The Tipsy Vine
https://thetipsyvinewa.com/
Instagram: @thetipsyvinewa
Bung Pod
Merch: bungpod.store
Ever wondered how a bottle of Grenache Blanc can change your life? Julia Carlson, the proud owner of a new bottle shop in Spokane, joins us to share the captivating story of her journey into the wine industry. Julia recounts the serendipitous moment that ignited her passion for Rhone varietals and bubbly wines like Petnat. From the aesthetics of her newly opened shop to the significance of Washington wine regions, Julia's enthusiasm for wine is contagious. Tune in to hear about her favorite wine brands and what makes her shop a must-visit in Spokane.
This episode isn't just about wine; it's a flavorful exploration of various beverages and their cultural contexts. Starting with a fun chat about Malibu Rum shots, we segue into our passion for silver tequila and the distinctive tasting notes of Dusted Valley BFM, a Bordeaux blend. We even delve into the merits of screw caps, cans, and wine on tap, underscoring our mission to make wine culture approachable and enjoyable for everyone. Consider it your friendly guide to the world of wine, as welcoming as a hipster coffee shop.
Launching a wine club comes with its own set of challenges and triumphs, as we discuss in detail, from securing a historic building to navigating licensing struggles. We highlight five standout Washington wineries you need to know about, including Upside Down and Smokey Rose Cellars, each with its unique backstory and offerings. Whether you're a seasoned wine lover or just beginning to explore the world of Washington wines, this episode provides plenty of reasons to support local wineries. Cheers to discovering the best of Washington's wine scene!
Join our Jabrone Gang! https://www.patreon.com/officialbungpod
Instagram: @officialbungpod
TikTok: @officialbungpod
The Tipsy Vine
https://thetipsyvinewa.com/
Instagram: @thetipsyvinewa
Bung Pod
Merch: bungpod.store
Ever wondered how a bottle of Grenache Blanc can change your life? Julia Carlson, the proud owner of a new bottle shop in Spokane, joins us to share the captivating story of her journey into the wine industry. Julia recounts the serendipitous moment that ignited her passion for Rhone varietals and bubbly wines like Petnat. From the aesthetics of her newly opened shop to the significance of Washington wine regions, Julia's enthusiasm for wine is contagious. Tune in to hear about her favorite wine brands and what makes her shop a must-visit in Spokane.
This episode isn't just about wine; it's a flavorful exploration of various beverages and their cultural contexts. Starting with a fun chat about Malibu Rum shots, we segue into our passion for silver tequila and the distinctive tasting notes of Dusted Valley BFM, a Bordeaux blend. We even delve into the merits of screw caps, cans, and wine on tap, underscoring our mission to make wine culture approachable and enjoyable for everyone. Consider it your friendly guide to the world of wine, as welcoming as a hipster coffee shop.
Launching a wine club comes with its own set of challenges and triumphs, as we discuss in detail, from securing a historic building to navigating licensing struggles. We highlight five standout Washington wineries you need to know about, including Upside Down and Smokey Rose Cellars, each with its unique backstory and offerings. Whether you're a seasoned wine lover or just beginning to explore the world of Washington wines, this episode provides plenty of reasons to support local wineries. Cheers to discovering the best of Washington's wine scene!
Join our Jabrone Gang! https://www.patreon.com/officialbungpod
Instagram: @officialbungpod
TikTok: @officialbungpod
Bung pod. Welcome back, wine Wonderboy. And we got Jazzy J Jazzy. What is a bung? The hole of the barrel is called a bung hole. Inside the bung hole is called a bung Wine with mayhem. That's what it's about. All right, welcome back. Welcome back to the Bung Pod. It's your boy, ian King, aka Wine Wonder Boy. I have my co-host with me, jazzy J Hello everybody Jazzy Way too much we out here.
Speaker 1:It's just me and Jaz that run this whole pod. So if you can go, give us a five-star review on any podcast platform that you're listening to this on. Also say hi to us. Dm us at official bung pod, instagram, tiktok, whatever that you got. So we have a fun episode today. We have our good friend here. She just opened up a in Spokane. We have Julia Carlson Hello.
Speaker 3:How are you doing today so good? How are you?
Speaker 1:Oh, wonderful, good, I get comfortable over here. Okay, I did bring a wine. Yes, I was going to open this with a wine key, but this is a little screw top bad boy, there we go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes.
Speaker 1:This one I got from Dusted Valley BFM, which could stand for Big Fucking Merlot.
Speaker 3:That's what we like.
Speaker 1:Bad fucking mama.
Speaker 3:That's what I am, yeah.
Speaker 1:Thank you, that's what I am. Yeah, yeah, thank you, and we also in the, in behind the scenes.
Speaker 3:Over here, we have larissa, which helped design your my space, your, your space, your new bottle shop yep which is awesome.
Speaker 1:I love design. I do like aesthetically. I just like aesthetics a lot, but I'm just not that great at creating aesthetically pleasing things.
Speaker 3:I have a lot of creativity, I feel like in good ideas, but I can't ever bring them to fruition. Yeah, Yep. So what kind of? What kind of?
Speaker 1:wines. Do you gravitate towards More like Bordeaux? Do you like Bordeaux? Do you like Rhone, burgundy?
Speaker 3:I do love Rhone varietals. I feel like my. You know, I used to be one of those people who thought they didn't like a whole entire category of wine. So in 2018, 2019, I still told myself I didn't like white wine. I still told myself I didn't like white wine. And then I had the Cardis.
Speaker 2:Grenache Blanc on a 2020 COVID trip.
Speaker 3:We couldn't even go into the space, we just were buying bottles like through our car window.
Speaker 3:And so we stayed in Chilean that weekend, we had our family with us and we bought the bottle. We didn't drink any wine when we were here because we couldn't go into wineries, and so we weren't. Whatever we were doing, we were, you know, making cocktails or seltzers, whatever, and so it wasn't until I got home that I tried the wine and that wine like totally opened up my whole entire palate and really led me on this discovery of white wine. So I love the Rhone varietals, all that to say, but my favorite wine to drink is anything bubbly Petnat. I'm a hoe for a Petnat.
Speaker 1:Ooh, nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I like the funky things. My favorite bottle right now if we're getting into that, I'll just offer that up is the Sage Rat Petnat Rouge.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've heard a lot about Sage Rat, yeah, and so many people have asked me to, you know, bring them on the podcast which I want to do Absolutely. Them and also Sonder. I want them both on the podcast.
Speaker 3:I love Sonder. Yeah, I want to do that as well. I feel like they have similar winemaking styles. Yeah, they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'd love to do an one. That would be the best, because we do remote podcasts too, but I just love in-person dynamics a lot more. You kind of get a bullshit more, yeah, and so you're not going off of a list of questions, you know? Yeah, I like that a lot. But yeah so what's your experience in the wine, in the wine industry?
Speaker 3:you get started okay. So I've been um what I consider myself as a longtime consumer in the industry, slash hobbyist. So our very first trip to Chelan was almost 10 years ago. So my nine-year-old son is almost 10. And the first time we came to Chelan was when he was an infant. He was four months old and we lived in Seattle at the time, so it was a really easy way to just come away for the weekend and so on that trip we bought we were still pretty young I think I was 24 at the time and we'd been married maybe a year and so it was like our first bottle of good wine that we ever bought, and it was at Nefarious and it cost us 40 bucks, which at the time like still felt like quite a lot.
Speaker 3:Being newly married, with this new baby, I had quit my job to stay home with him, and so after our trip here for that very first time and that initial purchase, like I held that empty bottle. I saved it through like many, many moves. I finally did just get rid of it a few years ago. But that kind of started us off on the Washington wine discovery, started us off on the Washington Wine Discovery and I never really branched out into international or in a way that I have with Washington Wine. So it's been about 10 years since we've been exploring Washington Wine and really watching all the regions grow, and so we've been to Chelan and Manson now more times than.
Speaker 3:I can count, and everywhere else as well, and now more times than I can count, and everywhere else as well. But I guess for me and for how my husband and I were exploring wine, it was the most relevant to us. Like this affects our daily life right, totally, and so I can have respect for all the other wine regions and growing regions, but nothing is more relevant than what we're doing in Washington, and so it just kind of has, just over the years, like it's been a crescendo of more interest, you know, a deeper understanding of wine and the wine industry and wanting to learn more. And then, um, my kids are both in elementary school now. My background is in public health. I have a master's in public health as well, and I just knew I didn't want to go back to any sort of corporate wellness, which is what I was working previously, and I didn't want to do a nine to five, I didn't want to play by someone else's rules. And so my husband said find a way to make this tax deductible.
Speaker 1:And I said checkmate, here we go, let's go, I can do that said checkmate, here we go, let's go, I can do that, that's easy.
Speaker 2:So here we are, that's like with a bottle shop and a wine club.
Speaker 1:Now, yeah, yeah, that's so fun. Yeah, by the way, I loved um. I just thought of this right now, but I loved how you rolled in with a shot of malibu rum. It is awesome. Okay, it's on camera, it's right there. Let me just she's like let's go.
Speaker 3:Today's a fun day. It's a Sunday fun day right now. Let me make a disclaimer, though, that this is not what I would. We don't shoot Malibu Rum. I'm looking at Larissa who's off camera. Here's the thing. We were on our way. We left really early this morning. What time did you get in town? 11. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Damn.
Speaker 3:And so we were at this gas station in like Banks Lake area and I'm like, let's get shots. You know, the day was just getting ahead of me already. I was just ready to party and have fun. Yeah, this is not what we typically shoot. I just feel like I need to make the disclaimer that that what do you usually?
Speaker 1:what's your normal?
Speaker 3:tequila I'm a tequila girl, or seasonally crown peach or crown apple, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So six months of the year we do crown apple. I hate peach.
Speaker 1:So for tequila, do you do um reposado or what's? Your typically silver okay, yeah, there you go, yep um.
Speaker 3:You know I like all sorts of tequila, but I'm not going to be picky, but I typically gravitate towards silver okay, nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like a good sipping tequila yeah I've never sipped it, I just you know down the hatch. Hey, so you haven't explained our wine and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this is Dusted Valley BFM. This is a Bordeaux blend of mostly Merlot, I believe. Let me double check. On the back label here it is 66% Merlot, 28% Cab Sauve and 6% Petit Verdot. I get that 6% man. Yep, I love this wine. I got it because I visited their tasting room in Woodinville and I thought this was. I don't typically gravitate towards Bordeaux's, I just don't. I just kind of think they're boring a little bit. But I love Old World Bordeauxs like right bank, left bank, and this reminded me of a right bank Bordeaux style blend because it has a lighter touch on it. The tannin is a little bit more rustic, I feel like on it, and so it really gave me that kind of like Bordeaux style. And so I was like fuck yeah, I'm going to grab a bottle of this guy for the pod. They're really awesome people too. They have a really cool story. It's owned by two couples and they just do a great job down in Walla Walla.
