Wine Makers Show: the wine podcast

A psychology degree, an investment banking desk, and one family dinner that changed everything. Judy Chan walked into her father's business expecting an office job and walked out with a brand-new winery, a million bottles of wine and no one to sell them to. We joined her at Silène, our favorite wine bar in Hong Kong, to hear how she turned that mess into a pioneering name in Chinese wine.

Judy Chan runs Grace Vineyard, one of China's best-known wineries, now approaching its 30th anniversary. She takes us from a freezing staff dormitory in Shanxi, where she could not see her own hands at night, to Ningxia, a bet on thick-skinned Marselan, vines that must be buried every winter, and a jasmine gin small enough to slip into a back pocket.

Pour yourself a glass and dive in: Judy shares a blind-tasting test that went her way by sheer luck, a Harvard Business School case that no longer applies to anything, and the question she is still wrestling with today, how to make a legendary label feel new again.

▬▬ 🎁 GIFTS 🎁 ▬▬

📚 Let Only Red Flowers Bloom, by Emily Feng
🍇 Learn more about Grace Vineyard
🍷 Discover the best wine selection of Hong Kong at Silène, the Hong Kong wine bar where we recorded the episode

🎁 Get your wine essentials on our shop: a curated selection of wine accessories, posters and much more

🗺️ Get the best French Wine Map: as information as decorative

▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOUR YOUR HEALTH. CONSUME IN MODERATION.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

A wine list sorted by Chinese zodiac sign. A Cantonese dining room stocked almost entirely with wine grown in China. Both belong to the same Hong Kong restaurant group, and both came out of the same restless head. We sat down with the person who built them, inside the very restaurant he turned upside down.

Jean-Baptiste Copot is director of wine at Black Sheep Restaurants, the Hong Kong group now closing in on 40 addresses across the city, Singapore and Dubai.

In this interview, he traces his path from a teenage kitchen apprenticeship in France, to a Michelin-starred Lyon dining room with ceilings low enough to leave a mark; credits an English mentor who refused to speak a word of French to him; and recounts the hike where the zodiac idea struck him before he tore up Ho Lee Fook's cellar to rebuild it almost entirely Chinese.

Press play and meet the sommelier rewriting Hong Kong's rules!

▬▬ 🎁 GIFTS 🎁 ▬▬

📚 Inside Burgundy (second edition), by Jasper Morris MW

🐑 Learn more about Black sheep restaurants

🥟 Discover Ho Lee Fook

🎁 Get your wine essentials on our shop: a curated selection of wine accessories, posters and much more

🗺️ Get the best French Wine Map: as information as decorative

▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOUR YOUR HEALTH. CONSUME IN MODERATION.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

🎓 Prepare WSET exam with our app: https://distinction.winemakersshow.com

🗺️ The Bordeaux Wine Map: https://www.winemakersshow.com/shop/carte-vins-bordeaux

🎓 Learn wine, join the academy: https://academy.winemakersshow.com

Pétrus has no grand château, just a modest farmhouse you could drive past without noticing. It has no classification, Pomerol famously refuses to rank its wines. It's made from Merlot, the grape wine snobs love to mock. And yet a single bottle routinely costs thousands of euros, making it one of the most expensive wines on Earth. This is the full story: the Roman-named vineyard, the formidable widow in legendary hats who simply decided her wine deserved First Growth prices, the partnership that conquered America (and the Kennedy White House), the catastrophic 1956 frost and the gamble that saved the vines, the secret buttonhole of 40-million-year-old blue clay, and the bottle that spent 14 months in space.

Watch the Bordeaux classifications video: https://youtu.be/AbhZdnAoFHk

Watch the Saint-Emilion video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xktAzbt2Ms

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 📚CHAPTERS 📚 ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

00:00 Introduction 

01:09 Quick settings about Pétrus

02:21 The birth of Pétrus

03:47 Madame Loubat, the widow who believed in Pétrus 

06:23 The great age of Pétrus 

08:06 The 1956 frost that almost killed Pétrus

10:03 The soil of Pétrus 

12:42 How Pétrus is actually made

14:19 Space bottles & Billionaires, Pétrus today

15:27 Why Pétrus really matters? 

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

Follow us on our platforms: 

Website: https://winemakersshow.com

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

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1J50w14nMbVRCnKSsQ4hEP

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@winemakersshow?sub_confirmation=1

#SaintEmilion #Bordeaux #WineEducation #Merlot #Petrus

ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOUR YOUR HEALTH. CONSUME IN MODERATION.

Photo of Jean Pierre Moueix : https://www.moueix.com/en/company/history

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

🎓 Prepare WSET exam with our app: https://distinction.winemakersshow.com

🗺️ The France Wine Map: https://www.winemakersshow.com/shop/carte-vins-france

🎓 Learn wine, join the academy: https://academy.winemakersshow.com

Saint-Émilion is the most beautiful wine town in Bordeaux: a golden medieval village carved into a limestone hill, named after an 8th-century hermit, sitting on a labyrinth of underground caves. It's also home to the most dramatic story in modern wine: a classification system so contested that three of its four top estates quit in protest. In this video: the full history (Romans, the hermit, the monks), the limestone terroir, the Merlot–Cabernet Franc wines, the famously confusing "Grand Cru vs Grand Cru Classé" problem, the garage wine revolution, the satellite appellations for value, and the 2022 classification meltdown, explained.

