‘Wine, Wisdom And Rock’

Set for Aug. 16-18, the lineup features guitar wiz Joe Satriani; axeman Kane Roberts, who played with Alice Cooper in the late ’80s; Alice Cooper / Guns N’ Roses vet Teddy Andreadis; drummer Vinny Appice, whose credits include Dio and Black Sabbath; and bassist/songwriter/producer Phil Soussan who has played artists ranging from Vince Neil to John Waite to Jimmy Page to Ozzy Osbourne.

In addition to rocking out with the pros, this special Rock ’N’ Roll Fantasy Camp gives you hands-on experience in the fine art of winemaking as he guides you through the steps from grape to vintage.

During a conversation with Pollstar Martini described what guests attending “Wine, Wisdom and Rock” can expect from a camp that’s as much about riffs, licks and power chords as it about zinfandels, cabernets and chardonnays.

How did this Rock ’N’ Roll Fantasy Camp event with the winery come about?

This is our 80^th anniversary and we just thought we’d want to do something special. We had heard of the Fantasy Camp and how it’s a really great training ground for people who want to, but can’t quite get out of their banking jobs or whatever [their jobs] happen to be. We have presented Cabernet Camp, which is the same thing except in wine format.  And we decided to celebrate [the anniversary] with putting the two together.

Did the Cabernet Camp have entertainment?

No.  This is a big step out of that.

In regards to marketing wine, do you see the rock audience as an undiscovered country?

Not at all because I think you have a huge amount of baby boomers that are the rock audience that are now drinking wine.  If you think of rock ’n’ roll as the younger set of people, I don’t think that’s true. I think rock ’n’ roll is timeless and I think that’s one of the reasons it fits the wine, too.

I’m 60 and all my friends listen to rock ’n’ roll all the time.  That’s what I have on my radio.

What can people attending this meet-up of wine and the Rock ’N’ Roll Fantasy Camp expect?

They’re going to get a lot of hands-on guitar playing with these folks.  A large portion of the time  is [divided] into several different bands, writing some of their own music, and pulling together a performance for the last night.

[And], to take a break – because I know my hand gives out after playing guitar for an hour or two – we’re going to be teaching them the various steps of cabernet production.  You’ll have a meeting with your base group, figure out what you’re going to be playing, what you need to be practicing together, we’ll have several different practice areas.

The rock stars that are going to be here will be working with you all through that period of time.  Then you’ll get a break and you’ll get to come to me for an hour, hour and a half and we’ll actually be picking some grapes and letting you sort them and crush them and punch them down and yeast them. We’ll be doing tastings.  We’ll be showing you how different vineyards vary in the same style … and we’ll let you do some blending and come up with your wine.

Because it takes a considerable amount of time for wine to ferment, what do your guests take home with them?

They won’t see the finished product [at the camp] nor would they really want to.  August 16 is a little bit early to be picking.  So what we have is what we call “cullings” that we go through.  It’s probably going to be a zinfandel off of our Monte Rosso vineyards on top of the mountain.  It’s more about the experience … in that case.  And then we’ll be working with the 2012 and the 2011 vintages.  They’re already well on their way.  What they’ll be making are 2012 wines.  And that’s what they’ll get in a bottle to take home.

Growing up in a wine-making family, is your journey through life already set before you can walk?  Was there any time when you considered a career other than wine?

I never considered wine as a career until I was 25.  My father’s philosophy was, “I’m here, we have the winery, we’re going forward.”  There were four of us siblings and he said, “If I’m 65 and no one’s in the business, I’ll sell it.” By the time he was 65 there were three of us in the business.

I was actually thinking I should probably be a marine biologist because I think the future of feeding billions of people will have to come out of the oceans.  I thought that was a pretty safe guarantee but that was 35 years ago.  I said, “There aren’t a lot of people doing this yet,” and I could see all my time would be spent writing for grant money for research.  And then, my family happened to have a winery.

You’ve talked about rock ’n’ roll being timeless and that you play guitar yourself.  Who are some of your all-time favorites?

I’m [into] the old-standards – Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton … I am a big Joe Satriani [and] Steve Vai fan.  I’ve seen Joe on tour, met him at the Warfield once.

People usually match wine with food, but let’s match a few wines to your favorite artists.  Which wine goes good well with Carlos Santana?

I’d be more into mellow mode.  Of course, I’ve had his champagne, he has a label out.  But I’m thinking merlot. … He’s very mellow in his music, strong but he’s mellow. 

Clapton, you might be getting more into cabernet land.  Even though I’m a cabernet house, I can see Satriani with zinfandel.

Let’s pump up the volume.  How about Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath?

I grew up on Led Zeppelin.  At the time I was drinking mountain red wine.  That was more my age.  But that kind of fits them, too.  There are a lot of red blends out there now that are fabulous.

Black Sabbath – there’s what I call the new craze out there.  [Wines ] that are big and red and slightly sweet and they can tolerate lots of stuff. And Black Sabbath throws a lot of stuff at you.

How about someone totally different, say Britney Spears?

I’m sending her to Chardonnay land.

What have you learned from planning the Rock ’N’ Roll Fantasy Camp?

“Wine, Wisdom and Rock” – you start thinking about the similarities between the two and you really start thinking about a lot of lessons you’ve learned. What Satriani brings to the table, what he’s learned over the years and what I’ve learned over the years making wine, having completed my 56^th harvest.

I think probably the corner of that one is patience which is based in timing. It’s really hard to teach young people to be patient and wait. … In music [you don’t want to] come in on the wrong note.  Wine is the same thing. If you pull it out of the barrels at the wrong time, it hasn’t fully matured to the point that it’s supposed to. … Timing is a really critical part of that.

One of the questions I would love to ask these guys themselves is “What happens when you screw up on stage?” I’m sitting there looking at a tank of wine that doesn’t taste so good, but these guys [screw up] in front of a couple of thousand people.

I think that perseverance, you have to know all the intricate parts of it, and part of that is you have to screw up to learn those intricate parts. … You really need to look at mastering every small aspect to rise to the level they’ve risen to.  But I don’t think we’re the run-of-the-mill cabernet house.

Maybe it’s too early to ask this question, but would you like to host a Rock ’N’ Roll Fantasy Camp next year?

So far I’m really excited about it. Fortunately, I have some really nice resources around me and a lot of other people doing the heavy work.  I say, “Here guys, go pick those grapes.” [Or] “Build me a stage.” Yeah, I’d love to do it again.

The more people that we can get to participate in this, there’s more awareness.  It’s a nice way to step out of the tried and true.  I think this is a nice way to step into the world of rock ’n’ roll.

For more information, please click here for the Louis M. Martini Winery’s website, here for the Facebook page and here for the Rock ’N’ Roll Fantasy Camp.