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PODCAST

Skurnik Unfiltered

Skurnik Wines & Spirits

No reservations required—listening to these conversations feels like you"ve been invited to pull up a chair and share a glass with some of the most remarkable dinner guests, giving you a level of access that was previously gatekept for those in the know.Skurnik Unfiltered is a weekly podcast that curates deep conversations with some of the finest winemakers, distillers, and industry leaders about the world of wines, spirits and hospitality. The show is hosted by Harmon Skurnik of Skurnik Wines &

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All Episodes

27:58

Noah Dorrance

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/05/18

"If you're really tapped into what wine is, giving back is a very natural extension of that. You realize that wine exists in this harmony with its environment, and if you're not giving back out to that environment, you're like the dead end in the ecosystem. It's important that the ecosystem keeps moving around and that good keeps flowing in all directions." – Noah Dorrance Noah Dorrance's philosophy is clear and consistent: wine is connection. Paying close attention to the weather and the r...

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29:18

Shane Fraser

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/05/11

"Perfection in a spirit is to do things very consistently and don't change things. I'm certainly not perfect, but I think what we're doing at the distillery is close to the best whisky I've made for a long, long time. It's grain to glass, and it's all grown and made in New York State." – Shane Fraser Tenmile Distillery in Wassaic, NY is making the closest thing to Scotch outside of Scotland, thanks to their secret weapon, the acclaimed master distiller Shane Fraser from Aberdeen. Tenmile's ...

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31:48

Alice Jun

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/05/04

"Sool is an ancient style of rice wine. It has over two-thousand years of documented history. Our style is distinctly influenced by the style of brews that I grew up with—a wilder, more natural, more gastronomical style of Korean wine. And for those who are curious about going deeper, there is always something more." – Alice Jun Alice Jun remembers makgeolli as an important ingredient of her upbringing in the '90s in her Los Angeles Korean American community. Her father, a first-generation ...

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32:00

Ricardo Peñalba

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/04/27

“Wine has always been in change, in movement. The wine that we drink now is not the same wine that was drunk a hundred years ago, or a thousand years ago. For a revolution, you have to go back to the past to see what you have missed, and then bring it back.” – Ricardo Peñalba More than a winemaker, Ricardo Peñalba is a self-proclaimed "wine ideologist." When he's out walking the rows of his biodynamic vineyards in Ribera del Duero, he's thinking obsessively about wine and how it conne...

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38:39

Chris Mullineux

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/04/20

"If a wine is trying to copy somewhere else or be something else, it might taste good, but it needs to have an authenticity and a sense of place to it, and it must be balanced and beautiful to drink. If a wine can put those two concepts together, for me, it's a perfect wine." – Chris Mullineux For decades, South Africa’s Swartland region was dominated by industrial farming cooperatives that pumped out massive amounts of inexpensive bulk wine and diluted any hint of terroir. It wasn’t ...

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33:58

Daday Suárez

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/04/13

"Everything that we do is very pure. We are mingled or entangled with other species, with the trees, with everything. That's one of the purposes of this tequila: not only producing tequila, but maintaining the harmony and equilibrium with the surroundings." – Daday Suárez Daday Suárez is a completionist. When he was wrestling with questions of reality and being, he got a degree in philosophy. When he wanted to order wine at restaurants with more confidence, he became a certified sommelier. ...

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26:13

Bernhard Ott and Hans Reisetbauer

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/04/06

“Normally you have a best friend, and sometimes you see each other on weekends, but we are in the same business. We feel lucky. You can’t find it a second time in the world.” – Bernhard Ott If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. History is full of contemporaries who share visions of success, who, instead of competing, mentor and encourage the other to become greater than one could alone. Warhol and Basquiat. Lewis and Tolkien. Gauguin and van Gogh. Today in th...

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37:13

Sergio Vivanco

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/03/30

"I'm very proud to be Mexican. I love my people, I love my country, and we love what we are doing. We do our part with passion, with honesty, with everything that we can with our hands. We are people from the field. We are rancheros, and we feel proud of this. It's our task." – Sergio Vivanco For five generations, the Vivanco family has been growing agave in Arandas, in the Jalisco highland plateau, though they didn't establish their own destilería until 1994. Registered as NOM 1414, they s...

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41:48

Jasmine Hirsch

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/03/24

“This is one reason why family wineries are so important. My father is 82, and he’s supporting, in all the ways, the planting of vineyards that he will not see the full potential of. This multi-generational commitment to viticulture, this multi-generational commitment to caring for the land—that’s why families are so important.” – Jasmine Hirsch The Hirsch family are farmers, though it took decades for David Hirsch to realize after planting his first vines in 1980 that he's not farming grap...

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29:06

Chiara Boschis

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/03/16

“They didn’t believe that I could do the work. And today, the girls are proving how sometimes the impossible can become normal.” – Chiara Boschis As recently as the 1990s, Barolo and the surrounding villages were not ready for a woman to be in charge. When Chiara Boschis championed innovations like new oak barrels, organic farming, and green harvesting in a region that was firmly set in its traditional ways, her neighbors suggested to her father that she should be committed to a psych ...

