The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast

Forrest Kelly
  • 4.9 (80)
  • 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. 5h ago

    We Didn't Come Here to Take, We Came Here to Give" — Gino & His Father's American Dream Pt. 4

    Every great business has a moment when the founder walks into a stranger's establishment and has to sell the dream from scratch. For Gino Santos, that pitch had three parts: increase your margins, keep your customers coming back, and make your wait staff more money — all with just a beer and wine license. In this final installment of the Premium Blend series, Forrest gets the full story: Why Premium Blend launched in plastic bottles — a practical shipping decision when you're self-distributing across Florida with almost no capital Why plastic has actually become a selling point for bars and restaurants where dropped bottles are a real cost The three-part sales pitch Gino used to walk cold into venues: higher profit margins, increased customer retention, and bigger tips for waitstaff How Premium Blend sales presentations work — Henry and Gino would show up with bags of product like they were moving in, letting everyone taste everything Blind taste tests against actual rum, tequila, and more — and why the cocktails are indistinguishable Pricing breakdown: roughly $8–$10 per liter depending on state alcohol tax The philosophy behind the business: owning a company, not just having a job A moving tribute to their late father, Orestes Santos — the Cuban musician who said "we didn't come here to take, we came here to give" — and what he would think seeing his sons build something that employs people and sustains small businesses across the country Learn more at premiumblend.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.

    We Didn't Come Here to Take, We Came Here to Give" — Gino & His Father's American Dream Pt. 4

  2. 1d ago

    Certified Som Flashcards to James Beard Award — Maryse Origin Story Pt. 5

    The series wraps by going back to the beginning. Maryse Chevriere opens with the closure debate and dismantles an old-school myth: you absolutely can have great wine under a screwcap — some of the world's best Rieslings are sealed that way. She gets the confusion, since screwcaps are also a cheaper closure found on inexpensive bottles, but her position is simple: if the wine is good, she doesn't care how it's sealed. Corkscrews have more flair, sure, and she offers a pro tip on the trickier wax-topped bottles — drive the corkscrew straight in rather than trying to peel all the wax off first. Then a quiz question with real teaching value: when an expert calls a wine "approachable," they mean it's easy to drink and enjoyable right now — friendly, no curveballs. Not a polite way of saying cheap, though your greatest Barolo, Bordeaux, or Champagne probably isn't "approachable" in the same way. Think Tuesday-night wine rather than Friday date-night bottle. Maryse also shares the human side: the close-minded customer she'd love to secretly test with a box wine, her genuine modesty about calling herself an illustrator ("I like to draw... it was a hobby"), and the James Beard Award she won in the humor category for the media awards — standing out as an illustrator among writers. The payoff is the full-circle reveal. Forrest plays a mystery voice, and Maryse immediately identifies Master Sommelier Ian Cauble. It turns out her whole project traces back to him. While studying for her certified sommelier exam and clicking around Instagram, she was struck by how visually evocative — and delightfully silly — wine language can be. Coming to wine a little later herself and not always feeling like she fit in with the somm crowd, she found her own way to contribute. And Ian's iconic line — that a wine tastes like fresh cut garden hose — was so perfect it named the whole thing. A fitting finale for the Wine-Curious: proof that the most memorable wine language comes from having fun with it. @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.

    Certified Som Flashcards to James Beard Award — Maryse Origin Story Pt. 5

  3. 3d ago

    Keith Urban: The Golden Road Interview — From the Vault Pt. 1

    In Part 1, Keith laughs through a surprise call to a bed-and-breakfast in his hometown of Caboolture, Australia (where the locals are more sure about the Crocodile Hunter than the future superstar), talks about flying his mum and dad over for the CMAs, and admits the Aussie beers he still misses back in the States. He opens up about the Farmhand drought-relief broadcast beamed to Australia via satellite, his love of Farm Aid and Willie Nelson, and where his best song ideas tend to strike — the shower. Plus a caller phones in about the Somebody Like You video with Niki Taylor. A warm, funny, genuine snapshot of Keith Urban on the rise. Show notes (timestamped highlights) The montage intro and the "urban legend" welcome The surprise call home to Caboolture — and Gloria's Crocodile Hunter mix-up Bringing mum and dad over for the CMAs The Aussie beers Keith misses: VB and Coopers (and a shot at Fosters) Anaheim House of Blues and the Farmhand drought-relief satellite broadcast Farm Aid, Willie Nelson, and why helping farmers touches everyone Songwriting in the shower — and the "wet trail to the tape deck" A caller rings in about the Somebody Like You video with Niki Taylor @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.

