The Wine Pair Podcast

The Wine Pair
  • 3.5 (2)
  • Food
  • Updated Weekly

Not every wine is worth buying. The Wine Pair Podcast features a married couple as they try wines they haven't had before, share their brutally honest opinions, and tell you which bottles are worth your money. Each week, Joe and Carmela take on a different grape, wine style, or region, then taste two or three reasonably priced bottles, usually under $25, and describe what they are tasting in ways that are hilarious and actually make sense. Some are great, some are fine, and some absolutely are not worth buying. From Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to grapes you may never have heard of, the show combines useful wine education in plain language, food pairings, affordable recommendations, and the natural chemistry of two people who know each other well enough to disagree. A lot. Joe and Carmela purchase the wines featured in their regular review episodes and do not accept free samples for review, so the opinions and ratings are entirely their own. Recommended by Decanter Magazine, which called the show "fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining." New episodes every Sunday. Contact: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. Instagram: @thewinepairpodcast. Website:  thewinepairpodcast.com.

  1. 3 days ago

    Aglianico Rosato: If You Love a Bold Red Wine, Try Its Rosé!

    When you take a great red wine grape like Aglianico and you make a Rosé from it, do you know what you get? That’s right. A great Rosé! In this episode we explore Rosé made from Aglianico, the King of Southern Italian red wines, which also happens to make a great Rosé. If you think you don’t like Rosé, it probably just means that you haven’t had one made from a red wine grape that you love. And in Italy, they are starting to make some fantastic Rosé wines, also known as Rosato in Italian. So, if you see the term Rosato, don’t be confused. Unlike the typical Provence-style Rosé, which dominates the market, Aglianico Rosé wines have more structure and more complexity. We also talk about a study that found people who know a lot about wine tend to be of higher intelligence. We couldn’t agree more! Wines reviewed in this episode: 2024 San Salvatore Vetere Rosato, 2025 Feudi di San Gregorio San Greg Rosato Send us a Text Message and we'll respond in our next episode! Contact The Wine Pair Podcast - we’d love to hear from you! Visit our website, leave a review, and reach out to us:  https://thewinepairpodcast.com/ Follow and DM us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewinepairpodcast/ Send us an email: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

    Aglianico Rosato: If You Love a Bold Red Wine, Try Its Rosé!

  2. 23 Aug

    Italian Wine Adventure #26: Schiava! Sommeliers Love This Chillable Red!

    Chillable red wines are a thing right now, and we think we may have found the perfect chillable red wine for you to not only enjoy but wow your hipster friends, family, and coworkers with. In fact, this wine is becoming a darling of in-the-know sommeliers! Schiava comes from the Alto Adige region of Italy, and it has everything you are looking for in a chillable red wine: crunchy red fruit flavors, light body, low tannins, and moderate alcohol. And while the wine is sometimes called “weightless” don’t confuse that with being bland or boring, because it is anything but that. Look, you are not going to drink this wine with a big steak, but there’s more to life than big steaks, right?!? Sometimes also called Trollinger and Vernatsch, this is the perfect wine for a summer afternoon, for appetizers and charcuterie, poultry, spicy and sweet barbecue, and, yes, even fish. Red wine and fish?!? Crazy, but true. Often called the white wine drinker’s red wine, Schiava is a wine you need to know, especially if you want to be counted among the trendy. Or not. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2024 Alois Lageder Schiava, 2022 Elena Walch Schiava Send us a Text Message and we'll respond in our next episode! Contact The Wine Pair Podcast - we’d love to hear from you! Visit our website, leave a review, and reach out to us:  https://thewinepairpodcast.com/ Follow and DM us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewinepairpodcast/ Send us an email: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

    Italian Wine Adventure #26: Schiava! Sommeliers Love This Chillable Red!

  3. 16 Aug

    Costco Kirkland Signature Châteauneuf-du-Pape Challenge!

