Back by popular demand... Dr. Hoby Wedler is my dear friend and sensory export who was born without sight. With his PhD in organic chemistry, he inspires people to experience the life at it fullest, especially when it comes to food, wine and the smells and sounds of the world around us!

Listen as Hoby and his partner Justin, my partner Michael and I all gather around the Holiday table and talk about:

1. The exciting new projects we've all been up to since we last saw each other!
2. Hoby and Justin's first impression of our new Sollevato Grenache, including its unique flavor profile and pairing possibilities
3. The resilience of our Coffey Park neighborhood post-wildfires, and a new tradition for all of our neighbors to enjoy
4. The challenges of pairing wine with spicy food
5. Hoby's got a new project and you'll want to be in the know

Hoby's Haiku:

Fresh and pure. Is it

silky, supple, smooth, delightful.

It makes us all happy.

Episode Links:

Check out Hoby's special curated box, Sweet and Savory Autumn Bounty Here

Use the code WILDTHINGS10 for 10% off your order

Follow Dr Hoby on Instagram

Purchase our small-lot, sustainably grown, super delicious Sollevato 2023 Grenache and 2022 Sangiovese! Super-versatile wines for your table all year round! (Use the code PODLISTENER for 10% off Nikki and Michael's Sollevato Wines!)

Follow me on Instagram to get the scoop on upcoming episodes and behind the scenes looks!

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Questions, suggestions and guest requests? nikki@sipwithnikki.com

One more question. Just when you look at the glass after sipping from it, how long are the legs of this wine?

Longer than mine. But that's not hard because I'm five, three and a half.

But does it hang on?

Oh, oh, you meant like, how long did they take to trickle down the side of the glass? Hello there. Welcome to Sip with Nikki. I'm Nikki Lamberti, coming to you from my childhood bedroom in central New Jersey.

So I am home for the holidays. And if you are a regular listener, thank you. You'll know that every year I head home to New Jersey for Christmas.

In fact, have recorded multiple episodes during that time, Sipping with My Sisters in the Closet and Aunt Vivian's episode, which has been so popular over our two year anniversary of having this podcast. So I'm here and this is the first to actually be recording the intro to the podcast.

Literally sitting in the bedroom where I grew up with the pink blinds on the windows and still some remaining childhood artifacts surrounding me, which is so fun.

But before I left California about a week ago, we had our wonderful friends Hobie and Justin over for a holiday celebration that our neighborhood in Santa Rosa, California puts on. It's a Christmas parade within our Coffee park neighborhood.

And you've heard episodes in the past with Dr. Hobie, who has a PhD in organic chemistry and was born blind.

And not only is he a chemist, but he's an entrepreneur, a sensory expert, and loves to talk with people about culture, food, wine, travel, and how he experiences the world.

And if you're not following Dr. Hoby on Instagram, pause this and go follow him right now, because he does very regular short videos about the finest things that life has to offer, whether it's being in a forest in Oregon, cutting down a Christmas tree, or tasting a new product that he has come across. We hadn't seen each other in a couple months, so Michael and I invited Hobie and Justin over just really to catch up.

And I said, hey, we should record It's Been a While. So the agenda when we sat down to record what you're about to hear was pretty loose.

All we said was, let's just share with each other what we've been up to and see if there's something there that might be interesting for our listeners. Selfishly, I was excited for Hobie and Justin to taste our new Solevato Grenache that you've heard me talking about.

We just released that, our first ever Grenache, and they hadn't tasted it yet. And, you know, it's always an interesting scenario when you say, hey, can you taste something that I've made that's very near and dear to me?

And oh, by the way, I let's press record to capture your response and you're like, I hope they like it. And I hope they're not just going to say nice things because they're our friends.

So Hobie gives a very honest and detailed reaction to the wine that I think is really helpful to listen to, especially because one of the things that I love so much about spending time with Hobie is the questions that he asks sometimes stump me. He's just so inquisitive and intelligent and his brain works in a completely different way than mine. Hence his PhD in organic chemistry.

We talk about how wine is a time capsule and his thoughts on the molecules that are literally in the glass. He has some really insightful questions about oak barrels and how they affect the wine that is aged in them.

