Laurie Forster
405 episodes listed below
Wine talk with warmth and useful context.
The Sipping Point is a warm, interview-led guide to wine, food, spirits, restaurants, and the pleasures around the table. Episodes pair guest stories with practical drinking advice, from storing bottles properly to choosing champagne, orange wine, Sauvignon Blanc, or holiday wines with more confidence.
PRESS PLAY
The Sipping Point is a wine-and-food conversation show built around hospitality, biography, and practical taste. It has the feel of a table where someone knowledgeable has invited interesting people to sit down and explain what they love. The center of gravity is wine, but the episodes keep reaching into restaurants, travel, cooking, glassware, entertaining, and the business of making delicious experiences work. A family winery episode can become a story about Dry Creek Valley, Sauvignon Blanc, label identity, and how hard it is to keep a winery in the family. A conversation with Ray Isle can move from a new wine book into sulfites, headaches, sugar myths, and the way misinformation shapes what people think they can drink. Restaurant episodes bring in the working memory of dining rooms, from Nobu and Tribeca Grill to Montrachet and Burgundy service. The show likes craft. It also likes usefulness. Orange wine, natural wine, champagne, Napa Valley reds, wine glasses, holiday bites, barbecue pairings, and bottle storage all become approachable without being flattened. Technical language is present, but it is usually tied to something concrete: taste, price, food, aging, service, or occasion. That balance is the appeal. The show does not make wine feel like a test. It makes it feel like a series of better questions. Guests often carry long stretches of the episode, giving room for origin stories and professional texture. The guiding frame stays warm and steady, with enough context to help non-experts keep up. There is a recurring respect for family businesses, independent producers, restaurant builders, and people who teach taste without making it precious. Seasonal episodes are especially practical, with champagne advice, holiday entertaining ideas, affordable pairings, and event-ready food suggestions. Industry episodes add a wider view of how wine brands, distributors, glassware companies, and restaurants position themselves. The tone is friendly and lightly polished. It suits people who want to drink better, host better, and understand why a bottle, place, or person matters before the cork is pulled.
Made for: The show suits curious wine drinkers, home entertainers, food lovers, and hospitality-watchers who want guidance without stiffness. It is especially useful for people who enjoy stories behind bottles, restaurants, regions, and pairings.
What sets it apart: Its strength is the blend of guest-led industry access and practical translation. The show can talk to wine and restaurant figures, then bring the conversation back to storage, glassware, food pairing, value, and the next bottle to open.
Learn the recipe for a delicious life each week with Laurie Forster, sought after speaker, certified sommelier and author of the award-winning book The Sipping Point: A Crash Course in Wine. Subscribe to The Sipping Point Podcast where each week Laurie will provide a fresh (and fun) look at the world of food, wine, spirits, travel and all that’s delicious in life.Laurie’s witty, no nonsense style is sure to be a breath of fresh air in the sometimes stuffy culinary world. Even though Laurie’s a certified sommelier, an award-winning author and wife to a world class chef...
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Lori Forrester connects wine knowledge to vineyard stories, buying decisions, food pairings, and useful kitchen technique.
The Sipping Point: Wine, Food & More! treats wine as a practical subject with people, places, and decisions behind every bottle. Lori Forrester moves between conversations with figures such as Ray Isle, Kim Stare Wallace, and Tor Kenward and a holiday episode with Chef Michael.
A turkey timer gets called a liar, and suddenly you're less nervous about both bird and bottle.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A family winery story that pairs Sauvignon Blanc details with an easy, table-ready tasting conversation.
Dry Creek Vineyard comes across as a family operation with a clear sense of place. Kim Stare Wallace grew up among the vines, left for fashion, then returned and helped shape the nautical label design the winery is known for.
A calm, useful wine conversation that clears up a few stubborn myths.
That pairing gives The Sipping Point a calm, practical tone. Lori Forrester keeps the conversation moving, and Ray Isle makes wine feel less like a category to decode than something people can talk about in ordinary terms.
A holiday cooking-and-wine episode that stays grounded in real Thanksgiving details.
Thanksgiving here is treated as a kitchen problem: turkey, stuffing, brining, gravy, and the wines that can sit beside all of it. Lori Forster and Chef Michael stay with the questions that matter on the day, with a clear focus on doneness, moisture, and carving.
A grounded Napa conversation that ties wine knowledge to long-standing vineyard relationships.
Tor Kenward's 50 years in Napa give the conversation a steady, practical center, and Lori Forster keeps it moving from tasting to farming to the question of whether wine should be labeled.
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
Naval Ravikant on epistemology, startups, and crypto, from David Deutsch to Vitalik Buterin.
Alex Theuma interviews SaaS founders and investors on scaling to $10M-plus ARR.
Guy Raz traces founders' origin stories and fields live advice-line calls from entrepreneurs.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
Winemaker Chris Carpenter tastes three Cabernets with host Lori Forster: Hickenbotham (McLaren Vale), Jet (Walla Walla) and Mount Brave (Mount Veeder, Napa).
This episode features an interview with Trina Clampett, chief marketing officer of My Five Vibes, discussing how the Maryland-based canned cocktail company built its brand from a group chat idea.
Host Lori Forster speaks with Kim Stare Wallace, president of Dry Creek Vineyard in Sonoma, whose father David Stare founded the winery in 1971 on a neglected prune orchard in the Dry Creek Valley, becoming the first to plant Sauvignon Blanc in Northern Sonoma County.
Lori Forrester welcomes Ray Isle, author of The World in a Wine Glass, to talk through wine myths and what actually matters in the glass.
This episode features an interview with legendary restaurateur Drew Nieporent about his career, iconic restaurants like Nobu and Tribeca Grill, and insights from his new book on hospitality.
This episode features an interview with Doreen Winkler of Orange Glou, discussing orange and natural wines, along with wine storage tips.
Host Laurie Forster interviews winemaker Gus Kolaris about his journey and the state of the Napa Valley wine industry.
Laurie Forster discusses the importance of wine glasses and promotes upcoming wine and food pairing events.
Host Lori Forrester interviews sommelier Garth Hodgdon about champagne, discussing his background and tips for enjoying sparkling wines.
This episode features food expert Chadwick Boyd sharing three easy holiday recipes paired with affordable wines to simplify festive entertaining.
Lori Forster and Chef Michael Forster answer listener questions about Thanksgiving cooking and wine pairings, covering brining, carving, stuffing, and what bottles to serve from starter through dessert.
Host Lori Forster speaks with Tor Kenward, who has made wine in Napa Valley for 50 years and founded Tor Wines in 2001 with his wife Susan, focusing on single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay from sites including Tocalon, Vine Hill, and Hyde Vineyard.
Host Lori Forrester introduces an upcoming Italian wine event and interviews sommelier Andre Houston Mack about his career and wine philosophy.
Host Laurie Forster interviews Aldo Somm, wine director of a three-Michelin-starred restaurant, about his approachable wine philosophy and book.
Laurie Forster interviews Paul Chevalier about Whispering Angel rosé and promotes a summer wine pack.
Laurie Forster interviews Ian Blessing about his award-winning alcohol-free bitters company, All The Bitter, and promotes upcoming wine events.
This episode features guests from The Tasting House discussing food and wine pairings to inspire listeners for Share and Pair Sundays.