I recently learned about the powerhouse husband and wife duo Brian Ball and Laura Jones and their new Chardonnay focused winery, Sphaerics.

I'm always interested to learn about other small family operated wineries, especially when we are neighbors here in Sonoma County AND they are also created by people who are both partners in Life AND Business, like Michael and I.

Listen as I sit down with Brian and Laura and over spectacular vineyard views of the Alexander Valley, they share how 15 years of working in the wine business, him as a GM and her as a celebrated winemaker, led to the creation of their own brand highlighting coveted vineyard sites... and a new and exciting vineyard that will be part of their portfolio soon!

Highlights:

• Brian shares what led him from Wall Street to Wine Country and Why..
• Laura shares her story of making wines around the world and why she is so passionate about Chardonnay
• We talk about the perceptions and misconceptions about Chardonnay and why it's so exciting to work with
• They share about the "Energy" in their wines and what that means to you, the wine drinker
• How to acquire these tiny production masterpieces in the future

Episode Links:

Sign up for their mailing list at Sphaerics Wine

Follow Sphaerics on Instagram

Read the San Francisco Chronicle article (by Esther Mobley) that put them on my radar

Read this awesome highlight of Sphaerics and Laura's winemaking in Wine Spectator

Other Links and resources:

Purchase my Sollevato Sangiovese 2022and Sollevato "Fortunato" Red Blend

(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!

Enjoy some of MY FAVORITE THINGS from our Sponsors:

You NEED some delicious California Olive Oil from our awesome sponsor American Olive Farmer. Use code SipWithNikki for $10 off your order!

Check out Sena Sea's website  to get your hands on some beautiful wild-caught Alaskan fish shipped right to your door! Use code sipandsea for 10% off your order and sign up for their email list (great recipes!) and be entered to win a monthly $50 gift card drawing.

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

Since the day we've been together, people have been asking us, brian, you're a gm, Laura's a winemaker. That's a pretty great team right there. Like, when are you gonna start your own winery?

Cause it's so super simple and super cheap and really easy to do, right?

Yeah.

We always knew this was something that we wanted to do. And our answer was that we'll start a winery if and only if we can do it the right way and make something really special from day one.

Hello there. Welcome to this week's Sip with Nikki.

I'm Nikki Lamberti here in Sonoma County, California, and I'm so excited for you to hear the interview that I've got lined up for you this week.

So I recently read an article from one of our local papers here, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the title of the article was A California winery will change your mind about Chardonnay. Great title. Caught my interest.

And I got to visit with them, sit down, hear their story, and taste some of these beautiful Chardonnays that have been getting so much press from every type of publication, website, Wine Spectator, you name it. So you'll hear about Brian's background in the finance world and Wall street and what led him to wine country.

And also what inspired Laura to take her biology degree into winemaking. And the.

The story of how they met, what it's like to work together currently as a GM and a winemaker for Skipstone Wines, but even more excitingly, the concept behind their new and exciting brand, Spherex. What the name means and why they picked it, and some really interesting things that they are doing with Chardonnay and soon to be Pinot Noir.

We, of course, dig into the topic of the perception of Chardonnays and why people tend to have such polarizing opinions of it, love it or hate it. And we talk about why that is and where both of their passions came from to highlight what we know as the winemaker's grape.

We laugh about their differences in their skill sets and how that serves them as small business owners. And they share a very recent update about a huge milestone accomplishment for their budding brand.

So here we go with Brian and Laura from Spherex Wines.

Not only am I honored to be here with both of you to hear your story and share your story with our listeners, but it is both of your first podcast appearances.

Yeah, that's right.

And how are you feeling right now about this?

Oh, we're excited to be here.

Definitely.

Awesome.

So as I shared in the introduction with our listeners, I was, I think, scrolling Instagram and up came a story by Esther Mobley and the San Francisco Chronicle, and the title of it was, a new California winery will change your mind about Chardonnay. And of course, that stopped my scroll, and I read about the two of you, and I was like, I need to meet this people people.

I need to learn more and hear from them. And Brian sent you an email. Thank you so much for responding and not putting me in your spam folder.

Yeah, of course. We were excited when you reached out. We were very thrilled when Esther reached out to us.

This was in the springtime, and she had heard about us and been reading about us and said, I'm interested in what you guys are doing here. I think the focus on being a Chardonnay winery and something new and husband and wife team. We own the winery, we run the winery.

We're vets of the wine industry for 15 years now for each of us, and we're just really happy.

That's piqued people's interest, whether Esther's or yours or anybody else who's been following us, and hopefully some of you all who are listening today.

I would definitely say peaked is a good word.

And you talked about being veterans in the industry, so I'd love to start there because you have both been working here at Skipstone, where we're recording today. Brian, you're on the business side as the gm, and Laurie, you're the winemaker here. So how did you guys get here?

