8/31-Michael Jordan talks with George Bursick & Cris Cherry

George Bursick - Bursick Wine Consulting

George Bursick belongs to the winemaking generation that formed and continues to shape California's reputation as one of the world's premiere wine regions. The Sonoma County native brings more than 30 years of wine industry experience, as well as an intimate understanding of how to most purely express the wines that thrive in Russian River Valley. He crafts our Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris,Vin Gris and Pinotage wines.

George holds a Master's in Enology from UC Davis, and has made wines at Beringer, McDowell Valley Vineyards, and Ferrari-Carano, where he remained Executive Winemaker for 21 years. He plays drums with the likes of Mike Martini, Ed Sbragia and other key industry players in a band called Private Reserve. George and his wife, JoAnn, live in Alexander Valley with their two sons.

Cris Cherry - Owner Villa Creek Winery

Villa Creek Cellars was founded in 2001 by Cris and JoAnn Cherry. The Cherry's goal is to harness the extreme terroirs of the west side of Paso Robles. As owner and wine director of Villa Creek Restaurant, Cris created a diverse list featuring fine boutique producers from around the globe. This global influence has helped to shape wines he creates at Villa Creek Cellars. JoAnn designs the labels that characterize what goes into the bottle. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Tempranillo, Carignan, Grenache Blanc, and  Roussanne are among the grape varieties that make up the Villa Creek portfolio of fine wines.

8/24-Michael Jordan visits with Denise Shurtleff & Ruth Garvin

Denise Shurtleff - Winemaker Cambria Estate Vineyards and Winery

Cambria is a private, family-owned estate winery that has carved out a reputation for producing lush, tropical Chardonnay, velvety-textured Pinot noir and rich, spicy Syrah since its inception in 1987. Cambria's proximity to the ocean and east-west orientation gives this 1,400-acre property the diversity it needs to grow Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah under perfectly suited conditions. As an estate property, Cambria's Vineyard Manager and Winemaker work in tandem to perfect the winegrowing process. Together, they select only the finest grapes from the estate to bear the Cambria name. Every grape is hand-harvested and crafted into wine with the utmost care and respect foe the varietal.
In recent years, Cambria has concentrated its vineyard and winemaking resources into amplifying different aspects of the Cambria estate. This effort launched an in-depth exploration of the vineyard and varieties on this cool-climate property. The result has elevated the quality of Cambria's core wines, created new site-focused and distinct winemaking styles, and dramatically highlighted the bold flavors of each variety. Today, the flagship wines, making up 90% of the production, include Katherine's Chardonnay, Julia's Pinot Noir and Tepusquet Syrah. Each wine represents the broad definition of flavor, for that variety, on the estate.

Ruth Garvin - Cliff Creek Cellars
Ruth received her bachelor’s degree from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon and bought a neighborhood coffee shop in the Portland area not to long after.  The neighborhood coffee shop Papaccino’s grew in size and expanded.  Ruth owned and operated the coffee shops until 2008 when she sold her last two shops and began full time work for the family business.  Her latest adventure was opening a tasting room for the company in Carlton, Oregon and working with the wine label portion of the business.

8/17-Encore Broadcast Michael Jordan speaks with Bob Vogel & James Onteveros

Bob Vogel - Santa Monica Seafood

Santa Monica Seafood was officially founded in 1939 but the real story began in 1898. That year a young man chose the life of a fisherman in California. John Deluca had only recently left his home in Naples, Italy when he put his roots down in the port city of San Pedro. Needing a way to support his growing family he looked to the sea. His hard work and respect for the ocean rubbed off on his family and before long his oldest son Jack was tagging along. Those days on the dock laid the groundwork for a family tradition that has lasted four generations.

Jack Deluca always had a passion for the sea. From the age of nine he was at the docks pulling lines, scaling and gutting fish, and filleting the fish – all the elements of bringing seafood to market. By the age of 16 he was the proud owner of his own fishing vessel and at the tender age of 21 he was the co-owner of his own wholesale company, State Fish Company. Alongside his close friend and future brother-in-law, Gerald Cigliano, Jack built State Fish Company into a formidable presence in the wholesale seafood business in the Los Angeles area.

Jack eventually grew restless at State Fish Company and left to join L.A. Fish & Oyster. The 10 years he spent at L.A. Fish & Oyster were good to Jack. He made a name for himself at the new company and even started his own family, but he couldn’t shake his entrepreneurial passion. After 10 years as an employee, Jack and his younger brother, Frank, joined together to embark on what would become their life’s work. In 1939, the two brothers set up shop at the end of the Santa Monica Pier selling fresh fish to restaurants and tourists alike under the company banner of Santa Monica Seafood.

For the next 42 years Jack and Frank worked to build Santa Monica Seafood into one of the top distributors of seafood in Southern California. They went from selling the catch of the day to hungry tourists on the Santa Monica Pier to selling fresh and frozen fish to the top restaurants in Los Angeles and Orange County. By 1969 an operation that had been borne on fresh-caught halibut, shark, sea bass, tuna and lobsters had outgrown its original location and had to move twelve blocks east to the corner of 12th Street and Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica. The new location served as the headquarters for an ever-burgeoning wholesale business as well as the seafood market that has come to be known as “the cathedral of seafood” to many residents of L.A. County.

While the Delucas were busy building the framework for Santa Monica Seafood, their cousins, the Ciglianos, were on the docks of San Pedro continuing the business of State Fish Company. Jack Deluca’s brother-in-law, Gerald Cigliano, had passed the business on to his eldest son Anthony who, in turn, was getting help from his own seven children. The precocious youngsters, in between helping their father and going to school, had set up a business of their own on the San Pedro docks. They would get fish from the fishermen to sell to fish peddlers when they weren’t busy unloading boats and sorting fish.

In 1981 the families came together again when Anthony Cigliano and his children purchased the company from Uncles Jack and Frank. Over the next several years each of Anthony’s children joined the daily operations of Santa Monica Seafood as the company continued to expand.

In 1985 a second retail/wholesale facility was opened in Orange County to serve a business that had pushed into Palm Springs, San Diego and Las Vegas. The new location, with its retail space and larger warehouse facilities, served to further extend the reach of Santa Monica Seafood. In 1997 a retail-only store was opened in Costa Mesa to further the company’s exposure to local consumers. More recently, the wholesale operations were streamlined in 2002, when the warehouses in Orange and Santa Monica were combined at the company’s new corporate headquarters in Rancho Dominguez, CA.

After more than 40 years at its location on Colorado Avenue, the first Santa Monica Seafood retail store was relocated to Wilshire Blvd. where it boasts an incredible refrigerated seafood display, grocery products from around the world and a small café featuring the freshest seafood sold in the Southwest. Also, in 2009, the Company opened a new Las Vegas office with docking and storage facilities.

Jack Deluca founded Santa Monica Seafood with the philosophy, “Provide the highest quality product at a fair and reasonable price.” Today his great-nephews are carrying on that tradition with a new purpose. Anthony Cigliano’s second-born son, Anthony, is the President of the company. He directly oversees a purchasing department that is at the cutting edge of seafood sustainability. Recently the company joined with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to promote and develop new and better ways to source seafood that conform to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sustainable Seafood Initiative. The philosophy of providing the highest quality product now demands ethical and sustainable sourcing of fish and education of both customers and the public at large.

The Cigliano family is at the forefront of preservation and aquaculture efforts to ensure the bounty of our seas for generations to come and their love of the sea remains unabated. Our story is the past, the present, and the future of the seafood industry.

James Onteveros - Native 9 Wine

Native⁹ is the fulfillment of my own American story two centuries in the making. Tracing my roots back to the first men and women who settled in the Santa Maria Valley, I worked for hourly wages along with my parents to buy a small plot of land our ancestors' 8,900-acre Mexican land grant: a modest cattle ranch where I planted my 8-acre vineyard and a panoramic view of the land that had once been our own. Planted in 1997 by my own two hands with the help of friends and family while I attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Rancho Ontiveros Vineyard is now considered one of the finest sites for Pinot Noir in California. As a natural extension of my deeply personal vision for this vineyard, Native⁹ is made in small lots with a nod to both Old World sensibilities and New World stylistic freedom with the help of my longtime friend and vetted winemaker, Paul Wilkins.

Though I wasn't born into the wine industry by traditional means, I have vine-growing and farming in my blood. The name Native⁹ reflects my gratitude to the generations of California farmers and ranchers who came before me.

8/10-Michael Jordan talks with Donald Thiessen & Alberto Minardi

Donald Thiessen - Owner/Winemaker - Stacked Stone Cellars

Stacked Stone Cellars began in 1998 when owner, Donald Thiessen, united his love of fine craftsmanship with a love of wine. Stacked Stone Cellars produces small quantities of hand crafted wine. Donald named his "liquid assets" after the elaborate stacked stone landscaping adorning the winery grounds and estate vineyard.

The estate vineyard produces low yields of highly concentrated, jammy, and intense Zinfandel fruit. The vines are sustainably dry farmed and head pruned on the west side Paso Robles, where the soils are rich in minerals and nutrients. The soil is calcareous and siliceous composed of shale, mudstone, siltstone and limestone providing the optimum terroir for Zinfandel. The estate fruit is gently harvested to produce our flagship and award wining wine the "Zin Stone".

We work closely with other sustainable grape growers in Paso Robles, that provide the highest quality grapes available, to produce our award wining Rhone and Bordeaux blends, as well as a Rhone style Rose, and Madera region style Port.

Enjoy the cool ambiance of our tasting room while you learn about our specific vineyard to bottle approach. As you taste our delectable wines, you can look around at the barrels that are gently ripening our next

vintages, enjoy our vintage posters and art, and of course, meet Donald himself. Plan on enjoying our beautiful picnic area under the ancient oaks with a bottle of Stacked Stone Cellars wine and a picnic! During the summer months we rock the canyon with live music so check out the events section for up-coming concerts.

Our tasting room is open Friday and Saturday from 11-5, Sunday from 12-5, and during the week by appointment @ 805-238-7872. We welcome children and pets, so bring the whole family! See you here!

Alberto Minardi - Owner - Vino Direct and Principe Proscuitto di San Daniele
Professionalism, experience and passion characterize Principe di San Daniele SpA, for over 60 years leader in the quality delicatessen meats sector. Leading manufacturer of Prosciutto di San Daniele DOP, the acorn brand is now able to meet the needs and tastes of national and international markets. To the typical products such as San Daniele prosciutto, cooked hams, beech wood smoked hams and frankfurters, Prince added the range of pre-sliced Ovali and Ovaline.

8/03-Michael Jordan speaks with Bob Vogel & James Onteveros

Bob Vogel - Santa Monica Seafood

Santa Monica Seafood was officially founded in 1939 but the real story began in 1898. That year a young man chose the life of a fisherman in California. John Deluca had only recently left his home in Naples, Italy when he put his roots down in the port city of San Pedro. Needing a way to support his growing family he looked to the sea. His hard work and respect for the ocean rubbed off on his family and before long his oldest son Jack was tagging along. Those days on the dock laid the groundwork for a family tradition that has lasted four generations.

Jack Deluca always had a passion for the sea. From the age of nine he was at the docks pulling lines, scaling and gutting fish, and filleting the fish – all the elements of bringing seafood to market. By the age of 16 he was the proud owner of his own fishing vessel and at the tender age of 21 he was the co-owner of his own wholesale company, State Fish Company. Alongside his close friend and future brother-in-law, Gerald Cigliano, Jack built State Fish Company into a formidable presence in the wholesale seafood business in the Los Angeles area.

Jack eventually grew restless at State Fish Company and left to join L.A. Fish & Oyster. The 10 years he spent at L.A. Fish & Oyster were good to Jack. He made a name for himself at the new company and even started his own family, but he couldn’t shake his entrepreneurial passion. After 10 years as an employee, Jack and his younger brother, Frank, joined together to embark on what would become their life’s work. In 1939, the two brothers set up shop at the end of the Santa Monica Pier selling fresh fish to restaurants and tourists alike under the company banner of Santa Monica Seafood.

For the next 42 years Jack and Frank worked to build Santa Monica Seafood into one of the top distributors of seafood in Southern California. They went from selling the catch of the day to hungry tourists on the Santa Monica Pier to selling fresh and frozen fish to the top restaurants in Los Angeles and Orange County. By 1969 an operation that had been borne on fresh-caught halibut, shark, sea bass, tuna and lobsters had outgrown its original location and had to move twelve blocks east to the corner of 12th Street and Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica. The new location served as the headquarters for an ever-burgeoning wholesale business as well as the seafood market that has come to be known as “the cathedral of seafood” to many residents of L.A. County.

While the Delucas were busy building the framework for Santa Monica Seafood, their cousins, the Ciglianos, were on the docks of San Pedro continuing the business of State Fish Company. Jack Deluca’s brother-in-law, Gerald Cigliano, had passed the business on to his eldest son Anthony who, in turn, was getting help from his own seven children. The precocious youngsters, in between helping their father and going to school, had set up a business of their own on the San Pedro docks. They would get fish from the fishermen to sell to fish peddlers when they weren’t busy unloading boats and sorting fish.

In 1981 the families came together again when Anthony Cigliano and his children purchased the company from Uncles Jack and Frank. Over the next several years each of Anthony’s children joined the daily operations of Santa Monica Seafood as the company continued to expand.

In 1985 a second retail/wholesale facility was opened in Orange County to serve a business that had pushed into Palm Springs, San Diego and Las Vegas. The new location, with its retail space and larger warehouse facilities, served to further extend the reach of Santa Monica Seafood. In 1997 a retail-only store was opened in Costa Mesa to further the company’s exposure to local consumers. More recently, the wholesale operations were streamlined in 2002, when the warehouses in Orange and Santa Monica were combined at the company’s new corporate headquarters in Rancho Dominguez, CA.

After more than 40 years at its location on Colorado Avenue, the first Santa Monica Seafood retail store was relocated to Wilshire Blvd. where it boasts an incredible refrigerated seafood display, grocery products from around the world and a small café featuring the freshest seafood sold in the Southwest. Also, in 2009, the Company opened a new Las Vegas office with docking and storage facilities.

Jack Deluca founded Santa Monica Seafood with the philosophy, “Provide the highest quality product at a fair and reasonable price.” Today his great-nephews are carrying on that tradition with a new purpose. Anthony Cigliano’s second-born son, Anthony, is the President of the company. He directly oversees a purchasing department that is at the cutting edge of seafood sustainability. Recently the company joined with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to promote and develop new and better ways to source seafood that conform to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sustainable Seafood Initiative. The philosophy of providing the highest quality product now demands ethical and sustainable sourcing of fish and education of both customers and the public at large.

The Cigliano family is at the forefront of preservation and aquaculture efforts to ensure the bounty of our seas for generations to come and their love of the sea remains unabated. Our story is the past, the present, and the future of the seafood industry.

James Onteveros - Native 9 Wine

Native⁹ is the fulfillment of my own American story two centuries in the making. Tracing my roots back to the first men and women who settled in the Santa Maria Valley, I worked for hourly wages along with my parents to buy a small plot of land our ancestors' 8,900-acre Mexican land grant: a modest cattle ranch where I planted my 8-acre vineyard and a panoramic view of the land that had once been our own. Planted in 1997 by my own two hands with the help of friends and family while I attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Rancho Ontiveros Vineyard is now considered one of the finest sites for Pinot Noir in California. As a natural extension of my deeply personal vision for this vineyard, Native⁹ is made in small lots with a nod to both Old World sensibilities and New World stylistic freedom with the help of my longtime friend and vetted winemaker, Paul Wilkins.

Though I wasn't born into the wine industry by traditional means, I have vine-growing and farming in my blood. The name Native⁹ reflects my gratitude to the generations of California farmers and ranchers who came before me.