From Corporate to Cabernet: Discovering Turks Head Wines

Summary

Laurie Forster chats with Allison Owen, a former corporate pro who swapped boardrooms for barrel rooms, about her leap into winemaking. They dive into the one-of-a-kind tasting experience at Turks Head Wines, the value of wine education, and the vibrant community events that bring wine lovers together. Allison shares highlights from her wine portfolio—including a standout Cabernet Sauvignon—and the perks of their wine club. The conversation celebrates the joy of wine, perfect pairings, and the connections a great bottle can spark. 

Wines Tasted

Turks Head 2023 BDX Blanc Reserve $50

Turks Head 2022 Montecillo Cabernet Sauvignon $95

Get tickets for my wine comedy show Something To Wine About at Turks Head Wines on June 4th at 6pm...advance purchase is required and limited space is available.

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:01.306)
Allison welcome to The Sipping Point.

Allison Owen (00:04.866)
Thank you, Laurie

Laurie Forster (00:06.262)
Awesome. Well, I'm so excited to have you. know, months and months ago, I came upon your tasting room in West Chester, Pennsylvania and had such a great experience, learned a little bit about your wines and your story and was super intrigued. We've been social media friends since then. And so I'm excited to have you on because you grew up in Pennsylvania near or in West Chester and now you're making your own wines and you have this tasting room.

I know this is a dream of a lot of people, even if they're just sitting there sipping your wines. Can you tell us a little bit about your story? Because I know you didn't start out in winemaking. How did you come to have this fabulous wine portfolio?

Allison Owen (00:44.536)
No.

Allison Owen (00:49.442)
Yeah, so no, I actually spent 20 years in the human capital management cloud software consulting space. So had nothing to do with the wine industry other than I drank a lot of wine and collected wine. My husband and I actually back in, gosh, I think it was 2007, both in sales, both, you know, excited to, you know, figure out what was gonna be our next journey in life once we retired. Neither of us golf or play pickleball.

So we came up with this idea that when we retired, we were gonna follow our passion into the world of wine and open a small little wine and cheese shop. Well, everywhere we went for years, we were talking about the business and what would it be and what would we call it and what would the model look like. And in 2022, shortly after COVID, I had found myself in a career that I absolutely loved, Climb the Corporate Ladder.

was on planes, trains, and automobiles and quite honestly just lost the fire in my belly. Whether you call it corporate burnout or what have you, our dinnertime conversations at home changed from, did you have a great day? Or to, did you have another bad day at work, mom? So we were actually ringing in the new year on a family vacation down in the Bahamas and my husband looked at me and said, you know what? Life is too short. And I said, what do you mean?

Laurie Forster (02:11.43)
True.

Allison Owen (02:12.75)
And he's like, quit your job. And I was like, and do what? He said, I think it's time for you to start this business that we've been talking about for so long. So obviously I looked at him and was questioning if he had Coronas for breakfast. But, you know, after some self-reflection, I just said, you know what, why not? If we don't do it now, when are we ever really going to do it? So made the decision to, as I say, graduate.

Laurie Forster (02:16.934)
is

Laurie Forster (02:23.173)
Love that.

Laurie Forster (02:27.014)
You

Laurie Forster (02:34.416)
Yeah.

Allison Owen (02:42.488)
from corporate America and jumped two feet forward into this whole entire wonderful world of the wine industry.

Laurie Forster (02:51.238)
I love that. And we kind of have a similar story because I also was in the tech industry before moving into wine. And I think there's many people like us that sort of found our way to wine through a love of just enjoying it in everyday life. And then now it is your life. So how fun is that? And your husband's in the business with you as well, it sounds like, or at least supports you and all your endeavors.

Allison Owen (03:18.422)
Yeah, I mean, he's certainly involved. still has his full-time corporate job, but obviously, as my husband is involved behind the scenes, providing emotional support, as well as decisions as to where we want to take the business. The two of us are actually flying out next week for Bottling, which is super exciting to get out to Napa and see what's going on the production side. So our concept is rather unique in the fact that

Laurie Forster (03:24.507)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (03:43.632)
That's great.

Allison Owen (03:47.648)
We started our own wine label where we source, produce and bottle all of our wine in California. So we source from multiple different vineyards across Sonoma, Napa and some of the surrounding counties. And until everything is in bottle, do we then bring it here to our tasting room, you know, in our hometown of West Chester in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Laurie Forster (04:08.933)
Yep. And we'll talk later. You do have a wine club, so it can be shipped to you as well. But I love this whole idea of you guys going out to wine country. And while you sent a little wine country to me so we could actually taste and talk about a few of your wines, although I know you have many, many more. But tell me about the reserve blanc that you sent me. It's a little bit of a Bordeaux blend in my mind here with these grapes.

Allison Owen (04:13.806)
Mm-hmm.

