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Is Sicily a playful wine region that deserves to be taken seriously, or was it serious all along? Jeff Porter, Wine Enthusiast’s Italian wine reviewer, host of Sip Trip, and the wine director behind Del Posto’s legendary list, joins from his new home in Torino to tackle that question and plenty more. The conversation starts in southeastern Sicily with Nero d’Avola, Frappato, and Grillo, then heads north through Calabria, Campania, Abruzzo, and Emilia-Romagna. Along the way there are stops for Pignoletto, Lambrusco di Sorbara, a strong opinion on Tuscan bread, and the case for why Italy is in a golden age of wine. Pour a glass of the Cieck Erbaluce di Caluso, “a summer mountain hike in liquid form,” and settle in for the trip up the boot.
This Week's Wine: 2025 Cieck Erbaluce di Caluso Piedmont
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The nicest bottle in the cellar does not belong on the Thanksgiving table. Kaitlyn Rodriguez, the creator behind Mainline Gluten Free and Amanda's younger sister, joins for a holiday pairing game plan built on years of family feasts and a few hard-won mistakes. The playbook runs course by course: a magnum of Champagne poured and waiting at the door, appetizers as the moment to get adventurous, lighter reds and Côtes du Rhône for the roast and its thousand sides, and a single ounce of Madeira or tawny Port to close the night. Along the way, hear why bottle shape is a surprisingly reliable shopping cheat, why off-dry Riesling beats bone-dry at Thanksgiving, and how to host with a celiac at the table.
This Week's Wine: 2017 Bodegas Casa Primicia Viña Diezmo RV Rioja Reserva
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A year ago, packing tips for my mother-in-law's first wine trip to Europe turned into a full episode. So when Amanda found she was heading to Sicily herself for her first-ever visit, we decided a follow-up episode was in order. And this time, we're shifting gears to help give you a little insight into how the research actually gets done: hunting down the nicest hotel in a neighborhood to find the good, cheaper options nearby, mining wine lists at restaurants for producers worth chasing, and handing an entire photographed closet over to AI for itinerary-based outfit planning. There's also a wine-world catch-up on Champagne's earliest harvest on record, a rare one-time bump to its legal alcohol ceiling, and the case for a marathon that trades water stations for wine and food. Pour a glass of the Maison Chanzy Bourgogne Rouge and get ready to over-research a place not yet visited.
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Portugal has been on the docket for a while, and it finally gets the right guest: Nicole Muscari, the wine educator and content creator behind Grape Chic, who has made the trip 22 times since 2019 and now owns a place in Porto. We're digging into the friendly Porto-vs-Lisbon rivalry — Porto's grit and cobblestones read like New York, Lisbon's sprawl and beaches read more L.A. — then heads into the Douro Valley to make the case for its dry reds and mineral whites, not just port. There's also a detour to Colares, a DOC so small its vines still grow ungrafted in sand. Pastel de nata debates, football pride, and a real argument for booking that direct flight all make an appearance.
This Week's Wine: 2022 Altitude by Duorum Douro
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Wines & Producers
Restaurants & Bars — Porto
Douro Valley
Vinho Verde
Lisbon
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The Santa Cruz Mountains have been growing exceptional wine since the 1860s, and somehow the wine world still barely talks about it. This episode heads south of San Francisco to sit down with Cole Thomas, owner and winemaker of Madson Wines, who traded a marine biology track at UC Santa Cruz for grape stems after meeting Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard's Jeff Emery at a campus seed exchange. The conversation digs into why fog-slowed wind — not fog itself — keeps the west side cool enough for savory, high-acid Pinot Noir, how the same appellation ripens Cabernet on its sun-baked east side, and where to eat, surf, and taste on a weekend in town.
This Week's Wine: 2024 Madson Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir
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What does it take to run one of the Bay Area's most beloved Italian restaurant groups while also building a wine label from scratch — in the middle of a pandemic, no less? A16 founder Shelley Lindgren and her Tansy Wines business partner Kitty Oestlien join to talk about bridging California and Italy, from A16's 20th-anniversary cookbook reprint and upcoming Chicago and Ferry Building openings to the six vintages of Tansy, a Northern California label built on organically farmed Italian varieties. The conversation digs into winemaker Megan Glaab's light-touch approach, the ancient Piedmontese grape Ruché that shows up in Tansy's Red Field Blend, and why an open mind is the best tool for navigating an Italian wine list. Pour a glass of Tansy and settle in for two friends talking flowers, farming, and why food always belongs next to the bottle.
This Week's Wine: 2022 Tansy Red Wine Field Blend California
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Champagne is more than something poured at a toast — it's a place you can actually visit, and this episode finally delivers on months of hints about a long-awaited spring trip there. Sommelier Lara Koffer joins Amanda to unpack the region's biggest split: house Champagne versus grower Champagne, and how roughly 16,000 growers keep the famous marques stocked with fruit. Grab your wine club wine, the Grumier Réserve Perpétuelle, a rare solera-style non-vintage blend dating back to 2005 and join us for stories from Reims and Épernay — Bollinger's hand-disgorged prestige cuvées, a Michelin-starred "Mysteries of Champagne" tasting menu, and hard-won advice on hiring a driver instead of renting a car. Pour a glass and settle in for a trip report worth the wait.
Featured Wine: NV Maurice Grumier Réserve Perpétuelle Extra-Brut Champagne
Find all of our mentions for restaurants, wineries, and hotels in Amanda's Guide to Visiting Paris and Champagne
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One solo episode wasn't enough to settle the debate over the world's best wine cities — so this time, two frequent flyers weigh in. Jenna Fields and Zack Musick of the German Wine Collection, who log more travel miles promoting German wine than almost anyone in the industry, join to build their own list using the same four-part framework from the last episode: selection, people, variety, and identity. London tops it (officially "Germany-adjacent"), followed by a New York walking tour through Michelin-starred dining rooms, a surprise nod to Phoenix's under-the-radar sommelier scene, and a park-bench cheesesteak in Philly washed down with Frappato from a plastic cup. Pour a glass of the Meyer-Näkel Illusion Blanc de Noir — this month's wine club pick — and settle in for round two.
Featured Wine: 2023 Meyer-Nakel "Illusion" Blanc de Noirs
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We're going solo this episode, and we're going global. After months of logging serious miles across cities and continents, we wanted to revisit a format we love — not the wine regions, not the châteaux, but the cities themselves. The places that aren't necessarily making wine, but are doing it better than almost anywhere else in the world. We're breaking down our top four wine cities right now — London, Copenhagen, Tokyo, and New York — what makes each one stand out, how we navigate them for wine when we get there, and the specific spots that completely won us over. Along the way, we're also tasting the Zuccardi Polígonos Cabernet Franc from Mendoza — our wine club pick and a perfect tie-in to our earlier episode on the most exciting wine regions to visit. Pour a glass and come along.
Featured Wine: Zuccardi Polígonos Cabernet Franc, Uco Valley
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Restaurants, Wine Bars, and Recs — London
Restaurants & Wine Bars — Copenhagen
Restaurants & Wine Bars — Tokyo
Restaurants & Wine Bars — New York
Wines Referenced
Also Mentioned
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Bordeaux has a reputation problem — and we're here to fix it. In this episode, we sit down with Jonathan Cristaldi, North America Regional Editor at Decanter Magazine and fellow theater kid, to make the case for a region that the wine world has been too quick to dismiss. We just got back from our first trip there together and we're talking about all of it: the left bank vs. right bank divide, why the best Bordeaux you'll ever drink might cost you 25 euros, what it's actually like to navigate the city of Bordeaux as a visitor, and a surprisingly fascinating detour into the science of corks. Pour yourself something from the Haut-Médoc and open your mind — Bordeaux is better than you remember.
Featured Wine: Château de l'Église Vieille, Haut-Médoc
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