A laid-back journey into the heart of wine culture Every week, hosts Sam Coturri, Bart Hansen, Danielle Langlois and Brian Casey pull the cork on real conversations with winemakers, growers, sommeliers, and industry trailblazers from Sonoma and beyond. The Wine Makers blends deep knowledge with a relaxed, no-snobbery approach to everything from biodynamic farming to rebellious cider makers and sake artisans. These are not dry lectures or polished promos—just passionate people talking shop over a glass (or three). The hosts’ decades of hands-on experience in vineyards, cellars, and tasting rooms fuel lively discussions about sustainability, storytelling, and the changing world of wine. Whether you’re just starting to explore wine or already know your skin-contact from your carbonic maceration, this show delivers honest insight, practical advice, and plenty of personality. Pour a glass and press play.
This week we sat down with Robyn Sebastiani from SVVGA, Tim Zahner from the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau and Mark Bodenhammer from the Chamber of Commerce to lay out the upcoming Vintage Festival.
The Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival is California’s oldest wine festival, with roots dating back to 1897 in Sonoma, the birthplace of California winemaking.
The festival began when local playwright and Sonoma Union High School principal Ben Weed staged a theatrical pageant called The Vintage Festival at the Gundlach family’s Rhinefarm in 1897. The play featured Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, resolving local problems in a festive, Bacchanalian celebration. The 1897 event was deemed “a great success” by the local press. In 1898, Weed returned with another Bacchus-themed drama, set in a natural amphitheater, where Bacchus and his followers helped a young man win a romantic contest.
For decades, Sonoma residents celebrated the grape harvest with the Vintage Festival, even during Prohibition (1920–1933), when alcohol was banned. According to a 1927 newspaper account, the festival continued with “dancing, games and feasting” using grape juice.
The Great Depression and World War II caused the festival to lapse for several years. The festival was revived in 1947 with a full-scale community celebration: costumed participants, a parade of horse-drawn wagons, and live music from Mexican bands. This marked the start of the modern tradition, organized by local residents, and supported by philanthropic groups.
Today, the Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival is held each September in the historic Sonoma Plaza—the largest town square in California and the site of the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt. It blends a free daytime street festival with wine tastings, artisan markets, live music, the sausage toss, and the signature Grape Stomp competition, alongside ticketed harvest dinners and the Grand Tasting at the Sonoma Barracks.
The festival is both a celebration of Sonoma’s winemaking heritage and a living link to its agricultural and community traditions, drawing generations of Californians to honor the region’s “grape bounty, community spirit, and rich history.” {ep 429]
We hope you can come join in the festivities.
www.sonomavalleywine.com
www.sonomavalley.com
www.sonomachamber.org
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This week, Jan Krupp from Krupp Brothers Winery joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Forging Eden, out Oct. 27. The book offers a front-row seat to the evolution of Napa Valley over the past 4 decades and Jan’s thoughts on where the region, and the wine industry as a whole, are headed next. It also tells the remarkable story of how he walked away from a successful medical career to chase an “impossible” dream: turning 750 acres of volcanic rock and barren mountainside into Stagecoach Vineyard.
Experts told him the land would never produce world-class grapes. They were wrong. Stagecoach became one of Napa’s most influential vineyards, supplying fruit to Caymus, Duckhorn, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Spottswoode, Pahlmeyer, Hall, and many others, while Jan and his brother also built Krupp Brothers Winery. Forging Eden is the story of the enormous risks, crazy engineering challenges, and sheer persistence it took to build a vineyard that plenty of people believed could never survive. [Ep 428]
This week, we’re joined by “Rainbow Valentine” and her father, “Walter Lemur,” of the wildly popular podcast Disorganized Crime: Smuggler’s Daughter. Over the span of 10 episodes, Rainbow’s podcast tells the story of growing up in the drug-smuggling hippie counterculture of 1970s and ’80s Marin County.
Walter was a particularly successful smuggler, and like many of his counterparts, he needed ways to launder all those ill-gotten gains. Some people bought vintage cars, art and antique jewelry, or made cash deals that skirted tax and banking laws. Walter did some of that, but early in his smuggling career he discovered a much more enjoyable way to invest his cash: fine wine.
Shockingly, Sam grew up with Rainbow, only he knew her as Thesaly…
Once he connected all the dots, we invited Thesaly and her dad to come on the show and tell some of his stories of wine “collecting.” We get into how “Walter” got into the business in the first place, some of the many dangers and complications along the way, and plenty of other meandering rambles. Most importantly, we dig into the wines he was investing in and what the world of fine wine was like in that heady era.
