Dan and Nick.

Nick Goldschmidt winemaker and owner of Goldschmidt Vineyards, returns to California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Nick has been on CWC a few times. The first in this series was this episode recorded on May 19, 2018. His most recent appearance was here on October 19. 2022. Nick was born in New Zealand but left the country as a young adult. “At the age of 20, I saw my destiny as somewhere other than New Zealand,” he explains.

Dan Berger usually brings a cellar wine for tasting, but since Nick has brought something better, they will taste that instead. It is his Boulder Bank Sauvignon Blanc. They are tasting it at room temperature, so it is not cold. It has grapefruit and lime flavors. It would go well with seafood and salads.

Nick has been a winemaker for more than three decades. He was a winemaker at Simi for 14 years. They are owned by Louis Vuitton and later by Constellation, who gave him the job of supervising still wine produced around the world. That is how Nick got to work with many iconic brands in many countries.

In 2008 he started his own winery. He also consults for 16 vineyards in 6 countries. He describes his passion as preserving small family-owned business. He likes helping them with a route to market and a sustainable business model.

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He lived in Chile during the dark times of the Pinochet dictatorship, and sometimes the government would cut off all the electrical power. So they learned how to make wine with no electricity, “unplugged.” He makes wine with his daughters and it was cool to have a project to work on together during her teen years.

They taste a Merlot, which Nick and Dan describe. They also will taste a Cabernet. Nick says that about 50% of what they produce is Cabernet, and another quarter is Sauvignon Blanc. Then they do some others, such as Merlot. In his own vineyard he has planted Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot and Malbec. He has also planted Zinfandel and Petit Syrah. They also make a Carignane and a Mourvedre, available only at the tasting room. Dan appreciates that Nick’s wines always have good structure and balance.

Nick is very modest about having been named International Winemaker of the Year by Wine Enthusiast.