Unreserved Wine Talk

What's the hidden meaning behind the opaque ribbed glass at the bottom of a McConnell's Irish Whisky bottle? What made the opportunity to revive McConnell's Irish Whisky important enough to leave a long and secure career behind? How does a master distiller notice that something is off long before anyone else can spot it? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with John Kelly, CEO of the Belfast Distillery Company, responsible for reviving one of Belfast's most famous brands, McConnell's Irish Whisky, which actually dates back 250 years this year to 1776. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Highlights What made John take on the challenge of bringing McConnell's back to Belfast? How did Belfast go from exporting more than 75% of Irish whiskey to losing the McConnell's brand for nearly 80 years? What do the symbols on the McConnell's bottle reveal? How does the opaque glass at the base of the bottle pay tribute to the hidden snug rooms where women once had to drink out of sight? How did John navigate Covid, government negotiations, and US investors to keep going on the McConnell's revival journey? How did relationship building and a strong sense of place help McConnell's earn a spot with the LCBO in Canada? What did it take to transform Belfast's old Crumlin Road prison into a working distillery? Why does John describe McConnell's as the first legal whiskey distillery ever built inside a prison? What's the connection between the brand and female empowerment today? Why does McConnell's deliberately spell whisky without the "e," unlike almost every other Irish whiskey? Why is five years the magic number for McConnell's, and what does that extra time in cask add to the whiskey? How does master distiller Graeme Millar use his palate to catch problems in production? Why do patience and discipline make all the difference for award-winning whiskey?   About John Kelly John Kelly is a highly respected drinks industry veteran, with over 30 years' experience in the sector, including 22 years with Diageo, where he held senior roles in sales, marketing and general management within Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. John also worked with Walsh Whiskey in Carlow, Ireland. In 2021, John joined Belfast Distillery Company as CEO and is building the team, bringing distilling back to Belfast in the repurposed Crumlin Road Gaol. In his spare time, John enjoys playing golf, coaching, and ferrying his children around to their various sports events, and best of all, watching from the sidelines.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/381.

If your wearable device knows your cortisol level, your heart rate, and the ambient light in your dining room, should it also choose the perfect wine for you? The Romans raved about Falernian. The Georgians were fermenting in clay vessels eight thousand years ago. Could AI finally let us taste what they were drinking? Conversely, can AI write an accurate tasting note for wine still in the bottle before a single human lifts the glass? When every appellation is covered, every vintage scored, and every back label written by an algorithm, what is a wine writer actually for? You're going to discover the stories and tips that answer those questions in this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast. I'm going solo rather than interviewing a guest, as I'd like to share these thoughts that have been on my mind. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Highlights What first drew Sarah toward Champagne, and why did the region capture her imagination so strongly early in her wine journey? How does Champagne's chalk soil influence vine behavior and the overall character of the wines produced there? Why does the concept of terroir in Champagne depend as much on blending decisions as on vineyard origin? How do reserve wines shape the consistency and identity of non-vintage Champagne? What role does dosage play in balancing acidity and texture in finished Champagne? Why do some producers choose to eliminate dosage entirely, and what stylistic risks does that decision create? How does extended lees aging transform both aroma and texture in traditional method sparkling wines? Why has grower Champagne gained so much attention over the past two decades? How do small grower producers approach vineyard expression differently from the large Champagne houses? What tasting clues help distinguish Champagne made primarily from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, or Meunier? Why do many Champagne producers still rely on blending across villages rather than highlighting single vineyards? How does the Champagne region continue adapting to climate change while preserving its traditional style? Why does Champagne remain one of the few wine regions where blending is considered the highest expression of craftsmanship?       To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/380.

Why do some cultures embrace wine as a cultural expression while others see it simply as a beverage? Why do some cultures embrace wine as a cultural expression while others see it simply as a beverage? Can fine wine actually be defined, or is it something subjective to be debated? Why is it so important to identify both the aroma and structure of wines when tasting? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Sarah Heller, Master of Wine. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Highlights What was it about tasting Barolo for the first time that completely changed Sarah's understanding of wine complexity? How does Nebbiolo grown on clay soils in Piemonte create a sense of density and structure that feels different from Tuscan Sangiovese? How has Attilio Scienza's perspective on synesthesia shaped Sarah's approach to wine education? Why does Sarah believe wine should be understood as a cultural artifact rather than just a beverage? How does the ancient figure of Bacchus in Ovid's Metamorphoses reveal wine's power for both chaos and redemption? Why does Sarah feel that studying wine deeply increases enjoyment? How do different cultures respond differently to studying wine before enjoying it? What is Sarah's pragmatic definition of a fine wine? How did Sarah train for the Master of Wine tasting exam? Why did Sarah design the Elements glass collection around fire, water, air, earth, and balance instead of grape-specific shapes? Why does Sarah see wine education and global exchange as a two-way dialogue?   About Sarah Heller Sarah Heller MW is an internationally acclaimed wine expert and visual artist whose work explores the cultural history and multi-sensory experience of wine. She is the Italian wine reviewer for Club Oenologique, Faculty of the Vinitaly International Academy and Wine Editor for Asia Tatler. Sarah has co-hosted the series Wine Masters and Wine Masters Class and has collaborated with Lucaris Crystal on a line of hand-blown glasses.       To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/379.

Why is spitting essential if you want to taste wine seriously? What made Hong Kong's wine boom in 2010 feel both extravagant and generous? Does formal wine tasting language strip the emotion out of wine writing? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Sarah Heller. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Highlights How did Sarah's wine career almost end before it began? Why did her accident in southern France strengthen her commitment to the wine industry? What was it like to represent a restaurant alone at age 20 at the world's largest wine trade fair? How did an early lesson about spitting wine become a memorable introduction to professional wine culture? What's the difference between wine marketing and wine education? What made Hong Kong's wine scene during the 2010s feel both extravagant and unusually generous? How did Burgundy tastings in Hong Kong highlight the intersection of rarity, money, and shared passion? How did Sarah's fine art training at Yale shape the way she thinks about wine? What inspired her to move beyond traditional tasting notes to creating visual tasting notes? Why does Sarah believe conventional wine descriptors can feel sterile? How do shape, color, mood, and texture form the foundation of her visual tasting method? How does the shape of a wine differ between a plush Australian Shiraz and a structured Barolo?   Key Takeaways Why is spitting essential if you want to taste wine seriously? Sarah: You're really meant to spit when you try wines. There was a little bit of a macho culture around it, like, oh no, real, real, real people don't spit. And I was like, I don't know, that doesn't seem very smart. But, there I was. And so by the end of the day, the people who had been assigned to take me under their wing were decanting me into a taxi. I made it safely home, thank goodness. What made Hong Kong's wine boom in 2010 feel both extravagant and generous? Sarah: Something about Hong Kong that I think distinguishes it, certainly from the UK collector scene, which was sort of my reference point to a certain degree, is that people open their bottles. I mean, some people have generational collections, but most people this was the collection they started. They can remember starting it and they want to share it with people. Obviously showing off is part of it, there's no denying that. But there's also an incredible spirit of generosity in wanting to share these incredible treasures that you have in your cellar with everybody around you, with the people that you care about. Does formal wine tasting language strip the emotion out of wine writing? Sarah: After having finished the Master of Wine, which is very, very much a bounded problem. You have to accept that this is the way that things are done. It's very directed and clear, which I think is useful if you're trying to create a standardized certification. But having got out on the other side of that and broken my writing style down so that it was as objective as possible and as simple and direct as possible, I was just a bit done with it. I don't want to talk about red versus black fruit. It had become sort of sterile at that point for me. It's not that I don't think people should study that, but it was just the phase that I was in, and I wanted to figure out what my voice was going to be.   About Sarah Heller Sarah Heller MW is an internationally acclaimed wine expert and visual artist whose work explores the cultural history and multi-sensory experience of wine. She is the Italian wine reviewer for Club Oenologique, Faculty of the Vinitaly International Academy and Wine Editor for Asia Tatler. Sarah has co-hosted the series Wine Masters and Wine Masters Class and has collaborated with Lucaris Crystal on a line of hand-blown glasses.       To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/378.

Should wine competitions give judges the option to say that none of the wines in a category deserve a medal? Why have some classic regions become inaccessible while others remain within reach for wine drinkers? What does it mean for a wine to gain wisdom as it ages? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Neal Hulkower, a PhD rocket scientist, who has just published his first book, Grape Explications. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Neal Hulkower's terrific new book, Grape Explications. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights What was one biostatistician's objection to the way wine competitions were scored? Why does Neal fundamentally disagree with the view that some judges' opinions should carry more weight? What are the Power of None and the Stars and Bars method and how do they change the way judges assess competitors? Why did Neal apply these ranking methods to historic tastings like the Judgment of Paris, and what did the results reveal? What did revisiting his tasting notebooks from the 1960s and 1970s reveal about wine prices, aging, and accessibility? How did Neal set a personal ceiling on wine price, and how does that shape what he considers drinkable? Why have some classic wines remained attainable while others are now priced out of affordability? How did opening a carefully chosen older bottle reinforce Neal's belief that wine can gain wisdom as it ages?   About Neal Hulkower Neal D. Hulkower is an applied mathematician and freelance writer living in McMinnville, Oregon. His first contributions to a wine publication appeared in the early 1970s. Since 2009, he has been writing regularly about wine-related topics for academic, trade, and popular publications including the Journal of Wine Research, the Journal of Wine Economics, American Wine Society Wine Journal, Oregon Wine Press, Practical Winery & Vineyard, Wine Press Northwest, the Slow Wine Guide USA, and The World of Fine Wine and on wine-searcher.com, trinkmag.com, and guildsomm.com. Neal is a member of the American Wine Society, the American Association of Wine Economists, and the Circle of Wine Writers. His first book, Grape Explications, was released in 2025. He can occasionally be found pouring some of Oregon's finest in a tasting room at the top of the Dundee Hills.           To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/377.

How can a single bottle of wine completely change your understanding of what wine can be? What makes a wine so remarkable that you can almost taste it again in your memory decades later? Why are people drawn to tasting notes even when words can never fully capture the experience of tasting and smelling wine? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Neal Hulkower, a PhD rocket scientist, who has just published his first book, Grape Explications. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Neal Hulkower's terrific new book, Grape Explications. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights What surprised Neal most when he reread five decades of his own wine writing while compiling Grape Explications? How has his palate, perspective, and choice of writing topics evolved throughout his life? Why did self-publishing matter so much to Neal? How did Neal's first experience with wine shape his early expectations of wine? How did tasting classified growth Bordeaux as a college student completely reset his understanding of what wine could be? How did the Duncan Hines Memorial Bon Vivant Fellowship turn academic milestones into structured wine rituals? Why did Neal choose a 1959 Steinberger Trockenbeerenauslese to mark his PhD, and what made that bottle unforgettable? How did keeping meticulous notes help Neal develop his palate and his writing voice? What pushed him to leave academia for industry? Which emerging wine regions was Neal exposed to through moving across the US? What changed when Neal left a high-level technology career to become a freelance wine writer? How has Neal merged his two passions, wine and mathematics?   About Neal Hulkower Neal D. Hulkower is an applied mathematician and freelance writer living in McMinnville, Oregon. His first contributions to a wine publication appeared in the early 1970s. Since 2009, he has been writing regularly about wine-related topics for academic, trade, and popular publications including the Journal of Wine Research, the Journal of Wine Economics, American Wine Society Wine Journal, Oregon Wine Press, Practical Winery & Vineyard, Wine Press Northwest, the Slow Wine Guide USA, and The World of Fine Wine and on wine-searcher.com, trinkmag.com, and guildsomm.com. Neal is a member of the American Wine Society, the American Association of Wine Economists, and the Circle of Wine Writers. His first book, Grape Explications, was released in 2025. He can occasionally be found pouring some of Oregon's finest in a tasting room at the top of the Dundee Hills.           To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/376.

Why did this author start the book with tasting, rather than history, regions or grapes? Was that because you wanted to get right into the sensory experience, rather than maybe some of the drier knowledge? Why is your experience of what tastes good as personal as a fingerprint? When it comes to wine, what do you mean by structure? Why are these important, these structural components? Do you think they matter more than identifying that, that wine's from Burgundy, that wine's from Bordeaux? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Jordan Salcito, author of Smart Mouth: Wine Essentials for You, Me, & Everyone We Know. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Jordan Salcito's terrific new book, Smart Mouth: Wine Essentials for You, Me, and Everyone We Know. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights Why does our first impression of a wine's aroma matter more than we realize Why did Jordan ultimately walk away from the Master Sommelier service exam? How did the title Smart Mouth come together and capture the spirit Jordan wanted for the book? Why did Jordan choose to begin Smart Mouth with tasting instead of regions, grapes, or wine history? Why does Jordan see point scores and rigid wine hierarchies as a form of ego rather than a useful guide for drinkers? How do different people visualize or conceptualize wine while tasting? How does Jordan's concept of wine personas differ from traditional tasting language? What does the TALL framework explain about wine structure? How can simple sensory exercises help drinkers identify tannin, alcohol, acidity, and earth-driven flavors with confidence?   About Jordan Salcito   Jordan Salcito is an award-winning sommelier, author, and entrepreneur. A wine industry veteran, she has over a decade of experience as a sommelier at restaurants including Momofuku, Restaurant Daniel, and Eleven Madison Park (where she was part of the team to win the award for Outstanding Wine Service from the James Beard Foundation). Her wine programs at Momofuku were regularly recognized in The New York Times, Eater, and Food & Wine, and were named "Most Creative Wine List in the World" by the World of Fine Wine magazine. A pioneer of the ready-to-drink beverage category with her organic Italian spritz company, Drink RAMONA, Salcito will also published her first book, Smart Mouth: Wine Essentials for You, Me, & Everyone We Know, with Penguin Random House's Ten Speed Press.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/375.

What makes a wine feel soulful, transporting you beyond taste into a deeper emotional connection? What does experiencing harvest firsthand reveal about winemaking that never show up in books? What makes Northern Rhône Syrah come across as black peppery, smoky, and reminiscent of pastrami? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Jordan Salcito who has published Smart Mouth: Wine Essentials for You, Me, & Everyone We Know, which was just selected as one of the best wine books of the year by the New York Times. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Jordan Salcito's terrific new book, Smart Mouth: Wine Essentials for You, Me, and Everyone We Know. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights How did Jordan's father shape her earliest understanding of wine as family and connection? How did working at Restaurant Daniel shift how Jordan understands wine, fine dining, and food and wine pairing? What does Jordan mean when she describes certain wines as soulful? What's the difference between the old world approach focused on place and the new world approach focused on control and construction? Why did working harvests in Burgundy teach Jordan that could never be learned from books? How did molecular gastronomy pioneer Wylie Dufresne help her see restaurants as a legitimate intellectual and creative path? How did an early rejection from The New York Times become a signal to redirect her goals? Why did failing the advanced sommelier tasting exam become the foundation for eventually passing the Master Sommelier tasting on her first attempt?   About Jordan Salcito Jordan Salcito is an award-winning sommelier, author, and entrepreneur. A wine industry veteran, she has over a decade of experience as a sommelier at restaurants including Momofuku, Restaurant Daniel, and Eleven Madison Park (where she was part of the team to win the award for Outstanding Wine Service from the James Beard Foundation). Her wine programs at Momofuku were regularly recognized in The New York Times, Eater, and Food & Wine, and were named "Most Creative Wine List in the World" by the World of Fine Wine magazine. Long a student of wine, Salcito passed the tasting portion of the Master Sommelier exam on her first attempt and feels fortunate to have learned so much though working harvests at world-renowned wineries in Burgundy, Tuscany, California and Patagonia. A pioneer of the ready-to-drink beverage category with her organic Italian spritz company, Drink RAMONA, Salcito will also publish her first book, Smart Mouth: Wine Essentials for You, Me, & Everyone We Know, with Penguin Random House's Ten Speed Press this October. Jordan lives in Paris with her family.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/374.

What goes into creating a successful international wine brand that tells a story before the bottle is even opened? What does it look like to build a young wine brand vintage by vintage? What makes Bordeaux such a hard place to break into as an outsider? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Namratha Stanley, author of the new memoir Vineyard Melody. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Namratha Stanely's terrific new book, Vineyard Melody: How One Woman Rebuilt Her Life, One Grape At A Time. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights What was it like arriving alone in rural Margaux for an internship? What made Namratha push through fear, exhaustion, and the pressure of a visa dependent on work? Why is the French concept of terroir so powerful in understanding the connection between place, identity, and wine? Why did Namratha make the decision to build her own wine brand instead of becoming an agent for existing wineries? How did the name and branding for Solicantus come together, and what influenced these choices? How did a single LinkedIn message lead to Solicantus wines being listed with the LCBO in Canada? What did the first international sale feel like after years of uncertainty and effort? Why is Namratha passionate about building philanthropy into her wine and book business? How did reuniting with her daughter in France mark a turning point for Namratha?   About Namratha Stanley Namratha Stanley is the debut author of Vineyard Melody, a memoir chronicling her personal and professional transformation. Once confined to a patriarchal household in India, where she was barred from working, she broke free from marital violence and moved to France in 2017 to pursue a Wine MBA. She went on to found Wine Equation, a Bordeaux-based wine merchant company, and created Solicantus, her signature wine brand now distributed in five countries. Today, she serves as Program Director at INSEEC (Omnes), mentors women and students, and donates part of her wine sales to support children's education in India. Her journey—from traditional housewife to entrepreneur—has been featured in Forbes, Decanter and many other magazines. Namratha lives in France with her daughter and two cats, continuing to write and grow her wine business.       To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/373.

How can a wine story rooted in darkness leave you feeling hopeful about your life? Why is France such a symbol of freedom, possibility and reinvention for her? How can discovering France through art, cinema, and wine become an escape into a completely different world? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Namratha Stanley, author of Vineyard Melody: How One Woman Rebuilt Her Life, One Grape At A Time. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Namratha Stanely's terrific new book, Vineyard Melody: How One Woman Rebuilt Her Life, One Grape At A Time. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights Which childhood moments shaped Namratha's sense of courage and adventure and understanding of injustice? What is Vineyard Melody about and how does it differ from other wine and reinvention stories? Why did Namratha feel compelled to write this book despite the risks of telling her truth? What early warning signs in her marriage did Namratha only recognize in hindsight? How did the system ultimately fail to protect Namratha and how did learning French become an act of survival? Why did the language prove so valuable when an unexpected job opportunity in Paris arose? How did ridicule and resistance at home strengthen her resolve to pursue independence through work? What was it like to arrive in Bordeaux for her wine MBA? What did seeing the Eiffel Tower and having her first meal in Paris symbolize about freedom and possibility? Why did Namratha ultimately decide that leaving India permanently was the only path toward rebuilding her life and identity?   About Namratha Stanley Namratha Stanley is the debut author of Vineyard Melody, a memoir chronicling her personal and professional transformation. Once confined to a patriarchal household in India, where she was barred from working, she broke free from marital violence and moved to France in 2017 to pursue a Wine MBA. She went on to found Wine Equation, a Bordeaux-based wine merchant company, and created Solicantus, her signature wine brand now distributed in five countries. Today, she serves as Program Director at INSEEC (Omnes), mentors women and students, and donates part of her wine sales to support children's education in India. Her journey—from traditional housewife to entrepreneur—has been featured in Forbes, Decanter and many other magazines. Namratha lives in France with her daughter and two cats, continuing to write and grow her wine business.       To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/372.

How did winemakers first figure out how to remove alcohol from wine without destroying it? Why is it so difficult to perfect the flavours and aromas in wine once the alcohol is removed? Why do some non-alcoholic wines keep their fruity aromas while others seem to lose everything? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Dr Wes Pearson, a senior research scientist at the Australian Wine Research Institute in Adelaide. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Highlights How was the German winemaker, Carl Jung, a pioneer in the field of no and low alcohol wine? Why is the reverse osmosis process better suited to small alcohol adjustments rather than full dealcoholization? How has the spinning cone column become one of the most effective tools for removing alcohol from wine? Why is it so challenging to preserve flavour and aroma in non-alcoholic wines? Why are low alcohol wines often more successful than alcohol free wines? How can vineyard and fermentation choices reduce alcohol while preserving wine character? Why do lower alcohol wines preserve a sense of place more successfully than fully de-alcoholized wines? How do beer producers have more technical options for making low alcohol products than winemakers? What is the connection between alcohol and mouthfeel? Why is Sauvignon Blanc often the most successful base for alcohol free wine? How does Wes envision the future of non alcoholic wine?   Key Takeaways How did winemakers first figure out how to remove alcohol from wine without destroying it? The story goes that Carl Jung was somewhere in India, in the Himalayas, and he noticed that water boiled at a lower temperature and started thinking about, oh, well you know, they had a family winery and I wonder if we can take ethanol out if we boiled it at a lower temperature. Understanding, of course, classic distillation ethanol boils at around 70-something degrees and water would boil at 100. So you could boil your ethanolic solution, remove the ethanol, trap it on this side, leave your water here or whatever solution you have your ethanol in, and then keep the ethanol. That's classic distillation. Normally we keep the distillate, we keep the alcohol, and get rid of what we've taken it out of. Now we want to keep what we've taken it out of and get rid of the ethanol. So that was the whole premise behind vacuum distillation. Why is it so difficult to perfect the flavours and aromas in wine once the alcohol is removed? When that wine comes off the spinning cone column, it's not a pleasant drink. It's extremely acidic. You've concentrated the acids by about a third, and as well, you've lost all the flavor. Also the flavor that balances out all that acid is gone as well. We need to do a lot of work in building that back up. We should use more tools that we have to try to build some of these up, to build flavor. Now, of course, from the economics behind this, these are not expensive products. So we can't just whack everything in there and hope for the best. We have to have some judiciousness when it comes to how much these things cost and how much you can add, and how we can do this to recover what we've taken out and put back so that it's more cost effective. This is all part of the research that we're working on. Why do some non-alcoholic wines keep their fruity aromas while others seem to lose everything? When the yeast eat the sugar in the grape juice, those sugars are all attached to all kinds of other chemical compounds. The yeast come along, they eat the sugar, and release the flavor compound. And so those fermentation products, most of them are esters and organic acids. Now the esters are the really pretty things that we smell, all the fruity flavors. And the organic acid portions of those, they're less appealing. Now, when you put those through the dealcoholization machine, the spinning cone column in particular, you get the stinky stuff staying, and you get the nice stuff going. Within Sauvignon Blanc, you lose the acetate, but actually three-mercaptohexanol smells lovely. It smells like passion fruit, and so that stays. Where if your wine doesn't have thiols, something like Chardonnay, which is much lower in thiols, you don't get that retention of that character.   About Dr. Wes Pearson Dr Wes Pearson is a senior research scientist and sensory group manager at the Australian Wine Research Institute in Adelaide. He holds a BSc in Wine Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia, a diploma in Applied Sensory and Consumer Science from the University of California Davis and a PhD from Charles Sturt University. He has worked in the sensory group at the AWRI since 2010 and has completed hundreds of sensory studies and authored over 25 research papers in that time. He is an alumnus of the Len Evans Tutorial and of Wine Australia's Future Leaders program and sits on the board of directors for the McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism Association. He has judged at multiple capital city and regional wine shows and has been an educator/judge for the AWRI's Advanced Wine Assessment Course for more than a decade. He is also an accomplished winemaker, having made wine in Canada and France, and currently makes wine under his Juxtaposed label in McLaren Vale, South Australia.           To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/371.

What really happens when the world's most expensive wines are tasted blind, without their labels or reputations? Why is the Len Evans Tutorial considered such a valuable experience in the wine world? How did Grenache go from a filler grape to one that producers take seriously? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Dr Wes Pearson, a senior research scientist at the Australian Wine Research Institute in Adelaide. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Highlights How did a curiosity for astrophysics shape Wes's mindset as a wine researcher and sensory scientist? Why does Wes believe that the more you learn about wine, the more you realize how little you know? Why does Wes see scientific research and hands-on winemaking as complementary approaches? What role did the Len Evans Tutorial play in shaping his palate and wine judging standards? What is it like to taste hundreds of benchmark wines blind, including Domaine de la Romanée Conti? How did Wes's internship at Château Léoville Las Cases reveal the depth of precision and investment behind elite Bordeaux wines? What drew Wes to McLaren Vale and how did the region reshape his priorities as a winemaker? Why was Grenache long treated as a filler grape in McLaren Vale? How does sensory science work to eliminate bias? Why are trained professionals often excluded from traditional sensory panels? What kinds of unconscious bias can labels, color, and context introduce when tasting wine? How does pivot profiling allow winemakers and sommeliers to use their technical language productively? What's behind the rapid improvement in no and low alcohol wines?   Key Takeaways The current vintage of the Romanée-Conti Grand Cru, or that vineyard, is about $15,000 on release. They're not wines that are generally bought and drunk. They're bought as investments. And they're kind of these holy grail wines that you would never get a chance to see otherwise. And not only is it great to taste them, but you taste them blind. The Len Evans Tutorial is a one-week immersive tasting session with the world's greatest wines. Not just Australian wines. You have a bracket of Pinot Noir, and within that, you've got DRC and you've also got all of the great Australian examples as well. It's meant to set your benchmarks for what is the world standard and what is the Australian standard. Historically, Grenache was the filler in blends. Grenache loves the heat so you can leave it out in the vineyard. The Shiraz has to come in first. "We'll get the Grenache later when we have some space in the winery." It was used to fill up the blends. It had lots of flavor. It always had lots of alcohol as well. Then around 2010, a few producers started saying, we've got some pretty good resource here. Maybe we should think about investing a bit more time and effort into what we've got with Grenache.   About Dr. Wes Pearson Dr Wes Pearson is a senior research scientist and sensory group manager at the Australian Wine Research Institute in Adelaide. He holds a BSc in Wine Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia, a diploma in Applied Sensory and Consumer Science from the University of California Davis and a PhD from Charles Sturt University. He has worked in the sensory group at the AWRI since 2010 and has completed hundreds of sensory studies and authored over 25 research papers in that time. He is an alumnus of the Len Evans Tutorial and of Wine Australia's Future Leaders program and sits on the board of directors for the McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism Association. He has judged at multiple capital city and regional wine shows and has been an educator/judge for the AWRI's Advanced Wine Assessment Course for more than a decade. He is also an accomplished winemaker, having made wine in Canada and France, and currently makes wine under his Juxtaposed label in McLaren Vale, South Australia.           To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/370.

How did one Viognier go from the brink of extinction to being planted around the world? Why is the Mistral one of the most miserable experiences for people, yet a saviour for Rhône vineyards? Why is working with bush vines so much harder than trellised vineyards? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Matt Walls, author of the terrific new book The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to the Rhone Valley. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Matt Walls' terrific new book, The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to the Rhone Valley. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights What are the famous galets roulés of Châteauneuf du Pape and what is it like to experience them in person? How do the galets affect vineyard work and vine training? What is the Mistral wind and why is it both miserable for people and essential for vineyard health? Why is Hermitage Hill considered one of the clearest visual explanations of terroir anywhere in France? What does tasting Hermitage at the top of the hill reveal about the emotional connection to place and wine? How does whole bunch fermentation change the aroma, texture, and alcohol level of Syrah in the northern Rhône? How close did Viognier come to extinction after World War II, and who was responsible for saving it in Condrieu? What makes Viognier from Condrieu feel different than versions grown in warmer regions? How did Château Rayas redefine Châteauneuf-du-Pape? Why did the extreme heat of the 2022 vintage affect Rhône wines? Why is Tavel better understood as a pale red rather than a modern Rosé?   Key Takeaways How did one Viognier go from the brink of extinction to being planted around the world? Very close. So there was about 6 or 7 hectares left... about the size of three football pitches. That's it. That was the only place in the world. I mean, that's where it comes from. In the 1960s and after the Second World War, a lot of the vineyards died. People couldn't fetch high prices for wine, so quantity was more important than quality. So people were just planting on the flat, basically where it was easy to farm instead of on the slopes of Condrieu, which are very difficult to grow on. So it got pretty much abandoned. It was down to one man whose name was Georges Vernay from Domaine Georges Vernay, which still exists today, still makes excellent wines. And he rallied the local winemakers. He believed in the grape. He knew how good it could be, and he encouraged people to replant, to rework the vineyards and, and saved the grape. You find it all around the world. And so if it wasn't for Georges back in the 60s, deciding, no, I want to save this variety, maybe we wouldn't have it at all, which would be terrible. Why is the Mistral one of the most miserable experiences for people, yet a saviour for Rhône vineyards? The mistral is a very strong north wind. It whistles down the valley. It can be extremely boisterous. It's cold north wind. if it's quite a hot day, it's never nice. It's always horrible. Even on a hot day. When it blows hard, it can be quite difficult to stand up in a vineyard. It's an amazing phenomenon. It's cold and it's really dry. So often when it does rain in the southern Rhône and in the northern Rhône, you risk getting vineyard diseases. But the mistral often it blows after it rains. So it will dry out the vineyards. It's like a natural disinfectant. it means that you can keep your grapes hanging on the vine for longer. So it is a huge benefit. Why is working with bush vines so much harder than trellised vineyards? You hear about these galets roulés, these rounded stones, but when you see them, just in the vineyards for as far as the eye can see, they're very striking to see and difficult to walk on. you can quite easily turn your ankle if you're not careful with what you're doing. So if you're in a vineyard of galets, what you'll see is these bush vines. That's the most common way of training vines in the southern Rhône, particularly Châteauneuf-du-Pape. You do see a bit of trellising, but with Grenache, you don't have to… they're naturally self-supporting. With Syrah, for example, you do have to train it on wires because it just grows like mad, and otherwise it would just be flopping around all over the floor. And you need to lift up the foliage in order to get it exposed to the sun and get the grapes off the ground. Grenache doesn't grow in such an exuberant fashion. It grows a little bit more slowly, and the trunks get a little bit thicker. But they're much harder to work as well. So, the thing about those bush vines is that you have to tend them in a 360 degree fashion rather than trellis vines, which you kind of have to work on both sides, but without kind of working around it 360 degrees. But the galets… they are troublesome and they are difficult to move and they take a lot of strength. So, yeah, I wouldn't like to work on them personally. That takes a lot of work.   About Matt Walls Matt Walls is an award-winning freelance wine writer, author and consultant who contributes to various UK and international publications such as Club Oenologique and Decanter, where he is a contributing editor. He also judges wine and food competitions, develops wine apps and presents trade and consumer tastings. Matt is interested in all areas of wine, but specialises in the Rhône Valley – he is Regional Chair for the Rhône at the Decanter World Wine Awards.           To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/369.

Which French wine region banned flying saucers from landing in its vineyards and why is the rule still there? How did the devastating February 1956 frost reshape the southern Rhône into the vineyard landscape we know today? What sets the northern Rhone apart from the south in terms of grapes and winemaking style? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Matt Walls, author of The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to the Rhone Valley. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Matt Walls' terrific new book, The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to the Rhone Valley. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights How did a family picnic become a memorable introduction to the northern Rhone? How did a visit to a small producer in Crozes Hermitage turn into an unforgettable travel mishap? Why does Châteauneuf du Pape have a rule specifically forbidding the landing of flying saucers in vineyards? How is the Rhone Valley laid out geographically and what distinguishes the northern Rhone from the southern Rhone? How much wine does the Rhone produce each year compared to other regions in France? What was the moment that made Matt fall in love with Hermitage wines? What was it like for Matt to move his family from London to a village near Avignon? How does the culture of Rhone winemakers differ from regions like Bordeaux or Champagne? What practical advice does Matt have for getting the most out of visits to Rhone wineries? What makes The Smart Traveler's Wine Guide to the Rhone Valley different from other wine books? What unexpected part of his research led Matt to fall in love with Lyon?   Key Takeaways Within the Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the cahiers des charges, which is basically the rulebook on how you're allowed to make wine within the appellation, has a statement that says, "Winemakers may not use their vineyards to land flying saucers." This was put in in the 1960s, when there was a big panic about flying saucers and little green men. I think it's easier just to leave it there than to go through the whole rigmarole for getting it removed. The devastating February 1956 frost was a turning point in how people lived, worked, and farmed in the southern Rhone. Before that point, it was very much a kind of polycultural land. Individual estates would have olives, grapevines, fig trees, carrots, wheat, and so it was a mixed agriculture. But after 1956, this really wiped out the olive trees. People needed something that would give them a crop immediately in order for them to survive and chose grapevines. One of the big differences between the northern Rhone and the southern Rhone is that the northern Rhone, they only use one red grape variety, which is Syrah. In the south, they have a whole smorgasbord of different grape varieties and the culture there is to blend. Also they have quite a single-vineyard way of working. The estates tend to be very small in the northern Rhone compared to the southern Rhone.   About Matt Walls Matt Walls is an award-winning freelance wine writer, author and consultant who contributes to various UK and international publications such as Club Oenologique and Decanter, where he is a contributing editor. He also judges wine and food competitions, develops wine apps and presents trade and consumer tastings. Matt is interested in all areas of wine, but specialises in the Rhône Valley – he is Regional Chair for the Rhône at the Decanter World Wine Awards.           To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/368.

Why are so many Swiss vineyards planted on dangerous terrain? How do the "three suns of Lavaux" shape the ripeness and character of Chasselas? Which unexpected historical figure owns the world's smallest vineyard in Switzerland? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Simon Hardy, author of the terrific new book The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to Switzerland. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Simon Hardy's terrific new book, The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to Switzerland. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights What makes Switzerland's vertiginous vineyards some of the most dangerous in the world to farm? How do growers move grapes from inaccessible cliffside plots during harvest? Why were vineyards historically planted on seemingly impossible terrain? What triggered Switzerland's quality revolution in the 1980s, and how did opening trade with the European Union transform the country's wine standards? How do the "three suns of Lavaux" shape the ripeness and character of Chasselas? Why does the Dalai Lama own the world's smallest vineyard and how did it become a wine tourism landmark? What makes Completer one of Switzerland's most unusual native grapes? How did the Three Lakes region popularize the term "eye of the partridge" for pale Rosé and why did it slip beyond their control? What does the Röstigraben reveal about Switzerland's linguistic and cultural divide? If you were visiting Switzerland's wine regions for the first time, which areas are must-visits? How do raclette and chocolate highlight Switzerland's expression of terroir? Why might export growth and wine tourism shape the future of Switzerland's alpine wine identity?     About Simon Hardy Simon Hardy brings a rare blend of multinational brand marketing and entrepreneurial flair in the world of wine. Simon champions Swiss wine in the UK, organising Swiss Wine Week London for Swiss Wine Promotion. He is also the co-founder of Alpina Vina, a cross-border guide to Alpine wine regions, including documentary films he writes and presents. Simon also wrote The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to Switzerland, which has just been published by the Académie du Vin Library with Club Oenologique. He is also a Regional Ambassador for Switzerland at The Old Vine Conference and a judge for the International Wine Challenge since 2018.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/367.

Why You Can't Buy Switzerland's Exceptional Wines Abroad? Why does Switzerland grow so many grape varieties, and which ones are the key players that define the country's wine regions? What makes high-altitude wine regions uniquely capable of producing wines that balance great concentration without being too heavy? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Simon Hardy, author of The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to Switzerland. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Simon Hardy's terrific new book, The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to Switzerland. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights How did a teenage exchange trip to a small Burgundy wine family spark Simon's lifelong fascination with wine? What did he discover about everyday French wine culture while living with a Burgundian family? How did a simple holiday job in London unexpectedly expand Simon's exposure to the world of wine? What impact did nearly two decades in Switzerland have on Simon's understanding of vineyards, terroir, and regional identity? How did a 30-page free e-book on Swiss wine evolve into a major publishing project? What makes The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to Switzerland different? Why is Switzerland's wine industry so small and so little Swiss wine found abroad? How do Switzerland's six wine regions differ in grapes, climate, language, and vineyard culture? Why does the country grow more Pinot Noir than Chile, yet remain almost invisible in global wine conversations? What makes Chasselas the quiet backbone of Swiss white wine? How do classic Swiss foods showcase the subtlety of Chasselas? What does extreme altitude viticulture reveal about the character of Switzerland's mountain wines?   Key Takeaways Why is Swiss wine such a rarity worldwide even though it's highly regarded? As Simon explains, Switzerland… is a small country, but when it comes to the wine sector, virtually everything is relatively small-scale. So in terms of producers of in excess of a million bottles, there are very few of them. The majority are small family-run businesses producing somewhere between 50 to 70,000 bottles a year. It's very rare that a single producer will have a single grape planted and be a specialist and expert in that grape. they would have at least 6 to 10 grape varieties planted, if not even more, and be very proud of the fact that they have this diversity in their vineyards. Each wine is a relatively small quantity and most of it stays in the country. It's less than 2% that gets exported. Why does Switzerland grow so many grape varieties, and which ones are the key players that define the country's wine regions? So other than Chasselas, there's Pinot Noir, which is actually the most planted grape in Switzerland. There's more Pinot Noir produced in Switzerland than in Chile. Gamay, and Merlot. Those are the big four in about two-thirds of the vineyards. you've got an incredibly long list of those 253. lots of very small plantings of… largely insignificant varieties, often experimental. The others I went for were those where they play a significant role within a given region. What makes high-altitude wine regions uniquely capable of producing wines that balance great concentration without being too heavy? I didn't do a word count in the book, but I think the terminology 'alpine freshness' probably gets repeated a few times. This diurnal variation is absolutely critical. You get more than adequate sunlight and sun hours during the day in summer for full ripening, not an issue. But you get these plunging temperatures at night, which helps to maintain the acidity levels. So you get the perfect combination of fresh acidity and phenomenal ripeness. Put the two together, that is probably if there's any calling card. And it's not just Swiss wine. It's the same story in Valtellina, in Aosta Valley in Italy, in Alto Adige, in Savoie. The effect of being in these mountainous areas, where you can plant at altitude but where you have this big drop off in temperature at nighttime.   About Simon Hardy Simon Hardy brings a rare blend of multinational brand marketing and entrepreneurial flair in the world of wine. Simon champions Swiss wine in the UK, organising Swiss Wine Week London for Swiss Wine Promotion. He is also the co-founder of Alpina Vina, a cross-border guide to Alpine wine regions, including documentary films he writes and presents. Simon also wrote The Smart Traveller's Wine Guide to Switzerland, which has just been published by the Académie du Vin Library with Club Oenologique. He is also a Regional Ambassador for Switzerland at The Old Vine Conference and a judge for the International Wine Challenge since 2018.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/366.

