Resource Overview
Wine writer + expert Elaine Chukan Brown speaks with Tegan Passalacqua, director of winemaking at Turley Cellars and owner and winemaker at Sandlands Vineyards. Tegan, a Napa Valley native, got his start in the wine business as a lab technician at Napa Wine Company, supplemented by night classes in Viticulture & Oenology at the Napa Junior College. In 2003 he headed to New Zealand for an internship with Doug Wisor at Craggy Range and upon his return started as intern at Turley Wine Cellars, where he has worked his way up over the past seventeen years to his current role, director of winemaking. During this time, Tegan has worked in the cellars of Craggy Range in New Zealand with Doug Wisor, with Eben Sadie in the Swartland of South Africa, and with Alain and Maxime Graillot in the Northern Rhone Valley of France. He is also winemaker for his own brand Sandlands Vineyards, which he founded with his wife Olivia focusing on wines made from primarily head-trained, dry-farmed and own rooted grape vines.
Elaine and Tegan discuss the rich heritage and varied terroirs of California and, more specifically, Lodi through one of California’s classic grape varieties—Zinfandel—and lesser known, yet equally interesting Cinsault.
The featured wines in this episode are:
2018 Turley Juvenile, California
2018 Turley Cinsault, Lodi
2018 Turley Steacy, Lodi
2018 Turley Kirschenmann, Lodi
2018 Turley Dogtown, Lodi
Learn more about California Wines, including information about California's diverse wine making regions here: https://discovercaliforniawines.com/
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