“Rainbow” and “Walter” also brought a surprising treat: the last of six magnums Walter bought of 1952 Krug Champagne, supposedly from Rémi Krug’s personal cellar.
The wine, like the stories, defied all logic and took us on a journey we could not possibly have predicted.
Buckle up, open one up, roll one up and get ready for one of the wildest episodes of The Wine Makers Podcast yet! [Ep 427]
Listen to Disorganized Crime and other great Rainbow Valentine podcasts here -> https://rainbowvalentine.com/ (we highly recommend Psychadelic Women)
Listen to the specific episode about wine buying and other cash cleaning tactics here -> https://bit.ly/4crw8HU
Follow Rainbow/Thesaly on Instagram-
@rainbowvalentinelemur @theukulady
This week we talked about nothing… And everything. Harvest is upon us, so we are a bit tired, and punchy, which is evident in our dialogue. One of our favorite wine club members and his wife joined the chaos.
RIP Dolly Parton & Tim Curry
Follow @trickingoffainteasy
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Monica Riebli has spent her career working in fundraising for nonprofits and through the years has popped a lot of corks of Champagne celebrating the success of those nonprofits. Monica believes that sparkling wine should be thought of as an everyday beverage, not just for special occasions. So she decided to do something about that by starting a Champagne Club. It might sound like a good excuse to travel to France and meet some of the 15,000 growers/producers, and find some of those that have the same passion and excitement that she has for Champagne and bring those wines to the states. For the launch of Champagne Cowgirl, Monica brought two producers to meet some of her members and we are lucky enough to have them on the podcast this week. [Ep 425]
Clara Lete – Champagne A.Lété
@champagnealete
Tom Lempereur Champagne Harlin Père et Fils
@champagneharlin
champagnecowgirl.com
@ChampsCowgirl
Blair Guthrie showed up to an idyllic fundraiser dinner in the middle of a historic vineyard, pulled out a glass sake jar of white wine and said in his disarming Kiwi twang, “Bra, you gotta try this!”
This episode was born out of Blair, friend of the pod, bringing a couple of four-packs of Bronco 1973 California White Wine to the SORBET dinner at Rossi Ranch. Questions abounded. What’s the blend? Where did the fruit come from? Wait, I thought Blair was an El Camino guy, not a Bronco guy? How come he didn’t bring more?
Blair and Bronco Wine Co. CEO Dom Engels sat down with the crew and brought more Bronco 1973 (thank God), along with a bunch of other projects Blair is working on. We dig into the storied history of Bronco Wine Co. and the Franzia family. Record scratch: Yes, that Franzia family, the original owners of the ubiquitous boxed wine brand and purveyors of Charles Shaw.
But there were some real questions to answer. How did Blair find himself working with Bronco? What does a guy like Dom, with a background in beer and food, know about winemaking? And how are these seemingly disparate parts actually a strength?
We answer those questions and more. More importantly, we explore what happens when you combine the winemaking ethos Blair brings to Guthrie Family Wines and Stewart Cellars, Dom’s perspective from outside the wine industry, and Bronco’s production power. Could this unlikely combination actually help drive some of the changes the wine industry desperately needs?
So fire up the El Camino and burn out into episode 424 of The Wine Makers Podcast. [Ep 424]
Hayden Stewart is a wine director, sommelier, and food & beverage consultant based in San Diego, California, with extensive experience across the wine industry — from vineyards and tasting rooms to large-scale events and private club beverage programs. He holds a WSET Level 3 certification and has worked in sales, distribution, fine dining, and education.
Stewart created the @the_angry_somm Instagram account as a satirical, snarky take on the wine world. The persona is designed to highlight what he sees as pretentiousness, hollow buzzwords, and overhyped marketing in the industry. Through humor, irony, and sarcasm, he critiques trends like chasing “rarity, prestige, and heritage” without substance, and argues that popularity doesn’t equal quality.
Hayden and his colleague Joe LoBue have started a new distribution company, Paragon Pacific Imports, to create a better way to communicate with small producers and buyers, reaching younger wine drinkers by meeting them where they are, and speaking to them in a way they understand. paragonpacificimports.com [Ep 423]
Why He’s “Angry”
His “anger” stems from:
Industry pretension — Stewart believes wine culture has become overly elitist and disconnected from everyday enjoyment.
