Episode 172: Tangled Vines – Smokin’ Summer Book Club With Meg Hansen, CSW, CSS
Our summer edition of the #W25BookClub is smokin’ hot. This week die-hard listener, Meg Hansen, CSW, CSS, joins us to discuss “Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California” by Frances Dinkelspiel. But of course there is one prevailing theme: wine.
About This Week’s Episode
Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California, by Frances Dinkelspiel. This book was selected by our very first patron Meg in South Dakota, and she leads the book discussion in this episode.
First, Our Guest! (0:38)
Meg (Margaret) B Hansen, CSW, CSS
Margaret, or Meg as we know her, Hansen is a physician assistant who practiced in the allergy and asthma field and was a professor in the South Dakota University physician assistant program. For the past 13 years she has been the executive director of the South Dakota Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners. This is the licensing board for physicians and allied health professions who hold a South Dakota license. Meg was serving on the wine committee of her country club and had an “accidental” introduction to the world of wine education certification when she offered to be a last minute substitute to take the Society of Wine Educators Certified Specialist of Wine examination for the chef who left his country club employment.
She was fortunate to participate and passed a Court of Master Sommeliers introductory course that was taught by Master Sommeliers Fred Dame and Matt Stamp. Meg holds both the Certified Specialist of Wine and the Certified Specialist of Spirts credentials and is a Certified Wine Educator aspirant. She wears her CSW and CSS pins at every opportunity and if they do not get noticed, much to the chagrin of her family, she points them out. Meg is proud to be the Wine Two Five’s first patron!
(full bio & photo provided by Meg Hansen)
In the Glasses This Week (2:00)
Meg: High West Campfire Whiskey, Park City Utah.
Naturally the “smokey” theme tied in nicely with the book’s themes.
See, Meg actually put thought into pairing her beverage.
Steph and Val? Not so much – they winged it.
Steph: 2016 Cedric Lathuiliere, Brouilly, Beaujolais, France
This is a Cru Beaujolais from from her shipment from Weekly Tasting.
We made an attempt to tie it into the theme of the book, but it was a stretch.
While Bruilly is located on a volcanic slope, it occurred to us that the French word brouiller can translate to blurred, cloudy or flat out scrambled (as in eggs, meanings, relationships, etc.).
Can we stretch it to “tangled?”
Val: 
2016 Tormaresca, Calafuria, Rosato, Salento, Puglia, Italia (Negroamaro).
Well, negroamaro translates to “black bitter” and Val sure enough equated this to her charred soul.
Again, stretch, but we made it all tie back to the them. Totally not intended, but that’s how we roll.
Discussion (5:30)
This is a book about crime in the present with a deep history of California’s wine industry. Furthermore, the author has a deep connection with the crime, as some of her ancestor’s wine from a very special vintage – and family heirloom – was destroyed in the massive fire.
Yet, when you just listen to it, you miss some of the nuance. Steph and Val found the same thing.
So Meg bought the book. We would advise you do the same if you haven’t read it yet.
Some takeaways:
What is the interesting thing about wine? Why are people so passionate about this “one liquid among millions?”
Definitely the friendships and wine’s ability to connect, is what Meg states.
This book also made you want to learn more about California’s wine history, yet current political themes are echoed in the story as well.
Steph agreed with wine’s ability to connect, otherwise, would this podcast be happening? Would we have met Meg at a Society of Wine Educator’s conference a few years ago? Wine. Wine did that.
Val lets on that she was slow to catch on to the story, but was totally enthralled by part three.
Finally, none of us were even tracking the real life events, such as this massive fire that devastated so many lives.
Another connection – with a bottle (14:40)
During her preparation for the show, Meg discovers, in her own wine cellar, a bottle of the same vintage of Delia Viader’s wine destroyed in the fire! Delia was a key character in the book, and her loss was particularly heartbreaking as well.
(She later found that the large format bottles, such as this magnum, were not stored in the warehouse that burned in the 2005 fire.)
Oh, and she’s bringing it to the Finger Lakes in August to share this bit of history with fellow W25 listeners.
Thank you, Meg! xx
We learned some new things (18:50)
Regarding Rancho Cucamonga, milestones and important events in California winemaking and history were all takeaways for us. We won’t spoil the ending.
However, the greed, deception, and severe damage that affected so many people were all amazing to us. We were still, despite scandal and fraud instances we’ve discussed on the show, amazed at the recurring theme of this echoing throughout wine’s history to this day.