We talk about spicy food and wine pairings and how tricky that is.

He shares a very cool project that he has been up to lately and we get to taste some of his project and finally he just busts out a haiku at the end of our time together describing our wine. So this is really just a holiday conversation. Four friends sitting around the table catching up.

You will hear our wonderful puppies, Rosie and Lucy in the background. They were very excited to see Hobie and Justin. And as quiet as we tried to keep them, it didn't always happen.

So you'll hear some tippy tappy of one year old lab mix feet and you'll hear the wagging of the tails hitting the table. But this was just a casual gathering at my dining room table as we were getting ready to watch our neighborhood Christmas parade.

So here we go with catching up around the holiday table with Dr. Hobie. Merry Christmas, my friends.

Merry Christmas, Nikki. Merry Christmas, Michael. Merry Christmas, Justin.

Hobie, Michael, everybody.

Christmas will be interesting.

I'm so excited that you guys are here for the huge spectacular Coffee Park Christmas parade.

I'm excited.

You know what I love about things like this is no matter how small or large they are, they're just cute and fun and kids get to come out and people get to decorate their houses. And really, to me, Christmas is so not about gift giving. It's about getting together with people enjoying great times, great food and drink.

We're just so excited. And thank you guys for inviting us up here to watch the parade and have some yummy bites.

Yeah. And of course we're doing pizza night.

I love it.

What else would we do? Michael's like, should we do something else? And I was like, no, we really need to do this.

Pizza.

Pizza. It's been a while.

I'm so excited.

And in about an hour, the parade is gonna go right by our by.

We got front row seats right by.

Our cul de sac. So we'll all go outside with our wine and watch all of our neighbors who have decorated their cars.

And is the parade just Coffey park or is it all over Santa Rosa?

Nikki and Michael have a question for you about that. Not looking around like I don't usually do very well.

You suck at that.

Actually, I do. How many houses have been rebuilt? Is it almost everyone?

Yeah, it's about a 90%, 95%.

There's few lots. And you're in the lot next to us, which was one of the last ones. It's already still.

They've already just started construction on it, so.

Fantastic. And did this parade start as a result of the resilience? Yeah, we didn't have. The parade was out here before the fires.

I think it started in 19 when everybody started to move back in, which is pretty cool.

And congratulations on overcoming the darn fire and then going off on your guys own and doing your own wine label and just building. Nikki, I know that you're an entrepreneur just like we are, and you just don't let things stop you.

You just keep going, you know, that's all I know how to do is to just keep going, so.

Amen.

Speaking of, I am extra excited today for you guys to try our Grenache. You have been such wonderful think partners supporters all along the way of the inception of Sol Levato.

But this is the first ever Grenache because only Sangiovese has been our production to this point.

I'm so excited. And when was this officially released?

Last week. Yep. On giving Tuesday is when we released it.

I love that. That's so smart.

Yeah. Because I think I told you about our partnership with the V Foundation for cancer research.

Yes, yes, yes, you did.

A portion of the proceeds from each bottle goes to cancer research. And that's to commemorate my ass kicking of cancer. You know this and I've been up to.

You are a badass. You just knocked that out.

You know, Justin and I were reminiscing about this on the way up that we were sitting here, and I think it was January 10th or so that Amanda was coming into town because they were dealing with such horrendous smoke down in la. Oh, yeah, she was coming up that night. And that was the night that you told us about the cancer.

And here we sit less than a year later, about 11 months later, and you kicked its ass.

That's it. I did. And I'm done with treatments and feeling good and good on you, more like myself, each and every day.

And was able to make wine this fall, which was tricky, but we got it done.

And you actually were starting to make wine when you were finishing treatment?

I love it.

But this is, of course, our grower, Joe Ramazzatti, who we get our Sangiovese from. So this is from a vineyard also in the Dry Creek Valley, a single vineyard, sustainably grown, 100% Grenache.

And we made Grenache because we love to drink it.

I love that. And there's no better reason than this is what we love, because that tells a story in and of itself.

Yep.

You know what I love?

Yeah. I've always said the time capsule part, I didn't always take it down to the molecular level like you did, but there's no surprise there.

