Season 1

In our second installment of our Virginia winemaker’s series, we meet Justin Rose of Rosemont wine. Justin was able to leverage his chemical engineering background into becoming the winemaker at the winery his father started on their historical family farm. Today, in the southernmost wine grape growing region in Virginia, they make wines that are tailored to grow well in their area. That includes wines you have heard of like Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the latter of which is a wine that Virgin...

This wine, friends, is the epitome of why we started our podcast in the first place - to help you find great wines at reasonable prices that you have just not learned about yet. Spätburgunder is the Pinot Noir you didn’t know you were looking for - in fact, it’s probably the Pinot Noir you’ve never heard of. Part of it is because the supply and demand are well balanced within Germany itself, and part of it is because, well, frankly we don’t know why else. Because this is a wonderful, hi...

If you are looking for a crowd-pleasing, bigger red wine, this may be the ticket. Wait, you’ve never heard of Bonarda or Charbono?!? Shameful! It’s time to get you edumacated! It is not uncommon that the same wine will have two different names depending on where it is from, but it is unusual that a wine that has been around for thousands of years, was once one of the most popular wine grapes in California, Savoie France, and Argentina (in fact was more widely grown than Malbec in Argentina fo...

Is Orange wine still a vibe wine? A couple of years after our first episode on Orange wine, we revisit it to see if it’s still all that. The verdict? It is! We dig into what Orange wine is, how it is made, and what makes it different from the other styles and colors of wine, namely red, white, and rosé. And we will spare you the drama - it is not made from oranges. It is a white wine where the juice is left on the skins, hence the color. Although it seems hip, new, and trendy, Orange wine is ...

All the cool kids are talking about wines from Jura, but should you believe the hype? Well, when it comes to the red wine Trousseau, we say a resounding YES! If you have never heard about the Jura wine region in France, it’s time to let you in on the secret so you can be part of the hip “in” crowd. And if you are a Pinot Noir or Gamay lover, we have a wine that we think is going to be a new go-to for you. Tucked away in a little corner of France between Burgundy and Switzerland is Jura, and o...

We know what you’re thinking: how different could two of the same wines from different vintages taste really?!? We’re here to tell you, they were vastly different. Not even close. This week, we put Costco Kirkland Signature head to head with itself. Same wine: Kirkland Signature Chianti Classico Riserva, but different vintages - 2020 vs. 2022 - and two different producers. And hands down one was a winner. We expected it to be closer, but it just wasn’t. We also dig into what the different des...

Jake Busching is a bit of a legend around Virginia winemaking, so who better to be the first winemaker we talk to as part of our Virginia Winemakers series! Jake has a really cool background, one that is surprisingly not as common as you think, because he came to winemaking as a farmer, rather than as a scientist or being from a long family of winemakers. From that came some great quotes like “my heart is in the dirt” and his admonition to young winemakers to “Put the boots on first and get i...

When you think of red wine from Piedmont, you likely think of Nebbiolo or Barbera, but did you know that for a long time, Grignolino was the preferred red wine from the region? Wait, you’ve never heard of Grignolino before?!? Well, that is the perfect reason to go on this Italian Wine Adventure! A light red wine from maybe the most revered wine region in Italy, Grignolino is a wine some are saying is the hidden gem of Piedmont. The name of the wine comes from the fact that it has more seeds t...

Summer is almost over, but we found a great end of the summer wine that is chillable, quaffable, and easy drinking. In fact, this may be the wine that convinces your non-wine drinking friends that wine can be awesome. Most often used as a blending grape to add fruity aromas and softness to more tannic wines, on its own, Cinsault is a light, fruity, thoroughly enjoyable wine that belongs on your wine list. Perfect for cookouts and parties! Cinsault is also a wine known by many different names ...

Have you ever wondered why American Chardonnay tastes like oaky butter-bombs? Well, you can blame the French! The American style of Chardonnay is not our favorite, but it is super popular, and we explore why, and how it got to be the way it is. We also pit the 2022 Costco Kirkland Signature Sonoma County Chardonnay against some other easy to find and reasonably priced American Chardonnays to see who we think is the best bet for your hard-earned money. In our tasting, we also talk about what f...

Ok, in this episode, all hell breaks loose! It starts out innocently enough - an introduction to the Spanish wine Mencía, a quick interview with a real listener, some wine in the news this week, but once we hit the second tasting, pure chaos. Proof that our tastings are real, and that our podcast is unrehearsed and, frankly, when we get to the tasting section, unpredictable. You have to listen to the very end to get the full experience. But, we digress. If you don’t know the wine Mencía from ...

This crowd-pleasing wine from Southern Italy’s Puglia region we think is underappreciated and not well-enough known - kind of like Puglia. Genetically identical to Zinfandel, Primitivo can be a rustic red, but when done well, it is fruity, juicy, and wonderfully balanced. There is a reason why Primitivo does so well in the heat of Southern Italy, and it’s the same reason why Zinfandel does so well in California. It is an early ripening grape that needs to reach high sugar levels so that it ca...

