Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is David Bailey – the owner of Wraxall Vineyard in Somerset.  David and his wife, Lexa Hunt bought Wraxall – thought to be the oldest vineyard in Somerset – in February 2021 having moved into the neighbouring 200-year-old farmhouse a few years earlier.  The couple, who have both run and grown businesses within the financial sector, had absolutely no viticultural experience but saw an opportunity, not only to make great wine, but a place where people can come and enjoy that wine.  Last year, they opened The View at Wraxall ..read more

Joining me on this week's episode of The English Wine Diaries is John Wilkins, Commercial Director at Itasca Wines and Penn Croft Vineyards in Hampshire.  Itasca Wines is a sustainable full contract winemaking company, which under the lead of award-winning winemaker Ben Smith, delivers a grape to bottle service for a host of top wine brands and premium boutique vineyards across the UK. Ben and the Itasca team also produce wines from grapes grown in their own vineyard, Penn Croft, where they have 16,000 vines of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Bacchus.  The business is the s ..read more

Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is none other than Blur bassist, Alex James. Blur formed in 1988 and their nine studio albums have all topped the charts in the UK, generating numerous hit singles along the way including Song 2, Beetlebum and Coffee & TV. Now you may be wondering why a member of one of the most successful and influential bands of the 90s would come on a podcast about English wine but I assure you, there is good reason!  Following a hugely successful career with Blur, and as a songwriter and producer for other big-name artists, Alex somewhat st ..read more

Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Will Perkins, winemaker for Louis Pommery England, the English project under the Vranken-Pommery portfolio, which has planted 35-hectares of vines on the Pinglestone Estate in Hampshire.  Having grown up in Hampshire, just outside Winchester, Will has fond memories of formative years in the county and it was here that his first work in wine began – helping out at Hattingley Valley vineyard during his school holidays.  Travelling to South Africa to study History, Politics and Spanish at university in Cape Town, a career in E ..read more

Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is winemaker Charlie Holland.  Charlie worked his first vintage in Australia some 24 years ago and caught the wine bug. He returned to England and immediately enrolled at the renowned Plumpton College in Sussex.  While there he worked part-time at nearby Ridgeview wine estate before heading off to do winemaking stints in California, Germany and New Zealand.  In 2009 he took on a full-time winemaking role back home at Ridgeview, before being offered the position of Head Winemaker at Gusbourne in 2013 – that role expanded t ..read more

Welcome back to Series 10 of The English wine Diaries. Joining me on the first episode of this series are Katie and Umut Yesil from Riverview Crouch Valley Vineyard in Essex.   Prior to planting their vineyard in the now famed Crouch Valley, the couple ran a food and drink PR business in London, but following a conversation around the kitchen table with Katie’s father Billy – a third generation arable farmer – they decided to focus their attention on English wine.   In 2017 they set about converting 11 acres of land on the family farm into a vineyard, planting the tradition ..read more

Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Art Tukker, owner of Tinwood Estate in West Sussex.  The Tukker family farm, which is situated in the hamlet of Halnacker, near Chichester, has a history of growing lettuce but when Art took over in 2006, he had other ideas.  While studying agriculture and farming at university, it dawned on Art that growing vines could be his family’s future and, after spending some time working at vineyards in New Zealand, returned to Sussex and set about planting the three classic Champagne varieties.  Fast forward 18 years and t ..read more

In this special episode of The English Wine Diaries, brought to you in partnership with Coravin, I am joined by the company's inventor and founder Greg Lambrecht.   Having had a successful career in medical technologies and engineering degrees from MIT, Greg combined his knowledge of medical-grade needles with his passion for wine to develop a unique preservation system that allowed him to pour wine without removing the cork.  The first Coravin wine preservation system, which uses a non-coring needle to pass through the cork while it’s still in the bottle, was launched to the market ..read more

My guest on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Sarah Massey, the esteemed head winemaker at Lyme Bay Winery in Axeminster, in Devon.  Sarah’s interest in winemaking was sparked at an early age and, after completing her Wine Business degree at Plumpton College, she embarked on a remarkable career, working harvests around the world before arriving at Lyme Bay Winery in 2019.  Sarah's leadership, expertise and innovative approach have been instrumental in shaping Lyme Bay’s reputation as a beacon of excellence within the English wine industry.  Having initially started ..read more

Joining me on this week's episode of The English Wine Diaries is wine educator and winemaker, Jimmy Smith.  Jimmy has worked in the wine industry for over 20 years. Having started his career in wine buying, he founded West London Wine School, one of the UK's leading wine, spirit and beer education facilities, in 2010, and in 2020 started online wine education tool Wine with Jimmy. The school has won multiple awards over the years, including Consumer Educator of the Year at the International Wine Challenge in 2023. Jimmy has more recently turned his hand to winemaking and, together with ..read more