Dry Creek Vineyard: Kim Stare Wallace Charts a Winning Course

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Summary

In this episode, Kim Stare Wallace shares her journey to President of Dry Creek Vineyard, a family-owned winery with a rich history. She discusses her family's legacy in winemaking, the innovative branding that sets their wines apart, and the significance of their signature Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel. Kim emphasizes the importance of family ownership in maintaining quality and authenticity in winemaking, and she invites listeners to experience the welcoming atmosphere of Dry Creek Vineyard.

Takeaways

• Dry Creek Vineyard has a rich family legacy, with roots tracing back to Kim's father.
• The nautical theme of the winery's branding reflects a family love for sailing.
• Sauvignon Blanc is a signature wine for Dry Creek Vineyard, with a unique style.
• Family ownership is crucial for maintaining quality in winemaking.
• The term 'old vines' is often misused in the wine industry.
• The winery offers a variety of tasting experiences and events.
• Claudine, a vintage French delivery truck, serves as a mobile wine bar at the winery.

Wines Tasted

Dry Creek Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2023

Dry Creek Vineyard Old Vines Zinfandel 2022

Visit DryCreekVineyard.com for more about the winery, to order wines and get info about upcoming events.

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:01.187)

All right, Kim, welcome to the show.

Kim  Stare Wallace (00:04.1)

Hi, how are you? Thank you for having me.

Laurie Forster (00:06.615)

Of course, I just told everyone all the amazing things about how you grew up in the vineyard, went to college and then came back and now are running the whole place, which is so impressive. You're a woman, you're dynamic, you're the head of the winery here since 2011. And so we're just excited to learn more about Dry Creek Vineyard, taste a couple of your great wines and really kind of go from there. So.

I was talking a little bit about the background of the winery and your dad being the founder, but maybe you could just kind of tell us, you your sort of take on how this all developed. I'm sure your dad has stories that he has told you.

Kim  Stare Wallace (00:47.454)

Absolutely. I'm very proud to be carrying on the family tradition. So it's easy for me to talk about my family, and specifically my father. My parents were from Boston. Dad did not grow up in a wine drinking family. He was actually a civil engineer, went to MIT. But when I was very young, we moved to Germany. And that's where my parents kind of got bitten by the wine bug originally. They liked, obviously, German wines. They loved French wines. They fell in love with the Loire Valley.

And so when my father came back to Boston in the late 1960s, he decided he wanted to make a career change. He actually tried to get a job as a salesman at a distributorship, but they wouldn't hire him because he had no experience. And so he convinced my mom that they should sell everything they own and literally load the kids in the car, drive across America so he could go to graduate school at UC Davis. And on the weekends, they would travel around and look for property to buy in

Napa and of course Sonoma County and I think even a little bit up north of here in Mendocino County. But somehow on a handshake deal, he stumbled across this very neglected parcel in the middle of Dry Creek Valley, which was a very neglected kind of sleepy valley. And he bought a very rundown prune orchard. Now the valley, I think what attracted him to the region is that the valley did have a proven.

track record for grape growing and a fairly vibrant wine industry prior to Prohibition. But after Prohibition, pretty much everything had been, or most everything had been converted to prune orchards. And so he bought this 55 acre rundown prune orchard and bulldozed those trees and planted the first vines. And really the rest is history. mean, he, and he did it in an era when the local farmers were very,

They were not warm and embracing, let's put it that way. They did not like the idea of prune trees being torn out in favor of grapevines.

Laurie Forster (02:48.411)

Sure, and this whole family from Boston, which probably had an accent a little bit different than everyone in the area, but sort of the rest is history as you say. And now you're probably one of the most known wineries there in Sonoma and especially of course in Dry Creek Valley, which your name alludes to as well. When you were growing up, I know you've kind of served a lot of roles since you were a teenager.

Kim  Stare Wallace (02:51.083)

Exactly

Yeah.

Laurie Forster (03:16.559)

Did you always wanna be in the family business? I know you went off to college and then came back, but how did that all come together?

Kim  Stare Wallace (03:19.412)

No, no, you know, I wanted to leave. I never wanted to have anything to do with the wine industry or the wine business or the winery. And part of that was that I spent so much of my childhood here. And of course, I worked in the bottling line all through high school. And I really didn't have an intention to join the wine industry. actually loved French, as you I think you know, Lori, and I loved design and I ended up

Laurie Forster (03:45.358)

Mm-hmm.

Kim  Stare Wallace (03:47.918)

working in the fashion design industry for a while and spending some time in France. But when I was in my, I'd say my mid-20s, I was sort of in between jobs and I realized if I was really gonna be a success in that industry, I pretty much had to move to New York. Well, I grew up here in the middle of Dry Creek Valley. I was married to a farmer. was, in my soul, was a country girl and I knew I would not move to New York. So my father offered me a job and

It was pretty much gonna be a temporary thing. And I won't tell you how many years ago that is, but it was a long time ago. I think one of the things that I have loved about my career here at the winery is that I've had an opportunity to really do pretty much every job at the winery, with the exception of the winemaker. I was never the winemaker. But it has allowed me to have, you know,

Laurie Forster (04:19.835)

Mmm.

Kim  Stare Wallace (04:41.582)

not necessarily be an expert on everything, but to have a little bit of knowledge of all aspects of the business and to also have a lot of empathy and understanding of various jobs within the winery, which I think when you take over, I took over as president 11 years ago, and I think that's one of the things that helps me in my leadership role. it turned out that I loved it. I mean, obviously I never looked back, so.

Laurie Forster (05:04.005)

for sure.

Laurie Forster (05:10.085)

That's great. speaking of looking, of course, I know, you know, when I see this nautical theme, is iconic. It's a dry Creek vineyard. It's something you're known for and people associate with the winery. I live in Maryland on the Eastern shore and there's a lot of sailing around here, a lot of boaters and especially sailors in this area. And I know your, your wines are popular because they're great inside, but also people love it.

as a gift for anyone who loves sailing because of this iconic label. And I was reading that you and your fashion sense had something to do with this. How did you come about changing the labels to what we're used to seeing today?

Kim  Stare Wallace (05:50.604)

Yeah.

Kim  Stare Wallace (05:54.03)

Well, you know, a, my parents ended up divorced. My father was a single father throughout my teenage years. And we spent a lot of time sailing on San Francisco Bay. That was his passion. That was his, or his secondary passion. That was his hobby. And when I, in fact, it was before I came back to work for the winery, we were out on the boat sailing with my husband. I was a young bride and.

Laurie Forster (06:16.121)

Mm-hmm.

Kim  Stare Wallace (06:22.08)

in San Francisco in the fashion industry and out on the San Francisco Bay with my father. And I said to dad, because his labels at back then were very, very traditional. we kind of the typical sort of little line drawing of the winery and very traditional and very sort of boring, to be honest. I said, Brad, you love to sail. What would happen if you put a sailboat on a brine called Dry Creek?

Laurie Forster (06:43.107)

Ha ha ha!

Kim  Stare Wallace (06:51.958)

And I thought there was a sort of irony about it that was kind of funny. And it happened to be right at the same time that if you remember the old Kenwood artist series and then Mouton, the Rothschild family in Bordeaux, they had just come out with an artist series. But by and large, all the other labels in the wine industry were very traditional kind of French chateau style labels. So my father said, my gosh, that's such a great idea.

Laurie Forster (07:03.46)

Yes.

Kim  Stare Wallace (07:19.532)

you know, he kind of cut me loose and we had a friend who was an artist here locally who commissioned, we commissioned the very first sailboat labels or excuse me, sailboat paintings. They were water peak, watercolors. And ironically, the very first one, Lori, was a Chesapeake based skipjack, which still hangs in the office here, the original watercolor. But we introduced those first labels and it was a huge success. And for over 40 years, we've stuck with the sailing imagery and it's

you know, taking different turns over the years. And I used to actually commission new paintings every year, but we've kind of settled on our core paintings. And it's allowed us to not only differentiate the brand and really kind of pay homage to our family's love of sailing, but also to sort of position ourselves as the official wine for sailors. And we've been involved in many sailing sponsorships over the years. And we've been chosen by the America's Cup World Series races to serve wines there.

