Episode 178: Burning Wine Questions and Arizona Wine With Clay Janson
Clay is bringing the heat this week from Phoenix, AZ, as he flips the scripts and drops burning wine questions for Steph and Val to answer.
A long-time patron and show supporter (oh, and Steph’s big brother!), Clay won his own co-hosting opportunity several months back, so he took full advantage of the chance to put the ladies on the hot seat to dish new embarrassing wine stories. There’s also a cool discussion on a 109-degree day about Arizona wine.
In the Glasses (4:00)
Clay and Steph: Barbancourt – 3-star 4-year-old agricole rhum from Haiti. The distillery was founded in 1862 and is one of the oldest, most famous, rhums from Haiti.
A Frenchman from the region of Cognac founded the company after moving to Haiti. The rhum is made from sugarcane juice (not molasses), double distilled similar to cognac, and then aged in French oak barrels. Using the fresh sugarcane juice (aka rhum agricole) results in a fresher style.
Val: Angry Orchard Rosé cider, Walden NY
They use apples from France that actually have red flesh (Amour Rouge). There are some other eating (culinary) apples in the mash as well as sweet potato, radish & hibiscus.
Special Guest Episode with Clay Janson
Clay won a Patreon giveaway last year. That month, the prize was the opportunity to co-host the show with us, or at a minimum, steer the conversation to a topic of their choice.
We finally were able to sync our calendars, so Clay took this opportunity to take a time-out from the 109-degree Phoenix swelter to also bring the heat in the form of multiple burning wine questions. Then he deftly puts the ladies on the hot seat in order to get us to dish on some new embarrassing wine stories. Yep. We see how he rolls. (And we like it!)
About Clay (4:45)
Clay’s been a “It’s not 5 o’clock and we don’t care” listener for 23 months!!! And Clay won the monthly Patreon drawing way back in October of 2017.
Yes, it has taken us 10 months of persistence to find a recording date that worked for our three schedules. Evidently, the planets aligned today!
Clayton “Clay” Janson is the owner and engine behind Phocus Financial Strategies Group. When he’s not wearing his hat as a financial advisor and business owner, he dedicates his time to his family and local charities.
Clay is a native to Phoenix and his alma mater is Northern Arizona University.
He loves trying new whiskeys and craft brews almost as much as he loves supporting his little sister, Steph, and the Wine Two Five podcast.
Clay’s Burning Wine Questions (10:48)
Q1: “In fewer than 10 words, what the hell is terroir?”
A1: In 10 words, we answered it thusly: Sense of place: climate, location, water, sun, soil, man, winemaking.
Note, this doesn’t only apply to wine making, but also other agricultural products, spirits, and even cannabis.
Q2: “How long is wine aged in a barrel?” (13:51)
A2: Our answer was longer than 10 words, but mainly focused on the fact that it depends. Tradition and law can dictate barrel aging (such as in Barolo, Rioja, Brunello, etc.). However, some wines never see the inside of a barrel. In most cases, it comes down to the discretion of the winemaker and the desired style of the finished wine.
Q3: “Do all white wines come from white grapes and vice versa?”(20:00)
A3: No. White wine can be made from red grapes (i.e. Champagne from Pinot Noir and/or Meunier) when the clear, colorless juice has no contact with the dark skins. However, teinturier grapes have dark skins and pink or red juice (like Alicante Bouschet).
Red wines, in general, get their color from contact with the dark skins.
Embarrassing Wine Stories (24:24)
Spitting like an enraged llama:
In a nutshell, Val claims her life is one big embarrassing wine story. However, she does recount the day she spit faulted wine into her “control wine” during practice for the Certified Wine Educator exam on fault identification. And it wasn’t the first time she spit into something she, well, shouldn’t have. #WineOops
Broken wine bottles in public
Then Steph shares her humiliating experience of dropping a bottle of wine in a Spanish grocery store, trying to explain it to a clerk who was preoccupied with a long checkout line, and doing the walk of shame back to the scene of the crime. We could hear the clerk’s eyes roll from here. Then? Her friend ended up not liking the wine. #WineOops
You never forget your first (case of wine)
Clay then humbly reveals his first wine case purchase. Do you remember yours? He and his wife will remember theirs, and so will the winery employee who sold it to them! We came very close to titling this episode, “You never forget your first (case of wine),” by the way. But we wanted you and other podcast-loving wine peeps to click <play>, you know?
