On this year's Thanksgiving episode, Jessica and Mark have on Austin Farina, wine director of Jeffrey's, Sammie's, and a number of other MML Hospitality restaurants. They kick off the discussion with a commentary of the recent publishing of the Michelin guide for Texas. Then, they dig into Thanksgiving pairings from overall pairing guidelines to Austin's recommendations. He is loving Western Sonoma Coast, Cali Zin and Mexican and Texas selections.

References:

https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/texas/restaurants

https://mmlhospitality.com/

https://jeffreysofaustin.com/

On today's show, Jessica meets up with Simon Kelly, export manager of te Pā winery in Marlborough, New Zealand. Te Pā means "at home" or "the home" in Māori, and the owner and founder Haysley MacDonald can trace his family history to the early Māori settlers who landed on Wairau Bar 800 years ago. Simon explains how Haysley went from selling most of the fruit from the his land to larger wineries and then the path to make and bottle all estate wine.

Simon has extensive experience in the wine industry and really breaks down the state of the Kiwi wine industry from the meteoric rise of Sauvignon Blanc to perhaps a lack of recognizing individual regions within the broad category. Enjoy this episode with a plate of briny oysters and, of course, a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

Links:

Te Pā winery website: here.

Banville Wine Merchants (importer of te Pā): here.

Recent Wine Enthusiast coverage of Māori owned wineries: here.

Alessandro Marini is head winemaker at Tenuta Luce in Montalcino. Originally coming from the Marche, Alessandro spent time working at wineries in California and then Bordeaux, where he also obtained his Enology degree. Tenuta Luce was originally conceived as a partnership between the Frescobaldi family and Robert Mondavi and was the first winery in Montalcino to produce a blend of Sangiovese and Merlot.

Jessica and Alessandro explore Montalcino in depth and how Luce occupies a special place in the winemaking landscape.

Links:

www.tenutaluce.com

Importer to the US: Vintus.com