Allison Owen (04:33.87)
It is. Yeah, so this is actually our first black label white wine. So we do have it reserved here like many wineries, which is our black label series. So this is a Bordeaux Blanc blend from the Wildwood Vineyard in Sonoma Valley. So for those not familiar with what a Bordeaux Blanc blend is, is it is traditionally Sémillon blended with Sauvignon Blanc. So this particular blend is 65 % Sauvignon Blanc.

and 35 % Semillon, both from the Wildwood Vineyard. The Wildwood Vineyard is actually a historic vineyard located in Sonoma. so it has been, they have been great partners of ours. We have sourced from them since we started in 2022. And it is a beautiful white wine that is one of the top sellers in the Tasting Room itself. We typically will get a grapefruit note on the initial aromas.

that we get from it. And then as you continue to taste it, you'll get a lot of white floral lemon zest, and then kind of a little bit of a honeycomb taste to it. So it's a really beautiful complex wine.

Laurie Forster (05:40.805)
Absolutely.

Laurie Forster (05:46.479)
So that vanilla note that you point out in the tasting notes and that honeycomb, how are you aging this? Is there oak involved? Where is that coming from?

Allison Owen (05:57.774)
Yeah, so all of our, yeah, so this particular wine is barrel fermented. We only used about 10 % new French oak on this particular blend, which I think brings obviously some of those vanilla notes to the finish.

Laurie Forster (06:13.441)
And it's I like that it's just a touch of that creaminess a touch of that vanilla and I don't know I see online that you're also supporting Share and Pair Sundays and so this to me would be so great with like a creamy pasta with shrimp or scallops Something seafood based but also with that cream factor that would bring this all together. It's it's really lovely and folks can just

Allison Owen (06:17.582)
Mm-hmm.

Allison Owen (06:25.218)
We are.

Allison Owen (06:31.105)
Okay.

Allison Owen (06:36.504)
Absolutely.

Laurie Forster (06:39.919)
pop into the tasting room if they're anywhere near West Chester, Pennsylvania, or if they sign up for the wine club. You said there's specific states that you can ship to and they're on the website for people to get that as well.

Allison Owen (06:52.718)
Yeah, we're currently shipping to about 10 different states across the country.

Laurie Forster (06:58.349)
Awesome. And this is really lovely. And right in time for it to be warm. And we're finally getting to that time. So this is just a great sort of spring summer wine. here in Maryland, we're all about our seafood. So to me, this screams seafood or anything you could squeeze a lemon on. Really, really pretty. And I think we've talked to other guests about how

Allison Owen (07:17.39)
100%.

Laurie Forster (07:24.109)
It's amazing that more and more people, especially of the younger generation, are drinking more white and rosé as opposed to red. Are you seeing that in the tasting room?

Allison Owen (07:35.224)
We are, I I think because of the seasonality of it being cold here in Philadelphia, we definitely have seen a lot of folks coming in most recently through the winter months and ordering more red flights. However, I will tell you when we first opened our tasting room Labor Day weekend of 2024, our rosé flew off the shelves. We sold out in a few short weeks.

So I know that all of our wine club members and the regulars that come into the tasting room are super excited for us to release our new rosé that will be released in May.

Laurie Forster (08:13.485)
Awesome. Well, speaking of the tasting room, because I've alluded to it a few times and so have you, what can people expect? I know you've got that backdrop there, but if they come into Turk's head, what can they expect in the tasting room? What can they do?

Allison Owen (08:14.531)
Yeah.

Allison Owen (08:29.454)
Yeah, so the whole concept that we had was to really bring that Napa Sonoma wine tasty experience to the suburbs of Philadelphia. So unlike your typical wine bar that you're going to find in the city, we are a traditional tasting room. So our staff, not only do we have servers that engage with our guests, but we also have wine educators and sommeliers. So, you know, you can, what you can expect when you come here is really a lot of education.

kind of demystifying wine, educating, for an example, as you were talking about, you know, the white wines that we offer, we currently on our white tasting flight offer four different Sauvignon Blancs, all from the 2023 vintage, along with this Bordeaux Blanc reserve that we're tasting this afternoon. But it's educating folks on, you can have, you know, four different Sauvignon Blancs from the same vintage, all sourced from different.

vineyards across Northern California and they all can have completely different tasting profiles. So it's been really great to have people come and not just enjoy wine and connect over wine with their friends and family, but to really get educated on it. So we have our tasting room where people will come in, make reservations, but we also offer private tasting experiences. We have a classroom where we teach wine classes about wines all around the world from Italian wines to wines of Burgundy.

even wine 101 to give people that really want to get into understanding the complexity of wine, how to properly taste and so forth. So it's been a wonderful experience as people are coming in, not just to have a glass, but to really learn about what they like. So that way they can go to the store or even swing by our bottle shop on the way out and purchase some of the wines that we offer.

Laurie Forster (10:20.717)
I love that you're saying that because in my events, I always really stress to people, it's about trusting your own taste. But we in the wine business can give you some of the tips and tricks to really understand why you like the one Sauvignon Blanc versus the other. And then that way, when you come back into your store or your tasting room, you can say, I like a lot of citrus profile and higher acid, or I like the Sauvignon Blanc.

or the reserve blanc with the oak, a little bit of oak on there. That's more my style. So once you give people the language, I guess, so they can ask for what they want, but also to see, because I got an amazing cheese plate with my tasting flight when I was there. That was lovely. I made it my lunch. But also to see how the different wines go with the different things on the appetizers or cheese plates that you have. Then you bring in that

know, share and pair idea that, okay, maybe that wasn't my favorite in the flight, but I really loved it with that goat cheese. And you can kind of see how wine changes with food.

Allison Owen (11:30.708)
Exactly, exactly. And that's what was so fun about, you know, The new Share and Pair campaign was we were already executing on that in our tasting room. So, you know, our chef obviously, you know, focuses very heavily on making sure that the menu items that we add, the cheeses that we're bringing in, the charcuterie items that people get to select on their cheese and charcuterie board are all wine forward. So it kind of takes, you know, the typical chef, you know,

and flips it upside down where here it's all about the wine and the food is brought in to compliment the wine. Unlike your typical restaurant where the wine is there to compliment the food, we've kind of done a complete and total paradigm shift, which again has been really fun as people are coming in and tasting how important the food and wine pairing really is and how wine can change based on what you're eating. So it's been awesome.

Laurie Forster (12:25.305)
Yeah, and I'm gonna post a link to your website, of course, and my tasting or show notes, tasting notes as well. So people can see because you really do feel like you're in Sonoma or Napa in a tasting room. Once you get inside, you wouldn't know you're in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I love West Chester, but you really feel transported. And you mentioned the great events you do. And we're gonna do a little event together on June 4th.

Allison Owen (12:51.234)
Here we are.

Laurie Forster (12:52.921)
that I'm hoping some of my listeners and your wine club members are gonna be excited about. I don't know if you wanna talk a little bit about it or if you want me to start how you want, we'll just tease it up.

Allison Owen (13:05.26)
Yeah, go for it. I'm excited.

Laurie Forster (13:06.991)
So when we connected, I had told you a little bit about my wine comedy show, Something to Wine About, where the main theme, run through theme goes with what we're talking about. It's about trusting your own taste. So it's a little bit of stand up comedy about being in the wine business and sort of the craziness that you and I know about trusting your own taste, some games, interactive exercises. You'll taste wine, you'll have some light fare.

And even if you're dragging along maybe a husband that prefers scotch or beer, they're gonna have a great time because they're gonna laugh and just really enjoy that environment that you have there. I think you said we're limited to 50 seats and it's gonna be on a Wine Wednesday, which I love. So I hope everybody will check out Turks Head Wine and go to the events page and there'll be a link there where you can sign up.

Allison Owen (13:45.867)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Laurie Forster (13:58.724)
because we just have that certain number of seats. But I'm excited to join you back there again with a little bit of wine and a little bit of shenanigans.

Allison Owen (14:08.408)
Sounds like a great time if you ask me.

Laurie Forster (14:10.245)
Absolutely. All right, so now that we've talked about the tasting room and the white, let's talk about the Cabernet Sauvignon. I know you have many different vineyards, but the one you sent me was the Moon Mountain. So tell me a little bit about this wine.

Allison Owen (14:18.51)
Mm-hmm.

Allison Owen (14:26.77)
well, this wine is so incredibly special. For those that have heard about the Montecillo Vineyard, it is a historic vineyard located on Moon Mountain. It actually has some of the largest, I mean, oldest, sorry, Cabernet Sauvignon vines in Sonoma. It has actually was planted in the early 60s by Chuy Ordaz and continues to be farmed organically by him today.

So it is very, very exclusive vineyard through relationships and networking. We are honored to even have access to this fruit. It is an absolutely beautiful, beautiful wine. One of our top sellers. Again, it has what you would expect out of a Cabernet Sauvignon, but a lot of that smoky graphite, ripe black fruits such as black cherry. But then once you actually taste the wine,

and have an appreciation for what's on your palate, you'll get almost like this blood orange citrus note to it, which is obviously very unique in red wine itself.

Laurie Forster (15:28.837)
Mmm.

Laurie Forster (15:36.793)
yeah. And the fruit is really nice and intense on the palate.

Allison Owen (15:38.068)
it is just, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. And it has almost like this herbaceous, you know, nist to it on the finish that is just absolutely beautiful. So this is a wine that we are extremely, extremely proud of. And as I mentioned, honored to even have access to produce wine from this vineyard.

Laurie Forster (15:59.288)
And I love that, you sometimes cabs can be really like a lot extra as the kids would say, but this one is just so elegant and there's tannin there that makes this a great pairing for a hard cheese or a steak or some sort of a meaty pairing. But it's not like, my gosh, I was just assaulted by tannin. It's not that at all.

Allison Owen (16:05.26)
Yeah. Yep.

Allison Owen (16:15.054)
100%.

Allison Owen (16:21.996)
Right. No, I agree. And I think, you know, it's, you know, the oak that that our winemaker actually used on this particular wine. We do use all French oak on all the wines that we produce to make sure that it does, you know, incorporate kind of more of the soft, you know, softness that new French oak incorporates into wine. And to your point, it's great with food. It's also great just to sit and drink, you know, in front of a fire.

and it stands well on its own.

Laurie Forster (16:53.029)
the Italians will say it's a meditation wine. So you can just sit there and meditate with your glass of Turks head Cab. Right, there you go. Well, that is absolutely beautiful. And I know we've kind of mentioned the wine club. So you could always come into the tasting room, taste a flight, bring a bottle home. But now you have the ability and there are 10 states, I know they're on your website to join the club.

Allison Owen (16:56.142)
Love that.

Maybe that will be my new hobby.

Laurie Forster (17:21.989)
How does the club work and what's so exciting about that?

Allison Owen (17:27.374)
Yeah, so what's really nice about our club is we actually offer two different levels. So we have the influencer where you can choose to receive six bottles semi-annually, or we have our ambassador level, which is to receive 12 bottles, an entire case, twice a year. All of our wine club members get 15 % off all wines at time of release, and it's fully customizable. So we have had wine club members that...

absolutely love our rosé that I know exactly who they are and when we have our spring release in a couple months, they're probably going to select 100 % rosés for their allocation and we have some that just absolutely love cabs. So it gives all of our members a lot of really great flexibility. We also locally have pickup parties. So a lot of folks in the Philadelphia region that belong to California wine clubs typically don't get to enjoy the pickup parties that are offered.

Laurie Forster (18:02.745)
Yeah

Allison Owen (18:23.574)
So we have all of our wine club members here again. It's a great way to meet other people in the community that have a love and a passion for wine. And then we also have a link point loyalty point program where you actually receive additional discounts and anything that you buy here, whether it be a corkscrew.

and a wine key or whether it be a bottle of wine, you get to accumulate points that you can then use towards future purchases. So it's just our way to reward our members and thank them for being part of the Turks Head wines family.

Laurie Forster (18:58.891)
Nice. And I guess you probably find out about events and all of these things, you know, through your communications for the wine club and the pickup party sounds great. So I have to check out one of those for sure. So I have a question for you about what do you like to enjoy when you're not enjoying your own wines? I love to ask this question because it seems like many winemakers

Winery owners have been inspired by various regions around the world. So what is your go-to when you're not drinking your own wine? What can I find you meditating over?

Allison Owen (19:31.372)
Mm-hmm.

Allison Owen (19:39.112)
my palate's always constantly changing, right? Based on the season, you know, where I am, what I'm enjoying. Right now, I would say if I was going to pull a bottle from my own personal cellar at home, it is most likely going to be a Cabernet Sauvignon from Coombsville. I'm just really loving the Coombsville graphite-rich Cabernet Sauvignon right now. So that's probably what you'll find me drinking at home.

Laurie Forster (19:58.159)
Ooh.

Laurie Forster (20:07.895)
And I am married to a chef. don't know if I mentioned that when we've spoken before. So I do let him pick the food and I tell him what wine or we do it the other way around. He picks the food and then I pick the wine to go with. Are you a cook? Does your husband cook? What's your thoughts on pairings?

Allison Owen (20:28.216)
Yeah, so before I opened the tasting room and my whole life has obviously been wrapped around Turks Head Wines and what we're executing on, I love to cook. That is my place. My husband sits at the kitchen island. We usually will start off with a white wine while I'm cooking and then we'll transition to red based on what we're enjoying. But we do tend to eat a lot of steak. We love filet mignon.

Laurie Forster (20:38.618)
That's great.

Allison Owen (20:56.246)
with potatoes or gratin and some sort of roasted vegetable. But yeah, that's typically what you'll see us cooking in the kitchen is a lot of those hearty, fatty meats that will pair really well with the cabs that we like to enjoy.

Laurie Forster (21:11.279)
Great. So if people want to find out more about Turks Head wines, connect with you, how do you want them to best do that?

Allison Owen (21:20.258)
Sure, well they can visit our website at turksheadwines.com, obviously all over social media at turksheadwines, but all emails route to me. So if you send us an email at info@turksheadwines.com or fill out a contact me on our website, I have access and personally respond to all emails. So that's also really important to me is staying super connected to all of our guests, all of our customers and those that are at home drinking their wine no matter where they're located.

Laurie Forster (21:49.901)
I love that. And folks, don't forget to go to that event page on her website and check out our event coming up on June 4th called Something to Wine About. It's a little bit of wining, dining and punchlines. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm excited to be back in the tasting room. Well, Allison, this has been amazing. I know you have definitely inspired people to come into the tasting room, join the wine club or maybe even start their own winery, who knows?

But I really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for coming on the Sipping Point. And I just want to say cheers. Cheers. Thank you.

Allison Owen (22:18.072)
Thanks, Laurie.

Yeah, cheers. Thank you.

Laurie Forster (00:01.306)
Allison welcome to The Sipping Point.

Allison Owen (00:04.866)
Thank you, Laurie

Laurie Forster (00:06.262)
Awesome. Well, I'm so excited to have you. know, months and months ago, I came upon your tasting room in West Chester, Pennsylvania and had such a great experience, learned a little bit about your wines and your story and was super intrigued. We've been social media friends since then. And so I'm excited to have you on because you grew up in Pennsylvania near or in West Chester and now you're making your own wines and you have this tasting room.

I know this is a dream of a lot of people, even if they're just sitting there sipping your wines. Can you tell us a little bit about your story? Because I know you didn't start out in winemaking. How did you come to have this fabulous wine portfolio?

Allison Owen (00:44.536)
No.

Allison Owen (00:49.442)
Yeah, so no, I actually spent 20 years in the human capital management cloud software consulting space. So had nothing to do with the wine industry other than I drank a lot of wine and collected wine. My husband and I actually back in, gosh, I think it was 2007, both in sales, both, you know, excited to, you know, figure out what was gonna be our next journey in life once we retired. Neither of us golf or play pickleball.

So we came up with this idea that when we retired, we were gonna follow our passion into the world of wine and open a small little wine and cheese shop. Well, everywhere we went for years, we were talking about the business and what would it be and what would we call it and what would the model look like. And in 2022, shortly after COVID, I had found myself in a career that I absolutely loved, Climb the Corporate Ladder.

was on planes, trains, and automobiles and quite honestly just lost the fire in my belly. Whether you call it corporate burnout or what have you, our dinnertime conversations at home changed from, did you have a great day? Or to, did you have another bad day at work, mom? So we were actually ringing in the new year on a family vacation down in the Bahamas and my husband looked at me and said, you know what? Life is too short. And I said, what do you mean?

Laurie Forster (02:11.43)
True.

Allison Owen (02:12.75)
And he's like, quit your job. And I was like, and do what? He said, I think it's time for you to start this business that we've been talking about for so long. So obviously I looked at him and was questioning if he had Coronas for breakfast. But, you know, after some self-reflection, I just said, you know what, why not? If we don't do it now, when are we ever really going to do it? So made the decision to, as I say, graduate.

Laurie Forster (02:16.934)
is

Laurie Forster (02:23.173)
Love that.

Laurie Forster (02:27.014)
You

Laurie Forster (02:34.416)
Yeah.

Allison Owen (02:42.488)
from corporate America and jumped two feet forward into this whole entire wonderful world of the wine industry.

Laurie Forster (02:51.238)
I love that. And we kind of have a similar story because I also was in the tech industry before moving into wine. And I think there's many people like us that sort of found our way to wine through a love of just enjoying it in everyday life. And then now it is your life. So how fun is that? And your husband's in the business with you as well, it sounds like, or at least supports you and all your endeavors.

Allison Owen (03:18.422)
Yeah, I mean, he's certainly involved. still has his full-time corporate job, but obviously, as my husband is involved behind the scenes, providing emotional support, as well as decisions as to where we want to take the business. The two of us are actually flying out next week for Bottling, which is super exciting to get out to Napa and see what's going on the production side. So our concept is rather unique in the fact that

Laurie Forster (03:24.507)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (03:43.632)
That's great.

Allison Owen (03:47.648)
We started our own wine label where we source, produce and bottle all of our wine in California. So we source from multiple different vineyards across Sonoma, Napa and some of the surrounding counties. And until everything is in bottle, do we then bring it here to our tasting room, you know, in our hometown of West Chester in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Laurie Forster (04:08.933)
Yep. And we'll talk later. You do have a wine club, so it can be shipped to you as well. But I love this whole idea of you guys going out to wine country. And while you sent a little wine country to me so we could actually taste and talk about a few of your wines, although I know you have many, many more. But tell me about the reserve blanc that you sent me. It's a little bit of a Bordeaux blend in my mind here with these grapes.

Allison Owen (04:13.806)
Mm-hmm.

Allison Owen (04:33.87)
It is. Yeah, so this is actually our first black label white wine. So we do have it reserved here like many wineries, which is our black label series. So this is a Bordeaux Blanc blend from the Wildwood Vineyard in Sonoma Valley. So for those not familiar with what a Bordeaux Blanc blend is, is it is traditionally Sémillon blended with Sauvignon Blanc. So this particular blend is 65 % Sauvignon Blanc.

and 35 % Semillon, both from the Wildwood Vineyard. The Wildwood Vineyard is actually a historic vineyard located in Sonoma. so it has been, they have been great partners of ours. We have sourced from them since we started in 2022. And it is a beautiful white wine that is one of the top sellers in the Tasting Room itself. We typically will get a grapefruit note on the initial aromas.

that we get from it. And then as you continue to taste it, you'll get a lot of white floral lemon zest, and then kind of a little bit of a honeycomb taste to it. So it's a really beautiful complex wine.

Laurie Forster (05:40.805)
Absolutely.

Laurie Forster (05:46.479)
So that vanilla note that you point out in the tasting notes and that honeycomb, how are you aging this? Is there oak involved? Where is that coming from?

Allison Owen (05:57.774)
Yeah, so all of our, yeah, so this particular wine is barrel fermented. We only used about 10 % new French oak on this particular blend, which I think brings obviously some of those vanilla notes to the finish.

Laurie Forster (06:13.441)
And it's I like that it's just a touch of that creaminess a touch of that vanilla and I don't know I see online that you're also supporting Share and Pair Sundays and so this to me would be so great with like a creamy pasta with shrimp or scallops Something seafood based but also with that cream factor that would bring this all together. It's it's really lovely and folks can just

Allison Owen (06:17.582)
Mm-hmm.

Allison Owen (06:25.218)
We are.

Allison Owen (06:31.105)
Okay.

Allison Owen (06:36.504)
Absolutely.

Laurie Forster (06:39.919)
pop into the tasting room if they're anywhere near West Chester, Pennsylvania, or if they sign up for the wine club. You said there's specific states that you can ship to and they're on the website for people to get that as well.

Allison Owen (06:52.718)
Yeah, we're currently shipping to about 10 different states across the country.

Laurie Forster (06:58.349)
Awesome. And this is really lovely. And right in time for it to be warm. And we're finally getting to that time. So this is just a great sort of spring summer wine. here in Maryland, we're all about our seafood. So to me, this screams seafood or anything you could squeeze a lemon on. Really, really pretty. And I think we've talked to other guests about how

Allison Owen (07:17.39)
100%.

Laurie Forster (07:24.109)
It's amazing that more and more people, especially of the younger generation, are drinking more white and rosé as opposed to red. Are you seeing that in the tasting room?

Allison Owen (07:35.224)
We are, I I think because of the seasonality of it being cold here in Philadelphia, we definitely have seen a lot of folks coming in most recently through the winter months and ordering more red flights. However, I will tell you when we first opened our tasting room Labor Day weekend of 2024, our rosé flew off the shelves. We sold out in a few short weeks.

So I know that all of our wine club members and the regulars that come into the tasting room are super excited for us to release our new rosé that will be released in May.

Laurie Forster (08:13.485)
Awesome. Well, speaking of the tasting room, because I've alluded to it a few times and so have you, what can people expect? I know you've got that backdrop there, but if they come into Turk's head, what can they expect in the tasting room? What can they do?

Allison Owen (08:14.531)
Yeah.

Allison Owen (08:29.454)
Yeah, so the whole concept that we had was to really bring that Napa Sonoma wine tasty experience to the suburbs of Philadelphia. So unlike your typical wine bar that you're going to find in the city, we are a traditional tasting room. So our staff, not only do we have servers that engage with our guests, but we also have wine educators and sommeliers. So, you know, you can, what you can expect when you come here is really a lot of education.

kind of demystifying wine, educating, for an example, as you were talking about, you know, the white wines that we offer, we currently on our white tasting flight offer four different Sauvignon Blancs, all from the 2023 vintage, along with this Bordeaux Blanc reserve that we're tasting this afternoon. But it's educating folks on, you can have, you know, four different Sauvignon Blancs from the same vintage, all sourced from different.

vineyards across Northern California and they all can have completely different tasting profiles. So it's been really great to have people come and not just enjoy wine and connect over wine with their friends and family, but to really get educated on it. So we have our tasting room where people will come in, make reservations, but we also offer private tasting experiences. We have a classroom where we teach wine classes about wines all around the world from Italian wines to wines of Burgundy.

even wine 101 to give people that really want to get into understanding the complexity of wine, how to properly taste and so forth. So it's been a wonderful experience as people are coming in, not just to have a glass, but to really learn about what they like. So that way they can go to the store or even swing by our bottle shop on the way out and purchase some of the wines that we offer.

Laurie Forster (10:20.717)
I love that you're saying that because in my events, I always really stress to people, it's about trusting your own taste. But we in the wine business can give you some of the tips and tricks to really understand why you like the one Sauvignon Blanc versus the other. And then that way, when you come back into your store or your tasting room, you can say, I like a lot of citrus profile and higher acid, or I like the Sauvignon Blanc.

or the reserve blanc with the oak, a little bit of oak on there. That's more my style. So once you give people the language, I guess, so they can ask for what they want, but also to see, because I got an amazing cheese plate with my tasting flight when I was there. That was lovely. I made it my lunch. But also to see how the different wines go with the different things on the appetizers or cheese plates that you have. Then you bring in that

know, share and pair idea that, okay, maybe that wasn't my favorite in the flight, but I really loved it with that goat cheese. And you can kind of see how wine changes with food.

Allison Owen (11:30.708)
Exactly, exactly. And that's what was so fun about, you know, The new Share and Pair campaign was we were already executing on that in our tasting room. So, you know, our chef obviously, you know, focuses very heavily on making sure that the menu items that we add, the cheeses that we're bringing in, the charcuterie items that people get to select on their cheese and charcuterie board are all wine forward. So it kind of takes, you know, the typical chef, you know,

and flips it upside down where here it's all about the wine and the food is brought in to compliment the wine. Unlike your typical restaurant where the wine is there to compliment the food, we've kind of done a complete and total paradigm shift, which again has been really fun as people are coming in and tasting how important the food and wine pairing really is and how wine can change based on what you're eating. So it's been awesome.

Laurie Forster (12:25.305)
Yeah, and I'm gonna post a link to your website, of course, and my tasting or show notes, tasting notes as well. So people can see because you really do feel like you're in Sonoma or Napa in a tasting room. Once you get inside, you wouldn't know you're in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I love West Chester, but you really feel transported. And you mentioned the great events you do. And we're gonna do a little event together on June 4th.

Allison Owen (12:51.234)
Here we are.

Laurie Forster (12:52.921)
that I'm hoping some of my listeners and your wine club members are gonna be excited about. I don't know if you wanna talk a little bit about it or if you want me to start how you want, we'll just tease it up.

Allison Owen (13:05.26)
Yeah, go for it. I'm excited.

Laurie Forster (13:06.991)
So when we connected, I had told you a little bit about my wine comedy show, Something to Wine About, where the main theme, run through theme goes with what we're talking about. It's about trusting your own taste. So it's a little bit of stand up comedy about being in the wine business and sort of the craziness that you and I know about trusting your own taste, some games, interactive exercises. You'll taste wine, you'll have some light fare.

And even if you're dragging along maybe a husband that prefers scotch or beer, they're gonna have a great time because they're gonna laugh and just really enjoy that environment that you have there. I think you said we're limited to 50 seats and it's gonna be on a Wine Wednesday, which I love. So I hope everybody will check out Turks Head Wine and go to the events page and there'll be a link there where you can sign up.

Allison Owen (13:45.867)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Laurie Forster (13:58.724)
because we just have that certain number of seats. But I'm excited to join you back there again with a little bit of wine and a little bit of shenanigans.

Allison Owen (14:08.408)
Sounds like a great time if you ask me.

Laurie Forster (14:10.245)
Absolutely. All right, so now that we've talked about the tasting room and the white, let's talk about the Cabernet Sauvignon. I know you have many different vineyards, but the one you sent me was the Moon Mountain. So tell me a little bit about this wine.

Allison Owen (14:18.51)
Mm-hmm.

Allison Owen (14:26.77)
well, this wine is so incredibly special. For those that have heard about the Montecillo Vineyard, it is a historic vineyard located on Moon Mountain. It actually has some of the largest, I mean, oldest, sorry, Cabernet Sauvignon vines in Sonoma. It has actually was planted in the early 60s by Chuy Ordaz and continues to be farmed organically by him today.

So it is very, very exclusive vineyard through relationships and networking. We are honored to even have access to this fruit. It is an absolutely beautiful, beautiful wine. One of our top sellers. Again, it has what you would expect out of a Cabernet Sauvignon, but a lot of that smoky graphite, ripe black fruits such as black cherry. But then once you actually taste the wine,

and have an appreciation for what's on your palate, you'll get almost like this blood orange citrus note to it, which is obviously very unique in red wine itself.

Laurie Forster (15:28.837)
Mmm.

Laurie Forster (15:36.793)
yeah. And the fruit is really nice and intense on the palate.

Allison Owen (15:38.068)
it is just, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. And it has almost like this herbaceous, you know, nist to it on the finish that is just absolutely beautiful. So this is a wine that we are extremely, extremely proud of. And as I mentioned, honored to even have access to produce wine from this vineyard.

Laurie Forster (15:59.288)
And I love that, you sometimes cabs can be really like a lot extra as the kids would say, but this one is just so elegant and there's tannin there that makes this a great pairing for a hard cheese or a steak or some sort of a meaty pairing. But it's not like, my gosh, I was just assaulted by tannin. It's not that at all.

Allison Owen (16:05.26)
Yeah. Yep.

Allison Owen (16:15.054)
100%.

Allison Owen (16:21.996)
Right. No, I agree. And I think, you know, it's, you know, the oak that that our winemaker actually used on this particular wine. We do use all French oak on all the wines that we produce to make sure that it does, you know, incorporate kind of more of the soft, you know, softness that new French oak incorporates into wine. And to your point, it's great with food. It's also great just to sit and drink, you know, in front of a fire.

and it stands well on its own.

Laurie Forster (16:53.029)
the Italians will say it's a meditation wine. So you can just sit there and meditate with your glass of Turks head Cab. Right, there you go. Well, that is absolutely beautiful. And I know we've kind of mentioned the wine club. So you could always come into the tasting room, taste a flight, bring a bottle home. But now you have the ability and there are 10 states, I know they're on your website to join the club.

Allison Owen (16:56.142)
Love that.

Maybe that will be my new hobby.

Laurie Forster (17:21.989)
How does the club work and what's so exciting about that?

Allison Owen (17:27.374)
Yeah, so what's really nice about our club is we actually offer two different levels. So we have the influencer where you can choose to receive six bottles semi-annually, or we have our ambassador level, which is to receive 12 bottles, an entire case, twice a year. All of our wine club members get 15 % off all wines at time of release, and it's fully customizable. So we have had wine club members that...

absolutely love our rosé that I know exactly who they are and when we have our spring release in a couple months, they're probably going to select 100 % rosés for their allocation and we have some that just absolutely love cabs. So it gives all of our members a lot of really great flexibility. We also locally have pickup parties. So a lot of folks in the Philadelphia region that belong to California wine clubs typically don't get to enjoy the pickup parties that are offered.

Laurie Forster (18:02.745)
Yeah

Allison Owen (18:23.574)
So we have all of our wine club members here again. It's a great way to meet other people in the community that have a love and a passion for wine. And then we also have a link point loyalty point program where you actually receive additional discounts and anything that you buy here, whether it be a corkscrew.

and a wine key or whether it be a bottle of wine, you get to accumulate points that you can then use towards future purchases. So it's just our way to reward our members and thank them for being part of the Turks Head wines family.

Laurie Forster (18:58.891)
Nice. And I guess you probably find out about events and all of these things, you know, through your communications for the wine club and the pickup party sounds great. So I have to check out one of those for sure. So I have a question for you about what do you like to enjoy when you're not enjoying your own wines? I love to ask this question because it seems like many winemakers

Winery owners have been inspired by various regions around the world. So what is your go-to when you're not drinking your own wine? What can I find you meditating over?

Allison Owen (19:31.372)
Mm-hmm.

Allison Owen (19:39.112)
my palate's always constantly changing, right? Based on the season, you know, where I am, what I'm enjoying. Right now, I would say if I was going to pull a bottle from my own personal cellar at home, it is most likely going to be a Cabernet Sauvignon from Coombsville. I'm just really loving the Coombsville graphite-rich Cabernet Sauvignon right now. So that's probably what you'll find me drinking at home.

Laurie Forster (19:58.159)
Ooh.

Laurie Forster (20:07.895)
And I am married to a chef. don't know if I mentioned that when we've spoken before. So I do let him pick the food and I tell him what wine or we do it the other way around. He picks the food and then I pick the wine to go with. Are you a cook? Does your husband cook? What's your thoughts on pairings?

Allison Owen (20:28.216)
Yeah, so before I opened the tasting room and my whole life has obviously been wrapped around Turks Head Wines and what we're executing on, I love to cook. That is my place. My husband sits at the kitchen island. We usually will start off with a white wine while I'm cooking and then we'll transition to red based on what we're enjoying. But we do tend to eat a lot of steak. We love filet mignon.

Laurie Forster (20:38.618)
That's great.

Allison Owen (20:56.246)
with potatoes or gratin and some sort of roasted vegetable. But yeah, that's typically what you'll see us cooking in the kitchen is a lot of those hearty, fatty meats that will pair really well with the cabs that we like to enjoy.

Laurie Forster (21:11.279)
Great. So if people want to find out more about Turks Head wines, connect with you, how do you want them to best do that?

Allison Owen (21:20.258)
Sure, well they can visit our website at turksheadwines.com, obviously all over social media at turksheadwines, but all emails route to me. So if you send us an email at info@turksheadwines.com or fill out a contact me on our website, I have access and personally respond to all emails. So that's also really important to me is staying super connected to all of our guests, all of our customers and those that are at home drinking their wine no matter where they're located.

Laurie Forster (21:49.901)
I love that. And folks, don't forget to go to that event page on her website and check out our event coming up on June 4th called Something to Wine About. It's a little bit of wining, dining and punchlines. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm excited to be back in the tasting room. Well, Allison, this has been amazing. I know you have definitely inspired people to come into the tasting room, join the wine club or maybe even start their own winery, who knows?

But I really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for coming on the Sipping Point. And I just want to say cheers. Cheers. Thank you.

Allison Owen (22:18.072)
Thanks, Laurie.

Yeah, cheers. Thank you.