Seriously. Buy the actual book (26:46)
We know we tout the many benefits of ingesting time-shifted audio content via ear holes, such as podcasts and audible books. However, if you’re a stickler for pronunciation of wine words and great voice over talent, the audible version was a disappointment for all of us.
Did she say, “back-ass?”
Look, we live in that glass house, so we aren’t going to throw stones, but we’d have much rather learned about these stories from someone who had a background in wine and familiarity with the producers, regions, labels, etc.
Buy the book. The print version or download the ebook.
Author’s page (30:00)
Check it out, for sure!
If you did endure the audio version, we highly recommend you stalk visit Ms. Dinkelspiel’s page, as there are photos and more nuances that one simply does not get with the audio version.
A final point (35:25)
Meg makes a final point about how the different grapes (Cabernet and Petit Verdot versus Syrah) are affected by different levels of heat exposure. (End note 178, regarding ETS laboratory evaluations of Viader’s wines).
Drink the wine, people! (37:50)
In all the fantastical book and wine jabber, we forgot to get to the part where our guest drops an embarrassing wine story on us!
Therefore, our embarrassing wine story will now forever be the time we dropped the ball on our favorite show segment. Bad W25 gals, bad.
Wino Radar (40:50)
What We’re Tasting, a new podcast hosted by Jameson Fink!
Have you guys heard about Jameson Fink’s (Ep164) new podcast called What We’re Tasting? It is produced by Wine Enthusiast, sponsored by Vivino, and just launched.
Shoutouts (41:50)
A new five star iTunes review from Emily!
“Steph and Val are naturals at teaching which is what makes Wine Two Five unique. Their bubbly banter is peppered with a hearty dose of knowledge so you end up learning about wine and spirits without even realizing it. The podcast is fun, informative, and has guests who provide additional layers of information. The podcast will help you navigate the world of alcoholic beverages without the snob factor.”
Thank you, Emily!
A Word From our Sponsor, Weekly Tasting by WTSO! (43:22)
Weekly Tasting’s shipment of four wines gives you an opportunity to compare and contrast wines side by side. This is great for wine studies, wine tasting clubs or tasting groups.
They also provide tasting videos from experts … like the Jedi Wine Master! We love that she’s choosing these sets, and can’t resist reminding you to check out her super fun interview in Episode 128).
Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan introduces us to her tasting Sauvignon Blanc Around the World.
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You can go to your listener page at: weeklytasting.com/W25 to sign up and get started!
Or just go to our web page and click on the link.
Grape Gab Polling (44:33)
We trolled polled you guys on Twitter and Facebook, and the results are in for the September grape gab! Originally we were polling for August, but we are just getting back from vacay when this episode airs.
There are currently samples on the way to our doors to help celebrate and promote International Albariño Days August 2 – 7, 2018.
Therefore, the September Grape Gab will be: Semillon! Yes. We are excited about it, because … botrytis.
The runner up is Teroldego, which will be our October grape grab.
Cabernet Franc will show up in a Loire Regional Rap this fall as well.
Patreon Love (46:30)
Thank you to our Patrons who support us on the crowdfunding platform called Patreon!
“Riserva Superiore Supporter”
- Robin from Girls Gone Grape
“Riserva Supporter”
- Antti in Georgia
“TENacious Tasters”
- Jeff E from the We Like Drinking podcast
- Sebastian of Sassi Italy Tours
- Jen in Maryland (and the world, according to her Instagram feed)
- David and Lisa in Illinois
- Ann Marie in Virginia
“It’s not five o’clock and we don’t care” Listeners
- Meg in South Dakota
- Clay in Arizona
- In California – Jon, Andrew, Aswani
- Chantel in Ontario, Canada
- Mary Lou in Pennsylvania
- Cathie in Georgia
- In Colorado – Chris and Janet, Diane
- In Illinois – Steve, Renee
- Cathey in Tennessee
- Ashley in North Carolina
- Sean in Ohio
“Tastemaker Listeners”
- David in Scotland
- Carole in Kentucky
- Karen in California
- Chip & Katie in Pennsylvania
- Sirena in New York
- Danielle
Connect: (47:49)
We are here for you every week. Between episodes you can find us on the social spaces @WineTwoFive and we encourage you to join our private FaceBook group called Wine Two Five Community!
Connect with Val on Twitter @WineGalUnboxed and as Vino With Val on Facebook (beware of imposters), Instagram & Pinterest.
Connect with Steph on online as @TheWineHeroine.