How to Win at Wine with Joe Roberts: Wine Trends, Lighter Reds, and Sparkling Bargains

Check out all the great events Laurie has on the calendar in 2026 on her website at TheWineCoach.com/events including a few spaces still left in her Tuscany tour this October!

In this engaging conversation, Joe Roberts and Laurie Forster unpack the current state of the wine industry, from shifting consumption trends and health-conscious choices to the rise of non-alcoholic options. They explore what’s bubbling up right now—literally—with sparkling wines, alternative white varieties, lighter reds, and why Gamay and Beaujolais may be poised for a serious moment. Along the way, Joe shares insights from his latest book, How to Win at Wine, reinforcing a refreshingly simple message: wine should be enjoyed with curiosity and confidence, not confusion or intimidation. It’s a smart, approachable conversation for anyone who wants to drink better, stress less, and actually enjoy what’s in their glass. 

Featured Wines

Segura Viudas Heredad Brut Reserva Cava, Penedes, Spain $30

Mary Taylor Anjou Blanc, Loire Valley, France $14,69

Joseph Mellot Chinon, Loire Valley, France $18

Gilles Coperet Morgon Cru Beaujolais, Burgundy, France $22

Check out Joe's website at OneWineDude.com to find out more about his book including How to Win at Wine  

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:29)
Welcome back to The Sipping Point and welcome to 2026. In a moment, I'm going to bring in Joe Roberts of One Wine Dude, and we're going to talk about what we think are the trends and predictions for wine in the coming year. But just a reminder, I have a lot of great events out there. If you go to thewinecoach.com and just click on events, you'll see I have a number of great events coming up starting in February. One of them is called Art Uncorked, a fundraiser where I'm pairing great Italian wines

over a five course meal and pairing those with pieces of art. And this is all to benefit the Art League of Ocean City. Great event. I hope you'll join me just in time for Valentine's. And then on February 26th, we're doing Sip and Style for the ladies here in Oxford, Maryland. And I'm gonna pair up with the style expert, Beth Hashen. She's gonna show you the styles for the coming spring and I'm gonna pair those.

with some great spring wines and pairings. And it's just a night to really enjoy the company of your friends and find great new fashions and wines for the coming spring.

All right, I'm gonna bring in Joe Roberts of One Wine Dude. He's one of the most influential and longest running wine blogs in the US and a trusted voice for wine lovers who want insight without intimidation. His work has appeared in publications ranging from Parade to Playboy.com and he's a frequent wine competition judge and sought after speaker at industry events. Joe regularly appears on TV and radio stations across the country where he breaks down everything

from how to enjoy wine confidently to the real challenges facing today's global wine industry. He's the author of several wine books, including the Wine Tasters Guide, Wine Tasters Journal, and his latest book, How to Win at Wine. This helps readers make smarter wine decisions without the snobbery. He holds the WSET Level 3 Advanced Certificate in Wine and Spirits

but his superpower is making wine make sense.

Laurie Forster (02:30)
Joe, welcome to The Sipping Point.

Joe Roberts (02:32)
Right, thanks, great to be back, Laurie. After a decade, can't believe it. Something like that. That's insane, We're still here!

Laurie Forster (02:35)
I know 14 years you said it was since our last interview. show, different decade.

Yes, and we're still doing the wine thing. I don't know about you, but sometimes I'll run into people I haven't seen in a while and they're always like, are you still doing the wine thing? And I'm like, yeah, why wouldn't I be? ⁓

Joe Roberts (02:53)
I that all the

time. I'm I'm hanging on as long as I can.

Laurie Forster (02:56)
Exactly. Well, I'm excited to catch up with you, but if folks are tuning in and they are not familiar with you, I gave them, you know, your background, of course, at the top of the show. But tell us a little bit about how you came to make wine a career, because I know people are always fascinated about the origin story. You know, we're not a dime a dozen. There aren't that many of us. So how did you come to wine?

Joe Roberts (03:19)
Yeah. So I started as avid consumer, really, yuppie professional, whatever. I want to spend my money, a little extra money on something before I had kids. Oh, okay. Wine sounds good. I had always loved the beer and tried brewing it. And so wine, uh, just sort of fascinated me. It's a natural extension. You know, there's the hedonistic part of it's social lubricant and it's like a

classy way to get laid or something, I don't know, you know, whatever. But I loved the history, the culmination of all those different disciplines, geography, geology, farming, et cetera. And I was fascinated by how deep you could go and you just never ended. I thought that was amazing. So I started taking certifications and things like that. And as you mentioned, the world is actually, it's actually pretty small.

Laurie Forster (03:47)
Love it.

Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (04:10)
people were very generous and next thing I knew I was starting a blog and meeting all these different people, cetera, et cetera. So I had an opportunity to take a buyout, my corporate life, and I took it and basically then pivoted to the wine thing full time. I want to say that's the full time piece started around 2012, something like that.

Laurie Forster (04:26)
Nice.

Really nice. We actually have kind of a similar story. I used to be in tech as well and took a buyout while I was exploring wine. And then, you know, I got, I was a sabbatical, if you remember those. Hey, I'm going to take three months off. And then the tech crash and I never went back. So here we are. Well, that's amazing. And you do so many great things. Wine writing, of course, but you have a new role.

Joe Roberts (04:35)
Yeah.

never went back.

Laurie Forster (04:56)
with Cristaldi and you of course have been on your own, but tell me how one wine dude, how Joe Roberts is going to fall under that umbrella.

Joe Roberts (05:05)
Oh yeah, thanks. So I've known Jonathan for a long time. He's now he's the one of the big wigs reviewers at decanter. Yeah, but he has his own his own website. And so he basically tapped me on the shoulder to we want to do content for him, do some, some reviews, etc. So I'll be talking a bit more about that hopefully Q1 as we start to see what that will mean for one. Why do you accept probably does mean

less, a little bit less content, still be there, but it means less content. Particularly the short hand reviews that I do will probably go away. They'll go completely to Jonathan's site. We've worked together over the years. mean, it's been like a decade on and off with different, different things that we've been doing. Marketing copy, a lot of behind the scenes stuff. So we know each other really, really well. And I kind of refer to him as like my, he's like my work wife, you know.

Laurie Forster (05:42)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (05:59)
kind of thing at this point. So yeah, we're excited and we might have some bigger news coming as well under NDA, so I'm not allowed to give you the details, unfortunately. But watch this space because we may see some interesting announcements coming shortly after Q1 next year. So it's exciting.

Laurie Forster (06:00)
Nice.

All right.

Okay, great.

Well, keep us up to date so my ⁓ listeners can be the first to know. And I was excited to have you here since we're just getting into 2026. And what I wanted to talk about, I thought you and I can talk about some of our ideas of what we think the trends are going to be, whether they be continuing from this year, or maybe even new trends emerging.

I know that one of the big ones that everybody in our industry and even probably outside our industry knows about, which was a trend for 2025 for sure was this whole drop in global. I want to say wine consumption, but it's really alcohol consumption in general, but certainly it definitely has been a difficult situation for the, for the wine industry. So what are your thoughts?

on where we are today and where we're going in this coming year.

Joe Roberts (07:06)
Yeah, it's like the elephant in the room. Where we are is bad. It's pretty bad. And the headlines, usually the other sensationalists, but generally they are doing it justice. mean, it's one of the worst modern times in wine sales, especially in comparison because they were going so gangbusters for a better part of a decade. So you hear a lot of people talk about

Laurie Forster (07:08)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (07:31)
that we've hit bottom. They think we've hit bottom in 2025. I actually disagree with that. I hope I'm wrong, but the people that I talked to on the inside, various, you know, they're working in various pillars across wine. The news doesn't sound so awesome. I know that perception tends to lag the reality a little bit, of course, in timing, but I feel like we might still have a bit.

Laurie Forster (07:47)
Mmm.

Joe Roberts (07:56)
of drop to go, unfortunately. ⁓ Now that does make it a good time for consumers. It's a great time to get back into wine or get further into it if you want, because there is some, the premium level, we've actually seen some brands are able to kind of weather the storm. A lot of places are making less wine though, and fruit that they otherwise might use, that's really good, or juice that they might use, that's really good, it's going into lower price wines.

Laurie Forster (07:59)
Yes.

Joe Roberts (08:21)
So it's a great time to jump in. you want to encourage, we need to do whatever we can to get people drinking. That's the bottom line.

Laurie Forster (08:21)
Mmm.

Yes.

Well, what I don't

understand is the prices have not gone down. In fact, it seems like the prices are going up. And I know that it could partially be because of supply. I mean, they're taking supply out of the market, vines out of production and tariffs certainly kind of didn't help inflation in general. But

It would be awesome if all of a sudden all the great wine we love is like 15 to 20 % less than normal. So as high frequency wine consumers, we're getting a deal. I don't feel like I've seen that, right? Okay.

Joe Roberts (09:00)
Stream on.

Well, I think what it means for a lot of people is the taking a chance on a $15, $20 bottle is going to pay off for them a lot better. The quality very likely could be higher for things that they don't know much about. And they're having tried before basically is what I mean. And then, yeah, but the pressure is there and we're all feeling it. You name it, it's a factor, the tariffs, inflation, et cetera, et cetera.

Laurie Forster (09:12)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yes.

