The Ramazzotti family has been managing vineyards in Sonoma County since the late 1970s, and they are well-known and respected grape growers and wine producers with a gorgeous new tasting room in Geyserville, CA. (Sonoma County)

This week, I'm sitting down with Travis Ramazzotti, who is a second generation member of the family business and he talks about:

• What it was like growing up surrounded by vineyards and farming
• How old (young) he was when he learned to drive a tractor
• What led him to chose to be a part of the family business
• Why wine is important 
• His impressions as we taste our 2021 Sangioveses (that we each made from grapes farmed by his family) side by side

You'll also hear my partner, Michael, making his podcast debut!

Here's the map of the Sonoma County AVA's we discussed.

Check out Ramazzotti Wines to purchase and plan your visit here!

Follow the on on IG @ramazzotti_wines

Purchase our Sollevato Sangiovese here. Use code PODLISTENER for 10% off.

If you'd like to Support the Podcast, you can buy me a glass of wine, I would be so grateful!

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

Travis: I was getting almost like a menthol, like a mentholated aspect to yours. Like this herbal ness.

Nikki: Mentholated a word. Ment. Did you say mentholated? I think it is a word, right? . It probably is word. Mentalizing.

Nikki: Menthol. Menthol, mentholated. No, I like it. I'm gonna use it. Manipulated.

Travis: We use that word when we're blending. Methylated Uhhuh.

Nikki: So close to a decade ago, Michael and I were in an Italian restaurant here in Sonoma County, and we were looking at the wine list, and we saw a local Sangiovese from Sonoma County on their menu, and that is pretty amazing. pretty rare. And so we were excited and we ordered the wine. And of course, it was fantastic with the meal.

Nikki: And I, and I looked them up and I found that their tasting room was literally about, Eight minutes away from the restaurant where we were sitting. And so began the relationship with Michael and I and the Ravazzati family. We, next weekend, I think, went to their tasting room. We met Joe and Norma, um, who are the owners and the founders and who are also pouring wine in the tasting room.

Nikki: And they're a wonderful family who make wonderful wine and they have a tasting room in Geyserville, which is a tiny little town in Sonoma County. So this week I'm interviewing Travis Ramazzotti, who was a great sport and said he'd love to come on and talk about what it's like to be part of a family who's been growing grapes and making wines and also share with us a little bit about his experience of being a second generation in a family business and what that's like.

Nikki: But our processes are a little bit different. So listen in as we hear about the Ramazotti family story, as we get to know Travis and get his take on today's climate of the wine business. And as we talk about our two wines together, and don't forget for this episode and all others. Please leave us a rating, a review, and share it with someone who might get a kick out of it as well.

Nikki: Here we go with Travis Ramazzotti.

Nikki: We are here in Geyserville in the Ramazzotti's brand new, newly opened tasting room. And thank you for being open to doing this.

Nikki: So let's start with this. So I've already told people a little bit about your family and the connection that we have with you guys, but I would love for you to share with our listeners just a little bit about like, how did your family get started?

Travis: Went right to work as soon as they got out picking prunes off the ground, which was what was predominantly grown in Dry Creek and Alexander Valley. Actually, at that time, this whole value used to be filled with prune orchards. Up until they figured out that grapes can make more money. So actually people think that we were, we were in the wine business in Italy.

Travis: My family was actually, there was no wine whatsoever. My grandfather was a master welder welder for the Italian army during World War II. And then it was also a butcher. So he did that. That was his work when he, when they first came over.

Nikki: So wine really started here in Sonoma County

Travis: for your

Nikki: family. How cool is that?

Travis: And you had to drive farther. There weren't, there was only a really small handful of local.

Nikki: It wasn't like now where you can throw a rock and hit another winery. Exactly. Less so in this area where you guys are. Yeah. More so in like Napa, but yeah. Right. Right. So what brought them to this area then was really the, the opportunity because you're God aunt had the house.

Nikki: That's what

Travis: led. Her and her siblings lived in the city, lived in San Francisco on Green Street, and that's where they first, that's the first time ever being in a car. My godmother came, picked them up in a brand new Cadillac and got to go into her apartment there in the city. First time ever seeing a television and then boom, next day in the car up to Dry Creek.

Nikki: we know as, do we know her as Marie? Marie. Marie, Maria. Yes.

Travis: Marie, Maria Lucia is her tag.

Travis: Who looks exactly like your father, by the way. But Marie, everybody knows her as Marie. Yes. Yes. So, she was the oldest child, so she actually had 12 years old. Learned the English language in two weeks. To translate and do all the legal paperwork.

Nikki: Shame on us. Like, I'm still dually doing it for Italian for our trip, and I can say, like, very little.

Travis: I mean, the whole trip is just like, when you think about it, how, how amazing and impressive and scary that all must have been and how difficult that must have been. It's an, it's incredible. Every time I really think about it, I'm just like, how?

Nikki: So this was in the late fifties.

Travis: Correct.

Nikki: Okay. So then when is the Ramazati label and wine?

Nikki: When does that come into play? Much further

Nikki: Okay. Right around the time I was born.

Nikki: And the house that we know, your estate, your, your family home where we've been, when did they move to that property?

Nikki: Okay. Yeah. Now I feel like we're coming around the time you were probably born.

Travis: Right. I was born a year after. Estimate of

Nikki: your age is right.

Travis: And he's like, Oh, what do you think we should plant there? Should we plant Chardonnay? And my dad's like, Oh, you know what? Chardonnay is, Chardonnay is not going to work. People were not liking the way Chardonnay was getting grown in that part of Dry Creek Valley. It wasn't doing very well. And still there's not much Chardonnay in that upper part of Dry Creek right now.

Travis: That's how old that is. That's

Nikki: awesome.

Travis: I didn't, I thought it was a little bit younger, but it's, you know,

Nikki: I think I did four year

Travis: old Sangiovese.

Nikki: Yeah. I, I think I've been saying younger than that.

Travis: So it's, so that property is 10 years younger. Yes.

Nikki: Wow.

Travis: So my entire childhood was, was all, it was all farming. We never made any wine. They made a few, a few little basement lots here and there, but half of it went to, half of it turned into vinegar. Some of it, what they filled in those one gallon. Jugs with the handles, but it was always, yeah, the Rossi jugs.

Travis: You're like a teenager

Nikki: at this time, but you're very aware of what's going on. I was so, I

Travis: was just about to start high school. Okay. Yeah. I was just about, yeah, I was, I just about to finish middle school, going to high school, so I, of course I wasn't, I didn't know what was going on. Right. I was all, I would always help as much as I could with the harvest.

Nikki: How old were you when you learned how to drive a tractor?

Travis: Pretty young, pretty young. I learned, actually, you know what, it was, I learned to drive a tractor when I was 13 and then my first vehicle was a Jeep Wrangler, which also was stick.

Travis: It was all wholesale, so we were selling to grocery stores, as many restaurants as we can, online platforms, which weren't very many at that point, so it was mainly the old, you know, grocery stores and, and whatever restaurants we can get into. At that time, we had three, three lots, Chardonnay, Chardonnay. Uh, Merlot, actually four lots, Chardonnay, Merlot, Syrah, and then the Zin blend, the Ricordo, our Ricordo blend.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: Oh yeah. The co op place. Yeah.

Travis: Co op collection, whatever you want to call it, called Locals, which was, which was very cool. That was actually one of my first jobs.

Travis: So I came home from college that first year. Worked in the shop, in the

Nikki: pour wine in the tasting room? Nope. I was only 18. Oh.

Travis: I wasn't, I was pour anything. I was a stock boy. . I was just stocking, stocking wine. You me get, get the

Nikki: sexy job. You were stocking. I got the, the tips, I got the stock

Travis: boy job. Yeah. So it was a fun summer job because people were still in there.

Travis: I still got to talk to people about, about the family wine. So it was just fun.

Nikki: You were still immersed in it and around it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Where did you go to school?

Travis: Southern California, San Diego State.

Nikki: And so, growing up surrounded by all this agriculture and farming, were you like, I must study agriculture?

Travis: And I wasn't sure if that's where, where my, where my passion was quite yet. But by the time I graduated, I realized that it was, it was an amazing business and that I really did have a love for it, but it still took, I was really enjoying the life I had down there. I was working service industry. I was working in kitchens, working in the restaurants, front of the house, back of the house.

Travis: It was. I enjoyed that the restaurant life as well, because I was also got to be a little bit involved in the wine. I got to learn and appreciate wine and talking about wine with people on the service side. But what that also allowed me to do was every, every harvest time, every year, I got to come home, take a couple months off from whatever I was doing in San Diego, help with the harvest, help make the wine and really get an insight and learn.

Nikki: Okay So, what is, if someone asks you like, what is your title?

Nikki: Like what do you do? What do you

Travis: tell them? I mean, my official title is, I call it sales manager, but it just depends what day of the week it is.

Nikki: I feel like you do a lot more than that. I feel like you're also making wine, which we're about to

Travis: talk about. We do. So, there's a trio of us that do all the wine making, but I've tried not to, like, the things that I try and change and recommend are just small changes.

Travis: We've got a really good portfolio and plan for each vintage that we make. And if, you know, things aren't broken, there's no need to fix it. But there are slight changes that I like to make year to year. Every year, you know, new products come out that seem interesting. So it's like, okay, maybe here we'll try something.

