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This episode is a little different. There's no guest, no single focus, and honestly — no apologies for that. If you've been listening for a while, you know I have a lot rolling around in my brain at any given time. So instead of holding back, I decided to just let it all out in one gloriously chaotic episode I'm calling "Odds and Ends."

I'm covering four things: a wine temperature hack that is genuinely going to change your summer drinking, a major wine history anniversary you should know about, a new wine app that has my full attention, and something I've been building behind the scenes that I am so close to finally launching. Let's get into it.

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If you're really trying to elevate your wine and experience it in the way that the winemaker intended it to be, adjusting with these quick hacks is one of the highest impact, lowest effort things that you can do to elevate what's in your glass. Well, hello there. It's Nikki Lamberti coming to you from Sonoma County, California. Welcome to this week's Sip with Nikki.

If you listen to our most recent episode where I interviewed Amy Bess Cook, the founder of Woman to Own Wineries, Directory and wine club, and then also Kira Balata, who is a fantastic winemaker here in Napa Valley, it was a robust episode. And what I mean by that, that only was it the full hour long because we had a lot to. But we had a lot to cover and we went deep.

And I've had such great feedback from many of you who listened to that episode, and I want to thank you for that. If you haven't listened yet, please go back and do so. Well, we're taking a complete 180 this week. This is a shorty. It is just me.

I'm not interviewing anyone, and I'm going to talk about, like, four different things. So this is a brain dump. Welcome to my world.

We've known each other long enough now, if you're a regular listener, that I can be extremely transparent with you and just let you know, I have so many different things pinging around in my brain right now. Maybe you can relate.

And there are things that I want to share with you, things that I want to teach you, things that I'm developing, things that I'm reading, and I'm, like, all over the place. So I said, I've never done this before, but let me just put together a little bit. Odds and ends episode. So that's the working title of it.

I'm gonna start off with an important hack and wine tip, something that I'm seeing a lot of people guilty of as we go into the summer season. Simple but effective tips on what not to do with your wine drinking.

Then I'm gonna let you in on a very cool anniversary that's going on this month so you can learn a little bit more about something that's very important to all of us that make wine here in California. And then I've got a request for some information from all of you. I'm looking for messages as I share something that I'm putting together for you.

A very cool experience and a membership that I've been talking about forever. It's been in my Brain, it's been on my heart, but I am finally putting pen to paper and going to get this going for you this summer.

But before I make it official, I want to know what's important to you and what you want from me. So you're going to hear a little bit about that. So we're pinging all over the place. Come along for the ride.

Here we go with my brain dump odds and ends. Okay, so I happen to know this for a fact, that most people drink red wine too warm and white wine too cold.

And for our purposes today, especially as a lover, I'm gonna lump in with white when we talk about drinking temperature this time of year. It's the end of May, and we recently had the holiday weekend here, and it kicks off the summer season.

And I see it all the time where people are drinking red wine outside, which is fine, great, I'm a big red wine drinker.

But at the ambient temperature of the outside, which might be 80 degrees or 90 degrees, and if you're really drinking wine, to taste it and to get everything out of it that is there being offered to you as far as the smells and the taste and the textures, the ideal drinking temperature for red wine is not room temperature inside your house, which for most people is 70 degrees Fahrenheit, nor is it the outside temperature of where you are. It's actually 65 degrees. So lower than room temperature. When red wine is too warm, you notice some of the harshness about it.

I think the alcohol is magnified, not chemically, but just the perception of it. Like it seems, quote, hot, like burning. Right.

You notice the fumes and all of the subtle, delicate, oh, I'm getting floral, I'm getting hints of berries. All of those notes get shut down when the wine is too warm.

The science behind why this actually matters is that temperature directly affects how aroma compounds, volatile, how they release when they come in contact with oxygen, and how your mouth, your palate, perceives them and perceives the structure and the weight of the wine.

So a good way to achieve this ideal drinking temperature of at 60 to 65, if you have a wine fridge, which we have here, generally, you're storing it at 55 to 60. So by the time you take it out, you're right there.

But if you don't have that and you're keeping your wine at room temperature, hopefully you've got it in a closet under the bed somewhere where it just doesn't have a lot of temperature fluctuations. But it is totally okay to stick a bottle of red Wine in the fridge for like 10 to 15 minutes and just get a little chill on it.

Heck, chill it a little bit more, especially if it's a light red like Pinot Noir. Grenache Gamay. I love our red Grenache chilled a little bit, especially in the summertime. Try it and see what you notice.

This is why traditional wine glasses have stems, and you're supposed to hold it by said stem because by keeping your hands off the bowl of the glass, you're keeping from warming it up too much. And that's good for both red and white.

