This Cat Gets a Kick Out of Champagne

The LA reporter and activist on local politics, Pico Union, wines, and getting arrested with William G

LAPD arresting a journalist. It wasn’t their first time doing it. Will it be their last?

His name is Sean Beckner-Carmitchel. Online he goes by A Cat With News. It’s a silly handle that stuck, but once you watch what he’s capturing, it’s very serious.

And that is what piqued our interest in him: his on-the-street journalism in scenes all around LA where the action is hot and sometimes dangerous.

Mild-mannered Sean does not blink when hate groups are getting riled up over vaccines, Koreatown spas, or most recently schools that dare teach the kids about families with two mommies. He hangs in there, bravely documenting the action.

By day, however, Sean is a sommelier and a champagne expert. So naturally we talked a little about the bubbly and if two-buck Chuck is worth it.

Click the play button for the entire 90 minute episode or keep scrolling for the booze discussion.

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Tony Pierce: According to your LinkedIn, and God knows you can never trust anything on the Internet, but it says that you’re a sommelier.

Sean Beckner-Carmitchel: I am!

And a champagne expert?

Yes.

Have you been to the Champagne region of France?

I have been to the Champagne region of France. Many times.

Oh la la. Do you parlez-vous?

Sean on a boat in the SF Bay on a trip to Northern California where he eventually visited Napa Valley.

A very little bit. But they don’t care. In France, particularly in Champagne, everyone speaks English. As you go further south you are going to see fewer people who speak English.

I love the French. Oftentimes they do speak English even if they pretend not to. In Champagne everyone speaks English. It is one of the most beautiful places in Europe.

It’s not as beautiful as Campania, Italy, which is my favorite place in the entire world.

Campania, Italy, giving Pico Union vibes?

I love unique places. What’s really unique about Champagne is, first of all, it’s so far north that grapes don’t actually grow naturally there. They had to be brought there. It seems as though the Romans did that.

While the Romans were conquering Europe, eventually, you know — the Romans were notorious for wanting to get hammered.

Because there wasn’t the Internet?

After forcefully conquering the known worlds, I’d assume you’d need to get toasted every once in a while, to either not think about what you had to do, or because it’s a lot of work.

So what they did was, as they went north, they were planting grapes because that’s part of the Roman identity. And what they did was, as they got into Champagne, they found these really interesting, unique chalk-based soils.

It’s part of what’s called the Kimmeridgian Ridge in Northern Europe, and makes for a very, very unique grape-growing process — because the grapes that grow there don’t get a whole lot of sun.

They don’t get to mature quite as much as, say, the Napa Valley in California. So you have these very, very acidic grapes.

So eventually, someone got around to — by someone, I actually mean specifically, a few churchgoers: Dom Pérignon —

Artist rendition of Dom Pérignon holding a Dom Pérignon

What?!

All of those were real people at one point.

I never knew.

Yeah, so and then Madame Clicquot, Veuve Clicquot, The Widow, eventually sort of helped along this process.

Madame Clicquot, née Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, Widow Clicquot or Veuve Clicquot (December 16, 1777– July 29, 1866), known as the “Grande Dame of Champagne”

But someone got around in roughly the late 1700s, to realizing hey, this wine needs a little something.

So they decided to intentionally make sparkling wine, which was a new process. Sparkling wine often happened accidentally. And that’s how champagne became a thing.

How about that? This is why I love this podcast. Even though we’re talking about Pico-Union, Pico Robertson, you end up wandering into 18th century France.

Sean will have a beer with you. Have no fear.

So yes, champagne is my favorite beverage.

When did that first happen? When did it dawn on you that you love this?

That I loved wine and champagne?

Champagne. Because it’s not really a Wisconsin thing.

The World’s Largest Six-Pack; LaCrosse, Wisconsin

I wouldn’t think it isn’t. But drinking — that is very much a Wisconsin thing. Some would argue too much of Wisconsin thing.

Who would say that? Paul Ryan, just shut your mouth.

I love beer too. I can get down with some beer. Don’t get me wrong, like one of my tastiest, most-beloved beverages of all time is a High Life with a little bit of Campari in it. It’s called a Spaghett. And I love it.

We asked AI to show us a bottle of Campari next to a bottle of Miller High Life aka a Spaghett and this is what our future overlords doled out.

It’s not the most classy beverage that I drink, but at the end of a hard day, it works out.

But I’ve always been a nerd. I talk about data and things like that. I like to know stuff. I know, that seems like a silly thing. But I’m overly curious, oftentimes.

And eventually, I started managing restaurants. I worked for actually a few very big deal restaurants at a very young age. I’m actually very lucky. It kind of brought me out of some not-great situations when I was a kid.

A younger With News in the kitchen of a swanky joint.

Eventually, a sommelier who was working at a very famous restaurant — he’ll kill me if I say which one — but he let me do work for him for free in the wine cellar, which now that I’m much older, I’ve realized that I was kind of getting exploited there.

But I’m glad it happened because part of letting me work for free, he would let me taste the wines. And when you were a 21 wink-wink year-old kid, and you’re being given $100 $200 $300 bottles of wine to taste, that’s going to pique your interest, especially when you’re a kid from Milwaukee.

Do you love living so close to Santa Barbara?

I do love living close to Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara is, I think, the most interesting wine-growing region in the United States. It’s certainly one of the most diverse.

As you get closer to the coast over in Santa Maria, you have Chardonnay, you have Pinot Noir and you have vineyards who are making grapes in very different ways.

You have all these really cool wineries that are like — it’s two guys who are doing what they want to do.

An artist’s rendition of Santa Barbara art.

And all of them are doing things slightly differently. And all of them love the soil… love what they’re producing.

As you go inland towards Los Olivos, you have Syrah being produced in large quantities, you have Grenache — so you have kind of a Rhone type of situation where it’s a little bit sunnier…

What’s really unique about Santa Barbara is you have these tiny little pockets… of things like Blaufränkisch, which is an Austrian grape.

You have Mission all over the Central Coast, which… is very important to the development of not just wine in the United States, but it’s very important in the story of how we all got here.

There’s a winery downtown.

You may have seen the sign for San Antonio Winery when you were east of DTLA fighting traffic on the 5.

Yes.

Have you had their wine?

There’s actually, if I can let you in on a little secret, there are several wineries who are sourcing from downtown.

Is downtown a good place to make wine?

Well, believe it or not, when Los Angeles started, once the missions arrived here, Los Angeles was known as being one of the major producers of wine in the United States.

What years are we talking?

We’re talking late 1800s, early 1900s.

So, San Antonio Winery, first of all, even if you don’t like wine, it’s actually a pretty dope tour. I’m not gonna lie to you. It’s pretty cool. San Antonio winery has a long history of being there.

Believe it or not, men’s Central Jail, used to be a vineyard. In fact, that entire area used to be vineyards.

We have wines made in LA. There’s Byron Blatty, who sources mostly from Rancho Cucamonga area.

There’s a Los Angeles River Wine Company, which sources from all over.

There is sooooo much more to this episode than just booze.

Click the play button below to hear about Sean’s video journalism that has brought him into dangerous situations where lesser folks have been found running from at a rapid pace.

And yes, sometimes he gets arrested, which the cops shouldn’t do to journalists.

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Hear in LA is Produced by Tony Pierce and a man who got this episode out despite being so busy and we are so appreciative of him, Jordan Katz

Editing, mixing, and music supervision by Jordan Katz

Songs by Orgone and Jordan Katz Special thanks to Cindy for creating the logo and Jen for inspiring this,

and everyone who drinks responsibly, thank you.

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