Josh Greene is the long time Editor, Publisher and owner of Wine and Spirits Magazine. Josh also serves as its critic for Napa Valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Rioja, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. He has traveled extensively to Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and throughout the US. You can also find feature stories and commentary by Josh in each issue. Josh Greene is always generous with his time and is...

Stacked, jacked and whacked with every award, including a James Beard, Food and Wine’s Best Chef, LA Times Best Restaurant of the Year, and a NY Times America’s Best Restaurants, Justin Pichetrungsi is the second-generation owner of Anajak Thai in California. More importantly, he is preserving the legacy of his family’s 40-year-old restaurant along with transforming it. After 10 years at Disney as an Art Director and Imagineer, working on Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar, he left to join his...

Ray Isle hails from “Deep in the Heart of Texas”, and is the son of an English professor, and he probably pissed his dad off after leaving academia to pursue wine writing. He is the Executive Wine Editor for “Food and Wine” and the Wine and Spirits Editor for “Travel and Leisure”. He has been on the beat for over two decades covering wine, spirits, and cocktails. Ray is a journalist, sought-after speaker, and now author. His brand-new book, “The World in a Wine Glass: The Insider’s Guide to...

Isabelle Legeron needs no introduction to The Grape Nation audience. She is a Master of Wine, author, founder of Raw Wine, and the Raw Wine Fairs, a wine consultant, and she oversees the Raw Wine Club. She is a true advocate of organic farming practices and proper living wines. Raw Wine is coming to NYC Nov. 12 & 13, Toronto Nov. 15th, Montreal Nov. 18th & 19th and Berlin Dec. 3rd. Isabelle has four Raw Wine Fairs scheduled through June 2024, including Tokyo and Copenhagen.

Chiara Pepe is a third-generation winemaker in Abruzzo Italy. Her grandfather’s grandfather made home wine in the basement dating back to the late 1800’s, eventually becoming Emidio Pepe in 1964, one of the most highly regarded and sought-after wines in the world. Chiara, along with her mom and sister run the winery with Chiara overseeing the land, vines, grapes, and cellar. She farms biodynamically with no intervention in the cellar and is a magician with Trebbiano and Montepulciano d’...

Champagne runs through Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon’s veins. A native of Reims, in Champagne, he received his degree in viticulture and oenology from the University of Montpellier. He joined the Louis Roederer Champagne House in 1989 working in Tasmania and the Anderson Valley before returning to France, eventually overseeing all vineyard and winery operations. Jean Baptiste is the Chef du Cave and EVP of Champagne at Louis Roederer. He is one of Champagne’s most pioneering winemakers with his...

Daniel Johnnes is a true wine hero. He spent four decades in wine and hospitality with Daniel Boulud and Drew Nieporent at New York’s finest restaurants. A true Francophile, Daniel has shared and promoted his love of French wine to all of us. He has received two awards from the French Government and is also James Beard Award winner. At The Grape Nation, we like to say “We Bring Wine to the People”. Well, Daniel Johnnes has become the greatest example of that by way of his wine fetes or...

Texas born Byron Bates has been a part of the NY wine scene for almost 30 years. He is truly one of the champions of natural wines. After bringing in and introducing his restaurant customers to smaller, family, artisanal producers, he went on to start his own NY based wine importation company, Goatboy Selections. To help further promote these producers, Byron founded the Wild World Wine Festival in 2019 with events in NY and Texas. This year Wild World is in Red Hook, Brooklyn, on Oct. 30th,...

Bay Area native, Shelley Lindgren never strayed far from home. She attended cooking school and cut her teeth in hospitality in SF, further pursuing her passion for wine. Since 2004 she is the Co-Owner and Wine Director of SF legend A16. Shelley is a leading voice on Italian wine and is responsible for exposing her customers and the rest of us to the new wines from the “other” regions, grapes, and winemakers of Italy. She has won the James Beard Award for her Outstanding Wine Program at A16,...

Ariel Arce is no stranger to The Grape Nation. She has joined us to talk about Air’s Champagne Parlor, Tokyo Record Bar, the opening of her concept restaurant Niche Niche, her Champagne book, “Better with Bubbles”, and now the new outpost of beloved Roman restaurant Roscioli. Alessandro Pepe comes to Roscioli NY via Rome with a varied background including comedy, acting, waiting tables, Somm, and is the founder of wine bar Rimessa Roscioli in Rome and NYC. Roscioli is now open at 43...

The Alto Adige is one of the smallest wine growing regions and also has become one of the country’s TOP white wine regions. This unique Alpine landscape is ironically kissed by the hot Mediterranean sun in the Summer. Many of the vineyards are planted on hills and steep mountainside altitudes, producing fresh and aromatic wines. Along with the wine estates, there are over a dozen cooperatives successfully representing thousands of small winegrowers in the region. The focus is towards quality,...

I recently traveled to Northern Italy to visit the Alto Adige wine region, also known as Sudtirol or South Tyrol, near the Swiss and Austrian borders at the foothills of the Dolomites. The Alto Adige is one of the smallest wine growing regions and has become one of the country’s TOP white wine regions. This unique Alpine landscape is ironically kissed by the hot Mediterranean sun in the Summer. Many of the vineyards are planted on hills and steep mountainsides, producing high altitude, fresh...

