THE LOS ANGELES RIVER WINE COMPANY

From the beginning, we conceived of our 12 Seats experience as having a single, deep, foundation: conversation. Not tasting. Conversation, in the presence of wine. Guests, gathered at a table, with wine in front of them, books on one wall, barrels of wine on the other: the two walls forming a kind of channel for the experience.

And, we thought, central to this is bringing in other minds — you might call them "Guest Hosts."

Above, you will see Dan Petroski, an old friend from Napa, who, without introduction, somehow vividly grasped the heart of what we are doing. When I asked him to come down and talk about some wines, mostly white, that he and I both love and respect, he agreed immediately— and then proposed that we do two sessions in a single night!

He said, "let's do one at the normal hour. what is it? 7 PM? and then let's do another, for professionals, who are in service at 7; one especially for them…" And so we did, and ordered pizza and stayed past 12 and it was fantastic.

We have had Pascaline Lepeltier visit and lead a discussion on Invisibility, leaning heavily on Saké; and Chiara Pepe has visited twice, and we just sit there and bask in her kind wisdom…

Here is a list of all of our guest hosts, in no clear order. I have tried to summarize the focus or beginning point of the discussion in each case.

1. ZACH NEGIN OF TABULA RASA: A selection of recent treasures from the Valle de Guadalupe
2. COURTNEY KAPLAN OF OTOTO AND TSUBAKI: on Champagne and Saké
3. Melinda Kearney and Michèle Ouellet OF LORENZA ROSE: on the history of their work together
4. MONICA SAMUELS OF KOME COLLECTIVE: two visits with Brewers
5. BRENNA QUIGLEY: introduction to thinking about Geology and Terroir, and, with Paul Wasserman: Tasting Geological differences
6. BRENNA QUIGLEY and HARRY ROOT: on arbuscular mycorrhizae
7. RAJ PARR: Drink like a Scythian
8. CHRISTINA RASMUSSEN: Drink like a Scythian, plus, a tasting of her 2019 wine, The Alley
9. DAN PETROSKI: on Great White wines
10. CHRISTIAN KNOTT of domaine dandelion: TILLING AND FARMING THE SOIL
11. CHIARA PEPE OF EMIDIO PEPE: two visits, on Farming the Air, and on Invisibility
12. NINA WEST: wines of the Wachau
13. CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS: TO CELEBRATE TAYLOR'S VISIT TO LA
14. DEIRDRE HEEKIN: pruning, ALSO THE HORTUS APERTUS
15. ANDRES ZINIEL: the mayor of the BURGENLAND PRESENTS HIS WINES
16. ALEJANDRO ARTIGAS: Scholium Retrospective with Analysis
17. JULIA VAN DER VINK and ROB BLACK on the Mt. Veeder Dream
18. ROBERT DENTICE on wines that are dear to him
19. WALTER STERLING: on Machiavelli on Place
20. MARIA NIEDRIST: CULTURE AND history in the Sudtirol
21. STEVE MATTHIASSON: A REFLECTION ON CHANGE IN NAPA VALLEY
22. Ashkahn Shahparnia: PRESENTATION OF HIS SECOND RELEASE
23. Karl Sjöström OF FRUKTSTEREO: ON FERMENTING WINES NOT FROM GRAPES
24. MICHAEL SILACCI: ON EXPERIMENTATION IN WINEMAKING
25. NIKI NAKAZAWA ON THE TINY BATCH MEZCALS OF NETA
26. Nate Ready of HIYU WINE FARM: On the Hortus Apertus
27. PASCALINE LEPELTIER: ON DISAPPEARACE

An abbreviated gallery of our guest hosts: