Blood Vines, an eight-episode narrative podcast series produced with support from the Fund, chronicles Chris Walker’s three-year-long investigation of one of the largest wine frauds in U.S. history and the mysterious murder of a central witness. Walker interviewed sources, reviewed case exhibits, filed records requests and gathered archival audio. His investigation explored the full breadth of a massive grape-switching fraud and how it forever changed safeguards in wine-making; the investigation also answered the lingering question of why California’s best-known grape broker was shot with a .22 bullet to his temple right before he was set to give a deposition in the state’s grape fraud case. In 2023, the prime suspect of the murder, who was already serving a life sentence in prison, decided to reveal his motives to Walker for the first time. His chilling admissions over a jail phone call brought clarity and closure to family members of the victim after nearly 30 years.
Podcast examines major wine fraud case and sheds new light on 30-year-old murder
