The Vintage Passport

Where does your wine really come from? Swiss botanist and grape geneticist Dr. José Vouillamoz, co-author of the James Beard Award–winning Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, joins host Noah Tetzner to explain how DNA profiling reveals the hidden family trees behind the grapes in your glass.

José explains in plain English how scientists identify a grape's parents, including the discovery that Cabernet Sauvignon is the offspring of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. He shares why every traditional grape variety began as a chance seedling in someone's vineyard, how his research with the late archaeologist Patrick McGovern pointed to southeastern Anatolia as a cradle of grapevine domestication, and why tiny Switzerland grows more than 300 grape varieties. He also confesses to the first wine that ever caught his attention, a 1972 Malvoisie he and his friends swiped from a cellar at age 15, and explains why he has no patience for "grape patriotism."

In this episode:

- How does grape DNA profiling work?

- Who are Cabernet Sauvignon's parents?

- Why is every grape variety "man-made"?

- Where was the grapevine first domesticated?

- Why does Switzerland have so many native grape varieties?

José's new English edition of Swiss Grapes and his short book Grape Varieties: Their Future, published by the International Wine & Food Society, are both due out November 1, 2026.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introduction

01:22 From an obscure wildflower to grape DNA: how José found his calling

04:36 How grape DNA profiling works, in plain English

08:49 Why every grape variety is "man-made"

12:14 Wine Grapes and why no grape has a birth certificate

14:19 Searching for the birthplace of wine with Patrick McGovern

17:56 Why tiny Switzerland has so many grape varieties

21:39 The first bottle he paid attention to, and a confession

23:41 One region for life

24:45 Why "grape patriotism" misses the point

26:26 Where to find José's work and his two new books

Links and resources:

José Vouillamoz's website: https://josevouillamoz.com/

José on Substack (home of his Grape DNA Detective series): https://josevouillamoz.substack.com/

Wine Grapes and José's other books (his shop): https://josevouillamoz.com/shop/

Grape DNA profiling service: https://josevouillamoz.com/service/grape-dna-profiling/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josevouillamoz/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Jos%C3%A9-Vouillamoz-100010660813923/

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with your favorite wine friends and invite them to listen as they open a new bottle. Follow The Vintage Passport wherever you listen to podcasts for new episodes every week.

Connect with the host: [email protected]

In June 1940, France fell to Nazi Germany, and the occupiers quickly set their sights on one of the country's greatest treasures: its wine. Award-winning journalists Don and Petie Kladstrup, authors of Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure, join host Noah Tetzner to tell the story of the winemakers who hid, smuggled, and sabotaged their wine to keep it out of German hands.

Don and Petie explain who the weinführers were: German wine merchants the Reich sent into France to buy up its best bottles, many of whom ended up protecting the very trade they were sent to exploit. They share stories of false walls, wine siphoned from Germany-bound trains and replaced with water, a housekeeper who scattered rat droppings to stop German officers from turning a Bordeaux château into a brothel, and Alsace winemakers who deliberately misdirected shipments. They also discuss Bordeaux merchant Louis Eschenauer, convicted of economic collaboration after the war; what became of the wine the Germans took, including the cache found at Hitler's Eagle's Nest; and the 1947 Vouvray from Gaston Huet that first showed them wine could be more than a drink.

In this episode:

- What happened to French wine when Germany occupied France in 1940?

- Who were the weinführers, and why did some French winemakers say they saved French wine?

- How did French winemakers hide and sabotage their wine?

- What happened to the wine the Nazis took?

- Why does war keep shaping the story of French wine, especially in Champagne?

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introduction

02:26 A 1947 Vouvray and a prisoner of war's thimbleful of wine

04:43 How a CBS assignment brought the Kladstrups to Paris

06:25 Why the Nazis wanted France's wine

08:24 Who were the weinführers?

12:52 Five winemaking families and the making of Wine and War

16:34 Finding the witnesses, and the ones who wouldn't talk

19:15 War stories told for the first time

22:46 False walls, siphoned trains, and rat droppings: favorite acts of resistance

26:57 Collaboration and the case of Louis Eschenauer

31:15 Where did the stolen wine go?

33:52 What they wish people understood about French wine

37:26 Their first memorable bottle: a 1961 or 1969 Cheval Blanc?

39:06 One region for life, and why they both chose Champagne

Links and resources:

Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure (Penguin Random House): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/93445/wine-and-war-by-don-and-petie-kladstrup/

Champagne Charlie: The Frenchman Who Taught Americans to Love Champagne (Bookshop.org): https://bookshop.org/p/books/champagne-charlie-the-frenchman-who-taught-americans-to-love-champagne-don-kladstrup/adfa023b3bee6548

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with your favorite wine friends and invite them to listen as they open a new bottle. Follow The Vintage Passport wherever you listen to podcasts for new episodes every week.

Connect with the host: [email protected]

What is terroir, and is it really just soil and climate? Anthropologist Marion Demossier, Professor of French and European Studies at the University of Southampton and author of Burgundy: The Global Story of Terroir, joins host Noah Tetzner to explore Burgundy's wine culture and how the idea of terroir traveled around the world.

Born in Beaune, in the heart of Burgundy's wine country, and raised in a family where her grandfather was a wine merchant, Marion has spent more than three decades studying the region's wine growers. She explains why Burgundy's famous landscape is as much a product of labor, land ownership, and law as of geology, and what she saw from inside the room when she was brought in to write an anthropological report for Burgundy's UNESCO World Heritage bid. She traces how terroir was translated in China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand, shares memories of legendary cellar tastings in Beaune and Champagne interviews that began with a glass at 10 a.m., and explains why climate change may force the wine world to rethink its traditions.

In this episode:

- What does terroir mean, and why has the word never been translated?

- Why did Burgundy become synonymous with wine?

- Is Burgundy's landscape naturally exceptional, or shaped by people and law?

- How did the idea of terroir travel to Asia and New Zealand?

- How is climate change challenging Burgundy's traditions?

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introduction

01:38 When wine became more than a drink: a wine merchant grandfather and an anthropologist's eye

04:05 Why Burgundy? Growing up in Beaune among barrel makers and wine growers

09:25 Is Burgundy's landscape exceptional? Land, labor, appellations, and climate change

14:27 Terroir as people and tradition, and the UNESCO World Heritage bid

21:40 What is terroir?

24:25 Does terroir survive the journey to China, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand?

28:20 How old is New Zealand's wine culture?

29:42 Legendary cellar tastings and how Burgundy has changed

33:42 The first bottle she paid attention to and the rituals of tasting

37:32 What she wishes people understood about wine

39:50 How to support her work and the people who make wine

Links and resources:

Burgundy: The Global Story of Terroir (Berghahn Books): https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/DemossierBurgundy

Marion Demossier at the University of Southampton: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5x8wpn/professor-marion-demossier

Pinot Noir: Tradition, Transition and Transformation symposium, Dijon, 27–30 June 2027: https://www.thepinotnoirproject.org/events-2-1/pinot-noir-tradition-transition-and-transformation

The Pinot Noir Project: https://www.thepinotnoirproject.org/

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with your favorite wine friends and invite them to listen as they open a new bottle. Follow The Vintage Passport wherever you listen to podcasts for new episodes every week.

Connect with the host: [email protected]

Why did France become the center of the wine world? Wine historian Rod Phillips, Professor of History at Carleton University and author of French Wine: A History, Alcohol: A History, and 9000 Years of Wine, joins host Noah Tetzner to explore how wine shaped, and was shaped by, centuries of history.

Rod shares how he bought his first case of wine at 15 in New Zealand, became a restaurant sommelier at 17, and found two bottles of 1950 Bordeaux selling for the price of a hamburger. From there, we travel from medieval Bordeaux and the English market that made claret, sherry, port, and Champagne famous, to the French Revolution, when a Burgundy man was tried for treason and executed in 1793 for serving bad wine to soldiers. Rod also takes apart the popular myth that people drank wine because water was unsafe, explains why the wine Hemingway drank in 1920s Paris was likely far lower in alcohol than today's, and makes the case for Canadian wine, from the Okanagan Valley and Niagara to Prince Edward County.

In this episode:

- Why did France become the reference point for the wine world?

- Did people in the past drink wine because water was unsafe?

- How strong was wine a century ago?

- How did the French Revolution change French wine?

- What should you know about Canadian wine beyond icewine?

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introduction

01:29 Buying wine at 15 and becoming a sommelier at 17

06:48 Moving to Canada and a hamburger-priced 1950 Bordeaux

08:27 From the history of divorce to the history of cats

10:26 Why France became the center of the wine world

14:33 Was wine only for the wealthy?

16:32 Was wine really safer than water?

19:31 How strong was the wine in Hemingway's Paris?

22:24 Wine and the French Revolution: executed for bad wine

28:31 Canadian wine beyond icewine

33:33 Prince Edward County, Ontario's wine country

34:55 Rod's first memorable bottle and his one region for life

37:08 Where to find Rod's work

Links and resources:

Rod Phillips on Wine: https://www.rodphillipsonwine.com/

Rod's faculty page at Carleton University: https://carleton.ca/history/people/roderick-phillips/

Rod's articles in The World of Fine Wine: https://worldoffinewine.com/author/rodphillips1

Is it true that wine was safer than water?: https://worldoffinewine.com/uncategorized/wine-was-safer-than-water

The decline of Canadian icewine: The China connection: https://worldoffinewine.com/news-features/canadian-icewine-decline

The very long and very short history of barrel-aged wine: https://worldoffinewine.com/news-features/wine-barrel-history

Liberality, quality, festivity: Wine in the French Revolution: https://worldoffinewine.com/homepage-featured-articles/wine-french-revolution

French Wine: A History (University of California Press): https://www.ucpress.edu/books/french-wine/paper

Alcohol: A History (UNC Press): https://uncpress.org/9781469652177/alcohol/

9000 Years of Wine: A World History (Whitecap Books): https://www.whitecap.ca/Detail/1770502408

Wine: A Social and Cultural History of the Drink that Changed Our Lives (Académie du Vin Library): https://academieduvinlibrary.com/products/wine-a-social-and-cultural-history-of-the-drink-that-changed-our-lives-rod-phillips

The Wines of Canada (Académie du Vin Library): https://academieduvinlibrary.com/products/the-wines-of-canada-rod-phillips

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with your favorite wine friends and invite them to listen as they open a new bottle. Follow The Vintage Passport wherever you listen to podcasts for new episodes every week.

Connect with the host: [email protected]