Speaker 3:I'm going there next weekend for a spring release, oh really. Yeah because I already carried the Boomtown line in the shop and so I'm going to go to Dusted Valley and see the estate and everything. Oh, how perfect. I know.
Speaker 2:When I walked in I was like it really was.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So what would?
Speaker 2:you say the tasting notes are on this, or do you want to try? No, no, no, don't put me on the spot.
Speaker 3:I get too nervous. That was a hard pass, hard pass.
Speaker 1:It's very red-fruited on the nose. Also, there's a lot more floral components red florals, purple florals. I think too a little bit. There's no hint of like. There's no bombardment on the nose of French oak, although I get a hint of it in there, got that vanilla clovey kind of nutmeggy on the nose, but it's not overpowering. It's not your typical kind of like Napa style, big Bordeaux style that they do. And on the palate.
Speaker 2:I'm just enjoying it to sober me up.
Speaker 1:Drinking wine to sober yourself up, that's great.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Tannins are rustic. They're not trying to rip your mouth apart, they're kind of.
Speaker 2:I do have a rustic.
Speaker 1:They're a little grainy, a little rustic. Yeah, there's also a good amount of plum and that black currant in there, also a tinge of fennel or black licorice. I think that comes from the Petit Verdot. It's more of a concentrated flavor that 6% maybe 6% bitch. Yeah, this is fucking good. Good job, dusty Valley.
Speaker 2:I'll direct this question to you how do you feel about?
Speaker 3:screw caps. I love screw caps. Okay, yeah, I love them um for me, you know it's. It's a boat wine, it's a beach wine, it's a car bar exactly before a concert wine. I have no problem with the screw tap. Screw cap yes.
Speaker 1:Screw taps, screw tops, screw cap. Shout out to screw taps one time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know what it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's they're convenient, they're convenient.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I am all for alternative vessels for wine.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I love the cans. I love the cans. I love the screw caps. I love the kegs on tap. Wine on tap is great. I think it's really dope and it really brings, I guess, more of a younger crowd where it's kind of taking all the bougie shit out of wine, which is kind of what we try to do with this pod. It's like we love wine and wine education and wine people.
Speaker 1:We just hate the pretentiousness that comes with sometimes and while you can appreciate high quality wines and appreciate those experiences, people do not necessarily connect with it because it is a very intimidating culture to get into because of the pretentiousness Right to get into, because of because of the pretentiousness right and so, um, it's kind of like when you go to a super bougie ass coffee shop and which I fucking love those, by the way, big fan, big fan of artisan coffee roasters but you go in there, like when I first went into one of those shops, everyone was fucking hipster, everyone's like design, why everyone looked awesome, like you know, aesthetically and I was like damn, like I'm super I'm super intimidated by this place right now and I didn't know what to order.
Speaker 1:They have like a bunch of drinks that are, you know, in italian or whatever, and you're just like all right, I have no idea what to get, but this smells great in here and I want to.
Speaker 3:I want that. I want that.
Speaker 1:Whatever this smell is, which is cool. Once you just go to the person, you're just like okay, so what would you recommend? This is what I usually drink. Same thing with wine.
Speaker 2:Same thing with wine.
Speaker 3:Same thing with wine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love the screw caps too because the technology has come so far, especially the past five to 10, the past like five to ten years. Um, in the beginning screw caps like new zealand was doing it mostly with like sauvignon blanc, like oyster bay marlboro sauvignon blancs which I get because it really keeps a freshness in there um, but how they started to um integrate the technology of breathability within the screw caps is really cool, especially for red wines, and I love it because it gives access, easy, ease of access, you know, because you don't always have the way to concert.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hell yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what I was going to say, is it's?
Speaker 3:accessibility. So if I want to incorporate wine into my daily life, which I typically do, I'm not bringing a corkscrew on the boat. I'm not bringing a corkscrew to the beach.
Speaker 2:Well, especially when you have kids and you're thinking of a million other things, exactly, totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm the kind of guy who's always prepared, so I feel like I always have the corkscrew in my backpack, I have one in even the equipment bag, I have one in the car, I have one on my keychain.
Speaker 2:Um, I can appreciate that I got one everywhere yeah, I got one everywhere yeah, yeah and I'm the person that just never has one well, I brought a bunch of wines camping one time and I completely forgot a corkscrew and I was like fuck, how am I gonna open these?
Speaker 1:and so one of my buddies, I just put the bottle in the back of his like hiking boot and slammed it against a tree. So the cork would pop open. Oh my, it worked. I spilled wine all over me, but it worked and I was like, great, you gotta do and after the camping trip I found the corkscrew in my glove compartment. I was like I knew I fucking had one somewhere.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the worst son of a nutcracker we, okay, a little bit of a tangent, but we have a little cabin on the northern tip of Lake Roosevelt, okay, and when we're not there, we Airbnb it out. And so we had a renter call us, which isn't totally typical. When any renter calls me I'm like immediate panic, what's wrong, you know? One guy was like we have a bottle of wine we want to open. The whole town is closed down. Can you tell me where your corkscrew is? And we're like shit. I took it home with me on accident. It was in one of our coolers, so I brought it home and we felt so bad so I texted him the next day and I said I hope everything else about your stay was great. We own a wine shop. There's no excuse why we didn't have a corkscrew out there. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2:I hope you found a way to open your wine, did he reply? Yeah, he gave us a five-star review, but that's not the point.
Speaker 3:Did you get a one-star?
Speaker 1:No it was just like One-star review. No, there's no wine key in the cabin.
Speaker 3:We need to be better about wine accessibility, and they own a wine shop.
Speaker 1:And they own a wine shop.
