Wine Blast with Susie and Peter

NB: This is archive material first released July 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

Go on. What's the best rosé wine you've ever had? For Lee Isaacs, rosé is 'a crime' and, if you like it, 'you're a bad person' (or, at best, indecisive). Global rosé expert Elizabeth Gabay MW thinks we're too snobbish about the sweet stuff and has had delicious rosés as old as 1959. Majestic's Jack Merrylees thinks the best way to get a party started is with rosé...in magnum. 

In this episode, we get tickled pink by all this and more, discussing some of our favourite rosés (we're big, big fans), and the likes of Hugh Johnson, Randall Grahm and Kylie Minogue also crop up in proceedings. Forget the best rosé...this may just be the best PODCAST ever. It's certainly the pinkest.

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 19 (originally published 9 July 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released June 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

In our LAST Wine Survival Guide we talk climate change, ancient grapes and guitar-offs with Miguel Torres – and reveal our Top 5 Rioja Tips. 

Coming next time: we return to our normal Wine Blast schedule that was so rudely interrupted by Covid-19 - with a big splash on the pink stuff: rosé! 

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 18 (originally published 23 June 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released June 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

Superstar Italian winemaker Alberto Antonini tells us about wine as meditation, how to be a ‘virtual’ wine consultant, his vinyl collection and his nonna’s wise advice on how to stop a mole-hill becoming a mountain. 

In his honour, we crack open two wines from Sicily, delving into this most exciting of Italian wine regions – and discuss the hot topic of vegan wine. 

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 17 (originally published 17 June 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released June 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

Robin Hutson is one of Britain’s foremost hoteliers as chairman and CEO of The Pig hotels and Limewood group. He’s been a prominent campaigner for rural hospitality during lockdown, citing the millions of jobs supported by the wider sector and the difficulty of re-opening with two-metre social distancing rules. He’s also had to fend off criticisms levelled at his biggest private investor, Jim Ratcliffe, for accepting furlough despite being one of Britain’s richest men.

In a wide-ranging interview, Robin responds to his critics and outlines how the hospitality business can re-open after lockdown. (He subsequently announced the re-opening of his hotels for early July.) A noted wine lover, he also opens up about the new vineyard being planted at The Pig in the South Downs. 

By way of digestif, we chat rosé and sound off about the debut release from popstar Kylie Minogue (a French pink) as well as two English roses. The likes of Sam Neill, Graham Norton, Brangelina and Sarah Jessica Parker also get a mention. We also ask the question: what’s the rosé that lights your fire?

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 16 (originally published 8 June 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released June 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

How to make sense of Riesling? Food is one of the best ways we know to make sense of even the most tricky of wine subjects. So we try out a delicious monkfish and prawn curry as well as some pork terrine to try to get a handle on the grape variety that came top in our survey of the Best White Wine Grapes. (We also talk sourdough – but that’s something else entirely.)

Another way to make sense of wine is to talk to the people who make it. One man who embodies the spirit of Riesling more than perhaps anyone is German producer Ernst Loosen. His prodigious mind is a thing of beauty in full flow, and we’re treated to a masterclass of Riesling evangelism (and the odd profanity). We even give our top 3 Riesling tips at the end. 

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 15 (originally published 2 June 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released May 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

In our SHORTEST EPISODE EVER, funny messages sent with champagne deliveries during lockdown come courtesy of The Finest Bubble’s Nick Baker. (Our favourite? A close call between ‘Cheer up!’ and ‘STOP MOANING’.) 

As the weddings, birthdays and anniversaries continue to see sparkling glasses raised via the internet, we turn to the pressing subject of where to find the best Syrah wines – made in the aromatic, elegant style of the Northern Rhône – from the New World. We touch on Chile, California, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa before alighting back in our small back room with two large glasses of red. Cheers!

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 14 (originally published 19 May 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released May 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Michael Baum is rebooting Burgundy, even under lockdown (which he rails against while being stuck in France, separated from his wife and boys in San Francisco). He explains why he prefers French wine to Californian, and talks about how coronavirus and his tech-based approach may help prompt radical change in wine – which is about getting closer to customers, at a time when close contact is challenging at best. 

Following on from Michael’s choice of ‘isolation wine’, Susie and Peter whizz through a mini masterclass on how to find good value white Burgundy – that holy grail for wine lovers. There’s even time to mention David Beckham (again…)

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 13 (originally published 13 May 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released May 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

We asked a simple question on social media: what are your top 3 grape varieties for white wine? The reaction...blew us away, with a torrent of fascinating responses from all around the world featuring more than 100 different grape varieties - not to mention fighting talk, bonding, football analogies and cheating. 

We got a bit carried away with this podcast - it's our favourite one so far - but there is something for EVERYONE here: laughter, tears, David Beckham, sherry, scholarship (in the form of the fascinating expert Dr José Vouillamoz and his definitive tome Wine Grapes) and controversy. Talking of which, we give the DEFINITIVE verdict on the best white wine grape variety...

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 12 (originally published 6 May 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released late April 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

South African wine is in turmoil. The government has banned the sale and export of wine as part of its strict coronavirus lockdown and, while restrictions will eventually be eased, Cape producers are in shock: reeling from the long-term effects and implications of this dramatic intervention. 

We hear the views of three producers – Kathy Jordan (Jordan), Charles Back (Fairview) and Andrea Mullineux (Mullineux and Leeu Family) at this critical and challenging time. There’s also time for a quick BBQ (braai, Cape style) complete with a mouth-watering line-up of South African wines to recommend.

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 11 (originally published 29 April 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released April 2020 and re-published here as a teaser for Wine Blast Season One, which is available in full to Wine Blast PLUS subscribers. To find out more or sign up to enjoy the full range of member benefits, including archive access, follow this link to Wine Blast PLUS. Cheers!

Bartholomew Broadbent is a wine importer on the eastern US seaboard and he has seen ‘atrocious declines in business’ since coronavirus restrictions began. He lightens the tone by singing Monty Python songs (always look on the bright side of life…) and has a few choice words to say about Trump. 

Meanwhile, in California, Eric Baugher of Ridge Vineyards muses on challenges and opportunities before choosing an ideal quarantine wine that, ‘just kind of lifts your spirits’. Sounds like something we could all use. Finally, listener Liz calls in with a question about Lodi wines and we respond by cracking open some delicious bottles.

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 10 (originally published 24 April 2020)