This is our final show of 2024 and we bring you our annual wine and Champagne recommendations from the experts. We talk to Ryan Bailey, Kato restaurant, Los Angeles, Yannick Benjamin, Beaupierre Wines and Spirits, Wheeling Forward and Wine on Wheels and Aldo Sohm, Le Bernadin and Aldo Sohm Wine Bar.

Thank you to Eric "Benny" Bloom and Ryan Zoidis from the world's greatest funk band "Lettuce" for The Grape Nation theme song.

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Pascaline Lepeltier is the most knowledgeable, influential, approachable, awarded, hard-working, person in wine today. She has graced the airwaves of The Grape Nation many times, if it was up to me, I would have her on every week! A native of the Loire Valley, destined to become an academic in philosophy, Pascaline shifted to wine, to became a Master of Wine, a Sommelier, Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France - Sommellerie”, she won the Best French Sommelier, produces Chepika wine in the Finger Lakes with Nathan Kendall, and just placed 2nd in the Best Sommelier in Europe, Africa and Middle East, to name a few accomplishments along with author. Pascaline Lepeltier is a partner at Chambers in NYC and just released the English version of her new book “1000 Vines, A New Way to Understand Wine”.

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Isabelle Legeron first joined us on The Grape Nation podcast eight years ago on Oct. 19th 2016. She has virtually joined us every year since, to talk about her Raw Wine Fair and as a voice and evangelist for natural wines. I remind you Isabelle is a Master of Wine, author, consultant, founder of the Raw Wine Club and The Raw Wine Fair. With the NY Raw Wine Fair behind us there are four fairs coming up between now and early 2025 including Toronto, Montreal, Berlin and Paris. 
 

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Kelli White is an educator, Sommelier, and an award-winning journalist and author. After Somming at two of America’s great wine restaurants, Veritas and Press, Kelli continued her love of wine by writing about it for Vinous, Somm Press and GuildSomm among others. She published her first book, “Napa Valley Then and Now” in 2015, a doorstop of essential reading about the Napa Valley. She is now the Director of Education at The Wine Center at Meadowood in Napa Valley. Kelli just published her latest book “Wine Confident” a book for all people with a love and interest in wine. 
 

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Doreen Winkler got her start as a Sommelier at the young age of 22 in Hamburg, Germany. After a few more gigs in Hamburg, she bopped over to the US, spent some time in Australia and settled in NYC. 2013 was a turning point and a focus towards natural wines. She helped to develop natural-thinking wine lists at Aska, Aldea, Prime Meats and Sel Rrose to name a few. Her love of natural wine led her to start Orange Glou, an orange wine subscription club, Orange Glou, the only brick and mortar orange wine store in the world in NYC and the Orange Glou Wine Fair in NY coming this November 3rd, dedicated exclusively to orange wines. 
 

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Jeff Sivayathorn and Kiss Sookcharoen are partners in life and at one of the hottest Thai restaurants in NYC, rhetorically and in reality. James O’Brien, from Popina has consulted them on one of the tightest and best Thai wine lists anywhere. Along with Chef Ohm and Kiki Supap, Kru, Brooklyn taps into tradition and ancient recipes with an emphasis on bringing the heat. Kru is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

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Three things drive Valerie Kathawala, writing, Germany and wine. She has melded all three and is co-founder, Editor and Publisher of Trink Magazine, an independent digital publication exploring the wines of Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Previously, as a student of German language and culture, she began her career as a translator at the United Nations before pursing her three loves. You can also find Valerie’s writing in Noble Rot, Pipette, and Meininger’s, to name a few. Valerie lives and writes in NYC with her family.

Born in NYC to a family of lawyers, Dean Fuerth is a proud Hunter College drop-out. He left school to become a Production Assistant on 30 Rock and Law and Order. To make additional money, Dean worked at some of NYC’s better-known restaurants including Bar Boulud and settling in as a front server at legendary NYC restaurant Bouley eventually becoming a Somm. After time at Betony, he joined Sushi Nakazawa in 2017 as the Beverage Director, now overseeing NY and DC and soon in LA.

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Italy, Switzerland, the United States, Spain and now Argentina, Piero Incisa della Rocchetta has traveled the globe. Piero was born in Tuscany around wine royalty, the della Roccchetta family, he did not initially pursue a career in wine, but chose banking. After many years he bagged banking, not returning to his wine family, but to the southern end of Argentina, to grow, of all varietals, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at his Bodega Chacra in Mainque in the Rio Negra region of Patagonia. Piero makes highly acclaimed, sought after wines in one of the most interesting wine regions in the world. 
 

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What happens when two friends, a writer/producer and an artist get together to pursue a passion, you get an innovative, new craft spirits company. Aaron Fox Sing and Daniel de la Nuez started making gin, aperitivos, and amaro in the kitchen sink, transforming into a sought after and admired craft distillery in Brooklyn, Forthave Spirits. Since 2016 they have making spirits from over 200 different types of herbs, roots, barks, flowers, and fruits to name a few, with a commitment to natural and organic ingredients.