Wine Country Women

Wine Country Women is an interview podcast built around women who work in wine. Michelle Mandro leads the conversations, and the show shares its name with her Wine Country Women books. Guests include Cara Morrison of Sonoma-Cutrer, Marla Carroll of Antinori Napa Valley, Sarah Wuethrich of Windracer Wines and Maggy Hawk, Claire Pott of Pott Wines and Caitlin Lhommeau of L’Envolee Wines. What sets the show apart is how concrete the talk gets. Marla Carroll explains that a lot of the vineyard's grapes go to Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and a small share is sold to other producers. She also says about six wines rest on a core of four. She traces one wine's name to a motto on the Antinori family logo, translated as 'following your guide, I flourish'. Sarah Wuethrich puts Windracer's output at 600 cases. She sources from a vineyard close to the Pacific and a high-elevation site above Santa Rosa, aiming to show how different those places are. Claire Pott tells the story of buying 76 acres on Mount Veeder, funky old cabin included, and recalls thinking, 'how hard can this be?' That interview happens in her home, over hot tea with milk, and she mentions slipping out to prune in the garden when she has had enough of spreadsheets. Caitlin Lhommeau, who runs L’Envolee with her husband, credits her mentor Russell with shaping how she works, including vineyard and winery methods that are not always traditional. She calls finding Chenin Blanc fruit in hills that evoked home a full-circle moment. Mentorship runs the other way too. Cara Morrison talks about working beside a colleague who was her intern almost twenty years earlier and watching people grow in their jobs. She also supplies one of the more memorable reversals here. She doubted that a lemony, mineral Chardonnay could hold up against blue cheese, tried it anyway, and found that the acidity carried the match. The tone is warm and openly admiring, full of praise for the wine and thanks for the guest's time. Light closing questions come up more than once. Marla Carroll's refrigerator pick is a bottle of Chablis she is eager to open, while Sarah Wuethrich names Dijon mustard from France and gives 'curious' as the word that describes her. Not every episode is a single profile. 'Why Wine?' hands the microphone to wine drinkers, who talk about holding and clinking a glass and about holiday dinners where everyone brings a favorite bottle. The show moves between the business of running a winery and the reasons people pour a glass at all.