Wine Blast with Susie and Peter

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!

What to do with a Michelin-starred restaurant that was due to close down shortly after coronavirus struck? If you’re Roger Jones, you re-purpose it to deliver monkfish and lobster dhal or wild mushroom and truffle risotto free of charge to local residents in need. That, and deliver some proper wines to an elderly mum who lives in rural Wales. 

To honour our guest, we throw ourselves into the kitchen, rustling up a very seasonal wild garlic and asparagus risotto. Which is really an excuse to find some delicious spring-like wines from the cellar – cue Sauvignon Blanc in abundance, plus a cheeky English Bacchus. And Peter has a confession for Susie...

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 9 (originally published 22 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!

It’s a sobering post-coronavirus outlook for wine in China, according to Shanghai-based Sophie Liu. She tells of a stable situation as people re-emerge from lockdown but a bleak panorama for the wine business. 

Sticking with the heavy-hitting theme, Susie and Peter explore the delicious topic of Amarone, exploring the reasons behind its highly distinctive style and heady price tag. They also ponder the pressing issue of which wines are best to bathe in, and revel in their status as unlikely instigators of marital bliss (of sorts).

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 8 (originally published 17 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!

Flying winemaker Paul Hobbs can’t fly. As one of the foremost globe-trotting wine consultants, he reflects from his base in California on the challenges of making wine remotely and offers a tip on Zoom etiquette (‘wear a shirt and work pants’). He confesses to being nervous and reveals his ideal quarantine wine. 

Meanwhile listener David asks us whether he could be happy with just one glass for all wine styles rather than the many he currently owns. Our response is fulsome and even involves an experiment we lined up…which of course involves drinking some nice wine too.

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 7 (originally published 15 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!

How wine supplier Berkmann is tearing up the rule book to help stricken restaurants – and buying director Alex Hunt MW reveals his other passion by sharing tracks from his latest (brilliant) album Closing Ceremony. 

We unwrap some snazzy new glasses from Jancis Robinson to taste Prosecco, Gruner Veltliner, Gredos Grenache, Ozzie Syrah and Barolo from the Help4Hospitality line-up. Plus, Susie has a confession…

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 6 (originally published 10 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!

As Singapore goes into lockdown, renowned writer and publisher Poh Tiong Ch'ng reflects (from a beach) on the local and global implications of coronavirus. Including some eye-opening thoughts about the prospects for the global restaurant and hotel trade. He also has a somewhat surprising choice as his ‘quarantine wine’. 

We then cheat when it comes to finding a wine for delicious porcini pasta, committing heresy by looking beyond Italian wines to things that are both left-field and pretty indulgent. This episode even comes with a free book download…

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 5 (originally published 8 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!

In our second Wine Survival Guide, we chat with Chilean winemaker Viviana Navarrete of Viña Leyda before recommending Majestic wines that are not only delicious and different but also ideal for the coronavirus lockdown. Viviana is understandably emotional and tired – she describes 2020 as the toughest vintage of her 20-year career. The reason? It’s all about the people, and her family. But she highlights the quality of Pinot Noir as a major positive and says the fact this was a hot, early vintage was a blessing in disguise given they can get the harvest done and dusted before any further restrictions are announced. She also reveals her ideal quarantine wine…

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 4 (originally published 3 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!

The first of our Wine Survival Guides – small antidotes to the current coronavirus chaos, where wine people tell their stories, detailing challenges but also sounding notes of joy. Via the magic of Zoom, Justin Howard-Sneyd MW of Domaine of the Bee explains how the lockdown in France has motivated him to appeal for help, and the ‘extraordinary, humbling’ response that followed. 

He also talks us through online tastings, magnum Jenga, Wine Gogglebox and re-purposing a Bryan Adams’ classic for the times. We then find delicious wines to go with a creamy dhal with turmeric-roasted cauliflower. 

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 3 (originally published 1 April 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released March 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!

Wine is many things to many people. But credible career path (or second career) isn’t often one of them. We set the record straight by talking to young people who’ve made a brilliant job of making wine their career. And someone who made it their second career after defecting from finance. We discuss how wine can make a fantastic career, including how we both made the leap. 

Having worked up a thirst, we rustle up some student classics – spicy sausage pasta plus the easiest home-made pizza EVER – and line up a selection of value Aldi wines (spoiler: not all go down well but there is a great bargain to be had). Our Wine A-Z takes in biodynamics before Warren asks how to tell if a wine is corked. 

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 2 (originally published 29 March 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released March 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!

The catastrophic bushfires of early 2020 were a traumatic reminder of the ongoing challenge of climate change in the world’s driest continent. And yet Australia has never made finer wines across a dizzying range of styles than today. So what’s the future for Australian wine – boom or bust? 

After all that, we cook up some delicious curried meatballs, inspired by Ozzie chef Bill Granger, and argue over whether a Clonakilla Shiraz or Jim Barry Clare Riesling go best. ‘Alcohol’ is the starting point for our Wine A-Z education blast, then Mark from down under asks which wines he should keep (making it clear he doesn’t want any of the ‘science'). 

Wine Blast Season 1 Episode 1 (originally published 28 March 2020)

NB: This is archive material first released March 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!

Hello! We’re going to drive you to drink. (In the very best way possible, of course.) This show is for everyone with an open mind and healthy thirst. Here’s a taster of what to expect, as we chat with fascinating interviewees from all around the wine world, cook up delicious dishes then disagree over which wines to serve, whizz through Wine A-Z education blasts and answer the wine questions you’ve always wanted to ask. All in the time it takes to polish off a bottle of Brunello. We’ll also be serving up some Wine Survival Guide special editions by way of antidote to the coronavirus chaos. So please hit SUBSCRIBE, give us a nice rating – and join in the fun! More info at www.susieandpeter.com/podcast

Wine Blast Season 1 Trailer (originally published 28 March 2020)