Joe Roberts (09:30)
everything's going up and we only have a certain amount of disposable income to spend. And think the things people aren't thinking as much about in the wine space are, and they talk a little bit about other alcohol, but now it's cannabis, it's online gambling, it's these things, these easy spends that give people some kind of high or rush or endorphin hit or whatever they're looking for, doesn't necessarily have to even be a consumable.

Laurie Forster (09:36)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (09:56)
And we're going to be competing against that too in wine. feel that's when I say, not a hit bottom because I feel like we're not looking at quite as much of that breadth as we should economically in the space. So probably see a little bit more contraction. But yeah, I mean, if you've got the 15 bucks and you want to try something, you got a better shot at getting a good like $15 Pino say from Oregon now than you ever had, right? Like they're.

Laurie Forster (10:23)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (10:23)
A $15, $20 Pinot would be a crap shoot usually, but that's probably going to pay off for you a little bit more over the next couple of years just because of where the industry is.

Laurie Forster (10:28)
great.

And I was reading an article, and if you know who wrote this, you remind me, but it was about GLPs, GLP-1s, and everyone that seems to be on them now, and everyone's getting so thin, and it makes people not want to eat, but it also makes people not that interested in drinking wine or any of those things. And the writer was basically saying, this whole GLP-1 thing is taking away

joy from people, the joy of food, the joy of wine, which, you know, in this house, where a chef and a wine, you know, a wine person, you know, that's a big piece of joy. And yes, you know, if you love those things, you know, you try to make up with it with exercise, but hey, you know, that's out there. Do you think that is playing into this whole scenario as well?

Joe Roberts (11:24)
Yeah, the health aspect, I've talked with Laura Katena from Canaan, Katena is the potter once, who's also trained as a medical doctor. And she's given some great presentations on this topic. And we've known for a very long time, it's not new news, is there technically any safe level of alcohol consumption? Meaning safe, meaning no risk. And the answer is no, of course not.

Laurie Forster (11:33)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (11:47)
because alcohol is going to increase your risk for certain diseases like cancer by a certain amount. However, a lot of those diseases start out for most people genetically at a very low number. So let's say my risk of getting one of those diseases is just hypothetical three and a half percent and consuming alcohol increases by three and a half percent by 8%. I'm still rolling those dice because the joy is too much for me.

Laurie Forster (12:07)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (12:17)
I don't want to give that up. We're talking about a small number multiplied by a small number still equals a small number. Yes, I take a greater chance with my life driving my car, picking up my kids or something. So we have to reinforce, I think, that calculus back into things. The health benefits of why we're probably overstated for a long time.

Laurie Forster (12:30)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (12:39)
the detriments to your health of wine are now being overstated. So I people like us have to keep banging that message home.

Laurie Forster (12:43)
Yeah.

It's a pendulum, you know, things go back and forth. And so we're, you know, we're in the back and hopefully once we hit that rock bottom, as you said, we will emerge out of it. Now, one trend I did not bring to the table because I brought some wines here to get your opinion and your thoughts on trends that I see for the coming year. I did not bring it, but I think it's going to continue. I was just at the at the wine store today and

Joe Roberts (12:56)
Hope it's.

Laurie Forster (13:13)
Everybody, seems even the, you know, the winemakers, the large winemakers, everybody's getting into the non-alc space in some way. So I saw Josh is making a non-alc sparkling, a Mianetto makes one, which is actually really good. I have yet to taste a red that I'm like super excited about yet. But, you know, I think that is interesting. And I also think it's interesting that in France,

Joe Roberts (13:32)
Yeah,

Laurie Forster (13:40)
they're in different places now they're suing because they don't want people using the word. Let's say you made a non-alcoholic Chablis. Well, that is not a Chablis and they do not want that word on the bottle. So I think we'll see a lot of craziness with that in the coming year. ⁓ Right.

Joe Roberts (13:55)
Good point. That's got to out somehow, right? Cause it's,

yeah. And you think, well, should I have to pay as much? And then you got to think about, well, it's probably made with alcohol and somehow dealcoholized and alcohol is texture and flavor and chemical reaction that you've got to reproduce some of that when you take it out. And how do you do that? It's a complicated space. only going to get better. And part of that's because they started out pretty bad, but you like you said, there's some.

Laurie Forster (14:08)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

Joe Roberts (14:23)
There's some tasty ones out there, you know, that you would even wine pros would think twice. So wait a minute. it's actually not out or D out. That's, that's pretty cool.

Laurie Forster (14:25)
Mm-hmm. ⁓

Right. Yeah. Well, speaking of sparkling wine, ⁓ one of the trends, I'm calling it beyond Prosecco, that I see are just really people looking into other categories of bubblies. So I brought a premium Cava from Cigarra Viudis. It's their Herodot Reserva. Beautiful presentation, but it's cool bottle, but delicious wine.

Joe Roberts (14:51)
Yeah, I know it's a robo. It's cool bottle. ⁓

Laurie Forster (14:57)
I mean, Cava has long been a place to go for affordable champagne style wines, totally different style than a Prosecco, but looking to premium versions versus maybe, you know, going to champagne or, you know, a higher priced domestic bubbly. What are your thoughts on sparkling wine?

Joe Roberts (15:18)
I never gave up on Cava. I was sort of liking beer when I still like Hefeweizen and people kind of pooh-poohed that for a long time. to your point about joy, there's still Cava that brings me joy. It's interesting that some of the Cava, now they're experimenting with traditional French grapes, champagne grapes in the same method, again, but for a lot lower price.

Laurie Forster (15:33)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (15:44)
⁓ and yeah, I feel like the quality is just continually improved and yeah, if you, get the most mass produced versions, you're likely they're going to taste a little bit like baby aspirin or whatever, you know, that people complain about. But the ones that you like, the example you just brought up, you know, they're quite good. ⁓ and you know, open that bottle apart, it's not going to stay, full for long. It's going to, it's going to be gone. You know, they're really tasty and affordable. You mentioned Prosecco and interesting.

Laurie Forster (16:01)
Yes.

Right.

Joe Roberts (16:10)
I actually think you don't have to leave Prosecco to get a break from Prosecco because it's got a couple of superiore categories, one of which is Asolo, which is a really cool option because you're leveling up the quality and how it's made, but you're not paying as much as you would for like Valo Biodine, which came into the market at a higher price and Oslo is just as good, but they couldn't.

Laurie Forster (16:15)
Okay.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (16:37)
do that, they had to find a spot. So they went in between. And I think to your point, just like cobbler, there's some great bargains there where you're getting something similar to the, maybe the Prosecco that you're familiar with, but you're stepping up in quality and texture, mouthfeel and the whole bit.

Laurie Forster (16:40)
Right?

I went to a trade tasting in DC and there were some producers there and they were dry, they were delicious. And I was like, wow, I love this. I feel like the market has been flooded with so much extra dry Prosecco that, you start to think, it's gonna be sweet. know, what the bruts are the sort of the outlier anymore for the Prosecco. So I think that

Joe Roberts (17:10)
Right.

Laurie Forster (17:17)
If we saw more of that, would, you we're still gonna have those extra brut versions and that speaks to a certain flavor profile that you're looking for. But then those of us who might want it drier, it would be great to see more of that in the market.

Joe Roberts (17:30)
Yeah, absolutely. That's probably one of those rare instances right now where there might be some opportunity.

Laurie Forster (17:36)
Yes, I know, right?

And Lambrusco, I did not bring one, but I have been probably had more of that this year than I've had in many, many years. So I think that dry Lambrusco, ⁓ red sparkling, they are so good. ⁓ And so I think that's a fun way to, ⁓ when you get people to try them, even like sparkling Shiraz which I discovered when I visited Australia.

Joe Roberts (17:49)
They're hard to find, but they're so good.

Laurie Forster (18:03)
people really enjoy them. It just takes a minute because it's so different than anything you've experienced. And so, yeah, you gotta wrap your brain around that. Awesome, all right. So then if we're going from our bubbly into the white category, I love French whites, but a lot of the classics like your Sancerre's have gotten, Chablis have gotten so pricey now that I think

Joe Roberts (18:08)
Yeah, try to get your head around it.

Laurie Forster (18:31)
I see some of these lesser known wines like Picpouls right? Or ⁓ the one I brought to the table is an Anjou Blanc. It's a Chenin Blanc and made by Mary Taylor. It does just have a hint of sweetness. So it's going to be great with a lot of like Asian food or anything with spiciness, but it's not sweet. know, really, you know, I just know that there is a little bit of residual sugar, but it's so small.

Joe Roberts (18:37)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Laurie Forster (18:59)
But this I feel like Chenin

Joe Roberts (18:59)
I mean, the acid balances

it, right? It doesn't matter, right? Because you're just getting that balanced profile. Yeah, I love that you brought up Picpoul. Picpoul de Penais, it's such a great, and you can still find them for cheap, relatively, which is great. But yeah, it breaks my heart on Sancerre. Chablis especially, because I love those wines.

Laurie Forster (19:12)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (19:22)
You know, even like stuff that were fallbacks for me, they're really, the price is really jumping up. And so to your point, people are interested in something that's got that citrusy, zesty feel. Picpoul's like, awesome choice.

