When one spends hours a day with nothing but wine barrels and stainless steel tanks for company, fighting off loneliness and extreme boredom is a constant challenge. And while the droning pfffft-pffffft beat of a diaphragm pump can occasionally inspire bursts of brilliant rhymesmanship, a winemaker’s stereo is often his or her best friend. In fact, it can even be debated whether beer or music play a more important role in the winemaking process (read our thoughts on beer). So here’s a brief list of some of our favorite songs to listen to while making or consuming wine that also happen to be about, or at least make mention of, our favorite elixir.

Chug-a-lug
ROGER MILLER
The first verse kicks off with “Grape wine in a mason jar, homemade and brought to school”, and the chorus features the phrase “makes you wanna holler hi-dee-ho”, which we think would make a mighty nice slogan for Jus Soli wines. And to clarify that first line, we of course would never condone underage drinking and are certain that the school Miller refers to is some sort of post-graduate program, most likely in enology.

Why Can’t We Be Friends
WAR
“I seen you around for a long long time, I remember you when you drank my wine…” In an extremely tough call, gets the nod over War’s Spill The Wine by not being about spilling. A decision made especially difficult since Spill the Wine features all the crazy rambling about the “overfed long-haired leaping gnome”, which for some reason was one of the possible winery names suggested by our eccentric long-haired winemaker Tom. Translating into Latin didn’t do much for it either.

I Got Loaded
LOS LOBOS
“Tonight I might get loaded, on a bottle of wine, on a bottle of wine…” We just might.

Wine, Women and Song
LORETTA LYNN
Easily beats out Whitesnake’s similar yet very different, Wine Women an’ Song.

Babylon System
BOB MARLEY
“We’ve been trodding on the wine press, much too long”. A song for those tiring harvest days. Bob understands.

Yesterday’s Wine
MERLE HAGGARD (WITH GEORGE JONES)
Melancholy tune by drinking song hall-of-famer Merle. Also brings light to the fact that the bottle of wine you opened last night might still contain a glass. If so, go now.

Sheep Go To Heaven
CAKE
“I just want to play on my pan pipes, I just want to drink me some wine…” The rest of the chorus is “Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell”, which always makes for an interesting sing-a-long at Cake concerts.

Willin’
LINDA RONSTADT
“If you give me weed, whites and wine, and you show me a sign, I’ll be willin’ to be movin’…” That’s right, Linda over the original by Little Feat. No list is complete without a little controversy. But seriously, Linda’s version is outstanding and was always one of Harvey “Poppy” Wurtzel’s favorite songs for kicking off a road trip, despite being a questionable choice to sing loudly in front of the little ones. To their credit, his children Cory and Jesse did choose to sell the only one of those three vices permitted by law.

I Like Beer
TOM T. HALL
The song complains about how “The water was clear and tasted like beer until sometime turned it all into wine” followed by a rousing bummed “Awwww…” from the whole band. Gets nod over Hall’s nicely titled Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine because frankly, watermelon wine doesn’t sound very tasty.

Hole In The Bucket
SPEARHEAD
“What’s gonna happen if I give the man a dime? I don’t want to pay for another brother’s wine.” This one’s for the anti-wine contingent currently wasting time deep within our winery website.

Outdone
UNCLE TUPELO
“Some people turn to tomorrow, and some a bottle of wine”. The young Jay Farrar, Jus Soli’s unofficial musical representative, telling it like he sees it. We just caught his show in Petaluma the other night with guitarist Mark Spencer accompanying. Wow.

Wine Spodee-O-dee
LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS
“We gon’ have some fun ‘fore the sun goes down, you got the bottle jus’ pass it around.” Even the classic bluesmen get a little silly sometimes.

A Little More Wine
SAVOY BROWN
“I just got time for a little more wine.” Familiar sentiment, great song from the short-lived (with original lineup) and under-appreciated British blues scene band. Often followed by, “Hey, you know what, I still got time for a little more wine”.

Cold Water
TOM WAITS
“Scrape up a little money to buy a bottle of wine.” Sneeze and you might miss the wine reference but it sure is nice to have Sonoma County’s own Tom Waits on our list, and this selection is considerably less scary  than the Black Rider’s desire to “drink your blood like vine”.

Little Ole Winedrinker
LEFTY FRIZZELL AND DEAN MARTIN
Since Dean seems right at home on a list like this, we included his version along with Lefty’s original. We’re pretty sure that’s Dean in the picture (although definitely not wine that he’s drinking).

All Along The Watchtower
JIMI HENDRIX
Before you Dylan fans freak-out (even though Jimi’s version is better), look at the next entry.

Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
BOB DYLAN
“She said all the railroad men just drink up your blood like wine”. Again the scary drinking blood thing, but it’s such a great song with such a great title.

Time Between Bottles of Wine
WAYLON JENNINGS
Since Peter named his dog after the man, we figured we better sneak Waylon in here somewhere. And while there is no such standard measurement of time, we try to keep it under 15 minutes.

Going Up The Country
CANNED HEAT
“I’m going where the water tastes like wine. We can jump in the water, stay drunk all the time.” And then a wild flute solo ensues. Need we say more?

Man No Sober
STEEL PULSE
“In and out of discotheques, in and out of wine bars…” And you thought reggae songs were only about ganja.

Sangria Wine
JERRY JEFF WALKER
“It’s organic and it comes from the vine, it’s also legal and it gets you so high…” Odd catchy little song on the same album as Walker’s version of the hilarious Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother.

Champagne and Wine
OTIS REDDING
A seduction song from Otis. If you’re out of champagne, may we suggest Jus Soli Zinfandel? No need to thank us, just doing what we can to improve all facets of our customer’s lives.

Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
BILLY JOEL
“A bottle of red, a bottle of white, it all depends on your appetite”. Yeah, we know it’s long and cheesy, but pre- Christie Brinkley Billy Joel is good cheesy, right? On second thought, maybe it’s just bad cheesy. Forget we ever brought it up. The back album cover is pretty cool though. Check out Billy’s tie and fro.

Red, Red Wine
NEIL DIAMOND
Just kidding, we’re going with UB40’s version.

Songs that we didn’t include for obvious reasons:

Bitter Wine
BON JOVI

How Does The Wine Taste
BARBARA STREISAND

Good Friends and A Bottle of Wine
TED NUGENT

Archived from Jus Soli the website 1.0 (or maybe 1.2.9 is more accurate)

WINEMAKER’S PROVERB:

“It takes a lot of beer to make good wine.”

Hunter S. Thompson contributed the following quote to the original back label of Road Dog Ale from the Flying Dog Brewery of Colorado, “There is an ancient Celtic axiom that says, ‘Good people drink good beer’, which is true, then as now. Just look around you at any public barroom and you will quickly see, bad people drink bad beer. Think about it.” At Jus Soli, we feel that at least the first part of Hunter’s sentiment can be applied to the old winemaker’s proverb. Great beer helps make great wine. And fortunately for us, there is no shortage of outstanding brew to be found in Sonoma County.

Russian River Brewing Company

www.russianriverbrewing.com

Visit their new brewpub in downtown Santa Rosa and you’ll shortly be asking your companions, “Could the beer you’re drinking right now possibly be as good as the beer I’m drinking right now?” And you know what, from pale to bitter to IPA and double IPA to a killer stout and a wide assortment of Belgians with cool names like Little White Lie, Redemption, Perdition and Damnation, every single beer they make is truly exceptional. We’d try to get our wine on their wine list if we thought it made any sense to drink wine here. It doesn’t. The beer is that good and can be brought home (or to the winery) in refillable half-gallon growlers.

Bear Republic Brewing Company

www.bearrepublic.com

This Healdsburg brewpub is run by old friends Richard and Tami Norgrove and also makes nothing but standout brews. The high octane Hop Rod Rye has been a particular favorite for several years now. Our only complaint is that their establishment is so far away from where we all live. Thankfully their 22-ounce bottlings can be found in most good markets and liquor stores throughout the county.

Moonlight Brewing Company

www.moonlightbrewing.com

This one is a little trickier because they don’t have a brewpub and don’t bottle any of their beers. You’ll have to locate a place that serves their beer like The Rose on Armory Drive in Santa Rosa which always has their popular black lager “Death and Taxes” on tap or the Wine Exchange of Sonoma (see below for more info) which usually features one of their brews at their tasting bar in the back. Or contact proprietor/brewmaster Brian Hunt directly to arrange for a keg and you’re sure to have a good laugh while you do since Brian is quite a character in addition to his impressive beer skills.

Wine Exchange of Sonoma

www.wineexsonoma.com

This wine and beer shop on the square in Sonoma deserves special mention because of their bar in the back of the store where they pour approximately twenty wines and a handful of incredible beers for your tasting pleasure and edification. Last time I was there they had one Moonlight beer, one Russian River beer, one Bear Republic beer and actually had the legendary Belgian brew Delirium Tremens on tap! What a treat. Dan and Rich certainly know their stuff. And don’t forget to pick up some Jus Soli wine on your way out!

Murphy’s Irish Pub

http://www.sterba.com/sonoma/murphy/

The best atmosphere for beer drinking in Sonoma County lies down a little alleyway just down from the Sebastiani Theater on the historic square in Sonoma. Get an outdoor table along the quaint pedestrian alleyway as the sun goes down on a summer night and you’ll swear there’s no place better for a few pints of Guinness anywhere. There’s live music (traditional Irish, folk, blues or bluegrass) four nights a week including a family friendly 6pm Sunday start time.

I’m sure we’ll bump into you at one of these places eventually,

The Jus Soli Winery Beer Club

If, for some odd reason, we were asked to pair any one musician or group with our Jus Soli wines, Jay Farrar’s name would undoubtedly appear on the short list as many of us are huge Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt and solo Jay fans. In fact, most of us went together to Jay’s recent Santa Rosa show in support of his second solo album “Terroir Blues”.

That’s right, terroir, the French winemaking term used for describing the overall effect on wines of the soil and microclimate in which the grapes were grown, as part of the album title of one of our favorite artists. And this on the heels of a debut solo album called “Sebastopol”, which just happens to be the name of a town right here in our home county (never mind that Jay knows it as the name of an old blues tuning).

Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, important winemaking term and town in our county known for it’s apple orchards and progressive politics? Consider the deal done. Let it be known to all other producers of wine henceforth from this 20th day of August 2004, Jay is our guy. Jay Farrar, the unofficial musical representative of Jus Soli wines.

Seems Jay came across the concept of terroir while reading an article on winemaking in the Atlantic Monthly. In his own words, “I sort of took liberties and used it to describe the making of music as opposed to the making of wine. I feel there needs to be a word that aptly describes the sense of place and environment that goes into making music.”

Which is especially interesting to us since while selecting our winery name, we took the liberty of applying the concept of terroir to ourselves in addition to our wines. For we are who we are individually and collectively because of the particular mix of land, people and overall “climate” of the place we call home. To us, Jus Soli or Law of the Soil, primarily means acknowledging our shared roots in this great place where we live, work and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Often with Jay Farrar’s music playing in the background. Making him a component of our terroir as well, right?

Bringing us from wine to music and back again.

For the uninitiated, Jay’s latest “Stone Steel and Bright Lights” would be an excellent starting point and can be purchased at his website (www.jayfarrar.net). It’s a live album recorded during his “Terroir Blues” tour with the five-piece band Canyon backing him. Or if stripped down acoustic music is more your cup of tea, then consider “Live in Seattle” recorded on 7/24/03 (available as a download from his site). Then complete your collection with all his Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt and solo efforts. And don’t forget to drink Jus Soli wines to enhance your listening pleasure!

Note:  Part of the massive ongoing archival project of Jus Soli the website 1.0