What We're Drinking with Dan Dunn

This week we raise a glass to World Gin Day with a guest who lives and breathes the category: Diana Gettinger, National Brand Ambassador for Cygnet Gin. Together, Dan and Diana dive into the current state of gin, exploring how the spirit has evolved from its London Dry roots into one of the most dynamic and innovative categories in the world of booze. Is the gin boom still booming? What trends are shaping the future? And why d...

This installment of 3-Minute Bartender takes on one of summer's most beloved wine cocktails: sangria. Dan traces the drink's origins back to Spain and Portugal, where mixing wine with fruit, spices, and other ingredients wasn't so much a culinary innovation as a survival strategy. Along the way, he offers a brief history lesson, explains how sangria exploded in popularity after the 1964 World's Fair in New York, and shares several ...

Dan kicks things off with a caffeinated love letter to coffee, and specifically to the exceptional blends coming out of Queen Bee Vinyl Café, the coffee company run by his friend Maynard James Keenan. Dan explains why Maynard's coffee venture is much more than a celebrity side hustle and shares a few of his favorite roasts.

Then it's time for another installment of History At Work and In The Making. This month's chapter, Stars Behi...

This week the booze takes a temporary backseat to something a little more personal. After the sudden loss of his cousin Dennis—more brother than cousin, really—Dan headed back to his hometown of Philadelphia for a celebration of life that became something more: a meditation on grief, family, friendship, and the strange, unsettling way ordinary moments can turn out to be the last ones. Dennis may not have lived what the ...

This week on What We’re Drinking, Dan and roving correspondent Brad Japhe celebrate World Cocktail Day by diving headfirst into a lineup of “Instant Classic Cocktails.” Drinks that may not be household names yet, but absolutely deserve to be. From a Caribbean-leaning spritz built around the newly U.S.-available Rhum Clément V.O. to a bourbon-powered riff on the French 75 featuring Basil Hayden, a honeyed twist on ...

Dan is joined by winemaker Chase Renton of L’Angolo Estate for a conversation that goes well beyond what’s in the glass. At the center of it is Resilience, a limited-release Willamette Valley Pinot Noir with a powerful mission: 100% of proceeds benefit the Kevin Love Fund, supporting mental health awareness and education.

Renton opens up about...

Dan sits down with Geoff Whitman—Pearl Jam’s official tour photographer and a seasoned pro in the wine world—to talk about his stunning new book, Pearl Jam ReactRespond. The book captures the band on their Dark Matter tour with a level of intimacy and immediacy that only someone embedded in the inner circle could pull off.

Geoff shares what it’s like documenting one of the most iconic bands on the planet nig...

Dan reunites with his longtime buddy Zane Lamprey, a man who has somehow turned drinking on camera into a multi-decade career and lived to write about it. Zane joins the show to talk about his new book Glass Half Full, a funny, self-aware look at the highs, lows, and hangovers that come with chasing a dream in the booze business. Along the way, he and Dan swap war stories from the...

This week Dan sits down with Johnny Depp to talk about his newly launched rum brand, Three Hearts. The conversation covers everything from the rich, rebellious history of rum (pirates, privateers, and plenty of bad decisions) to what drew Johnny into the spirits world in the first place. He also makes a compelling case for why dark rum is where the real soul of the category lives—deeper flavor, more character, less of that sp...

Dan and Brad Japhe raise a glass to one of the world’s most enduring cocktails in this celebratory deep dive into National Gin & Tonic Day. From its roots as a medicinal mashup of quinine-laced tonic and British gin in colonial India to its modern status as a global go-to refresher, the G&T gets the full treatment—history, technique, and why it still hits like nothing else on a hot day.

Then it’s onto the ...

March has not exactly been Dan’s month, so in the interest of preserving what was left of his sanity, he headed south to San Diego for a change of scenery and a stiff drink with Trey Zoeller, the founder of Jefferson's Bourbon. Trey was in SD for a pretty wild reason: Jefferson’s has teamed up with Holland America Line to launch a new ocean-aged whiskey project, which ...

We took the show to Townhouse in Venice Beach for a live recording with the incomparable William H. Macy and, yeah, he more than delivered. Alongside Brad Japhe, we talk through Bill’s decades-spanning acting career, his involvement with Woody Creek Distillers, and the single best nugget of wisdom he ever got from David Mamet

In this episode of What We’re Drinking, Dan is joined by Colm O’Connor, Guinness Brewery Ambassador straight out of the legendary Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. Together, they dive deep into all things Guinness—its rich history, the craft behind the perfect pour, enduring myths, and why it remains one of the most iconic beers on the planet. With St. Patrick’s Day upon us, Colm shares how the holiday is celeb...

In this St. Patrick’s Day–themed episode, Dan is joined by esteemed spirits writer Brad Japhe for a deep dive into the rich history and remarkable resurgence of Irish whiskey. Tasting their way through five standout expressions—Jameson Triple Triple, Redbreast Moscatel Wine Cask Edition, Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy, Green Spot, and Powers Gold Label—the two explore what makes each bottle unique while unpa...

Jon Taffer is back, and this time he’s raising hell in honor of Season 10 of Bar Rescue. The hospitality hitman joins me to talk about a decade of blowups, breakdowns, and barstool breakthroughs, what still shocks him after all these years, and why so many owners keep screwing up the same fundamentals. We get into the psychology of failing bars, the art (and science) of turning them around under the glare of reality TV, and w...

This week on What We’re Drinking with Dan Dunn, we welcome one of the true mad scientists of the spirits world: Alexandre Gabriel, founder and master blender of Maison Ferrand.

National Margarita Day falls on February 22nd, and we’re celebrating accordingly at WWD Headquarters. On this special episode, Dan is joined by Margarita Time author Caroline Pardilla and spirits expert Brad Japhe for a deep dive into America’s most beloved tequila cocktail, and the agave spirits that make it all possible.

Essential Mardi Gras Cocktails is a spirited, history-soaked romp through New Orleans drinking culture, with Dan joined by WWD’s official roving correspondent Brad Japhe and Abigail Gullo, Bar Director at Loa and a James Beard Award semifinalist. Together, they trace the roots of Mardi Gras itself before diving deep into the cocktails that define th...

Dan and roving correspondent Brad Japhe dive into The Wonders of Italian Wine, spotlighting standout pours from Luca Bosio Vineyards and Bel Colle, including a lineup of single-vineyard Barbaresco and Barolo. Along the way, they unpack what makes Bel Colle’s celebrated Monvigliero and Bussia Grand Cru holdings so special, and explore how Luca Bosio blends generations of vineyard know-how with modern, low-intervention winemaki...