Jun 5, 2026 · 30 min · 8 segments
Few figures have shaped the conversation around natural wine as profoundly as Pascaline Lepeltier. A leading contender for this year's ASI Contest Best Sommelier of the World Lisbon, Meilleur Ouvrier…
Pascaline LepeltierGuest
Mark De WolfeHost
So this is gonna be where I get, not, I don't wanna say controversial, but I'm gonna just stir up things up, so don't.
Uh, but, uh, do you think there was a period of time when we went into an era towards late, mid-late teens where it had to be a funky label? Um, arguably it, you know, there was a lot of like non-vigneron people, you know, people that weren't growing grapes making...
Um, we had, you know, technical f- issues with, um, you know, some volatile and, and funky, you know, mousey wines and, and that.
And, and in a way that got [sighs] embraced by a j- a s- a, a certain sector of, of our field that, that, that, you know, I can remember being walking into a, you know, a, a pretty well-known place in Montreal and in the, that era and, and then being served some of vin de, you know, of vin-- the little vin de pays that was advertised natural, and, and it was volatile.
And, and being told, um, you know, "Maybe you should drink commercial wine," you know? Uh-
And, you know, and, and so I, I, I know it's a kind of a controversial thing and you, you d- you know, but, but, but did we do a disservice in a way to the movement when, when it got a little into making it an aesthetic? As, you know, that, that natural wasn't, uh, about pro-- the, the, the, the true ethos.
It became, uh, it became unfortunately because it was something that was talking to people.
There was definitely people-- There was some-- There was an attraction to this, to this movement, to this aesthetic, to the taste of the wine, and to the value behind it.
So there was a success, and the success mean that people were waiting for that back.
They were waiting for a certain sincerity or an idea of transparency that we lost, and that success led to some marketing abuse and people jumping the b- like jumping in the boat and-
Uh, wine maker not probably doing the work to make this wine without nothing because they are extremely difficult to make.
... a lot of attention, a lot of details and all, uh, down to, uh, importer, distributor, agent, down to journalists, down to us, sommelier and, and that.
I, I think what was-- that led to the, to the success we saw and that led to some indeed, some wine that were extremely borderline in term of their ability to express anything, but the fact they were fermentation driven with some kind of-
So this is gonna be where I get, not, I don't wanna say controversial, but I'm gonna just stir up things up, so don't.
Uh, but, uh, do you think there was a period of time when we went into an era towards late, mid-late teens where it had to be a funky label? Um, arguably it, you know, there was a lot of like non-vigneron people, you know, people that weren't growing grapes making...
Um, we had, you know, technical f- issues with, um, you know, some volatile and, and funky, you know, mousey wines and, and that.
And, and in a way that got [sighs] embraced by a j- a s- a, a certain sector of, of our field that, that, that, you know, I can remember being walking into a, you know, a, a pretty well-known place in Montreal and in the, that era and, and then being served some of vin de, you know, of vin-- the little vin de pays that was advertised natural, and, and it was volatile.
And, and being told, um, you know, "Maybe you should drink commercial wine," you know? Uh-
And, you know, and, and so I, I, I know it's a kind of a controversial thing and you, you d- you know, but, but, but did we do a disservice in a way to the movement when, when it got a little into making it an aesthetic? As, you know, that, that natural wasn't, uh, about pro-- the, the, the, the true ethos.
It became, uh, it became unfortunately because it was something that was talking to people.
There was definitely people-- There was some-- There was an attraction to this, to this movement, to this aesthetic, to the taste of the wine, and to the value behind it.
So there was a success, and the success mean that people were waiting for that back.
They were waiting for a certain sincerity or an idea of transparency that we lost, and that success led to some marketing abuse and people jumping the b- like jumping in the boat and-
Uh, wine maker not probably doing the work to make this wine without nothing because they are extremely difficult to make.
... a lot of attention, a lot of details and all, uh, down to, uh, importer, distributor, agent, down to journalists, down to us, sommelier and, and that.
I, I think what was-- that led to the, to the success we saw and that led to some indeed, some wine that were extremely borderline in term of their ability to express anything, but the fact they were fermentation driven with some kind of-
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