This will be the first Artificial Intelligence wine podcast with ChatGPT, and we will use the platform to help us conduct the interview with Dan Petroski. Brooklyn’s own Dan Petroski made his way west to settle in California. In between, he attended Columbia, NYU Biz School, had a career in marketing, finance and advertising, spent time learning wine in Sicily, and more. Once in Napa, he made his way to Larkmead Vineyards in 2006. At one point, Dan was juggling two wine brands; He left...

Raj Parr no longer needs an introduction. He is one of the most prolific wine people in the world. His legendary palate, his instinctive winemaking, and his commitment to regenerative farming have steered him to his passion, Phelan Farm in Cambria, California. Raj has traded his nomadic global lifestyle for that of a resident farmer, making soulful, spiritual wines.

Ontario’s own Nicholas Gizuk grew up around a wine-loving family. With an interest in fermentation and chemistry, Nick graduated from the Niagara College Wine and Viticulture program. He went on to intern at wineries in Canada, eventually working harvests in the Barossa Valley in Australia and Marlborough, New Zealand. He returned to Canada to work at Inniskillin, Niagara in 2013, working under winemaker Bruce Nicholson and becoming head winemaker in 2021. Nick stresses “We must respect the...

Jon Bonne is no stranger to The Grape Nation. This is his third appearance on the podcast, and he's here to discuss his new and third book “The New French Wine”. Jon is an award-winning author and journalist; his background includes MSNBC, Decanter, a decade as Wine Editor and Chief Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, author of “The New California Wine, and “The New Wine Rules". Jon is currently Managing Editor at Resy covering dining, restaurants, and wine pretty much everywhere it’s...

What’s in a name, well, if you are a Zabar, that’s about as ubiquitous as pizza in NYC. Born and raised in the city, Eli Zabar is part of the legendary family synonymous with food…and now wine. Eli separated from his brothers and family to follow his own vision in the ‘70’s: creating a food and wine empire. He is a tireless innovator and has created some of the most unique food and wine concepts in the country. Eli’s Table just reopened with seasonal fare and one of the largest old world wine...

Fifth Generation Sonoman, Russel Bevan left town to study Philosophy at Gonzaga University, logically leading him to a job in the dental field in the Midwest. A fortuitous transfer sent him back west where wine things started happening for him. Russell became a prolific wine forum nerd and columnist for Wine Spectator Magazine before settling into his own wine gig in N. California. Russell is the proprietor of Bevan Cellars and a sought-after wine consultant stacking up numerous 100-point...

Bedford Stuyvesant’s own Marvina Robinson left the neighborhood to attend Norfolk St University, an HBCU. Her love of the bubbly started when she would come home between semesters and pop some champagne with her friends to celebrate. Marvina attended Columbia University, receiving her Masters to work in finance in risk management. Her love for Champagne was strong enough to take some risk, pack in her career, travel to France, and start B. Stuyvesant Champagne in Brooklyn as one of the few...

Ken Pahlow has spent over two decades on the Oregon wine scene. He worked at and with some of the best people in the state including Dom Lafon at Evening Land, Patricia Greene, and St. Innocent. Ken also logged time on the sales and distribution side at Evening Land, Vin de Garde, and Galaxy. With a little coaxing from his wife and now partner Erica, he started Walter Scott Wines in 2008, producing their first vintage in 2009. He now makes his wines at Casteel in the Eola-Amity Hills. Ken...

Cristina Mariani May is a third-generation winemaker. Her grandparents emigrated from Italy to the United States in the early 1900’s. Ironically, her father and uncle headed back to Italy in the late ‘70’s to create Castello Banfi in Brunello di Montalcino, now the largest contiguous vineyard in Europe. Cristina joined Banfi in the early ‘90’s and has been the President and CEO since 2018. Cristina is one of the most powerful women in wine and oversees import, distribution, and wineries in...

This week we are going to talk about Bordeaux 2020. The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux was recently in NYC with over 100 wineries pouring their new 2020 vintage. I got a chance to speak with six different wineries from different regions in Bordeaux and the consensus is the 2020 vintage is excellent, the third in a trilogy of great vintages after 2018 and '19. This was a walk around tasting with hundreds of people and wineries in midtown Manhattan. It was a little noisy and frenetic, but...

Not your typical winemaker, Bibi Graetz was surrounded by a family of visual artists, studying art and not wine. He grew up in a medieval castle in Tuscany surrounded by vineyards. With no formal training, Bibi started making wine in the late 1990’s, and by 2000 he was making his own wine with a passion for old vines and Sangiovese. Merging his two loves, Bibi has created the labels for his highly sought after and critically acclaimed wines.

Nathan Kendall, a Finger Lakes native, has been making wine at his eponymous Nathan K winery for over a dozen years. He has traveled the world to fine-tune his craft, including Sonoma, New Zealand, Australia, Oregon, and the Mosel in Germany. He also makes wine at Hickory Hollow and at Chepika with Pascaline Lepeltier. Nathan is part of a new generation of Finger Lakes winemakers bringing passion, innovation, and technical skills to their wines and the region.

Shana Clarke is a freelance writer based out of New York City, specializing in wine, Sake, and travel. She has WSET Level 3 certification and is a certified Sake Sommelier. Her writing has appeared in Fortune, Wine Enthusiast, Departures, and Saveur to name a few. Shana is also a wine marketing consultant for major wine entities. Shana Clarke just released her new book, “150 Vineyards You Need to Visit Before You Die”.