Welcome to Big Blend Radio's Eat, Drink, and Be Merry Show where we love to talk about food, drink, recipes, and techniques, and where to shop, taste, and play. Let's go. You know here on Big Blend Radio we will do anything we can to support small business. It is the backbone of our country and over the holiday seasons. There's just no excuse to not drink wine, just kidding, but some people don't and some people shouldn't. So everyone, we've got Dave Spector back on the show, him and his wife Sarah own Bell's up winery. Just out of Portland or again, they're in Newburg, right? Is it Newburg? Or again, you can go to bellsupwinery.com and encourage you to go there. I can absolutely testify 100% that these wines will be perfect for the holiday season next year anytime. So I'm just saying if you want to give a gift or give yourself a gift or serve really good Oregon wine at your Christmas or holiday gathering, go to bellsupwinery.com. Was that good? Can we be on QVC yet Dave? I think we're getting close, but but thank you so much Lisa for having me again and you're absolutely right. It's you know, we're getting into holiday season and this is the time when friends and family are gathering. And if hey, if you love your relatives, hey, it's a great time to sit and share a bottle of wine with them. If you can't stand your relatives, then hey, it's great to have a bottle of wine to drown your sorrows in the process. Either way, we got your bags. Well, wine tasting too is a really good conversation starter for gatherings, you know, because I remember once I used to watch William Shatner had a wine show. I don't know if you ever saw that the brown bag wine show. Did you ever see this? This was like that years ago. Okay, this was so cool. So Nancy and I got really into this. And then one of the holidays we went to a friend's house. And you know, we're, we're, I know we sound like loud mouths, but we're kind of like sit in the corner and drink wine and have a like a personal conversation with people. And she's like, no, you've got to be at the entrance here. You're extroverts and you got to welcome people. I'm like, I don't want to do that. But then we're like, all right, give us a glass of wine. So what we did, we took all of our wine and hers. And anytime someone brought in wine, we put it in a brown bag, and we copied William Shatner. And what he made people do was even if they've never had wine before, or don't drink, you taste wine, and you taste it, and then you compare the wine to your career, right? So he'd have movie stars and all kinds of people. So it was really interesting. And then they would have to do a rating, guess like what the percentage was, and he explained the wine specter rating, and then he would unveil where the wine comes from, what it is. And it was kind of really interesting. So we sat at the door greeting people, we had no clue who they were, and drinking wine and going tasteless wine. And then of course, we got a chef who just nailed it, you know? So that was good. But that's something I was thinking about for the holidays, is having this tasting experience, you know, play a game like that, especially if you don't know people, to kind of talk about wine. And I'm thinking even for, you know, Oregonians to get together with this wine and kind of talk about the nuances and have a point to go to whether it's like focus on your career and how does the wine taste with it, music for you like bells up. What do you think about that kind of thing? I think it's a really neat idea. And I think one of the things that would really help that is to really choose the wines that you use it carefully for that, just in the sense that you want wines that are going to be very pleasant and easy drinking. Because, you know, most people when they have guests over, you've got a lot of different palettes that are coming. And you get some people are going to prefer certain types of wines over another. You know, obviously is in my business, we see this all the time, you know, you'll have folks come in and it may be, you know, a couple and you have one person prefers, you know, certain types and other person prefers other types. What I think is important is to choose wines that will find ways to appeal to as many different people as possible. It's one of the things that my personal winemaking philosophy has always, has always involved, which is, you know, if you have somebody who let's say normally drinks white wines, you know, what are ways to get them sort of introduced to the idea of red wines and vice versa, you know, you see these things going together. And so for the kind of activity that you're describing, it would work really well because you'll really get much better participation among the entire group. If all of your participants can find something about those particular wines that they can connect with and talk about and brings up those sorts of experiences and moments to share with the other, with the group. Now let's, let's talk about, you know, people at the table and purchasing your wines that will go well with a holiday gathering, you know, and just because, I mean, it's hard because you've got pie, you've got cake at Christmas, you know, come on everybody needs chocolate cake at Christmas, I'm just saying. Everybody's going to have something different, it might be a cocktail party with wine. You know, there's just so many different ways of celebrating the holidays, right? What are some of the wines that you would say are a safe bet for trying to appease a room of people that you don't know, or don't know their palettes, you know, exactly. So, and you're exactly right, you know, you're trying to cover a lot of ground, but I'd say that I could pick three wines really just right off the top of my head, especially as we're getting into holidays would work really well. One is we make a sparkling rosé, it's called fireworks, and it is our, basically our standard rosé, which has a bolder, a much more fruit-forward approach, it is dry, it is a brute, so it is not sweet at all, but what it does bring is fruitiness. I think a lot of times we're used to thinking of sparkling wines as either very, very like archingly dry or sugary sweet, this is neither, this fits beautifully into the two