Hallmark's January 2026 Winter Escape Preview

January doesn’t have to feel like a slog, so we’re pouring a glass and charting five getaways that swap slush for sunshine, suspense, and swoon. On this episode of Pour The Wine, It’s Rom-Com Time, Garry and Amy dive into Hallmark’s Winter Escape lineup with casting insights and episode synopses. It’s your go-to guide for deciding what’s worth those cozy winter Saturday nights.

Send us an email to pourthewineitsromcomtime@gmail.com! We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/mood-of-summer

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to Pour the Wine. It's rom com time where we'll sip some wine and review all things rom com on the Hallmark channel. I'm Amy.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

And I'm Gary.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

And we are a few days past Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Yes, we are.

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But we are still celebrating.

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As you can tell by the tree in the background. We are.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

We're celebrating in phases this year. Three phases, right? Yes. We celebrated Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, and then the Friday after Christmas, and now we're waiting for another week or so to celebrate the third and final phase.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Yes. I wonder what they do because Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

We leave our decorations up anyway until New Year's. I wonder if other people do that. I mean, that's tradition for us. I know some people like to get them down right away because they're just over it by this point, but not us.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Nope. We put them up early and take them down late.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Yes. And you kindly gave me a cold for Christmas. So um thank you. Appreciate that. I know. That was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Last couple of podcasts, I've been sick. And um, you know, I like to share the wealth.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Share it. You shared it. Yeah. So now good thing we feel okay. It's just all that, you know, congestion.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

All the medicine and stuff. But the good thing is it wasn't like the flu or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

So no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

It's just I can't breathe.

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It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

I don't have the aches and pains, but I can't breathe.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

I might be on the down, I think I'm on the downward slope anyway, of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

But yeah, you're sound a lot better. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah. Yeah. So well, should we get into it?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

What we're doing today. Today we're going to be discussing. This is a little different for us. We're going to discuss the five winter escape movies coming to the Hallmark channel in January of 2026.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Man.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

That's going to be weird to say and weird to write for a while.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

I know.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

So what we plan on doing is we'll just let you know a little bit about each of those five movies and then maybe give our own opinions about what we think of the lineup.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

And which one we're looking forward to.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

And which ones were one or ones we're looking forward to.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah. Yeah. I can't wait. It's going to be fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

It's going to be fun. Once we hit January, we're going to hit the ground running.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

That's right. We would love it if you would click that follow button on your favorite podcast platform so you don't miss one of our episodes. And if you listen on Apple or Spotify, you can leave us a review or stars. And hopefully they're positive.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Hopefully it is a positive review. And you know, if you um are enjoying our podcast and you know other people who really also like Hallmark movies, we would love it if you would share our podcast with them.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Let them know about us. It's a free gift, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

And we would really, really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

So you can also find us on YouTube now. So if you want to watch us, that's where you can find us and all other platforms.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Right. All the socials. You can send us an email to pour the wine. It's romcomtime at gmail.com and let us know your thoughts on the five movies that are coming in January for Winter Escape. Which ones you think are going to work? Maybe you think some of them are not going to work. Or let us know your thoughts about Countdown to Christmas, which which just ended, or anything homework related. We would love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

We sure would.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

We sure would.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

We already read one on our last podcast, an email.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

We did, we did.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

A person named Steven, and we really appreciate it. So send us an email and we'll read it.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

So guess what else I'm looking forward to in 2026?

SPEAKER_01 3:54

What are you looking forward to in 2026?

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Our one-year podcast anniversary.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yes, that's coming up. That's coming up. We didn't start it in January. No, we didn't. We started in when?

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Lovely.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Which you love saying. Oh my gosh. Is the gift that keeps on giving. I know. Yeah, I'm really excited to celebrate our one-year anniversary. That's going to be very cool. Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

You know what's funny? Who did we start with? What was the first one we started with?

SPEAKER_01 4:25

We started with uh an unexpected valentine with Lacey Shaber and Robert Buckley.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

And now we're gonna start 2026 with Lacey Shaber.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

And Ian Harding. Yeah, you're right. You're right.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

So looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

I think not.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

All right. So you want to dive into this?

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Let's do it. The very first winter escape movie is going to premiere on January 3rd, Lost in Paradise. This one stars, of course, as we just mentioned, Lacey Shabert and Ian Harding. It is directed by Dustin Reichert and written by Stephanie Jackson and Zach Lewis. The synopsis is when the founder of a high-end fashion company gets marooned on a deserted island with a chef, and they have deserted in quotes, because desserts and chef get it. Romance blossoms as they work together to survive. And we have been seeing the commercials for this one quite a bit lately. They've been they've been really airing the commercials now. Of course, Lacey and Ian, you know, we love Lacey, the Queen of Hallmark, obviously, and Ian Harding. We just adored in the ghosts of Christmas Always, which is one of our favorite, probably Hallmark movies, not just Christmas, wouldn't you say?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Yeah, and he is so good. He is so good at delivering his lines.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yes, and he was so great in holidays. And um, we just watched him in Ripple, which was supposed to be on Hallmark, but aired on Netflix, and that is a great series.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Another great, great series.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yes, and he's he's amazing in that as well. But we love them. And you know, Dustin Rikert between producing and directing, Dustin has brought us some of our personal fave Christmas movies Holiday Touchdown, a Bill's Love Story, which we love. A Newport Christmas, a Merry Scottish Christmas, Where Are You Christmas, which we just watched this year, and it is so, so good. Oh, we're gonna have to review that one.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yes.

unknown 6:37

A Biltmore.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yeah, Biltmore. I mean, that's up there. That's up there. Yep. Yeah. Stephanie has written a few Hallmark movies, including one of our faves from this year, Christmas and Christmas Above the Clouds, and last year's Trivia at St. Nick's. She and Zach wrote Christmas in Tahoe along with a third writer, Nina Weinman, and both of them, uh, Stephanie and Zach wrote a sweet pecan summer. Now you just do you say pecan or pecan?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

I say pecan.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

You say pecan? I think I that's that's how I do too. Tomatoes, tomatoes, gonna have pecan.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

You know. So that that one sounds really good. Yeah. Looking forward to that one. The second one, which is called A Melbourne Match, airs January 10th. And originally titled Her Aussie Romance, it stars Mallory Jensen or Jansen and Ryan Corr. It is directed by Colin Buds and written by Mallory Jansen. So she stars and wrote it. That's awesome. That's awesome. The synopsis is Georgie, a travel writer, travels to Melbourne for an assignment where she meets Zach, an ex an ex-Australian footballer who agrees to be her tour guide and shows her that there's more to life than work.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Now, when you say Australian footballer, is that footballer like rugby. European footballer or like soccer, or is that like I don't know, Australia. What does Australia do? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

That's a good question. So yeah, well, yeah, it's either gonna be soccer or it's gonna be uh rugby. And I think I think it'll be rugby.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Because they're known for that. Well, this is Mallory's writing debut. Congratulations, Mallory. She's been in a few home rock movies that we loved. The Royal Wee, which aired last year at the beginning of the year, or near the beginning of the year. And the 12th date of Christmas with, of course, one of our favorites.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Tyler Tyler James Bond himself.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

I'm gonna say it until they make that movie.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Every time until they actually make them, it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Hallmark makes makes a movie, uh, a spoof off of it, or whatever they want to do. Uh Colin is Australian and has been directing since the early 80s. Woo! Ooh, that's a long time. So oof. He's he has directed some rom coms, but I could not find anything for Hallmark. Hallmark.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

For Hallmark, yeah, since the 80s. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

There you have it.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Well, if he's directed a lot, sometimes when you scroll through, it's hard to so if we missed it, we apologize. And I think I believe this is Ryan Korr's um Hallmark debut, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah. So that's another one I'm looking forward to.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yeah. And I loved her. We loved her in The Royal Wee and the 12th Date of Christmas. That's another one that we just watched.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

This year, right? Or did we watch it last year? We watched it this year. I think it was the first time this year. Yeah, we sat down and watched it and it was really cute, really good.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah, because we usually have the I'm sorry, I was just gonna say, we usually have the Hallmark channel running almost one.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Not usually, we always do. Especially at Christmas time. We definitely have it rolling. It's gonna be sad when all those Christmas movies end, but it's okay. It's okay. Bye-bye, Tree. Bye-bye. The next movie, the next winter escape movie will be Love on the Amazon, which airs January 17th. This stars JC Elliott and Rafael de la Fuente. It is directed by Colin Thays and written by Juliana Wimbles. The synopsis for this one is Claire travels to Brazil and hires Danny, a riverboat captain, to help her deliver an important message for her sister Amelia, a marine biologist studying pink dolphins on the Amazon River. Now I thought I wasn't when I when I first, you know, was doing research on the actors, um, I didn't the names didn't ring a bell with me, you know, JC or or Raphael. So when I did some digger deeping, digger deeping, what am I saying? Where am I?

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Deeper digging.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Every podcast, I have something.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Dig Doug.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Let me just take a sip from that.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

That was so funny.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Let me start that over. When I was doing a little digging, a little deeper dive into the actors. Um, I saw that JC, she's been in a few Hallmark movies, and she was also on Gray's Anatomy for like seven years as Dr. Taryn Helm, and that's probably about the time we stopped watching Grays. It's been a while. It's been a while. It might need to be longer than that. I know. And she also played, she played the same character on the TV series um Station 19. So she played Dr. Tarynhelm on the uh for you know a handful of episodes on that series. And Raphael, once I looked at his picture, he was actually in the updated version of Dynasty that we watched, and we loved that, right? I wasn't familiar with his name, but as soon as I saw his face, I was like, oh my gosh, I know he still looks the same thing. It's so campy, and it's so, but it's such a delicious series if you have a chance to watch it. Yeah, Grant Show is in it, and um, oh, I can't think of the actress's name, but it is it's so good. It's it's just an updated version and and and really, really well done. We enjoyed it, you know, if you like. Campy and fun and you know, not take things so seriously. So Colin has directed other Hallmark movies, including this year's A Machu Picchu Proposal and Polar Opposites, and last year's A Costa Rican Wedding and A Greek Recipe for Romance. Julia has written several other Hallmark films. A Machu Picchu Proposal kind of sounds like she worked with Colin on that one. Sounds like this time, this time each year, and a Costa Rican Rican wedding.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Wow. Yeah. Like, like, like those, you know, like, like, like so. The next one on Winter Escape is called Caught by Love, which airs January 24th. And all of these, I think they're airing around 8, 7 central time.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Um on Saturday nights.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

On Saturday nights. So and of course, this year, January, we just got the five weekends. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Yeah. This one stars, of course, none other than Luke McFarlane and Rachel Lee Cook. And we love Luke and his little special, Home is Where the Heart Is.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

I know. We love that series.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Loved it.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Oh, so good. It'll make you tear up if you haven't watched it. It's an unscripted series where he he goes to homes and redoes a room, right? Or like something in the yard, and um, and they have special meaning to the people that they're doing this for. Yeah. And you hear their stories, and Luke himself is actually a carpenter, and you know, he m he literally makes a lot of the pieces for the rooms, and um, and Olivia, her last name is escaping me right now, but he does it with her, and she's an an uh a designer, and it's just it's so well done. It's so I mean, I know it says home is where the heart is, but it's very heartfelt. We teared up a lot. Luke tears up during it, right? Olivia does too. So it's just a great, great, unscripted series.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yes, and I can't wait for the next one next season. Well, it's directly.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

And Rachel Lee Cook, we love her. Yeah, sorry. Oh god. Yes, we do.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Um Kevin Fair is the director, and it's written by Marcy Holland. And the synopsis for this one while a journey of self-discovery, a resort guest gets swept into a undercover investigation for stolen jewels that turns into an unexpected and adventurous romance. Wow. Can you imagine? Man, getting caught into something like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Resort guest gets swept. Yeah, that sounds kind of fun. It sounds sort of scary. I can totally see Luke in that role, right? Or maybe she gets caught up in it and he's the one you know, doing the undercover investigating, maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

I think it's gonna be good.

unknown 15:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

I'm hoping it's gonna be. Of course, Luke and Rachel are no strangers to the Hallmark universe, as we just spoke about, right? Right. Kevin Vair has directed several Hallmark films, including last year's The Reluctant Royal. Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Oh, which we really like.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

I know. Marcy has written many Hallmark films, including The Incredible A Biltmore Christmas. There's that Biltmore Christmas area.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

It keeps coming up, doesn't it? It just keeps coming up.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Um, My Dreams of You, The Christmas Quest, and The Time to Come Home for Christmas movies, which is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Right, like time for her to come home for Christmas. Time to come for them, time for us. Yes, yes. So looking forward to Rachel, you know, she was in, oh, she she was in last year's Sisterhood Inc., yes, right, and um rescuing Christmas a few years ago, which we really, really enjoyed. So we and of course, you know, she's all that.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

