Vintners Podcast

Theresa Olkus is the managing director of the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates (VDP). This is a German organization which promotes the country’s top wines and estates. It unites over 200 of Germany’s finest wineries under the organization's symbol - the VDP Eagle, which serves as a guarantor of quality.Olkus speaks about the organization, German wine in general, dry Riesling, grand cru vineyards, German sekt (sparkling wines) and Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir). She also recommends a place renowned for its great wine offering in her town of Mainz (wait until the end of the episode to hear this insider tip).

Chris Yorke is the CEO of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board. He talks about his experiences and how he became the CEO of the Austrian wine organization. He discusses trends in Austrian wine, recent news and developments and what sets them apart from other countries.

Simon Woolf is a wine writer based in Amsterdam. He is the author of "Amber Revolution: How the World Learned to Love Orange Wine" and co-author of Foot Trodden: Portugal and the Wines that Time Forgot. Simon's love of wine made him leave a successful career in IT for the less stable career in wine writing. He is also the narrator of the film "Call it Amber" which was inspired by his book.Simon talks about his career, orange and Portuguese wines, but also brings out his ideas and criticisms of the modern wine scene. You will want to listen to the end to hear Simon's wine bar and restaurant recommendations in Amsterdam.

This time, Aleks Zecevic interviewed Jenna Fields of the German Wine Collection, a California-based importer focusing on German wine. Jenna has been selling and importing German wines for nearly two decades, starting her career working for the legendary importer Rudi Wiest. Her mission is to bring awareness of the diversity of German wine and break out the old cliché that all German wine is sweet Riesling.Jenna speaks about her career, but also about the perception of German wine in the US and walls that she needs to tear down in order to deliver the true message of the German wine scene today.

This time, Aleks Zecevic interviews Nikolas Juretic of his namesake estate in Collio, in Northeast Italy. He started his winery project in a small winery in the old town of Cormons in 2018. He produces the wine in a very artisanal and traditional way. The vineyards, family owned, are cultivated with the help of his parents Robert and Elena. The parcels and located in Cormons in the “crus” of Montona, Pradis and Bosc di Sot. On about 2 hectares they mainly cultivate white indigenous varieties (Tocai Friulano, Malvasia Istriana and Ribolla Gialla). The vineyards are all older than 50 years.Nikolas is one of the rising stars of the region and many people compare them to Stanko Radikon. He is also a long-term employee of Simonid and Sirch, a company that specializes in vine pruning. Nikolas talks  about pruning, but also about Collio and indigenous varieties of the region, as well as his story and philosophy of winemaking. 

Marcel de Cocq is first and foremost a very passionate natural wine lover. His main work in wine is writing where he gives highly informative wine reviews, together with photographs that you can see on his Instagram @marcel.de.cocq. If you follow his work, he will take you on an educational wine trip through various cellar visits, wine bars and restaurants. Marcel is also the ambassador of the Raisin app, which If you’re new to this is a great way to find natural wine hotspots when you travel (but more on that topic in some of our future episodes. In this interview Marcel talks about his journey into wine, given that he is an IT professional, but also uses anecdotes from his visits to speak about biodynamic farming, natural winemaking, transparency in wine and more. 

Greg Lambrecht is the inventor, founder, and boardmember of Coravin, Inc. His devoted passion for wine, engineering degrees from MIT, and successful career in medical technologies converged when he innovated the wine tech sector by creating a wine preservation system known today as Coravin. Coravin uses a non-coring needle to pass through the cork while it’s still in the bottle. Since that first device, Greg has continued to innovate, launching additional products for still and sparkling wines that give consumers and trade professionals alike the freedom to pour any wine, in any amount, without feeling the need to finish the entire bottle or fear of wasting a single drop. In this episode, Greg talks about his journey into the wine industry. He shares stories about his invention process behind Coravin, giving details about it that are both personal and fun, because behind every success story there are multiple failures. However, it is exactly the passion for wine combined with Greg’s dedication to create something that will at first fit his own needs and then fit the needs of many industry professionals and wine enthusiasts alike.

