12/17 - Tami Semler, Shayn Bjornholm,

Tami Semler - Malibu Family Wines

Today, our vineyards consist of approximately 60,000 vines on 65 acres, with expansion plans to reach 100,000 vines. With the high altitude and separation from the coast, along with an ideal blend of weather conditions and rich, rocky soil, it's the perfect environment for growing premium wine grapes. As a joint family endeavor between the Semler Family and the DeJoria Family, we take great pride in the gentle-handling, traditional techniques that give our wines their special character. We hope you enjoy our wines as much as we enjoy creating them! The rich, fascinating history of Saddlerock Ranch began more than three centuries ago when the vast expanse of land surrounding the Santa Monica Mountains was part of the original Spanish Land Grant. The area of more than 200,000 acres was a perfect site for sheep and cattle, and up until the 1930's, was known as El Malibu. Local caves are filled with ancient pictographs painted by the Chumash Indians, dating back to the Portola Expedition of 1769. The beautiful pictographs of this culture have become very rare due to erosion and weathering, but some of the most well preserved examples remain on the ranch and have been studied by archeologists and photographed for books on the subject.  Today, the Semler Family owns Saddlerock Ranch. Ronnie and Lisa Semler, along with their nine children, have lived on the ranch for over twenty-seven years.

Shayn Bjornholm, MS -  Washington State Wine Commission

Winemakers from all over the world have chosen to establish themselves in Washington, where they can create wines reflecting this region's unique characteristics. Their hand-crafted wines are receiving wide acclaim from critics regionally, nationally and internationally for their consistently high quality. Many of them have received scores of 90 and above from the major wine media. Overall this is a higher percentage than other leading wine regions. Washington State is a premium wine producing region located in the northwest corner of the United States. Although a relatively young wine industry, it is now the nation's second largest wine producer and is ranked among the world's top wine regions. Washington wines are found nationally in all 50 states and internationally in more than 40 countries

12/10 - Rob Jensen, Emilio Estavez,

Rob Jensen  Testarossa Winery 

Rob Jensen, a fourth generation Northern Californian, has always had a great passion for California winemaking: its past, present, and future. Extensive travel to Europe's great wine growing areas, combined with living in Italy during his university days, further increased this passion and eventually led to the founding of Testarossa Winery. In fact, the name of the winery comes from a nickname given to Rob during his studies in Italy: Testarossa, meaning redhead in Italian.  Although Rob's degree is in Electrical Engineering, with a minor in Italian language and culture (Santa Clara University, 1986), he has studied grape growing, winemaking and chemistry at the renowned School of Viticulture and Oenology at UC Davis. During Rob's nearly twenty year high-tech career he held several sales and marketing positions in pre- and post-IPO companies in Silicon Valley. In October 2001, Rob left his high-tech career in Silicon Vallley to work full-time at the winery. Rob's technical background, love of the arts, and business experience made it a natural for him to dive headlong into the wine business, an industry that is equal parts science and art.

Emilio Estevez - Actor - Wine Grower

 CALLUSED palms and bandaged fingers; broken fingernails stained black with dirt -- Hollywood actor and director Emilio Estevez proudly shows off his vineyard worker hands as he walks the vine rows.  Four years ago, Estevez planted this half-acre Pinot Noir vineyard around his Malibu home. Today, wine labels featuring a pen-and-ink drawing of his front-lawn vineyard -- a wink to the ego satisfaction of bottling his own wine -- are ready to be slapped on his first serious vintage, the 2007 Pinot Noir aging in a single half-sized oak barrel in his wine cellar. Estevez, along with dozens of his Malibu neighbors, has added vintner to his list of credits.

12/3 - Mike Sullivan, Mel Knox,

Mike Sullivan - Benovia Winery  
At Benovia Winery, we embrace the time-honored philosophy that it takes great vineyards and great people to make great wine. Each of our wines is handcrafted to showcase the uniqueness of our estate vineyards or to explore diverse expressions of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from select vineyards in the Russian River Valley and beyond. Our winemaking team is a group of accomplished professionals with some 150 years of combined experienced led by Benovia Winemaker and Co-owner Mike Sullivan. In the vineyard, our goal is to know each vineyard block and its special qualities, to attentively meet each vine's needs, and to promote optimum ripeness and flavor development. Every day, Benovia straddles the line between innovation and tradition.  We have made a significant financial investment in upgrading our vineyards with the latest farming and irrigation technology, but we rely more on knowledge, instinct and experience to handcraft Benovia's exceptional, high quality wines. At harvest time, Mike Sullivan can be found in the vineyards, tasting the grapes and making the critical decisions on when to pick and when to wait. The grapes are harvested at night or early morning to ensure that they arrive at the winery in peak condition. The process of creating Benovia's flagship Pinot Noir wines begins with careful and attentive hand labor. The grapes are conveyed to the destemmer with a sorting table. Each cluster is inspected by hand prior to destemming. A second sorting area allows us to inspect each berry after destemming. Nothing goes into the fermentation tank that isn't ideally ripe and free of debris. Pinot Noir is a delicate grape, and needs to be treated gently to produce wines with power and finesse. After a pre-fermentation maceration of five to eight days, we allow the indigenous yeast to complete fermentation and encourage very long, slow malolactic fermentation. Employing the full knowledge of fermentation science, we can control quality without too much handling, preserving the character of the wine. After settling, the juice (now called "must") is moved to French oak barrels to ferment at a cool temperature for approximately four to six weeks. The barrels are inoculated for malolactic fermentation, and the lees are stirred weekly until the process is complete. This method helps the malolactic fermentation, integrates the new oak, and builds body and structure in the wine.  Our Chardonnay grapes follow a similar process with the same care and feeding in the vineyard and gentle handling at the winery. After hand-sorting, the clusters are transferred directly to press. Whole cluster pressing helps minimize the amount of harsh malic acid and astringent tannins that naturally exist in the skins, seeds and stems from entering the wine.  The Zinfandel grapes we grow at our historic Cohn Vineyard are also harvested whole cluster, sorted, destemmed, and then berry sorted before going to press.  Our wines spend 14 to 16 months aging in French oak barrels until they are ready to be bottled and labeled at our winery.  "What I love about winemaking is that perfection is unattainable," says Mike Sullivan. "Winemaking is about the journey and not the destination."


 Mel Knox  - Mel Knox Barrel Broker     In 1972 I was vaguely thinking about attending law school or graduate school when I got a job driving a delivery truck for a huge liquor store where two college friends were running the wine department. The next thing I knew I was a full-fledged wine nut. From 1974 until 1981 I worked as a wine buyer for the Wine and Cheese Center of San Francisco. We ran a tasting bar with a fairly advanced tasting program. I can remember tastings of Sauternes going back to the 30s, clarets going back to the 19th century, older California wines, older Barolos and Barbarescos, German wines going back to 1937, and so on. One time we tasted every Ridge Monte Bello ever made - there were fewer examples then but it still took two days. Through this store I met a tremendous number of winemakers, tasted wines from all over the world, and learned a lot. I started selling barrels in 1980 and have never stopped.

11/26 - Larry O'Brien

Larry O'Brien - Master Sommelier

The Court of Master Sommeliers was established to encourage improved standards of beverage knowledge and service in hotels and restaurants. Education was then, and remains today, the Court's charter. The first successful Master Sommelier examination was held in the United Kingdom in 1969. By April 1977, the Court of Master Sommeliers was established as the premier international examining body. There are now 105 professionals who have earned the title Master Sommelier in North America. Of those, 90 are men and 15 are women. There are 170 professionals worldwide who have received the title of Master Sommelier since the first Master Sommelier Diploma Exam.

11/19 - Dan Tudor

The show is live every Friday Night to 3 million homes nationwide and is hosted by Master Sommelier Michael Jordan who talks with the biggest names in the industry on CRN 1 Fridays at 6pm. RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen is the first restaurant of its kind in L.A. An upscale casual destination from eminent restaurateur David Overton and Singapore-raised, New York-trained chef Mohan Ismail.

Michael Jordan returns from a wine adventure overseas with some great stories and special guest Dan Tudor, winemaker at "Tudor Estates"  in Santa Barbara.

In an increasingly mechanized world, there are still a few handcrafted products that stand out. Fine wine is one of them.  At Tudor Wines, select fruit from family-owned vineyards are transform into wine using traditional techniques. These include small fermentations mixed by hand and aging in French barrels. The resulting wine has a purity of expression that cannot be duplicated on a larger scale.  The 2000 Tudor Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir was the inaugural release from Tudor Wines. By working closely with our family growers and winemaking staff, we made sure that low yields combined with maximum grape maturity produced wine with optimal flavor profiles - a balance of ripeness, acidity, and tannins.

11-12 - Tobin James

Tobin James - Tobin James Cellars

Tobin (Toby) James grew up on a vineyard in Indiana, worked in a wine shop in Cincinnati and knew at the age of 18 that he would own a winery. He apprenticed at the Estrella River Winery, eventually being hired on full time and becoming their cellar master. From there, he headed to Eberle Winery to eventually make their wines with Gary Eberle. When Peachy Canyon started, the owner needed a winemaker. A deal was struck so that Toby would become the founding winemaker and also have the opportunity to continue making Tobin James Cellars' wine at the same facility. The very first wine Toby made won a spot on the coveted "top 100" wines of the year with the Wine Spectator. Toby's reputation continued to grow, and in 1993 decided to build his own winery on highway 46 east of Paso Robles.

10/8-Chef Mohan Ismail

Chef Mohan Ismail-Rock Sugar Restaurant

RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen is the first restaurant of its kind in L.A. An upscale casual destination from eminent restaurateur David Overton and Singapore-raised, New York-trained chef Mohan Ismail (Spice Market, Tabla, Blue Hill), RockSugar showcases the cuisines of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and India. Drawing upon memories of family meals his mother made, chef Mohan folds in his vast culinary experience to bring together the exhilarating tastes of a half-dozen Southeast Asian nations. Dishes are served Asian family-style to create an atmosphere that encourages sharing & conversation. RockSugar, which takes its name from an ingredient used by Asian chefs, features a full bar with an extensive wine list and exotic cocktails and an onsite bakery where it creates fresh-made desserts that infuse French flair with Asian-influence. Please Note: Online reservations are available for parties up to 6 people.