Laurie Forster (19:37)
Yeah, it

really is. this and this Anjou Blanc, which I love and Chenin Blanc had a year. So let's be clear, Chenin Blanc, certainly from all over, I think did really well, especially it was like the summer of Chenin. But this was only 1460 or something like that under $15, which is, you know, under 20 is what I'm usually looking for. But if you can find something under 15, that's really good. I feel like.

That is the sweet spot of all sweet spots. Yeah, you win. Yes. Any other white category? And I have read that whites and, you know, white sparkling and rosé outpace the growth in red wines, which is interesting, which is not usually the case. ⁓

Joe Roberts (20:05)
You win.

Right. Yeah.

Cause I think there was a big, um, a couple of years back, right. was, well, think right at tail end of COVID, they were going, was going gangbusters in the U S. So I know a lot of restaurants when they, when they reopened, they, couldn't keep, uh, like good Sauvignon Blanc in stock, for example, like they were, they were selling it, selling out, which is, which is nice to hear. But anyway, yeah, knock on wood. Hopefully we get back to the scenario as soon as possible.

Laurie Forster (20:30)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Well, hopefully you and I are gonna accept our awards for, ⁓ you know, supporting the wine sales in 2025, my overachievement ⁓ contributions. But any other whites you're looking to for this coming year for value, where would you go?

Joe Roberts (20:57)
Right?

Wow.

Yeah, that's a great question. ⁓ I've always been very hesitant to give predictions because do you remember speaking to Chenin, do you remember when Chenin was going to be the thing in California and everyone was, and everyone was thinking what, and everyone was talking about this. And now I look back, think, well, God forbid anyone actually listened to that and planted down on Chenin or something, because they would be pulling their head.

Laurie Forster (21:15)
⁓ right.

Right. Although one of my favorites

is from Dry Creek Vineyards. ⁓ I had Kim Stair Wallace on the show and I absolutely love her Chenin. So there are really good ones made out there, but you're right. It didn't take on like wildfire for sure.

Joe Roberts (21:33)
Mm-hmm. Fantastic. Yeah.

Yeah,

you know, I would love this is a personal thing. I would love to see Riesling make some form of in-road comeback, anything. mean, even if Finger Lakes is more or less given up on promoting, you know, they're making this big Cab Franc push, which is great. But, you know, I think, my God, these are they're such amazing wines.

Laurie Forster (21:59)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Joe Roberts (22:13)
You know, had a magnum of Weimer, Herman Weimer, dry Riesling from 2008 was my first daughter's birthday. I don't know. I forgot. have, I don't know how, where I bought like, I must've bought the winery, but I don't remember any of this. And I remember pulling this out in the cellar going, okay. You know, this is, I don't know. Maybe it was like her 10th birthday or something. And I thought, okay, well, is this going to be, is this going to be any good?

Laurie Forster (22:37)
Why not?

Joe Roberts (22:40)
It was unbelievable. It was so good. was fantastic. And I drank half that Magnum myself at that point. I couldn't stop. It was so good. Yeah. I don't think it's going to happen, but I would love, love, love to see it. And I feel again, if sales are depressed, one of the few areas where you might be able to find bargains would be there. ⁓ Dessert, have the people claim they don't like

Laurie Forster (22:42)
Mm-hmm.

It's delicious.

Right?

Joe Roberts (23:07)
sweet officially sweet wines. So you, you know, this is probably an amazing time to try and look for sweet wines or deals on them where you can find them. If you're into that, I am, I want to tell them I am in, I love, I love dessert ones. You made it, you, you name it. I, I will try it. Ice wine, know, Salter and I, yeah. Ports Madeira. I mean,

Laurie Forster (23:17)
Mm-hmm.

love that.

Okay, it's our turn.

Joe Roberts (23:34)
There is stuff's getting harder to locate, but if you can find them, you know, this is the time that if you just try and strike a deal, if you go to a wine market and you're like, I wouldn't mind taking a half a case of Riesling, half a case of dessert wines, you're probably going to get a deal. You know I mean? Like this guy or girl is going to work with you, right? Because it was all a shit-sell.

Laurie Forster (23:42)
Yeah.

Yes, that's true.

And I feel like

I never really got the port thing. I mean, of course, I studied it. I get what it is, the whole everything, but it never was like, ⁓ I really want to have a port until I had a vintage port that was 20 years age on it. And I had no idea. It was like drinking a smooth red wine. It wasn't overly sweet. wasn't anything of what I, know, that's, and that's why people invest in.

age and goes and now I get it. That is you're highly rewarded for waiting. I mean, it's a whole different animal. And so yeah, I agree. There's a lot of exciting things that could happen. And just to, yeah, it is to touch back on the finger lakes. One of the grapes, because we're going to talk about red in a second here, that they seem to be kind of promoting more than Riesling is, and let's see if I'm saying it right, is the Superavi or the Superavi.

