A Question of Drinks

Why are so many people suddenly fluent in tannins, terroir, and Tokaji? There is an explosion of interest in wine education — and not just in the wine trade. Thousands of enthusiasts are signing up for wine courses, regardless of difficulty or cost. What’s driving this new thirst for knowledge? Is it fun, status, or the chance to bond with others? s not just about work: many are taking courses for...

Why do so many people find wine so confusing?  Is it something about wine itself, or is it because of the misconceptions that the wine trade has about wine drinkers? Data maven Lulie Halstead and wine journalist Felicity Carter dive into the topic, looking at the consumer experience: In supermarkets When reading about wine on menus In front of the wall of wine in retail When talking to sommeliers...

What happens when sparkling wine, global trade policy, and Paris Hilton collide? In this episode, Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead take a deep dive into the unlikely but very real international trade war over Prosecco. What could be more civilised than a glass of refreshing Prosecco, or a colourful Aperol Spritz? And yet this aperitivo ritual, adopted around the world, led to one of the most bit...

If everybody is moderating their wine intake, then how come there aren’t more small wine bottles on the shelf? And what would it take to put them there? In this episode of A Question of Drinks, join hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter as they explore why wine continues to be sold in those standard 750ml bottles. And who decided it should be 750 ml in the first place? Come on a journey into wi...

It may be more than 300 years old, but sales of Guinness are surging, as the Irish beer finds popularity with new groups of consumers of all ages. How has it managed to reinvent itself in a world of falling beer sales? Hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter do a deep dive into everything Guinness, from the beer’s history to its taste, to the ‘Splitting the G’ social media trend that’s taking Tik...

Pink wine is everywhere. On supermarket shelves, on Instagram, and clutched in the hands of celebrities. If there is a single defining wine of the 21st Century, it has to be rosé. How did this pink wine go from being considered an icon of 70s kitsch to a celebrity diva? In this episode of A Question of Drinks, hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter delve into the fascinating world of rosé wine,...

The days of the pre-lunch cocktail followed by the bottle of wine at lunch, followed by a chaser, are well and truly over. The peak of alcohol consumption came in 2012 and it’s fallen 25% since then. Not only are people drinking less alcohol than ever before, but many people now see any amount of alcohol as being bad for them.  What happened? In this insightful episode, Lulie Halstead and Felicity...

Why do we drink what we do? And why are we drinking different wines than we did 30 years ago? Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter do a deep dive into why the wine rack looks very different than it once did. But what is a wine style and who determines it? And who gets to decide what we drink? It turns out the answer involves changes in technology, fashion and even what looks good on Instagram. In th...

Gin may have started life as a medicine for heartburn, but it became so popular, it turned into an instrument of mayhem and murder. Hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter delve into the fascinating world of gin to explore the question of how this one drink shaped history —and what has driven the contemporary gin craze. The discussion then explores the role of tonic water and its connection to th...

Join Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter as they unpack the complex world of wine scores, medals, and critics, asking where they come from and why the results can be so different between competitions and critics. Then they move into the history of wine criticism and the impact of figures like American wine critic Robert Parker, who changed the market. They also unpack the psychological and sociolog...

Why do we drink what we do? Why do some drinks catch fire for a time, and then spend decades at the back of the cupboard? And how do some drinks become classics? In this engaging podcast, drinks data maven Lulie Halstead joints drinks writer and researcher Felicity Carter on a journey into the world of drinks. Along the way, they discover that what's in the glass is more than a drink — it's a repr...