{"id":2599,"date":"2025-09-18T18:17:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T18:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=2599"},"modified":"2025-09-27T16:38:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:38:37","slug":"winemaker-interview-series-brent-mccoy-of-gary-farrell-july-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=2599","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker Interview Series &#8211; Brent McKoy of Gary Farrell &#8211; July 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Brent-McKoy-Winemaker-of-Gary-Farrell-Winery.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Brent-McKoy-Winemaker-of-Gary-Farrell-Winery.gif\" alt=\"Brent McKoy Winemaker of Gary Farrell Winery\" width=\"190\" height=\"257\" \/><\/a>On Wednesday, July 9, 2025, we had the opportunity to interview <a href=\"https:\/\/www.garyfarrellwinery.com\/news\/gary-farrell-winery-announces-brent-mckoy-as-head-winemaker\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Brent McKoy<\/strong><\/a>, winemaker at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.garyfarrellwinery.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell Winery<\/strong><\/a>. We covered three Chardonnays from the 2021 vintage and one from the 2022 vintage. We also covered four Pinot Noirs: one from the 2019 vintage, two from 2021, and one from 2023. You can learn about Brent and Gary Farrell Winery and read about these wines in this post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Before we get to the wines, I thought I would share some tidbits that Brent shared in the interview.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Brent had a very interesting path to the wine business.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He studied English Literature at East Carolina University.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He worked in the art industry as an art installer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He plays percussion in a jazz band.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He was an arborist in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Where he caught the wine bug there.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Inspired by wine, he moved to Napa and his first foray into wine, was as a harvest intern at Robert Mondavi Winery.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He was invited to stay and learned everything about the winemaking business from the ground up.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In 2005 he had a great and rare opportunity to work with winery founder Gary Farrell.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Gary&#8217;s process was very clean and methodical.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Gary&#8217;s first wines were made a Rochioli.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This year is going to be Brent&#8217;s 21<sup>st<\/sup> harvest at the winery.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Gary sold the winery in 2004. Hired Brent in 2005 to work with him.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Susan Reed became the second winemaker after Gary retired.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The winery was sold again to the current owner <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/threestickswines.com\/people\/bil-price\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bill Price III<\/a><\/strong> in 2011.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Bill hired <a href=\"https:\/\/www.herwineco.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Theresa Heredia<\/strong><\/a> to take the lead winemaking role in 2012. Her last vintage with the winery was in 2023.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Under Theresa, Brent worked his way up to Assistant Winemaker and has been the Winemaker for two years now.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/meaghan-hodge-a861841bb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Meaghan Hodge<\/strong><\/a> is now Brent\u2019s assistant. She is 26 years old and very smart according to Brent.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Brent gets great fruit from great sources. His job according to him is to &#8220;Not screw it up!&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2021 was a very good vintage for Chardonnay. Not too hot, not to cold. They could pick when they wanted.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Their appellation blend wines are made from many different vineyards.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Ritchie Chardonnay comes from Block I. It is low yielding Wente clone.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Olivet Lane Chardonnay is an interplanted mixed vineyard. 30% of the vines are new. There is a lot of variability considering the mix of old and new vine fruit.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They get one super old block of super concentrated Chardonnay from the Bacigalupi Vineyard. They also get one newer block from them as well.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They get the Tri-Larner block from the Rochioli Vineyard-Allen Vineyard. The Allen Vineyard is across the street from the Rochioli Vineyard.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This is the vineyard that started it all for Gary Farrell. The grape deal is on a handshake.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They get Pommard fruit.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Hallberg Vineyard is owned by the Jones Family in the Green Valley sub-region of the Russian River Valley.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is impeccably farmed. The owners live on the vineyard.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They purchase most of their fruit from this vineyard.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Gap&#8217;s Crown Vineyard gets hammered with wind. They get 777 and 667 fruit from there.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Bill Price owns the vineyard.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Sonoma Coast Appellation Pinot Noir is a new wine for the winery.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2023 was a huge vintage with lots of grapes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This wine contains grapes from several vineyards: Durell, Gap&#8217;s Crown, Hummingbird Hill and Annabelle\u2019s<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They made another Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir in 2024.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They moved to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/diam-cork.com\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Diam<\/a><\/strong> 10 corks to avoid cork taint.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Below is a summary of the wine offerings from Gary Farrell that we covered with Brent. The links below are to our full reviews. If you are interested in ordering and trying these wines, you will find some of these wines via your favorite fine wine shop or on top quality wines lists. You can also purchase these wines on the <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.garyfarrellwinery.com\/wines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Gary Farrell website<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Gary-Farrell-Logo.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2601 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Gary-Farrell-Logo.gif\" alt=\"Gary Farrell Winery\" width=\"300\" height=\"120\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2021-Bacigalupi-Vineyard-Chardonnay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell 2021 Chardonnay &#8220;Bacigalupi Vineyard&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Russian River) $65 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 94<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2021-Ritchie-Vineyard-Chardonnay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell 2021 Chardonnay &#8220;Ritchie Vineyard&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Russian River) $75 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93 <\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2021-Rochioli-Vineyard-Chardonnay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell 2021 Chardonnay &#8220;Rochioli Vineyard&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Russian River) $75 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2022-Olivet-Lane-Vineyard-Chardonnay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gary Farrell 2022 Chardonnay &#8220;Olivet Lane Vineyard&#8221;<\/a><\/strong> (Russian River) $50 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2021-Rochioli-Vineyard-Allen-Pinot-Noir\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell 2021 Pinot Noir &#8220;Rochioli Vineyard-Allen&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Russian River) $95 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2021-Hallberg-Vineyard-Pinot-Noir\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell 2021 Pinot Noir &#8220;Hallberg Vineyard&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Russian River) $60 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 92.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2023-Sonoma-Coast-Pinot-Noir\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell 2023 Pinot Noir &#8220;Sonoma Coast&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Sonoma Coast) $50 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 9<\/strong><strong>2<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2019-Gaps-Crown-Vineyard-Pinot-Noir\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell 2019 Pinot Noir &#8220;Gap&#8217;s Crown Vineyard&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Petaluma Gap) $85 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>Other Merriam Wines That We Covered In Others Tastings<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2022-Russian-River-Selection-Chardonnay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell 2022 Chardonnay &#8220;Russian River Selection&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (CA) $40 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 91.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Gary-Farrell-2022-Russian-River-Selection-Pinot-Noir\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell 2022 Pinot Noir &#8220;Russian River Selection&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (CA) $50 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 92<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You can find reviews of past and future Gary Farrell wines that we cover on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine.php?winery=654\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Gary Farrell KWG winery page<\/strong><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> on our website. We hope you enjoy these terrific wines as much as we did. Cheers! \u2013 Ken<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, July 9, 2025, we had the opportunity to interview Brent McKoy, winemaker at Gary Farrell Winery. We covered three Chardonnays from the 2021 vintage and one from the 2022 vintage. We also covered four Pinot Noirs: one from the 2019 vintage, two from 2021, and one from 2023. You can learn about Brent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067,3105,3104,13,3106,1457,2049,2875,3107,11,3108,2817,12,1187,2691,610,3109,102,1120,1554,126,8,6,240,1292],"tags":[3098,3014,3097,3101,2641,2060,3093,3087,491,3103,3102,1468,3090,1475,1448,472,2404,3089,3100,3094,3095,1561,2422,492,1562,390,3091,1563,3088,1469,1124,3099,3092,1555,3096,1434],"class_list":["post-2599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bacigalupi-vineyard","category-bill-price","category-brent-mckoy","category-chardonnay","category-diam","category-durell-vineyard","category-gaps-crown","category-green-valley","category-hallberg-vineyard","category-kens-wine-guide-tasting-panel","category-olivet-lane","category-petaluma-gap","category-pinot-noir","category-red-wine","category-ritchie-vineyard","category-robert-mondavi","category-rochioli-vineyard","category-russian-river-valley","category-sonoma-coast","category-theresa-heredia","category-wine-ratings","category-wine-recommendations","category-wine-reviews","category-wine-tasting","category-winemaker","tag-667-clone","tag-777-clone","tag-allen-vineyard","tag-annabelles-vineyard","tag-assistant-winemaker","tag-bacigalupi-vineyard","tag-bill-price-iii","tag-brent-mckoy","tag-chardonnay","tag-diam","tag-diam-10-corks","tag-durell-vineyard","tag-east-carolina-university","tag-gaps-crown-vineyard","tag-gaps-crown","tag-gary-farrell","tag-green-valley","tag-hallberg-vineyard","tag-hummingbird-hill-vineyard","tag-meaghan-hodge","tag-not-screw-it-up","tag-olivet-lane-vineyard","tag-petaluma-gap","tag-pinot-noir","tag-ritchie-vineyard","tag-robert-mondavi-winery","tag-rochioli","tag-rochioli-vineyard","tag-rochioli-vineyard-allen","tag-russian-river-valley","tag-sonoma-coast","tag-sonoma-coast-appellation","tag-susan-reed","tag-theresa-heredia","tag-wente-clone","tag-winemaker"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2599"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2607,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2599\/revisions\/2607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}