Into the Glass with Chris & Rob

Champagne is wonderful, but the same can't be said for labels on bottles of Champagne. They can be confusing and sometimes even misleading. In this episode, we discuss what you should look for on Champagne labels and how to understand the various terms on them.  

Wine scores on the 100-point scale are everywhere: in magazines, online, and on retail shelves.  With so many different scores tagged to wines (often dissimilar scores by various critics for the same wine), how is a consumer supposed to know what to make of them?  In this episode, we discuss the truth about wine points, how to understand them, and when to ignore them.

Watch our YouTube video on wine scores:  https://youtu.be/hm_Xlti_Ozc

Brunello di Montalcino is one of the world’s outstanding wines, and there is no better person to discuss Brunello with than John Fodera.  John is a leading Brunello expert and has deep connections to the wines and winemakers of Montalcino.  In this episode, we talk with John about styles, producers, vintages, drinking windows, and more.  Visit John’s Tuscan Vines website at johnfodera.com.

Should you open that bottle of wine today, or should you hold it for years or even decades for it to improve in bottle?  It’s a common question and one that can create anxiety; after all, nobody wants to pay good money for a bottle of wine and find out later that they opened it too early or too late.  In this episode, we discuss these issues and explain how you can determine whether it makes sense to drink now or hold for the future.

Watch our YouTube video on this topic: https://youtu.be/CdHuvmwviXo 

Wine is sold in so many different types of retailers: online, grocery stores, big
box wine retailers, and specialty wine shops. Where should you buy your next
bottle of wine, and how do you know if you’re getting a good price? In this
episode, we discuss the pros and cons of buying wine from different sources, and
we explain how we find the best available prices.
Watch our YouTube video on how to buy wine online:
https://youtu.be/76mObTxcKLc 

Wine experts will talk about the quality of a wine, but often it’s not clear what
they mean when they say one wine is good and another is outstanding. In this
episode, we discuss the fundamentals of judging a wine’s quality and
distinguishing wines along a quality spectrum. We explain how anyone who
drinks wine can learn to analyze wine quality for themselves.
Watch our YouTube video on this topic: https://youtu.be/zCfjEOPifyc

Most food and wine pairing advice is completely unhinged from reality and
only causes anxiety and confusion. In this episode, we explain why you don’t need
to worry about finding the perfect wine to pair with your meal. We also discuss a
few basic pairing principles that actually do matter and that anyone can use to
enhance their enjoyment of food and wine.
Watch our YouTube video on this topic: https://youtu.be/ZMn9BuT2FuA

We tackle common questions about serving wine at home, including whether to
pair wine with food, whether to decant wine, and how to decide whether you
should open that expensive bottle for your guests!
Watch our YouTube video on this topic: https://youtu.be/kr6RLfkJn-k

In our first episode, we introduce ourselves and discuss what we plan to deliver
to our audience through this new wine podcast.