Wine Spectator’s September issue is all about a grape people grow passionate about—Pinot Noir. Our tasting report from California shows how winemakers continue to tap the potential of the variety, in new terroirs and with new approaches. In our latest episode of Straight Talk, we talk with two top Pinot producers—one who came to the wine industry from cooking and one who’s the fourth generation to farm California grapes.
Sashi Moorman was a chef in New York City in the mid-1990s when he decided that he found wine a lot more interesting. He moved to California and spent five years apprenticing with Adam Tolmach at Ojai Vineyard. Now he’s bringing a different perspective to Pinot Noir as winemaker for multiple estates, including Domaine de la Côte and Sandhi in the Sta. Rita Hills and Evening Land in Oregon.
Moorman chatted with James Molesworth, senior editor and special projects director, about how he went from studying geography to cooking professionally to jumping into wine. He also discusses how his winemaking has changed as he’s learned what his Domaine de la Côte site needs. Plus, he discusses his vision of what wine needs to keep growing and succeed in coming years.
Tom Rochioli, the subject of our September cover story, has deep roots in wine. His family has been farming in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley for more than a century. Tom spoke with Mitch Frank, senior editor for news, on what makes his 129 acres of vines unique, and on how each generation of Rochioli has made its own mark.
Now available on Apple, Google, Spotify and more, including at WineSpectator.com/podcasts, Straight Talk debuted in October 2022 and has featured some of the wine industry's biggest stars in honest, probing, revelatory and sometimes hilarious conversations.
Guests have included winemakers Aubert de Villaine, Tim Mondavi, Tony Soter, Mark Aubert, Helen Keplinger, Thomas Brown, Greg Brewer and many more, as well as chefs Thomas Keller and Marcus Samuelsson, NBA Hall of Famer and winery investor Tony Parker, and film, TV and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc star Sarah Jessica Parker.
Wine Spectator's Straight Talk podcast is available free on all major podcasting platforms, as well as at WineSpectator.com/podcasts, and listeners can email their questions and comments to StraightTalk@WineSpectator.com.
