Up Close & Personal w/ Cigar Maker, Nick Perdomo Jr.
It was a real pleasure to interview Nick Perdomo Jr., founder and president of Perdomo Cigars. A remarkable family story that spans almost 3 generations. Starting with his grandpa Silvio who started his cigar careen in the 1930′s. Silvio apprenticed first at Cuesta y Cia in the early 1930’s before leaving to practice his art at the H. Upmann factory from 1937 to 1945; and at the famed Partagas factory until 1959. It is also where his son, Nick Perdomo, Sr. was born and began his apprenticeship in 1948 at the Marin & Trujillo factory before earning accolades for his craftsmanship and making his own way to join his father at Partagas. “Things were going so well then, my father and I were
just beginning to establish ourselves and obtain recognition for our work,” said Nick, Sr., an imposing wrecking ball of a man with a soft voice and a heart as big as his frame. “But then Castro destroyed everything – our country, our lives and our freedom.”
Listen as Nick recounts his family’s story and shares how he went from Navy Air Traffic Controller to reviving his grandfather’s and father’s dream of creating some of the best cigars.
Ziata Wines: Karen Cakebread & Winemaker Ann Vawter
Listen to this incredibly interesting interview with Karen Cakebread and winemaker Ann Vawter as they share their stories and wine adventures.
Karen Cakebread
Twenty-two years of representing the Napa Valley and its wines around the world gave Ziata Wines owner/founder Karen Cakebread the desire and know-how to develop her own wine brand, which she named in honor of her mother, Annunziata, and officially launched in March 2008.
Karen is a well-known representative of and cheerleader for the Napa Valley. Her wine experience started with Cakebread Cellars, for which she worked for 18 years. While living in Hong Kong, she assisted with the winery’s marketing efforts in Hong Kong and in Singapore. After moving to the Napa Valley in 1989, she oversaw the winery’s educational, corporate hospitality and international marketing efforts. She also managed the winery’s American Harvest Workshop, an annual event that brings together noted chefs, artisan food purveyors and media to help build awareness and improve the availability and marketability of American wine and food products.
Anne Vawter’s fascination with wine began in her teens in Walla Walla, Washington. As her father was discovering new wines in that region, he imparted his interest to Anne. Having grown up on a dairy farm, Anne had a desire to remain in agriculture, and she set her sights on becoming a winemaker. Anne graduated with a B.S. in viticulture and Enology from the University California, Davis, after which she worked for wineries in Washington, Napa, and Chile. Most recently, Anne has been fortunate to spend four years with Paradigm Winery in Napa Valley under the tutelage of Heidi Barrett. Anne is now excited to be working with a small number of excellent wineries as their winemaker, helping to produce wines that best express the goals of these fine properties, as well as launching her own fine wine: RedMareWines.com
Morgan Clendenen of Cold Heaven Cellars Up Close & Personal!
Morgan Clendenen, "Viognier Queen"
Listen to Morgan share her story, success and journey as we cover a lot of territory from being a mom to why she produces cold climate Viognier and how she got started in the winemaking business. Not only is she incredibly intelligent, and brilliant, but she is every bit as gorgeous as God makes em. Even though Morgan was married to legendary winemaker Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat, her winemaking skills and her title Viognier Queen is all her own. Morgan taught herself how to make wine and her first year hit the jackpot and never looked back!
Catch my interview with Morgan and grab some of her delicious Le Bon Climat Viognier, a great gift and a great alternative to Chardonnay!
Ricardo Perez Co-Founder of VINTAE & Rising Star Winemaker Raul Acha
MATSU Collection
Catch this interview with Ricardo Perez, co-founder of VINTAE Wines and his rising star winemaker Raul Acha. We had a challenging start to our interview when we couldn’t establish a connection, but after a few adjustments and about ten minutes into the show, we connected and had a great interview in spite of the language barrier.
Ricardo Perez, Co-founder of Vintae
VINTAE Wines is a young wine company producing some exceptional Spanish wines from six different regions in Spain. They currently have seven wine projects they are working on including the renowned MATSU, Winery Arts, and Maetierra DominVm. They are firm believers in preserving terroir and practice sustainable, biodynamic viticulture.
Ricardo Arambarri Pérez, Richi, as his friends call him, is manager and co-founder of Vintae. Passionate and a wine lover, he travels all over the world to expand the VINTAE dream that the whole team is creating. Entrepreneur by family inheritance, his main wish is create and boost projects. Ricardo holds a Bachelor and MBA in Business Administration by ESADE Business School.