Actually in 2013, one of my greatest, so much fun, it was such a great accomplishment too, was to be chosen by the team called Artemis Racing as their official wine sort of winery. And it was ironic because they were a Swedish team sailing in San Francisco during the America's Cup. I don't think there were any Swedes on the team, but anyway, the point is sailing's always been part of our DNA and...

Laurie Forster (08:30.043)

Hmm.

Laurie Forster (08:44.623)

That's great.

Kim  Stare Wallace (08:45.582)

You know, we still love to sail. I have family up and down the Eastern Seaboard in New England. We do a lot of sailing in the summer,

Laurie Forster (08:52.527)

That's great. Well, all this talk about the label and having the wine so close, I think it's time to, let's taste your Sauvignon Blanc and talk about it a little bit. I've always been a huge fan of the Sauvignon Blanc and it is one of your signature grape varietals of the region and certainly for your winery. because people have, it's not a grape that people haven't heard of, of course, but it takes on so many different personalities.

Kim  Stare Wallace (08:57.806)

I'm going to turn it

Kim  Stare Wallace (09:02.018)

Yes.

Kim  Stare Wallace (09:18.477)

Right. Right.

Laurie Forster (09:21.903)

whether you're talking about a Sancerre from the Loire, which I know you love, or a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand versus a Sauvignon Blanc from Dry Creek Valley. What do you think is the signature style that people are getting in your Sauvignon Blanc?

Kim  Stare Wallace (09:32.952)

Right.

Kim  Stare Wallace (09:37.186)

Well, I'm gonna answer that with two ways. First of all, there's no question that Sauvignon Blanc is sort of in the DNA of the winery because my father was the first to plant Sauvignon Blanc in Northern Sonoma County. And they told him it was a dumb variety, it would never grow. And of course it's the most prominent white grape variety in Dry Creek Valley. And he really pioneered the wine that we call Fumé Blanc, which is still a flagship for the winery. It is 100 % Sauvignon Blanc. A little bit different style, no oak aging.

and is half Russian River Valley fruit, half Dry Creek Valley fruit. This wine that I chose for the tasting today is a little bit more of a reflection of my husband and my vision for the future. And when we took over from my father, dad retired in 2006, we really made a very conscientious decision to focus much more exclusively on Dry Creek Valley appellated fruit. That was something we felt so strongly about. And so this is a 100 % Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc. So right.

there, it tends to have a little bit more ripeness. We tend to pick the fruit at a little bit higher sugar because it's a little bit warmer climate than it doesn't have the Russian River component in it like the fumigant does. And then the other thing we did, which is really, really rare, I don't know of any winery in our area that has done this, is we planted the Sauvignon Musque clone and the Sauvignon Gris clones. And these are two unique clonal selections that

Sauvignon Musque gives us a little bit more of a stone fruit, maybe floral, kind of, I always think of sort of white peach and nectarine kind of aromatics. And Sauvignon Gris is a very obscure selection that doesn't really change the flavor, but does add body and texture. And it's used in Bordeaux, France in various themed, know, chateaus, Chateau Smith-Aubriand, for example. So we planted, my husband was really instrumental.

Laurie Forster (11:14.491)

Mmm.

Kim  Stare Wallace (11:34.594)

with planting these clonal selections to just give us a little unique nuance. And then our winemaker, Tim, a number of years ago started experimenting with a very small amount of barrel fermentation in neutral French, but chestnut and acacia barrels. nobody has done that. Yeah, it's really, and this is not to give us any kind of woodiness or oak.

Laurie Forster (11:51.129)

I saw that on the tech notes and I was like, wow.

Kim  Stare Wallace (12:01.134)

characteristics because we tend to have a very minimal approach to our barrel program. But it was to, again, sort of provide a little more fleshiness, a little more texture, a little more roundness. And I happen to be extremely proud of this wine. I love this wine. And I think it has still the beautiful, refreshing, crisp zippiness that you want in Sauvignon Blanc. It has...

