Ep 502: Stu Smith of Smith-Madrone -- Why Napa County is Strangling Small Wineries

Wine for Normal People

Alcohol, Lifestyle, Arts, Education, Food, Wine, Dining, Grapes

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a baffling story that includes a Napa history lesson, an idea of how the Valley has grown and then a jaunt into intrigue, sting operations, and what appears to be an effort to kill the goose that laid the golden egg by the Napa County government. It seems that the County is going after small wineries in an attempt to bankrupt them out of business.

Friend of the pod, Stu Smith of Smith-Madrone joins to discuss and explain the situation -- at least the parts that have an explanation!

If you want background on Smith-Madrone, check out...

Ep 253: Stu Smith of Smith-Madrone Vineyards Talks About 48 Years in Napa Valley

Please support small wineries! Now, more than ever they need our help!!

Stu Smith, Smith-Madrone Vineyard

Lindsay Hoopes, Hoopes Vineyard

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Wine for Normal People, the Podcasts for People who like Wine for Normal People,
0:09.8	the podcast for people who like wine, but not the snobbery that goes with it.
0:13.2	I'm your host Elizabeth Schneider author of the Wine for Normal People Book and
0:19.5	certified wine dork and I'm MC Ice just a wine-loving normal person. This podcast is sponsor wine normal people wine access wine club go to wine access dot com slash normal join and
0:36.2	you get four shipments for a hundred fifty dollars plus tax each free shipping is
0:40.5	included and the wines are all hand selected by me. Get on it today.
0:45.4	So you know how I always talk about the big hulking wineries in the US and the power they hold?
0:50.1	And you know how I keep a list of wineries owned by the big hulking wineries?
0:55.0	Well, there's a reason for that and part of that reason is the feeling I've had for a while
0:59.0	that the small family wineries were getting edged out by the big guys, especially in Napa.
1:04.0	And I have a story for you that unfortunately validates this.
1:09.0	I have Stu Smith of Smith Madron Winery, who I know many of you know in love.
1:14.7	He has joined us before.
1:16.5	Many of you have had his wines.
1:18.2	Many of you had visited.
1:19.7	And many of you know that he has been in business for more than 50 years on Spring Mountain.
1:25.9	They are still one of the best wineries in Napa, but Stu is going to tell us about the
1:30.3	dealings of the Napa County government and their attempts to take away the rights of
1:34.4	small wineries to hold tastings with people like us. Smith Madron has joined with Hoopes Vineyard
1:40.0	and Summit Lake to file a complaint against Napa County and Stu is here to give us the full detail on all of this mess.
1:47.6	It's a little wonky, but the outcome is going to have a big impact on the future of small wineries in Napa so it is very
1:54.8	much worth your time to listen to this. Thank you so much for joining us do. No one's
	...

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