The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast

Forrest Kelly
  • 4.9 (72)
  • FOOD
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast delivers quick wine education for busy wine lovers. Host Forrest Kelly interviews sommeliers, winemakers, chefs, and wine experts sharing practical wine tips, wine pairing advice, wine tasting notes, and insider secrets from Napa Valley to Bordeaux. Voted one of The Best Wine, Food and Travel Podcasts!

  1. How COVID Accidentally Launched a Cocktail Tech Revolution — Shared Spirits Party Pack Pt. 4

    4H AGO

    How COVID Accidentally Launched a Cocktail Tech Revolution — Shared Spirits Party Pack Pt. 4

    What you’ll learn: How Nashville’s bachelorette scene inspired the “Party Pack” model Why Shared Spirits struggled pre‑COVID — and why everything changed afterward How QR codes, Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats trained customers for mobile transactions Why people now trust text‑based drink gifting How the app notifies recipients, customizes messages, and handles number masking Why mobile‑first behavior made “buying someone a drink” digitally feel normal How the backend logistics evolved to support campaigns, gifting, and redemption Key takeaway: COVID didn’t just change restaurants — it changed customer behavior, paving the way for Shared Spirits to thrive. Guest: Sherman Mohr — Co‑founder of Shared Spirits. @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    5 min
  2. The Wine Forgery That Cost a Billionaire $35 Million — And Nobody Went to Jail

    1D AGO

    The Wine Forgery That Cost a Billionaire $35 Million — And Nobody Went to Jail

    Thomas Jefferson didn't just like wine — he was consumed by it. He walked the vineyards of Bordeaux, shipped Sauternes to George Washington, advised four presidents on what to pour at state dinners, and kept obsessive records of every single bottle he ever purchased. Over three decades, that total reached 20,000 bottles. So in 1985, when a German wine dealer named Hardy Rodenstock surfaced with bottles of 18th-century wine etched with the initials "T.J." — allegedly discovered behind a bricked-up wall in a Paris building — the story was irresistible. A 1787 Château Lafite went to auction at Christie's and sold to Malcolm Forbes for $156,000. Still the highest price ever paid for a single bottle of wine. American billionaire Bill Koch bought four more. Then in 2005, he called Monticello to authenticate them — and everything unraveled. Jefferson's foundation said the bottles had no place in his meticulous records. Forensics experts examined the etched initials and concluded they'd been made with an electric power tool. A Dremel drill. In the 18th century. Koch spent over $35 million investigating. He sued Rodenstock — whose real name turned out to be Meinhard Görke — sued Christie's, sued auction houses across two continents. Investigators uncovered a label forger in Germany who had been printing fake provenance labels for Rodenstock for years. Rodenstock refused to appear in an American court. A judge ruled against him in absentia. He never paid a cent. The front label tells you what they want you to know. The back label tells you everything else. @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    6 min
  3. The Ancient Myth Hidden Inside This Stunning Wine Label Pt. 4

    2D AGO

    The Ancient Myth Hidden Inside This Stunning Wine Label Pt. 4

    Maba designed the bottle immediately after his first winemaker meeting in August — the creative energy was instant.  The bottle's medallion design was intentional: he wanted it to feel like a collector's coin, something giftable and meaningful The label tells the story of the Dogon people — an ancient West African cosmology involving beings who traveled to Earth in a whale-like vessel through the ocean. Design philosophy: "striking simplicity" — influenced by his storytelling and film background  The tasting notes on the website (color, nose, palate, finish) took far longer to write than the visual design — condensing complex ideas into simple, evocative language is the real challenge. Maba references the Blaise Pascal quote about a long letter: "I didn't have time to write a short one" — brevity is the hardest craft. He keeps notebooks everywhere, including bedside, to capture early morning ideas (often 4–5am) Forrest relates — both he and Maba are early-morning creative thinkers who chase ideas before they disappear.  @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    5 min
  4. App That Lets You Buy Someone a Cocktail From Anywhere — Why Restaurants Love It Pt. 3

    APR 30

    App That Lets You Buy Someone a Cocktail From Anywhere — Why Restaurants Love It Pt. 3

    What you’ll learn: Why restaurant experiences are built on more than just food How Shared Spirits works from login to drink redemption Why it’s essentially “Venmo for cocktails” How drink gifting creates new marketing opportunities for bars and brands The power of real‑time redemption data How restaurants can see pending drink credits and market to those customers How unused drinks can be forwarded to someone else How brands deploy 100–200 drink campaigns through ambassadors, reps, and influencers Why this data becomes extremely valuable for suppliers and operators Key takeaway: Shared Spirits isn’t just a gifting tool — it’s a data‑driven hospitality engine that connects customers, restaurants, and brands in a completely new way. Guest: Sherman Mohr — Co‑founder of Shared Spirits. @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    6 min
  5. She Had No Legal Rights. She Changed Wine Forever. The Veuve Clicquot Story

    APR 29

    She Had No Legal Rights. She Changed Wine Forever. The Veuve Clicquot Story

    In 1805, a 27-year-old French widow was handed a struggling wine business, a mountain of debt, and a legal system that said she had no right to run either. Her name was Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin. You know her today as Veuve Clicquot. What she built in the decades that followed didn't just save a family business — it changed how every bottle of champagne on earth is made. In this episode of The Back Label, we follow the widow's journey from a stone house in Reims to the Russian Imperial Court — through Napoleon's blockades, a revolutionary invention made from a simple wooden board, and a shipment of 10,550 bottles that beat every competitor to market by weeks. And then — the full pour. Nearly two hundred years after her death, a group of Finnish scuba divers found something at the bottom of the Baltic Sea that nobody expected. Her champagne. Still good. @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    5 min
  6. Flying Whale Wine: The Story Behind the Black Bottle Pt. 3

    APR 28

    Flying Whale Wine: The Story Behind the Black Bottle Pt. 3

    Flying Whale Wine - Maba Ba The Gold: This wine boasts a beautiful color, with a deep garnet hue. Its complex bouquet reveals ripe fruits, particularly cherry, complemented by subtle notes of vanilla-spiced aromas. Rich and well-structured, this cuvée, with its silky tannins, offers a pleasingly long finish. 60% Grenache Noir | 40% Syrah  THE ROSE GOLD: This wine boasts a beautiful color, with a deep garnet hue. Its complex bouquet reveals ripe fruits, particularly cherry, complemented by subtle notes of vanilla-spiced aromas. Rich and well-structured, this cuvée, with its silky tannins, offers a pleasingly long finish. 70% Grenache | 30% Syrah @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    5 min
  7. Secret World Behind Wine Lists: How Restaurants REALLY Choose Your Bottle Pt. 2

    APR 23

    Secret World Behind Wine Lists: How Restaurants REALLY Choose Your Bottle Pt. 2

    Topics covered: Why restaurants are still the #1 place where wine brands are built How distributors and suppliers decide which wines get shelf space The role of brand ambassadors and in‑store “activations” Real‑time POS data and how close the industry is to instant analytics Why sampling is expensive — especially when the bottle retails for $80 The difference between impulse‑buy wines and high‑end decision‑tree wines How store expertise varies wildly from state to state and shop to shop Key insight: Behind every bottle on a shelf is a mix of relationships, data, sampling budgets, and strategy — not just taste. Guest: Sherman Mohr — wine industry expert and co‑founder of SharedSpirits.com @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    6 min
  8. The Wine Tasting That Broke France (And Changed Everything)

    APR 22

    The Wine Tasting That Broke France (And Changed Everything)

    It's one of the most dramatic moments in wine history — and it almost didn't happen. Steven Spurrier, an Englishman running a small wine shop and the first independent wine school in Paris, organized what was supposed to be a friendly Franco-American comparison in honor of the U.S. bicentennial. His colleague Patricia Gallagher had visited Napa, tasted the wines, and believed. The California winemakers themselves had no idea their bottles were even entered. Getting the wine to Paris was its own adventure — Patricia Gallagher sweet-talked TWA passengers into carrying bottles in their personal luggage just to get past the two-bottle limit. The blind tasting results stunned the room. A Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena topped France's finest Burgundies. The 1973 Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon outscored Château Mouton Rothschild and Château Haut-Brion. One judge demanded her ballot back. Spurrier was reportedly banned from France's prestigious wine tour circuit for a year. The lone journalist in the room filed his story for Time magazine. It ran on page 85, next to a tire ad. Nobody thought it mattered. Then came 2006. The same wines, tasted again — 30 years later. The French had long insisted California wines couldn't age. The rematch told a different story: all top five wines were from California. The whole story comes alive in the film Bottle Shock — highly recommended viewing. @thebestwinepod Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network: Wine Podcast Music Podcast Travel Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    5 min
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4.9
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72 Ratings

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The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast delivers quick wine education for busy wine lovers. Host Forrest Kelly interviews sommeliers, winemakers, chefs, and wine experts sharing practical wine tips, wine pairing advice, wine tasting notes, and insider secrets from Napa Valley to Bordeaux. Voted one of The Best Wine, Food and Travel Podcasts!

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