Laurie Forster (12:27.629)

It does, and I love the tropical fruit exactly as you're describing it, the stone fruit like that peach.

Kim  Stare Wallace (12:29.772)

has a little tropical fruit, has a little bit of, yeah, I always get that stone fruit peach, know, like really kind of fresh, you know, fresh off the tree peaches. Maybe just a little bit of, right now in my glass right now, I'm smelling maybe a little bit of Tangello, you know, some of that citrus.

Laurie Forster (12:49.339)

Mm, yeah. Or melon too, I feel like I can kind of get there. And I do love the balance as you're saying you have that, you know, that sort of floral fruitiness from the Musque, which was all the rage back in the day, people talked about that, you know, for a while, but and then the Gris giving it that balance and structure. It's just so well balanced.

Kim  Stare Wallace (12:56.302)

nothing.

Kim  Stare Wallace (13:14.859)

It's really,

Laurie Forster (13:15.427)

A lot of people think, you know, sublime is gonna be this big citrus bomb hit you over the head. It's not that, it is so elegant. I really love that.

Kim  Stare Wallace (13:23.202)

And it doesn't have the aggressive sort of herbaciousness or kind of weediness that sometimes Sauvignon Blancs can veer towards. I really am very proud of this wine. I'll tell you, I'll just brag a little. We were chosen at the California State Fair as this wine. 99 points, best Sauvignon Blanc in the entire state, which that's kind of wonderful. And then even here in our local hometown,

They do sort of a people's choice awards and this was chosen the last two years in a row as the favorite Sauvignon Blanc of our community, Healdsburg. I think it's the kind of Sauvignon Blanc that pairs with a whole variety of foods, cuisine. It can be enjoyed by itself, simply by itself as a pair of teeth or something like that. I think it would be beautiful with scallops and...

you know, all kinds, just all kinds of poultry and seafood things come to mind. But I love this wine. And I think what it does is it marries sort of the tradition and philosophy and passion that my father had and still has for Sauvignon Blanc. And he literally pioneered the varietal in Sonoma County. And it marries that with our vision for innovation and kind of evolving our Sauvignon Blanc program here at Dry Peak Vineyard by

You know, because we actually make several, let me think about it, five different sauvignon blancs. So, well, yes, five if you include our late harvest, but right as sauvignon blanc, which we haven't been able to make for a couple of years, but.

Laurie Forster (15:02.011)

All right, well, I absolutely adore, I know it's suggested retail around $25, which is amazingly affordable and I appreciate that. And the other thing I appreciate, last week I had on Megan Frank from the Dr. Frank Winery in the Finger Lakes of New York, and she's fourth generation at her family winery. And we were just talking about how rare it is for family businesses, family wineries being part of family businesses.

Kim  Stare Wallace (15:07.522)

you

Laurie Forster (15:29.463)

to stay in the family. And I know how passionate you are about keeping the winery in your family and what that means and how that affects the quality of the wine and the focus of what you do. So talk to me a little bit about that and how people can really see that as a point of quality and know what they're getting.

Kim  Stare Wallace (15:50.754)

Yeah.

Well, I too am really passionate about family businesses. And I think, you know, what's happening today in the, at least in the California wine industry and other parts of the world, but especially here is somewhat alarming. And that is that there are just more and more wineries that are selling out. And you know, this kind of increasingly, what I call the increasing corporatization of the California wine industry, which leads to...

sort of this increasing homogenization of the wine industry. And one of the reasons why it's so important to be family-owned is, first of all, what drives our winery is one thing, and one thing only, a passion for quality and producing wines that taste of a sense of place and are Appalachian-focused.

what we say, terroir driven and varietal defining. That's what I wake up wanting to do every single day. And I am blessed to have a team that want to do that too. And because we control all aspects of the business, everything from farming the grapes and picking where the grapes are going to actually be grown to making the wine, to selling the wine, to everything, we control everything right here, right on site.

we're able to not dumb down the wine, to put it bluntly. And what I'm seeing happening is time and time again is as companies sell, the very first thing that often happens is you'll see the Appalachian change and you'll see on the label that what was maybe at one point maybe Sonoma County or Napa Valley, or maybe in this case, Dry Creek Valley, you'll see it go to either a North Coast Appalachian or you'll see.

Kim  Stare Wallace (17:33.506)

California Appalachian, and I even saw one very famous producer recently with a label that said America as the Appalachian. Now, why do people do this? They do this to give them company, the winemaker, you the flexibility to source fruit from all over the state of California in this case. But what they're really doing is allowing the, bringing it, they're allowing themselves to bring in wine, excuse me, grapes from less expensive, lesser regions.

Laurie Forster (17:42.554)

Wow.

Kim  Stare Wallace (18:01.714)

And you know, you really, and I'm not saying those wines aren't necessarily good, but I feel so strongly that you have to really pay attention to two things on the label. And actually I'll just pick up this bottle and show you. So on the back label, every back label, consumers should be looking at what it says in terms of the produced and bottled by. If it says it was produced and bottled by, like here it says produced and bottled by Dry Creek Vineyard. That means we grew the grapes and we made the wine.

right here at the winery. If you see something that says vinted and bottled by, sometimes you see that, sometimes you see, what do you see, cellared and bottled by, you know, that generally means that the wine is made from often bulk wine that is then blended or, you know, some other way. And it's just kind of, I think produced and bottled by is really the guarantee that there's a human being and a family.

growing the grapes, making the wine right on site at their property. And so that's one thing. And then the second thing that I really am passionate about is the Appalachian, as I mentioned. And looking on the label, it says Dry Creek Valley right there. And on the back label, it says Sonoma County right there. If you were to pick up this bottle and it said California, that just is a less specific Appalachian.

Laurie Forster (19:03.77)

Mm-hmm.

Kim  Stare Wallace (19:21.622)

and so on and so forth. And I'm seeing this more and more and I'm not seeing it just for less expensive wines. I'm seeing it for more expensive wines, which is again, kind of an alarming thing. So I think as consumers, it cannot be underscored how important it is to really do your homework, look for brands that have very specific appellations and look for brands that are owned by families because, know,

The fact that families, mean, in our case, we've been in business for 53 years. we work with many small growers that have been farming their grapes since I was a child. I've known these growers for 50 plus years. And I just think that really speaks volumes to a person's commitment to quality. So it's like, if I could give anybody a tip, it would be to really pay attention to the appellation and what the produced and bottled by says.

Laurie Forster (19:53.445)

Amazing.

Laurie Forster (20:15.757)

I love that because I think it is confusing to a consumer. You walk in and there's hundreds of bottles possibly and you know just being able to look at those two things I think really helps.

Kim  Stare Wallace (20:21.396)

So well.

Kim  Stare Wallace (20:27.726)

it really can help. And in our case, I, a number of years ago, decided to be very transparent and we put all of the geeky winemaking information right on the front label. Between the front label and the back label, you know as much as the winemaker does.

Laurie Forster (20:42.939)

That's awesome. Well, I know we're going to taste here in a minute this dry Creek Vineyard old vines Zinfandel. I was reading that your dad was the first one to coin that term old vine. And while it doesn't have a legal or sort of, you know, defined definition by law, what does it mean to you old vines Zinfandel? When you put it on here, it means something right?

Kim  Stare Wallace (20:50.627)

Yes.

Kim  Stare Wallace (21:06.51)

yet. It would mean something, very much so. So for us to qualify, it has to be at least 50 years or older. after I turned, after I got past 50, I thought, well, that's not, that's not old enough. But in case of this bottling, the average age is 95 years. And we put that again, this is old vines and label, we put the average vine age right there. This happens to be a blend of a couple of different vineyards.

Laurie Forster (21:20.091)

Yeah.

Laurie Forster (21:28.037)

Wow.

Kim  Stare Wallace (21:34.19)

The oldest vineyard was planted in 1896. I mean, think about that, right? Prior to, I mean, it's incredible. So, but you're right, there's not a legal definition of old vine. And again, you will see, depending on the producer, various interpretations of what old vine is. And unfortunately, old vine is often used by marketing people to mean basically nothing. You know, I don't think 10 or 20 or 15.

years or even 30 years is old vine. I don't think you should be calling your wine old vine. But I will give my, I'll take the blame for this. This term old vine, when we coined that term back in, it was in the late 1980s, I had just come to work for the winery and I was in charge of the packaging as we were speaking about. I was too ignorant to know you should trademark things. And so when we came up with the term,

Laurie Forster (22:25.979)

Kim  Stare Wallace (22:27.86)

I said, Dad, you know, yeah, let's do that. I'll put it on the label. And then I just never trademarked it. So shame on me. I learned the hard way. But in this case, is, you the integrity of the Vine Age is very important to us. Anyway, I am ready.

Laurie Forster (22:33.691)

Mmm.

Laurie Forster (22:44.013)

It means something when it's on your label. I do appreciate that. So let's taste this wine. And I already know I get this black fruit on the nose and this warmth. it's like, I had a guest on, he was talking about the wine and said, it's like a big hug. So I'm feeling that's where we're going with this. I've only smelled it. I'm gonna go in for a taste here in a second. But Zinfandel, just like Sauvignon Blanc can express itself in so many different ways.

Kim  Stare Wallace (22:50.445)

Yes.

Kim  Stare Wallace (23:00.43)

Laurie Forster (23:13.561)

and the winemaker can affect that with the wood and barrel aging. What is your, at Dry Creek, at least for this old vines in, what are you really, the style you're going for?

Kim  Stare Wallace (23:27.33)

Well, because the vines are so old, they tend to be more concentrated. These are vines that are no more than two feet tall, They're actually hollow in the middle. They're incredible. They even produce fruit. Every time I see one, it's kind of remarkable. We get very, very low yields. So they're very concentrated. So you're going to notice a darker fruit tone, a little bit more, like you said, blackberry, boysenberry.

as opposed to we make a Zinfandel we call Heritage Vine Zinfandel, which has tends to have more raspberry, so red fruit tones. This has darker fruit tones. You get what I love about it is we get this beautiful spice that we associate with Zinfandel. So a little bit of maybe coriander and maybe some of the spices I always associate with Thanksgiving. we're cooking pumpkin pie. So cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, coriander, those kinds of spices.

Laurie Forster (24:19.195)

Mmm.

Kim  Stare Wallace (24:24.386)

but you also get a nice level of acidity. So our style of Zinfandel is to not leave it on the vines too long and pick at too high of sugars to translate into too high alcohol. And this happens to be a personal philosophy and sort of a core part of our DNA here at the winery is that we like wines that have good balance and are elegant with good levels of acidity. All the wines, whites and reds.

Laurie Forster (24:49.115)

Absolutely.

Kim  Stare Wallace (24:50.166)

And so while this is, would consider a very bold and expressive Zinfandel, it's not jammy or high in alcohol or overripe. It doesn't have any of those pruney kind of characteristics that sometimes Zinfandels from warmer regions like Lodi, for example, would have. And a lot of that has to do with this climate here in Dry Creek Valley where I'm just, we're so blessed when, I mean, again, my father sort of stumbled across the Dry Creek Valley, but it turned out to be such a smart decision because

Laurie Forster (24:57.018)

Mm-mm.

Kim  Stare Wallace (25:19.342)

Even though the region is, we can have warm days in the summertime, we're only 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean. And so the fog influence and that marine layer that kind of comes up the valley every day in the summer, remarkably will give us about a 30 degree shift in temperature on a daily basis. And so this is one of the reasons why Dry Creek Valley is famous for not only Sylvia Blanc, but Zinfandel of course.

and even Cabernet and Bordeaux variety. We just have a beautiful climate for ripening fruit over a long gradual period, but not getting overripe because of the fog influence. And I feel like that's part of what we believe makes this Zinfandel special in addition to the age. And then the last thing is that this is actually, we always blend a little bit of petite Syrah.

Laurie Forster (25:56.752)

Yes.

Kim  Stare Wallace (26:09.844)

into our Zinfandels and in this case it has a little bit of 1 % Alicante Boucher and 1 % old vine Carignan. So kind of mimicking the field blends which is how the old Italians, and I should have mentioned that, know Italians were the ones that settled the Dry Creek Valley in the late 1800s and they planted Zinfandel. So these are vines, these are vineyards that you know were planted with a

horse and plow by some Italian family back in the olden days and somehow they managed to survive. know, after during prohibition, they were used for home wine making and of course there was some wine making allowed for the church. But it's kind of remarkable that they did survive. And it's been very sad to see a lot of these great old historic Zinfandel vineyards be torn out over the years as more and more people have come to the region. And that's one of the reasons why we

innovated with our heritage vines in Findel, which is, we'll talk about that another time, but that's where we took old vine budwood from the oldest vineyard in the area and then grafted that onto rootstock planted in a new vineyard to capture the DNA or the, you know, kind of the heirloom characteristics of the old vines in a younger, newer planting. But yeah.

Laurie Forster (27:22.425)

love that you say that you're trying to, you know, balance the wine and retain that amount of acidity. I mean, obviously, you have the climate and being close to the water to give you the ability to do that. But from a food friendly perspective, that does allow it to be more food friendly than some of the jammier, you know, flatter styles, because acidity helps, you know, pair with salts and acids and all these different things that are

Kim  Stare Wallace (27:43.694)

Absolutely.

Kim  Stare Wallace (27:52.471)

Absolutely.

Laurie Forster (27:52.505)

Bound to be in your food, bound to be in your food.

Kim  Stare Wallace (27:55.278)

Absolutely, yeah, I love this wine, I really do. And again, you know, they say every wine tells a story. And I think that this is a perfect example of that, you know, just think about, like I really think about this survived the 1906 earthquake, this survived World War I, World War II. I mean, you you think about what the families had to endure to survive even just, you know, prohibition, you know.

Laurie Forster (28:04.357)

Yes.

Kim  Stare Wallace (28:23.455)

the Great Depression, you know? And here we are drinking a wine made from the exact same vines, from the exact same plot of land. The owners may have changed over the years, but in some cases they actually haven't. So that's what's remarkable.

Laurie Forster (28:36.057)

That is remarkable, really. I don't think we taste things in normal life that we can go that back into history. And speaking of history, we met a couple of years ago. I was leading a group of ladies on a wine tour of Napa and Sonoma, and you did a fabulous luncheon for us. We toured the winery and then we got to end with a tasting of, I don't think it was five or six of your wines and learn all about those.

Kim  Stare Wallace (28:43.18)

Right.

Laurie Forster (29:04.559)

But visiting any winery anywhere, I think is one of the best ways to really connect more with the wines of that region, of the winery. You just learn so much more by visiting and experiencing. And I knew you're really passionate about that at Dry Creek Vineyard. Tell people, you know, how can they get out there, visit you? What are some unique, fun things you're doing that they can take part of if they wanna come on over and visit you in Dry Creek Valley?

Kim  Stare Wallace (29:31.886)

Yes, well first of all, I will say welcome, come, come for a visit. The Dry Peak Valley is beautiful and our winery is beautiful. We have extensive gardens and really one of the prettiest areas for picnicking and we have a beautiful insectary garden that's part of our sustainability program. We offer all kinds of experiences from the seeded, kind of a seeded tasting. We do a white wine flight, we do a Zinfandel flight, we do a Bordeaux varietals flight.

Laurie Forster (29:36.101)

Hey

Kim  Stare Wallace (30:01.004)

We just launched a library flight of our single vineyard cabernet called Endeavor, which is one of our most acclaimed red wines. We are offering a sustainability kind of farm tour, if you will, that's an off-road adventure in a UTV around the property. What else are we doing? and I think the other thing is, and this is something I will say with just...

my utmost, how do I say it? The utmost truth. One of the things I'm most proud about is that Dry Creek Vineyard is such a welcoming, and you've experienced this, Lori, it's such a welcoming place to come because regardless of someone's knowledge of wine, we produce wines that appeal to such a broad range of people from our beautiful, refreshing, aromatic, tropical Dry Shin and Blanc.

