After almost three years of podcasting and blogging about wine, it’s time I try my hand at making some.

I’m pleased to announce my new side project in collaboration with the folks at Crushpad: Roussanne 2007.

Yep, I’m going to make a couple barrels, perhaps a bit more depending on demand, of one of the great white grapes of the Rhone, Roussanne. And not just any Roussanne, but grapes grown in the Westerly Vineyard (now known as McGinley) in Santa Ynez’s Happy Canyon area. This is just north of where I grew up and it will be great to get back to my roots and explore what it means to be a winemaker again.

Although I have never mentioned it here, I have made wine over several vintages. My first efforts were from canned concentrates in the mid-1980’s which ended in wines that mostly were poured down the drain. Undeterred, I continued my quest in the obscure vineyards of Oregon, Wisconsin with two vintages of Marshall Foch, Leon Millot, Dechaunac, Aurore and Seyval Blanc. These wines proved to be much more drinkable with some actually quite quaffable. But they were not what I was looking for so I stopped with the 1990 vintage. Although I later moved near the Finger Lakes in New York, I was never tempted to restart my winemaking until I could make wines from vitis vinifera grapes grown in my home state of California.

This vintage my wish has been granted and I will make Roussanne, perhaps blended with other Rhone whites, and podcast and blog the experience with you.

And you can directly participate by joining my Crushnet group and being on my advisory committee. Not only will you help me make all the decisions for this wine from fermentation procedures to aging to labeling, but you’ll also get a one-case allocation of this rare wine. A maximum of 70 members will have the chance to taste this wine in barrel and in the bottle.

Just sign up at Crushnet and then search for the Winecast group and join. Shortly thereafter I’ll approve your membership and you’ll be in for a great ride.

So who’s in?