Ep 606: Sally Evans, Owner of Château George7 in Fronsac Bordeaux, & Author of the Bestselling “Make the Midlife Move”
Wine for Normal People
After a career in global consulting and raising a family, decided to pursue a dream of owning a winery. She took WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) wine courses and traveled to Bordeaux to explore the city and its appellations and discovered Fronsac (on the right bank, Episode 593 is on Fronsac!), which captured her heart. She went for it – she bought a small plot in 2015 and decided to build a new château from scratch. She found the right plot, and the right people and that château today is the award-winning . She makes two other reds besides her main wine and a white...
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Ep 605: The Greats - The Grand Cru Whites of the Côte de Beaune, Burgundy (get to know them so you don't miss out if someone offers them to you!)
Wine for Normal People
This episode is part of "The Greats" series, in which I discuss the greatest wines in the world and what makes them great. This time, I explore the top white Burgundies of Corton-Charlemagne, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, and Chassagne-Montrachet. I address what makes these wines Greats and go into detail on the regions, the vineyards, and the wines. Full show notes and all back episodes are on Patreon. _______________________________________________________________ This show is brought to you by my exclusive sponsor, Wine Access – THE place to discover...
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Ep 604: Six Alternatives to Expensive Wines
Wine for Normal People
This time I give you six wine regions that make very expensive wines and then provide ideas of less expensive bottles that you could sub in when you don't want to splurge. From Champagne to Barolo, I give you some ideas that hopefully you hadn't considered! The wines I find alternatives for (you'll have to listen to hear the wines I recommend as "dupes"): Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Champagne Pomerol (Bordeaux) Barolo/Barbaresco (Piedmont, Italy) Red Bourgogne/Burgundy (Pinot Noir) Chablis I promise -- I came up with some unusual and cool wines for this! Enjoy it! Full...
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Ep 603: The Veneto Region of Italy (2026 Update)
Wine for Normal People
I haven’t given an update to the Veneto region in more than a decade. With an upcoming Patron trip to the region, I think it’s high time! Veneto is in northeastern Italy and is famed for wines like Prosecco, Valpolicella (including Amarone), Soave, and Bardolino. With 14 DOCGs, 29 DOCs, and 10 IGPs, covering about 104,400 ha (258,000 acres) of vineyards, the province makes every style of wine imaginable. Approximately 75% of plantings are white varieties—dominated by Glera at around 39% (this is the main Prosecco grape)—while 25% of plantings are red, led by Corvina with...
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Ep 602: Wine Legends - Émile Peynaud, The Father of Modern Enology
Wine for Normal People
This is the start of a new series, suggested by Patron Keith S.! Thank you, Keith! I'll cover people who have made a huge difference in the wine world —figures whose contributions have shaped how wine is made, understood, and appreciated. I felt the best place to kick this off was with a man who ratcheted up the quality of wine in Bordeaux and then around the world. Through his great scientific brain and his quiet and kind yet convincing style of plain-spoken communication Bordeaux-based oenologist, Dr. Peynaud had an enormous global influence on winemaking and wine appreciation...
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Ep 601: Pollak Vineyards – A Leader in the Monticello AVA of Virginia
Wine for Normal People
is a small family-owned winery founded in 2003 when Margo and David Pollak bought a farm west of Charlottesville, Virginia. David’s experience in wine was pretty extensive – he worked in the 1970s in Sonoma's Russian River Valley and was a founding partner and investor in one of Napa Valley’s first Carneros wineries, Bouchaine Vineyards. Years later, when he thought about retirement from the corporate world, he saw huge potential in Virginia and he and Margo took the chance to help shape this emerging region. Photo: Pollak Vineyards. Credit: In this show, I host Ryan Pollak...
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Ep 600: Nine Short Wine Stories -- How WFNP Listeners Got Into Wine
Wine for Normal People
600 episodes of WFNP! I am grateful to you for listening, for reading the book, for learning with me and gracefully accepting the changes over the years, and I’m especially grateful to my sponsors, guests, and travel partners. (thanks Heather and Beppe!) over the last 15 years who have supported this show. But most of all, as I say every week, I’m grateful to the Patrons – the people who directly support the work that I do week after week and who have become my friends, and who have allowed me to join them on their journeys into wine. I’m boring and you all know about me...
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Rerelease and Edit of Ep 181: Laura Catena, The Leading Lady of Argentine Wine
Wine for Normal People
In honor of Women's History Month, I'm rereleasing a show with one of the most dynamic, intelligent, and all around fantastic women in wine: Laura Catena of Bodegas Catena Zapata in Mendoza, Argentina. Photo from Laura's website: We discuss her life as a doctor, a mom, and the head of a wine empire. We cover the history of Malbec and how her family aided the meteoric rise of Argentine wine and of the comeback of the Malbec grape around the world. A fun, sharp-as-a-tack woman, you'll learn a ton about Malbec, Mendoza, and a few life lessons (it's all about the B+!) from...
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Ep 599: The Grape Miniseries Refresh - Malbec
Wine for Normal People
This week I cover Malbec, or Côt as it’s known in its native home of Southwest France. This old red grape variety has long history in France and was once one of its most planted grapes. But due to pickiness in the vineyard and harshness in the bottle, Malbec fell out of favor in its native country. Despite being a big component in the Bordeaux blend, the grape remained in relative obscurity until it hit South America, particularly Argentina. Although it wasn’t an overnight success, Malbec hung around Argentina for about 150 years and then got its moment in the sun (literally). Today 75%...
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Ep 598: The Médoc and the Haut-Médoc of Bordeaux
Wine for Normal People
This week I cover the regional AOCs of Medoc and Haut-Medoc, which wraps up our exploration of the Left Bank of Bordeaux. These two areas can cover a lot of ground, but they are usually used for discreet geographies in the north and south of the Médoc Peninsula. Because each AOC is so large and varied, I do a deep dive into the whole of the region and then into the particularities of the smaller Médoc AOC in the northwest of the Médoc and the Haut-Médoc in the south, around the city of Bordeaux and to the west of the communal appellations (Margaux, St. Julien, Pauillac, and Saint...
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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. Much like our prior episode, the news isn’t great, but we did find a few diamonds in the rough, including an extremely surprising combo that I thought could be lethal! Patrons Kelsey and Colby Eliades guest host with me to power through this episode and sum up the things we learned about candy pairings – what works, what doesn’t, and why!
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 😂😂😂!
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Registration for the FREE Wines of the Médoc Class is here:
Session 1, October 21 at 8 PM Eastern
Session 2, October 28, at 8 PM Eastern
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Wine Access: Access to the best wines for the best prices! For 15% off your next order, go to www.wineaccess.com/normal
To become a member of Patreon go to www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople
To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes