I'll Drink to That! Wine Talk

Lodovico Antinori is a partner in Tenuta di Biserno, in the Maremma area of Tuscany, and was the founder of Ornellaia in Bolgheri. He is also a partner in Tenuta Campo di Sasso.

Lodovico is open and frank in his assessment of his career, discussing his family's position within Tuscan wine, his own important trip to California, and the rise of Super Tuscan wines like Ornellaia. He describes founding Ornellaia with the help of Andre Tchelistcheff, the later influence of Michel Rolland, and the rise to fame of Ornellaia and Masseto. He then discusses what led him to sell Ornellaia to the Robert Mondavi company, and his current projects in the Maremma of Tuscany, in Italy.

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Peter Liem is the publisher of ChampagneGuide.net, as well as the author of the book "Champagne: The Essential Guide to the Wines, Producers, and Terroirs of the Iconic Region."

Peter Liem returns to the show for an interview about Champagne. Peter has been tasting the wines of Champagne professionally for twenty years, and has lived in that region for the last ten years. In this interview he discusses the terroirs of the Champagne region, and gives tips for better evaluating the wines. 

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Doug Frost is both a Master Sommelier and a Master of Wine, who resides in Kansas City, Missouri. Doug does wine and spirits consulting in a range of fields, and works as a wine writer.

Doug reflects on his career in restaurants, distribution, writing, and consulting in this conversation, touching on his varied adventures in the wine and spirits trade. He remembers cellar visits in the Rhone Valley, describes the wine scene in Kansas City over the years, and speaks to the changes within the Master Sommelier program. He also articulates his thoughts on hospitality, service, and tasting.

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Victor Hazan wrote the book "Italian Wine", which was published in 1982. He also co-wrote several Italian cookbooks with his wife, the late Marcella Hazan.

Victor Hazan speaks about his lifelong search for authentic Italian ingredients and expressions, an ethusiasm he shared with his wife of many years, Marcella Hazan. Victor details the start of his wine writing career, and confesses why he left off writing his second book on Italian wine. He also provides portraits of some of the key vintners he met along his travels, such as Antonio Mastroberardino and Renato Ratti.

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Becky Wasserman-Hone is the founder and co-director of Becky Wasserman & Co., an exporter of wines from Burgundy and other regions of France and Europe.

Becky looks back on her career in this interview, and talks about what would be become a key period for Burgundy, as it increasingly found an audience amongst American consumers. She also recalls some of the keys friends and mentors she made along the way, including Michel Lafarge, Gerard Potel, Hubert de Montille, Lalou Bize-Leroy, Aubert de Villaine, Richard Olney, and others. And Becky divulges her personal descriptions of key Burgundy communes, such as Gevrey-Chambertin, Flagey-Echezeaux, Vougeot, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vosne-Romanee, Beaune, Volnay, Chambolle-Musigny, and more.

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Bill Easton is the proprietor and winemaker at both Easton Wines and Domaine de la Terre Rouge in Amador County, California.

Bill describes an era of post-Prohibition California winemaking that has largely disappeared, and explains why he decided to pioneer Rhone grape varieties in a corner of the state that was little known. Bill also is frank about his stylistic choices, and his decision not to embrace the fashionable 1990s style of big wines.

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Totte Steneby is the Beverage Manager of Portal Restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden. He is also an importer of Burgundy wine into Sweden, and a European brand ambassador for both the Sandhi and Domaine de la Cote wineries of California.

A former child actor, Totte Steneby discusses his sommelier career, having worked at a number of top restaurants in Sweden. He shares some of the difficult moments he has experienced during restaurant work as well, including one hard opening gone wrong. Totte also describes the Swedish wine market, which has dramatically changed in recent years.

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Gianluca Garofoli works with his family at the Garofoli winery, in the Marche region of Italy.

Gianluca Garofoli discusses in-depth the wine history of the Marche, as well as the native grape varieties Verdicchio and Montepulciano. This conversation is an insider's guide to the Castelli di Jesi sub-zone of the Marche, and Gianluca provides rich detail about the winemaking there. Vineyard characteristics, vine training, weather conditions, soil types, vintages, and winemaking styles are all covered, as well as the changes in the wines of region over time.

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Giampaolo Venica works with his family at the Venica winery, in the Friuli region of Italy.

Giampaolo Venica describes the Friuli as a region that has changed significantly in recent decades, and which is still in flux today. He notes the many changes in grape plantings and wine styles within the Collio, and questions what types of wines from the Friuli may find resonance with consumers in the future.

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Marchese Umberto Fracassi Ratti Mentone is the sole producer of a Barolo from the Cherasco sub-zone of Italy's Piemonte region. His family has owned vineyard land in the Cherasco area for centuries, and the Marchese, who is now over 80 years old, tends to the family parcel at the edge of the Barolo zone.

This is a rare encounter with the Marchese, who rarely grants interviews. The conversation ranges across decades and even centuries of history in the Piemonte, covering the Roman period, the reign of the Savoy Dukes, World War II, and the great growth of Barolo production in the last few decades.

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