Join Forrest Kelly and his guest co-host Doug Vincent as they dive into the fascinating world of winemaking with Jennie Murphy, the owner and winemaker of Oxlee Graham Wines. Jennie shares her unique journey from aspiring forensic scientist to passionate winemaker, highlighting how her chemistry background plays a crucial role in her craft. Throughout the conversation, they explore the delicate balance between science and art in winemaking, discussing the importance of understanding chemistry to create distinctive wines while maintaining a natural approach. Jennie emphasizes the challenges faced by larger wineries that strive for consistency in their products, contrasting it with her more intuitive methods. Tune in for an engaging discussion filled with insights, humor, and a touch of adventure in the world of wine.

Your Host: Forrest Kelly is an experienced Radio/TV broadcaster who has interviewed some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities, from Garth Brooks to Kevin Costner. A lover of wine who is fascinated by the science behind it.

Voted One of The Best Travel, Top 5 Minute, and Top Wine Podcasts.

Takeaways:

• The winemaking process offers numerous opportunities for chemists to influence the final product.
• Natural winemaking techniques prioritize minimal intervention, focusing on the health of the ingredients.
• The importance of chemistry in winemaking varies between small artisanal and large commercial producers.
• Forrest emphasizes the significance of knowing the numbers to make informed winemaking decisions.
• The podcast illustrates how passion for the outdoors can lead to a fulfilling career.

Links referenced in this episode:

• walkandrollive.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Oxlee Graham Wines
• Korbel Champagne
• Paul Hobbs wines

Welcome. Welcome to The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast with Forrest Kelly.

Welcome to another episode of The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast. I'm Forrest Kelly, and we have a guest co host today.

It is so good to be back. Would you like to guess who the co host is today?

Hey, Doug, hurry or we'll miss the show. Oh, we know that. It's Doug is in the title.

Yes. Your buddy Doug, who knows nothing about wine but loves to talk about it.

And you are the host of your main. That's the whole objective as a guest hosting on today, is to get a little exposure for your podcast. Tell me about it.

Yes. Forrest is so gracious to come on my podcast, and I love to return the favor. Mine is walk and roll live disability. Stories, walkandrollive.com, if you want to check it out. And who are we interviewing? Who are we going to give a rough time to tag teaming today?

Well, we're gonna talk with a young woman who is at Oxley Graham, and her name is Jenny.

I'm Jennie Murphy. I'm the owner and winemaker of Oxley Graham Wines.

Okay, let's get to your background. I see you said after graduating from UC Davis with a degree in chemistry, that kind of puts you in line with what you're doing now.

Tell me about that story.

Yeah. So I graduated with my degree in chemistry and wanted to do forensics, but graduated at the exact wrong time in the economy, and counties weren't hiring.

I went to UC Davis, so I went to the career fair, and there were so many wineries that were looking for chemists and looking for people to work in the wine labs during harvest. So I thought, hey, that's a great kind of plan B. Let me try that and see if I like it while I kind of wait for the economy to bounce back.

Then I took an internship at Corbel Champaign in the russian river valley and just fell in love. I loved it, kind of the art of it. I loved working with my hands. I liked how small the industry was.

And so thought when that internship was over, after seven months, I'm going to try that again.

And so I started looking for jobs and wanted to find a big lab with big toys and kind of all the big chemistry nerdy stuff that I love, but ended up at a very small winery that didn't have much of a lab at the time, Paul Hobbs wines in the russian river valley as well. Paul loved the fact that I was a chemist.

He wanted someone to come in and revamp the QC procedures and all of the instruments and I got to kind of build my own little lab there. And so that ended up being a great next step for me as a chemist.

I love that story because that's just so relatable, I think to everybody, whether they're a y Nef Asianado or not, but those paths that lives take a. That are kind of unsuspected to where you arrive. So that is awesome.

But I'm curious, in that process of making wine and with your chemistry background, how many opportunities are there in the process of making wine, from grape to bottle, are there for you to intervene to change the outcome of what the wine's eventually going to be?

So I think it depends on what type of winemaking you're talking about.

I think for a chemist in general, there's a lot of opportunity when you're kind of looking at the chemistry of the wine, knowing the numbers is really important. So when you bring the fruit in, you want to look at the chemistry, see what you need to add.

I personally am a winemaker that's always made wine without inoculating. So I don't add any yeast, I don't add any bacteria.

So I need to just feed the natural yeast and bacterias that are coming in with good nutrients for the yeast. I got to keep the bacteria at bay until I'm ready to go through that secondary fermentation. So I need to add a little sulfur.

But I like to be very natural with my winemaking. But there are bigger houses that, you know, those numbers mean everything.

When I was at Corvel, something I found really fascinating is that they're trying to make the same exact wine every year. And, you know, wine is not the same. Vintages vary a lot.

And so for them, they need to know the exact numbers, what color that wine is, all of those kind of trigger points so that they can make decisions to kind of create this wine that is the same. And that's really hard wine making. That's challenging.

And so a lot of the bigger houses, wines that, you know, people love at the grocery store, those are hard wines to make because you're making a really distinctive product. And so science becomes really important in that type of winemaking. What I do, I love to know the numbers.

I want to know every number so I can make an educated decision. But really, I'm working with a little bit of acid and some sulfur, and that's pretty much all I'm adding.

But I need to know that it's healthy and that I don't need to add more sulfur. I like to keep my numbers really low.

So the numbers are important, but they're more of a benchmark for me, where for other winemaking styles, it can be hugely important how you drive the winemaking. Do you miss forensics?

I don't. I like the outdoors, and I like seeing the sky. And I think with forensics, I might have been a little bit more stuck in a lab.

That's when you know you've made the right decision. When you go to college to be, you know, like you said, forensics, to go into forensics, and you deviate from that, and now you are where you are.

You don't look back with regret.

Exactly. I tell my mom sometimes I say, you know, I really wanted to do something that helped people. And she said, honey, you are helping people.

People need wine. So I find solace in that, definitely. I think I made the right decision. I love the different things I can do every day.

You know, my day is never the same, so that's kind of fun.

We look for adventure at wineries around the globe.

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