Newsletter

11.18.22 / IS WINE WRITING GOING THE WAY OF COAL MINING?

In today’s fragmented, fast-moving media landscape, what is the value of serious wine writing?

11.04.22 / IS WINE CULTURE WHITE SUPREMACIST? ER, UM, YEAH.

“White supremacy” is a loaded term. But believe it or not, it fairly describes the subtleties of coded language and implicit bias in wine.

10.21.22 / WINE TALK ON TIKTOK

Dancing, pranks, cooking hacks, and… wine? The oenosphere is discovering the power of TikTok, or, for our purposes, “WineTok.” In Ep. 111, we pick up our phones and get scrolling to discover what TikTok has to offer the wine world, and vice versa.

7.22.22 / POWER, POWER, POWER!

We’re joined by two of the most powerful people in wine for Ep. 110, in which we visualize the wine power elite as a pyramid. Also: why you should NEVER throw out those bell bottom jeans, and a hot tip on a zombie wine.

7.15.22 / SMASH THE GLASS

In Ep. 109 we dig into packaging, supply chains, and the daunting task of reinventing both. Is the solution glass bottle re-use? A few universal bottle shapes and sizes? Or a different vessel altogether?

7.8.22 / HOT TAKES, COLD WINE

Ep. 108 was just a loose session of unhinged, uncensored wine talk. We had a blast kvetching with Philippe André (aka the Jason Momoa of Champagne) and Marissa Ross (aka the David Sedaris of natural wine) for this episode.

7.1.22 / TABOOS & TITILLATION

Selling sex… or sensory seduction? In Ep 107. we talk irreverent branding, unconventional influences, and drinking in the bathtub with wine-world bad boys André Hueston Mack and Jean-Charles Boisset.

6.17.22 / SHOULD WE BE PRO-PROHIBITION?

Turns out the Prohibitionists were alllll right. In Ep. 106, find out why you—yes, you!—likely would have supported the Temperance movement back in 1920, and the lessons that yesteryear’s teetotalers can teach us today.

6.10.22 / WINE FOR THE METAVERSE

In Ep. 105, crypto meets Bordeaux. How will NFTs change the wine industry, and who will benefit?

6.3.22 / THE TRACTOR THAT'S BRINGING SEXY BACK

On the newest episode of The Four Top, our guests are Carlo Mondavi—a futurist making a space-age tractor that’s actually affordable—and Rajat Parr, a luddite who has gone back to the land and is practicing regenerative agriculture at Phelan Farm.