Speaker 3:Like no excuse. Inexcusable, Inexcusable. This is ridiculous. Really wanted that five star. So I just strive to be more like. You have them everywhere.
Speaker 1:I try. I don't always, you know, have them. But, I really try.
Speaker 2:So the idea of the wine shop? Yes, how did this all besides getting it written off on your taxes? Yeah, how did this all besides getting it written off?
Speaker 3:on your taxes come to fruition. Yeah, yeah. So the retail wasn't necessarily in the plan from the get-go.
Speaker 2:Okay, what was the original plan? The?
Speaker 3:original plan was what I launched the business as, which was a curated Washington wine club. So what I wanted to do, which was really the crux of it, was when Eric told me eric's my husband. He said find a way to make nine wine clubs tax deductible. Um, which of course now we only belong to, two being in the industry, which he still has a problem with. But we're gonna let it slide.
Speaker 3:So so he has a problem with having them or not having enough having them having he doesn't think we have a need for them anymore because you have the wine shop right.
Speaker 3:Right, which is fair, but anyways, but still, you've got to have one, right, yeah, supporting the industry, I agree, yeah.
Speaker 3:So the idea was to create a streamlined wine club in which people could commit to knowing their upfront commitment in terms of financial costs, because we decided on a set, a fixed price for each of our club tiers and we wanted to be able to taste people all over the state, so they're not committed to one winemaking style, to one grape growing region, um to one particular type of wine, and so we really wanted to provide people with a diverse experience of wine, to be able to either grow their own cellars or just have wine on hand any given day that they can feel like they can open.
Speaker 3:Right, and you don't have to save for a special occasion. So we launched the business right off the bat. We got a lot of our friends and family signed up, and so we had this really cute little club following at the time, and we quickly realized we weren't going to be able to grow the club the way we wanted to unless we had a physical space for people to come to, and so my husband was driving by the space that we ended up renting in September. He kind of pitched it to me. I said let's explore. And three days later we had the keys to this building that was built in the 40s and had been previously inhabited by a train.
Speaker 3:Hobby, yeah, store, oh okay, for like 40 plus years, yeah, okay, so october you know we didn't really intend to like saddle ourselves with this whole renovation. We already had our whole fall planned out. We were taking a family vacation and then, as you know, like holidays and everything pick up. So we didn't really start working on the space until early november is when we like really started hitting it hard and we were supposed to be open by mid-december, um, and that didn't happen. So we ended up opening mid-february. And why didn't it happen? Because our license got objected to by a church and so wait?
Speaker 1:so a church objected to your liquor license yes, so is it a full? Do you have a full? Do you also sell liquor there as well?
Speaker 3:we have the beer and wine specialty shop license, and so any school or church within a 500 feet walking distance had the opportunity to object, and so our liquor licensor had to reach out to that church and say this is what's going in 500 feet away from you. And so, um they, they chose to object, and they objected with all the cdc statistics about why alcohol is terrible for you wow and that's okay.
Speaker 1:You can totally have that opinion I hate jesus too I respect non-drinkers jesus was a winemaker by the way, yeah, so once, yeah it was a little how many, by the way? Yeah, so it was.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was a little.
Speaker 3:How many feet?
Speaker 2:are you in walking distance?
Speaker 3:482. Because, yeah, so we were. I mean, this was quite the blow. We, we had just like really started dumping money into the space to get it to what it looks like now, and our thought was like we need to halt everything until we know if we're going to get this license approved right.
Speaker 3:Because now we're in this five-year long lease and this, that and the other thing, and so we tried to find every way to work around it essentially, and so my husband Eric, and then one of my best friends, her name's Jordan, her husband Greg, they took a tape measure out and they walked the whole tape measure from our front door to the church's front door. Um, and they found out it was the 482 feet. My husband went to the sermon, he went to service there, he talked to the pastor and oh, what a good guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's effort, you know it was yeah and I should have handled it. Don't send amanda to a woman's job. I should have done. It is what I learned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would have just left like I appreciated yeah, bag of dog shit and linoleum fire. If they object, if they're the type of church to like object to alcohol, then they're probably a little misogynistic there's southern baptist, so I think they're really conservative. Uh-huh.
Speaker 3:And the really ironic thing is we have two bars next door.
Speaker 1:Oh, look at that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Two bars Full, bars that are closer Like dive bars, like bar bars, significantly closer, yeah.
Speaker 3:So we have Boomer's Bar and Grill, which is a wonderful establishment. I love both of them, I frequent both of them, yeah, um, boomers is great, technically family friendly, but then next to it we have a bar called green city saloon and it is more of a dive bar. Okay, karaoke, you know. Close it down by 2 am on the weekend, super duper fun um. But of the businesses in our area, I'm not necessarily the one promoting over service so that's where, like hypocrisy, you're like the classy one out of them yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, I was gonna yeah, go suck it, yeah, yeah, that's weird from like a christian perspective.
Speaker 1:That's just weird because I'm I used to be a assistant pastor and I'm a christian.
Speaker 2:That's just a weird, shocking, I know that's just a weird thing to me.
Speaker 3:I just don't get it. I just didn't feel but I wasn't that, I was non-denominational, so we're a little more chill and accepting of most people yeah, it was. It was a purposeful objection for the. The sole purpose was to make it harder for us, and they did. That's exactly what they said to us. They said we know you're going to get the license, we're just doing what we can to make it more difficult.
Speaker 1:That's kind of fucked up.
