Keith talks his TV run on Leno and The View, a fan poll that had him wanting to see him on the big screen (right behind Faith Hill), and previews the next single, Raining on Sunday, written by Radney Foster and Darrell Brown. Keith geeks out over guitar heroes Lindsey Buckingham and Mark Knopfler, his love of Bob Seger, and reveals the surprising story behind But for the Grace of God ? co-written with two members of the Go-Go's. A warm, funny, guitar-obsessed snapshot of Keith Urban on the rise.

Show notes (timestamped highlights)

Rebecca Lynn Howard calls in ? Somebody Like You is her favorite on the radio How fast the single caught on, before the record was even done The TV whirlwind: Leno and The View, and winning over a non-country crowd The fan poll that wanted Keith on the big screen, right behind Faith Hill Guitar talk: Dire Straits, Lindsey Buckingham, Mark Knopfler Previewing the next single, Raining on Sunday (Radney Foster / Darrell Brown) The Bob Seger shirt and playing Against the Wind The Go-Go's story behind But for the Grace of God Co-writing Somebody Like You with John Shanks ? and that banjo riff

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Thirty-five years. Same 800 number. Still picking up.

That's Premium Blend in a nutshell ? built on relationships, consistency, and a product that just keeps finding new audiences. In this final episode of the series, Gino Santos gives Forrest a full picture of where the brand is headed and what it looks like at home.

Highlights include:

A new Aguardiente (Colombian-style spirit) launching just ahead of the FIFA World Cup, with Miami games on the schedule and Premium Blend accounts already lining up launch parties The long-term retail vision: getting agave wine and other products onto shelves at stores like Ralph's so consumers can take them home The Santos family holiday table ? roast pork, black beans and rice, and the Cuban flag in food form, shared with three generations across Miami, Jacksonville, and Nashville The full drink lineup for that dinner: Santos Sangria (100% Spanish origin, grandmother's old family recipe), rum and Cokes made with Rumbero, vodka sodas made with Clear Red, and after-dinner pours of Failing Irish Cream (produced in Ireland) and Cafe Luna coffee liqueur Why the margarita quietly became America's number one cocktail ? and what the tequila boom means for Premium Blend's agave wine collection How Premium Blend supports its accounts beyond the sale: recipe books, promotional materials, and hands-on drink-making help

A fitting close to a five-part series packed with business insight, immigrant grit, family pride, and genuinely great product storytelling.

? Premium Blend toll-free: 800-899-0331 ? premiumblend.com

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Maryse Chevriere's illustrations ? a little figure she simply calls "my little dude." He's intentionally universal, someone anyone can see themselves in, though she'll add a ponytail, a bow tie, or a mustache when a drawing calls for it. Forrest zeroes in on a favorite: a "greets you with? but hits you in the face" illustration featuring the character at a microphone under a spotlight, arms up as if shielding himself. Maryse explains the improv-style thinking behind it ? "greets you with" is the chill, gentle version of describing a wine's notes, while "hits you in the face" is the version where lemon, lime, and green bell pepper smack you so hard you can't miss it. The whole thing is built around a punchy Sauvignon Blanc (or, in Forrest's Boston translation, a "Savvy B").

Then the practical heart of the episode: who is the book for? Maryse describes it as ideal for newer wine appreciators looking to level up, or anyone who wants a fun, flip-through companion for a glass of wine ? originally imagined as a coffee-table book. It's rich with 101-level information, but polished enough that professionals will recognize their own wine-speak and chuckle. Above all, it's a wine book that doesn't feel like a textbook, and a great gift for anyone who loves wine.

Maryse takes the open mic to acknowledge the people behind the book: her mom, aunt, and in-laws (who bought and promoted copies), her publishers who finally saw a vision she'd carried for years, her friends Annie, Jess, and Laura, and especially her husband, who held her together while she wrote and illustrated the book through her pregnancy. There's a warm, funny riff about family members enthusiastically promoting her at local wine shops ? her mom being the biggest cheerleader of all ? and even getting her book and drawings into a charity silent auction.

She closes with where to find everything: Instagram at Freshcutgardenhose, prints and custom work at fcghstudio.com, and the book at Amazon, local bookshops, and Barnes & Noble ? or search "How to Sound Wine Smart" at SimonandSchuster.com for every retailer. A warm, generous send-off to a standout series.

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Every great business has a moment when the founder walks into a stranger's establishment and has to sell the dream from scratch. For Gino Santos, that pitch had three parts: increase your margins, keep your customers coming back, and make your wait staff more money ? all with just a beer and wine license.

In this final installment of the Premium Blend series, Forrest gets the full story:

Why Premium Blend launched in plastic bottles ? a practical shipping decision when you're self-distributing across Florida with almost no capital Why plastic has actually become a selling point for bars and restaurants where dropped bottles are a real cost The three-part sales pitch Gino used to walk cold into venues: higher profit margins, increased customer retention, and bigger tips for waitstaff How Premium Blend sales presentations work ? Henry and Gino would show up with bags of product like they were moving in, letting everyone taste everything Blind taste tests against actual rum, tequila, and more ? and why the cocktails are indistinguishable Pricing breakdown: roughly $8?$10 per liter depending on state alcohol tax The philosophy behind the business: owning a company, not just having a job A moving tribute to their late father, Orestes Santos ? the Cuban musician who said "we didn't come here to take, we came here to give" ? and what he would think seeing his sons build something that employs people and sustains small businesses across the country

Learn more at premiumblend.com

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The series wraps by going back to the beginning. Maryse Chevriere opens with the closure debate and dismantles an old-school myth: you absolutely can have great wine under a screwcap ? some of the world's best Rieslings are sealed that way. She gets the confusion, since screwcaps are also a cheaper closure found on inexpensive bottles, but her position is simple: if the wine is good, she doesn't care how it's sealed. Corkscrews have more flair, sure, and she offers a pro tip on the trickier wax-topped bottles ? drive the corkscrew straight in rather than trying to peel all the wax off first.

Then a quiz question with real teaching value: when an expert calls a wine "approachable," they mean it's easy to drink and enjoyable right now ? friendly, no curveballs. Not a polite way of saying cheap, though your greatest Barolo, Bordeaux, or Champagne probably isn't "approachable" in the same way. Think Tuesday-night wine rather than Friday date-night bottle.

Maryse also shares the human side: the close-minded customer she'd love to secretly test with a box wine, her genuine modesty about calling herself an illustrator ("I like to draw... it was a hobby"), and the James Beard Award she won in the humor category for the media awards ? standing out as an illustrator among writers.

The payoff is the full-circle reveal. Forrest plays a mystery voice, and Maryse immediately identifies Master Sommelier Ian Cauble. It turns out her whole project traces back to him. While studying for her certified sommelier exam and clicking around Instagram, she was struck by how visually evocative ? and delightfully silly ? wine language can be. Coming to wine a little later herself and not always feeling like she fit in with the somm crowd, she found her own way to contribute. And Ian's iconic line ? that a wine tastes like fresh cut garden hose ? was so perfect it named the whole thing.

A fitting finale for the Wine-Curious: proof that the most memorable wine language comes from having fun with it.

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In Part 1, Keith laughs through a surprise call to a bed-and-breakfast in his hometown of Caboolture, Australia (where the locals are more sure about the Crocodile Hunter than the future superstar), talks about flying his mum and dad over for the CMAs, and admits the Aussie beers he still misses back in the States. He opens up about the Farmhand drought-relief broadcast beamed to Australia via satellite, his love of Farm Aid and Willie Nelson, and where his best song ideas tend to strike ? the shower. Plus a caller phones in about the Somebody Like You video with Niki Taylor. A warm, funny, genuine snapshot of Keith Urban on the rise.

Show notes (timestamped highlights)

The montage intro and the "urban legend" welcome The surprise call home to Caboolture ? and Gloria's Crocodile Hunter mix-up Bringing mum and dad over for the CMAs The Aussie beers Keith misses: VB and Coopers (and a shot at Fosters) Anaheim House of Blues and the Farmhand drought-relief satellite broadcast Farm Aid, Willie Nelson, and why helping farmers touches everyone Songwriting in the shower ? and the "wet trail to the tape deck" A caller rings in about the Somebody Like You video with Niki Taylor

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What started as a workaround for the cocktail licensing gap has evolved into something much bigger. Premium Blend's Agave Wine Collection isn't just a tequila substitute anymore ? California restaurants are doing bottle service with it, customers are taking shots, and people are drinking it straight because at 48 proof, it's smoother with none of the burn.

In this episode, Gino Santos walks Forrest through:

The philosophy behind product development ? Gino won't sell something he doesn't believe in himself The full Agave Wine Collection lineup: Tequesta and Ginete (blanco-style), Guitarron (reposado-style), Guitarron Classico, Zapotec (mezcal-style), and El Guitarron Cristalino Why the products are made from 100% blue agave sourced in Jalisco, Mexico ? the same region as the world's finest tequilas The evolution from masking the product in cocktails to serving it straight ? and why that shift matters How "wine snobs" remain a persistent challenge, and why the term "wine-based liquor" is a deliberate positioning decision What Gino's day actually looks like as president: strategic, legal, and financial vision ? thinking about next year, not today A telling detail: Forrest signed up on the Premium Blend website and had samples at his door within 24 hours

The product has come a long way since the trade show days of convincing skeptics one sip at a time.

Learn more at premiumblend.com

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Maryse Chevriere a five-question, multiple-choice wine quiz, and her answers double as a myth-busting crash course.

Why do sommeliers have you taste before pouring the full glass? To check whether the wine is corked or flawed ? and, honestly, to catch whether you simply don't like it. Maryse would rather figure that out early, pour the bottle by the glass, and steer you toward something you'll love than watch you pay for a bottle you'll never finish. And that returned bottle needn't go to waste: if it isn't faulty, let the staff taste it so they can sell it by the glass as a special. Everybody wins.

"Good legs"? It's about sugar and alcohol content ? not quality, not price, and definitely not a Boston Marathon qualifying time. Maryse calls it a phrase you don't really need anymore, though it opens a lovely tangent about her dad, an old-school wine lover whose family hailed from Bordeaux and who was sure those were simply the best wines there were. As she learned the subject herself, she realized his confidence came from a narrow lens ? but he enjoyed wine and had a good time, and sometimes that's its own kind of bliss.

Why swirl? To release the aromas ? the contact with air wakes the wine up. She half-loves Forrest's alternate theory that you're summoning the flavor gods. On tasting technique, she suggests drawing in a little air like sipping through a mini cocktail straw (no gargling required) and letting the wine touch all points of your palate, since you taste different things in different places ? without getting too fancy about it.

And sniffing the cork? Mostly theater. A cork smells like cork. If you want to know whether a wine is tainted, smell the wine in the glass, not the stopper ? a lesson she picked up early in her training.

For the Wine-Curious listener, it's five minutes of permission to stop being intimidated by the rituals ? and to understand what's worth doing and what's just for show.

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Sandwiches and cold milk. That's what greeted a five-year-old Gino Santos when the U.S. Coast Guard pulled his family off a sinking shrimp boat and brought them ashore in Key West. For a kid who had just spent the crossing crammed into a shrimp hold with his grandmother, it was heaven. That same resilience and hunger would define Gino's path decades later when he and his brother Henry built Premium Blend Cocktails from nothing. In this episode, Gino walks Forrest through:

The harrowing details of the family's escape from Cuba ? a stolen shrimp boat, Soviet-era communism, a Bay of Pigs connection, and a Coast Guard rescue His academic path through Stetson University and an MBA from the University of Miami How a sales job with Oscar Mayer led him to discover a wine-based spirit product that nobody was marketing correctly The origin of the Premium Blend partnership with his brother Henry, who was running a Colombian mining equipment company in Miami at the time The critical role of Florida Distillers and a mentor named Chris Mitchell, who took a chance on two unknown entrepreneurs with no industry experience Why education was Premium Blend's biggest early challenge ? and how "getting the liquid to the lips" at trade shows and samplings changed everything

The wine-based cocktail space has exploded since the 90s, and Premium Blend was there at the beginning ? grinding through skepticism one margarita at a time.

Learn more at premiumblend.com

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The best way to learn wine, Maryse Chevriere argues, isn't to read about it ? it's to pour two glasses and taste the difference. In this episode she walks Forrest through the drinking games tucked into How to Sound Wine Smart, designed to make abstract concepts click through direct comparison. Think a wine you assumed was sweet suddenly revealing itself as dry when set beside an actually sweet one, a shy grape next to an aromatic Gewürztraminer, or one bottle tasted at first sip, again at thirty minutes, and again at two hours to feel what time and air really do. There are no winners, no losers, and no test ? just an experience built to make the lesson stick and get people genuinely excited to drink wine.

Maryse also pulls back the curtain on making the book. Illustrating it took five or six months ? most of them while she was pregnant ? and proved trickier than expected. On Instagram, funny tasting notes hand her ready-made visual ideas; for the book she deliberately chose the generic, professional terms people actually use, which meant figuring out how to paint something as abstract as "rustic," "silky," or "leathery." Writing was its own slow burn, since she's a self-described fiddler who can't move on until a line sounds exactly right.

Asked for her home run, she points to the "character" chapter. Instead of the technical checklist of fruits, non-fruits, and "medium-plus" this-and-that she was trained in, she gives readers something more relatable: a wine that's friendly, that's giving golden retriever energy. It's a warmer, more human way in.

Forrest names the throughline ? she's not dumbing wine down, she's making something genuinely complex feel approachable. This isn't soda off an assembly line; it's the product of an enormous amount of craft, and she wants more people to feel welcome to it. Maryse agrees, wondering aloud why wine intimidates people in a way that describing a restaurant dish or a piece of art simply doesn't. The stigma, she says, is what wine has had to work hardest to overcome ? and helping people get past it is the whole point.

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Ever wonder why your favorite neighborhood restaurant doesn't serve cocktails? Chances are it comes down to one thing: the liquor license. In many states, a full liquor license can run well into six or seven figures on the open market ? making it virtually impossible for small and mid-sized venues to offer a full bar program.

That's exactly the problem Gino Santos and his brother Henry set out to solve with Premium Blend Cocktails. Their wine-based spirits are legally classified as wine ? meaning any venue with a basic beer and wine license (which in Florida costs around $400) can serve them. The result? Cocktail-style drinks, no liquor license required.

In this episode, Gino explains:

Why liquor licenses are so expensive and hard to obtain How Premium Blend products are formulated to qualify legally as wine The difference between a liquor license and a beer-and-wine license ? and why it matters for thousands of venues How his family escaped Cuba thanks to an uncle who literally stole a boat Growing up bilingual in Newark and Miami with a famous Cuban singer-songwriter father

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Some people are trained into wine. Maryse Chevriere talked her way in on pure enthusiasm ? and it turned out to be the perfect qualification. In this episode she tells Forrest Kelly how a manager went to bat for her despite her being "green," echoing the philosophy her chef husband lives by: give him someone hungry to learn over someone he'd have to un-train.

From there, Maryse walks through the pivot that shaped her path ? leaving New York not because she'd outgrown the wine bar, but because she was ready for a new experience and drawn to the easy access to wine country that San Francisco offered. She admits she wasn't overthinking the cross-country move in her late 20s, which she figures is exactly the right way to make big decisions: try it, and change course if it doesn't work.

The conversation lingers on a standout wine-country memory ? a Napa producer pouring an unexpectedly aromatic Grignolino, a grape you rarely see, that felt gloriously out of type for the region ? though her heart belongs to cooler-climate Sonoma Pinot.

Then Forrest turns to the main event: How to Sound Wine Smart. Maryse explains how her Instagram account revealed that wine's real barrier isn't the wine ? it's the language. People freeze at the shop or restaurant, unsure what they're being sold, and just nod along. Most wine books bury terminology in a tiny glossary at the back; she wanted to flip that, building a fun, visual, genuinely useful resource that reads like a friend talking over a glass rather than a textbook. Forrest praises the book's approachable breakdowns ? like how to actually taste a glass of wine ? and Maryse sums up her whole mission in a sentence: make it easy to digest, and make it sound human.

For the Wine-Curious listener, this one's a permission slip: you don't need to be trained, and you don't need to fake it. You just need the right words.

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Grab your scorecard, wine lovers ? Rusty Cellars is popping the quiz on one of the most fascinating guests in show history. Chef Chuck Hayworth spent 35 years in professional kitchens before a rare stomach cancer diagnosis changed everything, launching a private chef career that began when fellow patients in his therapy group asked him to cook for them. In this two-round, ten-question challenge, Rusty tests your memory on Chuck's go-to Niçoise salad dressed with cold-pressed Georgia olive oil, his resort chef tasting menu based in Boone, North Carolina at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the brilliant pairing of a Yadkin Valley orange wine from Hanover Park with slow-braised short ribs. You'll also revisit his four-cheat-days-a-month philosophy of sustainable healthy eating, his 2014 book The Chef's Recovery, his observations on entire generations opting out of alcohol after Covid, and his last-meal-on-earth answer: a margherita pizza and his finest bottle of French wine, shared with the people he loves. Plus a bonus question about uncrustables that had to be heard to be believed. Score yourself, share your results, and remember ? life's too short for bad wine and wrong answers.

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Maryse Chevriere's wine story doesn't follow a straight line ? and that's exactly what makes it worth hearing. In this first installment, the author of How to Sound Wine Smart (out now from Simon Element) tells Forrest how a food-website waiter with an affinity for drinks talked her way into the wine world.

Maryse opens up about her three months working the harvest at a Domaine in Alsace ? no real paycheck, but all the wine she could drink and a hands-on crash course she calls the best "fall camp" of her life. From literally stomping grapes to learning alongside fans, pros, and travelers from around the world, it cemented her identity as a hands-on, visual learner.

Then there's Terroir Wine Bar in New York City, where owner Paul Greco took a chance on her. With around 50 wines by the glass ? every white a Riesling ? Terroir taught Maryse the art of the confident pivot: you want a Chardonnay? Here's a Riesling that fits the bill. More importantly, it taught her how to talk about wine in a way that's fun, not snobby ? the philosophy that now defines her work and her new book.

Also in this episode: surviving life with a 10-month-old until that first evening glass, why there's zero shame in a Trader Joe's bottle, and why getting paid in wine is a very real industry tradition.

