Kelli White, Napa Valley

This week: Kelli White — wine writer, decade-long sommelier, and director of education at Meadowood — on Napa as a conversion engine and why the way we talk about wine keepsturning newcomers away.Kelli went from a Howard Hughes Fellowship in neurogenetics to writing two of the most talkedabout wine books of the last decade: Napa Valley Then & Now, the encyclopedic history, andWine Confident, which argues there’s no wrong way to enjoy wine. She and Jon talk about what living among the growers taught her (wine is agriculture, full stop), why tasting-note “winespeak” makes people feel like they’re failing a test, and why a first trip to wine country might be the best thing that ever happens to a curious drinker.New episodes Tuesday mornings.