This show is the final in a multi-part, in-depth series on the Rioja DOCa in which we have looked at the three major zones of Rioja through the eyes of top producers to tell us about their areas and the challenges they face.

Photo: Raquel Perez Cuevas. Credit: Bodegas Ontañón Facebook Page

This time, Raquel Pérez Cuevas, 4th generation family member of Bodegas Ontañón joins to tell us about Rioja Oriental (formerly Rioja Baja). Raquel is an agricultural engineer and oenologist, and has traveled the world presenting the beautiful wines of Ontañón.

Ontañón is one of the most highly regarded and best wineries in Rioja. The family started as growers that sold to large companies but in the 1980s, they started making their own wines, breaking with tradition and most of their neighbors in Oriental at the time. The Perez Cuevas family are unique in that they 250ha of vineyards, in around the village of Quel (which Raquel discusses a lot in the show). Their vineyards are also unique because they sit very high in the mountains, even higher than the vineyards of Alta in Alavesa.

In this show, Raquel tells us about Oriental, the differences between the region and Alta and Alavesa, the grapes that grow here (they are different from the other regions – there is much more diversity), and her perspective on what is happening in the region right now.

This series has been so eye opening and this show shines yet another light on this very complex region, which is undergoing a major transition right now.

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

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Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

This is the second installment of an in-depth series on the Rioja DOCa, where I do a close look at the three major zones of Rioja. I host top producers in each show to tell us about their areas and the challenges they face.

In Episode 544, we heard about the Rioja Alta zone and this week we hear from Tao Platón of Rioja Alavesa, who presents a completely different perspective on the region.

Tao Platón graduated in Enology from the University of Valladolid, holds a WSET Diploma and is an Master of Wine (MW) candidate. He has made wine in Bordeaux, Burgundy, New Zealand, and Rioja and in 2016 he joined Península Vinicultores as head winemaker and technical director.

Photo: Tao Platón. Credit: Península Vinicultores

He leads the production of a new generation of terroir-driven wines from Rioja Alavesa at Bodega Bideona. Bideona cultivates hundreds of individual parcels and makes wine in the Burgundian model – terroir-driven, vineyard specific wines. He joins us as a representative of the zone of Alavesa and as a passionate advocate for the system of terroir-driven, single vineyard wines, a system which Rioja approved in 2018.

We discuss: 

• The Rioja Alavesa overview -- terroir, the history of the region, and how Alavesa is made up of many small, family owned wineries.

• The strengths of Alavesa, which are old vines, mainly of Tempranillo. Wineries of Alavesa don’t blend grapes from elsewhere so the wines are very terroir-driven and local in Alavesa. We discuss the various styles of wines, including the production of whites in the region.

• We get to some of the very hard questions regarding Alavesa and its Basque identity. We fill you in on the political independent movement in the Basque Country, the various ideologies and how those are playing out in the politics of the Rioja DOCa.

• The differences between business models (traditional model versus newer, terroir driven producers) in the Rioja DOCa, as well as the tension is between quality producers and those who look to make cheap wine that they can sell quickly, regardless of quality.

• The potential future for Rioja and the DOCa and various scenarios that could exist for Alavesa in the future.

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This show represents a totally different perspective from Rioja Alavesa versus Rioja Alta! Just wait until the next show with Raquel of Bodegas Ontañón from Rioja Oriental!

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today! Gifting subscriptions is now available as well! 

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

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Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access for your holiday shopping.They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

This show kicks off a multi-part, in-depth series on the Rioja DOCa. We will look at the three major zones of Rioja in the podcasts that follow. In each, I host top producers to tell us their perspectives on their zones and on Rioja at large.

To get you up to speed before my conversation with Guillermo de Aranzabal Bittner, the Deputy General Director and Director of Public Relations for La Rioja Alta S.A.,  I start out the show with a quick primer on Rioja. I cover everything from climate and terroir, the grapes, the aging criteria, and the terroir driven designations that were introduced in 2017-2018.

Then I get to my lively conversation with Guillermo de Aranzabal Bittner. Guillermo is a descendent of one of the founding families of La Rioja Alta and is part of the 6th generation in the business. He educates us on the Rioja Alta zone - its terroir, history, and the grapes in which it specializes. 

Guillermo then tells us about La Rioja Alta, which was formed in 1890 as a partnership of 5 quality-conscious growers focused on getting the wines of their remote region to the masses. They achieved this by supporting the construction of a rail link from Haro to Bilbao and thus, opened the world to these marvelous wines. They have a laser focus on quality and on maintaining tradition -- the dedication is admirable! 

The brands of La Rioja Alta S.A. that Guillermo discusses are:

• La Rioja Alta: Gran reserva 890, Gran Reserva 904 Seleccion Especial, Viña Arana, Viña Ardanza, Viña Alberdi
• Torre de Oña (Rioja Alavesa): Finca Martelo, Finca San Martin Crianza

Guillermo and I then discuss some of the challenges currently facing Rioja, and we get deep into the analysis of what is working and what isn't. It's a great discussion! 

