Ep 226: Bucher Vineyards, true farmers in Russian River Valley of Sonoma, CA
Wine for Normal People
Wine for Normal People
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2018
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In one of our final in the series spotlighting small Sonoma producers, we meet Diane and John Bucher of Bucher Vineyards and Bucher Farms. This is a podcast truly about terroir and farming, when you get down to it --John Bucher is a fourth generation farmer, and this show is unique because his perspective is so focused on the land and on farming. It's fantastic!
Bucher Vineyards and Farms is not just a grape growing and winemaking concern. It's an organic dairy farm with over 400 cows AND a premium vineyard that sells to high end wineries that you definitely have heard of if you know Russian River Valley Pinot Noir (Adam Lee of Siduri fame is their winemaker!).
The Buchers own 50+ acres of premium wine grapes, in the north end of the Russian River Valley and make exceptional Pinot Noir, rosé, and Chardonnay all from their own vineyard. Here are some of the topics we cover:
- John's Swiss family history and his true, and unadulterated love of the land, his animals and of farming
- How the Buchers got into wine and how John taught himself about viticulture
- What it takes to be an organic dairy farm, and how that translates to care in the vineyard
- John's love of Pinot Noir and how it can showcase his land better than anything else
- Adam Lee's role in working with the Bucher's to let John's work in the vineyard shine through
- The style of Bucher Vineyards and how their Pinot Noir designates are differentiated
- The benefits of being small, how they get the word out about their wine and what their goals are for the future!
A fantastic winery, truly happy, delightful people, and great wine! Who could ask for more!?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for |
| 0:08.0 | downloading Wine for Normal People Radio, |
| 0:10.0 | the podcast for people who like wine but not the snobbery that goes with it. |
| 0:14.0 | I'm Elizabeth Schneider, a certified Silmaier and certified specialist of wine. |
| 0:20.0 | And I'm MC Ice, just a wine-loving normal person. |
| 0:24.3 | As part of our continuing series of small producers of Sonoma |
| 0:29.0 | for underground wine events, |
| 0:30.9 | we have Booker Vineyards. actually it was originally Bueker Farms. It still is Bueker Farms. |
| 0:37.0 | John and Diane are here to talk about their amazing history in Sonoma and also about how they have gotten into |
| 0:47.4 | winemaking and how that has changed their business slightly and and what all the challenges and excitement that that brings. So welcome |
| 0:56.4 | John and Diane. Thank you. Thank you. Great to be here. Yes |
| 1:00.4 | Bucker Farms as a whole entity is not just grape growing. You have a lot of other |
| 1:05.4 | stuff going on. Your main business is a dairy, right? So can you talk about the |
| 1:11.2 | original history of the property and everything? |
| 1:15.0 | Talk about where you are and how this wound up going from a dairy to a vineyard. |
| 1:22.0 | To give a little history. My parents immigrated from Switzerland in the early mid-50s and they |
| 1:29.8 | worked in the Bay Area at different jobs and my dad started his first dairy farm near |
| 1:34.9 | Modesto, California, but at the same time he was looking for other opportunities and |
| 1:40.1 | so he found this ranch in the end of 1958 and my mom and dad purchased it in |
| 1:49.1 | December of 1958 so this year will be here 60 years and start as and purchase as a dairy farm and when I came home from school in the |
| 1:59.3 | Mid 80s I took over the management of the farm and and you know saw some changes happening in the dairy business and and we made the decision to diversify into wine grapes so so we still have the farm. It's not that the dairy is still here, still operating. |
| 2:12.9 | We've transitioned the dairy about 10 years ago, |
... |
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