Got Somme : Master Sommelier's Wine Podcast

What happens when four Australian Cabernet wines from the same vintage, stored in the same cellar for 30 years, are opened and tasted blind? \In this episode of Got Somme, Angus O’Loughlin and Master Sommelier Carlos Santos taste a flight of 1996 Australian wines from four different states: New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria and South Australia. The lineup includes two celebrated Austral...

Angus thought he had spent $450 on a bottle of wine from 1927. Then Master Sommelier Carlos Santos revealed that the label did not tell the whole story. In this episode of Got Somme , Angus and Carlos open a rare Seppeltsfield 1927 Para Liqueur Tawny and investigate what the date on the bottle actually means. Is the wine genuinely almost 100 years old, or does it contain only a small portion of wi...

Got Somme has gone global! After being nominated in two categories at the 2026 67 Pall Mall Wine Communicator Awards, Angus flies from Melbourne to London to find out whether Got Somme can take home an international award. Before the winners are announced, we explore London’s incredible wine culture, beginning at Ye Olde Wine Shades, one of the city’s oldest and most historic wine bars. Angus tast...

What if your new favourite Australian wine came from a region you have never heard of and cost less than $30? Angus O’Loughlin and Master Sommelier Carlos Santos are joined by winemaker Andrew Dawson from Yeah Wine to explore Blackwood Valley, one of Western Australia’s most exciting and overlooked wine regions. Nestled inland from Margaret River, Blackwood Valley is home to family-run vineyards,...

There were only 24 bottles of this rare Swiss wine left in the world. Then Angus and Carlos opened one. In this episode of Got Somme, Master Sommelier Carlos Santos and Angus O’Loughlin explore the fascinating world of rare and allocated wines. Does limited production genuinely signal exceptional quality, or is scarcity sometimes little more than a clever sales technique designed to create FOMO? C...

Can Master Sommelier Carlos Santos identify an Australian Sauvignon Blanc completely blind? In this episode of the Got Somme Blind Wine Tasting Series , Angus O’Loughlin pours Carlos a youthful and aromatic white wine filled with classic Sauvignon Blanc characteristics. Carlos immediately discovers a pale straw colour, slight spritz and a pungent nose packed with asparagus, gooseberry, green apple...

Before Gary Vaynerchuk became known around the world as GaryVee, he built his first audience talking about wine. In this special episode of Got Somme, Gary returns to his roots for a conversation with Angus O’Loughlin and Master Sommelier Carlos Santos about wine, business, collecting and where the global wine market could be heading next. Gary explains why he believes wine buyers currently have m...

Is The Standish Wine Company producing the best Shiraz in Australia, and potentially the world? In this episode of Got Somme, Angus O’Loughlin and Master Sommelier Carlos Santos taste two extraordinary Australian Shiraz wines: the highly acclaimed Standish Lamella and the exceptionally rare Andelmonde. Andelmonde has returned after a six-year absence and was only available to customers who purchas...

In this episode of Got Somme, Angus and Carlos are joined by Mark Baulderstone from RIEDEL Australia and New Zealand for a full glassware masterclass. Same wine. Three different glasses. Completely different results. Mark takes us through the philosophy behind varietal-specific glassware, why the right glass acts as the “translator” between the winemaker and the drinker, and how shape, height, rim...

Carlos is back from Portugal with a tan, a cellar full of memories and a very rare bottle to share. In this episode of Got Somme , Angus and Carlos unpack Carlos’ recent trip home, from rediscovering beautifully evolved Portuguese wines from 2008 and 2014 to seeing how dramatically Portugal’s restaurant scene and wine culture have developed. They also settle a surprisingly heated Instagram debate...

In this episode of the Got Somme Blind Wine Series, Angus throws Carlos Santos, Master Sommelier, one of the hardest blind tastings yet. The twist? The wine is served in a fully blacked-out RIEDEL blind tasting glass, meaning Carlos can’t see the colour, viscosity or clarity. It could be Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Grüner Veltliner or even something completely unexpected. As Carlos works t...

Everyone knows Margaret River. But just north of one of Australia's most famous wine regions sits Geographe — home to passionate growers, boutique producers and some of the country's best-value wines. After discovering a Geographe Chardonnay by chance, Angus found himself heading down a rabbit hole of wines from a region he'd barely explored before. A few weeks later, a chance meeting...

