there you go.
That's perfect for me, because you take a sip,
and depending on how it goes down, because like
wine, The longer it's open, it's able to get
a little embellished and kind of absorb and oxidate
a little bit and enjoy the climate. No, bourbon's
the same way. Once you open a bottle of wine,
what do you recommend on length to drink it?
Yeah, so that's going to chug. Yes. If you don't
finish it the first day. Is that right? Oh, okay.
So I was too aggressive. Is that where you pump
argon in there? I would say there's a few. Let's
talk about the most inexpensive way to save wine
is going to get one of those little air pumps
and you just like pump it. It's like pulling
the air out. You've got like three days, Max,
I would say. People are keeping their wines.
Every Thanksgiving. I love you, Elise, but my
best friend, Elise. She will keep her wine like
forever. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure it could
get up and walk out of the room at this point.
Like you should not do that. I mean, it's fermented
and it's not that. Requires a microbial treatment.
Right. The proof of it. You have three days,
you said. Three days. And if it's white, I would
say two. And if it's bubbly, drink, just drink
it. Just go ahead and chug it. What about storing
them? People talk about how they need to be stored
with the wine touching the cork. Yeah, and that's
a true thing. I mean, you know, you've been to
these distilleries and you've seen how they treat
the barrels, right? You've got to keep them moist.
I love that word, moist. She said it twice. I
think that's the third or fourth. I've been drinking
this really high proof wine. Oh, is that what
that's for? Oh my God. Is that out loud? It's
okay. You want to store them on their sides and
you want to keep them in some place that's not
humid and you want to keep them in some place
that's not bright. I tell everybody if you don't
have... I've only met one person ever that had
a humid pantry, so that's weird because I'm like,
that's gross. Humid and moist. Yeah. not oh thank
you there's my chipotle god bless um what you
don't want to do is is put it into a room that
that is that way so but yeah like a pantry is
a great place i you know we we had a pantry and
filled it with wine and then it moved into a
fridge that filled with wine and now it's also
overflowing into our room we have so many wine
bottles and my husband calls me the hand slapper
because i won't let him drink any of them He
doesn't know how much they're worth or when they
should be opened. I'm like, you can have the
cheap wines that are hanging right here. But
where do you store them? Do you have like a basement?
Oh, no, I have children. I don't have money.
Well, we don't either. She has a pantry full
of wine. Well, that's the cheap wine. So there's
a wine fridge. Oh, there you go. It's a vault.
It's a closet that you converted? No, it's not
a big one. It's like yay high. It's like, I got
one downstairs. The size of like a child. Yeah,
yeah. And so it holds, it holds. I don't even
know how many bottles it holds, but I've shoved
a lot in there. And then that's what she said.
Um, so there is that kind of podcast. Oh my God.
I've heard y 'all please. Also, have you not
behavior? Have you not heard of Toro? You can
get a car for super cheap on Toro. I'm just throwing
that out there from the last podcast. Okay. Um,
anyways, but it's okay. You won't have status.
That's aimed at Sean. I'm going to hurt. Listen,
Toro. Is Toro the better way to go? Toro, you're
renting cars from people. Are you kidding me?
Yeah, no. I had a BMW the whole entire time I
was in Napa and I was paying $20 a day. I thought
Toro was a lawnmower. Shut the front door. That's
what the guy used for the Cybertruck. He brought
up Toro. These are lawnmowers. What the hell
is that? No, that's not it. That's a dango. You
don't want the limited. No. She's driving a tractor.
Put Turo car rental. I want to drive that, though.
Isn't it like T -O -R -O? I have one more that
is kick -ass. Yeah, that's it. Oh, Turo. Yes,
Turo. Turo. Oh, my God. I'm texting. Turo. All
right. Well, look. Look, this is good. I'll tell
you what. I do like Hertz just because I do like
people. They hurt your taint. I don't give a
shit about Hertz. I don't care. But you know
what I do care about? I care about people. And
I like... Being around different types of people.
So when I'm used to a service and I meet the
people, I enjoy it. And I go back for that. We
are the people. We are the children. No, keep
going. It frustrates me. Like today, I tried
to rent a car. And I was going to get it set
up for Friday. And they were like, oh, guess
what? We don't return cars on Saturdays anymore.
