Tivo, Wine & iPods: Consuming Podcasts

Posted by Tom Wark on Oct 9, 2007

Yesterday was my monthly trip down to the studios of KSVY 91.3 in the town of Sonoma to appear on the "Wine Biz" radio show with Kaz and Randy. I love doing this. It’s a casual Radio show geared toward what’s happening in the Sonoma Valley wine industry with occasional jaunts into "that other valley" as well as inquiries into what’s going on nationally in the world of wine.

Randy, one of the hosts, finally has put together a system where each week’s show is turned into a podcast. This of course is nothing but great news. But it also spurred me to take a closer look into where the world of Podcasting was at this moment.

My experience with podcasting amounts to regular listening to GrapeRadio, Winecast, Napa Valley Wine Radio, Mouthful and a few other intrepid wine broadcasting pioneers. But when I looked into what’s happening in the world of podcasting today I was not prepared for what I found.

The list has gotten long. The production value is high. The accessibility is easy-peezy. And, in many cases, many of these wine-related podcasts are down right fun and interesting.

I did my investigation using iTunes and simply searching for the keyword "wine" in the podcast area. Below are the podcasts that are very specific to wine. This list does not include those podcasts that include wine as a regular feature in an otherwise food or travel dominated show. The list would be much longer had I included those.

I realize the list below represents poor blogging etiquette since I don’t have links to any of them. For that I apologize. Chalk it up to laziness. However, I presume you could do a Google search on any of them, include the term "podcast" in the search along with the name and happily find all of them. What’s striking about this list is its size and the diversity of apparent subject matter that is being focused on in the expanding world of wine podcasts. And keep in mind, this is only doing a search using iTunes. There are bound to be scads more out there not yet on iTunes.

Savor the Flavor with Jim White
S A V O R  Wine and Cuisine 
¡Klink! The Spanish Wine Podcast 
3 Fast, 3 Furious 
3 Wine Guys   
A Guy, a Girl, and a Bottle Wine Podcast 
Astor Wines and Spirits presented by podcastGO.com 
BathTalk with Kidder and Jade   
Bedrock Wine Co.   
Berry Bros. & Rudd Wine Podcasks 
booktalkradio’s Podcast 
BottleTalk 
California Wine Clips 
Cellar Dwellers – Home Winemaking 
The Cellar Rat: Pinot 2.0
The Champagne Whoare 
Château Julien Wine Estate 
Chronicle Podcasts: Wine 
The Classic Wines Minute
CrushingGrape 
Dining on the Vine 
Don Sebastiani & Sons Podcasts 
El Wine Bar
Enjoy Wine – How to Host a Wine Tasting Party 
Good Libations 
Grape Radio 
Groovy Wine Blog & Podcast 
Learn About Wine and Wineries in Southern Calif. 
Mouthful   
Napa Valley Wine Radio®
Nashville WinePress – Geek Speak 
NBC11.com – In Wine Country Podcast   
The Oz Wine Show 
Pannotia Vineyards Podcasts Featuring Doug Frost Pannotia consultant and consigliere 
People in Wine 
Red or White? A Wine Forum
Ridge Vineyards Podcast
Sacre Bleu Wine Network
Screwtops Podcast    Free
Secret Sommelier Wine Podcasting 
Something to Wine About®   
South African Journeys 
South African Wine  – 2007 Harvest Report   
Steve’s Ten Dollar Wine Challenge    Free
Sublime Wine Radio: Wine Podcast for Wine Lovers 
Talking About Wine – a Podcast by Henry Barrow 
thewinescout’s Podcast 
Time to Make Wine Podcast 
Two Hands Wines: Wine Podcast Series 
UK Wine Show 
The Valley Vine
VegasWineGuys.com
Vilafonte luxury wine blog 
Vine Cast – Wine, Food & Travel Podcast 
VineVoyage.com 
Virginia Wine Talk with Brian and Bill   
Virtual Wine
VOICE OF WINE – The English Podcast
Will Write for Wine
Wine Australia: CRUSH by Max Allen
Wine Biz Radio
Wine Club Italia Tuscan Edition
Wine Discussions and Interviews 
The Wine Dude…Tasting As You Go 
The Wine Experience™ Daily Show 
Wine for Newbies   
Wine Industry Report 
THE WINE INSIDERS: VIDEO Interviews With Napa’s Top Wineries 
Wine Library TV   
Wine Lovers Page Shoe 
Wine Making Radio   
Wine Press Northwest Winecast 
Wine Selections by Sean Cawley 
Wine Spectator Video Podcast 
Wine Week: Pouring Rapid Tips 
Wineass.com – Wine Reviews, Without the Bull 
Winecast   
WineFix 
Wineparties.co.uk 
WLTV Uncorked   
WLW-WineGeek’s Podcast 
Women and Wine Radio   
X Marks the Spot for Albarino Wine

Do we really have this much to say about wine? It appears we do. The question as regards podcasts is HOW do we listen and learn from all that is being said in them.

My audio intake is done via the radio (almost always in the car) and via my trusty iPod (either in the car, in the house or in the yard while hanging in the pool or hot tub or working—my wife calls it "puddering")

That means if I’m going to listen to a podcast I generally need to put them on my iPod. That’s easy enough to do…But…I have to DO it. I don’t have to do anything to listen to the radio. Nor do I have to DO anything to listen to Art Pepper from my iPod. The point is that there is a bit of doing or setting aside of time to indulge in podcasts with their regular updates.

This is why I recommend that if you want to really want to hear what’s being said about wine you make an effort to make doing so as easy as possible. There are various ways to organize the podcasts you want to monitor and listen to either via your iTunes or other services.

My own secret podcat weapon is my Tivo Box. I honestly don’t know how to consume television without
Tivo. I tried surfing the channels live the other day and I nearly ran to get a razor blade so I could end my suffering. If you have a Tivo and if it is hooked up to a home network then your little Tivo box will monitor the current episodes of your favorite podcasts. Just tell it which ones.  This allows me to relax in bed, listen to podcasts with my headphones on and flip through my mail, magazines, and stuff.

It’s hard to embrace new media without new technology. That’s a fact.