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

On this week's episode of The English Wine Diaries is Gail Gardner, Managing Director of Ashling Park Estate in the charming hamlet of West Ashling near Chichester. It was after Gail spent some time living in Switzerland and was seduced by the romantic vineyards there that she convinced her family to plant vines back in Sussex and, in 2018 their English wine adventure began. They planted the traditional champagne varieties of Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier, as well as some Bacchus and Pinot Precoce, and have gone on to produce sparkling and still wines which have won numerous award ..read more

On this week's episode of The English Wine Diaries podcast is Tommy Grimshaw, head winemaker at Langham, in Dorset.  Tommy developed a love for English wine after a summer holiday season spent labelling and bottling wine as a teenager. He left school to work a harvest at Sharpham Vineyard – now known as Sandridge Barton – in Devon and there, he progressed to Assistant Winemaker.  He joined Langham in 2019 and worked alongside Daniel Ham with the aim of producing world class sparkling wines without fining or filtration and minimal SO2 additions. In January 2020, at the age of 24, Tom ..read more

On today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries podcast is TV chef and author, the icon that is Rosemary Shrager.   In the early to mid-noughties Rosemary rose to small screen fame with guest appearances on cooking shows before landing her own prime-time programme on Channel 5 called Castle Cook. She’s rarely been off our TV screens over the past 20 years appearing on shows such as Ladette to Lady, I’m a Celebrity, The Real Marigold Hotel and Cooking with the Stars to name just a few.  Throughout her career, Rosemary has run cookery schools across the country and has written countless ..read more

Welcome back to series 9 of The English Wine Diaries podcast! Joining me on today's episode is Josh Donaghay-Spire, Head Winemaker and Operations Director at Chapel Down in Kent.  Josh’s career in wine began as a teenager working in a wine bar and, after studying WSET qualifications and later enrolling in Plumpton College, he was able to travel to some of the world’s most renowned wine regions, honing his skills in winemaking.  But he decided the English wine industry was where he wanted to be and in 2010 joined Chapel Down. Over the past 14 years, he has been at the heart the brand ..read more

Today's guest on The English Wine Diaries is former tech executive and now co-founder of Pelegrims Skincare, Jérôme Moisan   Born and raised in rural Brittany, Jérôme moved to the UK after he met his English wife, Laura, at university and they settled in the town of Maidstone in Kent, where they are surrounded by vineyards stretching along the North Downs.  Having seen the success that companies, such as Caudalie, had achieved in his native France – and with the English wine industry now booming – Jérôme went about looking to establish an independent skincare business that would ..read more

*Apologies for the sound quality at the start of this episode due to some technical difficulties* This week on The English Wine Diaries podcast is last year’s Fortnum & Mason Drink Writer of the Year, Henry Jeffreys.  Henry studied English and Classical Literature at Leeds University before working in the wine trade and later becoming a freelance writer and broadcaster. He was wine critic at The Lady, has appeared in magazines, such as Spectator and BBC Good Food and has featured on BBC radio and TV. Currently he is features editor for the Master of Malt drinks blog and drinks write ..read more