I grew up in Wyoming, and then I went to Southern California for college. I went to Pepperdine and studied biology.

I was looking for grad school programs after school, and as soon as I realized that you could go to grad school for winemaking, I thought, that sounds perfect. I'm going to do that. So I moved up to Napa. I did a harvest internship and.

And what was your harvest internship?

I worked at Bukella with Rebecca Weinberg, was the winemaker at the time, and she's the winemaker at Quintessa now. And then I went to New Zealand and worked at Spy Valley, and then we started at Davis, which is where we met.

My route to the industry was somewhat similar. Came from outside of the wine world. I grew up in Virginia.

Okay. East coaster in the house.

Exactly. East Coast.

My CEO.

As I always say, it. It. It drove me to drink, and I said, you know what? Let's become a professional at this.

Wow.

So I had gotten really into wine in college.

I worked in some nice restaurants, and my mentor literally turned to me one day at J.P. morgan and was like, I think you should just get out of here and go do something else.

How old were you at that time?

I was 24 years old. So a year and a half in finance was apparently enough for me. And I had just gotten so into wine and said, let's pursue the dream.

There's no better time than right now. When you're 24, it's easy to change your life at that moment. So I had found out about the UC Davis program as well.

And I was like, that seems to be a great way for people to learn winemaking. And I was visiting my parents, told them, you know what? I think I'm going to leave finance to go become a vintner somehow.

And how was that received?

Yeah, fortunately, I have amazing parents, and they were very supportive and said, you know what?

Right. Turns out that he's a winemaker in Napa Valley. Let's send him a message. And how he became a winemaker. And that's when he said, you know what?

Most of us hire a bunch of interns to come out and work for two to six months. Get your hands dirty, learn from the ground up. And I said, that's what I'm gonna go do.

So had you visited wine country ever?

Worked harvest for a couple years around the world and thought that I wanted to become a winemaker. Obviously, that's not what happened for me.

But you married one.

Exactly. I always. One of the fun things that should have made me realize quickly that I wasn't destined to be a winemaker.

And I was doing the harvest intern work, and I'm forklifting barrels around first week of harvest, and of course, I drop one of those barrels and it rolls slowly across the crush pad. Empty barrel. Empty barrel, fortunately. And it rolls down and down the driveway and crashes right into the winemaker's brand new car.

Stop it.

And I said, stop it. I was like, man, maybe I'm not gonna be an amazing winemaker, so I better marry one instead. So that's fortunately what happened here.

But Laura, you were studying winemaking and Brian, were you going for, like, the business side?

I was actually in the vitininology program as well.

Okay.

Yeah. I wasn't quite quick enough on the catch up that maybe winemaking wasn't in the cards for me. So I stuck it out there for another two years.

The chemistry.

Yes, you did all of it.

Okay.

But, yeah, after Davis, I pivoted and got more into the business and sales side of the industry. So I used to run a wine collective masonry in Yountville. So it has.

I loved masonry.

20 wineries under one roof. All these boutique, amazing, like, great producers from Napa and Sonoma County. And I was there for five years, and Skipstone was one of the vendors.

And I loved the Skipstone wines tremendously while I was there. And my predecessor at Skipstone, Emily Wines, told me, hey, I'm moving on.

And I jumped at the opportunity just over eight years ago to meet with our owners here at Skipstone. And fortunately, they said thought the same thing as me, that we'd be a good fit for each other.

And here we are eight and a half years later, still working here as the gm. And Laura obviously stayed on the winemaking track and just had some amazing winemaking experiences around the world.

Did he interview you?

No. The owner of Skip Stone hired me. It was his idea.

Exactly. Fari and I knew we were going to hire a winemaker when we were finishing building our winery at the estate.

Skipstone's been making wine now 20 years, but we're a small boutique winery here. In Alexander Valley that focuses on Bordeaux varieties. So red wines are our focus.

And we had been making our wine, like most small wineries, off site at another winery's facility.

When we were coming close to building our winery here, to bring that on site, Forry and I knew we wanted to hire a winemaker who would be here on the property running everything from a vine going in the ground to that bottle of wine going out to your doorstep. Philippe Melka had been our longtime consultant. We wanted someone here to run the show.

So fari said, Brian, I want someone who's at the very top of their game in winemaking. 100 point winemaker, ideally, this is someone that we know already, we can trust. And you happen to be married to the person that I have in mind.

Will you let me talk to Laura? We talked it over and said, yeah, that sounds great. When they hashed it out. And that was three and a half years ago.

And that's when we started working together. And later that year is when we ended up founding Spherex together.

And that's now the genesis of us coming to work together as a couple here at Skipstone and us founding Spherex.