Travis: If a new yeast comes out, that seems super interesting. We may try it. You

Nikki: guys, we get really excited when new yeast comes out. It's like a big deal.

Nikki: So your degree's in business.

Travis: Business management.

Nikki: Business management. And then, so the, obviously you learned what you learned being a part of the family, and then winemaking as well, just being around it. Correct. Yeah. The best way to do it. That's the best way. Yeah. I learned online and through books and I knew all the numbers and then it was time to start doing it.

Nikki: I was like, What am I doing? I think the thing that people don't really realize about making wine and this product that we all make, you get one shot a year. Now you might make especially you guys have a nice portfolio of how many different wines, right? So you're It's all about practicing different things, but, like, for us, we make one wine once a year.

Travis: That's right. That's what I said. I'm not tasting them all the time.

Nikki: Protected from oxygen. I call myself the shepherd.

Nikki: I'm just shepherding along. It really starts with what you guys are doing

Travis: A handful in Napa County and then the rest here in Sonoma County. So that's 15 different winemakers that we get to talk to and get different ideas from. And that's, that's really, I love, I love reading and love learning and online classes and, you know, constantly trying to find out new things, but talking to all these different people, that's where I actually learned the most.

Travis: I love picking people's brains. I'm not shy about. Um, asking questions. You're not

Nikki: shy. That's why you're on the podcast today.

Travis: ETS, they can get you analysis of everything, but then you have to figure out a way to analyze that analysis and diagnosis and figure out, well, okay, if there's a problem. What needs to be done.

Nikki: What I, and I always say this to Michael, cause I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by a lot of mentors, whether I'm asking you and your dad questions.

Nikki: Or Sally, who used to be the winemaker at Pride, or Matt, the current winemaker there, or Jim Dwayne, or Julie Johnson. Like, I have a lot of mentors, because I started this very late in life. This is like a second career for me. And I have had to learn to swallow my pride, and, and, no pun intended, and ask for help, right?

Nikki: And I always tell Michael, he's like, well, did you ask Sally? Did you ask Matt? Did you ask Jim? Did you ask Joe? And I'm like, you could ask ten winemakers the same question, you will get ten different answers. Right. That's the beauty and the excitement. And I'm like not a great decision maker. So then I'll like, you know, waffle back and forth, but that's what's so interesting is that, and we're going to talk about this as we taste our wines together in a minute.

Travis: on it. Well, just to put in a little different reference. So right now the Sangiovese. This exact fruit goes to us, you guys, and then one other winery, and, and we all make very different styles.

Travis: And they all get picked on the same day, so I mean, you are literally starting with the exact same.

Nikki: The chemistry is the same, the labs are the same. Everybody

Travis: has, I mean, As far as, I'm not sure exactly how your, your machinery processing goes, I'm not sure if you whole cluster or, or do you run it through?

Travis: We de

Nikki: stem and, like, crush. Okay, yeah, exactly. Yeah?

Travis: Exactly. So, I mean, we're, we're doing pretty much the same thing. I mean, you can use different yeast, you can use different enzymes. So there are different things you can use, but at this, essentially, I mean, I'm sure our Sangioveses are within a couple points of alcohol each other.

Nikki: so cool, right? Because that's where the variation comes in on this product. So how does it feel to have this new space? I know it was, we don't have to get into the, the challenge that it was to get here, but Let's just talk about how is it going in this new space?

Nikki: How long has it been open? The

Travis: space itself is beautiful. We're in about a 3 times bigger space. This

Nikki: is downtown Geyserville for you guys that don't know. So north of Santa Rosa, north of Healdsburg, you're going into the Alexander Valley. Geyserville is the cutest little, is it one stoplight? Is there even a light?

Nikki: No lights. It's just stop signs. No lights,

Travis: no gas stations, no grocery stores. And two

Nikki: of the best restaurants, if you ask me, in Sonoma County. That's true. Diavola and Catelli's. We're going to Diavola for pizza, by the way, if you want to join in on this. But, it's the cutest. Cutest little town. So you moved like four minutes down the road and now you're in this

Travis: beautiful spot.

Travis: So we were lucky enough to find the space. It needed quite a bit of work, but we're, I think we were probably the Perfect fit to come in.

Nikki: Well, and, and, you know, we're in your wine club. That's how we found you. We've been here wine club for probably close to a decade. And the main criteria that we use, obviously, with joining clubs, working here, living here and being the business is it has to be great wine.

Nikki: Okay. Check. You guys have really fun events and parties. Like you guys know. How to do it, whether it's the one up at your parents home or I feel like I

Travis: feel like my parents have been throwing parties like that before the wine before the winery and wine club was even a thing. I feel like they've been throwing parties like that since I was a kid.

Travis: Yeah, that was a that was an easy transition. Of course, that's

Michael: starting the whole time.

Travis: So we're on this beautiful, steep hillside, hard, rocky, gravelly soil, the slight clay influence, but it's the main, the main

Nikki: nerdy farming part coming out and hear the soil reference coming out. I love it.

Travis: The main aspect that makes that property so special for the grape growing is that it's this Western facing Western oriented hillside.

Travis: So the advantage of that is especially in dealing with San Gervasi. That being on that hillside, the grape itself struggles immensely getting close to its harvest season. And what that, that means for the fruit is it's going to be extra concentrated, low yielding, but incredibly vibrant and flavorful. And I think that is one of the main aspects of growing San Diopese because it is quote unquote a lazy, a lazy vine.

Nikki: Yeah, you guys really do have the perfect site for it. Those,

Travis: those two, those two side by side properties. I mean, there, there may be one more that I can think of in Dry Creek that has, that has a place like that for Sangiovese, but it's rare.

Nikki: Yeah. For those of you who are listening and are not super familiar with this area in Sonoma County, so Dry Creek is what we call an AVA or an Appalachian, right? It's like a, uh, an outlined area and then certain vineyards and wineries fall within that, which is why when you see not only Ramazzotti wines, but also with Solovato, you'll see Dry Creek Valley is the AVA that's on the label.

Nikki: That is actually a great segue, I think, Michael, to the question that you had about where we are.

Michael: to now about the Sonoma County versus Napa.

Travis: Well, we've become much more well known now at this point. Of course, Napa, Napa put, put California wines on the map, but, um, the more people are wine tourism is, you know, really got turned up that especially in the last 10 years, this the town of Hillsburg, which is now The epicenter of Sonoma County wine tourism, winemaking.

Travis: It is just exploded. It is just between Napa and Sonoma County. We have the highest concentrated area of Michelin star restaurants in the entire world. Not the U. S., the world. And

Nikki: we're going for pizza tonight, guys. What are we doing?

Travis: Yeah, so the tourism here is, is worldwide. It's really incredible. There is quite a difference.

Travis: Napa still has the name and they can warrant the price tag on a lot of their bottles, but also the wineries are paying ridiculous numbers for their, for their tourism. Yeah,

Travis: know, you know how it is. So they're, they're paying so much more upfront for the fruit. So that obviously translates to higher per, per bottle costs.

Travis: But besides that, the difference in the farm, the costs, what it is to farm in Valley to Valley is identical. So that's why Sonoma County grape growers, wine growers are really struggling because we cannot charge the same dollar value per ton. That Napa Valley is. And in a lot of cases we're growing

Nikki: on, on our body.

Travis: And to be honest, Napa is actually a hotter AVA. We're actually more versatile here in Alexander Valley in what we can grow. Dry Creek also. Is a very unique area because it still gets a little coastal influence, even during the hot summer months. There's this bit there's this mountain ridgeline behind us that almost keeps that that fog and and marine layer away from this valley.

Nikki: There's so much diversity of these little microclimates. Exactly. Because the coast, we're not far from the Sonoma coast here, but then you have all these inland valleys, right? Where air is settling or generating more heat or whatever it may be.

Nikki: So it's really diverse.

Travis: And if you, if you look at the map of where the outline is of Alexander Valley, it's very large. I mean, it extends all the way down to almost Santa Rosa and then all the way to the Mendocino County border.

Nikki: I'll put a, thank you for reminding me that I'll put a link in the show notes where people can look at a map just to get an idea of the AT& T's of Sonoma County.

Nikki: We're starting to be a lot of really cool places.

Travis: We are lucky. Yeah.

Nikki: Michael's like chomping at the bit to taste these wines, I think so might be time to segue into our tasting. But also I have

Michael: They're like, yeah, San Giovese, what is San Giovese like compared to any other grape? And I always have a difficult because, of course, I haven't, you know, been in the wine business.

Nikki: Because you like save lives for a living and stuff. Correct.

Michael: And how to answer that question. I always say, well, it's an Italian grape.

Michael: You know, it's so anyways, how, how would you describe San Giovese? I, cause I always tell people, it's a grape that's in Chianti. So how do you describe it?

Travis: So it's a medium body, medium acid, low tannin wine. But it can be made so many different styles. The Italian style is obviously going to be picked a little lower sugar.

Travis: So it's going to be much more acid forward, less fruit, which is why it's able to age. That's where you're going to get to your Brunello del Montalcino, these, these really aged Sangioveses. And I'll I like to make, call Sangiovese the Italian's everyday drinking red because it is so soft, medium acid, medium body, like I mentioned, and it can go with literally anything or it can go with

Nikki: nothing.

Nikki: it's such

Travis: a, it's such a diverse one. That's the, that's the beauty.

Nikki: That's what we tell people of why we make it. A, because we love to drink it. B, because there's not a lot of it around, which is why we were so excited to find you guys and partner with your family. But C, because it is so versatile. It's right in the middle of the spectrum, like you said, as far as weight, body, acid, tannin, all of that.

Travis: There's a, there's only a handful of, of Sonoma County Sangiovese out there. I wish, I mean. Probably not for the better part of our sales, but I would love to see more San Giovese planted just because I think this is such a special area for it. And I think there's just such a market for this style red wine.

Nikki: Yes. Agree. What he said. Pinot

Michael: was by far my favorite gateway into wine.

Michael: Right. Right. And then. This would be an easy gateway as well. Right. Yeah. And then it starts drinking Sangiovese. But it's like, still, I think it's what, about 4 percent planet Sangiovese in this whole region? Oh, sure. Yeah. It's a lot. Look at you throwing

Nikki: the numbers out. I did research

Michael: some slow

Travis: numbers. You did

Nikki: some research, Travis.

Nikki: So let's do it. Let's try these wines side by side. Let's do our Sip Spotlight. Sip Spotlight. So when Travis and I started talking about doing this, you guys, we, I think you're actually the one that suggested it. You said. Oh, yeah, I would do the podcast with you. We should taste our Sangiovese side by side.

Nikki: How do you want to attack this? How do you want to,

Travis: So let's do, let's do the Ramazotti first because I'm gonna give everyone a little disclaimer about the difference of ours right off the bat.

Nikki: Okay.

Travis: Do you know what it is? Is that something that we do?

Nikki: No malolactic fermentation and different oak profile.

Travis: But even before all that, is because we make a Zingiovese rosé, which is a Zinfandel Sangiovese blended rosé. So we don't, we don't make a separate batch of rosé, but we do sauté, bleed off a portion of the Sangiovese juice as soon as it goes into the fermentation tank

Nikki: to go to your rosé. So

Travis: It'd be impossible for you to

Nikki: we like more than one time But whatever i'll take that up with your dad And for for those of you who are not familiar that term that he used sanjay that is a french word for blood You're like bleeding like comes from the root of the word saying sanjay blood. Yeah. Thank you for reminding matt So that is a big difference.

Nikki: That is a big difference. We You We picked the grapes with you guys that morning. We put them in our trailer. We drive them to St. Helena, to our custom crush facility where we make them. They get de stemmed and crushed right away and go into bin for fermentation. So no Sagnier, no bleeding off. So right away on the nose, I'm just, I always, when I have wines that I'm comparing, I like to smell back and forth between them before I'm even tasting.

Nikki: It's like they're related but different. They're like my sisters and I there's like a common thread, but there's differences for sure on the nose Tell me about your oak on this

Travis: So you can really overdo it. So typically beginning of the season, we'll buy about a hundred to 150 neutral barrels and we try and buy only use white wine barrels, either Sauvignon Blanc, but we try and shoot for Chardonnay barrels seem to be the best just because they, they're not imparting much flavor.

Nikki: So. Same.

Travis: Yes.

Travis: Perfect. So

Nikki: we are very much in the same page here. Have you ever,

Travis: have you in any of your productions made the mistake of using a new one? A new barrel? No. Don't.

Nikki: Because I knew enough coming from my, my wine background that.

Travis: And they're so expensive. There's no, there's no reason.

Travis: Yeah. Yeah. Taste. Taste it periodically though. Yeah. Because that new oak is so dominant. Oh, yeah. We'll, we'll, we'll kind of go back and forth.

Travis: We'll, we'll, we'll have wines back. All right. It's picking up too much. We'll take it out. You can move it. Yeah. You go. We, we will go back and forth a couple times. Yeah. Think stuff is picking up too much. Too much. It's intense.

Nikki: So it's not even like, oh, well, we're going to do 50 percent new oak. We'll do one new barrel, one used barrel, combine them. When you have one barrel and that's all you have, it's all or none. So the answer was none. The answer was, let's go super neutral. And just get to know this wine and this vineyard.

Travis: I don't think you're going to want to do it.

Travis: We've

Nikki: not added, now we're up to four barrels,

Travis: we're not adding. Especially the style you're doing here is so, is so nice that I don't think you're

Nikki: going to do it. Yeah, we're not, we're not. So we're on the same page there. Okay. Michael, do you pick up any differences on the, on the nose? He's already like halfway done with both glasses, you guys, by the way, but.

Nikki: Do you feel like if you didn't know which was yours and which was ours,

Travis: I drink this so often. I know this one. I'll go pick it. You know, you're lying in your sleep. I could pick that one out blind. Do you feel like

Nikki: that about all your wines or about this one? This one

Travis: in particular, because I end up, cause this is probably our most popular wine that we sell. It's how you hooked us.

Travis: I end up, I end up tasting it with so many of the guests that it's just like. I know it so well. It's awesome. I love that. I love that. I do get a little bit more of the red cherry in ours than yours, but yours is more structured and it's got a much, much rounder mouth feel where ours is a little more linear.

Travis: Which is kind of down the middle of the tongue. Yours is a little bit more on the sides.

Nikki: Don't we know why that is? Because we've talked about the difference in our process that changes that linear versus round mouthfeel. Let's see if Michael knows. And that difference is ML. Yes! Melalectic fermentation.

Travis: Part of our winemaking process that does change every year. Each vintage is completely different. We do very little malolactic fermentations on most of our red wines, especially these lighter ones. So after, after the, the grapes have done fermentation, been pressed off the skin, settled and get barreled down, we see what our exact number of barrels are.

Travis: And then we'll typically do.

Nikki: 10%.

Travis: 10%. So figure if we got 12, we'll do 2.

Nikki: Because, listeners, this secondary fermentation, if you go back to past episodes, I've talked about this, but malolactic fermentation, you're just converting the malic acid to lactic acid, which in turn really changes the mouthfeel, like when he's talking about roundness versus When it hasn't gone through, it is almost like a little more sharpness, in a good way, like brightness, sharpness, and the acidity in the wine, and that's, that's the difference between them.

Nikki: susceptible.

Travis: It's more susceptible. Yeah. It can take off very quickly. Which

Nikki: is also why we decided to do it, for just that stability factor being new at this, right?

Nikki: Great. Michael, you're raising your hand. Go ahead.

Michael: I did notice to me, you think the ML changes, you said acid, it has the, the taste or feel, mouth feel of the acid. So do you, 'cause to me that's what one of the biggest differences I feel is just the, the way the acid feels in my mouth. Correct. You feel the ML

Nikki: flavor taste quite similar?

Nikki: Similar, right. Mm-Hmm. , but texture, feeling finish. Mm-Hmm.

Travis: where the acid hits in my mouth or the actic acid. The lactic acid is softer. So it's, you know, it's, it's changing that what the style of acid that your, that your tongue is, uh,

Michael: yeah. Is. So the asset might not be higher or it's just different. That's what it's basically saying.

Michael: Yeah.

Travis: The tannins should be about the same.

Nikki: Once you're dry and your fermentation is complete, are you leaving on the skins or are you pretty quick to press it off?

Travis: Oh, once it gets into that below. Negative

Nikki: one, two. Negative one

Travis: is what we're, usually if we can get Under zero, we're pretty good. Usually, we'd never have any problems with the Stangiovasine going negative one down to negative two, which is, which is great.

Travis: And then we don't leave it on those, on those skins at all. We press, we press it right off. Seam press. Yeah. So, like I said. Because we're

Nikki: usually like, just put

Travis: it in the barrel. So, it's, we let it settle for about two days, two to three days. I think our protocol says 48 hour settle time. Michael, they

Nikki: have a protocol.

Travis: Do we need a protocol? You need a protocol.

Michael: I'm going to get an iPad.

Nikki: We do need a protocol.

Nikki: tight. Especially with how many wines you guys are making.

Travis: Oh my God, Nikki, I can't even tell you how many lots we did last year.

Travis: It was, we overextended ourselves by a lot. That was insane. Your

Michael: catalog is how big right now.

Travis: Sometimes it's 13 up to 16, you know, depending. Sometimes we have a sparkling, we just don't have a sparkling right now, but usually it's about 15, 15 is about right, but I've got. A dolcetto coming on. I've got a new Italian white coming on.

Travis: We're constantly adding. Because you got a couple of different grapes now that you don't think never used to do, right? Right, right. The new, the new Italian white coming on. We're just about the ball at the end of this month is called Vermentino. Beautiful, beautiful Northern Italian variety. I cannot wait.

Travis: It's

Nikki: so good with oysters.

Travis: Ours turned out so interesting. It's got this darker golden color to it. And it is gorgeous. I'm very excited.

Travis: Half and half. Okay. All of our, all of our Y series A's follow the same, uh, same protocol.

Nikki: Ah,

Travis: the B word. Half, half, half stainless steel, 55 gallon barrels, half 60 gallon neutral French oak barrels.

Nikki: Okay. All right. As you're going through the portfolio, this, this is not really a listener question, but more of a listener comment. But Joan from Tennessee wrote it and said please tell him that I love his Rafinto Super Tuscan. Yes. Do you want to tell our listeners about that?

