Grape Minds

At this year's Naples Winter Wine Festival , Julie and Gina got a chance to talk with California wine royalty. In this episode of Grape Minds; a conversation with Tim Mondavi and two of his four grown children, Carlo and Carissa.

The year begins in the workaholic sign of Capricorn, and that means Julie and Gina have selected another wine grape to match the stubborn, loyal, no-nonsense sign whose symbol is a goat. We continue the series, “the grapes of the zodiac” with a comparison of Capricorn with the Nebbiolo grape from Italy’s Piedmont region. It’s found in the Langhe DOC appellation but is best known for its starring role in wines from Barolo.

It’s Zinfandel day - a day set aside to recognize the Zinfandel grape which is responsible for not only for the sweet version of rosé wine, it’s also considered by many to be the “original” American grape. Our Grape Minds podcast hosts Julie Glenn and Gina Birch talk about the real origin of this variety, some history of American grapevines, and find a few pairings for your holiday table.

This day after the Midterm Elections...let's have some wine. In this week's Grape Minds, Gina and Julie continue their trip through the solar system of personalities to talk about Scorpios and the grape that goes with these mysterious people.

Halloween is right around the corner and you know what that means ... blood-red wine.  Lucky for us, dark chocolate pairs well with the dark reds, and in this edition of Grape Minds, Julie and Gina try one called Predator.  Join the cult of Dionysis and grab a glass. 

This month we continue our tour through the zodiac with a stop in Libra where the beauty-obsessed diplomat, the Libra, is paired up with the characteristics that make Pinot Noir such a darling. 

In this episode of Grape Minds, Gina and Julie try out canned wine – just in time for tailgate season. Be sure to listen until the very end of the episode when they try an extra can of white and find a real gem.

Somehow, when we migrated our content onto Podbean, we missed this gem of a zodiac sign so here it is. We're sorry to our Virgo friends, but let's face it: you all are too cool to let your feathers get ruffled over it. That's why we love our Virgos so much!

This week we talk with winemaker-turned-tour guide, Tony Bryant of IKON Journeys , for a tour of Spain and its wines. The conversation weaves through the...

  Gina and Julie continue their series, “The Grapes of the Zodiac,” in which they pair the personalities of the zodiac with the grapes of the wine world. This month we’re in Leo, and while it may seem like a lazy choice to pair the fiery, ego-driven fire sign with the king of red wine grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gina and Julie explain that it’s not for obvious reasons.

Did you ever notice that being on an airplane makes things like tomato juice and Pringles taste better than when you’re on the ground? While the hectic experience of air travel may have you reaching for the nearest sauvignon blanc the minute you find your seat, you might want to think twice about ordering your

Just as people born under the sign of Cancer are warm, loyal, and sure to tell you where they stand, Syrah is a grape that produces a wine that feels like a warm, comforting embrace with a strong backbone of big fruit. In this week’s Grape Minds, Julie and Gina continue their series on the

In this week’s episode, we meet the winemaker behind Powell & Son. You may have heard of the passionate and gifted winemaker from his days building Torbreck.  Well now, Dave Powell is putting that passion and skill into working with his son who was raised among the vines. This January at the Naples Winter Wine

Remember the line from Dirty Dancing: “Nobody puts Baby in a corner?” Well, nobody should put Gemini in a corner either, because if a Gemini gets bored sitting in that corner things will not go well. The same can be said for the Sangiovese wine grape. This week we continue our series on the Grapes of the Zodiac. 

Today on the show, Gina and Julie talk about how cheeky wine packaging might mislead a wine snob to think what is in the bottle is no good. They try the newest Rosé on the shelves called, simply, “Forty Ounce.” They dish on the genius of the “Marilyn Merlot” packaging (and the hefty price tag

To personify a wine grape is not a stretch - people do it all the time. While sometimes wine writers get carried away (I mean we’ve heard Syrah described as “voluptuous” a few too many times), there are definitely temperaments attributable to wine grapes and those can be compared with the signs of the Zodiac. It’s been a hobby of ours for years, and in this week’s episode of Grape Minds, we talk about the similarities between Taurus and the Malbec grape.

Etude Winemaker talks Pinot, Tall Bottles, and sell-out Rosé. The charming and effervescent winemaker behind Carneros powerhouse Etude, Jon Priest, stopped by the studio for this week’s Grape Minds. We talk about the long, tall Pinot Gris bottle (the Galliano of the wine shelf), the beguiling Pinot Noir grape, and a Santa Barbara County foray

Allowing a wine to age can be a tricky business.  Guessing the exact best moment when wine is at its peak of integrated tannin, fruit and acidity is about as easy as catching a unicorn. But there are some loose guidelines out there to help those with the patience to actually age wine.  We’ll go

In this podcast Gina and Julie set out to decipher one of the more challenging labels on the shelf- the Italian wine label. With fifteen different regions and 73 DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) regions, there is much to get confused about. We don’t get to every one of the Italian wine regions-