Pour & Explore: Wine, Food & Travel Stories from Around The World

Getting Lost on Purpose: A Local's Guide to the Hidden Soul of Sonoma

Most people who visit Sonoma come for the wine. And yes — the wine is extraordinary. But Gerri O'Riordan will tell you, with the quiet confidence of someone born in Ireland who knows what real green actually looks like, that you're missing most of the story if you don't get off the main road. In this episode, I sit down with Gerri — founder of Sonoma Luxury Getaways and a proud Sonoma local — to talk about what makes this county one of the most layered, beautiful, and genuinely soulful corners of California. She paints a picture of spring in Sonoma that stopped me in my tracks: dormant vineyards carpeted in mustard, gnarly oak trees coming alive, cherry blossoms, rose bushes, and that particular green that only someone from Ireland could describe with full authority. We talk about how Gerri finds the hidden gems — the inland hamlets, the quirky little towns along the Russian River, the artists and the food people and the wine people all living and creating in the same place. Her method is simple: she gets in the car and drives until something stops her. We also bust a couple of myths — including the idea that good wine has to cost a fortune, and that a 97-point rating from Robert Parker means anything more than one person's opinion. Your palate is the only one that matters. We both agree on that. Gerri talks about her philosophy of slow travel — why she'd rather take you to two wineries in a day than three, why the road between A and B is as important as the destination, and why a tour with an agenda so tight you can't stop for a photo isn't really a tour at all. She walks through how Sonoma Luxury Getaways works, from a self-guided PDF itinerary all the way up to a fully customized, fully booked day — transport partners, discounts, maps, and everything in between. And she closes with a food recommendation that I didn't see coming — from someone who will freely admit she is not a duck person. Liberty Duck. Farmed right here in Sonoma. One Thanksgiving changed everything, and she's never looked back. Guest Links Website: https://www.sonomaluxurygetaways.com [https://www.sonomaluxurygetaways.com] Custom Tours: https://www.sonomaluxurygetaways.com/custom-tours [https://www.sonomaluxurygetaways.com/custom-tours] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonoma_getaways/ [https://www.instagram.com/sonoma_getaways/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582438315577 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582438315577] Connect with Pour & Explore Email: cheers@thewineguy.vin [cheers@thewineguy.vin] Website: www.thewineguy.vin [http://www.thewineguy.vin] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pourandexplorepodcast/ [https://www.facebook.com/pourandexplorepodcast/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.real.wine.guy/ [https://www.instagram.com/the.real.wine.guy/]

Eye Level is Earned: What the Beverage Industry Knows That You Don't

You've walked past it a hundred times without thinking about it — a wall of drinks, perfectly arranged, stocked with hundreds of choices. None of that is an accident. In this episode, I sit down with Debbie Wildrick — thirty-year veteran of the food and beverage industry, former category buyer for 7-Eleven, and the person the industry calls the Queen of Beverages — to pull back the curtain on how retail shelves actually work. How products get placed, why new brands almost never start at eye level, and what the word "schematics" means — the invisible blueprint that maps every single product to every single inch of shelf in every store you've ever shopped in. We talk about the five-to-seven second window a consumer takes to make a purchase decision, why too much choice can actually cause people to buy nothing at all, and how regional demographics quietly determine what you'll find in a San Diego store versus a store in Des Moines. We get into private label wines — yes, including Kirkland — and whether brand loyalty is dying or just evolving. And Debbie shares the one thing she says small brands consistently forget to bring to a buyer meeting. It's not the product. It's not the packaging. It's the data coming through the register. This one is for the consumers who've ever wondered why a favorite product disappeared — and for anyone who's ever thought about getting something onto a shelf. Guest Links Website: https://www.debbiewildrick.com [https://www.debbiewildrick.com] Free Download — Will It Sell?: https://free.debbiewildrick.com [https://free.debbiewildrick.com] Connect with Pour & Explore Email: cheers@thewineguy.vin [cheers@thewineguy.vin] Website: www.thewineguy.vin [http://www.thewineguy.vin] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pourandexplorepodcast/ [https://www.facebook.com/pourandexplorepodcast/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.real.wine.guy/ [https://www.instagram.com/the.real.wine.guy/]

Around The World...Accidentally

What do you do when your moving truck gets stolen and you're left with $1,200 to your name? If you're Pamdiana Jones, you pack a backpack, buy a one-way ticket to South Africa, and end up spending the next three years traveling solo around the world. The best part? None of it was planned. In this episode, I sit down with Pam — the self-styled Indiana Jones of travel writing, who chose her author pen name in exactly that spirit — about the accidental journey that took her from a ski town in Utah to Cape Town, across Southeast Asia, through Australia and New Zealand, and back again. The book she's written about it, When in Roam (as in, roaming around), is a fast-paced, hilarious, and genuinely action-packed memoir that puts the chaos of real travel on the page without softening a single edge. We talk about the cover shot — Pam bungee jumping in New Zealand, backwards, in a photo that she describes as representing every "I shouldn't be alive" moment in the book. The story behind it is even better: she told her friend she wasn't going to jump, and he shoved her off the platform anyway. We dig into the night in an African wildlife reserve — a 2am walk in the dark with a single pin flashlight, and a thousand eyes staring back at us from every direction. We talk about how Pam kept her total spend under $900 for three months in South Africa, the stopover in Malaysia that turned into four more months, and why she's glad she didn't know in advance that the trip would last three years. "If he's not going, I'm not going" is what she says she would have thought. Pam also talks about what finally made her write the book after 20 years of being told to — a read of Eat Pray Love that she admired as writing, but decided was not the Indiana Jonesy book she actually wanted to read. She had sharks, skydiving, a stabbing on a train on page one, and a bungee jump she didn't consent to. That felt like material. Guest Links Website: https://pamdianajones.com [https://pamdianajones.com] Shop & Books: https://pamdianajones.com/shop [https://pamdianajones.com/shop] Email Pam: Pam@PamdianaJones.com [Pam@PamdianaJones.com] Connect with Pour & Explore Email: cheers@thewineguy.vin [cheers@thewineguy.vin] Website: www.thewineguy.vin [http://www.thewineguy.vin] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pourandexplorepodcast/ [https://www.facebook.com/pourandexplorepodcast/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.real.wine.guy/ [https://www.instagram.com/the.real.wine.guy/]

