Evan Damiano, Marchelle Wines winemaker, is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. His last time on CWC was this episode on May 31, 2024. Evan started in January 2021 volunteering with Greg La Follette and has risen all the way to the rank of winemaker now. Greg is one of the most famous winemakers around. He has worked in all the most famous wineries in Sonoma County and he even worked with André Tchelistscheff when he was a teen. They have some of Dan’s 2024 Riesling in their glasses, which Greg made. It’s a barrel sample of the wine that Dan will be putting in bottles this week. In 2022 Greg asked Evan to go into the cellar and make selections for blends. He said, “Go in there and listen to what the wines want to be. Go be with the barrels. Smell, taste and put these wines together for me.” A small amount of another wine blended in can make a huge difference in a final result. Greg La Follette is known as “The Vine Whisperer” but he also has a degree in Botany. Dan gets his Riesling fruit from a vineyard in Mendocino County. There are a few people making Riesling around there, but nobody is making it as dry as this. This is Dan Berger’s personal quest to produce the wine he wants to taste. It’s got some tropical fruit, but also citrus lemon peel and a bit of herbal flavors. They also have some other wines from Marchelle. 2021 Manchester Ridge Chardonnay This is the Chardonnay that Greg brought to Evan while he was in Wisconsin taking a break. Greg tries to induce shatter into the vines, which tricks the vines into making smaller berries. The Manchester Ridge vineyard is 2200 feet above sea level, on a flat mountain top. Evan made his first harvest in Oregon in 2010 and if 16 hours per day for 21 days straight didn’t put him off the joy of winemaking, he was hooked. He did another harvest at Balletto Vineyard, with Anthony Beckman. He took a break from it but came back to it. Dan appreciates that these wines are always authentic to the grape variety.

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