Verticals (2019) s01e05 Episode Script

- So Steve and Jill
Matthiasson are farmers.
They are real farmers.
They don't just show up once a year
for a photo shoot in the mustard.
(classical piano music)
They walk the walk, grow their own grapes,
make their own wine.
- They are truly family wine makers.
As the two of them, you know,
with this business that
also involves agriculture,
they make their own jam.
They produce, honestly,
some of the best jam
I've ever had in my life.
So there's a kind of an honesty
and an unpretentiousness.
So it's really incredibly
refreshing to have that here.
- They're a married
couple who seem to really
care about each other.
They care a lot about what they're doing.
And they conduct their business,
their own wine brand,
with so much earnestness.
I think the first time I met Steve
he was wearing a Dinosaur Jr. tee shirt,
which is one of my favorite bands.
So that was pretty easy way to
start liking somebody, right?
Not a lot of people
roll around Napa Valley
in a Dinosaur Jr. tee shirt,
so that really made
them stand out for sure.
I love them.
I think they're fantastic, really earnest.
I hate this word, but authentic people.
- Steve and Jill do not
exhibit any bull shit.
They both came at this through farming,
through organic agriculture.
- Steve's incredibly positive.
I always say that when
you get to meet people,
wine makers, and we know
a lot of wine makers,
and you get to drink their wines,
you see so much of the
personality of the wine maker
reflected in the wine.
And I just say our wines are happy wines.
Steve's like a positive,
energetic, happy guy
and I think the wines reflect that.
- This is a 1992 Robert Mondavi
Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.
The reason I'm gonna open this bottle
is this is the first
great wine I ever tried.
I like wine.
I was really into wine.
I was into the idea of wine.
I was into wine and food.
I was into the vineyards.
I had already been working
for a few years in viticulture
after I was already out of Davis,
so I thought I knew wine
and I thought I loved wine.
I did love wine, but I
hadn't had a great wine yet.
And at that time Mondavi
was one of the leaders
in sustainability and viticulture,
and so there was a meeting up in Mondavi
at their office this year in Napa,
so we drove up from Lodi for the meeting
and then afterwards they said,
hey do you want to go
in and taste some wine?
Heck yeah we want to taste some wine
because we were really excited
just to be in Napa Valley.
We were working in the wine industry,
but, you know, in other
parts of California,
Napa Valley is kind of on a pedestal,
at least in my mind it was.
We went in and tasted and we
went into the reserve room.
We felt very honored, 'cause
again I didn't have any money.
There's no way I would have
been at this wine tasting
in the reserve room at
that point in my life.
And they opened this Mondavi Reserve
and it absolutely blew my mind.
I didn't know that wine
could be three dimensional,
that it could be like a room.
It could be like an old
house that has rooms
and hallways and staircases,
basements, attics that,
so in tasting that wine, I
had this feeling like wow,
I'm just in the front,
I made it into the
living room of this wine,
but I actually would have to spend time
with this wine to even
get what all is here.
I'd never had that experience of a wine
that there is more there
than you can even taste in that moment.
That awareness that you're just
scratching the surface on it
and in this case I'd been
drinking wine for a decade,
but this was the one
that really blew my mind.
(classical piano music)
Jill was working in the
sustainable ag world
for a non-profit for like 10 or 15 years,
you know in the early kind of
local food days of California.
She was on the family farming
non-profit side of that movement.
- This is the first wine
that Steve and I ever made together.
You know we met and
starting dating in 1995,
so that's kinda why it was
a very important year for both of us.
We started dating in like August
and in September Steve was a student
at UC Davis studying viticulture
and he brought grapes home
from the student vineyard
and we made wine in my backyard actually.
We just stomped them and
put 'em in a little carboy
and stuck it in the garage
of that house that he was living in.
We thought it went bad actually,
because Steve was living in this house
and he left it in the garage
and the next spring when he
went to move out of his house
and in with me in my little apartment,
he saw that there was this
flora of like, sort of bacteria
on the top and just thought it was ruined.
And he was just packing up
and getting ready to move
out of his house and started
pouring out the wine.
And he smelled it and
it smelled really good.
And he tasted it and
it tasted really good,
so we just bottled it up and drank it.
The variety of grapes
is Muscat of Hamburg.
We were setting out to
make a little dessert wine,
and this is the last bottle
that we have of that wine.
(melancholy music)
I actually should be more
careful with this cork,
'cause this is pretty old wine, so oops.
- Oops, I'm going a little fast.
This is a 92.
(wine bottle popping)
(wine bottle popping)
(wine pouring)
(wine pouring)
(melancholy music)
- It's good.
It's, after all these years,
24 years almost of this wine.
Pretty good.
- It's great.
It's dusty, it has red fruit.
The core of the wine is red fruit.
I remember the tannins being
much more three dimensional.
It's really, they've softened
and they're much more silky.
So it's kinda settled in,
the wine's settled down to two dimensions.
It's soft.
It has a really nice juicy acidity.
I think a true Napa Cab has juicy acidity
and it's something that isn't
necessarily the first thing
that one thinks of with Napa cab anymore,
but that's what our growing
region actually gives us
if you pick the grapes a little earlier
they can be really vibrant as cabernet.
This has that, kind of on, you know,
the sort of dried cherries
almost a little bit of molasses,
you know because it is a 92.
Nice and long and just beautiful.
It's aged beautifully.
- It's really amazing.
It's amazing that we pulled it off.
Like if I think back when we
made this wine, if we had any,
we didn't have any idea what
we were doing, number one.
We had no intention in a million years
of doing anything like making a wine
and turning it into a
winery and selling it.
That seems sort of far fetched
if you ask me about what it was like
when I started making this
wine with Steve way back when.
We'd only been dating a month.
It's kinda crazy that here
we are all this time later.
- So I have a really strong
philosophy about wine with food
and wine with the table and
wine as an agricultural product.
The balance of wine, wine that lifts you,
that is healthy and I
really believe in that,
but I can't say that I came up with it.
Robert Mondavi was
preaching that for decades.
He talked about the gracious table.
He always talked about balance with wine
and the role of wine as
part of a healthy lifestyle
with healthy food, healthy wine,
and so this bottle of wine in 1992
was 13.5 alcohol on the label
and on the back it says excellent
balance as a descriptor.
And so there is a very
strong philosophy here.
And so a lot of what we're trying to do
with Matthiasson is
really carry that mantle.
There's that torch, Robert
Mondavi's not with us anymore,
there've been a lot of
changes in the wine industry
and we don't feel like we're
doing anything radical.
We're trying to just kind of
pick up this idea of wine for the table,
and carry forward with that.
- Businesses need to be sustainable too,
and in order for businesses
to be sustainable,
they have to create a
high quality product.
And if that quality is
threatened by dogma,
then what's it all for?
So I like that he's kinda
thinking things through
and that his approach to sustainability
is also financial and
not just environmental.
- You come to Napa,
there are a lot of big
wineries with pillars
and they've spent six million
bucks building their winery.
- Well, right here?
- Okay, this is the new tasting room.
- Yeah, cool.
- So it's okay to bring people up here.
- Yeah, you're like where
are the pillars and the--
- Yeah, where's the awning and the--
- We are kinda planning
on setting this out
and putting like an arbor
with some grapevines up it.
- Grapevines, that would be perfect.
- That'd be pretty neat.
- Yeah, that'd be cool.
- Our sign is like don't do
grapevines, it's such a cliche,
and it's like, you're in Napa in a winery.
- (laughs) We're making wine.
What are the vines, these guys?
- These are cab from various
eras of planting basically.
So we have some really old suckers in here
and some middle aged ones and then we,
there's a lot of deferred maintenance
just because they're just
tired and gone basically.
So we've actually planted 4.000 new vines.
- Oh wow.
- Basically went through and
any vine that looked like
it was teetering, we just removed it.
And the vines that had their roots down
and were still doing fine, we left.
So it's about half of them that stayed.
- Cool, that's great.
You can use these and make them.
- Yeah, we have two vineages
now from this vineyard.
- And life is good?
- Yeah.
- (laughs) Good.
- So I actually met Steve probably a year
before we started dating, and he,
we had a mutual friend and
she was telling me about
this cute guy that was
coming to live in our house,
and then we were at this big
festival called the Hose Down
at this organic farm
called Full Belly Farm.
So, Anika introduced Steve and I
and I was like kind of not impressed
'cause he had this silly Amish beard.
I was like okay, that was the
cute guy Anika was talking to,
and then psh, completely
went out of my mind,
like, oh yeah, moving on.
And then, the people I was working with
needed to hire somebody as a field scout
to look for earthworms basically.
When he came for his interview I was like,
why are they gonna hire him?
But I didn't say that to the
person that was hiring him.
But in the end they hired him
and he was very good
at counting earthworms.
(laughing)
And then I ran into him at
the farmers' market in Davis
and just was chatting
with him and I was like,
God, this guy's cute.
And I then ran into him at a party
and we hung out at the party
and another party we hung out there.
I mean that was the funny
thing when we met is that
we just had so much in common.
So there was just kinda
a lot of coincidences
of overlapping interests that we had
about farming, about gardening.
In the process of the job that I had,
I was working with a
lot of organic farmers,
Koda chill, sit, sorry, sit Koda, down.
We had this opportunity to
start a business together.
We were also starting a
family at the same time,
so this was a few years after
we made our first wine together
that we got married and started a family
and it was a great opportunity
for us to work together too.
And we've been really lucky.
I mean it's a combination I think of,
we've worked really, really
hard and we've been lucky.
(chickens clucking)
(classical string music)
(knife sharpening)
- We're leaving all these
little bits on here.
Not cleaning them all off
'cause they're gonna be really scrumptious
after they cook on those, over that oak.
(classical string music)
- It's good actually.
Gonna grill these, the
rest of these garlics.
I think we're ready to go outside.
(classical string music)
So this bottle of wine was
made when we lived in Davis.
So there were fruit tree orchards
and community garden places
mixed in between the houses.
There was a vineyard in there,
and the vineyard had
this sort of collection
of varieties that the
people thought were cool
and interesting when they
planted this place in the 70's.
And we had a bunch of
friends that lived there,
and Davis being an agricultural school,
there are all these, like
we call ourselves ag nerds.
So there little home wine making group
is called Village Reds,
so we sort of joined in
to Village Reds with them.
And when Jill was already living there
and then when we were first dating,
so I moved in with her
in the Village Homes.
We ended up getting married
and buying our house there
and having our kids there
at home in Village Homes.
We have not tried this
wine probably since 1997
or something like that when
we drank all of our share.
You can see there's some ullage in there.
But we don't know,
it may not have been filled
properly in the first place,
'cause we were usually drunk
by the time we were halfway into bottling.
And so bottling was a totally different
experience back then.
You know, now we're super
crazy about the oxygen
and just getting everything just right
and back then bottling
was like a raging party.
- Well, this is the 95, I remember, yeah,
we had made a little bit
of wine the two of us.
- Cork when down a little.
- A little far.
- A little far.
- And I remember my friend Jenny
who lived across the street from me,
we made it with her and
our other friend Mark
who lived also across the
street and down a couple doors.
I just remember this was all fermented.
(wine bottle popping)
- Even the dran didn't quite get it.
- You did it really quick.
- I thought I had it.
- I don't even know how we got it together
to figure out bottling it.
That was like a feat.
Right, so, let's see what it's like.
- Okay.
- You got it out very nicely.
Oh look at the color on that.
- [Steve] I'll take this one,
I'm gonna that one with the floaters.
- [Jill] Time has not
quite been the friend
of this wine I don't think.
- Well stored underneath the bed.
- We had a bunch of wine we
stored in one of our closets.
We didn't have air conditioning
and it was probably 105 degrees out
everyday in the summer for
like two weeks at a time.
It's drinkable, I'd drink it.
If somebody gave it to me
for free, I'd drink it.
- It actually is drinkable.
- Right?
I mean it's got like some
kind of ripe flavors to it.
- Yeah it's sort of like raspberry jam.
- [Jill] Yeah, a little bit riper flavors.
- [Steve] Sort of like unripe
fruit that got turned to jam.
- Yeah, actually as table wine, it's--
- It's actually pretty darn
good, I'm excited about this.
- I know, I know.
- So much about the way we eat now,
the kale from the garden, the
fava beans from the garden.
Our friend's lamb,
that was all new to us
at that point in time.
We brought the values to it,
that's why we were there,
but it was a very exciting
time when we made this wine.
Here's the stats, 12.5
alcohol, mas o'menos.
The wine should be kept
in a cool, dark place
out of reach of impressionable
children and adults.
- [Jill] I don't think
we succeeded in that.
- Yeah.
Are you taking a video?
- Mm-hmm.
(laughs)
- Say now.
- [Steve] Now.
It's always a question
with the family winery
is that question of how do you keep going
when you get to the point
that you want to retire.
- It's not so bad though.
- No, it's a weird color, but
it doesn't taste that old.
I think it's surprisingly
together for an old funky wine
like it is, but yeah, it's interesting.
- Earlier on it's like
we had this idea of it,
it's like it'll be wonderful
and the kid's will want
to get into the business,
it's a family business,
but then as the business
grew and we learned it more
and it sort of took our whole lives over,
that's when you start going hmmm,
this has to be the business
for the right person.
- It's tricky with family wineries.
Making wine is hard work.
Growing grapes is hard work.
It's a tough call.
If you have a family with children
and a succession plan, that usually works.
At least that's the idea.
But that's one of the tricky things
with being a family business
is what do you do when you get tired?
When you've been like I
don't wanna work 17 hour days
working either in the
winery or in the vineyard.
And it's a funny thing also,
you know I talked to an
Italian wine maker once
who said wine making is great, but you,
let's say you start at
20, you only get 60 tries.
(laughs)
You know once a year,
and that's your chance.
- [Steve] It's a tough business.
It's all encompassing, it's relentless.
So we love it.
So for us, it's like great.
It's an amazing life.
But if you're not into
it, it would be horrible.
So we would not wish it upon someone
that doesn't want to do it.
So it's basically if they
make their way in life,
we'll be perfectly happy just
enjoying what we've built,
and hopefully we're gonna be able to do it
for quite a while longer.
And if they want it,
then that's great too.
So it's kind of a no lose.
- There actually is, you know,
especially when it's
multi-generational and it's Europe,
there is much more of a sense
that you kinda can't let
down the family history.
Family wineries in the U.S.
are much shorter histories.
I was talking with an Austrian wine maker,
I was in the Wachau, and
the dog came running up,
this cute dog, the dog's name is Shatzi.
I said that's nice Shatzi, why Shatzi?
He said well that's the fourteenth Shatzi.
And they have a dog, and it's
always the same breed of dog,
and it's always the same name.
And that goes back like
eight generations of family.
And it's a weird way of realizing,
but a cool way of realizing
that this whole business
this Austrian wine maker's involved in
has really deep historical roots.
California wine making,
you know the oldest
families in the business
are pretty much in it at
this point, post prohibition.
I don't know what happens
with a winery like this.
It's a really fascinating question.
And it's a big question in family wineries
in California right now,
especially mid-size,
'cause it's a tough business.
Sometimes the kids think,
no I don't wanna do that.
- I know that I would
probably enjoy it if I did it,
but if I find something else
that I'd like to do more,
then I'd pursue that.
If I'm like 30 and out
of options then probably.
(laughing)
- This is our 2003 red wine.
This is the very first vineage
we ever did commercially.
We are opening this to go back
and rediscover our first vineage.
So we haven't tried it in a couple years.
Haven't even looked at it.
We're looking at it going, huh,
there's the fax number on the back.
So, another era.
It's interesting to think
how our label's developed since then.
