Introduction Are you curious about how wine has played an essential role in politics? How did a bottle with Thomas Jefferson’s initials become the center of a wine scandal in 1985? What does pulling a Nixon mean? Which wine connected John F. Kennedy and James Bond? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with Fred Ryan, publisher and CEO of the Washington Post and author of Wine and The White House. You can find the wines we discussed here. Watch the Video Giveaway One of you will win a personally signed copy of Fred’s […]
Celebrity Wines
Best Ways to Learn About Wine? Vanessa Conlin MW & Amanda McCrossin Part 2
Introduction Are trends like orange wine and natural wine here to stay? What are the benefits of joining a wine club? How do you get out of a wine rut? Have consumer wine choices changed during the pandemic? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with Amanda McCrossin & Vanessa Conlin of the Wine Access Unfiltered Podcast for part 2 of our two-part conversation. You can find the wines we discussed here. Watch the Video Giveaway You can win one of two signed copies of my books, “Red, White, and Drunk All Over” […]
Champagne and James Bond: The Spy Who Loved Bollinger and Dom Perignon
James Bond was one of the first action heroes to make wine connoisseurship seem masculine and sexy. (Most of he-man flicks don’t lend themselves to the quiet reflection of wine: try to imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger sipping a silky burgundy to relax after an extended car chase.) In the Bond flick, Die Another Day, 007 is freed after fourteen months of torture in a North Korean prison. The first thing he wants? A shave and a bottle of 1961 Bollinger. In GoldenEye (1995), a female psychiatrist asks him what he does to relax. Bond presses a button on the dashboard […]
Which Women Shine with Wine in the Movies?
Wine, women and … the movies. As we celebrate the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF 2014), here’s a look at some of the cameo roles that wine and women have played in film as terrific co-stars. In The Seven Year Itch (1955), Marilyn Monroe, moves into a Manhattan apartment above Tom Ewell, a married man whose family has gone to Maine for summer vacation. When the two get together for an innocent glass of champagne, the bottle explodes—and he gets his thumb stuck while trying to stop the overflow. That makes for lots of double-entendres about pent-up pressure […]
Mario Andretti Wines Go For The Finish
Mario Andretti talks about the blind tasting he hosted for the 100th anniversary of Ferrari in Italy in our second video chat below. He also explains the tradition of shaking and spraying champagne over race car competition winners started and why he’d want to share a glass of wine with the new pope. You can watch part one of our conversation about Andretti Wines here as well as more more celebrity wine video interviews.
Mario Andretti Wines Race to Quality: Video
Mario Andretti is the only person who to have won all the major Grand Prix car races: Formula One, Indianapolis and Daytona. After winning 111 competition over 5 decades, he retired in 1994 and started making wine in Napa Valley. In the video chat below, he talks about his two passions, and how he puts the pedal to the metal in the wine world. Was wine a big part of your family’s meals when you were growing up in Tuscany, Italy? Did your fascination with racing cars start as a boy? What was the trigger that made you […]
Wine + Seafood Pairing Video: Food Network Star Michael Smith
In our second video chat below, Food Network star Michael Smith talks about his take on food and wine pairing, especially with seafood. Michael’s laid-back approach to all things wine and food is part of his success. You’ll note his conversational tone in this video … it’s as though we’re sitting at his kitchen table enjoying a good glass of wine. Find out why Michael is especially keen on wines from B.C.’s Okanagan Valley. What’s your take on pairing food and wine? Which wines pair best with seafood? Which don’t? What’s one of your most memorable wine and […]
Celebrity Athlete Wines: Which Ones Score on Price and Taste? Video with Dr. Antonia Mantonakis
In this fascinating video chat, Dr. Antonia Mantonakis reveals the insights from her research on how the fit between a celebrity athlete’s particular sport affects our perception of a wine, including golf, wrestling and speed skating. It’s not what you’d expect … find out why in this video. How does the degree of “match” between a celebrity athlete and “wine” impact our perception of its taste and how much we’re willing to pay? What are the good versus bad matches when it comes to particular sports? Is wine more prone to these extrinsic clues say than other product […]
Dragon’s Den Wines: Breathing Fire into an Ontario Brand (Video)
In part two of our video chat below, Kevin O’Leary shares what he would consider to be the toughest questions he’d have to answer if he were pitching the idea for his own wine brand on Dragon’s Den. Plus he gives the Cold Hard Truth for the Ontario wine industry … Some would say that celebrity wines are derivative or even worse, a disservice that takes the focus off the wine region and on to the celebrity. What do you say to that? Your fellow dragon Arlene Dickinson also just launched her own wine brand: what’s your opinion […]
Kevin O’Leary Wines for a Dragon: Launching a Brand Video
In this video below, Kevin O’Leary, best known as the prickly Merchant of Truth on CBC’s Dragons’ Den as well as on ABC’s Shark Tank, talks about his latest venture in launching his own wine brand. He has also built a software company that was acquired for more than $4 billion dollars and now runs O’Leary Funds, an investment firm with assets of more than $1.5 billion. It was just coincidence that Kevin’s smartphone dinged as I introduced him, but it seemed that he was instantly beamed down from the Investment Mother Ship for our conversation at the […]