Misuse of expertise — He criticizes sommeliers and marketers who focus on serving the same “five wines” without expanding their horizons.
Disconnect from younger drinkers — He argues the industry’s approach alienates the next generation, and that the true value of a sommelier is in meaningful, educational recommendations.
Pushing authenticity — He turns down most paid partnerships to focus on “subliminal education” that encourages people to care about the why behind a bottle.
@the_angry_somm
Stacy Buchanan is the founder of Blood of Gods, the cult biannual publication that explores the unlikely intersection of heavy metal and wine. Based in Walla Walla, Washington, Buchanan is also the force behind The Annual Merrymaking, a festival of wine, art, and music that draws industry professionals and metalheads alike.
We were invited to come join the fun.
Brooke Delmas Robertson from Delmas Wines was the moderator for the event that included Super Somm André Mack, Tyler Balliet from the Rebel School of Wine and Tegan Passalacqua of Turley and Sandlands. Brooke sat down with us and Stacy in her newly opened tasting room in downtown Walla Walla.
We were also hangin out with Kelly Cornett, wine educator from Atlanta, who was in town for the festivities, and is also a writer for the zine’s wine reviews. She has her own podcast, A Cork in the Road, so we decided to join forces and get some interviews. [Ep 422]
@delmaswines
@bloodofgodszine
@acorkintheroad
Tim Milos is a highly respected winemaker and consultant working across Napa and Sonoma, with current winemaking roles at Immortal Estate, Hidden Ridge Vineyard, and RD Winery, and as proprietor of Vino di Milos LLC.
He is a Napa and Sonoma-based winemaker with over 20 years of experience in wine production, vineyard management, and consulting. He is known for crafting terroir-driven wines using traditional winemaking techniques and a minimalist approach to highlight the unique characteristics of each vineyard block.
Tim has had multiple 95+ point ratings from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, was included in the Top 100 Wines of the World by Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast and has had 100-point wines from Wine Advocate and Jeb Dunnuck for his Impassable Mountain Cabernet Sauvignons RD Winery.
Milos began his career in the Finger Lakes before moving to Napa Valley, where he has worked with notable wineries such as Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Opus One, S. Anderson, and Cliff Lede RD Winery. He studied cell biology and biochemistry at Sonoma State University, enology and viticulture at UC Davis, and has experience in plant genome mapping at the USDA RD Winery.
His take on the chemistry of wine as it pertains to smoke taint is eye opening. [Ep 421]
@timothymilos
thewinemakerspodcast.com
Our good friend Artie Johnson returned for his third appearance on the show with one request: let’s talk about solutions instead of spending another hour dwelling on everything that’s wrong with the wine industry. As regular listeners know, we’ve always believed one of the best solutions is taking ourselves a little less seriously. So what better episode for that conversation than our milestone 420th episode of The Wine Makers Podcast?
We sat down with Artie and fired up a doobie… er, doozie of a show. Along with an impressive lineup of Le Artishasic wines—including some fascinating new bottlings from the Rocks District on the Oregon side of Walla Walla—Artie brought notes, receipts, and a clear vision for breaking out of the industry’s doom-and-gloom cycle. Better yet, he’s already putting that vision into practice with his own brand. The real question is: will anyone else be bold enough to follow his lead? Especially his neighbors in Napa Valley? You’ll have to listen to find out.
As for reaching 420 episodes, it’s entirely on brand that we somehow blew right past Episode 400 without so much as a mention. So instead, we decided to celebrate a number we know would have made John Myers smile.
More importantly, it’s a chance to say thank you. To the hundreds of guests who’ve subjected themselves to our interrogation. To our spouses, who somehow tolerate our love of hearing ourselves talk. To the entire Sixteen 600 team for everything they do behind the scenes. To Danielle Langlois for bringing a new voice to the show after we lost John. And, of course, to John Myers himself, who made this whole thing possible in the first place.
Most of all, thank you to the thousands of you who keep listening. You put up with the rambling, the occasional technical challenge, and all our nonsense. You buy the wines, visit the wineries, subscribe, leave reviews, and tell your friends (but only the cool ones). Without you, we’d have spent the last nine-plus years just talking to ourselves.
So pour yourself a glass (or roll yourself something)and settle in for Episode 420: The Gospel of Artie Johnson, Part III. [Ep 420]