Nowadays, a lot of us use stemless because it's more durable, they're easier in the dishwasher, and you don't have to worry about your two puppy tails clearing the coffee table of your wine glasses, which happens on a regular basis with us here. But that, in fact, is why wine glasses were created to have stems to protect the temperature of the wine. And.

And most people drink white wine too cold.

We drink it right out of the fridge because A, that's where we stored it, but B, because if it is hot outside, it's cold and it's refreshing if it's really chilled. But you are missing so much of especially the aroma and especially the flavors when those molecules are just chilled too much.

So the ideal drinking temperature for white wine is right around that 50 to 55. That is not fridge temperature, my friends. So ideally, you kind of do the opposite with a white.

Take it out of the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes and let it come up just a few degrees to that 50 to 55. If you're really trying to taste it for what it is, notice the layers, notice the complexity. And you can try this as an experiment.

Pour it right from the fridge into your glass and taste it. It's fine. But then let your glass sit on the counter or outside for a few minutes and taste it again. Do you notice more? Do you smell more things?

Do you taste more things?

And if you're trying to do that with your wine, which I hope that you are, you will notice generally you're going to get more of that when that wine warms up to that prime spot of that 50 to 55, that's for white wine. And really the only one that we should be drinking right out of the fridge or cooler is sparkling wine or champagne.

Bubbles are good at about 45 degrees. So what makes it really easy to remember is proper drinking temperatures. 45, 55, 65. That's sparkling wine, white wine, and red wine.

Side note about cooling Red wine. The preferred method of doing this is not putting ice cubes in the wine.

Now, in the end, you do you and enjoy it how you enjoy it, but there's so much dilution that happens from ice that the wine's not gonna taste the same. So preferred method is to put a little chill on it in the refrigerator.

And I don't mean the birth of yours truly in central New Jersey to Dominic and Susan Lamberti. Yes, this is my 50th birthday year. What I am referring to, however, is the Judgment of Paris.

And the California wines, both a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon, won. And it was this huge upset. And this tasting is really credited to doing a couple different things. Putting California wines on the map, right?

Showing the rest of the world, especially France, that had been perceived to always have the best quality wine, showing the rest of the world that other parts of the world could do it, in this case, California. And also reinforced the power of blind tasting.

When you cover up a bottle and nobody knows who made it or where it's from or how much it cost, and really levels the playing field. And that's when a lot of the truths come out.

And just a cool piece of trivia, Much of that movie, even the scenes that are supposed to take place in France, was filmed here in Sonoma County.

So as someone who makes wine in California, I'd be remiss if I did not mention that 50 years ago this month, it all went down and there was a lot of drama to it. In fact, the wine merchant, Stephen Spurrier, who put together this blind tasting in Paris.

He was British, and I think he also assumed that French wines were going to win. He's the one that assembled the panel of nine French wine experts and invited the press and the media.

And the results shocked everyone, I believe, including him. So it's a really great story. And this tasting is credited to legitimizing California as a world class wine region.

I know this, that's why I live here. But really also sparked the boom and the growth of wineries, especially here in Napa and Sonoma.

I believe that this month there are multiple recreations of this tasting happening right now celebrating the 50th anniversary. So it's going to be fun to see some of those results come in.

And I think the rest of the world, besides California, you know, other wonderful regions that were making wine at the time, whether it was Australia, Argentina, South Africa, all of these, quote, new world wine areas. It also encouraged them that, hey, France does not have a monopoly on the wine industry. They make beautiful wines, as does Italy too.

But that there are other places in the world, other wine regions that could compete and make just as beautiful of a wine. So sometimes this judgment of Paris is also described as democratizing fine wine as well. And I encourage you to check out the movie Bottle Shock.

If you're a regular listener. You've heard Karen McNeill, the author of the Wine Bible and one of my wine instructors from the Culinary Institute.

You've heard her on the podcast multiple times.

And she has a great newsletter called winespeed that I subscribe to that has recommendations and statistics and things that help me feel like I'm just keeping a pulse on what's going on in the wine world. Karen recently shared, that said, the first time in the U.S. sales of white wine have overtaken sales of red. That's crazy to me.

And I'm curious, have your tastes changed? Are you someone who used to drink more red and for whatever reason you're now drinking white? I'm very curious about this trend and what's driving it.

So send me a note. Nikkiipwithnikki.com if you are someone who is leaning more towards the whites, and I'd love to know why it is.

So back to WineSpeed, her recent newsletter.

People feel very strongly about using AI for different things or not or what it's going to do to different jobs in the future. I am certainly using it a little bit more now for writing and design and things like that.

And I actually recently learned about a very cool wine app that does what a lot of other wine apps do. You've heard me talk about Vivino, where you can scan a wine label and then it brings up all the the information and people's reviews.

