Hey — this episode unpacks a vacation that went horribly wrong: a 37-year-old narrator brings her partner, toddler and a 16-year-old dog to visit her parents, who are openly hostile to the aging pup. They repeatedly put the dog outside, dump its water, and make cruel comments about putting her down.

The partner withdraws and spends time apart to protect the dog and avoid blowing up, while the narrator freezes because she's conflict-averse and has a fraught relationship with her dad. After they get back, family gossip paints the partner as rude, and the narrator is left asking who the biggest asshole really is.

We cut right to it: the parents are the main problem. Depriving an elderly, anxious dog of water and comfort is cruel, and their passive-aggressive escalation — plus the mom's cruel comments — crossed basic lines. The partner's quiet protection felt reasonable, not disrespectful.

If you were my friend, here’s the real talk: set boundaries. If your parents can’t treat your dog and your family with basic respect, don’t keep subjecting your kid, your partner, and your pup to that toxicity. Practical moves: offer to stay in a hotel with the dog, arrange separate visits, or limit holiday time until boundaries are respected.

You’re allowed to prioritize your immediate family and the emotional safety of your child and pet. Talk to your partner, consider couples or family therapy to sort the fallout, and don’t feel guilty for protecting your household from repeated mistreatment.

We rooted for her to protect her dog and reclaim Christmas — and for anyone listening, be the friend who tells someone they’re allowed to choose kindness and healthy boundaries over obligation.

DEFENDANT: Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

EVIDENCE: Manos Special Edition Great Gatsby Sauvignon Blanc

SCENE OF THE CRIME: Long Island

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Hey friend — come sit with us for a cozy, messy chat where wine and soup fuel a no-holds-barred re-read of The Great Gatsby. We get personal, a little loopy, and deeply into the weeds about Gatsby’s tragic love, Tom’s grossness, Daisy’s contradictions, and whether Nick was totally in love with his neighbor. Spoiler: feelings are messy and rich people are worse.

Pop a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, lean back, and let us walk you through art-deco bottles, literary gossip, and cheating scandals — plus a surprisingly earnest defense of hand-painted wine labels. We talk Fitzgerald’s life (and terrible choices), Zelda’s shadow, speculative queer readings, and how the book manages to feel both glamorous and kind of rotten all at once.

No fake facts here (well, maybe a few), lots of laughs, and zero pretension — just two pals getting hungry, distracted by soup, and falling down rabbit holes about vintage covers, terrible men, and whether Gatsby’s mansion was modeled on a castle. Bring snacks, or don’t — we’ll probably eat them anyway. You’re invited, old sport.

In this episode of True Crimes Against Wine, the hosts dive into a messy roommate-turned-partner dispute about chores. After three years together, a couple split household duties by a rota: feeding three picky cats, handling bills, cleaning litter, doing the washing up, hoovering, and more. Tension explodes when one partner fails to hoover and forgets to put a new toilet roll on the holder. The other partner comes home furious, calling the lapse a betrayal, which leads to name-calling and talk of moving out. The hosts unpack compatibility, expectations around cleanliness, gendered chore dynamics, and whether the couple’s split was inevitable. They tease more stories to come and invite listeners to send in their own juicy disputes.

DEFENDANT: Gilded Age Decadence

EVIDENCE: Biltmore Estate Reserve Chenin Blanc

SCENE OF THE CRIME: The Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC

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Hey friend — welcome back to True Crimes Against Wine for our first full episode of 2026! We’re sipping a slightly off-dry Chenin Blanc (surprise: from Biltmore in North Carolina), chatting about how it tastes like walking through a crisp apple orchard, debating whether monkeys belong at high-society parties, and diving headfirst into the Gilded Age — Mansions, dollar princesses, scandalous debutante balls, and the Vanderbilts’ iconic Biltmore Estate. We pair tasting notes (pear, honey, kiwi, and a lovely balancing acidity) with wild historical tangents, food pairing dreams (shishitos, spicy sausage, melon & prosciutto), and way too many fantasies about being wealthy eccentrics. If you love wine stories, architectural daydreams, and irreverent history deep dives, join us for laughs, snacks, and one judge-y quiz. Tell us your snack, your Biltmore memories, and whether you’d host a monkey at your next party. Cheers!

When wine is on trial, the gossip is dishy, the judges are drunk, the verdicts are random — welcome to True Crimes Against Wine and our first sidebar of 2026! Happy New Year, friend! We kicked off the episode riffing about nostalgia, then dove headfirst into what actually matters: what the next year (and beyond) looks like for wine.

Quick take: climate shifts are pushing vineyards north and uphill, which means you’ll be tasting wines with brighter acidity instead of the old-school fruit bombs and heavy oak. Expect to see more accessible, interesting bottles from South America, New Zealand and Australia pop up in your grocery store — tariffs and global economics make Europe trickier right now. Small domestic winemakers are likely to adapt by offering more reserve and niche wines to protect margins, which could change what becomes mainstream over time.

