Media

This interview was taken from an hour-long BC Food & Wine Radio show hosted by Anthony Gismondi and recorded while on location at Corcelettes Estate Winery in the Similkameen Valley. It features Charlie Baessler, Corcelettes' General Manager, winemaker and viticulurist and Jesce Baessler, its Sales & Marketing and Hospitality Manager. Usually during our interviews with winegrowers, we have just enough time to focus on a few of the wines they make and what consumers can expect were they to visit. In this spotlight we get the opportunity to learn about the Charlie and Jesce, how they came to start the winery and how they balance an all-encompassing worklife while raising a young family in the valley. We've included recent tasting notes of their wines below.

Tablas Creek was developed by two families, the Perrin family, the proprietors of Château de Beaucastel, and the Haas family. The vision and belief were, that the Rhône varieties grown at Beaucastel in Chateauneuf-du-pape could thrive in California, which has a similar Mediterranean climate - if they could find a similar soil. After a four-year-long search, they found a property in Paso Robles and after a three-year-long process to make sure they were virus-free, they planted vinifera cuttings from the Beaucastel vineyard. Established in 1987, Tablas Creek remains equally owned and run by the two families. We speak with second-generation proprietor Jason Haas about his latest offerings of the flagship Esprit de Tablas, red and white.

The modern story of Chappellet began in 1967 when Donn and Molly Chappellet put their faith in the advice of legendary winemaker André Tchelistcheff who said he could make even better wines if he could get more grapes from the hills of Napa. So, despite a chorus of other naysayers, the couple moved the family to Pritchard Hill, building a winery intent on producing wines that would rival the great wines of France so admired by Donn Chappellet; Latour, Lafite and Mouton. Chappellet earned instant acclaim with its first offering, the 1969 vintage, a wine current winemaker Phillip Corallo-Titus says is considered one of the best wines produced in Napa Valley. Corallo-Titus fills in the rest of the details during a discussion of the 2018 Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon with Anthony.

In 1996 after years of searching, Betty O'Shaughnessy began what today is O'Shaughnessy Estate Winery with the purchase of vineyards in Oakville. Soon thereafter she acquired vineyards on Howell Mountain, Mt. Veeder, and all three locations are at heart of today's wines. 2002 marked the first release for O'Shaughnessy. We caught up with president and founding winemaker Sean Capiaux from inside their barrel cellar on Howell Mountain, 20 minutes north of St. Helena, to discuss O'Shaughnessey's latest release, the Howell Mountain 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon.