180 - Kevin Ferguson, The Gemello Winery and A History of California Wine

California had 1,000 wineries in 1910. By 1965, it had 225. The story of how the industry collapsed, came back, and quadrupled past 4,800 wineries today runs straight through one Piedmontese immigrant family — and Kevin Ferguson's.

In this episode, Jordan sits down with Kevin — writer, former brand marketer, and great-grandson of John Gemello, founder of the Gemello Winery in Mountain View — to trace California wine from Prohibition's lost expertise through the 1976 Judgment of Paris and the boutique boom that followed. Along the way: Mike Grgich and Chateau Montelena, Steven Spurrier's reluctant bicentennial marketing stunt, George Taber as the only reporter in the room, and the little-remembered 2001 rematch in which Kevin's grandfather's 1970 Cabernet beat fourteen of sixteen judges' top picks — news he received by phone at age 82.

Plus: a chance meeting at a San Jose hotel that reunited two Piedmontese immigrants and started the Beltramo dynasty, cassette tapes that preserved a family's oral history, and why the best wine, for Kevin, is the one with the best story behind it.

Kevin's Substack