The Wine Pair Podcast

The Wine Pair
  • 4.3 (49)
  • 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. 4d ago

    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

  2. Aug 2

    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?

  3. Jul 26

    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.

  4. Jul 19

    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?

  5. Jul 12

    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?

  6. Jul 5

    Costco Kirkland Signature Bordeaux Wine Challenge: 2023 Pauillac and 2023 Saint-Julien!

    We all know that Costco wine moment when you see a Kirkland Signature wine and you wonder, should I get it? Well, we are here to tell you that you should snatch up these two beauties if you see them. The Costco Kirkland Signature 2023 Pauillac and 2023 Saint-Julien are great Bordeaux wines that you will not be able to find at this quality at this price anywhere else. But wait, are you confused by French wine and don’t know what kinds of grapes go into Pauillac and Saint-Julien? You are not alone, and we will help decode these Left Bank red Bordeaux wines from Haut-Médoc. Did we lose you already? Don’t worry. Just know that these are going to be Cabernet Sauvignon heavy blends, and the rest we’ll tell you about in this episode. Also know that we do not usually love Cabernet Sauvignon, so we were really pleasantly surprised by how much we liked these wines. Join us for a fun learning adventure! Wines reviewed in this episode: 2023 Costco Kirkland Signature Saint-Julien, 2023 Costco Kirkland Signature Pauillac. 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 Bordeaux Wine Challenge: 2023 Pauillac and 2023 Saint-Julien!

  7. Jun 28

    Is Moscato d'Asti the Sweet Wine Serious Wine People Won't Admit They Love?

    When asked, most people say they like dry wines rather than sweet wines, but is that really true? Based on the most popular wines in the United States, it doesn’t seem like it. At all. One of the most popular wine varietals in the US is Moscato, and the sweet wine Moscato d’Asti is one of the most well known, and well loved wines in the world. Just ask Costco who sells a ton of the stuff. And there are some obvious reasons why. First, it’s delicious, and second, humans are hard wired to be attracted to sweet. So, why do sweet wines get a bad rap? Some of it is for health reasons, frankly, but some of it is because wine snobs tend to look down their nose at sweet wines, and that’s not really fair. For much of the world’s history, sweet wines were the preferred wines, and based on sales of popular wines today, which we will cover in this episode, it seems quite obvious that they are still preferred by many, many consumers. So, we’ll let you know what we think, and if either of the wines we reviewed today are worth checking out. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2025 Kirkland Signature Moscato d’Asti, 2024 Saracco Moscato d'Asti 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

    Is Moscato d'Asti the Sweet Wine Serious Wine People Won't Admit They Love?

  8. Jun 21

    This Ain't Chianti: Is Italian Sangiovese Better Outside Tuscany?

    Sangiovese is the classic example of how a wine can taste completely different depending on where it is from and how it is made, and this episode demonstrates that fact in spades. Sangiovese is one of the great Italian wine grapes, but because of its strong association with the wine Chianti, it has a bit of a mixed reputation. In its defense, Chianti is really a food wine which is where its acidity really shines. But Sangiovese itself is an amazing wine grape that can vary from light and fruity like a Gamay to velvety and smooth like a Merlot. On that note, it may surprise you to know that about half of all of the Sangiovese grown in Italy is not grown in Tuscany, and regions like Puglia, Emilia-Romagna and Marche are making fantastic versions of it. In this episode, we taste and review two wines made from 100% Sangiovese from Umbria and tiny Molise, and without spoiling it too much, we can tell you that they are very different wines, almost hard to tell they are from the same grape, and are different than Chianti. In a good way. Join us to find out more! Wines reviewed in this episode: 2022 Cantina Roccafiore Melograno, 2021 Di Majo Norante Terre degli Osci Sangiovese 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

    This Ain't Chianti: Is Italian Sangiovese Better Outside Tuscany?
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4.3
out of 5
49 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
    252
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Wine Pair Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Wine Pair Podcast