But, yeah, I love that it captures everything from that time. So.

And you know, when these grapes were hanging on their vine about to be picked, you and me and Justin and Michael were at a Dave Matthews Band concert in Bend. So I like to think back to things that were happening in all of our shared lives when the fruit was about ready to be picked.

Yeah. Because these were picked in mid October and that concert was in August.

Late August.

Yeah. Yeah, Good memory.

All right. And it was a wet. I think that it was a wet year that year because they were continuing to cut the clusters off on that. Weird. Interesting. Yeah.

Because this vineyard sits right next to Dry Creek in a very sandy part of it. Okay. And it's a little bit shaded, so it was. Yeah, it was just interesting.

And then the breaks were, you know, low and it just all of a sudden, in a couple of weeks when we came back, it was just like, it's time to go.

Yeah.

It was hot and it was time to fish.

It was go time. So I think the last time you tasted this was out of the barrel over a year ago.

It was definitely over a year ago. And it was out of a little sample bottle that right after fermentation.

Okay.

And it was delicious.

Then I'm not going to tell you anything about it. And shall we take this? Be honest. Don't be my friends.

Be the sensory expert that you are and Justin, the expert taster that you are, and give me some feedback and if it's bad, we'll delete it. Cheers.

Gracious.

Love you.

Cheers. Love you guys. Cheers, Justin. All right, let's smell this now. That's beautiful.

So the first thing that I think about when I smell this is really nice berries, but it's not like a. A dark berry like a BlackBerry. It's more that that beautiful sort of cranberry blueberries.

I know they're dark, but they have kind of a lighter flavor. But I get a lot of these cool berry notes. And then. Do you smell a little bit of pomegranate?

Yes.

Green apple?

Yes. It's funny. People are going to hear we're fancy tonight. We don't normally do stemmed glasses.

And then we have Christmas themed wine charms on our stems tonight with jingle bells on. Yeah. Okay, back to the smell. Do you smell what I Smell. Do you smell what I smell? Do you hear my dogs barking outside?

Because we won't let them in because they make too much noise.

I love your beautiful pups.

Yeah, we'll let them in.

They're amazing dogs.

All right, so pomegranate and green apple. Two fresh fruit.

Cranberry. Cranberry, and, like, almost a dried cranberry, dried blueberry note. And there's something else really interesting.

I'm getting a strong honey note, and I'm doing what I always do, and I cover the glass with the palm of my hand to capture the aroma into the headspace so that we can concentrate it a little bit. What I'm really trying to identify here is the notes of oak aging. And Grenache is a grape that doesn't love huge oak. You know, it's delicate.

It's kind of a delicate flower in and of itself. So I love, like me. So I love what you.

Why did you all laugh at that? No, nobody said yes, Nikki. Delicate flower like you. You all laughed at that.

I didn't laugh.

My.

Beautiful, delicate flower.

All right, moving on.

And I'll let you live your life in your podcast. But you. Oh, goodness.

Mickey's world.

But you've done. You've done a really nice, gentle oak treatment. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah. So we had three barrels of this wine, and they were aged for over beers in French oak, but they are neutral barrels.

And those 18 and 19s are what we call neutral. So no new oak on this wine.

But these are barrels. I love this. These are barrels that you started with from new. No. Okay.

We only have purchased in our history one new barrel, and it's still currently, as we speak, holding our Petite Syrah, which is going to be bottled, which needs a little more.

So excited about.

Yeah, that's a bigger Boulder wine that can handle it. But the Sangiovese and Grenache, same oak protocol, all neutral, very used French oak barrels.

Do you believe, Hobie, that whatever the barrels held before, even though they're pressure wash and stuff, still gives some notes to the wines of other years? I don't think that a barrel can resist it, giving whatever goodness was in it before a tiny bit of it to the wine.

But I think that the steam and the pressure, you know, gets a lot of that out of its pores. But I like to think about a barrel structure. If you look at the microstructure of the wood, like kind of a sheet of Styrofoam, but a much harder one.

So it's always going to have a little bit of whatever goodness was in it before.

But the whole way that I think about oak treatment, and you totally embody this, and it's one of the many, many reasons I love your guys wine so much is oak's like a spice. And you're not being overly crazy with the spice. It's like using too much pepper, you know, it's like.

And you can't take it out. Just like pepper. Once it's in, it's in. Right.

So, yeah, I went to the barber and I said, hey, can you make my hair longer? And he said, no, sorry. Oh, it's just like oak.

So you haven't tasted this yet?

I know. I've just been sniffing and marveling. I can't wait to taste this. That's really nice.

You know what's interesting is it reminds me a lot of a Cote Roti Syrah. And Cote Roti is the cooler part of France, just below Burgundy. It gives it a lot of these cool, almost piney notes. Piney.

And a lot of those baking spices. And again, that green apple really comes through here.

But it's got a really, really nice flavor and palette that it can tell it's a cool climate wine. And I would say the alcohol on this must be be lower than 14.

It is not. But I made sure that the wine is balanced with the acidity, the fruitiness, the body of it, all in balance with the alcohol.

So the alcohol's there, but so well balanced. I don't think you notice it. But I know the lab work, so I'm conscious of it.

I didn't know that Grenache, like Zinfandel, produces high alcohol wines.

Yeah. And it's funny. Cause before we made Grenache, one of our favorites to drink and still is, is Tea Vine.

And they have some great vineyards, like the Frediani vineyard in Calistoga, which is really hot. And that was always like over 15. And I never really thought anything of it.

Yeah.

Looking at what other people were producing and some of the specs on it. Right. The chemistry, the labs, it's pretty typical to be approaching, if not over 15 for Grenache.

Interesting.

I think the location where this is like Michael said, right along the dry creek and just the growing season before that peak at the end, the grapes retained really nice acidity. So ph landed right where we want it to be, which is somewhere around 3.5, 3 6.

And, Nikki, the other thing that I would say about this wine that I think is really cool is. And Grenache does this well for us, but this one, even in particular has that tannin structure that's so supple.

Good word, the way that I would describe the tannins. Thank you, by the way. Thank you for that.

I've never used that word, but it's such a great word for tannin. It's a great word, the way that.

I would describe the tannins.

So, you know when you taste like a big cab or a Petite Syrah or Super Tuscan, and you kind of breathe some air through it, the tannins can feel really drying and astringent.

Yeah.

These are almost like if you took this beautiful velvet sheath and coated your palate with it so it's soft and silky, and that's where the word sepal came from. But just take some on your palate in your mouth and move it around and then wiggle your tongue up on the roof of your mouth and you see what I mean?

Yeah, there is some tannin, but it's definitely a different quality of tannin than even our Sangiovese. Than, of course, especially like a Cabernet Sauvignon or something like that. So, yeah, supple is a nice word.

Thank you. And that's the other thing about the wood being neutral.

You know, a lot of times when you drink something with light tannins, like a Pinot or even a Grenache that's been aged in newer French oak or newer oak in general, it can pick up a lot of that wood tannin. And this doesn't have that. It's just the tannin from the fruit.

Yeah. And that was the goal with the barrels that I chose. So it's just very fruity.

I'm finding that a lot of just everyday wine drinkers and a lot of our listeners are like, Grenache, like, isn't that chocolate? And I'm like, ganache, like, Grenache made me laugh. I had a true conversation that I've had multiple times.

What is chocolate?

I love it. I just don't think people are as familiar with it as they are some of the other grapes. And then they taste it.

And probably just the easiest and most common reaction is, wow, it's really Fruity.

Yeah.

Not jammy.

No, no, no.

Fruity. And the color in the glass, as you've probably noticed, my friend.

Please describe the color.

Well, it's definitely less concentrated color than like our Sangiovese. You can almost, not quite, but almost see through it.

Would you say it's like a Pinot?

It's like an extracted dark Pinot. Like a Russian River Pinot, maybe. Not a Sonoma Coast Pinot.

It's the pinkest of the wines that I make, which is why we chose this to do the special label for breast cancer where our logo solebato that you guys helped us create on this beautiful label is normally sort of a copper color. And on this bottle it is definitely pink.

I love it.

And then the wax that we did on the top instead of that copper color is a matching pink color as well.