    Keith Urban: The Golden Road Interview — From the Vault Pt. 1

  4. 5d ago

    100% Blue Agave in Jalisco — But It's Not Tequila. Premium Blend Product Line Revealed Pt. 3

    What started as a workaround for the cocktail licensing gap has evolved into something much bigger. Premium Blend's Agave Wine Collection isn't just a tequila substitute anymore — California restaurants are doing bottle service with it, customers are taking shots, and people are drinking it straight because at 48 proof, it's smoother with none of the burn. In this episode, Gino Santos walks Forrest through: The philosophy behind product development — Gino won't sell something he doesn't believe in himself The full Agave Wine Collection lineup: Tequesta and Ginete (blanco-style), Guitarron (reposado-style), Guitarron Classico, Zapotec (mezcal-style), and El Guitarron Cristalino Why the products are made from 100% blue agave sourced in Jalisco, Mexico — the same region as the world's finest tequilas The evolution from masking the product in cocktails to serving it straight — and why that shift matters How "wine snobs" remain a persistent challenge, and why the term "wine-based liquor" is a deliberate positioning decision What Gino's day actually looks like as president: strategic, legal, and financial vision — thinking about next year, not today A telling detail: Forrest signed up on the Premium Blend website and had samples at his door within 24 hours The product has come a long way since the trade show days of convincing skeptics one sip at a time. Learn more at premiumblend.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.

    100% Blue Agave in Jalisco — But It's Not Tequila. Premium Blend Product Line Revealed Pt. 3

  5. 6d ago

    Good Legs and Sniffing the Cork: Wine Myths a Somm Wants Gone Pt. 4

    Maryse Chevriere a five-question, multiple-choice wine quiz, and her answers double as a myth-busting crash course. Why do sommeliers have you taste before pouring the full glass? To check whether the wine is corked or flawed — and, honestly, to catch whether you simply don't like it. Maryse would rather figure that out early, pour the bottle by the glass, and steer you toward something you'll love than watch you pay for a bottle you'll never finish. And that returned bottle needn't go to waste: if it isn't faulty, let the staff taste it so they can sell it by the glass as a special. Everybody wins. "Good legs"? It's about sugar and alcohol content — not quality, not price, and definitely not a Boston Marathon qualifying time. Maryse calls it a phrase you don't really need anymore, though it opens a lovely tangent about her dad, an old-school wine lover whose family hailed from Bordeaux and who was sure those were simply the best wines there were. As she learned the subject herself, she realized his confidence came from a narrow lens — but he enjoyed wine and had a good time, and sometimes that's its own kind of bliss. Why swirl? To release the aromas — the contact with air wakes the wine up. She half-loves Forrest's alternate theory that you're summoning the flavor gods. On tasting technique, she suggests drawing in a little air like sipping through a mini cocktail straw (no gargling required) and letting the wine touch all points of your palate, since you taste different things in different places — without getting too fancy about it. And sniffing the cork? Mostly theater. A cork smells like cork. If you want to know whether a wine is tainted, smell the wine in the glass, not the stopper — a lesson she picked up early in her training. For the Wine-Curious listener, it's five minutes of permission to stop being intimidated by the rituals — and to understand what's worth doing and what's just for show. @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.

    Good Legs and Sniffing the Cork: Wine Myths a Somm Wants Gone Pt. 4

  6. Jul 28

    Coast Guard, Cold Milk, and a Cuban Kid's First Taste of America Pt. 2

    Sandwiches and cold milk. That's what greeted a five-year-old Gino Santos when the U.S. Coast Guard pulled his family off a sinking shrimp boat and brought them ashore in Key West. For a kid who had just spent the crossing crammed into a shrimp hold with his grandmother, it was heaven. That same resilience and hunger would define Gino's path decades later when he and his brother Henry built Premium Blend Cocktails from nothing. In this episode, Gino walks Forrest through: The harrowing details of the family's escape from Cuba — a stolen shrimp boat, Soviet-era communism, a Bay of Pigs connection, and a Coast Guard rescue His academic path through Stetson University and an MBA from the University of Miami How a sales job with Oscar Mayer led him to discover a wine-based spirit product that nobody was marketing correctly The origin of the Premium Blend partnership with his brother Henry, who was running a Colombian mining equipment company in Miami at the time The critical role of Florida Distillers and a mentor named Chris Mitchell, who took a chance on two unknown entrepreneurs with no industry experience Why education was Premium Blend's biggest early challenge — and how "getting the liquid to the lips" at trade shows and samplings changed everything The wine-based cocktail space has exploded since the 90s, and Premium Blend was there at the beginning — grinding through skepticism one margarita at a time. Learn more at premiumblend.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.

    Coast Guard, Cold Milk, and a Cuban Kid's First Taste of America Pt. 2

  7. Jul 27

    Golden Retriever Energy: Wine Book Throws Out the Snob Rules Pt. 3

    The best way to learn wine, Maryse Chevriere argues, isn't to read about it — it's to pour two glasses and taste the difference. In this episode she walks Forrest through the drinking games tucked into How to Sound Wine Smart, designed to make abstract concepts click through direct comparison. Think a wine you assumed was sweet suddenly revealing itself as dry when set beside an actually sweet one, a shy grape next to an aromatic Gewürztraminer, or one bottle tasted at first sip, again at thirty minutes, and again at two hours to feel what time and air really do. There are no winners, no losers, and no test — just an experience built to make the lesson stick and get people genuinely excited to drink wine. Maryse also pulls back the curtain on making the book. Illustrating it took five or six months — most of them while she was pregnant — and proved trickier than expected. On Instagram, funny tasting notes hand her ready-made visual ideas; for the book she deliberately chose the generic, professional terms people actually use, which meant figuring out how to paint something as abstract as "rustic," "silky," or "leathery." Writing was its own slow burn, since she's a self-described fiddler who can't move on until a line sounds exactly right. Asked for her home run, she points to the "character" chapter. Instead of the technical checklist of fruits, non-fruits, and "medium-plus" this-and-that she was trained in, she gives readers something more relatable: a wine that's friendly, that's giving golden retriever energy. It's a warmer, more human way in. Forrest names the throughline — she's not dumbing wine down, she's making something genuinely complex feel approachable. This isn't soda off an assembly line; it's the product of an enormous amount of craft, and she wants more people to feel welcome to it. Maryse agrees, wondering aloud why wine intimidates people in a way that describing a restaurant dish or a piece of art simply doesn't. The stigma, she says, is what wine has had to work hardest to overcome — and helping people get past it is the whole point. @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.

    Golden Retriever Energy: Wine Book Throws Out the Snob Rules Pt. 3

  8. Jul 23

    No Liquor License? No Problem. Premium Blend Cocktails Is Disrupting the Industry Pt. 1

    Ever wonder why your favorite neighborhood restaurant doesn't serve cocktails? Chances are it comes down to one thing: the liquor license. In many states, a full liquor license can run well into six or seven figures on the open market — making it virtually impossible for small and mid-sized venues to offer a full bar program. That's exactly the problem Gino Santos and his brother Henry set out to solve with Premium Blend Cocktails. Their wine-based spirits are legally classified as wine — meaning any venue with a basic beer and wine license (which in Florida costs around $400) can serve them. The result? Cocktail-style drinks, no liquor license required. In this episode, Gino explains: Why liquor licenses are so expensive and hard to obtain How Premium Blend products are formulated to qualify legally as wine The difference between a liquor license and a beer-and-wine license — and why it matters for thousands of venues How his family escaped Cuba thanks to an uncle who literally stole a boat Growing up bilingual in Newark and Miami with a famous Cuban singer-songwriter father @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.

    No Liquor License? No Problem. Premium Blend Cocktails Is Disrupting the Industry Pt. 1
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4.9
out of 5
80 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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