Alex Delany is a former drinks editor of Bon Appétit magazine, who is currently working as a food and beverage consultant, freelance writer and DJ. This episode does not focus solely on wine, especially not in a nerdy way as we normally do it. Rather, we give the opportunity to Delany to express his passion for all things food and beverage (and music).Alex will share a bit about his career and will discuss his writing series called Everything Good, which highlights literally all good things in different NYC neighborhood. These are free and accessible on Alex’s Instagram, which is alex_delany . We are hoping for a lot of intel that will help those visiting NYC, but also people who live in the city, but don’t necessarily haver the time to explore it.We will also hear a little about the wines Alex likes to drink and why. He will tell us about his recent wine and food experiences in Spain and more.

This episode highlights the beautiful region of Anjou Noir, located in Loire Valley, France. Ivan Massonat joins the conversation and brings insight to the region, the geology, and even a bit of history and culture. Massonat became a vintner by passion. He was a Parisian businessman originally from the region of Savoie in the French Alps. Thus, he was always surrounded by wine and at one point in his life he’s become obsessed with it. His passion led him to invest in a few winery projects by his winemaker friends. And then in 2018, he purchased the estate of the Loire trailblazer, Jo Pithon, as well as several other parcels. This is when he created Domaine Belargus.The idea behind this project is to portray the diversity of microterroirs in the Anjou area. As the vehicle, or the instrument as Massonat likes to call it, they chose Chenin Blanc. Many professionals would agree that Chenin is a perfect grape variety to display the terroir.

Max Brondolo is th proprietor and winemaker at Podere Sottoilnoce, a wine estate and farm located in the picturesque village of Castelvetro di Modena, at the very heart of the Lambrusco Grasparossa DOC. Max has been applying biodynamic principles since 2016, with the goal of maintaining the balance between monoculture (vineyards) and surrounding nature. Podere Sottoilnoce is a first-generation winery. While Max started this project from zero, his family still had some experience with wine as his grandfather was also a winemaker, but in Asti, in Piedmont. That's where he built his first memories of wine as a kid - sparkling barbera. Very discreet about his previous professional life, he regrets he didn’t start with winemaking earlier in his life. Interestingly, Max invested in buying vineyards before the cellar, or an actual winery. Max speaks about the forgotten indigenous grapes of the region and importance of craft winemaking. He emphasizes the difference between mass-produced, tank-fermented Lambrusco and artisanal, bottle-fermented style. All of his sparkling wines are therefore refermented in bottles, unfiltered and without disgorgement.

Nicolas Goldschmidt is the director of OIV MSc in Wine Management, the course designed for people who are motivated and who have successfully completed four years of university studies and granted a degree equivalent to a Masters, IUP, Laurea, BA-BSc 4, Licenciatura, Hauptstudium 3, in the field of management studies, social sciences, or science and technology.The OIV, an intergovernmental organization created in 1924, and reestablished according to the Agreement of 3 April 2001 includes 46 member countries, two territories with an observer status and eight International Non-governmental Organizations. The OIV is the intergovernmental, scientific and technical reference organization in the domain of vines and wine.Nicolas speaks about the course and the students who attended, as well as the intensity of the program. He also touches on the new labeling requirements for wine imposed by the EU, and shares a tip for his favorite restaurant.

Andy Comer and Gaurav Tiwari are founders of the Waves, a first-of-its-kind DTC e-commerce and editorial platform for natural wine. The Waves champions diversity, transparency and responsible production, the values that align with ours at Vintners.Andy Comer, co-founder and the president of the Waves, like some of our previous guests on the show, was involved in the music industry. He was the founding member of several rock bands. He was also involved in marketing and brand building for over two decades, most significantly he brought GQ into the digital world as their first ever multimedia editor. Then in the midst of the pandemic he became the founding wine director of Restaurant Tomo in Seattle, which was nominated for the James Beard Award in 2022 for the wine program he built.His fellow co-founder and longtime friend, Gaurav Tiwari is the CEO of the Waves. Gaurav leads the venture’s enterprise strategy and product management.Prior to co-founding The Waves he spent nearly a decade at the e-commerce tech giant Amazon, where he led teams responsible for category management, technology, data science, and product development. He discovered wine on a trip to Oxford University, when he was immersed by the wonders of Northern Rhone Syrah.The episode goes in depth about the Waves platform, but the guests also discuss issues and trends of the wine industry, especially pertaining to natural wine.

