House Wine

Welcome back! We are strapping on our favourite bathing suits and heading to the beach with a bottle of rose or a cooler of rosé, who am I kidding? Yep it's summer and we are going to talk about the Bandol today - so it's all things rosé.... and also don't forget about the very heavy tannic reds that they make here too, and whites. This episode is a deep dive on one of the best AOP's in Provence and what makes this wine special and delicious. Of course I used some fabulous resources...

This episode is called Cyprus but it really should be called Cyprus AKA Commandaria, the story of the worlds oldest wine still made today. We cover a lot in 23 minutes with this one - The Crusades, Monks, PDO laws, native grapes but I think that the real take away here is that if you come across wine from Cyprus drink it, because every time someone has a wine from Cyprus you are having a wine from one of the first places in the world to ever make wine, and that is f***ing cool. I used so...

House Wine is back and we are going to finish off Season 2 with some fun wines! I took a bit of an unannounced hiatus to catch up on life and get reorganize but now I have some more episodes ready to go and I am looking forward to a new posting schedule and getting back to podcasting! So have you ever wondered about the different kinds of Chablis? What makes Petit Chablis different from just plain old Chablis? Why people go crazy over this wine ... We are going to talk about i...

Welcome back nerds! This episode not only do we get to learn all about the emerging and exciting wine regions of British Columbia but we also get to back in time and glimpse into the angst ridden teenage years I spent on the West Coast... but mostly we just talk about the wines! I used some great resources: The Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th Edition by Jancis Robinson. The World Atlas of Wine, 8th Edition by Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson https://winebc.com/bc-wine-30yrs/...

Here it is, another wine law episode! I do spend quite a bit of time pontificating about how complicated the wine law is in South Africa before I get into the real topic itself... but suffice to say every time that I sit down and study this topic I get a headache. Hopefully if you are doing some studying this will help you on your way to understanding this region :) I used some great resources: The Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th Edition by Jancis Robinson. https://www.wosa....

***CORRECTION: The soils in the Mosel valley are slate. Phylloxera does not like slate soils. For some reason I say schist in this episode. Welcome back! This is a subject that comes up again and again every episode and that is Phylloxera, but what is it? This episode we are going to deep dive into the history of the French Wine Blight. Where this little bug came from, what it is up to today and how we adapted.My Sources for this show are:The Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th Edition b...

Yes, Cahors. The region that launched a thousand Malbecs. This week we are talking about what is in my opinion one of the most underrated, undervalued wines that France has to offer. This region has been copied, counterfeited, and undermined since Roman times. If you have ever said that you don't like Malbec, I am personally challenging you to take it back in this episode. I used some great resources: The Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th Edition by Jancis Robinson http://www.grape...

Just like when we talked about Cognac, I will preface this episode with saying that I know this is not a wine. BUT, Armagnac like it's more famous younger brother Cognac does in fact come form grapes and therefor it has a spot here on house wine. Not only that but there is a lot to unpack here. Including history and Cardinals (which are basically fancy monks!) I used some great resources here: http://www.armagnac.fr/enhttps://www.cyranoarmagnac.com/blog/2016/the-historyhttps:/...

Ok, most of this episode is dedicated to Cava - all the things that make Cava what it is that we didn't cover last episode: Appellations, ageing requirements and sweetness levels of Cava all make an appearance in this episode. But we can't finish talking about Cava without wading through the quagmire of conflicting information that answers the question, "What is Classic Penedès and why is it not Cava?" I would say that it is a question for the ages... but these appellations and rule...

Better late than never! I wanted to have this episode out before New Years so we could all talk about sparkling wine together but alas... I had a lazy holiday and I decided not to continue this season until the New Year. So Happy New Year I hope you had all the wine, all the mulled wine and all the sparkling wine! This is Cava Part 1. What can you expect? History, Grape Profiles and Producers in this episode. Cheers and you see next week for part 2 where we talk about geography, so...

Happy Holidays House Wine nerds! I love the holidays, I love the holiday season and I have always wanted to do a holiday special, cue the sleigh bells in the intro! <3We have all of our favourite players in this episode. Romans? Yes! Monks? Yes! Pliny the Elder? Yes. So get your best bottle of cheap wine ready, throw a bunch of cinnamon, cloves and oranges in it, because this is the history and the recipes of Mulled Wine. I hope you are all safe and happy and enjoying my favourit...

This week we are taking on one of Spains most prestigious wine regions and that is the region of Priorat. Just in case you were left asking yourself last week if Spanish Wine Law could get any more complicated, well this episode is here to answer that question, and the answer is: YES! Priorat had it's own unique labelling terms, aging definitions and vine age definitions as well as it is part of Catalunya, an autonomously governed region inside Spain that has it's own rules and regulatio...

It's time for us all to dive into another episode on Wine Law. I know how much you all love wine law :) Spain has a lot of it! Ever wonder how a fascist regime can stunt the development of wine regions ( I mean I guess we already have done Italian Wine Law...) Ore maybe you have wondered how many aging requirements just one country can have? Wonder no more! This week we get infuriated by too many classifications, and start mis pronouncing our way through Spain. Some great reso...

I had a bad cold this week and sound terrible! Head on over to @housewinepodcast instagram for some quizzes while I drink tea heal my voice :)

Welcome back to House Wine and the beginning of an all new season! After declaring to the world that Cognac was wine I seemingly vanished off the face of the internet... I put away my podcasting pillow fort and went into serious study mode in preparation for a wine exam.Today we are going to talk about all things Washington State. I never felt quite at ease with Washington State Wine and so I made it a mission to understand this wine region and get to love it, and I really di...

Is Cognac a wine? No. But they make it from wine, so it counts! This episode we talk about all the things that make this one of the most famous and popular Eau de Vie's on in the world. From music, to movies, to Tom Cruise and alchemists we really cover a lot here. Yes, we also get into regions, subzones, grapes and aging requirements of course. Books weren't much help to me this episode but I did rely on a great resource: https://www.cognac.fr/en/We also talk produce...

Welcome back!Madeira is one of the most historic and (in my opinion!) most fascinating wine regions that there is. An uninhabited subtropical island off the coast of Morocco that ended up making some of the worlds longest lived and most expensive wines, Madeira is full of contradiction right down to the way that it is made. If you are a nerd like me and enjoy the history and ups and downs of the worlds famous sweet wines, then this episode is for you. Of course, I did quite a bit of...

Yes, it is true they are making wine outside of Mendoza in Argentina, and once you get outside the main areas, they are making way more than just Malbec! In this episode we talk about Salta and history and origins of Torrontes, Argentina's true native grape (it's not actually Malbec) Then we go south and dive into the wines of Patagonia, the country's most up and coming wine region that has been attracting some of the biggest names in the world of wine. I used some great resou...

I'm back! I took a spontaneous and unannounced break for the month of July but now I am back and we are going to be covering a bunch of great topics in the next couple months from Mendoza to Madeira. Today we are getting right into it with the history if winemaking in Argentina and then we take a deep dive into the most important winemaking region of Argentina and that is Mendoza. So if you have ever picked up a bottle of $15 wine and looked found that you were drinking a wine ...

Hi wine friends! The schedule is a little out of sorts this week so I am releasing this on Friday and we will be back not next Tuesday but the Tuesday after with regular schedules episodes. Marsala may not be the most popular wine now, but it used to be! I call it in this episode "A wine that peaked in high school" which is not really an unfair analogy. From being the wine of kings to a wine that most people only use for cooking, it has had a wild ride, but deserves a bit of recognition ...