I love that this new wine app does that and a lot of other things too.

And I think the the biggest differentiator with this app is that it actually uses an AI element to over time as you're using the app and inputting information, it uses AI to make recommendations for you and has been very successful. So I'm actually getting ready to interview the software engineer and wine lover who created this app. It's called Sommo S O M M O.

So if my plans go as they should, the next episode of Sip with Nikki will be that interview with him. So I can't wait to share that with you.

And candidly, I can't wait to just dig deeper and learn a little bit more about everything that the Samo app can do.

How it's different than what's out there and specifically if and how this AI component is really making it a better tool to help understand, learn about, and then choose the right wines for your palette. Stay tuned as I have that episode about the Samo app in the next couple of weeks. Finally, I'm so excited to throw this out there.

I am still putting the finishing touches on this, but you've heard me talk about my desire to create a virtual tasting room. I don't have a physical brick and mortar tasting room yet, and I don't know that will ever happen for my own wine Solivato.

But as a wine educator and as your Sip with Nikki podcast host and guide, you know, I love teaching about wines around the world and how to taste properly.

So I've decided to create a virtual tasting room where you can become a member and we will meet regularly on Zoom and taste different wines from around the world together.

I'm going to be partnering with a company called Vinebox that has these very cool Wine tasting kits that have a 100 milliliter almost looks like a big test tube, which is a real healthy tasting pour.

And I'm working with them to customize different boxes that I'm going to make available to you, my tasting room quote members, and we'll be able to taste live all together and go through them and I'll be tasting the same thing at the same time. But I love the concept of these hundred mil vials because you don't have to buy full bottles and open multiple full bottles at a time.

It to me is just the right amount of wine to taste it and get in there and really do our evaluation. And secondly, what excites me about this live element of us getting on Zoom is the sense of community.

I want to see you, I want to hear from you, I want to hear your questions. You know I love podcasting.

It's over a hundred episodes in, but it is pretty one sided where I'm just talking out to the audio waves, the audio world out here. And I'm excited to hear from you, hear your questions, answer your questions in live time.

So be on the lookout for more information about Sip with Nikki the Tasting Room membership. There will be a monthly membership fee that covers the cost of these boxes that I'll be sending your way and of course our virtual tasting.

But also baking in some other very cool perks and resources for you into this membership to really help you make sense of wine, elevate your tasting, get out of your comfort zone and be able to taste some really unique wines from so many different wine regions around the world. If you have any input or ideas of what you would like to see in this membership, now is the time.

Nikkiipwithnikki.com or what elements would you like to see in this virtual tasting membership that I'm getting to roll out to all of you this summer? I can't wait to hear and I welcome your input because I want it to be something that is helpful to you and that feels relevant and fun.

So I'm all ears. Send me a note. Nikkiipwithnikki.com. I wasn't kidding when I told you I had all these things rolling around in my brain. There you have it.

So to recap the odds and ends, pay attention to the temperature of your wine. Take the white out of the fridge for 10 minutes, put the red in the fridge for 10 minutes and I promise you will have a better wine in your glass.

Check out the movie Bottle Shock.

If you want to learn a little bit more in a Hollywood version of the Judgment of Paris, stay tuned for the next episode where I'll be interviewing the creat of that very cool new wine app Samo. And please, please, please. I'm serious. You can remember this even if you're driving. My email address is super easy to remember.

Nikki N I K K I just like the name of the podcast nikkiipwithnikki.com Please send me a note now and always, but especially now as I'm getting ready to create the tasting room membership for you. What do you want to see as a part of this? What do you want to learn? What perks? What benefits do you want as a member?

Cause I'm just about ready to put it out there and I wanna make sure it is perfect for you and that you're just as excited about it as I am. I'm telling you, you guys like I'm not even sleeping at night because all of this stuff is in my brain.

And if you don't already receive the Sip with Nikki and solivato newsletter, visit dipwithnikki.com and you can sign up for our mailing list which is how I'm going to be releasing the information about the membership, the pricing and all the details.

Plus, when you sign up for the mailing list you'll get my downloadable wine tips cheat sheet with similar tips like the temperature hacks that I gave you today.

And if you need some beautiful wine to kick off the summer season at the time of this recording, I have just a couple of cases left of my first ever Salevato. It is a of Grenache with a kiss of scent Gevese. People are going crazy for it.

It is dry but fruity and just light and crisp and it just tastes like a summer sunset in a glass.

Solavatowines.com and use the discount code podlistener for 10% off your order and we can ship to most states across the U.S. as always, I sure appreciate you listening. Looking forward to seeing all of your messages come my way. And whatever you do between now and our next time together, I hope that you sip well. La.