Travis: So Rafinto is an Italian word for, it's an Italian proprietary name for one of our blends meaning refined.

Travis: It is our Sangiovese based Super Tuscan blend. So That's a pretty fun wine to make year to year because we, it's labeled red wine, so it doesn't have to be varietal designated. And we always start with the 50 percent Sangiovese base and then build it from there. So it's always fun. And then the party starts.

Nikki: Well thank you, Joan in Tennessee for sharing your passion for that. Yeah. You guys just have such a. An interesting portfolio and lineup of wines. And that's what drew us to your wine club in the first place. What I've noticed and tell me if you guys agree or disagree is as these have sat in the glass and opened up in the last 15 minutes that we've been talking.

Nikki: The differences between them, and this is just on the nose, the differences have been minimized. So initially, when they first hit the glass, they were quite different on the nose. I was getting,

Travis: I was getting almost like a menthol, like a mentholated aspect to yours, like this herbal ness. Mentholated

Nikki: a word.

Travis: probably it

Nikki: scored mental

Travis: wise. Menthol, .

Nikki: Menthol, mentholated. No, I like it. I'm gonna use it. Ated.

Travis: We use that word when we're blending. Ated, Uhhuh .

Nikki: On ours. Or on yours?

Travis: On yours. And it is, this is fun to be like my

Nikki: wine or your way Our, it's

Travis: gone away.

Travis: And you are right. It, they've become more, they're more

Nikki: similar now, right? They're more similar

Travis: now. Because I think some of those

Nikki: secondary nodes kind of simmer down as the fruit comes forward. And the fruit comes forward and we know that this fruit is the same fruit.

Michael: Right. It is a word.

Nikki: Right?

Nikki: Mentholated? It

Michael: is a word. Dude,

Nikki: pound it out. 10.

Michael: In the Webster Dictionary.

Nikki: Thank you, Michael. Thank you for fact checking over there. Before we move on to our last question, any other thoughts or impressions just about tasting these two beautiful sister wines side by side?

Travis: I'm really, I'm so happy that we got to taste a side by side vintage.

Nikki: Shout out to Trisk, our good friends, Hobie and Justin connected them with us and they do a killer job and we are still hand numbering every bottle because we make a small enough amount where even though it's a pain in the ass, we And then this

Travis: bottle.

Travis: What would you call, what would you call this with this little hitch at the top? It's called a bar top. To me, it's literally a nightmare. But you guys don't use foils, so you're not going to have to worry about it. We

Nikki: don't use foils. Instead, we do the hand wax that you saw when you had

Michael: to order 10, 000.

Michael: You know how hard it had taken us to use 10, 000 foils? We had these

Travis: I know. Have you thought about

Nikki: it?

Travis: Ah, you know, you see the naked bottles out there all the time. I've worked so, I've worked it so hard on all the artwork of mine now that now I'm kind of committed. Well,

Nikki: can we just talk about what a cool last name you have? Like, it kind of just belongs on a label.

Travis: It does.

Travis: I mean It does.

Nikki: And Solovato, Ramazzotti, like they, they're kind of like sisters in there.

Travis: What is Solovato?

Nikki: Solovato is Italian for uplifted, joyful, relieved. Okay. No longer worried. Got it. Is what that translates to. And how'd you, and how'd you decide that? Oh gosh, it was a process and we knew we wanted it to be in Italian, just to pay homage to not only my heritage, but the gripe.

Nikki: And then you would plug that into Google Translate in Italian, and it was like a sentence long, like, Telefattore, da da da da da da da, I was like, that can't go on a label, no one's gonna be able to say it. So, our friend actually was searching and came up with this word and it's very phonetic. Like when you look at it, so la va

Travis: toe, it's kind of easy to say.

Travis: It rolls off the tongue nicely.

Nikki: And it talks about joy and uplifting, which we love. And then that sort of secondary definition, which is relieved and no longer worried. That is kind of a tribute to where we are now on the backside of the shit storm that we went through with fire and rebuilding and all of that.

Nikki: Oh, it's

Travis: nice. It's nice. I never heard that

Nikki: So I'd love to know why is wine important?

Travis: Well, especially growing up in, with the Italian culture, food and wine were always together and food and wine with people and experience, shared experiences was always so important. And so wine just, to me wine is memory. And it's experiences and it's people. So when we're, when I'm here, especially in the tasting room and I'm talking with people and they are enjoying the wine, I'm telling them about our experiences, our story, I'm creating one experience there, and then they're going to take that wine with that shared experience and share it with their loved ones and their friends and their family.

Nikki: protocols

Travis: Well, it's just like, you know, all the stresses, you know family businesses is not easy It's

Nikki: I feel like we could do a whole nother

Travis: But it is very, it is very difficult.

