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podcast· 57:22· S1E32Episode 32 - The Lost Apothecary and Syrah, Hold the Sulfites…or not
Caroline has the misfortune of going on her 10th anniversary trip alone to England, after discovering her husband’s affair. She goes mudlarking, and she soon discovers a centuries old apothecary vial. This vial is from a special apothecary owned by Nella who created tinctures and potions. When Eliza’s boss comes to Nella’s shop, Eliza finds herself with time and curiosity about this tiny apothecary on her hands. Orders for tinctures are beyond Nella’s ability to meet them, so she takes on Eliza as an apprentice of sorts. Women watching out for each other and taking the time to notice what doesn’t belong are a thread running through this story. By the time you find out how this vial ended up at the bottom of the river, you will care deeply for these women and the truth they each dredged up. What does Strom Thurmond have to do with your wine drinking experience? Listen to find out! Join us for an exploration of sulfites, tannins and histamines as we sip a Domaine Viret Syrah called Energ
- podcast· 42:53· S1E31
Episode 31 - When the Stars Go Dark and Where the Wines Grow in Northern California
Anna Hart has had more than her fair share of loss, including her mother, her siblings, her foster mom and dad and her childhood friend Jenny, so it comes as no surprise that she decides to solve violent crimes against children as a detective. After yet another devastating blow, Anna heads back to her hometown of Mendocino, CA to recuperate and touch base with her longtime friends including Will Flood, the new sheriff in town. When 15 year-old Cameron Curtis goes missing, the third girl to disappear, Will seeks Anna’s help plunging her into her past and the current mystery. Heartbreak and motives are everywhere. Can Anna and Will find Cameron alive? Keep turning the pages to find out. Jenny, Anna’s childhood friend who was killed as a teenager, worked at Husch Winery in Mendocino, part of a growing NoCal wine scene, so today we are sampling a Husch Gewurztraminer in honor of this novel. "Gewurz" means spicy in German, and this wine does not disappoint on that front; you will taste ging
- podcast· 50:39· S1E30
Episode 30 - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo & A Fine Bordeaux with Staying Power
When magazine journalist Monique Grant is summoned to the home of Hollywood legend Evelyn Hugo to discuss a charitable donation, she has no idea that the former starlet has selected her to pen her memoir. Evelyn warns her that she will hate her before their time together ends, but also predicts that it will make Monique very rich. We are taken on a jaunt through movie history in chapters divided by her 7 husbands, who each brought something new into her life and caused her lifelong drama. Some she married for opportunity, some for convenience and some for love but the longest, most profound love affair of her life didn’t involve any of these men. As Monique learns the twists and turns of Evelyn’s life, she learns why she was selected to write her memoir, and she does indeed hate her subject. It is worth the wait to find out why. We predict that you will not hate the lovely red Bordeaux we will be sampling today, a 2019 Chateau Le Puy Duc des Nauves. It is a red blend featur
- podcast· 49:01
Episode 29 - The Favorite Sister and A Sincere Sancerre
If you’ve ever wondered how real reality shows actually are, this is the book for you. Join the 5 stars of ‘Goal Diggers’, Brett, Kelly, Stephanie, Jen and Lauren, their families and the show runners to see all the drama in front of and behind the cameras. The book begins with the death of one of the stars and the clock winds back to let us see how everything careened so horribly off track. We are left wondering where the illusion of perfection and the lack of all values except production value ultimately lead. When all of the action is manipulated by someone for ratings or a specific character arc, is there anything real left to learn? Do these women deserve their outcomes? Do we care enough about them after seeing behind the curtain to want to intervene? It is a fascinating look into the lives we love to lead vicariously. None of the hijinx on the show would be possible without the ‘truth serum’ that is chemical alteration- xanax, valium and wine figure prominently in Goal Diggers, s
- podcast· 45:36· S1E28
Episode 28 - The Invisible Husband of Frick Island and Where the Frick is My Alcohol?
