This podcast episode this week with Approachment Wines is another classic example of stories overlapping and intertwining in a way that would be impossible if I had only visited the winery. For example, one of my goals last year was to sit with Drew Voit. I had the opportunity to chat with him twice. The first was a surprise for me, and the other was planned at Harper Voit. The person who made the planning happen at Harper Voit was Jessica West, the associate winemaker. She also made sure I had wine for A.J.’s wine dinner on April 1st, and she is helping me with another project coming to fruition at the end of July.

When I visited Harper Voit last summer, I never for the chance to say, “Hi.” I only knew of a name and email address. Then, a few months back, I noticed an Instagram for a new winery called Approachment. I was curious and started digging the teeniest bit. Do you know what? Jessica was behind the label! At this point, I noticed her husband, Paden, was also making wine with her for the brand. I couldn’t help myself. I reached out to Jessica to see if she was willing to be on the podcast. You already know she said yes otherwise, this newsletter would be entirely different.

You would think the story ends there, and I would start introducing the podcast and whatnot, but nope not going to happen. Preparing for the podcast, I started researching Jessica’s husband, Paden. There is so much to his backstory! You have to listen to the podcast for all the details, but there are two details I will share. First, he was an assistant winemaker to Isabelle Meunier at Lavinea. The second tidbit I found out a few days ago.

Paden was interviewing for the winemaker position at Benza and was on the phone as I was packing up after the interview. I had never heard of Benza until a few months ago when a friend reached out to me asking if I was available to pour on a Sunday to help Ron. I had to juggle a few things, but I made it happen. I poured a few more times, got to know Ron and Trish at Benza, and enjoyed my time there. I have debated telling the story of being the person pouring the wine instead of the person consuming the wine. If you are curious about this perspective, let me know.

Anyway, how freakin cool is it? Paden was talking to Ron as I was saying bye after the interview, and like, what kind of stories did Anthony Bourdain have that were like this we never got to hear?

What I found fascinating about this interview was that both wife and husband work for different producers. As a result, they have different perspectives on wine where both can agree and yet disagree to come together to create a kick-ass extended contact Pinot Gris for their first wine under the Approachement label.

You will become aware of their playfulness when you visit the Approachment website or their Instagram account. Jessica and Paden have something I can’t put words to, but when you see them both instantly answer “Post Malone” to my question, “What do you listen to during Harvest” I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Approachment is a label you need to take notice. During the interview, Paden says, “The goal is to over-deliver on quality and under-deliver on price.” Their extended contact Pinot Gris sold like hotcakes for $24/bottle. I highly suggest visiting their website, signing up for the newsletter, and being one of the first to know of their next release!

I hope you enjoy the episode, and it would mean the world to me if you liked and subscribed on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you listen to your podcasts.

Approachment Wines Transcription

A.J.: Cheers to another episode of a wine note podcast on your guide, PJ wine Jule on this journey of story, showcasing the people behind the wonderful world of wine, where we dive into conversations ranging from PIR, viticulture to favor music, superpowers, and more. Please enjoy this episode of the winos podcast.

A.J.: Jessica Payton, thank you so much for meeting with me today. The sun actually decided to come out

Paden: and it’s our pleasure. We’re excited.

A.J.: Yeah, no, I’m excited too. Uh, I’ve had a little bit of interaction with you via email Payton first time. Yeah. I’m really, really excited to meet you, man. Yeah. To see how it all comes out.

A.J.: Totally. Yeah.

Paden: Are us too. Shall I pours a little bit of wine? Yeah, let’s do it. Absolutely.

A.J.: Very. So as I tell everybody zero pressure, you know, if you don’t wanna say anything about it, you don’t have to. Okay. If you want to say whatever

you

Paden: want to looks like it has a fair amount of carbonation to it. Oh, a little bit of carbonation

A.J.: way to ruin it

Jessica: for everybody.

A.J.: Oh, yeah. I mean,

Paden: sparkling wine. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. The weather we’re gonna have for the next, maybe 30 minutes.

A.J.: it’s it’s Oregon spring. You just never

Paden: want know what’s gonna happen. It’s crazy. We’ve had a weird, yeah, it’s been nuts.

A.J.: Yeah, no, I picked up, so normally the last I pick up my daughter every day from school and it seems like there’s a pattern every day when I go to pick her up, it just starts to pour right.

A.J.: So yesterday I picked her up, we start driving. I, you know, I actually got her in the car before it started raining and then it started hailing and then it started pouring and I’m like, look, I picked you up right before I started pouring. And she’s like, thanks. Can you do that

Paden: again tomorrow? Yeah. Yeah.

Paden: Perfect timing. Yes. Tastes like bubbles. To me. Blanc to Blanc tastes pretty dry too, but she’s the bubbles queen. I’m not the BU I’m not, I love bubbles. She’s gonna be far better at guessing what this is than I will be for sure. Okay. That’s, it’s one of those things, like I don’t make bubbles yet. Right. So I like to anything I like that I don’t make, I try not to assert myself into that world quite yet.

Paden: I get it. I think I might actually, in the next couple years, that’s like, we’ll see what happens, but I’ll let her. I bet she’s gonna be the better guest. The pressure’s all on you, honey. Yeah,

A.J.: no, I, I always try to bring something that relates. Yeah. Yeah. And I knew that you loved bubbles.

Paden: How did you know?

Paden: It’s a, I don’t know. , it’s a common thing. Like we walk into high-fi and they’re like pop the bubbles, man. Exactly. Pop the bubbles. You gotta have some bubbles. Yeah. A hundred percent delicious. Yes. These are nice though. These are really great. I like ’em, there’s a good amount of like there’s great acidity.

Paden: Obvious. It tastes fairly dry me. There might be some sugar left to maybe counterbalance it, cuz there’s a richness to it. That’s nice. But there’s a ton of like Flint, tininess and minerality. And there’s like a little brioche nutty bite at the very end, which makes you think it’s like, not that it’s oxidative, but like it does, it tastes pretty young with like an older, richer style at the back.

Paden: Is it champagne method? It is method. Uh,

A.J.: champagne wa yes. Is it Oregon? , I don’t know. You tell me

Paden: I think it is Oregon, cuz I, I think it’s, I think it’s a little too pure modern style to be older. It is,

Jessica: but it’s kind of got that sweet and sour thing going

Paden: on too. That’s nice. Yeah. So I’m gonna, my guess is Oregon, but okay.

Paden: I’m also playing the man a little bit too, so that’s true. I would say

Jessica: organ as well. Okay. And a Blanc to Blanc. It feels like Pinot block a little bit, but I want to say it’s probably not,

Paden: but it’s Chardonnay. It’s like har white bubbles. it’s your wine made it it could be your wine. Someone’s done that before to me.

Paden: I, everyone has. Yeah, because like this could

Jessica: be, yeah.

A.J.: I will say it is not your bubbles.

Paden: Okay. Okay,

A.J.: good. Yes, no, I wouldn’t do that. That would be too embarrassing if you like to this sucks. Yes. I hate this a lot. Yeah, no, I wouldn’t do that. But going on the bubbles front. Yeah. Mm-hmm there has to be some sort of backstory, right?

A.J.: I. I saw the Instagram post for approachment and you’re spraying wine onto him. And then a couple weeks later I see that, you know, you’re drinking some bubbles and I assume you kind of tip her glass yeah. With bubbles. Is there kind of some sort of backstory about like playing pranks with bubbles?

Jessica: No, I just feel like with photography, it just is a good element.

Jessica: Okay. Because it’s a mess. It is a mess, but I also drink, we also drink a lot of bubbles in the house because it’s. wine. The, I, we make every day, right?

Paden: I guess I think so. I think kind of the story, the way I think about it, but when we first started the idea of doing approachment and doing a brand together, one of the things was, you know, we are both winemakers and we have been trained very differently and we both have surprised like opinions and an ego about some of the things that we like to do.

Paden: and we’ve, we’re talking about it, opinions and kind of joking, like you. Are is this my, is this gonna be an issue because we might like combat each other pretty hard. Right. And one of the things that we were talking about is we wanted to have a label. We kind of wanted to play on that and just accept it and be like, maybe our story is, you know, obviously we’re married and we love each other and we’re very happy, but it is gonna be probably pretty frustrating at times for the both of us.

Paden: So maybe we should just kind of just accept that and play on that and have it be a part of the brand and have it be kind of this. You know, he, she sucks and I suck too at sometimes, and we really, really frustrate each other and piss each other off, but like the product is always better for all of those things.

Paden: And so I think one of the ideas we had was to spread like spit wine on each other during a video or something, or have a wine label, be like the super saturated contrast picture of both of us spitting wine on each other and calling it like compromise or something like that. I don’t know. We’re still thinking about it, but right.

Paden: Anyway, that kind of led to like, well, I just wanna spray you with bubble. Exactly. And I was like, okay, fair enough. So we did that for the first photo shoot, and then I felt a little like, okay, well payback’s gonna suck, you know, and we were working on our next post and Jess was like, everything needs to be a surprise.

Paden: Like we can’t act too much. And I was like, okay, I got no worries. Right, right. So he was like, just take a photo of me drinking the bubbles. I was like, all. And then I kind of was like, oh, I have an idea. And I said it out loud. And Jasmine was like, oh, what is it? And I was like, that’s a horrible idea. We won’t do it.

Paden: And then that’s when that happened. That’s great. So I think like, kind of the backstory is we wanted to make fun of ourselves, be lighthearted about it, take a good prank and also understand that like we’re going to disagree on certain things, but when we made the first wine together and we’re gonna make potentially two additional wines this year, we wanted it to be.

Paden: You know, the, the decisions that we make together and the arguments or the criticisms that we have almost always make the wines better. And so we just kind of wanted to embrace that. No, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

A.J.: Uh, so I’m gonna dive a little bit into, you know, your past and your work history. Now dive a little bit into your past and your work history and, and then kind of bring it all together.

A.J.: Totally sounds

Paden: good.

A.J.: Okay. Um, so you worked a little bit with the castells, um, , you know, August 13th, 2016, Mimi castell is, you know, working on your dress um, you know, and last year, you know, she sold her vineyard to drew LASO and everything. Yeah. Mm-hmm, , you know, a lot of things are kind of changing in that direction in Oregon wine country.

A.J.: And like, did you have any sentiment or like feelings when Mimi’s vineyard, you know, got.

Jessica: a little bit, but you know, we know Mimi, so we know that she is up to some other adventure. Of course I’m happy for her and know that she’s going to continue to surprise us with her, her antics. So, yeah, I mean, I totally understand that this is stressful business.

Jessica: So I was like great for the stress relief of getting rid of your vineyard, but. I I know she’ll do something super awesome. Yeah, no, she will. Yeah. Yeah. So, I

A.J.: mean, I’m happy for her. Yeah, no it it’s. And you know, it’s gonna be interesting to see how, you know, blitz, so family winery come in. Yeah. And they’re starting to do some tastings and stuff out there this summer.

A.J.: It sounds like, yeah. It’s a cool property. It is a very cool property. And to see, you know, what somebody else is going to do with that is gonna be very interesting. Yeah.

Paden: Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. I’m excited for both of those things. Yeah. And she married us. Um, yeah. And so, yeah, we’re really close with her and I, I think it was, it was, you know, I don’t wanna speak outta line with Mimi, but, you know, I think if she was here, she would say too, it was a very emotional time to have to let that go.

Paden: Right. And you know, at the end of the day, like you gotta do what’s best for you and your family. And, you know, Mimi’s gonna, no matter what she does. And she’s probably one of the most, you know, intelligent people we’ve ever met and certainly not one of the highest caliber. Viticulture for like people you could ever work with.

Paden: Right. So whatever she does, you know, she’ll, she’s gonna fall. She’s gonna fall like straight on, you know, she’ll be fine.

A.J.: Oh no, I, I totally agree. I can’t wait to see the next

Paden: chapters. Totally. I think there’s some really cool stuff coming along for sure. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

A.J.: Totally agree. Um, so you’ve been here at Harper voy for, you know, a nice little period of time, seven years, seven years.

A.J.: Yeah. And you have ano. A ton of new tanks coming in, right? Yes. What is going on? Like is drew getting a bunch of extra consulting work or you’re like, no, we’re just gonna make a ton of har water. Some those tanks are approachment.

Jessica: Nice. It’s exciting. So yeah, we have, we just have more people making more wine.

Jessica: People are growing, so the tanks are getting bigger and bigger, so that’s exciting, but yeah. Tanks forever. That’s

A.J.: awesome. Yeah, no, it was quite a truckload and I was like, holy gal. Yeah,

Jessica: that picture was a little deceiving though, because it looks like they lined up the truck against some other tanks that were like stationary.

Jessica: So there was like half that amount of tanks

A.J.: on no, no, you gotta take like nine. You gotta take the

Jessica: credit. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We took in a lot of tanks. You’re growing a lot. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s nice because the, the clients that we do have are getting their Chardonnay programs are bigger. Their PIRE programs are bigger, so right.

Jessica: They started out with a little tanks and now the tanks are just getting bigger. So

A.J.: it’s exciting. That is exciting. last summer when I was sitting at this table with drew. Yeah. You know, we were talking about, uh, you know, the, you know, bubbles and we were talking, I asked him, you know, do you use, uh, Andrew Davis?

A.J.: And he is like, no, I use, uh, Andrew Alban. Mm-hmm . Um, and it’s just interesting how, like the whole organ sparkling is growing and growing and growing, you know, at the Oregon Chardonnay celebration. I asked the question to Andrew Davis who was on the panel. I’m like, what would it take? You know, what do you think it takes for Oregon to be known as a world class sparkling producer?

A.J.: You know, he kind of gave an answer and whatnot, but I’m kind of curious. And if both of you want to answer, if you just want to answer Jessica, it doesn’t matter. I’m just kind of curious. That’s a tough

Jessica: question. I think we have the climate for it and we have the varieties for it. I agree. I don’t know that we’re on the map yet.

Jessica: So I. That’s what we need to do is get on the map more for sparkling. I, I, I agree. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what that entails.

A.J.: Well, and that’s kind of the thing I I’ve been kind of answering that que trying to answer that question and trying to figure it out. You know, one of the issues that I see is, you know, the amount of sparkling that actually gets produced, you know, is, is super small.

A.J.: If, you know, if you’re lucky you get like 200 cases, right. And that is not going to like pretty much leave. And its Oregon at all’s

Jessica: so expensive to make it. It’s not efficient. Right. You have to let it sit for three years and a bin you have to pay for storage. It’s kind

A.J.: of a pain in the ass. It, it is a pain in the ass.

A.J.: Yeah. Oh, you know, when you have champagne producers that are, you know, kicking out like 400,000 cases a year and it’s like, what? In the, that, that it’s just

Paden: mind boggling. Right? I think that, I guess again, bubbles really aren’t my world yet, but what I would say. You know, product placement, supply and demand is really big.

Paden: And when you have houses, like you said, that are all they focus on, you know, in the old world, just kicking out tons of champagne and tons of sparkling wine. They have distribution for it. They have a place in the market for it. They’ve a locked in who they are as a brand and what they produce. And a lot of it’s time, you know, they, if you, it’s kind of also like, and, and I don’t like necessarily comparing.

Paden: Oregon to burgundy, but it is that comparison does exist. Right? And I, I think that with, if you look at where we’re at currently with Oregon Chardonnay and Pinot, like if you look at it in the history of the wine world, we are so relatively new. I mean, we’re shockingly great. But we’re so new in comparison that we.

Paden: Always in some way or another going to play catch up just in comparison to the legacy and the longevity that the older world has had. And so when you have the same things like is with sparkling, I mean, right. Relatively speaking, I mean, there’s Argyle and you know, other brands that have been making Oregon sparkling for a long time, but, you know, with the, you know, the inception of radiant sparkling with Andrew Davis and then the albums and, you know, everyone else doing this, I mean, Andrew Davis is certainly.

Paden: Kicked off a huge opportunity for everyone to do it. Correct. So I think we will get there eventually, but you know, it took us a while to be as renowned as we are for what we do here for the varietals. Everyone knows us for so Pinot noir and Chardonnay PIRE now. We have an opportunity, same varietals, but different perspective, different type of wine.

Paden: And I think we’ll get there, but I think it’s time and I think it’s product placement. I think it’s distribution. I think it’s trying to get everyone to understand. We now also do this exceptionally well and potentially, you know, you try a lot of like, you mean lateral Barna, you know, like with Andy Lyle, , if you do a comparison, a blind tasting between some of the best champagnes and, and, and his right they’re, it’s, it’s gonna be hard, you know, it’s hard, we’ve done those tastings with, with our peers and it’s shocking, you know, just like doing Chardonnay and Pinot in a blind tasting with the old world, it’s shocking to see like how close things are.

Paden: And so I think time, I hate to say it, but like time gaining that product placement, gaining that marketing, gaining that business strategy to make sure that we really are. You know, putting ourselves out there in the right way, in the consistent way, year after year after year. And I think we’re about to hit, I mean, again, Jess said like it’s a pay in the ass and it is a long time.

Paden: It’s a long commitment, you know, it’s everything high end is paid. It’s not just, you know, 18 months in barrel or 12 months in barrel. It’s, you know, three years. And so minimum if you’re doing that, I, I think my projection would be. Yeah. I, I just think, like, if you think about the three year mark, that means that in the next two or three years, right.

Paden: We’re gonna have more Oregon sparkling than we’ve ever had. And so a lot of it’s just time just waiting for that boom to happen. Right. And I think like 20, 23, 20, 24, 20 25, we are gonna have a saturation of Oregon wines and wear those wines of Oregon sparkling wine. When that gets placed in the right hands.

Paden: I think we’re very

A.J.: dangerous. I, I think so too. And you know, you talked about Andy Lyle and his idle Barnett project. Yeah. He’s also working on another project domain Maryweather yeah, totally. And, you know, once he actually gets that on, you know, online and moving forward and yep. You know, another facility for Andrew Davis, I mean, that’s kind, that’s gonna be huge.

Paden: It is going to be huge. That’s gonna be huge. I just, just spoke with him like last week and his plan. I won’t say what they are. Cause I’ll, I’ll let him, I’ll let him speak. They’re very exciting in big plants. Yeah. So it’ll be big. Yeah. Yeah. No, I’m very anxious for that. Yeah. Yes. Me too. Me too. Yeah. Yeah.

Paden: Bubbles

A.J.: more bubbles even more. That’s better. yeah, exactly. Oh, last question for you. Mm-hmm you’ve had your you’re you’re I would almost consider you more of a, you know, getting on the veteran side of the world. in, in the wine world here in Oregon. Wow. Uh, but if you could choose any Ava and any varietal.

A.J.: Ooh, you in Oregon, what would it be? That’s tough. I know. I got put on the spot with that question. I had a podcast too, and I’m like,

Jessica: I mean, every time people ask me the question about, um, why I always choose bubbly. Of course. So I would, I guess I would say Pinot noir for sure. Um, because it can be made in several ways.

Jessica: I also really love Pinot gree, but I’ll go with Pinot noir because that’s kind of my, my thing. Ava, I love ribbon Ridge and I love Yola.

A.J.: Yeah. Yeah. Gotta choose what well that’s that’s fair enough.

Jessica: I changed my mind though. Sometimes I like Yalo Carlton. There you go. But right now I’m kind of an Eola kick.

Jessica: Okay. And a ribbon Ridge kick. .

A.J.: Yeah, no, I get it. I had to pick something totally completely off the wall. Yeah. And I went Eola, Amity and Cabernet seven Yola Cabernet.

Jessica: Yeah. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Where can you find Cabernet? That grows in Eola? You can’t oh, they don’t have to be

A.J.: the same. No, they don’t have to be the same.

A.J.: Oh, you could like pick anything. Oh my God. You have no, I was just

Jessica: like, these things have to be

Paden: together, so it’s not a, a varietal from that ABA. Right? It could be anything. Gotcha. Anything I stuck in organ brain

Jessica: it’s okay. Okay. Varietal. I would

Paden: still pick Pinot or okay. Yeah, no, I, I had to go off the wall and be like, yeah, I feel like that was

Jessica: my first love.

Jessica: Um,

A.J.: yeah. Yeah.

