Wine for Normal People

This show is a refresh of Episode 371 with a new take!
 
In October of 2025, I visited Croatia on a scouting trip with my friend Brett from Walk & Wine Croatia (check them out and take a trip with them! Marija and Barişa are the best guides!) to see if there was a possibility of me hosting a patron trip there! It was a fantastic trip and I learned so much about the country and the wines.

Photo: View from Rizman Winery. Credit: WFNP
 
Just two weeks before I went, Patron, listener, wine educator, previous pod guest cohost (Ep 522 -- the Wine Movie Podcast), Bevis Sydney, visited to Croatia on a family holiday. He and I compared notes and they were nearly identical. I enlisted his help to do this show as a look into our shared perceptions -- great and less great. 
 
I cover all the basics in a brief review on the country and then Bevis and I do a deep dive into the main grapes of Dalmatia and beyond. We come to the conclusion that the whites Grk and Poşip are the best wines we tasted, and the red Babiç has some potential. 
 

Photo: Kastel Sikuli is a great winery in Dalmatia. Credit: WFNP
 
Here are the links to things we reference:
Walk & Wine Croatia (check them out and take a trip with them!)
 
Stockists: 
Croatian Premium Wine Imports (US)
Vinum USA
Danch & Granger (formerly Blue Danube, US)
8 wines (UK and US)
Wine & More (UK and US)
 
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

If you haven't seen the Apple TV Series "Drops of God", you must change that quickly. This is, in my opinion, the single best wine show/movie ever done. It's not hokey, it shows wine in a realistic and good light, and it's a cool story.
 
The show, whose first season dropped in 2023, won the International Emmy Awards for Best Drama Series and has been praised for its beautiful cinematography, skilled acting, and accurate portrayal of certain elements of the wine world. It's actually based on a Japanese manga series of the same name that was wildly popular. 
 
Season one was so successful that Drops of God was renewed for a second season, which is currently unfolding week after week on Apple TV. Season one is still available for you to watch if you missed it. 

In this show, I sit down with Sebastien "Seb" Pradal, who was the man behind all the wine knowledge in this show. He worked with the writers and actors to get all the facts and details of the wines right. 
 
Although he won the very prestigious Best Young Sommelier of France in 1997, Seb took the entrepreneurial route instead of working as a somm. He leads a wine distribution and consulting agency, owns the fine dining restaurant La Petite Régalade in Paris, where he showcases French gastronomy and highlights independent producers and cool wines, and he imports French wines into Mexico and Colombia.
 
He was selected by the writers working on "Drops of God" to help them make the series true to the wine world in a non-snobby way. He was charged with making all wine-related activities authentic, and we worked closely with the actors to teach them about wine, wine tasting, and the wine world (he told me offline that the actors now order and drink wine regularly and know their way around a list!).
 
This podcast will give you a rare glimpse into why this show is so successful in portraying the wine world when many others have fallen short. And that glimpse really is all about Seb Pradal and his contributions to the show. He is a delightful person and shares some fun insider information about the inner workings of how a production of this caliber gets made. 
 
As promised, here are the links we mention in the show:
Seb's Paris restaurant:  La Petite Régalade
Georgian wine Seb calls his "Grail": Marani Ruispiri, Giorgi Aladashvini
Information on Lignage grape: Lignage and Clos du Tue-Boeuf
 
 
Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Join the community today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople
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This show is brought to you by my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access – THE place to discover your next favorite bottle. Wine Access has highly allocated wines and incredible values, plus free shipping on orders of $150 or more. You can't go wrong with Wine Access! Join the WFNP/Wine Access wine club and get 6 awesome bottles for just $150 four times a year. That includes shipping! When you become a member, you also get 10% all your purchases on the site. Go to wineaccess.com/normal to sign up!

In the show I discuss these two outstanding appellations that once were Greats in Bordeaux and should be once again -- these are wines we should all be drinking more often, especially at the price we pay (you can get a great bottle for US$30).
Located at 44.5°N, northwest of the city of Libourne, Fronsac and Canon Fronsac sit on Bordeaux's Right Bank, overlooking the Dordogne River. These two red-wine-only appellations share some of the best limestone terroir in Bordeaux. And despite the beauty and high quality of the vineyards that cover rolling hills and plateaus, AOC Fronsac and the much smaller AOC Canon Fronsac to the south, are praised by critics but virtually unknown by wine lovers these days.

This is even more surprising when we consider that historically, Fronsac was every bit, if not more respected than its way more famous neighbors, Saint-Émilion and Pomerol. But after losing most of the top vineyards to the phylloxera epidemic/French wine blight in the late 1800s neither appellation regained the status they once had. That means today they have enormous untapped potential: savory and high-quality wines that aren't sold at prices they merit, and a lack of investment to help the region shine, despite it having all the ingredients to do so.
 
Despite the prime location and the ideal terroir and historic legacy, the wines remain one of Bordeaux's best secrets: fruity, complex, and full of bright acidity that, thanks to the cooler limestone soils and long growing season. With climate change, these wines are poised to be successful – they hold up beautifully even in hot years – but will we give them the chance?
 
Here links to the Expression de Fronsac list of producers and Château George 7, my friend Sally Evan's winery that you should visit! 
 
Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Join the community today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople
_______________________________________________________________
 
This show is brought to you by my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access – THE place to discover your next favorite bottle. Wine Access has highly allocated wines and incredible values, plus free shipping on orders of $150 or more. You can't go wrong with Wine Access! Join the WFNP/Wine Access wine club and get 6 awesome bottles for just $150 four times a year. That includes shipping! When you become a member, you also get 10% all your purchases on the site. Go to wineaccess.com/normal to sign up!

This week I discuss the current challenges facing wine due to climate change.  
I cover some strategies the industry is undertaking to address the major issues -- from vineyard and tech solutions to new varieties (Pilzwiderstandsfahige Reben or PiWi grapes!). Then I cover emerging regions that are doing a surprisingly great job making innovative wines! From Normandy, France to the UK, Tasmania, and countries in Scandinavia, you will get a great idea of what is happening on the cutting edge of wine! 
 

As promised, here are some names of Danish and Swedish Vineyards:
Denmark:
Skærsøgaard Dons Cuvée Brut is award winning
Dansk Vincenter
Frederiksborg Vin
Vinperlen
Domain Aalsgaard 
Lille Gadegaard 
Dyrehøj Vingaard 
Nygårdsminde Vingård  (northernmost commercial wine production)
Sweden:
Kullabergs vingård
Arilds Vingård
Thora Vingård
Vejby Vingård
Lottenlund Estate
Flyinge Vingård
Flädie Mat & Vingård


 
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

After 14 years, I felt like it was probably time to do another show on Zinfandel! Known as America's heritage grape, the story of the quest for its European origins is like a mystery novel with an interesting end. It is a great grape and so historic! 
 
Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
 
In this show I cover the massive history of the grape and the unbelievable decades-long search for its origins, which were finally discovered after a dogged group of researchers did a painstaking investigation. 
 
I move on to discuss the vineyard and winemaking. Much of the information I got was from one of the kings of Zinfandel in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma, Fred Peterson of Peterson Winery. Fred started his career in wine working under the very famed Paul Draper at Ridge, before starting his own winery. Fred has been making Zinfandel for more than 50 years. His estate vineyard is outside his front door and has Zin in it. He sources from other vineyards, and makes low intervention, excellent Zinfandel in different styles. I share all the wisdom I got from my conversation with him, including the stylistic differences in winemaking and vineyard management and how that shows up in the wine. 

Check out Peterson Winery! 
 
After discussing the grape and cellar, I talk about flavors, styles and where the grape is grown. I end with a disucssion of serving temperatures, aging, and food pairing (Zin is so versatile!).
 
You can call it Zinfandel, Primitivo, Tribidrag, Pribidrag, or Crjenak Kaštelanski, but whatever the name,  I wish more people were into Zinfandel. It's such a storied and truly great grape. 
 
Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. Become a member today!

www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople
_______________________________________________________________
 

Check out my 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