A Guy, a Girl, and a Bottle

Bennett Lane Winery Play now! -
mebeli

In this episode of a guy, a girl, and a bottle we visit the Bennett Lane winery (www.bennettlane.com), which is located on the north end of Napa Valley off Hwy 128, just past Hwy 29 in Calistoga. The property of this winery is incredible, and the view of the surrounding mountains is amazing, there is also a few picnic tables for you to grab a bottle and kick back and enjoy the view of the vineyard. On our visit we did something that was quite unique, we were able to blend our own bottle of wine! (This occurred under guidance of Rob Hunter, Bennett Lanes’ resident winemaker) and this is an experience that is available to the public in small groups, check their website for the Bennett Lane Custom Blend Experience. It was a lot of fun, but since we are not wine makers, only wine drinkers, we were worried that we would blend up some kind of swill. Check out the podcast to hear what happens, and to see if we are going to drop the podcasting gig and become wine makers ourselves.

In addition to our wine blending experience we tasted some amazing wines, two of which are their signature wines. The Maximus and the Primus Reserve Cabernet, both were amazing wines. Randy Lynch not only is the owner of a great winery, but he also is the only winery in Napa Valley to own a NASCAR race team. You can check out more about the team and follow them as they compete on the NASCAR West Circuit.

The song for this episode is by Natalie Gelman and the song is Never Had You. Don’t forget, if you like this song drop the artist a line and let them know what you think and tell them you heard them on A Guy, A Girl, and a Bottle wine podcast!

hotel furnishing in Bulgaria

Lastly, we’d like to say a special thanks to our sponsors for this episode Hamilton Beach. Check out the latest line of electric mixers, just in time for the holidays!

3340 Hwy 128 Calistoga, CA 94515
(707) 942-6684
View Larger Map

Cheers!
Joe and Pam

Powered by Qumana

We are back and ready to drink! (Click image to Play!)

Hey there Guys and Girls! After a long summer break, we are happy to let you know that we are back behind the microphone, and in the vineyards! We really apologize for the long delay, but work was getting quite hectic, and The Guy thought that he lost a bunch of already recorded episodes. As it turns out, The Guy secured himself a new job with less hours, which means more podcasting coming your way! In addition, the recordings that we thought we lost have been found safe and sound. Woot!
Upcoming from these ‘Lost Episodes’ are interviews from the Benzinger Winery, an Eco-tour from the Kunde Estate, a trip to Clear Lake to visit Shannon Ridge (recently voted one of the top 10 hottest small brands in wines), and so much more. We’ll even be throwing in some videos for you in the coming weeks and months ahead.

Keep those headphones on and your subscriptions up to date cuz The Guy and The Girl are back!

Cheers!

The Guy and Girl

(Note - originally posted on our other Blog - Citizen San Jose)

Much has been said about Web 2.0, social networking, and or course our friends at the RIAA. Love those folks - yeah, not so much really. You see the RIAA (or the Recording Industry Association of America) has pretty much outlived their usefulness. Traditionally as middle-men in the delivery of music, they have enjoyed near monopolistic power over the industry and the consumers of it’s content (that’s you and me). I won’t go into the evils of the RIAA and how the industry is rapidly changing blah blah blah, as many others who know much more than me are much better at explaining it than I, which isn’t to say I haven’t tried. I think most people are slowly coming around and understand that it’s a New World and the game it is a-changing. That’s great news for you, me, and especially the artists that have been held hostage by the RIAA since the invention of the phonograph.

Bum Rush the Charts (BRTC) is an example of how we can take back control of our media. At it’s core, BRTC encourages everyone to buy a specific song on a specific day from iTunes. The point? to illustrate that consumers don’t need the RIAA and neither do the artists that have been beholden to them. Interested in this social experiment? Head on over to iTunes on March 22, 2007 and purchase the song ‘Mine Again’ by Black Lab and let’s see if we can’t take back our music and make it Mine Again.

On Thursday, March 22 - click here to purchase the song and help make your voice heard. It will only take 2 minutes and .99. Thanks!

To hold you over until then, enjoy the latest video from Black Lab for free (take that evil RIAA!) Enjoy.

This just in, Wine Blogging Wedenesday #31 has been announced!  We’d like you to help us out and play along this month.  The theme for WBW#31 is ‘Box Wines & Non-Traditional Packaging’ (thanks to Roger, The-Boxed-Wine-Guy for hosting!).  What does this mean?  Basically any wine that is packaged in anything other than a standard bottle.  (We won’t be allowing Stelvin or other screw tops, that’s too easy!)  Simply visit your local wine shop, and seek out some wines that come in alternative packaging.  Taste the wine and either drop us an email, or better yet, leave us a short voice mail at 408-627-7796 as to what wine you sampled, the price, the type of packaging and your impression.  For participating, we will randomly select someone and send them a prize of some sort.  We have two different wines that we will try out, but one pretty unique package that I think we will wind up using.  Want to know what it is?  Well for that, you’ll have to come back and listen to our podcast on Wednesday.  (Better yet, subscribe and you won’t have to remember to visit our website, our report will be delivered directly to you on Wednesday evening.

Until then, cheers and we’ll see you soon!

A Guy and a Girl

Powered by Qumana

Ernest Gallo, founder of what eventually became the worlds’ largest wine making operation (by volume) passed away on Tuesday. Ernest and brother Julio (along with Ernest’s Wife Amelia) founded the E. & J. Gallo Winery, in 1933 with $5,900.00 and a borrowed wine making recipe from the Modesto, CA public library. Today E. & J. Gallo Winery has more than 4,600 employees with wine and other products sold in more than 90 foreign countries.

Always an innovator, Ernest pioneered modern techniques of merchandising and brand management to the wine industry, including such techniques as: a dedicated sales force, point-of-sale displays, outdoor billboards, television advertising, and RFID inventory management.

The company also grew through acquisition of vineyards, continually expanded its wineries as well as distribution facilities, and eventually built its own glass plant. The Gallo brothers also established the Gallo Research Laboratory, which focused research on all facets of wine production.

Today the Gallo tradition continues with wine being produced under more than 40 different labels.

In memoriam - Ernest Gallo

Powered by Qumana