It doesn’t take much to realize how much of a sucker I am for a good story. There are times where I stumble upon a humdinger of a story, but I get only the tiniest glimpse of the whole story. It is kind of like sitting down with friends while you are on a keto diet where your carb intake is next to nothing, and everyone orders these massive plates of hot crispy crinkle-cut french fries. Oh, the salt mixed in with the deep-fried potato. You could easily eat all three orders of fries, but you don't. This is the type of humdinger story I stumbled upon the other morning.

I’m doing my morning walk with Globgor. As we leave a park area, a car pulls into the parking lot and stops at a trash can. The guy driving the car gets out, drops something off in the trashcan, gets back in, and drives off. I figured he had some fast food trash or something and decided to get rid of it. No big, but I was curious nonetheless. I walked over to the trashcan, and there were three bottles of wine in a cloth carrier he had just dropped off. Going a bit further, I pulled out the wines to see two bottles were unopened Champagne and a barely drunk bottle of California Chard. The Champagne wasn’t cheap. Looking on Vivino real quick revealed they were $50 bottles. The Chard was $18. I threw the Chard back into the trash and came away with two bottles of Taittinger Champagne!

My guess is the driver of the car was underage and was getting ready to go home. He didn’t want his parents to find him with alcohol? Who knows, but seriously I want to know “the rest of the story!”

A quick side note about the Champagne mentioned, Claude Taittinger passed away earlier this week at the age of 94.

Last week I alluded to a new project launching, and here we are at next week already! Over the summer, the idea of starting a podcast popped into my head. At first, I wanted to do something like Hot Ones, but wine-related. At first, I thought to have three blind bottles and try to guess through them as I interviewed people. I liked the idea at first, but it didn’t feel right. So much pressure to try and guess the wines and the last feeling I want to convey is embarrassment. So, I came up with the idea of having one blind bottle to talk about at the beginning of the interview to have a conversation piece. Zero pressure to guess, but still to have a blind bottle with a reveal at the ends makes for a bit of excitement while getting to know the people behind wine and their stories.

So here we go, the first episode of the Weinnotes Podcast (audio and video).

My journey through Wine Country has always been about following my instincts and seeing where the yellow brick road takes me. My list of places to visit never shrinks and only increases, resembling a “Honey Do List” for those weekend projects around the house. Comparing a “Honey Do List” to visiting wineries is probably a bad example because tasting wine while talking to people is absolute bliss!

Over the summer, for my Sparkling report, I had the pleasure of emailing Jessica Mozeico from Et fille wines multiple times for her Pere Honneur Sparkling. The level of conversation was warm and inviting. She knew who I was and conversed about following one another on the Gram. Jessica's name came up again and again. At get-togethers, her wine would be there. Fast forward to mid-November, New Seasons had a wine sale, and there was Et fille. I don’t remember seeing it at New Seasons before (trust me, I look at least once a week), but maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention.

From the little bit of background research I did over the summer of Et fille, I knew there was a great story. Family is the backbone through and through. So I opened the bottle from New Seasons on November 12th, did a post on Insta the morning of November 19th, and emailed Jessica to be my first guest on the podcast. She agreed, and on December 16th, we sat down to chat.

I had about a month to research. The more I dug, the deeper the rabbit hole went. In this interview, I want you to know how amazing a human being Jessica Mozeico is. She is also a killer winemaker! For the 2021 Pinot Noir Auction, she created a “Back of the Envelope” bottling. During the interview, she explains her intention on creating a Pinot from the Dundee Hills and Yamhill Carlton with a twist you wouldn’t normally expect.

I know it is Saturday morning, and you are not expecting to listen to 35 minutes of audio or watch a 35-minute video. So, here are some options for you!

Full Audio on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

In theory, you should listen to it anywhere you would listen to podcasts. So search for Weinnotes, and if you don’t see it, please let me know.

For YouTube, I have a few options for you.

First is the full 35-minute interview, and I am sure you don’t have time for that this morning. So, here are some shorter clips you might find of interest and a bit easier to consume. If you only watch the clips, you will not get the whole interview, and you don’t get to see the blind wine I brought. So, I have to tease you a little to watch the entire video!

YouTube Clips

• ​Back of the Envelope Origin Story​
• ​Bonding over wine​
• ​Oregon Wine Community​
• ​Oregon Sparkling​
• ​Pinot Noir Auction​
• ​Is Wine Art?​
• ​Rapid Fire​

This year's plan is to flip back and forth with the regular newsletter and a podcast every other week. If you have any feedback, I would greatly appreciate it!

Sitting down with Jessica was a blast. She poured me a blind wine when we finished up and asked for my opinion. It was only fair to repay the pressure a little from the blind wine I brought. I had one slight advantage of knowing it was a Pinot from Et fille. With a little sniffy sniff and a small taste, I correctly guessed it was a 2018, but I had no clue on the actual label or which vineyard. After letting Jessica know the year and how much I enjoyed she let me know it came from the Maresh Vineyard. We could have talked for easily another hour. If you haven’t checked out Jessica’s wines, you will not be disappointed. My personal favorite is the Sparkling Pere Honneur, and when you make a reservation, please let Jessica know, “A.J. sent me!”

With Gratitude,

A.J.