Book reviews of my favorite books for kids.
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Distinguished authors and emerging writers from the ranks of University faculty, students and friends discuss and read their published works.
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A podcast for people who like wine but not the snobbery that goes with it. We talk about wine in a fun, straightforward, normal way to get you excited about it and help you drink better, more interesting stuff. The Wine For Normal People book is available on Amazon! Back catalog available on Patreon.com/winefornormalpeople
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Encore presentation of Ep 363: The Personal Side of Loire with Serge Doré, French Importer
50:33
50:33
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This is an encore presentation of a wonderful show I did with Serge Doré, importer of French wine (and American via Quebec…) and friend of the podcast, joins us to talk about the Loire Valley. It's especially relevant for those of you who are part of the Wine Access/WFNP wine club, as the "All Serge, all the time" shipment is heading your way soon!…
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Ep 532: The Wines of the French Pyrénées (obscure but very tasty and cool!)
52:50
52:50
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Ok, I know this is an obscure show and I promise we’ll get back to mainstream stuff next week, but there is a reason for doing this show now. PLUS, it's super dorky stuff and that's awesome! I was putting together the Wine Access shipment with Serge Doré that is going out soon and one of the wines was from the small appellation of Saint Mont. I pri…
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Ep 531: Sicily’s Best Little-Known Winery - Dei Principi di Spadafora with Enrica Spadafora
49:46
49:46
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For more than 30 years, dei Principi di Spadafora has been quietly churning out some of Sicily’s best wines in a tiny enclave of Virzì, about 35 miles southwest of Palermo, on Sicily’s west coast. Photo: Francesco and Enrica Spadafora. Courtesy of dei Principi di Spadafora The Spadafora family has been in Sicily since 1230, and their family came fr…
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Ep 530: The Evolution of the Modern Tasting Room with Jim Morris -- The history, changes, rising costs, possible future, & what it means to us
55:16
55:16
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If you are an avid follower of the show you know that my friend Jim Morris, hospitality guru, and wine industry veteran has been on the show many, many times. His first appearance was on Episode 30 and he has appeared on Episodes 130, 230, and now 530 – as I say, he is the man of the 30s! Photo: Courtesy of Jim Morris This time Jim joins to pull th…
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Ep 529: The Best Wine Storage Solutions with Certified Kitchen Designer and Patron Robin Rigby Fisher
45:47
45:47
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This week I welcome Patron Robin Rigby Fisher, a Certified Master Kitchen and Bath Designer and Certified Aging in Place Specialist. Robin has a kitchen design firm in the Portland, Oregon metro area (called Robin Rigby Fisher Design). She has been creating award winning kitchen and baths for more than 28 years and she comes to tell us about the va…
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Washington State is the second-largest wine producing state in the US with about 1,050 wineries making over 17 million cases of wine. In this show I cover the largest sub region of the Columbia Valley AVA, Yakima Valley AVA (and its sub-AVAs). Map: Yakima Valley Tourism Yakima is in south-central Washington, at 46˚ N latitude. In 1983 it became Was…
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Wait, I thought you only covered wine in this podcast? I do! And guess what? Vermouth is wine. Vermouth is an aromatized, fortified wine flavored with botanicals like roots, herbs, barks, flowers, seeds, and spices. Although aromatized beverages have been around for millennia, vermouth's origins lie in the Kingdom of Savoie in the 1700s, first in T…
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Ep 526: Wines to Beat the Summer Heat -- 12 of the most refreshing bottles you can drink
46:08
46:08
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Right now, it’s so hot in much of the country, it’s hard to get creative about anything, let alone a new wine that may provide some refreshment. That’s what I’m here for! Ok, maybe not just me…this is a list that comes from the Patrons in answer to our weekly discussion question about what they drink when the weather gets hot. I added a few in for …
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Cinsault or Cinsaut is a grape you’ve probably rarely heard of, but if you drink Provence or southern French rosé you have it all the time! The grape is planted widely in the south of France, but the grape’s biggest champions are in the New World, where Cinsault is getting new attention for making light, acidic, refreshing reds. This is a warm-clim…
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Ep 524: The Top 12 Grapes Saved from the Brink of Extinction
1:00:15
1:00:15
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There are a seemingly endless number of wines made from grapes from all over. But, surprisingly, what remains in the world is just a fraction of what once existed. Before downy mildew, powdery mildew, phylloxera, and the World Wars of the 20th century hit the shores of Europe, destroying vineyards of native vines, there were likely hundreds of thou…
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This show chronicles my recent trip with a group of Patrons to Sicily with my travel partner tour with Tourissimo. I take you through our odyssey, which had us traversing the entire island from west in Palermo to the center of the island to the southeast in Vittoria to Mount Etna. I discuss the themes I noticed throughout like interesting climatic …
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Ep 522: 8 Top Wine Movies with Patron Bevis S.
1:06:10
1:06:10
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This week I welcome long-time Patron and listener, Bevis Sydney, who is not only a wine educator in the UK, but also a movie buff. He and I give our views on the top 8 wine movies, according to a poll of the Patron community and general consensus from the press on the top wine movies. We discuss: · Sideways (2004) · A Good Year (2006) · Wine Countr…
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As part of the series on the The Greats (the great wines of the world), I cover the complex world of Hungarian Tokaji. As with all dives into “The Greats,” I spend the first half of the show delving into the history of Tokaj and then discuss winemaking, the grapes, and the complex way in which this wine is made. Some notes that may be hard to under…
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Ep 520: The historic, urban wines of Vienna (yes, the city!) with Alex Zahel of Weingut Zahel
57:27
57:27
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Here’s something you probably didn’t know: Vienna is the only major city in the world where serious wine grown, with its own appellation, DAC Wien. In the green belt surrounding this very green city, wine grapes grow as they have since at least the Middle Ages. And it’s not negligible -- 582 ha/1438 acres. It’s also not crappy, tourist wine. It’s h…
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Ep 519: A Year in the Vineyard in Sonoma with Brian Callahan of Crux Winery
55:55
55:55
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For this show I ask my friend with Brian Callahan, small vineyard farmer and co-owner of Crux Winery in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma (the Middle Reach though – the warmer part, so they do Rhône varietals) to tell us what a year in a Sonoma vineyard looks like. He takes us through what he has been doing for the last 18 years in his vineyard, a…
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Ep 518: Biodynamic, Organic, Sustainable, Regenerative Wine (and more) -- the Update
50:22
50:22
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These categories of "better for the earth" wines are technical, tricky, and ever-evolving, so I felt that it was time to do a comprehensive update! In this show, I do best to break it all down in as simple a way as possible…I cover: Biodynamics Organics Sustainable farming Regenerative agriculture And then, quickly, the loose ends – vegan wine and …
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Earth Day Encore: Ep 440: Jason Haas of Tablas Creek on Regenerative agriculture, alternative packaging, & improving the environmental footprint of wine
1:00:11
1:00:11
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This is a special re-release of this very relevant and important show on Earth Day. Jason Haas, perhaps the greenest guy in in wine, joins to discuss the challenges the wine industry faces in becoming gentler on the earth. From regenerative agriculture (which is way less woo woo than biodynamics!) to sustainable transport and packaging, we cover th…
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Tax Day in the US has come and gone. Many of us are getting a refund, so if you have a little extra change, here are some great wines to consider. A few on the list are... Burgundy in red and white: Pinot and Chard Pomerol in Bordeaux Syrah from The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater in Walla Walla Washington Old Vine Zinfandel from Sonoma, Napa, a…
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This week friend, listener, Patron, and wine diva @wineshenanigans and the wine game show @Wineopardy Monica G. joins to talk with me about wines made by celebrities, aka Celebrity Wines. We run through what they are, how many of them are made and then we discuss specifics. We wrap with our analysis of whether or not we would recommend buying these…
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Ep 515: The Origin Story of Oak Barrels -- (plus how barrles are used, reused, and how sustainable they really are)
42:54
42:54
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Inspired by a question from friend and Patron Amy Payton, this week I cover the history of oak barrels. I go from animal skins in Mesopatamia to modern day barrels, talking about how winemakers decided that oak was the best vessel for wine. I answer her follow up questions too -- How are barrels obtained by winemakers? What happens to them after th…
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This week I explore one of my favorite grapes of all time, Fiano! The grape makes some of the most exquisite wines you could imagine -- whites with layered complexity, age-ability, and unadulterated deliciousness. I discuss all aspects of the grape: The historical overview of the grape and how Mastroberardino saved it from obscurity (Check out my p…
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Ep 513: The Divine Dolcetto of Diano d’Alba with Giulio Abrigo of Abrigo Giovanni
