Portland duo on the natural wines you should be drinking & recipes to pair

This week, we're excited to welcome Dana Frank and Andrea Slonecker to SALT + SPINE, the podcast on stories behind cookbooks.

Home cooks have great taste buds for what works in the kitchen. However, when it comes to wine – pairing can seem daunting. Thankfully, Wine Food: New Adventures in Drinking and Cooking lays out the basics and introduces readers and home cooks to the accessible - and delicious - world of natural wines.

Dana’s a trained sommelier, owner of the urban winery Bow & Arrow, the wine shop Bar Norman in Portland and is fierce natural wine advocate. Andrea is a six-time cookbook author (The Picnic, Eggs on Top, Beer Bites and collaborated on titles like Pok Pok and Six Seasons) and food stylist. The book is a distillation of the friends’ extensive food and wine knowledge, breaking down the basics of home drinking and how to pair great food with equally exciting and affordable natural wines.  

“[What was] missing from most books about wine and food pairing was the moment that you’re enjoying the two in.” — ANDREA SLONECKER

We sat down at San Francisco’s The Civic Kitchen with Dana and Andrea as they share the exciting, natural wines you should be drinking, plus tips on storing and buying delicious wine.

Plus, we stopped by the kitchen at Jackson Family Winery in Sonoma to cook up a few dishes from their new cookbook Season: Wine Country Food, Farming & Friends. Then, we asked Stevie Stacionis, owner of Bay Grape wine shop in Oakland, CA, about the best wines to serve up for Thanksgiving or your next holiday meal.