ASI: A Sommelier's Insight

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 de France, Best Sommelier of France (2018), acclaimed author, restaurant and winery co-owner, educator and one of the most influential voices in contemporary wine, Pascaline has spent decades exploring the intersection of farming, terroir, sustainability and authenticity in wine.
In this episode of A Sommelier's Insight, titled Nat Chat, we take a deep dive into the natural wine movement exploring its modern roots, where it stands today and where it may be headed in the years ahead. From its start as a countercultural response to industrialised wine production to its emergence as a global force influencing growers, sommeliers and consumers alike, Pascaline offers a thoughtful and nuanced perspective on one of wine's most debated categories.
Together, we explore her personal relationship with natural wine, discuss whether the movement has remained true to its original ideals, and examine how perception has changed, where the movement is now and likely to be in the future.
Whether you're a devoted natural wine enthusiast, a sceptic or simply curious about the movement's impact on the wider wine world, this conversation promises insight, context and plenty of food (and drink) for thought. Join us for an engaging discussion with one of the wine industry's most respected and thought-provoking voices.

India has long been viewed as an emerging market in the world of wine, but today it is becoming something far more compelling: a proving ground for a new generation of sommeliers shaping their own identity. In this episode of A Sommelier’s Insight, we sit down with Amrita Singh to explore the upward trajectory of sommellerie in India. From the challenges of building wine culture in a historically spirits driven market to the rapid evolution of fine dining and education, Singh offers a thoughtful and grounded perspective on how the profession is finding its voice. What emerges is a story not just of growth, but of adaptation. Singh speaks to the importance of context: how sommeliers in India must navigate climate, cuisine, and consumer perception in ways that differ from traditional wine markets. Yet within those challenges lies opportunity. As global attention turns toward Asia, India’s sommellerie community is stepping forward with confidence, curiosity, and a distinctly modern approach to hospitality.

There are moments in a wine career that quietly reshape everything, not through spectacle, but through a gradual realisation of what wine can truly represent. For Master Sommelier Jane Lopes, that moment opened the door to a career defined not just by technical mastery, but by a deeper exploration of wine as a meeting point of intellect, sensory experience, and human connection. In this conversation, we move beyond the surface of Australian wine and into something far more compelling. Jane brings a perspective shaped by her own experiences in accademia, working the floor of the world’s most influential dining rooms, and her work in Australia at the highest level of hospitality. What emerges is a reframing of a country often reduced to shorthand, 'sunshine in a bottle' , into something far more nuanced. We explore the idea of the future of Australia is not a rebrand, but a shift. From volume to value. From simplicity to site expression. From a singular identity to a mosaic of regions, varieties, and voices. It’s a conversation about perception, evolution, and the role sommeliers play in reshaping the narrative, one glass at a time.

Mark welcomes listeners to another episode of A Sommelier’s Insight, where wine is more than what’s in the glass. It’s memory, culture and connection.
In this episode, Mark sits down with Howard Hsia, President of the Taiwan Sommelier Association, to explore one of the most fascinating and often overlooked wine cultures in the world: Taiwan.
Long known as a crossroads of trade, cuisine and culture, Taiwan has quietly emerged as one of Asia’s most dynamic wine markets. But beyond the impressive cellars, luxury dining rooms and passionate collectors lies something deeper, a uniquely Taiwanese perspective on hospitality and sommellerie shaped by layers of cultural influence.
Together, Mark and Howard discuss how Taiwan became an influential wine centre in Asia, why Taiwanese sommeliers often approach service and pairing differently, and how the island’s openness to global influences has helped foster a new generation of beverage professionals who move comfortably between wine, tea, sake, water, spirits and gastronomy.
The conversation also explores the role Taiwan plays within the global sommelier community, the evolution of wine education across Asia, and why Taiwan’s cultural flexibility may offer an important glimpse into the future of sommellerie itself.

There is a tendency, even among professionals, to treat glassware as a constant, an invisible tool in service of something else. Yet, as Leopold Grupp, CEO of Stölzle Lausitz, makes clear in this episode of A Sommelier's Insight, the glass is anything but passive. It is, in his words, “a sensoric object… a tool for professionals… where you can amplify certain tastes and you can reduce others.”At the centre of the company’s philosophy is a phrase that carries deep meaning, “Born in Fire.”
Grupp grounds it first in the literal, “glass is made by melting sand at 1500 degrees into glass… the fire in the furnace really creates this wonder of glass” but quickly expands its scope. The fire is also human. “This passion… travels along with the glass through the whole supply chain… to the sommeliers, to the winemakers, to the restaurant owners,” he says. It is a shared intensity, linking production to the moment a table is set and a bottle is opened.
In this interview discover the passion behind the company that produce's some of the world's finest glassware.