As promised, here is the list of producers in the Asociación de Bodegas por la Calidad (ABC) that we mention.

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

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Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

I wasn't sure I was going to do a Thanksgiving episode this year, but last minute, I felt inspired (and was encouraged by some of you -- thanks especially to my dear friends and your fellow patrons Claudette C and Tina K) so I decided to make it happen.

This one is short, sweet, and to the point! I offer seven main wine types and give examples of each. I hope at least one of these ideas will work for your table!

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This year, I'm sticking with the theme I did for the Wine Access Club and recommending blends for your meal. The list:

Photo: Getty Images via Canva

1. Sparkling -- whether you pick Champagne, Crémant, Cava, Cap Classique, Franciacorta, American sparkling wine, or anything else, you will likely have a mix of grapes. A great blend for the whole meal.

2. Acidic white blends are fantastic pairings. White Bordeaux blends are my top choice.

3. Full, white Rhône blends, especially with a big Viognier component are always on my Thanksgiving table. Blends like Côtes du Rhône blanc, Châteauneuf du Pape blanc, Laudun, Lirac, and Rhône blends from California and Australia work well.

4. Fruity red blends have softer tannins but good acidity. Côtes du Rhône, Châteauneuf du Pape, and Valpolicella are some examples

5. Flavorful red blends with a fuller body are a fantastic alternative to varietal Cabernet or Zinfandel, which are often recommended. Rioja, Bordeaux (with more Merlot than Cabernet), and Cerasuolo di Vittoria are my suggested blends.

6. Rosés like Tavel, Bandol rosé, Côtes du Rhône rosé, and heavier styles of Rioja rosado.

7. Finally, SAUTERNES is great with grilled food or anything with a char. It can also handle the sweet foods on your table, including dessert.

I hope you this was helpful and gave you a new idea or two! Happy Thanksgiving -- I'm grateful to you for listening!

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

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Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

With the holidays coming, I thought it would be a good time to do a show on a different kind of sparkling wine, so this time I cover Italy’s premier traditional method sparkling wine, Franciacorta.

Map: Consorzio per la tutela del Franciacorta

Franciacorta is a high quality Italian sparkling wine made in the area of Brescia in Lombardy (the Italian region where Milan is located).  Franciacorta, as a sparkling wine, came into being in the 1960s but it didn’t take long for it to gain a favorable reputation, which still holds today. With very distinctive geographical features and a unique microclimate, the wines here are marked by a balance of excellent acidity and lovely aromas of fruit, flowers, nuts and more.

The thing that makes Franciacorta stand out among other sparklers from Italy is that wines from this region can only be produced using the traditional method (like Champagne, unlike Prosecco) and must be made primarily from the French grapes – Chardonnay, Pinot nero (Pinot noir), and Pinot bianco (Pinot blanc).

Photo: Consorzio per la tutela del Franciacorta

Despite the similarities with their French counterpart, the terroir in Franciacorta presents weather patterns that include a lake effect, Alpine breezes, and ample wind. The entire area was formed by glacial movement – no by a small sea receding and leaving a bed of chalky limestone as was the case in Champagne.    

Priced at a premium, these wines are ideal if you love Champagne or sparkling wine but want something fruitier, fuller, and with less piercing acidity.

Photo: Consorzio per la tutela del Franciacorta

In this show I cover the history, terroir, grapes, winemaking, and the three types of Franciacorta: nonvintage, rosé, and saten and the overlying classifications of millesimato and riserva.

Photo: Colline della Stella

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Main information sources: https://franciacorta.wine/en/

Franciacorta DOCG Regulatory document

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

https://www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

In this show we answer a question I get asked all the time: how do I even begin to approach a wine event with dozens of producers? Patron Monica G. from @wineshenanigans and @wineopardy (and the Celebrity Wines podcast!) joins to help me break it down!

We cover:

• Finding a worthwhile event to attend
• Preparing for the event -- both from a logistics and research standpoint
• What to do at the event
• Post-event items

And we add a bonus section for professionals attending trade events! 

We hope this is a fun and useful show for anyone interested in going to a wine event. 

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Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

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Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have just what you need for holiday shopping -- gift cards and gift subscriptions (for one or many shipments) of the WFNP wine club!  And for you? Join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

From the archives, I am relaunching the funniest show I've ever done: Ep 396 -Halloween Candy Pairings with Patrons Kelsey and Colby Eliades. 

We scoured the internet to find commonly recommended pairings, so we could actually try them and tell you if any of these things actually work. The news isn’t great (candy and wine are HORRIBLE together), but we did find a few diamonds in the rough, including an extremely surprising combo that I thought could be lethal!

