Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of 2025 have now been revealed. Let the conversation begin! On the newest episode of Wine Spectator's Straight Talk podcast, host James Molesworth speaks with Château Giscours' Alexander Van Beek, the man behind our 2025 Wine of the Year.
Molesworth talked to Van Beek in October at the 2025 New York Wine Experience—before Van Beek knew that the Bordeaux estate he's managed for decades had earned this year's top spot—and then we called him up afterward to hear how he was taking the news ...
“It’s too cool to be true,” said Van Beek after Wine Spectator revealed this year’s No. 1 wine. “It’s crazy … I still don’t believe it!”
Now available on Apple, Google, Spotify and more, including at WineSpectator.com/podcast, Straight Talk debuted in October 2022 and has attracted some of the wine industry's biggest stars for honest, probing, revelatory and sometimes hilarious conversations.
Guests have included winemakers Aubert de Villaine, Tim Mondavi, Tony Soter, Mark Aubert, Helen Keplinger, Thomas Rivers Brown, Greg Brewer and many more, as well as chefs Thomas Keller and Marcus Samuelsson, NBA Hall of Famer and winery investor Tony Parker and film, TV and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc star Sarah Jessica Parker.
“The Straight Talk podcast is a must-listen for anyone in the wine industry, and gives consumers a personal connection with our expert staff of tasters that no other format—or podcast—can offer,” said Wine Spectator editor and publisher Marvin R. Shanken, who himself made several guest appearances in Straight Talk's first season.
Wine Spectator's Straight Talk podcast is available for free on all major podcasting platforms, as well as at WineSpectator.com/podcast, and listeners can email their questions and comments to StraightTalk@WineSpectator.com.
