The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast

Epizodes

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  No Liquor License? No Problem. Premium Blend Cocktails Is Disrupting the Industry Pt. 1 23.07.2026 6min

  Gino Santos, President of Premium Blend Cocktails, for the first installment of a multi-part series. Gino breaks down the brilliant — and completely legal — business concept behind Premium Blend: wine-based spirits that allow venues holding only a beer and wine license to serve full cocktail-style drinks. He explains the massive financial and logistical barriers surrounding liquor licenses, why small and mid-sized restaurants are often locked out, and how Premium Blend bridges that gap. Gino shares his family's compelling backstory — born in Cuba, raised in Newark and Miami, with a father who was a celebrated Cuban musician and an uncle who fought in the Bay of Pigs.
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  NYC Wine Bar to San Francisco: How Maryse Cracked the Wine Code Pt. 2 22.07.2026 6min

  Maryse Chevriere — creator of Freshcutgardenhose/FCGH Studio and author of How to Sound Wine Smart — Forrest Kelly digs into the leap from a green, untrained hire at a wine bar to published wine author. Maryse shares how enthusiasm beat experience when she got hired, why she traded New York for San Francisco and easier access to wine country, and the Napa memory that still surprises her (an aromatic Grignolino she never expected to find there).
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  The Chef Who Turned Cancer Into a Culinary Calling — Quiz Edition 21.07.2026 8min

  Rusty Cellars is back with a Pop the Quiz edition all about Chef Chuck Hayworth — the private chef who spent 35 years in kitchens, survived a rare stomach cancer diagnosis 26 years ago, and turned it all into a philosophy of healing through food and wine. Two rounds, ten questions, and one bonus about a freezer-aisle uncrustable. From Niçoise salads with Georgia cold-pressed olive oil to an orange wine from North Carolina's Yadkin Valley paired with braised short ribs, test how closely you listened — and learn why life's too short for bad wine and wrong answers.
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  How to Sound Wine Smart — The Author Behind the Book Tells All Pt. 1 20.07.2026 5min

  Author, James Beard Award-winning illustrator, and TikTok's favorite wine translator Maryse Chevriere joins Forrest on the day her new book, How to Sound Wine Smart, hits shelves NOW — a release date that happens to fall on Bastille Day, which she's taking as pure destiny. In Part 1, Maryse traces her circuitous path from Boston to Houston to New York, a year in Paris, and a grape-stomping harvest season at a Domaine in Alsace, all the way to Terroir Wine Bar in NYC — the place she calls the best wine bar in the world, and the one that gave her a start she says she "had no business getting."
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  N. Carolina's Medical Meal Chef Reveals His Last Meal on Earth Pt. 1-6 16.07.2026 29min

  Chef Chuck Hayworth has spent 35 years in professional kitchens, but it was a rare stomach cancer diagnosis 26 years ago that completely rewired how he tastes — and how he pairs wine with food. In this episode, Chef Chuck shares how relearning basic taste (sweet, salty, bitter, umami) after treatment led him to build a private chef practice focused on medical nutrition, longevity cuisine, and wellness-driven wine pairings. He talks candidly about working with clients facing diagnoses like diabetes, helping kids eat healthier without sacrificing flavor.
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  Back Label - The Payphone Call That Saved Journey's Biggest Hit 15.07.2026 4min

  In 1980, a broke piano player named Jonathan Cain stood at a Sunset Boulevard payphone, ready to quit music forever. His father's answer became the seed of the best-selling digital rock song of the 20th century. This is the untold story of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" — from a pawned-gear rock bottom to the Sopranos finale to the Library of Congress.
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  The Comet, the Pizza, the Wine: Chef Chuck's Perfect Last Supper Pt. 6 14.07.2026 4min

  In this closing segment with Chef Chuck Hayworth, the conversation turns lighthearted and reflective. Chuck talks about the pure joy behind his work in medical meals and longevity cuisine, and why "you are what you eat" sits at the center of everything he does. He shares North Carolina's seasonal diversity as a constant source of creative inspiration in the kitchen. Then comes the classic last-meal question — and Chuck doesn't hold back.
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  Boone's Farm at the Drive-In to Château Pétrus — The Wine Coach's Incredible Journey Pt. 1-4 10.07.2026 19min

  Laurie Forster — known to wine lovers everywhere as The Wine Coach — has built one of the most distinctive careers in the wine world by doing the one thing the industry has long resisted: making it genuinely fun. Laurie traces the full arc of her journey, from growing up in the rural mountains of New Jersey where wine meant jug wine at her parents' parties, all the way to performing her one-woman show Something to Whine About at Caesars Atlantic City, the HBO Women in Comedy Festival, and a Boston theater with a live wine intermission.
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  A Wine Tasting at a Rodeo in S. Dakota — It Was Better Than You'd Think Pt. 4 09.07.2026 4min

  In the final installment of this conversation with The Wine Coach, Laurie Forster takes Forrest on a tour of the most unexpected venues she's ever poured wine in — a rodeo in South Dakota with the Cattlemen's Beef Association and the Hank Williams Museum in Alabama — before circling all the way back to where it all began: a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill at the drive-in movies.
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  Dinner Guest Who Got It So Wrong, Chef Chuck Had to Step In Pt. 5 09.07.2026 5min

