Speaker: Patrick
What was the first time a natural wine blew your mind?
Patrick Chin: I tried to get into wine in college and I was young, I was 21 or 22. I thought wine was really fun and interesting, and I had started to enjoy a few things, but I had no idea what I was doing. I blindly I would try to go buy bottles at the store and just figure it out. When you're that age, you don't know a lot of people that maybe have recommendations for you or anything, and I didn't know who to trust to look into things. So it just was really intimidating trying to figure out what to get and where to get it. I don't know. I was really intimidated by the whole thing. The scope and scale of the wine industry is really intimidating also. So I'm 33 now, I think I would only say I've really been diving deeper into wine in the last handful of years. And I think the gateway drug was my brother working at a shop in Atlanta called Home and Adventure Bottle Shop. And he introduced me to Beaujolais and I think it's starting to focus on a region for me was a lot more approachable. It was easier. to grasp what was happening with wine It was easier to hyper focus on a small region and really dig through it and explore it. And I just had so much fun, The price points are great. Of course, I think that a lot of them just due to tradition, are very low intervention or are natural wineries historically. And of course I didn't know that at the time, That was what really got me excited about wine was Beaujolais. And maybe only a year or two later a friend, also in Atlanta, Andy Lee, who does a lot of Martha's photos, I believe, gifted me my first few bottles of natural wine. He gave me a Dirty and Rowdy, and he gave me one of your wines. So naturally, those two are some of my favorite wineries still.
What intrigued you about our wines that made you seek us out?
Patrick Chin: After Andy gifted me the first bottle or two of yours, I think what intrigued me the most because I've never really had a natural wine from California or natural wine in general. I'm sure I have, but not one that was kind of like that was their whole approach was to really take things back and simplify things in the way that you did. Just because it was my first exposure, I think what was really fun about it was, I don't know, I liked the attitude of getting back to: here's what is unique about these grapes or this place or very terroir specific and more like the coffee does with two single origin coffees and showcasing how bright, acidic some things can be and how chocolatey and kind of rich, other things be and I just totally agree with what you said. I think for me a lot of what wasn't maybe fun about wine, as much I did enjoy drinking it, I never really had fun with it admittedly, until the last few years. As I learned about you and many others, kind of in what seems to be your sphere in California making wines and kind of just saying, "Why do we have to do it this way?" And, I think it's an attitude thing. I enjoyed that What so many of what seemed to be the young winemakers are saying, Why do we have to do it this way? Why can't you just kind of do something a little younger? A brighter or fruity or more fun? I think that's what has me so excited about your wines. And I also just really love your story. Admittedly, I think that's what my wife really bought into at first was When I read about you more and Andy told me about you and your wines I love all the experience you had, of course, but then I love just kind of one woman, nature of it and how awesome you seem and how fun it seems that you have a hand in every aspect of the process. So keep experimenting and having fun because I really enjoy it. Thanks!
