This week, Owner and Wine Maker of Hart Winery in Temecula Joe Hart joins us to drink his award winning Sauvignon Blanc which is truly delightful. He also gives us a quick lesson on wine making and the mysteries of yeast. Did I mention that he fed me wine?

My thanks goes out to the Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance for making these interviews possible and for emphasizing that great wine comes from great grapes. And if it's up to Joe then great wine also have to be something he can eat with.  I'm not sure how he stays so skinny with that attitude!

Read more about Hart Winery wines at their website here. You can buy his wines online but if you are lucky enough to go in to taste their wines, make sure you upgrade to the premium tasting to get the really good stuff.

This week, Owner and Wine Maker of Hart Winery in Temecula Joe Hart joins us to talk about what quality wine making means to him. Aside from the ABC comments (Anything But Chardonnay), he repeats the mantra of the newly formed Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance that great wine comes from great grapes. This persnickety wine maker also touts his personal preferences of never making something that he doesn't want to make. It's about drinkability, not marketability.

Read more about Hart Winery wines at their website here. You can buy his wines online but if you are lucky enough to go in to taste their wines, make sure you upgrade to the premium tasting to get the really good stuff.

Calories in Wine went on site to interview Peter Poole of Vitis Consulting. In this first part of three interviews, we discuss the Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance. We also figure out what it means to a viticulturist to produce great quality wines in a region not necessarily known for it's fine wine. Guess what... it's all about the grapes! Temecula is not a classical wine growing region, leaning towards a more Mediterranean climate but, with proper planning we can produce some dynamite wines with perhaps we'll see some Grenache in our future? I can only hope.

Please make sure you check out the Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance here.

And you can listen to the interview on YouTube or below.

And if you would like to get more information from Peter Poole directly please contact him at vitisconsult@verizon.net .