There’s a new episode of I’ll Drink to That! available. Episode 490 features a conversation with Patrick Campbell, the former owner and winemaker of Laurel Glen Vineyard on California’s Sonoma Mountain. Patrick is the owner of Tierra Divina Vineyards, a grouping of wine brands sourced from grapes grown in Argentina and California. This episode also features shorter appearances from Mike Chelini (formerly of Stony Hill Vineyard), Ray Coursen (formerly of Elyse Winery), Randall Grahm (Bonny Doon Vineyard), Joel Peterson (formerly of Ravenswood Winery), and David Rafanelli (A. Rafanelli Winery). Erin Scala provides a background to the pivotal 2005 United States Supreme Court ruling of Granholm v. Heald in this episode as well.
Patrick Campbell has multiple lifetimes worth of interesting stories to tell, and luckily this interview is stuffed with several of them. The early move from Harvard Yard to a Zen Buddhist Community in Sonoma. The unlikely purchase of an iconic vineyard. The pruning lessons in a rain deluge. The market machinations, perils, and rewards of handshake grape contracts. The peculiarities of making wine by figuring it out on your own, year after year, without university training or a family background in wine. Jetting off to Chile and then taking an epic car ride over the Andes Mountains to Argentina, stumbling into a wine culture of another era. And then back to the United States, with a pivotal and consequential case before the Supreme Court. This episode is all over the globe, and a special trip of its own.
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I’ll Drink to That is the world’s most listened-to wine podcast, hosted by Levi Dalton. Levi has had a long career working as a sommelier in some of the most distinguished and acclaimed dining rooms in America. He has served wine to guests of Restaurant Daniel, Masa, and Alto, all in Manhattan. Levi has also contributed articles on wine themes to publications such as The Art of Eating, Wine & Spirits magazine, Bon Appetit online, and Eater NY. Check out his pictures on Instagram and follow him on Twitter: @leviopenswine