Speaker 3:So, it was a real bummer However what I have to say about it is there's no way in hell we would have been ready to open on the schedule we intended to open on, and so it kind of was a blessing in disguise that we could really like get our ducks in a row Like we were still um so um yeah, the day of our grand opening we were installing a shelf like a whole you know what nine, eight, eight or nine foot long shelf underneath, so we really had no business thinking we were going to open mid-december but it so it worked out the way it did.
Speaker 2:I you know, when I start projects, I'm always very like oh yeah, I can totally do this in like a couple of days, yeah. And then I'm like a month deep and I'm like what the fuck was I thinking Like, why did I even start this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, classic case of biting off more than we can chew yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's going well. It's going really well. Yeah, our club has more than tripled going really well. Yeah, our club has more than tripled. Great, just super exciting, fantastic. Yes, makes it worth it right there, absolutely, yeah, so we have a really, really fun group of club members. Now our next release is in two weeks. So tell me about your wine club. Okay, so our wine club is three different tiers. We do three releases per year.
Speaker 2:Okay, so spring, fall, winter, I think initially specific months, or is it just like when you can get to it?
Speaker 3:You know I'm going to try to make them consistent. So what we did this year was October, february and May. Okay, so that'll probably end up being our schedule moving forward. But when I started the business I didn't really know if I was going to have to ship wine or if all my clientele would be local, and so that's why I didn't include a summer release, just for the purpose of not having to ship. So I think now I'll do an opt-in summer release with our current members. But we have three different tiers, so we do a four-tier, six-tier and a case. So the best way to enjoy the club is the six bottle, because there's a lot of strategy behind how we're pairing the six wines together and the regions in which we're sourcing them from and the reason that we're sourcing them for the season that we're sourcing them in.
Speaker 2:So the best way to get the full experience is six bottle and do you do just like one of each kind of wine, or do you do two of each kind of wine, or so the six bottle it's gonna vary, but the six bottle is six totally different bottles.
Speaker 3:Okay, so for winter we had a sparkling, a white and then four reds so seasonally we had heavier reds for spring. We have two whites, a rose and then three lighter reds. Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, um so and is it a mix of international and domestic, or how are you doing?
Speaker 3:it's all washington wine, it's all washington, so you're 100 washington focused 100 washington.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, that's really cool yeah, and I think that's what sets us apart too, because there's not there's no other bottle shops in our immediate area in spokane valley. We have a couple of tasting rooms and wineries, but the majority of our bottle shops are either in Coeur d'Alene, which is about 15 miles away from us, or downtown Spokane, which is a 20, 25-minute drive west of us, and what sets us apart from all of those shops is that we're only focusing on Washington. Us apart from all of those shops is that we're only focusing on Washington. So, um, those shops have, um, a pretty heavy influence of international wines as well, because they have the market for us for it. But I'm really, really hoping to again, it's the relevance.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's what's most relevant to my daily life and the state we live in, of course, and our local economy. And so that's what I want to be um, I want to disseminate that information and that knowledge and that passion to people that you don't have to find wine from all over the world or all over the united states, because we have it right here why, wouldn't we harness that?
Speaker 1:yeah, um, that's what I really like, that yeah, all right, let's take a break for a minute, because jazzy has got something to tell you.
Speaker 2:All right, let's talk about it. So did you know we do have extra episodes on Patreon, what? And you can only get these for $5.
Speaker 1:What yeah, crazy.
Speaker 2:I know Dope, so go to Patreon. Link is in the description of the episode and subscribe $5. You're supporting us and you're getting to learn more about the wine industry. Let's go. Woo, all right, all right, all right. Guess what? I think Ian has something to tell us. I do.
Speaker 1:I do. We got some merch going on right now. We got hoodies Say what? We got handbags.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 1:We got stickers, what we got tank tops right now for the summertime, ooh, hell. Yeah, we got some windbreakers too. So go to bungpodstore and get your BungPod merch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, baby. I mean it's nice to try other places but at the same time, to know your area is also good.
Speaker 1:Yeah so there was a uh sub stack article that came out from patrick capiello. He's uh, I don't know if you know who he is, but he was a huge influence in the wine community. He's a sommelier, was a sommelier in new york and moved to sonoma and now he was working with pax and sebastopol making his own wine and he's a big voice in the wine community in the united states and um, somewhat globally. But he he wrote the article about the case to drink american wine because of we're kind of in a wine recession right now for purchasing and drinking. There are a lot of theories on why that's happening, but one of his one thing that we brought up is we decided we were going to choose five wineries you should drink right now and we couldn't we couldn't double up.
Speaker 1:Okay so if you had five Washington wineries that you would.
Speaker 2:Put you on the spot. Okay, drink now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that you would recommend for people. What are your top?
Speaker 3:five. I feel the pitter-patter, you guys, we can add it to the websites too, so people can go check it out. I don't have to rank them in order of—.
Speaker 1:No, it doesn't have to be in order, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think I remember mine and I remember some of yours too, so I can— Okay.
Speaker 3:After you're done, I could share. Yeah, let's cross-reference when we're done. I'm sure they're all different. To remember all yeah, I did some in california as well.
Speaker 2:I had started making wine in california, so I came up here two years ago.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, oh, this is hard okay in no particular order. No particular order. All right, my first recommendation would be upside down. Oh yeah, absolutely love what they do and watching them, um, from when they started yeah the upside down label until to what they are today has been really fun. They're friends of ours from college so, yeah, we were drinking like kitsky wine which um seth's parents yeah that's their label, and I have had a lot of back and forth yeah we're trying to get him on the pod, but I want to do it in person with him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so yeah so we drinking Kitsky wine in college as college students, Anytime Well now we know whose name I drop when we oh, yeah, Um and so I I love everything they do. That's the type of winemaking style I gravitate towards personally, and so we were club members with them for quite a while, so we have a lot of their wine with them for quite a while.
Speaker 3:So we have a lot of their wine. Okay upside down. Okay, yes, thank you, yeah, um, this is I'm feeling the pressure, I'm starting to get really nervous. Um, okay, upside down wine, because it's kind of covering all the bases of ingenuity low intervention, roan varietals right that you have some of those daily drinkers like the rescue rose, but you have the bottles that you can sell, or like the lalonde I think it's a cabsoff lalonde, cabsoff, um, or the devil is a liar. Okay, so it kind of covers all your bases with upside down.
Speaker 2:Um, oh man, this is hard yeah, I know it's, oh my gosh really hard out there, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Okay, I have to say Tiritus, I'm a big fan of bubbles.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, they just did a pouring at my shop on Friday, oh fun. Every time we're in Prosser and we're in their tasting room, we have the best time and they're making traditional method bubbles and what they're coming out with in the near future is so fun. They just have that. You know, a lot of what we're hearing in the wine industry right now, especially in Washington, is like Rhone varietal, Rhone varietal, Rhone varietal, and they're kind of like fuck that we're going to focus on Washington and what Washington can do and so I really appreciate that.
Speaker 3:I think they have a totally different perspective. Yeah, and so they're. They're again harnessing, like what we have available to us and making it really cool.
Speaker 1:And if you're a bubble drinker, you kind of always have a champagne blood type baby that's right, a shambong.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I have two there. Um oh man, this is hard. This is really, really hard. I want to say Smokey Rose Cellars. Of course, that's a no-brainer.
Speaker 1:What is it?
Speaker 3:Smokey Rose.
Speaker 1:Cellars, I've never heard of this, okay.
Speaker 3:Let me tell you about them. Smokey Rose Cellars, walla, walla Valley. So Josh and Jodi are the owners. Josh is the winemaker and he was a meteorologist in the Air Force for 25 years before he retired and they moved their family from the Midwest to Washington to pursue wine. And when I say the family, like his parents, moved too. So his parents are always in the tasting room. They have these lovely little photo albums every year that they put together so charming. And his sister, amy, is a co-owner in the business and she is one of six. She just retired from the marine corps, so veteran owned um across the board and she was one of six cobra pilots, um, so one of six female cobra fighter pilots so she's, she's badass.
Speaker 2:She'd whoop your ass. Yeah, facts, I'm a bitch.
Speaker 1:A thousand percent. I'm a bitch, so yeah, she would.
Speaker 2:So just their story alone, right, is appealing.
Speaker 3:And the very first time we pulled up to their tasting room, which was several years ago, at this point we were like where are we? You know, it's very unassuming from the outside and it's kind of not a strange area in Walla Walla, but just kind of an unexpected area. You'd find yourself into wine taste and then you go inside and it's truly some of the best wines that I think I've ever had in Washington state. And their catalog is expanding to varietals. I didn't really ever foresee them releasing, which makes it even more fun.
Speaker 3:So we are still a part of Smokey Rose Wine Club. We'll never get rid of them. They'll have to get rid of us. Cool, you like how I get closer to really make the point?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3:We're not leaving that club.
Speaker 2:Hint, hint to the husband, yeah To anyone else who wants to listen?
Speaker 3:Okay, upside down the husband.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to anyone else who wants to listen? Um, okay, so you got upside down, upside down tear. It is smoky rose. He's got two more on the list two more on the list, okay I'm glad she's naming some that we've never had.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1:I've had Tiritus once, and that was I was visiting my quote-unquote sisters. They're not my actual sisters, I just grew up with them, but they both live in Spokane now Okay, which they're from Portland originally and it was baby shower, and so I went to a wine shop in downtown Spokane because they live pretty close to there.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And got a Tirtus Rose and it was fire. So this was way before your wine shop opened, by the way.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to say that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Otherwise I would have went there. No worries, Go to Tipsy.
Speaker 3:Vine yeah, there's enough for everyone to go around. Yeah, okay, I think this is really really hard. I'm really struggling and I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:No, we love it. You're good, we're here for it.
Speaker 3:So reiterate the question If I could only drink five Washington wines. That's a question, right, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Or just like your top five right now.
Speaker 2:Your top five favorites right now.
Speaker 3:Okay, it could change tomorrow for all we know. Yeah, okay, that's fair. I won't know the difference.
Speaker 2:I will. This is a serious question.
Speaker 1:She's going to be like I lied on the book pod yeah, Someone's going to hear this. A year later and come to your wine shop and be like so is your top five still the same.
Speaker 3:I know right, no, it's changed. Okay, so I would be remiss if I did not mention Cardis because I feel like they were such an integral part of my wine journey. You know, they really opened my whole palate up to white wine, and they are such lovely people oh they're amazing and the experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the experience of being in the Cardis barn is incredible. Everything they do, their staff is lovely, Um, and I think you know they've been in the industry for a long time, so I don't want to say like they're a winery to watch, because clearly they're well-established and they have an incredibly loyal following, but that's one that I, as a consumer, besides being in the industry, I will consistently and always be loyal to. Yeah, that was one of my bucket list wine clubs.
Speaker 1:They got some stuff brewing right now.
Speaker 3:Oh, I bet they do, they do yeah.
Speaker 1:It's really cool, have you stopped by yet.
Speaker 3:No, okay, I'm hoping to on the way out tomorrow. Okay, yeah, so that was like a bucket list wine club for me, and when we finally joined, we weren't members for very long before we were in the industry and then I was canceling all my clubs, so that was kind of a bummer, but we canceled with them, yeah okay, we won't tell them yeah, don't look at me like that.
Speaker 2:I won't tell them that you kept two.
Speaker 3:Well, now everyone knows um, but they were also in our very first inaugural wine club allocation.
Speaker 1:So the Grenache Blanc, the 22.
Speaker 3:Grenache Blanc was in our fall allocation Fun. Okay, that's number four, and I think number five is going to have to land somewhere in the Yakima Valley.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 3:And this is a newer winery to me, okay, cool. And this is a newer winery to me, okay. So I don't have a ton of history with them in terms of like I do with smoky rose or upside down, or, okay, cartus even, um, but core sellers blew me away in the columbia gorge core. Yeah, cor okay, cor cor okay yeah, and so I was actually introduced to Core through Crew Selections.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, the distributor I work with.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so I've tasted quite a lot of their catalog and I've always carried one or two of their bottles at a time in the shop just because they seem to be crowd pleasers for every palate and I really enjoy them, and to me that's an experiential winery, so I don't necessarily have a whole lot of story, you know, to tell people about them, like I do some of the other wineries, but when I was driving to Cannon Beach with my mom for spring break, we decided to stop just because I'd had so much of their wine. I wanted to see their property and it was the most incredible experience.
Speaker 2:Oh good, you know. Yeah, it makes me so happy when you actually get to see everything from behind.
Speaker 3:Yes, so beautiful, such a beautiful property, multiple different ways to enjoy their wine in the tasting room. What really sells me is when you greet me, before I even step into the facility, with sparkling. And that's exactly what they do at core yeah.
Speaker 3:Very gracious winemaker. He took us back to do some tank samples. He has an additional label like a passion project um, with its own separate tasting room, and so he sent us home with bottles from his label as well. And everything about core is just really dependable, and it's um a wide variety of wines. They make a Malbec, they make a Sauvblanc, they make Chardonnay blends, they make sparkling, sparkling rosé, so it's like there's something for everyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Oh fine, I love that.
Speaker 1:That's cool. You have some stuff on there that I've never heard of the Washington wine industry. I grew up in Seattle born and raised, but then I moved to Santa Barbara for 11 years and came back up two years ago.
Speaker 3:Welcome back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 2:We're way cooler up here.
Speaker 1:Way cooler. Yeah, I mean it gets cold. Oh, don't be a bitch that it does, Don't be a bitch Santa.
Speaker 3:real cold that it does.
Speaker 2:Don't be a bitch.
Speaker 1:Santa Barbara is 70 degrees 70% of the time.
Speaker 3:I have to say, if you guys get snow here, which I don't really know, do you get snow?
Speaker 1:here. Oh yeah, we get so silly right, that's what I thought. We sure do, sure do.
Speaker 3:I just asked a stupid question we just we just uh Humpty Dumpty all the way down, yeah, throughout the winter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a snowblower. Um takes like. It's like every time it snows in the way I have to go to work If I don't have to go to work if it's the weekend.
Speaker 2:I'm just like fuck it, I'm going to leave this here, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, share that driveway with, uh, um older couple, some neighbors, so I do feel guilty. I'm just like, yeah, they're old, I should really just do this right now for them yeah so I will do that. Yeah, give larissa a little bit more behind the scenes. Um, yeah, so it takes me like probably 30 minutes, maybe 45, to do the whole driveway, and also my depends on how detailed I want to get.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that's okay, no worries.
Speaker 1:But yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So it's a little annoying. It's a lot, yeah yeah, but we have four seasons, yeah, and beautiful foliage and you have an incredible view.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right now it's insanely green. It's been raining a lot, but when it's green like this, I really don't mind it. Yeah, off and on rain. Right, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is like the first spring we've had in like I swear years.
Speaker 1:I mean, the first time I came up here it was in April of 22. And so I got here and we were going to go down to the Tri-Cities and Prosser for a wine conference.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I remember you doing that, yeah, and so I carpooled with the Cardas people to go down there and that morning it started dumping snow. So I was at Cardas Winery at like 6 in the morning and it was just dumping snow. And so me, living in California for 11 years, I was just like cool, I'm going to get my huge-ass Carhartt jacket on my sweatshirt underneath my beanie, and I was like let's go, it's snowing and then we drove down and by like noon we got there at like I don't know, 11 or something like that Sunny.
Speaker 3:Hot, sunny, hot, beautiful Warm.
Speaker 1:And I just had this big ass coat on Layers.
Speaker 2:Layers. You're laughing because you know that situation. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Everyone was dressing like so professionally and I was just like there in just like a Carhartt long sleeve and a beanie. I was like sick.
Speaker 2:Sick, sick. At least I like there and just like a carhartt, long sleeve and a beanie.
Speaker 1:I was like sick, sick, sick. At least I can play this off as like yeah, I'm in production, you know whatever there you go, yeah I'm a blue collar, blue collar worker over here in wine. Um yeah, it was kind of people looking at me weird like oh yeah, you're the new cellar master at whatever. I was like, yeah, and so every conversation I had to start off I was like, yeah, I just didn't know, like this, the snow would go away today. You know, that's fair.
Speaker 1:I've been living in California for 11 years and this is my first time back, so next time I did, I did pack some other clothes, but we didn't have time to go to the hotel or change or anything like that and so I was just like fuck yeah, I just have to, I'm just in it. I was committed and I couldn't take off the beanie because my hair was wild from the beanie.
