Wine Blast with Susie and Peter Susie and Peter, Masters of Wine

There's a new wave of English and Welsh wine producers disrupting the neat and tidy order of the classic UK wine scene. Guerrilla producers - cool kids who aren't afraid to go off-piste and craft dangerous, divisive wines packed full of quirks and kinks. Their attitude? It's better to be naughty than nice. As one winemaker says - he wants to make, 'wines with a cheeky smile.'

In this wide-ranging episode we dive headlong into this world of creativity, experimentation and free thinking. Our journey takes us from wines made under a London railway arch to sheep savaging vines in a Welsh hillside - and we taste everything from orange wines to pet nat, col fondo, 'grower' English fizz and, 'purple Welsh bubbles.'

Interviewed in this episode are Tommy Grimshaw (Langham), Susan and James Kinsey-Jones (Whinyard Rocks), Jose Quintana (Vagabond) and Sergio Verrillo (Blackbook). Also featured are producers Domaine Hugo, Westwell, The Wharie Experience and Ancre Hill.

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S5 E18 - UK Wine's Counterculture

Instagram: @susieandpeter

Not many wines ascend to the status of 'icon'. But Sassicaia is one of them.

The beauty is that it's not a flashy wine - quite the opposite ('old school' might be a more appropriate description). What's more, its ascent to the wine stratosphere is largely accidental - this scented, elegant Bordeaux blend from Bolgheri in coastal Tuscany was only ever intended as a quaffing wine for friends and family on the Tenuta San Guido estate, a farm initially dedicated to breeding horses, growing crops and a wildlife reserve.

How times change. In this episode, we peek behind the scenes of Sassicaia, asking what really makes this fine wine tick, talking to the key people, tasting the top vintages, busting myths and asking the difficult questions. Price is one - it's gone up significantly of late. Fraud is another - Italian police recently broke up a gang running a fake Sassicaia operation to the tune of €2m. Priscilla Inchisa della Rochetta, Brett Flemming and Nicolas Clerc MS shed light on all these issues and more.

Along the way, we recommend our all-time favourite Sassicaia vintages, and touch on things like the 'secret' Sassicaia, The Divine Comedy, sommeliers kissing each other, Desperate Dan, World Cup penalties, Italian stallions and lobster pie.

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe. Or you can find contact info, together with all details from this episode, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S5 E17 - Sassicaia: The Insider's Guide.

Instagram: @susieandpeter

It's called 'The Grenaissance'.

This exhilarating revival of the grape variety known as Garnacha in Spain and Grenache in France, once the world's fourth most widely planted wine grape, which has gone from workhorse to show pony in the blink of an eye. How come? What's changed? Who's leading the charge and fuelling the new wave? And what's this we hear about inherent suitability vis a vis climate change?!

We ask all these questions and more, focusing on the epicentre of Grenache renaissance: Spain. We hear from leading Spanish wine lights Sara Perez, Fernando Mora, Alvaro Palacios and Norrel Robertson, among others. A fair few delicious recommendations litter the chat, during which we also dwell on love, diamonds, mastication, stems, Samurai - and the will of the cosmos.

Thanks for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more info, together with all details from this episode including on the wines, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S5 E16 - Going Gaga for Garnacha.

Instagram: @susieandpeter

From big brand to fine wine - it's no exaggeration to say that grower champagne has changed the notion of what champagne can and should be.

Pioneers like Francis Egly of iconic grower champagne Egly-Ouriet have invested huge amounts of time and money prioritising their vineyards, relentlessly focusing on quality and terroir expression in their wines - and ultimately going up against the big Champagne houses. It's a brave move, but one that is reinvigorating the region and attracting many converts to the cause.

In this episode we chat with Francis Egly and his daughter Clemence to hear their thoughts on why it's important to harvest their grapes ripe, age their bottles extensively and see the process through from growing grapes to selling their wine. We also hear from Charles Lea, owner and director of respected London wine merchant Lea & Sandeman, on how a lockdown trip to Champagne saw him move away from the 'boring' big production houses and embrace the growers' cause.

Along the way, we provide the context and analysis, and taste through a number of quite stunning grower champagnes - including an exclusive taster of a new Egly-Ouriet wine that's not yet been released on the UK market...

This episode is sponsored by Lea & Sandeman. We're very grateful to them - and to you for tuning in. We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more info, together with all details from this episode including on the wines, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S5 E15 - Grower Champagne with Lea & Sandeman.

Instagram: @susieandpeter

Light strike is probably the biggest wine fault you've never heard of. Bigger than cork, bigger than oxidation or anything else.

That pretty-looking bottle of rosé perched on the bright supermarket shelf in a clear glass bottle? Probably knackered. If it's been exposed to light for a while, it may end up smelling of boiled cabbage, drains, or wet dog. At the very least, its character will almost certainly have been degraded from what its winemaker intended. And that's not what you're paying your hard-earned money for.

It's nothing less than daylight robbery. In this episode, we explain what light strike is, how fast it happens, and which wines are most at risk. We hear from experts, including the co-author of an illuminating recent research paper, and rage against the fact that the problem seems shockingly prevalent, but so little is being done.

We even carry out our very own applied research experiment (featuring bottles, funnels, argon gas and a blindfold) which gives unequivocal results. We call for wholesale change - from producers, distributors, retailers - and give clear advice on what we normal wine drinkers should do about all this (barricades, tyre burning and civil unrest are proposed...but not necessarily endorsed).

In this episode we hear from  Panagiotis Arapitsas, Deepika Koushik, Liz Gabay MW, Brad Greatrix and Tom Stevenson. Our thanks to them - and to you for tuning in. 

We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more info, together with all details from this episode including on the wines, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S5 E14 - Light Strike: Wine's Not-So-Secret Scandal.

Instagram: @susieandpeter

Deep in the wilds of south-west France there's a vineyard that was planted over 200 years ago with unknown vines that may hold the secret to fighting climate change.

Join us as we head (virtually) out to Gascony to peer into the mists of wine history and see what lessons it holds for the future. Olivier Bourdet-Pees of the dynamic Plaimont cooperative is our genial, beret-wearing guide, introducing us to grape varieties we've never heard of and explaining how this region has been reinvigorated after making some of, 'the worst wine in France 40 years ago'.

This episode is sponsored by AOC St Mont and features a number of wines including Plaimont's iconic Vignes Préphylloxeriques bottling. 

We love to hear from you so please do get in touch! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more info, together with all details from this episode including on the wines, on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S5 E13 - Ancient Vines to the Rescue in St Mont. Thanks for tuning in!

Instagram:

@susieandpeter