350: Can you really taste “minerality” in wine? Sunny Hodge offers a Cynic's Guide to Wine
Release Date: 08/13/2025
373: How Do You Create A Successful International Wine Brand? Nam Stanley Tells The Story of Solicantus
Unreserved Wine Talk
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372: How is Namratha's "Vineyard Melody" memoir the wine version of Eat, Pray, Love?
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371: Why Do Some Non-Alcoholic Wines Keep Their Fruity Aromas While Others Lose Everything?
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370: Wes Pearson: What Happens When the World’s Most Expensive Wines Are Tasted Blind
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What really happens when the world’s most expensive wines are tasted blind, without their labels or reputations? Why is the Len Evans Tutorial considered such a valuable experience in the wine world? How did Grenache go from a filler grape to one that producers take seriously? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Dr Wes Pearson, a senior research scientist at the Australian Wine Research Institute in Adelaide. You can find the wines we discussed at . Highlights How did a curiosity for astrophysics shape Wes’s mindset as a wine researcher...
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369: How Did One Viognier Go From the Brink of Extinction to Being Planted Around the World?
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Which French wine region banned flying saucers from landing in its vineyards and why is the rule still there? How did the devastating February 1956 frost reshape the southern Rhône into the vineyard landscape we know today? What sets the northern Rhone apart from the south in terms of grapes and winemaking style? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Matt Walls, author of The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide to the Rhone Valley. You can find the wines we discussed at . Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Matt Walls' terrific new book,...
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367: Why Are So Many Swiss Vineyards Planted on Dangerous Terrain? Simon Hardy Reveals Why in the Smart Traveller's Guide to Switzerland
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Why are so many Swiss vineyards planted on dangerous terrain? How do the “three suns of Lavaux” shape the ripeness and character of Chasselas? Which unexpected historical figure owns the world’s smallest vineyard in Switzerland? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Simon Hardy, author of the terrific new book The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide to Switzerland. You can find the wines we discussed at . Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Simon Hardy's terrific new book, The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide to Switzerland. To...
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366: The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide to Switzerland with Simon Hardy
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Why You Can't Buy Switzerland's Exceptional Wines Abroad? Why does Switzerland grow so many grape varieties, and which ones are the key players that define the country’s wine regions? What makes high-altitude wine regions uniquely capable of producing wines that balance great concentration without being too heavy? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Simon Hardy, author of The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide to Switzerland. You can find the wines we discussed at . Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Simon Hardy's terrific new book,...
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365: Why did Cha McCoy create her own flavour wheel rather than rely on traditional wine-tasting vocabulary?
Unreserved Wine Talk
Why do certain spices and dishes show up far from their origins, and how can tracing these cultural “foodways” change the way we think about wine and food pairing? Why did Cha create her own flavour wheel rather than rely on traditional wine-tasting vocabulary? How can expanding your flavour vocabulary through travel, food, and culture help us describe wine in ways that feel relatable? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Cha McCoy, author of the new book Wine Pairing for the People. You can find the wines we discussed at . Giveaway Three of you are...
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364: Why Are Most Wine Pairing Rules Wrong for Global Cuisine? Cha McCoy Reveals What Really Works
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How can you pair wine with spicy dishes in a way that enhances their flavour profile? Why do most wine-pairing guides ignore the traditions of global cuisines? How can you use wine pairings to explore under-the-radar wine regions instead of reaching for the same rosé or sparkling wine every time? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Cha McCoy, author of the terrific new book Wine Pairing for the People. You can find the wines we discussed at . Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of Cha McCoy's terrific new book, Wine Pairing for the...
info_outlineCan you really taste “minerality” in wine? What gives Champagne and traditional method wines their signature bready flavor and creamy texture? How has natural wine sparked deeper conversations about how we farm and produce food and drink?
In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Sunny Hodge
You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks
Giveaway
Two of you are going to win a copy of Sunny Hodge’s terrific new book, The Cynic's Guide to Wine. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast. I’ll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!
Highlights
What is the deeper meaning behind the name of Sunny’s London wine bar, aspen & meursault?
How did Sunny’s early love of rollerskating shape his experiences growing up?
What lessons did Sunny’s mother impart that still impact his worldview today?
How did Sunny’s engineering background influence his approach to learning about wine?
Can we really smell metals and minerals?
Why was Sunny skeptical about the influence of soil on wine?
What surprised Sunny about our technical insights into wine?
How did Sunny find the balance between sharing the complex science behind wine and making it interesting to the average wine lover?
Why does Sunny believe we should be applying cynicism to the world of wine?
How do natural wines cause us to challenge the food and drink we bring to the table?
What does "funky" mean in the context of natural wines?
How does Sunny source unusual wines for his wine bars?
What is humus, and how does it influence wine character?
How do plants absorb nutrients from soil?
Key Takeaways
We can smell some geological materials like salt and some minerals, but most minerals and metals we're unable to smell and taste. And those metals that we feel that we can smell and taste, that's actually a tertiary influence of our oils reacting with those metals.Technically, metal and most other minerals except for salt, don't have smell or taste.
Yeast autolysis is the process that gives champagnes and traditional method wines their bready, yeasty, autolytic flavor. Autolysis is when a yeast thinks it's gonna die and it's pretty stressed. So as alcohol levels pick up, and your yeast knows it's going to pass away soon, its enzymes will switch on to a different mode, and this is autolysis mode. They'll start eating away at the cell membrane of the yeast, and eventually they'll make little puncture holes, and all of the insides of the yeast will end up in the liquid. So that self-detonation of yeast in stressful environments is what gives the physical texture to your wine. That's why autolytic wines have that texture and it gives you those yeasty, bready flavors.
Natural wine makes us question how we farm and how we produce all food and drink, not just wine. Wine is one that we can talk about and have a real discourse without it getting too boring. And with natural wine, those bigger topics are, how do we farm? What are the pros and cons of how we farm now, and how are we making our food and drink?
About Sunny Hodge
Sunny Hodge is the sole founder of Diogenes the Dog and aspen & meursault; two multi award-winning wine bars associated with challenging the status quo of wine. He is in the process of developing a wine qualification, The Science of Wine Course.
His book “The Cynic’s Guide to Wine” delves into the science behind wine from soil upwards into our perception of taste and flavour to dispel wine myths using science. He is also a member of the Circle of Wine Writers.
He is an International wine judge for IWSC awards, was recently shortlisted for the LWF Buyers Awards 2025 for both ‘On-Trade Multiple Venue Wine Buyer’ and ‘Sustainable Wine Buyer of the Year’.
Hodge is also a commentator and wine writer for the likes of Waitrose Food Magazine, Evening Standard, The Times, The Guardian, Food FM and Monocle Radio and ITV’s Love Your Weekend.
To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/350.