Featuring Benchmark Wine Group CEO David Parker This was such a fascinating concept, we wanted to give it a second chance to air!  Over the past year, so much of our conversation has been about coping with COVID-19 and how to continue to enjoy our wine lifestyles while many of our favorite activities remain on hold. While creative new activities like Virtual Tastings serve as somewhat satisfying substitutes for the real thing, many of us ...
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Wine is a great conversation starter, but that’s just a drop in the barrel! What you’re really after are wine adventures! Wine wants to show us a great time, take us to places we’ve never been before and ignite our imagination. It’s what we call a Grape Encounter and it’ll completely change the way you think and drink. Today’s edition of Grape Encounters Radio is for every wine enthusiast who is eager to let wine ...
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It’s one of the most common conversation starters, “Do you want the good news first, or the bad news?” Well, in the 13 years that we’ve been doing Grape Encounters, we’ve tried to keep our focus on the good news. We figure you can get all the bad news you can stomach elsewhere. Today, we’re full of good news, and only good news. More specifically, we’ve got terrific news if you’re a wine drinker in ...
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Did you ever have one of those days where you feel inexplicably strange from head to toe? Well, when weird is the rule rather than the exception, maybe you just have to go with it; swim with the tide and not against it. On this week’s episode of Grape Encounters, David decides to surrender to the strange world that Covid-19 has confined us to and take a deep dive into the weirdness of wine. Consider ...
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David is starting to become very encouraged about where the world is headed after 12 months of 19; Covid-19 that is.  He doesn’t want to jinx things but it certainly looks like the restrictions that we’ve all had to deal with for a very long time are starting to ease.  Yes, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. At least it looks like a light, but who can be sure of anything these days? ...
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Las Vegas based chef Rick Moonen has paid his dues. Recognized as one of the country’s premiere chefs specializing in fine seafood, Rick is remarkably humble about his assent to culinary greatness. He says, “I was lucky. When I was at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley) it wasn’t known as the best [cooking] school in America. It was becoming one, and it really had the greatest chefs. I was lucky to ...
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David has not had this guest on for a really long time. In fact, we dug into the archives and figured out how long ago it was. We were shocked to find out that it was exactly 10 years ago to the day that we had him on. Totally an accident or perhaps serendipity. Regardless, he is one of the most interesting people in the wine business and a wealth of information because he also ...
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