Sam Benrubi is a podcast host and avid wine enthusiast. His show the Grape Nation is one of the most popular wine podcasts out there. Benrubi has worked with the likes of Howard Stern and Gary Vaynerchuk. This time, Benrubi sits on the other side of the mic, sharing his stories and thoughts on the wine industry.

In this episode of the Vintners Podcast, Aleks Zecevic interviews Krešo Petreković, a familiar face to many people in the craft wine industry. Krešo is a long-time associate of Zev Rovine Selections, with whom he imports and manages the Central European portfolio. He also runs Vinas Mora, a fairly new winery project located in Primošten, Croatia on the Dalmatian Coast. Additionally he consults and makes wine with his father at Podrum Franjo winery in inland Croatia (in the extension of Southern Styria).Krešo speaks about his experiences in the wine industry, from his humble beginnings being a sales representative for a Croatian wine importer, to becoming a sensation of Croatian winemaking in the last few years.

In this episode of the Vintners Podcast, Aleks Zecevic talks to Mackenzie Hoffman, a hospitality professional who worked at some of the New York City's staple restaurants like Contra, Wildair and the Four Horsemen. She now lives in Los Angeles, working on her own new project after recently leaving El Prado. In this episode she talks about her experience in LA compared to NYC, what hospitality and inclusivity means for her and much more.

In this episode of the Vintners podcast, Aleks Zecevic interviews Erik Longabardi and Benford Lepley of Floral Terranes in Long Island. These two Long Island natives, have been exploring the remnants of the once vast agricultural land in the suburbs of New York City. Their project is an act of agricultural, but also cultural preservation. They made their first commercial ciders in 2017 from essentially foraged apples around the region.  In 2019 they also started focusing on wine. And all these beverages are being made in Erik’s garage in Rosyln, Long Island. They are redefining what it means to be a garage cidery/winery and through their ciders and wines, they are exploring infrastructural and agricultural history of Long Island.

Alice Feiring is an American journalist and author, known as the advocate for natural wine. She was a wine and travel columnist for Time magazine. She also made contributions to publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, LA Times, Condé Nast Traveler and Forbes Traveler. She also writes her online publication called The Feiring Line. She's written 6 books so far and her arguably most famous book, "The Battle for Wine and Love: Or How I Saved the World from Parkerization" was an open fight against uniformity and globalization of wine. In this episode of the Vintners podcast, Alice Feiring talks about her books and her wine and life experiences. She also discusses some of the new trends in wine and the situation in classical regions. You can purchase all of her books on her website thefeiringline.com.

In this episode of the Vintners Podcast, we interviewed Jay Strell of a strategic communications company called Strell & Co. Strell is an industry veteran and has been instrumental in helping the likes of Frenchette in NYC, the Four Horsemen and more.He talks about his passion for wine and shares some personal stories that led him to where he is today. Strell is an advocate of the natural wine movement and ecological farming, so the episode touches on those topics as well.

In this episode of the Vintners Podcast, we interviewed Justin Chearno, the partner and wine director at the Four Horsemen, Michelin-starred restaurant located in the hip neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY. The Four Horsemen has recently received the James Beard Award for their outstanding wine program.Chearno talks about his life and his music career, which led him from DC to NYC and eventually to the wine industry. He spent a decade as a wine buyer and operations manager for Zev Rovine Selections, a natural wine importer, who is also Chearno's friend.Then, he took on his role at The Four Horsemen alongside his three friends and business partners—James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Christina Topsøe and Randy Moon.This episode is the most unedited, unfiltered and natural yet, no pun intended. Justin reveals stories of his life that most of us can relate to and brings wine talk down to earth. 

Gut Oggau is a project in the small town of Oggau in Burgenland, Austria, started by Eduard Tscheppe and Stephanie Tscheppe-Eselböck in 2007. Before starting the winery, Eduard made wine with his father in Styria, and Stephanie’s family owned and operated the Michelin starred restaurant Taubenkobel. They restored the 17th century winery that had been abandoned for 20 years. Their vision to farm responsibly and apply some of the biodynamic principles started at the very beginning and their wines have always made with very low intervention in the cellar. They are one of the leaders of the natural wine movement in Austria, but also in the world at this point.The episode explores their journey and some of their life and wine philosophies. They speak about their farming methods and touch up on a few food and wine issues that are very relevant today.