What did the Romans actually have in their cups? Joel Butler, one of the first two US-resident Masters of Wine (a title he earned in 1990), joins host Noah Tetzner to explore the wine culture that spread across an empire and still shapes the bottle on your table today.

Joel is co-author, with biblical historian Randall Heskett, of Divine Vintage: Following the Wine Trail from Genesis to the Modern Age, winner of the 2012 Gourmand International UK Best Wine Book Award. He also wrote the entry on the Roman Empire for the Sage Encyclopedia of Alcohol, and has spent more than five decades in wine as a buyer, importer, educator, winemaker, and judge. He now writes the Substack journal The WineKnowLog and serves as a Contributing Editor for the International Wine Review.

Joel traces how the vine moved from the Near East through Greece and the Etruscans before Rome turned it into an empire-wide industry, and why Roman wine was routinely cut with herbs, spices, pitch, and even seawater. He explains why Falernian became Rome’s most legendary wine and takes on Pliny the Elder’s claim that it could catch fire. He also follows the genetic threads connecting Roman-era grapes to today’s Aglianico, Syrah, and Dureza, before confessing the 1964 Barolo that first caught his attention at his parents’ dinner table, and sharing advice for anyone chasing the Master of Wine title today.

In this episode:

• What did wine actually taste like in ancient Rome?
• Why did Falernian stay famous for centuries?
• Did the Romans rank their vineyards and vintages like we do?
• How did wine become one of the empire’s biggest industries?
• What does grape DNA reveal about Rome’s wine legacy?

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introduction

02:46 The 1964 Barolo that started it all

05:52 A crash course in how wine came to Rome

08:42 What Roman wine actually tasted like

12:30 Falernian: Rome’s most legendary vintage

14:40 Pliny’s wine that supposedly caught fire

16:06 Did the Romans rank vineyards and vintages?

17:13 Wine as big business: from vineyard to amphora to customer

21:06 Rome’s wine legacy across Europe

23:06 Chasing Roman grapes through DNA: Aglianico, Syrah, and Dureza

28:41 What most people get wrong about Roman wine

30:31 One wine region for life

32:08 Becoming one of America’s first Masters of Wine

35:10 Advice for today’s aspiring Masters of Wine

37:38 Closing thanks and sign-off

Links and resources:

Joel Butler’s Substack, The WineKnowLog: https://joelbutlermw.substack.com/

International Wine Review (Joel’s Contributing Editor home): https://i-winereview.com/

Divine Vintage: Following the Wine Trail from Genesis to the Modern Age: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/divine-vintage-randall-heskett/1111010798

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with your favorite wine friends and invite them to listen as they open a new bottle. Follow The Vintage Passport wherever you listen to podcasts for new episodes every week.

Connect with the host: noah@profitwithpodcasting.com

Where does your wine really come from? Swiss botanist and grape geneticist Dr. José Vouillamoz, co-author of the James Beard Award–winning Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, joins host Noah Tetzner to explain how DNA profiling reveals the hidden family trees behind the grapes in your glass.

José explains in plain English how scientists identify a grape's parents, including the discovery that Cabernet Sauvignon is the offspring of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. He shares why every traditional grape variety began as a chance seedling in someone's vineyard, how his research with the late archaeologist Patrick McGovern pointed to southeastern Anatolia as a cradle of grapevine domestication, and why tiny Switzerland grows more than 300 grape varieties. He also confesses to the first wine that ever caught his attention, a 1972 Malvoisie he and his friends swiped from a cellar at age 15, and explains why he has no patience for "grape patriotism."

In this episode:

- How does grape DNA profiling work?

- Who are Cabernet Sauvignon's parents?

- Why is every grape variety "man-made"?

- Where was the grapevine first domesticated?

- Why does Switzerland have so many native grape varieties?

José's new English edition of Swiss Grapes and his short book Grape Varieties: Their Future, published by the International Wine & Food Society, are both due out November 1, 2026.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introduction

01:22 From an obscure wildflower to grape DNA: how José found his calling

04:36 How grape DNA profiling works, in plain English

08:49 Why every grape variety is "man-made"

12:14 Wine Grapes and why no grape has a birth certificate

14:19 Searching for the birthplace of wine with Patrick McGovern

17:56 Why tiny Switzerland has so many grape varieties

21:39 The first bottle he paid attention to, and a confession

23:41 One region for life

24:45 Why "grape patriotism" misses the point

26:26 Where to find José's work and his two new books

Links and resources:

José Vouillamoz's website: https://josevouillamoz.com/

José on Substack (home of his Grape DNA Detective series): https://josevouillamoz.substack.com/

Wine Grapes and José's other books (his shop): https://josevouillamoz.com/shop/

Grape DNA profiling service: https://josevouillamoz.com/service/grape-dna-profiling/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josevouillamoz/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Jos%C3%A9-Vouillamoz-100010660813923/

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with your favorite wine friends and invite them to listen as they open a new bottle. Follow The Vintage Passport wherever you listen to podcasts for new episodes every week.

Connect with the host: noah@profitwithpodcasting.com

In June 1940, France fell to Nazi Germany, and the occupiers quickly set their sights on one of the country's greatest treasures: its wine. Award-winning journalists Don and Petie Kladstrup, authors of Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure, join host Noah Tetzner to tell the story of the winemakers who hid, smuggled, and sabotaged their wine to keep it out of German hands.

Don and Petie explain who the weinführers were: German wine merchants the Reich sent into France to buy up its best bottles, many of whom ended up protecting the very trade they were sent to exploit. They share stories of false walls, wine siphoned from Germany-bound trains and replaced with water, a housekeeper who scattered rat droppings to stop German officers from turning a Bordeaux château into a brothel, and Alsace winemakers who deliberately misdirected shipments. They also discuss Bordeaux merchant Louis Eschenauer, convicted of economic collaboration after the war; what became of the wine the Germans took, including the cache found at Hitler's Eagle's Nest; and the 1947 Vouvray from Gaston Huet that first showed them wine could be more than a drink.

In this episode:

- What happened to French wine when Germany occupied France in 1940?

- Who were the weinführers, and why did some French winemakers say they saved French wine?

- How did French winemakers hide and sabotage their wine?

- What happened to the wine the Nazis took?

- Why does war keep shaping the story of French wine, especially in Champagne?

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introduction

02:26 A 1947 Vouvray and a prisoner of war's thimbleful of wine

04:43 How a CBS assignment brought the Kladstrups to Paris

06:25 Why the Nazis wanted France's wine

08:24 Who were the weinführers?

12:52 Five winemaking families and the making of Wine and War

16:34 Finding the witnesses, and the ones who wouldn't talk

19:15 War stories told for the first time

22:46 False walls, siphoned trains, and rat droppings: favorite acts of resistance

26:57 Collaboration and the case of Louis Eschenauer

31:15 Where did the stolen wine go?

33:52 What they wish people understood about French wine

37:26 Their first memorable bottle: a 1961 or 1969 Cheval Blanc?

39:06 One region for life, and why they both chose Champagne

Links and resources:

Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure (Penguin Random House): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/93445/wine-and-war-by-don-and-petie-kladstrup/

Champagne Charlie: The Frenchman Who Taught Americans to Love Champagne (Bookshop.org): https://bookshop.org/p/books/champagne-charlie-the-frenchman-who-taught-americans-to-love-champagne-don-kladstrup/adfa023b3bee6548

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with your favorite wine friends and invite them to listen as they open a new bottle. Follow The Vintage Passport wherever you listen to podcasts for new episodes every week.

Connect with the host: noah@profitwithpodcasting.com