Launching your own business, which takes working with your spouse or partner to a whole nother level when you're starting a business with them. Speaking from experience, before we go there, Laura, where were you most recently before Skipstone?

That's when I decided I must marry this woman. Working at, you know, a $5,000 a bottle burgundy producer needed to lock that down.

So I worked in Burgundy. And then I came back to Napa. We got engaged in Burgundy when I was working there.

Guys, that's very romantic.

It's in Calistoga, right?

Yes, in Calistoga. Famous for Chardonnay's in Pinot Noir. So I was there for five years. And that during that time, was when Brian started working here at Skipstone.

So you were already both in Burgundy and here in Napa Valley making Chardonnay. And that was a focus for you. And then here at Skipstone, Chardonnay is not part of the portfolio.

No.

Tell me how the bubbling started of we need to start our own label, our own business together, and we are going to focus on Chardonnay. Where did that come from?

Yeah, I love Chardonnay. We've always both loved Chardonnay. It was an early inspiration in my wine career.

Was there an aha, Chardonnay, like one that you drank that?

Yeah, there were a couple. So when we were. When we were in grad school, we had.

There was a student tasting group where students would pool their money and buy a few nice bottles. And there was one that we did where we tasted some high end California Chardonnays. And I had never tasted them before.

Next to each other, there was a Marcassin and a Kistler and a Conscaard in there. And I just remember being just blown away by these wines.

And then when I worked in Burgundy, Rousseau only does Pinot Noir where I worked, but they set me up with some visits to other domains and they set me up at Rouleau in Meursault, one of the top Meursault producers. And I did a barrel tasting with Jean Marc Rouleau. And that was such an incredible experience for me.

Wow.

We were tasting everything from their regional wines to their Volage to their premier cruise. And just every wine was just more exciting than the last one. And it was just a really incredible experience for me.

I remember, I think I called Brian after it and told him about it. And then, yes, when I got the chance to work at Auber, that was my dream job, to be able to work and learn from the best there.

So, yeah, when we decided to start our own winery, we just always knew it was gonna be chardonnay.

Yeah. For 10 plus years, since the day we've been together. And we're clearly seen as a couple that was gonna be together for a long time.

People have been asking us, brian, you're a gm, Laura's a winemaker. That's a pretty great team right there. Like, when are you gonna start your own winery? Is that something you wanna do?

Cause it's so super simple and super cheap and really easy to do. Right?

Yeah. So, you know, we always knew this was something that we want.

And our answer was that we'll start a winery if and only if we can do it the right way and make something really special from day one. So we were very patient in that.

And this vineyard was planted in the early 80s and was discovered by Helen Turley. And it was that Peter Michaels chardonnay from the 80s through a lot of.

I know, like, this is an absolutely, like, legendary site. This passed from one amazing winemaker to the next. And Marcuson made a single vineyard, Upper Barn Chardonnay as well.

Is it through relationships.

Absolutely.

Became available to you? That's how it all happens, right?

Exactly. It is. This is such an amazing community out here in Sonoma and Napa counties.

Your neighbor Vintner is also one of your friends and partners and cheerleaders. And he's like, brian, I know Laura has been making the wines at Auber for the last five years. Those wines are so amazing.

I said, between us, she's about to leave. And we're hoping if and only if we get something really great, that we're going to start our own winery focused on Chardonnay.

You're talking to the guy who has some of the best stuff out there and love those. Would love to get back to what my father, Jess Jackson, always was committed to in the 90s and 80s.

It was sharing some of our, like, finest vineyards with new, highly talented winemakers in their respective genres. And I'd love to work with Laura. She's the rock star. I'm not the rock star.

He's a good hype man.

Yeah, he's the what? A hype man.

He's a good hype man.

Yeah. That's why you're a great combination.

Yeah.

But, yeah, generally the winemaker is the rock star. Sorry.

Yeah, exactly. I just answer the phone.

Especially when it's a female. Even more rock star status.

Exactly. So I said the best decision I made was to marry well. But no, it really was her pedigree for making some of the most collectible Chardonnay out there.

And then being delicious wines is what ultimately unlocked our ability to get into this amazing site. And to those that have followed from here, with successive vintages, as we've Added more and more.

We put our money where our mouth was by saying, if and only if we get something amazing, are we going to start a winery. We had something amazing.

We manifested it.

And we call that wine the if and only if Chardonnay, which I have.

In my notes here because I want to ask you about the great names of if and only if, especially for your inaugural Chardonn.

Yeah. So it was a call out to our answer to when are we going to start our winery?

But also, everything to do with the names of our wines is a callback to the name of our winery, Spherex. So Spherex is the title of this ancient Greek foundational text on spherical geometry. I was a math major, so that kind of resonated with that.