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25:17

Lara Haag

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/03/09

"We're aiming for a mineral-driven, sharper, cooler style. Very fine, very precise, more focus, more finesse, more character." – Lara Haag The Schloss Lieser estate boasts one of the most privileged vineyard portfolios of the Middle Mosel, with famed sites like Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Brauneberger Juffer, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, and Bernkasteler Doctor creating incredibly sharp and precise wines from impossibly steep slopes. In this episode, German wine expert Michael Lykens tastes a flight o...

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25:04

Martha Stoumen

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/03/02

"You know, trends come and go, but I think there always is an evolution. I think the way I try to approach wine and food and anything else in life, even fashion, is to like what you like and trust your gut." – Martha Stoumen Martha Stoumen is a first generation winemaker from California known for her fresh and youthful wines of primarily Italian varieties. After apprenticing with Giusto Occhipinti in Sicily, Martha returned to California on a mission to discover multigenerational organic vi...

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34:32

Cyprien Arlaud

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/02/23

"For me, it’s very important to know where your roots are when you’re making wine. And I know exactly which kind of wine I want to make: it’s wine that most expresses where it comes from." – Cyprien Arlaud The third generation of his family estate in Morey St. Denis, Cyprien Arlaud of Domaine Arlaud is regarded by many as one of the most respected farmers and winemakers in Burgundy today. His full-scale commitment to organic, biodynamics, and holistic soil management established him as a lead...

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45:36

BONUS: Exploring Galicia and Portugal

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/02/16

“To work by animal traction, 40% grade vineyards, on slate, at 1,000m of altitude, that are 45 minutes from anything else—all the best producers are going more and more into geographically specific bottlings.” – Max Working In December, we sent our Iberian wine specialists to take the pulse of what’s new and exciting in Portugal and Galicia. Matt Wolfe and Max Working tasted the wines of nine producers from Bierzo to Porto and returned with a wealth of stories, wineries to watch, and two souv...

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22:35

Pedro Parra

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/02/09

“What I’m looking for is very personal. It’s like a sound in the wine. And that sound is defined by something I love. Like a musician, I was always looking for my personal sound, and that sound comes easy with País.” – Pedro Parra Pedro Parra is the world-renowned winemaker, saxophone player, and vineyard consultant from Chile—and one of the few individuals with a PhD from the Paris Center of Agriculture with a specialization in terroir. Under his eponymous brand, Pedro Parra y Familia ...

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38:57

Annabel Thomas

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/02/02

"Reducing the barriers to getting into Scotch, I think, is really important for bringing new consumers from all walks of life in and making them feel welcome. The whole point of Nc'nean is whisky for everybody." – Annabel Thomas Annabel Thomas is the founder of the most sustainable distillery in the world, Nc’nean. Nestled in the Western Highlands of Scotland, Nc’nean is completely off the grid. The entire operation produces net-zero carbon emissions and is powered by 100% renewable energy. T...

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52:06

Derek Mossman

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/01/26

“I think many consumers, many somms, think of it as a great supermarket wine for the money. But I think Chile’s still got much more to show. Many people when they taste these wines, the first thing they say is, ‘But that’s not Chilean.’ But it is more Chilean than what your image of Chile is.” – Derek Mossman Since 2006, Derek Mossman and his wife, Pilar, have been working alongside local farmers in Chile’s Maule Valley to revive forgotten centenarian vines and express their full potential. T...

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26:47

Jason Kesner

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/01/20

"We're not making year-to-year decisions—we're making generational decisions. And that feels like the only just way to treat and respect all of the efforts that have preceded us." – Jason Kesner Today’s guest is Jason Kesner, the longtime winemaker of Kistler Vineyards, one of California’s most esteemed producers of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Having worked alongside founder Steve Kistler for nearly two decades—first as his only assistant, then as his successor—Jason has played a central...

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33:05

Quentin Paillard

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/01/12

"You know, Champagne has built itself, at least since the '60s, on blending grapes together. Growers, we play a different card. We try to express wine from a singular place. And when you just think about the experience of tasting the same varietal made from different terroir, that's when I think you understand that wine is truly special." Champagne Pierre Paillard is one of the most exciting domaines in France, thanks to a fortunate marriage of pristine terroir and “bon sens paysan,” with a m...

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29:43

Christopher Loewen

Skurnik Unfiltered ·

2026/01/05

"Working in these vineyards makes me think a lot because you really want to treat them right. You don't want to be the last generation farming the vines that were surviving 4, 5 generations." – Christopher Loewen Today’s guest is Christopher Loewen, the 33-year-old at the helm of Weingut Carl Loewen, one of the Mosel’s smallest and most impressive estates. Christopher, along with his father Karl-Josef and just one other employee, farms some of the oldest ungrafted Riesling vines in the ...

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45 results

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