Dennis McCarter, owner and winemaker of McCarter Cellars, is back on California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. This is his second time as a guest on CWC, the last time was this episode back in January of this year. Dan Berger is away again this week and Melissa Galliani joins us in the studio.

Dennis tells about having taken a course at SRJC about pairing wine and food, which left him with the desire to start making wine. He started by making five gallons of Barbera in his garage. As he continued to make wine, he started winning awards, so he decided to go pro. That coincided with his transition out of the insurance business.

The 2022 Sauvignon Blanc came from Rogers vineyard in Dry Creek Valley. The location is on the cooler side of the area.

Dennis eventually finished enology studies at SRJC. His wines started winning awards right away. They continue to win recently. The inaugural Pinot Noir earned 98 points and took best of class at the North Coast Wine Challenge, sponsored by the Press Democrat and his Gewürztraminer took silver there. His Rosé, Pinkish, took a gold medal at Experience Rosé challenge.

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Dennis is involved in a group of American Vintners that meets quarterly. He is also on the board of the Sonoma Library Foundation, to do fund raising. With them, he helped organize Tasting Diversity, where they hosted events to raise exposure for African-American owned wineries. For more information about Tasting Diversity, visit this page at the Sonoma Library Foundation and scroll down to the middle of the page where it is listed among their other events.

There is a discount code WINERADIO for listeners to get 15% off.

Dennis has accomplished a lot as a winemaker after only two years. His Gewurtztraminer is tasty and Dennis attributes its success to his method that includes he and his wife pressing the grapes with their own feet. His favorite wines to make are Pinot Noir and Zin, and aromatic whites like Gewurtztraminer.

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McCarter Cellars will have a tasting room by the end of the year, in a location across from where Carol Shelton Wines is located. Wait for news by the end of harvest season. That is starting to get busy now.