“The Wine That Fooled a Master Sommelier” | Pieropan Soave Blind Tasting In this episode of Got Somme Blind Wine Series, Master Sommelier Carlos Santos is put to the test with a blind white wine tasting that sends him across Spain before revealing an iconic Italian classic. From citrus and sea spray notes to debates around Albariño, Viognier and Riesling, this episode captures the chaos, confidenc...

What makes a wine truly iconic? In this episode of Got Somme , Master Sommelier Carlos Santos and Angus O'Loughlin open a bottle from one of the most historic producers in Spain: López de Heredia. Founded more than 150 years ago, López de Heredia has become one of the defining names of traditional Rioja, holding onto old-school winemaking methods while much of the wine world chased trends. Car...

What happens when a Master Sommelier mistakes an Australian Merlot for Bordeaux? In this episode of Got Somme, Carlos Santos goes deep into a blind wine tasting challenge packed with blackcurrant, oak spice, massive confidence… and a few dramatic turns along the way. From “this is definitely Bordeaux” to correctly calling the grape, alcohol, and vintage, this blind tasting proves just how deceptiv...

A Master Sommelier gives Angus a bottle he only gifts to close friends… and it turns into one of the most fascinating white wine episodes we’ve ever recorded. Carlos Santos introduces us to Condrieu, one of France’s most premium white wine regions, made exclusively from Viognier. Once nearly extinct, this grape is now producing some of the richest, most textural and most underrated white wines in...

In this episode of Got Somme, the boys put wine knowledge to the ultimate test with another instalment of the Blind Wine Tasting Series. Carlos goes in blind with only the glass in front of him, breaking down colour, aroma, structure, tannin, alcohol and region clues in real time. What follows is a fascinating look inside the mind of a Master Sommelier as he narrows down possibilities across Italy...

What’s the real difference between a $50 bottle of Burgundy and an $800 one ? In this episode of Got Somme, we do a sophisticated tasting with Master Sommelier Carlos Santos to break down three Pinot Noirs from Burgundy at completely different price points. This is not just about taste. It’s about rarity, terroir, production, and whether any of that actually shows up in the glass. We’re putting it...

This starts as a structured blind tasting and slowly turns into a geography exam with wine in the middle. The wine shows clean fruit, floral lift, and chalky minerality. No oak. Medium-plus acidity. Everyone immediately starts narrowing the field like they’re 90% confident. Then the guesses begin: Pinot Grigio feels right. Grüner Veltliner is in the conversation. Verdejo gets a mention. Chablis ge...

Why do some wines cost double or triple the price of others, even when they come from the same winery? In this episode of Got Somme , we explore the difference between estate wines and single vineyard wines using two Pinot Noirs from Paringa Estate in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula . Together with Master Sommelier Carlos Santos, we break down the real factors behind wine pricing including terroir...

What happens when you hand a sommelier a mystery glass and ask them to identify a world-class red wine — completely blind? In this episode of Got Somme , we put the palate to the ultimate test with a stunning Rioja Gran Reserva 2016 that left us speechless (and one of us with actual goosebumps). We got ours here: https://www.platinumfinewine.com.au/product/bodegas-lan-gran-reserva/ From deep ruby...

Burgundy is home to some of the most expensive wines in the world. Bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti can sell for more than $30,000, yet in this episode of Got Somme we’re tasting a Burgundy white wine for under $100. How is that possible? The answer lies in one of Burgundy’s most underrated grape varieties: Aligoté. In this episode, Angus and Master Sommelier Carlos Santos take a deep dive i...

Blind wine tasting is brutal. Even for a Master Sommelier. In this episode of Got Somme , Carlos blind tastes a vibrant, medium-ruby red wine and reads the clues as Pinot Noir : juicy cherry, raspberry, Christmas cake spice, fine tannins, elegant structure, and that “Old World on the palate, New World on the nose” tension. But then comes the reveal. It’s actually Gamay from Beechworth, Victoria ,...

We risked $1,700 worth of wine to answer one question: is expensive wine worth it? In this episode of Got Somme, Angus O’Loughlin and Master Somm Carlos Santos open two Grand Cru Burgundies (around $800 a bottle) and taste them side by side. No posturing, no wine snobbery, just an honest test of what you’re paying for when the label gets serious. We talk: - What “Grand Cru” actually means in Burgu...

Carlos analyses colour, aroma, acidity, texture and structure to identify a mystery white wine. From Albariño to Garganega to Rhône blends and Viognier, the clues stack up… until the reveal throws everything off. Blind tasting is one of the hardest skills in wine. Even for a Master Sommelier. If you love learning wine in a fun, practical way, this series will sharpen your palate and teach you how...