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Chef Chuck's 26-year journey from kitchen cook to medical meal chef after a rare stomach cancer diagnosis

How cancer treatment forced him to relearn the four basic tastes and rebuild his palate from scratch

The difference between medically-ordered diet clients and "longevity" wellness clients

Why he stocks healthier snacks like date-almond bites instead of processed convenience food

His approach to making healthier "uncrustables" for kids using sourdough, chia, and seasonal fruit

The post-COVID shift away from alcohol and how he adapts with mocktails and fermented non-alcoholic beverages

Inside his Yadkin Valley spring tasting menu at The Resort Chef in Boone, NC

How he found the perfect orange wine from Hanover Park to pair with a 6-hour stewed short rib

His pushback strategy when clients are resistant to wine pairings or stuck on sweet wines only

Upcoming books: the C5 Longevity Cuisine Cookbook and a Hidden Vegetable cookbook

His PhD in progress and what's next for Real Medical Meals, The Resort Chef, and Thankfully Local Private Chefs

The "last meal on Earth" question ? margarita pizza, a great French bottle, and a comet

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Before "Don't Stop Believin'" filled stadiums, it lived in a notebook. Jonathan Cain was out of money and out of hope when he called his father from a Los Angeles payphone and asked if he should give up. The advice he got back sat in that notebook for a year ? until Cain joined Journey and the band needed one more track for their album Escape. In this episode, we break down how Steve Perry turned a father's encouragement into a masterpiece: why he chose "South Detroit," a place that doesn't exist, purely because it sang better; how the song shattered songwriting convention by holding its chorus until the final 50 seconds; and how the band captured the instrumental live in a single take at Fantasy Studios. From the Sopranos finale to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress, this is the story behind the anthem that refused to fade ? told in five minutes, no filler.

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Chef Chuck Hayworth wraps up this conversation by getting personal about why he does what he does ? sharing the joy of medical meals and longevity cuisine with people who need it most. He leans into the old Southern saying "you are what you eat," explaining how it shapes every pairing and every plate he creates. He talks about how North Carolina's seasonal diversity, from spring berries to farmers market produce, keeps his menus constantly evolving throughout the year.

Then comes the fun part: the classic last-meal-on-Earth question. Chuck doesn't hesitate, picturing a margarita pizza fresh out of the oven, shared with family and his closest people, paired with the nicest bottle of French wine in his collection, all while watching a comet streak across the sky.

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Laurie Forster has always used humor to disarm people ? it's a skill she traces all the way back to growing up in New Jersey, where you learn fast that a sharp wit is your best defense. On this episode of The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast, Laurie shares how that instinct, combined with a supply chain degree from Penn State, a high-stakes career in Fortune 100 tech sales, and a terrifying night performing stand-up comedy at the DC Improv, quietly assembled everything she needed to become The Wine Coach.

Her one-woman show, Something to Whine About, is unlike anything else in wine education. Audiences arrive to find a flight of wines waiting at their seats and leave having competed in the Cork Dork Challenge, earned their drinking names, and watched a self-proclaimed wine snob get gently humbled by Laurie's blind smell test. The show has played Caesars Atlantic City, Caroline's on Broadway, and the HBO Women in Comedy Festival, where Laurie took over a Boston theater and ran a live wine tasting during intermission.

Off stage, Laurie hosts The Sipping Point, a weekly podcast featuring chefs, winemakers, and culinary personalities. She leads international wine tours to destinations including Bordeaux and Tuscany, and her free Wine Coach app (available on iPhone and Android) puts her wine picks, podcast, and Q&A access in one place. For upcoming shows, tours, and her newsletter, visit thewinecoach.com. Find her on Instagram and Threads at @thewinecoach and on Facebook as The Wine Coach.

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Wine tastings at rodeos. The Hank Williams Museum. A first sip of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill at the drive-in. In the final part of her conversation, Laurie Forster wraps up one of the most entertaining and wide-ranging wine conversations the show has ever hosted ? and she saves some of the best material for last.

Laurie's corporate tasting work has brought her to venues she never put on her bucket list and wouldn't trade for anything. Through all of it, her mission has never wavered: help people think different and drink different by trusting their own taste rather than deferring to wine culture's unwritten rulebook. While she's tasted bottles most wine lovers only dream about ? Château Pétrus, Barolo, aged Sauternes ? what genuinely excites her most is tracking down a killer wine under $25 and sharing it with an audience who didn't know it existed.

Find Laurie on Instagram and Threads at @thewinecoach, on Facebook as The Wine Coach, and download her free Wine Coach app on iPhone or Android for wine picks, podcast access, and direct Q&A. Upcoming shows, tours, and events live at thewinecoach.com. And as Laurie would say ? Cheers.

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Chef Chuck's method for finding out why a client is resistant to wine

Mocktail and kombucha alternatives for clients avoiding alcohol

The cardiovascular benefits of resveratrol in red wine, in moderation

Why his tasting pours are kept small ? four ounces or less, down to 2.5 oz for dessert wines

The real purpose of a wine pairing: accenting the food, not overpowering it

A story about a dinner guest who pushed back hard against the chef's fixed wine pairing menu

How 30 years in the industry shaped his approach to expanding guests' palates

Why eastern North Carolina diners tend to prefer sweeter wines like muscadine and moscato

Using blueberry and strawberry wines as a bridge for sweet-wine-only clients

Early signs of success this spring in shifting client palates toward the full tasting experience

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Laurie Forster has performed her wine comedy show Something to Whine About in some of the most iconic entertainment venues in the country ? and in Part 3, she walks through exactly what that experience looks like from the stage. Audiences at Carolines on Broadway, Caesars Atlantic City, and the HBO Women in Comedy Festival have all discovered the same thing: wine education is infinitely more effective when everyone is laughing and has four glasses in front of them.

The show is built to disarm. Guests get drinking names and chances to come onstage, competing in games like the Cork Dork Challenge and a blind smell test that has an impressive track record of humbling even the most confident wine snobs in the room. Laurie's secret weapon for dealing with hecklers? She built them into the show before they could cause trouble.

Off stage, Laurie hosts The Sipping Point, a weekly podcast featuring chefs, winemakers, and culinary storytellers, and she leads wine tours to destinations like Bordeaux and Tuscany. You can find her events, tours, podcast, and newsletter at thewinecoach.com.

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In 1980, Jonathan Cain stood at a payphone on Sunset Boulevard, broke and ready to quit music for good. His father's answer became the seed of the biggest sing-along anthem in rock history. In this Back Label Story, Forrest Kelly traces how that phrase aged in a notebook for a year before Cain joined Journey and the band built "Don't Stop Believin'" around it for the Escape album. Along the way, you'll hear how Steve Perry wrote like a sommelier ? capturing a smoky bar room not by how it looked, but by how it smelled, that heavy swirl of wine and cheap perfume ? and why he invented South Detroit, a place that doesn't exist, simply because it sang better. Forrest breaks down the song's rule-shattering structure, with a chorus that doesn't arrive until the final 50 seconds, and the legendary session at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley where the band captured the instrumental live in a single take. From the unforgettable cut-to-black of The Sopranos finale to becoming the best-selling digital rock song of the 20th century and its 2022 preservation in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry, this is the full pour behind an anthem that refused to let the glass run dry.

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Building a tasting menu isn't a weekend project. For Chef Chuck Hayworth of theresortchef.com, the spring menu alone took nearly a year to develop ? tasting over a dozen Chardonnays and half a dozen Sauvignon Blancs from across North Carolina before locking in every pairing. Every wine on the menu comes from within 60 to 75 miles of his home base in Boone, the kind of farm-to-table commitment most restaurants only talk about.

The spring menu features courses like asparagus, lemon seared trout, spring chicken with ancient grains, goat cheese, and a lemon olive oil cake for dessert ? each paired with wines from the region, including a Linville dry white. And the summer menu, coming the second or third week of June, brings in heirloom tomatoes, mountain berries, and a whole new slate of North Carolina pairings.

But the episode highlight might be Chef Chuck's search for the perfect wine to accompany a 5-to-7-hour braised short rib. His answer: orange wine from Hanover Park in the Yadkin Valley ? one of the first producers of orange wine in North Carolina, crafting French varietals with a spicy back-palate finish that bridges the world between red and white. It's the pairing nobody expected, and it works.

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Before Laurie Forster became The Wine Coach, she was a Penn State supply chain graduate selling multimillion-dollar inventory planning systems to Fortune 100 executives ? and getting quietly humiliated every time a wine list landed on the table. In Part 2 of her conversation, Laurie traces the full arc from corporate boardrooms to Australian vineyards, sharing the chain of decisions that led her to walk away from a six-figure tech career and never look back.

Along the way she reveals how a cooking class became a life-changing moment ? not just because it deepened her love of wine and food pairing, but because it introduced her to Chef Michael, now her husband, whose New York-New Jersey wit matched hers from the first sarcastic exchange across a kitchen counter. After a three-month sabbatical in Australia exploring wineries and reimagining her future, Laurie was handed a severance package and given the greatest gift of all: no reason to return.

Today Laurie leads wine tours to Bordeaux, Tuscany, and beyond, and continues to build a community of wine lovers united by curiosity, affordability, and a complete absence of attitude. Learn more at thewinecoach.com.

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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 of her conversation with Forrest Kelly on The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast, 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.

What sets Laurie apart isn't just her credentials ? it's her philosophy. After years of studying wine the traditional way, she realized audiences don't want a lecture; they want a great time. Armed with that insight and a surprisingly transformative comedy class at the DC Improv, she learned to meet wine lovers exactly where they are, using humor and interaction to make the education stick.

Catch Laurie live as she performs Something to Whine About on July 10th at The Room at Cedar Grove in Lewes, Delaware. You can learn more about Laurie and her work at thewinecoach.com.

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Chef Chuck Hayworth has spent 26 years doing battle with the American food supply ? and his clients keep getting younger. Chef Chuck opens up about his own cancer survivorship, why a diabetes diagnosis is the beginning of a health journey rather than the end of one, and how he brings entire families along on the medical meals process to make lasting change sustainable for everyone at the table.

He also weighs in on the seismic shift reshaping the restaurant industry: whole generations of adults opting out of alcohol entirely, pushing beverage programs toward craft kombuchas, mocktails, and low-fermentation options. And yes, he still programs in four cheat days a month ? because real life deserves a cheat sheet.

Then things get seriously delicious. Chef Chuck walks through his Resort Chef tasting menu, rooted in Boone, North Carolina, where Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountain culinary traditions run hundreds of years deep. The menu pairs hyper-seasonal local ingredients with wines from the Yadkin Valley ? one of the most undersung wine regions in the country, growing nearly every domestic grape variety you can name.

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In 1978, Robert Parker launched a free wine newsletter out of Baltimore with no industry connections and no advertising, building his reputation on a simple 50-to-100 point scoring scale borrowed from the American school grading system. That simple idea ended up reshaping how the entire world drinks wine, giving one man's palate enough influence to swing a bottle's price by millions and turn a 100-point score into an instant trophy. As Bordeaux winemakers began adjusting their wines to chase that score, critics coined the term Parkerization to describe a global drift toward riper, higher-alcohol, more fruit-forward styles. British Master of Wine Jancis Robinson saw the danger in that kind of concentrated influence and spoke out as early as the late 1980s, warning that one critic and one scale shouldn't control the international fine wine market. She built her own 20-point system as a quieter, more old-world alternative, setting up a decades-long debate over whether wine should be judged like a science experiment or experienced like a story. Parker retired in 2019 and The Wine Advocate eventually landed with Michelin, but his 100-point system is still stamped on wine shelves across America today, alongside the resistance to it that never fully went away.

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Chef Chuck Hayworth of RealMedicalMeals.com doesn't just cook ? he heals. In Part 2 of this conversation, Chef Chuck pulls back the curtain on two upcoming books: the C5 Longevity Cuisine Cookbook and a Hidden Vegetable Cookbook designed to quietly restore nutrition to the American diet. Can't afford personalized medical nutrition services? He's writing these books for you.

Chef Chuck also walks through his personal go-to meal ? a simple, protein-packed French Nicoise salad built around cold-pressed Georgia olive oil, polyphenol-rich ingredients, and whatever vegetables happen to be in season. Fast, filling, and genuinely anti-inflammatory.

And then there's the Uncrustable conversation. Chef Chuck breaks down why those freezer-aisle staples concern him ? and how he recreates a healthier version for kids using gut-healthy sourdough, seasonal fruit, chia seeds, and local Carolina pecans. Same nostalgia. No thousand-ingredient preservative list.

This is food-meets-medicine storytelling at its most practical ? and most delicious.

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What would it take to completely relearn how to taste food and wine? For Chef Chuck Hayworth ? the Thankfully Local private chef and resort chef based in North Carolina ? the answer was a rare stomach cancer diagnosis that changed everything 26 years ago.

In Part 1 of this conversation, Forrest and Chef Chuck dig into the origin story: how a chef already 35 years into kitchen life had to go back to basics ? sweet, salty, bitter, umami ? and rebuild his relationship with food and beverage entirely. Along the way, he discovered the anti-inflammatory benefits of wine, the power of slow dining, and a philosophy of eating that now shapes everything he does for his clients.

Chef Chuck works with two very different types of clients. The first: people who've been medically ordered to change their diet and don't know where to start. The second: the longevity client ? the wellness-minded person who's already doing the work and wants to do it even better, well into their senior years. His approach covers everything from health-focused snack alternatives to intentional food-and-wine pairings for private events.

If you've ever wondered how a serious health crisis can flip into a life-defining purpose ? and what it really means to dine instead of just eat ? this is the episode to pour a glass for.

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The front label said Robert Mondavi, the man who put Napa Valley on the map. The back label said a fistfight over a mink coat, a decade of lawsuits, and two brothers who didn't speak for years. In 1965, Robert and Peter Mondavi came to blows at Charles Krug Winery, the family business their father Cesare had bought in 1943. The fallout sent Robert into a six-month leave and eventually out of the company entirely ? but instead of fading away, he founded the Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville in 1966, pioneered cold fermentation, renamed Sauvignon Blanc to Fumé Blanc, and partnered with Baron Philippe de Rothschild to create Opus One. Peter, meanwhile, spent the next fifty years quietly building Charles Krug's legacy without ever chasing the spotlight. The two brothers didn't speak for years. Then, in 2005, nearly thirty years after the fight, they made one barrel of wine together ? Ancora Una Volta, "once again" ? selling at the Napa Valley Wine Auction for $400,000. This episode of The Back Label tells the full story behind one of Napa's most influential ? and most personal ? rivalries.

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Ten questions, two rounds, and a whole lot of uncomfortable truths about why you pay what you pay. Rusty Cellars hosts this Pop the Quiz episode pulled from Claire Wang's appearance on the show, covering everything from MRI brain scans proving price changes the actual experience of taste, to why a $5 wine beat a $45 wine in blind taste tests, to the single sentence a Chateau Pichon Baron director used to explain his entire pricing philosophy. Round two gets sharper with a true/false/both format testing anchoring effects, charm pricing, and whether higher price really does mean higher quality (spoiler: it's complicated). Claire Wang is a pricing strategist with 20 years in the field and author of the upcoming book The Price of Influence, out this September.

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What does a pricing strategist know about wine? More than you'd think. Claire Wang joins Forrest Kelly to break down the psychology behind why we pay what we pay ? and why our brains are doing a lot more work than we realize every time we reach for a bottle.

Claire unpacks the famous Stanford and Caltech MRI study that proved people's brains literally experience more pleasure when they think they're drinking expensive wine ? even when the wine is identical. She introduces the concept of the "magic number of 99" and explains why premium wineries deliberately avoid it, opting for clean price points like $18 or $19 to signal quality rather than bargain.

The conversation takes a sharp turn at Château Pichon Baron in Bordeaux, where managing director Christian Seeley shared his pricing philosophy in a single sentence: "I charge the highest price my regular customers will enthusiastically buy." Claire calls it a perfect summary of everything pricing strategy is built on.

The episode closes with a fast and sharp True or False round on the psychology of pricing ? and Claire goes undefeated.

Her book The Price of Influence: How to Move Anyone to a Yes drops in September, 2026.

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The front label said Award of Excellence. The back label said $250 and a voicemail box. In 2008, writer and researcher Robin Goldstein invented a restaurant from scratch ? complete with a website, a Milan phone number, and a reserve wine list built almost entirely from Wine Spectator's own lowest-rated Italian wines ? to test how seriously the magazine vetted its restaurant wine award. The fictional Osteria L'Intrepido won anyway. Goldstein went public at a wine economists' conference, the story hit the New York Times, the LA Times, and CBS, and Wine Spectator called it a hoax. But one detail stuck: when the magazine called to deliver the good news, they also asked about buying an ad. This episode tells the full story of the scandal that made the wine world question what its most trusted award badge actually means.

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Guest: Claire Wang, an international pricing expert

 Book: The Price of Influence ? available September 

Topics covered:

Charm pricing: why $9.99 outsells $10.00 The Stanford experiment proving price changes how wine tastes Anchoring effect: seeing a high price first makes the next one feel like a deal Why "limited time" scarcity is mostly psychological Free shipping vs. price cuts ? which moves product more The uncomfortable truth about "rational" consumer decisions

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Guest: Claire Wang (Pricing Strategist) 

Upcoming Book: The Price of Influence ? September

Topics covered:

The Stanford/Caltech MRI wine experiment ? identical wines, different price tags, measurably different brain activity The "marketing placebo effect" ? believing you paid more makes you genuinely enjoy more Journal of Wine Economics blind tasting study: untrained drinkers preferred cheaper wine without context The pricing "sweet spot" ? too cheap triggers quality suspicion, too expensive reads as a ripoff Why wine never speaks for itself ? storytelling as a sales and perception tool How knowing the winemaking process increases personal enjoyment

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What does a bullfrog have to do with Barolo? More than you'd think.

In this Wine Wednesday Back Label Story, Forrest Kelly uncorks the surprisingly rich wine philosophy hidden inside Hoyt Axton's 1971 classic ? the song Three Dog Night rode to six weeks at number one. The line that stuck? "He always had some mighty fine wine." No credentials required. No auction catalog. Just the stubborn, booming joy of a bottle that moves you.

Forrest traces why the best wine experiences have nothing to do with complexity ? a chilled Vermentino under a warm lamp, a $14 jammy Zinfandel that tastes like a better life, a misunderstood Lambrusco poured into a juice glass in someone's kitchen. Jeremiah the bullfrog never explained himself. Neither does a great Barolo.

This episode is a quiet manifesto for every wine lover who's ever stopped performing appreciation and just? drank.

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Claire Wang was in Bordeaux for a business trip when she visited Château Pichon Baron, part of the AXA Millésimes portfolio ? one of the world's largest insurance companies, which also happens to own a remarkable collection of wineries across Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Portugal. She sat down with managing director Christian Seely and asked him point blank: how do you price your wine?

His answer stopped her cold.

"I will charge the highest price my regular customers will enthusiastically buy."

That one sentence, Claire says, captures everything she's spent 20 years teaching businesses about pricing. It's not about what you think your product is worth. It's about knowing your customer so well that the price feels inevitable to them ? even exciting.

In Part 2, Claire and Forrest dig into:

Why the world's top Bordeaux châteaux are doubling down on wine tourism ? and what that says about what customers actually want to buy Why story is now a winery's most valuable asset ? especially in a crowded market where being "just another producer" is a death sentence The experience economy and how it's reshaping wine pricing from Bordeaux to California Claire's personal wine picks ? all under $50, including a summer red from Sicilian producer Occhipinti that she says is best served slightly chilled

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Ever wonder why a $18.99 bottle feels like a deal but $19 feels like a splurge? 

There's a reason for that ? and it's not an accident. Claire Wang is a pricing strategist with two decades of experience helping major brands put the right number on everything from phone plans to foreign exchange rates. She's also the author of an upcoming book, The Price of Influence: How to Move Anyone to a Yes.

In Part 1, Claire breaks down:

Why pricing isn't manipulation ? it starts with understanding what customers truly value The "magic number of 99" and when wineries should use it ? and when they absolutely shouldn't How quality wines intentionally signal premium by dropping the .99 Why when you buy a bottle of wine, you're not just buying the liquid ? you're buying an experience How a winery's target customer determines everything about how their wine should be priced and positioned

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Quiz master Rusty Cellars is back, and this time he's turning everything you heard in the Sherman Mohr interview into a full-on game show. Two rounds, five questions each ? a warm-up round that eases you in, and a second round with a little more bite.

Topics covered include how Shared Spirits actually works (hint: no app store download required), how the COVID-19 pivot shaped the business, what happens to a drink credit when you can't use it, and what drove Sherman to launch Over 50 Pros. Bonus: you'll find out how many bottles of wine a single three-hour sampling event actually moves.

Whether you went 10 for 10 or reached for the bottle early, Rusty wraps it up the way only he can ? keep your standards high, your pours steady, and your tabs under control.

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Episode Summary In this episode, host Forest Kelly is joined by Paul Cullen, former bass player for Bad Company, and Sofia Hedman, Group Travel Manager at Accent on Travel. They share the details of an upcoming, exclusive luxury wine cruise aboard the Oceania Allura, sailing from Rome to Venice in April 2027. Learn about the private performances, curated vineyard tours on Mount Etna, and a special pre-cruise culinary experience in Umbria. 

Cruise Highlights

The Vessel: Sail on the Oceania Allura, a gorgeous small ship limited to 1,200 guests. The ship features all-balcony staterooms, world-class artwork, and exceptional service. The Itinerary: Departing April 23, 2027, from Rome (Civitavecchia) and concluding in Venice. Stops include: Salerno, Italy. Messina, Sicily: Gateway to Taormina and a private group excursion to Gambino Vineyard on the slopes of Mount Etna. Taranto and Bari, Italy. Montenegro: Featuring stunning views where the mountains meet the Adriatic. Exclusive Paul Cullen Events: Onboard guests enjoy a private dinner featuring Paul Cullen?s wines and a hosted cocktail party with hot hors d'oeuvres and a live performance by Paul. Pre-Cruise Luxury in Umbria: A custom land option in Orvieto featuring truffle hunting and a cooking class with Chef Lorenzo. What?s Included: The package features the Prestige Select Beverage Package (unlimited premium spirits, wine, and beer), free specialty dining, prepaid gratuities, onboard WIFI, a $200 per stateroom shipboard credit, and a $200 per person shore excursion credit.

CONTACT & BOOKING INFORMATION

To reserve your spot or for more details on this hosted group experience, contact Accent on Travel:

Website: www.accentontravel.com Sofia Hedman (Group Operations Manager): 302-200-4265 Toll-Free: 888-806-2337 Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

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Sherman Mohr is co-founder and COO of Shared Spirits, and Over50Pros. 

In this episode Sherman cover how wine brands fight for placement at restaurants and retail stores, how Shared Spirits works as a mobile platform for buying, sharing and redeeming drinks at restaurant partners, how Sherman's promo agency grew to 1,700 events a year doing retail wine and spirits sampling activations, the surprising reality that the average age of their best brand ambassadors is in the 50s and 60s, and Sherman's newest venture Over50Pros ? a resource platform for professionals over 50 navigating career transitions.

Contact Sherman at sharedspirits.com and [email protected]. 

Also check out his newest adventure -  over50pros.com.

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Ernest and Julio Gallo founded E. & J. Gallo Winery in Modesto, California in the fall of 1933, just after the repeal of Prohibition. Their starting capital was less than $6,000 ? $5,000 of it borrowed from Ernest's mother-in-law, Teresa Franzia. Their winemaking education came from pre-Prohibition pamphlets retrieved from the basement of the Modesto Public Library. With a single tractor running back-to-back 12-hour shifts, they produced 177,000 gallons in their first year.

What the front label doesn't show: Ernest and Julio's parents died in 1933, the same year the winery was founded. Their father shot their mother, then turned the gun on himself. Ernest was 24. He never spoke about it publicly.

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Hosted by Rusty Sellers, producer of The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast and resident quizmaster of the Pop The Quiz segment

Flying Whale Edition ? ten questions based on the Maba Ba interview series

 Round One: Multiple Choice (5 questions)

Which African tribe inspired Flying Whale Wine? (Dogon) Which star system did the Dogon base their belief system on? (Sirius) Where did Maba Ba grow up? (Dakar, Senegal) What unexpected event led him into wine? (A random meeting in Miami) Before wine, Maba primarily worked as what? (Filmmaker)   Round Two: True or False (5 questions) The Flying Whale name comes from a real animal used in winemaking (False) Maba met his winemaking partner shortly after their first introduction (True) The vineyard was newly built from scratch (False ? 5th generation, 100+ years old) His red blend was inspired by big California Cabernet wines (True) He believes rosé should only be enjoyed in summer (False ? "that idea is ridiculous") Scoring breakdown: 9?10 correct = locked in / 6?8 = mostly listening / 3?5 = wine in hand / 0?2 = you just liked the intro music

 Rusty's closing line: "Wine isn't just about what's in the glass ? it's about the story behind it. And sometimes that story involves a flying whale."

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Sherman Mohr has spent years placing brand ambassadors for spirits and wine companies ? and the data kept pointing to the same thing: the best ones were over 50. That pattern sparked a new venture called Over 50 Pros (over50pros.com), a platform dedicated to helping people in that demographic understand that their experience has real market value ? they just need a new narrative for delivering it.

Sherman notes that roughly 35% of all gig work in the U.S. is currently performed by workers over 50, many of whom are doing it for reasons that go beyond a paycheck ? engagement, community, mental sharpness, and yes, fun. He calls them the most mentally healthy people he knows.

The wine and spirits industry itself gets a vote of confidence too: Sherman describes it as relatively recession-resilient, a good sign for anyone considering it as a career lane.