Mind Your Manners: How the World Eats (and Why It Matters)

Mind Your Manners: How the World Eats (and Why It Matters) You can tell a lot about a culture by the way it eats. Not just what it puts on the table — but how it sits down, how it serves, how it shares, and what it considers rude. And if you've ever accidentally committed a dining faux pas abroad, you'll know that no amount of apologetic smiling fully makes up for sticking your chopsticks upright in a bowl of ramen. In this solo episode, Nick takes you on a tour of the world's dining tables — from Japan to Morocco, Ethiopia to Mexico — breaking down the rituals, the rules, and the fascinating reasons behind them. Because understanding why a culture eats the way it does is one of the fastest ways to move from tourist to guest. In this episode: * Japan — why slurping your soup is the highest compliment you can pay, and the one thing you must never do with your chopsticks * China — why leaving food on your plate is actually good manners * India — eating with your hands, and why your left one stays out of it * France — where your bread belongs (hint: not on the plate), and why you should never, ever rush a meal * Italy — the strict rules around cappuccino, and why the spoon has no business near your pasta * The UK — the right way to apply malt vinegar to fish and chips (yes, there's a right way) * The Middle East — why refusing a second helping might offend your host * Ethiopia — how injera bread becomes both plate and utensil, and why it's one of the most communal eating experiences on earth * Morocco — the etiquette of eating from a tagine, and why you stay in your lane * The Americas — from no elbows on the table in the US (and why that rule dates back to medieval feasts) to visible hands in Mexico and the green card system at a Brazilian steakhouse This week's challenge: Next time you eat out — especially at a restaurant rooted in another culture — notice the rituals. Watch how people interact with their food. Lean in. Embrace it. Free resource — Table Manners Quick Guide: Nick has put together a one-page do's and don'ts cheat sheet covering everything from this episode plus a few extras. Grab it in the show notes at thewineguy.vin/downloads [http://thewineguy.vin/downloads] While you're there, check out upcoming trips and tours — Portugal is on the horizon. Connect with Nick: * 🌐 Website: thewineguy.vin [https://www.thewineguy.vin/] * ✉️ Email: cheers@thewineguy.vin [cheers@thewineguy.vin] * 📸 Instagram, TikTok & Facebook: find all links at thewineguy.vin [https://www.thewineguy.vin/] Enjoyed this episode? Hit subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's about to travel — or just wants to stop looking like a tourist at the dinner table. Keep Wondering and Wandering.

Built to Explore — An Architect's Blueprint for Travel

What does it mean to truly read a place — not just visit it? Sahana Kulur is an architect, an assistant professor of architectural history, and the founder of VacayWork, a travel blog for people who want to explore the world without leaving their careers behind. She and her husband have walked — and we mean walked — through dozens of countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and beyond, covering up to 20 kilometres a day with no fixed itinerary and their eyes wide open. In this episode, Sahana brings a perspective on travel that most of us don't have — and once you hear it, you'll never look at a city the same way again. We talk about how her training as an architect has made her a more sensitive, more connected traveller. We talk about hunting for authentic local crafts (and the moments when the label tells a very different story). We get into wine — specifically what a glass of Austrian Grüner Veltliner does to her memory — and we find out why the smell of the Tokyo Metro is her favourite travel scent. One word sums up why Sahana travels. Tune in to find out what it is. In this episode: * How a childhood spent crossing northern India by train set the course for a life of travel * Why architecture is one of the best lenses for understanding a new culture * The art of finding genuinely local products — and why it's harder than it sounds * Vegetarian travel in Japan, Iran, Jordan, and beyond * Why planning a trip is one of the most underrated travel skills * Wine as a sense of place — and what Grüner Veltliner has to do with the Wachau Valley Connect with Sahana Kulur & VacayWork: * 🌐 Blog: vacaywork.com [https://vacaywork.com] * 📸 Instagram: @sahana.kulur [https://www.instagram.com/sahana.kulur/] * 🧵 Threads: @sahana.kulur [https://www.threads.net/@sahana.kulur] * 📌 Pinterest: vacaywork [https://in.pinterest.com/vacaywork/] * 🐦 X (Twitter): @sahanak7889 [https://x.com/sahanak7889] * 👤 Facebook: sahanakulur [https://www.facebook.com/sahanakulur/] * ✉️ Email: sahana@vacaywork.com [sahana@vacaywork.com] Enjoyed this episode? Leave us a review wherever you're listening — it takes 45 seconds and it genuinely helps get the show in front of people who need it. Subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you know someone who loves to travel, loves wine, or is just starting to get curious about both — send this one their way. Everything wine, food, and travel is waiting for you at thewineguy.vin [https://www.thewineguy.vin] Keep Wondering and Wandering.