Wow, we just went deep into Nerdville.

Okay. But also my last name is Ball. So, like a sphere. Okay. So it's a little bit of a play on ball too. But yeah, each of our wine names is related to that.

So, like in math or logic, if and only if statement is the closest relationship between two different things. So we found that also fitting for the wine name, we poured in the glass another of our wines called the Overline.

Overline. Yeah.

So this wine comes from Carneros. So this is our only wine that's from over the county line into Napa Valley. Thus the name.

That's the name. Got it.

But also, in ancient Greek, every letter was also a number, and you delineated that letter turned into a number by overlining that character. So again, that little fun play here. But Laura can talk about the Overline Chardonnay, maybe. And again, a little sip together as well.

Do you mean a sip Spotlight.

That's right.

Sip Spotlight. Okay. Yeah, let's do it.

This has been so hard for me for the few minutes that we've already been talking to see this sitting here in the glass and not sip it yet. So I'm very excited. First of all, cheers to you guys. Cheers. Thank you so much.

I guess I Can take you through my winemaking while we.

I'll nerd out with you. Let's do it. Yes, absolutely.

So I'm inspired by the wines of Burgundy, so I use very Burgundian techniques. So this is whole cluster pressed. It's barrel fermented. I do really long, cool fermentations.

So my fermentations last through the spring into the early summer, so about nine months.

Similar to what Mark McWilliams was talking about. Arista. Long, cool fermentations for Chardonnage.

Exactly. Yeah.

They do the same thing over there.

So I finish everything in stainless, and then I bottle it unfined and unfiltered.

Yeah, we're definitely going for this amazing mix between the kind of old world, new world style for Chardonnay. And I think that's what Esther's article is getting at. Right?

It was the winery will change your mind about Chardonnay. I was like, why do we need to change people's minds? What's going on there?

Yeah. So I think one thing that we really have in abundance here in California, right, is this warm, sunny weather or the Sunshine State.

So when you have that, you're going to have this naturally luxurious profile. You're going to have these nice, full flavors in your grapes and the wine that you make from it.

But with Chardonnay, sometimes at the expense of that richness, you might lose that energy. We want wines that are full flavored but are packed with tension and precision and energy in the wines.

So you want that to cut through and give you that amazing pop in the mouthfeel and in the wine that helps carry that through. So it's refreshing and extremely hedonistically satisfying at the same time.

Is he also the director of marketing? I mean, the words I had written down right on your website, it says wines that emanate energy and substance. And I underlined energy.

And I love that you just said it because again, I think like us, when we're in the wine world, we're used to words like energy and tension and things. A wine drinker who's sitting at home is like, they're talking about energy with wine.

So can you talk specifically about what you mean by that when it comes to wine?

Yeah, when I think of energy, it's. It should feel that almost electrifying. Moment in your mouth, you taste the wine, it gives you that acidity, which is that pop.

That's what makes your mouth water.

I call it the exclamation point at the end of the sip, the punctuation.

I love that. You should be excited when you taste the wine. You should be feel that on the palate.

And for me, that's always been like the signature in all of Laura's Chardonnays that she's made in her career is they have that voluptuous texture, but without sacrificing that energy in the wine, that vibrancy that makes you want to just keep going back and drinking more of it. So it's satisfying if you're drinking it with a hearty meal so that it'll stack up against some richer food, or if you.

If you're at a day like today where it's a beautiful sunny day, looking out at the vineyard and want to drink something just really refreshing, like, it fits both of those boxes. And that's something that Laura has always done just so amazingly well with her wines.

Beautifully said from a winemaking standpoint. Is the way that you capture and retain that energy related to acidity?

Yeah, it's partly acidity. I do look for a balance there with the acid and then the body and the texture that Brian was talking about.

I also think the long fermentations that I do just maintain some tension in the wine because it's active for so long, like, it's always producing carbon dioxide. It's not oxidizing or getting tired. And I think that keeps a lot of that tension and energy into wine.

So you're running a marathon.

Yeah, exactly.

Fermentation.

And then I keep it in the barrel. So it's in barrels for about 11 months, and then it's in stainless for another five months. And I think moving it into stainless.

Adds a little more change of scenery for the wine. The oxygen exposure, all of that, a.

Little more reductive environment in the stainless to finish it off.

I love that you use the word voluptuous, but I think for a listener, when we say voluptuous, they might think it's rich and creamy and buttery. Those words that Esther probably why she said we need to change how people think of Chardonnay.

Not that there's anything wrong with that style, but this is. Not that it is voluptuous, but it's not flabby, which is the word that we use, speaking about Chardonnay.

So, yeah, tell me, what style were you setting out to make? I know, you said it's sort of a combination of California and Burgundy. It's old world coming together, right?

Yeah. It's Burgundy inspired, but it's California Chardonnay.

We're in California.

We're in California. It should taste like that.

What's great about California is it's warm and sunny here, so the grapes ripen really easily, and we get all those great stone fruit flavors in the wine along with the citrus.

Chardonnay is just like the ultimate winemaker's medium, too. Right. You can make really great examples that are super zippy, much higher acidity, crisper.

You can make really great examples that are really big, really voluptuous, highly textured, riper wines. If that's your jam on either side and then everything in between.

Yep.

And we find ourselves. The wines that we love the most are ones that have elements from both of those camps.

And I think that's what Esther was saying, was like, you don't have to be all the way in one side of the spectrum to be a standout, if you will. We want to be best in class, in the kind of profile of wines that we're trying to make.

What it is that inspires us and makes us want to make those wines.

Yeah.

Hopefully, people, when they taste our wines, agree with that.

I do right now.

And what I also love, if we go back to the word energy, that last sip I finished probably at least 20, 30 seconds ago while you were talking, there is still energy on my palette. So there's a long finish. It's percolating. As Karen McNeil would always say. There's choreography happening on the palette. So I love that.

That it's not just like, mm, gum and scene. It's still going, and it's changing, and it is enticing me to. Ooh, I need to take another sip. Yes. Because it's dancing on my palette.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah.

I wanna go back to something you just said, Brian, because one of the things that, as a wine educator, that I' taught people about Chardonnay, as I've said, the nickname for the Chardonnay grape is the winemaker's grape. And I don't know where this came from. Somewhere along my education, I learned this.

Cause I talk about how it's a nice canvas to start with, but you can really change it. It's really malleable. You can really style it based on where it's grown, fermentation, oak versus stainless, whatever it may be.

And that's why there is such a big spectrum of Chardonnay that you were talking about, where you're landing in the middle as far as spectrum of style. Do you agree with that, as a Chardonnay winemaker, that it is your grape, the winemaker's grape?

Absolutely. What I love about Chardonnay is, like you said, it's a great canvas.

The grape in general is a neutral variety, so it really takes on the characteristics of where it's grown and what clone. It is a fun thing for us to do when we're tasting our wines with people.

The three sites that we source from are all very different, but the winemaking is all the same. So it's a really fun exercise to go through all of them and just really see the sight come through.

So the overline that we were tasting is a really cool site. It has that acidity, intention, and minerality that we were talking about.

And then we make another wine called On Days and Nights, which is from the Russian River Valley. It's from a much warmer site, and you really get a little more texture and richness on the palate.

He's coming over to pour something else for me. I was savoring the overlight. Yeah. Thank you.

It's a really special site that's very different from any of the other Chardonnay that I've worked with. When you taste our three wines together, you can just really see the differences in the sight shining through.

I think for my listeners, too, they've heard me talk about clones and explain what different clones are and why it's important.

But would you say that especially when we're talking about especially Pinot Noir, because there's so many but Chardonnay, that the clone really makes a difference as far as the expression in the glass. Not that clones of Cab are not different from each other, but would you say it's more evident and more apparent in Chardonnay?

Yes, I think so. In Chardonnay and Pinot Noir?

Yeah.

A lot of what we work with is different went y clones, so we have a pride. Great. Yeah, it's a great one. Some of the heritage clones are what we tend to work with. And so what Brian just poured you.

Is a barrel sample out of a shiner not labeled. So a barrel sample thank you.

This morning, it's a barrel sample of the 20, 24, if and only if, upper barn Chardonnay.

Okay.

So this will be racked up to tank next week, and then I'll hold it there for five months and then bottle it in January.

How'd you decide on five months? Why not four or six?

So I leave it in barrel for 11 months, and that's for a couple of reasons. I do think if you leave it in there much longer than that, the wine can start to oxidize, start to get a little tired for the style making.

There's other people that leave it in longer, and it definitely works for them. And then also a little bit is for logistics because I need the barrels empty.

The real part of winemaking logistics.

Incoming harvest. Yeah. So I have the next vintage of grapes coming in. Those are my used barrels that I use.

And then it's really fascinating to taste the wine when it's in tank. It's a great time to visit us.

When I have wine from August through early January, when the wine's in the tank, it goes through so many changes during that time. It tightens up a little bit and it closes down and then it opens back up.

So I've found that between four and five months is a good time to leave it in there before bottling.

And where are these tanks? If you're saying, like, people could visit with you and maybe taste out of these tanks, where are they?

We make our wines in Healdsburg. And like most small wineries, where we actually rent space at another facility, God.

Bless the custom Crush business model for the little guys like us.

Exactly. It's what makes us be able to do what we do.

Yeah.

But we have an amazing partner that lets us make our wines there and also allows us to host people. So if you're ever looking to come out, just reach out to us at Spherex. You can go to our website, spherixwine.com and you'll be able to email us.

We'd love to host you, give you behind the scenes in the cellar. Like Laura said, summer and fall is amazing because we'll be able to do what we're doing today.

Taste a wine directly at a barrel and give a preview of what's coming up. So it's a really fun behind the scenes to see what it is that we do and what Laura is doing to make the Weeds wines so special.

I think that could be a really unique opportunity for people who are listening, who do like to come out here. There's so Many beautiful places to go and be in a beautiful tasting room with a hospitality person.

But to stand in front of the barrel or the tank with you guys and taste these wines as they're in progress, what an amazing experience for people.

Yeah, it's a fun one. So it's just Laura and I that work and own and run Spherex together.

So you're gonna be talking with the person who's either making it or is married to the person who's making it.

Drinking a lot of it, Selling it.

Yeah.

Delivering it. That's so cool. Thank you for extending that opportunity.

Absolutely.

So completely different than Carnero.

Yes.

Would you almost say there are. You can't get that much more different within the same county than Carneros and Alexander Valley?

Yes. Probably with elevation and the age of the vines.

Just the heat, isn't it? It's much warmer up here.

It's warmer here. But when you go up the mountain, it's pretty interesting. Cause it doesn't get as hot during the day, but it also doesn't get as cool at night.

So the diurnal shift.

Less of the diurnal shift. Yeah.

So the ripening's different up there, but, yeah, like you said, it's completely different from the Karn that we just tasted.

We'll have to cheers again because we said new wine, new cheers. And we're gonna include Katie, who's sound engineering today. Thank you, ma'. Am.

Cheers.

Cheers, Katie.

And we're all gonna taste it.

So this is the second time that Brian has tasted this wine.

Really?

Cause I don't let him taste it while it's fermenting because he'll die the first. No, don't die.

If your days were inventing, as I've.

Said, my fermentations are very long. And, you know, when wine's fermenting, it's. It tastes funky.

Funky.

And as this was a major investment for us like that we were starting this together, and we were so honored to get our hands on this upper bar and Chardonnay that we were working with, no pressure. And I had a sample. I was just so excited.

I think it was just Finishing primary and just starting Mallow, which is probably the weirdest time to taste it. But I wasn't even thinking about that. And I poured Brian a taste and he tasted it and looked at me and said, laura, what did you do?

He said, it tastes like kombucha. And then I just stopped. I was like, you know, but had.

You ever tasted wine at that stage before?

You know, it had been a very long time. Like, I've already established my winemaking bonafides were destroyed when I took the barrel off the forklift.

Yeah, I'm not welcome for many reasons, apparently, in the cellar anymore.

I feel like once a year he gets a late night phone call where I'm asking him to come to the winery to help me.

That's when I know it's really dying.

Because you're losing your shit in that moment.

So, yeah, he helps in the cellar sometimes.

Yeah, I'm definitely like the B team in the cellar at Spherix.

Do you feel like in a moment like that where something's going down and, you know you're having a stressful moment and then you call in the B team.

Is that where maybe not only the working relationship, but the relationship of being a couple, being husband and wife, like, you can balance her out in that moment. You can lean on him in that moment. Does that play in.

No. But what's. What's nice. We love working together at Skipson, where we're full time employees and running a business together.

But what's so great about it is that we do different things and we're both great at what we do, but it's totally separate.

I was totally trying to romanticize it and she was like, no. And I love that about you, Laura. Keep me honest. We were.

Yeah, I was about to agree with.

You and be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And if Michael was here at the moment, he would be rolling his eyes when I asked that question. So I get it.

Yeah, we balance each other out. Obviously, he's more front of the house.

Yeah. We definitely both have our strengths and both our experience and what we just naturally gravitate towards.

There's no way that I'd be able to make wine this stunning. And that's Laura's amazing contribution to what we do at Spirix.

And what. What's so nice about having him is most winemakers are bad at sales and don't know, you know, where to even begin with selling wine.

So that's so nice for me to have just not have to worry about.

I don't know, why you married him.

I know. Just not having to worry about that or deal with it. There was one time early on where I realized how terrible I was at sales and business.

And I think it was the first dinner party I went to after harvest, emerged from the cellar and put on clothes that weren't wine stained, and we went to a dinner party and there was some high interest wine collectors there, and I started telling them about what we were doing. We got this upper barn Chardonnay and my background and this guy was just so interested and he said, oh my gosh, this sounds amazing.

How do I get some. And I. And Brian overheard the whole conversation and I said, oh, like we don't have a website up. Just check in a year from now. And Brian.

Oh, no, he cut in, he said, excuse us for a minute.

Hello, sir.

No, he like yanked me aside. He said, laura, get his email. And I was like, oh, okay. So then he set up a Google Doc on my phone so we could add emails, capture interest to our.

He started building our mailing list very early on.

Smart. Yeah, you have to.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's how we got started with just those first 200 cases. And we released our first wine a year and a half ago.

And we're just really excited to be sharing what we've worked for 15 years apiece in the industry on and moving forward from here. We have even more coming out next year where we're going to be introducing Pinot Noir into our portfolio, which is very exciting.

So Chardonnay is certainly always going to be our heavy focus here, given the love that we have for it. But of course, what's a great companion to amazing glass of Chardonnay is some amazing Pinot Noir as well.

Very exciting. Do we have a name for the pinots?

Stay tuned. We will be sharing that. That's one other thing that Laura contributes well is she's the one that's come up with every single name.

Oh, good. I struggle with the naming. Naming's hard.

It is so hard. It was the hardest part for us.

It really is.

Everything's taken.

Yes, I know. You sit there and you Google. You're like, no, I know. I've been there.

So. Yeah. But we were really happy when we found Spherex and we said it out loud and we're both like, oh, yeah, that's it. And it was available.

Sounds right. It felt right.

It's hard to really mispronounce. Like, it's mostly phonetic. Unless people say. They could say Spherics or Spherix, but either way, totally acceptable ways to say it. Yeah.

And that's important, too. As we were looking at Stolovato for our label, which is in Italian, I'm like, people can't really butcher that. It just sounds like it looks.

And that's important, right? You don't lose people right away at the name.

Yeah, exactly.

It's important. Okay.

So we got, in a wonderful way, a little bit sidetracked in our storytelling, but I want to come back to this wine because I really want to give it the moment that it deserves as I taste it. I've been smelling it, but I haven't tasted it yet. But even on the nose, completely different.

I mean, we're not apples to apples because we are still in barrel and it's a different vintage. But, yes, the difference in the site, I think, is very apparent. But the winemaking is the same. Fermentation.

Yeah. Winemaking taste. Yes. I don't. Secondary. Yeah. Yeah. All of that's the same. And then.

I love the 24 vintage.

The next grapes come in, they're absolutely.

Perfect is what we hope for. Where it's not all at once. Right?

Yeah. Because 22 was all at once, and then 23 was the wine that we tasted before. This was a very tast. Late, long, you know, all tapping our.

Fingers, waiting for wine.

I don't like that.

No.

So 24 was just a nice pace.

Deserve that after some of the years that we've had. Just with timing.

Exactly. But really, it's all about, like, how does the wine taste? In the end. Right. And 24 is just. Are so delicious.

We're getting a sample here, which, like you said, it's just. It really is a totally different wine than the others. And for us, this is where the shines through in the glass here.

This is as special of a site for Chardonnay as it gets in America.

And we're just unbelievably thrilled that we get to continue working with this site after such an amazing lineage of iconic winemakers that have worked with this before. So we're very happy about that.

Congratulations. It's stunning.

And the way the sun is coming through your glass, I'm just looking at these tears that are dripping down because there is a viscosity, there is a mouth coating to this and that I know may change after some time, and stainless. But right now, it's very rich feeling, but the taste is still elegant and restrained. It's not blah. Right? It's not. Do you know how to spell that?

B, L, A, H, H, H, H, H, H. And I think what I really want listeners who are just everyday wine drinkers to know, and I still feel, as a wine educator, we lead this charge and we fight this battle all the time about the perceptions of Chardonnay because there's so much out there that is not good. There's so much wine out, but specifically with just some of the commodity Chardonnays that are there.

But when coming from such a legacy site, to use your words, with such a talented, intuitive winemaker and a great name and business behind it, that makes it all happen.

But just the layers that are in this glass in front of me right now are just as complex and interesting and exciting and changing and evolving as a Cabernet Sauvignon or some of the things that people expect that more from. Does that make sense?

Absolutely.

Yeah. I think it's stunning. Yeah. I've always admired the great white winemakers.

I think it's just such a specific talent to be able to make a white wine that, like you said, can be on the table with all the great red wines and be just as interesting.

Speaking of on the table, talk to me about what this wine, specifically, if you were to take the rest of this sample bottle for dinner tonight at home and create the perfect pairing. What do you like with this?

I think the thing that's just so great about this wine is it's. It has that richness that it can go up against something really full, luxurious dish.

Think of like, lobster bisque, something that is, like, as creamy and lobster Magic cheese. Yeah, it will absolutely hold up to that cheese. Yeah, we can keep. Yeah, let's keep going. Even more decadent. What else can we throw on here?

On top.

Yeah, there we go. But it has the stuffing to hold up against that.

