Introduction What’s the one thing you can do when visiting wine regions to make it your best trip ever? How can yoga help you become a better wine taster? How do you calibrate your palate and why should you do it? What’s it like competing in the World’s Best Sommelier Competition? How can you develop your wine tasting vocabulary? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, Master Sommelier Elyse Lambert shares tips on how you can become a better wine taster. You can find the wines we discussed here. Highlights Why does competing make you a better […]
Full-Bodied Wine
Angelina Jolie Wines with Winemaking Consultant Clark Smith
Introduction Why would you want to challenge a young wine with oxygen? Why don’t you hear many technical conversations around wine? How can movie genres help you understand a winemaker’s intentions? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, we’re chatting with Clark Smith, winemaker for his own WineSmith label and several other brands, consulting winemaker, author, inventor, musician, and professor to the wine industry throughout the globe. You can find the wines we discussed here. Highlights What is the $50,000 winery phenomenon? Why shouldn’t you think of wine as a “chemical solution”? Why would you want to […]
A Full-Bodied Framework to Taste, Pair & Buy Wine Like a Pro
Introduction Would you like to know how to taste, pair and buy wine like a pro? Would you like to walk into a liquor store and know exactly which new wine you want to buy, confident that you’ll love it even though you’ve never tried it before? Would you like to look at a restaurant wine list, filled with wines you haven’t tasted, but have the strategies to pick a great wine for your dining companions and the dishes that you’ve all ordered? That’s exactly what I’m talking about on today’s special edition of Unreserved Wine Talk. We’re taking a […]
Getting Hammered: Wine Auction Guide to Survival
Introduction Did you know that wine auctions are on the rise, both as fundraisers and as commercial ways to buy and sell your cellar stash? On this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with you about why auctions are increasing in popularity, their fascinating back story, and how you can participate in them without having a multimillion-dollar trust fund. If you’re listening to this podcast on the day it’s published, please also join me on CTV News as we’ll be chatting about two of the world’s most popular wines, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, including which ones […]
Randall Grahm: A Californian Blend of Wine, Wit and Wisdom
Introduction Randall Grahm was born in Los Angeles in 1953 and attended the University of California at Santa Cruz where he was a permanent Liberal Arts major. Sometime later he found himself working at the Wine Merchant in Beverly Hills sweeping floors. By dint of exceptionally good karma, he was given the opportunity to taste an ungodly number of great French wines and this singular experience turned him into a complete and insufferable wine fanatic. He returned to the University of California at Davis to complete a degree in Plant Sciences in 1979, where owing to his single-minded obsession with […]
Why You Need to Know Malbec Truly, Madly, Deeply
Introduction Have you tried Malbec? Did you like it? Which ones are your favourites? From Argentina to France, Malbecs are not all created equal. For me, it was an Argentine Malbec that first piqued my curiosity, leading me to start buying more. I followed that curiosity down to Argentina itself in my second book, Unquenchable: A Tipsy Search for the World’s Best Bargain Bottles. On this episode, in honour of World Malbec Day, I’m taking you with me on a journey to the Bodega Catana Zapata winery in Argentina to chat about all things Malbec and explore why Malbec is […]
Scandalous Wine Women on TV
Introduction I have to confess: I am obsessed with Alicia Florrick, the successful attorney on The Good Wife, and Olivia Pope, the high-powered Washington D.C. “fixer” on Scandal. In this episode, I’m going to share with you my secret obsession with the wine drinking habits of these women on television and what I believe that says about our cultural relationship with wine. Highlights How have alcoholic beverages featured with women on TV changed over time? What do Alicia Florrick and Olivia Pope have in common with Philip Marlowe? How does wine act as a key plot device on Scandal? […]
Discovering the Jewel Grape of Austrian Wine
By Alex and Priya, A Vine Romance Austria. The first thing that comes to mind when most people hear this country is The Sound of Music and Julie Andrews singing My Favorite Things! However, this little European country is known for something else that will likely become one of your favourite things, Gruner Veltliner. Read on as Alex sheds light on this versatile grape as well as other wines that are made in Austria. Priya: I don’t even think I knew Austria made wine! Why do you think it’s such a little-known region to non-sommeliers? Alex: For one thing, Austrian […]
Austrian Wine is more than Gruner: Embrace the Unique
By Mymi Myriam Mozart, the Alps, Baroque architecture and Schnitzels are some of the things that spring to mind when thinking of Austria. This alpine country is sadly not often first associated with wine, but when it is, the perception is that it produces mainly sweet wines. That’s quite odd for a country that has been making wine for over four centuries, whose value of recent exports has grown by an impressive € 6 million, amounting to an outstanding sales record of € 145 million (according to the 2014 Austrian Wine Statistics report). Austria ranks at #19 as a wine […]
Sex in a Glass: Getting up Close and Personal with Pinot Noir
By Rebecca Meïr- Liebman of Chef & Somm “Pinot Noir is like young love,” opined my private sommelier client in his luxurious house in Muskoka as I pulled the cork on a Romanée-Conti. “You do not know what to expect, but it will always make the blood run hot; either melt your heart or break it, sometimes even both.” Pinot Noir has been described in many ways. Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon went so far as to call it “sex in a glass”. So what is it about this grape – a variety also known as the heartbreak grape – that inspires […]
