Of all the sectors of wine, retail has to be the toughest. Tough meaning you need to understand not only wine, but POS systems, merchandising, event planning, inventory systems, the gift of gab, employee relations, internet marketing, subscription marketing, and many more facets.  And Jeff and Kathy did not set out to be a multi-store wine shop "chain" nor did the set out to get married. But, as the romance of wine would have it, both of these events occurred.  Wine Talks caught up with the...

The Nazis destroyed her parent's Chateau, and she was there to witness. You just know it. Humans have a sense about who and what they are. and when you sit in the presence of pure elegance, pure knowledge, and pure humility, you just know it.  Though May-Eliance Lencquesaing spoke for over 75 minutes (she took a couple of breaths), it took 15 seconds to realize that this conversation was going to be epic.  She started with "Hello Paul, good to see you again"...because she had remembered a...

Time to set the record straight. Because I have just about had enough. On this episode, I try to lay it all out....get to the root and wax poetic a bit. Wine has a special place in me heart and that didn't happen overnight. It took 35 years for me to grab the underlying value of the proper glass of wine. There is somethiing completely ethereal about real wine...what is real wine? listen to this episode.  Season 17 was a crazy good season of guests and thoughts on wine and the longer this...

Would you like to end your hangover before it even starts? Would you like to mitigate any symptoms of excessive drinking? Certainly, we have all thought at some point, "I wish there was something to help keep away a hangover!" Have a listen to this.   After studying classical art, archeology, and microbiology, Zack Abbott found himself working in an HIV lab with his mind wondering, thinking there was a consumer use for his microbiology interests. So he played around with a couple of ideas...

Despite we might be competitors in the wine club space, Nia brings a bubbly outlook to the world of wine influencers. She has two important features that bring the spotlight to her efforts; she is a woman, and a woman of color; both attributes the wine industry is seeking to fill in the ranks. She was engaging and fun to have in the studio and I think you will find her outlook on the world of wine refreshing and contemporary. Such a contrast to, for instance, the group of wine enthusiasts I...

As much as we aspire for wine to be a romantic beverage that tells a story...and it is, we have to acknowledge that is it business.  So you must meet Julien Fayard of Fayard Wines. And there is really good chance you will meet him if you swing into his new tasting room on 2nd street in downtown Napa.  There we peeled back his career path and opinion of all things wine.  WIth a Masters in WInemaking, a Masters in Agribuisness and a Masters in Business, Julien has equiped himself with all the...

Anne McHale is well accomplished in the academia of wine. She has a Master of Wine (incredible study required to earn) and a WSET Diploma (the highest accolade for the Wine and Spirits Education Trust)...neither an easy feat by any stretch. But what is disarmning is her utter charm. First, her accent will confuse you until you understand the source, but her ability to articulate her ambition in wine is the clincher to fall head over heels for her. Each time I relisten to the show, I am...

One thing about this episode, you get the straight scoop. Wine is about history. It is about the story. All to often in many of life's endeavors, we forget the story, we forget the history. That is the reason history repeats itself. In Europe, a winery being run by the 5th or 7th or even 10th generation is not unheard of; it is what makes the wine industry so unique. California could never catch up, but there are legacies being formed from the original families who sought a life of the...

Ludovic Devrin was born in Champagne...so the question has to be asked...why did you land in the Napa Valley. Seems the romance of the famed bubbly beverage would keep pon close to home but Ludovic wanted to see the world. Though he did get his degree at the University of Reins (in the Champagne region) he has made wine in France, South Africa, Greece, and now California. His curiosity to explore the New World versus Old World winemaking techniques and philosophies, groomed him perfectly to...

Wine Talks believes in the story of wine. There is a colloquialism in the wine trade "Every bottle tells a story" which on the surface is correct....but sometime seems too trite. What is in the bottle is not just an expression of terroir (soil, weather, environment) but also an an expression of the accumulation of the winemkars experiences, passions, lifestyle and what he or she thinks the proper melange of all these elements should be. Stephanie learned this the hard way (but the proper...

The wine industry is wrought with tradition. It certainly can be said that this industry at its  core, is not much different than it was 100 years ago. Certainly technology has helped in all aspects; vineyard, biology, processing, equipment, chemistry and more, but the fundamental premise is the same.  Make good wine, find buyers to drink it, make some profit, put the profit into next years vintage. Some more recent changes in marketing include email, social, video, audio, affiliate and...

This is the most honest conversation to occur on Wine Talks. Tracy is unabashed at exploring her lifestyle and her path to be an executive with a public wine company.  This was such a refreshing interview that we left the door open to regroup down the road as the landscape in the wine sector shifts towards an inclusionary perspective. The wine sector has been dominated by males both in ancient and modern times. Certainly patriarchal societies such as the Italian and French lent themselves to...