What is it really like inside the legendary Len Evans Tutorial, where elite tasters spend a week benchmarking themselves against the world's greatest wines? What are the surprising lessons that come from tasting ultra-rare wines blind? What happens when famous labels disappoint, or a legendary bottle proves why it earned its reputation? Why did the McLaren Vale's ancient bush-vine Grenache go from being a "blend filler" to one of Australia's most exciting fine wine styles? How did a handful of producers help drive that transformation? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Dr. Wes Pearson, a senior research scientist at the Australian Wine Research Institute in Adelaide. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Key Takeaways The current vintage of the Romanée-Conti Grand Cru is about $15,000 on release. Not only was the legendary Len Evans Tutorial a great opportunity to taste these holy grail wines that would otherwise be inaccessible, but it was also insightful to taste them blind because, as he says, sometimes the emperor has no clothes and they're not quite all they're cracked up to be. Or they are, which is actually a better story. It's a career-changing benchmarking exercise for a professional taster. Wes still refers back to that tasting when judging competitions years later.  Grenache loves the heat, so it was often picked after Shiraz. Therefore, it traditionally had lots of alcohol and flavour and was used as backfill. In 2010, a few McLaren Vale producers realized they could be fine wine with Grenache and started changing the way it was harvested and made.  The science behind how yeast releases flavor compounds when they eat sugar during fermentation is fascinating. The esters have fruity flavors, while the organic acids are less appealing. When the spinning cone column dealcoholizes Sauvignon Blanc, you lose the less appealing acetates, but the three-mercaptohexanol compounds smell lovely, like passion fruit, and they stay. However, if the grape doesn't have these compounds, like Chardonnay, you don't get that retention of that character.   About Dr. Wes Pearson Dr Wes Pearson is a senior research scientist and sensory group manager at the Australian Wine Research Institute in Adelaide. He holds a BSc in Wine Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia, a diploma in Applied Sensory and Consumer Science from the University of California Davis and a PhD from Charles Sturt University. He has worked in the sensory group at the AWRI since 2010 and has completed hundreds of sensory studies and authored over 25 research papers in that time. He is an alumnus of the Len Evans Tutorial and of Wine Australia's Future Leaders program and sits on the board of directors for the McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism Association. He has judged at multiple capital city and regional wine shows and has been an educator/judge for the AWRI's Advanced Wine Assessment Course for more than a decade. He is also an accomplished winemaker, having made wine in Canada and France, and currently makes wine under his Juxtaposed label in McLaren Vale, South Australia.           To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/podcast.

Why do certain spices and dishes show up far from their origins, and how can tracing these cultural "foodways" change the way we think about wine and food pairing? Why did Cha create her own flavour wheel rather than rely on traditional wine-tasting vocabulary? How can expanding your flavour vocabulary through travel, food, and culture help us describe wine in ways that feel relatable? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Cha McCoy, author of the new book Wine Pairing for the People. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Cha McCoy's terrific new book, Wine Pairing for the People: The Communion of Wine, Food, and Culture from Africa and Beyond. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights Which one of Cha's wine and food pairings might receive the most pushback from traditionalists? What does cultural terroir mean? How do cultural factors influence a country's wine preferences and the wine styles it produces? Why does Brazil's vibrant culture make sparkling wine such a natural fit? What are foodways, and how does the journey of ingredients and dishes inform the cultural connections between food and wine pairings across continents? How did Cha navigate pairing wines for Senegalese dishes when her formal training had not prepared her for those flavours? Why does Cha recommend rich, aromatic white wines for onion and garlic-heavy dishes? How did tasting local drinks expand Cha's wine vocabulary and approach to wine education for diverse audiences? Why did Cha create her own flavour wheel that included references and descriptors that differ from traditional industry flavour wheels? How can building a personal flavour wheel help drinkers trust their own palates and avoid feeling intimidated by industry jargon? What change would Cha make to wine education to make it more globally inclusive?   Key Takeaways Why do certain spices and dishes show up far from their origins, and how can tracing these cultural "foodways" change the way we think about wine and food pairing? You'll see Peri Peri often, and you're nowhere near South Africa, which says a lot about foodways. That act of tracing it back is the foodways. Why did Cha create her own flavour wheel rather than rely on traditional wine-tasting vocabulary? The flavour wheel is commonly used in beginner wine classes to help folks navigate deductive tasting. Why would I start throwing in references that I don't use and smell often? Let's say saffron, turmeric, these are spices that are in my spice cabinet because I cook with them. I find them in wine, even though the WSET vocabulary doesn't use them. You can build your own flavour wheel. How can expanding your flavour vocabulary through travel, food, and culture help us describe wine in ways that feel relatable? Visiting Turkey and Morocc, made Cha understand their drinking culture. Knowing what that background is helps her explain wines that were… I can translate this wine, knowing that fact about them, or in a restaurant that I know, or a chef making a dish that's related to this. I wanted to stay away from using vocabularies that is not, you know, if I'm talking to my demographic, I know where they're from, and I know what they're drinking, or I know what they're eating. And so when you are traveling, immersed in fruits and juices, different ways that you can have that. And now it adds to your own lexicon.     About Cha McCoy Cha McCoy, MBA, is an entrepreneur, educator, event producer, and author. As a certified sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, she developed The Communion, a wine dinner series that offers an inviting, accessible approach to gathering and enjoying wine. This experience inspired her to open her first retail space, The Communion Wine & Spirits. The dinner series was profiled in Food & Wine, and Cha was named one of Wine Enthusiast's 40 Under 40. Her work continues through her highly anticipated book, Wine Pairing for the People: The Communion of Wine, Food, and Culture from Africa and Beyond, available now for pre-order and scheduled for release in November. Cha has held coveted positions such as Cherry Bombe Magazine's first beverage director, the head of beverage for the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, and a sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Portugal and John Fraser Restaurant in New York.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/365.

How can you pair wine with spicy dishes in a way that enhances their flavour profile? Why do most wine-pairing guides ignore the traditions of global cuisines? How can you use wine pairings to explore under-the-radar wine regions instead of reaching for the same rosé or sparkling wine every time? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Cha McCoy, author of the terrific new book Wine Pairing for the People. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Cha McCoy's terrific new book, Wine Pairing for the People: The Communion of Wine, Food, and Culture from Africa and Beyond. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights Which moment in Italy transformed Cha's wine hobby into a professional calling? What inspired Cha to launch The Communion, a wine dinner series in Harlem? How did those shared wine experiences help guests learn, connect, and form a community? What challenges did Cha face when opening The Communion Wine and Spirits in Syracuse? How does Cha's new book, Wine Pairing for the People, step away from traditional pairing rules to explore often-ignored global cuisines? How should you think about the key flavour components when pairing wine and food? How can underrepresented wine regions and lesser-known styles expand pairing possibilities? What is the most unusual or surprising wine-and-food pairing in Wine Pairing for the People? How can spice-lovers think about choosing wines to enhance dishes like jerk chicken?   Key Takeaways How can you pair wine with spicy dishes in a way that enhances their flavour profile? By playing up to the flavours of the spicy dish. For folks who can take a little bit of spice, by finding the elements within the seasoning, you can do more of a comparison than contrasting, which is what we're normally taught. Why do most wine-pairing guides ignore the traditions of global cuisines? When it comes to wine pairings for food from different cultures, most guides focus heavily on the Western world or European food culture. These would be really thick books that talked in depth about the pairings, but also lacked context. That was something Cha wanted to really challenge. How can you use wine pairings to explore under-the-radar wine regions instead of reaching for the same rosé or sparkling wine every time? There is something to say about exploring not just the cultures that we're pairing with, but different wines from different regions and underrepresented regions. Let's explore, maybe, an underrepresented region that does sparkling wine and sparkling rosé really well to give you an alternative. There are many ways you can have Rosé, Chardonnay, or sparkling wine that will give you a different effect.   About Cha McCoy Cha McCoy, MBA, is an entrepreneur, educator, event producer, and author. As a certified sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, she developed The Communion, a wine dinner series that offers an inviting, accessible approach to gathering and enjoying wine. This experience inspired her to open her first retail space, The Communion Wine & Spirits. The dinner series was profiled in Food & Wine, and Cha was named one of Wine Enthusiast's 40 Under 40. Her work continues through her highly anticipated book, Wine Pairing for the People: The Communion of Wine, Food, and Culture from Africa and Beyond, available now for pre-order and scheduled for release in November. Cha has held coveted positions such as Cherry Bombe Magazine's first beverage director, the head of beverage for the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, and a sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Portugal and John Fraser Restaurant in New York.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/364.

Are high-end non-alcoholic drinks worth the price? What is the bartender's secret to great citrus-based cocktails like Margaritas or Mimosas? How do bartenders redefine a crafted cocktail without alcohol? Why does the term "Mocktail" for zero-proof non-alcoholic drinks offend many bartenders? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Elva Ramirez, author of the award-winning books Sparkling and Zero Proof. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Elva Ramirez's terrific book, Sparkling: Champagne and Sparkling Cocktails for Any Occasion. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights How did bartenders at Dante in New York discover that burrata water could replace egg whites in a Champagne Ramos cocktail? Why should citrus juice be used within hours, and how can leftover juice be transformed instead of being wasted? What are the biggest mistakes home bartenders make with bottled juices? Why do large ice blocks make a better punch than cubes? What inspired Elva to write Zero Proof? How did she recognize that the non-alcoholic movement was becoming a lasting cultural shift? How does America's long-standing tension between loving alcohol and fearing its effects still shape drinking culture today? What was the infamous "Raines Sandwich," and how did it expose the loopholes in New York's early drinking laws? How do public declarations like temperance pledges connect to today's Dry January social media posts? Why did the US Army go completely dry in 1917 and how did that decision pave the way for Prohibition? Why do professional bartenders dislike the word mocktail and prefer the term "zero proof"? How did Seedlip, the first distilled non-alcoholic spirit, transform modern bar culture? Why are alcohol-free cocktails sometimes as expensive as traditional ones? How is the culture around not drinking changing? Why does Elva believe opting out of drinking should feel as natural as any other choice?   Key Takeaways Are high-end non-alcoholic drinks worth the price? There's a real conversation happening among consumers: "Why am I paying $16 for a non-alcoholic drink?" But what you're not seeing is all the work that happened three days before to get you that drink. So what you're seeing when you get an expensive non-alcoholic drink is really the result of a lot of effort in the kitchen before it ever gets to the bar. How do bartenders redefine a crafted cocktail without alcohol? Bartenders are challenging themselves in this space. They were saying, "Okay, what if I take the alcohol out but still make something that's crafted, that still has balance?" They were doing all these really interesting experiments. They were using teas, ferments, and all these different things. That was really the seed of Zero Proof -  the idea of how to continue evolving this craft and keep it inclusive. Why does the term "Mocktail" for zero-proof non-alcoholic drinks offend many bartenders? Bartenders prefer the term zero-proof, because "mock" means to make fun of or fake. They don't want the consumer to feel like they're making a lesser choice or not being seen in their choice when they order a non-alcoholic drink. They're also putting as much effort, if not more, into making these really beautiful non-alcoholic drinks.   About Elva Ramirez Elva Ramirez is an author, journalist and brand strategist. She is the author of "Sparkling" and "Zero Proof," which were both finalists for Best Cocktail Book at Tales of the Cocktail in their respective years. "Sparkling" is a finalist for IACP's 2025 Best Cookbook Awards. Elva holds an MBA from CUNY Baruch College and a Master's in journalism from Columbia University.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/363.