The English Wine Diaries

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English Wine Diaries is multi-award-winning environmental entrepreneur Kresse Wesling CBE .  Kresse is one half of Elvis &Kresse, a Faversham-based company that since 2005, has been on a rescue mission - to save London's decommissioned fire hoses from landfill by transforming them into innovative lifestyle products, and returning 50% o...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English Wine Diaries is Sergio Verrillo co-founder and winemaker at Blackbook urban winery in Battersea.  Sergio moved from Connecticut to London in the noughties and initially built his career in music before moving into Michelin-starred restaurants including Maze, Tamarind and Chez Bruce.  He later studied viticulture and oenology at Plumpton...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English Wine Diaries is Jules Perowne from Cobble Hill, the award-winning vineyard on the North Norfolk coast farmed by the Perowne family for five generations.   It was Jules who gave her father Robert the vine that started it all — a 60th birthday present in 2016 that grew, within a year, into 17 rows planted on a ten-acre south-facing plot h...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English Wine Diaries are Dominic Travers and Georgie Stedman from Abingworth Vineyard, a boutique, family-run producer in West Sussex.  Dominic began his career in English wine with an internship at Nyetimber during the 2015 vintage but his passion for viticulture began much earlier having spent time in South Africa as a child visiting family a...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Mark Sainsbury founder of Candover Valley Wines.  Mark has enjoyed a 25-year hospitality career, opening some of London’s most successful venues including Moro Restaurant, Zetter Hotel & Townhouses and the Grain Store.  In 2011 he co-founded the Sustainable Restaurant Association, whose Food Made Good standard operat...

Send us Fan Mail After a slightly longer than planned break - we're back and joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries are Adrian and Galia Pike from Westwell Wines in Kent.  Their small, family-run winery sits beneath the Pilgrims Way and has about 70 acres under vine across two sites with plantings of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay, Regent and their signature grape, O...

Send us Fan Mail This very special episode of the English Wine Diaries is brought to you in partnership with WineGB and Heathrow Airport, supported by Coravin and Uncorked Magazine. The UK wine sector is one of the fastest growing agricultural industries, with rising vineyard numbers (there are now over 1,100 would you believe?!) expanding wineries, and record harvests – a staggering 16.4 million...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to this special episode of the English Wine Diaries, in partnership with London Wine Fair. The 2026 London Wine Fair – taking place at Olympia London on 18th to 20th May – will, for the first time, showcase a specific country or region as the centrepiece, and this year it’s Great Britain! There will be the largest presence of British producers in the show’s 45-year history...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on this week's episode of The English Wine Diaries is British sommelier and entrepreneur Emily Lambert.  Emily was the first female sommelier at The Ritz in London when she was just 19 years old and was affectionately known as the Belle of English bubbles.  She rose to wider prominence after winning BBC Two’s Million Pound Menu in 2018, with chef Ruth Hansom, after...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English Wine Diaries are Ashley and Tom Fahey, owners of The Terrace Rooms & Wine in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.  Tom was working as an independent restaurant inspector, when in 2020 he and wife Ashley – an ex-superyacht chef and cookery school manager – opened their first Terrace property with Ashley’s family in Yarmouth.   Deciding they...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English wine diaries is Nathaniel McConnell , co-founder and winemaker at Bluestone Vineyards.  With a large part of his childhood spent on the family’s Cholderton Rare Breeds Farm, Nat’s boots are firmly rooted in the countryside.  However, he followed a different career path before returning to Wiltshire to establish Bluestone – one helping t...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English Wine Diaries is Lucy Alford, from The Dell vineyard, in Monmouthshire.  Lucy and her husband, Dan, planted 5,000 Pinot Noir and Solaris vines on their family farm between the Usk and Wye Valleys in 2022, and have recently added a further two acres of Cabaret Noir, Pinot Meunier and Souvignier Gris.  Their dream of owning a vineyard star...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English wine Diaries is Ceri Phipps, co-founder of Two Beacons, a family-owned vineyard on the border of Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the Malvern Hills National Landscape.  Ceri founded the vineyard in 2018, along with school friend Tim Dutton, on part of Ceri’s family estate, with a focus on growing Bacchus, Pinot Précoce and Pinot Noir...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Scott Gebbie, Managing Director and head of production Mereworth Wines in Kent.  Scott graduated from Leeds University with a degree in Food and Nutrition before discovering an interest in viticulture and winemaking. This led him to explore and work in vineyards and wineries in both the southern and northern hemispheres,...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the 15th series of The English Wine Diaries!!  Joining me on today’s episode is Collette O’Leary, head winemaker and estate manager at Henners Vineyard in Herstmonceaux, East Sussex.  Collette began her career in PR & Marketing in London, specialising in behaviour change campaigns including promoting the HPV vaccine to young women and girls and developing educa...

Send us Fan Mail Ending the 14th series of The English Wine Diaries on a high with one of the most well known winemakers in the UK, Emma Rice.  Emma developed a fascination with fine wine while working as a waitress in The White Horse Inn, Chilgrove as a teenager in the 1990s. It was a chance taste of the 1979 vintage of Krug that was the lightbulb moment that began her career in wine.  She got a...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries are Neil and Maria Corbould, owners of The Grape Escape Vineyard – one of the country’s newest and perhaps most unique wine producers.  Neil and Maria planted their five-acre boutique vineyard in Chertsey, Surrey, in 2023 and have been busy tending to the vines with their first commercial harvest taking place this year.  Ho...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English Wine Diaries is Tom Barratt-Jones –  head winemaker at Squerryes Wine Estate in Kent.  Born in New Zealand, Tom has gained experience in the wine industry around the world – upon finishing a degree in Viticulture and Oenology in 2012, he went to work for New Zealand producer Villa Maria, one of perhaps the best known brands responsible...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of the English Wine Diaries is Karen Ashford, from Wayfarer Wines in Woodchurch, Kent.  Wayfarer was founded by Jeff Ashford in 2016, when he planted his first vineyard to the rear of his family home on the Pilgrims Way in the edge of the Weald of Kent.  His family now runs two vineyards spread across 8 acres and plan to double that with more planting...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Alasdair Warren, owner of Bride Valley Vineyard in Dorset.  Born and raised in Dorset, Alasdair and his family have a long history of farming in the county, with his Great Grandfather establishing Warren's cider in the 1920s. Educated at the University of Nottingham with a Batchelor of Science in Geology, Alasdair b...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Brad Lomas , co-founder and owner of Boys Hall, a beautifully restored, 9-bedroom 17th-century Jacobean manor in Ashford, Kent.  With a background in pubs, restaurants, and operations – most notably as Operations Director at East London Pub Co. – Brad brings a wealth of industry experience to Boys Hall, which he runs alo...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to a new series of The English Wine Diaries and a special welcome to our brand new sponsor – Rankin Brothers and Sons ,leading manufacturer and supplier of bottle closures to the drinks industry. So, to kick start the 14th series, I have Rankin's, Commercial & Managing Director, JIm Rankin joining me.  Jim is the sixth generation of the family to lead the bus...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on this week’s episode of The English Wine Diaries are Amy, Emma and Lucy Baxter – three quarters of the sibling foursome that make up Four Daughters, a new English wine brand based on their family’s fourth generation fruit farm in Kent.  Having successfully run their farm for almost 80 years, the Baxter family were approached a few years back to become a contract growe...

Send us Fan Mail On today's episode of The English Wine Diaries is Patrick McGrath, Master of Wine and CEO of Hatch Mansfield , a UK specialist in premium wines made by independently-owned wine companies from around the world. Patrick joined the wine trade in 1983 as a Management Trainee with Victoria Wine, spending his first 6 months in shops and then joining the buying department. Five year...

Send us Fan Mail Joining me on this week’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Jessica Summer, founder of Mouse & Grape an award-winning cheese and wine business specialising in curated hampers and immersive tasting events focused on this delicious food and wine combo.  Jessica, who last year opened her first deli and wine bar in London, was one of Harpers 30 Under 30 in 2023 and this year...