{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"From Endless Summer to Carmel Wines: The Creative Journey of Walter Georis","description":"Crazy story.  Walter Georis wrote the soundtrack to the iconic surf film, The Endless Summer. With desires to make it big in music, the soundtrack would be their swan song in show business. What happens after, is shear career poetry. I have to tell you that sitting down with Walter Georis was the kind of podcast taping that makes me glad I do this show. There\u2019s something about a man whose life story connects surf music, fine dining, art, and wine that just puts a smile on your face\u2014especially when he unspools it with such humble, matter-of-fact wisdom. Now, I didn\u2019t know much about Walter Georis before a friend tipped me off. I got an email out of the blue\u2014one of those you almost skip past in your inbox. My friend, who I used to surf with in Palos Verdes, had been up late thinking about \u201cThe Endless Summer.\u201d He does a quick search, and boom\u2014finds out that the guy who wrote the music for that iconic film now owns a winery up in Carmel Valley. He tells me, \u201cPaul, you\u2019ve got to talk to this guy!\u201d And, boy, am I glad I did. From the start, Walter Georis came off with a grounded, European sensibility\u2014someone raised on the value of seasons, making things from scratch, and, most importantly, letting nature express itself. I loved his opening line: \u201cI don\u2019t do anything to the wine to manipulate it\u2026\u201d For him, a vintage is a vintage, and that\u2019s the story in the bottle. As someone who\u2019s spent a lifetime talking with both big-shot and backyard winemakers, this kind of honesty always jumps out at me. What floored me about Walter Georis was the stories. Here\u2019s a Belgian kid, can hardly swim, never surfed, but ends up shaping the sound of California\u2019s surf music scene in the sixties! He and his buddies, playing in garages and school gyms, end up composing for \u201cThe Endless Summer\u201d\u2014and not by luck, but because they show up, put in the hours, and play for the right parties (and some of the right glassers, too\u2014if you know, you know). And, this is the kicker\u2014he does all this as a French speaker, blending right in with the \u201cstoked, it\u2019s a trip\u201d Southern California crowd. But Walter Georis\u2019s life isn\u2019t about hanging onto some faded record label glory. He\u2019s got this restless, creative spirit. After the music, he turns to art, painting eight hours a day in Carmel, living on the cheap. He spends years finding his style, blending the abstract with the figurative\u2014until, naturally, he finds himself in the hospitality business, opening Casanova and La Boheme Song with his family. This is what I love: the European model, building legacy, not just chasing a fast-growing, flash-in-the-pan restaurant business. And Walter Georis gets it right\u2014places that become international, drawing in everyone from actors to race car drivers, all wanting a piece of that Carmel magic. But for me, this episode really shines when we dig into the winemaking. Walter Georis talks about honest wine\u2014the idea that you don\u2019t mess with what the vineyard gives you. He gets animated describing the soil, the minerality, the farming, the blending. He talks of Merlot and Cabernet, about planting olive trees, raising sheep (well, until the insurance company got involved)\u2014all these things that anchor you to the land and seasons. He reminds me that great wine isn\u2019t about ego or a label; it\u2019s about caretaking, patience, storytelling. The conversation wraps with stories of his mother giving birth during the Battle of the Bulge in a wine cellar. There\u2019s a sense that all these threads\u2014history, survival, family, creativity\u2014flow right into the glass he pours. A life, a terroir, an honest wine. And that, my friends, is why I do Wine Talks.     #WineTalks #WalterGeoris #PaulKalemkiarian #CarmelValley #EndlessSummer #SurfCulture #Winemaker #CaliforniaWine #MusicHistory #RestaurantLife #HonestWine #ArtAndWine #WinePodcast #BordeauxVarietals #CasanovaRestaurant #WineStories #VineyardLife #Terroir #FarmToTable #AmericanWine ","author_name":"Wine Talks with Paul K.","author_url":"https:\/\/www.winetalkspodcast.com","html":"