Uncorking What's Next

After more than 40 years helping build Allegrini and championing Amarone around the world, Marilisa Allegrini is starting a new chapter. In this episode of Uncorking What’s Next , Marilisa sits down with Jeff Zacharia to discuss family, legacy, reinvention and the future of Italian wine. Marilisa never originally intended to enter the wine business. She trained as a physical therapist before retur...

Dan March, founder of Dynamic Television and producer of the Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series Drops of God, joins Jeff to help uncork what the wine world can learn from Hollywood about telling a great story. Dan grew up on Hollywood sets as the son of a five-time Oscar-nominated set decorator, built Dynamic Television from nothing starting in 2013, and turned a Japanese manga about wine into an inter...

Paul Hobbs' wine story began with a secret. His mother didn't allow alcohol at the family dinner table. But one winter evening in 1969, his father arrived with Dixie cups filled with a mysterious yellow-orange liquid and asked the family to taste it. Paul's mother declared it the best juice she'd ever tasted. The bottle was 1962 Château d’Yquem. Paul was headed toward medical school, not the wine...

Carlos de Jesus of Amorim Cork joins Jeff Zacharia to explore how the cork industry fought its way back from the crisis of TCA, cork taint, and why the humble cork may matter more to wine's future than most of us realize. For centuries, natural cork was virtually synonymous with fine wine. Then came TCA. As cork taint damaged bottles and consumer confidence, the cork industry faced an existential...

In 1981, someone had the nerve to plant Cabernet and Merlot on the Tuscan coast in a place no one thought could grow great wine. Forty years later, Ornellaia is one of the most celebrated estates on the planet. Lamberto Frescobaldi joins Jeff Zacharia to tell the whole story and to explain why the best may still be ahead. About Lamberto Frescobaldi Lamberto Frescobaldi is the head of the Frescobal...

For nearly 300 years, Château Gruaud-Larose has occupied one of the great terroirs of Saint-Julien: nearly 200 acres in an extraordinary single, unbroken vineyard. And yet, for a good part of its modern history, I thought of Gruaud-Larose as something of a sleeper Second Growth , a château whose wines didn't always fully reflect the potential of its remarkable terroir. I don't believe that anymore...

Marc Bouffard is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He is also, by any measure, one of the most respected independent voices in fine wine — built not from a role in the trade, not from a formal credential, but from pure passion, a scientist's rigor, and an Instagram account called @englishmans_claret. In this episode, Marc and Jeff sit down to talk about how all of it h...

For nearly a century, Domaine Huet has been one of the defining estates of the Loire Valley and one of the world's greatest producers of Chenin Blanc. But in 2003, everything changed. When the Huet family sold the estate, many in the wine world questioned what would happen next. Could new owners preserve one of France's most revered domaines? Would its identity survive? Would the philosophy that h...

Scott Becker grew up on the edge of dairy farm country in Wisconsin, played football at the Air Force Academy, served in counterintelligence — including deployments overseas after 9/11 — and talked his way into Harvard Business School. When career services suggested Goldman Sachs, he said no. He was going to Napa Valley to make wine. What he walked into at Realm Cellars in 2012 was a mess. Bad cre...

Jermaine Stone — known to many as the Wolf of Wine — didn't grow up around fine wine. He grew up in the Bronx, the first in his family born in the United States, with a dad who was a welder and a dream of making it as a rapper. The only wine in his house was Manischewitz, poured into his mom's black cake at the holidays. What happened next is one of the great origin stories in the wine world. Jerm...

What does it take to change how the world thinks about an entire wine country? In this episode of Uncorking What's Next , Jeff Zacharia sits down with Laura Catena—physician, researcher, sixth-generation vintner, and Managing Director of Catena Zapata. Laura shares the story of her family's winemaking legacy, her father's vision for Argentine wine, and the decades-long effort to prove that Argenti...

What does the next generation of wine lovers actually think about the industry? I sat down with Sabrina Miller and Rachel Anderson, the co-presidents of the Harvard Business School Wine and Cuisine Society, to find out. This past year they ran over 40 events — Harlan Estate, Château d'Yquem, Colgin, a Champagne masterclass with Antonio Galloni, and a dinner with Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park....

I discovered MacDonald Vineyards from the auction podium — a wine I'd never heard of, with bidders going absolutely crazy. I came off the block, turned to my son Tom, and said, what is this? He gave me a look that said: Dad, how do you not know? Alex and Graeme MacDonald are fourth-generation farmers on one of the most storied pieces of ground in American wine — 15 rocky acres in the heart of To K...

A conversation with Omri Ram of Château Lafleur on independence, old vines, and what it means to steward one of Bordeaux’s most singular wines. From a handwritten letter that changed his life to the philosophy of “elegant power,” this episode explores why Lafleur has always stood apart Key Themes Lafleur as an outsider in Bordeaux Independent, never chasing styles or trends “Elegant power” — contr...

A conversation with Dr. Laura Catena — physician, fourth-generation winemaker, and one of the leading voices in the discussion around wine and health. In a space often dominated by headlines and conflicting studies, Laura brings clarity to what we actually know — and what we don’t. From the role of moderation to the challenges of studying alcohol, this is a thoughtful, nuanced look at one of the m...

A conversation with Vitalie Taittinger, President of Taittinger, on tradition, leadership, and the future of one of Champagne’s most iconic houses. We discuss the balance between heritage and evolution, the role of family, and why the experience of visiting Champagne remains so central to understanding the wines.

Uncorking What's Next launches April 29th. Host Jeff Zacharia introduces the show and what's coming.