Bung Pod!
Based in Washington State, Bung Pod is a wine podcast fusing comedic and unfiltered, unapologetic conversation with the passion of wine and unruly hot takes. Hosted by Ian King and Jas Shattuck with interviews by special guests within the wine community. Whether you are ready to learn something new about wine and grow your knowledge, or you are just here to have a good time, this podcast is for you!
Bung Pod!
#24: Cork and Fizz's Hailey Bohlman: Ukrainian Wine Discovery and the Rise of Virtual Tasting Clubs
Cork & Fizz Links:
Website: https://www.corkandfizz.com/
Private Tastings: https://www.corkandfizz.com/private-wine-tastings.html
Podcast: https://www.corkandfizz.com/podcast.html
Blog: https://www.corkandfizz.com/blog
Instagram: @corkandfizz
Ever wondered if Ukraine produces wine? Today, we’re joined by Hailey Bohlman, the inspiring founder and CEO of Cork and Fizz, who introduces us to a captivating Ukrainian white wine from her virtual tasting club, Cork Crew. We also chat about Seattle's recent heatwave, our shared fondness for cooler climates, and the ingenious Coravin wine preservation system that lets us explore multiple wines without opening entire bottles. Our tasting session of this unique Ukrainian find is not to be missed!
Hailey takes us through the creation of her virtual wine tasting club, launched during the pandemic to connect wine lovers worldwide. With twice-monthly meetings featuring interactive sessions with winemakers like actor Kyle MacLachlan, the club has become a vibrant hub for enthusiasts. We delve into the stories behind various wines, their makers, and the joy of these unique connections, making each virtual session a memorable experience for all involved.
Our journey continues through the diverse wine regions of California and Washington State, discussing everything from Zinfandel and Chardonnay to the fascinating Walla Walla wine region. We also explore the colorful history of sparkling wine and monastic brewing traditions. Wrapping up, we chat about the exciting development of a wine-tasting app designed to elevate your tasting experiences. Tune in for a delightful and informative episode that celebrates the passion and creativity behind every bottle of wine. Cheers!
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Bung pod. Welcome back, wine Wonderboy. And we got Jazzy J. Jazzy, what is a bung? The hole of the barrel is called a bung hole. Inside the bung hole is called a bung Wine with mayhem. That's what it's about. Welcome back to the bung pod. It's your boy, ian King, aka Wine Wonder Boy. Jazzy J is not here, unfortunately, because I moved to Woodinville and she's still in Chelan, but we love her. She's with us in spirit. Say what's up to her in spirit. What's up. If you like this podcast, please rate us on the podcast platform. You're listening to us on um on youtube. Please like, subscribe, comment. All that good jazz. For today we have an awesome episode. We have, uh, hayley bowman here, the founder and ceo of cork and fizz.
Speaker 1:Hello what up how you doing today good, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm wonderful, I'm wonderful I'm so glad it finally cooled down today. It was like one of the fun, like nice days of Seattle summer after being so hot.
Speaker 1:It's been so hot in Seattle lately.
Speaker 2:Stupid hot, and it's not even August yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so funny. I spent like 11 years in Southern California Um this past week. I'm just like I want the clouds, like I moved to.
Speaker 2:Seattle for a reason.
Speaker 1:Are you from here or?
Speaker 2:No, I'm from the Midwest, so I think Seattle's actually just made me awful to any sort of temperature other than just like chill, like somewhere between like 50 to 70. Anything less than that, or more than that, I'm just like I can't handle it anymore.
Speaker 1:Well, you posted a reel on social media about Santa Barbara wines. Yeah, so I'm opening up a Santa Barbara wine for you. That's where I lived for 11 years in Santa Barbara. So, it's technically Central Coast, sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Santa Barbara people listening to this would be like we're not Southern California, but I have a Bent Rock Vineyard Chardonnay from Sondy. They're amazing. That's a Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay, so I'm very excited to share that with you. Raj Par and Sashi Mormon. My friend Julia, works there as well. What's up, julia? And you brought a fun wine today.
Speaker 2:I did, yeah should I open it up? Get you a glass here? Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:This is so. It's crazy wine that I had in the fridge. I thought this was perfect. I'm like I need a white wine because it's still warm out, but it's a Ukrainian white wine, which I know. It's like they make wine in Ukraine. I didn't think so either. So I have a virtual tasting club. It's called the Court Crew. We get together every month and learn about new wines from all over the world, and every quarter I figure out you know what theme do we want to do? And I look up. I have a bottle partner that sells the wine for this. You don't have to buy from them. You can, you know, join from wherever.
Speaker 2:But I always like to have it as an offer and I saw on there like new wines ukrainian. I was like there's ukrainian wine we need to do this, so absolutely had to talk about it, um, and so this is one. This is celtic. I don't know if I'm saying that right, I'll be honest um but this is a ukrainian.
Speaker 2:So some things that I read said it was a local ukrainian wine so indigenous to ukraine. Other places said it was indigenous to Turkey and they planted it in Ukraine. But for the most part, from what I can tell, you can really only find it in Ukraine.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's amazing. I'm so excited to try this.
Speaker 2:I can't open it and talk at the same time. I was like I just had to tell you about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah absolutely, did you Corvin that?
Speaker 2:I did. That's cool, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I could tell.
Speaker 2:It was just, uh, I think I had that tasting and then I was going out with girlfriends afterwards so I'm just like, yeah, I don't know when I'm gonna drink the rest of this. But then we had this interview and I was like yeah, this is perfect.
Speaker 1:I still have yet to purchase a Coravin. I will at some point, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:But it is like the one device that like when you think of oh man, that got me um. When you think of oh man, that got me Um. When you think of, like wine devices, I think a lot of them are really gimmicky and kind of silly.
Speaker 2:Um, corvin is the one that's 100% worth it, Like it does what it's supposed to do, especially if you're a wine aficionado who, like would love to just like do a tasting at home and open like three bottles of wine at one time to like try all the wines a Coravin. I do think it's actually worth it. I've had I got it as a gift, the first one, and then I did get one as a product, like release type thing, um, but I've had a Coravin for like three or four years now and I really do. It's like the one thing I say is worth it.
Speaker 2:I do a lot of Coravin at the restaurant, but yeah, well, it's just nice at home and like if you want to open something that's like kind of nice, but you're also like it's a Tuesday night and I don't want to drink this whole bottle.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You, Corvin, or you know, you have two Ukrainian wines. I did open the other one regularly, but you're like. I definitely want to save this for another moment to share with another wino.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now I get to thank you, mind if I pour? Yeah, please do, I'll pour yours first. Here you are, go ahead and grab it.
Speaker 2:There you are sweet yeah, I'm very curious to hear what you think. I had a couple different thoughts come to mind when I first tried this.
Speaker 1:Okay, oh nice, nice pale straw color agreed Nice, nice, pale straw. Color Agreed Ooh yeah, it's a little flinty, which is cool, right yeah?
Speaker 2:Super minerally. This comes from Bakehush Winery. They're like right on the oh I'm not going to get the C right the Black Sea and then on the bay there, and so they get a lot of minerality in that seashell kind of note in their white wines.
Speaker 1:Oh, we have a lot of a couple of sea-influenced whites yes. Wish I had some oysters to go along with it.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god right.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, right, no, it's great, it has um.
Speaker 2:I feel like there might be a little bit of lees contact in there. Yep, yep, they said. I'm trying to remember a little. They left it on the lease for a little bit oh, that's beautiful right why don't? This is like barrel fermented or they had a little. Let me see if I can remember. I was like I did. We did talk about this and they mentioned it on the back, on this.
Speaker 1:Can you say the great variety again?
Speaker 2:Uh, so I think you say it Tell T Kurok.
Speaker 1:Tell T Kurok.
Speaker 2:That's my guess but, I don't speak any Ukrainian.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Um, but this is so fermented in stainless steel tanks, and then young wine is left five months on the leaves.
Speaker 1:Wow, we do have one listener in Ukraine, so what's up?
Speaker 2:Hey. What up you can probably tell us more about this wine than what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:If you look in the description of this show, click the link that says send us a message or text us a message, and maybe you can chime in on this please. Um, yeah, well, that's great, that's really good, that's killer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's three wineries from ukraine that are importing right now, um, into the us, or with an importer vine ukraine I don't know if that's actually how you say it, but it looks like v? Y n? E ukraine, but with a y instead of an e at the end. Okay is importing three different wineries. There's this bakush, and again, I'm probably not saying that right, I'm so sorry um, and then the famous tennis player starkovsky has a winery, oh wow and there's a third one out there chateau chise c C-H-I-Z-A-Y.
Speaker 2:Interesting those are the three that you could potentially find in the US. They're primarily in New York area.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's where this bottle is from from Bottle Rocket.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:But yeah, they're out there.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. Does New York have the largest population per capita of wine nerds?
Speaker 2:I feel like they must. They also just have like the best wine because it costs the least to get it over from. That's true europe, right, and then for us over here everything is so much more expensive because we have to get it from new york to us. You know, yeah, um, but yeah, I feel like new york probably.
Speaker 1:I mean look, just look at all the wine bars in new york yeah, there's so many wine bars and wine shops in new york it's crazy, but there's so many people, it's like, yeah, I can make this work because.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, there's so many people there that are going to be drinking it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Dang. So how's your virtual tasting club work?
Speaker 2:So it's basically I started it back in 2021, but it's pretty simple. It's kind of funny because I started during like the pandemic, when everybody, everything, was going virtual. But I really wanted to keep it going Cause it was this idea that you could connect with anybody you know across the entire world. Um, I have folks and it's mainly us based. I have a couple of Canadians and one um English English girl who's based in Spain, which is funny, um, but um, we get together twice a month. But we get together twice a month. First time is to learn about new wine. So I'll put together a little slide deck and just kind of do the research and teach people.
Speaker 2:So, about Ukraine, I just kind of did that deep dive of you know, where are they making it, how long have they been doing this, what are the grapes that they use, and so we'll do a tasting and, like I said, you can purchase wine from my partner.
Speaker 2:I do a box every quarter, so every three months you can get wine from there or I'll send you out like a list of like suggested. Okay, when it came to the Ukraine wine, I was kind of like you buy it from these guys or you try and do your best to find it. Um, but other times we talk about, you know, we did one that was like a Tempranillo based, and so you know, try two different. You know, the Rioja versus the Ribera del Duero, and like, just find you know two different versions of that and give it a try. Or like Chardonnay, let's try a Chablis from Burgundy versus one from California, and so, yeah, we just get together once a month to do that, and then the second time I try to do a Q&A as often as I can with other wine professionals. So either winemakers, sommeliers we also once had, I think the most famous person was Kyle McLaughlin, the actor but also the founder of Pursued by Bears. So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:There's nobody I won't ask to come. I can't guarantee that they will?
Speaker 1:but I will always ask Kyle's really nice. He's so nice. I met him a couple weeks ago. Yeah, and he came into the restaurant to shop his wines out and they're uh, they're, really good, like the winemaker from abeja makes his stuff and you know, honestly, I, you know I don't want to offend anyone, but like pursued by bears, wine's better than abeja's well, and I feel like he actually like cares about the wine too like when, when you know like you think a lot about like celebrity wines.
Speaker 2:Like, sometimes I kind of roll my eyes at them, but.
Speaker 1:But he was shopping at TOS personally and he's the one.
Speaker 2:Like he knows about the wine he goes in and like is involved in making it, and like we saw him at Taste Washington. He was there, yeah, which was also like you came to Taste Washington, like you were very busy. I have so many things to do, yeah.
Speaker 1:He's from Yakima, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:What up?
Speaker 2:So like I just thought it was so cool. And so when he was there and he was very friendly, talks to everybody but then anytime you get a chance to like ask him about the wine, you can just tell he gets very excited. He's like, yeah, I get it, I I've been on these shows and like twin peaks and whatever, but you like does not want to talk about the movies he's made which, by the way, I completely forgot like I was.
Speaker 1:I've been watching um how I met your mother again oh yeah for, like the I don't know third time fair all the seasons. I've watched all the seasons and I'm like on my third time. I just think it's so funny. Um, but he's actually in the show, is he?
Speaker 1:really he's the sailor there, he's the captain they call him the captain who is zoe's husband and it's like it's so funny because ted like had a crush on zoe, so he's married to the sailor. They became friends with the sailor. They took him on a boat. You know, it's like it's so funny. I was like that's, that's fucking kyle. I saw him a couple weeks ago. Like what the heck?
Speaker 2:it's so funny. Wow, I haven't. I haven't like watched that show like in continuum, but like watched it a lot of times when it's like popped up you know I'll have to now.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen a lot of it. I haven't seen twin peaks, I haven't really seen his shows or movies that often, but I do. I I was like I've seen him in a bunch of stuff and it was how I met your mother. I think that was the main thing for me. Next time I see him, like the sailor or the captain, the captain.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so we get together and we just do Q and A's like that. So it's very chill and just a good way to like get to know.
