Wine for Normal People

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 Yeringberg Yarra Yering Brown Brothers Pizzini Campbells Chalmers Chambers Rosewood Stanton & Killeen Giant Steps Bindi Wines _________________________________________________________ Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access. They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

Located the middle of the Médoc, 50 km/31 miles northwest of Bordeaux, Pauillac is home to 18 of the 61 châteaux classified 1855, just under a third of the list. There are three first growths, two second growths, one fourth growth, and twelve 5th growths. The first growths are Château Latour, Château Lafite-Rothschild, and Château Mouton-Rothschild. Pauillac is north of St-Julien and south of St-Estèphe with the manmade Landes Forest to the west, sheltering the vines from Atlantic winds. The commune has 1,213 ha/3,000 acres of vines (7.5% of the Medoc) and makes about 7 million bottles a year. The AOC Pauillac is only for still red wines, famous for their balance of power and elegance that is rare in Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blends. These wines have strong aromas and flavors but with great acidity and tannin – the best are not overripe or overly tannic -- and are balanced. In this show, I cover everything about Pauillac -- history, terroir, climate, sustainability, and then the top Châteaux. I break it down by terroir, location, and some details on top chateaux and then tell you to save your pennies to get these wines! Here is a link to the 1855 Classification ___________________________________________________________ Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access. They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

As part of the Back to Basics series, in which I update previous podcasts on practical topics that can be helpful to everyone, I update podcast Episode 28 from September 2011! Rick was the co-host then and it was a much shorter, less detailed show. Image: Assembled on Canva by WFNP Some of the suggestions from those many years ago were great, and some have changed or I've augmented them. The goal of this show: to give you some ideas to motivate you to try new wines and new ways to explore. Ideas include: exploring different grapes from the same regions you like, joining a wine club (hint hint: the Wine Access/WFNP Wine Club, going to tasting events, and more! It's a short and sweet re-do of a show from long ago. I hope you get some ideas from it! Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Join the community today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ This show is brought to you by my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access – THE place to discover your next favorite bottle. Wine Access has highly allocated wines and incredible values, plus free shipping on orders of $150 or more. You can't go wrong with Wine Access! Join the WFNP/Wine Access wine club and get 6 awesome bottles for just $150 four times a year. That includes shipping! When you become a member, you also get 10% all your purchases on the site. Go to wineaccess.com/normal to sign up!

On the heels of my trip with a group of Patrons to Campania, I wanted to do a show on Taurasi while it was still fresh in my mind. Taurasi, a small (472 ha / 1,166 acres) DOCG region, is indisputably one of Italy's greatest red wines along with Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello, Chianti, Vino Nobile, and Montefalco Sagrantino. Taurasi, made of the ancient Aglianico grape, is in Campania, more specifically in hills northeast of Irpinia/Avellino and is centered around the town of Taurasi, a small town with a 10th-century castle that was rebuilt by the Normans. Over the 17 towns within the denomination soils and altitudes range dramatically. Higher altitudes create complex, more acidic styles due to a longer growing season with great diurnal swings. Towns with more clay create extremely tannic wines, while those with sand have certain warmth and fruitiness that makes them easy to drink in their youth. There are a multitude of styles and, with soils in the region layered like a lasagna, the flavors you get from the Aglianico grape depend largely on the site on which it grows. Aglianico is a misunderstood grape, as is Taurasi as a wine. Aglianico is a red with complex, terroir driven flavors of dark fruit, red fruit, spice, black pepper notes, and excellent acidity and tannin. Taurasi, made from a biotype of Aglianico that is particularly dark-skinned, small berried and flavorful makes exquisite wines that have the aging capability of a Barolo or Bordeaux. The grape translates the terroir into the bottle and both where the grapes grow and who makes the wine determines the style – it's an area you could explore for ages and keep discovering new expressions of Aglianico. In fact, Taurasi is called the "Barolo of the South" for nuance and depth of flavor, and variation of its terroir. In this show I cover the extensive history of the region, with all its ups and downs, the climate, altitudes, and land and then discuss the expression of the Aglianico grape and why it makes such fascinating wines. If you haven't had a Taurasi, get on it. Vis a vis other top wines, it is insanely affordable (top wines are less than US$100) and it is a wine that will hold your interest with every sip! Certainly for its history and for its quality, Taurasi is one of the great wines of the world. Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Join the community today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ This show is brought to you by my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access – THE place to discover your next favorite bottle. Wine Access has highly allocated wines and incredible values, plus free shipping on orders of $150 or more. You can't go wrong with Wine Access! Join the WFNP/Wine Access wine club and get 6 awesome bottles for just $150 four times a year. That includes shipping! When you become a member, you also get 10% all your purchases on the site. Go to wineaccess.com/normal to sign up!

Discover the captivating Alentejo region of Portugal, renowned for its delightful and affordable wines. The podcast dives into the history of its winemaking, tracing the influences of various cultures on its unique blends. Listeners will explore the standout red grapes like Alicante Bouschet and the zesty whites such as Antão Vaz. With a focus on sustainable practices and diverse styles, this journey invites wine lovers to uncover the treasures of Alentejo. Get inspired to enjoy these fruity, lush wines that are perfect for every occasion!

This is the second in the Greats series on Bordeaux. This time, the first, most southerly, and most famed commune of the Médoc, Margaux. Surely this is one of the world's greatest regions, with the only major appellation with a château named after the region, Château Margaux. Margaux is a 1,500 ha/3,700 acre communal appellation on the Left Bank of Bordeaux, 25 km/15 miles north of the city of Bordeaux in the Médoc. Margaux is the largest Médoc AOC, representing 9% of Medoc vineyards and an average of 6.5 million bottles yearly, depending on vintage. Due to its size, the region has varied soils, and that means that as much as people like to generalize about Margaux being elegant and pretty, it's not as simple as that. In this show, I cover everything about Margaux -- history, terroir, climate, sustainability, and then the top Châteaux. I break it down into digestible bites and try to convince you that these wines are certainly something that you must try! Here is a link to the 1855 Classification Here are the Châteaux that are open to the public __________________________________________ Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Join the community today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ This show is brought to you by my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access – THE place to discover your next favorite bottle. Wine Access has highly allocated wines and incredible values, plus free shipping on orders of $150 or more. You can't go wrong with Wine Access! Join the WFNP/Wine Access wine club and get 6 awesome bottles for just $150 four times a year. That includes shipping! When you become a member, you also get 10% all your purchases on the site. Go to wineaccess.com/normal to sign up!

Fred Peterson has been making wines in Sonoma County for more than 40 years. While attending UC Santa Cruz, he took a job in a classmate's family vineyard in Mendocino County and he found his passion. He left Santa Cruz, and used the rest of his GI Education benefits to attend UC Davis. Photo: Peterson Winery. Credit: Wine for Normal People Fred got his bachelor's degree in Viticulture and Enology in 1978. And after managing vineyards for a large winery in the Central Coast, he moved to the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma in 1983. That same year, he planted a vineyard and built his house on Bradford Mountain. In 1987, Fred hung a shingle on a red barn off of Lytton Springs Road and Peterson was born. The winery is no longer in the red barn, but it remains an important part of their history and is represented on every wine label with a back drop of Bradford Mountain, where the Peterson Estate Vineyard is located. Photo: Fred Peterson. Courtesy of Peterson Winery In this (super dorky) show Fred takes us through some of the fascinating history of how philosophies about terroir and soil have changed since he started as a grower and winemaker in the early 1980s and how he has managed to be a leader in sustainable, but not dogmatic sustainable farming and winemaking. Fred was one of the first voices in Sonoma to promote low intervention farming and winemaking. It shows in the wines! Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Join the community today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ This show is brought to you by my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access – THE place to discover your next favorite bottle. Wine Access has highly allocated wines and incredible values, plus free shipping on orders of $150 or more. You can't go wrong with Wine Access! Join the WFNP/Wine Access wine club and get 6 awesome bottles for just $150 four times a year. That includes shipping! When you become a member, you also get 10% all your purchases on the site. Go to wineaccess.com/normal to sign up!