Speaker 2:So yeah yeah, insane anyways yeah, fuck me goddamn cali people yeah layers layers, yeah, yeah but I mean nowadays just a little bit differently.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've acclimated a little bit more, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think my top five was, like it was Jaffers in Santa Barbara, okay, um, carhartt, which that's where I started, um, that was also in Santa Barbara, and so those are the only two California wineries on my list. I did name drop a few other ones I really like in Sonoma and Napa that don't get as much attention, but my three for Washington was Lobo Hills, two Vintners and Latteris. Oh no, mine was Lobo Hills was a special mention afterwards because, I love them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, I love them. It was the Walls and Ladderus and Two Vintners.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I do love everything they're doing. Yeah, I do too, yeah.
Speaker 1:Who Two Vintners, two Vintners, yeah, that's definitely an honorable mention to me.
Speaker 1:He has one of the only orange wines I've ever really loved, which is great. He did it out of Gewurztraminer and it's completely dry. There's no phenolic bitterness at the end. It's just a beautiful orange wine. I've had some crazy orange wines that are just so phenolically bitter at the end that I'm just like the tannin structure with like a chilled white wine. It just doesn't really mix well, yeah, you know, I mean, if I had, like you know, like a triple breed cheese with it, then sure, yeah, Okay, here's my theory about orange wines.
Speaker 3:Yeah, bless you. Okay, here's my theory about orange wines Bless you. Is that bitter quality. It reminds me of what you would use to build a really great cocktail. So I think those are cocktail wines Like a Negroni. Yeah, or even you know, I don't know part of the fun of, I guess, life in general and what I like to do and be creative.
Speaker 3:how to be creative is like creating fun mixology and cocktails and things like that at home, and so I haven't experimented with a lot of those wines as cocktail wines, but that's what I would use them for.
Speaker 1:That's a good idea. That is a good idea.
Speaker 3:Because the bitterness it just replaces the bitters. So you could make even something in a coupe glass with an egg white and a bourbon or a whiskey or an.
Speaker 2:Aperol or something.
Speaker 1:Makes it frothy and delicious. Get that foam and some protein, come on.
Speaker 2:It's a snack. It's a snack.
Speaker 1:I think the only other orange wine that I've really enjoyed was well, there was a Fiano from Italy that I had once at my friend's natural wine bar and wine shop. That was really good. There was also a orange Falangina. Have you had Falangina before? It's another Italian grape variety, more central west coast, I think, calabria. Well, my Italian geography is just leaving me right now. I have not spoken about Italian geography in the longest time, especially outside of the regions of Piemonte and Friuli in Tuscany, so in Sicily, yeah, but anyways, it was a Falangina. It was not bitter at the end, it was a. It's an Italian focused winery in Paso, in Paso Robles.
Speaker 1:Central Coast and that was just fucking amazing. I was like I can drink this shit all day. Yeah, this is a porch pounder.
Speaker 3:Oh, porch pounder, couch cruser, couch crusher. Oh yeah, what else do we say, larissa, we have a patio, one a patio patio pounder awkward silence.
Speaker 1:You're leaving me hanging here it's all about alliterations with these. It's all about alliterations. You gotta go. It is. Yeah, you gotta go with it.
Speaker 3:Porch pounder, couch crusher what else? What else is there? Pontoon pounder.
Speaker 2:Pontoon pounder.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, shoot yeah. Boat, boat buzz, boat, buzz.
Speaker 1:Boat buzz.
Speaker 2:Boat buzz.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's free. You're welcome. Alright, looks like we're out of time for this episode. Do you want to drop anything for the wine shop? Plug, plug, some stuff sure, okay.
Speaker 3:Well, you guys, you keep putting me on the spot. It's literally about you. I know I'm just I know I'm never, yes. I'm never prepared to like plug my own self.
Speaker 3:Okay, we had our ribbon cutting this week and Larissa in the background was like say this, say this and I'm like what, okay, Anyways, say this and I'm like what, okay, anyways. So the tipsy vine spoke. In valley washington. We're a brand new bottle shop. We specialize only in washington wines and we want to share our passion with our washington winemakers and washington winemaking um with the rest of our local community. So the best way to get in touch with us if you're not local is through our Instagram, which is, I keep saying, our, it's me, it's my Instagram and you're good with it.
Speaker 3:Thank you, the Tipsy Vine Wah, or at the Tipsy Vine Wah, our website is the tipsyvinewahcom. We have a beautiful website designed by the Woodshop in Spokane. We'll give a little shout out to them and if you are local, please come in. We want people to know we exist. That's the hardest part of getting your start as a new business is just people knowing that you're there, and we want to serve you as our community. We want to disseminate our passion for Washington wine. So we're open Wednesday through Saturday noon to six. We do tastings every day of the week. I choose four Washington wines on a weekly basis to taste everyone through, and our wine club is super fun. We have a lot of fun, I'm a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Join the wine club, baby.
Speaker 3:Join the wine club, join the wine club.
Speaker 1:Um, all socials and links are in the show notes below, so go click that. It'd be the first thing you see.
Speaker 2:so thank you so much, julia, for coming on the pod thank you, love it and cheers cheers cheers, cheers hey you, now that I have your attention and you've listened to this wonderful podcast that we had to offer, we'd like you to scroll down. And what are they going to do when they scroll down?
Speaker 1:Ian Scroll down and give us some feedback. Rate us on your podcast platform Ideally five stars, form, ideally five stars and if you would give us some critical feedback, you can dm us on instagram at official bung pod let's hear it, let's go. It is only two of us writing the show, two of us producing the show. It's me, ian king, jasmine shattuck and the lovely Becca Hines as our producers and our writers are me, ian King and.
Speaker 2:Jasmine Shattuck let's go, let's go.