    Châteauneuf-du-Pape is one of the world’s great wines, but many people haven’t tried it because it can be darn expensive. So, when Costco drops their Kirkland Signature version of the wine, the natural question is “should I buy it?” Well, we are here to help you make that decision. Châteauneuf-du-Pape has a rather remarkable history, harkening back to a time when the papacy was in France, not Rome, and even a period when there were two popes for a longer period than you might expect. We talk about that history, as well as some of the rules and restrictions around Châteauneuf-du-Pape. But, what you really want to know is “should I buy it?!?” and that is what we will help you decide in this episode. And just to make sure we are giving you good advice, we compare the Costco Kirkland version to a well regarded and highly rated version of the wine just to make sure. We don’t want to spoil it, but the Kirkland version compares very well. As an extra bonus, we talk about the hot new wine trend called blouge. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2024 Costco Kirkland Signature Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 2023 Domaine du Vieux Lazaret Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Send us a Text Message and we'll respond in our next episode! Contact The Wine Pair Podcast - we’d love to hear from you! Visit our website, leave a review, and reach out to us:  https://thewinepairpodcast.com/ Follow and DM us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewinepairpodcast/ Send us an email: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

    Costco Kirkland Signature Châteauneuf-du-Pape Challenge!

  4. 9 Aug

    Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #25: Brian and Jessica Smith from Wendelin Vines

    Meet Brian and Jessica, a husband and wife winemaking team from Kansas. Yes, you heard that right - Kansas! It’s not as crazy as it sounds. In fact, did you know that in the 1800’s, Kansas was one of the top wine producing states in the country? Brian and Jessica are one of a group of winemakers bringing back winemaking in Kansas through their new winery Wendelin Vines. And, you won’t believe the story of how they got here, but you have to listen in to get the full story. All we’ll say is that their adventure started on a beach in Maui drinking Mimosas at 10 AM in the morning, and today, they are in Kansas making wine. Enough said. We had a wonderful time getting to know Brian and Jessica, and you will, too. They are what happens when curiosity, passion, and DNA combine into something pretty wonderful.  Send us a Text Message and we'll respond in our next episode! Contact The Wine Pair Podcast - we’d love to hear from you! Visit our website, leave a review, and reach out to us:  https://thewinepairpodcast.com/ Follow and DM us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewinepairpodcast/ Send us an email: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

    Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #25: Brian and Jessica Smith from Wendelin Vines

  5. 2 Aug

    Italian Wine Adventure #25: Vermentino! Summer Sipper Contender?

    Nothing says summer like a nice, crisp white wine, and in this episode, we cover one of the greats that you may never have heard of called Vermentino. Vermentino is a fabulous wine most famously from the island of Sardinia that is a perfect summer sipper. Vermentino is also likely to be a wine that you start seeing more often because it comes from a grape that creates these crisp, high acidic wines, but can take the heat in warmer climates and keep its acidity. In addition to digging into Vermentino and tasting and reviewing a couple of great wines you should be on the lookout for, we also talk about the criteria that make a great summer sipper and we give you a short list of some other wines to look out for. Summer isn’t over yet! Enjoy it while it’s here! Wines reviewed in this episode: 2024 ColleMassari Melacce Vermentino, 2022 Tommasi Poggio al Tufo Vermentino Send us a Text Message and we'll respond in our next episode! Contact The Wine Pair Podcast - we’d love to hear from you! Visit our website, leave a review, and reach out to us:  https://thewinepairpodcast.com/ Follow and DM us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewinepairpodcast/ Send us an email: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

    Italian Wine Adventure #25: Vermentino! Summer Sipper Contender?

  6. 26 July

    Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #24: High-Altitude Excellence: Discovering PDO Amyndeon & PGI Florina with Alpha Estate.

    Angelos Iatridis has a philosophy that stuck with us: if you want to be a better man, you make better wine. That's the kind of thoughtful conversation we get into in this special episode, a deep dive into PDO Amyndeon and PGI Florina, two of Greece's protected wine designations, with Angelos from Alpha Estate. He talks about Xinomavro, the region's signature red grape, which is often described as sitting somewhere between Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir, but shaped entirely by Amyndeon's high altitude, its ring of three mountains, and two nearby lakes that keep the climate in balance. He explains why the sandy, limestone soil left behind by an ancient lake gives the wine its acidity, and how that same acidity lets Xinomavro age for decades, slowly turning from red fruit into notes of dried tomato and olive paste. Angelos also opens up about how climate change has actually helped ripening in Amyndeon over the last 30 years, why he believes the best winemaking technology should be invisible in the glass, and how his own daughter's research helped preserve the purest expression of the grape for the next generation. By the end, he's picked the exact bottle he'd bring to a big Sunday family dinner, one he says carries both place and memory. It's a warm, generous conversation with someone who clearly loves what he does, and you'll come away wanting to track down a bottle of his Xinomavro for yourself. Send us a Text Message and we'll respond in our next episode! Contact The Wine Pair Podcast - we’d love to hear from you! Visit our website, leave a review, and reach out to us:  https://thewinepairpodcast.com/ Follow and DM us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewinepairpodcast/ Send us an email: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

    Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #24: High-Altitude Excellence: Discovering PDO Amyndeon & PGI Florina with Alpha Estate.

  7. 19 July

    Gigondas Has a Reputation for Punching You in the Face. Does It Live Up to That?

    Are you a fan of powerful red wines like Châteauneuf-du-Pape but don’t love the price tag? Then Gigondas may be the wine you’ve been waiting for. Gigondas is often called the “little brother” of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and shares many of the same characteristics including hailing from the southern Rhône in France and containing the same GSM or Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre grapes in its blend. And while it is a powerful wine that is the perfect companion to steak frites, it is also extremely balanced and elegant. We’ll explore the history and techniques behind this fabulous wine, but more importantly, we’ll give you our honest review of two Gigondas wines to let you know if either or both are worth your hard-earned money. And as we do every week, we’ll round out our conversation with some “wine in the news this week” fun as well as random side conversations like the names of the two main characters in Revenue of the Nerds. It’s hard to explain. You just have to listen. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2023 Notre Dame des Pallieres Gigondas Les Mourres, 2023 Crous St Martin Gigondas Les Espaliers Send us a Text Message and we'll respond in our next episode! Contact The Wine Pair Podcast - we’d love to hear from you! Visit our website, leave a review, and reach out to us:  https://thewinepairpodcast.com/ Follow and DM us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewinepairpodcast/ Send us an email: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

    Gigondas Has a Reputation for Punching You in the Face. Does It Live Up to That?

  8. 12 July

    WTF is Verdejo?

    If you are stuck in a Sauvignon Blanc rut, then Verdejo is here to come to your rescue. This great white wine from Rueda Spain is very similar to Sauvignon Blanc, in fact it is sometimes called the “love child” between Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio, and it combines many of the wonderful tropical fruit and citrus smells and flavors of Sauv Blanc with just a bit more mouthfeel. This is a lovely wine from Spain’s most important white wine region. Verdejo is a fantastic summer wine, great for sipping outdoors, and awesome with fish and shellfish, fried and salty foods, as well as chicken and charcuterie. It still flies a little under the radar, which is why now is the perfect time to be the one to introduce Verdejo to your family and friends and be considered the cool kid dropping wine knowledge! Wines reviewed in this episode: 2024 Marques de Riscal Rueda Verdejo, 2024 Bodegas Vatan Nisia Old Vines Verdejo Send us a Text Message and we'll respond in our next episode! Contact The Wine Pair Podcast - we’d love to hear from you! Visit our website, leave a review, and reach out to us:  https://thewinepairpodcast.com/ Follow and DM us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewinepairpodcast/ Send us an email: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com

    WTF is Verdejo?
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Ratings & Reviews

3.5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Not every wine is worth buying. The Wine Pair Podcast features a married couple as they try wines they haven't had before, share their brutally honest opinions, and tell you which bottles are worth your money. Each week, Joe and Carmela take on a different grape, wine style, or region, then taste two or three reasonably priced bottles, usually under $25, and describe what they are tasting in ways that are hilarious and actually make sense. Some are great, some are fine, and some absolutely are not worth buying. From Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to grapes you may never have heard of, the show combines useful wine education in plain language, food pairings, affordable recommendations, and the natural chemistry of two people who know each other well enough to disagree. A lot. Joe and Carmela purchase the wines featured in their regular review episodes and do not accept free samples for review, so the opinions and ratings are entirely their own. Recommended by Decanter Magazine, which called the show "fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining." New episodes every Sunday. Contact: joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. Instagram: @thewinepairpodcast. Website:  thewinepairpodcast.com.

Information

  • Creator
    The Wine Pair
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    255
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Wine Pair Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Wine Pair Podcast

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