Shows
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 32: Harry Lester of Le Comptoir Central des BazarsWe flew to Lyon, and you drive through a lot of forest to get here. It was sort of suffocatingly claustrophobic, just pine trees, pine trees, pine trees, all through the Livradois-Forez [national park], and then when you arrive in Chassignoles, suddenly you can see again, and there's light. We were like, ‘Ah, this is nice.’ It felt like a blank canvas for doing whatever we wanted. - Harry LesterHarry Lester is the British chef-restaurateur behind a trio of beloved Auvergne natural wine destinations, namely L’Auberge de Chassignoles, Le Saint Eutrope, and, as of this month...2025-04-0843 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 29: Christian Binner of Domaine BinnerIn Alsace, we won the first step, which is to be known as a natural wine region. and I’m happy about that. But now we have to make a second step. It’s to say, “Yeah we can produce some cheap wines - and it’s also good to have everyday drinking wines - but we also have great terroir and we can making f*****g good wines.” - Christian BinnerChristian Binner is the head of Domaine Binner, a 17ha estate in Ammerschwihr in the Haut-Rhin in Alsace, and the president and co-founder of the Associatio...2024-11-0148 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 28: Mads KleppeI don't understand, but I respect people that can sit and drink Coche-Dury in their left hand, and Axel Prüfer in their right hand. I can understand why they still find [the former wine] interesting, but for me it was something that I'd let go of completely. I couldn't have moved to only working with natural wine without letting go of that other part. - Mads KleppeMads Kleppe is the gravel-voiced Norwegian sommelier responsible for radicalizing the natural wine program at renowned Copenhagen restaurant Noma throughout the 2010s. Upon taking over in 2009 from earlier sommelier P...2024-08-0938 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 25: Anders Frederik SteenWinemaker in English is a stupid word, because I don’t see myself as a maker of anything. I mean, we pick the grapes, we press them, we leave them to macerate; of course we do things. So we make stuff. But the wine? If you see the period of time where we actually work the grapes… Let’s say we work the grapes for six or seven weeks. Then it’s in barrel for four or five years. - Anders Frederik SteenAnders Frederik Steen is a Danish vigneron-négociant based with his wife and collaborator Anne Bruu...2024-05-0243 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 24: Sune Rosforth of Rosforth & RosforthThere's a lot of interest for wine in Denmark. Since we haven't really been a wine producing country, [people are] eager to really go deeply down into what wine is. - Sune RosforthSune Rosforth is the head of influential Denmark wine importer Rosforth & Rosforth, which he founded in 1994, initially concentrating on wines from the Loire valley. Half-Parisian on his mother’s side, he hitchhiked around France as a young man and struck up what became a lifelong friendship while working for the family behind Anjou estate Château de Passavant. Cellar visits Rosforth conducted in the reg...2024-05-0231 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 23: Mathieu Lapierre of Domaine LapierreI was thinking of when I was really young, five to ten years old, at primary school, [of posters that were] just to explain to us the cycle of a tree, or a flower... I wanted to take that kind of academic way of presentation to explain carbonic maceration to people. - Mathieu LapierreMathieu Lapierre is the co-manager, along with his sister Camille, of famed Morgon estate Domaine Marcel Lapierre, which he has overseen since the passing of his father in 2010. Initially a chef by training, Mathieu Lapierre joined the family estate in 2004 after viticultural studies...2024-04-0533 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 19: Stephana Nicolescou of Domaine Andrea CalekDespite the fact that I was in art before, I don’t perceive tending vines and making wine as art. And therefore I myself don’t feel comfortable excusing my prices because it’s a special little artsy thing... It’s not what I’ve been learning for the last fifteen years. - Stephana NicolescouHalf-French, half-Romanian, and raised in Chicago, Stephana Nicolescou is a well-traveled natural wine jack-of-all-trades who, since 2017, has been helping run the 5ha Ardèche estate of her companion, renowned Czech vigneron Andrea Calek. In 2019 and 2020, she also produced négociant micro-cuvées of her own as...2024-03-2033 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 15: Hannah Fuellenkemper of AbracadabraIn Auvergne, the winemakers are very independent. I don't know if it's the Auvergne that makes you like this or if it's the people. Because not a lot of the winemakers in the Auvergne are actually from the Auvergne. They come from somewhere else and I think maybe they come to a place like this because they like to be alone. - Hannah FuellenkemperThere are, I often say, two ways to fall in love with natural wine, not mutually exclusive. One is to learn about it, taste widely, and begin buying it in favor of all...2024-01-2448 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 14: Katie Worobeck of Maison MaenadWhen my two-year visa was over, I asked the Ganevats to help me with a working visa... During that time, I did receive some job offers in Canada. But there was still nothing that was as exciting as the wines we were making in the Jura. And I [figured] I would rather be a little vineyard donkey doing whatever at [Domaine] Ganevat than be the head honcho somewhere making wines that I don’t really believe in. - Katie WorobeckKatie Worobeck is a Canadian vigneronne (and fellow Substack writer!) based in the village of Orbagna in th...2024-01-2450 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 13: Damon Krukowski of Damon & NaomiIt takes a whole set of skills to communicate at very big levels [in music.] But you sacrifice communication in certain ways to do that. And I'm sure it's the same with food and wine. You cannot assume that you can convey the [same] subtleties at scale. - Damon KrukowskiDamon Krukowski is a musician and writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Inscribed in the annals of indie rock since his time as drummer in the influential dream-pop band Galaxie 500, Krukowski has since released music with his wife (and former Galaxie 500 bandmate) Naomi Yang as Damon & Naomi. Krukowski...2023-12-301h 06
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 10: Crislaine Medina of Le Cheval d'OrI realized [natural] winemakers in particular were outsiders in their communities, too, in a way. And I’ve always been kind of an underdog, an outsider. - Crislaine MedinaWhat does Crislaine Medina, the Cape Verde-born co-proprietor of Paris 19th arrondissement restaurant Le Cheval d’Or, have in common with legendary MCs MF Doom and 21 Savage? She, too, ran into trouble in the USA as a longtime illegal immigrant. In her case, after high school in Bucks Country, Pennsylvania, she found herself ineligible for university tuition aid in the USA. It inspired her to move to Paris, wher...2023-12-1240 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 7: Oliver Lomeli of Chambre NoireI think we started this change, this transition in natural wine in Paris. Because before it was established places, it was more restaurants. And we were more like a wine bar. And we decided to give a fair price… So young people could actually drink natural wine. - Oliver LomeliFew could have anticipated that Mexico City native Oliver Lomeli, after studying film in Lyon and working as a barista, would emerge as the French capital’s most dynamic natural wine impresario of the last decade. As radical as they are casual, his Chambre Noire series of wine...2023-10-3053 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 4: Pierre JancouIt was fantastic to sell natural wines to the crowd in Paris, because it is so international. You have so many people from all over the world… I think my role at the time was to pass on the natural wine love to many people, many young people and many older people. - Pierre JancouAn epoch-defining figure in Paris natural wine circles and natural wine at large, Pierre Jancou is the prolific, media-savvy restaurateur responsible for a slew of the French capital’s iconic natural wine destinations of the 2000s and 2010s. Taken together, Jancou’s series...2023-10-0353 min
Roadside TerroirHaute FutureThe Season 2 FINALE of Roadside Terroir focuses on the hopes, challenges, and terroirs that hint at what the future has in store for the Côte d’Or. The episode begins in the southern villages of Santenay and Maranges where we hunt for granitic terroirs and discuss the growing popularity of natural wines. We then head deep into the Hautes Côtes to find the spirit of this newly popular region and attempt to identify the characteristics of its taste. Next, we visit some unassuming vineyards with exceptional farmers in order to explore the relevance of terroir in a farm...2023-08-021h 26
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 2: Kevin BlackwellMy place was really laid-back, really laissez-faire. The idea was freedom of thought, movement. Also, people were talking about wine at the time. Whereas now it’s like, you go to a wine bar, and nobody talks about wine. - Kevin BlackwellOriginally from Mountain View, California, Kevin Blackwell moved to Paris in 1996, and quickly fell in with the city’s natural wine aficionados, despite possessing no formal background in wine. He opened a cyber café in 2000, only for it to founder in the wake of 9/11 (and the subsequent drop in Paris tourism). Given Blackwell’s nascent love fo...2023-07-2754 min
NOT DRINKING POISON PodcastEp. 1: Michel Moulherat“I like the idea that people were brave enough to say ‘Let’s try [to make wines with zero sulfite addition]. We’ll lose wine, into vinegar, or we’ll dump it in the gutter.' But they still tried hard to learn and pass on their knowledge. To say, we made it: no sulfites from A to Z, and it works. - Michel MoulheratNow largely retired and living in the Touraine town of Loches, Michel Moulherat saw prominence among the second generation of natural wine advocates in Paris, starting in the mid-nineties at his 15th arrondisse...2023-07-2752 min
Navigating the FrenchEp 47 - Navigating “Nature” with Aaron AyscoughNature can mean natural, or one's nature, or even "plain," but when it comes to wine, it means way more. Here to explore the ins and outs of natural wine, including its reception among older French people and why it's never marketed as a healthier option in France is Aaron Ayscough, author of "The World of Natural Wine."https://www.instagram.com/aaronayscough/?hl=enhttps://www.amazon.fr/dp/157965939X/?tag=nhttps://twitter.com/A_Ayscoughhttps://substack.com/profile/15653834-aaron-ayscoughJoin us on Patreon: patreon.com/parisundergroundradio 2023-02-0525 min
The Grape NationAaron Ayscough, "The World of Natural Wine"Born in Pennsylvania, but now a British-American living in France, Aaron Ayscough made his way out to LA at the young age of 23, and even to his surprise, became a prominent Italian wine buyer with famed pizza chef, Nancy Silverton. Looking for an escape a few years later, Aaron headed to Paris working in fashion and organically, no pun intended, made his way into the thriving natural wine scene. He hung with all the Paris natural wine luminaries before moving to Beaujolais where he got a sense of the real natural wine culture, and started his wine writing and...2022-10-191h 21
DisgorgeousEpisode 219: Mr. Bojo Risin' (ft. Amanda Smeltz and Aaron Ayscough)Duck welcomes esteemed sommelier Amanda Smeltz and pioneering natural wine journalist Aaron Ayscough for a scintillating conversation obout the Beaujolais. Amanda and Aaron are basically the most interesting voices in natural wine right now, so it’s crazy we’re not charging you to listen to this. Please buy The World of Natural Wine at your local bookstore and subscribe to Aaron’s Substack (https://substack.com/profile/15653834-aaron-ayscough). While you’re doing online things, buy Amanda’s book of poetry, Imperial Bender. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984496157?pf_rd_p=d1f45e03-8b73-4c9a-9beb...2022-10-171h 32