She spent years at wine tastings under one condition: she wasn't allowed to speak. Decades later, she wrote the bestselling wine book in American history.

In this episode, Pierre sits down with Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible, joining from her home in Napa Valley to mark the release of the book's third edition. The only American to win every major wine writing award in the English language, MacNeil built her career in an industry that gave women almost no room to enter it in the 1970s.

We talk about the New York tastings where she was permitted to listen but never comment. About the phone call from a Georgian monk that reshaped her understanding of qvevri wines and the ancient roots of winemaking. About the chalky soils that put English sparkling wine on a collision course with Champagne. About the scale of counterfeiting in China's fine wine market, the debate over EU ingredient labelling, and why she considers a wine's capacity to age one of its defining marks of greatness.

Featuring: The Wine Bible. Wine history. Women in wine. Georgian wine. Qvevri. English sparkling wine. Champagne. Wine ageing. Wine counterfeiting. Napa Valley.