Vininspo! podcast

A podcast that muses on the greater good of wine was never going to miss a chance to speak to one of the world’s most-renowned living thinkers. Anthony Grayling is a prolific author, as well as Master of the New College of the Humanities and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. I caught up with him at the tail-end of his three-week stint as philosopher-in-residence at Margaret Rive...

When you’re blessed to know a good teacher, you kind of think other people deserve the benefit of their wisdom. Meg Brodtmann MW was one of the first people to formally “teach” me wine as a lead lecturer in levels 3 and 4 of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). She was straight-shooting, down-to-earth and amusing; her lack of hauteur belies a fierce intelligence, and tasting wine with her con...

PJ Charteris has ping-ponged between New Zealand and Australia his whole life, and few winemakers wear their wanderings on their sleeve quite like him. PJ and his wife, Chrissi Pattison, run the Charteris wine label from their cellar door in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, where they also peddle the New Zealand wines PJ makes in Central Otago. Kiwi PJ met his Australian bride whi...

Jeff Porter’s jovial face now beams at roomfuls of amateurs and professionals who’ve flocked to hear his pronouncements on Italian wine. How times have changed since he was a filthy, reeking dishwasher no one wanted to go near. A man with a seriously healthy sense of humour, a love of hospitality and a bent for the theatrical, Jeff has played just about every role going right across the wine scene...

Emma Rice was devastated to be told early on in life that she had looks and personality—not intelligence—going for her, and should therefore aim to be a secretary to a wine merchant. A life-changing double magnum of 1979 Krug Champagne had been the catalyst to her seeking advice on how to break into wine, only to have her boss throw this sexist advice back in her face. She immediately quit and sta...

The autonomous community of Galicia in northwest Spain is the Iberian Peninsula's coolest corner—but it's so hot right now. This is where the rain in Spain mainly falls, with lush green hills, mountains and meandering canyons sprawling inland from the craggy Atlantic coast. The city of Santiago de Compostela has drawn pious pilgrims for centuries, but Galicia has endured times of famine and hardsh...

Many of us dream of a career as an idolised artist, but Patrick Walsh got so close to pop stardom he could almost taste it—only to have the dream cruelly snatched away. (For now, at least.) But there are no hard feelings. When it comes to passions, Patrick’s cup overfloweth; maybe that’s what keeps him grounded. A lover of Liverpool Football Club, outback land-rovering and futurist music, Patrick...

Aesthetics and integrity matter to Erin Larkin, the Wine Advocate reviewer for Australia and New Zealand. She grew up in Perth, a chic street urchin around the oceanside neighbourhoods of Perth who found joy in making things. That turned into an early career in fashion and a lifelong love of style, patterns, materials, details—and dressing well. As is often the case with creative people in underpa...

Think about your first taste of a world expanding beyond your borders. When you’re small, so is your world; foreignness is a stone’s throw away. You have only a handful of experiences. Everything is new. I grew up in Rye, East Sussex, in the southeast of England. I loved it there. From that town, we’d venture out. Places like Tenterden and Hastings were foreign, then became familiar. Less regularl...

This is a highly relatable story that highlights what happens when an inquisitive, broad-minded go-getter happens to tug on the wine-discovery thread. That said, there are a few references to education experiences that give useful context. As a member of the Institute of Masters of Wine, Andrea Pritzker MW has achieved the pinnacle of achievement in wine academia. The MW started out in the 1950s a...

Alsace is an oft-misunderstood place. It's easy to see why; it's a highly complex character with a rich, diverse history and culture. Who better to help us get to grips with this fascinating place and its wines than Australia-loving Alsatian, Frédéric Blanck? Freddy's ancestors came to Alsace some 250 years ago. They farmed everything, including grapes. And in the mid-’80s, Freddy and his cousin P...