But also, we've done wine dinners where it's actually leans more into that zestier side of the wine, that brighter, zippier quality there that we talked about, where it's gone up with a hamachi crudo as well. So.

Just said my favorite word. Say it again.

Yeah. Hamachi crudo. Yeah.

So it just can go to the two extremes of pairing because of that richness, because of that energy that we've been talking about that just makes this wine so wildly versatile.

So.

Yeah.

So this will be available when we.

Do our offering to our mailing list in late January each year where we break down what we have.

So people should get on your mailing list, which, again, I'll share in the show, notes the link for them to do that. That's how they can get access to these wines.

Absolutely. So the best way is for us to be able to keep in touch with you directly. So it's spirxwine.com you can sign up for a mailing list there.

That way we can stay in touch with you on any other news that we have from the estate. And if we're ever out on the road, you're in, you know, you're in Dallas. And we're doing a tasty dinner in Dallas or wherever it is that you are.

Countries listening too. And I know you're talking about extending potentially internationally. We have a lot of listeners in a lot of countries.

Oh, amazing. Well, we got a lot of places we still need to go, Laura. So let's go see everybody.

Yeah. People should be excited to try them because they're really interesting and exciting. And I'm just gonna go back to that word energy.

They are full of energy. And now I'm full of energy after learning. Love it. What have we not talked about?

Yeah, it's just Laura and I that own Spherex, and we have made our entire careers in the wine industry. We didn't come from outside the industry with many millions and millions of Dollars to start.

And one of our dreams that we had when launching Spherex was not only to have our own winery that we're making wine for, also to have our own vineyard. And earlier this summer, we were able to acquire our own estate vineyard. It's in Occidental Freestone of Sonoma Coast.

And I remember us talking about it several years ago. Like Laura, if you could wave a magic wand and say, we now have a vineyard, where would that be? Points to it on a map, basically.

And that ended up being exactly where we are.

Once again, you manifested. I'm seeing a theme here for sure.

There's just something so magical about those really amazing, like, rolling hills out there in that part of Sonoma coast with those Gold Ridge powdery soils. It's where Laura had made so many wines in the past that are just so incredible.

You're familiar with vineyards in that area. Had you made wine from this vineyard?

No, not from this vineyard.

From your vineyard that you now own. Do you love just saying that?

I like to pinch myself sometimes.

Yeah.

So this year, we'll be making our first wine off of the estate at Pinot.

How many acres is it?

It's 13 acres.

Oh, my gosh, you guys, that's like, no joke.

And it's a mix of some new and established plantings, so we'll have some more coming online in the next few years.

Okay.

Lots to look forward to making wine from our own estate year in addition to these great partners that we've developed over. So there is always more to come from us at Spherex.

Congratulations. That's huge. That's still a pipe dream for me, is owning five acres, much less 13.

So I admire that you were able to do that, and I know that's gotta feel amazing. So thank you. Congratulations.

Yeah, thank you.

So let's do a final congratulations not only on the vineyard acquisition and having your own estate, but Spherex as a whole.

Thank you.

Portfolio. Your successful relationship, working and playing. And again, just thank you so much for sharing these wines.

I cannot wait for people to get their hands on these and to support and follow and purchase from the epitome of a small family winery.

Right.

It's the two of you.

So absolutely. Yeah, we're again, thank you for having us here today to share our wine to sip with you.

Yeah, I like putting the spotlight on other people. I do like it myself, but I also like putting it in other people. And it was a pleasure to have you guys on the spotlight today.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you for having us all. Ours all. My pleasure. Cheers.

Cheers.

I so enjoyed my time getting to know them both and tasting their really spectacular wines.

And if you're a regular listener, you know there's a theme here over the last year and a half, half where I love to share not only joy and wine and food, but hopefully inspiration to go for it.

If there is a dream, if there is a goal that you have, I feel that Laura and Brian are a perfect example of dreaming big and then taking the time and the steps to make it a reality. And I'm so excited for them and for you to get connected with them.

The best way to do that, first and foremost is Visit their website, spherexwines.comspherics is spelled S P H A E R I c s wine.com spherexwine.com and click the sign up button. You'll see. You can't just purchase their wines on their website. They're too small and it's done all through allocation.

But as you heard Brian say, if you sign up for their mailing list, they will reach out to you in January when they have their release.

And you should reach out to them if you're coming to Wine country anytime so that you can do some of that barrel or tank tasting that we talked about. Follow them on Instagram as well.

It's Spherix wine on Instagram and my hope is that you've learned a little bit more about a sometimes misunderstood grape and type of wine, which is beautiful Chardonnay, and why it is so exciting and interesting and should be in your glass. And whatever you do between now and next week, I hope that you sip well. Don't.