With St Valentine's day in the back of our mind, the LiquidStoryteller Project decided to head back to Italy, where the whole holiday first began to manifest itself. Joining Nick Materese of Siema Wines in this episode is Rachel Lipman, winemaker and co-owner of Loew Vineyards, and in her podcast debut Melissa Aellen of Simple Theory and Maryland founding wine family Liganore as we drink through a partially history of Valentine's Day and taste so incredible wines from across the country.

Wines discussed & tasted:

Venturini Baldini Lambrusco Rose (Emilia-Romagna)

Colline del Sole Fiano (Campania)

Loew Vineyards Klara Pyment (Mt Airy)

Loew Vineyards Mazal (Mt Airy)

Simple Theory Barbera (Frederick)

Fattoria Colsanto Sagrantino di Montefalco (Umbria)

Azienda Agricola Elisabetta Brunetti Le Marze (Tuscany)

LiquidStoryteller Project: "New" Grapes for 2025

Rachel & Nick met up with a small group of friends at Vasili's Kitchen in Gaithersburg to discuss some of their favorite under the radar or often overlooked grapes, With thousands of grape varieties throughout the world being made into wine, it's very easy to slip into a mode of consistency where we just drink what we know and never stray from the familiar. But the world of wine will more often than not reward the curious and adventurous drinker!

In this episode we discuss:

Selva Capuzza Hirundo Sparkling

Vignamato Versus

Mil Historias Old Vine Bobal

La Crotta Fumin

Palmento Costanzo Nero di Sei

Monchiero Carbone Printi Roero

A long time ago in a place not so far, far away (Frederick, MD!) Cal Gudeman of Frederick Wine House, Maarten Luyckx owner/winemaker Ch Famaey and Nick Materese of Siema Wines sat down to see if they could create a podcast. The result was a wonderful, rambling rant through all of Cha Famaey's delicious wines as well as several tagental derailments into beer, whisky and whatever free form thoughts meandered into our participants heads. But never the less it was a tremendous amount of fun which kickstarted the LiquidStoryteller Project! Our goal was to gather together some entertaining and knowledgeable industry folks and tell the tale of of favorite drinks and why you should be drinking them!