MJ Towler (a.k.a. @BlackWineGuy) Takes Over the Wine Enthusiast Podcast

Back when we were working on the New York City Issue of Wine Enthusiast, we started to think of it as what would happen if you threw a big wine party in the Big Apple. We asked, “Who would be there?” The team ran through a short list of New Yorkers who’d made a mark in wine or were known for their affinity or influence on it. One person who would certainly be at the center of this party is MJ Towler, podcaster and wine guy (@blackwineguy on instagram and currently hosting the podcast Beats, Vines and Life). 

We asked Towler: If you could invite anyone to this party, who would it be? He quickly answered Mike D of the Beastie Boys. Mr. Diamond is known to be something of a collector and has written reviews of wines. That said, these days he lives in California, not Manhattan. We called his publicist and asked if he’d come to the theoretical party. You never know, right?

While we were waiting for an answer, Towler started to get excited about the idea of interviewing Robert Dentice (a.k.a. @soilpimp on Instagram) and his wife Renee Patronik. This is definitely a couple you’d see at the party, with whom you’d probably have a very interesting conversation about natural wine, cool clubs in Buffalo, downtown New York in the 1980s, hair dye, Riesling studies with Paul Greco and drinking DRC in New Haven with MadLib. 

Here’s what Towler had to say about why he chose to interview Robert and Renee:

“If you Google Ionic NYC couples, you’re going to get a list that will include Jay Z and Beyonce, Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. And while those persons have certainly left their mark not only on NYC but the world, that’s not what I think of when it comes to an iconic couple.

My mind harkens back to the era of Andy Warhol, Basquiat, The Talking Heads and CBGB. My mind thinks of Robert Dentice and Renee Patronik. (Yes, they are cool like that.) Robert and Denise are a couple of high school sweethearts from Buffalo who moved to the city. But in atypical New York New York fashion, they have made it here. 

They have become leaders in their fields—Renee in the field of fashion and Robert in the world of finance. They truly are an NYC city love story. They reside in what may be the last bastion of a bygone NYC era, Alphabet City. 

During their lives in the city, they have also become lovers of food and wine. They are constantly traveling to the far reaches of the five boroughs looking for that next delicious bite. And… over the last few decades, have become the most low-key wine, food, music influencers in NYC.”

Tune in to this episode to hear Towler’s full interview with Dentice and Patronik. It might just have you booking a plane ticket to New York City.

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The post MJ Towler (a.k.a. @BlackWineGuy) Takes Over the Wine Enthusiast Podcast appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.



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