Speaker 2:I always love like one of the things about wine is like the people behind the wine right Like it's one of the coolest things about it, where, like, there's always a story behind the bottle and like getting to learn that. So like getting to ask these winemakers those types of questions like why did you choose to do this? Like, why did you go into the world of winemaking? It's a really hard field to be in Like you must love something about it, um, and so just a cool chance to do that, and so, yeah, we do. Usually about two events a month.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, yeah, so you kind of have this. I mean I don't want to say like revolving door, but you have a lot of things that you're kind of doing yes, A lot. Do you want to? For people that might not be familiar, do you want to explain all that you do? Sure.
Speaker 2:I'll give it my give it the best go yeah. So with Cork and Fizz. Cork and Fizz was originally founded as a virtual wine tasting business, the idea to like educate folks on wine and just kind of create these really unique, fun experiences when we really needed it it was during the pandemic in 2020, when it started, and like all you had were like Zoom happy hours you know with, like your coworkers, and it was very boring.
Speaker 2:You'd just be like what'd you do today? Nothing, I sat here, and now I've got some wine in my glass, you know. So I wanted to like, and I love learning, so and I love teaching, so I kind of like brought that all in. So I do still do the virtual tastings. I'll do private tastings so I can do them for corporate or for just private, like a birthday or bachelorette party type kind of thing.
Speaker 2:And people can be from all over, or you can all be in one place and then I, you know, virtual telecommute in um or I do in-person tastings now. So in or around the Seattle area those are great for birthdays, bachelorette things like that, um. But yeah, so the private tasting area, um, and then I do the court crew virtual tasting club. So kind of that virtual tasting but a membership style Come on, show off your shirt.
Speaker 1:You got some merch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got the sorry my hair is gone.
Speaker 1:There you go, there, you go A little cork crew situation here Bam bam Nice.
Speaker 2:You can tell it's a little old too. It's a couple of years. It's gone through the laundry quite a bit. But yeah, cork crew. And then I do have a podcast. I started that a little over a year ago. It's called the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine, again very much focused on that education portion. I always have, like a little bit, a couple episodes where it's just me solo talking about something in the wine world that I think is fun and then bringing on lots of different guests from all over the world of wine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have the podcast trying to think I do some local events. So I have day retreats coming up, especially here in Woodinville, um, or down in like Soto and Seattle South downtown area, um, and so that's basically just like a day of wine tasting where I've planned it all for you and you can just buy a ticket, and it's like three wine tastings Usually try to do something a little special each time, so it's like something you couldn't do, you know, just book on your own. So like the next one coming up is in Soto at the end of this month, cool. And so like at we're going to Lata Wines.
Speaker 2:And we're going to do like a blind tasting experience. So we're going to taste their GSM blend and then taste each of the Grenache, syrah, mouvedre, single varietals. Blind and like, try to like guess which one is which so? But yeah, those are like those little experiences to tie in there.
Speaker 1:Check the show notes for all the links to Haley's stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's. I think that's pretty much everything that's keeping me busy these days.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of stuff. Yeah, that's a lot of balls rolling.
Speaker 2:I like to, I like to try a lot of things.
Speaker 1:That's cool, that's really cool. I love that. Wow, this wine is so interesting, though, like isn't it I'm trying to. I'm trying to maybe like along the lines of chablis, I guess I'm trying to like compare it to something that like people would understand very like.
Speaker 2:I think that mineral note is the most noticeable. I also almost wanted to say like, um, it made me think a little bit of like an aged Riesling and like the, the petrol kind of like. I don't think it's totally there yet, yeah, but it's like reminding me of that with like. It does have that nice depth and you know, and especially with the Lees too, I don't know if you want to go like Muscadet, since that's always like a bright wine, but on the Lees so you get a little more like mouth feel, and it's not just acidic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it has some like roundness, for sure. What vintage is this? It is, oh, it's a 22. Nice, that's rad. Yeah, that's a beautiful wine. Okay, check out Ukrainian wines, guys. It's crazy they're worth trying. It is interesting, though, when you think about some of these Northern uh climates and, like you know, climate change, and you're like what's gonna happen? Are they gonna?
Speaker 2:be growing grenache at some point, like I mean, that's the thing like they were even talking about, like all the regions in ukraine right now, like the wine growing regions, are primarily southern ukraine or a little bit in the west, kind of where it's like close to like hungary and moldavia in that area, um, but they're starting to go north because they're like these areas that you couldn't ripen grapes before you, kind of can now you kind of can. So we're going to do it.
Speaker 1:I really wonder if places like Bordeaux or the Rhone are going to start irrigating.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or need to start irrigating. I mean they're going to have to start doing something.
Speaker 2:You know, when you think about, when you look on that map, it's always you think like between like the 20 to 50 degree, like parallels right, but like that's significantly moving up as climate change is happening, and like yeah, they're gonna have to do something or they're gonna be producing these like giant bombs of a wine and like yeah people don't.
Speaker 1:I mean some people like that, but at least right now that's not like the most popular thing no, like france has always kind of shitted on napa for having like really really huge, syrupy, bold wines, and so it's like are you gonna produce that now, or like they've been shitting on everyone for like irrigating?
Speaker 2:and like are you gonna have to do that now you might be where this all started, but you're gonna have to learn from us sorry french people.
Speaker 1:We've collaborated in the past.
Speaker 2:Phylloxera that was kind of our fault, sorry, but we fixed it too that was our fault and we did fix it.
Speaker 1:At least we tried. Uh, phylloxera is like everywhere now, except for what? Mendoza, Uco Valley.
Speaker 2:I think Chile has avoided it a little bit too.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, chile for sure has, and there's maybe a couple spots in Australia.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, australia would make sense and I think some areas I met a friend from Croatia and I think there are some areas in Croatia as well, I kind of think, like the little island areas right, that were like hard for things to get. There was hard for phylloxera to get there, yeah, um, so they might have some some old stuff too dude, croatia cracks me up as a country.
Speaker 1:Just be just like not like the people, or like it's just like when you look at a map and like bulgaria sitting there like oh yeah, beachfront property, and and then croatia's like fuck, you are like just trying to, we're having all the beach yeah, all of it we have like 200 plus islands.
Speaker 2:Like everything, we have all the beach it's crazy.
Speaker 1:I do want to try um trippa jag, or, uh, carl janet katansky, um the great variety you know.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's uh. That's originally uh Zinfandel.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, or Primitivo yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's like where apparently it originated from was Croatia, and then it went to Italy and it's Primitivo. The Italians came to California, started planting all these grapes and now it's mutated into Zinfandel. Yeah, so it's like I really want to try the like the original thing, and just see how far it's gone.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sure it's like yeah, very different.
Speaker 1:I just know that, like Zinfandel in California, is a pain in the ass to harvest and a pain in the ass to harvest and pain has to grow.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a, it's a pain in the ass because it, um, it matures unevenly. So are you familiar with shatter, like what shatter looks like in a grape? So, uh, I took a viticulture, I'm from Washington state university, go Cougs, um, and so shatter is when some of the grapes on there go to full matureness, um, but there are some still very young green berries in there, and so if you are doing like sample sizes, if you're doing cluster samples, so really going to fuck up your, and especially for people that um, do not, um, not um, sort sure there's a lot of people who don't sort um that make really great wines, and you have those are.
Speaker 1:If you get shatter in your grapes, you have to sort it. So zinfandel is very similar, like one part of the cluster will be full ripe berries and the others will be completely green, which is why, like in Paso Robles, they make like 16 point percent ADV.
Speaker 2:Oh, they like try to wait for everything, so they wait for everything.
Speaker 1:But then people in Mendocino County north of Sonoma are making leaner, more bright and vibrant styles of Zinfandel. That's more, I guess, um more closer to primitivo sure is that where like where's dry creek valley dry creek. I feel like it's everywhere um.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to like where dry creek valley I went to I did an event a couple years ago, those dry creek valleys um, it was very good.
Speaker 1:It was not what I was used to. That's all I know. It's in Sonoma somewhere. Yeah, I think it goes into. I'm not sure if Dry Creek goes north into Mendocino or if it goes east into Napa.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I don't remember that, but yeah, anyways it's. Yeah it's kind of wild and so like people in Paso like Paso gets so fucking hot, you know it's like wild and so like people in paso like paso gets so fucking hot, you know it's like, have you been there?
Speaker 2:I have not been there.
Speaker 1:I've heard good things it's not too far away from santa bar, it was like three hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just like not as much my thing. I I do kind of prefer the cooler I do too this is why we're in washington state um.
Speaker 1:So this guy, the bent rock vineyard, santa Rita Hills, chardonnay from Sondy um Rajpar Sashi Julia this is like the and everybody's like.
Speaker 2:I hate Chardonnay. I hate any type of oak or Chardonnay. I'm just like, but like, just give it a chance you haven't had the right one yet and Santa. Yet is like the place where, like I honestly like I think I was a little bit of a snob when it came to wine when I first got into it of like I was for sure yeah, I was well and I was like it's funny because like I got into it through Oregon, so I was like Oregon Pinot is what's good?
Speaker 2:and I'm like, ew, california Pinot. And then I tried Santa Barbara, and especially Santa Rita Hills, and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry I'll be quiet now. You're like what up, santa Barbara?
Speaker 1:though I'm so sorry, yeah, so when I was in Santa Barbara, I was there for a total of 11 years, but I was only in the wine industry for I believe, five, ok, yeah, five years there and I was making wine, interning places, making a lot of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, yeah, and also a lot of Rhone varieties which was so fun.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, yes, yeah, and those two— Because you get to blend and that's really fun.
Speaker 1:It's a blast and those two are like my palate, essentially Okay. It's like I go, Rhone and I go, but I, I don't like boozy wines, like I'm not a fan of anything above like 14.5. I'm just like I'm not gonna. I don't want to drink that no. I like. 13.5 is my sweet spot, and lower yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, if I see, like especially like we were out tasting this past weekend I was saying with my girlfriends, and like I saw like a red wine at like you know, 12%, I'm like, oh, I gotta try that yeah, I gotta try that Exactly.
Speaker 2:Oh no, this is delicious. This is like this is a treat, like this is when you pour yourself a glass of wine, when you're like I was hungry for a little treat, but I'm actually going to have this, and I don't mean like it's sweet, it's just like hits all the right spots. It's so good and it just has so much going on and you can just be like is so good um, I'm not.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna say something, but it sounds like I'm bragging. I'm trying to flex, I'm not. I just work at a place where sometimes some people bring awesome wines in and then they leave it there and I gotta try it fair and so um. This reminds me of a. I had a premier coup santo bon uh what last weekend um chardonnay, and it just like, it was just so nice, like the bad part about tasting these wines, you're like but I want to take the whole bottle home like this would be like this bottle is like best way to describe it's like it tastes like vacation of.
Speaker 2:Just like if I open this bottle and just like went out and sat outside or even I could just be laying on my couch, but it would still feel like a nice treat of relaxing.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So much going on. Yeah, I'm a sucker for a good Chardonnay.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean Raj tried to do.
Speaker 2:He tried to make burgundy in california and like and not having it be like. I think a lot of people are like. Well, I'll drink chardonnay, but only if it's unoaked or like the stainless steel, and you can make good ones that way too yeah but I think finding that right balance between a little bit of oaked, a little bit of that like waxy kind of oiliness and a little bit of that like umptious kind of note to it is is so good it is so good, you just gotta do it right.
Speaker 1:yeah, you just gotta do it right, come on, okay. So you said shibli, the uh, earlier and you were, and you said california. So I had some people I owed, customers of some sort, like a couple years ago. I don't remember where I was working at the time, but they're like oh yeah, I don't like Chablis, because the last one I had was from California and I was like, wait, there was a time where California was calling it Chablis and I don't know if it's sort of like the champagne rule, like they got grandfathered and I wonder if it's still around or if, like when they, when the people were describing it to them, they said it's shibli style, right, I think?
Speaker 2:there's a lot with wine. That is super confusing in the terminology of it because there's so much that's new. So even if you just like go to a tasting room and they just give you a basic description of the wine, there are probably like five things in there that, if you're not a total wine nerd, don't make sense to you, so you're just gonna like latch on to one oh, totally, and so potentially maybe they just like when they had the california wine.
Speaker 2:They were there and the guy was like you know it's a chablis style, it's a chablis style, or we make it in the style of chablis and like that's what's stuck in their head, or something like that it was probably just like a shitty wine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't like it.
Speaker 2:You haven't had actual chablis no well, and even then I feel like I always try to tell people that, like my biggest thing and like why I kind of created cork and fizz and also why I dated the virtual tasting club is like I think the biggest thing on wine is just keep trying new wines. And also like don't give up on a wine because you had one bottle of it that you didn't like, whether it be one bottle from a specific region or one bottle, like a lot of times in the US, we stick to like the variety or like the name of the grape, yeah, and it's like oh, I had that chardonnay, I don't like chardonnay. I had that pinot noir. I don't like pinot noir.
Speaker 1:And it's like that's impossible I had snoop dog's cali blanc and now I don't like sauvignon blanc. No offense to snoop dog, he didn't make it. I love you, snoop dog.
Speaker 2:Like I think, yeah, there are plenty of wines like. You're not supposed to like every wine, that's fine. You can dislike wine yeah but you can't give up on its entire group yeah to like, be like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't like that at all yeah, I worked under a wine buyer that he totally disregarded the whole country of south africa. What? Because of pinotage oh my god and he's just like yeah, it's just terrible. I was like, why? And he's like I just don't like pinotage. I was like, but there's a lot more there. Yeah, they make like stainless steel chanel blanc that's zippy and fresh and really good then I guarantee you there's gonna be pinotage that you like oh, I've had one that I've really liked, yeah, and it's like and before like ones that you're like about.
Speaker 2:Like, I'll be honest, I do love roan blends, but I get more excited about the white roan blends because I'm not a huge grenache fan okay which sounds crazy, as like somebody who, like I, typically like like lighter fruity, you know kind of reds, um, but grenache was never one that like stuck with me so it's not one that I'll like reach for like I'll admit that.
Speaker 1:What about like a lighter 13.5?
Speaker 2:I mean, like I said, like I would try it like if it's being offered or if it's like something that kind of sounds interesting, but like it's one of those that I'll admit that like, if I see it, I do kind of glaze over it and look for something else but also like if somebody were to offer me one, like if you happen to have, you know you were opening a Grenache. You know, for us today it wouldn't have been like oh, I don't like grenache.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I can't drink that, but people will be like that like there's many times where I've like brought forward a wine and they're just like no, thank you, I don't drink that they will just try a little bit yeah, I'm just like, just a sip I mean, you can dump it out yeah, and now I'm just like half the time I'm like I think I'm just gonna like start introducing things like blind and just be like here, I have some wine, some wine for you, yeah, and like not tell them what it is and let them try us at first and then, and then see what happens. Yeah.
Speaker 1:No, there is this time. So when I worked at Carhartt family wines in Santa Barbara, they had a Merlot and sideways was based in Santa Barbara and it was filmed in Santa. Barbara, right, and there there's so many people there that were like, oh, I just don't drink merlot and so when it was on the tasting, I've got, I got that so much when it was on tasting menu. I'm like I'm just not gonna fucking tell them it's merlot until I'm gonna come back and check on them and like oh how was the wine?
Speaker 1:like oh yeah, and then tell them it's, that's like what I would do. I'd be like so here's your next red we. I would give them all the information except for the grape, what it is. Yeah, I was like this from this vineyard this percentage of new french oak and then the rest is neutral barrel. So I hope you guys really like it. It's from this vineyard over there. Um, yeah, enjoy, and then I'll just come back come back after how'd you like this wine?
Speaker 1:like oh, it's really good. What was it again? Like oh, it's our merlot, and they're like what. I usually don't like merlot, but I love this yes, yeah, I was actually surprised.
Speaker 2:So this past, uh, april, I did a wine retreat out to walla walla. It was my second year doing it. Um, but one question that I wanted to ask everybody out there, because I feel, like walla walla, it's still new enough as a wine region, right, that there's not like one thing that Walla Walla is known for, and so I wanted to ask all the winemakers and any of the like wine professionals that were leading the tastings for us Like what do you think like Walla Walla, like should be known for or like will be known for in like 30, 40 years?
Speaker 1:from now.
Speaker 2:I was amazed with the number of people that said Merlot, oh really, yes, no way. I think I asked like I think I forgot to ask towards the end. Um, but I think out of the like eight or nine that I asked, half of them said Merlot.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And I was like I wouldn't even thought of that, Like I was expecting, like winemakers. I asked. A mix of it was like winemakers. A couple of them were like the wine professionals, kind of more like the tasting room manager.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:One of them was like the one that always does the. We did a blending workshop at North Star which, like their thing, is Merlot. But there were quite a few and one of them didn't even make Merlot at the time, it was a winemaker and he's like. But I think, yeah, I do think Merlot is like going to be towards the top and he's like I'd like to make more of it, but we need to make what sells right now.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And Merlot isn't at the top right now. And I just I thought that was wild. I was expecting either Cabernet right now is Syrah. I think that's what I was going to say yeah, I think Syrah is the coolest thing out of Walla Walla.
Speaker 1:But yeah, many of them said Merlot that's, nuts, that's so crazy Gotta, try a Walla Walla Merlot, yeah, oh my gosh. One of my friends went down to uh, portland for like a wine convention, um, and he was at a wine bar and he was like, yeah, like I want something cool, you know whatever, and I want an oregon wine, right, yeah, and they're like, oh, we have this uh, really awesome syrah from milton free water.
Speaker 1:and then he was just like bro, like I want something, for, yeah, it's oregon we know, technically it's oregon, we get it geez, but he's like no, I drink so much of that stuff in Washington already.
Speaker 2:That is the weirdest thing, isn't it? Where, like it's like Walla Walla is, most people think of it as a Washington region, but it crosses over into Oregon and then, like talking to, like one of my favorite wineries down there, uh, delmas have you ever had their wine?
Speaker 1:Yeah, brooke does. I haven't had their wine yet, but I've heard it's great. Okay, great wine.
Speaker 2:But Brooke, it does a vineyard tour down there that I've gotten to enjoy a few times and talking to her about it, it's really fascinating because it's very difficult for them to like label their wine. Oh yeah. They can label it by the vineyard, they can label it by the vineyard. But if you didn't like own the vineyard yourself, or if it came from a couple different places, yeah, like you couldn't say like the Rocks District or you know Walla, walla or you can't say like it's so annoying, like the rules based off, like what state you're in, because it has to be a state wine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But if it comes from multiple different states or something like that, even if it's multiple states, then you have to call it like usa, yeah, just like imagine getting a wine and be like this is a usa wine excuse me, what vinda usa?
Speaker 2:yeah, like um, what? I don't know about that, but like it was interesting hearing her talk about it and they're really trying to push for like better rules and legislation regarding especially those type of avas that like oh, because I know the reason why is it's protecting those places that like ship grapes to like other states. You know, like I'm from wisconsin that makes sense.
Speaker 2:There are wineries that bring in a bunch of grapes or juice from california and, like, california doesn't want them to be able to label the wine california wine. So it's like if you bring grapes over the state border, but if you're Delmas and you bring grapes from your vineyard in Oregon over to your winery in Washington, but it's all in Walla Walla. You should be able to label it as such.
