After Years of Asking the Questions, Doug Shafer Finally Takes the Guest Seat
Photo Credit: Alexander Rubin
November 2, 2026 — “The Taste with Doug Shafer” podcast celebrates its 100th episode on November 3, 2026, with an episode that has been frequently requested and long avoided since the podcast’s earliest days in 2018.
“When we launched the podcast in April 2018, we just wanted to have some fun recording conversations with people I genuinely knew and admired,” says host Doug Shafer, who has been a Napa Valley wine industry insider since the early 1970s.
“Since then the circle of people I know and admire continues to grow because every episode amazes me with the stories, the talent, and the resilience of the people in this industry,” says Shafer.
Recent episodes have featured Meghan Zobeck, Opus One’s new director of winemaking, Todd Ricard, director of winemaking at The Prisoner, and new Napa Valley vintner Cuong Pham of Doi Da.
The podcast is available on major platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music, as well as on TheTasteWithDougShafer.com.
“A lot of the recent press around the wine industry has been gloom and doom, but the people who walk through our podcast studio door radiate new ideas, new approaches, and incredible optimism,” says Shafer. “It gives me faith in the future of this business.”
Shafer was 17 years old when his father and mother purchased Napa Valley winery property in Stags Leap District in 1972, which later became Shafer Vineyards. Doug took the job of winemaker in 1983 and in 1994 became winery president when his father stepped away from running day-to-day operations. Doug sold the winery in 2022.
What began as a fun way in 2018 to record conversations with friends, has turned into one of the wine world’s most sprawling oral histories.
“We did the math recently and if you turned the transcripts of our episodes into a book, it would be more than 4,000 pages long,” says Shafer.
The team that produces the podcast is genuinely captivated by the connections between Napa and Sonoma’s people and eras.
Shafer says that those who have listened to the span of the 100 podcasts would know, for example, how Kyle MacLachlan (actor/vintner) is connected to Shafer himself, who is connected to Davie Pina (vineyard manager), who is connected to Lafayette Stice (winemaker at Inglenook early 1900s) , who is connected to Susan Niebaum (vintner and wife of Inglenook founder Gustav Niebaum), who is connected to Robin Lail (vintner), who is connected to Francis Ford Coppola (iconic filmmaker/vintner). And the connections go on and on.
Shafer adds that by listening to the podcasts you would also learn how nearly everyone in the Napa Valley wine industry is only one or two connections away from legendary winemaker André Tchelistcheff.
As a celebratory twist, the 100th episode turns the interviewer into the interviewee.
“I really had zero interest in being the guest on my own podcast,” says Shafer. “But over the years a lot of listeners and even former guests have asked, ‘When are you going to turn the tables and interview Doug?’ So the tables have been turned. And it was actually a lot of fun.”
The 100th podcast is hardly the podcast’s finale. Shafer says there are already three more episodes recorded and in production with more planned well into 2027.
“I keep thinking we’ll run out of interesting people to talk to,” says Shafer, “but the list just keeps getting longer.”
“The Taste with Doug Shafer” Stats:
Wine Writers/Critics Interviewed: 9
Winemakers Interviewed: 30
Winery/Brand Owners Interviewed: 53
Chefs/Restaurateurs Interviewed: 5
Wine Sales Professionals Interviewed: 1
Total Running Time: 98 Hours