  In Part 5 of this conversation with Chef Chuck Hayworth, the focus turns to resistance — what happens when clients want to swear off wine entirely, or insist on sweet wines no matter what's on the plate. Chef Chuck shares his approach to gently uncovering the "why" behind a client's wine aversion, his go-to alternatives like mocktails and fermented non-alcoholic beverages, and the science behind moderate red wine consumption. He also tells the story of working with a stubborn dinner guest who refused to step outside their comfort zone on a fixed tasting menu.
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  Back Label - 1 Take, 1 Payphone, 1 Song That Refused to Die 08.07.2026 4min

  A broke piano player. A payphone on Sunset Boulevard. Four words from his father that would echo through every stadium on Earth. In this Back Label Story, Forrest Kelly uncorks the untold history of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" — from Jonathan Cain's darkest moment to Steve Perry's sommelier-level songwriting, a rule-breaking chorus that waits until the final 50 seconds, a one-take recording at Fantasy Studios, The Sopranos finale, and its 2022 induction into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. Pour a glass and get the full story behind the smell of wine and cheap perfume.
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  The Wine Coach Who Turned Hecklers Into Stars of the Show Pt. 3 08.07.2026 5min

  Caroline's on Broadway. Caesars Atlantic City. The HBO Women in Comedy Festival. These aren't stops on a comedian's tour — they're venues where The Wine Coach, Laurie Forster, has brought her one-of-a-kind wine education show to thousands of people who had no idea they were about to learn something. In Part 3, Laurie breaks down what makes her live show unlike anything else in the wine world, why she never really gets hecklers, and what happens when a self-proclaimed wine snob volunteers for the smell challenge.
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  She Walked Into a Cooking Class to Meet Men, Left With a Chef Husband Pt. 2 07.07.2026 5min

  In Part 2 of this conversation with The Wine Coach, Laurie Forster pulls back the curtain on the corporate career she left behind — and the perfectly imperfect detour that changed everything. A Penn State supply chain management graduate, Laurie spent years selling complex, multimillion-dollar planning systems to Fortune 100 companies at the C-suite level. It was high-stakes, high-reward work that sharpened her ability to take complicated ideas and make them instantly digestible — a skill she'd later put to very different use in the world of wine
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  N. Carolina Chef Tasted a Dozen Chardonnays So You Don't Have To Pt. 4 07.07.2026 5min

  Chef Chuck Hayworth takes us inside the kitchen of the Resort Chef — from a spring tasting menu built around asparagus, seared trout, and ancient grains, to a special 8-course Fourth of July menu celebrating America's 250th anniversary with exclusively local North Carolina wines. Plus, the orange wine discovery that finally cracked the code on pairing with a 7-hour braised short rib.
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  New Jersey Jug Wine to Certified Sommelier — Laurie Forster's Wild Ride Pt. 1 06.07.2026 5min

  Laurie Forster — The Wine Coach — has built her career on a simple but powerful conviction: wine should be fun, accessible, and completely free of snobbery. In Part 1, Laurie shares the full arc of her journey, from jug wine in New Jersey to certified sommelier, from corporate software sales to comedy stages, and from formal wine education to creating a one-woman show called Something to Whine About.
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  Why Your Kids Are Getting Sicker Younger Pt. 3 02.07.2026 5min

  Chef Chuck Hayworth brings 26 years of medical nutrition expertise — and his own lived experience as a cancer survivor — to one of the most important food conversations happening right now. In Part 3, he tackles the processed food crisis hitting younger and younger patients, the surprising shift away from alcohol across entire generations, and his stunning Resort Chef tasting menu built around Appalachian seasonal ingredients paired with wines from North Carolina's Yadkin Valley.
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  Back Label - One Man's Palate Was Worth Millions — Here's How 01.07.2026 4min

  This episode of Back Label Story uncovers how Robert Parker, a Baltimore lawyer with zero formal wine training, built a 100-point scoring system in 1978 that ended up reshaping the global wine industry. We dig into how his ratings could move a wine's price by millions, why winemakers in Bordeaux started chasing his palate instead of their own terroir, and how the term "Parkerization" became shorthand for a worldwide shift toward big, ripe, high-alcohol wines.
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  Chef Turns Your Kid's Uncrustable Into Superfood W/O Them Noticing Pt. 2 30.06.2026 5min

  Chef Chuck Hayworth is back, and this time he's going deep — from his upcoming longevity cookbook and hidden vegetable nutrition guide, to his go-to anti-inflammatory Nicoise salad, to the hard truth about what's really inside your kid's Uncrustable. If food is medicine, Chef Chuck is writing the prescription.
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  Rare Cancer Diagnosis to Private Chef: How Chef Chuck Learned to Taste Wine All Over Again Pt. 1 25.06.2026 5min

  A stomach cancer diagnosis 26 years ago didn't end Chef Chuck's kitchen career — it transformed it. Now a private chef specializing in health, wellness, and food-and-wine pairing.
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  Back Label - He Punched His Brother — Then Built an Empire 24.06.2026 5min

  In 1965, brothers Robert and Peter Mondavi came to blows over a mink coat, fracturing their family's winery and sending Robert into exile from the business he helped build. Instead of folding, Robert started over — founding the Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville and going on to help put Napa Valley on the world wine map, while Peter quietly built Charles Krug into a lasting legacy of his own. This episode of The Back Label traces the fistfight, the decade-long lawsuit, and the surprising reconciliation four decades later that finally said what neither brother ever could out loud.