Fermenting Place

My guest for Episode Thirty-Eight of the Fermenting Place [podcast] are dynamic duo winemaking artists, Andries and Yoko Mostert from Brave New Wine, straight outta Denmark, in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.

Yoko and Andries produce wine like no one else I know in Australia. Every bloody bottle is damn delicious, no holes barred, volatile frivolity that's full of the funk and fun. Seriously. Turn on, tune in, and drop out, as Yoko and Andries share their journey to get to the Brave New World of wine...

In Episode Thirty-Eight, Andries, Yoko and I discuss...

• Bandwagons
• Ending to Begin Again
• Pushing the Progression
• Embracing the Clusterphunk
• Frozen Ferments
• Art, Depth and Detail by Design
• And Much More

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My guest for Episode Thirty-Seven of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is mindful, innovative, and revered West Australian winegrower, Vanya Cullen of Cullen Wines, Margaret River.

Vanya is a pioneering biodynamic winegrower and dedicated devotee of Mother Nature and her resilient ability to provide abundance, provided she is honoured and revered in her own right.

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In Episode Thirty-Seven, Vanya and I discuss...

• Climate Change Amidst Margaret River's Reputation for Consistency
• Celebrating 50 Years of Cullen
• How Australia Has Two More Than Four Seasons
• Observing Nature Over Time
• And Much More.

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My guest for Episode Thirty-Six of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is retired geologist, winegrower, and occasional writer of wine - as seen through an appropriate geological lens - Dr. Alex Maltman, Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University, Wales.

Dr. Maltman has caused a bit of defensible controversy over the last few years with his insight into how geology influences wine, especially around the nebulous concept of minerality.

In Episode Thirty-Six, Dr. Maltman and I discuss...

• Gavin and Stacey
• Welsh Winegrowing
• Geology Rocks and Soils
• The Myth of Minerality
• Why Beer Rocks Harder Than Wine
• And Much More, of course...

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My guest for Episode Thirty-Five of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is apple grower, cider maker, and wine grower, Mark McGill of Abel Cider and Wine, located in Nelson, New Zealand.

Mark is a winemaker by trade who dared to delve into the wondrous world of cider, having been surprised by the sheer blandness and banality of such commercially made drinks that purport to be made of certain fruits, such as apples and pears, and yet rarely feature any such fruit and all....

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In Episode Thirty-Five, Mark and I discuss...

• Nelson Sunshine and Rain
• Chardonnay
• 35% Real Cider
• Backyard Ferments
• Sails, Skins, and Tannin
• And Much More...

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My guest for Episode Thirty-Four of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is Central Otago winegrower, Nick Mills...

Nick is the steward of one of the most stunning and picturesque vineyard sites in the world; Rippon... located nearby the banks of Roy's Bay in Wanaka, New Zealand. Nick is a deep thinking when it comes to his role and place at Rippon, and especially his patient and deliberate approach to transforming an innocuous bunch of grapes into a glass of total astonishment.

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In Episode Thirty-Four, Nick and I discuss...

• The Roaring 40s
• A Brief History of Rippon
• Meaning and Action
• Comfort and Conflict Between Vines and Humans
• Tension of Land Monetisation
• Texture, Shape, and Feel
• And Much More...

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My guest for Episode Thirty-Three of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is soil microbiologist, Dr. Elaine Ingham.

Dr. Ingham is widely recognised as the world's foremost soil biologist, who, over four decades of experience has, gained advanced knowledge about the soil and the all important 'Soil Food Web', where micro-organisms - made up of a myriad of bacteria and fungi, protozoa, nematodes, micro-arthropods, and other large organisms - all interact with one another at scale to create healthy, living soils of structure, fertility, and nutrition. 

In Episode Thirty-Three, Dr. Elaine Ingham and I discuss...

• Growing Up in Minnesota and Bogata
• Understanding Soil; Why Should We Care?
• The Hubris and Concern of Elder Professors
• Conceptualising The Soil Food Web
• Scaling Up Balance and Harmony
• The Vital Importance of Compost
• Getting the Ratio Right
• And Much More...

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“The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them.” – Paul Hawken.

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This unique 'inbetweenisode' is an audible reading of a recent essay I published to my website - honandaniel.com - on the fundamental unsustainability of sustainability, entitled...

The Grapes of Wrath Grow Heavy: Why Contemporary Notions of Sustainability Are Unsustainable.

"‘Sustainability’ may be the most misused word in the English language. It is a word that many modern day agriculturalists, primary producers, and their various representative groups, organisations, and associations – especially within the world of wine – love to use."

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For those of you who haven't read it - or rather haven't found the time to read it, I thought I would do it for you, and record myself reading the essay in order to make it easier for you to get the information and absorb it while doing other things, like working, driving, etc. 

My guest for Episode Thirty-Two of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is North American wine writer, speaker, and educator, Elaine Chukan-Brown. 

Elaine is based in Sonoma, California, where she writes about her adventures in wine for magazines, such as Club Oenologique, Wine & Spirits Magazine, Decanter, and Gourmet Traveller WINE. Her work has also appeared in such quintessential wine tomes, like the 4th Edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine, and the 8th Edition of the World Atlas of Wine...but we don't only talk about writing about wine... (that would be almost too boring)... No, we discuss many more things besides, including:

• California Wine
• The Nuance and Diversity of this Big Western State
• From Monterey to Mendocino
• How Growing Conditions set the Tone for Winegrowing
• The Unseen Cultural Layers of Wine Regions
• Life Changing Moments
• Writing and Illustrating Wine Tasting Notes
• And Much More...

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My guest for Episode Thirty-One of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is New Zealand winemaker, Francis Hutt.

Francis is a funny and curious dude, hard working, family orientated, community focussed, and a really good listener... which is probably a bad thing, in this circumstance, given that he's the one who's meant to do all the talking here. This is a relaxed chat with a relaxed guy who's determination to contribute positively to the planet extends far beyond his family and into the very ground we all walk and grow our food and wine upon...

In Episode Thirty-One of the Fermenting Place [podcast], Francis and I discuss...

• Random and Righteous Twists in the Universe's Tale
• Going Down the Wine Rabbit Hole in Okanagan
• Generosity, Reciprocity, and Old Merlot
• Roots and Community
• Wine as a Viable Long Term Career
• And Much More, of Course...

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My guest for Episode Thirty of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is head distiller for Husk Distillers, Quentin Brival...

Hailing from the small Caribbean Island of Martinique - the birthplace of Rhum Agricole - Quentin has made a home for himself in Australia, nearby the tiny town of Tumbulgum, on the banks of the Tween River, within the peaceful Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. 

Sitting outside, over looking the swaying sugarcane that was then ripening in the field, whilst sharing my new favourite drink, Quentin and I shared a very cool conversation about all things Agricole; how Husk became Australia's first agricultural rum distillery, intent on capturing place and their attempts to express the intrinsic terroir of the Tweed, through the unique medium of spirit distillation.

In Episode Thirty of the Fermenting Place [podcast], Quentin and I discuss...

• Growing Rum in Tumbulgum
• The Rich History of Carribean Agricole
• Pioneering Parallels with Colonial Winegrowers
• Impurities and Other Flavours
• Knowing, Accepting, and Embracing the Uniqueness of Place
• Texture, Time, and Ti Punch
• And Much More...

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My guest for Episode Twenty-Nine of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is winegrower, reader, observer, Dachshund enjoyer, and all-round thoughtful human being, Tamara Irish of Herrmann Wines, in Dunkeld, Victoria.

This is a meandering conversation covering all manner of subjects and topics that intersect and interrelate around the concept of wine. It's as close to a conversation one might have with someone, late at night - as bottles, plates, and trays are empties, while bellies, minds and glasses of wine are filled - except it was conducted online, as opposed to in meatspace. Shame. This is a conversation that went exactly as I expected it to, and yet ended far too soon. Nonetheless, I am grateful.

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In Episode Twenty-Nine of the Fermenting Place [podcast], Tamara and I discuss...

• The Long Play
• How Might We Know a Wine
• Observing Place
• Unlearning the Rules
• Losing Thermometers
• The unintended consequences of intervention
• And much more, of course

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My guests for this very special Episode Twenty-Eight of the Fermenting Place [podcast] are Mike and Claudia Weersing (formerly) of Pyramid Valley Vineyards, Waikari, New Zealand. This stellar couple established Pyramid Valley in 2000, and sold in 2018. Tragically, Mike passed away last year, in 2020. I found this recording of my conversation with Mike and Claudia while digging through old folders and files on my computer, just a few weeks ago. I listened to the interview in full, and it remains one of the most treasured interviews I've ever done. 

My guest for Episode Twenty-Seven of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is Shane Casey, head distiller at Brix Distillers, Sydney. Hailing from the Hawkesbury, with a background in engineering, Shane moved to the city back in 2014 to pursue a career in distilling. He now heads up a small team of urban distillers located amongst the steep streets of Surry Hills, in the heart of the city.

In Episode Twenty-Seven, Shane and I discuss...

• Rum
• How the Culture Often Comes Before the Product
• The Process of Rum Making in the City
• Fascinations with Flavour
• Agricole within an Urban Framework
• And much more.

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My guest for Episode Twenty-Six of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is Michael Glover - a candid observer and orator of wine, sage and winemaker at Mammoth Wines from Nelson, New Zealand.

Michael is one of the wine world's more impassioned defenders of the art of wine; the romance, the mystery, the history, and the culture that wine embodies. Fascinated, Michael's life in wine has been an endless quest to understand, capture, capture, express and articulate notions of quality as it relates to the place of wine; dismissing the static, embracing the dynamic; contributing to its eternal evolution.

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In Episode Twenty-Six, Michael and I discuss...

• Time
• The Search for Quality
• Moving Beyond the Dark Side
• The Battle Between Wine and Beverage
• Natural Wine
• Glory, Greatness, and the Temple of Terroir
• Much More

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My guests for Episode Twenty-Four of the Fermenting Place [podcast] are mates, Lachlan McIntyre and Robert Sowter of Lantana Gin - a small-batch, boutique distillery based in Redridge, Queensland. They make seasonal gin from freshly cut sugar cane, and that most perniciously and prettiest of invasive plant species, Lantana.

In Episode Twenty-Four, Lachlan, Robert and I discuss...

• Emplacing Friendship
• Redridge, QLD
• Drinking the Problem
• Growing Ground Up Support
• Building a Still and Making Spirit From Scratch
• Simplicity from Complexity
• And Much More...

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My guests for Episode Twenty-Three of the Fermenting Place [podcast] are father and son winegrowers, Bruce and Chris Tyrrell of Tyrrell's Wines, in the Hunter Valley. Their family are pioneers of wine-growing in Australia, they are custodians of some of the best vineyard sites in the Hunter Valley, and their last name appears of some of the greatest wines ever made.

In Episode Twenty-Three, Bruce, Chris and I discuss...

• Audio Levels
• The Rolling Stones
• Drought, Rain, and Weather Cycles
• The Provenance of Great Vineyards
• Family History and Heritage
• Semillon and Shiraz
• So Much More...

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My guest for episode Twenty-Two of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is Oregon winegrower and advocate for regenerative farming methods, Mimi Casteel. Mimi is the owner and vigneron at her family's vineyard and farm, Hopewell Wine and Vineyard in the Willamette Valley, as well as a spokesperson for the soil, for biology, for ecology, and for the environment more generally.

In Episode Twenty-Two, Mimi and I discuss...

• Rehabilitation through Regeneration
• Christmas Tree Farms
• Vineyard Aesthetics
• Overcoming Compulsions to Control
• The Soil as the Soul
• Reflexivity, Reliance, and Resiliance
• Wines as a Portal to Nature
• Glyphosate
• Much More...

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Mark, Charlie, and Innes of Wolfburn Whisky Distillery, Scotland, are my guests for Episode Twenty-One of the Fermenting Place [podcast]. 

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In Episode Twenty-One, we discuss...

• Eau De Vie
• Ways of Distilling Place
• The Lost History of Woldburn
• Making Whisky by Hand, by Sight, by Touch, by Smell
• Time and Maturation
• Casks and Barrells
• Craft Whisky
• Tasting notes... and much more.

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Maynard James Keenan is my guest for Episode Twenty of the Fermenting Place [podcast] - you know, the front man of two (well... three, actually) of the greatest bands ever to exist, ever, and - winegrower at Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards, Jerome, Arizona...

My guest for Episode Nineteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is Herbert Peñaloza. Herbert is a coffee farmer, grower and producer from Tolima, Colombia. Here he helps to farm, process, and market single origin coffee beans on the family farm; 575 Café. 

Herbert is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to coffee and holds great insight into its often overlooked and undervalued place in our world. With such frequency and ubiquity in our daily lives, it's easy to understate and take for granted the nuance of provenance and place that coffee comes from. Every day, Herbert seeks to compress the distance between the grower and the customer, to help connect people connect to the coffee he grows back to its unique coordinates here on Earth.

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In Episode Nineteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast], Herbert and I discuss...

• Coffee's Democratic Pleasures
• Locating Coffee's Place in the World
• Falling in Love with Farming
• Wild Terrain
• Varietals
• Coffee Fermentation
• Tasting Notes
• Much More

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My guest for Episode Eighteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is Jeff Booth. Jeff is an entrepreneur and author of the book, 'The Price of Tomorrow'... and while he enjoys a glass of wine with friends, every now and then, Jeff is not here to discuss wine (and other drinks), specifically...

I asked Jeff to come on the pod because something has been gnawing away at me for some time now, and I desperately needed to discuss it with someone who could help me make sense of it. I have a theory. A hunch. A suspicion based on a supposition that all our notions of environmental sustainability - particularly those desirable ideas around ecologically mindful forms of agricultural practice, such as regenerative farming, organic, and biodynamic ways of farming - are, in fact, unsustainable...

Indeed, achieving genuine environmental sustainability is impossible because of the current economic system that the whole world runs on, and the bad incentives and outcomes that such a system perpetually generates.

This is a conversation that looks beyond the final product; the beer, the wine, the sake, etc, and seeks to discuss the mostly unseen and unrealised structural economic foundations that the vast majority of us are accustomed to operating within, and why, because of this, contemporary notions and methods of environmental sustainability are, in fact, unsustainable.

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In Episode Eighteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast], Jeff and I discuss...

• The fragile discord between the environment and the economy
• The inflationary impossibility of environmental sustainability
• Climate Change
• How money manipulation destroys and disrespects our environment, our time, and our energy
• Short versus long term incentives and their outcomes
• Hamster Wheels
• The Price of Tomorrow
• Potential solutions and possible futures

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My guest for Episode Seventeen of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is the inimitable Australian (via the UK) wine and drinks writer and author, Max Allen. 

Max is the man when it comes to understanding the story's around wine and other drinks. He has been writing about such elixir for almost 30 years, which includes four books, such as The Future Makers, as well as his latest work - Intoxicating: Ten Drinks that Shaped Australia - which we discuss in this episode... If it weren't for Max, and his quiet support for me and my work over the last decade or so, content like this podcast and other things I produce simply would not exist. Max is the OG Wine Idealist.

In Episode Seventeen, Max and I discuss...

• COVID19... (sorry).
• Flying Cars and Jet Packs
• A Brief History of Australian Natural Wine
• Rootstock
• Intoxicating: Ten Drinks that Shaped Australia
• Ancient Ferments
• Way-A-Linah; Cider Gum
• VB
• Oz Clarke and Kanga Rouge
• And so much more... obviously

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My guest for Episode Sixteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is Sake Samurai, Michael Tremblay. Michael is like a Master of Wine, but for sake. He is one of only 70 sake samurai in the world. So, when it comes to wanting to learn and know a little more about sake and its place within our world, Michael Tremblay - Sake Samurai, is the guy you want to talk to.

In Episode Sixteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast], Michael and I discuss...

• Sake... surprisingly, as well as becoming a Sake Samurai
• The Elements of Sake
• Parallel Fermentation
• Starch Hearts
• Magical Water
• Mapping Great Sake Sites
• The Emergence of GI Classifications
• And so much more... obviously.

This is a deep dive into sake growing and production, from a brief description of the growing and brewing process, to what the role of place and site and environment plays in the ultimate expression of this most mysterious fermentative beverage.

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My guest for Episode Fifteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is winegrower, Bill Downie. Some say, Bill is the O.G. of site specific pinot noir in Australia, who commands a cult following of fervent wine disciples that consider him the grand daddy of the natural wine movement... I dunno, to be honest. Bill's a nice guy, a great winemaker, and especially good to sit down and have a yarn about all things fermentative coming from a place.

Bill grows wine on a farm called Guendulain, set amongst the green rolling hills of the Baw Baw Shire, in the Gippsland region of Victoria. Here, he grows close planted pinot noir, and makes wine from them with as little premeditated intention as possible.

In Episode Fifteen, Bill and I discuss...

˚ Working in Bottleshops

˚ Drinking Booze and Being a Farmer

˚ Winemaking as a Team Sport

˚ His One Point Wine System

˚ Getting to know Place and Being Shaped by It

˚ Americana

˚ And so much more... obviously...

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James Millton is a pioneering New Zealand winegrower, an inadvertent philosopher, and staunch advocate for biodynamic ways of farming - especially at the Millton Vineyards, which lie close to the coast in Gisborne, on the eastern side of the North Island of Aotearoa. James possesses a unique knack of providing incredible insight into the infinitely fascinating world of winegrowing, and the universe we live within.

In Episode Fourteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast], James and I discuss...

• The Weather
• Energy and Resonance
• Differences between Intoxication and Drunkenness
• QR Codes
• The Interrelatedness of all Things
• Polishing Wines
• Bringing the Love 
• And so much more... obviously

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My guest for Episode Thirteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is an unwitting Australian natural wine OG, and all-round good dude, Tom Belford from BOBAR Wines, in the Yarra Valley (Victoria, Australia)... with a brief cameo, towards the end, from his gorgeous wife and fellow winemaker, Sally. Tom and Sally fell into the natural wine rabbit hole while on a working tour of France with the fam. They were exposed to the elemental ways of winegrowing and winemaking; rocking out, and getting wholly creative with the transformative process of transitioning grapes into wine, naturally. Some say, their style is fundamental winemaking at its finest.

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In Episode Thirteen, Tom and I discuss:

• AA Batteries
• Fishing in France
• Doing the Bare Minimum
• Family Farming
• Sensing Place
• Yarra Glen Cabernet
• Becoming a Natural Wine OG

and much more...

This is a jovial chat of the highest calibre, which I know you will enjoy.

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Angus Vinden is a young winemaker in an old wine region. Thoughtful, mindful, and hard working, Angus has been busy building his wine brand off the back of his family's legacy for the last five years, or so. He puts a firm focus on farming first, viticulture then winemaking - hence the term, winegrower... rather than winemaker. He's a Hunter boy, too - same as me - so, what's not to love?! And, he makes deliciously good wines with an eye on the past, and a mind for the future...

In Episode Twelve, Angus and I discuss:

• Being a Young Winegrower in an Old Wine Region
• The Legacy of Experimentation
• Putting the Vineyard First
• Hunter Gamay
• Acknowledging Time
• Breathing Deep
• The Positives of 2020

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My guests for Episode Eleven of the Fermenting Place [podcast] are Hans and Therese Herzog from Hans Herzog wine from Marlborough, New Zealand.

Hans and Therese are the dynamic duo behind one of New Zealand's most revered wine labels.

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In Episode Eleven, Hans, Therese, and I discuss...

- Making Wine in Austria

- Finding a New Home in the New World

- Vineyard Dedication

- The Craft of Winemaking

- Marlborough Wine Beyond Sauvignon

- Pizza and Windsurfing

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Jay Drysdale is the owner and winegrower at Bella Wines, in the Okanagan Valley wine region of British Columbia, Canada. 

Jay is a lover of chardonnay and gamay, and the bubbles they can make. He makes gorgeous sparkling wines using the ancestral method - aka Pet-Nat. Delicate, pure, refined, pet-nats that are a far cry from your typical, smashable park wine. These are pet-nat wines for the Saturday evening dining table. 

In addition to wine, Jay is also a fan of good food, organic farming, and positively contributing to his community.

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In Episode Ten, Jay and I discuss...

- Okanagan Winegrowing... obviously

- Hallmarks of Marginal Climates

- Bubbles

- Shifting Priorities around Food and Farming

- Chardonnay and Gamay

- Flavour Spectrums

- The Ancestral Method

- and Heaps More...

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