2003 printed on the cork.
That's before we knew
that that was a racquet,
that the cork company
puts it in there for free,
'cause then you can't use the
leftover corks the next year.
It took us about 10
years to figure that out.
(wine bottle popping)
(classical string music)
(wine pouring)
- You've probably never had this.
- Probably not.
- You were three years old
when we made this wine.
- Yeah.
This is really fresh, really high toned.
Kind of surprisingly high toned.
- It's really good.
- Yeah.
- Good job on our first vineage.
- First vineage.
- Wow, it's really good.
I remember, we made
120 cases of this wine.
We knew nothing about the wine business.
We'd just been making
home wine all these years,
and Steve was working in the vineyard
that the Merlot comes
from, and the cabernet,
they were both clients of his.
And he just came home one day
and was like we have
to make wine from this.
This is gonna be amazing.
This Merlot is so delicious.
It's gonna be amazing, we have to make it.
And I was like, okay.
And then a day or two would
pass and I just kinda thought
if I didn't answer it would go away.
(laughing)
And then like two days
later, what are we gonna do?
What are we gonna do?
We have to talk about this.
This is our chance, the grapes are ripe,
we have to pick them.
And finally Steve kinda wore me down
and we decided to make a wine.
But, it's like, what are we doing?
- You're like, how are we gonna sell it?
- Oh right.
- And oh, our friend John in San Francisco
who had a lot of disposable income
because he was selling pot,
would go to restaurants and
we're like, John can sell it,
'cause he's friends with
all the restaurants.
- And all the bars.
- And so we talked to John,
and John's like yeah, we'll do it.
And then later when we
had it in the bottle,
John was like, you don't actually mean
that I'm gonna sell all your wine, do you?
- (laughs) That was our whole plan.
- We're like, no you're selling the wine.
You deal with all the restaurants.
We don't go to the restaurants.
We don't have any money.
- Stoner friend John who
like drank a lot of our wine,
but never once sold a bottle.
He did come to us, he was like so,
about me selling your wine.
- Yeah, he realized that
was actually our plan
and he was like, way,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Yeah, so, yeah.
- And then we got introduced
to a distributor in New York
that agreed to sell our wine in New York.
And then somebody we knew in California
agreed to sell our wine but
never sold a bottle of our wine.
Slowly, very slowly, we sold that wine.
I don't know who bought that wine
or how we even sold that first vineage.
- [Steve] I have no idea how we got
through that first vineage.
Our kids were three and six,
and we had this problem for
the first 10 years pretty much
that we couldn't sell
our wine very easily.
And so it wasn't really
making us any money
and I just remember like being in New York
and doing a wine dinner and kinda going
what the hell are we doing here?
Our kids are back home.
This thing isn't, no one wants our wine.
First question they ask when
you walk into the restaurant
is what score did it get?
And that's you know, just
completely the opposite
of what we were trying to be,
what we're about with the wine.
We thought that you make
good wine and you sell it.
We had this problem that our wines
were not really typical of the
modern big Napa Valley wines.
- There were times that we were
just gonna throw in the towel.
- A lot of times.
- There were definitely times
when we were just like--
- Where like this is just ridiculous.
- Or just like maybe this
is just a little hobby
and it's not a real business
and we should just keep
making a small amount.
And here we are, like we make
a little more than 120 cases.
- [Steve] Yeah.
We have the soils and the
climate for making mineral,
lower alcohol, higher acid,
more food oriented wines.
Just as legitimate, and
that was the big fight.
For that lane to develop,
for us to operate within.
And then it was like off to the races.
Now we have, if we have a lane,
then it's just the question of
acting like a normal winery.
Make wine and work really
hard at selling it.
But there was a group of people there
that could then say hey, you know,
yeah I like what you're doing.
- It's been interesting in
the time I lived in Napa
to see those wines go from
sort of more fringe to more mainstream.
And now, you know, they're
winning all these awards.
I was in New York I saw
Matthiasson red wine
on a wine list for almost $200.
I was like, we're mainstream now folks.
It happened.