Do you think Cory Matthews is “cool”? This week we tried the next bottle in our Winc subscription box: Finke’s Sparkling Brut from Italy, and we paired it with Season 2 Episode 5: “The Uninvited”—Cory tries to fit in with the popular crowd. Pop a bottle of bubbly and join us as we discuss what it means to be COOL. Spoiler: trying to be cool is super uncool.

Welcome to our first ‘Chaser’! In this episode, Brie invited her coworker (and fellow English teacher) Brian on the pod to further discuss Season 2 Episode 4: “Me and Mr. Joad”. We dropped a hint at the end of the blurb for our last episode, and if you guessed ‘Mike’s Hard Lemonade’, ding ding ding! Indeed, in this, our first ‘Chaser’ episode, Brie and Brian sipped Mike’s Hard Black Cherry Lemonade and discussed the pedagogical differences between young, progressive teachers (like Turner) and old, conservative ones (like Feeny). Spoiler: a happy medium is the way to go.

This week we tried ‘Wonders Vin de France’ from our Winc subscription box: a white blend made with no sugar and organic grapes! Speaking of grapes, Cory reads “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck in Season 2 Episode 4: “Me and Mr. Joad”. Cory and Shawn decide to unionize and walk out of school when they are forced to take a test… Brie had so much to say about this episode, she recorded a bonus interview with her coworker, Brian (a fellow English teacher). Stay tuned for Boy Meets Wine’s first “Chaser” episode! I bet you can’t guess what Brie and Brian drank… We’ll give you a hint: Drink on the bright side.

Today we discuss the (Porter and) ‘Plot’ of Season 2 Episode 3: “Notorious”. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” lays a (vague) moral framework for Cory’s struggle to decide whether or not to turn Shawn in for playing a prank on Feeny. “Porter and Plot” is the name of this week’s smooth, misty Cab Sauv from the cozy coasts of Mendocino, CA!

We may have loved this week’s bottle of Piu Gioia Pinot Grigio, but Cory feels anything but ‘pure joy’ in Season 2 Episode 2: “Pairing Off”. Cory and Shawn attend their first “make-out party”, Amy is surprisingly stoked about it, and the entire cast attends a poetry slam that makes peaches seem…sexy? Anyway…Cin cin!

Season 2, baby! We uncorked this fresh new season with a bottle of Ruffino Chianti (delicious, a bit peppery, tastes like Italy)! Made with grapes named after “The Blood of Jupiter”, this ‘Sangiovese’ was the perfect pairing with an episode about Homer’s ‘Odyssey’—and Cory’s 22-minute odyssey in “Back 2 School” leads him to discover that the best way to navigate high school is to know exactly who you are, and to keep it real. Cheers!

This is it! The last episode of Season 1. We laughed, we cried, and we imbibed great quantities of Purple Power mead—homemade made by Jules’s Nashvillian friend, Roy Black! ‘Twas the perfect beverage for an episode with copious references to Beowulf… So grab a glass of honey-wine and get ready for an episode about guilt, death, and the privilege of education. Dear listener, thank you for sticking with us to this point; we will be taking a hiatus until the spring. For updates, follow us on Instagram at boymeetswinepodcast. Cheers!

We tried Bogle Petite Sirah this week for Season 1 Episode 21: “Boy Meets Girl”. In this penultimate episode of season 1, we revisited the emotional roller coaster of puberty, got real about our current relationship statuses, and defined what makes for a healthy, lasting partnership. Cheers!