Major Crush

We had the best time with our good buddy, Jay Rooke, host of the podcast series "KNOW PAIN KNOW GAIN." He's an entrepreneur coach and fellow wine lover and when we sat down to chat with him over a picnic lunch and a few glasses of wine, it's safe to say we absolutely gained something from the experience! Listen in to learn more about how Jay approaches "failures" and "mistakes," and how easily he connected to Meredith and Lou because there was a common admiration for wine that always ties everything together! Jay Rooke's website is: www.jayrooke.com CONTACT US: If you have questions or comments for Meredith and Lou, and you're listening on the Anchor App, you can send them to us directly. If you're listening to this podcast on any other platform, and you want to reach out, you can email us at info@majorcrushwines.com // Follow us on Instagram: @majorcrushwinecast. // Be sure to check out all three seasons of Major Crush -- plus get the latest episodes of Season Four -- on Spotify, or wherever you access your

This season, Lou and Mere have been expanding their horizons and using wine as a way to connect with other people who have podcasts that are totally worth listening to! So in keeping with this idea, this week we’re re-airing a podcast that my buddy Lou had the opportunity to be on. It’s called The Law of Relevancy with Cordes Owen. It’s not our typical kind of interview, but for the first time since the start of the show, you’re going to get to really learn all about Lou and his past, as well as all of the things we’re working on right now at Major Crush! CONTACT US: If you have questions or comments for Meredith and Lou, and you're listening on the Anchor App, you can send them to us directly. If you're listening to this podcast on any other platform, and you want to reach out, you can email us at info@majorcrushwines.com // Follow us on Instagram: @majorcrushwinecast. // Be sure to check out all three seasons of Major Crush -- plus get the latest episodes of Season Four -- on Spotify, or wherever you acces

We're back this week and what an incredible interview we have to share with you this time around! Mere & Lou had the chance to sit down with one of the very best winemakers in Sonoma: Peter Mathis. Sometimes it's our relationship with the winemaker that leads us to the people we interview, but most of the time, it's their wine -- and when it comes to Peter, his wines introduced us to someone we are thrilled to call a friend of the show! Peter is a charming storyteller who happens to make the most beautiful wine you'll likely ever have. His ingenious mind and sincere passion for making wine make him a one-of-a-kind person and one you will want to know better. You can start to get to know him by listening to this episode, but you'll most certainly fall in love with him after you taste his wine! The tire of this episode says it all: we've got a Major Crush on Peter Mathis! You can find all of Peter's wines on his website: www.mathiswine.com CONTACT US: If you have questions or comments for Meredith and Lou,

We'll be back next week with Episode 7 -- See you then! CONTACT US: If you have questions or comments for Meredith and Lou, and you're listening on the Anchor App, you can send them to us directly. If you're listening to this podcast on any other platform, and you want to reach out, you can email us at info@majorcrushwines.com // Follow us on Instagram: @majorcrushwinecast. // Be sure to check out all three seasons of Major Crush -- plus get the latest episodes of Season Four -- on Spotify, or wherever you access your favorite podcasts!

Hey everyone! We're kind of excited because WE GOT NEW RECORDING EQUIPMENT for our show! It's been a long-time coming, but we finally found a system we can take with us on-location that we do hope will improve your listening experience! It's a lot more complicated than our old setup, so we thought it would be smart to do a simple Mere & Lou exchange to get the hang of things, but we also wanted to invite you into our world, too. Mere is going for her Level 4 Certification with the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) and so she decided to share some of the things she's learning with you, and talk out the realities of the wine industry with her buddy, Lou. We want everything we do at Major Crush to invite people in, not make people feel left out or excluded, and the truth is, the wine industry can be so tricky at times it can seem exclusive. But the more you know, the better, so this episode is all about how anyone can set their gauges for "grapeness!" As promised in the final bumper of the show, we'v

It was such an honor for us to be guests on the Texas Wine & True Crime podcast, and we’re so excited that we get to share this interview with our fans, too! Brandy Diamond & Jaimee Hardwidge are such fun hosts, and the content of the podcast was already a topic we thought about a lot — the greatest wine crime in history! We want to thank Brandy & Jaimee for having us on their show, but we also want to give a shout-out to Frances Dinkelspiel, author of Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California. We interview Frances in Season Two, but if you haven’t heard her speak on this case, you might want to go back and check it out. But even better, read her book — it is one of the best reads about wine and their twisty side of the industry you’ll ever get your hands on. We promise: This story is absolutely worth repeating! By the way, if you enjoyed our interview on Texas Wine & True Crime, they have loads of other fun episodes that span two seasons! You can

For us, it was an incredible pleasure to sit down and chat with Olga Fernandez & Martin Guerrero about their family winery. Their story is heartwarming and deeply inspiring -- and their wines are some of the best we've tasted on the show. Following their dreams has certainly paid off and each wine in their collection has so much heart and a kind of devotion that you can taste in every sip. Lou has been personally crushing on Guerrero Fernandez wines for a couple of years, so to be able to feature Martin's wines on the podcast is something we feel more than just a little excited about! You can learn more about the wines they have to offer on their website: www.gfwines.com or you can call them at 707-953-7956.  CONTACT US: If you have questions or comments for Meredith and Lou, and you're listening on the Anchor App, you can send them to us directly. If you're listening to this podcast on any other platform, and you want to reach out, you can email us at info@majorcrushwines.com // Follow us on Instagram:

When we say WINE, the next that comes up for us is CHEESE! So we thought it might be fun to interview a real-life cheesemonger for our show! We couldn't be more proud to present this interview with James Ayers from the historic Sonoma Cheese Factory. We set up our recording equipment right in the middle of the shop, surrounded by a dozen or so refrigerated cases of cheese from all over the world. Listen in as James guides us into this amazing world. Be sure to check out our website for a couple of blog entries inspired by James and his expert knowledge of cheese -- it might change your wine experience like never before! As promised, James gave us the perfect cheese pairing for just about any wine. It's called Foggy Morning, and you can find it here: https://nicasiocheese.com/pages/foggy-morning If you have questions for James, feel free to email them to us at info@majorcrushwines.com. We also have plans to do more with James and The Sonoma Cheese Factory -- including virtual experiences and interactive pairin

Welcome to the first interview of Season Four! We feel so fortunate to have had a chance to interview Laura Donadoni, AKA, The Italian Wine Girl! Her passion for Italian wine and teaching other people how to “crush on it” in her own way is absolutely beautiful to us, and we hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did. As Lou promised in the episode, we’ve got some details in these show notes to help you personally connect to the content Laura has to offer, and we do encourage you to dig into her blog. In addition, we've got some fun posts on our social media that tie-in to this interview and help you keep track of all of the amazing wines Laura talked about. We have already learned so much from our own time with Laura, and now we’re excited to give you all of the ways you can stay connected to her! Subscribe to The Italian Wine Girl:  www.theitalianwinegirl.com Follow Laura on Instagram: @theitalianwinegirl  CONTACT US: If you have questions or comments for Meredith and Lou, and you're listening on the An

Welcome Back to the Wine Country, and, Welcome Back to Major Crush! It feels amazing to be starting up our fourth season of the show! We decided to kick things off with an episode that eases us back into the swing by offering you an update on the state of the wine industry, as well as how Major Crush has started to expand to bring that Wine Country Experience to you at home! We love wine, and for us, the only way to express that love is to come up with new ways to invite you into our experiences in every way we can. To that end, we've launched a few new projects that we want to make sure you know all about: The Crush Collection: After receiving a lot of requests from listeners for the wines we feature on the podcast, Lou & Mere decided to launch the Crush Collection -- our four-bottle-a-month wine club featuring wines made by the winemakers we crush on the most! For more information about joining this club, go to www.majorcrushwines.com. Additionally, we've created a simple referral program where club mem

CONTACT US: If you have questions or comments for Meredith and Lou, and you're listening on the Anchor App, you can send them to us directly. If you're listening to this podcast on any other platform, and you want to reach out, you can email us at majorcrushpodcast@gmail.com or send us a message on our website at www.majorcrushwines.com // Follow us on Instagram: @majorcrushwinecast. // Be sure to check out all three seasons of Major Crush on Spotify, or wherever you access your favorite podcasts!