Here are the combos we tested…

• Pop rocks with Prosecco

• Candy corn with Prosecco and Moscato d’Asti

• Gummy worms with Rosé

• Sour Patch Kids with off-dry Riesling

• Starburst and Moscato d’Asti

• Twizzlers, and Swedish Fish with Beaujolais

• Kit Kat with Pinot Noir

• Peppermint Patties with Syrah

• Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and Reese’s Pieces with Lambrusco  

• Hershey's bars and Whoppers with Zinfandel

• Port-style Zinfandel with M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, Heath bar

And, so concludes my attempt at pairing wine with Halloween candy. We did the encore, I am so thankful for Kelsey and Colby for participating, and now I'm never doing this again 😂😂😂!

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

I haven't done an overview show on Chile in more than a decade so this show is an update on the unbelievable wines of Chile -- I cover new regions, new viticulture and styles, and all the wonderful things this South American gem has to offer. If you haven't had Chilean wine in a while, it's time to take another look. Especially in the last decade, the wines and vines have matured and the diversity, quality, and breadth of what this country has to offer has improved by leaps and bounds.

In the show cover:

• A history of Chilean wine
• Climate and the east-to-west climate zones
• Grapes and new viticultural techniques
• The DO system
• Regions and Subregions
  • Atacama: Huasco
  • Coquimbo: Elqui, Limarí, Choapa
  • Aconcagua with the Costa areas of Casablanca and San Antonio (with sub region Leyda)
  • Valle Central: Maipo, Rapel (with sub regions Cachapoal and Colchagua), Curicó, Maule
  • Sur: Itata, Bio Bio, Malleco
  • Austral region

After the whirlwind wine grand tour of the country, I discuss a few reasons why Chilean wine should absolutely be on our radars and in our cellars (and it's not just for value!).

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes  

This is the third in the series of Grape Miniseries Refreshes to complete the trifecta of Cabernet Sauvignon and parents – Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc.

The short of it: Sauvignon blanc has character!! Love it or hate it, you know what you’re getting when you have a wine made from this grape. Whether it be citrusy, acidic, and minerally from Loire, fruitier and sometimes oak aged from Bordeaux, or pungent, spicy, and grapefruit-noted from New Zealand, this grape makes and impact wherever it goes.

Photo: Sauvignon Blanc. Credit: Austrian Wine

Grown in more than 30 countries, Sauvignon blanc is the 11th most planted wine grape in the world. (OIV, 2017). One third of Sauvignon blanc is in France, with New Zealand a close second.

As with every grape, Sauvignon blanc has its quirks, but the grape is all about purity, rather than winemaking magic. With specific soils and sites this grape’s beauty shines through in its crystal-clear flavors. Sauvignon is appreciated for its simplicity, its ease of drinking and its versatility – the grape makes dry whites, oaky whites, simple whites, more complex ones, Sauternes and other botrytis affected wines. Whatever it’s used it, it makes a mark with great acidity and strong flavor.

In this show I cover:

• The origins and DNA of the grape
• Sauvignon Blanc in the vineyard
• Aromas and flavors
• Main Regions:
  • France: Loire (Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé), Bordeaux
  • Spain, especially Rueda
  • Italy: Piedmont, Friuli, Alto Adige
  • Austria, especially Styria
  • New Zealand!!! Synonymous with Sauvignon Blanc
  • Chile
  • South Africa
  • United States: Especially California's North Coast -- Napa, Sonoma, and Washington

I cover food pairings and serving temperatures too.

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

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Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes

The Cabernet Sauvignon refresh was episode 535, so I thought that on the heels of that it was time to do a refresh Cab Sauv's parents. This week is the Cabernet Franc refresh and next week will be Sauvignon Blanc, so you can have the full picture of the parents and the offspring. 

Cabernet Franc is an underrated grape and things seem to be changing rapidly with it these days. In the past, it has often been used purely as a blending grape, except in the Loire Valley, but today it’s taking center stage. Producers and wine drinkers have realized that if the best wines of Château Cheval Blanc on the Right Bank of Bordeaux, have a higher proportion of Cabernet Franc, maybe there is something to this grape that should be explored. 

Although Cab Franc still doesn’t have widespread popular acclaim, it is extremely important in the wine world. Today –it  grows everywhere from France, Italy, the United States, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Hungary, Washington State, Croatia, Israel, South Africa, Turkey, Slovenia, Uruguay, and more. Plantings are growing and I see a bigger future for this grape. 

In this show I cover:

• The origins and DNA of the grape
• Cab Franc in the vineyard
• Aromas and flavors
• Regions:
  • France: Loire, Bordeaux, Southwest France
  • Italy: Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Bolgheri
  • Hungary: Villány
  • Canada
  • United States: Finger Lakes, Long Island, Virginia, and a little bit on Napa, Sonoma, and Washington
  • South America: Argentina, Chile

I cover food pairings and serving temperatures too.

Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople

_______________________________________________________________

Check out my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access.  They have an amazing selection -- once you get hooked on their wines, they will be your go-to! Make sure you join the Wine Access-Wine For Normal People wine club for wines I select delivered to you four times a year! 

To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth or get a class gift certificate for the wine lover in your life go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes