"If you're really tapped into what wine is, giving back is a very natural extension of that. You realize that wine exists in this harmony with its environment, and if you're not giving back out to that environment, you're like the dead end in the ecosystem. It's important that the ecosystem keeps moving around and that good keeps flowing in all directions." – Noah Dorrance

Noah Dorrance's philosophy is clear and consistent: wine is connection. Paying close attention to the weather and the rhythms of the seasons connects him to the health of the planet. Donating a portion of his revenue to local nonprofits helps him connect with his community in and beyond the Sonoma Coast. And involving his wife and teenage kids in the Reeve Wines and BloodRoot projects brings their family closer together.

In this week's episode, New York sommelier Mackenzie Khosla guest hosts Noah for a discussion over a bottle of Reeve Wines 'Rice-Spivak' Pinot Noir. Together they reflect on ways to find connection, generosity, and intentionality through the making and sharing of wine.

Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

Follow us on Instagram

"Perfection in a spirit is to do things very consistently and don't change things. I'm certainly not perfect, but I think what we're doing at the distillery is close to the best whisky I've made for a long, long time. It's grain to glass, and it's all grown and made in New York State." – Shane Fraser

Tenmile Distillery in Wassaic, NY is making the closest thing to Scotch outside of Scotland, thanks to their secret weapon, the acclaimed master distiller Shane Fraser from Aberdeen. Tenmile's focus is on American Single Malt Whisky, a relatively unheard-of and misunderstood category only officially defined as recently as 2025.

In this episode with whisk(e)y expert James Pellingra, Shane describes the ins and outs of producing single malt whisky, the advantages of aging whisky in California Pinot Noir casks, and how he defines perfection in a category still establishing its identity.

Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

Follow us on Instagram

"Sool is an ancient style of rice wine. It has over two-thousand years of documented history. Our style is distinctly influenced by the style of brews that I grew up with—a wilder, more natural, more gastronomical style of Korean wine. And for those who are curious about going deeper, there is always something more." – Alice Jun

Alice Jun remembers makgeolli as an important ingredient of her upbringing in the '90s in her Los Angeles Korean American community. Her father, a first-generation immigrant, taught her how to brew the mixed-culture sedimented rice wine at home. His style, brewed from brown rice, was rustic and traditional—much stronger and drier than the lighter, aspartame-sweetened version exported to grocery store shelves, which many in the Korean diaspora had become used to.

In this week's episode, Alice tells the story of how she went from bootlegging her father's recipe from her NYC shoebox apartment to starting Hana Makgeolli, the first craft makgeolli brewery in the US, and how the explosion of Korean pop culture and a rapid consumer-driven appetite for craft Asian beverages is changing the landscape of American gastronomy.

Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.

Learn more about the different types of sool.

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

Follow us on Instagram

“Wine has always been in change, in movement. The wine that we drink now is not the same wine that was drunk a hundred years ago, or a thousand years ago. For a revolution, you have to go back to the past to see what you have missed, and then bring it back.” – Ricardo Peñalba

More than a winemaker, Ricardo Peñalba is a self-proclaimed "wine ideologist." When he's out walking the rows of his biodynamic vineyards in Ribera del Duero, he's thinking obsessively about wine and how it connects humans to our shared history and humanity.

In this episode with Max Working, Ricardo shares a bottle of his Ojo Gallo from Finca Torremilanos and explains the region's ties to this traditional clarete style of wine, with an inspiringly philosophical perspective.

Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

Follow us on Instagram

"If a wine is trying to copy somewhere else or be something else, it might taste good, but it needs to have an authenticity and a sense of place to it, and it must be balanced and beautiful to drink. If a wine can put those two concepts together, for me, it's a perfect wine." – Chris Mullineux

For decades, South Africa’s Swartland region was dominated by industrial farming cooperatives that pumped out massive amounts of inexpensive bulk wine and diluted any hint of terroir. It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that a fresh generation took notice of the gems right under their noses: forgotten old-vine vineyards and, thanks to hundreds of millions of years of tectonic activity, the oldest soils of anywhere on the planet. Chris and Andrea Mullineux, alongside pioneers like Adi Badenhorst and Eben Sadie, helped redefine the region with stunning Chenin Blancs and Syrahs, proving that Swartland wines could indeed deliver a distinct sense of place.

Now their movement has grown beyond the Swartland to the broader Western Cape. Independent winemakers from Stellenbosch to Hemel-en-Aarde are dialing in their farming to express a uniquely South African terroir, one that in Mullineux’s case “tastes like sunshine.” In this episode, Chris Mullineux joins Desiree Russo for a flight of wines from three of his projects: Kloof Street, Mullineux, and Leeu Passant. They discuss regenerative farming, geek out on soil, and survey the unexpected varieties that may come to define the next chapter of South African wine.

Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected one here.

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

Follow us on Instagram

"Everything that we do is very pure. We are mingled or entangled with other species, with the trees, with everything. That's one of the purposes of this tequila: not only producing tequila, but maintaining the harmony and equilibrium with the surroundings." – Daday Suárez

Daday Suárez is a completionist. When he was wrestling with questions of reality and being, he got a degree in philosophy. When he wanted to order wine at restaurants with more confidence, he became a certified sommelier. When he was looking for the perfect tequila, he used his degree in mechanical engineering to pave a road to the top of a mountain, then built the world’s highest elevation tequila distillery, Alto Canto.

Of all he has accomplished, Alto Canto is Daday’s crown jewel. He built it with a lasting legacy in mind—of quality tequila, yes, but also as a promise to nature. The distillery is entangled with native flora whose wild yeasts spontaneously ferment only organic, mature agaves. Coyotes and armadillos roam across the forested Sierra del Tigre range. Bees swarm, drawn to the vinaza, or liquid byproduct from distillation, which gets repurposed as fertilizer for local avocado farmers.

In this episode with Justin Lane Briggs, Daday shares his thoughts on what it takes to craft the highest quality distillate with as little intervention as possible, and where additive-free tequilas like Alto Canto fit in the flashy league of premium craft Mexican spirits.

Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected one here.

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

Follow us on Instagram

“Normally you have a best friend, and sometimes you see each other on weekends, but we are in the same business. We feel lucky. You can’t find it a second time in the world.” – Bernhard Ott

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. History is full of contemporaries who share visions of success, who, instead of competing, mentor and encourage the other to become greater than one could alone. Warhol and Basquiat. Lewis and Tolkien. Gauguin and van Gogh. Today in the world of craft wine and spirits, that pair is winemaker Bernhard Ott and distiller Hans Reisetbauer.

Born into farming families in Lower and Upper Austria respectively, they followed a common thread of honest farming, pure fruit, and quality beverages that eventually brought them together. Like looking in a mirror, they immediately bonded over their shared interests and identical values. Now after 25 years of friendship, their collaborative approach to farming, fermentation, and life has produced the most elite wine and spirits in Austria.

In this episode, they share their philosophies on biodynamic farming, their obsessive pursuit of pure fruit, and why doing things the right way doesn’t have to mean doing it the hard way when you always have a friend to lean on.

Automatically generated transcripts often contain mistakes. Find a corrected version here.

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

Follow us on Instagram

"I'm very proud to be Mexican. I love my people, I love my country, and we love what we are doing. We do our part with passion, with honesty, with everything that we can with our hands. We are people from the field. We are rancheros, and we feel proud of this. It's our task." – Sergio Vivanco

For five generations, the Vivanco family has been growing agave in Arandas, in the Jalisco highland plateau, though they didn't establish their own destilería until 1994. Registered as NOM 1414, they soon launched their own family label, Viva México Tequila. The distillery built an enviable reputation, and the family took on contracts for brands seeking purity, quality, and transparency.

Now co-owner and one of four master distillers, Sergio Vivanco has become one of the most respected figures in the tequila industry. In this episode, tequila educator and advocate Marissa Paragano sits down with Sergio to taste five expressions from Viva México and Plantador, discussing the production details that make NOM 1414 tequilas distinct, Sergio's five-step tasting method, and how a culture of multi-generational craftsmanship delivers excellent results.

Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

Follow us on Instagram