57:00
57:00
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I welcome to the show my friend Giulio Abrigo of Abrigo Giovanni Azienda Agricola, who focuses on the exquisite Dolcetto in Diano d'Alba in the Barolo zone of Piemonte. Abrigo Giovanni is a small family operation, operating on just 13 ha or 32 acres mainly in Diano d’Alba -- the site of the winery and the family home. Dolcetto Diano d’Alba is one o…
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In recent years, there has been a lot of buzz around “volcanic wines.” The term makes it sound as if these are wines that are spawned from a volcano, but in reality these are wines that many people believe have special qualities because they grow on volcanic soils. In this show, I define the types of volcanoes before discussing the ecosystems they …
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Ep 511: The Greats-- Semillon of the Hunter Valley, Australia
39:16
39:16
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The Hunter Valley is the OG -- the first place where Australian grape growing took place. For 200 years there has been continuous winegrowing and winemaking among the rolling hills and green valleys, which are peppered with iconic wineries, many of which have been around for more than 100 years. Although other types of wines are made, the Hunter ha…
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Ep 510: Virginia’s Iconic Barboursville Vineyards with Winemaker & GM Luca Paschina
1:04:22
1:04:22
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I welcome to the show, again, and this time for a much longer and more thorough conversation, Luca Paschina, the head winemaker and GM of Barboursville, the historic property in the Monticello AVA of Virginia. Luca was on the show in 2016, originally on episode 162. Barboursville has a long history, which starts around the same time as its current …
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Revisiting the Wine and Health Debacle -- Re-release of Ep 274: Christopher Snowdon
54:44
54:44
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As a follow up to Felicity Carter's show last week, in which we mentioned referenced the work of Christopher Snowdon often, I am re-releasing Episode 274 to give another perspective. This was originally released April 29, 2019. We raised all sorts of red flags in this show and Christopher has been consistent on his blog about how moderate drinking …
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Ep 509: Felicity Carter Exposes the Jaw-dropping Truth of Who is Guiding Global Wine & Health Policy
52:00
52:00
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My guest Felicity Carter is probably the most brilliant journalist in wine, and certainly one of the only ones doing vital investigative work in the field of wine, health, and the neo prohibitionist movement. From 2008 to 2021, she was editor-in-chief of Meininger’s Wine Business International, a global, English-language magazine, one of Germany’s …
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Ep 508: Armenian Wine - Ancient Grapes, Modern Innovation, True Excellence with Aimee Keushguerian of Zulal & Keush
41:53
41:53
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In this show we explore the world of Armenian wine, which has roots in the ancient world and may be the oldest winemaking region in Europe. To tell us about these wines, the terroir, and the regions, I welcome Keush Managing Director & Zulal Founder, Aimee Keushguerian. Aimee educates us on Armenian wine and tells us about the projects she and her …
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Ep 507: Innovative Pairing with Plant-based Food with the founders of Wineand2Veg.com
53:53
53:53
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Food and wine pairing is complex. But as many of us are trying to eat healthier, more plant-based diets it becomes an exercise in frustration. Traditional outlets barely ever talk about how to pair red wine with vegetarian dishes, beyond eggplant and mushrooms. Wendy Narby, a wine educator and writer in Bordeaux and Sally Evans, a winemaker and own…
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Ep 506: The Wines of the Côtes de Bordeaux -- The Secret Best Value Wines of the Region
55:18
55:18
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This time we explore the hidden gems of Bordeaux -- the Côtes de Bordeaux -- which make superb wines that few people know about. With an easy-drinking style, the Côtes de Bordeaux are the hidden, affordable wines of Bordeaux. These historic vineyards are a collection of AOCs around eastern Bordeaux on sunny hillside slopes that grow a majority of M…
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Ep 505: Alternatives to a Favorite -- Grenache (Garnacha)
37:51
37:51
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It's another edition of the "Alternatives to a Fave" series! This time: Grenache/Garnacha. As an extension of the Grape Mini-series, we come up with lists of wines that lovers of a specific grape can try as alternatives. Grenache/Garnacha comes in many different forms -- as a juicy, cherry-berry standalone grape in Spain, as lighter blender in the …
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Ep 504: A Normal Wine Person Perspective on Greek Wine -- Patron Lindsey Miller Shares Her Love and Knowledge of Greece
37:55
37:55
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For the first time, we have a Wine For Normal People Patron on the show to share her passion and expertise! This week is a follow-up to last week’s weedier podcast on Greece. This time, long time listener and friend, Lindsey Miller, joins as our first Patron guest, to talk about her passion for and knowledge of Greek wine. She helps bring this topi…
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Ep 503: Greek Wine -- The Updated 10,000 Foot Overview
49:40
49:40
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This show is an update to our previous shows on Greece. We hope to get you (re)started on your exploration of this ancient winemaking nation that has been reborn in recent years. Greek wines are unique, terroir-driven, and they harken back to the nation's ancient past and the very foundations of wine as a major part of the history in western civili…
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Ep 502: Stu Smith of Smith-Madrone -- Why Napa County is Strangling Small Wineries
59:16
59:16
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This is a baffling story that includes a Napa history lesson, an idea of how the Valley has grown and then a jaunt into intrigue, sting operations, and what appears to be an effort to kill the goose that laid the golden egg by the Napa County government. It seems that the County is going after small wineries in an attempt to bankrupt them out of bu…
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Ep 501: Winemaker Thomas Bianciardi of San Filippo - Award-Winning Wines of Brunello di Montalcino
56:14
56:14
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Thomas Bianciardi is the winemaker for the exceptional Azienda Agricola San Filippo in Montalcino, the famed enclave of Tuscany. I had the honor of meeting him while on the Patron trip to Tuscany this spring and loved the philosophy, the wines, and the way that Thomas explained the region. Photo: Thomas Bianciardi Credit: Wine For Normal People Tho…
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Ep 500: Listeners Ask About 500 Episodes of WFNP
1:07:54
1:07:54
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This show is listener driven, which makes sense since we have always had a listener focus at Wine For Normal People! We take some amazing questions about the podcast from listeners and reveal some fun facts about the show that you may not know. We cover things like: What experience did we have going into the podcast? How do we select guests and pla…
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Ep 499: The Impacts of Smoke on Wine with Professor Tom Collins of Washington State University
58:59
58:59
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Professor Thomas Collins (yes, his name is Tom Collins) is a foremost authority in the US on smoke in the vineyards. After a long career in research and enology at large wineries in New York and California, and a Ph.D. at UC-Davis, Dr. Collins became an assistant professor of grape and wine chemistry in the Viticulture and Enology Program at Washin…
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Special update to Episode 327: Wine ingredient & nutrition labeling goes live in the EU (and what it means to us)
44:02
44:02
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This is a special update and recap of Episode 327 with Barnaby Eales on Wine ingredient & nutrition labeling. I refreshed and edited that (very short) episode and then MC Ice and I added the details of the new law. We did the original episode in 2020 and at that time it was unclear whether or not Europe would go through with the plan, but they exec…
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Ep 498: Terrific Thanksgiving Food and Wine Pairings
42:51
42:51
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Thanksgiving is a hard meal to pair wine with but we've got you covered. After a little bit of wine advice about glassware, serving temps, and my annual "Aunt Gertrude" warning, we get into the pairings for traditional (and some variations on traditional) Thanksgiving fare. We begin with suggestions for wines to welcome your guests, and then move o…
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Ep 497: The Grape Mini-Series -- Blaufränkisch (AKA, Lemberger)
52:37
52:37
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This week we cover the unsung red of Central European wine – Blaufränkisch. This Central European red grape was planted widely in throughout the Habsburg Empire, and today the biggest plantings aren’t too far from its birthplace – right on the Austria-Hungary border. Photo: Blaufränkisch. Credit: Austrian Wine Blaufränkisch translates to ‘blue wine…
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Ep 496: Sherry Refresh Part 2 - Oxidatively Aged Wines, Style Categories, Food Pairing, and Serving Ideas
45:34
45:34
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Sherry is a complex wine with lots of terroir, tradition, and winemaking possibilities. In episode 495, we go over the stats on the region, the history, the terroir, and details on winemaking, including the solera system. We then describe the biologically aged wines – Fino and Manzanilla. This show is a continuation of episode 495 but after listeni…
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Ep 495: Sherry Refresh Part 1 --History, terroir, and Biologically Aged Wines
48:31
48:31
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It's been 11 years since we discussed Sherry, so it's time to do a refreshed show. This time, Sherry is much more mainstream and we're revisiting this fascinating wine that has so much history, and has experienced a renaissance in recent times. We discuss: Where Sherry is and its defining terroir, including the terroir of the bodegas The grapes of …
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After a very, very hot summer where we live, the weather has broken and we are ready for wines that can warm us up and pair with the smells of crisp fall air and falling leaves, as well as heartier food. In this show, we talk about wines for fall from around the world and why they are going on our wine shopping list this season. We break it down co…
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Ep 493: Marina Marcarino of Punset; Barbaresco's Most Forward-Looking Producer Returns to WFNP
1:03:56
1:03:56
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I first spoke to Marina Marcarino of Punset in 2017 and I was fascinated by her story and loved her wines. We became friends and I’ve visited her over the years and keep in touch with her for a pulse on what is happening in the vineyards and wineries of Barbaresco, where Punset is located. Marina Marcarino of Punset Wines in Barbaresco As a recap o…
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Ep 492: Polly Hammond of 5Forests -- The Esteemed Wine Marketing Innovator Shares Trends We Should Know
55:42
55:42
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This week, my close friend, web guru, and the best digital marketer in the wine biz -- Polly Hammond of 5Forests -- discusses some fascinating topics in wine. We have a great conversation about the state of wine marketing, it's disconnection with normal people (and reasons for it), and how there is more to some trends than clickbait would have you …
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Ep 491: The Grape Mini-Series -- The Pinot Noir Refresh
1:01:18
1:01:18
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Pinot Noir is a challenging grape. It’s hard to grow, hard to work with in the cellar, and the style varies drastically based on where it’s made, who is making it, and when it was grown (vintage). We haven’t covered Pinot in a decade, so we decided to do a reboot on the grape mini-series and add all the new information and insights I’ve gathered ov…
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How BMCC's Alvin Eng found his soul as an ‘acoustic punk rock raconteur.’By The City University of New York
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This week we cover Australia’s coolest and most southerly region, Tasmania. This island, which is 240 km/150 off the mainland has had some starts and stops in wine, but the recent past has seen it on an upward trajectory for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, sparkling made of those grapes, plus Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Syrah, and Pinot Gris, among others. …
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Ep 489: Madeira -- The best wine you may be missing out on...
50:18
50:18
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As suggested by patron Keith S, this week we take a detailed look at Madeira, the Portuguese island that makes a unique and delicious fortified wine! We discuss the very important history (it’s why the wine is made the way it is, so even if you hate history, don’t skip that part!), the geography and climate of this far-flung island, the grapes that…
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Ep 488: Wine Travel -- The Inside Scoop on How to Have an Awesome Trip
48:35
48:35
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In this show, we share our best tips for traveling to wine regions. We cover planning and research, the best time of year to visit, and important factors once you’re on the ground. From getting a shipper so your wine is ready to check or ship, to stocking up on gas and provisions, to traveling with kids, we’ve got you covered. Photo: Château Phelan…
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