Paden: Okay. Sticking to it. I was kind of hoping you’d be like Zindel and I was like, what? I do care about Zinfandel. No, you don’t don’t act like you care about Zinfandel I do. No. Never seen you drink as in your entire life. It’s ridiculous. We have some rich sins

Jessica: that I

Paden: like not the majority anyway.

A.J.: All right now onto you a little bit. um, so you’ve, I don’t know a whole lot about you. Right. I know that, you know, you’ve worked with Isabelle, you know, at Lavinia and we talked, you know, while I was setting up. Yeah. You know, helped her with old Bain. Yeah. Just gimme a little bit of a background, a little bit more about like, Well, okay.

A.J.: Let me back up just a teeny bit. How does a person who, you know, has this music background and a passion and plays, kick ass guitar riffs end up in wine?

Paden: Yeah, that’s a good question. Uh, I don’t know exactly how I got here either. Um, but I don’t know. I mean, I learned how to play guitar for my father when I was six years.

Paden: And it was my favorite thing to do. And we did that together for a number of years, and then I just kept going and going and going with it. And then eventually when I was about 13, I decided that I wanted to be a musician more than anything in the world and that my dream school. So my dad went to duke and for the longest time, my dream school was duke just because my father went there.

Paden: Of course. And then when I was 13, I remember telling him, Hey, uh, I don’t wanna offend you, but I wanna go to Berkeley college music. That’s like in Boston, that’s my dream. And he was. I’m super not offended. I was like, alright, I’m just checking. I’m not gonna be a basketball player I’m gonna do just so you know.

Paden: Um, so anyway, you know, I just worked my ass off for years. And then by 17, I was accepted and I went there for about two years. And in the meet, like kind of in the, uh, intermediate times, like in the summer and stuff, I would work at Natalie’s estate winery, which was literally a Stone’s throw away from our house.

Paden: So I would just work there to make money through the summer. Boston’s quite expensive, especially where Berkeley’s located in back bay. And I would just use that as money to have fun right. During, during the time that I was there. Right. And it was. I always liked being in the cellar. I always liked doing things.

Paden: I also worked these hospitality events where I’d pour wine and being that I was right next to that vineyard and my parents loved wine so much. My dad used to be a chef in Austin, so he wine and food was always a thing. It was always, we have food, we have a great meal and we always have great wine to go with the food.

Paden: So I think it was kind of instilled in me. And then I remember the phone call I called my dad when I was at RK. and things were going really well. And I had, uh, my major was in wine making or, sorry. See, there you go. and, uh, in songwriting kind of similar and then, uh, music business, and I, you know, things were going great.

Paden: I just want a songwriting competition and performed on the same stage as like John Mayer and David Bowie and narrow Smith and like all these heroes and I just like, things were perfect, but I just was not. super happy about the idea of having to sell my music. Um, and so it was very personal to me. And so I called my dad and I was like, you know, I, I, I know this was a really expensive college and you’ve, you’re giving me a really great opportunity here, but I don’t think that I wanna do this with the rest of my life.

Paden: So he’s like, no worries. And I was on a plane within a week and took off from Boston, came back home. Uh, and then during that period of time, I gave it one more shot and I recorded just like a few songs. I also worked at a music production studio, recording, indie artists, and right. Um, worked with Kings Leon a couple of times and just did all this stuff and just trying to make sure that before I fully exit the world, that is not what I want to do.

Paden: And during that time I continued to work in the wine business and it’s kind of when I realized. Oh, man. I really love being in the seller. I worked a couple of harvests. I was like, I, you know, small, this is like a 1500 case facility. So it’s right. Very different than what I do now, but it was a great introduction.

Paden: And it was like me basically understanding my biggest problem with music was I couldn’t exactly sell. I wasn’t comfortable selling that product that I was producing, but with wine, I was really good at selling it and I had really enjoyed it and I loved the whole process of making it. putting it to bottle and then being a part of selling it.

Paden: And I just, the whole thing was kind of like what I was missing from music and it just kind of clicked. And then from there I went to Stoler to work in hospitality to make sure that I could fulfill the problem of making, like literally telling myself if I can’t sell music. Right. Why is it gonna be different with wine?

Paden: So I went there had a great experience. Went to Piner Ash worked harvest in 2010 and that was it for me. I mean, Lynn Piner, Ash just kicked, like she just beat me up. along with Brian, along with Brian Irvine, who still to this day is probably one of the greatest, uh, early mentors I had cuz he just took nothing from a 21 year old kid and just whipped me into shape and I loved it.

Paden: I loved every minute of it. And then shortly thereafter I did harvest and Sonoma. I graduated from, uh, the Shemeka wine making program, which was the two year. Um, you know, firm fully focused on wine science and fermentations, and I was lucky, cuz that was the year, all the old OSU instructors left all the OGs left.

Paden: Right. And they came to that program and I was like, well, I’ve already wasted two years at wanted to find a schools of music, very expensive. I might as well just go focus with these guys. Right. And then that just propelled me into kind of into the world. And I just made a lot of great connections and got really, really lucky.

Paden: That’s that’s

A.J.: amazing. Yeah. Yeah. When you talk to Andy Lyle and you talk about Oregon Chardonnay. Yeah. You know, in Andy Lyle’s eyes and I don’t disagree. Yeah. Isabelle is like the reason like Oregon is on the

Paden: map for Charna oh, a hundred percent.

A.J.: Yeah. Oh, what things do you learn from, from Isabel? That was, or, I mean, well, I know there’s several things.

A.J.: Yeah. but like just was there like something that was. over, over the top.

Paden: Yeah. I mean, everything she does is over the top. her talent. Her talent is just insane. I mean, she’s, she’s remarkable. I mean, she’s probably one of the, yeah. I mean, you said, you said it correctly, like it’s the reason why the primary reason why Oregon Chardonnay is in the style it’s at now these days and kind of where it’s at, um, right on the marketplace.

Paden: And, you know, I, I worked at, before I worked for her, I worked at DuPont winery. um, kind of as this like Swiss army knife, it was, I was kind of half seller assistant to Suzanne Baldwin and to Isabel de tar. And then half in the tasting room. And then of course, when harvest comes, it’s like full blown, just 100% an assistant to both of them.

Paden: And I was introduced to Veronique Dren via Isabel de tart, which that’s Isabel de Tart’s mentor is Veronique Dren. So I kind of started to become very interested in Chardonnay. And then I ended up getting the Isabel Mune assistant winemaker ending as associate winemaker after, after you know, three or four year period with Isabel.

Paden: And I mean, from the very get go. , I didn’t really respect or understand Chardonnay the way that I do now. Right. And I would, I mean, it’s a definitely a tough question to answer, but I, I would say like, I mean, I, she is my mentor 100%. Like I would not be where I am today, if it was not for her. I mean, she gave me everything.

Paden: She had my back the entire time. Um, and she just saw potential and expanded upon it. But I think that the biggest thing I ever learned from her was. Um, you always make wine for yourself and not for critics. And actually when I left to go take the head wine making position at phyla in Oregon, um, I gave her a knife with like a custom that, that phrase that she had said to me on the knife.

Paden: Right. And we talked about that. You know, a few weeks back and she’s like, it’s, it is one of the most, it’s certainly not the biggest, important thing that I learned from making wine. But it’s this thing you have to remember that when you are put into a spotlight or you are put into a, a role where the decisions are all on you, if you start thinking about what everyone else thinks, you’re not going to make the best gut decision you possibly can.

Paden: You have to think about all of your knowledge, all of your training, just all your instincts, right? And if you trust those. And you have the right instincts and you’ve been trained well, you will make the best wine you possibly can. And the second you start thinking about kind of the background noise and what that will get scored or what people will think you might lose that window of opportunity.

Paden: So that would probably be the biggest thing, but Chardonnay, like the first year with Chardonnay with her was. . I mean, I was there for Pinot. I was like, I Chardonnay whatever. And then we tried, I tried her Chardonnays and then we made Chardonnay together and I was just lost my mind. I was like, I don’t care about anything else in the world.

Paden: And I only care about Chardonnay. It’s all I care about. It’s all I care about. It’s all I care about. And it’s a marathon of a wine. Like Pinot noir is a sprint. It’s like, you’re making all of the biggest decisions you possibly. Right then and there in that three to four week window of har, you know, growing fruit and harvesting and Chardonnay is this, this thing that’s just, you’re chipping away at it.

Paden: You know? Are you stirring, are you not stirring? Are you topping with Lees? Are you being reductive? Are you being oxidative? You know, are you adding sulfur to the pan? Are you not adding sulf for, to the pan? When, you know, when are you picking? Are you, are you choosing your parameters correctly based on mouth feel or will you develop those mouth fields later?

Paden: Like what kind of, OK. Are you using, are you elevating it in tank? Like all these decisions and all those decisions. They happen from when you pick it all the way until when you put it to bottle. Right. And I love to make Chardonnay in 18 month sections. So I over vintage my Chardonnay, just like I would Pinot.

Paden: And that’s a very long marathon and it’s just all these little calculated decisions. And so, I mean, sorry, I feel like I rambled about her too much, but I just, I love my time with her so much. There’s so much I can say about it. The, my answer would be like learning that, that it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Paden: Right. And learning that instincts are the most important thing you possess. Those are probably the biggest things. Yeah.

A.J.: No, I, I totally agree. That’s that is awesome. Yeah. Oh, and that would make

Paden: really good Chardonnay. I try.

A.J.: How did you end up in the, the Tesla, um, plant in back in 2018? what you

Paden: do stalker you do research.

Paden: Holy crap. Um, so one of my closest friends, Harry Boyd, shout out to Harry Boyd. He’s uh, I’ve, he’s a childhood friend and Harry had this very uncanny way of just getting jobs that, right. I don’t know how he, he, if you, I mean, he, he wouldn’t be offended by me saying this, but he had. Skillset or credibility for the job, but he has one the best do anything though.

Paden: He’ll do anything. He has one of the best work ethics ever. He, he got this job at the, the very first Gigafactory in Reno, just outside of Reno, Nevada. And he invited me, uh, out when it was still being like built. And I don’t know if I’m allowed to say too much more, but I, I actually had to sign like four or five different NDAs and I had to like, not talk about it to anyone.

Paden: So I, I won’t say what I saw during that stage. Oh yeah, yeah, no, no, no. But what I will say is it was a awesome experience. Right? And, uh, yeah, it was all because of a friend and I came back, I told Jess, I was like, we need to, we should probably get a Tesla at some point. And now we have one. Yeah. That’s that’s how that happened.

Paden: Just a friend, friend connection. Yeah. I didn’t work there anything well, I was just curious. I’m like,

A.J.: wow. Yeah. Music, wine Tesla.

Paden: Yeah. What, yeah, I got to, I got to see Elon’s office there. It was pretty crazy. That is crazy. Yeah, it

A.J.: was cool. So there’s um, Diane vineyard, um, the husband team. I can’t remember his name off the top of my head.

A.J.: Sorry. I can’t um, but he used to, he used to work at Tesla. Oh, oh, nice. No, no, no. I’m sorry. S SpaceX. Oh, and that a cooler. Yeah. That was a very interesting conversation. Yeah. Like

Paden: bet. Yeah.

A.J.: That’s crazy. Yep. All right. So what made, you’all decide to make a wine together, right? You’ve already kind of talked about, like, you have totally polar opposite opinions on some things, and now you decide to like, make something together.

A.J.: I mean, that almost sounds like maybe a recipe for disaster. It

Jessica: probably is, but that was the first reason is cuz we do have polar opposite and we also kind of just wanna play with other things that we don’t do during our day jobs. Right. So that’s why we’re like peanut green would be fun. Maybe syrup, maybe Gama, maybe ganache.

Jessica: So we had all these ideas and we’ve kind of been around the block a little bit. Right. So we’re like we could do this. You could

A.J.: totally

Jessica: do it. So that’s kind of the gist of it. But Payton probably. Some more

Paden: detailed. No, I, I think that’s a great way of putting it. I mean, we, we do make, I think it’s very obvious what we do for our respective positions and we make, you know, high end Pinot noir and Chardonnay for the majority of our careers in Pinot GRE.

Paden: And yeah, I think we wanted to have the opportunity to just, I, I think that when you choose other varie, I think the other thing is we choose other varietals that are different, like ganache, gammet sirrah, you know? Right. Um, stuff like that. Skin contact, Pinot agree, you know, you are. I think that it’s actually more risky for us to want to make P noir and Chardonnay because we don’t have any experience individually with those other varietals, really.

Paden: I mean, I do now with FAA because of the Gama, but we don’t really share this. We don’t have the same knowledge base for those other varietals that we do with P noir and Chardonnay. So it’s a way for us to both take what we’ve learned and use those different approaches. To make different bridals, neither of us have experience with, so it actually makes it like we do, we do get frustrated with each other , but at the same time, there’s such different bridals that we actually don’t really have like a dog model.

Paden: Like we don’t have a doctorate we’re just following. Right. You know, like we we’re using the skills and the, the tricks and tools that we have at our disposal that we’ve learned. It makes it very exciting because when you make a new varietal, like we’re looking to make ganache, we’re gonna make ganache this year from, is it the Oregon side or is it Washington side?

Paden: It’s the Washington Washington side. And we’re gonna get to be like, Jess will have her style that she can use. To make suggestions. And then I could have my section of things to make suggestions, but that’s what they all are. They’re just suggestions. Cuz we don’t have a proof of doing it before. Right. So it makes it a little bit like, you know, obviously we wanna make the best wine we can.

Paden: So we don’t wanna just be like this, our experiment. And if it doesn’t work out, you know, still buy it like that’s right. No, no. We wanna make the best wine we possibly can. Of course. But I think when you work with different varietals, it makes the, the, the approach and like. The tendency to want to experiment a lot more fun.

A.J.: Right? No. And like, I, I, there’s multiple things that I can see. Right. Like, um, so Tony re reins at Tendre. I mean, he has his hands in everything in a bunch of different varieties. Yeah. Because you want to exercise those other brain muscles. Right. Definitely. And play and experiment. Um, you know, I do the same thing, you know, with coding.

A.J.: I’m like, oh, this is a boring app. Let’s do something different. You know, so I get that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but also in, you know, um, bringing both of your all’s knowledge base together will probably even make your all’s bond even stronger.

Paden: Yeah. Yeah. That’s

A.J.: because, I mean, you’re working together and you’re creating this whole new venture together.

A.J.: Yeah. It’s and it’s wonderful. The, um, only other person that I’m aware of that makes like a long skin contact Pinot GRE is Vincent. Oh, right? Yeah. Oh, I, there might be other people, but that’s the only one that I can think of off the top. Mark. There are, there’s lots of

Paden: other people. Okay. There’s there’s a few.

Paden: Yeah.

A.J.: But I need, I need to get out there a little bit more. It sounds

Jessica: like I actually do too. I wanna try. Everybody’s

Paden: it’s a new, yeah, it’s a new market for sure. Um, the skin contact, you know, agree is 100% definitely, you know, Jessica’s brain child, because she had made skin contact PIRE with drew, for Inua.

Paden: Yeah. if you ever had that wine in the days that they made it, it was, uh, called Arosa and I don’t did they still make it? I think so, yeah. Okay. And it was just, it’s a fascinating. and it’s all about just choosing when you’re going to press at what skin contact ratio you want. And it’s, it’s so variable between each year, right?

Paden: Just based on how much sun you have, how much phenols are gonna change in the grape to everything and, and how much phenolics we want, how much you want. Yes. How much color we want. So it’s such like, I mean, no, there is, there are people that make wine in a recipe, fashion, you know, but in general wine, making’s not a recipe.

Paden: It’s all you have to be, you know, kind of constant and flux with things, but. I think that when Jess wanted to do that wine, it was very much like, yeah, and this is your, like, I’ll be there for anything you need me for. But like, this is your, this is your thing. You can nail this and it is skin contact. You agree is becoming this thing because it is a great, that will allow you to get great, great bronze hue, color to it, and good and good extraction, but it’s not a very thick skin grape at all.

Paden: And so you’re really, you’re kind of. You have an opportunity to just grab the balanced amount of what phenols you want in the wine versus what you don’t want. And then based on your picking date, you can really retain a lot of that freshness of acidity that Pinot agrees known for, with high TAs and everything else.

Paden: And so it’s just for, for Jess to do this was a really brilliant move, especially where I think the marketing is going right now. Like I think, right. We’re gonna see a lot more of. Skin contact wines in general, but Pinot GRE lends itself to be a very, very playful. And mallable great for that. Very, yeah.

Paden: Yeah. And we wanna make stuff that’s like

Jessica: affordable, right? That’s like easy to drink. Who cares if you open it on Tuesday? Yeah. Yeah. No

Paden: big deal. Throw it in a Mason jar, float the river, go camping with it. Like again, like, you know, we have some other thoughts for, for high end stuff later on with the project, but you know, the approachment will always.

Paden: you know, different varietals than we’re used to making with interesting tactics and really affordable and drinkable wines. We’ll always, the goal is to over deliver on quality and just under deliver on price. Like we want it to be very affordable access. Yeah. Yeah,

A.J.: no, I, I saw the Instagram. I’m like, wait, what,

Paden: where did this come from?

Paden: You’d be surprised. Like how many people, every time we’ve gone to a shop and we’ve sold the wine or we’ve tasted the wine with people. They always are like, oh, and what are you selling it for? And we’re like $24. They’re like, what? Gimme five cases. Like you need to. You need to charge 32 $40 for this. And we’re like, absolutely not like, right.

Paden: Why are you also, you’re buying this from us. So you should be happy for $24 price point. But no, like that’s not the, that’s not the goal. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No,

A.J.: it’s, it’s good. It’s I, I think it’s going to be a great project for the two of you and I can’t wait to see, see it grow. And I was, yeah. Very

Paden: excited to see it.

Paden: Thank you. Yeah. We’re stoked about it. Super stoked about it. Yeah. We’re having fun. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.

A.J.: so as I was setting up, I gave you all some questions. Yes. Are you all ready for this?

Paden: Yep. I feel like this might have more of a chance to make or break the marriage than making wine together on all I know.

Paden: All right.

A.J.: So each of you have five questions and, uh, we’ll go back and forth. And if, uh, you know, if I ask a question and if this, you know, if it’s the right answer, that’s been written down, you know, you get a point, um, and then, you know, at the end, There’s the same question as a potential tiebreaker. Okay.

A.J.: Um, but who wants to go first? Like who wants to, uh, answer the question

Paden: first? I’ll answer. Okay. You want to answer, so I have to ask the question. Sure. Or you ask the question, do I do it or you do? Oh,

A.J.: okay. So I’ll, I’ll ask the question. Okay. Right. All right. So, um, what is, uh, let me see. Yeah. See, I, I had to think about this myself.

A.J.: I’m like, okay. um, alright, so this would be okay. What is the best present? And so this would be asking to Payton. Okay. What is the best present you ever gave? Uh, Peyton Peyton. Oh, I

Jessica: think

A.J.: it’s a knife that you gave him for Christmas. It’s a Japanese knife. Am I right? Oh, what

Paden: again, man, like it’s really weird.

Jessica: yeah, that’s my

Paden: answer. He just gave you the answer. Oh, that’s your answer. It’s not unfortunately. Oh, Instagram lies. I’m sorry.

A.J.: Oh, darn it. So what, what was the

Paden: answer? Okay, so you AC you, your research is phenomenal because I, when I was writing down the answer, I was thinking like, oh, I love that knife, the shoe knife that she gave me for Christmas, but recently in the last Christmas, she bought me something else, which is very similar to the knife, but it’s, uh, hex clad pots and pans.

Paden: Oh, that was very, yeah. So she bought me a super amazing set of these like lifetime guarantee. Gordon Ramsey like recommended pants. They’re super nice. That would be

A.J.: nice. They’re amazing. I would say that would be better, better than the

Paden: knife. Certainly. A little bit more spit. I guess I have the knife better, but, well that’s fair everyone.

Paden: Yeah. Yeah. It’s cool. I like the research though. It’s impressive. Mm-hmm I, I try

A.J.: yeah. all right. Um, who now this is so zero, zero. Okay. Who is the best cook?

Paden: uh, that would, that would be me. Oh, okay.

A.J.: All right. I got that one right too. Okay. Very nice. All right, so we were one, one, nothing. Yep.

Paden: Oh, oh, you’re the, you’re the best person though.

Paden: Oh, good. Thank you. Yeah.

A.J.: Yeah. You gotta keep it light. You know, you’re like, , you’re nice, I guess. All right. If you were on, who wants to be a millionaire? Who would be your phone? Uh, phone and friend. Me personally, or him. So you’re on, who wants to be a millionaire? Oh, And you have to call someone, you have to call someone to help you out with the question.

A.J.: Who would that person be?

Jessica: Uh, probably car, bigger staff. Oh

A.J.: yes.

Paden: Is that what you said? I said dad. Oh, which is my dad. Yeah. Okay.

A.J.: Yeah. All right, so we’re at

Paden: one to one. Yeah, I think I did. Let me just double check

Paden: dad.

A.J.: Nice. Okay. Good job. so the, you know, I thought of this next question and I’m like in a normal kind of relationship, there’s like one person who would like, Ooh, spider, help me kill it. But like, both of you are pretty like outdoorsy. And like, I’m like, you know, I don’t know this, so who’s most likely, so this would be to you.

A.J.: Okay. Who is most likely to kill a spider?

Paden: Well, that’s a weird one because I feel like that, I, I mean, whenever there’s a spider in the shower, it’s like, just like loses her mind. and I feel like someone’s getting murdered cuz she’s like, oh my God. I to run in taking shower, what’s going on? And she’s like, there’s a spider and it’s like four feet above.

Paden: Um, but I do think the person most likely to kill the spider. I mean, if Jess saw one, she’d probably kill it or she’d ask me to kill it. So I’ll say.

A.J.: See again, it was an unfair question.

Paden: I don’t know. Right? Yeah. I’m thinking that the person, most likely to kill a spider between the two of us. Yeah. Oh, I think it might be me, honestly.

Paden: Okay.

A.J.: That’s what I said too. Okay. All

Paden: right. Two to one. Sorry, spiders. Sorry. Sorry. Iraq. NDS.

A.J.: okay. Uh, So I’m gonna take a side, little tangent, just a small one. So you’re king Charles spaniel, Bowie . And this is, this is just a general question. Who in the heck taught him to catch a Frisbee? And the reason I ask this, I have a king Charles spaniel.

A.J.: I do, I do. Oh my God. And he is just like, boo.

Paden: Yeah, tired. Right? He’s

A.J.: like, eh, I’m good. Go on. Yeah. So who taught him to like catch a Fris.

Jessica: probably Peden and

Paden: car bigger stuff. That would be me and my dad. Yeah. Okay. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah. He’s

A.J.: athletic. Yeah. That’s he, he looks very fit compared to my little guy.

Paden: Yeah. I mean, he just, he was, he went everywhere with us when we first got him as a puppy. So I think he’s just kind of like, and hiking and camping. Yeah. Hiking, camping. He’s when, uh, he’s gone on a, a 13 mile backpacking trip with my friend and I, and it was Yocum Ridge and Mount hood and it’s. It’s a really hard hike.

Paden: It’s a really hard hike. And he did that next to a pit bull mix. He kept up. So he’s just always been super like to play, likes to play. Okay. Yeah.

A.J.: Yeah. So the question to you mm-hmm who is he? Most likely to snuggle

Paden: me? I said you as well. Yeah. All right. Two to two, it’s coming down to the wire here. And also I look, I’m looking back at my two answer and I said, her dad, not my dad.

Paden: Oh. He loses a point. So I lose a point. Oh yeah. I said your dad. Oh, interesting. Should we tell your dad that you rather call my dad? um, so just, I wanna be ultra honest. Fair. Okay. Fair about this process. All right. So two to one. Thanks for your honesty. You’re welcome. That’s what’s our foundation, sweetheart.

Paden: Mm-hmm .

A.J.: all right, Peyton, if you were to go to jail, what crime did you commit?

Paden: what, oh my God.

A.J.: I

Paden: mean, it could be jaywalking. No, I unfortunately too much of a rule follower for that. Um, I don’t know. I would feel like it’s probably like road rage. I get really frustrated when I drive. Okay. Would you choose like murder or something? Are you serious? I’m glad I said murder.

A.J.: wow.

Paden: great. Okay. Yeah. So you’re 3, 3, 2. What is it? What is it? It’s it’s still 2, 1 0 2 1, yeah, two, one. Yeah.

A.J.: Yeah. Murder. . Geez. That’s great. Um, what is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Jessica: Something chocolate based.

Paden: Um, I mean, I have a lot of things to say about this, but, um, first one would be is. You’re a liar, cuz I think birthday cake is what I wrote down. Oh, birthday cake is like your, I do like that one. It’s your jam? Mm-hmm right. Mm-hmm like whenever we’re at home and you’re like, oh I really want some ice cream.

Paden: And usually if we go get ice cream and be like, I love birthday cake, the sprinkles and everything. But when I was writing down the answer, the last thing he had said to me about cake or uh, ice cream was I just really want this like double fudged chocolate ice cream. So I took a gamble and I’m. Oh wrong, AJ.

Paden: Darn

A.J.: it. All right. Well, we’re still at two to one. Yeah. Don’t know anything about AJ. Oh, no. oh, no. All right. Um, who’s the better driver.

A.J.: And you can’t say the Tesla auto pilot.

Paden: Elon Musk. Um, I don’t know. I think we’re both great drivers.

A.J.: Um,

Paden: this is hard, you know, because I feel like that I have to go home with her after this. And you don’t, you know,

A.J.: I, I know I, I get to I’m so lucky I get to go home. You are. Yeah.

Paden: Yeah. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna go with me.

A.J.: You’re trying to tie it up to make

Paden: it two to two. I’m trying to, I also feel bad with that answer, but I have no tickets. I have a completely clean record. I don’t have tickets either. Oh, I thought you had at least seven. You wrecked a car once. . That’s true. I did not a bad karma. Jess is the better driver.

Paden: I’m a better driver. Just the better driver. I’ll say that. Okay. What was her answer? Wow. You’re selfish, you know?

A.J.: all right. We’re tied up. Oh, wow. So now we have the, the, the tiebreaker question. Oh God. And this is, this is the hard one. .

Jessica: That was nice about that one

A.J.: who makes, uh, the better wine,

Paden: um, on my paper, I said, no comment.

A.J.: Oh, oh, that’s that’s the, that’s the good answer. I

Paden: said you. Well, I love you very much. So I win. You win. There you go. you always win. you’re a winner. I married a winner.

A.J.: Yes, you did. I did. All right. Awesome. Well, thank you all for that. That it’s always fun. Course. It’s

Paden: always fun.

Paden: Totally. I love it. It’s great. that is fun. We’ll see how many arguments we’ll get in. We’ll let you know. I appreciate it. You a text we’ll we’ll do a follow

A.J.: up or

Paden: something. Yeah. Right, right, right. For sure. We’ll meet you in therapy.

A.J.: so traumatizing. Yeah. Do I have to take sides in therapy? Yes.

Paden: Oh yeah. Good point.

Paden: Oh, damn. That’s damn rough. Just matters. You know what, why you wanna get bribe with the most? That’s all that matters. Yeah.

A.J.: Yeah. Oh man. It’s tough. I, I, I.

Paden: Venture toward bubbles. Yeah. That’s good. Call easy call. Speaking of the bubbles. Um, do we want to go with Oregon on this? Yeah, I think we’ll go with Oregon.

Paden: Is it Oregon? Uh, I

A.J.: will say it’s Oregon. Okay. I have some rapid fire questions. Okay. Go for it. And then I’ll do the reveal. Perfect. Okay. Sounds good. Uh, who is your favorite artist to listen to during harvest post Malone? Post Malone? Boom.

Paden: That was quick. Which rekindled it all. Yeah.

A.J.: Uh, favorite indulgent food

Paden: hamburgers.

Paden: oh,

A.J.: uh, harvest notes, digital or handwritten

Paden: digital, both.

A.J.: Okay. If you could choose a superpower, what would it be

Jessica: to use much pizza as I want and

A.J.: just gain weight? that would be amazing. Uh, luck, luck, luck. Okay. Uh, favorite superhero, uh,

Paden: spider. I don’t have one. Okay. Right answer. Was your husband. Oh, you can say king Bowie. King Bowie. Yeah. There you

A.J.: go. That’s what you call. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Um, last book you read, it could be digital. It could be audible. It could be, you know, actual physical book,

Jessica: atomic

Paden: habits. That’s a good book.

Paden: Howard zens, a people’s history. I’ve never heard of that one. It’s a great book. Okay. Should read it all right. I like it.

A.J.: Yeah. I’ll have to take that out. Okay. All right. Time to reveal the wine.

Paden: Perfect. Okay. Uh, so Oregon, you wanna guess the year before he does it? Uh,

Jessica: yeah, I wanna say like 20, 15, 20 16 ish.

Jessica: I’m not sure about Blanc to Blanc. It could be bla in the water as well, but I kind of think it’s

A.J.: Blanc to Blanc.

Paden: I think it’s Blanc to Blanc and I think it’s.

A.J.: okay. Well, it is Oregon 2018. Oh 20

Paden: 18 18. I bla the B

A.J.: Blanc from corollary. The, uh, nice, uh, ex Omni vineyard.

Paden: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were just talking about how you love those people a lot.

Paden: I do. Yeah. Yeah. That’s rad. Thank you for that. Yeah. Oh yeah. That’s delicious. It’s and I just had that red Hills market. Yeah. Oh, you why she said yeah. Yeah. You, yeah, that was good. Nice. They did a great job that. . Yeah, no, they, I

A.J.: like what they’re doing up

Paden: there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I love the label too. It’s a dope label.

Paden: Yeah, they, they are. Yeah.

A.J.: Yeah. Their

Jessica: packaging’s good. The bubbles are

A.J.: good. One last question. Yeah. Yes. Who has

Paden: a better poker face?

Paden: I think I probably do on that one probably. Yeah.

A.J.: Okay. All right. Well, I got a card trick for you. Oh God. Oh, yay. Yeah. so you’re a magician. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, if you want to take the deck of cards, shuffle alone, however you want to do whatever you want to. Okay. Um, and what I’m going to do is. See how good up a poker face you

Paden: have?

Paden: This will be great. Ha I’m already kind of in a fun mood. So , it’s the bubbles. It’s the bubbles. Everyone happy. Could just all be like the airy questions that you asked me about Tesla. Like holy crap.

A.J.: Yeah. And your, your CD being on eBay for 3

Paden: 95. Yeah, that was impressive. Yeah. That’s pretty cool.

A.J.: Yeah. Okay.

A.J.: So what I’m going to do. Is put, you know, a card down one at a time. Okay. And you tell me to stop. Okay. Right. So whenever you want to just tell me to stop,

Paden: stop.

A.J.: Okay. Do you want this card or do you

Paden: want this card? The one that you’re pointing at now, the top one. Okay. So take that card.

A.J.: Don’t let me see what it is.

A.J.: Okay. And you know, if you want to show Jess, you know, so you know it,

Paden: uh, well, hang on. She, if she doesn’t have a good poker face, Probably doesn’t want, you don’t want her to see it, right. Okay. You’ll read her too. I won’t look at her. I’ll just look just at two. Fair

A.J.: enough. I’m gonna blow it. Okay. Okay. So go ahead and put the card back here on the top of the deck.

A.J.: Okay. All right. So what I’m gonna do just for, uh, giggles, I’m gonna cut it a couple times, right? That way you have absolutely no idea where your card is. Okay. So would you agree, like I have no idea what your card is. There’s no. Okay. So what I’m going to do is just kind of get a vibe. Yeah. Right. I’m gonna see where the Tesla music I hear going on.

A.J.: and, uh, just do a little bit of deduction here and I think you’ve seen your card.

Paden: I hope I remember it, but yeah. Okay. I hope you remember it. Well, you got

A.J.: a backup just in case. I remember it. So now we have red cards. We have black cards, right? So what we’re going to do, we’re gonna put ’em in piles.

A.J.: Now. This is where the poker face comes in at. Okay. I’m gonna put my hand over the red deck. I’m just gonna look at your face and then do the same for the black

Paden: deck. Okay. Fair. All right.

A.J.: So poker,

Paden: FaceTime. Okay. Here we.

A.J.: Oh, that’s not a poker face.

Paden: oh, I mean like I, maybe it is, you know? Okay. That could be all right.

A.J.: all right. Your card is a red card. So now we have diamonds and we have hearts. So now we’re going to kind of do the same thing.

A.J.: All right. Diamond. Ooh. Yeah. Now he’s just playing with me. Okay. Then we have hearts.

Paden: Okay. It’s a hard one. It’s a hard

A.J.: one. Okay. So I know that your card is not a two, not a three, not a 10, not a five, not a seven, not a six, but the Jack of diamonds. Wow.

Paden: That’s not my card. I’m just kidding. It is my, oh my God. That’s impressive. See, my thought process was, I’m just gonna try to be as happy as possible, but any, any solution, right.

Paden: And clearly there was a giveaway. Never playing poked with you and also not posting anything personal on Instagram anymore. Well, so I,

A.J.: I kind of wanted to do this because one of your favorite, very impressive. Thank you. One of your, uh, favorite wineries in Walla Walla is slight of.

Paden: Oh, yeah. That’s room. It is.

Paden: We love that place. We love Trey. That great wines. Yeah. Yeah. All right. That was impressive. I, I would ask the trick, but I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna have you reveal your secret so, well, I, it’s not appropriate.

A.J.: Well, it’s fine. It’s fine. all right. Well, that’s all the questions that I have really appreciate your time.

A.J.: Thank you doing this. This was a

Paden: blast. Yeah. Yeah. We had a great time. Thank you so much, man. Really appreciate it. Yeah, no, thank you. Yeah. Cheers. That was easy.