And I love the way that you guys put the wax coin in the top of each quartz so you forget about the capsule. You know, it just makes it such an elegant package.

Yeah.

One more question. Just when you look at the glass after sipping from it, how long are the legs of this wine?

Longer than mine. But that's not hard. That's not five, three and a half.

But does it hang on.

Oh, oh, you meant like how long did they take to trickle down the side of the glass?

Well, I love you. I do.

You would think we rehearsed that, but we didn't.

You would think that they would be slow to drop down the glass because I've just told you that the alcohol is like right at the 15% and so that in fact is the case. Which is interesting because even though the color is a little bit lighter.

Sure.

The tears, our legs are very slow to climb down.

Tears of the tears.

They look like tears.

Tears of the wine.

It's so good.

It is so good.

But what I'm really proud of about it, and I'm not going to lie, like we have opened quite a few of these lately. We're just keep drinking it because delicious. It's new and it's also. It was three full barrels, which is, I know, crazy.

Like the most we've ever made of any one wine. 887 six hand numbered bottles. Wow. But it's just juicy and fresh.

Those are the words that I'm using for people who have not tried it yet and who are not familiar with Grenache. It's juicy and fresh and it doesn't.

Require food to be delicious. I mean this is like a really delightful wine just on its own. I'M sure it would pair very well with food.

Oh, I can't wait to go over to that charcuterie board in a minute and like that goat Gouda with this, I am putting a Brie in the oven, and we're gonna top it with some hot pepper jelly.

Goodness. My mouth is watering. Based on these descriptions.

What we love about Grenache, too. It's really good with spicy food, like Mexican food, you know, Michael's hot sauce.

Like that is tricky to then go back to a wine after a lot of those things. It's rough on the wine.

It is.

But this tends to do really well, even with spice and things like that.

It was so funny. I was just having a conversation earlier this week with someone who said, you know, what wines pair well with spicy food?

And it's really hard to find. You know, I'm always recommending whites or roses. It's hard to find a red that really does that in this. It totally would.

It does. The Sangiovese does. But this is even better just because of the character of the fruitiness and the lightness of it.

This does really well with some spice.

The other thing that I think is interesting is that where grapes are grown, and I'll use Grenache for obvious reasons here, the same clone can grow in two different places and taste so different. So it's such a sense of place that comes through here.

You get that cool, dry creek air in the fall and winter and then the nice, warm, dry creek summers. But it's a bit of a shaded vineyard. Whereas if you were to compare this to, you know, a Grenache or Garnacha that grows in the.

In the very hot parts of Spain.

Or even Calistoga, which is a hot part of the Napa Valley, like you just talked about.

Different wine. Yeah, very different, I want to say. And Justin, chime in here, too. Congratulations, you guys. This is really good wine.

I'm so proud of it. I can't stop drinking it.

I love that. Well, and that's when you make something. And I feel this way in the kitchen, too.

You know, it's good when you truly love and appreciate continuously what you've handmade. You know what I mean? Sometimes it's just hard to get out of the kitchen and say, okay, do I want to eat this? You know, it's.

But when you make it and you're proud of it, and I can hear in your voice, you're very proud of this wine.

I'm absolutely smiling as we're sitting here. Yes, I am. And I was really excited for you guys to try it.

Just because you've been along since the inception of this brand and me saying, oh, my gosh, I think we're going to do a Grenache. Ramazani has Grenache as well. That being offered to purchase.

And so you remember those pandemic conversations, deciding on the name and how much fun we had?

Very much so, yeah, that was a good time.

I think about those fondly.

Thank you for weighing in on it. I want to hear what you've been up to. So last Instagram, I saw you were sniffing a freshly cut Christmas tree in Oregon Forest.

So what's been going on in your world?

So Justin and I have been having a lot of fun, you know, for 20 years, since I turned 18, I wanted to do a YouTube or streaming video show all about travel and culture and history around the world, with food and drink at the forefront of every story we tell. Because I think all four of us around this table know that any good story can start and end with food or drink somehow.

Absolutely, yes.

We've done some really exciting shooting and we're going to be posting what I call vignettes of place under the name of Dr. Hobie's adventures coming out very soon. Because it's all about just exploring places.

We've done some stuff in Napa Sonoma, done a little bit on Oahu with the Hawaii Fish Auction and a really amazing fish market. If you're ever in Honolulu, you gotta check out Ali' I Fish Market. It's just stunning.

Saw your video on that, too.

It's amazing food, amazing fish, and Chef Rabobad's doing just great work there.

We also befriended, and this is sort of the start of our new project, we befriended a group of wild food foragers who work with pickers and buyers and basically harvest food from the forest. And it all comes from a labor of love.

These two gentlemen, father and son team, who we know started their journey because they loved picking mushrooms in the forest. And when they found out they could sell them, actually grandpa found out he could sell them. And then dad got excited and son now is super excited.

And we put together Dr. Hobie's wild things, sweet and savory autumn bounty, which.

Is on my kitchen table right now in the cutest little honey bear I've ever seen.

Little honey bear. Wild Huckleberry honey from Montana. Bourbon aged maple syrup.

And before you open it and smell it, just shake the jar a little bit to really excite the aroma. And we can hear it Like a little rattle as you shake. Yep. And now.

Oh, my God.

Now pop the lid and just smell that truffle goodness.

Oh, my gosh. So this is noble black truffle salt.

Yeah. From a family out of northern Italy near the Pied Fremont region. And it's a good amount of salt. It's 120 grams of salt. And you can.

Justin says you can see the pieces of black truffle in there.

Absolutely, yes.

So I think that's gonna be a fun pizza topper for tonight.

What pizza in particular would you top this on? Anything, like, even, like, a margarita?

I think it would be a little overwhelming for a margarita, but something with a little more depth of flavor. A little. A little meat, a little sausage, something like that.

I think it'd be cool.

And then I want you to smell the honey. Do not be embarrassed yourself to just dig your finger in there and taste some honey.

I've watched you do that on your Instagram.

I did.

Huckleberry cream honey.

Yeah. Oh, now the whole room smells like a truffle. It's really funny.

It does. And my dogs are going crazy for it. I'm dipping my finger in this honey, which has a very pale pink color.

And that's from the huckleberry.

Oh, my God. Yum.

Isn't that yummy? And it's the cool thing about it.

Oh, my God. That's so different.

It's different because a large percentage of that is huckleberry. I hand curated these, but if. If we're lucky, do our own brand of some of these yummy, wild things. Oh, gosh.

So this is bourbon barrel age barrel aged maple syrup.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

Is that fun.

What do you do with this?

That?

Justin just gave me a spoon.

Oh, there you go. And I love putting that. I love putting that on the usual suspects. Pancakes, waffles. But imagine drizzling that over a steak right off the grill.

Stop it.

Yeah, it's really fun. We have.

It's so good. But, like, would you ever think to just put maple syrup on a steak?

Not.

No.

Except for this one.

Bourbon Barrels. How it cries out for a steak. Right?

And notice when you taste it, the mapley, but then it's got the caramel and the vanilla coming in from the. From the bourbon barrel.

That's gorgeous. And it almost looks like a vanilla extract bottle. Like a very classic sort of apothecary bottle.

These mushrooms are wild mushrooms straight from the forest so that pickers harvest them and then they dry them right away because you don't want the mushroom to spoil. And it doesn' it smell like toffee? Yes, like a beautiful Christmas toffee.

Oh, it does.

That's chanterelles for you because they're a really delicate, almost fruity mushroom.

Oh, yeah.

I really want you guys to try these on pizza too, because they just have such a fun, delicate flavor. And the thing that I was going to say about rehydrating these, you can rehydrate them in water or stock or Grenache or. Yes, or cream.

Imagine hydrating them in cream. And then people often throw away that liquid. They think it's just garbage.

That liquid has so much flavor because it solvates right out of the mushroom.

That sounds amazing. What are we going to do with these tonight? Are these going on a pizza?

They can go on any darn pizza you want.

Okay, so there is a box that has all of these things in it. The huckleberry honey, the black truffle sal, the chanterelles and the bourbon maple syrup.

You got it. And a little card that I love that has a QR code on it where I give you an audio tour of the box and also describe the amazing relationships.