because it will bring you that pink and that red fruit flavor, you'll get the effervescence, of course, that you're expecting in a bubbly, but it doesn't dry you out, you will still get that beautiful fruit on the back, and even though it's not sugary sweet, it will provide that nice palate cleanser. And again, regardless of whether somebody's a red drinker, white drinker, I mean, I have people a lot of times that come in here and say, yeah, I'm not really a generally a sparkling drinker, and then they end up walking out with several bottles of it, so it's really one of those things that will appeal to a broad audience. We have a white wine that does really nicely, the wine is called Helios, and it is made from a grape called Savald Blanc, that's S-E-Y-V-A-L, it's a grape that we are the only ones in the Lament Valley that grow, it's a grape you normally find back East in the Finger Lakes in New York, which is more or less where we got exposed to it, but what I love about that wine for this time of year, it's got a bit of a heavier texture to it, what I always describe it to folks that haven't had it is not the flavor of Chardonnay, but just think about how thick and heavy Chardonnay can be, that's what this will do as well, so cooler months, cooler times, this is a really nice one to have, it also comes from wine, exactly, and it also brings a lot of different, very complex fruit flavors to the party, so no matter what you're serving, there's so many complex flavors in this wine, you don't usually see that in a white, this will go really, really well with just about anything. The other one that I will pull out, you know Oregon is so known, at least this part of Oregon is so well known for growing Pinot Noir, we obviously make a lot of Pinot Noir ourselves, and one of my favorites for this time of year, it's called Jupiter, it is 100% a state grown Pinot Noir, it will provide a warmth, it provides a savoriness, it works really, really well with or without food, you know, one thing I talk about Pinot all the time, because a lot of folks I believe think that Pinot is supposed to be like, oh they've had a lot of commercial black Pinot's in their watery, Pinot is supposed to be a light bodied wine, it is never supposed to be a light flavored wine, and what you'll get out of this particular wine especially is you will get that depth of flavor, it will work well with anything that you're going to put on the plate, but it also provides that nice warmth so as you're just sitting around talking with friends and just exhaling from this crazy bizarre year that I think all of us have had, it's just the kind of thing that will just help you to relax and just kind of go to a better place for a little while. Yeah and I think wine and those kind of conversations, it's better than talking politics, can we just drop it over the holidays for right now, like let's just drop it, let's everybody needs to have some some unity and some fun and wine really helps with that and food and you know bringing friends and fellowship together that I think is you know family, everyone getting together as a community is excellent, so now people can also purchase wines from you so you do not have it where people purchase directly off your website because you like as a small business have this personal connection which is very unique that someone's going to call you up and say hey I want some wine and that way you can actually help them personally about what they're doing for a gift or even what they're purchasing for at you know a party that they may be hosting right? Absolutely, one of the things that we've been very proud of over the course of time is that everybody that's ever bought our wines are people that we have met in one way or another, whether that's by email, by phone call, in person, what have you, we really want to establish a connection so that when people are buying our wines they're really going to get that sense of who it is that they're buying it from. You know you talk about small business, I mean it is my wife and I and that's it, I mean on a daily basis and when you contact us you're going to be talking to one of two people and I'm one of the two, Sarah's the other one of the two and that's it. So we want to make sure that you get the wines are going to be the best fit for you and whoever it is that you're serving it with and the only way we're going to be able to know that is by just talking to you for a few minutes and getting a sense of hey you know what are your preferences, what are your partners, guest preferences, what have you, we've got a lot of different choices available and it's just a question of thinking through and just matching you up with the best offerings that we have. And doesn't wine fit in a you know a stocking stepper like it's the perfect size for a stocking? Oh it fits perfectly. It's a perfect fit and one thing too I always get a kick out of people talk about our bottles not because they are the big heavy bottles because they're not they're the nice like you know I said our customers care about what's in the bottle not what the bottle is made of so our bottles will not only beautifully fit in your wine rack consistently promise but they will also fit nicely in your stocking as well. And and we should just all have a wine tree for Christmas that's what I think. Yeah a wine tree. I'm all for that you know so and also you can use the corks for decorations you know just you know I'm just saying we could be fun with this. One of the other things that you do though so unique is that you know if people make an appointment to have a tasting experience with you where they come sit down they taste the wine and you talk about how the wine was made what grapes all that kind of thing answer questions which is great especially for those that maybe new to Oregon wines and even new to wine drinking right or maybe think like you were saying oh I don't like Chardonnay but oh suddenly we'll find out oh I do like this wine you know the helios so you know oh you know so changing minds because maybe it's just learning a little bit more about a tasting perspective and tasting something new. So I know you do these you know special events with everyone. How many people have to be in a group to have this kind of tasting? It really doesn't matter you know we've had as few as two we've had as many as eight. If we're doing a zoom chat zoom tasting which we do offer for anybody buys at least a case. At that point hey it's however you want your zoom group to be there there really isn't a limitation at that point for folks that come to the winery themselves when you get past eight it gets a little bit hard to keep a consistent coherent conversation but what we do when when people come in we only take one group at a time when folks are here and the biggest reason for that is and you alluded to it you know I get folks that are very new to wine I get folks that are very experienced in wine and everything in between and you don't want to have the same conversation with people that are new and experienced with. Somebody is always getting the short shrift in the deal so what I do is I take any everybody that comes in whatever their level is wherever they're at in their own wine journey we're going to talk to them not over their heads and we're going to make this interactive involve them in the conversation that the point is to make them feel comfortable. What wine is not supposed to be you know some some bougie fancy schmancy thing wine is something to be enjoyed it's an every day you know it's one of those nice little everyday luxuries that we can give ourselves and and we should take advantage of that but let's make this approachable wherever folks are you know people some people want to geek out which is great but I have some people where literally I'm the first winery they've ever visited and I want to make sure that both of those folks are every bit as comfortable here so there's no topic in the winemaking world that we won't discuss and I tell folks all the time hey if I have if you've got something that you want to know and I for whatever you didn't mention it for goodness sakes ask it because I will tell you the goods the bads the crazies of what we do because hey there is the crazy you love sharing it yeah and there is a crazy is and speaking of it so okay wait I want to finish on the group thing so you do the over online so people can book a zoom and like what a great way to have you know like a gathering you know a holiday gathering and it's a great gift because people could each have a case you know around the country around the world and all come into one zoom from all over which is kind of cool so that's a great gift and then what about those coming to the winery so people can gift this to people right yes absolutely so we offer gift certificates this will also work let's say if you just want to buy wine for somebody and a friend and have them pick out the wines we do offer gift certificates Sarah makes up these nice little certificate things and we send you the pdf and you can print it off and do whatever but you just call us email us much like with the wines and winery appointments and we can take care of that for you awesome awesome okay so fun fact is that the winery is on an old Christmas tree farm right because I had to bring that up oh yeah it's it's a Christmas tree farm you know when when we bought it the Christmas trees let's just say they'd seen better days but at the same time that really set up the soil and the conditions great for when we planted the vineyard you know we are vineyard we started planting it in 2014 so geez we're coming up on the you know the tenth full year of these vines be the oldest vines at least being in the ground so you're really now starting to see that maturity and the flavors and and the development it's been really really fun to see and I know that the customers have been with us for a long time I've really enjoyed seeing the journey and one of the things we've been able to do too is to bring out some new grapes you know that that you just don't see very much around here you know we talked about the the Save All Blanc the Helios already we list last harvest we literally just harvested our very first the name of the grape is Skio Petino wow you get to say all these names yeah oh yeah and I don't expect it'll don't worry I don't expect anybody to spell it but just what you what you need to know about it is that it's an Italian grape there are less than 10 plantings of that grape in the United States we love it because it's giving us that brightness and the red fruit we're expecting but it's very very different than everything else we make so it's really nice that folks have very distinctive choices it's not just pino we give you a lot of other options as well and and it's a lot of fun you know it's we wanted people to find things here that you couldn't find other places so you know that process continues to develop and gets a little bit better every year so you had a good harvest then this year harvest was good we were very very happy with the the volumes and with the flavor of its beauty the flavors are gorgeous the the acidity looks beautifully balanced it's it's very rare when you get a year where the fruit is very very close to perfect when you harvest it you know most of the time you're having to tweak things here and there it's gonna end up with great wine but it's a lot more work this year it's I think we're gonna get to the same place we're not gonna have to work quite as hard as we've had to in the past wow that means more bookings more bookings he's got more time to hang out with people coming in for wine tastings so everyone go to bells up winery.com very happy holidays and to you and Sarah and your family and friends it's going to be exciting this whole next chapter new wine and I did see on your Instagram that it was snowing the other day so you're ready oh I don't know if I'd say we're ready but we're going to be dealing with it one way it's coming it's coming it's coming well thank you so much David it's always a pleasure to have you on the shows thanks so much Lisa love being here I really appreciate you having me on thanks for joining us here on big blend radios eat drink and be merry show keep up with our podcasts at big blend radio dot com and our magazines at big blend magazines dot com
Looking for the perfect gift for a wine lover? Winemaker Dave Specter talks gifts and tasting experiences at Bells Up Winery in Oregon.
