Podcast
Skurnik Unfiltered
Hosted by Skurnik Wines & Spirits · EN
No reservations required—listening to these conversations feels like you've been invited to pull up a chair and share a glass with some of the most remarkable dinner guests, giving you a level of access that was previously gatekept for those in the know.
Skurnik Unfiltered is a weekly podcast that curates deep conversations with some of the finest winemakers, distillers, and industry leaders about the world of wines, spirits and hospitality. The show is hosted by Harmon Skurnik of Skurnik Wines & Spirits, a leading importer and distributor of the finest terroir-driven beverages crafted at a human scale.
Episodes are guest-hosted by sommeliers and experts in the subfields of wine, spirits, sake, and specialty beverages.
Skurnik Unfiltered is recorded at Skurnik Wines & Spirits headquarters in the Flatiron District of New York City.
13episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Tom Jackson
1w ago00:24:44Tap to summarize"Spirits, when they are at their best, are about facilitating joy and connection and building community. If we can be a small part of that in any way, then I think we've done our job." – Tom JacksonJune is Pride Month, but Tom Jackson likes to say he's Supergay for 365 days a year. After an advertising career and founding the iconic GAYLETTER magazine, Tom launched Supergay Spirits with a flagship vodka. It was a natural place to start; vodka is known as "gay water" for its popularity among the queer community. He wanted to offer an alternative to massive, impersonal brands and overly pretentious craft distilleries, proving that a spirits brand can be fun and joyful while maintaining the highest quality standards. His would be a vodka made for and by the queer community, rather than marketing toward it from the outside. In this week's episode, Tom explains the strategic and intentional choices that define Supergay, from using a 100% corn base for a softer, slightly sweet profile to finding the sweet spot with a three-pass coconut charcoal filtration. The conversation also tracks the evolution of the brand’s lineup with the new Fire Island Dry Gin, featuring kelp from WNBA hall-of-famer-turned-kelp-farmer Sue Wicks. Tom details the unique formulation hurdles of their low-sugar "Two Fruits" ready-to-drink canned cocktails, highlighting their two newest summer flavors: a savory Black Sesame Espresso Martini and a fiery Chili Mango Spritz. Finally, he talks brand identity, discussing why a bold name sometimes requires working twice as hard on a quality distillate, and what "Farm to Disco" truly means for LGBTQ+ community support during Pride Month and beyond. Supergay Spirits supports New York City's LGBT Center year round, and you can too.Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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Nicola Libelli
2w ago00:27:04Tap to summarize“If you want to make exceptional wine, you have to feel at home because it’s about so many little things—little things that you have to observe and feel and catch over the season to make the wine. It’s always important to be there and to feel the place.” – Nicola LibelliNicola Libelli feels at home in the Pfalz. Though he was born and raised in Northern Italy, a taste of 1992 Merkelbach Kinheimer Rosenberg Riesling Spätlese completely changed the course of his life, compelling him to move to Germany and learn everything about German wine.At the age of 26, he was unexpectedly thrust into the head winemaking role at one of Germany's most historic estates, Dr. Bürklin-Wolf, where he has since earned his reputation as one of the best Riesling winemakers in the world.In this episode, Nicola reflects on the mentors who shaped his life and how a culture of friendship and healthy competition among winemakers can move the wine industry in the right direction. Meet Nicola at FLXcursion in Geneva, NY June 27-29, 2026. Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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Corinne Rich and Katie Rouse
3w ago00:31:29Tap to summarize“I think joyful, colorful people can still make beautiful, classically-styled, serious wines.” – Corinne RichThe standard California playbook of Chardonnay and Cabernet often overshadows a rich history of alternative varieties perfectly suited for the modern climate.This week’s episode features two guests: Corinne Rich and Katie Rouse, the partners and winemakers behind Birdhorse. Balancing their own independent label with day jobs at respected wineries, they discuss how they built a brand from scratch, choosing to champion forgotten, climate-resilient Mediterranean grapes through close grower partnerships rather than traditional landownership.The conversation centers on the unexpected potential of Valdiguié—a historic, bulletproof grape once known as “Napa Gamay.” Corinne and Katie explain how working with lesser-known varieties creates an even playing field for drinkers, stripping away the gatekeeping of traditional “wine speak.” They share their vision for making the industry more inclusive through approachable pricing, thoughtful low-intervention winemaking, and joyful, colorful labels designed to bring everyone into the conversation.Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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Alex Clark
4w ago00:35:17Tap to summarize"As a brand, you have to have an identity. It's easy to just make products, but why you exist is much more important that what you produce. The "why" for us is recreating this classic New York rye style that hadn't been around for over 100 years." – Alex ClarkThe Battle of Brooklyn began over stolen fruit in a neighborhood watermelon patch, a piece of borough history that now inspires one of New York’s most distinctive spirits.In this week's episode, Whiskey Specialist James Pellingra talks with Alex Clark, founder of Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton Distillery. Alex traces his path from London DJ to the center of the New York classic cocktail boom, sharing how his hospitality roots and love of American Revolutionary history inform his approach to distilling.The conversation centers on Fort Hamilton’s reason for existence: bringing back the pre-Prohibition style of New York rye whiskey. Long before corn subsidies made bourbon dominant, rye was a true foundational spirit of American distilling. Alex breaks down what makes an Empire Rye Whiskey and what it means to resurrect a distillate that the US government sought to eradicate.Alex also reintroduces Fort Hamilton’s New World Gin. Built on a New York corn base, it balances cucumber with fresh watermelon, a direct tie to that historic battlefield skirmish located just a block from the modern distillery in Industry City. BCB is held at Industry City in Sunset Park, Brooklyn on June 9th and 10th. The Skurnik bar will be open both days from 11am-7pm in Building 7 for you to meet our spirits specialists and visiting distillers. Register for BCB here.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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BONUS: What to expect from Skurnik at BCB
May 2500:26:15Tap to summarizeThe biggest spirits event of the year is right around the corner. Bar Convent Brooklyn is an annual 2-day festival of tastings and seminars from the best in the spirits business.In preparation for Skurnik’s third appearance at BCB, we’re giving you a bonus episode inside our spirits portfolio with Adam Schuman (Spirits Portfolio Director) and Amanda Elder (Spirits Content & Education Manager). In this episode, they survey the beverage landscape from the early 2010s cocktail boom to the spike in demand for consumer education during COVID lockdown, and how Skurnik is meeting the moment in a world still dealing with ripple effects from the pandemic and new challenges brought by trends and the global economy.BCB is held at Industry City in Sunset Park, Brooklyn on June 9th and 10th. The Skurnik bar will be open both days from 11am-7pm in Building 7 for you to meet our spirits specialists and visiting distillers. Register for BCB here.Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected one here.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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Noah Dorrance
May 1800:27:58Tap to summarize"If you're really tapped into what wine is, giving back is a very natural extension of that. You realize that wine exists in this harmony with its environment, and if you're not giving back out to that environment, you're like the dead end in the ecosystem. It's important that the ecosystem keeps moving around and that good keeps flowing in all directions." – Noah DorranceNoah Dorrance's philosophy is clear and consistent: wine is connection. Paying close attention to the weather and the rhythms of the seasons connects him to the health of the planet. Donating a portion of his revenue to local nonprofits helps him connect with his community in and beyond the Sonoma Coast. And involving his wife and teenage kids in the Reeve Wines and BloodRoot projects brings their family closer together.In this week's episode, New York sommelier Mackenzie Khosla guest hosts Noah for a discussion over a bottle of Reeve Wines 'Rice-Spivak' Pinot Noir. Together they reflect on ways to find connection, generosity, and intentionality through the making and sharing of wine.Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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Shane Fraser
May 1100:29:18Tap to summarize"Perfection in a spirit is to do things very consistently and don't change things. I'm certainly not perfect, but I think what we're doing at the distillery is close to the best whisky I've made for a long, long time. It's grain to glass, and it's all grown and made in New York State." – Shane FraserTenmile Distillery in Wassaic, NY is making the closest thing to Scotch outside of Scotland, thanks to their secret weapon, the acclaimed master distiller Shane Fraser from Aberdeen. Tenmile's focus is on American Single Malt Whisky, a relatively unheard-of and misunderstood category only officially defined as recently as 2025. In this episode with whisk(e)y expert James Pellingra, Shane describes the ins and outs of producing single malt whisky, the advantages of aging whisky in California Pinot Noir casks, and how he defines perfection in a category still establishing its identity.Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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Alice Jun
May 400:31:48Tap to summarize"Sool is an ancient style of rice wine. It has over two-thousand years of documented history. Our style is distinctly influenced by the style of brews that I grew up with—a wilder, more natural, more gastronomical style of Korean wine. And for those who are curious about going deeper, there is always something more." – Alice JunAlice Jun remembers makgeolli as an important ingredient of her upbringing in the '90s in her Los Angeles Korean American community. Her father, a first-generation immigrant, taught her how to brew the mixed-culture sedimented rice wine at home. His style, brewed from brown rice, was rustic and traditional—much stronger and drier than the lighter, aspartame-sweetened version exported to grocery store shelves, which many in the Korean diaspora had become used to.In this week's episode, Alice tells the story of how she went from bootlegging her father's recipe from her NYC shoebox apartment to starting Hana Makgeolli, the first craft makgeolli brewery in the US, and how the explosion of Korean pop culture and a rapid consumer-driven appetite for craft Asian beverages is changing the landscape of American gastronomy.Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.Learn more about the different types of sool.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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Ricardo Peñalba
Apr 2700:32:00Tap to summarize“Wine has always been in change, in movement. The wine that we drink now is not the same wine that was drunk a hundred years ago, or a thousand years ago. For a revolution, you have to go back to the past to see what you have missed, and then bring it back.” – Ricardo Peñalba More than a winemaker, Ricardo Peñalba is a self-proclaimed "wine ideologist." When he's out walking the rows of his biodynamic vineyards in Ribera del Duero, he's thinking obsessively about wine and how it connects humans to our shared history and humanity.In this episode with Max Working, Ricardo shares a bottle of his Ojo Gallo from Finca Torremilanos and explains the region's ties to this traditional clarete style of wine, with an inspiringly philosophical perspective.Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected version here.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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Chris Mullineux
Apr 2000:38:39Tap to summarize"If a wine is trying to copy somewhere else or be something else, it might taste good, but it needs to have an authenticity and a sense of place to it, and it must be balanced and beautiful to drink. If a wine can put those two concepts together, for me, it's a perfect wine." – Chris Mullineux For decades, South Africa’s Swartland region was dominated by industrial farming cooperatives that pumped out massive amounts of inexpensive bulk wine and diluted any hint of terroir. It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that a fresh generation took notice of the gems right under their noses: forgotten old-vine vineyards and, thanks to hundreds of millions of years of tectonic activity, the oldest soils of anywhere on the planet. Chris and Andrea Mullineux, alongside pioneers like Adi Badenhorst and Eben Sadie, helped redefine the region with stunning Chenin Blancs and Syrahs, proving that Swartland wines could indeed deliver a distinct sense of place.Now their movement has grown beyond the Swartland to the broader Western Cape. Independent winemakers from Stellenbosch to Hemel-en-Aarde are dialing in their farming to express a uniquely South African terroir, one that in Mullineux’s case “tastes like sunshine.” In this episode, Chris Mullineux joins Desiree Russo for a flight of wines from three of his projects: Kloof Street, Mullineux, and Leeu Passant. They discuss regenerative farming, geek out on soil, and survey the unexpected varieties that may come to define the next chapter of South African wine.Automatically generated transcripts often make mistakes. Find a corrected one here.Skurnik Wines & SpiritsFollow us on Instagram
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