Listening To Wine: A Guide To The Best Wine Podcasts
By John Lenart in Food on Aug 14, 2014 7:00PM
Ask about the best way to learn about wine and you'll often be told “Drink more wine.” But while it's true the best way to learn about wine is to drink it, let's face it, there's only so much wine you can drink. When you have to take a break, podcasts offer you a way to learn about wine from knowledgeable hosts and their guests.
However, finding quality podcasts is often like the roaming the Wild West; unknown, adventurous, and maybe even a bit dangerous. I know your time is valuable, so instead of sending you out to find wine podcasts on your own, I'm going to let you in on three wine podcasts I enjoy. They're all very informative, occasionally funny, and entertaining. I hope you check them out and find them as enjoyable as I do.
Grape Radio
Grape Radio is a James Beard Award winning podcast. The show is hosted by Eric Anderson and Jay Selman who are sometimes joined by guest co-hosts from the Grape Radio Team. All of the hosts are comfortable talking about wine from a consumer’s point of view and are very passionate about wine. You can almost hear them shivering with glee when they talk about pinot noir.
Episodes aren't produced on a set schedule as far as I can tell, but they come out about every one to two weeks. As of the writing of this article there have been 367 episodes produced. Episodes run between 30 minutes and two hours. Show topics include wine news, industry trends and interviews with world class guests from the wine business. Some shows are remote recordings of wine seminars. While the audio quality of these field recordings can be iffy, the information and speakers in the seminars always impress. You can download episodes directly from the website or from iTunes.
I'll Drink to That
I'll Drink to That is a podcast hosted by Levi Dalton, a sommelier and Wine Editor for Eater NY, and Erin Scala, one of the 2013 Wine Enthusiast “40 Under 40.” Because of their backgrounds, the content of this program often takes a bit of an industry, rather than a consumer, perspective. It's still very approachable for the wine consumer and it's interesting as a consumer to hear the industry point of view on a variety of topics.
Based in New York, Dalton is able to get many industry people in the studio who come from around the globe to visit NYC. Episodes are released twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. As of this writing there are 194 episodes which run between 45 minutes and two hours. Episodes are available for download on the website, on iTunes or via the SoundCloud app.
Guild of Sommeliers Podcast
The Guild of Sommeliers is not to be confused with the Court of Master Sommeliers. The Guild of Sommeliers is a similar organization of sommeliers and wine industry professionals committed to the wine industry's development and exchange of information for wine professionals.
Like the Court of Master Sommeliers, the Guild was founded in the United Kingdom and the US chapter was started in 2003 by Master Sommeliers Fred Dame and Jay Fletcher. Roughly every month Master Sommelier Geoff Kruth hosts the show in which he brings in guests and talks wine from the sommeliers’ perspective. Whether the topic is winemaking, grape growing, service, or blind tasting techniques the knowledge of the Master Sommelier host and MS guests comes through in a dynamic way. This podcast has been around for two years and episodes typically run under one hour. Episodes are available on iTunes and the guildpodcast.com website.