Laurie Forster (30:42.887)

Mm-hmm.

Kim  Stare Wallace (30:57.388)

to our most expensive, most highly regarded, coveted, single vineyard cabernet. And people can come to the winery and taste the wines, learn about the wines from a team who are warm and gracious. There really isn't a snobby bone in our body, and yet people are offered a first-class experience. And I was here actually Saturday with some friends, and I was just sitting outside, and I don't do that necessarily all the time, but I was watching different people come to the winery.

Laurie Forster (31:13.851)

Yay!

Kim  Stare Wallace (31:26.83)

And we had such a fabulous, diverse, fun group. had, you know, a young couple over here. We had a family with the dog and the two-year-old over there. And we had, you know, a bunch of guys over there. And we had people from over here. We had some foreigners over here. And you're just kind of this hodgepodge of people from all walks of life. And I thought to myself, this is what makes Dry Creek Vineyard special is, know, not only are we an authentic family winery producing the best wines in the history of the winery, to be honest, but...

We're sharing that with such a broad range of people, which is exactly what we need to do to continue to, you know, get people to drink wine. And I love that. I really made me just, I was so just really happy. and then one more thing. When people come and visit, don't be surprised if you meet our newest employee. She's very cute. Her name is Claudine. And no, she's not a human being. She is a vintage French.

Laurie Forster (32:04.506)

Yes.

Laurie Forster (32:18.945)

okay.

Kim  Stare Wallace (32:25.262)

Citroen, which is a delivery truck from the 1970s that I bought. we, our winery is styled sort of after kind of a small French country chateau, which of course my father loved the white wines of the Loire Valley, which inspired the architecture of the winery. And so it made a lot of sense. So I bought this vintage Citroen and turned it into a mobile wine bar. And she is cute, cute, cute.

and we have her at weekends and at events. you know, so it's just a fun place to taste. We have in the summer months, part by the bocce courts, which we have, and she makes her guest appearance at various activities and events here at the winery. anyway, I lovingly refer to her as Claudine.

Laurie Forster (32:50.279)

Love.

Laurie Forster (33:08.769)

well, I can't wait to check out Claudine. I'm not sure I met Claudine when I was out there. Okay, now I need to come back. So that's good. I have a reason now.

Kim  Stare Wallace (33:11.566)

No, we didn't have Claudine,

Kim  Stare Wallace (33:19.096)

Well, you know I'm in France, so it was inspired by my trips going to France.

Laurie Forster (33:23.671)

I love that. And, you know, I don't know if everyone gets excited about this. I know me and my daughter do. You have great swag at the winery as well. The store has great stuff. And I know a lot of us, after a little tasting, we love to purchase a little, you know, something to remember our visits to the winery. And you have the greatest shirts and all kinds of things there at the winery. So you won't be disappointed if you like to shop. Wonderful. Well, Kim Stair Wallace from Dry Creek Vineyard.

Kim  Stare Wallace (33:31.561)

Laurie Forster (33:53.573)

Thank you so much for sharing these two wines, your family business story, your backstory. You're super inspiring for all of us. And just to see how you came to the winery and you're carrying on your father's tradition. If you haven't checked out Dry Creek Vineyard, you just go to drycreekvineyard.com. I'll post all the links to your website and the two wines we tasted. I'll find a picture of Claudine and I'll put that out there. And just thank you so much for coming on The Sipping Point.

Kim  Stare Wallace (34:19.406)

There's.

Thank you so much. I loved it and I look forward to doing it again someday.

Laurie Forster (34:27.771)

Awesome. All right. Well, let's just end with cheers. Thank you.

Kim  Stare Wallace (34:31.298)

Cheers! Cheers, cheers.