The Internet’s Favorite Wine Pronouncer

Carrie and I watched the U.S. lose to Türkiye in the World Cup the other night when we noticed something we’d somehow missed before. The country’s name wasn’t spelled “Turkey” anymore.

Naturally, Carrie grabbed her phone to find out how to pronounce it. She tapped the first Google result and I immediately smiled. Not because I was learning how to say “Türkiye,” but because I recognized the voice.

It was Julien Miquel.

The photo above was taken during one of our wine travels in Croatia, where we discovered that enjoying great wine is often easier than pronouncing it. And if you’ve followed our European travels or tasting adventures, you know we’re pretty comfortable with Rhône varieties. Wander much beyond that, though, and our confidence starts to fade. Need to know how to pronounce Crljenak Kaštelanski, the Croatian grape that’s the ancestor of Zinfandel? Julien’s your guy.

Over the past few years, Carrie and I have probably listened to him pronounce dozens of grapes, villages and wine regions before our trips. He has one of those voices that’s calm, confident and somehow relaxing.

Until recently, I knew him simply as the internet’s favorite wine pronouncer. Then I started digging.

It turns out Julien isn’t just reading from a pronunciation guide. He’s a trained enologist from Bordeaux who spent years making wine in France, California, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand before deciding to focus on teaching.

In an interview I came across, Julien said:

“I realized that I could share my passion and wine knowledge to a greater audience in the digital world than by making wine.”

I’m sure that’s true. Then again, maybe he also got tired of dragging hoses, shoveling grapes and cleaning tanks. Every winemaker has had that thought at least once.

Whatever the reason, he’s introduced millions of people to grapes, regions and wines they might never have discovered otherwise. I especially like another of his quotes:

“Wine is fun and it should be approachable.”

That’s one of our core philosophies at Holly’s Hill.

Wine has a funny way of introducing us to people we would have never met otherwise. A grower in Croatia. A cellar worker in the Rhône. A YouTube educator with a French accent who patiently teaches millions of us how to pronounce words we’d otherwise butcher. They all become part of our journey in one way or another.

I actually reached out to Julien recently to see if he’d be willing to chat with another winemaker. So far, I haven’t heard back.

The next time Carrie and I come across a grape or village we can’t pronounce, I have a pretty good idea whose voice we’ll hear first.

Josh Bendick
Co-winemaker