Nikki: We, we deal with it enough, just Michael and I at a micro level.

Travis: So what, what does wine mean to me? I mean, I've known about wine. Since, since I was probably five or six. I probably had my first glass of wine in dinner when I was probably eight. Yeah, this, you know, the little, the little Italian style water it back

Michael: for you a

Travis: little or no?

Travis: Absolutely not. Yes! That's not Italian. That is not Italian.

Michael: I love

Nikki: Because I tell people a lot about, even at Pride where I've worked for many, many years, they're in the second generation of ownership and kind of thinking about what that third generation may or may not do. Do they want to be a part of it? And there's so many. second generation that that's you, right?

Nikki: Whose parents started this, who are like, I don't want to, I don't want to be a part of that. I could do a million other businesses on this planet and make a lot more money and a lot less time with a lot less risk and a lot less headache. Right. So I love that you're here. I love that you chose to be a part of it.

Nikki: I love that you went and got your business degree and you were like, no, this is what I want to do. Like, is this it? Are you, are you in it?

Travis: Oh, I mean, no turning back now. I'm too invested in this thing now. Oh, and

Nikki: you're so good you do now.

Travis: You could always change. I'm an example of that. You can always change.

Travis: Like, when you're asking what my title was earlier, and that's

Nikki: I'm like, sales manager? No, you need a new title.

Travis: Yeah, yeah, I know. That's

Nikki: Well, what I, what I love and what I encourage people who are listening, who are coming on vacation in the area or live in the area like us, what has always been so cool is when you come to the Ramazani Tasting Room, it's either you, your mom, your dad, your aunt, like I know you have a couple of employees, right?

Nikki: But nine times out of 10, it is your family that is pouring these wines for people.

Travis: Mm-Hmm. . We're there in the warehouse pack. Like if you're getting, if you're receiving a shipped package from us, there's like a 90% chance one of our hands, one of our hands are, are putting in the box. We do all the packing ourself. Mm-Hmm. is UPS, FedEx. It goes right out of our, right at our facility. So, I mean, everybody does a lot of different jobs.

Nikki: It's amazing, but it's, it's a labor of love and it's expressed. And I think more and more now people are looking for the smaller family places where the, where a small amount of people are touching the product from every step from, from the farming to pouring it at the bar. And that's what's so new, unique about you guys.

Nikki: And that's why we love you. So thank you so much. Thanks for staying late at the end of a long day to do this with us, drink

Travis: these, these

Michael: Right.

Travis: Well, you know, San Diego Vasey gets picked. It's a, it's a fairly early red ripener. So you're seeing us at the beginning of the season. That's a good playoffs. Remember when you saw us picking the garage? Much sadder, much sadder, much more broken. Especially

Nikki: Much more

Travis: broken and defeated, no spirit left. Yeah, that's

Nikki: I don't know,

Michael: you guys have a big experience. I'm just saying, it's just like, you guys just Joe is just like It's just, I love just talking to your father and he just so much wisdom and so much expertise.

Nikki: We worked on your dad for a couple of years. We're like, please sell us half a ton, please sell us a ton. And it all worked out. And we hope to continue the relationship and being able to make these two really cool wines. Well, cheers, you guys. This was so fun. Oh, so his glasses were empty. And I just want to tell you guys, he reached for another bottle.

Nikki: To fill one, and he reached for the solovato. He reached for the solovato!

Michael: Everyone, come out to Geyserville. Come out to this beautiful cathedral. Yeah, please,

Travis: one last little plug. Our address here is a 100 Schoolhouse Lane here in beautiful Geyserville. Ram otti wines.com. Check out our website. You can see our story, all of our wines online there.

Travis: Or you can call or email us or email info at Ramadi Wines.

Nikki: And your Instagram handle is

Travis: Ramco wines.

Nikki: Mm-Hmm. .

Travis: Yep.

Travis: day. Nick and Michael. Thank you

Nikki: guys. Time for pizza.

Travis: Yeah, time for dinner.

Nikki: What a special, special evening that was. I mean, so cool to really spend that time talking with Travis, diving into their family history, hearing about his experience, experiencing their beautiful, newly open tasting room. And of course, tasting two Gorgeous similar but different San Gervaises next to each other.

Nikki: They make a lot of different wines, um, a little bit of a lot of different wines, and they're fantastic. Um, you can visit them@rammazawines.com. It's got two Zs and two ts, RAMA zz OTTI ram wines.com or Ram Wines on Instagram. And, uh, just encourage you to check them out. Look in the show notes. I'll put a link with that Sonoma, um, wine AVA map that we referred to.

Nikki: We would be ever so grateful. Sip well.