We know her from that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah. They they're gonna make a good pair. I can't wait to see.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, yeah, I think so. And the final movie airing on Saturday, January 31st is Missing the Boat. And leading that cast are Christopher Palaha and Emily Oler up.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Now, IMDB, we did try to do some research on this. I don't have a director or writer listed yet. So when we review the film, we'll be able to say who wrote it. And maybe in the coming days and weeks, right, we'll be able to um fill in those gaps. But right now, we didn't, I couldn't find anything. Right. And the synopsis for for missing the boat is strangers Kelly and Parker both end up on the same Italian cruise, but after missing the boat during a stop, they're forced to team up and race across southern Italy to catch up.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Sounds exciting.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

And I mean Christopher Palaha, hello.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

I know, come on.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

A Bilt More Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

We loved him in the Hall Out movie, right? One of the Hall Out movies where he references It's a Wonderful Life, which he also references in A Bilt More Christmas, right? All kinds of things.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Uh no, I was.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

And he was, of course, and he was in this year's Grand Olay Christmas. And then you have Emily Ular up where she was in just this past was it summer, catch of the day. Yep. And of course, we know and love her from Chesapeake Shores, which is a series that we absolutely loved. So I'm sure that's gonna be a good I mean, what do you think? What do you think about the five movies that are coming up?

SPEAKER_00 18:06

I think the pairings, the actors, I think Hallmark did a pretty good job here. Um I mean, come on, these are some big name actors for Hallmark starting off 2026, and I'm really, really looking forward to each one of these. Yeah, and I can't wait to to review them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yeah. And they all sound so great and different in their own way. And so it's gonna be interesting to see, you know, like the last one we just read about or the synopsis about missing the boat where they have to, you know, run around what Italy and try to catch the boat somewhere. So that could be kind of fun, you know, hopefully not so campy. And, you know, the cop I love with Luke McFarland. Like we just they all sound to be caught up in an undercover investigation. That sounds kind of cool. Yeah, right. That could be fun and interesting. Um, love on the Amazon.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

What were you gonna say?

SPEAKER_00 19:03

I was gonna say I I just love the fact that these are across the globe, the locations.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yes, you know, so well, it's a winter escape, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Yeah, it's uh well, true. Well, well, you could do a winter escape here in the United States.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Well, you could, yeah, you're right, you're right. You could go somewhere where it's warm. We're on the East Coast where it gets very, very cold. Yeah, so but so we will watch like when we watch Lost in Paradise, we're probably gonna be like, oh, I want to be on an island somewhere. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

And a Melbourne match stranded on an island.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Right, right. And who doesn't love an Australian accent with a Melbourne match? Hello.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

The Aussies, huh?

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yes, yes. I think I think we have great potential. I love the pairings that they've done. And when we talk about the directors and the writers, so many of them collaborate often on movies, right? The director and the writer. And we talked about a lot of the movies that we really love. So that lens itself, you know, if you already kind of know you like the director, you kind of have. a good feeling or the right and or the writer right a good feeling about the movie and how it's going to be. So I yeah, I'm looking forward to all five. I I think I think it's actually a really, really good lineup for January.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Definitely a good start.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

And then we'll get into what?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Go ahead. Love you.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Love you. We got to get through January to get to Love Youary.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

I wonder who they're going to bring this year.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

I don't know. We'll find out. We'll find out. And we'll do we'll do another podcast. I mean this is kind of cool and fun. This is the first time we've done this. We talked about it what at the beginning of December we're like, you know, every month when they have these, you know, like Winter Escape, Love You Airy, we should introduce if we know what's coming up.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

You know, talk about the films that are coming for each yeah.

unknown 20:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yeah. I think it's fun. So hopefully we'll continue this on into the new year.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Yeah. It's a date.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

It's a date. A date.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Hey, there you go. Cheers to that.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Cheers. Oh, let me get my glass. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Mm-hmm. So you think is that a wrap? Oh, we both say at the same time. Sorry. So that's a wrap. Yes, that's a wrap.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

So thanks for listening and now for watching.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

And now for watching. Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and on social media so you don't miss a thing. Until next time.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Cheers