It's finally time to let you in on something Mere & Lou have been dreaming of since the end of Season One! We're finally ready to launch our very first Crush Collection wine club! Every time we put out another episode of this podcast, we get feedback from our listeners that our show tends to make people thirsty! So we decided we needed to come up with a way to get the wines they're crushin' on to our listeners -- and the rest of the world -- because when a wine is crush-worthy, it's so much fun to share it! In this episode, Meredith & Lou talk about how the club came into being, and then they tell you all about the first four wines they've come up with for the FIRST LOVES COLLECTION. We were so lucky to get our hands on each of these bottles of wine, and we're excited that we can offer them at such an insane price: Just $89.00! This first club collection is the start of something much bigger, and so every month, we'll be bringing our club members another collection of killer wines to crush on!  For mo

Welcome to another bonus episode of the Major Crush Winecast called WHAT THE BLANK! All season long, Mere & Lou have been teaming up with Josh Martin & Lars Williamson of Blank Wines to explore topics that apply to the "Millennial & Gen Z" population of wine consumers. It's added so much to our season, and we can't tell you how much fun we've had getting to know these guys. So it seemed only fitting that we should do our best to help launch the Blank Wines Club by featuring their very first shipment of wines, too! Mere & Lou have spent hours tasting and talking with Josh & Lars about the wines they've curated for their club, and it's finally time to let you in on the plans. So be sure to check out this bonus episode to find out what the guys from Blank Wines have in store! To get your hands on the wines featured in this episode, go to www.blankwines.com and order now! For just $89.00 you can taste and learn more about these four exciting varietals as you sip!  CONTACT US: If you have quest

Season Three is drawing to an end, but we had to put together an episode about one of the biggest controversies in the wine industry: Corks Vs. Screw Caps. Winemakers have strong and very specific reasons for picking a side in this internal battle, and throughout this season, the winemakers we've interviewed have openly shared their thoughts with us! So we pulled together outtakes of several of our interviews and bundled them up in a stand-alone episode so we can explore this topic with our listeners. Hear how some of the most storied winemakers in the California Wine Country have decided to enclose their wines. One thing's for certain: The people we interviewed make delicious wines, and so it's very clear to us that a screw cap absolutely doesn't mean the wine in the bottle will be of lesser quality -- in fact, in many ways, it might be a sign that the winemaker is open to change and willing to see how technology can add something beautiful to the artistic nature of wine! CONTACT US: If you have questions or

If you've been following the Major Crush Winecast for any length of time, then you already know the name, David Griffin -- the Pinot Noir-loving husband of co-host Meredith Griffin. And, if you follow professional basketball, then you know this same David Griffin as the genius NBA executive who has a knack for putting together winning teams and fostering a sense of camaraderie wherever he goes!  We thought it would be fun for us to put David in our very own "hot seat" to talk about wine culture inside the NBA, and to share a few other insights with our listeners about how wine helps connect and build strong communities inside of a competitive world where elite athletes are always looking for new expressions of perfection! David opens up about his recent experience inside the NBA bubble, how coaches and players he's worked with have embraced the world of wine, and how he sees his new role as the top executive at the New Orleans Pelicans playing out in the future. Of course, we had plenty of wine to share with

Welcome to another episode of Major Crush! Meredith and Lou had such a great time down in Santa Barbara County, and the people they interviewed along the way are making some truly crush-worthy wines! So it’s no surprise that our last winemaker interview kind of blew us away. There’s this gorgeous place tucked away in the Santa Rita Hills called Peake Ranch. It’s one of the most beautiful settings we discovered on our road trip, and…the new friends we met at Peake Ranch make this a winery we’re sure to be visiting again! When we recorded this episode, we were still in the days of social distancing and extra acts of mindfulness when gathering with others. And, we also conducted this interview in a room overlooking the stunning Peake Ranch Barrel room — so I guess you could the sound quality reflects a sense of place, albeit not quite as beautifully as Peake Ranch’s owner John Wagner, and winemaker Wynne Solomon do in every bottle of their wine! As you know, Lou insisted that you check out these wines, so here's

You already know that Meredith & Lou love to crush on wine, but this time around, the crush is personal. For several years now, Lou has had a sincere adoration for the wines made by Lane Tanner of Lumen Wines, so when we reached out to her for an interview, and she said "Yes!" it was a pretty big deal! Before they even entered her winery, Meredith and Lou were starstruck! From her taste in music (she was rocking out to Lou's favorite band, Little Feet) to her disarming approach to winemaking, everything about Lane Tanner just feels right. She has one of the best origin stories we've ever heard, and her easy-going manner and ability to weave a tale that's as delicious as her wines make this interview a true highlight of the season. We are thrilled that we got to meet Lane, and we can't wait for you to get to know her, too! To find Lumen Wines, you can visit Lane's website [https://www.lumenwines.com/] and her tasting room is called the Lumen Lounge at Pico located at 458 Bell St, Los Alamos, CA 93440 CONTA

It's always so much fun for Meredith & Lou to sit down with their buddies from Blank Wines to talk about one of their latest discoveries from Major Crush. Lou, of course, was pumped to tell the guys all about his big crush on Lane Tanner, but there was so much more than that to talk about! In this episode, we talk about a unique wine Lane is experimenting with; the movie Sideways and its profound impact on the wine industry; and, the value of having a mentor when you’re following your passion in life. As always, this WHAT THE BLANK bonus episode is just a relaxed conversation between friends, and so we hope you enjoy "eavesdropping" on Mere, Lou, Josh, & Lars! CONTACT US: If you have questions or comments for Meredith and Lou, and you're listening on the Anchor App, you can send them to us directly. If you're listening to this podcast on any other platform, and you want to reach out, you can email us at majorcrushpodcast@gmail.com  // Follow us on Instagram: @majorcrushwinecast. // Be sure to check ou

The Santa Barbara County Road Trip starts off with a huge win when we spent time with the one-and-only Greg Brewer of Brewer Clifton Wines. If you've been a fan of our show, then you already know that our absolute motto is this: wine connects people. And so when we met with Greg Brewer, of Brewer Clifton Wines, it shouldn't have surprised us to feel so drawn into his world, but somehow, it did! His ability to tell a story that carries you forward into a true understanding of his wines and the Santa Barbara County growing region is profound, and we feel so thankful we can share a bit of this experience with you in the podcast. Everything about this podcast is delicious -- from the stories to the four incredible wines he shared with us! So we hope you enjoy! To access any of the wines we experienced in this episode, or to learn more about Brewer Clifton Wines, check out their website: https://www.brewerclifton.com/ CONTACT US: If you have questions or comments for Meredith and Lou, and you're listening on the A

Every so often in life, you meet someone for the first time, and you just know you're going to be life-long friends. Such is the case for Lou when he first met Jack Galante of Galante Vineyards — and we think it's safe to say, Meredith had the same experience! Jack is undeniably one of the most generous and kind winemakers you're ever going to meet, and his cowboy hospitality means you can leave your worries at the door and relax with a good story and a delicious glass of his wine! This interview only scratches the surface of Jack's story, but it's certainly a start. We do hope to bring you a future episode with Jack and his wonderful wife, Dawn, so we can continue to unfold the stories these two have to offer the world while we sip on more of their award-winning wines.  If you'd like to connect with the wine community Jack & Dawn have created, we've provided the links to their websites so you can get on their email list and start spending your time with these two amazing people and their winery teams dur