HdR 1 : First wine ever made?
PG:

HdR 2: Do you have a name for your press? If so what is it?
PG: No, what a strange habits!

HdR 3: Favorite color?
PG: Green

HdR 4: Choose another winemaker to form a winemaking partnership with.
PG: It’s already done. I’m working with Yves Cuilleron and François Villard with Domaine Les vins de Vienne!

HdR 5: Cork or screwcaps?
PG: Cork!

HdR 6: Favorite food/dish?
PG: Calf sweetbread with cream and morels, with a Charmes-Chambertin.

HdR 7: Favorite grape variety to play around with?
PG: Syrah, what else!

HdR 8: Activity/Hobby/Pastime other than winemaking?
PG: I love to ride my moto around my vineyards. I breed horses and I love to travel any time I can.

HdR 9: How many countries have you traveled to?
PG: Many but never enough.

HdR 10: What is your favorite beer?
PG: Homemade beer made with my son in my winery.

HdR 11: Peanut Butter or Nutella?
PG: Bread and butter. I’m not found of sweet (except Banyuls)!

HdR 12: What is the most reoccurring dream or nightmare you have during harvest?
PG: I’m dreaming I will eventually make a good wine!

HdR 13: Favorite vintage from your winery?
PG: Tough question, I really loved 1999 it was perfect, the wine made itself, but more recently I loves 2006. It was a difficult vintage and I’m really happy with what I have done. It tastes really good these days !

HdR 14: What snack gets you through the day?
PG: No snacks! I only have meals, but if I’m really hungry and in a hurry, a glass of red wine with dry sausage or goat cheese.

HdR 15: When you take a vacation, where do you go?
PG: Far away! But always in a country that makes wine. I even found a vineyard in Thailand this January.

HdR 16: What is that one bottle in your cellar that you are most looking forward to drinking one day?
PG: Chambolles Musigny 1976, my favorite cru in Burgundy. My wife and my children offered me this special bottle, so I’m waiting for a special occasion to taste it. I expect a lot from this one!

HdR 17: What do you never leave your house without?
PG: My head and my legs ! (French proverb)

HdR 18: What was your favorite subject in school?
PG: I didn’t really like school, but the less horrible was Chemistry and biology.

HdR 19: If you couldn’t make wine anymore, what would you do?
PG: I would breed cattle in Montana.

HdR 20: What is the one thing you wish someone would have told you before you entered the wine industry?
PG: Nothing really. I love the fact that each year is a surprise and I have to adapt myself to unexpected. It makes the interest of making wines, never the same, always learning, not boring.

HdR 21: Name and breed of your favorite dog?
PG: Rugby, mongrel. But the next one will be able to find truffles!

HdR 22: If you had to choose another region to craft wines in what would it be?
PG: Well… I’m already working in Banyuls, which was a dream. But if I could one day have a vineyard in Burgundy, my dream would be complete!

Learn more about Pierre Gaillard and his wines before he takes the stage at the 19th Annual Hospice du Rhone, April 28-30, 2011.

HdR 1: First wine ever made?

HdR 2: Do you have a name for your press? If so what is it?
DN: Yes, we have two presses, one named Ruby and the other named Scarlett.

HdR 3: If you had to choose another region to craft wines in what would it be?
DN: Tasmania.

HdR 4: Favorite color?
DN: Royal Blue.

HdR 5: Choose another winemaker to form a winemaking partnership with.
DN: It would have been great to have worked with Didier Dagueneau.

HdR 6: Cork or screw caps?
DN: We love the romance of cork but alas we feel the cold winds of the screw cap blowing in!

HdR 7: Favorite food/dish?
DN: Whole snapper baked in salt crust with White Burgundy (a rare treat) and Cassoulet with Grenache.

HdR 8: Favorite grape variety to play around with?
DN: Graciano.

HdR 9: Activity/Hobby/Pastime other than winemaking?
DN: Shopping for food and cooking it.

HdR 10: How many countries have you traveled to?
DN: Seven.

HdR 11: What is your favorite beer?
DN: Our favorite house beer is Coopers Sparkling Ale, South Australia, without it we wouldn’t make it through vintage!

HdR 12: Peanut Butter or Nutella?
DN: Nutella.

HdR 13: What is the most reoccurring dream or nightmare you have during harvest?
DN: Oh no, it’s raining! Or the startled shock of feeling like some UFO has just landed in the front yard when the headlights of our neighbors grape harvesting machine come shining through our bedroom window at about 2am.

HdR 14: Favorite vintage from your winery?
DN: 2005 is our favorite vintage so far.

HdR 15: What snack gets you through the day?
DN: Trail Mix which is a blend of nuts and dried fruit keeps me going when time is short!

HdR 16: When you take a vacation, where do you go?
DN: This year we’re taking our first trip overseas as a family and heading to Bali with the two littlies, next year New Zealand.

HdR 17: What is that one bottle in your cellar that you are most looking forward to drinking one day?
DN: Just had that one special bottle a short while ago actually. It was a 1967 Richebourg given to me by a good friend. Even though it wasn’t a highly rated vintage this wine was extraordinary……now I have an excuse to hunt down another special bottle, probably won’t be lucky enough to score another ’67 Richebourg though.

HdR 18: What do you never leave your house without?
DN: A hat.

HdR 19: What was your favorite subject in school?
DN: Physics.

HdR 20: If you couldn’t make wine anymore, what would you do?
DN: We love working with yeast so I’d take an extended holiday to France and learn the art of bread baking.

HdR 21: What is the one thing you wish someone would have told you before you entered the wine industry?
DN: Just how exposed you are to the weather…I guess I knew this but until winemaking becomes your sole source of income the reality doesn’t fully sink in.

HdR 22: Name and breed of your favorite dog?
DN: Rose Marie, she is our Great Dane x Labrador.

Visit the Noon Winery website to learn more Drew and his wines before he takes the stage in April at the 2011 Hospice du Rhône Seminar Series.

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We have some hot news for you. Our news spans from newest addition to the 2011 Seminar Series to Rhône wine and food pairings for this busy holiday season. What are you waiting for? Get reading!

MOrgan and JOey Join the Show
Joining the stellar 2011 Seminar Series will be Joey Tensley of Tensley representing the Santa Barbara growing region and from another famous corner of California will be Morgan Twain-Peterson of Bedrock Wine Co. sharing tastes from the North Coast. Both tout a strong obsession with Syrah and a passion for multiple vineyard sourcing. Together they will share their Syrahs and additional Rhône varieties along with stories of how they have become staunch Rhône advocates and winemakers.

Rhône for the Holidays
We are a lucky bunch, yes we are. Why? Well, Rhône wines are extremely versatile when it comes to the vast selections of holiday dishes we will encounter this month. As you party hop, take a Rhône wine or two with you to share with friends and family. Below we have listed out a  few tidbits on Viognier, Mourvèdre and Syrah along with food pairing suggestions to help you through this holiday season.

Viognier (Vee-ohn-yea)
• Viognier also known as Condrieu within the Rhône
• Enjoys a warmer climate and is drought tolerant
• In Côte-Rôtie vignerons are allowed to blend no more than 20% Viognier with Syrah
• Serve Viognier with a cheese plate filled with a variety of Blue Cheeses and Gorgonzolas

Mourvèdre (More-ved)
• Mourvèdre also goes by the names of Monastrell or Mataró
• Adapts well to a variety of soils and can bounce back from an early spring frost
• Blends nicely with both Syrah and/or Grenache
• Try Mourvèdre with Paella this season, which happens to be a fun dish to make with friends a family.

Syrah (C-rah)
• Syrah also known as Shiraz
• Syrah is the prominent grape of Northern Rhône in which the variety originates from
• A heat-loving vine that has adapted well to California’s Central Coast and Eastern Washington State
• Syrah pairs nicely with all-things lamb. We suggest serving savory lamb kebabs with mixed veggies.

Hashtag Central
For you Twitter folks out there we would like to announce our official #Hashtag for the 2011 event! Drum roll please, it is…#HdR2011. Use this Hashtag when tweeting so that all can easily search to see what the current Rhône buzz is. If you do not tweet, jump on board with us. It is a fun way to stay up-to-date on items of interest to you.

Give the Gift of Rhône
The time is now to grab your wine lover a pass to attend the annual event! We will even send you a certificate to wrap for the lucky recipient.

Have a happy and safe holiday season!

Tweet Screen at HdR 2010

Don’t be shy, Social Media won’t bite. Really, it won’t. Just take it one step at a time and don’t get in a hurry. Watch what others are doing and create a program that will fit the personality of your business.

At Hospice du Rhône we just love Social Media. If there is a day without Tweeting or a Facebook post, then it has been a very busy day in the office. For us, Social Media is an awareness builder. This has been our goal from launching our program and continues to be to this day. We thrive on this instant communication tool that allows us to shoot out information and receive information on what is happening out there in our greater Rhône loving community.

When our program began, in the winter of 2009, we jumped in with an open mind and an overall idea of what we thought we wanted to accomplish. We never could have imagined where we would go in one year. We have so many newfound friendships, an iphone application and have held online tastings in multiple countries all at once! Today, we continue to explore, develop and execute programs within the Social Media world. We find this communication tool effective in reaching a varied demographic and we find that we learn something new each day.

Tomorrow, our Communications Director, Faith Wells will be speaking on Social Media at a seminar hosted by the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce Tourism Council. Faith will speak specifically as to how Social Media has been integrated into the overall communication plan at Hospice du Rhône during the past year. Her discussion will include how we developed focused online Rhône tastings hosted through TasteLive.com to launching the first wine event/organization iPhone application, iRhône. We are excited for this opportunity and are in hopes that we will encourage other businesses and individuals to take their Social Media platform to another level.

Before we depart, do know it is okay to take small steps. Watch what others are doing out there. Ask questions and know that you will learn something new each day, as this is an ever-changing communication tool. So with this we say, show a little leg with Social Media.