Connect with Sherman:

Shared Spirits: sharedspirits.com Email: [email protected] Socials: @sharedspirits New venture: over50pros.com

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David Lett didn't discover the Willamette Valley ? he invented it as wine country. When he arrived in 1965, Oregon was timber and berries. Nobody was planting Pinot Noir there. Nobody serious, anyway. Lett and his wife Diana set up in the Dundee Hills and did it anyway, with no roadmap, no guarantee, and no backup plan.

For years they were written off. The market wasn't interested in Oregon wine. If it wasn't French or Californian, it didn't matter. But in 1979, Lett entered his 1975 Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir in the Wine Olympiad in Paris ? and when the results came in, his wine ranked among the best in the world. Just like that, a region nobody respected demanded a second look.

What Lett built in the Dundee Hills didn't just put Oregon on the map ? it rewrote the map entirely. Today, the Willamette Valley is one of the most respected Pinot Noir regions on the planet. All because one man decided the biggest risk wasn't failure. It was listening to people who thought they already knew everything.

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Maba Ba ? founder of Flying Whale Wine, based in New York; originally from Dakar, Senegal; serial entrepreneur, filmmaker, WNBA enthusiast.  The Flying Whale name is rooted in the Dogon people of West Africa, whose ancient cosmology centered on the Sirius star system ? they believed an amphibian being called the Nommo flew to Earth in a whale-like ship to deliver the first humans

Maba grew up in Dakar ? a peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic, the westernmost point of Africa ? with a lifelong connection to the ocean and whales breaching

His whale philosophy: "They keep trying to get out of the ocean and fall back in ? so I gave them wings"

 The wine partnership began in June 2022 at a Miami lunch meeting; by August 2022 he was in Perpignan, south of France, meeting winemaker DJ Rodriguez (flies into Barcelona, drives to meet him)

 Flying Whale Gold (Red) ? 2023 vintage Grenache Noir/Syrah blend; inspired by big California Cabs but crafted silkier, rounder, less tannic; meant to be enjoyed slightly chilled or with a meal; soft launched at Aspen Food & Wine, June 2025; fully launched August 2025

 Flying Whale Rosé ? Grenache/Syrah; fuller body, dry, strawberry/peach with citrus balance; designed as an "all season" rosé ? equally at home by the fireplace or poolside

 Flying Whale White Gold (in development) ? a Viognier that drinks like a Chardonnay; floral nose and finish of Viognier + buttery/greasy mouthfeel of Chardonnay; inspiration struck at Miami Vine Expo

 Maba's creative process: ideas come at 4?5am; keeps notebooks everywhere including bedside

 Bottle design philosophy: "striking simplicity" ? the medallion/coin aesthetic was designed to feel like a collector's item and a gift

 Writing the tasting notes was harder than the visual design ? references the Pascal quote about not having time to write a short letter

 Partnership dynamic: Maba brings a beginner's mind and bigger dreams.

 flyingwhalewine.com

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What you?ll learn: Why Shared Spirits is built as a progressive web app (PWA)

How saving it to your home screen makes it behave like a native app

Why wineries and tasting rooms could use this tech to drive foot traffic

How drink gifting works during wine tours, proposals, and special events

Why digital gifting is now normal thanks to Amazon, Starbucks, DoorDash, and Uber Eats

How Shared Spirits uses digital signage, social media, and marketing partners

How wineries, distributors, and restaurants can reach out and get involved

The revenue model: free for consumers and restaurants, funded by supplier campaigns

How restaurants can deploy drink credits to influencers, ambassadors, and VIP patrons

The surprising stat: one bar customer spent $22,000 in a single year

Key takeaway: Shared Spirits isn?t just a drink?gifting app ? it?s a flexible hospitality tool that can expand into wineries, tasting rooms, and any venue that sells bottles or glasses.

Guest: Sherman Mohr ? Co?founder of Shared Spirits.

@thebestwinepod

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In this Wine Wednesday Back Label Story, we take you to the Caucasus Mountains of the country of Georgia ? home to what may be the oldest evidence of wine on earth. Clay jars called qvevri, buried in the ground and stained with 8,000-year-old grape residue, tell the story of a human relationship with wine that predates the pyramids and the Roman Empire.

But the real twist comes from the Greeks and Romans themselves. Despite building entire cultures around wine ? complete with gods, poetry, and legendary philosophical drinking parties ? they considered drinking wine straight a sign of barbarism. Every symposium, every gathering, every social occasion ran on wine cut with two or three parts water. Drinking it undiluted? That was something the Scythians did. Barbarians. The people you never wanted to be compared to.

So the next time you reach for a glass of water alongside your Cabernet, raise it. You're not being cautious. You're being civilized ? exactly the way the ancients intended.

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The Flying Whale rosé is a Grenache/Syrah blend ? fuller body than a typical rosé, dry, with strawberry and peach fruit balanced by citrus, finished with that signature silky texture. Maba's word for his entire wine lineup so far: "silky" ? it's the through-line he's chasing across every bottle. He rejects the idea of "rosé season" ? he designed this wine to work year-round, from poolside in summer to fireside in winter; he calls it the "all season" wine. The third wine (White Gold) is a Viognier ? inspiration struck at Miami Vine Expo after Napa tastings had him leaning toward Chardonnay. His goal: a Viognier with the floral nose and finish of a classic Viognier but the buttery, almost greasy mouthfeel of a Chardonnay ? a challenge his winemaker partner initially resisted. 

The partnership dynamic: Maba brings a beginner's mind and bigger dreams; his French-trained winemaker partner DJ brings deep Old World tradition ? the tension is productive and fun

 Maba notes that long experience can sometimes mean thinking inside a very rich box ? his outside perspective is what keeps the collaboration exciting.

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What you?ll learn:

How Nashville?s bachelorette scene inspired the ?Party Pack? model

Why Shared Spirits struggled pre?COVID ? and why everything changed afterward

How QR codes, Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats trained customers for mobile transactions

Why people now trust text?based drink gifting

How the app notifies recipients, customizes messages, and handles number masking

Why mobile?first behavior made ?buying someone a drink? digitally feel normal

How the backend logistics evolved to support campaigns, gifting, and redemption

Key takeaway: COVID didn?t just change restaurants ? it changed customer behavior, paving the way for Shared Spirits to thrive.

Guest: Sherman Mohr ? Co?founder of Shared Spirits.

@thebestwinepod

Discover More from The Best 5 Minute Podcast Network:

Wine Podcast

Music Podcast

Travel Podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.