Wine Blast with Susie and Peter

This bonus episode may be the last in the current season (4) but it's also a first - the first time we've ever recorded the pod in front of a live audience!

A lovely bunch of people came together in our home town of Winchester to drink a glass or two of fine Hampshire fizz and bombard us with searching questions, from which wines we'd recommend for a large and varied dinner party crowd to the implications of climate change for wine.

They even asked us what were the most pretentious wine descriptions we'd ever used. I mean, the cheek of it...

We also touched on issues ranging from 'sulfite-free' wine to no/low alcohol, our favourite Chardonnay and rosé, which are the best wine regions to visit, the rise of English wine, multi-vintage versus vintage sparkling wine - and what wines you should ALWAYS have at home.

In our introduction we also feature some recent listener feedback from a Napa wine grower questioning how he should explain terroir to visitors to a professor on how microbes (yeasts) can influence a wine's mouthfeel.

We also feature a plug for our sensational value charity sparkling wine - please click here if you'd like to buy a bottle or two of Hope & Glory to help us raise funds for the brilliant Marine Conservation Society.

As for the live Q&A format, we could get used to it. You have been warned. Wine Blast on Tour may be coming to a speakeasy near you soon...

All details from this episode are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E25: LIVE Q&A (Winchester).

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

This episode opens by linking Oppenheimer, Covid-19 and wine - and proceeds to go big by focusing on the small stuff.

Microbes. The invisible world of yeasts, bacteria and beyond.

We're just starting to understand how important microbes are in terms of defining wine style and quality.

Sure, yeasts ferment grape sugars into alcohol. But they also do a whole lot more, as fascinating new research is revealing.

Previously, many definitions of 'terroir' (what might be defined as a wine's 'sense of place' or perhaps 'distinctiveness') were limited to the role of soil and climate. If you were lucky, human influence garnered a passing mention.

Now it's becoming clear that biology - and in particular microbiology - has more of a say in how a wine turns out than what was previously thought. Time for the textbooks to be re-written...

In this episode, we talk to world-leading researchers Professor Matthew Goddard and Ignacio Belda, to get to the heart of the latest thinking and science.

Turns out there is such a thing as, 'the microbial face of terroir' - even single vineyards have unique microbial signatures, and there's a proven percentage we can put to how much a wine's chemistry is influenced by that microbiome from the vineyard to the fermentation and beyond.

In short, wine is the product of invisible bugs as much as it is the product of human hand or climatic and geographical phenomena.

The implications are profound.

Not just regarding how we define terroir. But also in terms of how winegrowers should farm to protect their unique vineyard microbiomes, how winemakers should best manage their fermentations, even how we wine drinkers should appreciate our wines (while protecting our own human microbiomes - the two can work together!)

There's even talk of synthetic yeast being developed that can not only craft specific flavours in wine but also inform a winemaker when a fermentation needs to be checked...

This is a fascinating field of research, one currently reaching fever pitch right now, so we report on and discuss the latest findings, which will be sure to make you think about wine in a new light.

We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website (link below).

All details from this episode are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E24: The Microbial Face of Terroir.

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

Did you know that Germany is the third largest producer of Pinot Noir in the world?

Or that one in three Riesling vines in the world grow in German vineyards - and much of these are making dry, increasingly terroir-driven wines these days?

There's much that's surprising, or perhaps unexpected about German wine right now.

For long the sector under-performed - but a series of changes since the late 1980s (a process that's still ongoing, accelerated by climate change) has re-invigorated German wine, redefining its possibilities and forging a bright new future.

There's even talk of the wines being, 'sexy' and of, 'pulling power'...

All of which, plus the fact we're just back from Germany (and have had an intriguing listener question in), is the perfect excuse to explore German wine.

We hear from Master of Wine and German specialist Alison Flemming plus Stefan Doktor, MD of the world-famous Schloss Johannisberg. 

Along the way we talk terroir, global warming, food matching, GG and the rise of dry Riesling, why 'succulent' is such a good tasting term, PIWIs, and why a swimming pool was important for a 1964 Auslese...

Our thanks to Wines of Germany for sponsoring this episode and helping source some fantastic bottles for us to try and recommend. They are:

• Frey Pinot Blanc 2021, Rheinhessen
• Maximin Grunhaus Maximin Pinot Blanc 2021, Mosel
• Klein Riesling S Trocken 2021, Pfalz
• Robert Weil Kiedrich Turmberg Riesling Trocken 2021, Rheingau
• Pauly Lieser Niederberg Helden Kabinett 2021, Mosel
• Shelter Winery Spätburgunder 2020, Baden

We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website (link below).

All details from this episode are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E23: Germany's Pulling Power.

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

It's a wine word almost everyone uses - but no one really knows what it means, what causes it, or where it's come from.

It makes some people angry, it leaves others mystified - but some adore the term and can't get enough of it. 

Is this yet another example in wine of (as one listener calls it), 'superstition, witchcraft and myth' that is nothing more than, 'absolute b*llocks'?!

Welcome to the big 'minerality' mystery.

In this episode, we dare to dive headlong into the snakepit of confusion, ambiguity and downright mystery that is the notion of 'minerality' in wine.

But we're not alone. We've recruited the likes of sensory scientist Dr Heber Rodrigues and writer Meg Maker to enlighten us with the latest research and thinking on this intriguing topic.

We ask questions like: what makes a wine mineral? What do people mean by the term? Which wines in particular tend to show mineral characteristics? Is it a good or a bad thing? Is it a vineyard or winemaking phenomenon? 

Ultimately - should we get rid of it, or cherish it?

We taste two wines in order to put our own language under the microscope. There's an element of mud-slinging and mutual recrimination before we manage (more or less) to define what we mean by minerality.

We also give a final judgement on whether, in our view, minerality should be part of the wine lexicon or not. The result...may surprise you.

Wines tasted in this episode

• UVC Chablis Premier Cru 2010, Esprit de Chablis, 12.5%
• Anhydrous Afoura Santorini Assyrtiko 2021, 14%

We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website (link below).

All details from this episode are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E22: The Mystery of Minerality.

This episode is dedicated to Dr Wendy Parr, a leading light in the world of sensory perception and wine.

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

We all know port. But there’s a whole universe of fine Portuguese table wine out just waiting to be explored. It’s far less known but certainly no less exciting…so we dive in.

Peter’s fired up after a recent trip to host a masterclass in Porto, where he tasted wines back to 1978 and recorded with a selection of Portugal’s top wine talent, from Dirk and Daniel Niepoort to Sandra Tavares, Luis Pato, Susana Esteban and Tomas Roquette.

Once back, he made sure to call in some special wines to taste and share on air, including the legendary Barca Velha, Portugal’s most famous red – a wine that launched a thousand bottles… It’s not a wine you get to see very often, let alone taste, so this is a privileged insight.

Let’s not beat around the bush: this is a tasting featuring a healthy amount of disagreement. These are undoubtedly fine, characterful, often intriguing wines – but they can (clearly) polarise opinion. We explore the reasons why.

Also featured in this episode are (sometimes anguished) listener feedback about our Santorini mini-series, the ‘Porta 6 effect’, Maserati, roof-hoping, Javier Bardem, field blends, ozone, and a €1,000 magnum. 

Peter gets a blind-wine challenge live on air – and we also touch on how to lose €10m with one word…

Wines tasted in this episode

• Luis Pato Vinhas Velhas Branco 2022, Bairrada, 13%
• Susana Esteban Procura Branco 2020, Alentejano, 13%
• Niepoort Redoma Branco 2021, Douro, 11.5%
• Meandro do Vale Meão 2020, Douro, 14%
• Mouchão Tonel 3-4 2013, Alentejo, 14.5%
• Barca Velha 2011, Douro, 14.5%

We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website (link below).

All details from this episode are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E21: Portugal's Fine Wines - Here Be Treasures.

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

‘From virtually any soil a high-quality wine can be made. The use of geology to promote the quality of a wine is thus merely a marketing tool.’ 

This is an episode that may ruffle a few feathers.

We speak to two wine-loving geologists, Professor Alex Maltman and Dr Geert-Jan Vis (the latter responsible for the quote above). Both of them raise serious questions about the line the wine world often endorses about how geology (think: limestone, schist, granite) influences wine.

Vis calls the notion that geology and soil influence wine style, ‘romantic b*llocks’. Maltman says it’s, ‘over-hyped’ and writes, ‘simply saying a wine comes from a particular rock doesn’t convey anything about what I might expect from a wine.’

And yet we regularly see wine literature talking about limestone or granite, Kimmeridgian or Jurassic (and so on) and linking this explicitly to wine quality and style.

And this isn’t even to get started on the topic of ‘minerality’ in wine…

So what gives? What’s really going on here? To what extent can geology and soil be seen to impact the vine and wine? Or, to flip it round, to what extent do experts think that the role of geology and soil is over-rated and misunderstood when it comes to wine?

It’s important to say we’re not being deliberately controversial or trying to undermine the concept of terroir (the notion that specific places produce wines with specific characteristics).

What we’re doing is asking questions and challenging a set of prevalent assumptions which we feel is…well…questionable.

We’re aware this episode might provoke debate so please feel free to get in touch. Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website.

All details from this episode are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E20: No Schist Sherlock - How Wine Gets Rocks Wrong.

This is the first in a loosely-connected series of programmes in which we’ll tackle tricky or controversial issues in wine, from minerality to microbiology and yeasts. All with the aim of provoking informed debate, challenging questionable opinions and seeking clarity above all.

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

Ps and if you don’t know what petrichor is – we’ve got the answer…

Santorini's future is in jeopardy. This ancient, famous island vineyard risks being lost beneath the tourism industry's bulldozers. So how can its wine community fight back?

By making exceptional, characterful, inimitable wines and selling them to the world, that's how.

In this episode (our 100th Wine Blast programme, appropriately enough!) we dive into what makes Santorini's wines as distinctive and unique as they undoubtedly are. From the steely, majestic dry Santorini Assyrtiko to the sumptuous vinsantos and all the curios in between, this is a vibrant wine scene that's only getting more diverse and quality-focused.

Taking in views form the younger generation as well as more experienced hands, we discuss eye-opening topics from how the minerality of Santorini wines is exacerbated by the salt blown in off the sea to why Burgundy might be growing Assyrtiko soon.

Along the way we touch on orange wine, flor, tasting an 1847 Santorini Assyrtiko, amphorae, alcohol, the future - and Peter somehow signs up for hard manual labour.

This episode is the second and final installment in a sponsored mini-series in collaboration with Wines of PDO Santorini.

All details from this episode are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E19 - Santorini: Wines to Save an Island.

Please do keep your comments and questions coming! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website.

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

Let's go on an adventure to a place variously described as, 'Like being shot to the moon with a glass of fine wine in your hand' and where, 'you basically have the personality of an active volcano in your glass.'

Santorini is arguably the ultimate wine destination - a windswept, arid, infertile outcrop of an island in the glittering Aegean Sea. Stunning - but bleak, and where the memory of one of the most violet volcanic eruptions in human history can not only be seen but also tasted in your glass.

Wine is one of the few crops to thrive here, albeit at the cost of back-breaking labour and marginal profitability due to tiny yields and regular setbacks. The island's historic sweet vinsantos have most likely been enjoyed for thousands of years - the dry whites made from the majestic, fierce Assyrtiko grape are astonishing symphonies of bracing acidity, steely structure and salty minerality.

These are true jewels in the wine world's crown. One producer speculates, with good reason, that Santorini, 'is the oldest vineyard on the planet.' Phylloxera-free, you see... Hence the Jurassic Park reference.

For Peter, Santorini Assyrtiko is the ultimate food wine, able to pair with everything from delicate oysters to rich lamb and beyond. No wonder one wine grower describes this place as, 'the Mecca of wine'.

But all is not well in wine paradise. Climate change batters the vineyard in the form of heatwaves and hail. Mass tourism threatens not only to overwhelm the island's infrastructure and drain the workforce but, more critically, erase vineyards permanently as land is sold to developers.

The result is that Santorini's vineyard has declined by a third between 2005 and 2022. 'Sometimes in Santorini it feels like we're forgotten by God' commented one local wine producer.

Now, though, the island's wine community is fighting back. In this first episode of a two-part mini-series in collaboration with Wines of PDO Santorini, we set the scene - taking in the island's intriguing history, exploring the bizarre vineyards, talking to key wine producers, and not shying away from the challenges the island's wine community faces.

As for how the wine producers are fighting to ensure wine's survival, we discover plans to declare the entire island's production organic - which would be the first ever entire PDO appellation to do such.

There's also a UNESCO application in the pipeline - and plans to raise prices in order to ensure the survival of the vineyard.

Don't miss the next and final episode in this mini-series, where we explore Santorini's fierce, remarkable grapes, wine and food - and look to the future, both in terms of challenges but also reasons to be hopeful.

All details from this episode (including photos of these unique kouloura basket vines) are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E18 - Santorini: Wine's Jurassic Park.

Please do keep your comments and questions coming! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website.

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

What wine news is worthy of your attention? How should you warm up your (fine) wines in an emergency? What wines are really worth paying silly money for? And which wines should we have loved...but didn't? 

These are just some of the questions we dive into in this Listener Q&A episode, where we respond to your brilliant comments, feedback and questions.

And we field one other question too: are we even married to each other?!

No spoilers here... Suffice it to say that along this particularly fun ride we touch on subjects as diverse as Japanese wine anime Drops of God, wildfires in Chile, Michel Roux Jr, marriage counselling, Cahors, Malcolm Gladwell, alternatives to Grange, our infamous 20-20 wine rule, re-writing wine's ancient history, Leonardo di Caprio - and 'pan-gate'.

We also ask that most critical of questions: are you a wine cuddler...or a wine microwaver?

All details from this episode (including the juicy photos and tweets we refer to in this episode) are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E17 - News & Views 1.

Given this episode is all about your comments and questions, please do keep them coming! We'd love to hear your views on our subscription plans too. Do send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website.

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

Chardonnay polarises people. But times change and this is a grape that's moved on - arguably nowhere more so than in New Zealand, which in recent years has started to deliver quality, diversity and great value in spades.

It's timely, too, given the supply shortages and booming prices of the wines from Chardonnay's motherland in Burgundy.

We're Chardonnay superfans and we've been licking our lips at how far and fast New Zealand Chardonnay has evolved lately. So it's exciting to hook up with New Zealand Winegrowers for this sponsored episode charting that dramatic evolution and exploring why there's more to the land of the long white cloud than Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.

New Zealand wine superstars Michael Brajkovich MW (Kumeu River) and Master Sommelier Cameron Douglas give us the inside track, full of eye-opening insights and informed opinion. Including the following quote: 'I'm just gonna come out and say it: New Zealand Chardonnay can outclass Burgundy.'

There's a bit of geeking out about Chardonnay winemaking - from oak barrels to malolactic fermentation - all with the aim of better understanding this most shape-shifting of grape varieties, and why New Zealand is doing such a good job with it (clue: a cool climate is key).

We also dive into the fascinating topic of that much sought-after (and also misunderstood) character in Chardonnay sometimes referred to as, 'reductive', 'struck match', 'toasty' or 'flinty'. We wrestle with the vexed issue of how to refer to it and come up with an absurd but catchy alternative...

Along the way we touch on how the devastating Cyclone Gabrielle has impacted the country as well as vintage 2023. You can support by donating to the Cyclone Gabrielle wine relief funds or buying and drinking wines from the most affected areas like Hawke's Bay and Gisborne - which ties neatly into our theme given Chardonnay is the leading variety in both those regions.

Finally, we taste and recommend some favourite New Zealand Chardonnays including:

• Wairau Cove Chardonnay 2021, Gisborne
• Esk Valley Seabed Chardonnay 2019, Hawke's Bay
• Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay 2021, Auckland
• Kumeu River Coddington Chardonnay 2021, Auckland
• Neudorf Tiritiri Chardonnay 2019, Nelson
• Blank Canvas Reed Vineyard Chardonnay 2021, Marlborough
• Greywacke Chardonnay 2019, Marlborough

All details from this episode (including further wine and producer recommendations) are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E16 - Ahead of the Curve with New Zealand Chardonnay.

We'd love to hear from your views on this or any other wine issues - do send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website.

Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!