Thanks to the Berserkers who showed up for Unfiltered last week. I’m moving forward with a change in format for our weekly winemaker tastings to bring the event back in line with its original concept. Instead of an open tasting event for 3 hours, we’re shifting to a sit-down, focussed tasting where the winemaker will discuss all aspects behind the making of each wine, the particularities of the vintage and how they responded, and how we might taste elements of each stage in the glass. We’ll have a general arrival time of 6-6:30 where you get your glass and the option for a full pour. Then we’ll gather in the barrel room from 6:30-7:30 for a very focussed talk and tasting, and end with a half hour of open pour and follow-up questions. Our fist winemaker is Cary Quintana, and she’ll be followed by Sonoe Hirabayashi (and fellow Berserker!) of Six Cloves, Matt Niess and many others. Cary has already delivered a three page outline of what she hopes to address in the tasting, so this is NOT going to be another splash in your glass with a few sentences about the vineyard, fermentation and aging process–it’s a deep dive into what the winemaker is trying to express and how they went about it. I hope to see some of you at the Donkey and Goat winery this Thursday. And I’d love any feedback attendees have on the format.
Next up: Sonoe Hirabayashi. Here’s the description:
AUGUST 14: SONOE SIX CLOVES WINE
Join us for an intimate tasting with one of our most intentional and unique local winemakers, Sonoe Hirabayashi of Six Cloves Wine.
Sonoe was raised in the Nagano Prefecture, which is one of Japan’s most culturally rich and quietly respected food regions, known for its deep-rooted fermentation traditions, mountain cuisine, and emerging wine culture. The pristine mountain waters and porous soils concentrate flavors in unique ways. There, her family has been innovating and leading agricultural and fermentation practices for centuries - including her father, who specialized in apples. Japan’s Buddhist and Shintoist spiritual framework, which emphasizes cultural sensibility and respect for nature, also guides her approach to winemaking: she is not outside of nature, but integrated as an equal member: mountain, river, sky, tree, human - all parts of the same whole. Balance, flow and deep respect for natural forces inform her efforts to listen and tell the story of each vintage.
So what do you do with a hyper-sensitive palate as a winemaker in a hyper-insensitive culture like ours?
Sonoe follows her nose. And that is what you’ll taste in her wines: whispers of delicate nuance, the trickling of water over rocks, a suggestion of spring in the wind, a hint of tradition and precision that leaves you wanting more…or maybe not. It depends on whether you’re listening and attuned to someone with a very delicate, but very intentional tap on your shoulder: Turn around. Can you taste that?
Sonoe has crossed geographic, cultural and gender barriers to be here and create wine that tells her story to us. Let’s be thankful we have a chance to hear and taste that story, directly from and with her.
In this unique opportunity, Sonoe will share the stories and details behind the making of four of her wines, covering how everything in a vintage - from harvest conditions to pick strategies, press, fermentation and aging practices influenced the outcome. As a group, Sonoe will not only tell us the story behind each wine, but she’ll help us identify and taste elements of each stage in her winemaking process.
Doors open at 5:00 PM, Sonoe will pour and discuss each wine in detail from 6:00-7:00 PM and hold an open pour and Q&A from 7:00-8:00 PM. Drop-ins welcome.
Sonoe will be pouring and discussing the following wines:
2020 Linda Vista Vineyard Chardonnay, Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley-Library
2021 Alder Springs Vineyard Pinot Noir, Mendocino County-Library
2022 Zinfandel, Castanon Vineyards, Redwood Valley, Mendocino County
2023 Chardonnay, Linda Vista Vineyard Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley
Jared Brandt will be pulling from the library this Thursday to revisit a few wines that he considers examples of both the rewards and risks of low-intervention winemaking.
A 16 Perli Syrah and a 16 Perli Chard (picked just up the hill from the Syrah), 16 Linda Vista, and 14 Linda VIsta. He’ll go into detail about what went right and what went wrong with each of these vintages. Doors open at 5, talk and tasting from 6-7, open conversation to 8p. Please come join us for an intimate evening of good conversation and community around wine. Donkey and Goat Winery on 5th.
This week we feature the incredible Matt Niess of North American Press:
Can Matt Niess Save Local Viticulture From Itself?
As climate change brings increased temperature variability and shifting rain patterns, local viticulture faces mounting challenges. Vineyards are seeking higher elevations, implementing increasingly complex technology, and relying more heavily on irrigation systems, vineyard canopies, and spray programs to coax European grape varieties through our evolving climate. While these approaches may provide short-term solutions, they raise important questions about the long-term sustainability of our wine region.
Matt Niess, a local champion of native varietals, believes the answer has been growing here all along. After nearly a decade at Radio-Coteau and recognition as one of Wine Enthusiast’s “Future 40” tastemakers, Matt has spent six years proving that native and hybrid grapes like Lenoir, Catawba, Vidal Blanc, and Baco Noir can deliver exceptional quality and environmental resilience.
These varieties require minimal intervention—no chemical sprays, reduced water usage, and the ability to thrive naturally. Rather than fighting against our environment, Matt’s approach works with it, creating wines that express a true sense of place while addressing agricultural challenges.
Having crossed the quality threshold with wines that rival traditional varietals, Matt’s work poses a compelling question: if we’re truly committed to sustainable viticulture, shouldn’t we embrace grapes naturally suited to thrive here?
Join us for an intimate evening with Matt as he shares his mission and pours the wines that are reshaping our understanding of what California wine can be. This is an opportunity to engage in conversation about the choices that will define our wine region for generations to come.
Don’t miss this chance to taste the future of sustainable viticulture and discover why Matt’s approach may hold the key to a more resilient local wine industry.”
Donkey & Goat Winery
Doors open at 5pm, lecture and pouring at 6pm, open conversation 7-8p.
Join us for a special evening on October 9th with Chris Renfro as he unpacks his 280 Project, Introduces us to some of the recent graduates of the program and their wines and pours one of his incredibly rare wines from his SF vineyard.
Radical Vines: Chris Renfro’s Mission to Re-Humanize the World Through Wine
In the natural wine movement, where it’s common practice to advocate for regenerative farming, sustainable food systems, low-intervention winemaking and a culture of inclusivity rather than pretense, there’s one person who stands apart in the scope and purpose of their work: Chris Renfro, through his 280 Project, aims not only to transform the culture of wine but, through his urban vineyard and horticulture and viticulture program in the heart of San Francisco, he aims to change the dynamics of race in America. More than anything else, Chris wants everyone to feel valued and supported, and he feels that wine, and the traditional walls of white privilege and power that surround it, is the perfect platform to expose, unpack and redefine how we see and treat each other. Through farming, making wine, and sharing the profound communal experience that wine enables, Renfro believes we shed the veil of race and connect fundamentally as people. And he’s not just talking about it, he’s doing it. By mentoring one BIPOC and LGTBQ winemaker at a time.
Chris spent many of his formative years in Germany, where a teacher took him under her wing and taught him the magic of horticulture. The world of plants, full of majesty and wonder, but free of hate and racism, was also a world of hope for Chris. The black boy visiting farms in Germany grew into a young horticulturist in the USA, who saw how explicit forms of oppression were more subtly embedded into the culture and systems of America. Including the culture and systems of viticulture.
Control of food, land, wealth and education were interwoven threads of power and health—none of which Black Americans enjoyed. So when Chris got a chance to farm land in San Francisco, he planted vines. And not your standard European varietals, but native hybrids. Varietals you’ve never heard of. Marginalized vines.
The 280 Project is an incubator for racial equity by empowering BIPOC and other marginalized communities through horticulture, viticulture and winemaking. By coupling a common agricultural and culinary experience with a shared vocabulary of taste, Renfro is leveling the racial playing field. And by ushering cohorts of apprentices through in groups of 6-8, he’s creating skilled teams that can support each other through and beyond their work at Alemany. Chris’ strong relationships with Steve Mathieson, Matt Niess and UC Davis allow Renfro’s 280 Project to punch way above its weight.
Join us on Thursday October 9th at Donkey & Goat for an evening with Chris, as he pours wine from his San Francisco vineyard, introduces us to some of the winemakers (and their wines) he trained at Alemany and explains why they just might be making the most important wine in America.
Donkey & Goat Winery
1340 5th Street
Berkeley CA 94710
(510) 868 - 9174
Please join me this week for a unique tasting experience with Nat Wong of Blade & Talon. In addition to his own label, Nat is a go-to source for unique organically farmed varietals:
UNFILTERED: Conversations About Wine with Nat Wong of Blade & Talon - Donkey & Goat Winery?
During a visit to the Loire Valley, Nat had an epiphany when he took one sip of a Cab Franc. Upon his return home, his prior career in Ornithology was quickly in the past, as he pursued winemaking in Carmel Valley (what just one drink can do to a man!).
A Master Falconer, Nat will often take hawks into the vineyard to hunt rabbits during the calm mornings before the Harvest. I can’t imagine the emotional tenor it takes to hold such a powerful predator so close to your face—as the bird must sense the slightest twitch of fear or doubt. But Nat sees winemaking and falconry as similar interplays between culture and nature, and you can taste his exacting, clear, confident touch in his wines.
Nat is also a lover of the history and artistry of knives. He tracks the development of blade patterns, from their functional and regional origins. to the way new materials are now pushing the boundaries of what they can do. Just the right balance between blade and handle is what all users seek in a knife, and Nat makes wine with this fulcrum in mind. Put one of his bottles in your hand, see how it feels.
True to his appreciation for all things different and, like his friend, seeing things in the field others miss, Nat enjoys crafting beautiful wines from often overlooked varietals.
As a company that was founded on what were once considered radical approaches to winemaking in America, we enthusiastically support other innovative winemakers in our ongoing series, UNFILTERED: Conversations About Wine. These small, intimate evenings highlight winemakers who are pushing boundaries in their own ways. Some are breaking new ground with science, others are looking back to ancestral methods, and all of them are shaping the future of wine. These ongoing weekly events are a way for us to keep the energy and conversation flowing between our larger flagship UNFILTERED event, giving a more focused space for our community of creative winemakers.
These tastings depart from the standard ‘splash-and-dash’ pouring for a format where the winemaker takes attendees on a storytelling adventure that reveals how each vintage captures and expresses the personal experience of its maker. Rich in detail and emotion but low on wine-speak, winemakers explain how life experience and creative vision fuse with vintage and vineyard to tell a nuanced and unique tale. And through this shared story, attendees access deep community through a profoundly different experience of wine.
Wow–Nat Wong. Holy jesus! what an incredible story-teller, human being, farmer and winemaker. Nat did not want to be mic-ed so, sadly, only those who attended experienced that gem. This week we have Alissa Lind, wife of Anthony Beckman of Cruess. Alissa has a long and important family history with our local wine community and, in addition to serving 2024 Rose of Grenache, Dry Creek Valley / 2022 Fiano, Russian River Valley / 2024 Pinot Noir, West Sonoma Coast / 2024 Gewurztraminer, Russian River Valley, will talk about the incredible amount of work that goes into supporting an artisan winemaker–something I’m sure the partner of every winemaker can identify with.
Unfiltered profile and event details here: UNFILTERED with Anthony Beckman & Alissa Lind, Cruess Wine - Donkey & Goat Winery
Thursday November 6th we have a very special visitor: Nicole Walsh of Ser Wines. Nicole came to wine through horticulture and was hand-picked by Randall Graham of Bonny Doon to help scale his access to organic vineyards, where she played a critical role in expanding sustainable practices throughout the state. Extensive travel coupled with deep knowledge gave Nicole a unique understanding of local terroir–an understanding she now focuses on the coastal range near Santa Cruz.
Join us at Donkey & Goat at 6:30p to do a deep dive with one of the more talented and important figures in our area. RSVP here: UNFILTERED: Conversations About Wine RSVP
Unfiltered Profile: Nicole Walsh – Ser Wines
“I think I understand plants.”
— Nicole Walsh, Owner and Winemaker, Ser
Adrift and on the verge of leaving college, a course in horticulture at Michigan State University gave Nicole Walsh her sense of purpose. It sparked what became a lifelong fascination with vines and viticulture—one that transcends intellectual curiosity to play a deeply metaphysical role in her life.
Growing up surrounded by fruits, vegetables, and the quiet rhythm of her father’s backyard farm, Nicole was immersed early in the magic of fermentation and the soulful process of tending a garden. That garden came to represent home—a place of pure presence. Years later, she found that same grounded state of being in the vineyard. Borrowing wine writer Andrew Jefford’s term “isness,” Nicole describes this awareness as the feeling her wines aim to capture. Even the name of her label, Ser—‘to express identity or origin’ in Spanish—serves as a daily reminder of her purpose and philosophy.
Beneath Nicole’s measured Midwestern calm lies a fiercely curious and experimental spirit. When she discovered that Michigan State had no undergraduate viticulture program, she worked with the graduate department to design her own horticulture and viticulture curriculum. She farmed a university vineyard and used the campus winery to craft her first wine—a Seyval Blanc hybrid. More than the joy of creating, it was her family’s reaction at the dinner table that revealed wine’s power to connect people and place. That moment became the foundation for her career.
Nicole deepened her understanding of organic and biodynamic farming through an internship on an organic farm and coursework at Universidad E.A.R.T.H in Costa Rica. After graduating, she spent 4 years in Vineyard Management and Winemaking at a vineyard in Northern Michigan. When Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard sought someone to expand access to organic grapes, he looked beyond UC Davis-trained winemakers to Nicole—an organic grower working hands-on with native hybrids in middle America.
Her path was far from easy. Beyond the familiar headwinds facing women in viticulture, Nicole fought and worked hard to express her life through wine. While at Bonny Doon, she traveled the length of California and developed a nuanced understanding of its diverse terroirs. Yet nothing spoke to her quite like the sea-facing slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains. She felt echos of home in these low-ripening rare varietals on the edge of the world, nestled in forests and shrouded in fog. Years of brutal hours and heavy responsibilities eventually drained her passion and triggered a deep questioning of her path—until an invitation from an eccentric vintner led her to New Zealand, where she once again found herself through the act of nurturing vines on a remote, high-elevation slope. Isness.
Rejuvenated and refocused, Nicole returned to California and founded Ser in 2012. Today, she explores the microclimates and rare varietals of the Santa Cruz Mountains and Central Coast, crafting wines that express both precision and soul. When she isn’t in the cellar or among the vines, you can often find her in her other element—paddling into a cresting ocean swell, as it curls and bends its way to shore.
Nicole Walsh is not only an accomplished winemaker, but an artist in pursuit of connection—between people, place, and the fleeting beauty of being.
Next up is Tom Sherwood of BXT.
Here is what Tom said he’d be pouring:
2023 Wheeler Vineyard Blanc de Blanc
NV -Conversations with my former self
2023 McCormack Ranch Blanc De Noir
2024 Shake Ridge Ranch Therapy
And some other surprises…
This Thursday: Matt Crutchfield.
Only three more Unfiltered winemaker showcases left before we shift formats and take the show on the road.
Second to last winemaker profile of '25: Darek Trowbridge. Yeah, I know Darek has been around a while so what’s new about him? When I stopped by Darek’s place for a LONG tasting and he spent time to explain the depth of his health struggles and how that forced him to completely rethink his relationship to food–and that includes wine–I thought his story was one of the more moving and transformative tales I’ve heard. So I asked Darek if he’d share that story publicly, because I think we all navigate some tension in our lives around striking the right balance with food, in general, and wine in particular. Check out the full description of his talk here: UNFILTERED with Derek Trowbridge - Donkey & Goat Winery
I hope to see a few more of your Berserkers at one of our final events of the year.
Thursday, 6:30-8p
Donkey & Goat Winery, Berkeley
Shaping California Wine:Asian Cultural Influences
James Yu of Great China will customize food/wine pairings for some of the more innovative and active members of our local winemaking community–and explain his pairing process as we enjoy his work. Panel, tasting, small-bites pairing and more. $20. Say What?! Yes, $20.
Wednesday, January 28th, 6:30 - 8pm at Donkey and Goat Winery in Berkeley. Moderated by Matt Wood of The Indie Wine Podcast.
James Yu, pioneering restaurateur and owner of the regaled ‘Great China’ in Berkeley, literally created the new rules to wine pairing with Asian cuisine. Through trial and error and meticulous tasting sessions, Yu sleuthed that white wines pair better with pork belly in dark sauces while traditional Szechuan spices don’t like oak–any oak. Yu has not only built a unique wine list around the food he serves, he’s built that list on a foundation of new wine pairing principles.
Coral Wang is charging in her own way, crafting wines with a background in traditional French training but with a new culinary target in mind. Coral is partnering with Chinese restaurants around the Bay to showcase the elegant and elevating role of her wines on their tables.
Fah Sathirapongsasuti, winemaker at Sunset Cellars and on the board of the Asian Winemakers Association of America, is working to change the perception of consumers and restaurateurs on a broader level while also showcasing the important role that many Asian winemakers already play in shaping our wine culture.
Tiffany Kyong Patton has championed justice in food systems for over a decade and crafts vibrant wines that celebrate the cuisines and peoples of the diaspora. Tiffani channels her love of food—and the people who make it—into action through storytelling, community building, and event design.
Nat Wong is quietly affecting change not only by cultivating rare varietals in his role as a vineyard manager, but by crafting expressive wines from his grapes as well. Nat’s subtle but important influence on our local winemaking community is one of the many under-appreciated stories this panel will explore.