Watch the Bordeaux classifications video: 

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 📚CHAPTERS 📚 ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

00:00 Introduction 

01:18 Orientation on Saint-Émilion

02:43 History of wines in Saint-Émilion

05:38 Limestone: the terroir of Saint-Émilion 

07:33 Merlot and Cabernet Franc: kings of Saint-Émilion

09:59 Grand cru de Saint-Émilion vs Grand Cru Classé

11:15 The Classification of Saint-Émilion

12:32 The year that blew up the Saint-Émilion Classification

15:34 The garage wine revolution

17:13 Saint-Émilion satellites 

18:23 Buying guide to Saint-Émilion wines

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

Follow us on our platforms: 

Website: https://winemakersshow.com

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

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1J50w14nMbVRCnKSsQ4hEP

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@winemakersshow?sub_confirmation=1

#SaintEmilion #Bordeaux #WineEducation #Merlot

ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOUR YOUR HEALTH. CONSUME IN MODERATION.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What does it take to inherit one of Southwest France's most respected wine names, and then dare to change it? We caught Antoine Veiry on the last afternoon of VINEXPO Hong Kong, booths coming down all around us, to find out.

Antoine runs Château Montus and Château Bouscassé in Madiran, the two estates his mother and his stepfather, Alain Brumont, built from a nearly anonymous family vineyard into one of the region's best-known names. He walks us through learning the trade from Anselme Selosse in Champagne and Guigal in the Rhône, the day he decided to start acting like he was already in charge, and why he now chases 13.5% alcohol instead of the 15% wines his parents once made.

Expect a crash course in Tannat, Petit Courbu and Manseng; a right bank and left bank comparison you have never heard applied to the foothills of the Pyrenees; a blind tasting of Château Figeac 1985; and a patient bet on vineyard land nobody has planted yet. Tune in!

▬▬ 🎁 GIFTS 🎁 ▬▬

📚 La Gloire de mon père, by Marcel Pagnol

🍷 Learn more about Brumont: Château Montus and Château Bouscassé

🎁 Get your wine essentials on our shop: a curated selection of wine accessories, posters and much more

🗺️ Get the best French Wine Map: as information as decorative

▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOUR YOUR HEALTH. CONSUME IN MODERATION.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What makes the son of one of Burgundy's best-known wine families walk away from the cellar to chase gin, vodka and liqueurs instead? We drove to Meursault, vineyards on every side, to sit down with Maxime Girardin and find out why he bet on spirits.

Maxime runs Pegasus, the distillery he built from scratch after a decade abroad in finance and trading. He walks us through the six-litre still in his parents' garage, the Dutch technology that lets him scale without babysitting a boiler, and the reason the base spirit, the part most distillers ignore, decides everything.

Expect back-to-basics thinking, an obsession over organic wheat and Menton citrus, a clear read on why premium spirits keep growing while wine talks crisis, and a pilot's licence earned before a driving one. Tune in!

▬▬ 🎁 GIFTS 🎁 ▬▬

📚 The Savoy Cocktail Book, by Harry Craddock

🚀 Learn more about Pegasus Distillerie

🎁 Get your wine essentials on our shop: a curated selection of wine accessories, posters and much more

🗺️ Get the best French Wine Map: as information as decorative

▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOUR YOUR HEALTH. CONSUME IN MODERATION.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What does it take to run the wine programme for eight restaurants inside one of Hong Kong's most storied hotel groups, and how do you earn a guest's trust for a US$600 pour of 1975 Petrus? We sat down inside Petrus itself, the flagship restaurant at Island Shangri-La Hong Kong, high above Pacific Place at the heart of the city's energy, to find out.

We're joined by Cyrus Ho, hotel sommelier for the Shangri-La Group in Hong Kong, who oversees the wine programme across all eight of the group's restaurants, from Cantonese fine dining to Japanese, French and everything in between.

Cyrus walks us through the week he spent doing nothing but refilling water glasses under his mentor's watch, the vintage mix-up that taught him never to skip showing a label, and the six-hour mountain drive into Yunnan that convinced him Chinese Chardonnay deserves serious attention.

Expect back-vintage Petrus by the glass, a side career as a certified tea master, and a clear-eyed read on why the next generation isn't reaching for wine. Tune in!

▬▬ 🎁 GIFTS 🎁 ▬▬

📚 Inside Burgundy, by Jasper Morris

🍷 Discover the Island Shangri-La Hong Kong

🍽️ Discover the Restaurant Petrus

🎁 Get your wine essentials on our shop: a curated selection of wine accessories, posters and much more

🗺️ Get the best French Wine Map: as information as decorative

▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOUR YOUR HEALTH. CONSUME IN MODERATION.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

🗺️ The France Wine Map: https://www.winemakersshow.com/shop/carte-vins-france

🎓 Learn wine, join the academy: https://academy.winemakersshow.com

In 1968, an Italian marquis with a passion for Bordeaux and racehorses released a wine the Italian wine authorities called "table wine »: the lowest classification possible. Ten years later, in a blind tasting in London, that same "table wine" beat some of the most expensive Bordeaux on Earth. This is the story of the Super Tuscans: the rebel wines that broke Italian wine law, made a swamp on the Tuscan coast world-famous, and forced Italy to rewrite its own rules. Featuring Sassicaia, Tignanello, Ornellaia, Solaia, Masseto, and the men who made them.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 📚CHAPTERS 📚 ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

00:00 Introduction

01:23 The rebellion of Tuscan wines

03:09 A Marquis with a Bordeaux obsession

05:43 Tignanello: the rebellion enters Chianti

08:03 The 1978 blind tasting that changed everything for Tuscan wines

09:20 The origin of Super Tuscan name

10:26 Bolgheri becomes Italy’s Bordeaux

12:40 Italy admits defeat: IGT Tuscana, Bolgheri DOC and DOC Sassicaia 

14:19 How to read a Super Tuscan wine label

16:15 Is the term Super Tuscan still relevant today?

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

Follow us on our platforms: 

Website: https://winemakersshow.com

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

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1J50w14nMbVRCnKSsQ4hEP

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@winemakersshow?sub_confirmation=1

Image credit: https://www.tenutasanguido.com/en/history

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Ever wondered what it takes to turn Saint-Émilion's overlooked neighbours into a destination in their own right? This episode takes us to Château de Lussac, flagship estate of a Bordeaux group that's rebuilding itself château by château, and rethinking what a satellite appellation can be.

We sit down with Anthony Appollot, general manager of Sarments Vignobles, a sixth-generation Saint-Émilion winemaker who spent years as an independent vineyard consultant before assembling the group's four estates in under a decade, to trace how it all came together and where he's taking it next.

Anthony walks us through top-grafting Chenin Blanc onto decades-old Merlot vines, why he's pulling up a third of Lussac's vineyard to plant walnut trees and truffle oaks, and the disease-spotting drone he helped calibrate that kept the group's harvest intact during 2024's brutal mildew year.

Expect an 80-year-old field blend planted after a killer frost, a secret Italian grape variety, and a very candid read on the Bordeaux crisis from someone who's still buying. Tune in!

▬▬ 🎁 GIFTS 🎁 ▬▬

📚 The World Atlas of Wine, by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson

🍷 Learn more about the estates:

• Sarments vignobles
• Château de Lussac
• Château de Saint-Pey
• Château Saint-Jean de Lavaud
• Château Vieux Maillet
• Château Cantereau

🤖 Disease-spotting drones: Chouette

🎁 Get your wine essentials on our shop: a curated selection of wine accessories, posters and much more

🗺️ Get the best French Wine Map: as information as decorative

▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOUR YOUR HEALTH. CONSUME IN MODERATION.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Calculate the perfect number of bottles: https://www.theweddingwines.com/calculator

Personnalize your wine label for your wedding: https://www.theweddingwines.com/label-maker

Choosing wine for your wedding is the biggest wine purchase most people ever make (often hundreds of bottles) and almost nobody teaches you how to do it. In this video: the exact quantity formula, where to spend and where to save, the crowd-pleaser styles that work for 100+ guests, why your toast bubbles shouldn't be Champagne, the sale-or-return trick, corkage math, serving logistics that make cheap wine taste expensive (and expensive wine taste cheap), and how to make the wine actually mean something on the day.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 📚CHAPTERS 📚 ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

00:00 Introduction

01:00 Rule 1: Do the math first

03:01 Rule 2: Buy for the crowd, not for you

04:17 Rule 3: Keep it simple

05:07 Rule 4: Spend early, save late

06:22 Rule 5: Don’t overspend on the toast

06:33 Rule 6: Kitchen and the calendar pick your style 

08:21 Rule 7: Taste before ordering 

09:30 Rule 8: 3 pieces of financial advice

11:20 Rule 9: Confirm the serving conditions

12:52 Rule 10: Add a meaning in the wine 

13:56 Recap of the rules for your wedding wines 

14:47 Conclusion 

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⭐️ ABOUT ⭐️ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

My name is Antoine, and I’ve been passionate about wine for several years. I knew nothing at first, so I went out to meet the biggest figures in the industry and turned those encounters into a podcast that’s now listened to by over 100,000 people. I now share with you what I’ve learned, and I hope we embark together on a beautiful wine journey to discover the finest experiences.

Follow us on our platforms: 

Website: https://winemakersshow.com

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

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1J50w14nMbVRCnKSsQ4hEP

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@winemakersshow?sub_confirmation=1

ALCOHOL ABUSE IS DANGEROUS FOUR YOUR HEALTH. CONSUME IN MODERATION.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.