Read Between the Wines Podcast

In 1935, a viceroy ordered a vineyard planted in the hills between Florence and Arezzo. Not to make wine. To mark a military conquest. Ninety years later, that same vineyard is producing one of the most celebrated Sangiovese in all of Tuscany. This is the story of Tenuta Sette Ponti — an estate that began as a hunting retreat, became a family obsession, and is now home to Oreno, a wine that has go...

In 2015, a Champagne house gathered the UK wine press at a Westminster Abbey tomb — before a single vine had been planted. That is how Domaine Évremond announced itself to the world. And it tells you everything about what kind of project this is. In this episode, Pierre sits down with India McGrath, daughter of co-founder Patrick McGrath MW and the person now carrying the Domaine Évremond story fo...

Château Latour-Martillac has been a Grand Cru Classé de Graves since 1953. The Kressmann family has been here since 1930. And somewhere in their vineyard, there is a parcel of vines planted in 1884 that should not still exist — but does, and has become one of the most compelling white wines in all of Bordeaux. In this episode, Pierre sits down with Edouard Kressmann, Technical Director and fifth g...

She was a veterinarian. Then one phone call from her mother changed everything. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre sits down with Monica Raspi, owner of Fattoria Pomona — a small, family-run organic winery in Chianti Classico, Tuscany, on the border of Castellina in Chianti and Vagliagli. Six hectares. Organic since 2009. Minimal intervention in the cellar. And a point of view that...

Austria has been making world-class wine for centuries. The world is just now catching up. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, host Pierre Ferland sits down with Wolfgang Hewarth, Winery Director at Esterházy Wein in Burgenland, Austria — one of Central Europe's most historic estates, with winemaking records going back to 1612 and a cellar master hired from Burgundy in 1758. The name alone...

What does it take to keep a family name alive for nearly four centuries in the same valley, on the same hills, with the same grapes — and still have something new to say? Welcome to Tedeschi Wines, one of the oldest family estates in Valpolicella, Veneto, Italy — with roots stretching back to the 17th century and a philosophy that has never confused age with complacency. In this episode of Read Be...

What if the most elegant wine in Bordeaux doesn't announce itself at all — it simply holds the entire room? Welcome to Château Haut-Bailly, a Pessac-Léognan estate in Bordeaux, France, with vines over 120 years old, three perfect 100-point scores from three different critics, and a philosophy that has never chased power — only finesse. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre sits down wi...

What if the most exciting white grape in the world has been hiding in plain sight, just south of Barcelona? Meet Xarel·lo — mineral, textural, age-worthy, and criminally underrated. And meet Joan Cusiné, co-owner of Parés Baltà, a biodynamic estate in the Penedès, Catalonia, Spain, with roots going back to 1790, where wine is never complicated and never a punishment. In this episode of Read Betwee...

Some wineries take themselves too seriously. Poderi Cellario forgot to — and somehow makes some of the most honest wine in Piemonte because of it. Playful labels. Litre bottles. Crown caps, not corks. If you judged this estate by its look, you'd walk right past it. That would be a mistake. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, we head to the western edge of the Langhe, Italy, to meet Simone C...

Wine is being put on trial. And almost nobody is asking who's actually building the case. For most of human history, wine wasn't a question. It was just there — at the table, in the ritual, in the gathering. Now it's a headline, a health warning, a culture war. Something shifted. Few people can tell you exactly what, or why, or who benefits from the shift. Felicity Carter can. In this episode of R...

Sangiovese does not just reveal terroir. It reveals the winemaker. In Episode 86 of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Federico Cerelli, head winemaker at Castello di Gabbiano, one of Chianti Classico's most historic estates in Tuscany, Italy, to unpack what freshness, drinkability, and "modern classicism" really mean in Tuscany today. From Federico's first move at Gabbiano in 2...

In Episode 85 of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Cristián Vallejo, the winemaker who helped build Viña VIK in Chile under owner Alexander Vik — starting from absolute zero. No vineyards. No cellar. Just 4,500 hectares of wild land in the Millahue Valley and an ambition that practically screamed, "We are not here to make normal wine." This is a deep dive into terroir precision...

Can a wine be both unmistakably Bordeaux and unmistakably not Bordeaux at the same time? In Episode 84 of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga of San Leonardo Family Estate, one of Trentino's most iconic names, in the shadow of the Dolomites, Italy. It's a lively, story-driven conversation that moves from history to terroir, and from bottle ageing to the...

A doctor walks into the wine debate — and brings the data with her. In Episode 83 of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Dr. Laura Catena — physician, fourth-generation vintner, and the voice behind In Defense of Wine. She's spent years watching headlines flatten decades of research into a single, terrifying sentence. This episode is her rebuttal. We go straight at it: the World...

In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre sits down with Andrea Kaiser, winemaker and daughter of the late Karl J. Kaiser, co-founder of Inniskillin and one of the two pioneers who built modern Canadian winemaking with vinifera grapes. Andrea grew up among the vines in Niagara, Canada, watching her father measure sugars with a refractometer, tasting early batches, and debating acidity, swe...

Four years ago, Stone Eagle was a cult label. Today it's a winery, an estate, a restaurant, and a statement. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland catches up with Adam Pearce — the winemaker behind Stone Eagle Winery and the celebrated wines of Two Sisters in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. Four years after their first conversation during the pandemic, Adam returns with a...

What if the longest-lived people on earth all drink wine — and that's not the interesting part? In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Dan Buettner — National Geographic explorer, Emmy Award-winning documentary maker, New York Times bestselling author, and the researcher behind one of the most counterintuitive findings in modern longevity science: that across five...

In 1995, a Burgundy producer did something nobody in the wine world had ever done: he took Robert Parker to court. His name was François Faiveley. And for a young Pierre Ferland, still finding his way through the world of wine, that act of defiance against the most powerful critic on earth changed everything. Today, Pierre sits down with François's son. In Episode 79 of Read Between the Wines, Pie...

For Episode 78 of Read Between the Wines , we head to the Okanagan Valley to visit Quails' Gate, one of Canada's most iconic wineries. Host Pierre Ferland sits down with Rowan Stewart, who shares the story of his family's four generations of farming and their pioneering role in BC wine. From early Pinot Noir plantings to cutting-edge vineyard technology, Quails' Gate has always been a leader in sh...

For most of the last century, English wine was the punchline. Now it's the plot twist. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Nicola Bates, CEO of Wine GB — the body representing English and Welsh wine producers — to explore one of the most unlikely transformations in the modern wine world. A country with a winemaking history stretching back to Roman occupation, t...

For Episode 76 of Read Between the Wines, we head to Spain with the dynamic Nathalie Bonhomme, the French-Canadian force behind Les Vins Bonhomme. From her early days in Valencia to becoming a global wine brand, Nathalie shares her remarkable journey, blending bold branding with serious winemaking. We explore her partnerships with top Spanish producers, her deep connection to the Canadian market,...

Bordeaux is evolving. Not everyone got the memo — but Château Tour des Termes did. In Episode 75 of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland heads to Saint-Estèphe, in the northern Médoc, Bordeaux, France, for a refreshingly candid conversation with General Manager Julien Brustis about shaking the dust off Bordeaux tradition without losing its soul. Under the O'Connor family's stewardship, Tour des...

  40 years at the same estate. One forgotten grape. And the wine that started a revolution. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland returns to the heart of Tuscany, Italy, to sit down with Leonardo Bellaccini — oenologist at San Felice for over four decades, and one of the quiet architects of modern Italian wine. Some winemakers chase trends. Bellaccini has spent his career doing...

Someone moved 140-year-old vines. Not metaphorically. Physically relocated them, root system and all, so they could keep growing. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland heads to the Barossa Valley in South Australia to sit down with James Lindner of Langmeil Winery — a fourth-generation producer whose relationship with old vines goes well beyond reverence. It goes all the way to...

Wine is being compared to asbestos. By scientists. In peer-reviewed journals. That is the conversation we need to have. In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Dr. Ignacio Sánchez Recarte, Secretary General of the Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV) and one of the leading voices behind VitæVino — the industry campaign pushing back against what has become a...