Ep 118: ACORN Winery of Sonoma California
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I had the honor of talking with Bill and Betsy Nachbaur of ACORN Winery in Sonoma. From Sonoma history, to grape leaf shape, canopy management, barrel toast, and their specialty -- field blends -- you will learn so much from this podcast. I know I did!
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A few more details on the winery we forgot to hit...the significance of the winery and vineyard names...
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Vineyard Name
Our Vineyard name, \\u201cAlegr\\xeda\\u201d, means happiness and joy in Spanish. Bill chose the name, because he was much happier as a farmer than he\\u2019d been as a lawyer (and folks like his products) .\\xa0 He chose a Spanish word to honor California\\u2019s Mexican heritage, and to recognize that our ranch was\\xa0 part of the Rancho Sotoyome land grant.\\xa0 Spanish was spoken here before English, and our workers are mostly Mexican. We also use it as a toast. Alegr\\xeda!
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We wanted the winery name to be different than the vineyard name, because we wanted out grape buyers (we sell about a third of our grapes to other wineries), to vineyard-designate the wines they made from our\\xa0 Alegr\\xeda Vineyard grapes. We felt they\\u2019d be more likely to do so, if the vineyard name was not also the name of a winery.\\xa0 Also, because Betsy\\u2019s Dad (and others) kept mispronouncing Alegr\\xeda (saying Algeria), we wanted a name that was easily pronounceable and memorable.
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Winery Name\\xa0
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We chose \\u201cACORN\\u201d because we are tiny like an acorn; there are oak trees in our vineyards, our wine is aged in oak barrels; and an acorn is a symbol of potential, prosperity, and good fortune. It is also easy to pronounce. A writer once headlined an article about us: \\u201cMighty Wines From Little Acorn Flow.\\u201d
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