Monique Soltani knows the power of a good story. As a television journalist, she built a career meeting people, asking better questions, and finding the human thread inside a place, a business, or a moment. With WineOh.tv, she’s brought that same energy into the world of wine, creating a show that’s as much about connection as it is about what’s in the glass.

The idea first began in 2008 as a “Wine Oh!” segment on a talk show at the NBC affiliate in Fresno. When the 2009 recession began to affect local content production, Soltani saw the media landscape shifting and started thinking about where her style of storytelling could go next.

After moving to the Bay Area in 2009 to work for KPIX, she found herself much closer to California’s wine world. That proximity gave her a new idea: take the storytelling she had developed in television news and bring it online. In 2011, she officially launched WineOh.tv.

“I realized I could take the storytelling I was doing on traditional TV and bring it online,” Soltani said. WineOh.tv became “a way to keep that local, human connection alive on a digital platform.”

A Domain That Signaled a Video-First Experience

“I chose .TV because I wanted to show that we were a TV-first platform,” she said. “This was back in 2011, long before video was everywhere. Hard to imagine now, but building a video-heavy website back then was a huge technical lift.”

For WineOh.tv, the domain helped set expectations. Visitors were arriving for a visual experience shaped by Soltani’s broadcast background and her interest in wine, travel, food, and the people behind each place.

“I wanted to signal to the audience that they were here for a visual, human experience,” she said, “bringing that broadcast quality I learned in newsrooms straight to the web.”

Why Human Stories Still Drive WineOh.tv

Today, WineOh.tv is syndicated across the West Coast in partnership with CBS in the Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Soltani has also expanded the brand with Sip with Monique, a newsletter that gives audiences another way to follow her stories.

Still, the heart of the brand remains personal. Soltani describes her mission as bringing people together and shining a light on the human experience.

“In a world that feels increasingly fractured, I believe the power of a human story and human connection now more than ever,” she said. “I want to bring people back to that ‘communal watching’ experience. Human connection and community isn’t just essential—it's everything.”

That mission took on deeper meaning after Soltani lost her husband, the father of her twin daughters, to colon cancer in 2019. Then COVID followed. She described that period as “Compounded/Cumulative Grief,” enough to knock even the strongest person to their knees.

Returning to storytelling became part of what she calls “the rise.”

“My proudest moment isn’t an award or a syndication deal,” she said. “It’s the ‘rise.’ It’s the moment I looked at my twin daughters and showed them that their mommy could get back up.”

That same clarity shows up in the advice she gives other people with an idea they haven’t acted on yet.

“Just do it. Don’t overthink it,” she said. “Don’t wait for the ‘perfect’ plan or for the fear to go away. Use your voice, tell your story, and start exactly where you are. The world is starving for something real.”

WineOh.tv works because the name prepares people for the experience before they press play. The .tv extension fits a brand built around watching, while Soltani’s voice, reporting background, and instinct for human stories give the audience a reason to keep following.

Today, after more than fifteen years online, the domain still reflects what WineOh.tv set out to do in 2011: bring a broadcast-quality, people-first wine show to viewers wherever they are.

May 18, 2026

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WineOh.tv Brings Broadcast Storytelling to the World of Wine