Wine Thinker Robert Joseph on Conversation with Jason

This week on Conversation with Jason, we're excited to welcome Robert Joseph. Robert is a journalist, consultant, author, editor, and brand builder of projects including Le Grand Noir in the Minervois and K’Avshiri Wine in Georgia.

In this conversation, Jason and Robert discuss Robert’s start in his parents’ “accidental” restaurant, how an interest in stamp collecting led to a fascination with wine labels, and how a stint in Burgundy led him to work with Becky Wasserman and to write for Jancis Robinson.

Robert shares the experience of how four decades in wine journalism — including a 20-year stint as an editor for the recently-shuttered Meininger’s International — have led him to call himself “a recovering wine critic” and why he thinks it’s been so hard for wine publications to establish and sustain themselves.

Robert tells the stories of Le Grand Noir and K’Avshiri and how, in each case, he’s trying to use his understanding of what consumers actually care about to supersede the centuries of tradition that can end up separating wine from their potential customers.

Finally, he and Jason talk about the moment that wine is in now, what brands he thinks are meeting the moment in creative ways (including our partners at La Vieille Ferme), and what might come next.

All this and more in this week's conversation.