I’ve been a little quieter than usual on my website and social channels these past months.
Not because I had nothing to say — but because I was building something.
For a long time now, I’ve been preoccupied by the state of the wine world.
Wine has always lived through cycles of crisis and renewal. But today, the pressures feel unusually concentrated. Climate change is reshaping how and where wine can be grown. Consumption patterns are shifting, especially among younger generations. And public conversations around alcohol are increasingly reduced to binary, fear-based narratives that leave little room for nuance, culture, or lived experience.
At the same time, many people feel pushed away from wine altogether — intimidated by its language, unsure of its place in their lives, worried about choosing or tasting “wrong.”
And yet, everywhere I travel and work, I keep meeting people who are deeply engaged, thoughtful, and resilient. People who are adapting, rethinking, and refusing to let wine become either a guilty pleasure or a relic of the past.
That tension is what led me to create The Wine Resistance.
Starting from the Table
“The table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment.”
— Laurie Colwin
A shared meal brings us together. Add a glass of wine, and the moment becomes something more.
Wine reflects a place, evokes memories, elevates food, and slows us down long enough to talk.
When we bring wine to the table, we’re not seeking revelation through alcohol, but through story, culture, and connection. This is where The Wine Resistance begins.
What The Wine Resistance Is
The Wine Resistance is a YouTube-first interview series built around short, intimate conversations filmed in restaurants, over food and wine.
Each episode brings me to the table with a person shaping wine’s present and future:
- a winemaker reclaiming her family’s land
- a woman pushing past outdated barriers
- a grower restoring soils and community
- an advocate challenging misinformation
- a thinker insisting on nuance in a noisy debate
The format is intentionally simple: one bottle, a shared meal, and an honest conversation.
No studio.
No lectures.
No wine jargon for its own sake.
From the bottle emerges the thread of the episode — a human journey marked by setbacks and resilience, failures and reinvention, in a world very much in flux.
Why This Moment Matters
Over its 8,000-year history, wine has survived the fall of empires, phylloxera, war, rural exodus, and industrialisation. Each time, it adapted.
Today’s challenges are different, but no less real. Erratic weather, environmental pressure, economic strain, shifting cultural habits, and increasingly polarised health narratives all converge at once.
The Wine Resistance doesn’t aim to “defend wine.” It simply desires to put it back into context — as agriculture, culture, pleasure, and shared experience.
Not as an abstract substance, but as something lived.
Why I Felt Compelled to Do This
After years of teaching wine, the most common emotion I see in beginners isn’t curiosity — it’s fear. Fear of choosing wrong, tasting wrong, or not knowing the rules.
At the same time, conversations around wine and health have become increasingly blunt. Sweeping statements often overshadow nuance, evidence, and the broader role of food culture, moderation, and social connection. Voices like Dr. Laura Catena’s remind us how much context matters — and how much gets lost when it’s ignored.
I don’t believe wine needs defending.
But I do believe it needs better conversations.
Watch the Trailer
Here’s a short trailer that captures the spirit of The Wine Resistance — the tone, the table, and the kinds of stories I want to tell:
Join Me at the Table
The Wine Resistance is just beginning.
If these questions resonate with you — if you care about wine as culture, agriculture, and human connection — I’d love for you to follow along:
- SUBSCRIBE to The Wine Resistance on YouTube
- Share episodes with people who love wine, food, travel, or good storytelling
- Comment, engage, and tell me what stays with you
This series starts at the table. But the conversation goes much further.