So you want me to pay for Friday? And Saturday.
Saturday, Sunday. Oh, yeah, because you're closed
on Saturday. And then Monday. Because they're
closed Saturday and Sunday, I have to either
drop it off at the freaking airport. Oh, this
is the one in Frisco. The one here in Frisco.
You need to find a different outfit. You do.
You should go to Turo. I mean, I am going to
jump on in and find out what's going on with
this. You may find a car here, this guy or person,
that you rent this SUV and you just go to them
every single time. As far as I'm concerned, I'm
okay with it because I only need one type of
car. Is this the one where you're renting it
from a person? Yeah, but the thing is the prices
look higher here. It is somebody's individual
car, right? It is. $243 a day. That's a little
crazy. We didn't pay that. Look for a seven person.
Go down. Amen, sister. Oh, my God. If you scroll
down, the prices get cheaper. So I drove a really
old BMW, but it looked really nice, and I drove
it all around Napa, and I paid $20 a day, and
it's insured through them. How would you like
to rent a 2006 black Jetta? Well, you know what
happened is what she did. And she created a profile
on Turo and she put one of her pictures on there.
I want to rent from you. The guy's like, dude,
I'll give you for 20 bucks a day. To be fair,
my husband created the account. So I don't know.
But he is a good looking guy. Come on. But, you
know, you show up at the house wherever it's
parked. Right. You show up at the house and they're
like, open the door. Keys are in there. And you
just like they'll tell you exactly where to find
the keys. You take the keys and you drive off.
And when you return it, you do the exact same
thing. And then you are done. And somebody drives
your car. What about insurance? And then they
blow it up in front of the Trump. What about
insurance? So it's through them, I think, but
we have insurance, so I don't know. Maybe we
just used our insurance. So you don't have to
worry about insurance. I don't think so. I don't
know. They do. Yeah, my car insurance covers
rentals. Yeah, mine does too. What percentage
are stolen? There have to be stolen. No, because
that is stealing these. So you have to think
as a business owner, if Turo is a business owner,
they're not going to allow these people to just
come in there with stolen cars like they're they're
not going to do that. No, I mean, somebody. OK,
are these these are individuals that are renting?
Yeah. So let me give you an example. I have a
friend that is going through a divorce and she
wants to put her car on Turo on the days that
she doesn't need to drive. Crazy. And she can
pay her car off faster. So that she can use her
bills for other things. So, like, I have a crazy,
stupid, lifted Jeep with, like, I don't know,
$27 ,000 worth of work. And if I rented that,
like, people would pay a lot of money, right?
But I don't trust anybody with her. I'd kill
somebody if they messed them up. But, you know,
like, people do that, you know? What's the car's
name? Do you have a name? Her name is Poison
Ivy, and she has custom plates. Yeah, she's sexy.
Ooh. Poison Ivy. Nailed it. You are serious about
your Jeep. I am very serious about her. She is
my favorite child. I love you children. Well,
if it's on Turo, we should be. Oh, you said it's
not. I will not. Nobody's touching her. I could
not personally rent my vehicles through Turo.
Well, I mean, couldn't be anyways. But if I were,
I still wouldn't because I'm too OCD and weird
about things. Like when I get a rental car, I
have to clean it myself. Yeah. I carry wet wipes
and stuff with me. Actually, the people, they
would love that. If it's their car. Yeah, they
don't mind. I did that for the guy. I went and
like literally detailed it at a little station,
you know, like vacuuming. Yeah. Maybe I'll, look,
maybe I'll create a relationship with one of
these whomever they are. Because I mean, look,
I require, with my job, I require a vehicle to
trial maybe three hours one way at the most.
Maybe four one way. And then back. That's it.
And sometimes I have to spend the night, hopefully
not. But regardless, it'll be back within 24
hours. I actually think this is a great idea.
It's like super convenient. I'm going to explore
it because I've... Man, look, Hertz, they've
been around for a long time, over 100 years.
And it's a sign of the times. And they dove into
a rat's nest of investments with this... EVs.
The EV cars, man. They got screwed on this deal.
They screwed themselves on the deal. It was the
CEO that did it. He's in bed with Barack Obama
and the rest of the... I could be wrong, but
I think the CEO of Enterprise, which I think
has just as great ratings, is now the CFO. Yeah,
and now he's the CFO of Total Wine. I've just
thrown that out there. Bean counters. Bean counters.
Actually, Hertz filed for Chapter 7 three years
ago. My company I used to work for, I... Sold
them millions and billions and billions of dollars
of equipment every year. Those were butt plugs?
No, lots of... Yeah, you didn't specify what
kind of equipment. Lots of Cisco and networking
and shit like that. Wait, who takes a D -size
battery? What, are you changing a fire alarm?
I don't... Come on. Well, he's got these customers
from Somalia. I don't know that they are using
D -size batteries. Somalia? Oh, my God. But that's
an interesting concept. So the Turo, I'm totally
on board with that. I think I'm going to entertain
that whole idea because I'm pretty done. I mean,
I just rented another car from Hertz, and I had
to push it to Monday. And I shouldn't say this.
And they didn't care that you're going to have
to pay two extra days? Yeah, well, yeah, you
are. Well, no, I canceled it because it was on
Friday, and I was like, really? I called back
and said, no, I'm not doing this because you
guys are blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I'll start it again on Friday and Monday.
And by the way, I'm really unhappy about this.
And it's going to probably have some repercussions.
I will say with Toro, you have to drop the car
back off at the person's house. So in your example
of the first example, it wouldn't have worked.
Your example of this example does work. You should
have just said, do you have any idea who I think
I am? Have you seen my status? I am platinum.
It hurts. Come on. Damn it. I'm a very important.
I'm the president circle. I have status. I'm
going to wrap it up. I'm most anxious now that
we've talked about Turo. Most anxious to try
this next wine. Let's rock it out. Do we need
to down this? Is that what we're doing? Oh, mine's
gone. Oh, okay. We've been enjoying it. Oh, that's
good. The pinot was so tasty. I took a picture
and I sent it to my wife. I was like, we need
to get this one. Yeah, it's so good. It's so
good. Rating this one, this was very good for
me. Yeah, I rate it very, very, very good for
Pinot Noir. Three berries. Yeah, I like that
one a lot. Do you have a bottle of water over
there? I'm going to get that one. I do not. Would
you like one? Yeah. So this doesn't go in order
of dryness, does it? We're in order of price.
Of price. Okay, okay. This next one is a little
bit pricier, but I will say that we got a better
deal because we bought it retail versus buying
it from... one of the rules with these wineries
is that they have to let the people buy the winery
a little bit higher of a price so that the retail
environments can still make money. So especially
on the ones that are produced and they sell in
more retail environments, they make these agreements
out. So this wine, if you were to buy it directly
from the winery, it would be a little bit more.
But they do give discounts for their wine members
and sometimes that equals it out or whatever.
But this one's a fantastic wine. I'm really excited
about this one. And I told you, I've been out
there and done Harvest. This is the company that
I harvest for. I know the winemakers personally,
and I love it. And we have a signed bottle. Yeah,
it is. It is signed by John Harris. So John Harris
is one of the two owners of Amici. I've actually
never met the other one, John. I'm pretty sure
that he doesn't exist. Well, maybe John Harris
could join us someday. Oh, John would totally
be down with that. Really? I'll ask him. I'll
ask him. He loves it. He's a Texas man. He is
a Texas man, true and true. Nice. You said he
lives out in the California region. I should
pour. I feel like I'm... No, no, no. So I will
tell you that Miss Heather was adamant about,
no, this one needs to breathe immediately. As
soon as I get there, we need to pop this into
the decanter. So for those novice wine drinkers
out there, for some of these... these wines that
require for it to breathe, I highly recommend
you get this decanter. She got this from Amazon,
H -E -B, whatever it is. H -E -B, yeah. The bottom
line is that you got to get one that's got a
very large, swelled bottom to it so that you
have more surface area for it to breathe. That's
the whole idea. I have one of these. You have
bourbon in it. That's called a bedpan because
when you get drunk... No, no, no. I have one
that's shaped exactly like this. I got it from
a vendor and I was like, what the hell is this?
I had no idea that it was explicitly for wine.
Yeah, so I did have a really expensive, I think
it was like a $600 one that my husband broke
as well as $2 ,000. Holy shnikes. Yeah, so Riedel
makes really... No, no, no. Stop. How did he
break it? He's... You know what? We did have
to call him to find out. I don't know. He's broken
every Riedel glass that I own and I owned so
many of them. So they're all broken. We've probably
gone through. Was this through a drunken stupor
or I was washing the dishes? Are you over serving
him? I don't know. We've spent $2 ,000 on Riedel
before I finally was like, screw it. We're going
HEB and Amazon. God bless. Yeah. What's so special
about Riedel? Riedel, it's like the thinnest
glass out there, but when you drink wine out
of it, you can really smell. more, you can taste
more. The best way I can describe it without
sounding like it's a marketing scheme is. I ignorantly
want to throw a red flag and say that's bullshit,
but I don't know. Okay. So here's what I can
tell you. If the glasses are designed to hit
your olfactory nerve. And so if you think about
like when people had the big C word that nobody
wants to talk about COVID, right? You couldn't
smell and you couldn't taste. And so your lack
of smell affects greatly your lack of taste.
So therefore, if you smell more. You taste more.
And women do smell more than men. They can pick
up more. I believe that. My wife has a nose of.
Oh, man. That's amazing. I could fart downstairs
and she could smell it in the bedroom. Yeah.
How did you know? I thought you meant that they
stink more than men. Wow, I was going to say
that. If you think about like olden times, like
the men went out, they hunted. They didn't have
to smell an animal. They had a freaking dog that
barked at it, right? The women had to find herbs.
They're like sniffing the air. They're like -
Oh, my God. You know? All right, this is culture.
I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Generations
of - I'm going to say that to Shelly. I'm like,
go get some herbs. Go get some herbs. You know
what? That could be taken wrong. many ways. Yes,
yes, yes. I'll be right back. That is Oregon.
So tell us about this wine. Okay, so I did Harvest
for Amici, and I know that they're going to listen
to this. So when you say Harvest, you're talking
about you were out there picking the grapes and
stomping on them? No, no, no. This specific bottle,
right? So no, I went last year. Your feet have
been on these grapes. That was 2014. Did you
lose a toe ring? That would have been 10 years
ago. Oh, I found a ring. No, not that year. They
don't step on their grapes either. I've seen
them get in the vats though. I've gotten in the
vat, but there weren't like all the wine in there.
So it was just the grapes left. Okay. So the
Amici. Lord, I know. This is delicious. You already
started drinking? Oh, damn it. I know. Fuck it,
man. You can't put something in front of me and
not expect me to. I'm a child. Okay, so this
is... Okay, so this... Let me... I'll try to
do it as fast as I can because I know we're running
over on time. Okay, so John Harris and a guy,
I think his name is Bob. Thanks, Bob. Bob. I've
never met Bob. They own Amici. Amici means friends.
And they also have a vineyard out in France as
well. But these, like the vineyards that they
use here in California, they're through Napa
and Sonoma depending on... where they want their
grape. This is all from Spring Mountain. It's
a 2014. It is fantastic. So Amici, their wines
are a little bit more in, I would say, the style
of like French style. They're not going for that
really high sugar. They're not going for like
a ton of, they don't add color. They don't add
sugar. They're trying to. and build a beautiful
cab. But it's not true to like a normal Napa
cab because Napa cab can go for super high alcohol.
And I think this one is what? 14 .6%. It is 100
% Cabernet. Wow. And it all came from Spring
Mountain. So I'd love to hear what y 'all think
about this one. Well, I'm picking up on the nose.
I'm picking up some spice. First off, the first
time I stuck my nose, well, I didn't stick my
nose in it, but when I was first about, I picked
up some spice. Like it almost, almost didn't
necessarily burn my nose, but. I could feel it.
It's like baking spice. Yeah. Raspberry. Oh,
raspberries galore, I think. Are you looking
at the tasting notes? I feel like you might be.
I think he's cheating. I think he's cheating.
I don't even know how to do that. You are looking
at the notes. Don't listen to him. What a cheater.
I know. So one of the things I like about this
is you do get tobacco on this one. And I love
a wine that has some tobacco notes to it. And
I think this is true of many different spirits,
too. You can get some of this in spirits. But
I just really love this wine. I have quite a
few of Amici's bottles that are really hard to
get that you actually can't get via retail. You
can only get if you've gone to the vineyard.
Well, not the vineyard. It's hard to explain.
I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole because
we're running late. But I will just say that
Amici is amazing. So Dante and Tony are the winemakers.
Tony Biaggi has so many 90 -point ratings that
it's ridiculous, like over 90. I always jokingly
call him King Midas because everything he touches
turns to gold. Well, tell us about it. I mean,
how long have they been around? That's actually
a really good question. They've been around for
a while. I think... God, John, don't kill me.
I know it's over 10 years because we're drinking
in 2014 now. It's been a while. He raised his
kids in Napa. Okay, so he went to school in Bordeaux,
and then he moved to Napa. His kids played Little
League. John, you're what, 40, 50? Oh, God, don't
get mad at me. We're going to go with he's been
there for 20 years. Okay. Where? Okay, well,
that's good. Do they grow their own grapes? No,
but they use some of the best vineyards. So in...
Relation, because I've been out to Napa a couple
of times. Where are they at along that main strip?
Are they on that main strip or are they on the
other side? No, you couldn't even drive to them
if you wanted to because you're not allowed down
the road. It's restricted. So it's the CEO's
John Harris and the owner's Bob Shepard. Oh,
there's Bob. There we go. Oh, I know Melissa.
Hi, Melissa. I know you're going to listen. Hey,
girl. Hey. All right. So what's the sticker price
on this? This one is, well, if you buy it at
the vineyard, it's $250. I think that we paid,
I think, $175 for it. Well, this is outstanding.
So listen, I do not drink wine at all. This is
outstanding. It is. It's phenomenal. I think
the nose on this is phenomenal. They can send
us a bottle every once in a while to sample on
the podcast. Absolutely. Actually send it to
you so you can come back on the podcast. We're
going to... In the future, we're going to have
you back on. You're going to be on for the second
half. It'll be a different type of podcast. We're
going to talk about bourbon on this one. But
I think the next time you're out here, I think
what we need to have is one of our original extended
versions of the podcast. We had traditionally
done a three -hour podcast when we first started.
And we're kind of like, oh, it's too long, it's
too long, it's too long. I think for this one,
it might work out because there's a lot of information
that we need to build up. Dude, I have so many
more questions. Tons. Yeah. Like one of them
is, oh, that year was great. Oh, that year was
not so great. I understand it's climate -based,
but, you know, hey. We're going to intermittently
touch up on some of these questions on the first
half. Do you have any questions with us right
now? No, this was super fun. Thanks for having
me. You did have fun. Are you going to stick
around for the second half? I was planning. Are
you all kicking me out? No, absolutely not. I
am going to eat my Chipotle. I have a Chipotle
sitting over there. Well, we'll take a little
bit of a break, and you've got one more bottle
left to pour. Is that correct? No, not at all.
Nope. That's a surprise. We'll talk about it.
Yeah, it's a secret. It's a secret. All right,
well, it's January 15th. It's the first half
of the podcast. Dudes Like Us, I'm sold on. Before
I say that, thank you, Ms. Heatherliner. Thank
you. It is a pleasure having you out here. Thank
you for bringing all this product out here and
letting us sample it. And we look forward to
the next one. Well, real quick also, the Amici.
Can I find that everywhere? for only H -E -B.
Amici is sold at H -E -B. It's also sold at Total
Wine. I know that they have a couple of other
places they sell, but those are their two main
people in Texas. Okay. Instagram and Facebook.
Check us out at dudeslikeus .com or sorry, dudeslikeus
forward slash Facebook, whatever it is. Check
out also ThatSom, S -O -M -M from T -X, text
ThatSom, S -O -M -M from T -X. That is Headliner.
Check her out on Instagram and Facebook. Dudes
Like Us. I'm Sean. Thank you. you mr. producer
I am Jeff I'm Heather