Wine for Normal People

In this show, I continue to take a page out of my own book -- literally! In this back to basics show, I return to review basic wine vocabulary from chapter 1 of the "Wine For Normal People" book and introduce a new series that I'll be doing now that I'm hosting the show alone...

 

This Back to Basics series is my updated take on some basics, without distraction or interruption, and with the perspective of 20 years in the wine industry and 16 years of teaching others about wine. 

 

In Part 2, I c...

In this show, I take a page out of my own book -- literally! In this back to basics show, I review some basic wine vocabulary from chapter 1 of the Wine For Normal People book and introduce a new series that I'll be doing now that I'm hosting the show alone...

 

Taylor Swift has "Taylor's version" of her songs, and similarly, this Back to Basics series is my updated take on some basics, without distraction or interruption, and with the perspective of 20 years in the wine industry and 16 years of teaching others about wine. 

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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! 

Photo: Serge Doré. Credit: Wine For Normal People

 

Serge has been visiting the Loire since 1985 and has seen its evolution over the decades. He joins to give u...

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 pride myself on having an awareness of most appellations in France, but I didn’t have a clue where or what Saint Mont was, so this show is as...

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 from noble roots but dei Principi di Spadafora (Princes of Spadafora) vineyards and winery didn’t really start until the late 1980s, when Francesco Spadafora decided to concentrate full time on growing grapes and making...

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 the curtain back on how Napa and Sonoma tasting rooms, the original model for all others in the world, have evolved over the last 40 years. We d...

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 various ways we organize our wine storage and her preferred solutions.

 

Once again, this amazing community provides us with fantastic expertise and a woman with a great personality who is willing to help us out with he...

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 Washington State’s first federally-recognized AVA. Responsible for nearly 1/3 of Washington’s total planted land,  the major grapes in Yakima Valley are the American standards: Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, plus Riesling and Syrah.

 

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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 Torino, Italy and then in Chambéry, France. 

Photo: Botanicals. Credit: Unsplash

 

First offered in apothecaries for the healing properties of wormwood, the main botanical in Italian vermouth, royal courts and then high...

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 good measure, but this is the list of what the best and smartest community in wine has in their glasses when the sun beats down...