The Tim Atkin Cork Talk Podcast

Elizabeth Gabay MW was born in New York, grew up in London and has lived in the French Alps for the last 20 years. Following a mixed early career in journalism, publishing and the theatre, she set up her own wine company after doing a tasting course at Christie’s. Almost by accident, she was asked to write a book about rosé, a style of wine she claimed to dislike, and has now become an evangelist...

Rod Smith began his working life as an illustrator but moved into wine after landing a part-time job at Oddbins. After a brief spell in the fine wine world in London, he upped sticks to the Côte d’Azur to supply the superyacht industry. Now running his own business, the Riviera Wine Academy, he was recently appointed chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine and has fascinating views about how...

Brought up on a sugar cane farm in Kwa-Zulu Natal, where her parents were teetotallers, Praisy Dlamini got a bursary from the Department of Agriculture when she was 16 and went to study winemaking in the Cape. Her meteoric career has taken her from a spell at Distell to a job as the general manager of Adama Wines, where she runs an all-female team of black women and has developed Amandla, a brilli...

Roman Roth was brought up in the Black Forest, where his father was a cooper, but decided to become a winemaker in his teens. After vintages in California and Australia, he got a job at Wölffer Estate Vineyard on Long Island in 1992 and has been there ever since. Funny, creative and fond of singing to his wines, he’s a natural interviewee with a well-honed turn of phrase. Listen in to hear everyth...

Tom Gilbey’s family have worked in the wine and spirits trade since the mid-19th century – they had a famous gin as well as owning a Bordeaux château – so it was natural that he would follow in their footsteps. In his time, he’s been a winemaker, a merchant and, more recently an educator, wine writer and Internet sensation thanks to a dip in an ice bath and the decision to run the London marathon,...

Dawn Davies is a Master of Wine who also specialises in spirits. Originally a top sommelier at restaurants like Zuma and The Ledbury, she moved into retailing at Selfridges and is now buying director at Speciality Drinks and the Whisky Exchange. An extrovert and confirmed “people person”, she has well-informed views about things as varied as wine service, restaurant lists, Mezcal, blind tasting te...

Growing up in Las Palmas, Carmelo Peña Santana’s dream was to have his own restaurant.  But after working as a sommelier for a year, he became a winemaker instead, travelling to Portugal and Chile before returning to the Canary Islands to set up three of his own projects on Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. Our in-depth discussion provides a fascinating insight into one of the most talked about corners...

Leo Erazo has made wines on five different continents, but these days he’s exclusively associated with the Itata Valley, Chile’s most historic wine region. I caught up with him from his bodega beside the Pacific to talk about his love of Cinsault, what it’s like working in what he calls the last pocket of the Old World in the southern hemisphere, wild fires, Pipeño style reds, the difference betwe...

Gus Zhu started out studying horticulture at university but caught the wine bug when he attended a tasting class given by one of his professors. Since then, his rise has been meteoric. He was the first Chinese national to pass the Master of Wine exam at the age of 31. Today he combines his day job as a research scientist in California with a second career as an educator and author, most notably of...

Noel Young’s dad ran a pub, so you could say he was born into the booze trade. He brewed his first beer at the age of 15 and set up his own very successful wine business, Noel Young Wines, in his early twenties. A man who has always believed in doing things his own way, championing countries whose wines he loves, like Australia, Austria, Greece and Spain, irrespective of fashion or status, he’s as...

Kelli White’s love of wine was sparked by a trip to Paris as an undergraduate and a student job in a Boston retail store. After working as a sommelier in New York and the Napa Valley, she became a full-time writer and educator in 2015. Her brilliant latest book, Wine Confident , draws on 25 years of experience to talk in a refreshing new way about the fundamentals of wine. Kelli is as warm and ent...

Chris Blandy of the Madeira Wine Company is the seventh generation of his family to live and work in the wine trade on this volcanic island. A native with a passion for history and science, he understands the complexities of Madeira – the place and the drink - as well as anyone. Our in-depth chat covered grape varieties, soil types, fortified and unfortified styles, Madeira’s legendary ageing abil...

Callie Louw wanted to be a doctor when he was young, but the wine world should be grateful he ended up studying oenology instead. More of a farmer than a winemaker – what the French would call a vigneron – he’s been involved with Porseleinberg in the Swartland since 2009, planting and overseeing the running of one of the Cape’s unofficial Grand Cru sites as well as making a remarkable, low-interve...

