The JancisRobinson.com Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Those who follow the musical career of Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of bands such as Tool, Puscifer and A Perfect Circle, may not know that he is an accomplished winemaker in the Grand Canyon state. He planted his first vines in Arizona in 2002 and from 2009 has been making such good wine at his Caduceus winery that he has become a bit of a poster boy for Arizona wine. He tells wine writer and ex Arizona resident Elaine Chukan Brown how the late South Australian winemaker Taras Ochota inspired him to become America’s pioneer of unusual blends – a red wine grape with a white one, for instance.  Other Australian influences include using his lab equipment to analyze two of the country’s most famous classic wines which showed him that grapes don’t need to be super-ripe to make great wine. He reveals himself as a real wine geek and committed farm-to-table restauranteur – in fact there’s hardly any mention of music in this intriguing conversation with the man who has arguably done most to put Arizona on the world wine map. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christian Seely is not a winemaker, but he runs a crack team of fine winemakers all over the world as the man in charge of the wine division of insurance company AXA. But he’s no boring executive; he really, really cares about wine and consistently produces some of the highest-rated wines in the world. Under his aegis, second growth Ch Pichon Baron in Pauillac, for instance, is making wine of Bordeaux first growth quality – partly by cutting production by about a half. His Sauternes property Ch Suduiraut is consistently a top scorer too. Seely’s first love was port and AXA’s Quinta do Noval is another stunning property whose wines now match their setting. He also has experience of wine production in fashionable Burgundy, Tokay in Hungary and, most recently, the Napa Valley. In this episode Jancis grills him about price of fine wine, what constitutes classic wine, and the notorious en primeur system of selling bordeaux before it’s even bottled. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two women who care passionately about our changing climate, wine writer Elaine Chukan Brown and sustainability scientist Professor Kimberly Nicholas, who has a special interest in biodiversity, farming, wine and food, discuss what we as individuals can do in the face of our rapidly warming planet. They look at the bigger picture but also how climate change affects wine production and how wine lovers might play their part in reducing carbon emissions. ‘Wine is a fingerprint or a taste of climate change,’ says Nicholas, whose PhD topic was the effect of climate change on the wine industry in her native California. She identifies the three areas in which we can have greatest personal effect by modifying our behaviour and actually quantifies a wine-bottle carbon emission equivalent of a round-trip flight between London and New York. (It’s many more than you might think!) They discuss how apparently small decisions such as how wine is packaged can have a considerable effect. And Nicholas is a realist. Her book Under the Sky We Make; How to be Human in a Warming World has a cheat sheet at the end for those who’d rather use that than read the whole book. Very considerate…. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the remarkable story of four Zimbabwean economic refugees who arrived in South Africa with nothing but the clothes on their back (and having never tasted wine) who ultimately became the first ever team from Zimbabwe to compete in the World Wine Championships. Towards the end of the first decade of this century, there was an exodus of economic migrants from Zimbabwe where in August 2008, inflation reached a staggering 11.2 million per cent. Under President Robert Mugabe, many Zimbabweans were well educated yet often unable to feed themselves and their families. Many young people smuggled themselves over the border to reach South Africa seeking work. Four of these men, independent of one another, worked their way up to become respected sommeliers at Cape Town’s top four restaurants, despite never having known wine or fine dining in Zimbabwe – or indeed each other. Journalist Erica Platter wrote an article on JancisRobinson.com about them which led to a crowdfunding initiative on the site to get them, as Team Zimbabwe, to Burgundy to compete in the World Wine Tasting Championships. An Australian film crew documented the entire journey and produced an award winning film Blind Ambition (100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) about this bold initiative. In this episode, Tinashe Nyamudoka, one of the four Zim somms and now the producer of Kumusha Wines, shares his extraordinary story with Jancis. Story of Blind Ambition: https://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/story-blind-ambition Blind Ambition official film website: http://www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/blind-ambition/ Kumusha Wines: https://www.kumushabrands.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is matching wine to a dish, or vice versa, a vital, unnecessary or automatic activity? Jancis Robinson is a libertarian who argues that no thunderbolt from on high will come to strike you down if you get it wrong. However, JancisRobinson.com's own Tamlyn Currin is passionate about finding the perfect pairing. Needless to say, she has researched the subject in far more detail than our editor in chief and in this particularly lively podcast explains some of the most intriguing recent discoveries, highlights some basic rules and tips, and debunks some common myths. Tam manages to convince Jancis that food and wine matching can be fun, and Jancis explains when she thinks you’re justified in expecting a perfect pairing in a restaurant. But she’s still worried that preciousness on this topic may be making wine more off-putting than it need be. Hosted By: Jancis Robinson Guest: Tamlyn Currin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join host Jancis Robinson and the editors of JancisRobinson.com as we explore the people, places, and pours that are redefining the landscape of wine. We share untold stories about wine through insider perspectives on the trends and personalities behind what you drink. Starting December 5, you can catch each new bi-weekly episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Jancis Robinson Story is a seven-episode series telling the definitive story of Jancis Robinson's life so far, including her extraordinary career in as a wine writer. Recorded in person throughout August 2025, it features extensive interviews with Jancis as well as members of her family, some childhood friends, fellow wine luminaries and a few literary guests too. For a full, edited transcript of this episode, see here. Produced by Richard Hemming. © JancisRobinson.com 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Jancis Robinson Story is a seven-episode series telling the definitive story of Jancis Robinson's life so far, including her extraordinary career in as a wine writer. Recorded in person throughout August 2025, it features extensive interviews with Jancis as well as members of her family, some childhood friends, fellow wine luminaries and a few literary guests too. For a full, edited transcript of this episode, see here. Produced by Richard Hemming. © JancisRobinson.com 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Jancis Robinson Story is a seven-episode series telling the definitive story of Jancis Robinson's life so far, including her extraordinary career in as a wine writer. Recorded in person throughout August 2025, it features extensive interviews with Jancis as well as members of her family, some childhood friends, fellow wine luminaries and a few literary guests too. For a full, edited transcript of this episode, see here. Produced by Richard Hemming. © JancisRobinson.com 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Jancis Robinson Story is a seven-episode series telling the definitive story of Jancis Robinson's life so far, including her extraordinary career in as a wine writer. Recorded in person throughout August 2025, it features extensive interviews with Jancis as well as members of her family, some childhood friends, fellow wine luminaries and a few literary guests too. For a full, edited transcript of this episode, see here. Produced by Richard Hemming. © JancisRobinson.com 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices