The Wine Pair Podcast
The Wine Pair
1 Creator
1 Creator
Recommended by Decanter Magazine who call The Wine Pair Podcast fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining! In each episode, husband and wife team Joe and Carmela learn about, taste, and give our honest review of three wines that are reasonably priced - meaning under $25 each - and easy to find. Our podcast is made for people who want to learn more about wine, find new wines to enjoy, and just want someone to talk about wine in a fun and funny way that regular people can understand. So, if that sounds like you, you are in the right place!
Contact us at [email protected]
Instagram: @thewinepairpodcast
Website: https://thewinepairpodcast.com/
1 Listener
All episodes
Best episodes
Seasons
Top 10 The Wine Pair Podcast Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Wine Pair Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Wine Pair Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Wine Pair Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Orange Wines: The Thing for Spring! (WTF is Orange Wine? Wine hype, Spring wines, Easter wines, natural and vegan wine, similarities to rosé, Ramato)
The Wine Pair Podcast
04/02/23 • 47 min
Wondering if you should get on the Orange wine bandwagon but a little hesitant to try? Don’t worry - we will demystify Orange wine for you and help convince you that it is a bandwagon you should just jump right on! Not sure what Orange wine is? Well, it’s not wine made from Oranges, but it is a style of wine you need to know because it is growing in popularity and even getting some hype! If you are a rosé drinker, this is a wine for you. Wait, you say you are a red wine drinker? Then this is also a wine for you! Hold on, you like white wines, well . . . then you’ll like this wine! Intrigued?!? You should be. Orange wine covers a broad spectrum of grapes and tastes, and really does have something for everyone - you just need to know what Orange wines to try, and we will help you out! And if you are a vegan wine or natural wine fan, Orange wines are right up your alley. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2020 L’un des Sens Orange wine, 2021 Winzer Krems Orange Grüner Veltliner, and 2020 Poderi DiCarlo Pinot Grigio Orange Wine.
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: [email protected]
1 Listener
What’s All the Fuss About South African Chenin Blanc?
The Wine Pair Podcast
12/08/24 • 42 min
Chenin Blanc is the “it” wine in South Africa, but is it worth the hype? Spoiler alert - if you like an oaky Chardonnay or white wines with some body, you may really like this wine! No one is really sure how Chenin Blanc got to South Africa, or why it has been called Steen there for centuries, but one thing is for sure - if you want to taste some of the best Chenin Blanc in the world outside of France, the first place you need to turn to is South Africa. South Africa makes more than 50% of all the Chenin Blanc in the world, and has a strong reputation today for making excellent wine - but it wasn’t always the case. In this episode, we explore a bit of the history of Chenin Blanc from South Africa, and we taste and review two reasonably priced and easy to find South African Chenin Blancs which we bought at Total Wine (boo!) to see if they are worth your hard-earned money. And a shout out to listener Dominic who suggested this episode. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2024 Blaauwklippen Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc, 2023 Spier Seaward Chenin Blanc
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: [email protected]
Are Layer Cake Wines Any Good?
The Wine Pair Podcast
03/16/25 • 46 min
We had mixed expectations about Layer Cake Wines. On the one hand, Layer Cake was started by a winemaker who produces some of the most expensive and highest rated wines in the U.S. via their Hundred Acre label. On the other hand, “layer cake” is hardly a name one would give a sophisticated, serious wine. So which one is it? In this latest episode, we try to give Layer Cake wines an honest shot to impress us, reserving our judgment until we had the chance to taste them. We’ll let you judge for yourself, but in our opinion, these are not good wines, or at least not wines for anyone who is serious about wine. And maybe that’s the point. Very similar to our experience with Josh Wines, we think you can do much better at their price point. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2022 Layer Cake Creamy Chardonnay, 2021 Layer Cake Cabernet Sauvignon.
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: [email protected]
Portuguese Wine Primer #3: Douro Tinto!
The Wine Pair Podcast
05/18/25 • 41 min
Douro Tinto is often called a “Steakhouse Wine” but that really doesn’t do it justice. This fabulous wine from the Douro region of Portugal - an area most famous for the fortified wine Port - is a rich, smooth, and lovely drinking wine that needs to be on your table. Grown on very steep hillsides, the variety of the grapes in the blend can include up to 50 varieties, but the majority of the blend is usually Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Roriz - which is the Portuguese name for Tempranillo, most famously in Rioja wines from Spain. Because of the wide-variety of grapes used, the blends can vary, but overall you can expect a lush, juicy wine with enough acidity that it pairs amazingly well with food. If you are looking for an alternative to your rich Syrah or Bordeaux or Napa Cab, and you want a wine with more balance and less punch-you-in-the-face oak, Douro Tinto is a wine you have to seek out. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2019 Quinta das Carvalhas Douro Tinto, 2021 Wine & Soul Manoella Douro Tinto
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: [email protected]
WTF is Alicante Bouschet aka Garnacha Tintorera?
The Wine Pair Podcast
09/22/24 • 39 min
Did you know that most red wine grapes do not have red flesh? That is what makes teinturier grapes so unique, and why this is a great episode for expanding your wine knowledge and wine horizons. Alicante Bouschet, as would be appropriate, is one of those grapes. Derived from the French term for “dye” or “stain,” teinturier grapes have red flesh to match their red skins. Crazy, right?!? Alicante Bouschet is not a wine for the faint of heart. Hailing from Portugal and Spain, where it is better known as Garnacha Tintorera, this is a big, bold wine that will knock your socks off. In this episode, we discuss what the teinturier grapes are, and why Alicante Bouschet was a favorite wine for home winemakers during Prohibition. If you are a looking for an alternative to the same old Cabernet Sauvignon, this could be the wine for you. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2021 Terra d'Alter Alicante Bouschet, 2020 Bodegas Venta La Vega Adaras Calizo Garnacha Tintorera.
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: [email protected]
They Make Wine in Armenia?!? (SOMM: Cup of Salvation)
The Wine Pair Podcast
10/27/24 • 42 min
Armenia may be the oldest wine making region in the world, and yet, have you ever had wine from Armenia? There are some good reasons why that may be, and probably most likely because when they were part of the Soviet Union, the government forced them to make fortified wines like brandy, and the winemaking industry was forced to go underground. Over the past few decades, however, winemaking is having a bit of a renaissance, led by people like Vahe and Aimee Keushguerian who literally risk their lives to make wine. Inspired by the documentary Cup of Salvation based on a recommendation from a listener, we set out to find some Armenian wines - and we found them (and so can you!). The story of these wines and the people who make them is fascinating and more than worth learning about. Please join us to start your own journey to find out more about Armenian wine! Wines reviewed in this episode: 2019 Van Ardi Red Blend, Keush Origins Sparkling Wine
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: [email protected]
The Best and Worst Rated Wines of 2023! (Over 115 wines rated this year, why you should trust our ratings)
The Wine Pair Podcast
12/24/23 • 40 min
Welcome to our end of the year retrospective, review, and wrap for The Wine Pair Podcast! In this episode we review our highest and lowest rated wines of the year. Believe it or not, in 2023 we tasted and reviewed about 120 wines, and out of all of those wines, just a handful got ratings of 9 or 10, or got ratings of 4 or under.
If you are looking for a list of great wines to buy, or bad wines to avoid, this is the perfect episode for you!
Some fun things we found as we reviewed these wines. First, Joe tends to grade a bit harder on the lower end of wines than Carmela does. Not a surprise there since Carmela is the nice one!
Second, Carmela tends to rate white wines just a bit higher than Joe, and Joe tends to rate red wines just a bit higher than Carmela.
Third, our top rated wines are a good mix of red, white, rosé, and sparkling, and also a good mix of wines from around the world. We have wines in the tip top of our ratings from France, Spain, Italy, and the United States. No matter what wine you like, we think you’ll find one represented in our “best of” review.
And for our worst rated wines, well, they all happened to come from the state of California. Which is not a huge surprise because they make A LOT of wine in California, but also because we tend to find the style of California wine that makes it on the grocery store shelves lacking in subtlety and elegance. What we call “punch-you-in-the-face” wines.
Finally, we’ll tell you why we think our reviews are more useful and reliable than the 100 point professional ratings - and it’s mostly because we share with you when we like and don’t like a wine, and the pros do not!
Join us for a super fun ride, and we would love to hear what your favorite and least favorite wines were this year, too!
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: [email protected]
WTF is Châteauneuf-du-Pape? (A wine with a direct line to the Pope)
The Wine Pair Podcast
05/04/25 • 46 min
As the Cardinals head into Conclave to elect the new Pope, we head into our studio (ok, it's our basement, but whatever) to dig into a big, bold, red wine that links directly to the Papacy when it was in France. The Pape in Châteauneuf-du-Pape refers to, you guessed it, the Pope, and the name means “The Pope’s New Castle.” But did you know that Pope John the XXII actually had this papal castle built on the land that makes this wine? Châteauneuf-du-Pape would not normally be a wine that would make it onto our podcast - not because it isn’t good, but because it is a pricey wine, generally well above our $25 price cap. But for an occasion as rare and important as the election of a new Pope, we decided it was the perfect time to break the bank and taste and review this classic Grenache-focused wine with deep, historical roots. The real question is - are any of the wines we reviewed worthy of a papal blessing?!? Wines reviewed in this episode: 2023 Marc Bonadieu Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 2020 Domaine Baptiste Hillaire La Part Des Anges 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: [email protected]
Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #9: Victor Schoenfeld, Head Winemaker of Golan Heights Winery!
The Wine Pair Podcast
07/28/24 • 36 min
Did you know they make award winning wines in Israel? In this special episode, we have the honor to speak with Victor Schoenfeld, Head Winemaker at Golan Heights Winery and one of the pioneers of modern winemaking in Israel. Victor shares with us his journey and how we combined his love of food and interest in agriculture into a career in wine that started down a very traditional path - working for Mondavi and Champagne house Jacquesson & Fils in France - which then took a serendipitous turn to Israel and Golan Heights winery. In this interview, we learn about the challenges of growing wines in Israel, his intense focus on terroir so that he can bring out the unique attributes of wines grown and made in Israel, and how he brings his special talents to the art and science of winemaking. We also talk about the recently released vintage of their limited quantity Yarden Cru Elite Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a great interview with a winemaker who will definitely open your eyes to things you neve knew about wine.
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: [email protected]
Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #12: Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron of Invivo Wine!
The Wine Pair Podcast
01/05/25 • 39 min
How do you start a wine making partnership with Sarah Jessica Parker? It turns out, all you have to do is ask - as long as you have an award-winning wine brand and savvy business partners with years of experience. In this special episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with New Zealanders and business partners Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron of Invivo - where Rob is the winemaker and Tim is the director. After getting their degrees in physiology and one of them starting a pain relief cream business (not a joke), these childhood friends found themselves at a pub in England and hatched the plan for Invivo wines. Years of sweat and grit got them to where they are today, with an internationally known and distributed wine brand, and collaborations with Graham Norton and Sarah Jessica Parker. And in case you think these are just names slapped on the labels, Tim and Rob ensure that Norton and SJP are directly involved in the blending of their wines. Listen in to hear about their fascinating story, how storytelling is at the center of what they are trying to create, and learn more about their motto “Break Dumb Rules.”
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: [email protected]
Show more best episodes
Show more best episodes
Featured in these lists
Podcast Q&A
Why did you start this show?
We love wine, we love learning about wine, and we love exploring new wines, so the podcast is an opportunity for us to share that with others. We also love a good bargain and hate to overspend, and so we also wanted to focus our show on the everyday wine drinker who really just wants to find a reasonably priced bottle of wine that they will enjoy. At its heart, wine is about culture, cuisine, history, geography, the land, and careful crafting, so there is a lot more to wine than just the juice.
What do you hope listeners gain from listening to your show?
Our podcast is for people like us, people who love wine and want to know more about wine but are sort of intimidated by it. We want our listeners to learn more about wine in a fun, funny, informal yet educational way. And, we want our listeners to discover that there is a lot more wine out there than the typical Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Merlot. In Italy alone there are nearly 350 different varietals, and so there is a vast world of wine to discover and enjoy with us!
Which episode should someone start with?
The podcast has evolved some from our early days, so one idea for a good place to start is around episode 26 which is entitled WTF is Gamay? Another idea is just to find a wine that you are interested in, intrigued by, or confused about and start there.
Which have been your favourite episodes so far?
Like with our children, we don't pick favorites (although the WTF episodes are pretty fun).
Which episode are you most proud of?
We are proud of all of our episodes, but we are very proud to say that our podcast was recommended by the editors of Decanter Magazine in their October 2022 issue, and they described us this way: “This entertaining US podcast by Seattle-based husband-and-wife team Joe and Carmela is a fun, irreverent, and chatty introduction to wine, with lots of wine basics, food pairing tips and explainers on varieties and styles."
What is your vision for your show?
The focus of our podcast is to help people learn about and discover reasonably priced wines - meaning under $20 - that are relatively easy to find at a local or online store. Our basic format is to focus on a specific varietal or type of wine, give some background and history on it, and then taste and review three wines and talk about what food would pair with the wine. We aim to make it fun, funny, relatable, and easy to understand.
What is your favourite other podcast that isn't yours?
We have lots of podcasts we love, and you can check out a few of them on our list.
How did you come up with the name for your podcast?
We are a pair that talks about wine, so, we are the wine pair of The Wine Pair Podcast. And in our tastings we talk about food that pairs with the wines we are drinking, which is another clear connection to the name of the podcast.
Tell us a bit about yourself
We are a PNW-based podcasting husband and wife team with a long background in education, cooking, and wine. Carmela is a professional baker and culinary educator, Joe is a former singer and professional entertainer, and both of us have Masters in Teaching. We live in the Seattle area and have three children who are (mostly) grown up!
Show more Q&A
Show more Q&A
FAQ
How many episodes does The Wine Pair Podcast have?
The Wine Pair Podcast currently has 190 episodes available.
What topics does The Wine Pair Podcast cover?
The podcast is about How To, Funny Podcast, Humor, Podcasts, Wine, Education, Arts and Food.
What is the most popular episode on The Wine Pair Podcast?
The episode title 'Orange Wines: The Thing for Spring! (WTF is Orange Wine? Wine hype, Spring wines, Easter wines, natural and vegan wine, similarities to rosé, Ramato)' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Wine Pair Podcast?
The average episode length on The Wine Pair Podcast is 43 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Wine Pair Podcast released?
Episodes of The Wine Pair Podcast are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of The Wine Pair Podcast?
The first episode of The Wine Pair Podcast was released on Oct 31, 2021.
Show more FAQ
Show more FAQ