Speaker 1:Really should. Yeah, that's interesting because I've had a number of Roti bottles and Roti's facility and tasting room is in Walla Walla. They also have one in Soto over here in Seattle and one in Portland, I think too. Um, but some other labels say Washington state, and then the last one I had said Oregon, and I was just like I'm just like a little like I get it, but at the same time I'm just like wait, hold on. I had an estate, one that was from Washington State as well. I'm just like what?
Speaker 2:I thought they have a tasting room. That's in nearly Milton Freewater. It's on the Oregon side it's in the vineyard.
Speaker 1:Interesting it must be, depending on where they make it.
Speaker 2:Yeah nearly Milton free water, like it's in the. It's on the Oregon side, yeah, it's in the vineyard. Yeah, yeah, interesting it must be like depending on where they make it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh, so confusing and they have a um, a little uh, a tasting platform in the middle of the vineyard, like if you've seen star Wars and you know I'm a big star Wars nerd, although not a nerd enough to remember what the actual vehicle is called that they're on, but it was in Tatooine, at Jabba, the Hutt's palace and near the Sarlacc pit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I totally know all this. The only Star Wars I've watched was very drunk in college, because my husband wanted me to watch it.
Speaker 1:The Sarlacc is the big hole in the ground with teeth.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:That a bunch of people fell into and died. But anyways, yeah, it reminds me of that little boat. It's like a hovering kind of thing. It looks like that too, okay, and I was like, hey, that's the. And I completely forgot.
Speaker 2:Were you inspired by?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's like the job. That's a Hutt's Palace boat. It's interesting Like huh, you guys are inspired by Star Wars. I see that. Definitely, yeah, but they might be, I mean look at their facility. It's like this could be Star.
Speaker 2:Wars. It is, yeah, it's very modern.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is very modern, A lot of concrete.
Speaker 2:Yes, just no doors that, you know, open you. True, yeah to the jedi thing. Anyways, I like tangents on the podcast. It's fun. No, there's nothing wrong with that. I feel like if you're passionate about wine, you definitely have like another passion and nerd nerdum thing as well yeah, what's yours? Like a specific one. I don't know if I have it. I I'm, I mean, I I'm big into harry potter. That would probably be like out of like all the the fantasy.
Speaker 1:What house are you? Are you? Do you know?
Speaker 2:So I think Hufflepuff, I think. I fall between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I feel like a lot of people don't like to say they that Hufflepuff thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very helpful.
Speaker 2:I also lose things a lot, which is why I think I'm so good at finding things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I found it.
Speaker 2:I'm just like so used to it. I'm like, okay, I know the steps.
Speaker 1:That's the 10th thing I found today. I'm still good at finding stuff.
Speaker 2:I'm so good at this. Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely like yeah, I'm between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I'm like I am the smart one. I'm definitely not Gryffindor, I ain't doing any stupid shit because it's brave.
Speaker 1:Like that ain't my thing. Yeah me either. Yeah, and I'm not evil.
Speaker 2:So Well, and I'm not like I feel that goofy little Hufflepuff over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's funny. I wonder if Dumbledore would have any vineyards on his property.
Speaker 2:Ooh, that's a good question. Definitely seems like the dude.
Speaker 1:that would I mean they're in the UK, Make some sparkling wines, yeah, speaking of which, have you, have you had Ellen tones? Um Blanc de Blanc? They're Noah. So Chris Sherry is a winemaker and he's from the UK and I think he studied, like studied method champion wall, like studied how to make sparkling wine Cause, like UK, if you know the history of sparkling wine, he UK had a huge uh impact on that. Most studied how to make sparkling wine because, like uk, if you know the history of sparkling wine, uk had a huge uh impact on that, most of it accidental, so they can't take full credit. It's just like uh shipping could take the credit. I guess wait, what is that story?
Speaker 2:because I've heard the accidental story of like how, like champagne was founded but it was down in like the longer dock and like it was basically because like bottles kept bursting and they're like oh, I haven't heard that story Really.
Speaker 1:I've heard the story where they're shipping the King some wine and it started getting fizzy and didn't go through everything and I'm not sure if it was a white or I think it was a red wine or something, but they shipped him wine. It was fizzy and he popped it open and he was like, is this supposed to be fizzy? And they're like no, and he's like, well, this is amazing, can you make it again?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I want more of it and so, like that was like the story I've heard is is from down in the longer dock dock they were making white wine. Um, and they it was like when they bottled it it hadn't finished fermentation, but of course, like when you bottle, it's in the fall, going into winter, and so it got cold enough where, like it went into the cellar. And when it's cold, fermentation doesn't happen.
Speaker 2:The yeast kind of just like chills out for a little bit. Um, but then come springtime, when it started to warm up again, the yeast started doing its thing eating the sugar, creating alcohol and carbon dioxide, and then, of course, the bottles started to burst um and that was like a thing where, like they called it like the wine of the devil for the longest time and like oh, I haven't heard, they had like if you worked in the cellar, you had to wear like this mask.
Speaker 2:It like resembled, like almost like a catcher's mask, because, like you didn't know if it was like the bottles were going to explode or not, um, and obviously they didn't have the science at the time to explain why it was happening. Yeah, um, but this was like I think this was a couple centuries before champagne started. Yeah, um, so that was where, like, it started. And then the the thing is that, like, they did eventually realize what it was that was causing it. Um and uh, then people liked it, you know, and then they started making it on purpose. And then the thing is that, um, they said that don perignon, uh, took the trek down to longadoc to learn how to make it and then that is how they started making it in champagne good old dp man
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah he had a life like. That's the best life. All you do so you commit your life to god, and then you study the bible. But then what do you do on your free time? Well, you have to commit.
Speaker 2:You have to be a monk, so you commit to yourself, to one thing and do that one thing and he's like I'm gonna make champagne yeah, I mean we have like all the months to think for like wine, like anytime you look in like the history I mean huge history, not when it comes to wine and you look at any of the history of any region and they're like, yes, we have all of this dating back to da da da, because the monks took such great records and like really cared about all this, and so you're just like that's why we have beer too really yeah, the monks, yeah too have you heard of a trappist ale before?
Speaker 1:no, so there's belgian monks and they're still there and they still make trappist beer, but they essentially make this like so belgian ales are high in abv and you drink it out of a little goblet, so you don't drink it in a pint glass, um, so you drink it in a goblet and it's very like it depends on which one. They have like blonde ales and they have like the monk trappist ale, which is like dark amber and it's kind of bready. Okay.
Speaker 2:Not bretsky, but like bread, yeah, like bread. Yeah, like a loaf, yeah, like yeasty, like a loaf.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like the yeasty boys and it's just like it's very good, it's very good, it's tasty, like I used to love those ales, like back in the day and um, I was like, yeah, monks still make this. And, like also in Germany, there's Weinstephaner.
