Wine for Normal People
A podcast for people who like wine but not the snobbery that goes with it. I talk about wine in a fun, straightforward, normal way to get you excited about it and help you drink better, more interesting stuff. About half the shows feature guests and are informal but educational discussions between me and a passionate wine friend –they aren't interviews. All guests are personal friends or friends of friends in wine so like any conversation between friends, we'll talk back and forth, interrupt each other, laugh and have fun, debate tough questions, voice our opinions, and most of all, enjoy sharing our time together and with you! The Wine For Normal People book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many local booksellers. Back catalog available on Patreon.com/winefornormalpeople
Episodes
This time in the grape miniseries -- a refresh on one of my all time favorite grapes -- Riesling. This versatile grape has a long history of quality, and is highly misunderstood by most people.
I review the long and noble history of the grape, starting in 1435 and talk about how it wound up in places like the US and Australia, where it makes w...
Lying just south of the city of Bordeaux is one of the oldest winemaking regions in the Bordeaux AOC -- Graves. Graves, along with it sub appellation of Pessac-Leognan are covered in this show as two of the great of Bordeaux.
Graves has a wine history stretching back to 100 BCE when the Romans first settled this area and realized that its gravelly (graves=gravel) so...
I happen to be in Sicily with a group of Patrons (this could be you if you join Patreon!).
While I was in Verona at Wine2Wine, in 2019, I had the honor to speak with Alessio Planeta, President at Assovini Sicilia and Owner at Planeta Winery
For five centuries and through seventeen generations, Planeta has been active in changing and improving agriculture in Sicily. Alessio Planeta has spent his life dedicated to the study of...
This time I revisit a show from long ago on Wine Etiquette. In this Back-to-Basics episode, I cover the three main places you would use etiquette - a dinner party, a restaurant, and a tasting room.
I address:
The Dinner Party: What to bring a host, a good welcome drink, whether or not to open a bottle that a guest brings, the etiquett...
You will get no better primer on Santa Barbara wine country than in the show. Wes Hagen comes on to school us on his region.
Ask anyone in Santa Barbara wine about Wes Hagen and they'll tell you he is a legend. He has worked in Santa Barbara wine for 30+ years as a vineyard manager, winemaker, hospitality specialist, wine educator, and sommelier. He has run prestigio...
It's been 13 years since I've done a grape miniseries on Tempranillo, so it was high time! This grape has come a long way in a decade +, proving that it has more nuance, terroir driven finesse, and versatility than it gets credit for.
Tempranillo is now the third most widely planted wine grape in the world, at 231,000 ha/570,000 acres. It is not widely grown outside ...
This week I finish up the communal appellations of the Médoc for our "Greats of Bordeaux" series with Moulis!
Map: Wines of the Médoc
Although the communes of Moulis and Listrac are often seen as one in the same because both are inland and neither is adjacent to the Gironde River/Estuary, this groupin...
This week I return to The Greats series in which I explore the greatest wines in the world and how they became such big deals.
Photo: Vineyards in Chianti Classico. Credit: Unsplash
Chianti Classico, with its 700+ years of history and ideal terroir, is indisputably one of the...
This week's show is on South Africa, a much more historic region than many realize, it has been making wine for more than 350 years. Although considered a 'New World' wine region, winemaking and ethos are often more oriented towards the Old World. Its style often straddles the line between New and Old World, offering fruit-driven wines with minerality, earthiness, restraint, and higher acidity.
In this ENCORE presentation, Dr. Kevin Pogue, PhD, professor and geologist educates us on terroir. This podcast is like taking a terroir class: it debunks so many things that people spout in reference books, at wineries, and in mainstream press about the topic! He explains things brilliantly and he is one of the first people I've ever met who actually has answers to my really dorky questions about terroir.
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Saint Estèphe is the northernmost of the six communal appellations of the Médoc. 50 kilometers/30 miles north of the city of Bordeaux, this red wine only appellation borders Pauillac to the south and a part of the Haut-Médoc in the north. This commune is very different from the others I've covered and the wines are amazing, but of a completely different ilk (they are also much more affordable!).
This week I cover Lombardy/Lombardia, one of the smaller wine production areas of Italy. Lombardy, home to the cities of Milan, Bergamo and Brescia is known far more for its fashion, its industry, and osso bucco and risotto alla Milanese than it is for its wines, but there are some gems to be discovered.
In this week's show, I cover Pinot Blanc as part of the grape miniseries.
Pinot Blanc is a white color mutation of Pinot Noir, native to Burgundy/Bourgogne. It creates refreshing light- to medium-bodied wines that run the gamut from simple sippers to much more complex, oak-aged versions, to excellent sweet and sparkling wines.
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In this unique episode, Kerith Overstreet of Bruliam Wines in Sonoma returns to give us an update (she was on Ep 269 in 2019). Kerith/Bruliam is a boutique producer of vineyard-designated wines, mainly of Pinot Noir and she gives us a full education on the differences between some of the main Pinot regions of California.
In this episode I'm joined by author and American wine icon, Karen MacNeil. We discuss her amazing career trajectory in wine from food stamps to international fame, and her new initiative, Come Over October, which is having enormous success in encouraging people to get together over a bottle of wine!
Karen is one of the foremost wine experts in the United States. She's the author of the award-winning book, "The Wine Bible," which...
Sandwiched between the famed Médoc AOCs of Margaux in the south and Pauillac in the north, Saint Julien has one of the highest concentrations of classified growths from the 1855 Classification in Bordeaux. This red wine only AOC is just 910 ha/2,250acres, which is 6% of the Médoc vineyard. It is one-sixth the size of Pauillac. It makes an average of about 6 million bottles a year.
In this episode, I discuss eight refreshing red wines that are lighter, fresher, and perfect for sipping on a warm day. I give you ideas for wines that go easy on the oak, tannin, and alcohol, and focus instead on the freshness and lightness. These wines have a multitude of flavors and are from around the world but all of them go beyond the bold and heavy.
The wines p...
Last fall, I met Francesco Galgani and tried his wines and I was completely blown away. I always think of Vernaccia as a more historical Pinot Grigio -- light on flavor, boring, and not anything to get excited about. But then I visited Cappella Sant'Andrea.
HOLY CRAP!! This is the BEST Vernaccia on earth. Francesco and Flavia, the owners and winemakers, are truly the Masters of Vernaccia di San Gimignano. You will never taste Verna...
It's another edition of the "Alternatives to a Fave" series! This time: Sauvignon blanc.
As an extension of the Grape Mini-series, for this series I come up with lists of wines that lovers of a specific grape can try as alternatives.
Sauvignon blanc is not a one note! It has so many different styles -- from the acidic, minerally, citrus and flinty notes of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé to the tropical fruit, peach, grass, green pepper,...
Stephanie Duboudin, CEO of Wine Victoria, joins to educate us on this state at the southern end of Australia that has a ton of diversity and makes all styles of wine. A boutique winery heaven, Victoria is something you need to know about!
Wineries mentioned:
- Tahbilk
- Seppelt
- Mount Langhi
- Wild Duck Creek
- Yeringber...
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