Heads-up: this stuff isn’t instant. Replanting vines and aging wines takes years — sometimes close to a decade for certain styles — so producers are making high-stakes bets on harvest timing and vintage quality. I’ve got so much respect for the family-run wineries putting in the sweat equity. As a drinker, that uncertainty is part of the romance; as someone running the farm, I’d be a Walmart greeter in a heartbeat.

Also, watch for celebrity collabs — fewer hands-on wine barons, more low-risk partnerships that boost publicity. And yes, tequila keeps rising (margarita season, anyone?), so expect more spirits episodes and celeb bottles to show up fast. If you spot any fun celeb wines or weird regional gems, send them our way — we can’t find everything alone.

We’re always sourcing stuff and would love your tips. Reach out at truecrimesagainstwine@gmail.com and find us on TikTok and Instagram — we might send swag. Cheers to 2026: drink a lot, survive, and let’s see what the year pours for us. Bye for now.

Hey friend — welcome to our latest People’s Court episode where we dive into an Am I the Asshole post about a 19-year-old bridesmaid who finally got her ears pierced and wore one-inch silver hoops to her sister’s wedding, only to be called "trashy" and accused of disrespecting the bride. Spoiler: we’re not surprised by how wild this got.

We walk through why that reaction felt wildly over the top — the bridesmaid is an adult making a small, tasteful choice, and calling your sibling trashy at your wedding? Cold. We compare it to the exact opposite energy of chill brides who gift matching earrings and set clear, reasonable boundaries, and we laugh (a little cruelly) about how dramatic family weddings can be.

Have your own juicy wedding drama? The uncle who threw up, the brother-in-law who got handsy, or the cousin who caused a scene — we want to hear it. Send us your stories at truecrimesagainstwine@gmail.com or find us on TikTok and Instagram — we’ll read the best ones on the show and might even send you some swag.

Pour a drink, settle in, and let’s judge some people together — because honestly, it’s way more fun from the guest table.

DEFENDANT: Buddy the Elf

EVIDENCE: Manos Wines Special Edition "Elf" Prosecco

SCENE OF THE CRIME: From the North Pole all the way to Manhattan and back again!

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Hey — glad you made it to our cozy chaos. This episode is basically two things: a heavy pour of festive Prosecco (shoutout to the blingy Manos bottle) and a full-on, goofy love letter to Elf — plus the ridiculous trivia and fan theories that make holiday movies feel like family. We talk traditions, awkward childhood rituals, terrible gift-control impulses, and why some of our favorite seasonal things still hit like warm nostalgia.

We nerd out about Elf like it’s evidence in a case: Jon Favreau’s direction, Will Ferrell’s enormous golden-retriever energy, Zooey Deschanel’s surprise musical cameo, James Caan’s grumpy-dad groove, and even that weird Central Park ranger theory that adds a darker layer if you let it. There are shower scenes, department store mayhem, real-life crowd reactions caught on film, and a few production easter eggs (Wanda name tags and stop-motion nods) that are delightfully silly.

Also: yes, we taste the Prosecco. It’s festive, metallic, and exactly what you want for toasts — light, apple-y, and not too sweet. We compare it to champagne, Cava, and whatever else you line up on a party table while you argue whether donut holes count as zero calories and whether sparkling wine and popcorn are an acceptable holiday combo. (They are.)

We get real about the season, too. If you’re feeling pressure to show up for people who drain you, hear us: you don’t have to. Treat holiday plans like a dinner party you actually want to attend. Set boundaries, keep what’s meaningful, and let the rest go. If all else fails, borrow Buddy the Elf’s wide-eyed wonder for a few minutes — it’s the best kind of permission slip to feel joy again.

So pour yourself something fizzy, fold a little ridiculousness into your traditions, and enjoy the stories — goofy, tender, and truer than you might expect. From our cramped, sparkly loft to wherever you’re nesting this season: happy holidays, however you celebrate. Cheers.

Join Judge Rachel and Topher as they relive a delightfully chaotic honeymoon in Edinburgh — from a misbooked Highlands tour that turned into an unexpected adventure, to candlelit luxury at The Witchery and a surprise Muppet Christmas Carol live orchestra. This episode is full of humor, heartfelt moments, and travel mishaps (yes, a bus mix-up that might have saved their lives). If you love stories about how travel plans go sideways and still manage to become the best memories, you'll feel like you're right there with them sipping wine, spotting Highland cows, and hunting for Nessie. Packed with castle strolls, underground tours, secret gardens, and plenty of sarcasm, this sidebar is the perfect post-trip debrief to listen to with a friend.