Joe Roberts (24:36)
It's a sell. Yeah.

All right, yeah. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (24:51)
red grape and

they have a festival every year for it up there in the Finger Lakes and it's and I know when I had Megan Frank from Dr. Frank on the show she we talked about theirs and that grape being so you know people just loving it once they taste it now

Joe Roberts (25:07)
great

cool climate variety, you know, for over and takes a chill well in the glass. Yeah, very tasty.

Laurie Forster (25:13)
Mm-hmm.

And that is

a perfect segue, Joe, thank you. Because that is the other bullet point I had here for us to discuss. You know, when I first started getting into wine after the KJ Chardonnay thing, I was really into big, bold reds. So lots of Napa cabs, know, really big stuff. now that, you know, this is how I won't say how many years later, now I really appreciate, of course, whites and rosés.

lighter reds and I feel like I enjoy those more on the regular. Yes, if I'm going to have a big amazing steak, I'm going to go for a bigger red. But I feel like a lot of people are looking for those lighter style reds and especially ones that are chillable. And I brought two to the table. ⁓ The first one is a Chinon from Joseph Mellot And I just haven't had Shinons in a few years. And this year,

Joe Roberts (25:59)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (26:10)
I've kind of just gotten into like, a thing with it. But I feel like the Loire Reds and, Cabernet Francs, you mentioned it earlier, are a really fun way to go for a lighter red. And if you want to put a little chill on it, as long as it's this lighter style, then it tastes great. What's your thoughts?

Joe Roberts (26:29)
And it's cool.

I think that's perfect. And it's also super cool because if you're going to show up somewhere, the party or whatever, with the Chinon, I it's not, I can tell you as the wine pro guy, if I'm at that party, I'm like, who brought this? Like awesome job. know, that's just like a cool thing because yeah, I mean, you can get these.

Laurie Forster (26:35)
Yeah.

Exactly.

Joe Roberts (26:49)
nondescript red blends and things like that all day long and that's fun, but yeah, that's it.

Laurie Forster (26:54)
Yeah, so

I really enjoy this. And then the other thing that I've been drinking more of this year, including Nouveau is, and everyone hates on Nouveau, but Beaujolais, but this is a Cru. So of course a little bit more serious, but this is a Margon. And I think this is delicious and it's exactly, yes.

Joe Roberts (27:12)
They age beautifully too. I've had

some that you would think you were drinking older burgundy, like Premier Cru Burgundy or something. It's insane. I feel partially responsible for the fact that I can't get affordable Cru Beaujolais anymore. So for a decade, I've been talking about how much I love Cru Beaujolais and I can't go to a shop in Pennsylvania and get one.

Laurie Forster (27:23)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (27:39)
barely get any, but you're right. They're still, they are creeping up. Like Moulin-a-Vent they're getting more expensive for a, but they're, you they're still, they're still in the, I don't want to say 30 bucks, 30 ish. That's not too, too bad, but they used to be just the most scream and bargain out there for Northern France. And it's a shame that the price is kind of jacked up accordingly.

Laurie Forster (27:44)
Yes.

Yes.

Right.

Joe Roberts (28:07)
I'm partially responsible probably for years. like, this stuff is so great. I want to drink it all the time. But I love it in the end. right. do. They they're so versatile. Take a chill. Well, they're

Laurie Forster (28:10)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Food friendly, I love that.

Joe Roberts (28:20)
Friendly acid,

peppery, and they're not, as they age, they do get more complex, but they're not the most complex wines to get your head around, right? Because there may be, there is complexity to a lot of them, but they're, they're usually not like crazy exotic. There might be a little earthiness or other than that. So it's, it's a good one for people to, who aren't familiar with French wines. Yeah. You can really get your head around the flavors, the vivacity. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (28:28)
Mm-hmm.

And

Joe Roberts (28:46)
So nice.

Laurie Forster (28:46)
And

I had Andrea on from George Dubuff the day before Nouveau. And we were of course talking about Nouveau, which is fun. mean, your expectations should be like, this is fun and fruity and something that you have around the holidays. But we also were talking about the Cru that they have in their lineup. And she was saying that Gamay, which is the main red grape of Beaujolais, has really gotten a name for itself.

because of the whole natural wine movement. And that even other regions that make gamay say in the US or other places around the globe, gamay, the sales trends are quite strong because people associate it and they've tasted it and there's a lot of natural producers. And so ⁓ she did confirm what you're saying that, she said, that's the one thing that's working.

Joe Roberts (29:15)
Yeah.

