My Favorite Wine Podcasts
After I finished listening to the entire weekly podcast (word-for-word) of The Economist, depending on how much car time I have that week, I'll turn to my favorite wine and beverage industry podcasts. Here they are with a short description of each, listed in order of how active and frequently updated they are from high to low. Do you have others ones to share? Feel free to register and comment.
VinePair Podcast
About excerpt: Join VinePair co-founder Adam Teeter, executive editor Joanna Sciarrino, and sommelier and wine educator Zach Geballe as they discuss the latest news, trends, and happenings in the world of wine, beer, and spirits each week. Now officially New York Times recommended!
This podcast is updated every week and the three hosts definitely have strong opinions on not just wine but cocktails, bars, restaurants and the drinks business. There can be quite a bit of profanity but it's entertaining and generally they get it right. I do sometimes skip episode topics that are less interesting to me. Note they have an especially long out-tro so I definitely recommend using a podcast app that lets you skip so many seconds at the end. They also have a sister podcast called The Wine 101 Podcast that I just discovered and want to check out.
Wine Blast with Susie & Peter, Masters of Wine
About excerpt: Hello! We’re Susie and Peter, married Masters of Wine, and our award-winning Wine Blast podcast brings wine to life with a smile via interviews with amazing people, provocative chat, food, tips, giveaways, your questions, gentle bickering and a certain amount of over-sharing. (And yes, we’re aware we need to get out more…)
No doubt this is my favorite podcast. Susie and Peter do an absolutely exceptional job at educating about different wine regions and styles. They pull this off as a witty British couple that can gently dig at each other without coming off as annoying or unauthentic. They back up all the shenanigans with Masters of Wine credentials and a ton of scientific evidence and expert guests depending on the particular topic. They release every week with a streaming TV show style seasonal episode format so they can take some time off with their family off-season. This is the podcast where I learned convincingly (including experimental evidence) of the serious problem of light strike where white wines in clear (untainted) bottles can go bad and get off-smells when exposed to surprisingly short periods of bright daylight. I'll be featuring a post on this issue myself soon.
I'll Drink to That with Levi Dalton
About excerpt: A former sommelier interviews incredibly famous and knowledgeable wine personalities in his tiny apartment. He gets them to talk candidly about their lives and work, and then shares the conversations with you. To see new episodes sooner and to see all of the hundreds of back episodes in your feed, it is important to FOLLOW or SUBSCRIBE the show. It is free to do either, the show is free.
This is your serious wine geek podcast. Levi is a former sommelier with terrific wine knowledge that interviews famous (in the wine world) folks with interesting stories. For a while I thought Levi stopped updating episodes but delightfully he recently started producing again. There's a huge back catalog of over 500 episodes. For example an excellent Santa Barbara County winery, Au Bon Climat, was founded by Jim Clendenen with their first vintage released in 1982. Sadly, Jim passed away unexpectedly in 2021, so a few years later, I was able to search for the IDTT podcast episode 81 where Levi interviewed Jim and I was able to listen to Jim's amazing story about ABC.
The Taste with Doug Shafer
About excerpt: Serving up stories of food and wine. “Mainly, I’m interested in people’s stories – where they started, their struggles, successes, and how they ended up where they’ve ended up,” says Doug Shafer.
Ever drank Shafer Vineyards, an excellent Napa wine producer known mostly for their reds? The second generation owner Doug Shafer happens to have a great radio voice and has all sorts of inside connections (such as high school classmates) with famous Napa & California winemakers and owners. He does a great job interviewing his guests to coax out their stories. Doug has a really folksy "aw-shucks" demeanor without any of the ego from other big name Napa wine producers. Here too, I thought the podcast was finished producing new episodes after 2022 but lo and behold he just released a new episode yesterday. I'm hoping there will continue to be more of those especially now that he sold the company to a Korean luxury firm in 2022.