Russian River Valley

It reads like a pilot for a Hollywood sitcom: Six friends move to Northern California, share a mutual enthusiasm for wine, and start their own wine label. In the Hollywood version, comedy and romance would surely ensue. In real life, the world gets some great wine. IntoWine caught up with Tim Halloran, one of Kindred Wines' six co-founders, to discuss the joys and hurdles of their nascent wine venture.

IntoWine recently sat down with Lionheart Wines Founder Leon Glover to discuss his foray into winemaking, his focus on food friendly wines, and his nascent wine brand, Lionheart Wines. A wine collector for 21 years, he completed the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Diploma certification in 2008 (AIWS) with plans to enter the Master of Wine program in the next couple of years in an effort to further his wine knowledge and help train his palate for winemaking. He has been a judge at several wine competitions such as the Pinot Noir Shootout, Cabernet Sauvignon Shootout and looks for more wine judging opportunities in the future. Merging his professional career in high tech and entrepreneurship, his current technology project is a new search engine focused on wine and wine & food pairing recommendations. In 2006, Leon and his wife, Jennifer, started Lionheart Wines with the idea of producing premium quality yet affordable food-friendly wines to be shared with friends and family.

It’s a common Silicon Valley dream. The analytical person who catches the wine bug early in life and can’t wait for the day when they can focus their passion away from algorithms and code and towards winemaking. Rick Moshin is living that Silicon Valley dream. A former mathematician, Moshin entered the wine business gradually, working weekends at first, then learning the ropes working with some of the finest winemakers in Sonoma. He bought his first lot of vines in 1989 and in 2005 celebrated his first crush along with the launch of his 30 year old dream, Moshin Vineyards and Winery . IntoWine recently caught up with Rick to discuss his evolution from mathematician to winemaker and hear first hand what is an inspiring story of persistence and passion.

Interview with Dan Kosta Anecdotal evidence suggests the raison d’etre of Pinot Noir has been challenged, stretched, and reshaped in the past ten years. Pick up a Wine Spectator from the mid to late 90’s, and there is a lot of commonality. Dehlinger, Rochioli and Williams Selyem shared face-time with perennial star, Marcassin. Not only do those wineries make a lot of Russian River Pinot, but their alcohol levels in years of ratings dominance held consistently in the 13-14.5% range.