Mike Sangiacomo
Appearances
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
If they mention this show, they get a free hosted tasting by Mike and I. Ooh, that's huge.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Thanks for having us on.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
We're doing great. 2024 season is upon us. Harvest is coming probably in the next month or so. We're almost to the fourth quarter. We're big sports guys around, so we like to attribute everything into quarters and halves. We're getting close to the fourth quarter. Harvest is our fourth quarter. It's turned out to be, so far, a great vintage.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
We've still got a little ways to go before the goal line. Things are looking good.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
No, we had a little bit of a heat spike. Other than that, survived it well because it was early on in the season. And things look good at this point, like my brother said. The important weather's really kind of at the very end, so we'll see what happens. But as of right now, we're looking good. Yeah, we've had beautiful California sunshine.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Mother Nature so far has blessed us. So we need some more California sunshine to get us to November. So that's all we ask for.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
We're in Sonoma Valley, yeah. We farm across multiple areas of Sonoma County. Sonoma County is made up of different AVAs in American Viticulture areas. So there's 20 AVAs in Sonoma County, and we farm in Sonoma Coast, Carnera, Sonoma Valley, and Petaluma Gap. So we're four of the farm in different areas of Sonoma County.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Others, yeah, we're a multi-generational family. Just like many of the farming operations, the grape growing operation, wine operations in Sonoma County, I think over 70% of our vineyards out here and operations are multi-generational family businesses. So very down, roots run deep around here in terms of, in more ways than one, through the vines and through our businesses out here.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
As of now, yes, no. Yeah, no, we're just growing wine grapes right now. In the past, our family had to own pears, apples, fruits, and cherries, but over the decades and stuff, this is about what's left that is profitable. So farming is about profit. This is about profitability, and unfortunately, we're left here in Sonoma County with just one crop left. There are some apples.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
There are some operations that are still farming apples, but the majority of it's all wine grapes right now, just go to the market and we make amazing wine as we'll be tasting here soon. So we'd love to be able to share with the country and the world.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Yeah, every year. It's a new chapter. It's a new journey. That's amazing in my wine life. It's the best alcoholic product to drink. I'm not biased at all. Don't worry. I'm not biased. But every vintage is different. It's not like there's no recipe wine. There's no recipe. It's like other beverages. They all taste the same. Some, they're different. Some are different for their own reasons.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
david so tanner what i really gotta know is the juice worth the squeeze and tanner all right it's about time to wrap this baby up they're my favorite like farm for fun it's time to put aside the stress of the work boots sit down grab your favorite adult beverage and listen to the boys from farm for profit yay it says applause
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
If it's weather, if it's
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
late growing seasons early growing seasons i mean it's mother mother nature's our boss i know you're a big farming community you understand you farm where mother mother nature is um you know calls the shot so that has a huge influence on each vintage and um you know they're all they're all different um i i'll say you know every vintage is is always my friends are how can you say every vintage is the best because it is all right so what do we have here what'd you guys send our way
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
So this is our 2022 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. So it's from our state family brand. So we sell growers, like a lot of growers in Sonoma County. We sell to multiple wineries. We actually farm 1,600 acres in Sonoma County across 14 different individual vineyards. And we sell to over 90 wineries, which is a common theme with a lot of growers. They start and say, hey, let's start making our own estate.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
And just so they can, you know, consumers can understand our interpretation of our grapes through our wine. And we have other winemakers do their own iterations. And winemaking is art. And we like to say grape growing is art as well. So grape growers play just as big a role in the final product. And we like to educate consumers that, guess what? Guess where wine starts? It starts in the vineyard.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
So this is our 2022 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Absolutely. Yeah, you move it around, get a little of the aromas going, a little sniff, what kind of flavors. And then the next part is, or the aromas, I should say, the next part is tasting it for the flavor and texture. So, yeah, you're breaking, you're soaring up, breaking up all the enzymes. And it just basically... It's not.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
It's basically when you put the romaine, just tell me what you smell. It's like it's the first thing you smell.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Pear. There you go. Bingo. Do you have the tasty notes in front of you? No. No.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
I don't know what that is. So it's a test. Yeah. So pair a lot of fruit notes. So Sonoma County gets a lot of sunshine. We're in California, but we're in the cooler parts of the cooler regions. We're on the marine coastal region, we call it. So we're really close to the Pacific Ocean. We border it. It's California. A lot of our vineyards are, you know, just miles away.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
So we get a lot of that ocean influence, marine influence in the day. So it allows the grapes to get ripe. Then at night, It cools down and allows the vineyards, the grapes to maintain acidity. So you get brightness and great fruit flavors. And then you get acidity that really adds to the textural element to the wine.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
So when you taste it, you're getting fruit and acidity, which is great with food. And then it allows the palate to linger. Do you get some acid in the wine? Do you get some acidity?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Mike, I think if you like fish, obviously, but any of the lighter meats like chicken and pork and then any type of vegetarian goes real well. Any type of sauce is usually lighter sauce, but even though I'll go with a little red sauce as long as it's not too dominant. So it's pretty flexible.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Yeah, that acidity allows for the flavors of the food to be exemplified. And there's a touch of oak on it. So we, you know, new oak is, you know, winemaking in general is like, you know, you want a kiss of oak, right? You don't want, sometimes there's some Chardonnays, you know, Chardonnays got a kind of a bad rap in the last,
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
decades where just you taste it and there's this all oak and a lot of just, you know, you really aren't even tasting the vineyard, the terroir. And there's a big renaissance of Chardonnay where winemakers and just wineries are really cutting back on the oak. And so this has about 22% new oak, which means new French barrels. So you get that really kind of that oak expression.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
And then all the rest of it goes to neutral barrels, which allow for all of our vineyard and all the hard work we do all you know, all year to come through in, in, in the, uh, in the final product.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Chardonnays are a dominant variety, but we also grow Pinot Noir, uh, a little bit of Merlot and a couple other small varieties, a little tiny bit of Sauvignon Blanc, um, and a couple other one and a half, two acre varieties and stuff that we're playing around with. But, uh, Pinot and Chardonnay are our two main varieties.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
So we're Burgundian varieties. So it's in Burgundy of France where it all started, right? And so the Burgundy part of France is a very similar climate to some parts of Sonoma County, not all. Sonoma County has different weather microclimates. And so where our vineyards are, We grow the Burgundian variety, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, just because they're really cool.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
They accelerate and do very well in these types of climates. So Pinot Chard is the majority of what we grow. In Sonoma County, there's Pinot Noir, Chardonnay. We grow a lot in Cabernet. Those are the three main varieties. Having said that, Sonoma County has microclimates where it grows everywhere. I think over every 20 plus varieties, maybe even more than that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
The majority is Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
just a little google search on the right so on the label this beautiful label you have san jacomo it says it says san jacomo which is obviously the winery's name and then below it's sonoma coast and that's actually the region of sonoma where the aba which we talked about uh earlier and then it says a chardonnay variety as you just alluded and then the vintage on there it'll even go as specific as sometimes they'll they'll put um
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Vineyard-specific wines. So for us, we'll put, you know, some of our – one of our 14 different vineyards. So it'll be San Giacomo. It'll say Green Acres, Sonoma Coast, Chardonnay. So that's some of the, you know, the writings that goes on labels and some of the educational components.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Can we get – So we don't – for us, we're about 4,000 cases, so super small states. brand. We sell 97% of the fruit we grow. We only use about 3% of our favorite blocks and vineyards. So, for us, we have a wine club at our website, sanjargonwines.com, and you can buy online. We direct shift. We're not in Iowa yet. We don't have distribution in Iowa.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
You're in Ohio. We're not in any of the... We're just in a couple small states. Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Well, it should have come in ice. If it didn't, then I'm going to call our ship. It is very difficult to ship wine this time of year because of the heat, and they should come with ice. Did it come with ice?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
It survived, right?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Well, you guys got to come on. So you were out visiting, you said?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Well, you got to come out to Sonoma and visit us.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Well, it's not that. Yeah, it's not that far.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Oh, the Sonoma County Wine Growers?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Yeah, no, it's a great organization. It helps us just basically promote all the great wines we're growing in the area. You know, we haven't reached everybody in the world yet, and certainly in the country. So, you know, it's a great organization. helped us promote the wines and, you know, get it in front of people so they can try it because it really is a great product.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
And do you know Sonoma County is the most sustainable wine region in the world? So 99% of our vineyards in Sonoma County are certified sustainable.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
And this was led, I mean, to your question, Corey, this was led by the Sonoma County wine growers, Carissa, and I'm part of the board, and we put a stake in the ground in 2015 to be the most certified wineries in the world, and
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
About three or four years ago, we attained that, and there's a certification process that all of our vineyards go through with the third-party monitor comes in and assesses the whole program that's all around sustainability.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
Well, there's plenty of room for all of us in the wine world, and Napa's a great, they're a great neighbor, but we just, we're here to promote Sonoma, and so you just, you know, when people say Napa, you say, well, Sonoma grows, they grow great wine, but so does Sonoma as well. Yes.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
You're going to be wine and dine. Wine and dine.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - AJ Wiechmann Trucker and Pilot - after we try some wine!
SanGiacomoWines.com. W-W-W-S-A-N-G-I-A-C-O-M-O-W-I-N-E-S.com.