Speaker 2:Oh sure.
Speaker 1:Uh, Weinstephaner Vetus, which they? They are like. 1040 AD is when they started and they're still going, just monks making beer for everybody.
Speaker 2:I guess that's your thing. If you gotta swear off women, you just make a lot of wine and beer. Yep, yeah man.
Speaker 1:Totally. I was just sad for the women, though. What do they do? The?
Speaker 2:nuns have to do that too. The nuns don't get to make wine. That's no fun.
Speaker 1:I'm sure they could. Hopefully they can do something.
Speaker 2:I don't even know if they're allowed to drink what?
Speaker 1:Yeah, only the guys can drink.
Speaker 2:The only thing I'm going off of right now is the sound of music. Oh, okay. I have no actual information on this.
Speaker 1:I absolutely hate that movie. Really, everyone says like, oh, you hate that movie, that sucks. It's not because of the movie, it's because of the situation I was in.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:My grandma? Yeah, it's because the situation I was in oh no, my grandma in santa barbara, so I'd go down to santa barbara every now and then to visit my grandparents and my mom's from there, and so when I was down there once or twice before when I was younger, she was like, oh, we're gonna watch the sound of music. And I was like I don't want to watch the sound of music, it's not something I want to watch. I wanted to watch like sports or you know whatever.
Speaker 1:I was a little boy, I probably wanted to watch star wars, you know, uh, for like the hundredth time. And she was like no, we're watching the sound of music. And I was like what? And so I had to sit down and watch the sound of music and I was like this I hate this movie because it was forced upon me.
Speaker 2:That's fair. I mean, I never loved the Sound of Music. It's a long movie. I can't handle very long movies. I get bored very easily.
Speaker 1:How long is it? Like three hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:It's very long, I don't know.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think it's longer than three hours. My husband loves it Cool. Yeah, he used to watch it with his mom.
Speaker 1:He's an only child, uh, but he he loves it. Um, it was like their thing it was. He has a good attachment to it.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely yes, he has like the opposite, where he was like he, like it brings back great memories, yeah, um. So, yeah, I've watched it. And then a friend was recently in a local play production of it, which was actually really cool, like nice. It kind of like made me think about like the fact that, like you know, I think a lot of people who are into wine it's like a hobby of theirs that they do potentially like create a business out of it, you know, like create a podcast like this out of it, um, but a lot of times it's not like their main job, right, and it kind of made me think of that when I'm watching this play, because it wasn't like a professional. Like these people are, like this is their main job, like my friend who was in it, like she works at google with me, okay, and like she just does like plays and musicals, like in her and that's her hobby.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty cool such a fascinating like watching it just be like, how are these people like putting this all together in like their side? That's like a side hobby like yeah, and like the kids were amazing, because you know sound of music has the kids. They had some kids that were in it and I was just like very impressed.
Speaker 1:That's interesting.
Speaker 2:Right Like but, then I thought about I'm like well, that makes sense. How many hours do you spend on your wine business? That isn't the thing that brings in, you know money every day but like you, love doing it.
Speaker 1:True, I mean, how many hours do you spend?
Speaker 2:God, um, I've been trying to get better about it, but I would say on average I'm now working at my corporate job just four days a week. I've gone down to 80% there, so every Friday is mostly a cork and fizz day, so I usually get about eight hours there. And then I'm a morning person, so I like to wake up before my job starts and get some work done in the morning, probably a couple hours.
Speaker 1:I wish I was a morning person.
Speaker 2:Well, the thing is I have to do it in the morning because then when evening comes around, I'm terrible at getting anything done, like my brain just stops working. But I will try for a couple hours. So I would say like on average, like 30 to 40 hours, probably with cork and fizz, every week.
Speaker 1:Wow yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's like almost a full-time job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like doing it and you know I and, like you said, like all the different things I'm doing, I'm very bad at just like being, like okay, just focus on this thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm like, but what about that and that I mean?
Speaker 1:I have a lot of things I would love to do with, uh, the platform you know, and grow it to a certain thing and then branch off into different things, and, like I have a vision for sure, um, I mean, I have more things that like I've always had like in the back of my brain I really want to do an app at one point.
Speaker 2:I think it'd be super cool to create. I have like a software engineering background, but I've never done like a whole lot of app development. Um, but that's what my degree is in technically.
Speaker 2:My bachelor's degree is software engineering oh cool um, but uh, I really want to create an app that, like, teaches people how to taste wine yeah because I feel like there are a lot of apps out there for, like, recording what wine you tasted or for, like, keeping track of the wine, but like something that would actually like you're at the winery and like you're tasting the wine and you want to like be able to like remember better the difference between all the different wines, yeah, and you just want something super simple, very easy to use, that you can just say, like it was this color, it smelled like this, this and this, and it tastes like and like it walk you through it like acidity, that's like saliva.
Speaker 2:Try my drool test which is, like you know, testing the acidity level and tannin. It's what makes your mouth feel dry, like you have a cotton ball in there like how does the wine feel? You know when you have a sip of your wine and like walks you through all that. So then you actually have like a helpful recording of the wine, yeah, and then you know at the end of the day when you've tasted like 15 wines because you stopped at three wineries on your day of wine tasting.
Speaker 1:You can remember what you tasted and you can go back in oh, my gosh, how many wineries do you book, like what you tasted and you can go back in. Oh my gosh, how many wineries do you book like when you go taste, if you're getting like a day of tasting?
Speaker 2:I mean top max three.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's my suggestion for everybody. I think when I first started I got into like four or five. But, I mean either. You have to be spitting, because otherwise you're drunk as heck by the third one. And then I always try to do unique experiences at some of them too, something to just break up, just the tasting. So I'm always looking for one that has a winery tour or a vineyard tour, but just something, or even a pairing a wine and food pairing of some sort, just to break it up.
Speaker 1:So I'm not just drinking the wine totally when I went to valdemar, yeah, um, they had smash burgers oh yeah it was lunchtime, like we were. Uh, my girlfriend and I we have the same birthday and we were. That's fine. Yeah, we were celebrating our birthday last year in walla walla and she has a culinary background and she was a chef uh, and she's in restaurant management right now.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And so she picks all the food areas and I pick all the wine areas, and so we had a very fun time in Walla Walla. Kinglet was still there, luckily. Oh, I loved Kinglet.
Speaker 2:I was able to go there for the first wine retreat and I was so sad when I saw they closed.
Speaker 1:I was like that was my first, first ever tasting menu experience oh yeah, that was wild to me. I was like wait, so what she had to explain to me? So it's a tasting menu. I was like so, like wine tasting, they have a wine tasting like menu so you can pick the wines you taste. And she's like no, it's a food tasting menu. I'm like what does that mean?
Speaker 2:yes, I remember always seeing, like you know, like before I ever had one, and just seeing like videos of it and just seeing like the little tiny portions they bring out and being like how does that fill you up? But then when I've like done one and I'm like, yeah, it does because it's little.
Speaker 1:yeah, it's little, yeah, it's little. Courses throughout.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you're doing like eight of them you know, and they're like fairly rich and, yeah, no, I do love a good, but then the thing is pairing wine with that and I think what's really fascinating I remember I did. Was it a podcast or was it a? Maybe I was just reading. I'm like trying to remember where I oh no, I was. It was a podcast episode um with but I'm blanking on her name, she's the Australian wine Jane Lopes Uh, she was a sommelier, um, and she spent some time. I mean, she spent in the U? S and like Chicago, new York and then but spent a lot of time in Australia. She just wrote a book like the Australian wine guide or something like that um with her husband.
Speaker 2:Um, but she had talked about like. At a restaurant they used to do a mixed wine and non-alcoholic pairing for their tasting menu okay, and I think that's genius because could you imagine like eight wines for each of the eight dishes that you're tasting? That's a lot like that would be a lot of wine, but instead you could like so she has a mix.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's like you do one wine, one non-alcoholic, non-alcoholic one wine, one non-alcoholic, so by the end of it you've had like a pairing with each one, but you're not hammered yeah, I know sorel in seattle like cap hill kind of area they do a wine pairing and wine is the only alcohol they have, and it's all washington wines yes and then they have a non-alcoholic cocktail pairing yeah as well.
Speaker 2:I wonder if we do. I need to convince them to do like a little like mixy mix. I'm like I want some wine, but I want a little bit. Uh, I don't want to be totally drunk by the end yeah, yeah, I mean this.
Speaker 1:I don't think there's. There's not wines with like every single course.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Because it's like 10 courses.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you go there, you get your first bites and you get your splash of probably bubbles. Yeah, yeah, and then to start because like, yeah, you get your first bites on the table and then your second course comes. There's not a wine pairing with that, but it's like a very small kind of pop in your mouth situation. Sure, yeah, there's not a wine pairing with that, but it's like a very small kind of pop in your mouth situation and the next course comes, and then you get a wine pairing, and then there's another one, and another one.
Speaker 2:I'm sure they balance it very well. I don't want to like talk badly about their tasting. I just I do love the idea of like that's like. The hardest thing I find with wine is that I do kind of hate that it has alcohol.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I think the same thing I was, that it has alcohol.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I think the same thing I was like I just want to drink the wine because it's so good and I love the stories behind it. I'm so passionate about it and gosh dang it. It has alcohol, so I need to limit.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's so many times for me that I've had like a tasting night at my house, like a wine night at my house, and people bring like 10 bottles of wine and you taste through all of them and then you go back to your favorites yeah, and you're not pouring yourself them. And then you go back to your favorites yeah, and you're not pouring yourself a full glass.
Speaker 2:It's like a half glass, like this 20 little tiny glasses, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it adds up and at the end you're just like completely trashed. Yep, and I had that one time. It was in Santa Barbara, I threw up so bad, I threw up, it was in Santa Barbara, I threw up so bad, I threw up, oh God, it was so bad. And then I was like remember sitting on the bathroom floor. I was like why does wine have alcohol in it? I know.
Speaker 2:You're like, god damn it. We actually one of the. The way that I got into wine and how I started Cork and Fizz. It actually started as a wine club with friends, so I got into wine after visiting Willamette Valley and then I came back and I wanted to try a bunch of wines. I you know I wanted this to be like a thing, but I didn't want to have to buy all the wine.
Speaker 2:So I was like well, I'm kind of newish to Seattle, I think I'd been here for about a year, um, and I'm like good way to make friends and a good way to taste a lot of wine, start a wine tasting club. So I kind of brought together we had friends that I met at work, friends in the apartment building we were living in.
Speaker 2:We had some friends we met at the dog park and just like brought everybody together and started this wine club and, like every month you know, had a theme. But our first night was a Monday night, I don't know why. We thought that was a good idea and you guys are working.
Speaker 1:We're working like regular corporate jobs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and so I should say like corporate jobs, like your regular nine to five weekdays Right.
Speaker 2:Um, and so we all yeah, we all brought a bottle of wine to share. It was a great night. We all got hammered, we drank all the wine. Um, and then I remember there's two stories. There's the one that my husband and I we had to take our dog out for a walk. So we take her out for a walk and we're in like a little neighborhood, bryant and Seattle. It's a very like family focused neighborhood. It's kind of where the university is, but a little further out from that, and we're walking our dog. We walk by a car and we're like those people are having sex in their car right now.
Speaker 1:It was like 1am, so I'm sure they didn't think anybody else was awake and walking out, and we're just like huh, interesting.
Speaker 2:We're also, you know, very drunk, so we're like is that real? Don't stare, don't stare, keep moving. Is that real Wait?
Speaker 1:You look harder. What are they doing?
Speaker 2:And then, on our way back, my husband dropped the keys and we didn't realize it till we got to the door. We were trying to get back into the house. We had to go back past the people having sex in their car to go get the keys. And then, yeah, the next morning I woke up and I'm just like I think I'm. Am I still drunk? Can I drive to work right now? So we've since learned one you don't have wine night on a monday night yeah, uh, I was surprised that people agreed to that.
Speaker 2:If everyone has like like office jobs, then I'm like I guess we were all thinking we'd be sophisticated and it was wine, so we can't get that drunk. Right, right, yeah, wrong, wrong you can't?
Speaker 1:You absolutely can. I mean most of the people at my tasting nights were industry.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, and so everyone had Mondays off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that, actually like yeah, so that actually like it worked out, and most people had Tuesdays off too, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, that would make make more sense, that would actually be one that would you'd actually be doing it on like a Friday or Saturday night?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Um, it looks like that's the time.
Speaker 2:That was easy, man.
Speaker 1:Um, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Everyone. Please check out her links below. We link for her podcast. Link for her wine tasting group.
Speaker 2:And it's all virtual, right, the virtual, yeah, the Wine Tasting Club is all virtual.
Speaker 1:And then you have events.
Speaker 2:You have an event page. Events and private tastings, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going to scour her website and I'm going to bring all the links to the show notes. Also her social, please follow. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. Grab a splash of wine and cheers me real quick. No-transcript.
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