Well, that simultaneously

warms my heart and pisses me off because it's like so great to see it successful, but then it's like, it doesn't have time for me anymore. It went off, it went off and made its life for itself. And now it never calls, doesn't send me flowers. But there are defined, the village level stuff is still, you know, it's great. Very, very important. Like you talk about the $15, you can still find some in that.

Laurie Forster (29:41)
Right.

Yeah, is it me or is it you?

Yeah, right.

Right.

Joe Roberts (30:04)
in

that range, very good, not ones that I would age particularly, but like Morgon and Moulin-a-Vent, I would not hesitate on a great one to stock it away, come back in five years, you know what saying? And people don't, I think they don't tend to think of Beaujolais in those terms still because Nouveau is such a big, gets all the marketing money, right? And these other incarnations don't see as much, but yeah, I love that pick.

Laurie Forster (30:14)
Right.

Right.

And I guess I've really been

favoring French here. So we had some Spain in the mix, but I will say in this chillable red category, I saw and I pick up frequently something like a Frapato from Sicily. I think that's really fun and people should seek that out. And then today I picked off the shelf a Pinot Noir from Patagonia and I think it was around 15. So.

Joe Roberts (30:43)
Yeah, yeah.

Laurie Forster (30:55)
I haven't tried it yet, but I'm excited because people will often ask me, what's a great $15 Pinot Noir? And I'm like, you're kind of asking for something that doesn't always exist. And so I'm excited to find those weird places where maybe we can find some Pinot that's under 30 bucks.

Joe Roberts (30:55)
Wow.

Right. ⁓

Yeah. think

another, another spot to start looking out for, uh, is the, there's some higher elevation planting starting to happen in the Alentejo in Portugal. Now there's, they're not going to be, you know, $10, $15 wines be a little more expensive, but there's some very interesting things are going on there. And generally they're saying, okay, well there's, there's global warming. We're a hot area in the country, an arid area.

Laurie Forster (31:28)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (31:43)
to get a maybe more vivacious profile, we're going to start to plant a little higher. We're looking for hills, looking for other areas of plant. So it's interesting because you think of Portugal, there's wine everywhere. It's the second, it's the home of the second most. Right. It's incredible. And you think, you think, wow, well, it's not an enormous country. It's got the second highest number of indigenous grape varieties in the world.

Laurie Forster (31:55)
I have been and I love, I love it. So much great value over there. It's amazing.

Joe Roberts (32:09)
for one nation. And you think, well, there can't be a lot of area left to explore, because they grow all these different styles. They're growing wine all over, grapes all over the place there. And yet here we are in Alentejo we're seeing like they're going for different terroir to get a different expression. So I think that might be fun. I'm not going to officially call it trend for 2026, but it's a really fun thing to start to...

Laurie Forster (32:11)
Mm-hmm.

Right?

Joe Roberts (32:35)
to look at and just tabs on if you're a wine lover, because you'll start to see, I think, more producers venturing into that space and offering kind of something you wouldn't think you would normally be getting from a warmer, drier region. You're thinking more big and fruity wines, and that's still their bread and butter. But there are these really interesting, vibrant, textural wines happening in the hillsides. It's still small, but I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes.

Laurie Forster (32:36)
Mm-hmm.

Guess.

Absolutely. Good, good point. Now, if people are, you know, hopefully everybody gets a little something to put on their list to try out here in 2026. But if people are looking to learn more, you have a new book about winning at wine. So tell me a little bit about show us your book. There you got how to win at wine. Yeah.

Joe Roberts (33:16)
Yeah.

Don't drink and drive, by the way, that there's a disclaimer in the introduction.

So this was not my first couple of books that released right when COVID lockdown hit in 2020. So I didn't do any promotion for those obviously. And those were a little more traditional publishing. This one I literally sat down and we just talked about how do get people to just go with wine at all, right? Like just drink it, just please.

Laurie Forster (33:48)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (33:49)
come to us. And I thought, well, one of the things that we need to do is keep encouraging folks to not be embarrassed. And I, I, I can't tell you how many friends would talk to me and say, well, I found this wine. really love it. It's like 15 bucks. I buy like half a case case at a time, but I'm like, it's only 15 bucks. So I'm actually embarrassed to tell you about them thinking you just won. won. And that got me onto the same. Well, how to.

Laurie Forster (34:11)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (34:13)
winning, these are all like trendy things at the moment. And I was like, basically sitting down for one, Wyandu to write an op ed piece and it just got completely out of control. Okay. And it's turning through a full, eventually I thought, it's a, it's a full-fledged book at this point. And I said, you know what? I'm not even going to the publishing model in general is so busted and weird. said, I'm just, this is just going to go up on Amazon and it's just going to, I'm just, just get it out there.

Laurie Forster (34:35)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (34:41)
I want to see people react, let them have fun with it. But the entire idea behind this book is extended sort of op-ed, not just on, it's okay to like what you like, but then how do you get from a point of, okay, well, I'm reasonably familiar with my tastes. How do I translate that into ordering a wine from a menu, picking up a wine at the shop?

Laurie Forster (35:03)
Mm-hmm

Joe Roberts (35:04)
So this book is really meant to be a partial how-to on to help you get to those points without it having to be a jumping off point into all the other awesome stuff about wine that so ends up being amazing, but so intimidating for everybody who doesn't know it. You know, my first book, The Wine Taster's Guide, it's a little more traditional in a sense because it goes into all that stuff. How do we taste? What are the major things that everyone wants to know about?

Laurie Forster (35:21)
Mm-hmm.

Joe Roberts (35:33)
great varieties, styles, regions. The twist on it was we were going to teach you about that by drinking. You get to do the best part. So drinking and tasting and you'll learn on the way you'll start to that. That's your launching point of jumping into this depth and breadth that is so magical about wine, but it's so overwhelming at first. This thing has nothing to do with any of that. This is literally just you find what you like.

Laurie Forster (35:43)
Yes.

Joe Roberts (36:00)
drink what you like. You know what, if you want to join us on the nerd side of the table, eventually, that's great, but you do not have to do that at all to get pleasure out of this. And so this is in a way my response, my visceral response to fight for wine and the dark times of wine sales being down and that sort of thing. So that's really where it came from.

Laurie Forster (36:04)
you

Mm-hmm

This is like

your Jerry Maguire manifesto or something.

Joe Roberts (36:25)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah, in a lot of ways. Show me the glasses. Show me the bottles. And I, yeah, so was, it just kind of got out of hand. And, you know, it's funny because I, after doing that and thinking, wow, what what a pain in the ass that was, you know, I turned that into a book. I immediately started on another book. So, uh, it should.

Laurie Forster (36:28)
Show me the money.

Glutton for punishment.

Joe Roberts (36:50)
I should be getting that one out, hopefully Q1 in 2026, but that book is completely different than this one. It's called The Algorithm in the Vine and it focuses on how AI is impacting the wine industry across the whole thing. Much more of a, I like to say, like CNN level text, intellectual type.

Laurie Forster (37:07)
Interesting.

Joe Roberts (37:17)
of treaties, footnotes and the whole bit, know, sourcing. again, completely, that's been fun this year to essentially, you know, I wrote books in a certain style and then I wrote this one in a completely different style. And then I immediately jumped into another one that's a completely different style. as a writer, that's just been a lot of fun. And I don't think I'll be writing another book for a little while.

Laurie Forster (37:20)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Take a break, do some tasting. I love it. Well, if people want to connect with you, find out about the book, read what you've been writing lately, what are the best places for my listeners to go?

Joe Roberts (37:43)
I need to break out. Yeah.

Oh, go onewindude.com. That'll take you anywhere else that you want to go. Now I have, you know, I have a 17 year old and a 14 and a four year old. So I am not very active on social at the moment. Okay. So yes, I'm on all the channels, but some of them are just hopelessly ignored at the moment. I hope to get back, but onewindude.com is usually now the place you'll, that's where I'm linking everything. So you want to get the books, you can go from there.

Laurie Forster (38:18)
Mm-hmm.

great.

Joe Roberts (38:25)
You want to see what's going to happen at Cristaldi and Co. You can go there. Anything else I'm working on, it's all going to be there. Plus my occasional feature and my crazy style and my house style of writing and my crazy op-eds when they don't turn into a book, they go there as well.

Laurie Forster (38:41)
Mm-hmm.

Perfect. Well, Joe, thank you so much for helping me bring in the new wine year here with our trends, predictions. mean, us to it, people, because we don't know what's going to happen, really. But these are our wishes, really, if you want to think of it that way. I appreciate you coming on The Sipping Point.

Joe Roberts (38:49)
Thank you.

I really appreciate you having me back. Hopefully it won't be another decade. ⁓ But if it is, that still would be something awesome to celebrate. We were still there.

Laurie Forster (39:04)
Yes, let's not make it 14 years.

Awesome. Well, thanks a lot, Joe. Cheers.

Joe Roberts (39:12)
Cheers, thank you.

Laurie Forster (39:13)
I hope you found some inspiration with some of the suggestions Joe and I had for trending wines in 2026. I will post a link to the wines that I featured as well as Joe's website and books. You can check that all out. Go to my website, thewinecoach.com, click on events and you can see all the great ways we can connect over wine in the coming year.

And as always, I'm so thankful for you tuning in. If you enjoy this show, share it with another wine lover that you know. And until next week, cheers.