Arizona Wine (34:34)
Since Steph and Clay were joining us from Arizona, we thought it be appropriate to give up the goods on the wine that is produced there (and yes, every state in the US produces wine).
A quick recap:
Arizona has three major wine grape growing regions: Verde Valley, Sonoita, Willcox. Of these, only two are American Viticultural Areas (AVAs):
– Sonoita, established 1985, lies between Tuscon and Mexico
– Willcox, established in 2016, grows about 74% of the states wine grapes
History and other facts about Arizona Wine:
– Viticulture started in Arizona back in the 16th century, but the modern wine industry kicked-off in the early 1980’s.
– Arizona vineyards have a unique situation. They benefit from the diurnal shift (dramatic shift from warm day time temperatures to cool night temps) and elevations of 3,500 – 5,500 feet above sea level. Temperature swings can be as much as 50 degrees!
– At the time of this recording, there are around 120 wineries operating in the state according to the AZ Wine Growers Association.
– Some of the most popular grapes grown in AZ are Syrah, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon, and surprisingly, Italian, Spanish and classic French varieties all grow in this beautiful state!
A short list of recommended wineries from Steph:
- Callaghan Vineyards
- Kief-Joshua Vineyards
- Page Springs Cellars
- Javelina Leap
- Caduceus Cellars
- Chateau Tumbleweed
Resources and more:
Arizona Wine Growers Association
Documentary called Blood Into Wine was released in 2010 about the Arizona wine industry, specifically the Caduceus Cellars wines from Maynard James Keenan and Eric Glomski. Maynard is the multi-platinum recording artist and vocalist from the bands you might know – Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.
Fun reads about AZ wine tourism from SWE guest bloggers on WineWitandWisdom! http://winewitandwisdomswe.com//?s=arizona
Wino Radar (39:09)
Clay gets the Wino Radar this week:
The Grape Arizona Wine Event this year is Sunday November 4th, 2018 from 1-5pm at Heritage Square in Phoenix. It’s an opportunity to taste Arizona wines and also enjoy local brews and food. This event is a benefit that Clay is involved in every year with the Phoenix 100 Rotary Club to raise money for local and international charitable causes.
Shoutouts (40:40)
Steph’s shoutout: goes to Blue Hound Kitchen & Cocktails in downtown Phoenix! The restaurant is located next to the Kimpton Hotel Palomar and only a couple blocks from the area where she just saw Shakira in concert. Their roasted cauliflower is a double YUM!
Clay also gives up a double yum for Shakira. Val seconds the yum.
Weekly Tasting from WTSO is our Podcast Sponsor! (42:07)
Shout out to our show sponsor Weekly Tasting!
With each shipment from Weekly Tasting, you can compare and contrast wines side by side on aspects such as oak, appellation, vintage, etc. without being in a structured class.
Meanwhile, our listeners have their very own listener page at: weeklytasting.com/W25 to sign up and get started! Or just go to our web page and click on the link to get started!
Big Patreon Love (42:56)
Thank you to our patrons who support us on our Patreon crowdfunding platform!
“Riserva Superiore Supporter”
- Robin from Girls Gone Grape
“Riserva Supporter”
- Antti in Georgia!
“TENacious Tasters”
- Jeff E from the award-winning We Like Drinking podcast
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- Jen in Maryland (and the world, according to her Instagram feed)
- David and Lisa in Illinois
- Ann Marie in Virginia
“It’s not five o’clock and we don’t care” Listeners
- Meg in South Dakota
- Clay in Arizona
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Our Patreon page has details www.patreon.com/winetwofivepodcast on how to be entered into our monthly giveaway, receive exclusive content and swag.
Connect (45:20)
Between each weekly chat you can find us on the social spaces @WineTwoFive, and play in our private FaceBook group called Wine Two Five Community!
Connect with Val on Twitter @WineGalUnboxed and everywhere else as @VinoWithVal.
Steph is in all the social spaces as @TheWineHeroine.
Clay is on Twitter @clayphx. Also, he’s on Facebook facebook.com/claytonmjanson, where you will find him on our Wine Two Five Community page if you want to reach out.
Also, find us on the My Wine Society App.
