Unreserved Wine Talk

• 354: Why are Brazil's sparkling wines spectacular? Tufi Meyer reveals the answers in Wines of Brazil

  Why are the sparkling wines the most successful wines? What is it about the wines of Brazil, the terroir, that really makes them excel? How does double pruning and winter harvesting help Brazilian vineyards produce higher-quality wines? How did family farming traditions shape Brazil’s wine regions, and what is the crossover between coffee and grape cultivation? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Tufi Meyer, author of the new book Wines of Brazil. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks   Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Tufi Neder Meyer's terrific book, Wines of Brazil. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at [email protected] and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast. I’ll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights Where did Tufi’s love for wine come from? Why do red sparkling wines from southern Brazil pair so well with the traditional dish feijoada? Which characteristics make Brazilian sparkling wines particularly successful compared to other wine styles? What’s the biggest misconception about Brazilian wine? How does Brazil’s annual wine production compare to other South American producers? Why hasn't Brazil’s wine industry developed as large as those of Argentina and Chile? How did Portuguese colonial policies impact the development of Brazil’s wine industry? How does Brazil’s size and climate diversity influence viticulture? How has the legacy of land ownership and agricultural practices from the coffee industry shaped modern Brazilian viticulture? Is there any crossover between the coffee and wine industries? How do the different types of viticulture practiced in Brazil differ? What is unique about tropical viticulture in Brazil? Why do some Syrah wines from Brazil resemble those from the northern Rhône in France more than Australian Shiraz? What challenges do Brazilian vineyards face due to the humid climate in certain regions?   Key Takeaways Brazil has all sorts of sparkling wines, from traditional method, made like champagne to sweet, made from Muscat in zesty fashion, passing through tank methods, sparklers. But all of them have a very important character. It's fruit ripeness. Fruit is forward in Brazilian wines. Maybe elegant sometimes, or very well declared at other times, but it's easy to perceive and it's easy to like it. There's a fresh character to our sparklers. If you plant vines in Brazil in places where it is too humid and too warm at that harvest time, you won't get good quality grapes. But if this place has a winter which is not too cold, which has sunny days and cool nights, if you've succeeded in having the harvest during such a time, you have good grapes. That's precisely what double pruning makes. You prune in January, you start a new growth cycle, and the vines will be ripened during our winter. So the winter harvesting. Dry time, sunny days, cool nights. When the Italian immigrants arrived, they were given pieces of land. That's what is today Serra Gaúcha, our main wine-producing region. The relations between coffee and wine have started very much more recently, when double pruning and winter harvest developed here in a coffee region. And today the vines are planted in the same places where coffee does well. In slopes with little risk of frosts, better drain the terrain and many times together, side by side, grapes and coffee groves.   About Tufi Neder Meyer Tufi Neder Meyer, a graduate of UFMG Medical School with a PhD in surgery, has studied wines since before college and has been a wine educator since the 1990s. He lives and works in Brazil’s south-east, teaching at The Wine School Brazil (WSET approved). Tufi authored ‘Wines of Brazil’, a part of the Classic Wine Library of L’Académie du Vin.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/354.

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• 353: How do vines thrive in Mount Etna’s rocky, volcanic soils on the island of Sicily?