And I want to talk to you about this just for a minute. How many interesting people have you met because of this podcast?

Oh, it's ridiculous. This is our two year, two year anniversary this month.

Congratulations.

100 episodes. So other than the ones that are just me and Michael, the people are really interested.

But then you meet listeners too. And these guys, these Joes, they're both names are Joe who we met. Who are wild food foragers. We met because of Instagram.

And I never would have known they existed had we not just started sticking our neck out there and posting it.

You are Instagram famous as when I traveled with you in August and we got stopped no less than seven times in our Disneyland trip, which people need to go back and listen to the dose of joy at Disneyland.

I love that episode. That was so much fun.

Tell people where they can get them, how much? All the good stuff.

Hobie.com is the website that's H O B Y.com and it's $79 including shipping nationwide. But use the code Wild things with an S10 all lowercase and you get 10% off any orders.

That's amazing.

Thank you for putting together this beautifully curated box of really unique things that we are going to jump into all of them today and pair them with Grenache and Sanchez and all the things we're gonna have.

And thank you so much for preparing this beautiful wine. I'm sort of in love with this Grenache.

It's poetic and it reminds me of sitting in a fall redwood forest where the air is cool and you just want something fresh and amazing. So it's like a little happy poem.

Is there enough space on my label for me to put that on there? Because I struggle to write these back labels for months and months. And you just nailed it on the spot. Thank you.

That's beautiful interpretation. Here's the haiku I just put together about this wine.

Okay.

Fresh and pure. Is it silky, supple, smooth, Delightful. It makes us all happy.

I don't even know what to say. Like, you're gonna make me cry. We know this happens. That joy falls out of my face. But I'm very touched. That's beautiful.

Well, thank you for weighing in on it. And delicious wine interpreting in such a unique and beautiful way. Maybe we'll put the haiku in the show notes.

That'd be adorable.

Thank you. Cheers, friend. I appreciate you. Congrats on all your fun new ventures.

And all your stuff.

Instagram and YouTube channel.

See where it all goes.

I will make sure that people know where to find you. Follow, subscribe, and get all this good stuff.

Stuff. And we have a relationship because. Thank you.

We have a relationship with aloft hot air balloons because we did a flight with them for this YouTube show. And I have a dream of doing a podcast episode with you from a hot air balloon over Nathal Valley.

Done in. All right, Tell me when the burners.

Are loud, but we can do it.

Okay.

Yep, we'll do it.

They're not louder than my dog, so. Cheers, Fred. Love you.

Cheers, Nikki. Love you too. They're so fun.

I mean, the man came up with a haiku on the spot. I don't know, maybe he was thinking of it ahead of time, but I don't think so.

I think that was very spontaneous and it was not only impressive that he created that, but it was really beautiful. And I am going to put that in the show notes.

I'll also put the link for Hobie's website, which is simply Hobie H O-B-Y.com where you can see his TEDx talk. And you can look at the sweet and savory autumn bounty box that he has curated with all of those four beautiful elements that we tasted together.

And don't forget to use his special discount code, wildthings10. That's wild things with an S and the number 10 for 10% off your purchase. I am not kidding about this. You want to follow this man on Instagram?

You could be one of almost half a million followers that do. His Instagram is Hobie Wedler H o B y W e D L e r and you will love his videos as much as everyone else.

While you're over at Instagram, please give me a follow ickylamberdi N I k K I l a m B e r T I I don't have half a million followers, but I do share some really fun stuff and you'll know when the next episode is out.

If you're interested in getting your hands on the smooth and supple Grenache not Ganache that Michael and I have created with proceeds from each bottle going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research, you can do that at our website solavatowines.com the link will be in the show notes as well, but it's S o l L E V a T o Solevato is Italian for joyful and uplifted, which is how we feel whenever we get to spend quality times with our friends Hobie and Justin. We can ship our Grenache to most states in the US and make sure you use the discount code pod listener for 10% off your purchase.

As we are approaching our 100th episode of SIP with Nikki, I just want to take a moment to let you know how grateful I am.

Whether this was your first time listening or you've been there since day one or anything in between, I couldn't do this without all of the wonderful feedback, ideas and excitement from all of you as listeners.