Anders Caldwell has writing in his blood, so he decides to pursue his story-telling ways through a podcast about a tiny island off the coast of Maryland called Frick Island. The 94 residents on the island only come and go via Bob Dan’s boat, and there is no cell tower or internet, so Anders can take the liberty of sharing all of the islanders’ quirks with the outside world without fear of reprisal. Nothing changes on Frick Island, not the inedibly sweet cake they’re famous for or its lack of alcohol. The folks who live here support each other and even pretend to see dead ex-residents when the need arises. Close knit doesn’t begin to describe their enmeshment. What will happen as the island finally gets a cell tower? Will outside influence tear them apart or draw them together? Hop onto Bob Dan’s boat and see for yourself! Today, we are drinking two non-alcoholic wines that would fit right in on Frick Island and one that is only 10.5% alcohol. The first non-alcoholic wine is a bubbly ro
- podcast· 38:50· S1E27
Episode 27 - Home Before Dark & Haunted Wineries
Maggie Holt had been to Bainberry Manor 25 years before, when she was only five years old. In fact she had lived there for 20 days before the ghosts, and tales of fathers killing daughters on the premises drove her family away and inspired her father to write a telling novel of their harrowing ordeal. Now, Maggie has inherited the old mansion and, against her mother’s wishes, she’s headed back to fix it up to sell. Some stories are best kept in the past, and when Maggie enters the house a former occupant, Martha, the housekeeper, Elsa and Walt, the caretaker all have their own version of events. Who can Maggie trust, and how much of her father’s book was true? Listen and find out! What could we sip over ghost stories but wine from a haunted winery? Today we are tasting a 2017 Korbel Brut Natural sparkling wine that is fruit-forward, acidic, and yeasty with notes of toast. This house-style bubbly is 65% Pinot Noir and 35% Chardonnay and 100% spooky. Aaron Heck, the Korbel winery owner’s
- podcast· 56:32· S1E26
Episode 26 - 800 Grapes and the World of Biodynamics
When Georgia Ford stomps into her brothers’ bar in California in a wedding dress with no groom in sight, it is fair to say she’s having a terrible day. Coming home to wine country was supposed to stabilize her in her hour of crisis, but instead she finds her parents’ marriage (and their biodynamic winery) on the brink of collapse. Will they sell out to the mega-brand Murray Grant, and will its founder’s grandson, Jacob, help or hurt her family’s future? Join the Fords as they all try to avoid the path of regret and look forward to new possibilities. Today we are sipping a 2018 Peay Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Coast (near our story’s setting) - an expressive organic Sonoma red wine with notes of orange zest, berries and butter, elevated acidity and a spicy finish. Learn about the complexities of biodynamic winemaking, when spirit meets matter, including the phases of the moon, time of the day, weather patterns and a surprising number of cow parts used in remarkably specific ways.
- podcast· 48:54· S1E25
Episode 25 - People We Meet on Vacation and Croatian Teran
Have you ever dreamt of being a travel journalist with a swanky magazine that would fly you around the globe to document your exploits? Poppy, our novel’s heroine, did! She even achieved her lofty goal but found herself unfulfilled by her life. When she considers the last time she was truly happy, Alex, Poppy’s former travel buddy, enters our story. While these two went to the same college and are from the same Ohio town, they couldn’t be more different. Thanks to a chatty photographer, Alex and Poppy’s adventure to Croatia was the “most beautiful and worst trip.” Because their trip to Croatia was pivotal, we joined them by sipping a hearty red from the Croatian Istria region: a 2019 Teran by the winemaker Fakin. It presents notes of blackberry, black cherry, gunpowder and black pepper and once sipped becomes tart and mineral forward. Croatia has been cultivating grapes for 2,500 years, so they have learned what grapes each of the four regions, Slavonia, Danube, Dalmatia, and Istria, g
- podcast· 53:50· S1E24
Episode 24 - Root Cause (Part II) and the Rootstock Rock Star
Our wine mystery keeps traveling the world to Dubai, Hong Kong, Bordeaux and Portugal uncovering motives and phylloxera intrigue. Malcolm, Corvina and Brian uncover a remedy developed for a phylloxera outbreak before the outbreak breaks out. Tres suspicious! There are also shadowy investors buying patents for this remedy that would have no value until those nasty little aphids are put into action destroying the vineyards of the world. Can our heroes get to the root cause and save the world’s wine from phylloxera? Listen to this second podcast to find out. What we can tell you without spoiling the novel, is that when phylloxera actually decimated wine crops around the world in the late 1800s one Texas man, Thomas (T.V.) Munson, was hailed as the conquering hero for developing over 300 disease resistant grape rootstocks that were grafted into the world’s grapevines to make them phylloxera resistant. He is truly an unsung hero, so we lift our glasses to him today…filled with lovely Texas
- podcast· 46:53· S1E23
Episode 23 - Root Cause (Part I) and Thriving with William Chris Vineyard, Hye, TX
When flying winemaker Corvina Guerra visits a vineyard in Italy that is burning its vines due to a phylloxera outbreak among its roots, she makes it her mission to figure out how the aphids got there and investigate just how far the infestation had traveled worldwide. As an outbreak could contaminate her family’s vineyard and end her own career, she is determined to figure things out. Corvina partners up with Bryan Lawless to travel to vineyards around the world to research and share their findings. Texas has its own hurdles to winemaking, harsh sun and significant frost among them. William Chris has taken on this challenge and leaned into hearty grapes that can not just survive, but thrive in these stark conditions. Today we are tasting a 2020 Roussanne and a 2018 Mourvèdre from the vineyards in the Texas high plains. The Roussanne is a white wine made for red wine drinkers because it has dry, hearty depth and coats the drinker’s mouth much like a red. The Mourvèdre is a red variety m
podcast· 54:50· S1E22Episode 22 - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and The Art of Wine Through Time
Addie should have listened to her mentor that told her never to make a deal with a spirit after dark in Villons, France,. We follow the story of Addie LaRue through 300 years of being perpetually 23 years old and forgotten by every person she encounters. She experiences some of the best and worst of the last three centuries in Europe and North America unremembered, until the owner of The Last Word, Henry. Addie was able to build a relationship with Henry because he had also made a deal. Will she be able to finally make a mark on the world? Or had she already? Much as Addie made a difference in her short time with people by inspiring them, wine has been associated with art for centuries. Winemakers are artists, artists create while drinking wine and art openings always serve wine. Today we are tasting a Vina Bosconia 2009 from Lopez de Heredia in Spain. Notes of red fruit, dusty leather, dill, chocolate, wet soil, vanilla and spices unfurl slowly after an acidic first sip.
- podcast· 52:19· S1E21
Episode 21 - American Dirt and Mexican Terroir
In our story and our wine choice, prepare to have your biases challenged and your heart opened. Lydia is a bookshop owner in Acapulco, MX; when a new customer, Javier, begins frequenting her shop, Lydia charms him with her love of books and becomes the ‘queen of his soul’ (not his heart…that is reserved for his wife). When Lydia’s husband writes an exposé revealing Javier to be the new cartel jefe known as ‘The Owl,’ she assures Sebastian that they will be safe. She is so wrong. This begins a journey to El Norte fraught with peril and sacrifice aboard La Bestia, a train heading north and then coyote-run through the desert on foot. It is heartbreaking and triumphant, but most of all unshrinking. We are sipping 2017 L.A. Cetto Petite Sirah from the Guadalupe Valley. This winery includes an immigrant story as the original Cetto forefather left Italy for Mexico to make wine in Tijuana. This bold, acidic, tannic wine has notes of plum, blackberry, fig and earthiness, and it will pairs well
- podcast· 1h 06m· S1E20
Episode 20 - The Book of Two Ways and Shelf Help
Dawn’s life had always been about transitions, as an Egyptologist and later as a death doula, she helped bring understanding and purpose to the slow slide from life to death. Her passion for ancient relics was interrupted by her own mother’s untimely passing and her taking custody of her younger brother and soon thereafter the birth of her daughter, Merit. 15 years later, she is sent on a quest by one of her dying clients, Winn, that will change her life forever. Dawn must face the past and the man that she left behind in Egypt and contend with all of the passions she put on the back burner to take care of others so long ago. Surviving a plane crash helps her to have perspective on her choices and she realizes what is most important to her. Today we are going to sip a 2018 Courbis Cornas which has been described as ‘a 93 point syrah with plump minerality that is well-balanced with notes of smoked meat, dark fruit and chocolate’ on its shelf talker. What is a shelf talker, you ask? The
- podcast· 50:38· S1E19
Episode 19 - A Gentleman in Moscow and A Made to Age Wine
This episode was recorded before the current climate with Russia and the Ukraine. We struggled with if we should release this episode and decided that given the storyline of the book, we should move forward . Over the last couple of years, many of us can relate to the idea of house arrest, but Count Alexander Rustov was imprisoned in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow for 32 years for an anti-Stalin poem written in 1922. We get to see this slice of life from a 100 square foot room in one of the poshest hotels in Russia where Alexander dines in restaurants, gets his weekly cut and shave and makes friends over the years, especially with Nina, a little girl who grows up around the hotel. Nina ultimately asks the Count to watch her daughter, Sophia, while she goes to extricate her husband from prison in Siberia. There are romances, infidels and intrigue throughout Rustov’s time at the hotel, along with Châteauneuf du Pape, a very special wine; we sipped a 2009 one from Bosquet des P
- podcast· 54:12· S1E18
Episode 18 - Nothing to See Here and Wineries Getting Creative
When Lillian got a letter out of the blue from her high school friend Madison, she never imagined she’d end up nannying for Madison’s 10-year old step-kids Bessie and Roland, twins who spontaneously combust when emotionally agitated. While the kids aren’t harmed in the process, everything they touch is destroyed. Madison’s husband Jasper has high political aspirations, so Lillian and the kids are relegated to the pool house to keep his image intact while Lillian starts troubleshooting the kids’ affliction. Will Madison and Lillian stay friends or will their employer/employee relationship make that impossible? Troubleshooting like Lillian does with the twins is necessary for wineries as well. Planting at higher altitudes, planting at aspects facing the sun, dry farming, hail cannons and drip irrigation are all problem solving methods vintners use. The Tablas Creek Winery, who produced the 2018 Red Blend we are sampling today, created a 120 acre California farm specializing in Rhone Vall
- podcast· 29:06· S1E17
Episode 17 - My Italian Bulldozer and When Does a Rosso Become a Brunello?
Paul Stewart, a Scottish food writer heads to Tuscany to tame his writer’s block and get re-inspired by Tuscany’s food and wine. What could go wrong? When your rental car company sets you up to take the fall for a car theft, plenty! Paul’s newfound friend from the plane ride sets him up with another rental company, but all they have available is a bulldozer which Paul drives through Tuscany, changing how he sees the countryside and how the people see him. He rescues a fellow author/damsel in distress, Anna, from a ditch and helps a local vintner, Tonio, to relocate his grape vines 500 meters into the 5,200 acre Brunello region, allowing him to charge a premium for his beautiful Rosso wine. Along the way, Paul discovers rustic Tuscan food and a romance he was too close to see. We are sampling a similarly complex 2019 Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona Rosso di Montalcino made from the same grapes as the Brunello in the story, but they are grown outside the 5,200 acre appellation area. This wi
- podcast· 26:33· S1E16
Episode 16 - The Wives: Little White Lies and a Big White Wine
What if your entire life’s circumstances pushed against society’s norms and you found yourself willingly becoming a wife one day a week while other women took turns with your husband on other nights? This is the situation Thursday finds herself in with Seth- her given name is also her day as Seth’s wife: Thursday. She talks about Monday and Tuesday as unnamed characters in this plot until she finds a way to meet them by stalking Hanna (Monday) and Regina (Tuesday). When Thursday meets Regina, she meets her match. When mental illness and naked revenge meet, things unravel spectacularly. Your head may spin from all the twists and turns…Quick! pour yourself a lovely glass of 2019 Castelfeder Pinot Grigio from Alto Adige, Italy. The label may be boring but the wine is complex, much like the plot of this novel! With aromas of pears & saline, this wine has apple, pear, and citrus notes, with a slightly bitter finish. Bitterness pairs with Regina’s ploys perfectly.
- podcast· 50:00· S1E15
Episode 15 - All Adults Here...Gifting Wine
Widow Astrid Strick and her adult children Elliot, Porter and Nicky figure out together how to grow into who they are while living in the fish bowl of a small town. When Astrid sees Barbara Baker get fatally hit by a school bus, she still carries the anger and shame of a secret (or lie) Barbara told years ago about her son kissing a boy. See the Stricks navigate single parenthood, infidelity, social climbing and adolescent troublemaking as they discover how to be a family. As the town is faced with August, a friend of Nicky’s daughter Cece, literally parading down the street as his alter-ego Robin in a dress, it opens the door for other characters to own who they truly are. This includes the shocking discovery of Birdie and Astrid’s relationship. It may take more than the bottle of wine Birdie brings to a Strick family dinner to sort all this drama out! Since we are on the subject of wine as a gift, we are cracking open a lovely bottle for sharing; a 2016 Pinot Noir Cuvee de Trois from
podcast· 32:47Episode 14 - The Midnight Library and Que Sera Syrah
Have you ever wanted a do-over on your life choices? We meet Nora on one of the worst days of her life as she goes to see her childhood librarian, Mrs. Elm, who introduces her to the midnight library where each book contains the life she could have lived if she had made different decisions. Nora doesn’t just read about these lives, she actually lives them until she finds they are wrong for her and she returns to the midnight library with Mrs. Elm. Go along for the ride as she cliff jumps, becomes a celebrity, dates a celebrity, battles a polar bear, becomes a Philosophy professor, wife and mother and runs the Buena Vista Winery with Eduardo. Along the way Nora meets Hugo, who is also a ‘slider’, which means he slides from life to life exploring all the versions of himself he could have been and he helps her understand what is happening and how to navigate it. We discover with Nora and Hugo that our choices change everything and that things we think are all about us (our regrets, our fa
- podcast· 40:46
Episode 13 - The Lost and Found Bookshop and How Wine Becomes Wine
Imagine being celebrated at an award ceremony at a California winery and having your mom and your boyfriend not show up, only to find out they both died in a plane crash on their way. This is the plight of Natalie Harper, who inherits both her mom’s run-down bookshop and care of her grandfather as a result of the tragedy. It seems all is lost, but the shop’s handyman Pete ‘Peach’ Galloway and his daughter Dorothy keep finding solutions...like Dorothy’s favorite author Trevor Dashwood, who always looks for the flip side in any tough situation, coming to do a book signing in the quaint little shop. The characters all find their way from grieving to thriving along the way to saving the shop. The wine we chose to pair with this lovely story is a 2018 Old Vine Zinfandel from Bedrock Wine Company, as it has notes of ‘Peach’, violets and cherries. This company has another thing in common with the story, they rehabilitated old California vineyards and processes much as Natalie started in a Cal
- podcast· 44:54· S1E12
Episode 12 - Giver of Stars and Shapely Vessels
When Alice married into the Van Cleave family, an Appalachian coal mining dynasty, and moved to Baileysville, KY from England she had no idea she would become a Packhorse Librarian. The 1930s were a tough time to be a woman in America and living in the hills and hollers didn’t make it any easier. Marjorie, Izzy, Sophia and Beth; these are the friends that spread books and hope to their rural communities while fighting injustice and abuse themselves. Based on real historical events, you’ll be rooting for these ladies to overcome their circumstances and triumph together as women. A quote from the book informs our tasting today: “Bordeaux bottles are sturdy like wives, while Burgundy bottles are curvaceous like their mistresses.” Learn why bottles have such different shapes and discover an Alfred Merkelbach Auslese Riesling from the Rosenburg vineyard while you learn what punts, necks, shoulders, bodies, opacity, translucence and thickness have to do with how you enjoy your favorite wine.
- podcast· 37:46· S1E11
Episode 11 - The Couple Next Door and Something Sparkling...Vouvray Perhaps?
This engaging thriller begins when brand-new parents Ann and Marco are invited next door to celebrate their next-door neighbor Graham’s birthday, keeping a baby monitor on to hear their sleeping child after their babysitter cancels. When baby Cora comes up missing, secrets come spilling out of a broadening cast of characters revealing that nothing is as it seems when voyeurism, adultery, childhood trauma, failing businesses and a kidnapping scheme are all unveiled. This whodunnit begins with a simple invitation to dinner, so we delve into what are the best wines to show up to a dinner party with. The short answer is that everything’s coming up bubbly! Whether you choose a traditional champagne, a prosecco, a cava or the sparkling vouvray we selected, Chateau Moncontour NV, you can’t go wrong pairing some part of the evening with bubbles. Learn the difference between these sparkling wines and select the perfect hostess gift for your next dinner party invite.
- podcast· 40:17· S1E10
Episode 10 - Anxious People and a Pizza Pairing
Who would have thought that a house showing on New Year’s Eve could end in such chaos? When a realtor, a bank president, a pregnant couple, a kindly old lady and a house-flipping duo end up in a hostage situation after a nearby bank robbery goes awry, detectives have a hard time figuring out exactly what happened and how the stories of these people intertwine. Some characters are hidden away in a closet (with red wine and a corkscrew) and demands are made for fireworks and pizza, so we have chosen to find the perfect red wine pairing for pizza! Surprise, surprise, it is, in fact Italian. From the soil created by the most active volcano in Europe, Mt. Etna, we have 2018 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso and much like our book’s characters, we find that struggling to survive makes grapes better and richer. In the book we learn that humor is the soul’s last line of defense; often natural cork from Portugal is wine’s last line of defense. Cin Cin!
- podcast· 45:54· S1E9
Episode 9 - Olive Kitteridge and Doughnut Duos
Welcome to Crosby, Maine, home of Olive and Henry Kitteridge and all their neighbors who fill the pages of this collection of 13 short stories. Olive Kitteridge reads much like J.D. Salinger’s 9 Stories , where the point isn’t to weave these stories into a tapestry, but to see the threads that tie them loosely together. We get to spend a day in the lives of many Crosby residents dealing with infidelity, loyalty, petty grievances, suicide, life transitions and the thoughtfulness of a well-timed doughnut to pair with red wine. This last plot point brings us to our flight of doughnuts and wines to pair with the story. Just like the breadth of characters in this book, we have a variety of wines (Lambrusco, moscato, muscatel and Sauternes) and pastries (glazed doughnut, apple fritter, lemon cronut and chocolate frosted doughnut) to sample and pair. Listen in and make some pastry pairings of your own!