Which Wine Podcasts Do You Follow?

WINE TALK
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I’m not sure whether this was covered in this forum, but being a newcomer, I wanted to open up a thread about podcasts.

I’ve been revisiting some old “ I’ll Drink to That! episodes lately - Levi Dalton’s podcast was such a goldmine for deep-dive conversations with producers, critics, and importers. It always felt like eavesdropping on a truly engaged, curious, and knowledgeable insider chat.

For example, I remember listening to the Eric Texier episode many years ago and having my mind blown by his discussion of Fukuoka’s philosophy of farming at the time, I had never even heard of that approach. Same with hearing about Valentini for the first time. Those moments when a podcast sends you down a rabbit hole of discovery are the best.

Curious what wine-related podcasts you all are into these days. Anything out there capturing that same depth and curiosity rather than “clickbaits”? Or maybe something completely different but equally compelling?
Best,
Burak
@burakwinenotes

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Levi’s is the best for sure. But there’s also the Black Wine Guy, the Wine Makers, and Bedrock Wine Conversations.

And if you like restaurants and chefs, Andrew Friedman’s Andrew Talks to Chefs is really good, too.

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Thanks all, I also came across “Premier Cru” but did not have a chance to listen to yet.

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I’ve been doing The Real Wine Show for a couple of years now, a unique, wine gameshow podcast that folks may find fun and interesting.

I created it primarily as a way to bring the SE Michigan wine industry folks together, but feedback has been very good in that non-industry people have said it’s fun to listen to. It’s fun and lighthearted, often silly, but is really wine geeky, too, so I think that’s what makes it good listening.

Each episode has three guest panelists who we run through a True or False wine news story segment, a segment where they guess the wine from the tasting note, and an emotive blind tasting, where we ask them for their emotional response to a blind tasted wine, or alternatively, to describe the blind wine as if it were person. Throughout we do periodic “glass checks” to hear about what folks are drinking during the show. We record with a studio audience, who are also drinking wine, so it has a really lively feel and sometimes we get some of the guests popping in on the mic to share some wine insights.

I also do a separate, short-form interview program called 10 Questions, 10 Minutes where I get brief answers to 10 questions which reveal a bit about the personality of notable wine professionals. I’ve had great fun with classic producers like Anne Trimbach of Trimbach and Constantin Richter of Max Ferdinand Richter, as well as with new school cats like Natalie Siddique and Ryan Pace of Outward Wines, and Brent Mayeaux of Stagiaire

We’re kicking off season 8 next month, and introducing a few changes, the coolest of which is adding a new segment to the standard show where I blind a local chef and former winemaker, Jason Berthold, and ask him to construct a dish for the wine. I think it’s a fascinating insight into the particulars of how an acclaimed chef– he worked, among other places, alongside Rajat Parr at RN74 in SF–does wine pairing. The reveal of the wine is amazing too, both to see how Jason guessed it, and to see if knowing what a wine is might change the construction of a dish. We’ll wrap the segment with Chef giving a practical kitchen or pairing tip, like a “pantry essential” or item replacement hack, like what to use in scallops recipe if you can’t get good scallops.

I’d appreciate it if any of you folks would check it out and let me know what you think of it. I’ll drop the Spotify link here, but you can find the show on most podcast sites, including Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Audible, and iHeartRadio.

https://open.spotify.com/show/7mqrFtJutA7fEhDRGFsYOL

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The ones I have watched on YT are Konstantin Baum, Matthew Horkey, and No Sediment. I probably prefer them in that order. Not technically podcasts, I suppose, but they are on YT. I have listened to Wine for Normal People as well. She puts together information in a way that is kind of like listening to a Wikipedia page about the wine topic.

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The podcasts I enjoy most are The Winemakers, Bedrock Wine Conversations and Beyond Organic.

I also have a podcast called Indie WIne podcast. It’s mostly in depth interviews with smaller California winemakers, leaning natural and low intervention but not exclusively. Tony Coturri (Coturri), Joe Davis (Arcadian), Evan Lewandowski (Ruth Lewandowski), Tom Sherwood (BXT), James Jelks (Florez), Brent Mayeaux (Stagiaire), Cole Thomas (Madson), Mary Winters and Alex Pitts (Maitre De Chai) have been some of the guests. I also do deep dives into California wine history, mostly Pre-Prohibition on topics like the California Wine Association, The Coloma Vineyard, Jarvis brothers, Natoma Vineyard, Kanaye Nagasawa etc.

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Matt Horkey might be the hardest working wine person out there right now. He’s carved out time to come out to Ann Arbor to be on my show, but spends an unreal amount of time traveling, judging wine shows, and running his own YouTube channel. I really don’t know how he does it, but he’s truly a fascinating guy.

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Very cool; I’ll be sure to check Indie Wine out! Your California wine history angle is super, but that you’re fully anchored in contemporary stuff, too, is really awesome. I’ve had the pleasure to visit Tony Coturri at his old spot, and the guy is an icon; he had open bottles of 30 year old wines sitting around outside for who-knows-how-long, but they were all terrific. I’ve also been up to see Cole at Madson, and wow, what an idyllic place and wines!

I’m looking forward to hearing all that you have on offer!

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OMG, Tony Coturri! We visited him at his winery in 1998. Insane was the best descriptor. Too bad the wines were not completely stable, as they were bonkers good in barrel, and when first released.

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I think his wines the last few, maybe 10 years have been quite stable, some RS at times but free of flaws. He opened a 77 Valdiguie that was still drinking amazing also, from 2 years before the winery was bonded. It was amazing how the color blossomed in the glass as it interacted with oxygen.

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Thanks Chaad, I really enjoyed your episode with Brent, the new format sounds fun also, I’ll dive into some more episodes. Funny enough Cole at Madson was one of the new producers Tony said he really liked. It’s not always the easiest balancing the current producers and pre-prohibition history but it’s what i’m rolling with. There have been amazing wine historians but not many doing it anymore and I think some of the history can be recontextualized as winemaking styles evolve or grapes that were dismissed have come back into fashion. There are always lots of parallels you come across in the research.

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For anyone interested in the underlying business of wine, Small Fortune Podcast, hosted by my business partner, Carol Collison, will likely be of interest. There are 60+ episodes featuring a mix of wine makers, winery owners, wine industry bankers, distributors and more.

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