Chablis is a wine we absolutely adore, and we think too many people are just unaware of what a beautiful and fantastic wine it is. If you are thinking, wait, I thought you guys hated Chardonnay, well, you’re not wrong, but specifically, we dislike super oaky Chardonnays. However, we love, love, love Chablis, and we can’t believe we have not done an episode on it before today. It is hard to put into words how much we love Chabils. If you are unsure about what all the hubbub is, or if you think...

South America may not be the first place you think of for high quality Pinot Noir, but it is definitely time to start putting it on your list, especially because, as wine prices shoot up due to tariffs, these lower cost options are going to be in higher demand. Pinot Noir in places like Chile and Argentina is still relatively new, and they are making exciting Burgundian-style wines in areas you would not expect. Despite most of the wine growing areas in South America tending to be warmer weat...

Have you ever walked down the wine aisle at Costco, picked up one of their Kirkland Signature wines and thought, “What the eff is this wine?” Because, you know, you feel like if a wine at Costco is $7.50 you should probably just buy it, but you just want to make sure you are going to like it. If that happened to you when you saw the Kirkland Signature Côtes du Rhône Villages wine and you hesitated to buy it, then this episode is for you! As we do in all of our Costco Kirkland Signature wine c...

If you think Cabernet Sauvignon is the only Cabernet, you’ve got another think coming (as Joe’s mom used to say). Cabernet Franc is on the rise, and it’s time to get on the bandwagon. Most famously from the Loire Valley, Cabernet Franc has for too long been the understudy to wines like Cabernet Sauvignon, often primarily used as a blending grape. But today you can find Cabernet Franc as the star of the show, bottled as its own varietal from vineyards all over the world. Part of the reason win...

They say summer is the time for Rosé, but did you know that not all Rosé wines are the same? Bandol is the perfect example of a Rosé that may just surprise you. Yes, it comes from Provence in France, but it is made predominantly with the Mourvèdre grape, which is unusual, and creates a Rosé wine with surprising depth, character, and, dare we say, seriousness?!? If you’re one of those people who is just not convinced about Rosé, Bandol may be the Rosé that changes your mind. Plus, in this epis...

How did a kid with no background in winemaking, a D1 scholarship to wrestle in college, and an interest in Mechanical Engineering end up making wine at one of the most famous wineries in Napa? You could call it fate. This week, we had the honor of sitting down with Kurtis Ogasawara who is the Director of Winemaking at Robert Mondavi Winery. Like a lot of winemakers we have met, he didn’t start out expecting to be a winemaker, and began with a background in science and math. But, maybe the mos...

A favorite wine of sommeliers, Ribolla Gialla is just different. Hailing from the beautiful Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, this wine even made it into the seminal and historically significant literary work The Decameron where the poet Giovanni Boccaccio listed Ribolla as one of the sources of the sin of gluttony. So that’s kind of fun. What makes it different is that it is a medium-bodied yet crisp white wine that can be made into a wide variety of styles - including orange wine, spar...

This is a “wow your friends” wine if there ever was one! Serve this wine, have them guess what it is, and then amaze them with your wine knowledge. Assyrtiko is sometimes called THE Greek wine - the most famous and iconic of Greek wines - and yet not enough people know about it or talk about it. Made for thousands of years, Assyrtiko is the rare white wine that keeps its wonderful acidity even though it is most often grown in warm climates. Keep that in mind, because you might start seeing it...

Boxed wine sucks - or does it?!? When a listener suggested we do an episode on boxed wine given all of the nuttiness with tariffs and rising wine prices, we said “Why the eff not?!?” Look, we may be wine reviewers and have our own fancy-pants wine podcast, but that doesn’t mean we are too good for boxed wine. And, we think you will be very surprised to learn about how popular boxed wine has become, not only in the US but across the world. And, we think you will be surprised by our reviews of ...

Douro Tinto is often called a “Steakhouse Wine” but that really doesn’t do it justice. This fabulous wine from the Douro region of Portugal - an area most famous for the fortified wine Port - is a rich, smooth, and lovely drinking wine that needs to be on your table. Grown on very steep hillsides, the variety of the grapes in the blend can include up to 50 varieties, but the majority of the blend is usually Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Roriz - which is the Portuguese name for T...

It ain’t easy to find an Oregon Pinot Noir under $25, but in this episode, we taste and review 3 Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs to see if any of them are worth seeking out, and in particular, if the 2022 Costco Kirkland Signature Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is worth snagging. Willamette Valley in Oregon is said to create maybe the best Pinot Noir outside of Burgundy, and many of the Oregon Pinot Noirs command a premium price - maybe not as high as the great Burgundies, but still a pretty penn...