Raul Acha is the Technical manager and Winemaker of Vintae. The seven oenologic projects of Vintae
Raul Acha
in six regions of Spain were born due to his great team of oenologist and the enormous quantity of kilometers that he drives every year along the different wine making areas in Spain. He was born in Cárdena, a small village in La Rioja in 1976. He grew up in a family of viticulturist from which he learned all the wine making tradition of Rioja. He holds an engineering degree in Agronomy, bachelor in Oenology and Diploma of Advances Studies of Oenology.
Join me as I interview each of these remarkable young men and learn more about their vision. Also try their delicious Tempranillo, “El Picaro”, from the MATSU collection.
Randall Grahm from Bonny Doon Vineyards
Catch this interview with the legendary winemaker, Randall Grahm, from Bonny Doon Vineyards. Randall’s contributions and influence on the wine industry are to numerous to mention, but one thing is for sure, Randall is stepping up his game and putting all of his attention on biodynamic, sustainable viticulture and producing some fantastic wines that are true to terroir. Grahm is a longtime proponent of biodynamic viticulture, and in 2006 downsized his production to focus on small estate wines. Additionally, Randall was inducted into the 2010 Vintner’s Hall of Fame and has written a best seller, Been Doon So Long: A Randall Grahm Vinthology.
Randall Grahm was educated at UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis, while earning a reputation as an “enfant terrible” for telling everyone he planned to make the first great American Pinot Noir. Instead, he found himself entranced by “ugly duckling grape varietals” thereby introducing American consumers to vinifera far beyond Cabernet and Chardonnay. His vintage 1984 wine “Le Cigare Volant” proved that it was possible to craft and sell great Rhone wine blends from California. His amusing marketing still defies and at time defines the pretentious approach, such as when he held a funeral for the Cork (aka Thierry Bouchon) in 2002.
You can purchase Randall’s Certified Biodynamic Ca del Solo Muscat and his delicious sweet wine Vol Des Anges, both from Bonny Doon Vineyards.
**The Vintner’s Hall of Fame celebrates the men and women whose collective vision, determination, and hard work have been responsible for the growth and worldwide prestige of the California wine industry.
Don & Judy Phelps, Owners & Winemakers at Hard Row To Hoe Vineyards
What a delightful story with an equally fantastic ending. Let me introduce you to a remarkable couple; Don & Judy Phelps. Don a life long engineer and Judy a corporate employee in research and development for the monster pharmaceutical company Pfizer, both had a similar calling to get out of corporate America and venture into working for themselves in the wine industry.
Let’s rewind for a second, from our initial conversation I assumed Don and Judy had been life long partners, but after further inquiry, Don & Judy married ten short years ago after being bit by the serendipity bug. Judy’s brother was married to Don’s sister or something like that and Judy and Don met over the phone when Don’s son was looking for an internship with Judy’s company on the other side of the coast. One thing led to another, the stars aligned, sparks flew, and Don and Judy are not only life partners, they are also business partners. That was just the start of this magical story that brought two people together and as a result of this partnership some pretty fantastic wines have been added to the ever growing list of delicious wines created by small production vintners.
Listen to this interesting interview and hear first hand their story and wine adventures together. Purchase their wines directly at HardRow.com and enter their contest to wine a free 1 week stay at Lake Chelan in a luxury condo just a stone’s throw from their vineyard. Find out more on their Facebook page.
Dan Tudor of Tudor Wines & RADOG Wines
What a spectacular interview with winemaker Dan Tudor of Tudor Wines and RADOG Wines. An entrepreneur at heart, Dan realized early on that he wouldn’t be a good employee 
and would more than likely never be able to work for anyone other than himself. Dan stumbled into the telecommunications sector by accident and was briefly distracted from his passion long enough to launch several successful ventures and create one of the first phone cards in the world. It was then that he realized that he wasn’t passionate about telecommunications and wanted to get back to his destiny…making wine.
The Tudor family has been growing grapes and lavender-and making wine on the Island of Hvar in Croatia-for over 600 years. The Tudors began growing grapes in California early 
in the 1900’s and continue to operate one of the largest table grape vineyards in the country.
Listen to Dan share his fabulous journey, story, life and his passion for the perfect Pinot Noir with me.
Purchase RADOG & TUDOR Wines at TheWineWenchShoppe.com
Eleni Papadakis from Domaine Serene on Winemaking
Catch this great interview with our first female winemaker guest, Eleni Papadakis. Hear her story of how she went from philosophy major to pursuing law to landing a part-time job in a winery and becoming a renowned winemaker. With a broad range of winemaking experience, old and new world techniques, and mentoring with some of the best, Randall Grahm from Bonny Doon, she has carved out a name for herself and her highly sought after Domaine Serene Oregon Pinot Noir and
Rockblock Syrah.
Clay Mauritson with Mauritson Wines
Join Freda, The Wine Wench, as she interviews head winemaker, Clay Mauritson, from family owned and operated Mauritson Wines. Known for their Zinfandels, Mauritson is a winery, like many other of the family owned winery’s, that prides itself on preserving terroir and refraining from manipulating the grapes for the sake of a rating. All but 35 years-old, Clay has been working with wine since he was in diapers. His family has been growing grapes for over 140 years and owns some of the best vineyards in Sonoma Valley. Listen to Clay tell his story about how he got into winemaking, his vision to take his family vineyard to the next level and open a winery, what is important to him as the head winemaker and get enlightened about how corporatization within the wine industry is starting to take its toll on the growers and the winemakers.
Listen to full interview here.
The Hockey Legend Bobby Hull, “The Golden Jet”, and The Wine Wench Have a Drink
Jay M, Freda (The Wine Wench), Bobby Hull
What a surprise when you get to meet someone as awesome as Bobby Hull. Saturday night I broke bread and shared some fantabulous wine with Bobby Hull.
If you’re not familiar with Bobby, he is known as “The Golden Jet”. He is the Michael Jordon of Hockey. Built like a shit brick house, he was known for his bad ass slap shot (his slap shot was once clocked at 118.3 mph), and his speed on the ice (he could skate 29.7 mph), he is a hockey legend. He was known as The Golden Jet. He is a hockey hall of famer and in 1979 both the Jets and the Black Hawks agreed to retire his lucky number, 9. He was known for so many things, but one of his greatest accomplishments was bringing the Stanley Cup to Chicago back in 1961.
The story goes something like this, I happened to call my friend Jay M, who knows everyone, and he said, “Bring some wine over, I have someone I want you to meet.” Thankfully I was in the area and had a car full of some bitchin wine, namely my sample bottle of this year’s unreleased vintage of Mercury Head (retails for about $90.00 per bottle) from Orin Swift, and some 2006 Chateau Fonbadet, from Pauillac $241 | Case of 6, and for this moment Mercury Head and Chateau Fonbadet were created for! If you buy a case of 12, the Chateau Fonbadet comes packaged in a wooden crate.
After a lot of laughs, some great stories and coordinated dinner plans in July, we parted ways with smiles and memories. Oh, dare I mention, I’m getting some of the exclusive 2010 signed Blackhawks Jersey’s and my new friend is getting some of this year’s unreleased Mercury Head, Chateau Fonbadet, and I talked to my friends at Perdomo Cigars and they’ve agreed to put together a really special surprise for him too!
With a dynamic personality, Bobby is one of the most delightful people I have met with such a big heart! We all had a lot of laughs and I enjoyed the stories. This is living the good life and this picture will go on my wall of celebs.
Hull ended his career having played in 1063 NHL games, accumulating 610 goals, 560 assists, 1170 points, 640 pe
nalty minutes, three Art Ross Trophies, two Hart Memorial Trophies, a Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, a Stanley Cup Championship and adding 102 penalty minutes, 62 goals and 67 assists for 129 points in 119 playoff games. He played in 411 WHA games, scoring 303 goals, 335 assists and 638 points, adding 43 goals and 37 assists in 60 playoff games. Bobby is currently the ambassador for the Chicago Blackhawks Organization.
The night before Joel Quenneville brought Stanley to Capri in Burr Ridge. Timing is everything!
A bit about Chateau Fonbadet, Pauillac: Dark berries and forest floor notes on the nose. dirty, tobacco and currants on the palate. a bit acidic, and the fruit is definitely secondary to the dirty, foresty flavors. The 20-hectare vineyard of Château Fonbadet is planted with the traditional Médoc grape varieties: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 20% Merlot and an additional 5% Petit Verdot and Malbec.
Vintage: 2006
Varietal: Red Bordeaux Blend
Appellation: Bordeaux
Aging: 18 months in barrels with 30% new oak
Fermentation: Malolactic in concrete, epoxy lined vats
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