Konstantin Baum is a German Master of Wine with a well-honed sense of humour, increasingly famous for his You Tube videos that bring a bit of fun as well as knowledge to the subject. An entrepreneur, journalist, educator and taster, he’s a fascinating interviewee with interesting views on everything from influencers to the 100-point system, the value of social media to why Riesling remains such an...

Rafael Palacios was more interested in motorbikes than wine until his early twenties, despite growing up above a bodega in Rioja. He’s certainly made up for the late start, going on to become one of Spain’s most celebrated winemakers. Our in-depth chat covered his love of Godello, his time in France and Australia, the different terroirs of Valdeorras and his role in developing the growing prestige...

Elizabeth Berger is a Tuscany-based wine and olive oil expert, who is able to draw fascinating parallels between the two worlds. Where wine has grape varieties, olive oil has cultivars, more than 700 of them planted around the world. Our in-depth chat covered the Mediterranean diet, the different quality levels of oil – what makes something extra virgin? – seasonality, strippaggio, fraud and the h...

David Baverstock grew up in South Australia, but emigrated to Portugal for love and wine. He started out in the Douro Valley, before moving to the more southerly Alentejo, where he now works for the Winestone Group. Our insightful chat covered his time in Beaujolais with Marcel Lapierre, Portugal’s 250 indigenous grape varieties, how the country’s wine scene has changed since he arrived in 1982 an...

Martín Kaiser excels as both a viticulturist and a winemaker. Born and brought up in Mendoza, where he still works and lives, he has transformed the reds and whites of Doña Paula since he arrived in 2006, taking them back to their roots. Our fascinating chat covered everything from vegetarianism to climbing mountains, calcium carbonate to the joys of working with Malbec and the differences between...

Queena Wong got interested in wine when she moved from Australia to London to work in finance in her mid-twenties. A passionate collector, she also has a well-honed talent for connecting people, acting as a Fairy Wine Godmother. Through her company Curious Vines, she has campaigned for greater diversity, inclusion and equality within the wine industry, publishing the first ever, highly influential...

Giorgi Dakisivhili is one of Georgia’s most accomplished winemakers, a man who’s equally comfortable employing historic and modern techniques. One of a family of oenologists, he studied in the Ukraine and California before returning to his native Kakheti region, where he set up Dakishvili Family Vineyards.  Our wide-ranging conversation covered everything from Saperavi to amber wines, Georgia’s 52...

Pieter Walser is one of the wine industry’s great mavericks. Surfer, artist and creator, he’s the man behind some of the Cape’s most distinctive labels, famous for brands such as Family Murder, Little William and Moment of Silence. I caught up with him from his home near the ocean to chat about surfing, epilepsy, old vines, white gloves, adventurous hearts and living on the edge. It’s a fascinatin...

Author of Inside Bordeaux, Jane Anson started out as a journalist in Hong Kong but fell in love with wine on a trip to South Africa. She moved to France full time in 2003 and has since become one of the world’s most admired and influential wine critics. Our in-depth chat covered everything from tasting technique to wine websites, the future of En Primeur to tasting a bottle of Château Pétrus that...

David Way specialises in the wines of Piemonte, although he writes about the whole world for his day job at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. A theologian and historian by training, he brings academic rigour to the study of this fascinating and still comparatively little-known corner of north-west Italy. Our fascinating chat covered soils, climate, the region’s 60 DOs and DOCGs and 80 grape v...

Debra Meiburg grew up in California, but moved to Hong Kong to work as an accountant in 1988. She quickly discovered that wine, not spreadsheets, was her real passion in life and switched careers. Writer, taster, educator, consultant and TV performer, she’s one of Asia’s most talented and engaging communicators. Playfully disruptive, as someone once described her, Debra is as fun to interview for...

Vicente Cebrián was born in Madrid, but says his blood is almost all Galician. Put in charge of two family bodegas – Pazo de Barrantes in Rías Baixas and Marqués de Murrieta – in 1996, at the age of just twenty-six – he’s even surpassed the legacy of his larger than life father. Our revealing chat covered his aristocratic titles, Atletico Madrid, Albariño, oak barrels, stone masonry, working for t...