As the Cardinals head into Conclave to elect the new Pope, we head into our studio (ok, it's our basement, but whatever) to dig into a big, bold, red wine that links directly to the Papacy when it was in France. The Pape in Châteauneuf-du-Pape refers to, you guessed it, the Pope, and the name means “The Pope’s New Castle.” But did you know that Pope John the XXII actually had this papal castle built on the land that makes this wine? Châteauneuf-du-Pape would not normally be a wine that would ...

Visually stunning, Tavel is not your typical rosé, and may be the rosé wine that makes your snobby “I don’t drink rosé” friends change their minds! Sometimes called the 4th wine, and sometimes called the Pope’s wine, Tavel is a different kind of juice. It is a very deep pink to red hue, sometimes described as watermelon or evening sunset, and the reason for that is because it spends more time on the skins than a typical rosé - afterall, rosé gets its color from red wine grapes. Wait, is all o...

Wines from Umbria are often considered “delightfully undervalued.” Right now, that sounds especially appealing! Grechetto is one of those wines from Umbria that is flying under the radar, but it shouldn’t be. This week, we dig into this wonderful white wine from Italy’s “Little Green Heart” - and the exciting part is that we found two very different styles of it, one more like an oaky Chardonnay, and one more like a crisp Sauvignon Blanc, so there’s a version out there for any white wine love...

In the year 2000, Lenny Recanati decided to start a winery, which is not a small decision. Born out of a love of wine, Lenny rightly says that when you’re not making money, it’s a hobby, and when you’re making money, it’s a business. Today, his winery is recognized as one of the best in Israel. In this episode we interview Lenny and his head winemaker Kobi Arviv and learn how they make elegant, gastronomic wines in a warm climate - not an easy thing to do. Kobi’s philosophy? Keep it simple, k...

This is our first ever head-to-head battle between Trader Joe’s and Costco wines, and what a doozy it was. A true battle of equals - the same year, same price, same varietal, same region, same specific area, and same top tier of each retailers’ private label wines. Plus, these wines are from Oakville in Napa - one of the most revered wine growing areas in America. And our verdict? Well, we’re not going to give it away here, but let’s just say the final winner came down to the final bell. A TK...

Now this is an exciting wine! We didn’t have super high expectations going in - the name Kerner does not scream “adventure” - but we are telling you this is a white wine that is worth seeking out. Some call it one of the best white wines in Italy, and after tasting it, we agree, and so we are wondering why it does not get more love! It is a grape originally created in Germany as a cross between Riesling and Schiava/Trollinger to be a workhorse and handle cold weather, the Italians have made i...

When one of our listeners asked if we would be willing to explore wines from Croatia, we were a little hesitant - not because we didn’t want to try them, but because we were worried that we would have a hard time finding them. Well, we were able to find some, and we are so glad that we did! Croatia is an area where they have been making wine for more than 5,000 years, yet despite their history, Croatian wines and wine varietals are not very well known outside of Croatia, nor are they super ea...

We had mixed expectations about Layer Cake Wines. On the one hand, Layer Cake was started by a winemaker who produces some of the most expensive and highest rated wines in the U.S. via their Hundred Acre label. On the other hand, “layer cake” is hardly a name one would give a sophisticated, serious wine. So which one is it? In this latest episode, we try to give Layer Cake wines an honest shot to impress us, reserving our judgment until we had the chance to taste them. We’ll let you judge for...

What a beautiful wine! You may not have heard of Greco di Tufo, and you may not be familiar with wines from Campania in southern Italy, but we are hoping that we can change that! Greco is an ancient wine grape, brought to the area around Naples by the Greeks thousands of years ago, that nearly went extinct in this area of Italy. Thankfully, some hard working farmers and heritage wine making projects kept the wine alive, and we are the lucky benefactors today. There are only four DOCG designat...

You know when they say “you get what you pay for”?!? That seems to fit pretty well with Trader Joe’s Reserve label wines. Look, you’re spending $10, so you probably shouldn’t expect to be wowed. And the wines we tasted met that expectation. However, when a wine is a private label from a store like Trader Joe’s - similar to Costco’s Kirkland brand - we think you should expect to get 2X the value for the price. In the case of Trader Joe’s Reserve wines, we think you kind of just get the value o...

Sometimes an interview just feels magical. Like, you just happen to find two people who have amazing stories, who genuinely like each other, and who complement the other in terms of their philosophies and approaches, and that is what we found in this interview with Roman and Jens. Roman makes beautiful wine for Wölffer Estate, so beautiful, in fact, that Jens and his partner Rasmus wanted to include him in their amazing book Rosé Revolution. Look, you may not think you are a Rosé lover, but w...

Don’t say we didn’t warn you - because once you try this wine, you may never go back to Prosecco! Don’t get us wrong. We like a nice Aperol spritz made with Prosecco, and Prosecco was the sparkling wine that opened our eyes to sparkling wine, but if you want a more elegant, interesting, and food friendly wine, Franciacorta cleans Prosecco’s clock! There is a reason that Franciacorta and not Prosecco is considered to be a competitor to Champagne. Made in the same method as Champagne (Prosecco ...