The wine industry is controlled. In fact, of all the US industries that have too many levels of bureaucracy, alcohol is in the top two. And because of this, entrepreneurial ideas are usually short lived and il fated. Along come Hail Khachatryan and his vision of a company named Open Container. Not that the name flies in the face of the rules, but the concept neatly ties up some loose ends in the industry. Hear how a delapidated sea-going 20' container abandoned on a highway in Armenia,...

When wine was barely a conversation in the United States, when there was no internet, cell phones or cable...there was Dennis Overstreet. When The French Laundry was just an idea brought to him by Thomas Keller, Dennis was there to help make it happen. When the Judgement of Paris pitted California wine against the French counterparts, Dennis carried the wines in his store. Wine Talks visited with Dennis two years ago at his wine shop in Beverly HIlls and we had a blast. Listen to the...

She was a lawyer, but the family wine business became her disrupter. Once in awhile someone takes their position in the studio and starts the conversation and they completely captivate the show. Soft spoken but convicted to her and her families cause, she is articulate in her position in the wine world. Often a guest from Europe has some self doubts about their english skills and if they will be able to be successful in telling their story. And sometimes it isn't the grammer and the...

The WIne Talks podcast seeks interesting stories in the wine trade. There are so many facets to the industry and the public only sees a small percentage...or hears the stories of a small percentage of the interesting histories that this ancient beverage brings. Antonia Quast is one of those stories. Having had so many touch points in the wine trade, she brings to the proverbial podcast table a plethora of interesting points-of-view. She has one particular story of a visit to Lafite...

Wine Talks seeks to find the individuals who can tell a story, who have a story to tell and whose passion shines through. Chris and his son Josh are Napa Valley mainstays and just opened a tasting room in down town Saint Helena.  We got right into the meat of the passion it takes to make wine. The discipline to stick at it, the courage to travel and jump on at some of the best Chateau in the wine world. And Chris Phelps has done just that. With encouragement from his better half, Chris has...

So fascinating. Dr. Gavin Sacks took a momemt from his research and teaching schedule to sit with Wine Talks and discuss the intersection of art, science and the environment as it relates to wine. We don't think of the academic reqiurements when we disuss wine. Talking wine is usually about swriling and sniffing; maybe a story of the winemaker. We can often get into the weeds on what we taste or sense in a wine. And that might have a whole lot to do with what Dr. Sacks is working on. The...

To sit with Emilia is like sitting with the Queen...but somehow even queen sounds almost diminutive for her role. Makes her sound like she is sitting on a throne handing out directives. Nothing could be further from the truth. When you visit Napa, you cannot help but be struck by the magnanimous structures and opulent wineries. This is not the case when you drive to Silvio Nardi in Montalcino. Quite the opposite. A 17th century building with understated details houses this humble and elegant...

Port wine is really quite fascinating. It is like history in a bottle. And wine really is about history. This concept all comes together when listening to Rupert Symington of Grahams Port house. The Symington family has not only seen the best and the worst of being involved with such an important side of the wine industry, they shaped much of how the Portugese wine stage is being played out. So often we see success in an company and that is all we see. In other words, we are blinded by the...

The world of Tuscan wine is more complicated than it might seem. From a fiasco (straw bottle) of Chianti to the most coveted Brunello Di Montecino's, you can find a diverse and sophisticated genre of wines.  As with most of the world wide wine scene, each family comes to the proverbial wine table with their own story as to what drew them in. In the case of the Moretti family, fashion turned to wine. Having designed and created the shoe line "Car Shoes" the Moretti family was poised to enter...

What you will learn about the wines of Tuscany and Piemonte will only be out down by what you will learn about the wine life. Raising 3 children while becoming a million miler in the air, Cristina Mariani-May keeps it all together.  I caught up with her in Irvine in the middle of her whirlwind tour of the West Coast promoting the wines of Banfi. She is elegant, engaging and funny all at the same time. And let's not forget her flat out wine knowledge and wine wisdom.  We discuss raising...

Between the two of them, it took 21 years to earn their Master Sommelier status; obviously, no easy task. Lest we forget, while studying for this accolade, one has to earn a living. They met while working at the 2017 Best Restaurant in the World, 11 Madison and it was off to the races between them to carve out a niche in the wine world. Yes, having the moniker of a Master Sommelier opens doors in the wine and hospitality world, but it takes perseverance to see a need, develop a solution and...

We could have spoken for hours. In fact, after I turned off the recording system, he stayed for another 20 minutes wrapping up the previous hour. With a PhD in history, Cristian is able to add a level of depth to the conversation about wine and its history. WIne is everywhere throughout history and as a matter of academia, represents so much about history, it is hard to separate one from the other. When you consider the wine is to be a sense of time and place, a background in history would...

This was serendipitous. The fact that Mr. Lencquesaing was in Los Angeles at the very time I began reading his grandmothers book (albeit it very slowly, it is written in French) and that the vendor called and mentioned she was with him...there had to be a reason. The name "de Lencquesaing" is synonmous with wine. Bordeaux in particular. Madame May-Eliane Lencquesaing is 95 years old but has vivid recollection of the war years if Bordeaux. Her story was partially documented in the book Wine...