  How can vines for wine thrive in Mount Etna’s rocky, volcanic soils on the island of Sicily? Mount Etna is a perpetual baby in terms of its vineyard soils; constant rejuvenation of the soil through ash and lava impacts the vine's health and the resulting grape characteristics. The lava flows are centuries old and vary widely. So, how would a producer choose one flow over another for planting? How does Mount Etna still have pre-phylloxera vines that are over 200 years old? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Ben Spencer, the award-winning author of The New Wines of Mount Etna. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks   Highlights Why did Ben find Fabio Costantino of Terra Costantino such a fascinating and emblematic person from Etna’s wine community? What is the landscape of Mount Etna like, and what makes it unique and beautiful? How do producers on Etna choose which lava flow to plant on? What does it look like to grow grapes in a place as fertile as on Etna? How do Etna wines compare with other volcanic wines? Are field blends of different grape varieties still common in Etna’s vineyards? How does Nerello Mascalese compare to Pinot Noir grapes? Why is Nerello Cappuccio mostly used in blends rather than as a single varietal wine? How does Carricante, Etna’s signature white grape, develop the kerosene or petrol aroma often found in aged Riesling? What were some of the oldest vines Ben has seen on Mount Etna? How can you get the most out of a trip to Etna? Who would Ben love to share a bottle of wine with?   Key Takeaways How can vines for wine thrive in Mount Etna’s rocky, volcanic soils on the island of Sicily? It's very, very fertile and you can plant just about anything. The vines are only part of that biodiversity. You can put a grafted vine selection, masala, cutting from your own vineyard into the earth. What it taps into will sort of define what that vine will be. We see 95% of the vines take because the soil is so fertile. Mount Etna's lava flows are centuries old and vary widely. How would a producer choose one flow over another for planting? Sometimes it's a simple budgetary decision or a farming decision, whether to take over an old vine vineyard or to buy something and replant new vines, whether you want to face the contours of the mountain, or if you want to ease into it with tractor or some sort of mechanized labor, not that many producers do much more than use a tractor in the vineyard, it's very difficult to use heavy machinery on it, and everybody harvests by hand. But certain contrada, certain lava flows, the age of the soil, the slope, east, north, south, they have different flavors. They have different spices, and it's all that lasagna layering of the mountain. It has its own style. How does Mount Etna still have pre-phylloxera vines that are over 200 years old? On Etna, we don't have a lot of clay. So we do have these very, very old vines. The soils need about 3% clay to incubate phylloxera over the winter. And so the soil isn't old enough to have that much clay in it. There's also the snow up at elevation, so it's just inhospitable to the louse. But the oldest vines that I've seen are either Nerello Mascalese or possibly Minnella. The trunks can get really, really big. They can get really long. They look like they're prehistoric.   About Benjamin Spencer Benjamin Spencer is the Director of Etna Wine School and the award-winning author of The New Wines of Mount Etna. In addition to holding a Diploma from the London-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust, Ben is a journalist, wine judge, and a professional winemaker with two decades of experience working with artisan and internationally traded wine brands in California and Italy.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/353.

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• 352: The New Volcanic Wines of Sicily's Mount Etna with Ben Spencer

  How do elevation and slope influence the style of volcanic wines of Mount Etna? What can volcanic wine made on Mount Etna in Sicily teach us about life? How is Mount Etna’s wine scene evolving? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Ben Spencer, the award-winning author of The New Wines of Mount Etna. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks   Highlights Which aspects of Ben’s first trip to Sicily in 2007 left a lasting impression? What stood out about Ben’s first experience tasting Etna wine in Sicily? Which early experience exploring Etna’s vineyards fundamentally changed Ben’s understanding of the region and its wines? What do the wines of Etna show us about the relationship between winemaking and life? What are the biggest differences between winemaking in California and Etna, outside of terroir? What does the future look like for Etna wine? Are there limitations to the Etna DOC classification and what is the viable elevation range for vineyards? How do the wine characteristics vary between vines grown in different areas of the mountain? How do the periodic eruptions affect the soil in the vineyards on the slopes of Mount Etna? What was Ben’s vision for the Etna Wine School and which programs are now available? How did Ben’s poetry background influence his transition into wine writing? What can you expect from reading The New Wines of Mount Etna? What was the most surprising thing Ben discovered while writing The New Wines of Mount Etna? Why was researching the book particularly challenging for Ben?   Key Takeaways How do elevation and slope influence the style of volcanic wines of Mount Etna? At lower elevations, we're seeing more ripeness, earlier ripening, more boldness in the fruit. You see more opulent wines at lower elevations. Also, on the south slope, you're getting more development in the growing season because of the way the sun passes from the east along the south slope. The North Slope, we see a little bit more deflected light, especially in the shoulder seasons, so early spring and fall, and so you're getting more elegance. What can volcanic wine made on Mount Etna in Sicily teach us about life? To be patient, to watch, to listen, to learn from what's happening here, and to learn from everybody, because everybody has a different take on what's happening. Etna always moves outside of what we expect it to be. In the glass, we see a white wine, but all of a sudden there's white jasmine and orange flower together in the same field, and there's this juicy fruit and salinity and savory herbs and saltiness, and you get some repeated elements. How is Mount Etna’s wine scene evolving? With Etna being at the beginning of a new wave of production, we are seeing a lot of people trying to define what that is, what Etna can be and will be. It'll be a study of the different elevations, of the different soil types, of the different districts where the wines are being made. But also Etna is a 10,000 foot tall cone. So there's a lot of different aspects to mountain wind, to sunlight, to the sea breezes, to old soils, young soils, and so there's a lot of things happening. So I think Etna will become a benchmark for variety, for exciting wines made from Carricante, the white grape variety here, and also Nerello mascalese, the red grape, which is made into sparkling wines, Rosés and red wines quite successfully.   About Benjamin Spencer Benjamin Spencer is the Director of Etna Wine School and the award-winning author of The New Wines of Mount Etna. In addition to holding a Diploma from the London-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust, Ben is a journalist, wine judge, and a professional winemaker with two decades of experience working with artisan and internationally traded wine brands in California and Italy.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/352.

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• 351: Why can’t we taste sweetness in sparkling wine and mistake black and white pepper aromas?

  Why can’t we smell sweetness in sparkling wine? How much of what we “taste” in wine is influenced by its appearance and our expectations? What makes copper both a savior and a threat to viticulture? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Sunny Hodge, author of the terrific new book, The Cynic's Guide to Wine. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks   Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Sunny Hodge’s terrific new book, The Cynic's Guide to Wine. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at [email protected] and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast. I’ll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights Why is it important to look beyond wine characteristics and consider? How does The Cynic's Guide to Wine aim to challenge the way we talk about wine? Can fossilized oysters in vineyard soil really impart marine characteristics on the wine? Why should food and wine lovers know the story of Fitz Haber? What makes copper both a savior and a threat to viticulture? Why should we move away from the focus on wine flavours and instead use descriptors of what it truly offers? Where does the buttery flavour in wine come from? How does cork taint affect wine as well as our sense of smell and perception? Why do vines grown in cooler temperatures have more black pepper notes? How much of what we “taste” in wine is influenced by its appearance and our expectations? Why can’t we smell sweetness in wine? Could sniffing slower change which aromas you detect in a wine? Why are humans more sensitive to bitter tastes versus sweet? How does adding ice to whiskey open up its aromas?   Key Takeaways The little CO₂ bubbles in sparkling wine dissolve in your saliva and form a physical barrier between certain molecules hitting your tongue and your ability to taste certain things. Sweetness, is the first thing that’ll get blocked out. So, if you have a sparkling wine that has some sweetness, as your saliva builds up with bubbles, you won’t perceive it. We in wine extrapolate a little bit and think, “It's a white wine,” so I may psychosomatically associate it with white peppery things, rather than a red wine, which might be black pepper. It’s actually the same sesquiterpene, called rotundone. We just trick ourselves into perceiving it one way rather than the other. This happens a lot in wine. Copper is naturally antimicrobial and antifungal, which is why we use it in plumbing, hospitals, and as touchpads on doors. Fungal pests like downy and powdery mildew, which affect vines. We spray vines with copper base concoctions to prevent that fungus building up, which will destroy our harvests. But it's not just the heavy metal, but it when it rains, it'll hit your soils and affect earthworms and all of the things that we know to be really good for the soils, naturally. We stop our soil's ability to just look after itself. We haven't found a unified way to overcome downy and powdery mildew without the use of copper.   About Sunny Hodge Sunny Hodge is the sole founder of Diogenes the Dog and aspen & meursault; two multi award-winning wine bars associated with challenging the status quo of wine. He is in the process of developing a wine qualification, The Science of Wine Course. His book “The Cynic’s Guide to Wine” delves into the science behind wine from soil upwards into our perception of taste and flavour to dispel wine myths using science. He is also a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. He is an International wine judge for IWSC awards, was recently shortlisted for the LWF Buyers Awards 2025 for both ‘On-Trade Multiple Venue Wine Buyer’ and ‘Sustainable Wine Buyer of the Year’. Hodge is also a commentator and wine writer for the likes of Waitrose Food Magazine, Evening Standard, The Times, The Guardian, Food FM and Monocle Radio and ITV’s Love Your Weekend.       To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/351.

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• 350: Can you really taste “minerality” in wine? Sunny Hodge offers a Cynic's Guide to Wine

  Can you really taste “minerality” in wine? What gives Champagne and traditional method wines their signature bready flavor and creamy texture? How has natural wine sparked deeper conversations about how we farm and produce food and drink? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Sunny Hodge You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks   Giveaway Two of you are going to win a copy of Sunny Hodge’s terrific new book, The Cynic's Guide to Wine. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at [email protected] and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast. I’ll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!   Highlights What is the deeper meaning behind the name of Sunny’s London wine bar, aspen & meursault? How did Sunny’s early love of rollerskating shape his experiences growing up? What lessons did Sunny’s mother impart that still impact his worldview today? How did Sunny’s engineering background influence his approach to learning about wine? Can we really smell metals and minerals? Why was Sunny skeptical about the influence of soil on wine? What surprised Sunny about our technical insights into wine? How did Sunny find the balance between sharing the complex science behind wine and making it interesting to the average wine lover? Why does Sunny believe we should be applying cynicism to the world of wine? How do natural wines cause us to challenge the food and drink we bring to the table? What does "funky" mean in the context of natural wines? How does Sunny source unusual wines for his wine bars? What is humus, and how does it influence wine character? How do plants absorb nutrients from soil?   Key Takeaways We can smell some geological materials like salt and some minerals, but most minerals and metals we're unable to smell and taste. And those metals that we feel that we can smell and taste, that's actually a tertiary influence of our oils reacting with those metals.Technically, metal and most other minerals except for salt, don't have smell or taste. Yeast autolysis is the process that gives champagnes and traditional method wines their bready, yeasty, autolytic flavor. Autolysis is when a yeast thinks it's gonna die and it's pretty stressed. So as alcohol levels pick up, and your yeast knows it's going to pass away soon, its enzymes will switch on to a different mode, and this is autolysis mode. They'll start eating away at the cell membrane of the yeast, and eventually they'll make little puncture holes, and all of the insides of the yeast will end up in the liquid. So that self-detonation of yeast in stressful environments is what gives the physical texture to your wine. That's why autolytic wines have that texture and it gives you those yeasty, bready flavors. Natural wine makes us question how we farm and how we produce all food and drink, not just wine. Wine is one that we can talk about and have a real discourse without it getting too boring. And with natural wine, those bigger topics are, how do we farm? What are the pros and cons of how we farm now, and how are we making our food and drink?   About Sunny Hodge Sunny Hodge is the sole founder of Diogenes the Dog and aspen & meursault; two multi award-winning wine bars associated with challenging the status quo of wine. He is in the process of developing a wine qualification, The Science of Wine Course. His book “The Cynic’s Guide to Wine” delves into the science behind wine from soil upwards into our perception of taste and flavour to dispel wine myths using science. He is also a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. He is an International wine judge for IWSC awards, was recently shortlisted for the LWF Buyers Awards 2025 for both ‘On-Trade Multiple Venue Wine Buyer’ and ‘Sustainable Wine Buyer of the Year’. Hodge is also a commentator and wine writer for the likes of Waitrose Food Magazine, Evening Standard, The Times, The Guardian, Food FM and Monocle Radio and ITV’s Love Your Weekend.       To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/350.

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