On the heels of the tariff show last week, and news that wine consumption is at its lowest point in 60 years, I thought it may be interesting to revisit the US industry structure in more depth. As I say in the freshly recorded intro (the show is edited for relevancy too, so it's not a straight re-release) I wanted to carve out the issues for small wineries that are every bit as relevant today as they were when I launched this show in 2018 with Oded Shakked of Longboard and Jim Morris, the Sonoma Wine Guy and frequent pod guest. Oded Shakked (left) and Jim Morris (right) As I point out in the intro, the biggest change since 2018? The environment around wine has gotten gloomier: Wineries are closing and being bought up, and small family wineries that aren't financially viable are done – there are tons of wineries for sale or that are just going out of business. It's hard to compete in this environment. After the tariff show, this show offers another perspective on the wine business – fake brands, ego brands, how the three tier system and score system fails the small producers, and how big wine is trying to take wine to the lowest common denominator – take wine to the lowest level they can get away with to save money. Ultimately, consolidation in American wine is squeezing the producers who built it and who are the backbone of it. Not everyone will make it, and not everyone should make it, but hopefully this show will remind you why we need small producers who are financially viable, and who make unique, great wine. _______________________________ Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access. They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

Tariffs have been a hot topic in recent weeks, but this issue has been ongoing. During President Trump's first term, the wine industry was caught flat-footed when, in 2019, the administration put a 25% tariff on still wines from France, Germany, Spain, and the UK (notably, Italy and Portugal were not included) as part of a trade dispute with the EU over subsidies given to Airbus. It was then that my guests – Ben Aneff and Daniel Posner started to organize and get industry leaders together to lobby Congress and try to explain why these tariffs were so harmful to wine. Those tariffs remained in place through 2021, and although there was relief for the last few years, the US Wine Trade Alliance, which was the body that formed out of the initial tariff crisis, continued to exist with Ben at the helm. In this show, I am honored to have the very busy and very awesome Ben Aneff, a native Texan who now lives in NYC and is the Managing Partner of Tribeca Wine Merchants in New York City, named one of "America's Best Wine Shops" by Food & Wine Magazine, and an "Editor's Favorite" by Wine Spectator. Ben has been actively involved in the fight against wine tariffs – working with all parts of the industry and Congress, and testifying about tariffs' effects at the International Trade Commission. He is the president of the US Wine Trade Alliance Ben Aneff, President of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance (USWTA) & Managing Partner of Tribeca Wine Merchants I also have previous guest and Patron Daniel Posner, owner of Grapes the Wine Company in White Plains, NY. Daniel serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Wine Retailers, a national trade organization founded in 2006, for which he served as President from 2011 to 2019. He helped form the USWTA. Daniel Posner of Grapes, the Wine Company & Industry Insider Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Join the community today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ This show is brought to you by my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access – THE place to discover your next favorite bottle. Wine Access has highly allocated wines and incredible values, plus free shipping on orders of $150 or more. You can't go wrong with Wine Access! Join the WFNP/Wine Access wine club and get 6 awesome bottles for just $150 four times a year. That includes shipping! When you become a member, you also get 10% all your purchases on the site. Go to wineaccess.com/normal to sign up!

I think people are feeling a bit of a worry about the economy worldwide, so I thought I'd make some suggestions for inexpensive wines that taste like expensive ones! Almost every wine is below $18, although I put under $20 in the title because it seemed punchier! I did lots of research to make sure these were way below US$20 in markets across the US and around the world. For inclusion in the list they had to be great wines that I would buy even if they weren't such great values (and with tariffs, they will be less good values, but still inexpensive). These are wines I drink regularly. Even though there are inexpensive versions of some wines (Fiano, Chianti, etc), I did not include them because I don't think the inexpensive versions of those are good enough. This list is the cream of the crop below $20. For each wine I discuss the background, the flavors, and why they are inexpensive (in case you are suspicious!). Some wines included: Picpoul, Crémant de Loire, Côtes de Bordeaux and Argentinean Malbec from Cafayate (different from Mendoza) Enjoy the list! Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today! www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople _______________________________________________________________ Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access. They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes