436: Patrick Comiskey on the High Highs and Market Lows of American Syrah

I'll Drink to That! Wine Talk

Levi Dalton

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4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2017

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Patrick Comiskey is a wine writer for "Wine & Spirits" Magazine as well as the "Los Angeles Times." He is also the author of the book "American Rhône: How Maverick Winemakers Changed the Way Americans Drink."

Patrick recounts the origins of Rhône grape varieties like Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Viognier, Marsanne, and Roussanne in America, and points out some of the winemakers who brought those varieties to prominence in California and Washington State. He provides a timeline for the development of those Rhône grapes in the United States, and discusses some of the market successes and challenges for the wines made from them.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.
0:05.1	I'm Levy Dalton.
0:06.1	I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, This episode is dedicated to the memory of Seth Kunin, the Santa Barbara
0:29.1	Winemaker who died earlier this year. Please raise a toast to Seth the next time you're drinking a wine that's really great.
0:37.0	He'd like that.
0:38.0	Patrick Kaminsky of American Rhone on the show today.
0:42.0	Hello sir, how are you? I'm well, thanks for having me.
0:44.6	Very nice to have you here. So you wrote a book on American wineries working with Roan grape
0:48.8	varieties in the United States, specifically often in California, and you worked in restaurants in California
0:54.4	yourself and so you have a little bit of a experience serving those wines
0:58.2	somewhat earlier in your career. I worked at a restaurant called 42 degrees in
1:02.2	San Francisco and we devoted ourselves to the
1:06.4	Mediterranean latitudes for food and it made sense for us to explore Provence and Roan wines. Eventually American Roan producers worked their way into the
1:15.9	wine list and I ended up getting to know quite a lot of them as well.
1:19.5	Who's coming by the restaurant back in those days? Well the very first one that I remember is John Albin.
1:25.0	John would come to the restaurant to give staff tastings,
1:29.0	but many of the local producers also came and were regular customers like Steve Edmonds for example.
1:35.0	Randall Graham lived not far often so he was a regular, as was Sean Thackeray.
1:40.0	This is the period. It starts in about the middle 90s and it's the period where things are
1:46.4	finally coalescing.
1:49.2	What were some of the reactions you were getting from customers when you would open and serve these
1:52.2	wines?
	...

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